An advocate for artists and small businesses, Las Vegas Entrepreneur Jen Taler is our guest this week on Nevada Week In Person.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week In Person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-Welcome to Nevada Week In Person.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

Born and raised in Texas, her love for Las Vegas is as big as her home state.

A believer in putting positive energy into the world by rooting things in love, she helped open Fergusons Downtown before opening Market In The Alley and now Akin Cooperative.

Small Business Champion and a Las Vegas entrepreneur, Jen Taler, thank you for joining Nevada Week In Person.

(Jen Taler) Thank you for having me.

-So when I have read various bios on all sorts of websites and interviews you've done, you seem to lead with the fact that you come from a big family.

How has that influenced you and the person you've become?

-Absolutely.

So my immediate family is me and my two sisters, but my mom is the youngest of 11.

And so we really grew up with my aunts, my cousins, and I just think that that really set me up for this big family, big support system.

It's a Mexican Catholic background, so it's like family is everything, and we support each other.

So I think that really just teed me up of support, you know, really being arms open, and we all have such different walks of life just within our family unit.

So it really kind of, I think, helped me just connect with people a lot easier, having that experience.

-And so some people with a big family would choose to stay put because they don't want to leave them.

Others, like yourself, because of that support, would feel, I guess, more confident to leave?

-You know, my parents are really-- especially my mom, my mom was fairly young when she had all three of us.

She was 22 with three kids, and so she was very big on like, you know, travel the world, learn, do the things.

So really pushed me and my sisters to whatever journey we wanted, but was really, really big advocate of, like, taking risks and doing stuff.

You know, I remember my dad's like, what's the worst that can happen?

You come home.

I'm like, that's such a great-- I'm so fortunate that that is my worst case, that I have that option, but it made it really easy to take that risk and move and do things.

-So Texas Tech is where you went to college.

-Yes.

-A fashion degree, right?

-I did.

It's an engineering school, nothing within the fashion realm.

But, yeah, I did Fashion Design there, which was great.

I was super lucky to work with this awesome boutique called Chrome that's still around today, really pushing the boundaries in fashion, really cool boutique brands, and just doing really fun things that really opened my eyes on, like, what that could look like in design and color and merchandising and setting up a space that's an experience.

-Yeah, that's what you are involved in now, spaces, which some people might think, What are you talking about?

How do you explain it to someone who really doesn't understand?

I mean, you're bringing together creatives.

I think even the term "creatives," people are like, What are you talking about?

-Absolutely.

Space, when I think about space, it's like the space that we're holding ourselves in, what you're walking into.

So when I create a Market or Akin or even thinking about Fergusons, it's, I mean, there's so many layers of detail you want to think of like, how do they feel when they walk in?

What's the color?

What's the material?

You know, what's the energy that you're feeling?

All those things put things off.

Some of it's subconscious that you might not realize.

What's the music?

You know, what's the different curation of brands and how they're sitting next to each other?

So there's a lot of little details.

And so when I'm teaching that to my team, I'm like, this seems maybe insignificant, but just moving this over like a hair really makes a flow, because you can now see maybe like, through or around or, you know.

So that's really important that I really think about flow and how the space feels.

And then creatives, I mean creatives are really anyone.

Everyone is a creative in their own way.

It's just tapping into what that looks like and feels like to you.

There's a lot of people, that just comes really naturally, if it's drawing or making clothes or curating spaces.

-And then your passion for small businesses, do you remember when your eyes were open to that, that you felt close to that cause?

-You know, I don't-- I'm just trying to think.

Maybe being my mom's from the small town, El Campo, Texas, and I don't know if like just that home small town feel, is there ripple effect of that?

But, you know, I remember often being like, let's go to the local coffee shop or let's go here.

And then my time at Zappos, I traveled a lot to New York and Canada.

When I lived in Australia, you just were inundated with so much culture.

And these local small businesses are markets or bodegas, and it was just really awesome what people can do in such small spaces and just create something different and unique, because sometimes we get hit with a lot of the mass production, the chains, and you don't know any different until you start exploring outside of that.

-While we're on that topic, because Small Business Saturday is coming up, how do you convince people to take the time to go downtown, to find parking, pay for parking, and then go out and shop when, you know, they could just get on the computer and few clicks away from getting all their Christmas shopping done, for example?

-I know.

The Internet, it's powerful.

You know, my biggest thing is like, you just make it an adventure.

You know, going downtown is changed so much, and it's absolutely amazing to see how much has changed with it, even just the last three years, let alone 10 or 15 years.

And in the Arts District, you have food, you have coffee, you have gyms, you have living, you have boutiques, bars.

You really have a little bit of everything, and you can go with family.

And there's ample parking.

You know, it is paid, but if you do the parking lots, you can stay for a longer period of time, and it's really not that much.

And, yeah, just you get this experience that you don't see here in Las Vegas.

You go in and out of stores and restaurants, see art everywhere, and it's just, it's a unique experience to be able to see people's passion in their spaces and how they've brought that to life and get something unique that you don't find on online or Amazon or Target or things like that.

Buck the trend; be different.

-Yes, exactly.

Stand out.

-Yes.

So downtown and its growth, contributed a ton to Tony Hsieh, the founder of Zappos.

Is Zappos what brought you out to Las Vegas?

-It is actually, yes.

-You worked as a buyer, you told me?

-Yes.

-So then you meet Tony Hsieh-- -Yes.

- --and how does that go?

-So I started in November, and it was like a crash course of going.

Usually you go through new hire and all this stuff, but it was like the record setting time of like, getting stuff going.

And then a couple months later, I went through my new hire, and, of course, like him and some other people from "Monkey Row," is what they called it, came in and did their spiel.

And you know, it was like, Just come by and say hi.

And so I'm very-- -What was Monkey Row?

-Where the executives sat, they called it Monkey Row because at Zappos everything was very open.

Like you walk in and out of the rows, and everyone was accessible, which was really awesome.

And so, you know, he's like, Come say hi, whatever.

And so I'm very like, if someone says something or literal open invitation, I'm like, Okay.

So there's this thing called Site Manager when you log in, where you get a face and, like, a choice of names to guess who it was.

And it was a way to start connecting and knowing people within all of Zappos.

So I cut out a thing and put like, the three dots, put names down, put my name on there, walked up and was like, Do you know who I am?

Little did I know that Liz is like a ninja behind me and literally was saying who I was before I got there.

He's like, Yeah, Jen.

I'm like, Oh my God, he knew my name.

Then, honestly, after that, like, we exchanged information.

He's like, Text me.

And again, I'm just wanted-- okay, cool.

So we'd be out somewhere, he'd show up, and we became friends.

And so that was the journey of our friendship, pretty much in 2009 from there.

-Do you remember how Fergusons Downtown came to be?

Because it was with him that you opened that.

-Yeah.

So they-- he and a few people were living in Airstreams across from Fergusons.

A few of us test piloted it, would stay there for "winter camp," was what we'd call it, for a month and hang out.

And first it was just to make sure everything was working okay, and then he never left.

And then each year of winter camp, more people stayed, including myself at some point.

And eventually they wanted to grow into that, into a bigger space and looked at putting it behind where Fergusons is now.

And so during that transition, I was working with my friend Meghan Mossler who owned Stitch Factory and doing that, and I decided I wanted to take the next step of whatever that looked like for me and went to Tony as a friend and a mentor, and he's like, I think that Fergusons would be a really awesome project for you.

Put together what you think that could look like?

And so I put together a really terrible deck.

-Oh!

-I mean, not terrible, but a really great deck that worked out, but not anything profound.

But we sat down and we talked about my goals, what I thought, how it could be impactful, and just some statistics around greenery and small businesses and just space, and we agreed on everything.

And it's a small business mecca.

I mean, we really built it to support the small business community with the micro units around the U-shape.

We were holding so many great local community events there, but we had a good ramping up.

I started Market 2017 across the street to start bringing people down that way, connecting with that community.

-For those who don't know, Market In The Alley is?

-It's a local market pop-up that I do now pretty much weekly, all around the valley, supporting local small businesses and artisans that pop up and sell their goods to our community.

And so through doing that, I was able to meet a few vendors, became the store owners of Fergusons within the U-shape.

And, yeah, it was a really magical, beautiful time.

COVID happened.

You know, we shut down and did curbside for a little bit.

Seeing the yard just thrive because no one was on it was really beautiful.

And then, you know, I think people really did shift their dollars into small businesses, you know, going into 2020 and 2021, and wanting to support their community.

And we saw really a unique difference in what was happening there.

We saw growth.

We saw support.

We turned a building next to us into Vegas Test Kitchen, which was a co-op, essentially, for food vendors where they could all set up and sell their food.

You could order a bunch of different things and get them started.

Yukon Pizza started out of there.

And then next to that, I opened Gather House, which is like even more micro for, you know, just getting started business owners.

So really, we got Fergusons to a place that was like, really booming almost in a way.

And I got to a place, and then I decided to step away a little over two years ago and then go further on my journey.

-I know you don't want to talk much about it, but the tragic death of Tony Hsieh is part of what led you to stepping away from Fergusons Downtown?

-Yeah.

I mean, he held the vision, you know, and the journey of the growth and what all of that downtown strip would look like of what, you know, he had.

And Fergusons, you know, we were partners in it.

But after he passed away, things just changed and shifted in that sense.

And so, you know, I got it to a place that I felt it was in a good spot that I could pass it on.

And you know, at the same time, this opportunity kind of fell in my lap of where I opened my store, Akin Cooperative, and it was kind of one of those, this is telling me this is the time.

I need to take this opportunity and step away.

And Akin Cooperative is?

-My store that I have in the Arts District that I support over 60 local small businesses, mostly have come from Market In The Alley.

And yeah, from seven days a week out of the store, and have a little beer/wine license.

So you can have natural wine or a funky beer while you shop.

We do workshops.

So just a way to kind of bring Market In The Alley on a more consistent basis with the store and then still be able to pop up with Market in the different parts of the town.

-And that consistency becomes necessary when you have a child.

-Yes.

-You have a son who is now four years old.

Here's probably the toughest question: How do you manage raising a son in the way that your parents raised you, with all that support, and supporting hundreds of small businesses?

How are you doing it?

-You know, Houston is my number one priority, period.

So when I am with him-- -Not the city.

-Sorry, my child's name is Houston, yes.

I love my state, right?

So no, Houston is my son.

He's number one priority, and I made that very clear when I was pregnant to make sure I was, you know, not feeling overwhelmed and stressed with what was going around me.

And then when I had him, it really puts a perspective on time and commitment.

And I just, I want to be present for him.

So I try my hardest to not have my phone, you know, be super engaged with him.

I'm proud to be able to have him come spend time with me at Market or Akin.

And I mean, he runs the markets when he's there.

Like, he knows that he can almost get away with anything with me at that time, too.

And you know, he has his two vendors that he loves.

Like, there's Snack's Snacks, which is dog treats.

He immediately, like, takes my cards, like, I got it, walks up.

We have an agreement of how many he can get.

He goes and he shops and gets it and pays for it and says, Thank you.

And he wants to sell something now, so possibly for Small Business Saturday he'll be selling his own little brand called His Flowers, and selling flowers because he loves flowers.

-Oh, that's wonderful.

Jen Taler, thank you so much for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-Thank you.