 So last week I actually had the chance to interview Angela Byrne Perez APC. She is a 2016 NASA award winner, 2017 NASA award winner, 2016 SBA award winner. She's doing incredible things. Um, she's got a fabulous story where she started her business and she took it, um, as an architectural firm and she was working at the company first, then had the opportunity to buy the business from that. She then took the business into the fellow arena where she had experience. Um, she then pursued opportunities over in Afghanistan and then ultimately became, uh, the US AD's woman on small business to have the largest contract ever issued out to a woman on small business and excess of $500 million. One of the things that Angela mentioned, which I thought was remarkable, which was competitors may be your greatest source of opportunities. Um, and so we want to talk about that. And today's lesson is how competitors may actually be your greatest sort of opportunities. People, um, are taking, and I know most of us when we see competitors, we think about, um, someone who is a bad person or evil person or someone who's against us, um, because by nature, the definition of competitor is right. Someone who we are going up against and so in that theory or in that printable, it, uh, when you hear the word competitor, it has a negative connotation associated with it. However, because the government is so large and has the opportunities are so vast and great that in actuality, a lot of times we need each other to help go after particular jobs or projects or bids that may be larger than we can do as separate entities. So again, um, you know, touching on that, uh, topic of comparison via grace opportunity, Angela took that to a whole another level. And that's how she was able to take her business from a localized business to having, so I think she says 12 offices around the country and four offices now internationally everlasting. So again, you know, I can say from a personal story that one time when I was looking at a hub zone opportunity and we didn't have hub zone certification, we went outside the box and said, okay, let me find a competitor who has a hub zone certification that wants this opportunity that we are aware of we know about. We know the people behind it. We know we've got all the numbers. We had already done all the homework. So all we need to do is match that with a hub zone, uh, first company that had a hub zone certification. And so I went out and basically scoured the list of people who were in my immediate vicinity who had hub zone. Actually, at first I went outside and was looking for people outside of the state who had hub zone that didn't work out. And I ultimately end up choosing a company that was like in my backyard that did exactly the same thing we did that had hub zone certification but they were not working at that particular base. And so we reached out to them, um, contacted that company, brought them on board, signed the contract, we did all the work, did all the projects they made money, we made money, and it turned out to help us like our particular company grows as well because they saw that the work that we were doing on the base, the people knew that we were the ones behind it. And so we were given opportunities that didn't necessarily require a hub zone status so that we're just regular small business, simplified opposition, simplified acquisition program. So we actually parlayed that one project into probably millions of dollars and other work outside of that scope. So, you know, I can say I can be a testament to having worked with competitors to basically explore opportunities that we didn't have before and they didn't have that opportunity as individually, we didn't have an individual but collectively, we were able to come together and make that happen. So more recently, we're working with the different naval bases up in the Northeast. And the company who I represent, they, I mean, they do 20 million dollars a year in revenue. However, still yet, the government, because of the type of projects that they put out, their projects start at 20 million. So if you're revenue for annual sales are 20 million, you're not large enough to be able to take on these projects. And so again, we had to look outside of our comfort zone and say, okay, who out here is that can we reach out to, to try and help partner with to chase after some of these opportunities. And so with that said, we look, we again, I recommend it to the company. Let's look at some of your competitors out there. Find out some of the competitors, maybe you guys have worked together in the past and some projects, maybe both of you come from Gilbane or some of these other larger outfits construction management companies, where maybe you've got some sort of connection together that you can leverage in order to bring everyone to the table to pursue one particular cause. And so we were able to establish a working relationship between one of the partners of our firm and a partner of another firm. And henceforth, bring that together to now we're discussing openly pursuing opportunities within the government space together. So it does work. I've used it successfully. My friends use it successfully. Now, don't get me wrong. When we were exploring this up in the Northeast. Recently, when I was exploring personally, I was shut out a lot of doors, right? So a lot of people shut me out. We went to some of the workshops, like we went to a Sammy workshop, Society of Military, American Military Engineers, we went to one of their workshops, we met with some of the competitors, we told them what our intentions were, what our plans were. And again, they took our information, took our cars, nothing ever materialized. So again, it's not like you're going to show up some place and someone's gonna be like, Yeah, come on in. Welcome. We're happy to have you. No, it's not like that. But if you continue knocking on doors and talking to people and letting them know that you have good intentions that again, this can be an amicable relationship. And it could be a win-win for all parties at hand that you can, you know, you have your strands, they have their strands, and we could come together. Then, you know, with time, and with perseverance, you will eventually reach someone who will be willing to sit down and at least have a conversation, a candid conversation about what it is that they're looking for, and or maybe where you're strong or where you're weak at, right? So they may tell you where they're weak at. And so we were lucky enough to find someone who we knew kind of like where their weak points were, but also where their strengths were. So they had the capital, they had the bonding that they needed, but they didn't have the company to work underneath them that could actually perform the work and get it done. And so essentially, now we're going to explore that relationship. And we expect that, you know, in the next six months to a year, that it could become a fruitful and very prosperous relationship. So again, I want to tell people out here that and not only does this work at the federal level, I've also seen it work at the state level as well. So again, I'm encouraging guys out here who are struggling trying to break into the marketplace. Take a look at some of your competitors. I'm like, you know, take a look at some of the people who may be already doing some of the stuff that you want to do and talk to them about ways in which you can help ways in which your business can help bring value or add value to their particular business. So, you know, this is a technique that I recommend to my GovCon Giants members. This is a technique that I'm recommending to you guys. It's something that worked for Angela. It's something that's worked for me. It's something that's worked for me in the past and continues to work for me today. So again, do not be so close-minded to where you're saying, well, that guy would never want to talk to me or that girl or that company would never entertain me. Obviously, there's some rules of engagement. We'll talk about that in some upcoming videos. But, you know, definitely do not close the idea of maybe bringing or inviting a competitor to the table and say, now I have a conversation about, you know, how you guys can go after a particular agency or particular niche market together. And basically, I don't want to say exploit because exploit sometimes seems like a negative work, but really like exploit the opportunities or let's say explore the opportunities that may exist that again, as two separate entities, you can't necessarily get together. All right. Listen again, if you like this video, like the content, like the information, click below. If you have some feedback, if you've had a story that you could share and experience share that where maybe this has worked for you, let me know. I will be reading all the comments in this particular one and responding to everybody on there. All right. As always, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.