 Hey Martina's hey Hey gov con giants, I know I'm gonna get some people some time to join us It's 705. We're gonna have a good session today. I see we've got somebody Garcia Garcia already waiting And I know once the notifications hit more people will join us momentarily. I've got Maria Martina's on today. What's up Maria? Hey everyone, nothing much trying to gather everything and Do this and answer people's questions out there because I know there's a lot because I was there once so I am here to answer every question you guys have right now and Later on we're gonna bring some of our other coaches throughout this session today So if you miss it go back and catch it on replay. We're gonna bring on Coaches they're gonna talk about some of their experiences and things that they can offer like I said Most of us are aware that this is the last couple days for our 2.0 Correspondo and so we want to come on answer questions talk about a little about what we do a lot of folks See me and they only see me and so they think like like I'm the only person Behind this whole machine and there's really a lot of us working at this. So welcome Gilbert Welcome Garcia. Let us know who's out there eight people watching definitely put your name in the comments. Let us know you're here Tell us your business the city and state that you're from again I always tell people use this as your opportunity your networking event that you can network because a lot of times Relationships relationships relationships is the key and so I want you to be able to make connections any and all places And Maria's actually gonna share a success story coming up in a moment here. So we're welcome everyone here. Welcome Freddie Gilbert Good evening Justin Glad to have you here today with us Let us know again your business and the city and state that you're from so we can Definitely when we're having conversations and we're answering questions then we can Really address these particular issues to you in your business and not just you know what Eric thinks is right Stephanie Parker Follows instructions very well Stephanie Richardson Parker. I have to say Stephanie Richardson Parker. I don't want to forget the Richardson. So All right That they follow instructions because you've told me since the beginning and other people our podcast guests have told me Say you have to be able to read and write if you could read and write you're able to do this So it starts off in the simple here YouTube live Listen to directions and follow them and you'll be successful in this field All right, so Maria you had something happen to you Recently you went to a conference this past week. Tell us about it. Yes So it goes back and I'll tell you guys a little bit background I've been gone for about three a few months and Once I decided to do the podcast again I actually got motivated and that's what's great about our community is that we motivate each other and push each other and A lot of people have seen me on YouTube and a lot of people seen my story But a lot of people don't know that I could be an introvert especially in large groups I tend to shy away. So one of the things I wanted to do this time around was push myself out of my comfort zone and that includes going to conferences as myself and Being out there with people and networking because I know the importance of relationships and the importance of networking so It goes back to our Tuesday's calls when you told us apply for the big machinery Credit and the second step was to go out there to have networking with these organizations So I went ahead and registered with Sammy, which is the national organization and we have a chapter here in South, Florida So I registered and like within a week I saw that they were having a luncheon down in Maria Maria hold on one second now you're doing like myself you were talking in acronyms people don't know what Sammy is but Sammy Society of American military engineers, there you go. Thank you. All right Talk to the people So I actually saw that they had a luncheon coming up and like Stephanie and Sheena said in the YouTube live It was that we have to get out there and not only that you're gonna Say you went to a meeting or you went to a networking event But actually make the most out of it make your most time if you're gonna take off like I did a day off of work drive 60 miles to get there and Pay for this luncheon that make every single penny and your time and every single minute worth it So I I went I got all dressed up and showed up about 10 minutes early and Like I said, there was a group of people there about three or four people and right away. I Got out of my comfort zone right away and I made sure that I told I Walked in I introduced myself to all three people one of them happened to be the speaker The other one happened to be the president of the chapter here in South, Florida So right away. We make small talk What do we do but then you have to have that memorable moment because people are not gonna remember you and what you do But people are gonna remember some things that you spoke about So when I was talking to the speaker, we just spoke about the school system and her grandson and moving us south, Florida Things like that. So it's just making those connections right away Let me catch up one second, please All right for all the people joining us now make sure to put in the chat your city your state City or state your industry that you're from. Let us know who's in the building. What's up, Eric? Welcome Freddie gains. I see you Gilbert. So let us know Justin if you're here drop in the particular chat because again We want to connect everyone together. We are a community. You'll be so surprised How small this world is this community is of government contractors as we've stated in the past 75,000 small businesses are eligible to do federal procurement 67% of you two-thirds will never win a contract So we don't want you to be in that two-thirds. We want you to be in the top one third So let us know who's out here. We're gonna be running for about two hours tonight actually So it's gonna be fun. You if you miss it, don't worry about it You can always watch her on replay But like I said, I wanted to open up a story from Maria Sharing her experience of joining the Society of American Military Engineers and what happened to her this week And also you already know give me a thumbs up hit the like button wherever you're on Facebook If you're on YouTube hit the like button because social media gods are out there watching. All right, Maria continue the story So once The luncheon started we all sat down and you have to continue those conversations of what you do What makes you unique and it's not like we are just there to say hi, my name is Maria and call it a day You have to put yourself out there. Tell them what you do. What makes you unique? So when the speaker was out there, I'm very I volunteer a lot for things and that is my comfort zone So it's funny. I was telling Eric because once we started eating The person the president was the one doing the slide and I went in and told him like hey Let me do it finish eating things like that people remember you you're gonna be very personable things when things happen So and like Eric said, it's a very small world out there and go con because after everyone everyone was asking questions one of the Engineers the architects of the Coast Guard where I used to do work in his question was that his biggest concern as Being in that side of the government was that he doesn't have small businesses Reaching out to him. He doesn't have small businesses that he knows that he could call for the smaller projects He's like my biggest problem is the small projects. I don't have small businesses for so I was like oh hold on So what the everything finished? I walked up to him and I told it You know that problem you have of not having small businesses to take in those small projects I'm like I got the solution for you. Call me. That's it Well, I'll take in all the small projects that you need and we have a network of Small businesses that are able to do those small projects So that was the biggest thing so we stood there for good like 10 15 minutes ever after everything was done And then people started coming up to me handing me their business card asking me for my business card Because I told them about the all the contracts. I've done. I've told them about the connections I had I told them about the podcast Because and people were very interested in the podcast getting stories out there knowing how to do a podcast So things like that is how you make that event worth you're going Just don't sit at a table eat your food and call it a day One of the things that Stephanie said on her interview and I'll pull it up in a minute was that If she's gonna take time to leave her house to leave her family, she's not gonna stand in a corner At a networking event And I want everyone to keep that in mind if you're gonna take time out Away from your family away from your job away from your business away from your organization That costs you money, right? And so again time is money. We a lot of times we forget that time is money So that cost you money if you're gonna take that time away, then make it worth your while and Maria showed up early How many people were there when you first showed up three? Okay, so she showed up early. How early that were you there? not even um Like ten minutes early Look at that ten minutes early. So she shows up ten ten minutes You don't have to be an hour early. I would have been an hour early, but you know And that's your five minutes I Knew I was going to get out of this car and there was not gonna be that shell that I've put on I was just gonna go in there full force So again, so Maria goes shows up ten minutes early meets the president of the organization meets the speaker Right. Yes. Okay. Just by being ten minutes early and then by volunteering to help She then gets the opportunity other people know who she is and they want to give her the cars She meets the person from the Coast Guard who has contract opportunities for her or Well, I'm sorry. He says he can't find small businesses to fulfill his small business contracts How many people have been to an event in the last month? How many people have been to event? I'm gonna go even further back. How many people have not been to an event this year? This year Many there has to be many just because Organization or say as it is this is only their second event and their first one was their industry day And it was the first one they held in the whole nation like all the national organizations all those branches That was their very first one. So again now So Maria goes to their second event which I understand if you know about people and they're afraid of COVID and things like that So make sure you're safe and obviously to follow all the protocols however this is a Relationship business and people do business with people they like knowing trust and them having met Maria in person Now what Maria didn't tell you, right? Also was that She met a large business. Oh the thumbs people. Yeah helps people. Yeah anybody Little bit felt people so tell us what was that interaction like and tell us something something that came out of it That was related to what we talked about on our Tuesday calls. So Again, I went to this event not knowing met not knowing anyone and the people come up and we're all talking and they're like Oh, they're from Henson and Phelps. I'm like, okay I'm like, okay. Nice to meet you like everybody else and I knew there were a large business When they the the speaker was like raise your hand of your small business Raise your hand of your our medium business and when she said raise your hand of your a large business They raised their hand and I was like, oh They're not even in small business category So because one of the guys was from South Florida and the other one drove from Orlando But they're by the way that building and I'm on the screen right now Henson Phelps built it the Social Security Administration building. They built that just just to give you perspective on how big they are Their size. All right. Keep going Maria. So we're just having normal conversation and the person that's next to them does water treatment but he the question he asked and It's one of those moments that you're like, and I knew it's gonna come up eventually like Eric said this He goes do you guys rent large heavy equipment to meet your small business goals? So because they're a big business Depending on their contract. They have to meet a small business like performance goal So he goes the contract we have now we do not but if you guys send me your information We'll certainly use you guys because that is an easy way for us to meet that requirement and that goal now This is sort of an inside track if people are on whose people actually in our program Been on a Tuesday calls like Stephanie. Who else is in here? How many people? What do we talk about the infrastructure plan? Remember we talked infrastructure plan and how small businesses can help large businesses meet their goals This is one of the strategies that we taught and at Maria's first event. This came up So now let me just show you because I don't think people understand All right, Hansel himself Hansel Phelps if you've heard of them or if you've not heard of them This is they do the largest projects around the country federal projects. Look at this They build look resorts and convention centers power train facility energy plants They do a lot of airport work Okay parking garages stations they built like the FIU New campuses off the highways like they do Big big terminal one development program. They do a hundred million plus billion dollar type projects Stephanie way to look at that. Hold on. What'd you say? Yes, we just talked about this. That's right We just spoke about this on our Tuesday calls and this is what I mentioned the folks Out there is that you know we When we are in our on our Tuesday calls for the people that register in Govcon 2.0 People ask a lot of questions that I don't always get a chance to answer publicly because again You know, they're asking me specific things related to strategy about building their business and so we can't We are sharing that information with the people who decide that they want to actually do something with the information because they made that Investment commitment themselves. So it's just it's funny because a lot of times the stuff that I talked about it comes back full circle And Maria her first experience. She's like she had to calm. It's like you will not believe what happened today And I like what by the way now there's 25 people here on the line. Thank you for joining us tonight. We're gonna go through Bring on our different coaches that are out here some new things that we're going going on some of the experiences that they've sharing what they've done Also, just kind of as a reminder for everyone out there They we actually I'm gonna share it on my screen Hold on All right, I'm gonna drop the link in here We are discontinuing our 2.0 bundle on November 1st. That's Monday So I'm gonna go and drop the link for everyone out here who's interested. We will be discontinuing this on Monday However, one of the things that we are doing now that we just started recently was we did implement Coaching because people want to ask questions So we you can now order a 30-minute Executive call or a 30-minute call with one of our gubcon coaches So we're gonna have them on tonight sharing some insights with you So you get a chance to meet some of our coaches and find out all about them So if you're new if you're just joining us let us know again Your city that you're in your industry that you're from and if your name is now on the screen Tell us your name as well. And also as always, please give us a thumbs up. Hey, Maria That's an awesome story. Let me just bring on Brandon real quick and give Brandon some airtime. No I'm gonna put I'm gonna put Brandon up to the screen Hold on let me put Brandon on at brand to the screen If my computer back, but I've been having some computer issues, so Let's see It's moving a little bit slow so Hansel Phelps and you talked about doing the rental equipment and So you got some guests for a podcast. What else I got so in my One day it was from 1130. I it was till one, but I love to like 130 I got two podcast guests for you for Gokkan giant I got the rental equipment from Hansen himself I got to meet and exchange information with the architect guy for the Coast Guard here in Miami and Somebody wants to me to help them build a podcast So there's so many things in one meeting and all it took was like I told people in that one and I felt so Excited and proud of myself that I had to make that like one minute click for you because it's true So you just have to get out there. It's not gonna happen for you if you're not out there trying to make it happen That's awesome. That's awesome Tell us Why we're trying to get Brandon here on the screen. Tell us some of the experiences that you have when you were working with students and the Teaching of the breakout sessions for your consulting group so One of the things and I tell people when I used to talk to them on the phone One of the best things about being part of the gulfcon 2.0 Is the breakup the Tuesday calls Tuesday calls is where You get a lot of information where you get this community of people that know what you're talking about and are able to help you And that's one of the things that we started. Um, I think it was last year this year earlier this year it was that The first Tuesday is the general q&a when we're all of us get together and you get to ask any questions that you may have And then the second Tuesday we have a beginners and then the third Tuesday of every month We have breakout sessions. Um breakout sessions. I see it very similar to small groups If you go to church or something or even with other organizations or when you do matchmaking They break you out into different groups. Um, we have 10 different groups. Everything is industry So we have construction. We have it. We have facilities. We have logistics We have it all we have proposal writing. We have consultants with clients consultants without clients I was over the consulting without clients because I love talking to beginners I guess it's the kindergarten teacher in me that I want to Help mold you set that foundation. Um, and that foundation is very very important Because if you don't understand the basics, you can't be out there bidding stuff You we just can't you're going to fail and I've learned hard lessons and doing contracts I had subs walk out at me. I had people try to change things So having that foundation of knowing what to do how to do how to speak It's very very important. So on our Tuesdays calls I did consultants with clients and I told my group. I'm like, please ask questions This is the time I wanted to be very open. I wanted to be your comfort zone You have to be comfortable asking anything if you want to ask me about a done number Ask me about a done number if you want to ask me what is an rfp Ask me what's an rfp. This is a chance that you're going to get to ask basic questions Um, somebody wanted to know how to fill out a source of thought. How do I get a forecast list? So we go through those things and on Tuesdays calls We have that 45 minutes to an hour for me to share my screen. We're going to do this together I am not just going to sit here and show you examples. No, we're going to go through it I'll log in to google from the beginning to the basics to the end of what am I going to write? What do they want? How do they want it things like that? And that's so important for the Tuesday groups because you get to ask anything while we're going through it So it's like, uh, we're calling it learning sessions as well So we have the break up sessions and then we have a learning session last week We did all about sources thought and I went from right where the beginning of what it is Where we find them How to respond how it looks like we pulled up the template and the template you could get from our website It is free. It is not just for us in the inside. It is for everyone We have a template out there for the letter of interest or a letter of intent of what it is But we would more into depth of how it's structured what they want to see how they want to see it how how do you Even break it down just because we open up scope of works and people look at it and are so confused So it's very very important. So the best thing you get out of 2.0 Are those Tuesday calls? So we're going to have learning sessions You're going to have breakout sessions or people within your industry But also the best thing is going to be we're going to start bringing out speakers like experts in their own field To be able to come in and teach you Ask them questions these people's time costs money and within our program. You're going to get it for free So that's my take on all of our Tuesdays calls So some of you might have been to our website and you've seen the community app I'm putting a number on here before this is a number where it says text eric So that number we answer questions from just the general public and these subscribers youtube people like that So brandon actually does a lot of the marketing behind the scenes And so I brought him on just to share some of the questions that people send And just brand can you talk for a couple minutes about what some kind of the things that you see people asking questions on our social media Um that maybe can give people some insight Of course, so um, like he said in the community app Um, it is an app where people do send you questions Um, it's when you text us directly and you're able to access Any question you want to ask text is whatever you would like and we'll be able to respond to you Now a couple of the questions that usually always happen are I mean it's the same probably about I would say like five to six questions Um, one of them is being when's the best time we could talk to somebody Um, and that's pretty that's pretty simple pretty straight forward. Um, we just go ahead and schedule a call With amazing erica and erica can talk to you about basically whatever you need to talk to you about um, the second question is um, when can I talk to eric? And um, even as funny as that sounds that's a question that we get a lot And um, like eric was saying a little bit earlier. Um, that's why he made that option We he had calls where you can schedule with him But now he has the coaching calls and the coaching calls You'll be able to schedule with either one of the coaches or you can ask the coach Any question you want to or you can schedule a call with eric and you can ask eric any question you want to So when you talk to eric is we'll you know, you would go On the website go to the coaching um the coaching part of the website And then you'll be able to schedule a call with one of the coaches or eric. Um, whichever one you like um, the third question is Is the 2.0 course ending as if Um, and I'll say basically like is it going away forever? Like we have three days to learn the information No, you don't have three or four days to learn the information. Um, the 2.0 course we're not accepting any new enrollments So what we're doing is we're not going to um have a 2.0 course accessible to the the public in about three days Um, in november 1st on monday like he was saying earlier It's not going anywhere. If you get the 2.0 course, you're still going to have a 2.0 course I can assure you you're still going to have all the information You'll still be on the calls on tuesdays everything like that But you don't have three days to learn the information You still have the the whole time like everybody else the whole year to learn all the information that we have 2.0 course, so it's not If you buy it today, I promise you it's not going to go away in three days I know it even though it may sound silly it is something I feel like we should clarify because people do have that question Um, another question they have is when they do send a source aside Should they expect somebody just to say that they received the message and it goes back to maria saying on the tuesday call We just had we just actually went over that. Um, and like maria said on the tuesday call Some people are gonna be nice say received some people are not and Still piggybacking on maria said on the tuesday call She likes to pin it and keep going so I recommend that as well because that's that's truly the method You shouldn't be worried about it's my They're not going to always say I received it. I got it Listen, they have a lot of things to do Source aside is truly for information any way that you're doing their market research. So They don't owe you. I got her received from you know, so you shouldn't expect that you should just send it You do what you had to do continue going um, and and this one is not a question, but this is something that people send a lot and um It's just a little misplaced because we have a place for that. So they'll send something basically saying that hey I'm um searching for Us us um a woman owned small business or a day who does construction who can help out? On a contract we have now that's perfect You should definitely access those questions because we can help you we can get you to those people But a better place will be um in the facebook group and that facebook group is very important because that is where we're all connected And we access questions in the tuesday calls Well, where we can where you're already surrounded around the small businesses in our circle in our connection So when you ask that question in the facebook group, someone's going to respond to you They you know if they're able to help you out or if you're doing a tuesday call Same thing somebody's able to respond to you to help you out So I definitely say the best place if you are looking for a company to subcontract or to help you out in a contract Definitely send in the facebook group and definitely talk about the tuesday calls because that's what it's for It's specifically for the that type of connection Um, so those are the main things that I definitely got from your community app that contains your p and so if you see um the um all of the instagram all of the Snippets brand is the one behind that he's uh handling the marketing team that's responsible for doing all of our snippets All of this the reels the tiktok videos Uh, he was the one that you know that did the kidnapping of maria's cousin that people didn't like That's brandon. That's young brandon behind all of that crazy stuff. So Uh, I just wanted him to come out and meet you. We've got randy sitting down here waiting to go. Thank you brandon. I'll see you All right, we're gonna bring randy up to the stage There uh, uh Randy listen, he's randy. Look ready. I'll take it back down You ready randy? Am I on there? Yeah, okay. Hi guys. Hey, how are you? Yeah, how are you? Great a little blurry Uh, maybe need to change By the way, so Um, there's 34 people watching make sure if you're just joining us We are having a conversation with some of our gupcon coaches Answering questions from people by the way. Don't feel don't feel bad about asking a question. Now. This is your time Use it wisely Again when we come on these live sessions This is an opportunity for you to talk to people that you normally will not get to talk to So I just want to let people know I want to kind of introduce you to some of the faces some of the names because oftentimes Um, we everyone thinks like it's only me out here, right? Like it's like it's only eric and all the stuff in it. Trust me. That is impossible For me to do all these things by myself Brandon's team is like nine people deep. Okay that he's managing. So um, I just want to kind of bring everyone on around robin and have them, you know Introduce themselves a little bit of what they do and that way you kind of know who are some of the people their skills or strengths Um, moving forward randy. You ready? Sure. All right Every day I always thought randy is here when I talk to randy. I gotta say randy. Let me see your hair I don't know if it's long on sometimes it's curled up Sometimes it's straight. So I love it. It looks great Flexibility I need to get off the screen just to let y'all two ladies to share the screen. I didn't get off All right, great ready tell us tell us tell us some of your experiences um, now randy actually when we start the coaching program uh randy actually took the lead uh and Became one of the initial persons that people meet with So she's already worked with I don't know what 10 or 12 companies So far Like that. Yeah, and so uh, she's had some experience of already working with companies through the coaching And I want her to talk about that as well and but again 36 people watching give us a hit the like button, please And I don't see industries in states from people. I only seen it for like 10 folks and there's 37 Make sure every time you come on here make it a habit to put in here your city or state And your industry that way we know who's out here is watching john lomax welcome We want to be able to talk to you specifically because when we see things that pop up we go. Oh I know. Oh I know so all right randy take it away Okay, so I've been helping out like eric said on all the coaching and I have been doing consulting Um for myself and so being able to use that those experiences and wisdom there have been able to help out Some of the the clients that have been come into eric. Like he said, he can't do it Also, I it's been a privilege to help some of those startup companies or even the ones that are not Start being up, but they're new to government contracting, right? So bringing in some of the the knowledge and the experiences that I've had over the last few years and Just answering questions walking them through Multiple sessions just depends on the package that they purchase And so we are you know, we walk them through depends. Like I said, is it monthly or is it the executive coaching? So being there we just I take them through step by step of you know getting them ready You know federal ready To to even be able to go stand before the agencies or sit before the agency or be a virtual call You know, whatever these days and so we want to make sure that they feel confident So that's that's been my responsibility Just helping them feel confident knowing that they they are equipped and they are following through on every step that they need To take whether it's the marketing of their company to the federal or you know Doing their research on target markets. You guys know Eric talks a lot about target markets And so we want to make sure that those companies are well equipped. So that's what I've been doing any any specific questions I'm happy to answer Tell us a little bit about your background. What's your where your experience is from? What have you been doing yourself? In the government space Okay, so um when like I said I started off and have been just consulting prior to Prior to finding Eric and consulting I I was a regional manager and a VP In sales and so I had a team of of a hundred people that I was responsible for doing sales and so That took some of that background of all of the target market list and doing you know having conversations building relationships all those things translate into the federal market and so I've been able to take that and work with clients I've had multiple clients that I have helped to Prepare them for the federal market that was never A couple of them was never doing federal one has been doing federal but not In a you know, it's all over the u.s compared to what they would like to do So I've been helping with that I've helped some small companies win contracts through the relationships that I've forged And it's been it's been great To develop to grow Build teams um helped. I've helped companies like Smaller company team with a six hundred and eighty million dollar company Right to go after projects that we were shortlisted on Wait, hold on. Hold on because sometimes y'all talk fast. I know I talk fast Yeah, you said a smaller company team with a six hundred and eighty million dollar company Yeah, I was able to bring um, I was able to bring A large very large prime of like I said six hundred eighty six hundred and eighty million dollar, you know per year In revenue with a twenty million dollar Minority instruction company. I was able to bring them together and we actually won We won a five million dollar design build project. We were shortlisted for another Another project with another agency and so, you know, just learning to build relationships. Those are key Those are key. That's key to federal. You guys know that so My man, welcome welcome reginal. I'm glad you're enjoying the content I'm glad you took the free course and enjoyed it. How many people I heard took the free course And they found us, uh, thanks for that right. No, that's that's great. I love it So what kind of what are some of the types of businesses that the companies are in that you've been working with now and coaching and the coaching? I've got it We have power systems um roofing Um, um robotics Um trying to go down my list here, uh fiber fiber connectivity Um, we've got quite a few like I said with quite a few it Okay, so it's it's a big industry a lot of people like it That makes sense. Um By the way, randy is selling herself really really short because when it comes to business development And getting these people on the phone and getting your company organized to tell you what to do What to do next and how to make those calls and trying to get a hold of someone She is the person you want our team. She is the one that you want to help you achieve this because There was a big company and they're huge that couldn't get I think it was an ostaboo or Someone from sba on the phone and randy was able to do it within a few hours Yeah, randy you got that sba letter that I couldn't get done Well, um, we we found the letter so I didn't get things done. All right. Well, one of the things that I mean I I I my personality is you you don't quit so We we want to make sure we we don't quit right randy said her personality. You don't quit randy is a beast Okay, look randy right here's a beast Knock knock on doors. You you you go and you find those relationships that you need to find those That's those are key. I mean to your success. So you can't quit Hey, look if I want tracks of my down. I'm putting randy on them. That's just And he does so I did By the way, you know So so randy maria and then you're gonna meet pierce later on They're part of that our team that won the cobit contracts for the 18 million dollars So this you guys are meeting like our team of folks that actually Uh, we were the ones on there. We're just Missing pierce. Um, was there anybody else with us? I'm missing someone right now. Just four of us. Uh, yeah, okay 18 hour long conference COVID days Yeah, those COVID days so Q came through my email that we won. I was ecstatic like you forget You forget how much work you put into it. You don't forget but you you work work work And then when that contract or that email comes in you're just like Like it's just a feeling that I don't a lot of us have felt and even talking with my podcast guys Your podcast guys they say that feeling is that challenge you're going after like like randy says don't that she doesn't quit Like these people go after the next one and after the next one Just because that that rush and that excitement and that success that you feel it's just so like It's amazing and that's what we want for everybody That's fine. It appears at 20 hour days Sorry pierce. I cut a short by a few. Hey, we were we're getting it and so Um, no, no, listen. I love it. I love it, but it's true though. Randy does so herself short. She's um She is tremendous. She's been uh, extremely valuable for us. Um So I love it free says Free course and I signed for 2.0 excellent info inside Thank you free appreciate that and the 2.0 force guys. It's growing. It's not like it's stagnant If you see a lot of videos of other people trying to teach you this all they're teaching you theory And not only they're teaching you theory Um, if you still hear them say fbo and and all this other orca and things like that They are way far behind they don't know what they're talking about They have not written anything or looked at anything in many many years I'll tell you and regurgitate all the information, but as far as doing it Oh, you have to be very very careful with that. So our 2.0 It's always evolving because even in the short three to four years I've been here a lot of things have changed and eric is the first one to figure it out and let all of us know So there's always going to be new information getting put in new information new information So you're always going to be ahead of the game instead of trying to catch up afterwards So my man alex says I searched for youtube two or three years ago now eric was on there. Yes alex Uh, I started officially in 2017. And so it's been um three years and we're andy We have a video with randy from three years ago guys I'm not going to pull it up today Alex I've requested that you pull it, but you would not We have a video alex of randy when she first called me three years ago And she didn't know anything Yeah, they didn't tell me he was recording me either Yes, I did because I was the one to send up email. I remember castee mountain Oh, I remember I don't remember him saying he was going to be recording that conversation I like that thing needs to be thrown into trash But the thing is that you asked a lot of questions And that's what it takes to learn you asked and why and ask why and ask for this and that and how And the how is more important than the why I think it's all about learning, right? So I think I think I think you did well randy I think you did well Uh, goose for the bronzes I type government kind of books an audible read app and love two pointos on the way Good. Listen, I'm actually happy that you bought that because let me tell you why It's funny. Um, I'm put you back on the screen Actually, so today randy when I was talking to Troy about the books I learned that The gup kind launch book 2.0 and in terms of the audio book is ranked like 300 and something in top books on Business and finance so we're it's doing well. I'm very happy for that So we're yeah, so that's good and audible But I still need more people to give us reviews because we still only have five 50 reviews on amazon So if you bought the gup kind 2.0 book, please leave me a review on amazon Um, and let us know that you enjoyed it Uh, something else piggybacking off of the story that we were talking about earlier Actually about how small the world is uh going back to maria So I see so call me today and randy, you know, he's in alabama, right? And so he was meeting with the company And that company has a idiq. That's like a billion dollars And I don't know the name of the company But they were meeting him and they wanted to work with them because you know their status and all this kind of stuff And so sisa was talking about moving to florida and he says they got a friend that lives in florida And he says you might know the guy. He says eric coffee goes the youtube podcast guy Oh Now And he goes, yeah, that's him. He goes. Oh, yeah, I know him and this company this guy had a billion dollar idiq And it was it's like crazy. So It is a small world out here And it's getting smaller as we become more and more popular and more well known So definitely, uh, I want to encourage everyone that you know, if you come into our world and our in our circle You're gonna be in a group where we can Oh, there it is niki put up. It was the Redstone arsenal conference. Oh, yeah, niki. See I I didn't know what it was. Niki. I just I got the ball So yeah, but it was it was a funny story because he was like you he goes you're famous I was like Yeah, but you know, it's it is kind of unique when you go out to an event and you talk to a stranger And then all of a sudden, right? They're like, wait, I know this guy So I told him I said more if you go to government kind of the conference People are gonna know me there. So, um And yeah, and so actually the funny thing is like my man said right here So what he said was that you're right. He's been to a lot of events where attorneys And all the attorneys do is talk about theory and the far Nothing practical nothing applicable Nothing that you can actually use that translates into winning business and winning contracts By the way, that's 47 people watching give us a thumbs up. Please please please please Also, if you're just joining us now, we are interviewing some of our other coaches people only see me oftentimes So I want to bring and give everyone else a platform to be able to talk and share their experiences of working um with us Um and supporting us and so these are a lot of the people that you will meet that you will encounter Um, we also just implemented a brand new program where you can buy 30 minute coaching sessions And on those 30 minute coaching sessions, you can You get 30 minutes for whatever you want sam questions registration questions certification questions things like that We now have that on our website Where you can actually order 30 minute increments. So it's something that people have been asking for Um, and so we decide to do it. So you can definitely request a 30 minute session From one of our gupcon coaches and so I wanted to bring Everyone out here tonight and we're going to go through and have conversations and uh If you have questions for them or you just want to hear about them and meet them. This is the opportunity All right, randy. What else you want to tell the good folks out here? Well, I mean we're here to support them. So we're in the trenches just like they are You know, we're not just doing the theory. We're out here Creating out target market lists like right now. I'm revamping target market lists from my clients I mean, I'm I'm out here doing the same thing. They're doing I I know what it's like to keep making those phone calls you know, I was talking to a construction flight chief today And I'm like, hey, I'm just calling check-in. You know, like what's going on right? It's been a couple months. So she's like, hey, you know Yeah, I'm taking vacation. You know, like we're just Like, you know, she's like dead around here. You know, like I know that's what I'm calling to check on you What are you doing? Right? You know, so You know, we're out here in the trenches making those calls just like you guys and we understand what it feels like So it's and yeah, I mean one of my friends Paul used to say catching hell and calling it fun He said catching hell calling it fun, you know, and so I mean again, we understand I promise you we understand We know the challenges that people face with we understand the difficulties of it We know that you're not going to get a response right away We know that like like Brandon mentioned that you turn in that source of sought notice You don't get a call back. You submit that bid. You forgot to cross that t dot that i and you're like, oh, shoot I gotta take it back We understand what that's like. So We just want to come out and show you like we're regular people and also I don't think that you've ever had a chance to actually Be on a live session where you meet all of us together and so we're gonna At 8 o'clock. We've got someone else coming on 8 30. We've got someone else coming on So ask away questions if you've got questions out there. Let us know This is not a one-way street So also if you have questions, let us know who you are someone said All right, this is I'm gonna take this as a question the biggest thing I was contemplating was choosing my niche experience a construction transportation medical lab tech general I'm selling hasbro formation disaster relief randy You take it away I had to give it to somebody Original 13 This is awesome. You're ambitious You're contemplating your niche. So it is time for you you've got to narrow it down, right? I know you need to you're trying to probably figure that out. There's no way you're going to be Great at all of it. So I would say maybe look at one of your strengths. What have you been doing? Well, maybe what resources you have right that you can pull in um, you know because those are large Industry sectors and you're playing in different waters on each of those and there's no way you can do it. Well so Definitely find your niche and I know it's hard because that was one of those questions I was asking Eric initially when I had my time with Eric. So it is hard to narrow it down but Um, look at your strengths. Look at your resources. Look at who you have supporting you And maybe that would help you because those are those are very different Right, so I think randy. weren't these all your categories? You had construction it I think Randy, what were your categories? At the time it was it remember we were trying to figure out which one You also you something else you did like catering or something else We're trying to figure out the catering or Yeah Right exactly you were starting to Are your family During your contracts now It's it look things change over the years Yeah I love you guys. We want to stay family. So it's So look hey matter of fact that brings us to this question Hold on free says can you give us some tips on consulting people starting out? I think randy just gave you a tip right there about family Stay family I guess they want to consult give us tips on consulting. Okay, so I'm assuming you're wanting to consult so um I would say look you you Like I I've gone around like eric. I told eric before like you gave me bad advice But anyway, I've kind of dug myself out my hole Fired all I fired all my clients and started over but um So I would say for consultants look for companies actually that are larger than you probably think that you are ready for Because initially and I'm like, okay I need to in my comfort zone probably stay with the small companies as a million dollars or You know, maybe five million or whatever but them, you know, they didn't have as time went on They didn't have the capabilities and the resources to put really put to what's federal Right because they were so busy trying to hold on to what they were normally doing Then have the resources to put towards um, you know Someone really working on federal and it was frustrating as a consultant You're out there doing a lot of work And then there's still no fruit because they didn't have the resources to to move on it So I would say look for companies at a larger that do have a back office that you can probably you can really work with to help um And eric has a great uh part of his course now on the consulting I think you might have thrown out thrown out some stuff that I've told him I don't know about that but um, but you should watch it definitely watch his consulting section And like I said, the biggest tip I can give you is go look for companies that can afford you and also That's that have the back end resources to put put what you're doing to work Maria Same question Don't get too excited. Um when you get a client just because they are a client Um because I started out and I was very excited and you miss all the red flags Uh as a company, um, they are small business But like randy says being too small of just the owner being out there and having to do the things And having the one to dig the trenches and things like that It's going to come to the point like they can't perform as big as you want to take it. They're going to be the ones that Get the money Intertwined and they want to the greed comes into play because they're going to see how much it is And how much they could do with the government and they're going to want to take it back like Of pier said like someone that could pay you someone that's going to pay you at the end of the day as well It's very important that you find a client that is established that has the past performance that is able to perform And are very professional at it professionalism on a federal facility is a must Don't have people yelling and screaming or people to come in all dirty with their pants sagging things like that Make sure you vet the company. Look at one of the things I do is I look at their website Look how they write look how they interact with one another in the office Just because that's going to be what you're going to get yourself into So just make sure that the excitement doesn't overtake. Don't let the emotions overtake a lot of your the brains that you have um and Work it takes a lot of work and make sure that there are willing to help you do the work as well All right. Good answer. Um We're gonna take one more randy. We're gonna let you go. I see erica's and q back here Um mark higgins. I'm doing a sold route my client was sending me with options at 10 99 or not a consultant I want to grow my business. Is there any benefit for for him to have me as a 10 99er? I have have turned down every one of those options that has come to me. I've had two companies offer that to me Um, and I think it's really your it's really your goal. What do you want? Right and for me I want to grow my own personal business so Taking that 10 99 may seem safe and great, you know, but again It's what you want and if you don't want To be an employee, you don't want to have that hanging over you. You don't want to have, you know There's whatever you need to think through that um But for me personally I I've had that experience where you know people have offered me Positions to just come on board and just you know be part of their team But I don't want I didn't want to do that. So again, I would say it's really what is your goal for your personal You know your life You grow your business or you know, so give up something else in exchange because really that's what you're going to be doing You know give up some freedoms there so All right, let me bring erica up randy. We'll do a greet. We'll quick and then we'll let you go All right, hold on. Let's Let me bring erica And I've been having computer challenges. Um Hey guys, can you hear me? Yes. Oh cool Hey You can't see me on the screen here. Are you guys here? Okay, erica welcome. Thank you Hi everyone. Okay for some reason I can't hear but I'm hoping everyone else does hear her which is good enough for me Oh good. Okay. There you are. All right. Now. I see you hear you. Hey I'm already tonight. Good. Good. How's it going? Let me ask you something. Has any of you been live before? Never Randy Once okay, maria. No, okay. Yes. You got me talking my teeth All right. There you go. All right. So all right. Welcome. Welcome, erica Um, erica is the resource specialist. So if you call Our number or you email us. Hey, I'm gonna put the number on the screen And you will receive erica Um, and so here is the number on the screen If you call that number, that's our phone number to call us Or if you send us an email service at go con giants.com you will see erica erica. Welcome. Thank you for joining us today Yeah, thank you for having me Now everyone can see a face to the phone calls to the emails Yeah, no, exactly. I agree. I agree. So, um, just tell them a little bit about yourself your background which your experience is and Um, how you came about getting into this this business in the space Yeah, um So I started a few years ago. I worked um as in the procurement department On the high speed rail. So I kind of worked on the back end of seeing how things are done And so I took that and started working with small businesses at the small business development center So I was helping them, um, put into the government contracting and certifications And so during that time I was like, okay, there's so much to learn about government contracting So I started youtubeing and of course all erics videos come up and so, um, I learned a lot from him and then I um Reached out to him and I let him know, you know, if he had any opportunities for me Um, I was looking to take those on just so I can continue to grow and learn more. So um Yeah, he saw the potential in me and let me become part of the team And um, it's been really great just Seeing small businesses my passion is seeing small businesses working with them and then getting them To where their goals are at so with government contracting It's can be it can be very complex But I like eric can make it very simple like with the courses breaking it down I even um purchased the course last year when I was trying to learn more about it and I started on it and so just seeing the It broken down very simple for someone getting into it. Um, it was very helpful. So that's kind of my background now erica, um People call all the time He talked to everyone calling, uh tell us, um Tell us about some of the things some of the calls that you receive from people Maybe you can help answer some questions some commonly asked questions that people call about oftentimes um, maybe you know, and I'm sure you've You know over the last whatever I didn't how long you've been working three months six months Yeah, maybe like seven eight seven eight marks. Okay. All right. So tell us about um Some of the calls that you receive Yeah, so I a lot of people call after they watch your youtube videos. They're so excited and they're like, let me call and You know, I know that they're a little disappointed sometimes when it's me that they receive I'm called with and they're expected to be eric, but I'm like, I have eric in my name erica That's good. I like that So, um a lot of calls I would say is people that See your stuff on youtube, they don't check out the website yet. They don't know what we offer They know there's something some courses and so they call and then they just want more information Um, and they ask me to you know, what are these courses and tell and so I go over it with them But then I always direct them to the website because the website does have more information on there And it gives you a breakdown. So I would I would just say for people that watch youtube Always check out our website govkondryans.com. It has all that information there I'm also here to help clarify any information or answer any additional questions you have also people call because they want to Speak to someone regarding something comes up urgent and say a contracts up They have questions and they need to get it right away Um, and so I have people that call very urgent and so they're not in our courses They're not really interested in signing up, but they need these questions answered. So We you know, we just came out recently, which is I seen the need for it of people calling is doing like 30 minute sessions um, so now we have that option for people that have questions um That they need to get answered right away. I recommend go to you guys We do we now have that 30 minute session You can sign up and speak to a coach if you're not interested in signing up for our coaching because we do have coaching which is long term um, and that more Really walks you through your business assessing it and helping you through the government contracting By the way, 54 people watching make sure you give us a thumbs up so that can help us out here Push the content out there as well. If you're new and you're just joining us just coming in from the west coast Or midwest and you're just joining us now. Let us know who's out here tell us your city or state and the industry that you're in We're also taking questions maria's in the back room I think she's changing outfits, but she'll be back on we'll bring it back on in a minute And but we've got erica here our resource specialist. She's the one that when you call the number Or when you send an email, she's the first person that you get If you sign up for any of the coaching program, she's going to sign you a coach as well so Feel free to ask her questions. Like I said, we just left randy's on here And we want to kind of give everyone and let them know that it's not just me Okay, it's not just me. There's other people involved. This is we have a real organization here And again, like I said, so we have teams of people supporting this as you see out there We put a lot of content out there And it's tough and again, we're constantly working our websites back I brandy came on first so he could meet with the team to get our websites fixed corrected updated We're constantly adding information As well inside the courses Inside the video. So like maria just tech. We are a village We meet weekly ourselves internally to discuss our plan of action to how we can best serve all of you out there So again, I wanted you to meet these people put a name a face Put it together on a screen and you can that way you say, okay, I know who Erica is I know who this person is actually Erica funny story. Someone asked me where you fake once before That's so funny. They did they said was that just a name you use like as an email So Erica's not fake. There's the Erica right here So, okay What else Um, no, I think it's good that you that we're coming on here and showing our faces because I think Like I said, sometimes when people call they expect to talk to you But people have to understand that you're making all this content everything to go out You're reviewing everything if you were to answer all the calls and the emails You would not have time to create your content. So that's why I'm here to you know Let you create that content and answer people's questions and direct them on, you know, how we can assist them. So You read that comment Yes, yes, you know what that is, right? There you go. See and you know what um, believe it or not and so again, we know ty hunt Um, believe it or not. I one of the things that I say Is that if you're bugging us that means you're doing something, right? So, um, I know when people are active and they're doing things those are people that bug us. So again We don't even she don't even have to put our name up there. We already know who this is uh, and so again, but At the same time, um, she's working. She's working the system. She's putting in the effort She's not just asking us questions that she could find easily in the course She's asking us now and this is what I always tell people I like when people again when you're first starting out that's fine You know more power to you you could call but again Erica's time is limited all of us have limited time and resources and so that's why we put these things out here That's why we put out the free videos. That's why we put out the books That's why we put out the audio version of the book. That's why we have a resources page on our website That's all we have a free course. We have all of this stuff for you to try to make this easy And make the information available, but I think sometimes people could be a little bit lazy So Erica might not say that because she's very polite and nice. I'll say it Say she don't see she says she don't say it. Um any questions for Erica on here while she's on here I'ma bring maria back up to the stage any anybody for Everett. Thanks for joining our youtube All right any question for Erica You guys get Erica now look see Erica now when they start calling your phone. I'll be like, look, I was on here right You know We're on here live with Erica. You get a chance to see 52 people watching you get a chance to ask All right, let's see Here it says what's the best place to find something hold on. Let me do this. Let me bring maria back up maria. You ready? Yeah, all right. Let me bring maria back up to the stage Um before you start you see you said everett just joined me. I can't hear you yet maria because you're not on All right, Erica. Take that one away Uh, the question. What's the best place to find subcontracting opportunities? so What's the best place to find subcontract opportunities? maria take it away. I can't hear I can't hear you guys. I see you Can you hear me? I can hear you. Okay. Good. Just making sure All right, so for subcontracting opportunities, there's actually a part in the course that goes over it Yes, there is sva subnet, but subnet is very antiquated It's also it was very hard to navigate back in the day But the best way is eric teaches us a way a strategy of going in and finding who the primes are And calling them directly and this is a video. I remember that was on youtube and even three four years ago I still remember because he called him and the guy's name is robert kelly the fact that I know the guy's name And he just called him because he's like hey I saw you just won this opportunity and I have a company if you need any subcontractors and the guy actually said Yeah, send me your information But eric was just doing it as a cold call So that's one strategy of doing it and there's um also when you go to site visits The primes are there at site visits That is a great way that you're going to meet them firsthand and introduce what you guys could do So there's various ways of getting those subcontracting opportunities Also, like maria said earlier today in the call maria actually went to an event Um where she was able to meet someone at the event that talked about needing help and opportunities Um erica mentioned earlier that she reached out to me and asked if we needed help So again reaching out to people talking to people You know, you've got to be like again, there's 56 people watching this right now How many of you actually put in there your business your city your state? And so that we could help you so that you could connect with other people There are conferences that we go to Sometimes where there's not 56 people in a conference My my event did not have 56 people in it my event. We were at 29 or something like that yeah, so Now let me talk about Hold on. Sorry wrong one So the sba subnet alex that you're talking about on sba subnet. We did a video On sba subnet where we actually interviewed the person who's in charge of sba subnet And while sba subnet does have on their subcontract opportunities a lot of times those opportunities Are from large businesses who did not meet their small business goals who actually got caught And failed to meet their small business goals. And so they got in trouble by the government And so now they're being forced to put this stuff on sba subnet Um, so but listen, we're gonna let erica go erica. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. Yeah, thank you And if anyone on here has not purchased the 2.0 course go purchase it Please before the 31st because I do not want you to call in the first and try to Right, don't call erica the first Like somebody did that last month. Oh, you know, I need 20 12 more hours Because look the 1.0 when we gave it with the last month when we let that go Every time right erica this happens Yeah, yeah, and just with the 1.0 too the next day someone called can you please extend it and Yeah, so you guys have a couple more days go purchase it if you haven't Okay, thanks, erica. All right guys. Thank you. See you. Okay All right, um, so before anything, um, you guys just saw that everett Eric said thanks for joining the youtube community other than the courses We also have the the youtube community which has its benefits One of them being is like all the videos are not on youtube anymore. Some of them are for members only And if you join the community You're able to see some of those videos that we've done in the past and they are hidden just for members only So there's three different tiers and in youtube as well for you guys to be able to join and support us If you're not able to do 2.0 at this time This is another way and another resource that you guys have in order to be able to be a part of this community all right, so, um Going back to alex's question and I saw some other questions. We're gonna go back and take questions I can see pierce is sitting now in the studio Waiting nice and patiently All right, um, so let me finish up alex and we're gonna take some more questions. Um, drop them in the chat We'll we'll get to your questions that you could ask. Um, don't be shy Uh, so alex. So yeah on the sb subnet and we've got a video on this Marie, what's her name? Angela terry. There you go. See marina knows all this stuff so Angela terry Who runs sb subnet? On that video, she says that they are now starting to audit the large businesses And making sure that they comply with their small business subcontracting plans And so when the companies when they audit them and they find out that they did not comply Part of their penalty is to place their subcontracting opportunities on sba subnet. So I do not I think that yes. Well, I've seen subnet is a place to go for subcontracting opportunities Um, I would be very cautious with a company who intentionally try to subvert the system and not hire a small business in the first place I would be very leery of someone who the only reason they're doing something is because they were faced with a penalty As a result of intentionally trying to go around the system Eric coffee is two cents. This is not the opinion of the sba It's like that's your consequence for not following the directions the first time around That's right. That's right. That's right. Hold on. Let me let me answer this question. As a matter of fact I'm gonna give it to maria. She's a boss now maria's baby goat Hey Asking for a bid bond 10 of the contract bid price Can you explain this please? So bid bonds are usually for construction projects. Um, Sometimes you are required to have them before to show proof And you could easily call your bonding company and they'll give you a nice little letter saying that you have been approved In order to get these so it's just sometimes for constructions. They are required Yeah, there you go By the way, dj crime. I like what you put on here You can always say call for eric get erica the a is for free That's right. That's right. That's right dj crime You know, so all right. Um, let me see what other questions we had in here before we bring purse up Hold on And guys the resource specialist, um, if you're not part of the community She's going to answer your questions your basic questions But like she said don't call her asking her to review an rfp or proposals or things like that That we have those times on tuesdays That our community members are able to bring those specific things they're working on and we actually go over them And if you need that attention right away, um, go ahead and do the coaching which are the 30 minutes So you're able to get one of us Right. All right, then tables young. What do you do when accounting officer not respond to your email? But the bid is still open First of all, if the bid is open on bay on sam, they're not allowed to answer some questions So yes, they're not going to call you back and they're not going to answer them And if you call them asking them the questions, they're going to certainly know that you're new and you have no idea what you're talking about So it shows the little that you know So I that's their again, um Part of the reason why they don't want to call you back don't take this is because They can't give you any more additional information than they can give to the next person or next party Um, and so they remember contracting officers. I don't think people realize this. They are liable They can go to jail They have warrants called warrants that they have that they had to go through take a test and pass And they sign off agreeing that they won't do anything illegal Because they are they simply can they can obligate the government to pay money to contractors So because of that because of all the power they're given it's also comes with liability Which means that if they do something unscrupulous corrupt um Then they can also liable for more than jail. So they don't want to get in trouble risking Giving you some kind of information that's not publicly available to everyone. Um And so that's why you're probably running into problems with people trying to call you back the And if you're asking questions related to the bid specifically because that's what it sounds like to me That's your issue that you're having so again a lot of times If you want someone to call you back and let's say you're talking about a local bid And you should get to know them first, right? Because once you get to know them They don't call you back because they'll be like, oh, that's not tabious like they're gonna call you back but A lot of times when the problem that you're having is you you don't have a relationship with this person They don't know you and so they're treating you the rate that's supposed to treat you is you know, what I say Feeds out a long handle spoon. Anybody know that one that your parents taught you that? I don't really don't know some of that stuff Nicky probably knows what that means. You gotta feed him out a long handle spoon I know nicky knows what that means anybody I'm going. Hey, look, I know my people understand that so all right all right, um Bo says do you suggest using services like fiber? Ooh For rp is drafting Hold on Go ahead Maria Um, most people don't understand government contracting are all the wording now think about the people on fiber They're most of them are in other countries. So the fact that english is not their first language It takes a special person to understand this drafting an rp or a proposal or something that I I wouldn't I wouldn't use them um, again rfp is a technical document that the government has written um and um, which are asking that person to draft is information related to your company your team members your partners that they know nothing about any of you Um, and you're What happened his computer's been messing up And he said like when especially when he runs this program it just goes in and out I mean, but I picked up on what he was saying So the the issue bo that you're going to run into is if you're using somebody out for Fiverr, they're just looking to get the job completed because they're looking to get the money So, um, they're not going to be as invested as you would be in the in the long-term result Because for you yet, it's low hanging fruit to be able to pay them and have them do the work But they're not going to do the due diligence And the research and all the background stuff that needs to be done to make sure that you have a successful rfp And you have a few people out there that they've done them. They'll be like, hey, I've done rfp before You can go and help work and you'll see a few people and they'll be like, hey, I've done them before But just because they've done them does not mean that they've done them at the federal level They might have done them at the state level They might have done them at the local level They might be doing them for marketing agencies that are trying to work with other companies So it doesn't mean that they have the experience or the knowledge that's actually necessary to Be able to put the money forward or put the effort forward to be able to give you a successful rfp Because that's what you want at the end of the day. You want success So, you know, you don't want to shoot yourself in the foot by having a great product Or great service that you can offer and you short change yourself because you chose to save a few bucks by going to somebody And paying them to do the rfp cheaply Just much sense. I'm not Eric, but And also rfps, um, it takes some parts are very technical on what it is Like I would never be able to do an rfp about it because I have no idea the technical side of that So that's why everyone has their parts when it's get they're getting written up Yeah, so, um, I wouldn't recommend it So as we wait for Eric peers Can you tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you do here with our team? uh I try to play the background as much as possible Because all of you guys are in the background I think the only faces they've seen is Eric mine. They saw randy ones and that's it So it's nice that people see That every single person in our team has their own expertise in their own specialty And that way if you need something you get the right person to do that job correct, um So my background actually ended up finding out about Eric back in 2017. Um, my My discovery of Eric coffee was by necessity. So, uh, I actually had been turning around with, um Government contracts and also active duty. Um, I actually use this as a as a an adult whole story I was talking to one of our our coaching clients actually and I was telling them about the importance of being ready So Eric, you've never heard the story. You need to have you read so back in like 2015 I just got back from Afghanistan and I was like, yeah, I'm gonna get out like I knew I was gonna get out the military So I'd already started prepping my head like all right. I'm gonna do this transition and um, I knew I could get the meeting but I did not have Anything in place to be able to sell it for now to kill if I get the meeting I can kind of, you know, Finesse it to where I could be okay, right? So, uh, one day I went and I picked up. I think it was a veterans magazine grab it off base And it was a stvo sb edition So it was like the top 100 companies that do business with sb osb, right? So I go home and I still have the email. Um, so I'll type up this email And I send it out to every company because every company it said who they were and they had a contact person So I remember I emailed them all and I was talking about the technology. I had nothing I I didn't even know what I was doing. I was like, I'm gonna do 3d printing. So all these companies back in 2015 talking about 3d printing and, um, Microsoft responded so the guy from Microsoft he responds and he's like, oh man, yeah We're really interested in 3d printing. You know, uh, thank you for your support Alex. Um, so your response back He goes, yeah, we're really interested in 3d printing Shoot me over your white paper And I remember I saw it right and I was like, yeah, I didn't know what to do at that point I go, yeah, well, you know, I would love to talk to you about it. Just kind of let you know what I'm thinking about doing They're like, oh, no, no, no, we know the value of 3d printing shoot us over the white paper So we can start the discussions And I remember I just I went to uh, I think I was I was going through boost of business at the time I go back to the transition office and I'm like, hey guys, uh, so I got this from Microsoft What do I do? And they had no idea like, uh I don't know, uh, I don't know how to put together a white paper. So That was like my first kind of like time learning like, all right You need to be ready if you're gonna if you're gonna, you know, venture into the space So then time elapses, uh 2017 hit And it's it's time for me to start my transition So as I'm as I'm acting on my transition because I chose to stay in after that Microsoft And see I'm Microsoft and I was like, ah, not ready Staying a little bit longer Point 17 hits it's time for me to get ready to get out. Um, and I as you can see I got the check that says like 2500 that was like the first thing that I ever won when it came to uh consult So, um I went in and I won this local contest and It was to basically Figure out a new way for the government to be able to communicate with the citizens throughout the city So I'm sitting here. I'm happy. I'm like, yeah, you know, I'm gonna kill it I win the competition and they're like, okay, we just need to get the funding to be able to roll out this project. Um, I think we needed 250,000 dollars. I did not know at the local level anything over 20,000 dollars has to be voted on and approved Didn't I know this so I'm like, all right, cool. You know, this is gonna go through I'm thinking like a we got in the bag and then I find out, uh Like as we're getting everything going it wasn't approved in the budget I'm like, well, who who's the budget and I find out. Okay. The budget has to be approved by the state level And then I was like, all right, so okay. Well, who gives the state their budget and that's how I figured out It's approved at federal level So I remember I'm sitting there. I'm like, all right. Well, I need to figure out. Well, how can I how can I get this? And I don't know why but I don't know when because this is back in like 2017 typed it in Saw Eric, um, actually no saw Matthew last Then So I was like, all right, let me go see what this guy's talking about and um, I remember I bought the course Ended up going through the course and this is back when Man, I think back back when Eric first did it. He used to offer an hour like long consultation Oh, yeah And I remember I never took the consultation. So I was like, I got all the information I need I don't need to talk to him. I'm not gonna waste his time I'm just gonna go and do this work. So I remember I would get emails randomly like off and on from like Eric talking about Hey, you need to do your consultation and I'm thinking it's an autoresponder. So I'm like, ah, whatever. So I'm ignoring And then one day I was like, all right, like let me let me answer it. So I remember I answered it And at the time, um, this kind of goes back to for those that were earlier with Randy was saying the 1099 thing So at the time I started working with a company out here and they were trying to do contract federal federal market And they were Working on some technology and I took the taking the position as a 1099 Um, and I was supposed to be coming on full time to work with them. Um stock options nice 120k your salary And I remember I ended up taking the call with Eric and when I was talking to Eric He kind of broke it down for me He was like, yeah, you can take that cushy job or you can work on multiple contracts And by the time you do two or three contracts, you made More than you would actually make off that 120k a year And he was like, it doesn't matter if you get them a 20 million dollar contract a 10 million dollar contract or a 15 million dollar contract Because all the contracts they were looking at were like 10 million ended up just for everybody that's that's watching So they were like, um, we want these contracts and Eric's like, yeah, so if you get five percent of that You're halfway there and he was like, you know, if you do a few of those you've made more than you've ever made So with that Eric kind of talked to me and I was like, okay, and um, you know, just just talking Um, basically it was like come over and I'll kind of teach you the ropes So these these Tuesday and Thursday calls that we are on I think I was like one of the first ones five people five people Even Tuesday call When it first started off, it would just be five people. Um, I think it was like myself Justin Adams Wow, I think yeah, like myself Justin Adams and like two other people it was like five of us at first and then one person dropped off So Eric started like way back then. But um, anyway, just kind of get you guys up to speed on what I what I've done Um, since then I worked with him when they did the big covid push out of the part of that Long days. Um, that's when I kind of learned that you got to be really dedicated to your craft This isn't one of those things that you kind of check you to check out of It's going to give you what you put into it So if you halfway do it, you're going to get half of the results if you actually commit you You'll give you a but knock it off the part because Eric always tells y'all Hey, we did 17 million in contract. He did 17 million in contract. He did 17 million contracts Eric doesn't tell you we got 17 million contracts in a week. That was in a week's time That wasn't like once that was in a week's time. Eric always leaves out that key point, which is very important So when everybody 20 hour days is because we were really working on this and we were stacking them up back to back to back Um came up with a process. Well Actually, and I have to commend Eric for this Eric trusted me. Okay. I think I can do this process Let me run it. I think I can make this work And I remember Eric was like, all right, man, you know, if you think you can do it, you can do it And um him trusting me allowed us to be able to do that. So I think that's another key point, you know, trust your team Um, and then from there, I started working with the coaching team We've been working with a few clients mainly the clients that I've been working with our it New innovative companies, um manufacturing and healthcare. Um, I would say some of the biggest success that we've had was I Want to say august of 2020. I think we did a video. I think it was like my second video that we did We were talking about the manufacturing opportunity that uh, the united states government was doing the cobalt surgeon And I remember it was a it was a guy. Um Ross king. Yes I don't know if you watch it or if you're ever going to see this, but shout out to ross king I accidentally that's right So, uh, ross king ended up reaching out the net just showed you how small the world is So he ended up reaching out. Um, ended up talking to him. I remember he was like, hey man I just got two mass manufacturing machines. Just barely bought the machines Was not anywhere near being set up and he was like, I want to go through the process So I remember uh, he went through our coaching And this one coach was like extremely cheap like he got a force deal um So he hits us up and I think uh paid is like, hey, I'm willing to pay you guys for the next three days Just to work with me. So we ended up working with him and at the end of that week He spent 40,000 to get the machines and at the end of the week We had him set up to talk to the federal government about a manufacturing opportunity that would give him over 100 million dollars in contracts For the next few years of manufacturing mass So, um, it's little things like that where, you know, you get those wins and you're like, man, this is amazing um That that you can actually go and do that and then on the flip side, um, also kind of help on the back end Shout out to nicky, um clients when they can't Yeah, when they can't find a certain thing. So like let's say You're looking like hey, I can't find this contract or something very specific that you're looking for. Um, that's kind of where I come into play and I can also kind of help you grow and expand your business and pivot So we had a week was that we had we currently have a client and I met with him last week And they were reaching out they were emailing us and they're like, hey guys I got these two contracts sent to me Okay First off somebody sends you a contract and you're not registered Any systems red flag, but they were new they were excited. So they're like, hey, I got these contracts sent to me Um, I want to go through and I'm one of the students and I was like, all right, we'll talk about it next time we meet So we meet you can clearly tell from looking at the contracts like These are bogus like they're crimson devos So I'm talking to the guy and they go. Yeah, man. This guy wants us to send him I think he wanted them to send him like some some hard drive and stuff like that. He wants us some hard drives um The contract is 120 000 or something like that and they're like, yeah, we we've done all the new deals But he wants us to send it to him this week and I was like this So I was like, you know, let me let me look at the let me look at the word. So I look at it The logo was clearly copy pasted. So it was like a horrible copy paste Um, the the structure had different fonts in it. Like you could tell they were trying to scam But um, it was still a learning experience. So even even in those situations I had to kind of show them the light up into the tunnel or you know, that that needle in the haystack So in their mind, they thought Okay, well, we just got scammed. It was the time but I was able to tell them. I was like, hey, you know At the time They're offering it staffing. So like, hey, we're doing it staffing services. That's what we do. That's who we are That's all we do But when they found out it was money on the table within one week's time They went found suppliers and everything to be able to fill these it contracts and they were ready to go. So I was like, hey, man You know, have you ever thought about pipping? Like currently you're looking at it like I'm supposed to be supplying people when you could actually be supplying this product and making more money because You're kind of struggling over here with staffing. But if you pivot You you already see if these contracts exist because they wouldn't be reaching out to you with the fake contract if a real contract wasn't there So I don't think y'all heard what pierce has said They would not be reaching out to you with a fake contract if a real contract did not exist See how his brain works Go ahead. So um after we went over that that piece I was like, hey, you know, I think this is kind of what you guys should start doing So I kind of put them, uh, you know on the right path help them kind of readjust the sales and now they're killing it But that just kind of shows you how those small moments of coaching can actually help you out because About ash Ash elevators Man, don't refer to her as ash But yeah, man, uh, so but that's that's that is That is I forgot all about that man So wow I did do a huge assertion. I'm sorry. I apologize. Hey, she was on maria's podcast and everything So one of maria's biggest podcast guests. I actually ended up working with her A while back and I remember she called she was like, hey, I got this elevator thing And I remember at the time I was like, here, why did you send me this? I was just like The elevator You see I came to us with an elevator technology and I'm like, go see pierce. I'm like, yeah, you need pierce Anybody has a technology invention. I'm like pierce. He's a I'm sorry. He's that window that window pierce is your guy We ended up sitting down. Um, air gave me no background. So we ended up sitting down I actually ended up talking to her and um, that's kind of one of the things I like doing Personnel innovation and stuff like that small business innovation and research small business technology transfers Sivers sttr's other transaction agreements otae stuff like that. So since I had a knowledge of those things, um See the meter You even got the meter is like No, but he didn't think about it like in terms of it's a real contract tied to scam or email Yeah, so actually, um All right. Now I got to go back to it since since we're still talking about it and then we'll get back to ash So with that situation, I actually was able to go with them and actually find the state contacts and I was like, hey reach out to them So actually I'll put in them in contact because they were they were One with state and one was a federal and I was like federal and that's not gonna work But I was like stay when that's low hanging fruit man, like just go through it and you'll be able to get it And um, of course, they were concerned with their financing. They're like, well, we can't really afford this much I was like, all right. Well, and I had to give them the the backstory I was like, hey, you're working with state state and local don't be expecting to get paid in like 15 and 30 is gonna take some time so Give them our horror story. Um, so I was like, yeah, so, um, Sometimes it takes that 45 sometimes it takes me at 60. Just be aware So what we did was the vendor that they were working with I told them to go back talk to their vendor Um, the state contract was still there easy 70,000 to win. Um, as I received the phone call yesterday off Scammers are gonna scam scammers are gonna scam Scammers are gonna scam But what what we ended up doing was, um, I told them to go back reach out to your vendor Tell them that you want to do a net 60. I was like, hey, do it at net 60 because once that day hits for the end of that That term that you agree with they're gonna want their money And I was like, if you owe somebody over a hundred thousand dollars They're gonna immediately trust in that to collections and you don't want to ruin your business credit like that So what I had them do was I was like, hey putting that 30 on your agreement reach out to them as As the contract, you know, it exists. So they reached out to them did the net 30 now They're sitting in net 60. So they're just trying to finalize everything to get everything together That way they can win that contract. So once they win the contract the vendor giving them a net 60 days So they don't have to pay anything out their pocket The government receives the product. We know it's not going to be paid net 30. Let's just be honest My net 45 They'll have their their payment or you know, and I told them after net 45 you got to start hounding, you know And um, they'll be able to get their contract fulfilled without having to pay any money out of their pocket So it's those little things that I try to help people with but back to ash so With ash the thing was Eric sent me her and I was like, ah And I can't remember when Eric made this video But he made a video a while back talking about if you end up in a situation And it doesn't pan out the way that you thought it was gonna go and you end up being screwed over You actually didn't lose in that situation. You gained experience Ah So I had I had already had some experience from when I got screwed over they call it earn or learn Yeah, yeah You should you should uh, go back and make that into like a little segment for for everybody Okay, I'll go back into that. Yeah So, um, what I ended up doing was I talked to and I was like, hey, there's these uh, There's these two different places that I know about that you can reach out to And I told I was like, hey, you're at a smaller level So you might want to you know, try to stay first and work the way up Of course, we don't really teach state but in certain situations if you do not have a leg to stand on And you need some type of past performance. Hey, you got to do what you gotta do So, uh, we were able to kind of like route her that way So I think I ended up pointing her to like los vegas because los vegas has a innovation program where they're like all for So she goes for it. I was like, I don't know what happened with her We didn't hear from her. Uh, she pops up later. She's like, hey Seven figures there. I'm doing it And I'm just like, okay for and I was like Of elevators. She just is rocking it out and it just kind of goes to show you that um Even if you have like a weird idea or something that's, you know, porky If if you know how to market your right, you know, the right people There's always a buyer You just have to be able to get in contact with that buyer and be able to show them the value of what you have So with her it was like right place. Right time. It was a justice censor I think and she actually went from that justice censor to having somebody manufacture the whole actual elevator itself So she scaled up rapidly because this is from 2020 to 2021 And if you want to find out more information about it, go watch maria's plugging go Maria did Maria did an interview with her. So we do have that interview that maria did I think a lot of times people don't realize is she's now doing a million dollars a quarter Okay, um, and when she came to us she she had no experience And so now she's making them doing a million dollars per quarter in sales um One more story appears. I can't let you go Jared You know how many people Jared and his mom Okay, all right, so for everybody I do not have like a memory problem Because I know everybody's like, how does he not remember so in my free time? I actually um, I'll hear I volunteer at a nonprofit Hoping women and minority business actually get up and running. So like I deal with a lot of people on the regular basis That's why I'm normally not on like a Tuesday or Thursday call. So just for the record. I'm not super forgetful It's just I deal with a lot of people on the regular but um, yeah, so I think the thing with uh, Jared so I I actually mentioned Jared and uh Jared and the 16 year old somebody this past Friday at a business So they were We'll discuss Jared though. So Jared was somebody that came to us. He signed up for our coaching and um, Of course, like his mom signed him up for a very beginning. Um, his mom signed him up. Okay I mean, it was a family thing But I mean we mainly dealt with him because mom's kind of like there to watch and make sure he did what he was supposed to do Right It's okay. All right, go ahead. They signed up for the coaching and uh, I remember it was like, hey, we got to go on the call with them and He was like, you know, is there anything that we can find them and of course, um, I like Going and scouring and finding all those like unique contracts. So we found one and we're like, hey, this is and it was a source of salt um, and for anybody that's watching if you haven't purchased the course, um If you're not looking at a source of salt, you're kind of doing yourself a huge service Because if you haven't purchased the course, you really don't know what you need to know to ask and what you need to do So if it's outside of that source of salt phase, um You're not really going to be able to get any feedback To be able to do any changes or anything like that So you're you're shooting yourself in the foot if you're going after anything else If you haven't really gone through the course and really learned what you need to learn He's right. And you know what? Yes, because his mother Believed in him and what he was trying to do and she trusted that and he said that he wanted to sign up with us Gov con giants and so she stood behind him and maria you talk. Did you talk to the mom first? Yeah, and what what was that? What did she say? I like the story personally I I like I said I only spoke to the mom because she called me just to make sure that What the program was about that she told me she's like it's for my son. He's in his 20s He's really interested in this thing. He's really into it. He wants to join Like just want to make sure that coaching is what he needs Um because he has these ideas, but just doesn't know where to go So the mom just wanted to make sure that we're we're legit And that he was going to get exactly what he needed to guide him in the direction that he wanted to go Perfect. All right. Go ahead. Pierce. Okay, so uh, he is up sign it up we meet with him and I remember he was really enthusiastic. He was like, hey, whatever you got to send me I can do it. Whatever you send me. I can do it. Whatever you send me. I can do it And one thing that we dealt with over the years One thing that we've dealt with over the years is we'll get a lot of people can say I can do whatever you can send and that's their claim to fame and I've done this in the past I got past experience. I know this guy and they will talk a good game So That's when they have to learn the easy part is getting the contract the hard part is fulfilling it Right So what what what I did was I went found him a source of thought. I was like, hey, here you go You know, let's let's see what happens. So he was like, I think I can do it. We were like, all right and Conversations went back and forth and of course, this wasn't something that happened overnight It wasn't like, hey, we sent it to him and he got it out But within that one month of coaching we were actually going to get him what he needed to get the conversation rolling Everything after that, you know, he was no longer a part of the coaching program But he was able to hold it on hold it together on his own So early 20s and I want I want to say Over six months. I think of back and forth between him and the contract officer. Right. So it took him six months now To some that might seem like a long time, but you have to think he just decided he wanted to do contracts on It wasn't like I've been practicing years for this. No one day was like, I'm doing contracts. My supportive they ended up hitting us up We ended up, you know, setting up with the right opportunity and he capitalized on it So we had an email came in and said, hey, I just I got the contract You know, I want to thank you guys so much and this is a guy in his early 20s I want to say he's probably 23 24 at the moment. So very young cat and uh, You know was successful at what he does But it goes back to, you know, putting in the work because it wasn't an overnight thing He could have gave up anyone at a time to be like, hey, they're not talking to me or he could have been like They're not responding but he was still following up. He was still doing the new diligence He was still keeping in contact He was still doing that rapport to make them comfortable enough with them So that even though he was a new company that started overnight, they still trusted him enough to award him that contract And it's things like that where, you know, you get those wins and you're like, man, that's awesome And then it's by the way When he fulfills the contract it's going to turn into a multi-year contract. I think it's five years of tenure contract They're going to need these same products delivered for the next five or 10 years 23-0 kit So, um, no, that's awesome Pierce. That's awesome. Um, I you know, I thank you. That's that's great. I'm I'm so happy like That we could you know, you guys can meet us and meet all the people behind the scenes that you don't get a chance to see Uh, Pierce rarely comes on camera Even when we meet on zoom calls, you don't like to come on show his face It's uh, he always blames it like he's eating or something like that And so, you know, uh, it's very rare that I can get him out of here He's a computer guy. So y'all if y'all know computer guys, they don't like to be behind the computer not in front of the computer. So, um I understand I'm an engineer. I work a lot of engineers and scientists and all those genius type people Pierce is is definitely one of those genius folks out there He's our investigator and our research Yes, he's our investigator. He's our researcher He's a coder He's a like when our when our program we maria and I screwed up the program Okay, I screwed up the program with maria. It's watching me screw it up And then pierce goes back finds a company to go out and fix the whole thing for us. Um, by the way pierce maria wants to talk to you about the, uh the the list The list maria Like what we saw in the other spreadsheet. No the spreadsheet list that people sign up for Oh, yeah, exactly. So we'll talk about yeah, he's got it maria. He's got it. We just haven't talked about so Yeah, so but listen, um, hey again Hit the like button if you ever hit the like button, uh, post your questions in there. We're gonna take a few more questions Um, by the way, just so you know, this is how we actually interact like on our calls. So we are The person you see here with me. I make it silly. I make it fun. And yes, we did 20 hour days, but when you land 17 million of contracts in one week It's worth it and actually getting the contracts was easier The 20 hour days didn't come at winning the contracts. It was trying to fulfill them was the 20 hour days Afterwards getting the contracts became a competition between us and it was really fun and exciting and randy was part of that team And so we had a blast actually doing it Um, and it was cool bit. So like nobody was working anyway So everybody was home So it was kind of like it was cool to be on a phone with like your buddies And like trying to figure out how to capitalize and make six million dollars in profit And how you're gonna split it up and pierce. What was that house you're gonna buy? I Like he was like, yo, he had this big house picked out, you know, I'll tell the story. I'll tell the story. I'll tell the story Whatever you put it out there. So we're doing we're doing these contracts. Uh, I need some water. I'm gonna get some water Thanks, Alex Go ahead. The pain the pain. So we're doing these contracts, right? And Eric's one of those like you can accomplish it if you can manifest it So maybe you see me like he's probably like, yo, you got to start thinking bigger. You got to start thinking bigger Because I still um, I still try to live like I'm still in the military, you know Reserve that way. I don't have to worry about anything. So it's like, no man, you got to think bigger. You got to think bigger You got to go bigger So it's gonna be the house. It's he's gonna be the house and um, we were about to close this deal. Um, the deal was sizable So we stayed up on the phone until What like midnight with all the parties? I think we had the buyer on the phone. Oh, yeah And then he was on the phone at midnight. Yeah, our call started at 11 p.m Everybody agrees. We're doing this deal. This deal is not gonna fall apart I hop off the call. I've never been happier in my life. I was like, yeah So I know what my split is my split was a nice size He had a nice size I'm just gonna say it like that. So I was like, man, I can go buy this house cash Like that's how nice the split was So I'm looking at these houses. I You guys you you remember back in the day when you knew you had a fresh fit for the first day of school I'm gonna get out and nobody's gonna touch me and you're so excited to show if you fit You don't want to go to sleep. It was like that. So I'm excited. I'm like, yo, this is the greatest thing ever I don't go to sleep until seven o'clock in the morning seven o'clock. I'm finally tired. I'll fall asleep I'm like, I don't even know what I'm gonna tell people in the back of my head. I'm gonna buy this house and I'm gonna disappear and nobody I'm finding But eight o'clock little bit of sleep an hour Great dreams eight o'clock. I get like a message on the phone. They're like the deal fell apart Destroyed me. I was just like what and I I think Was that when randu was like we should I think randu was talking about like suing somebody or something About about their payouts and It also goes to show you like how great things are when you when team works Man, look my mouth. You don't even know you don't even know. Oh my gosh It was it was it was more than water and I'd seen the house I was bold enough to almost nobody and drive by and be like you're mine But I didn't do it. But um, anyway, um, I say that say It also goes to show how how team work actually helps things work out So if we would have tried to do those contracts individually, we would have never gotten to that point We would have never been able to compensate the week the fact that we chose to work together It allowed everybody to win So even with those those contracts we worked out everybody walked away with either a six or a seven figure payout So everybody won by coming together and I know some of you are like, well, how can we do that? We have a whole facebook group for the people that would love to do contracts Um, you you might not be able to perform a contract in your state or in your city um, one of the federal agents that are there, but I'm pretty sure there's somebody in the group that would love to meet with that federal agency that's in your state of your city um And just leverage it I would say because anybody can do the same thing and I saw somebody said They wanted to do something like line maintenance and in government. I didn't see that Yeah, uh, it was so I'm kind of going I'm kind of going back and forth between the two I'm an Antoine says I'm behind these computers. So I got behind the scenes. I got you So and Eric, don't be telling the whole truth. So Eric, this this is why I don't come out front. Um, Yeah, so long care line maintenance. So with stuff like that for, uh I'm gonna answer all this question and I'm gonna go back to the computer question because we almost had the time But I know one thing that people really don't explore that I was telling one of the uh The people are here where I volunteer at They were just getting started in line carillon maintenance And I was telling them that if they wanted to get started in government contracts A easy way to do that is to go to your national guard units looking your state So anybody who's in the military knows how they are about their grass and they always want to maintain So you can go to like the national guard units in your state Nobody's really looking at them because it's not the big basis and you can start reaching out there And that's a um low hanging fruit that you can go after. Um, I know this is a coaching call, but I saw and I was like, yeah, Yeah, that's fine. That's fine With the lawn maintenance, I know one of our guys, what's his name? I could see his face. He was actually Yes, he was actually at a site visit And he was they were just walking around and he's like hey, that's a good story your lawn just needs a little bit of like Let the edging or cutting or something All right, so the guy the site is I don't know if it's contracting officers or site engineer or whatever He's like, oh, can you do it? He's like, yeah So they did a credit card purchase. He came out there and moved their lawns at the grass thing and He got his first contract by a credit card purchase just asking of their line of maintenance. That's true Let's see. I do this for federal Let's let's answer trust in its way question I do this for federal and I was getting into the state and local Is it the same for assuming past performance for state and local contracts as well? It's a little confusing the question, but He's asking is his local and state. Is it going to lead over to the federal? I mean Any any performance so it will it's better than nothing something is better than nothing So that that's that's how they're going to do it What you're going to have to probably deal with is they're going to want to call those previous Contacts that you had on those contracts. So just be aware that they're going to ask This is not the federal level. They're going to probably scrutinize a little bit more But um, something is better than nothing you have some sort of experience So don't discredit yourself because it's not the federal level, right? No, definitely any any type of experience past performance city state If it's if it's private sector commercial it all counts. So like get you know, a lot of our podcast guests I'll be honest with you They've said that they started off like I was listening to a story recently where one person was doing Stuff for like, I don't know was the police department or something like that Anywhere they can get work from in their business it will help and that goes back to mark Higgins question mark about being a 1099er Again as a business person, right that you're trying to grow a team You don't want to limit yourself to being actual employee or contracting for someone you want to be a consultant so you can build out a real business because That's how you're going to make the money like we Those contracts that we're talking about were our contracts We owned it, right? So that's where the real money came in. That's why we could talk about such big numbers That's why appears to go buy the house for cash because You know so But look look your comeback would be greater than your setback. So now listen, um, so we've we've had we have such a good time And it brought us all together and so I think it's it's uh for us We're now able to use those experiences Plus all things that we're doing to be able to share it with you guys and again, we're continuing to work and build and grow our companies and Like I said, like I'm I've had two people just so everyone knows I literally In the last two days I have today I had two people One was on here earlier. Uh, and then I had um, I spoke to mike today I spoke to lalani I spoke to collin and they're all ready for me to start my 8k program for the elite circle And so in there we're going to start talking about actually Which pierce likes is like buying businesses Investing in businesses merging with companies things like that. We're going to talk about higher level things that Once you get past understanding procurement winning contracts building a business Then you could go off to that next thing which is you know buying and acquiring companies mergers acquisitions things like that So i'm ready to get this month over with to get this whole thing passed because I'm ready to go to that next level with my students who are at that level where they want to make a uh 8k investment so we can talk about how to take them to Multi-millions and acquisition status so um, and I've again like in the last two days I've spoke to three people that are ready to go. Uh, what else what else we got a couple minutes. We're going to close out tonight Let's see I think that's more for you, Eric I'm a new real estate broker has made zero any ideas for me in my 50s. Thanks Depending on where that in gsa looking for uh buildings and stuff that they can actually acquire to be able to rent out Yeah, just a thought thing for releasing a building There's always sources of thought for leasing of buildings. Uh, gsa constantly um Gsa constantly is actually they're not only looking for leasing of spaces They're looking because you're a broker you can actually represent gsa on the gsa side to help them Uh negotiate agreements with private sector companies so for example, uh a friend of mine owns a shopping center and gsa was being represented by a real estate brokerage Representative gsa's interest to help them find a contract. Listen the government contracts have all this stuff So even the even gsa was using a broker to negotiate for gsa Does that make sense cardio one? So again, I think uh for you what I would do is find out I would spend my time digging around gsa and by the way gsa is They have probably the most events trainings of any other federal agency Then I probably then I know of gsa because gsa uh represents they they are They manage all the facilities around the country Or the majosa not all of them 100 but they manage whatever 90% of facilities You know 30 million square foot of buildings uh, and they also um Managed contracts that they support other agencies They put on a lot of training a lot of workshops gsa themselves It's like a broker for other federal agencies. So general services administration is the name cardio one gsa stands for general services administration If you google, uh, gsa leasing gsa real estate, you'll find that So they're a monster out there is there's a lot of training There's a lot of free information and again if you want to do a 30 minute call with one of our coaches about You can always do that Hold on my man, michael for it said your free info is enough to win a contract about jumping that inner circle Yeah, no michael. It's funny that you mentioned that Um, I was on erica classy climbs youtube Last week guys last week before a week or two a week ago Her personal trainer right now erica if you don't know her has 50,000 subscribers on youtube She's a general podcast podcast means general youtube channel on the blog And so I was on her show before I came on she told me that her personal trainer Watch my content Once a personal training contracts they were small like micro purchases type stuff, but then As they got more comfortable with him that the same, um, federal Agency the office hired him to help design and build out their new Fitness studio and so you're right michael, uh, so that's a success story that she gave me of her own personal trainer Go ahead and also even right now on the chat and on the youtube live. We have shon Um, he's gonna be on a podcast soon just by the free concert alone. He just won his first contract as a prime So he's on here leigh line. He's on here You have a lot of people that from your free course On the podcast. Um, just from the free youtube videos. They win contracts So if you get it from the free imagine what you're getting on the inside I'm a man michael when a fork a contract sitting 32 kids in v. A Congrats congratulations Listen, and you know what's what I like about this is more fascinating Um, a lot of people are complaining about all the videos I have and all the content. It's there for you It's there for you So you have to be the one to spend the time invest the time to go through and watch it I one of the things that I say that I've learned and I'm teaching my son We can see who watched the whole video So Watching five minutes of a hour video is not gonna help you. I promise you michael I don't even know who michael forward is but I guarantee you he spent a lot of time Learning first before he got started. I can guarantee you that he spent hours and hours and hours Learning and investing his education. Um before he actually went out and stepped up to the next level. So all right, um What else Think this is That somebody asked earlier about local stay in city Like a lot of some of our students have taken what they learned and applied it to local and state because it's all business Also, so you could take what you learn and apply it to that as well, but we don't teach local and state No, but maria, we do have um and with orlando and caron We do have two of the guests that are speaking this year They're gonna talk about local and state contracts and we'll bring john bowing in as well to talk about local So we will bring in some people this year to talk about state and local contracts. Um, so Yes, people are complaining. Yes, people complain about free. Yes, because they want us, uh, they they want it to be spoon fed So we do that, but you got to pay for that. So again, um Hey Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys. And so hey look Um maria, I'll let you say some final words. I'll appear to some final words and we're gonna close out Okey-dokey, um I know I know Um, I just want to let everyone know just because I started from nothing and a lot of you guys And I say because I hear it from our students that are not so successful how my story has inspired them guys I knew nothing Like honestly, I knew I didn't even know government contracting was you guys at least got war dogs and all that I know nothing So if I was able to take the information from Eric's videos and and learn it I say learn by default But I learned I've had to learn it and then Eric pushed me to be out there And by taking the course when it was 1.0. I sat there and I heard the videos and everything else Um, I was able to do it. So do yourself a favor and make this investment because there's so much that goes on And there's so much more being added the Tuesday calls and everything else Like this is what you guys need you need someone to push you And I think that's what our community gives you is that push towards doing it getting out there getting out of your comfort zone um having that Eric and I go back fear of success versus fear failure Um, sometimes you are afraid of succeeding like what if it does happen? Like we all say getting the contracts easy part So just do it for yourselves. Um, do it for your families, especially If you don't have it in you to do it for yourself Always remember your why like I'm doing it to retire my mom. That is my goal So that's why I keep pushing myself in order to get out there. So take advantage You have three days. Um, I know it's $1,000 for the normal people out here $1,000 is a lot of money But I promise you with an investment Do what you need to do because you are investing in yourselves and like you hear it a lot a lot the people that invested that money It has multiplied afterwards So your thousand dollars is going to create so much more So those are my two cents Also, uh, just to caveat that so one thing that I always tell people is Um, a lot of the people that are watching this you guys have LLCs and you guys have your own businesses Um, yeah, you can pay the thousand dollars now But at the end of the fiscal year you can write it off as a business training expense Because you're actually training yourself to actually be able to work on your business So even though you paid a thousand dollars now at the end of the year you're going to get it back That that would be the main thing that I would look at it as Um, and that's actually what I did when I when I actually purchased the the course back in the day. Um And man, make sure you buy it before it goes up to a thousand dollars I didn't buy that a thousand dollars, but I'm gonna tell you guys how I messed up Eric offered the course for free and I did not take it I got the email multiple times and I did not take the same course as a thousand dollars back in the free So, yeah, one thing we know is when Eric says something it's like putting it in permanent marker He's not penciling things in he's not telling you he's not warning Like it's bad. It's both good things and bad things like when they Manifested manifest that this is going to happen and I promise you it's going to be told me to change my goal My monetary goal for my 250 to he's like no a million. He's like did you write a million? I'm like, yes. So he's like, okay. Just leave it alone. Don't worry about how it's going to happen But it's going to happen So you just have to have that mentality and a lot of us that we talk about also Yes, we teach you how to do this But we also do a lot of like how to motivate you mentally because it's a lot of mental stuff also Like you have to believe in yourself if you're not going to believe in yourself Then no matter what information we are feeding you we could spoon feed you We could take you there We could take you to all these events and give you everything But it's just not going to happen So you have to put it within yourself to get these things done I agree another thing I know we got to wrap up another thing is um Hey, Maria went and Maria was motivated never But what I'm going to say also is if you guys are doing coaching If you do sign up for the coaching any type of coaching be at the 30 minutes the executive or whatever Um, so you're like you're going to the doctor's office, you know, if you are signing up for the 30 minute coaching you only got 30 minutes. So What you want to do is come up with a question that you want in advance Notify Erica that way she can let us know that way when we come to the call We can just start off the call getting you by you that way you're not wasting 5 10 15 20 30 minutes explaining to us your issues Because you're going to tell us your issues We're going to have to either research them or go through them with you and that's going to encompass your whole call Where if you were to you know pre-plan and kind of send it to us in advance We can come in with solutions. You can get a full 30 minutes solutions and you know get your full morning for um And again, you know, it's training man save that invoice save that uh receipt save that charge and then write it off You know at the end of the fiscal year I'm I'm covering my face because Yeah, I saw that I was like that saw Maria right there I saw Maria that's Lenny I know that information is very important and I'm going to take the time and I'm taking the time to make more videos to inform you Because I know the importance of being a Hispanic woman a woman who came here from other countries That we saw that the parents suffered to have them here So I know the importance and from all the heart I know that they need all this information All right, look at that Bam bam, bam, I love it. I love it. Hey listen, um And look Sylvia It says she wanted to guarantee that five million Eric says to make sure we could get Sylvia listen if you we already have five people Hear me out. Oh, that's my broken finger I'm a holy sander Maria I was laughing about my broken finger. We have five people right now students that have exceeded the five million dollar mark five We have a few dozen that have exceeded the million dollar mark We've already had five people that done it. So Uh Again, like pierce said it's it's up to you What you want to do the information is there So it's just up to you. What are you going to do? How are you going to do? How are you going to take an apply and make this a reality because like I said, I'm are me mentally I'm already like on to the inner circle stuff because I'm getting so many calls and messages That people are they're begging me to take their money to go to this next program because they won't know the value What we're about to teach and that next level? So I'm that's where I'm at mentally is that hey, you know those sbic's that we already talked about that I've mentioned the other day We're gonna start working with some of those sbic some of those funds to help you small businesses buy companies So that you can then take that company Buy a five million dollar business a seven million dollar business Imagine if we can give you the money the funds to buy this company You already know government contracting now you take them into the government contracting space and you're the owner But you got to first start small Right understanding this putting in the work getting beat across the head a couple times like peers They we all have those stories every year got beat head across the head a couple times As you hear all of them are sharing stories of where they Did work and they didn't necessarily get paid And don't forget pierce maria when I first met all of you I said in this group There's gonna be some of us that don't get paid y'all remember that That was like three years ago And so you before you actually go out there make the big bucks you got to go through some You know some some challenges So again, I just wanted to share that with everybody out there Looking forward to meeting all of you maria is taking over. She's gonna be running the tuesday calls But she's always got me in the background helping out and so we're gonna be here to support everybody Like we met and swan earn or learn baby again Catching hell and calling it fun And I think the person said it very well about You know your talents which are paid for your gift is what you're made for yes marcus So I as you guys know I I love this stuff. I this is exciting for me Look, I've been up since early morning to you see it's nine o'clock at night So i'm still putting in those same hours. This hasn't changed for me. I just don't involve everybody anymore Don't tell you I said emails at three in the morning four in the morning five in the morning So because I enjoy it so hey, thanks maria. Thank you pierce for joining us um I appreciate it Look, oh, I love this comment. See was it. I'm used to not getting paid. I work for the church Boom that's how you close out You get paid in prayers right By the way sylvia Bonding companies tell contractors Don't go work through the churches because they don't like to pay I don't care if it's a catholic church. They don't like to pay bonding companies statistically Remember these are finance companies. They look at the churches and they say over time churches don't pay people so All right guys, listen, we gotta rock. I gotta let these people go to sleep man. All right I can write up all night. I gotta let my other team go to sleep. Look at Tammy. Just joined late But she showed up All right, I'm in this broadcast Oh, look maria said, hey, I'm a pastor. That ain't funny. Yeah, Marcus Learn or earn marcus Marcus We like to learn and earn but we ain't gonna be learning my head give me all free stuff So we gonna earn we want to earn most of the time. All right. We're out of here See you