 Hey, GovCon Giants family, Eric Coffey here, your host of the GovCon Giants podcast, founder and creator of GovCon EDU, the number one online platform for teaching everything, all things federal contracting. Today's guest, Marie Gill. Marie Gill has been winning and helping small businesses win contracts since the 80s. She by far has the most awards of anyone that I've ever met in my life personally and professionally. And today, we're gonna talk to her about the MBDA Export Center, which her organization manages. They're one of only four export centers around the country. And she managed the only one that's in the state of Florida. And also, you may wanna listen to this because she was the recipient of some technical assistance grants due to the CARES Act and COVID relief to help small businesses like yours and mine. So stay tuned to this upcoming episode. If you are needing technical assistance, they were awarded the recipient of a big grant, pretty sizable grant to help small businesses like yourself. So again, if you need certification assistance, assistance with proposals and preparation, things like that, they can help you. We've already had a couple of our GovCon EDU students who have reached out to her and have been the beneficiaries of some of that assistance. So you should do the same thing. Pay attention, stay tuned to our next upcoming giant, Marie Gill. My name is Marie Gill. Huh? My company is M. Gill and Associates. We're celebrating our 30th anniversary this year. Wow, 30th. I'm very, very proud of that. And I wear several hats in the community, but I'm very proud of this relationship that I have with the federal government, the US Department of Commerce. I've been a contractor for 20 years. So I'm the operator of the MBDA, Minority Business Development Agency's Export Center. And we've hosted disaster programs when we had Irma and Maria and other hurricanes. And now we just got a CARES Act grant. So we're providing specific technical assistance services to small and minority businesses that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. So we're very, very busy. I would imagine. Tell us about that program. How does it work? Who qualifies? Who can apply? When we, there's been a lot of press releases and so forth. M. Gill and the Associates awarded so much and so much, but those funds are not to be given to businesses as grants or loans. They are to staff us so that we can provide technical assistance services. So that's what we do for the government. So any small business, minority business, woman business, in this particular case, they don't have to be an ethnic minority to qualify for the COVID-19 because it's CARES Act funds. So it's open to the entire community. And pretty much everybody is looking for money. So not everybody qualifies for the funds that are out there with the various programs, but we do try to source. We try to search to see where we can find funds that would fit a particular business's situation. And we help them to prepare their application. Sometimes it's pretty straightforward. Sometimes they need to put together a set of cash flow projections. Sometimes they need to talk about, okay, how are you gonna use these funds and how will it help you to recover or pivot or whatever the lender is asking for. Sometimes they need a little help to structure their presentation. So we're very good at that. We've been doing it for many years, for many businesses. We help with this. They have lost employees and the folks don't want to come back because they're scared, they're not quite ready. And so we're helping to work with South Florida, the resource that provides employment. Or for businesses to see if we can help to find employees for people who need it or students that are looking for a part-time work. So there's a lot of little things. Each business is different, even though some of the needs are common. So we talk to the business, see what their needs are, and then we do our best to assist them. Now I can tell you that from what you said in this first five minutes, you're gonna be very popular on my channel. So I'm gonna say this. Is this only offered to people in South Florida for businesses in South Florida? Or is there a resource like this for companies around the country? Well, there are several CARES Act grants that have been awarded by the Minority Business Development Agency across the country. And there are several centers like mine, the MBDA Export Center, their Business Centers, their Advanced Manufacturing Centers. There are 44 of us across the country. So there is a center somewhere that can help a business regardless of where you are. And we are not restricted to only Florida except for the CARES Act grant. We can only serve under that grant businesses in the state of Florida because we were the only organization that was awarded a CARES Act grant for technical assistance in Florida. But we provide other services for businesses wanting to export or businesses wanting to do federal contracting. Perhaps they need to get certified and they need help with their certification applications. There are a lot of different things that we do for business. We just don't give money and we don't give contracts. Okay, all right. No, no, that's great. Well, I like, you've got that one down Pat, right? We don't give money and we don't give contracts. So when we do everything else, I love it. I love it. Now what you did say that you help them identify potential grant opportunities and help them organize or put together the application for potential grants for themselves? Oh, absolutely. There are a number of moving parts here. If we're speaking of the COVID-19 Recovery Initiative, then there are several small grant programs that are available locally throughout the state of Florida by various municipalities. So we identify those and we help the businesses to apply. Usually it's not a strenuous process. It's just that they need to put their taxes together and so forth. And speaking of taxes, in some cases we have found that many businesses had not yet filed their 2019 tax returns and in order to qualify for the SBA, the PPP loan and the EID loans, they had to have had their taxes filed. So we have an accountant that works with us to help the businesses and there's no charge for that. By the way, there's no charge for the services that we provide because we are funded to do this. That's where the grant funds go. Ah, wow. Yeah. That's incredible. That's incredible. Now, tell us before we move on to the next topic, how can they, if I'm interested, I'm listening to this, right? How do I find out more information? Where should I go? Well, you can call or you can email. Okay. Our website is there at mbdaexport or mbdaexport.com or they could email me Marie at mgillonline.com or they could call and they'll get a beautiful voice with a wonderful lady who is so helpful. Her name is Heather. Okay. 786-515-0670. And I'm going to share my screen really quick while we're here for those that are watching and that way they can see mbdaexport.com and then here's your number on the screen. Right. And there's a contact us where they can send us. Yeah. There you go. All right. So I just want to pull that up while we're on the screen. Thank you. For those of you who may be watching this in the video format, you can actually see it. For those of you who are listening to the podcast, just call it mbdaexport.com. That's M as in Mary, B as in boy, D, Daniel, A, Apple, export, E, X, P, O, R, T, dot com. And then I'll take you to the landing page and then you can go from there. Wonderful, wonderful. Now tell us, going back a few years or some years, you said you're still doing your 30th year of this. Yes, for the business. But, you know, there were many years before that, you know. Okay. I started the company here in South Florida in 1990, in September. But before then, you know, I worked in different parts of the U.S. I was in Newark, New Jersey for many years. I was in Denver, Colorado. I was in Maryland for short stint and then I came to Florida. And of course, before then I was in Jamaica. I started my professional career in Jamaica. Really? I noticed that you won a lot of awards starting as early as the 70s up through the 80s. Oh my goodness. Yes, it's great to be recognized for what you love to do, but I've been recognized by a lot of different organizations and media folks. Wow. Now tell me, when did you start working with the MBDA? Not the Export Center, but the actual MBDA itself. Well, the MBDA, I was working in the hotels. And on my beach, I was working at a hotel and I opened a yellow page. Remember the yellow pages? I remember the yellow pages. I actually sent out a tweet this morning that says the yellow pages are gone, which is funny because... Well, this wasn't a digital one. This was that big book, you know? Yeah. So I was looking because I had an interest in doing my own thing. You know, I had worked in the hotels and I loved it, but that was not where I wanted to be. I needed to move on. And so I saw this minority business development agency and I said, I wonder what that is? I called them up and one thing led to another. I ended up getting hired as a staff consultant with them. So that was 1989. And while I was there, I formed my company and I was doing some things on the side. And then after about six or seven years, I left and went full time in my company. After I left, so that was my first experience with the MBDA as a staff person, right? From 1989 until 1997 or so. And so that was my first relationship with them. And then in 2000, actually in 1999, the bid came out for that contract. And somebody gave me a little peep and said, you know, you need to bid on this. I wasn't bidding on it because I didn't want to go against my former employer. So, you know, I was out doing my other thing. But somebody gave me a little pinch and I said, okay. And I bid on it and I was fortunate to win the award. And that was 2000. So I have been bidding and winning with the organization since, so it's 20 years now that I've been affiliated with them as a contractor. Wow. What made you believe that you could do that, provide those support services? Can you remember what made you think like, hey, I'm qualified. I'm capable. I'm able. Well, listen, when I came here, I already had my undergraduate degree in economics. I had my master's degree in mass communications and I had my MBA. I was academically qualified. I was trained by the government of Jamaica to do quite a number of things. We were building houses for sugar workers for the first time. And so that was quite an experience that led me to really enjoy being of service to people who really needed help. That's where it started back home. So when I came and went in the hotels and then I wanted something else and I went to work for this organization, I was licking stamps. You know, it was back then, you know. You're so cute. I was licking stamps. Yeah, because, you know, with all my degrees and whatnot, but that's the job that they had at the time. But I was interested in this whole minority thing because it was new to me and I was interested in pursuing to see what it was all about. And I was hooked when I saw how the organization's mission was to really help people of color, you know, to develop their businesses and to grow and to provide these fantastic services. So it pushed you into some of the things that you learned in college, but you didn't really practice like the building a business plan and things like that. So it was exciting for me and people, there were a lot of people in need and so I just threw myself into it and I had some good resources in the community who kind of took me in and showed me the ropes, people in Liberty City showed me, you know, how to connect with the black chamber and how to connect with tools for change and so forth. Yeah, you know, so. Tools for change was around back then? Yeah, yeah. Tools for change was around back then. It wasn't Elaine Black who was in charge, but it was around back then. Yeah. And the black chamber, Dorothy Baker, God rest her spirit, she passed away, but Dorothy Baker was the president of the chamber and she really took me under her wings. Tony Gary was heading up the entrepreneurial center that was just built in Liberty City and she took me in there and had me meet with businesses to provide consulting. So I really had a lot of help from the community. Wow. Well, that's incredible. That's a great story. And then I, no, that's, that's an incredible story. Now there was an article written about you where you said you missed out on a contract bid at night. You saw that. I did. What did you think? Oh, God. Well, it was choose to power, you know. I mean, it did. I was kind of revealing my soul. It was an ink magazine. I've been named to the ink 5000 fastest growing companies in America after 30 years. Congratulations. Thank you. But thank you for asking that because it's a good comeback story of how, you know, if you follow your dreams, if you're really passionate about what you do when you put your mind to it in the face of adversity, you pick yourself up, you brush yourself off, you start all over again. And if you have great people that you have helped, they will come and help you if they see that you're in need. No, I wasn't one to be asking for help from me. Right. But when I needed it, I reached out and people just embraced me and helped me to put me back on my feet. And I grew to greater heights as a result. Yeah, we, someone sent that story to me even before this came out. And I'm going to pull it up and share really quickly. Look at that. I lost my biggest contract and came back stronger than ever. Uh-huh. You want to know about that, right? Well, I think the listeners want to know, you know, one of the things that I, what helps people that I can tell you from my experiences, I, again, I, you've been doing this a lot longer than me, but being online in three years, people it's great to hear success stories, but they are, it's hard for some of us to identify with only the success part, right? Because, and you know this in dealing with small businesses, there's so many other pitfalls. There's so many other obstacles and hurdles. And sometimes we think it's only us. And hearing from someone like yourself who's now on the Inc. 5,000 list for the first time. It, you know, it helps, I think, to set the two things together. For entrepreneurs and small businesses when they hear like, hey, I missed the bid because my computer crashed. Yeah. And but the lessons that you learn from, from these mishaps, you know, and how you pick yourself up. But that's what happened. We, we have been bidding and winning. And, uh, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. And, uh, I don't think we were complacent. We were just busy, but we waited too long. We waited until the day the bid was due. And then when the computer crashed and you, you know, so it, it was, it was a very difficult time. I felt very guilty because, you know, my, my staff was depending on the company and everybody had put their effort into, you know, their everything into the business and into making it work. So it was a sad period, but God is good and we never gave up. And the, the, the NBD was not the only agency that we had business with, but it was our biggest and most stable, uh, contract at the time. Right. But we, we bounced back and but the lessons learned, Eric, that's the important thing. You don't wait until the last day to put your bid together. Right. That was one of the most important lessons. And you diversify your business, you know, you, you don't put too much emphasis on this one contract. It wasn't the only one, but it was the biggest one. But we learned from that and never made that same mistake again. Now, now this, this, when did this happen? This was in 2015. Okay. Okay. So it's 2015. Now let's hit the stage because I read the article, but for the people who did not read the article, can you set the stage for them? What happened? So, yeah, tell us what happened. So in 2015 we lost the opportunity to bid on that contract. So, and that's the contract that you've happened the last 15 years. Yes. 15 years. So you were the incumbent for the 15 years prior to that. Yes. And then you didn't even submit a bid on the, well, it's not that it's not, it's not that it's not the contract. So you just went to, to turn it in on time. Exactly. Exactly. And I'm telling you that hurt. That hurt. I cried. Real tears when I came home at four o'clock in the morning. Yeah. But anyway, there were other things to do and there were smaller contracts that I had with several cities that I wasn't really paying as much attention to. So I started reaching out and city of Miami really embraced us and we we we I had a facility I still have it where we don't pay rent they are that's their support for the minority business programs in the community so that's a really big help for us I was a little short on cash so I took out a loan my credit was excellent I got a loan like that and so you know to saw me over the period for a while but then the MBDA came out with this fabulous program and I said okay I'm back and of course I won a five-year contract I just close to a year after that mishap and I've been bidding on time early and winning ever since and we we've operated several programs for them we operated three different disaster recovery programs which actually took us into Puerto Rico and put boots on the ground for the MBDA in the U.S. Virgin Islands congratulations on that your company to Puerto Rico and and the Virgin Islands yes as a result of my relationship with the MBDA as a contractor and you know the hurricanes right yeah so we made lemonade when when the lemons came so we ended up in Puerto Rico and planted roots for the MBDA in the Virgin Islands because they had not been established there so now we we have boots on the ground in the Virgin Islands serving companies over there and they're happy to see us a lot of black folks that needed help right yeah that's true that's true you know what you're you're right in fact so I moved up I moved up to the middle part of Florida so I'm up close in South Bay Belglades and it's the sugar workers are a lot of Jamaicans come in as well to do all the farm work yes yes yes a lot of them are here doing all the farm work yeah surprisingly I didn't realize it was many Jamaicans were here a lot of Jamaicans in Haitians but but Jamaicans they bring them in they do farm work and then they send them back to Jamaica right right yeah it's funny how it's funny how my life goes because with Jamaica and working with the Shirenda Street housing and meeting a similar group of Jamaicans in the Virgin Islands and you want to see young men like yourself you know saying oh my goodness I'm so proud of you with this big job and all these big things that you're doing just making me feel good you know very welcoming and so is the government there you know yeah the economic development authority we established our relationship with them so we're partners whenever we go there they take us around and help us to situate give us office space to work and so forth so God has been good to me Eric what can I say no that's incredible story I think that's incredible what I like the most is that and I tell people this and you said it in a way is you can't give up right you can't you know you you had that mishap happen to you I have so many people that I talked to they'll say well Eric I bid this contract I didn't win it and then I said okay well you know that's is that it did you just stop and they just gave up they threw their hands in the air and you said hey something that I was the incumbent for 15 years we missed we missed the bid but we kept persisting we did what it took to survive that period of time and then within whatever was six months a year later you were on to something bigger and then you've expanded even further maybe yes that's what it took for you to expand maybe maybe I just thought I was all that you know and I had this contract and I got this right although although I never really approached my job with an attitude but I guess I wasn't as you know it's yes and I wasn't really put enough you know putting enough emphasis on timing and so forth and those things are important no matter how good you are if you missed it you miss it right no I agree with you I agree with you but I think I I see it totally as as this is what propelled you to go out there like you said expand your horizons take on several clients multiple clients so you can have that mix that balance you're not weighing heavily on just one person I you know I I really do because I see things that way we don't always know what the future holds or like you said with God may have a store for us and they can see further than we can yes right and it helped me to become a better consultant as well because I was able to relate to my own experience maybe not necessarily say to someone what happened but just realizing it and using it to provide advice and to help guide someone else when I see them perhaps going down the path where I went that got me in trouble you know just to help them to not go there and to you know better time management and provide better services that can help them with their bidding process because a lot of people need help with the bids there not everybody understands this business no I I agree with you can you now let's talk about that let's let's talk about some of the services that you provide but not only just the services I want to talk about the where the areas that you see contractors really need help well one one of the things that I that I noticed it it took me a long time I think I said it in the article to let our especially folks from the caribbean understand the whole minority business movement so to speak in the in the contracting arena it is so important that we understand that these certification programs are there for a reason and that is the way or a better way to gain access to the contracting arena you don't just all the time just get up bid on a project and get it sometimes you have to go through the process many times a contract is very large and so it takes several members in a team to bid and you have a major bidder a prime contractor who is going to be the lead and maybe that's the place to start instead of trying to go for big one or the entire contract consider teaming consider being a subcontractor first and get your foot in the door that's what I did I went to work for this company and I ended up with the contract years later but you you get some experience and you hang on to somebody's coattail for a while do a good job serve them well and then you can move on and put your own team together and I believe that understanding the small business enterprise the community business enterprise disadvantage business enterprise the minority business enterprise the women business enterprise all of those certifications are there for a reason because when they put these large contracts together they have a team that decides to put participation goals on those contracts and as a result of that if you're certified WBE then you have somebody to check a box so that you know they can be better able to qualify for the contract that they're bidding on so what what what I find that folks don't take the time to understand the process if you understand the process then you become a better bidder okay and and and it's not just about pricing it's strategy no that's great that's what that's what I want to talk about and hear what have been some of the things that you've helped people and I by the way I love what you just said what are some of the other things that you've helped people with or companies with in terms of improving their strategies what are some of the things that you see where maybe as a minority business we're we're a shortfall maybe yes well um you know you you are a plumber by trade and you you you're getting into a restaurant you're opening a restaurant because it can cook um it takes a little bit more than that so sometimes we we need to look more at what we really are passionate about and what we're good at if it doesn't wake you up in the morning at four o'clock then maybe it's not your passion you know and and if you if you really follow your passion like that there's a better chance of your gaining success now the other side of that is don't be afraid to ask for help because you may be skilled at your craft but you may not understand how to really run a business and I'm speaking about the operational part of the business you know making sure that your bills are paid on time and and all that you know your staffing you have a strategy for getting people and so forth and sometimes you need somebody to help you with that and help is available out there if you just look you know so you don't have to feel like you are you're going to do this and you're alone and you you know you don't have the funds and you know help is there help is available but some people don't like to ask for help because you know sometimes we're a little bit proud but you don't have to know it all just be skilled at what you do and focus on that and get somebody else to help you with the other things that need to be done and recognize that there are other things to running a business than just really doing what you do your craft right right right I would agree and I would follow that up with the the you know people are working in their business and not on their business you said it is that it is that it you said it okay and you know if you don't if you fail to plan plan to fail yeah planning to fail so all of those things are true and very important for the business over now okay um now the mbda stands for minority business development agency um what if i'm a non-minority well for non-minorities there are a lot of different organizations out there that provide services services to small business right right usually when when it's small then the non-minority fits right now our CARES Act grant is targeted toward any small business people yeah people of color and others so but my company mgland associates one of the great things about our company and one of the reasons the mbda loves us is that we have the ability to just welcome any small business even though the program is geared toward minority but my non yeah my staff are not paid with mbda dollars they can work with any small business oh great you know even before we had the covid grant okay so we never turn anyone away even if it's just a good referral that's a service you know because we make sure that we're sending you somewhere where we know you will get help tell us um so what are some of the things that people come to you for uh for help where are some of your common requests that people that you see again over 30 years i'm sure you see a lot of the same types of requests quite often yes and and include the one like boy miss gilly wants me a treading but from the from the very beginning stages of just having an idea that you want to do something and you're not quite sure but you just have this feeling that you need to do your own thing or you know what you want to do but you don't know how to get started or you've gotten started but um you don't have the financing and and you're realizing that nobody is really lending to you because you don't have a business plan or you can't really explain your target market that well you know somebody ask you who your customers are and you say well everybody and that doesn't really define clearly for you as a business owner and for someone whom you may be seeking some kind of advice or grant or or something from so we get all kinds of requests we are also in the business of getting businesses involved in export so we do a lot of training to get businesses to become export ready understanding you know what what it's like to be exporting and what the requirements are and so forth who's buying what you're selling and as a result of the diversity of our services we partner with a lot of other organizations that know better than we about different things for example the US commercial service they have boots on the ground all over the world so if somebody comes to us and say i want to sell to chili then we don't have anyone in chili and we don't have to go and google about chili we just contact our partner there who is with the US commercial service and they will let you know that okay yes they're buying slippers here and these are the companies that are buying and we can connect you okay so you said the one that was in florida what was the name of that one enterprise florida enterprise florida okay yeah enterprise florida is funded by the state and they help they put they lack the connectivity between especially manufacturers you have to be a florida company though right and they connect you with companies and government agencies all over the world and so we're we're very big on partnerships we and as you know i am with the Jamaica USA Chamber of Commerce as well and through the Jamaican Chamber we are connected with Jampro in Jamaica and Jampro is like enterprise florida in Jamaica so our chamber is connected that way and we kind of have to expedite the process for companies that want to do business with Jamaica and we do the same for a lot of other Caribbean countries yeah how would i know let's say i have a business and i make a product how would i know which countries could would potentially buy my product well that goes right back to what we were saying earlier that we have connections in these countries through with the amcham the american chambers of commerce there they will connect you with the u.s embassy and in the u.s embassy it's not just folks that deal with travel they have consultants there that connect businesses from the u.s with businesses in those countries and the u.s commercial service has consultants whose job it is and they're paid by the federal government here and it's their job to help to do the research so when you come and you say when i have this product and i want to sell it to brazil or any country whether it's in africa or asia europe or the caribbean or the americas we will connect with our partners in those countries and they will let us know plus there there there are certain kinds of research country market reports that are done and those reports are huge and they talk about all the products that those countries import and export so there's several resources that we can use to to help determine we are best to sell your product that's fascinating that's fascinating now you said there's a lot of you have training that's available for exporting yes those are very those are tailored and we don't provide a one-on-one because it's a little bit too much so we put a team together our class together and then we organize with our partners we have several different persons that would provide different parts of that training to get someone export ready okay is that available to everyone that's part of the mbda yes okay okay okay yes okay only the export centers though is that what you mean yeah on the export side right yeah yeah there are four export centers across the country that was one of the big thing about this comeback strategy because there were only four of them that they were establishing and we won one of the four that's incredible out of the entire country right that's incredible and it's a five-year contract right yeah yeah that's that's that's that's amazing now who can participate on the export side is it the same like an mbda can any one of us walk in it and agree to be to work with you on that yes we the the export center serves minority firms okay but but if you happen to not be a minority there are several other organizations that work with um exporters or potential exporters and we're partners with them we can make the referral so we really don't discriminate it's just that we the probe the mbda program is really designed for ethnic minorities so when we get somebody who is not an ethnic minority we just pass them to a partner of ours and and we're very careful who we send our folks to because that's part of our reputation and that's traveling so that's fair that's fair yeah yeah now go ahead no i was gonna say you can be a startup or a business that's already established okay okay now what about yourself what do you do i mean you're helping all of these businesses and you've helped all all of us along the way including myself uh you know when i was first getting started i remember uh attending med week we didn't even talk about med week right we never talked about med weeks and the events that you that uh that was put on yes okay but but we're gonna how do we how does how does marie gill how do you have self-care right what are some of the practices that you do for self-care uh i'm sure some of these stories could be heartbreaking maybe in some of these small businesses uh i'm sure you're like a counselor or you're offering therapy right yes yes yes i listen we have we have um we have a SWAT analysis initiative where we have businesses to to kind of figure what's their strength their weaknesses opportunities and threats and you kind of start there to begin to flush out the information before you actually get down to writing the business plan but on my flyer it says your business doctor it's calling it's time for your checkup i love it so we conduct the checkup and then we diagnose and then we you know we prescribe and then sometimes we actually meet the need or for you someplace else but um we've yes sometimes it's heartbreaking to hear the the the trials and tribulations and the problems and the concerns and issues that other entrepreneurs are faced with and this is one of the great things about being a minority business that has this contract many of the folks across the country that have it are non-profit organizations and so forth which is wonderful but we can say hey we know we feel your pain we understand right you know and i think years ago um president Reagan said the people who need help there are nine words they don't want to hear i am from the federal government and i'm here to help so we don't approach them that we're from the federal government we're a small business like you we happen to have this federal contract that allows us to provide you with free services you know so the anger is a little different but um i take time out for me too you know i have my me time i have princess my my dog we're we're great pals we keep each other company but i i am also with the Jamaica the Jamaican folk review okay with yeah which is a cultural group we sing and dance and act and bring Jamaican folklore you know to light okay and um it's been a little bit of a challenge because of the pandemic for ourselves and so forth right but um that is one of my ways of getting away from everything okay i love to dance and i i i don't have a great voice but i love to sing that's gotta be no that's hey no dancing is is i mean it gives you life it's yes yes dancing is a lot of fun i i would agree i i i agree with that one no it's good um along the way have there been any other resources that's helped you out terms of books quotes uh you know messages themes or anything else that that along the way that you you pass along to others in terms of maybe uh inspiration motivation um i know we talk about the business plan but do you do you recommend any books for people to read when they're starting their business whether it's in the restaurant industry whether it's the plumber or the export person is there anything that you also give them to say hey take a look at this i think this will help you maybe it's mindset maybe it's habits anything like that well you know there's so many things i don't even remember the books that we've read because at one time i started reading magazines because you know there was just too many books and then the magazines there were too many articles and they were piling up but i tell you there there is one there is one phrase that i always say to someone there's the usual thing where okay you know don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it you know just go for it and as long as you're passionate all of that is is really very standard but eric never compromise your integrity that that that that has been key and i've seen where so many people have stepped and slipped because they're not paying attention because of whatever reason sometimes you just think that you can take a shortcut and get away with some something and you know perhaps you're not a bad minded person or you don't mean anything bad maybe you mean well but you're looking for a shortcut it's not worth it it's never worth it your integrity once you lose that then you know it's really really very difficult to rebuild and you know maybe you don't have enough time to because people people really remember these things you know you do something wrong and sometimes you'll get forgiven and so forth but if it really gets to the heart of your character then you should guard that you should guard that nothing is worth giving up your integrity or losing your integrity that's very important but was was no that's great was this i can tell you for what i'm doing now with my podcast my youtube and and the contracts um for me i have a clear vision and a clear path and i could see wherever i'm where i'm going even before i get there and that's what helps me define the next steps to take do you have the same thing with what you're doing with mgill and associates and the mbda export did you i obviously did not foresee the export part because that came out that's a new contract but but i think along the lines of helping minority businesses and small businesses was that a vision that came to you was that something that you saw yes yes and and thank you for asking that because if i was in this job when i first went to work for the mbda but i could see around the corner and it so happens that my boss who was wonderful i love him dearly and he gave me he just said go you know he just opened the gates and said go go run med week and that's how i became the med week coordinator you know but he wasn't seeing the same things that i was seeing you know like he wasn't kind of looking around and seeing what was coming around the corner and i could see that even though we were the minority business development agency we were not serving people of that are black you know let me just put it bluntly and and that was that was really critical i thought in this business if you're serving people of color then you need to be serving people of our color and yeah right and and so that was i believe one of the reasons why i i was so embraced by these people that i mentioned earlier these folks on whose shoulders i'm standing you know when i first came into the community you know that helped me out and showed me the ropes and took me around and gave me the opportunity there are people who put me in their cars and drove me to where i needed to go and took me to their community and say you need to be talking to this lady she knows what she's doing she can help you so yes and and i knew but but this started from Jamaica you know i knew i wanted to help people and this was the government of Jamaica sugar industry housing which was part of the ministry of finance that gave me the opportunity i was going around to all the sugar industries around the country and helping people who were making little bit of money to sign up for these houses that the government was planning to build and some people believed it and some people didn't because you know those things can be a little political and i wasn't a political animal i was a community animal and as it turned out there were people who when i went to from estates or or Trelawney estates or wherever people were waiting for me they had gifts when i went back to Kingston i had bunch of banana i had bread fruit i had sugar cane whatever was in season if pear avocados was in season then my car was full of it when i went back to Kingston i mean the whole community would come because i had a trunk full of stuff you know and and that was like my these were people that some of them couldn't read very well you know and so forth and you kind of took them and guided them and you convinced the government back in Kingston that look she may not be able to read but this is her situation and so on and so forth and you know that's where that whole business of serving and helping people who were less fortunate and really needed somebody to guide them and hold their hand and take them through so that is something that i can't really explain it's just inside of you you know it just makes you want to do it yeah so that's true yeah that's i guess that's why i was so passionate when i went to the mbda i kind of found that niche again is like yes no i love it i and i totally identify with that i feel the same way with everything that i do and all the content that i produce show us on your face yeah i feel the same way i you know i just said look i'm gonna build up an army of contractors okay i'm gonna make everyone better i'm gonna give them all the tools that i have i'm gonna give them everything that i have so they can be stronger and every day when someone tells me they win a contract or they watch my video and it made it it's just incredible a young lady posted a story yesterday so yeah i agree with you i i i actually have it written down where i want to help over a thousand businesses so i had that actually written down as a goal a personal goal of mine many many many years ago that's great and so yeah so and today i'm doing it but but and then what i have 10 years coming down the road is just uh there's there's there's no way that anyone cares as much as i do oh that is so wonderful and you know it's really amazing because when we our minds work we always have that goal and there's always because right now there are a number of things coming up for me part of it is writing just sitting down and writing for me has been a challenge because there's so so much that i have to do in this work that i have but some of it is getting documented here and there and you know eventually that will come out with god's help okay and yeah and um i am i am launching a woman's organization i already have a woman's program that we for 10 years now we've been the women mean business we've been having a conference now that's a lot that's being launched into an organization and i'm establishing a fund to help women businesses minority women businesses so um there's always a goal or goals that that that we have yeah yeah no that's great that's great i i think our paths are we're headed the same way you know i think we're going the same way that's that's wonderful um let me ask you just a couple quick questions i i know that you said you were up at four a.m working is that your time where you think the best is it in the middle of the night when do you think the best when do you operate the best and you're helping write these proposals you just hit it yeah okay you just hit it um it was roomy i forget his first name but he's one of these great philosophers like the morning breeze is calling something like that don't go back to sleep once you get up it's like the spirit got you up it's time don't try to say okay i can take another half an hour another hour you know just get up that that's the best time when it's quiet and it's like you're at peace with the universe and it's like just you on your guard or you on your element or you on your spirit whatever it is that you know it fills you right that yeah those are some of the best times and so i really don't need the alarm clock every once in a while if i'm too tired i need it but you know my phone to wake me up but i'm up and almost at the same time every morning what time is that that's about four it's about four or a little after four i don't always get up now the older i get now you know i'm getting a little bit lazy now it's like okay i can afford an extra home but i tell you with this virtual working i have had to kind of reshape and make sure that i don't fall into that trap of okay i'm home i can just relax and i can sleep another couple of hours i don't do that because i don't want to get into that situation where i lose control of my time management so i just yield when it's time to get up i get up and there's never a shortage of things to do that's that's so you saw the last 30 years you've been waking up from four in the morning well not the last 30 years there were times but when i was in Jamaica but i i i used to have to get up that early in order to make my rounds and i'd leave Kingston and i'd go all the way around St Elizabeth and go all the way to from and come all the way back around St Mary St Thomas and back to Kingston so i would travel all the sugar states from early Monday morning and i'd be back in Kingston Thursday evening and Friday morning i'd be at the office that's when we were really really hitting the road for to build these houses for sugar workers it was an adventure wow yeah yeah so i'd be going down spurtry hill and it's still dark that's scary that's pretty scary that's pretty scary yes i was i was brave though i mean i was brave man and i was a rough driver too you know stick shift like that oh that's your stick shift i didn't think about stick shift you you just want to add complexity on top of complexity on top of difficulty wow that's uh that's interesting let me ask you this do you i used the word bravery which gave me a thought do you consider yourself brave to entrepreneurs should entrepreneurs consider themselves as brave is that the right word for them or sometimes you hear the word fearless is that the right word to describe it courageous i think you know to have the courage because some things can be very intimidating you know and daunting but you if you have it this is where that passion comes from you know if you have it in your gut and if you really know that this is what you want to do then you have to be fearless and i believe most entrepreneurs are fearless sometimes some folks will be talking to me about their aspirations and what they're trying to do in their business and i have to look with a straight face and be very serious but it's like i'm cracking up inside you know because i'm having fun listening to them because at times it's making sense and then at times it's really not but it's their dreams so you kind of have to hear it out and then if you spend the time and you listen then you kind of get it you know and maybe you can even guide it if you see it's going kind of in in in a direction that may not work out you try to bring it back and this is this is why this job is such a cool job you know because you learn so much from folks and they make you laugh and they make with craft cried with people we hug and we cry because of what they're going to and because i understand and they need a shoulder and then okay no no more tears let's get to work this is what we need to do you know so it's such a great job to be able to have people i love it no that's that's that's excellent tell me something that you mentioned that i have not done recently tell me about the business plan and and who actually are you giving business plans to usually everybody needs a business plan okay and we don't do the hundred page business plans anymore okay it's pretty much a strategic plan that hits the main points you know what you are and and what what you're doing and who you're doing it with who you're doing it for what's what's it going to cost you and what's your timelines you know just the basic things but there are some plans that are more detailed as you go you'll find that okay you need a you need to stay around that corner and that strategy of the thousand people you kind of need to put something in writing as to how you're going to achieve that but you can start smaller you know without with a small plan with you know maybe a white paper as we say and and and and then you build from there but i encourage everyone who is starting to write things down because that's where sometimes we forget and you find that when you write it there's something about writing and your brain that connects once you put it on paper it's different from just thinking it and walking around with it once you want and that's part of what we do we bring it out from the entrepreneur bring it out from from from your head and help you to put it on paper and sometimes when the entrepreneur puts their plan on paper it's like wow did i say that that's that's your plan that's what you said right yeah and you know when you put it on paper it really really makes a difference but it's not just the startup firm that needs a plan sometimes depending if you're shifting gears like right now a lot of people are i guess the the popular word now is pivoting so i guess if you're if you're trying to repurpose funds or repurpose your your mission or you're looking for a different strategy your business plan if you had one needs to be adjusted or if you didn't have one you need to put one in place sometimes a business plan people will do a business plan for the purpose of getting financing i don't think that should be the reason you will need it but you need the plan for planning and then part of that is to get financing so perhaps you you are successful already but are you just gonna be successful and not go anywhere else so you need the plan for okay what now i've made all these millions of dollars what now where do i go now i know i actually i like that you know it's funny that you said that to me and really when i think about it i actually do write down a plan because i because i have people in a team to lead so i have to convey my ideas to the team i just i guess i just never called a business plan anymore but obviously um whenever i set out on any type of mission and anything that we're going to take on that's new we put a plan together of how we plan to do it who we're going to attack like you said what's your target what do they look like um and how we're going to reach them what are the activities that we're going to do right and how we're going to measure that success and there's so many cool tools that are available now it's not just the longhand writing a business plan there are a lot of programs we actually have the live plan program that's online okay and it's it's really smart and very easy you you log in and it it it gives you the different components of the plan and as you go to write each component there's a little video that explains to you okay this section says so and so what you will need is this and that and that so you you you you have your ideas and then you plug them in and you and every section of the plan depending and it has over 500 models of of businesses business plans and they're not like i said 50 page plans you know they're very succinct but nonetheless have all of the salient points that that a plan would need and very nicely done nice graphics and so on to plug in the numbers it asks you for a unit price and and things like that and frequencies and so forth and very basic things that if you don't understand it it helps you to understand so it's written for the quote unquote novice as well as the experienced person and you when you finish you have a nice plan that you can export to to another document or you could take pieces of it and feature it on on a platform you know one of your social media platforms you could take a piece out of it if you want to focus on some things it's really really wonderful and this is something that i have five independent contractors across the state that cover different areas of the state so each of them has you know a subscription to this that we provided that to them so that they can build these plans with their businesses as they you know as they come in contact with them for those who need it right right right well well any other tools and resources that you want to leave people with i know we're running up on time here yeah well the life plan i really would recommend it if you start there then you know it it it really it really gives you a lot to work with and i would recommend that you talk to a consultant get you know just share just share your needs or your your vision and you know what you're looking for it's always good to bounce with someone because what we do is we're not there to take you all of our meetings and information and so forth i kept confidential of course we don't discuss other people's business with other people and so when you're talking with one of us you really have a counsel and a confidant and you know regard your information but we we want you to succeed and let me tell you something about our program before we go there is a quantitative aspect to this this we've been talking about quality all along but there's a quantitative we have goals that we have to meet okay so we have to get over 130 million dollars of contracts for clients within a one-year period so we do have these goals so we are motivated beyond the passion to get the numbers right and over the years five billion dollars with a B is what we have achieved for minorities in contracts and financing you know that's a lot of money considering that's some of just some are just 150 000 and so it's thousands of jobs created almost 18 000 jobs created um so that that's a lot you know we we've been successful we've helped a lot of people and you know we've we've helped the community well no that's that's that's a lot and that's to even believe that you can commit to helping people achieve 130 million dollars says something right that says a lot it does that says a lot about you yeah when you're saying on the dotted line that's what you know and and you you have to achieve you have to achieve your goal and let me just let me just say that we are not just a hundred percent right okay we strive for 150 percent that's right let's go and many times we come close to 150 but we are always a hundred percent or more but that's okay we're we're gonna wrap up anyways i just had two more things i wanted to ask one is kind of off topic but i like this question because it tells me about the person um and and and it's this what is the most recent amazon purchase that you made uh that you were thrilled about do i really have to answer that you get you have to say something as you purchase amazon let me answer it this way i have never purchased anything on amazon really however okay we have just entered into an agreement with amazon uh-huh to provide a very special opportunity to minority businesses to engage on their marketplace platform so i believe that i will be utilizing that i guess i was waiting for the special opportunity but um no this is serious though our organization the mbda in dc they've entered into this agreement with amazon so anyone who's listening who wants to be connected like that we would be happy to connect them because everything that is required in entering into that is at a very minimal cost as a result of this relationship okay um how much is is it it's a publicly available that you could talk about or is it no that's it no i i yeah what we do is we connect we have the contacts at amazon and we connect them as a result of this relationship they have access and those are the folks who will explain to them based on what their product is or what their service is and so forth and they will explain to them what what the the cost and so forth will be it's a great program and a great opportunity for minorities okay all right we'll leave it at that we'll leave it at that so that helps me out with my amazon purchase well it could have been an online purchase i'm not a big shopper like that no that's okay people have shopped for me though i'm sent it to me that's a good answer what does someone shop for you for amazon ascend to that was good well um the last thing i got was this beautiful case i i can't relax it was a gift but it was a yeah it was a a a utilities case they saw my stuff all over the place so they bought this thing for me like to help me get organized okay okay what kind of stuff was in a case what kind of stuff do you keep in the case well um pens and stuff like that okay things that okay for your desk throw all around yeah okay for my desk so that was pretty good yeah um i've got um clothes i've got skirts and i'm a scarf freak so uh people are always buying me scarves i've got quite a few scarves that that were purchased on an amazon same that's that's also that's that's good enough you didn't even know you didn't buy it you received the gift yeah well i didn't want to say i've since i didn't buy it directly okay that's fair i'm still eric i'm still so old school i am really with it because i have all these wonderful young people who work for me and they keep me sane okay but i'm still very old school with a lot of things i don't like to do online still and i know i have to i know that's where we headed and not where we headed were there right but you know but i think you know i what i actually appreciate about that you are still experienced success and you're still helping others even though you're old school i think that's a lot that's a huge that's a great testimony to to testament to yourself and what you're doing uh that you're able to do all these things and still not even utilizing all these so glitz and glamour resources that people feel like they you know because people come to me and that's the first thing they do is like we're gonna get this when i get this and i'm like but you don't even know your audience you don't know your market exactly none of the basic stuff they they took care of where they're starting with the glitz and the glamour things i'm gonna set up an amazon shop and a market but you know but what's about your business and who are you gonna sell to and what does that look like and i'm gonna get a gsa schedule but why are you getting a gsa schedule gsa schedule you better understand what you're doing before you even go there yes so all right so parting words you like to leave our audience with before we let you go today oh well love and let love live and let live go for it you're a winner and never compromise your integrity wow thank you so much that was great