 Hey go con Giants family It's your host Eric coffee here live on IG what we got going on All right Freight lady BJ What's going on a boogie hook man budget baller All right By the way, I'm wearing my my brother brought me this shirt from sable the Philippines So I thought I would wear it because since I have not had the opportunity to travel It's been killing me. So I do like things remind myself of traveling and excursions and Going out of the country and all the stuff that we can't do right now It's like I don't know if you guys remember the other day. I had my cruise cup So all this stuff that takes me back to those those fond memories But we have this week has been a good week for me. It's been a good week in fact One of my students today Had a phone call came in It's been a good week. Like I said, we had a great guest for the podcast That I interviewed today. I mean every Monday. I'm sorry and we had another podcast guest that was released this week Which is a really I mean look I'm telling you I actually recorded the intro for it earlier Definitely, I think Everyone at least the folks here listening Should be to listen to that episode with Denita Conway Proven management her organization They're doing Logistics management and it's not logistics in a sense of trucks But it's logistics in a sense of moving personnel people equipment computers things like that So it's it's it's really I think a lot in a resident with a lot of folks out there And particularly those people who are in the professional services space. I know a lot of times we we've talked about it We've talked about construction. We've had some people on with the mobile barbershop I'm a man Frank that does the catering free throw Frank. So but This particular episode we're featuring someone who's a staffing business, but not staffing in terms of just staffing like phone calls but staffing in Terms of bodies and moving services that again a lot of folks when they think about the government pie They're all they're talking about a lot of similar industries in terms of janitorial but this just goes to show you the depth of The the types of contracts and opportunities that you can get And then so that's that's this week's podcast guest. It was released yesterday. Definitely check it out the video I can't I don't want to throw Maria in the bus But the video will come out any day now the actual YouTube video with that podcast guest. I Also had a great conversation Monday with an Alaska Native corporation For those of you who've been following me who know me. I love tribal companies. I love an asking native corporations They're our friends. They're our partners They are really wanting to work with small businesses Great way when you're looking at doing mentor protege opportunities all the all small mentor That that these are our allies and our assets if you are working in any type of facility But no Maria the intro is already there. I dropped the intro drop box earlier today So I did but if you are working on any federal job or federal project or at a federal facility If you happen to be a subcontractor, I would encourage you if there is an Alaska Native corporation or a tribal corporation on that facility I'm telling you reach out to them talk to them Find out about opportunities that they've got going on and ways in which you guys can start building a relationship and Again for those of you coming on they are our friends or our allies they look I Learned something that I didn't know I've never personally been to Alaska, but when I was talking to My guest who actually handles a lot of the tribal nation corporations So I asked her and I and this may seem like a really dumb question Because because since I've never been to Alaska and preparation for the interview I went and looked up like anchorage Alaska because I want to see what it looked like and I'm like, I don't want to think or assume that these people all like, you know, living in e-glues and things like that I just thought it was kind of silly So I looked it up and I saw like a big city. I'm like, okay The city is legit and then when I asked her I said hey, you said there's over 200 tribes Right and so I like just outside of Anchorage and she said I go. Well, I see a big city I see buildings that live in the city. She said that most of them actually live what's what's called What do they call it like off-road? So they live off the actual And non-pay roads is where the actual tribes live So it did it did kind of like confirm my stereotypical mindset about how some of those tribes lived But but she was saying to me that yeah, no, it wasn't it They weren't what we deem what we see in terms of these tribes only casinos and all this stuff It goes to shareholders and it's distributed But a lot of them are living in like third-world type conditions. No internet Inconsistent power when COVID hit they had to you know She said some of them only accessible by boat or plane and then when at certain times of year when the Lake or the river whatever the water freezes up and ice is up. They can't get in by boat And so it was just really interesting perspective on it but the bottom line is I think for me when I was Working in the space and visiting. I I noticed on every military base that I went to I always could find I would always run into these tribal companies in Alaska companies And you know because they have these really strange names and I said man But at the same token they always gave me a chance. They always gave me work So that's a nugget. I definitely want to leave everyone with today is if you're on any facility any installation If you're looking at if you have the choice, right? And you have what's up missy tarver if you If you have the opportunity where you're looking at something and you're looking at say 10 companies on a list I would the first thing I would do is find out on that list Look Shaniga see I would find out who's on that list and see which one of them are tribal or ANC and That's who I would talk to first that would be the first call I've made like if you had to choose between out of ten people that would be the first ones that I made and reached out to just because I'm telling their their and even further she further We when I am talking with my pocket and it's gonna come out. It's coming out soon She actually said that a lot of the corporations they reach out to them about investment opportunities About buying their businesses. Did you know that you could actually sell your 8a business or government contracting business? Alaskan native corporations buy small businesses. They buy us if you build your business up Successfully you can actually sell it to one of the ANC's So they actually buy corporations out there So, you know, I I I love it. I love it. I love it. I so I just want to talk about that By the way, I always remind everyone. This is your time. It's not my time I know I get on here and I talk but it's really waiting for someone to ask some questions. Feel free to shoot out I've been a meeting with them for months. They're 22 million has shifted to a hundred million Well, I mean I think going for 22 million hundred million is great You just gave me an idea. I'm still a reservist. So I have access to all bases. I need to check dpms and the contracting offices exactly Tell me more about their 22 million shifting to a hundred million I'd be curious to hear about that story. Yeah, no, I'm again. I'm working with one myself now personally I I in fact I uh, I will be flying to Rhode Island in the boston region on labor day week that week meeting with my partner company So we'll be I'll be flying up and meeting for the first time in person. We did a zoom call We signed the paperwork stuff. So I'm going to be flying up We're going to spend a couple days together and explore some of the areas where we're going to target and attack So these are things that I'm doing. I'm look. I'm not telling people not to do stuff that I'm not doing I'm not giving you arbitrary tips. These are things that actually that I'm doing That I know and we have someone else in the group that's working with a and c and they're going after a 40 million dollar opportunity so Expand your horizon expand your ideas. This is a concept that I shared with another podcast guest Who was looking for investment? I asked her I told her the same thing. So Oh the small business set aside standard shifting in congress. Yeah, but that didn't just happen the uh Their small business set aside standard didn't just shift. It's always been a hundred million That didn't just happen We that's why I work with them because they can do a hundred million and still be small business Um, yeah, it didn't just shift. It's always been that way It's been nasty. I know it's been nice. But you know the small business set aside shifted for all of us Because my recent contract that I just won this month I forgive this month or last month. It was in the last couple weeks. Um My contract was a 8a sole source and it was 4.9 million And I've never gone past five four million dollar sole source contracts. So the government did a um I don't know if it's because of covet but they shifted the small business standard for all of us out there and Um, and I don't know the rules so don't you know beat me up about the actual rules But I can tell you that I just was awarded a 4.9 million dollar sole source A few weeks ago and I was surprised because I was like What you guys can go up to five million And they they signed it it's we got the contract. We've already turned into bond. In fact, we're having our pre-con meeting Already. So like we we've we're doing our submittals now. We've we got the it's in the bag This is not like bidding. This thing is in the bag. We've signed the paperwork We submitted it and now we're gonna have our pre-construction meeting and even before then in a year We're gonna start rolling Yeah, there you go. So women only shifted from four to eight So I think we will I think they all I think all of us might have shifted up to around the eight million dollar mark So Yeah, so no, that's cool. No, I love it. I mean Hey I but you know the thing is el boogie about that is interesting as a lot of people still um, even though that they've the the government has shifted the standards from four million to eight million We have not made the mind Shift to the eight million dollar mark. So I think a lot of us have not we have not subconsciously made that shift in our brains For these types of opportunities Does anyone even understand what she's saying? If they're saying the woman-owned program has shifted from four million to eight million dollar sole source I mean that's I don't know what else the people want out there. I really don't even know what people like The what else do you want that's for the government to do for us? I mean, that's amazing. I mean, that's remarkable to think of that But we're still people and I know this because people call me and they want to talk about how do I get a $20,000 contract? and I'm like The government just raised from four million to eight million and you guys want to talk about how do you get a $20,000 contract? I don't I don't understand that so Um, but those are that's good information to share because I didn't know what the numbers were myself So What's up Karen? Do the work Do the work. What's up? Nobody has no questions man you know Do I is it because I cover all this content and I talk about the stuff and you guys all Understand it all everyone knows government contracting in and out everyone's professionals El buggy, you always have a lot of information. You should come on and talk I don't know about the podcast. I have to check you out first to see But we can talk about it I mean you can reach out to maria and see I mean come on and you know talk talk with us and sell us what you're working on what you're doing I'm always curious because surprisingly enough And I told maria this I've talked to some of my guests who, um Have the Who have you know high revenue numbers that I believe maria actually knows more about contracting than them um And surprisingly enough, uh, I've seen people that do you know Eight figure revenue marks, but they really still uh, they have a lot of questions about actually how to do contracting so I say that to say Don't assume that you don't have enough knowledge or information to actually do these things I'm telling you I talked to people that She'd be really surprised A lot of you out here because I know the names of some people out here My people you you have a lot of information inside of your head that you're just not putting to use You're not putting to work and you're not sharing with people enough people out there Uh maria and you know, I know she's out probably shopping or something, but I can tell you Yeah, maria She's the goat. Let me tell you what maria did today El boogie let me tell you maria is a goat someone's look. I'd say maria did the day She literally Maria why you don't tell the people what you did today? She I mean maria be pulling on some stuff She pulled off something the other day and then she pulled off something again today so maria We just we just I don't know if you guys remember. I think it was uh, she posted a picture of us We met with some clients. I think it was last week maria. It was the last week We met with two people companies last week Um, we decided we were going to work with one of the companies and help them out Oh, she's in a store shopping. Okay Uh And so we met with the guy last week maria sent on sunday She was home bored and she's like Uh, she sent a sources sought response to the department of agriculture She's like some guy on youtube told me to do it. We don't know who that is Uh, so she sent the source search response. They sent her an invitation to bid for a site visit today She went with the the guy that we met last week because he said he could do that kind of work He could self perform it Uh, and he had the bonding she went today. She was the only person that showed up to the site visit They told her that they are looking to award the contract before the end of the year And it was all an invite only it's not public. It wasn't a public Job that was put out for bid because she did all of the activities and the steps And that was today yesterday. She went to another visit Right Which was a former contracting officer friend of mine who invited me to go look at a project that you know, I just I told him I don't do that stuff anymore. So I threw it to maria. I said hey go look at it looks like a small job And she went there met with them The the guy told her the problems they're having the challenges And again, she listed some guy on youtube some crazy black guy on youtube That told her how she could solve the issues and she offered up a solution about doing a potential bpa For the her organization that way all these small tasks They could just charge it against the bpa and he thought that was a really great idea He's looking to implement that idea and then he already hit her back and said they're going to work on how to put the bpa together for her To be able to do this kind of stuff. So she's been Part of I think part of you know, what we have to do is Is educate our customers educate our clients It shows a lot when you get in front of someone and you start talking To them about ways in which you can help Them solve their problems and especially if you can give them ideas for potential solutions that makes you like That puts you up at a different level than a guy or girl Who just goes to a site visit and asks questions about the specific project So even oh and today I forgot I forgot I even I forgot about it Today when she talked to the company uh agriculture people um That the when she talked to the agriculture people they asked her if she does other types of projects Right if she does other type of construction Because they had more projects that they could potentially give her that they needed to get done as well so Elbookie how'd you guess So the thing is it's like uh A lot of us are and I say this all the time we're sitting behind the computers We're not getting out and talking to folks. How is it possible? That all of you right who want contracts Right, how is it possible that maria is the only person that was at a site visit? I don't understand. How is that possible? We're in south florida in miami and maria is the only one that showed up And everyone else was claiming that they want contracts, but they didn't even show up All right, hold on. She's coming on I don't understand how that's humanly possible Oh, there you are. I'll take it off uh-huh So it's everything he's saying is true and it's funny because I was talking to all your people today as well And I told them like I listened to what he says. That's all I do. I repeat the information you give us and Like I and the reason a lot of people's like, oh, I apologize and stuff like that like i'm out there working It's not like we're sitting back just doing nothing Like i'm out there you're out there and I just finished having this conversation with other people I'm like the big the biggest thing that sets you apart from everybody else is that we're actively doing this thing Yeah, and I use everything that you give everybody else like I use my letter of interest is yours I changed the letterhead. I changed the information. I wrote it differently Capability statement came from you like I regurgitate your information and these people like the guy from yesterday He sent me the scope of work. He's like did I do you the So much so gave you the scope of work. I'm like, no, I'm so used to writing the scope that I didn't even think of asking He's like here you go Am I so So let's ask this you you went okay sunday. You said the email So which and sources that one. Yeah. Yeah, so sources that was last sunday So last sunday. I send out sources that I just responded to it. Um, okay now hold on wait So by the way, so you use the source of thought from the free video that we talked about and the free source of thought template We have on our resources page free Okay, it's a free template on our guffind giants resources page free free like all I did was I looked at it I copy the same information change evan cough to mj global and I send it off sources thought by the way The sources thought came after your video on sources thought it like taught me to go on beta Sam to look to see what's around me. I'm like, why not it's sunday. I have nothing better to do Hold on. I want to say that so by the way, I don't think you guys understand this because we all assume that maria has me She got the idea from watching my video like everyone else could have done It's on youtube So it's not like she Because my I went on there because you pulled out sources thought for Some janets a va one for janet Yeah, I by the way, I do that every week as I do a update a source of thought weekly video On fridays that I give everyone I go through look at all the sources thoughts for the week Uh off of beta dot sam see panama panamanian flavors that I just got off the phone with her Like right before I gave it came into the store and they told me they're five minutes too close Because I was in my car talking to her right now. All right. Keep going. All right. Keep going. So I send in the sources thought And it's funny because I got on the phone with you and I said, oh, it says right here This is not going to be a word This is not a source of an award and I laugh at it because that's all people see so people don't respond to them Right, so you triggered me to actually respond So I respond and then that was last week this week No, at the end of last week Thursday, I get a response from them. I send it out sunday Thursday, I get a response saying oh It's because of your sources thought here's the scope of work and the rfp And I told you yesterday like this the standard form it says I just like I giggled a little bit because I got excited because it says negotiated Like the little box is Negotiated people listen to that negotiated contract Okay, now let me ask you this wait. When did we meet the guy that we're working with? Oh When was it? It was right this it was last last friday last thursday So thursday, okay, so thursday we met him Sunday I send it I had send it off and then this came up So when I got the scope of work for it, I reached out to him for a reference Hey, do you know anyone that does this? It's like repaving of road And his answer right away. He called me. He's like we do that And I was like, oh, do you want to go to a site visit that I got invited? Okay, wait, let's time out maria. How did you meet the guy? Oh Um a year ago, I followed this black guys advice on youtube And I go on the free As profiles of people and I I check off a day because I needed an a day Because there was an opportunity for nasa and you needed to be a florida based a day company with three projects being done So I went on dsbs found construction companies that are a day here in south florida And then I start looking at the past performance because I needed that minimum requirement to be met So I started grabbing their information looking at their past room performance sending out emails And he was one of the guys that when when was that one date? When was that reducing those emails? It was that same sunday I sent sources up Okay, so it's two Sundays ago. Yeah, so so two weeks from this time. Okay. Yeah, all right So two Sundays ago you sent out emails Yeah, I responded We set up a meeting with them. When uh Wednesday, Wednesday. Yeah. Okay. So sunday email the guy you call him on the phone and then we meet with him on wednesday Mm-hmm. So you meet him on wednesday because he responded right away. Let's do it. That's all it was Let's do it Right, so I spoke to him on the phone and I told him do you want to meet? Just so we could go over the the minimum requirements just talk about that So it's this weekend when we're going to start putting it together because you send us all the information We saw that there was a requirement. He couldn't meet So it was the bonding requirement. They required like five million. So I reached out back to him like look Unfortunately, I don't think you can meet this requirement. But We still have that usda sources thought invitation that I got right So, um, I got there early today. So wait, hold on. I gotta go through the steps because I know the story So the usda did they publicly post this bit? No All it was so they didn't publicly post it. So I can't go take this contract from you. I'm sorry, but the way is that date due date is way past it Wait a second. So people when they ask about simplified acquisition, would you call this simplified acquisition? You don't even know the words, right? I I'm gonna guess well, no, well Well depends on the threshold. I don't know where the amount of money is. Okay, you don't know where it's at, right? You don't know how much it's gonna be yet. Okay. The one for the the other one that I went to I can tell you It's simplified acquisition, but that's okay. Okay. There you go. I believe you I It's simplified acquisition it because Eric said so I You know what changed me a lot was I learned to trust you whatever you say just do it Because I used to say but but why I don't get it like but no like I learned to just okay just do it and If it comes it comes because I like you said sometimes resources thought we never hear from them again So and I told you the other day. I'm like, I think I always get the oddball thing in a good way So I got this rft. I showed up to site visit. We were early uh-huh um And the lady came out and she's like, oh who you guys with I'm like, oh mj global She's like, oh you're maria. You're dada. We're like, yes, she's like So the lady knew you when you came Yeah, because I had to send her my name in my company But so many people just bid bid bid bid random jobs random bid we sit out bids How many 50 bids we're gonna get to No, not like that. So, uh, she's like, well, there's another company that's supposed to come Let's give him five minutes because this was 225. It says No late comers will be allowed So I left super early because everyone knows traffic in miami You never know And I was getting on that palmetto so if you're from miami, you know the palmetto So I got there super early good thing because I got lost I ended up at a park because this place is not just a usual base It's like in the middle multimillion dollar houses So I got lost I just I finally made it my guy called me and we're there So she's like, let's wait five minutes for the other company. She goes. Oh, well, I waited enough. She's like first of all I don't like uh late comers. So that's already She's like, we're gonna start anyway She just does not do late comers. Okay So she took us around she explained to us a lot of things like showed us exactly what she needs done Work to get done how she wants the proposal how she wants things itemized exactly what she wants I like the fact that my guy was He's the expert in this and that's why I told him to go because she suggested a few things like edging of the Concrete like how this work how that works the fact Did you know that roots follow the branches on top? So trimming a tree is going to help not crack your foundation with roots. Oh interesting. I didn't know that I didn't That's interesting. Thank you And she explained to us like what they do there is research their research facility But they're in the middle of a beautiful thing out there. Is that the one up old color? Yes Like you think you're going into the estate Tito start, you know, where's that? It says usda, but you don't know your entrance or states. Yes. You have to go into the airing state Yeah Yeah, so, uh, so we were the only ones there She took the time to walk with us stop through those explain everything this is included This is not included. This is what I want my guy suggested a bunch of different things Like she really was she's very strict But she liked that he knew the knowledge and she goes. Have you guys done government contracts? We're like, yes. I actually worked at the coast guard. He's done work. He's like, I've done work with FEMA She's like, oh, she's like, oh, so you guys know how this government stuff works So she goes, oh, so that made her feel like we understand it Understand how this works. So she didn't have to worry about us. Do you know how to tell you to get registered in beta sand? All right, keep going. I'm sorry. I'm a clown I've gotta be a clown. I gotta be a clown right here So, uh, so at the end I told her I'm like, but we're not gonna do it under my under my company We're actually gonna do it under his because he's a day. So in case of anything you could so source it to him So she's like, oh That's really good. She's like, oh, you're a day. She's like, do you guys have a lot of experience in construction? I'm like, yeah So I start telling her what I do and then he start he comes back out and he tells some what he does and she's like Interesting because she's like, do you know anything about greenhouses? So she's like, he's like, um, I do matter. He tells her a little bit more and he's like, well We have that greenhouse over there and the one behind it that we actually been looking to get redone and So when it's time for it to come up, I'm gonna make sure I call you guys So nice, you know, it's interesting. What did when you told you told me this on the phone But what did you say to her that you do at your background destruction? I do facility maintenance. Okay. Thank you. I told her I didn't say that I told her I do a lot of facility maintenance stuff that I worked strictly with the coast guard and that They call me first I told the person from yesterday's site visit as well That I do a lot of the smaller stuff and I work with along with 8a companies that way because she she even told me too She's like, I don't like putting stuff out to this She's like, it's just a long process and the reason they had to do it this way They did the sources thought was because of time crunch That if they were to put it out for bed wait for the site visit wait for submissions wait for everything It's too long of a process and they were not going to make the fiscal year and it's funny Every time she's like any and I'm like, yeah, she's like and you know that year's coming to an end I'm like, yes, we know so she starts giggling like and she says that they're going to issue an award out of this So as if I waited for beta sand for this to come out, I wouldn't have got it. You could keep waiting Okay All right, let me ask you this question From sources thought is a mission a bit when do we expect to hear back from an agency? Okay, so I've submitted sources thought I've never heard from them again Like I said, I happen to always get the odd ball one in a good way So, um, but This one was out personally look guys. I use sources thought as marketing my business It does I'm not I'm not looking to hear back from them Okay, I just keep doing it. Keep doing it. Keep doing it. Um, it's one of many tactics that we use and that we teach So it's not like this is the only thing that you're going to do Right, we have a three pronged approach. This is just one of them So the idea is to be on the top of mind for an agency when opportunities are come around that fits your needs There's no reason to to expect have any expectations when you're doing this Just do it and trust the process know that they're seeing you they're hearing you They're they're receiving your information and again, if you treat it like marketing This is part of your marketing budget. You're just finding another way to get in front of those agencies Um, I've had times where I haven't heard back from them in 18 months And on my presentation that I gave for the sba It was an 18 months before I ever heard back anything from the agency But it's okay because I went sitting around waiting on that one agency. I sent them out to I responded multiple sources sites multiple agencies In the mix like maria just said yesterday she was on a site visit for this yesterday she was on a site visit for something else Sunday she was sitting out sources thoughts Thursday. We're sitting out having a meeting with clients You have to be doing activities, right? So if you're just sitting around waiting for something to come out and pop up on the screen That's and the week before we did two site visits Oh, and I told you the the last three site visits Two of them were not solicited on beta and then the last three. I've been the only company that shows up the last three Three three only so what is the rest of what is the rest of everyone doing out here? I don't know because miami traffic's a little bit insane and I know there's people in miami And I hear every because when I called all them eight eight people they're like, oh, there's nothing There's no work out here. Oh, oh this oh that and I'm like I haven't stopped guys Honestly, I have not stopped since all this covid start happening. I've had three projects Started and finished right. I had proposals. I had site visit I had two site visits in two different places. Well now for with these two today. So it's not It's not an excuse. I don't want to hear it. I was full of excuses So this is not an excuse on the calls Mentoring other people that are doing products in other states as well Right put together deals with them helping them put it together and figure this out in california and other places Yeah, and I am answering people's phone calls about our membership and I'm so excited to email and oh, oh, yeah, and I I got a contract We got a contract signed yesterday to start another project in marathons in islam I got that one. Yeah. Yeah So What agency is that one? Is that one is coast guard? Okay. Okay. That one's coast guard. The proposal I turned in was um airfoil Yesterday, I don't know what these people are under. They're a very unique company and then today's usda Okay, all right This is the work silo says use the source of thought got an invitation to submit a package submit a package Good job. I love it. I love it. Matter of fact Hey, it's that time of year right now. I just One of our guys he said to me he think he takes me to text today and he said eric I just want a monster contract. Thank you so much for everything that you do Uh, my man mo he he won a monster contract today. So like uh For me, I was talking to someone Early like six o'clock and even though they tell me that this is the Untraditional approach for the people on my side. This is the traditional I said that because I when I was on your first seven j training. I'm like This is crazy. I'm like this is like Like for me the untraditional tradition and tradition is untraditional is untraditional right? Like I'm used to and that's why the guys like that I get you the scope of work for me It's like oh, I'm so used to having to write them up. I well you're used to doing negotiated jobs So and that's what I what I say and I should tell people 99 of what I do is not it's all negotiated It's not big work. It's not publicly available. So that's the same thing you're used to But even further you're used to even writing up the jobs to to to give them to yourself So you're spoiled Get off my get off my IG There you go the goat maria That's right. Yes. I am silly what do I mean by saying the year's coming to end the government's fiscal year in september 30th and They typically spend the the largest percentage of their budget it spent in the last three months of the fiscal year So july august september That's when they spend. I think it's like 40 percent of their budget. So that's awesome Uh fourth quarter, baby. That's right virgin islands. What's up? freight lady bj. Okay Uh As a freight broker have a 75 thousand dollar surety bond, but you mentioned that you have to have additional bonding to qualify Uh, I don't know what the bonding requirements are for for freight brokering um We do have someone that just won a contract for freight brokering. You literally yesterday uh what I would suggest to you is To And I and I just applies to everyone if you have a question concern about a requirement Go back and pull up an old solicitation and find out. What are the Requirements say what the standards are and then use that as your basis. So what I would say Is trying to find an old solicitation rp from freight brokering and figure out what what are they calling for in terms of the bond amount And then use that as your basis. That's that's the best information. I don't know off the top of my head what the number is but And and again, I have the video on youtube where we talk about id v's Those are great ways to benchmark your company to see How close are you are being ready to be an actual prime contractor? So id v's Um you go on my youtube video. We talk about how do you use id v's to learn Whether or not your company is prepared to start being working as a prime or should you become a sub? That's a great tool and a great way to start learning What are the things that you need in order to qualify your company to start doing those contracts? Bum bum bum a man says hey maria. Congrats. Just curious to give a consulting company or a construction company. So maria maria has She maria actually is a licensed contractor. So she does have a construction company So when she submits she submits with her company name, but because we Um are trying to take advantage of the again, we're again the idea look There's no one way to skin a cat. I'm sure we've all heard that saying before if you haven't Uh, it just means there's no one way to do things. There's multiple ways Like I was telling somebody today the way that I see myself Is like a deal maker no different than the venture capitalist world and the deal funds. We put deals together So whatever the government needs whatever it takes to put together We go in and bring in those pieces to make it happen In this particular case, we know that's in the fiscal year We know that it's more advantageous for the government to work with Businesses and companies that they can sole source projects. So then we bring in those people Um, if we're looking at an opportunity that requires plumbing We're going to bring a plumbing crime to the table We are looking at the deal right not looking at it for us as an individual We don't do things as individuals. We do things Again, we have a vast network if you're in The gulf con community, you are part of a vast network of other contractors Which again, like I told the girl today. We had someone that says the PPE She had contracts or opportunities for PPE, but she didn't have the funding Well, I go if you have been part of our community, we raised 10 million dollars for PPE You wouldn't have that problem. So again, we look at the deals and what does it take to put a deal together? What are the the the components and the elements that we need to assemble to give the government a complete solution? And that's the way that I see things and that's the way that again when I'm telling everyone out here We may say consultant, right? So when you ask a oh if you're consultant Well, sometimes maria's the prime Sometimes she's the sub sometimes she's a consultant. It just depends on the size of the deal What the government needs what players need to be involved and what they're asking for and that's how we determine it there's no We don't go in like she said she sent in a source of thought notice For mj global, which is her company She called the a day for a reference He happened to say he could do the job, but she didn't call him to do it She called for a reference of someone that could do it so we can put together a good deal Does that make sense? So we didn't look at it. We don't go in there and say that like we're only going to do it this one way We look at it and say, okay. How do we structure this in the best way to where we can be the best qualified Group right to go after and tackle this particular opportunity and that's the way we look at every job That's we look at every bid. We're not So focused in on how I have to have it like I haven't called fast to have it or mj global has to have it we We put together the deals and and then some of my podcast guests Have come on and said as small businesses We're supposed to be working together not against each other if you have a ppe contract or an opportunity That's five million bucks and there's a million in profit and you sit on it And shame on you Shame on you. I'm not upset that you didn't make a dollar I'm not I'm not even mad at you because you're supposed to take that and bring it to the table and say Hey guys, we've got this opportunity But what do most folks do crab in the bucket mentality, right? They try to keep it to themselves and say, oh, I'm gonna try to figure this thing out and it can get nothing Right. So what what do we always say? Uh, a hundred percent of zero is still zero five percent Of you know something's better than nothing and that's really what I find a lot of people come into this and they send me emails all day Going this don't work and I ain't got nothing happening for me. Nothing's moving We on the phone with people every day doing deals, baby We talking to people every day every single day pierce is on here. Did I not talk to pierce missy? Did I not talk to you another day? Okay, karen. I wasn't karen was on the call with us last night We were on a meet and greet at seven. We were on a call at eight Okay, I mean we are doing deals. We are talking to each other. We are openly sharing Information that we have because no one of us can go and grab all of the market data in the market research Hey, you're over here. You see this we talked to rafa rafa's over here rafa's working on a job with f.a. North Carolina She's also putting together a bid in indiana that came from randy who's in texas We're Again, if you look at the the the post that I did today democratization of information Make it available put it out there on the facebook group Like I said if you go to an event and you grab the slide presentations drop it in a group so everyone can have it What is the point and what's the good of you having that information? And you can't do nothing with it and no one else can have it and you keep it to yourself And no one else could do anything with it if you put it in the hands of someone that could do something with it What do you think is a likelihood that they're going to come back around and reciprocate for you? And then do a deal with you and that's what we find happened We took on a lani who hit me up on linkedin. I brought into our circle We've now done three or four projects with her We're now doing some other products where and and she's out of like san diego out in california and so now she's in our inner circle and There's not a two days that go by where someone is not talking to her communicating her and she's looking at stuff out in california So again, what I see is happening is so many people Are treating us these deals like it's like it's freaking corona virus And we gotta stay social distancing from each other. This ain't corona virus That delay is we don't have to social distance each other from deals like we're supposed to be Bringing it coming together. We are all small businesses We are all small businesses That's just the truth whether it's a woman or veteran a day a hub zone Opportunities on a section three section eight. It don't matter. We all we listen. We're all the same way none of us Have tens of millions of hundreds of millions of dollars to be able to do any of the stuff alone But collectively right Just like and i'm sure because I know my audience. I'm sure we all saw the recent shooting Of the guy who shot seven times they raised a million dollars, right? And may not be a great example, but when people did a fundraising for him They raised one million dollars because they came together So why cannot what why does it take a tragedy to happen for us to come together to raise money To work together. Why does it take something? Devastating to happen for everyone to get together around a collective effort. Why not Be proactive and let's come together around a collective effort of Going out to contracts and opportunities and taking it away from some of the people who may not Um want to reciprocate may not want to do business with people that look like you That may not want to do business with people that sound like you that come from where you come from Let's work together and bring opportunities back in house So then we can hire folks We can employ people from our communities. We can come together and create more opportunities because as I get more As you get more as the other person here gets more there's 22 of us So here you get more imagine if the 22 of us all had million dollar contracts We now have a 22 million dollar collective company If we all got two million dollar contracts and we now have 44 million dollars in economic power That's that's saying something that that's that means a lot. Let me go down and read the concepts Let me see what we got Maria's on point you're like a pro after the course and support Competive mates not competition. I like that competing mates. I like that So if I'm not licensed contract, however, I go one of the team we could bid Let me tell you something twist twisted works engraving the government On these construction bids and you can ask Maria. They've never asked for licensing They don't ask you for your contracts license on a federal government a contractor's license is a state license When you're working on a federal facility a federal facility is higher than a state So the the government does not recognize that state license now I've seen it on really big projects They may ask for one of your people on the site to have certain certifications But for the most part on federal jobs, they don't require state licenses And so to have you don't need a license contractor to work And then there's some states where they don't even have licensed contractors So that makes sense to me where The government doesn't put it in the requirements. I none of my projects I'm I'm doing again. I just want a 4.9 million dollar project to do a parking garage It's all like it's a lot of concrete and spalling work. It's all like, you know, when you see the concrete You see like the metal and the rusting bars in it We're going to be fixing all that taking that out and replacing it They're in a 4.9 million dollar project. They did not ask for a license contractor anywhere in none of my requirements asked for a license contractor Um, st. Pete st. Pete. When do you go to a site visit? Do you put your company name down or the prime company name that's back in you? um If I were to go to a site visit I would put down again again It depends are you if you have a relation to prime. I would put down the prime company's name but but On the federal site site visits typically are not mandatory Uh, very helpful detail. Some folks are looking for microwave answers to arrive at millions Don't want to do the work. Govcom money is not so easy. No, I agree No, I know people on microwave. Look, I know what they look I know what they want me to tell them But I'm not gonna tell them that I'm not gonna give them microwave answers We do more together See karen it's enough money federal bids for everyone to get paid exactly My man said I'm rolling good No, it is I don't If you scroll on my IG feed since all of you are IG people And you look at the recent awards that the government gave and if you just go back In the last two weeks on just my feet You're gonna see more money then If together we divided up between the 21 of us on this call Every one of us would have like $10 million in our account I don't know why people are so Thinking there's not an abundance of money. Our government told you you can watch I don't know if y'all watching republican national convention. Some of y'all probably are I don't know if y'all not watching dnc convention last week, but if you go in there They are printing money. They tell you this stuff They're not ashamed the government's not even like ashamed anymore to say we just print more money They've just printed money. Why are people so worried? I have no idea. What are you afraid of when They just print three trillion dollars What are y'all What are you afraid of that someone's gonna take away from you because I that's another thing that bugs me karen That people come to me and says well eric if I introduce this guy to this contract and then he goes behind my back There's a million contracts So what if the guy goes behind your back? If you wanted to and and this is so like a lot of people Send me messages. I want to be a mentor. I want to learn from you. Okay, if you go out and um You were to be a mentor or under me, right? And you were to find an opportunity for me What's the difference between you go and find an opportunity for another company that don't pay you It's hey pretend you was pretend you was an intern That's it Like it's there's no hard feelings in this stuff guys. It's you know, I was listening to jim rom today I love jim rom jim rom says way to learn from successful people If it comes easy do it easy if it comes hard do it hard. It doesn't matter. Just get it done So if it's hard or just do it hard if it's easy do it easy But the thing is you just have to do these things it like so the fact that someone stole an opportunity or he didn't pay you so what? I honestly I don't even look at that stuff when maria got burned over for this plumber guy For you know, five grand. I think it was that he burned us for seven grand. Whatever. I told maria so what? He saved us money because what we ended up doing was What we were agreeing to split with him Was higher than what we agreed to split with other people in the future So I go maria the next contract that you did you actually saved money because now you're not you're not cutting getting so much You're not you're getting more of the pie So the next contract where there's like we're splitting on 15,000 You're not giving away half So so you actually made money by this guy cheating you but so many of us don't look at that We only see the fact that this guy stripped us out of 5,000 right and if and if that's Enough to deter you To to discourage you to make you want to go to commit a violent act Then you in the wrong place like you you should be doing something different Um, you know, I just I really do I think you in the wrong spot Like if if $5,000 is enough for you to commit a violent act on someone enough for you to go berserk then You probably should be doing something else. You're probably a good job I'm just be honest with you because uh, I expect most of you will get burned for Some thousands of dollars at some point you're in business like that's gonna happen You're in business that you should mentally Set up your expectation that at some point You're gonna have to do that Eric, you got me looking at fitness equipment maintenance. I bet those guys looking on beta. That's it Some ballman youtube told me that No, I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it Uh, deal blacks here and I share business trucking Justin told about you. Oh cool. Okay. All right. Good job Trucking Justin for plugging your boy Anyone want to connect to Atlanta area, Georgia? We've got a lot of people in Atlanta area So a ton of people in Atlanta area in fact all your trucking people I'm gonna be doing a podcast with one of the trucking people pretty soon, so We uh, we're doing that Uh, let's see. What else we got? I sure no one would do exactly like you. Yeah. No, I agree with you All right, let's see Can you talk about state and local city contracts as a new business? Uh, we we talked I actually on Monday if you go on my youtube We did a how do you use your certifications and we talked about state and local as well Uh as a new business, so we actually I just did that on youtube Literally, I think it was Monday. I just did that video So it's still up so you can you can catch that video on youtube Where we talked about how best to use your certifications But real quick With state and local city contracts the thing I like about state dbe programs We got leads listen silo I don't even know how to say the name babies the last four of the game. We have leads in indiana So we going back to the state and local deal. Well, I'll touch on it for about two minutes And go from there So in the state local deal, uh, you have dbe certifications Dbe is the state certification And what I like about it is have reciprocity amongst a lot of the cities and towns So if you were to get dbe you can carry that with various cities Throughout the state various municipalities. They they they actually Respect and honor the dbe and also They will allow you because you have dbe to get their cbe certifications What the thing is again, I'm not I don't teach state and local contracting because I stand by and I believe wholeheartedly in federal government contracting But there are advantages of state and local contracts and for example on the local side Uh, what we talked about on the video was the fact that uh, they do have what they call rotation list So there are a lot of rotation lists on the local contracting side And then they have what it's called pool contracts, uh, which pol contracts And what I always advise people to do is if you not just get registered at the local level Inside a general pool But uh, I would encourage you to find the pool the list of vendors within the city registration So that takes another step that you typically no one's telling you about And the example that I offer up on my video on monday was uh, the hurricane contracts Because I love the hurricane debris because again freight truckers hurricane debris hauling right of trash disposal garbage They're right. That's all your name is trucking with us for life. So I figured you're trucking logistics Um, even in miami florida right now I pulled up that contract and I could till it I can pull up that pool It's public information. There's seven vendors on the list seven How is it that there's a 90 million dollar contract for for a pool of contractors to do debris removal debris hauling And the state of florida, which is projected. This would be the highest hurricane season on record in most recent years They projected that because they raised my assurance rates by double of all my properties So I know that because I paid because out of the wazoo and insurance And there's only seven vendors on that list within the city of miami day county And I bet it's the same thing in louisiana and alabama and the panhandle People are getting registered at the dbe level not going to the actual pools Where they they narrow down the the focus on a specific area So that's what I would say if you're dbe or cbe sbe any of those bs Uh at the state and local level looking to the vendor pools That target your specific area All right, and I'm at one minute and 41 seconds. Uh, What advice do you give a small it training and course development contractor? Well, there's a couple things. I give you It and training we have an it facebook group already free it and telecom have it and telecom facebook group That's free and we've got people on here today pierce is leading the command on that We look at all of the upcoming opportunities it and telecom related We do friday workshops where we go over and do a q&a session on how you can qualify for it and telecom opportunities We look at everything that is the only group. We're because there's so much interest in that space And the contacts are so large and so vast Um, and there's so there's just so much opportunity in it and telecom right now that we literally we pull down every single current Present I mean path not past but the current now the upcoming and then the future opportunities We look at everything. Um, and we actually have a curated q&a session every friday in the group for it and telecom So if you're in that space jump in that facebook group because it's it's made Specifically for you and we're looking at doing the same thing in other professional spaces but I just started with it and telecom because it was so hot and I've made a video and in fact I have a video on youtube That says five ways it and telecom companies can start taking advantage of the federal contracting market So go on my youtube And you'll see that on there. It's got five ways it and telecom companies can take advantage of the marketplace