 Hey, GovCon Giants family, Eric Coffey here. Today's guest, Rebecca Aguilera Gardner is the founder and creator of VIB Network, a networking organization for veterans connecting with other veterans and connecting with people in industry all surrounded with doing business in the commercial sector. Again, anyone who is a veteran out there, service disabled veteran who wants to connect with other people in the industry who are veteran entrepreneurs who are having problems with starting their business, growing their business or wanna expand their business. Definitely check out today's guest, Rebecca Aguilera Gardner, her particular episode today. We're gonna talk about her running her family on business, how she got started with that. What gave her the confidence in 2016 to start a national organization? What was her mindset like? And much, much more in today's episode. Stay tuned, take a look at this particular one. You're going to enjoy it, particularly if you are a veteran. If you're not, share it with someone who is a veteran. Make sure to share because again, teach one, reach one. We all should be helping each other connecting together as companies, organizations, entrepreneurs, small business out there in the world. Thanks so much. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Hello, I'm Rebecca Aguilera Gardner. I'm the executive director for Veterans and Business Network, which is BIB Network. Okay, hey Rebecca, how are you today? Fine, how are you? I'm doing excellent. Listen, so we were talking actually just before we got started and we're talking about some of our guests and some of the people that we have in common, Lori Sayles, who mentioned on here. And you were saying that Lori won an award not too long ago? Yes, last year in 2019, when we could all meet in person, we, she won the veteran business of the year. We have these awards called the Above and Beyond Award. Okay. And those go out to, you know, corporation, government agencies, and veteran business owners. And she won it for the veteran business of the year. So above and beyond, she goes above and beyond. Nice. And for all those listening in and you can't see us, Lori is episode 42 of our podcast. So go back and listen to episode with Lori Sayles. Now, what else, BIB Network, tell us about it. What is, you know, why'd you start it? Where'd it come from? Sure. And we'll start from there and then we'll go and we'll talk more in details about your actual business and what you do and your family ran business afterwards. Excellent. So the BIB Network started just about four years ago. We're just barely going into our fourth year. And it started out because we have a, I have a family printing business as well. And with our family printing business, gosh, about like 20 years ago, and we're aging myself now. We lost a contract to a service disabled veteran. And it was one of my contracts. And so I started doing the research and my brother was a service disabled veteran. And so I said, you know what? We should get this certification. Look at all of the opportunities it has available to us. So I did all the research and we got certified in the state of California. And, you know, I started attending meetings. I got very active in the service disabled veteran, a space and networking. And I actually was part of another organization for about 13 years. I volunteered for another organization for about 13 years. And I just felt that the veteran business community needed something different. They needed a more streamlined approach to, you know, connecting with each other and corporations and government agencies needed a more centralized place to connect with service disabled veterans as well. So we, you know, Cole Woodman, who was also on the board with me at the other organization, we decided to take the big leap and decided to start our own nonprofit to help veterans connect with each other and to, you know, learn from, you know, learn business experience from each other. Also for corporations and government agencies to, you know, be able to connect with the veteran business owner easily. I know that that's always been a big issue that they always say that they can't find them or they don't know where they are. So one of the things that we decided to do is actually create a really robust directory. And our directory, you know, it has everything in between. It has, you know, all their addresses, what other certifications they have, their keyword, a paragraph about them, and then also who, what other corporations that they have worked for. So that's all on our directory. And that is free for everybody to join. You know, for veterans, it's free to create a profile for buyers and estimators, for government and corporations. They can just join as a buyer to locate a veteran business owner. Wow, no, that's remarkable. How were you able to pull it off for free? I don't know. I mean, I mean, before the service was cutting out, you said that you decided to try this. All you had to lose was time and money, which I think is, I guess to say for all of us is all we had to lose was time and money. Yeah, exactly. Well, you know, when we started the organization, that's Cole and I were like, well, we'll give it a try, you know, all we're losing is time and money, so. No, that's impressive. Now, I was thinking, okay, when I looked at this, I go, okay, but there's all these other organizations that are supporting veterans out there, right? I know we had on our show Veteran Business Resource Center. I know there's the National Veterans Council and some other organizations that support business veterans. What made you say, you know what? We're gonna do it better. You know what, I think one of the- Or maybe not even better, maybe just said there's a different, there's a need that needs to be met that's not being served. Again, that's what it was. I mean, we didn't actually look at them and say, okay, we need to do it better. We had a clear idea of what we wanted to do. We felt that technology wasn't utilized as much and so the directory was one of the big things that we really wanted to do. We wanted to make this a free organization for veterans to join and participate because we feel that a veteran has already served their time and they have served the country and to nickel and dime them to be part of a directory, we didn't feel that that was appropriate. I love that. So we thought, so we actually have the corporations. We got a lot of great corporations right off the bat who came on, send the California Edison and SDG&E were our charter sponsors. We came, we did a presentation in front of them and said, you know, this is the idea. Let us know, you know, this is, can we, you know, can you help fund us? And they helped fund us right off the bat. And not only that, they brought in tons of other people to, you know, help with this idea. And the idea was to make an organization that's free for the veterans, that corporations can utilize and government agencies can utilize. And, you know, that we just, we wanted to change the whole structure and the narrative of the veteran business organizations. You know, they were all very membership based. They were all chapters. We felt that was an old school way of doing things that we wanted something different and new that was still engaging. And so we have all kinds of different programs even on our directory. So we have the directory, we have an opportunity board. We have an event. I'm getting into a website now. Yeah. I love your opportunity board, by the way. It's really, really nice. I love that. That was actually one of the first things that I noticed the opportunity board. It's like, wow, that's pretty amazing. I haven't seen that on any other place with anyone else. Well, and that one is, because it's, you know, we don't get a lot of, we get some government, I mean, it's a cross between a lot of different things. And, you know, and some of them are, you know, prime contractors looking for veterans. Right. So we get a lot of variety. So yeah, that was definitely something we wanted to add. And then we have an events calendar that's not just our events. Anybody that has to do a small business and veterans. So we're, as long as you can post it, that's all for free as well, to post any events. And then we have everything in between a little bit of, you know, history about the organization. And we did a survey with veteran business owners at the beginning of the year to ask, you know, what were their needs? What did they feel was lacking in, and everything in between. So we, so with all of that, we started the VIP network knowing we wanted to do something really streamlined, very, you know, everything was gonna be based on the website and then growth from there. And so luckily we had a, we've been very successful in reaching out to the veteran business community and the corporations and government agencies. And they seem to be utilizing our organization. Wow, wow. I love the mission. I love what drove you to do it. I've looked at your website. I think it's great. Obviously, I love you saying that, hey, it's free, veterans have already served their time. And no point in trying to nickel and diamond, you know, to help them along. Do you see there, and I can tell you from my experiences with Miami-Dade County when I was working with them, they began, and it's probably been about five years ago, maybe four or five years, where they started implementing veteran-owned programs at the county level and the state level. Are you seeing more of that? I obviously, I see California has a certificate program for veterans. Do you see that, an uptick in that? Yes, definitely. So, yeah, California's had, there's for gosh, about a good 30 years now. And yeah, so they have a very detailed program. And if you're gonna do any work with California and your large corporation, you have to make sure that you're at least doing 1.5% or 3% with veterans. And then also, that if you're doing any work with utilities in the state of California, they have a mandate that you have to do, you know, that business with, you know, DVBEs, they call it DVBEs in California, Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise. But then also, the state of New York, about five or six years ago, they just implemented a SDBOB program as well. And they have a 6% goal. Wow. Yeah, so we've become very good friends with the state of New York and, you know, helping them meet their goals. They have an open, kind of an open door policy for veterans, SDBOBs. So you don't even have to be with the state of New York. You can actually be anywhere and get that SDBOB certification from them and then try to get work in New York. So whereas California, you have to be domiciled here in California. Right, right. So, but yeah, no, I see there is definitely an uptick in that, in having the SDBOB certification. Okay, no, and again, like I said, I saw it in Miami starting to happen and some of the RFPs that were being posted, they started asking about veterans preferences and utilization of veterans on contracts above a certain size and things like that. So I noticed that it started to happen where I didn't see it 10 years ago. It didn't exist. Yeah. Florida. Yeah, it is. I mean, it's nice, it's, you know, they, you know, we always say, you know, veterans, they're starting off a little bit behind a lot of other people because when a veteran signs their name on the dotted line, you know, they put their life on hold for four, eight, 10, 20 years. So by the time they get out, you know, they could be in their 30s, 40s, or 50 years old and, you know, deciding to start a business. You know, they may be retired from military, but they're not retired from, you know, their second life. Right. Some of them, you know, go into great, you know, a transition right into other jobs, but some of them want to start their own business. They may be a little bit older, you know, in the 40 years old and then, you know, where as if you went to college and you started your own business, you know, you're, you know, by the time you're in your 30s, you've, you know, you're experienced business owner. Right. Whereas they're kind of behind the ball because they're just, they're pulling catch up now to, because, you know, they had to, you know, serve their time in the military. Thank you for putting it out there. That will make me more cognizant when I'm talking to people that I'm interacting with, right, their level of understanding. Because that's true, right? We sometimes, and I, and I'm guilty of this, and that's the good thing about Maria. She keeps me balanced in that sense where she says, you're out of touch. Because I've had a business since college. So, I mean, you know, when I started, even when we were talking about programs, different things that I was doing, I never thought I had to educate someone on setting up an LOC or set up a corporation. I just never, I just totally looked past all of that. And I jumped straight into, okay, get registered in SAM and let's go. And she goes, wait, what are you doing for all that? What are those steps beforehand? And I never, I wasn't even even mindful of it. So thank you for pointing it out. I'll be more cognizant of my actions. Well, you know, that's the reality. I mean, we're meeting, you know, older, older business people, you know, in their 40s who spent, you know, good 10, 20 years in the military. And now they want to either, and you know, a lot of them, they don't take what they've learned in the military and start a business. They're, sometimes they're going off in a whole other direction. Right, that's true. That's true. I've had that happen to me. Several people reached out to me and I go, wait, you worked on planes. Why not start a business in planes? Right. That's great. That's great. Let's just go back a step because this is obviously what you're doing today. But before you got here, obviously, you had a story and a pass and a journey. So let's go into that. You'd have a, let's go back a little ways, right? So you said you have a family business. We do. Yeah, so family business, we've had it for 48 years. It's a family printing business in Barrio Logan Wright and just outside of downtown San Diego. And so we have, you know, we do everything commercial printing and everything in between, promotional items, pretty much everything that has to do with marketing, that kind of a business. So we utilized our DBBE or SDBOE certification to win contracts as well. So we did a lot, we've done a lot of work with utilities, with SDG&E, Southern California Edison, and the water companies. And we've also done work with, you know, we've gotten large contracts like MetLife and CVS. So, and you know... Like what kind of contracts? Printing, printing contracts. Printing what? What has MetLife need printed? You know what they have, they have, well stationary, people still do stationary. Okay. And still brochures, yeah, you know, still brochures, you know, when you get stuff in the mail, you know, that says these are the new services that they're offering, somebody's got to print them. Okay, all right, there you go. I like it, I like it. Yeah, and then with CVS, we did a lot of their little pamphlets that they have around their store, you know, the little pull-off pamphlets. So print is not dead. There's no print, really not. Well, no, you know, I don't think it's dead. I actually, so I worked at Kinko's before it was Kinko's Copy Center, before they merged it. So I worked at Kinko's in college for three years, and I know the printing industry. I'm just surprised that Kinko's didn't come in and take over your area. Oh yeah. So, yeah, well, so we were very fortunate that we do have that, you know, those certifications, you know, because we're minority-owned, we're service-disabled, and so I did all the marketing and the sales for the company. My brother did all the operations. So that's how come I would know so much more about the DBBE certification, because I was the one who was doing all of that kind of different thing. Okay, no, that's interesting. Have you ever looked at, and this is sort of a tangent, where they do like the scanning contracts, where they scan in and upload the documents to a database for like the VA hospital or anything like that. I have it. Yeah, I'm not. Okay, so I would tell you, if I had access to a printing business, I would look at opportunities for, so for example, the Veterans Administration had a lot of records that they needed scanned and cataloged. Oh, I know what you're talking about. Oh, scan. Scanning. Yeah. Yeah, no, we have not. I mean, that's a whole other animal. I know that's, you know. Well, I mean, I guess it's that a printing out information. You're taking it in. Yeah. Digitizing it. Uh-huh. No, we're kind of, we kind of stay in our own. They get it. Okay. And it, you know, it's kept us, it keeps us out of trouble enough. Okay. No, I don't get it. That always seems like the scanning thing is a whole other, like you have to get the equipment and then, you know, in manufacturing, anybody who does manufacturing, it is, it's expensive. Equipment is expensive. So whenever you're saying, okay, we want to change directions, you know, that's, you know, it could be $500,000 for a piece of equipment. You know, I know a press can go up to a million. Yeah, I know. Yeah, we had some, we had some of those million office equipment at Kinko's. Yeah. It was, everyone, all of us wanted to work on it. I want to use it. I want to use it. We had some of that. It was getting like, and I was listening to one of your podcasts earlier and you were saying about, you know, P-TAC, how to utilize your P-TAC. Right. And, you know, I loved our P-TAC person. I actually, I'll tell you how I use my P-TAC person. I use my P-TAC person like it's a counselor. Okay. So I would go in, you know, and I would go and see them. I would actually schedule every six weeks to see them because that was my one time that I would sit there and I would be focused only on, you know, how to, you know, improve my government profile. Right. How do I, you know, what other contracts are out there? You know, do I have all my certifications? What's changed? What's new? I would use that to update myself all the time. Right. I'd use that because once you leave sometimes, once you leave P-TAC or anything, it goes out. Yeah, it does. Like, I'll go back to work. So I would really use my P-TAC time to, you know, help, have them help me, you know, understand more of the contracting. No, that's pretty neat. Now I'm assuming the, I know it's family business, is that your father and mother that started it? It was. It was my mom and dad that started back in 1972. Okay. My dad actually was a pressman and he got laid off and there was- I don't think any of us know what a pressman is. You kind of glossed over that for us. A pressman is a person who actually used to work on the press, the old school presses. Like, have you ever watched those movies, the old newspaper movies? And he used to work in the press. So he used to be the guy running the press and checking the ink flow and everything. So yeah, so he was an actual pressman and the Star News, he worked at the Star News and they laid off people. So he saw an ad in the newspaper and it said, you know, loans for small minority, the people who are minorities looking to start a business, you can get an SBA loan. So they applied and they got an SBA loan and they thought, you know, all they had to do was lose his money of time. And so they got the SBA loan and they, if you talk to them, they were so funny because they say, you know, we thought we were not even gonna be in business for two years. We thought, okay, well, this is not going to last more than two years in here, 48 years later and second generation business. So, you know, we've gone through several ups and downs and recessions and changes and technology and always trying to update and, you know, kind of try and stay on the cutting edge. How much was the loan for, do you remember? The loan was for $30,000. Wow. And yes, the loan was for $30,000 and they bought two, I think they bought a letter press, like an old school letter press. I think they bought two or three bits of equipment and paper and ink. And they went- They worked their butts off. And they worked their butts off and they were in like a little garage kind of place and then they grew and they grew and grew. And then we eventually moved to our own corner lot and had several large presses. We had about almost 30 people working for us at the time at our height, you know, our bill alone for print was almost $40,000 for paper. So it's always so funny. You think, okay, that's what they started off with. And, you know, this is, you know, this is how it has grown. And you grew up in that business? I grew up in that business, yes. And how did you feel about that? You know what, I enjoyed it. I think growing up in a family business, you become a business person, whether you like it or not. I agree. Yeah, I think you become a little more savvy, younger. And I enjoyed being part of the family business and you learn to network and you learn to, you know, how to communicate and talk. And I think my dad was super creative and always fun. And I think I, you know, was able to help. It helps me think outside of the box that this is not the only answer. There are other answers out there. So I love it. I think it's given me a lot of confidence in business. Are all your siblings a part of the business? No, just my brother and myself. My sister, I have a sister and she was for a brief amount of time. And now she's a principal at a school at a level. Okay. No, I often ask people their stories of childhood because I think that in some ways it shapes a lot of part of their life. And like you said, there's a lot of things in there. I'm sure your dad and you probably have, you're familiar with working with contractors growing up, right? Yes. So my mom would always say, you know, everything's negotiable. I see. That's something that you just can't get without having entrepreneur type parents. Yeah. So my mom would always say everything's negotiable, you know, nothing is ever set in stone. I love you, man. Yeah. So I was so, I mean, I grew up that way. So you just, you know, and because it's a manufacturing business, you really, I mean, there were some great highs and there were some tough lows. So I think as a business owner, you don't get so stressed out. You know that this will pass. And there isn't another side to this. There will be a high again. Can you, I mean, and I agree with you, but people like a story, can you share a time where there's a low that you were able to come out of? Oh yeah, sure. Well, we had, you know, with the great, well this recession in the 2008, 2009 recession, that was probably our hardest ever. Cause we had, we had, we were really high. We had about this beautiful building. We had office buildings, two-story office buildings on top of our plant, which was right next to us. And when the recession hit, you know, you keep on thinking that it's gonna come back then. You know, your numbers are gonna start coming back and because it was so long too, you know, we, you know, we had to start, you know, we as business owners, and this is also one of the tough things. You know, we wanna make sure our employees are paid. We would not, we would go without getting paid for months and months. And you know, living off of credit cards and all the things you need to do in order to survive. And we eventually moved out of our beautiful two-story office building and moved into the plant. And we thought, cause, you know, we were sitting around thinking, what else can we do to save money? And I'm like, why do we need this big office space? We don't need this space. Why don't we get somebody else in here? We could all move into the plant. We'll make some, we'll put up a wall and, you know, we'll suck it up. And, and so that's what we did. And thank God we did because they ended up paying, you know, you know, big 95% of our markets are mortgage. So, you know, that helped. Wow. That helped. Yes. That was a great call. Yes, so we moved into that. So there was, so that, you know, we were able to get over that. And then eventually it started, the economy started coming back again and we started winning those large contracts. And, but I mean, I think a lot of people don't understand. It wasn't when everybody says the recession's over, you're like, okay, it's not over because you still have those bills that, you know, you got into it in the first place. So, you know, getting all of yourself out of the debt that you've got into if you're still in business is, was a lot of work as well. So that took another two or three years to get out of debt as well. You know, get yourself back and going. But, but that would probably that was the hardest part in business is moving, moving our business over and becoming streamlined. But it also taught us about being lean and what you can, you know, cross-training, cross-training all of our employees, you know, cross-training ourselves to learn different skills and becoming really lean. And I think that's kind of what I take into the VIB is, you know, a lot of the stuff that you see, you know, we have people that help us and we have a, you know, a woman that helps that does our website and developed our website. But I've learned a lot of the things to do on the backend as well. And, you know, cause, you know, we want, we eventually want to grow and hire people, but, you know, we're staying lean now. And this was our big year. We're like, okay, well, this year we're going to stay lean. And, you know, we just keep on learning and learning, developing new courses, you know, taking everything, every webinar I possibly can take to learn different things. So, you know, really utilizing this time to grow, I think, personally. That's neat. That's neat. Yeah, I noticed that you took some coursework on like, you know, laying six sigma for nonprofits and things like that. That's great. I'm always impressed when people continue to invest in our education, which is wonderful. We're, for your veterans out there that need education, what do you, what do you recommend for them? So we have, so we have a couple of courses ourselves. Okay. We have a, we have, so we have, have developed a couple programs. One is a, it's called the V2V, it's Veteran to Veteran Business Cohort Program. That's a six month program. And it takes about 14 veteran business owners and really teaches them about business leadership. It teaches them how to, you know, communicate with their staff, how to communicate with each other and, you know, grow as business owners. It's not about like, here, how to win a contract. These are actually building, you know, the person inside to make them a more, a better leader and a more thoughtful, more thoughtful and enhanced leader. No, it's much needed, much needed. I've taken a bunch of leadership training courses, management courses as well. Is that, is there a cost of that? Or is that part of the program? That's all free. So that's all free. Yes, I mean, yeah, we do, we give up. Rebecca, you're giving the whole house away. The farm, the ranch. Okay. That is free. Yeah, I mean, you know what? So when corporations become sponsors, they're the ones, you know, these are the programs that we need to put together. So we take, we take this very seriously. We take the money that they give us and we put it back into the organization and, you know, to help run the organization. So, you know, we're always looking at new programs. We're all, we're starting, this year we started a new micro mentor protege program where it's only one veteran business and one prime contractor. And literally the prime contractor is having them come into their shop, show them how they're as a big prime contractor, how they're, they do things. So him as a small veteran business owner, he's like learning all this inside scoop from a prime contractor. So because, you know, a prime contractor, a big prime contractor and a small veteran business, they do things differently. And so they're kind of teaching him, you know, these are all the things that you need to do to get you yourself to the next level. So we have that course going on. And then we get, and then we have tons of different webinars that we do as well. You know, we usually do a webinar every other month, but we're focusing on the conference. So we have tons of webinars going on at one time. Now, while we're talking, because again, everyone, some, you know, on the podcast, people can't really see us. Can you tell us the, and we'll link it in the show notes, but just say the name of the actual, how do they find you? What's the name of the website? So the website is vibnetwork.org. Okay. And then the conference is vibconference.com. Okay. All right. Good. And we'll, we'll link this back into the show notes, but I definitely, while people are excited, because I mean, if I was listening, I would be really excited right now and be jumping out of my seat. And I would be like, okay, where do I go to find her? All right. All right, good. So vibnetwork.org and vibconference.com. Exactly. Okay. Perfect. All right. Continue. So, so yeah, so we have that. So we have tons of webinars. The only thing that we ever let, or have veterans pay for is the conference. Because there's always the expense of, you know, you know, this year we're actually using a really high end conference, virtual conference platforms, where there'll be actual virtual exhibitor booths and breakout sessions. And, you know, we are, you know, we've got some, a couple of keynote speakers that we'll be announcing next week. And so we, and then we asked, actually we'll be sending out a mailed conference packet to everybody with a challenge coin, a vib challenge coin and an event program and some other bunch of goodies that we're gonna have. I would love to have you. I don't know if this episode will be released. The conference is October 12th, correct? Yeah, October 12th or 13th. Okay. Well, we'll see if we can get you back on before or we can get you on maybe a live session just to announce the conference in your organization. That'd be great. We'd be happy. Yeah, we could do that with everyone out there. That'd be cool. No, that's very exciting stuff, very exciting stuff. What other, okay. So your organization is still, is four years young. What are some tools, resources that you could use to help further your mission? Well, I'll tell you, we actually are developing a conference app. I mean, a conference app, a vib app. Okay. So this app is gonna be a dual app. So it's going to be, so you downloaded, but it's gonna be have all your contacts on there whoever you've met through the vib, you can connect there, but also it's gonna be used for the conference too. So if you've ever gone to a conference and then you get the app and I think it's super cool and then like two months later, you try to find that person that you wanted to meet and that's it. Right. So the idea is that you're kind of developing your own personal directory of people you know, kind of like a LinkedIn, but just for vib. And so we're really excited about that. I think we're launching, we're looking to launch at the end of the month for that. So. Let me ask the question. And that's really neat. Let me ask the question. By the way, that reminds me of the app that I had on my cruise when it tells me my schedule. Like I remember my cruise app. So you download WorldCriven cruise app and you find all the events going too. So that's really neat. But I guess the question is to ask differently. If I'm a corporate sponsor, I'm listening to this, how could I help you? How could I support you? I mean, you know, we're all, that's what I'm saying. What other tools? Well, I mean, you know, we're always looking for new corporate sponsors. Okay. And so, you know, I mean, I'm always available. We have great benefits, you know, for corporate sponsor, you know, they not only get on our website, they also get to be part of our newsletter. We have a newsletter that goes out weekly to about 40,000 veterans and veteran advocates throughout the US. And so they get to be part of that. They get to post out some stories and they get to actually see that their sponsorship dollars go to, you know, really making a difference in the veteran business space where we're not just about a membership, we're about, you know, the full veteran business owner. So we're about, you know, development and connections and opportunities. So, and events, so. Now, do you do any actual advocacy work? Yes, we do. Yeah, we actually, we do it. But what we do mostly is partner with other organizations. Like we have a partnership with PTAC and we have a partnership with VBOC. So we don't actually do a lot of counseling, but we, a lot of people come to us because they don't understand what those are or what they mean. So we kind of walk them through, oh, you want to get more government contracting, you need to contract with PTAC, you know. So that's how we help. And if it's a general business question, we, you know, usually help. But do you do it actually, like, so for example, we've had on the show Margo Dorfman, U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce, they, when the women, when the SBA failed to meet their women-owned small business goals, they sued them. Yeah. Oh. Right, do you do any extra advocacy work where you, and again, Michelle Barnett, Hubsone Council, they actually send people to Washington to talk about underperforming in certain categories, underperforming in certain areas. Do you do anything like that? We don't really do anything legislatively. We sit on a couple boards, but as far as legislation, we don't do that. We're a 501c3. So that's kind of like a little bit of a fine line of how often you can, you know, do legislative things. But we, yeah, but we partner with other people. You know, there are other veteran organizations that are doing things and, you know, we've signed letters and, you know, have done that kind of support. No, I mean, look, I think you're doing a great job. I love what you're doing. And for me, the business owner, I could see the benefits of what you're doing. I can't always see the benefits of legislating things, but I do know that they exist. They're not just as tangible, right? As the actual, hey, I need a contract. I need an opportunity today, right? That's great, the legislation, but how do we get an opportunity in our hands today? And so that's wonderful. I like that. Well, I think the legislation is a whole other animal, too. I mean, you know, I mean, and, you know, that would require us, you know, getting more people to- Right, you have to hire some people for that purpose. Yeah, no, but that's okay. So what other things, if I'm in Florida, I'm a veteran on business, what other things can I expect if I join your organization? Like, how can I expect that you could help me or benefit me if I'm a veteran on business and I'm way in Florida and you're out in California? No worries. So I think one of the things, of course, join the directory, because not only, and then we're telling people as well once they join the directory, connect with other people in Florida to our VAV members. And we've had people who have traveled on the, they'll check the directory and they're like, hey, I'm headed to Texas. I'm a VAV member, I see that you are too, if you wanna grab some coffee. So we really want them to make that, you know, connection with each other. So that's just one is the peer-to-peer. And the second one is, of course, you know, to, you know, make sure you're checking the opportunity board, make sure that you are, you know, working for those opportunities and, you know, really, you know, go to the events, everything's virtual now. And so, I mean, right now, I mean, it's amazing. It doesn't matter where you are anymore, you can literally go everywhere. So this year, we've already had our registration for this year's conference is already over what we had anticipated. So we're very excited about that. And then not only is that happening, but people are coming in from all over the U.S. as well. And so we're very excited about all the different corporations and government agencies from all over. So we really want this to be a good, a government and corporate hub for connecting to the veteran business community. And we here at GovCon Times, we'd like to support you, anybody we can. So definitely, we'll definitely make sure to get this out beforehand. When is registration cut off? Is there a cut off date? No, there's no cut off date, but you have to. Oh, it's virtual, so I guess not. Yes. And so, but you have to register by August 14th in order to get your conference packet in the mail to guarantee you get your conference packet. We will go, we're going to order enough stuff, but you know, it all depends on if we have it. If you want to guarantee you're going to get your Challenge Coin and your event program and your other goodies in the mail, you got to make sure to register by August 14th. Anything after that, you might not, you may or may not get a conference packet. That's in four days. I know. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Well, you know what we need to know. No, you got to do what you got to do. I can't. We're ordering the Challenge Coins. The Challenge Coins take eight weeks to do. Okay, okay. So in order to, you know, and I know it's a funny timeline, but, but... That's okay. Now, let's say, again, we happened to meet just now, today, right? So, and you know what's funny? That to me is actually reflective if I have the government, at least the federal government issues out contracts. They tell you the last minute and you have four days to put it all together. Ha ha ha ha ha. Yeah, come on. You should have used it. I am. I'm used to it. Okay, all right, that's good. That's good. That's fine. Tell me, I noticed on your profile that you work with Business Leaders United. Uh huh. Can you tell me about them? I actually, I never knew about the organization, but I was reading about them and I'm really, I'm intrigued. Tell me more about Business Leaders United. So Business Leaders United is, I'll go back a little bit further. I was the chair for the Workforce Investment Board in San Diego. And part of being on the chair, I was selected to be part of Business Leaders United, the national organization, which is an organization part of the National Skills Coalition. And so what Business Leaders United does, every year we go there and we walk the halls. So I do this by myself and we walk the halls and make sure to tell congressional people how important job skills are in America and about continuity of funding, the job skills programs. And to continue to have people to work, there's a need for people who have skills in electronics and there's a need for people who have skills in, I'm trying to think of the welding and everything in between. So that's what we do. We go for a couple of days to DC and walk the halls and talk to our congressional person and tell them how important job skills in America is. And that's what Business Leaders United does is continue to put the spotlight on job skills in the US. What made you want to work with workforce? You know what, as a small business owner from San Diego and being a manufacturer, I think having actual experience as a business owner, utilizing the programs that they have, a lot of times people who are on the Business Leaders United or any of these organizations, they're either the HR people or the corporate executives they don't ever fill out the paperwork. They don't know how difficult all of this stuff is. So when I joined, I was asking them, I'm like, have you ever filled out the paperwork? Do you know how difficult it is to find, to be part of this network? So because I was asking these questions and because we were utilizing the job training programs that they had, nobody, none of the corporations, none of the HR people, none of the people who didn't have anything to do with it didn't really know how difficult it was. So one of my first things was like, everybody go home, everybody fill out the form. I want you to all understand what small business owners are using, how difficult it is for them. So to hire somebody from the workforce. And so they all did, and they're like, oh my God, it's like 25 steps, why do we? So we were able to streamline that down to like five things and what they need to know right away. And so I think I enjoyed it because I actually feel like I'm making a difference and because a lot of times small business owners don't ever get a seat at the table. So I really was very excited about having a seat at the table with real life small business experience. Nice, nice, nice, nice, nice. Nice, what do you do? I mean, again, you've been, you're all over the place. Like, you don't get stressed out. Oh, I'm stressed out all the time. Okay, so how do you handle that? What do you do? You know, especially right now with this virtual conference, I have no idea what that looks like and making those kind of decisions about how this is going to look and feel. And I get stressed out, but I just keep my head up high and going, okay, I feel, I have really good instincts on organizing. And I like to prepare and over prepare and then we run through a lot of different things. So by the time it comes through, we have thought about, okay, if this happens, this will do this, if this happens, this will do this. So we try to do a bunch of different scenarios, even for the live conferences when we have those. Luckily my partner Cole, he always kind of goes in as if he's new. He's like, well, how is this going to work? And he asks great questions. So we actually work really well together because I think I had the vision that sometimes when you have the vision, you're not looking at the ground. So he comes back from the ground and we help build it up so that it's nice and easy, but stressed, yes, it's constant. No, I know, no, but do you meditate? Do you exercise? Yes, I love that, yes. Everything, whole showers. Yeah, I think how, you know, I mean, of course exercise and I just walk the dog and I think listening to music, I'm really a big music fan, so listening to music and going out for walks kind of re-energizes me and then we were just out camping the other day. So anything to kind of get myself out of the office and I think that's always good, especially when you're trying to be creative and continually try to, okay, what else can we do? That's my constant question, what else? What else? Any favorite quotes or favorite sayings that you use on a regular basis, draw back to that you can show? I always love the Gandhi, you know, what does it make, it'd be the change you want to see in the world. As when Cole and I started this organization, I gave him a little frame that says, it has our logo, actually, this one here. So it says you must be the change you wish to see in the world and I put that at the very top. You know, that was like our first thing, then I'm like, okay, you know, if we really want to make a real change, we're the ones there. If we want to see real change in the veteran business space, then we're going to do it. No, that's true, that's fair. A couple of questions and then I'm going to let you go or we're approaching our mark here. I want to be mindful of your time. Tell us about, have you ever worked at iJob? Oh yeah, well I used to be a radio personality. Oh yes, I did see that on there. Tell me about that, how did I miss that? I was in the radio, I was in radio for about five years and I was on air, I was Rebecca, your radio servant. And so I, you know, I did jazz and I did adult and I did urban and then I did alternative. And so I worked in several different stations. It is a, it's a fun job. It was a fun, fun job. What do you do? I just talk to people, you know, it was radio, it was radio, so just play music and talk to people. I just talk to them. Uh-huh, so it's like what you do, but there's nobody there. Right, okay, that's interesting. If you, if you weren't doing this, what do you think you'd be doing? Uh, if I wasn't doing this, oh my gosh, that's a good question. Um, I would be a professional travel advisor. Mmm, like a concierge services. Like a concierge services. Okay. My sister, actually her friend does that. Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's, it's, I've seen a lot of people doing this amazing things and they get to go off and plan and. Yeah, my sister worked at American Express, the division with the black card holders. Oh yeah. And, and her friend worked there. And then when American Express laid them off, uh, she went off and became, because they, they already attended a lot of these places. They were already familiar with these places that had been there. And then she started offering her services to people. And so now she's got one of the best Instagram stories, bright pictures that you ever see, right? Cause she's, she's everywhere all the time at the best restaurants, the best hotels all over the world. It's fun. And you know, I think that's what we bring when, the one thing I am going to miss about not having a real conference this year is we, we like to embrace the places that we are at. So it's not just, you just don't go to a conference and you're in a ballroom and that's it. You know, last year we had, you know, a, uh, our welcome reception on the beach with the Latin jazz band and, you know, and cocktails and, and a bonfire. And it's just, it's, so we want, I truly take the being a host really seriously. And I want people to embrace the area. And then we had our banquet dinner at the Aaron space museum in San Diego. So they're surrounded by, you know, um, you know, airplanes and everything like that. So it's really fun. The year before that we owe the year before that we were in L.A. And, uh, we were at the endeavor space shuttle. We had dinner, our banquet dinner under the space shuttle, which was awesome. So we want to, we take the area we're going to be at and we really, we've become hosts. Can, can non veterans participate? Of course. Of course. Yes. And in fact, this year we're, we're inviting the full diverse community and everybody in between any small business owners, you're all more than welcome to come. There is a different attendee price. It's super reasonable as well. I think if you just want to attend, it's $100 to attend. Oh yeah. So it's a, and for a small business owner and, you know, we have large corporations like T-Mobile and, you know, Honda and AT&T and AARP. So, and then we have tons of everybody in between a lot of the utilities as well. Are you an early riser? Do you like to stay up late and work? I'm an in between. I do. I know, I know. I like to, I like to stay up late and I get up early. So I'm, I'm like a five hour sleeper. Wow. Get out of here. Yeah, I'm a little bit in between and, you know, I like to get up early and get a lot of stuff done and then, but then I, you know, in the evening, I like to hang out with friends and talk and stay up. Which in the last year, six months, what was the happiest purchase you made from Amazon? Like, you know what, just the other day, I just bought a tent. We just bought a new tent and I was so happy about it. Camping tent. A tent, a tent to go camping. Okay. And because I was very particular because we had just gone, we'd just started going camping and we hadn't gone camping for years and the tent we had was tiny. And, you know, we're like, okay. And so this particular tent, I was, I think I looked through like a hundred and finally found a tent and it's for, you know, it has a six foot tall so he can actually walk into it. It has, you know, I'm all excited. It has like windows on all sides and then it has a sunroof on the top so you can see the, you know, stars that middle. So those, that's my, my, I'm a little excited about that. No, that's great. I love it. Good answer. Great answer. Great answer. So parting words for the people out here listening today. Probably, I mean, you know, this is, I'm just going to address this is a difficult situation that we're all in, but I think, I mean, you know, we can all get to it through it together, learn from each other. And I invite everybody, you know, to come and, you know, be part of the VIB network, even if you're not a veteran, you could actually, you know, join as well and be a buyer or a supplier or to get connected with the suppliers there and just check out the organization. You know, I just want to say, you know, it's, it's some dark times right now and it's, it's very difficult, but you know, as my mother and everybody else is saying, you know, this will pass. This too shall pass. And, and we'll look at, you know, in the next year to go, oh, wow, you know, you know, we'll be stronger for it. And then we'll all have one thing in common. How did you get through COVID? Yeah, we're already talking about things, how things were pre-COVID, right? So it'll be pre-COVID and post-COVID, right? What was your life like pre-COVID? And then what happened post-COVID? Or C-19 or whatever they want to call it, the Rona or anything else, the nickname. Rebecca, thank you so much. I've enjoyed this conversation and learned about your organization today. We definitely want to get the word out really soon so that people can listen to this, try and register before the date of your conference event. But thanks for coming on today. It was really a pleasure. Well, thank you so much, Eric. It's been great. This was a lot of fun. And we'll definitely connect and get you, get you involved a little more. Yeah, I want one of those coins you have. We'll definitely work on that then.