 All right, we're back on I'm gonna stay on for a few more minutes. It seems like an hour. Just is not enough for me. I need like I Need like an hour and 20 minutes hour and a half to finish up and then also for the people in the West Coast You know, they're still they're coming on so I said my man mark masters on So freight lady. So you work with Dale Blackshire, huh? Actually Dale and I spoke last year about an opportunity with his cousin and They never fought up back with me on that Bump bump bump bump mark masters. What's up, brother? Maria tell me you got some nice awards at the end of the year congratulations By the way, congratulations. I'm making the ink list again That's impressive Yeah, good to see you. Well, I don't see you but I do I mean, you know, I guess we're social distancing Thanks Yeah, but man, that's that's impressive. How's the new um When we last spoke you hired the new COO. How's that working out to back-to-back any soul source boom? I love it. I love it. I love it No, man, that's You're bees Going great. Okay. Good stuff. I actually I don't know if you heard But I just I start working with a tribal company late well in terms of you know, going off some opportunities together because The 88 I was working with up in the Northeast we they only had 15 million bonding and we maxed them out So I needed to to work with someone who had a little bit more bonding. Oh Okay, oh Look at the cold you got a call from M. Gay M. Gill already in associates So Nicole you tell me so you were on my live the other day I gave you the tip you reached out to him and now you got a call back See that's the difference. You see how you took like you could have sent out an information did nothing with it No, that's a good problem. Have right? Let me tell you Man listen, we've got some we have some some really big problems like this coming up We're doing some good stuff, man. We are honestly mark. We're doing we're doing some incredible things This podcast has taken me places that I never anticipated that we're you know, even connecting people like yourself With other large companies and other entities out there. So I mean, it's it's it's taking us some some places that I Like that mark said winners problems. That's what I call them. There you go. Those are winners problems. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, no, it's it's taking us some good some good places in fact Now we're receiving and I told Maria this would happen People are asking us to be on the podcast Right so now we don't have to we're not reaching out as much anymore people reaching out to us to get on a Podcast and I actually had someone message me today to ask me for a favor to put them on a podcast, which is it's just Incredible it just blows my mind that it's actually people asking me to do my favor to be on the podcast. So that's that's pretty sick Definitely a you know a turn of events, right you go from Being the the kid that's reaching out and you're like the salesman, right? So listening people and now people are coming to you So it's good. I'll tell you funny joke, but Nicole. Good job. You emailed her that night and you got a response That's what I'm talking about Yeah, no mark you were you were lucky to get on early on. That's true But Nicole good job, that's that's the difference is that you know other people might have heard me talk about Marie Gill and what their organization is doing and Not take action you reached out you sent her email that night and that's why You're getting a response and you're getting things to happen. I don't understand If if I told you there's someone out here who got government funding to help small businesses Write grant applications and they're writing the applications for you to apply for a grant I don't know why this Why people would not Be blowing her phone up like that makes no sense to me Nicole I just don't understand it if I'm telling you this lady got a government funded contract to help small businesses receive contracts and grants and Everyone's not she her phone should not stop ringing in my opinion Let's see Mark said been there been used to be trying to get people's attention at conferences for years And then now people approaching you. Yeah, right isn't that that's true, right? Yeah, people are lazy. That's why no, no, no Mark, you know, it's funny. You know, it's funny thing about you mark. I I don't know It's funny how we connected and like you said you came out to see us You know When uh, tell me what what gives you that connection with us like what makes you like out of all the people What makes you still stay connected? Yeah, Nicole the thing is she must help you for free I agree, you know Nicole I don't I don't understand Nicole how these how people can sit up here and and listen to me say all this great Stuff and and give you free resources Yeah, okay What other client publishes what they are time spending money on just pull out annual procurement forecast and start down for dollars. There you go You guys heard it right here from a three-year By the way, if you don't know that this person on the line that we're I'm talking to Three time ink five thousand award winner just won again in 2020 just picked up two sole source contracts max value Right now Back to back so you know and he's he's been supportive of the show. We did a podcast episode together He came out and supported me when I was in Texas. So Much respect for him much respect, but we're you know again, you're in good company Like he said dial for dollars Pull up the procurement forecast start calling start dialing Gurus have theory you guys give him practical go kind of vice that's actionable correct. No, no, I Right, right. No, that's true. That's a good point. We But you know the difference is about the gurus more they're not doing it That's why I keep bringing on Maria to showcase the activities that we're doing if I say do this We'd literally go and do it ourselves. We We we we I'm not telling you to do something. That's that I'm not actually doing I'm telling things that we're doing that works and we continue. We want to keep showing examples two people right how to do these things V of us and Sometimes mark, which is funny people look at me and they say well, of course Eric can do it because he's Eric, right? Like he's the guru, but that's why we use Maria and say, okay, let's let teacher Maria do it And they they it's somehow then they say, okay Dang well Maria was a kindergarten teacher and now she's got contracts and now she's doing this and now she's a GC and now They call her and so Maria is a great Like my protege to be able to show that you could I can take anyone and teach them how to do this stuff I mean anyone and and we're teaching them, but they don't even want to watch the videos mark They don't even want to watch the videos There you go. Lots of people can tell you how to get a contract, but most of them have never actually won a contract and performed on it That's one of the posts that I posted today if you look at my LinkedIn profile mark I just posted that today. It's easy to get a contract But to do the contract to keep it to manage it and to execute and deliver is a whole another thing Lots of hustle. Yeah, lots of hustle Lots of hustle No, I missy. I'm not look I'm not I'm not tripping over anyone at this point trying to steal my information We're in a different space now Untimed on budget on scope exactly Are you reposted that one that's cool, you know what missy I listen I was actually listening to I get a lot of inspiration From music as I'm sure most of us do but I was listening today To an old album from 2008 that Jay-Z said he says I'm no longer the king of rap I'm the king of the map and so what he says is he's he's moved on beyond just being a rapper to being a more diverse type of individual and That's the kind of way I look at it at some point Yeah, I might be the top guy on YouTube But we're gonna move on to just being the top guy on YouTube to being the top guy in the Gulf con space in the sector And so at that point it's gonna it's not even I got an hour you feel that way now When I sat down and I met with Zuma who's our instructional designer and we looked at she looked at she researched Everybody across the board mark all of these people like you said that are gurus that are selling people information out there When we looked across the board and we looked at the people and the activities We couldn't find people that actually were doing this stuff like you said None of the people were actually doing this stuff that were Selling people information We couldn't find people actually doing it And so for us it's like When we look at how many people were connected to I Realized that we're crossing all boundaries and all borders. So I'll give you an example Hub zone council, right? If you look at their fees, they're pulling from our blog fees VIB network. We've been we've partnered with them US Women's Chamber of Commerce. We work with them Florida State Minority Business we've partnered with them You know MBDA export and we're working with them we cross all boundaries The national 8a they're gonna be on our podcast So we're like we've touched every single national organization that's targeting small business and government contracting space We're working with all of the organizations. We're not we're not picking one or two people now We're crossing over to working with the ANC's the tribal corporations So no one else can say that No one else can say that I mean we are literally tapping all the resources and we're disseminating out to people Washington technology, I'll give you guys an example Washington technology mark They were pulling out and giving you contract award data We've got a whole marketing team pulling out contract award data pulling out Pre-solicitation data social sought data gathering all that information and giving it out to the people And so that's what you see here as a result. We have 13 people working on this All right, see you mark. Thanks for coming on buddy. I know you got I know you got a whole You know group of people to run and and and to lead so thank you for coming on Appreciate you as well, but yeah, so when I look at The stuff that we're doing no one out here is doing anything even remotely close. So it's not even like It's not at this point. It's not even like We're not even the same league. We're not even talking the same language because by the way, Missy What I realized also Even if somebody wanted to copy all of my videos, that's a lot of work They got a handful trying to copy all my videos, but I wish them the best They want to copy my videos because again, we're putting out content every week So they don't they would have to copy all the old videos and then come up to the new videos So You know that's a lot of work But hey, I just want to come back on and finish answer some questions. I wasn't trying to do this all night I blew through the first hour pretty easily glad I got a chance to talk to my man mark. That was actually That was legit. So I was happy for that because he's been he's he's been standing behind us a long time Came on to the show early on Showed us love when nobody would and you know, again when Maria was out there banging on doors trying to get people Come on our podcast. He's one of those first people that came on that didn't have to and so we appreciate all the people that you know started with us in the beginning who've been with a been around with us now for a year or two and So we we definitely it's good to see our guests come back on reach out and still You know showing love and then in spreading to the community because he's given to the community This is again. This is a gentleman who's growing his business And So he's he you know, he doesn't have to do this kind of stuff, right? He's got hundreds of employees that he's managing running his his company is just keep scaling So he doesn't have to come on here in IG and speak to us But he does it because he really does believe in what we're doing and our mission And that's that's kind of people who want to surround ourselves And that to me is kind of people you want to surround yourself with people who are serious and who really want to see you thrive And grow and and come along for the journey anyway And we all know these we know these these the rules anyone could come along for the riot once you start making it but Again when you're grinding it out and like Maria said you're working on Sunday sending out letters and source of thoughts and you know You're by yourself Where the where the people at then there's no audience. There's no, you know, again It's it's not what you do when and when the public's around it's what you do in the dark and what people don't see It's those free throws that you practice in a shooting. That's when you know the results on the court start show Missy Tarva laugh a lot. I'm catching up follow your video for months before I get skilled around your lives laugh a lot. Yeah, that's true Jr. Thanksy Team up with ANC for large contact. We spoke of yesterday. Absolutely Definitely reach out to the ANC's man like tribal these guys are The end that they want to help us. They want to work with us. So hey look, I'm gonna sign up I got to get ready. I got a flight to catch We will be in Seattle, Washington. I don't know anybody's out in Seattle We're gonna be I'm gonna be in Seattle this weekend. So We'll be out there. I got to go get ready. I got a early morning flight I got a catch and I have not packed. So thanks guys always a pleasure Sibu Philippines I love everybody. I wish you the best. I want to hear more success stories Go out there and tackle this thing with everything you got like give it a big bear hug Russell these contracts to the ground Right because look if you don't somebody else will and I can tell you I'm one of the people that will okay. All right guys be good. Take care