 security matters. We got a new platform today and we're on Phoenix. Now we're on the Zoom platform. So, Minda says he's going to join me today from her Zoom platform and we are virtually in the studio. Then, how you doing today? Thanks for joining me. Doing great, Andrew. Thank you. Awesome. Well, this is different than I'm used to but I've got me and then I've got us and I've got you so it's pretty cool anyway. Well, we're having fun today. So, you're in DC, the home of big, big business, I call it. I'm maybe in New York, the home of the Big Apple but DC is truly the home of big business for those of us that work in government. And today we're going to try to take some of your expertise out that I think a lot of people don't know about but before we get into all that, I typically refer everyone who doesn't know you and now in our audience and most people probably know this, you've been around the industry a bit. Why don't you share maybe, you know, your background, how you got started and what got you into contracting world and sort of then into curing world, you know, as much as you care to share and let our audience get to know you a little bit. Thank you. Sure. Well, I'm truly an entrepreneurial success story. I started my, I started working in the government arena out of college doing telephone sales, calling up to find the decision makers in government for the company that I was working for. Now, you know, that's real interesting trying to call around and find out the right person to talk to and make a sales pitch, you know, try to set up the sales people. So that's, I really got started doing that and I was pretty good at it. And so quickly by the gentleman who was head of government contracting grabbed me up just for him. And I learned quite a bit about contracting and I moved on then to work with another company, which really got me into the security industry. And the gentleman that I worked with was a real pioneer in the world of GSA contracting. He was among the first people that started it. So he taught me quite a bit. It was kind of baptism by fire. I was essentially his secretary. Every afternoon and go to meetings at the Pentagon to pick up leads and while he was gone, he just kind of threw me in the water and thankfully I didn't drown. So I really learned every aspect of what an integrator reseller needs to do to be able to do business with the government from collecting unpaid bills because the paperwork wasn't done properly or filling out importing forms, DD 250s, preparing the price list. And one of the most fun things that I did was that I got to go actually then call on the government too. And so back when security was not quite as tight, I got to ride around in the golf cart underneath the Senate and the House. They were building the first studios in here, actually a CATV system and then a CCTV system and broadcast. So it was all wrapped together. So this was a fantastic experience. And how I really got into starting my own business of helping other companies know how to do business with the government by utilizing a GSA schedule contract was from manufacturers reps that knew me. And they kind of said, Hey, could you help my company do this? Maybe on the side or whatever. So at some point, a manufacturers rep who was a dear friend just started throwing all his business my way. And before I knew it, I had a full blown consulting business. So I learned it from the business side. I never worked for the government. I really learned it by doing all the little steps that a business must understand how to do in order to do business with the federal government. So I started my company in 1984. And we've been going strong ever since. And were there as many schedules then like today there's several, right? I'm probably familiar with I think with 84 and 72. But were there and are there still many, many from different types of industries? You know, that's a great question. And it's a rather historic question, if you will, when I started working on schedules, yes, there was a GSA contract for just about every commodity. And you could only purchase up to $100,000 on it. And we barely, we didn't even have fax machines then because I started when I was five. So we, you know, over the years, GSA started combining some of their schedules together. And as a matter of fact, over the last year, GSA historically has undergone this multiple award schedule consolidation where, you know, we would, over the years, you know, be fighting back and forth with different schedule programs. Which one should your cameras go on? Which one should your access control go on? Kind of an argument between schedule 70 and schedule 84. And I think this really made it hard for our customers because, you know, we're telling them different things and they weren't sure how they should go out for bid. Which schedule should I advertise? GSA has consolidated all of their GSA contracts into a single platform. And they've made some significant changes that we're all kind of dealing with right now, you know, reinventing the wheel. But I think that the concept of it was good because a lot of companies might have at least two schedules or even more depending on what they did. And that's a lot of paperwork to keep track of and a lot of reporting and a lot of compliance. So now we're on phase two of this mass consolidation. Phase one was issuing a new solicitation for people, you know, who were going to get a new contract. They can't, you know, the old paperwork ended, the new paperwork started. Now we're in phase two where they've gone out and put all the new terms out to all of the existing contract holders for them to accept. They've changed the commodity codes, which we call special item numbers or SINs. So they look more like the way you might use a standard industrial class or if you're a government contractor and you're registered in the system for award management. The tricky acronym is SAM.gov, okay. That'd be registered in SAM.gov. So the special item numbers now look more like the NAICS codes in there with the little, you know, some additional numbers or letters or whatever to define it. So it's, you know, there's a lot of adjusting for contractors to do right now. But I think in the long run, this will make it easier for, you know, the government agencies because they won't have to pick. Don't just be picking among the contractors, not trying to figure out where's the best place to advertise my opportunity. So this is really historic for GSA, you know, to roll this out. Wow. Was there a lot of collaboration with industry about, you know, problems industry had had, you know, was GSA receptive or did they just sort of, hey, we know what we're doing, we're government, and we're going to remake this and you're going to learn to play the way we want you to play? You know, they actually pulled different people with expertise from within their different regions that handle different commodities. And they had some industry days set up where, you know, they could, they could get some feedback from us. They put out a request for information, you know, asking for what our thoughts were. And they've had a lot of training available online. You know, if you want to know what's going on in the GSA world or learn more about it, people should sign up for the GSA Interact. You can Google it, GSA Interact. And there's all sorts of free training, YouTube videos, webinars, so they've really tried to roll out a lot of education on the different aspects of the changes. And, you know, they continue to last us with emails every day and, you know, inviting us to different things. So, you know, most people know about it, still a little bit confusing, you know, trying to get used to new forms and that sort of thing. But I think, you know, they've done a good job of making everybody aware, you know, that this is happening. Was there an effort in all of that to make it like cheaper? Are they getting rid of older contracts or vendors that are no longer relevant if you're not selling it? If the government's not using your schedule or didn't use it, was there a bit of a weaning out intent to do that? Or was it really just a, hey, this is just for everybody to have, like, understand what everybody's doing a little better. I'm on the customer side and the provider side. You know, really for the last few years, GSA has been making moves to change regulations, et cetera. And it's not necessarily brand new and necessarily because of this schedule, but GSA, you know, it's expensive to manage all these contracts. And so, if you don't maintain sales of $25,000 a year, you get a message from your contracting officer that they're considering canceling your contract. Now, you get to make a case for yourself. If you've got some opportunities pending, you know, you provide some information, you know, who's the point of contact, this is expected out. You know, they'll let you make a case for giving you another year. And they've been really pretty reasonable about it. They have. But they're definitely trying to weed through the people that, you know, have not been successful. Maybe haven't done marketing, you know. It's not like field of dreams build, you know, build it and they will come. You have to market just like you do commercially. You have to call on customers and, you know, advertise, put information on your website. Yes, there's public websites, e-tools, for agencies to go in and find you. But if they never heard of you, you know, and they're not being proactive, you're probably not going to make any sales. Yeah, they wouldn't know you, right? So why would they, why would they purchase from you? They're going to go to someone with some name recognition. I was amazed at the number of vendors. I was in DC, a lot of us was last fall. And we're to a local ASEA show there in Maryland. And like there's, there were like, I don't know, 400 people in the room. You know, I actually out here is maybe 30 or 40. So I was like, whoa, like there's so, I can understand that you got to make your, you have a name for yourself, a face-up for yourself or customers to even know you. I don't know, how many vendors do you know? I'll talk to your head or in there, could you make a guess? I mean, there's thousands of people that offer professional services, you know, you can actually use some of GSA tools, people that are curious, they can go to the GSA e-library, gsaelibrary.gsa.gov. And you can type in key words, like maybe you type in access control, and it'll lead you to a spot that you can click on and it'll pull up how many vendors are under particular categories. But there's thousands, thousands of contractors, you know, like under the IT program just for professional services. You know, there's thousands, you know, two, three thousand, you know, so, so yeah, you've got a market. I mean, now they also categorize your economic status. Are you a small business? Are you an A&A company? Are you a veteran own? And certainly there are federal regulations that promote disadvantaged businesses or women-owned businesses, et cetera. And so the agencies can search using these tools. So when you get a contract, yeah, you're posted. And your pricing is posted on the GSA Advantage website, which is Poor Man's Amazon for Government. You know, it's programs like from 1998, but it does the job. Okay, it does the job. And there's, you know, you can put pictures up, you can put information on your company in there and tell a little bit about your history. So they've got a couple of places they can look you up. They can look you up in the e-library that links to GSA Advantage. So they can find you, but, you know, it's also good for companies to make sure their contracting officer knows who they are. Because the agencies call the contracting officers, you have a little page in the e-library for your company, and it lists who your contracting officer is. Now, anybody from your company or Joe Blow Off the Street can't call the contracting officer, but they'll definitely talk to government agencies. So sometimes they can call up and say, who do you have that, you know, does surveillance cameras that might be a veteran-owned business, or, you know, they might call and talk to somebody. So, but, you know, GSA has industry events where you can go and meet your contracting officer, and they usually do that once a year. We didn't have it this year because, you know, what we're going through with the pandemic, but, you know, usually once a year, you have an opportunity to go and meet them in person and make sure they know who you are. And then the security world, it's, you know, there's not thousands of people that are on there, so there's a better chance if you make the effort of your contracting officer to know who you are. And I definitely recommend that. There's some good advice. Hey, we're going to jump right out, and we've got to pay a few bills, so we'll be back in about one minute with Linda Sheth. Thanks. Aloha, I'm Kili Akina, the host of Hawaii Together on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. Hawaii Together deals with the problems we face in paradise and looks for solutions, whether it's with the economy, the government, or society. We're streamed live on Think Tech bi-weekly at 2 p.m. on Mondays. I want to thank you so much for watching. We look forward to seeing you. Again, I'm Kili Akina. Aloha. GSA Schedules Inc. Yeah, Schedules Inc. That's what it was. Okay. I'm not the government. I'm a company. There's some of the benefits that you can find if you are a small business or you're better known, or you've got some great services. We have a lot of that in the security industry out there amongst our ownership. We do. We need to talk to just don't sell to the government. In your experience, do you think that they thought it's difficult to do? Are they so successful in their other areas that they're just not interested? Because I think government could benefit from other work that a lot of our really good integrators do, and I know they don't sell to government at all. Well, the reason some folks get a GSA contract is because it gives them a contract vehicle. And a contract vehicle, really, it's a method to sell to the government that somewhat streamlines the process. I do think that people are challenged with the thought of government paperwork. Who isn't, okay? And I'm not saying that there isn't government paperwork still, but the beauty of the GSA contract is that it vets a company financially, vets them for past performance, and sets up all the terms, the discount, for whatever products or services that you want to offer. So all of that's done in advance, and then you're posted on the websites, so then the agencies will reach out to you, and their requirement is to look for three different sources. And they can make an award not just based on the price. They can have other reasons. Like they can choose you because you're a woman-owned business, or you're a veteran-owned business. There's obviously the other rules. But I think the other thing that a lot of companies in the security industry don't realize is the GSA contract that includes, we call it the large category now, security and protection. It's no longer Schedule 84, okay? But these particular categories were approved several years ago for cooperative purchasing. What does that mean? K through 12 schools, universities, counties, your local government all can use this. It was unanimously approved by Congress, thanks to the efforts of the Security Industry Association for really working that effort. But gosh, these are customers that everyone sells to. All the time, these are the bread and butter customers, the repeat customers. You can use this contract vehicle to open the door, and you have credibility because you've been vetted. So I think a lot of folks just don't understand. They think it's a list they get on, okay? It's not a list, okay? It is submitting a solicitation, a bid. But to do so, to negotiate terms that for your company to do business with the government. So I think some folks might be missing the boat. There's different levels of getting involved. You could even be a participating dealer. So like an integrator reseller could sign up on as an authorized reseller under some of the manufacturers in our industry's GSA contracts. So you kind of get their feet wet that way, you know, and then they'll find out, well, it'd be really good if I had my own GSA contract too. So yeah, I mean, the government is such a large consumer. I just don't know if people, the numbers are mind-boggling, you know, when you look at how much money they spend. And obviously, they're great consumer security. Now, it amazed me when I come across, you know, companies that just don't do work in the government's face. You mentioned Sia. We should give a good shout out to Don and that group there. Will you be able to help them with that? I know that they have a government organization or a government group. Are you a RFC's government group as well? So I chair the government procurement policy group and their government relations group is just fantastic. Jake Parker is the government relations director. He's done some, he's really well represented our industry this year with different things that are going on with the federal government that impact the industry, you know. Sure. Some of the considerations for section 889, I'm getting technical now, but it has to do with the prohibited products from China. And, you know, how this is going to impact those that sell it, you know, most, you can't sell them if you're on federal government, can't sell them to the federal government, prohibited. But there's another phase of this that's dropping that's a little bit confusing. We don't really understand the scope of it quite yet. You know, Jake, in the effort with a number of associations and important large federal contractors have addressed Capitol Hill, you know, written a letter, you know, asking for postponing some of this because it was supposed to hit this office. So, you know, asking for a postponement. I can't talk today. And, you know, just asking to explain what this all means. So, SIA really does a lot of good things for our industry. And I'm really happy to be involved. And it benefits my clients, too. You know, it benefits everybody that's a SIA member. But, you know, it really, the things that they do for government are just fantastic. I mentioned about the cooperative purchasing effort that SIA did, like, 2008. Just fantastic getting that through Congress. It was a lot of hard work. A lot of members visited Capitol Hill and, you know, Don was fantastic. He's a great creator of the language that is necessary for addressing the government and his understanding. So, we have a great team, you know, SIA representing us. It's wonderful. That's awesome. So, the days that the code calling on the office are when you want to reach out to Capitol Hill, you want to go knock on the door, get an appointment, get in the field. I didn't understand your question. The days of code calling, what are you saying? Yeah, so the days of the code calling are over. You can actually go up. You can visit the Hill. You can meet with representatives and explain for your case or meet with their aides. And it's best done face to face in person. You know, I think you have to have a little expertise to do that. But I would encourage every company to reach out to their congressmen. I mean, they really help. You know, we've been successful taking a group of member companies and going up and talking to staff and, you know, meeting with people that make decisions on certain committees to hear our concerns as a security industry. I don't think people think they can make a difference, but they really can, you know, address issues with school safety. We've had some great successes with certain legislature with the efforts of the folks from SIA. And especially, you know, some of their employees have just been fantastic leading the rest of us along, you know, so that we can express our concerns and be heard important. Thank you. I know that on behalf of SIA, you also help out with our Women in Security Forum. Yes. What can we do to encourage more women to get into our industry, you know, from your perspective? Well, I mean, that's a real effort that we've been challenged with and we've been working hard to try to, you know, offer encouragement and education and outreach to women in our industry. You know, we're a pretty small representation of the industry over the years. I used to think I was the only one, okay, but I wasn't, okay. There was a couple others, but it's just an industry that's ripe with opportunity. And I, you know, more women need to consider that. It's highly technical. There's just so many directions to go. And so our group, our Women in Security Forum, you know, is doing a lot of outreach. We're using LinkedIn to try to reach, you know, people. And we're setting up a series of webinars that SIA is doing through their education program of just opportunities, encouragement, even particularly during this time, you know, the challenges we have at home, finding the balance of continuing to do our jobs, taking care of our family, trying to cook some dinner, you know, all the things that we do. Of course, we're all challenged with that right now, but so we want to encourage, we want to make some recommendations of, you know, how you can make your situation better and certainly something that we're working on. I hope I'm allowed to talk about this, John Erickson, is, you know, we're looking to put a scholarship out there for women in security as well. So that's in the works. And, you know, you're on our steering committee, Andrews. So, you know, we're making a lot of efforts here, really to promote diversity in the security industry. Yeah, I'm the guy that's always talking about how he walks into the conference rooms or the classrooms and it just looks like a whole bunch of bowling balls in the chair because everybody's ball-headed. And, you know, we need to change that. And I don't know if we got populated from, you know, ex-military in the 70s and ex-law enforcement. I'm not sure if that's how we became so male-heavy, but, you know, we're missing out on so much thought that we don't, that's not included in our industry. We're missing out on effort that's not included in our industry. Innovation that's not included in our industry. And we've got definitely to open that door and encourage it. What sort of message, maybe a minute or so, what sort of messaging do you think would help us to improve our outreach to other people that aren't well represented within our industry? Well, you know, the people behind the scenes, you know, my experience in government contracting with security is there's these fantastic people behind the scenes that have great multitasking skills. Just give them a chance, okay? A lot of times it's the ladies that are doing the contract administration. They're really smart. They can multitask. You know, there's so many, they have so many different qualifications and, you know, they need to be, you know, promoted up. We need to invite them to speak on our panels and have more women included. And, you know, there's a lot of different functions that women perform. I was really excited at one of the recent government summits that we had. We had a number of ladies that came in that were the head of the security for their agency. You know, that was fantastic. I, you know, not something that I would have seen in 20 years ago, because I've been doing this a long time, okay? And so, you know, I just think you have to be aware who's there and encourage the women to, you know, step out, apply for these opportunities. And further their education as well, technically. You know, there's women engineers out there. We have them. We award them every year, you know? And we just got to bring them along and encourage them. And the young ones especially, you know? The young ones start them at an early age and get them into our industry. That'd be fantastic. And I know that we're planning to do that with Sia. All right. Well, I'm going to be there to help. Lynn, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it. You're welcome. That was a pleasure. Sure. Some great stuff with our audience today. We'll see you next week on Security Matters. Stay safe out there and wash your hands. Aloha.