 communications is a telecom from Mexico's territory in California, Florida. We probably have frontier in Florida. Do you have BIOS? BIOS. Broadband service? What do you have? Who's your cable provider? Who does my cable provider? I don't know what was going on. You have. He said you have a cable. No, he doesn't have it. I know. We have it in Florida. So they produce broadband services in California, Florida, Texas, and California specifically because this is the largest market. And there was the acquisition when Verizon decided that the broadband services was not really a quality business to be in anymore. And it is the best business to be in now because the pandemic, people are at home, people are using their broadband services more than ever. So we provide those services. But my role is director of strategic sourcing around supply diversity and diversity inclusion. And what that means is we have a team of categories that handle all the categories of strategic sourcing. Contracts for facilities, staffing, contingent labor, operation, next generation technologies, all of that. And when they're in the process of sourcing that, we have a commitment to diversity, not just for California, but nationally. And our goal for our company is very, very aggressive. It's 50% of our spend. 50% of what? 50% of our spend. Really? We want to spend 50% of that with the rest of the buyers. Now, you didn't finish this up yet, did you? Oh, damn Gilbert. Yes. That way we can let you up later. Please do. Yes. I didn't want you to. I was just going to say you do well with us, but not say you do well with us. I understand. That's okay because we got our cameras. I know, we do. And we're going to find you. We could probably Google you. You could. We can Google you. You could. In front of your communication. Yes. And the title is what? Director of strategic sourcing. Okay. Now, so for small businesses, is there anything registered or anything? How does that work? So, California is like a unique market in California specifically like our suppliers to be registered by the supplier. But if you're a venture known business, you're certified by DTS department of general services. So you don't really require any additional certification. That's for veterans. That's we like them to be certified and there's a lot of different entities. So in particular, if you're in Florida, you can be certified by the department of transportation. Oh, okay. You could be certified. Also, as long as I don't like DBA. Right. Okay. Florida. Florida. For Texas. Right. DBA. For New York. DBA. Okay. All right. California specifically, you have to be certified by the clearing house because it's all under the general order 156 that we have to work with diverse suppliers who are certified by the California supplier. And that makes sense because I hope you want to get credit in that thing. We do. We do. It is a recording. Yeah. And you know, I'm going to boast on myself because frontier communications is the only telecom to achieve all the diversity categories for the 2020 recording, which means we have hit the MBE spent, the DVB spent, all of the category spends the women on spent, the all of the particular category that are required in the state. We have hit the target. Now, the target's only 21.5%. But we are over 41.78% in diversity. So we're very close to 50% diversity. Now, that's interesting. A point that you just bring up. So you have the same similar classification of the federal government that you said women, you said veteran, what are your, so in federal procurement, we call social economic categories. So what are the categories that you have when you say, so when I say, so when I say women, it's white women. Okay. When I say minority, that's minority male, minority female, particularly Asian, Hispanic, American, Native American. Okay. When I say veteran, we tackle, we focus on disabled veteran and just veteran. We can't count all those towards our 50% goal in California, but we still capture that. We also look at small business and we look at the disabled community, not disabled veterans, but the disabled community as well. So all those categories, we capture those, but that is not how we hit our 41%. We probably be up close to 60% that we include all of the other categories. That's fascinating because most people actually push the numbers forward. You're actually retracting the number. Be honest. No, that's good. I'm sure a lot of people are listening love to hear that because, you know, we see numbers of the government that says, Hey, we met our percentage goal, but that's because they excluded all the contract staff. They couldn't report. So that's how they met their goal. Yeah, you do it. Yeah, I did. I teach it. I just have the games work. And the interesting thing is that a lot of our suppliers did not know that they would qualify as a dual supplier as a veteran. I sat down with this choir a couple of years ago and I was not at Frontier. I was at another one of my roles when I was at American Water and I was sitting down with this choir who, we were telling them that we need to spend more money with diverse populations. He was getting upset. He was like, you're going to take my contract away from me. I said, no, no, let's just talk. I said, so already a woman, a veteran, but what was it? A veteran with a minority? I said, yeah. So you disabled that? He said, I'm a Vietnam disabled vet. I said, well, you fit in the category. And he was so excited because what you don't know, you don't know, the workers are not aware. So I think there's a lot of awareness that we have to put out there in the supplier community so that folks know that they probably do fit in one of those categories. But I'm very strict with, you know, women-owned businesses. Historically, you know that women-owned businesses became a minority category under the Reagan administration. And that was because a lot of the business owners, they said, we can get more contracts with women-owned minorities. Let's throw wives at the head of our company. I don't remember that. And I mean, I don't remember when it happened. History books. I know the story. Yeah, of course. History books. Yeah. Told me the stories about that. I heard complaints about what happened when I up in North East in particular where they did that. They were the same people that just put figureheads. Exactly. So we totally reviewed companies. If that woman-owned business can't tell me everything about that company, then I can't count them as being a certified woman-owned business. So you feel like actual inspection? We actually have a review of that and have a conversation about what tells us about the business. Talk to us about next generation technologies. All of the different categories. And then they say, well, my husband can't use that. Then this is not a women-owned business. You know, we don't play games because everything that we provide has to be audible for us internally. We do an internal audit on our suppliers. You're not truly surprising, but obviously it comes from the top-down somewhere. It does. It does. Our leadership believes in apologies. True diversity. I turned off my ringer, but I guess some of you want to talk to me about that. Our leadership says that all of our data has to be certifiable because without integrity, you are nothing. So we are committed to diversity at the highest level. Now, what types of things, because again, I don't tell communications, but what types of services do you buy? Goods and services? Construction services. How much infrastructure do you have? I'm cloud computing, facility maintenance, shachkis that, you know, everyone buys. I'd say fleet services. But really? Fleet services because all of the utilities are operating their fleets to become, you know, as friendly as far as sustainability. Right. All looking at sustainability. So all of the vehicles are going to be across all of the facilities and all of the utility companies. In 2025, California is supposed to be an electric vehicle only. You can have a gas couple or a gas gift, they're not going to be selling anymore. Right. So all the utility in California, particularly, is going to electric vehicles. So keep that in mind. And we're asking our suppliers that the fleets that they use to provide a service, that they have an electric vehicle. Oh, wow. I personally have never worked with an electric vehicle before, thank you so. It's the process, you know, you go to your website, you register, is that this thing? Is that a, what's the general process for starting to work in front of you? So if I met you at this event today, I would say, tell me a little bit about your business. And you would say, no, no, I will say this. I tell everyone, come to events. So obviously they can watch this. But you're here at the events now. I love it. That's why I tell people, this is why I tell you, come to the event because you get a chance to sit down and talk to these people, explain a little bit about what you do, show your capability statement, get to know them, they get to know you and you can take back valuable information. But even if you go to virtual events. Oh, absolutely. Right? You do a virtual event, you might get on a Zoom call with me or you might just come to a virtual event and send me a text and email. I'll respond back to you and say, tell me about your business, and you'll say, I want a contract. I want to get a contract with you. I can help you because you need my knowledge for you to follow up. If you say that to me, I'm going to say, tell me what you do and tell me what's the value of you working with. Not because you have a nice smile, not because you sell the same product that everybody else sells, but that you have a solution for me. So let's just say, you know, I hear you having a problem with your, whatever, your set top boxes that they shut off. I have this new product that will guarantee that they shut off only after blah, blah, blah, blah. And that might be something I haven't heard of a new product. So I might introduce you to my operations, not because we're talking about a contract, because you have innovation, because there might be something that you can help us to do together, and you build a relationship, and then you get a contract. Or you might say, so Dawn, I heard about the new infrastructure bill being signed very recently, last week. So all the utilities in the country are going to get a piece of that pie, because the infrastructure bill funds all the utilities in the country so that we can rebuild infrastructure, because our infrastructure is crumbling at the moment. So I understand that. Can I meet with you if they can't be here to see what your forecasting is? I'd say absolutely. And you'd say, I might not be able to help you, but I have a lot of suppliers that I work with that might be able to help you. Now you're my partner. So now we're building a relationship, and you might get a contract, or you might connect to somebody else who are here for a contract. And then down the line, you might get an opportunity in a month, in a year. It could be five years. And that's kind of how it is. For me, it's building a relationship. It's not like emailing and stalking and harassing. It's building a relationship. I tell my people, I learned this, I present it as a big problem as a two-week skill, and one of the presenters said, just because you send an email doesn't obligate someone to open it over the spot. I love that. I've always, now I use it all the time, and I'd say, well, just because you send an email doesn't obligate someone to open it over the spot. Because of the global pandemic, and because of everything else happening, we saw a need for to help the students who didn't have frameworks in the California area to have a great digital divide, because they're going to be working from home. And you've seen all the commercials and all those different major reports of kids outside of a Starbucks using the Wi-Fi on their phone. Right. I remember that. And all these things. Well, Frontier decided that we wanted to help the schools and the tribes and provide them with Chromebooks. So we handed out over 52,000 Chromebooks last year to all these communities. And while we were doing that, we were like, we've got to put together, maybe we have to put something together for the kids so that they can protect their Chromebooks. Maybe get a cover or something for them. And there was a supplier I just loved her. I loved her spirit. She was an African-American woman on business. She was always pleasant. I said, when I get a chance, I'm going to get you a contract. But I just never was buying a large amount of chopsticks. So I reached out to her and I said, dang it, I need Chromebook covers and I need 55,000 of them. She said, 55,000. You're joking, right? I said, no, I need 55,000. She hung up the phone. She called me back and I could hear her almost in tears. She's like, 55,000 Chromebook covers. I said, yeah. I said, you don't have to give them to me all once. I need them like over the next three months, four months. So we started the order. She worked on the order. She did a great job. So I still never started to fulfill. And she sent me a note. She said, my employees have health care for the first time since I've had this business. And you just stopped us from closing our doors. That's why we do what we do. That's why we're committed to diversity, inclusion, and helping people. And we can't help each other every day. But when we get the opportunity, we should take it and help each other. Other guys started. No, that was good. No, that would be a story. So when we start off with the website, we can find the order and include it in the book of dawn supplier. So DM Gilbert, see now you want to know why it's because my name is dawn. Don Michelle Gilbert. So when I call you and I say, Hey, can I get an American message for Eric? This is dawn. And I'll say, okay, dawn, D, O, N. I say dawn, D, A, W, and you need dawn. Forget about it. So I put DM. People can remember the capital D and capital M, right? So that's what I have my name as far as when I'm talking. That makes sense. But when I give you my email, it's dawn.gilbert at FTR Frank Tomrich.com. So dawn.gilbert at FTR.com. And anyone who's listening can reach out to me and send me an email, a pleasant email to say how I can help them. A nice email. And I will connect you with our website. I will connect you with and you know, any opportunities that we see coming forward. And many times what we do is you might reach out to me and say, I do this, but I don't do that right now, or I'll have an opportunity for 68 months. I might connect you with another utility that I know, because we all collaborate. I may send you to Vaughan Williams, at SoCal Gas, or I might send you to Edward Simon at California American Water, or I might send you somebody at PG&A. But we all collaborate and work together and we find great suppliers. We try to give them all an opportunity. Where would I go to do research about, like you said, I want to provide a solution, right? So where would I go to do research to find out where it is, there may be some errors, I think, which I can help. Because I have to have this specialized knowledge and I'm super skilled, but I'm super brainy in this particular subject matter, but I don't know how that ties into your business. So let's say you're a construction. What I do is very simple. I want a bottom leading supplier. Google a company. Just put our company name and construction. You'll get a trade store, a trade report about the construction we're doing. Also look at the filings in the state. So you're in Florida. We have to file with the Florida Public Utilities Commission. Whatever we want to do, an expansion to do anything that could affect the rates of the customers. And peering out at many times, it doesn't affect it, but we still have to file it. Pull those reports to each one of the states and you find out what all the utilities are doing. You know, you could just reach out and say, are you forecasting for this quarter? And I'd say, we're doing forecasting for this, this. It's not going to be what you're doing. It might just be anything. We're forecasting in these areas. We're going to be doing this, this, this, and this. And you'll say, I'm in construction and you're doing facility work. Are you going to be doing small construction? Small construction? Yeah. So maybe some small construction you could do for us. So there's so many different ways. I just do that Google research. That kind of helps you That's the briefest. And you name two other sources, I think that's one last question. Sure. Okay. I'll try to show it. I wait 90 days and that's what I need. And negotiation is so important. It is. Because we're small business. So again, if I got to provide you with 55,000 MacBooks to cover it, and I've got to cover that cost, it is $2,000 or $3,000. Well, when you get your contract, you're going to have all the work, all the deliverables, and we're going to have that, that, that. Now you can get your contract, you'll read all of each from that line. You agree to all the times of delivery and all of the, you know, different issues, points out of negation of those issues. And then you say, I stand with us 45 days. And then you say, I'm a small business. You want me to carry $20 million? I need to pay you 50 minutes to come back to me. You say, I'm the best in my space. I work with people and companies. I have this reputation. I am, I am it in my space. You want to work with diverse suppliers here. Come down to 25 days. Okay. It's about negotiating. It's about showing your value. People think these corporations are the most valuable, and I work for a great corporation, many of us do, but we would not be where we are without the small businesses that helps to succeed. So we need you more than you need us many times. So show your work. Let them know your value. We need a negotiator. If you want me to be here next year in the following year, then I need to pay you many times. We'll say, all right, fine, whatever. Great stuff. All right. Leave me an email address one more time. It's dawn.gilder.com. It was a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. Brandon, how did I do? You did beautiful. Thank you. All right. So you don't even need me up there. I don't need you. I don't need you. I don't need you. Yeah, stop it. Yeah, we'll stop it. Yeah. And then we'll start a new one. No, well, I think we should have one more lady come in. One in green dress. There's one person coming in. Heather. Heather. Heather. Come on. I'm not going to do it. I don't think you're doing it. I don't think you're doing it. Listen, you definitely can't go up to heaven. Come on, get up there. Okay. Come on in. Come on in. How new she had to be on the show. Entertainment factor. All right. You know who runs the world, girls. Okay. Really? Yep. Listen. Yeah, they do listen. They're like, I don't know. Even when you tell me, I'm going to do this and I don't think that works. I'm like, no, they just don't. You can say whatever he says will undo it. And then it gets what? And then it gets results. And I go, how come she didn't work for her? I'm like, is she listening? He probably went right when I said it was. It was some sass, man. It's the boys. You look great. You want something? You need a glass of water? No, I'm good. Okay. Who else just told me that yesterday that they lost 20 pounds? Well, no, I'm saying the camera makes me look like a James Jones phone. Oh, you tell him that we're doing something. You know what? It would be great if we had me like coffee or something like that. Oh, that was 10 cents. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? You have to be like the boss. Don, you have to be having a coffee mug in your bag, don't you? Yeah, you need it? Yeah. Let's put some VIP coffee mugs. You only have one though. I only have one. I have mine. Did I get one too? Okay. Did I get one too? No, we were part of the, we were part of the, the couple. Exactly. We didn't get one of those. That's why the game was too. It's because we were part of the code board. Oh, of course, the people didn't get one. Okay. Exactly. See now, look, you're already looking better. Right. Coming here. Okay. I'll forget you got the text on you. Exactly. All right. What are you doing with your phone? I stream live to work. I do. Are you too? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I got you. Did you stream live? I did. I'm going to cut you. You see? Oh my goodness. They're so cute. All right. Cameraman. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They're good. And I'm recording back then. Recording back then? All right. You got anything important to say? It's your camera right here. That's your camera right there. That's for you. And it's on. We're live. Hey guys. Welcome. Happy Monday to everyone, by the way. Thank you for joining us. We're here at the VIP conference. With some fun people in the room. We're actually streaming this. Oh yeah, welcome. VIP conference. You're virtually as well. Hey, we have two people. One more. Ed. Tell us what brings you here today young man. What brings me here today, I thoroughly enjoy working with small, diverse businesses. And working with a great organization like Veterans & Business. And the organization that you work for is representative. Yeah, I work for California American Water. Our parent company is the largest investor in the U.S. So we provide water and wastewater services to our customers. They're in California. We serve about 680,000 customers. From San Diego all the way down south all the way up here in Sacramento. Now you said you only have one in several other places as well. We serve in other states, like in Jersey, Pennsylvania, but the California Public Utilities a couple of transactions if it's me from talking about that. I'm going to stick to California. Stick to California. We got three cameras. That's right. Our parent company is American Water which is the largest investor in the U.S. Okay, and in your role is what? The director of business performance and supplier diversity. Also the inclusion and diversity officer for the company. What does that mean? It's a big version. Exactly. Part of my responsibility is I have a degree by the way. I'm going to make it very simple for you. Part of my role is working with small diverse businesses and helping them secure a contract with our organization. The other role is I manage a team of about five folks that we monitor the performance of our business. Our corporate team says here are the goals that you have from a corporate perspective and we want you to see how you're doing monthly so my team monitors those particular goals. The third part of my role is to work with human resources and help bring in diverse workforce. Minority people. People are calling. All right, no. I guess for me I come from a standpoint of when I worked in a private sector and I got into construction I did not know all these opportunities existed. I never knew that I could work with a public utility company. I didn't know that. I didn't know I could work in front of communications. I had no idea that this stuff existed. How would someone go about learning that? I mean obviously first that come to conferences. That's right. One of the best conferences. But also you could, depending on what company you're interested in you are obviously a corporate. We are a utility. So I think Google could be your friend. If you were to Google American Water or Google California American Water maybe Google California American Water Supply Diversity. You would come to our homepage Supply Diversity at California American Water from how to register what insurance requirements you need what safety requirements you need to follow. Same question I had before. What type of projects do you guys have? Actually infrastructure is our biggest. Yeah, exactly. Because obviously we're a water utility and we deliver infrastructure underground engineering vehicles Absolutely. Exactly. Okay. What about things like cyber? Because I would imagine public utilities like everyone else All of America is an issue with cyber. I would tell you the way we're structured is we have dollars that are at the state level because we are a regulated utility therefore every three years in California we found a general rate case that says here are the projects that you're going to work on here in the state of California and these are going to be your rates over the next three years working with the California Public Utilities Commission. But at a corporate level we have more investment related projects that our corporate American Water manages. Cybersecurity for one impacts all of our states not just California. So cyber security, IT that would be if you were to ask me about those like you're asking me now I would refer you to someone in our corporate office to talk to about that. The sourcing leads for that part of the business. Okay. When someone calls you or emails you what would you like us to have ready before we call you know that's a really good question and thanks for asking me. Because I would tell you not a lot of people do that. Which is really a huge turn off for supplier diversity folks because that says to me you haven't done your homework and I'm not going to do your homework for you. Like you have a personal color or a business but you need to do some homework. So what I would say to that is to be understand what it is that we do. To come to me and say this is what I understand that you do as a business and here's how I can help. Here's how I can add value to what you're you're needing in California American Water. So do the research. The other thing I would tell you which is a little heavier left if you will so the audience would be understanding that you're reaching out to a utility company understand that they are most of them are regulated by the state regulator we had a California public utilities commission but we filed cases. And so if you were to do your research you would know for the next three years here are all of the projects that California American Water has been approved and the dollars that we've been approved to spend. So we filed cases with them. So what we do is we go before the commission and say here's everything that we want to do as an organization over the next three years from if there's an IT corporate project here's California American Water portion. Here's all of the underground construction that we're going to do all of the meter replacements all of the underground pipe replacements all of that stuff I mean in detail in detail. So you could come to me and say you know what Ed I looked at it I understand you're going to replace 50 miles of pipe down the Strand in San Diego and here's how I can help with that that's very impressive so yeah yes I trust you exactly that's good information so going out with replicates we'll know exactly to end the budget yes it has the dollars that the commission has approved for us to spend and get easier than that but you just got to do the work right and again part of the whole object of my child objective is to educate small businesses to prepare them so that they show and look for better enough to make them walk along and talk to talk so again it's not enough just to be good at your craft and your job you've got to represent that and showcase it and show that you're knowledgeable we always say wait you don't get a chance to make a second version version so we want people out there to take this information and put it into actionable steps practical things that they could do when you call or you email them at what email? my email address is edward.syman at amwater.com so edward.syman at amwater.com okay so because then you could then now we've done our research we've got this information that would reach out to you and then what? you say to me here's how I could help California water here's my capability statement keep the capability statement free people don't send me three or four pages I mean one page that says here's what I do here's my certifications here's how I can help and that's it and to say that by the way I've done the research I understand you can use an underground pipe construction company you can use engineering services you can use promotional services swag like you see here exactly but just tell me what it is that you can do for us and then at that particular point now what would be helpful if you met me here at the veterans and business conference or through this would be nice to say hey I heard you I'm podcasting that's right exactly podcast and that's helpful because that refreshes my memory or we've had this conversation but if we did have the conversation you could just say here's how I can help and then at that particular point I'm one of the probably very few subpar literacy folks that I'm okay with email and I respond to everyone to me if you take time to email me I will respond you may not be what you want to hear but I'm just going to be honest I will respond and I'll tell you do we need that service or we just renew the contract and I won't have it for another three years or so one of the things that you mentioned was capability statement when we're doing federal capability statements we're putting on their NAICS codes and PSC codes does those correlate to your organization or are there any different types of codes that we have that represents our industry we use NAICS codes we use also what's the standard NAICS codes yeah absolutely I've never reached out to people you should maybe the only difference is we don't have set-asides but we like to work with small diverse businesses we want our then we're cool to match that and we can't do that and the thing is about the whole set-aside thing all of you this for the people who have not seen this I saw a chart at the last presentation that shows how many projects are actually I don't have in front of them I think it's 80% of the project they actually are taking the credit for using small businesses but the product is not set-aside so just to let everyone know about this whole set-aside game like I'm selling my friend a little bit of dye I just didn't know how this stuff works I do my own work so the whole set-aside thing if you get credit for people even if they're not soliciting a set-aside they're taking credit in cabinet industry so that's okay with me I actually like this because I believe that if you generally have a solid business and you've got some guidance you can offer that you should be talking to everyone you should be a ghost business unfortunately we can't you don't have the time to find all of us that's right so it's my job to come to you and say hey hey look I went out and grabbed this before and here's how I was talking to you get a better response then what is it that you guys do don't come to me with that seriously don't come come to any of our supply or grocery folks have asked what is it that you do you don't do that that you won't get very far with that what's your biggest area that you buy from if you've done your research no you're a business owner they should and that's why I think we do enough of these conversations we get this we put this message down and we keep reiterating it just like when you go to church they gotta tell you to read that script you gotta keep reiterating this stuff and at some point you memorize it you memorize it so you don't even need the Bible where you stand no that's good I like that how long have you been in that role I've been in this role for the last seven years but I've been with the American Water Band for 22 years now I do and I would tell you thanks for asking that question I would tell you most people work for companies and organizations for 25, 30, 40 years and then at the end they say it was a job but for me I would tell you I've been in roles from where I started with the organization as a customer service supervisor all the way to a VP of operations and I would tell you the role that has fulfilled me most is a role that I'm in now and I'm helping small diverse businesses generate revenue for the companies and so to work with a people that have their services that have their own business or with black box safety that spoke earlier I need to work with them and to see their businesses grow that's huge do you have any stories or examples that you share? they can talk to your head I won't get you in trouble I'll work with I'll give you two examples the first one is we have what's called a mentor project program that we have at California American Water what we do is we mentor one small diverse business every two years and the first that I engage in that process we brought on a company called Light Electric Electrical Firm very little revenue when they started the program when they left our program and I think I'm okay to say this I think it starts with they were in the 5 million range of revenue and expanded their who they work with to other regulated water utilities so we talk to frontier communications we talk to SoCal Gas we meet quarterly to talk so you do a great job for California American Water you do a great job for Frontier or SoCal Gas that just helps us to say when they ask do you have an electric person that can help us that's one story I will tell you and I'm hopeful you'll get a chance to talk to David with him he was our mentor this year and we helped him practically double his revenue as well is there a minimum threshold to be in that program? it is not we don't want folks that have didn't be employees a small business it's just really reaching out to me and saying hey by the way well actually we are going to be looking for a mentor a mentor for 2022 to 2024 so if you're interested you've done your research you understand what it is that we do you know send me an email send me an email and say that you're interested in our mentor program and then the other thing I would tell you is just last year we started what's called partnering forward for success where we've asked our prime suppliers to mentor one small diverse business a year just for the year and we actually created that program as a result working with you they have a five forward program where they asked their large corporations to mentor one small business over a five year period I was just trying to get the primes to do it for a year and see how it goes and so we renewed that so again if you're interested in working with a subcontracting faculty we call it a partnership we think it's subcontracting that's common it's like sub-part it seems like it's not even it's not even send me an email and say that you're interested in that but again please come to me with here's how you can help California I like that can you leave that email address mwater.com sio in at mwater.com that's great and I don't even know what's going on any other program you don't tell me about I can tell you exactly a lot of the water utilities are mentoring as well a lot of the electric and telecom folks they can turn small diverse businesses just to have to visit the websites and understand that's where you're at how many funds do you have? right now thank you for asking that you know I didn't even pay him to ask these questions from then you've got me for a really great day for my looks absolutely I tell you we have probably over 200 probably about 200 prime suppliers and when I say the way I look at prime suppliers if we have more than $100,000 of more you're considered a prime supplier for us so we have 200 of those I'm really really proud and don't quote me on this but I know it's close that we of our top 10 prime suppliers five of them are diverse I mean in the $2-3 million range so we're pretty proud of that I like that and so the new program you're asking the primes we're asking the primes to mentor one small diverse business over you that's right that's what I was doing on that you know what I was doing on that you're right uh oh I'm going to take those after this is on I'm going to take those after you that's great absolutely not both of them are far more again I think that already and that is some homework when you come to a supplier diversity first understand what it is that we do and how you can explain how you can help understand the other thing not only are you looking at the commission website for our general rate case but every regulated utility in the state of California has to file a supplier diversity report by NACE or SITCOS this is how much we've spent in that in those categories and here's how much we spent with diverse individuals every year all of the regulated California utilities they have to be regulated with the California Public Utilities Commission water electric, telecom, cable all of us are required to file a general report due on March 1 so from January oh this is another tip from January to March kind of quote off when reaching out if you can during that time because we're busy putting together that and a report but it clearly says how much money we spend in the various SITCOS and how much of that spent was with diverse suppliers so you could say by the way if I see an IT you're not doing so well it's right here it's got to take a little time to do it Ed's giving me out everything Ed's got to say you know what he's talking about I do, I love it feel free, once you have all your information then you reach out to Ed I'm not saying write a dissertation I'm just going to do a little little more thanks there that was fun you're using the toxin, I like that exactly that's awesome and you plus you got the the skinny light I like the skinny light how do I have one that walks around with me all day long he has to carry around the skinny light exactly and I sent to the pictures that's a couple pictures I know you're careful I was supposed to do the pictures what were you doing? it was changing so it looks like it's different Eric just used my husband Max he's the photodromalist for this so he's going to put all this together put a video of the whole thing so he's going to do it well that's okay we did some b-roll earlier so you got some b-roll you got to match Heather you know what you're doing I was supposed to change it between but he didn't remind me wait he had the skinny light so he's alright exactly it doesn't look like it's the same video even though it's different people and it's like a different video see how it's different so different David Ramil you have to meet David you have to interview David we do favor each other a little bit you do don't think you've got your cups in there I agree I have my cup back we need two more I'll get you that was awesome though the brandy looks fabulous exactly brandy I watched it and I was like it's better than what I imagined you see what happens when you let us do what we have to do do you have half of our hats a trucker hat? no I don't have a trucker hat the table I like it it's super cool so now it's going to happen next for me and then we're going to drink how am I going to get through here we'll do one more they need to do a sound check should I tell them should I just stop them before how quickly are you going to be able to do this at four is that four well it starts at four they need to do a sound check do a sound check now now thanks Eric thank you thank you very much I never understood is that going to be too quickly it's a bottle opener I know but I saw them without them all right Heather this is the main camera this is your camera specifically so if you want to say something you got some gems you want to drop if you're looking at this camera jump the gems get that hair out of here it is the post production makes it all look beautiful we have three different angles well what are you shooting the whole thing we're just doing comps you are for your example we're just doing comps it's cool how are you going to do it when the music starts is it too loud to do anything this mic should be fine and I thought you and I are going to come up as soon as we grab a drink we'll come back and we have a company we have a lot of people here okay cool oh yeah definitely Lori I'll bring Lori in I'll tell her well now that I'm going to get on I could put my makeup together you got to be on it you better go get ready I know I got 10 minutes 10, 15 minutes aren't you cool these are the ones you got yeah you can use it I know one of the podcasts I did the guy I did always make a video and he keeps them and he breaks them up for me there you go that's what he's making we'll just remove the whole thing and then we'll cut it off it's hard to get a video for someone it is so you're still live that's live that's live Instagram and YouTube oh he has I mean I love them so much no he does it on his own place I'm just not around I'm working so he just he does it on his own I don't see him but I'm always not I can't I'm sitting on the top someone's gonna sit on I don't know you don't know that's live I'm a I'm a I'm a I'm a I'm a I'm a I've received thousands of views and he's always been I can ask questions I know I know the questions because I have to let me know what kind of questions sounds like finish alright thank you for watching us at home or wherever you're at thank you for this is public alright IG that's all that's all we're going to do what we're going to do is we're going to do a coverage ring and then come back and then we're going to start to pop up podcasts this one is going to be quite session recorded that we're going to then repost later but then afterwards we're going to bring Rebecca up here and some other great people and we'll do podcast that's good Heather tell us your name tell us in your company what did you guys do I'm president and co-founder of certify my company okay you want to guess what we do certify my company I think that's pretty straightforward so we facilitate diversity certifications all different types most of our clients are actually large companies that utilize us to get their supply chain certified anyone that should be certified they can take advantage of utilizing diverse suppliers but you can only count what you know they're certified we had to go through it earlier I'm one of the sessions that I say yeah we can we love working small business but we can't count them you can't measure what you can't count if we want to say the impact of small businesses we have to know what the impact is now when we say certified there's so many different certifications people in the audience I'm sure that have gone down that path we could have hundreds of certifications there are a lot of certification options out there they're not all created equal fair they don't offer the same outcomes all of them so which ones do you do or which ones do you recommend that people out there listening should have that is an excellent question so my company is WeBank and disability and certified so we're certified as both women in business and disability owned business but we also have the state of Illinois certification we have the CPUC certification that Ed was just talking about but what we always do with our suppliers with our entrepreneurs is we find out who their target clientele who are they currently doing business with certification will be most impactful to them in their business so if you are only doing business with a fortune 100 then you want one of the big five as I call it which is WeBank for women NMSDC for the athletic minorities NGLCC for the LGBT certification disability and disability businesses and then there's NVVDC or NOVOVA for the veteran certification but if you want to do business with the state of New York then you have to get the state of New York certification so it really depends on who their target clientele is how would I know that as someone as well business starting out I mean I'm looking at people I mean that's confusing that's very confusing to me that's very confusing to me they won't sometimes you might have an RFP that specifically requests a certain certification so you might get it but a lot of times it just says WBE and then you have to ask do you have a preference is there a certification that you recognize so some of them will specifically say the certification they want you to have but most of the time and a lot of times even the supply diversity managers especially if they're not as their knowledge isn't as much as Ed has he's very knowledgeable so people are new in the industry some people have not been in supply or diversity before they may not know which certification their company is recognized so we'll work with our entrepreneurs and guide them through that and then talk about what our services that we offer as we want to make sure they're getting educational with certifications they'll be faster than them now are there for example I'm a license show contractor in the state of Florida so for example there's 20 other states that recognize my license is that the same thing with some of these certifications so it depends that's really my answer for everything by the way it depends so for example some of the what are they called like the reciprocity some of the reciprocity so with the national organization the NMSDC then we make their nationally recognized with the state certifications there are some states for example the state of Illinois there's no state certification for Nevada so I couldn't use like my Nevada certification as a reciprocity so I had to get the state certified in Illinois but other states will not recognize the state of Illinois certification necessarily now if their requirement is just that I'm certified through any organization then yes they might recognize it but it just depends on the contract now going back to that if I'm a small business and I'm trying to decide do you help me with that well who you should be business with yeah because again I don't know if I want to business with a public utility versus a corporation of course 100 versus the state what do you expect I mean that's like I would be like I have a great business coach that I can refer you to the thing is there has to be advantages and disadvantages for each one I think it also is a personal preference I tend to prefer private sector work I find that they look at overall value more than maybe some of the state contracts or the government contracting does and I can't say for sure that's my personal experience so there you go those are some points right there I would agree with you 100% when it comes to state municipalities at the federal level they look at value but that's a really good point that you're presenting because those are the things that we need to hear right here if you're listening to this they want to try to go out and do stuff so that's a very good point so yeah so again so overall value I find that like the certifications with the private sector there's more scholarship so there's different sides of certification and everybody knows about the business development side everyone's like oh you get certified to get more business whether with current clients to get more business or with new clients to get new business however what people forget all the time there's probably my favorite part of the certifications for the undergraduate the mentorship opportunities for example I just finished doing a mentorship program with Toyota I have to apply through my disability and certification to be part of Toyota mentorship program so I was paired up with Holly who is the CIO of Toyota North America she was my mentor for a year we met every month and we talked about my goals I had for my company now as somebody who sells to the fortune 100 her perspective from the C suite of a fortune 100 is invaluable to me so I would say to her Holly everyone's like how are you so smart you're so great oh my god we're not going to hire you I don't understand why are they telling me I'm amazing but they don't want to write me a chat let's talk about your messaging to the corporation and I started telling her but why would they need you I didn't even know that I had no idea what went into a certification so if I don't know it and I'm very close to the university team how does anybody know it so I had to kind of tweak my messaging but I would not really understood that if it wasn't for having that mentorship program but went over how to track my time some of her fundamental business information but she's an operations and process guru that's what she does so they have her to help me to guide me through that at no cost to me by the way is amazing I got a scholarship to go to Tuck school so that is also an amazing opportunity to go and become a better business leader for your company I actually from what you mentioned Tuck school out of all of my podcast cast the Tuck school is one of them one of the biggest I would say connections between all of them is that Tuck school so I don't know what they do there they do a good job and they're turning out some successful people it's great and you really learn I mean I went during the pandemic it was a virtual experience of Tuck but it was and those are all things that people forget about when it comes to certification there's pitch competitions that you can get out there and get in your name and just even just saying your name in front of a room of 700 people it's huge exposure whether you stink at pitches or not I mean that's important and those you don't get with state certifications those are opportunities that you will not have so again that's why I kind of prefer the private sector over the state but and again I'm not a fan of state contracts so I'm okay with that by the way if you want to disagree with me that's fine too oh no I would say yes look again if you're in business and we're all in business here you'll have to upscale you gotta be the first to pick up your shoulder I was just telling on the matchmaker app I went in there and I was requesting some matchmakers and one of the guys was like no we don't need you and I'm like you're wrong let me tell you why so I went up there with the booth and I told him we had that conversation and he's like I'm actually just so glad you came over because you're right now that you're telling me what you do I do need you but you have to kind of be able to take it with a grain of salt when they tell you we don't need you we'll never ever hire you one of the things that you said okay when we were dealing with you said that you had to change your messaging because she didn't know what went into it can you tell us the most things that goes into it for example because Lexus is listening to you well so here's what happens for example what happens is that a supplier diversity manager or a procurement person or anybody within a fortune or any large company will say hey I've identified you as a minority of business or LGBT on business we'd really like you to get certified so could you go do that and they're like okay it's very overwhelming if anyone who's certified has seen that list it's an extraordinarily overwhelming list and as an entrepreneur you are always juggling at bare minimum a million things that have to get done now right so the other conversation that the corporation is going to have is hey sir we recommend that you're a minority on business we really like you to get certified and it's so important to us that you're going to have to retain your resource to help you navigate the process and make it easier on you that is a much more powerful statement from a corporation from any company to say this is really how important it is to us it's not much to check in the box we want to see you succeed and we are giving you this resource that will help you get there so when I would say that when I was telling Holly that she said well why would they need you why can't entrepreneurs just do it they're obviously smart and resourceful to run a business so if you're looking for years to get a formation and it's called an articles of organization you're getting frustrated and then the client calls and clients are way more instant gratification then the certification error will be it never gets done so it's not malicious why the entrepreneurs are not doing it it's because they don't have the bandwidth right no and I believe that and that's one of the reasons why I stick to teaching film because I know that homes on a state level it's so difficult to navigate someone trying to teach you all these states are facing oh my goodness they're always like the state certification and then like some states have like in New York you have the state, the city, the counties and like the municipalities yeah the list goes on and on and on yes for example in Miami we have the county day count and then we have 38 municipalities so you would be the next manager you wanted to get a chance to work you need to be certified to do anything run a business like the thing that you started the company to do so now again and by the way I loved that personally because as a small business owner I would much rather be this corporation pick a also make of course we're coming in with value we're going to help service it but that would be one of my studies and a lot of the corporations are doing it now it's a really powerful statement now again going back to this one by the way maybe you should tell me your website so it's certifymycompany.com and it's heather at certifymycompany.com and all of our socials are at certifymyco yeah just a case heather cox heather cox heather cox look I don't want to make a video who makes it less confusing alright good stuff now how is the time we are about to start in three minutes three minutes yeah four more questions I'm going to ask you some party words some party words yeah talk to the people out there though I mean again you probably have some stories of people that you've helped certify tell us a story one of my favorite stories is this woman named Jackie she ran for 20 years she had a company that made clothing and then she would sell them to the retail companies and they would put them in their own lines so when the pandemic hit there was no good for retail so she had all these factories all these relationships so she started making PPE she ended up getting the contract with them for PPE and they said to her hey we've identified you as a woman of business would you be willing to get certified we have a resource we want to sponsor you want to take care of it for you and would you do it and she's like yeah I've never done anything before I've never asked for the 20 years of business I guess I'll do it so when we interviewed her we were worried about what she wanted to do so we said okay let's do WOSV at the same time so she said okay fine so we did it for her so in the processing time which is anywhere from 90 to 120 days she was watching war dogs with her new husband so she said oh really WOSV certification starts selling arms to the government she's like getting all excited about it she goes to work and she's joking with her COO about this she starts selling arms to the government and starts looking at what government contracts are out there she goes on SAM.gov turns out the Marines were looking for someone to make practice uniforms $5 million contract later she all because she didn't want to get this WOSV certification but she got it because she'd never gotten the gig if she wasn't WOSV certified so that is a great we love that great and everybody knows screwball whiskey their women own the only person who doesn't know screwball whiskey it's the peanut butter whiskey oh really women own I've heard about the peanut butter whiskey I don't drink whiskey so much of this whiskey I'll try it you have it here they have it everywhere yeah so those are all great stories tons of women owned did you know women buy before pandemic it was probably like 84% now well we need alright so you want those parties that click special nugget information what would you tell another business outsource to experts whenever possible because if you don't have time for money to do it once you for sure don't have time for money to do it twice that's great I love that one thank you alright thank you guys and we're on time right yes you're on time golden we're ready let's they should be starting to play the music okay do you want to do yeah I want to do a little talk talk talk I was going to say robot dance you're a cool kid Brandon you missed the robot dance did I? I'll record that next time what? yeah so do you understand what we're talking about I don't know do you understand what we're talking about I don't know do you understand what we're talking about you know I actually did a ton of them during that conference I was doing a bunch of podcasts although this is what I sound like because I'm a lot talk not about now alright should I just come on up there do we want to change clothes you wear my jacket I get my drink do you want me to get a drink for you what I was thinking tell me I'm open I'm thinking maybe I'm gonna cry okay