 Hey, GovCon Giants family on this week's edition of Making a Giant, host Maria Martinez. We have a special guest, Alex, whose father was a cab driver and he started helping his father answering calls for his cab business when he was just a child. Then as he grew up and started working for an IT company, he soon realized that he can do things better himself. So he stepped out onto his own and that's why we're making this episode today. Long behold, he started winning his first opportunity. So in this particular episode, you're going to hear about Alex's journey and how he started and where he's at today. Stay tuned for this week's episode of Making a Giant. Today, we're going to actually feature somebody new to all of us. His name is Alex and Alex, I just want to thank you for wanting to share your story with all of us because Alex, just like me, not so long ago, we got our first contract and we want to feature people that just like me and you come from humble beginnings and our struggles, our path to getting that first contract. So Alex, thank you again for coming on and sharing your story. My pleasure. I'm so privileged and honored to be here and thank you. So Alex, first of all, tell us where you are. Right currently, I'm in Hawaii. Oh, beautiful island of Hawaii, must be nice. We're here suffering stateside, so, but are you from Hawaii? No, I'm from Houston, Texas, that's my place. Oh, Texas. Okay. So just tell us a little bit about who you are, who is Alex, how did he grow up and how did you come from that to where we are now in Hawaii? Oh man, okay, welcome to my story and my life. It's great. I grew up in a household where it was a family owned business and it was a cab company. So like yellow cars, black strife, checkers, you know, we're putting light dome lights on, like outside doing it, I mean, I know how meters work, dispatch, but the thing about the cab company is the phone rang 24-7 and it was family owned, so guess what? If you buy a phone, it's your turn. It's not like I'm not answering the phone today. Like, hey, so, and we had three, it was three boys, so it was real funny, the two I had two other brothers, so it was great, but my mom and dad were there. That was the biggest blessing. Are you the oldest, middle or small? Which one? I'm in the middle. We're all two years apart, so it's no, we all understand, we're all on the same page. Okay. Okay. So you grew up in a household, both parents, it's three brothers and a cab. So if it's your turn to answer the phone, doesn't matter if it's five in the morning, 12 or midnight? No, it doesn't matter. And I think that's what really, now that I really think about it, I'm glad you triggered this thought in my mind. I think my dad inspired me because I saw him start from the yellow cab and then he worked with the red cab and brown cab and squared, like I'm serious, yes, the cab. Okay. I saw all of this, every cab comes with liberty and so he's, I guess, learned the game and ended up starting his own business and it worked because we were a little outside of Houston area and we had no competition, so the phone ran 24-7. So you might get real business accounts from hotels or you might get people calling you and you know, hey, I'm drunk, I'm drunk, I'm in the cab. You know, you never know, but you had to be professional, you had to be courteous and you got to know some people have emergencies to where you have to, people depend on you. It can be, I need to get here at a time. So we took it seriously. We grew up where people did depend on us at any time because you know, you never know what somebody needs. So bottom line is customer service was serious. It wasn't just, you know, answer the phone. Like every time you talk to somebody, you may not have to talk to this person again, you know. And then you got, then you had to call somebody else. Hey, we got this location, can you go pick them up? Like what's your address? What's your number? What's your name? Now, back then, because I didn't have my first cell phone until I was a sophomore in college. So back then, how did you, did you guys have cell phones? I don't know. Don't say if you buy a phone. Oh, like a pay, a pay phone. It was in the house. The old school cord ones. And once things got better, you got the cordless ones. Exactly. OK. Got the office phone in the front, so you got to run in there most of the time. OK. Did you do that all the way, growing up all the way to the end of high school? When did you stop? Oh, no, I was doing that simultaneously because I was getting paid for this. So I got to high school at 16. It's time to start working so I can buy my own stuff. So I still had jobs working in your red lobster, wait, say, brandos and sacking groceries and everything. I was working all the way up to nonstop while still answering the calls. Even after I left the house, if you just show up the family visit or whatever in the phone ring, somebody still has to do it. Oh, no. It never went away. Thanks, Givin. Thanks, Givin. That's true because holidays, it's when more people needed calves back then. Because back then we didn't have Uber or any of this. Yeah, Super Bowl. Oh, man, we couldn't wait. That was when it was this. Everybody was calling. So now you graduate high school. Now what's next? Graduate high school, got accepted to a lot of schools. All these good things. But all I know grew up thinking was watching TV. Oh, man, my parents have to pay for school. And so I always told myself that I'm not going to be able to pay for it. So I'm always going to go to community college. And so I ended up doing that. And after that time, I'm like, OK, what's next? Found an IT school and just started doing ground up ITs to build it. It was the dying end of where you build computers for strats. So that's over. I graduated building computers, electricity, and all that stuff. And right when I got out, that thing was over. Like, it probably doesn't exist anymore. Because nowadays, it's cheaper to buy a computer than go and get it fixed. Yes. Yeah, it's like $500 just to somebody to stick a hard drive in there. Nobody does that. Yeah, your hard drive at school, you get a new hard drive put in. And now it's like, you know what? I just know next time I need something with a bigger hard drive. I upgrade. Yeah, that's what that means. It's time to upgrade. OK, so you went to community college. Now you learn how to build a computer. But now there's no need for you. Yeah, well, it wasn't that bad yet. But I knew once I did that, they had another course, which was administration learning how to active directory and stuff. So now it's a little bit of learning how to active directory structure works. And so I took that and got certified before I graduated. And so I got my first job, like $9 an hour, service desk, customer service. But it was still like, we're actually calling you. So I might get one of those jobs where they can curse you out. The outbound calling, people, the code calling. Yeah. And then we're billing too. It's like, who are you? So I was cool. But in that, every once in a while, one of the services that a company provided was actually, I need help with my computer customer. And so I was walking through, you know, blind walking people through, you know, after that guy went Verizon wireless, learned the wireless side, how to phones, where they first came out smartphones. And yeah, it's bottom line. It was nothing but customer service. And I did that for years. And then I finally had a break. One guy, one of the customer service jobs, I had, he came back from overseas. I'm like, what? I'm back. He's like, man, they're bombing out there. It's not funny. It's not funny. No, no, but. I'm like, man, I said, but I say, okay, are they hiring? That's the first thing I ask myself, are they hiring? Because I had to change my lifestyle, man. Like, I'd rather go out there and try than just sit here. You might as well get blown up. That's how I felt at that point in my life. Because I- Like you were just stagnant. Like you've been doing the same thing with no purpose for so long. I'll tell you what did it. Is when I got one job that was so bad and customer service, it was shift work. It was 14 hours. And so some of the calls may be, most of them averaged less than 10 seconds because they were password resets and unlocks. So I'm like 14 hours. So after that, I said, I'm done at the help desk level. Okay. And if I'm gonna do that, let me go get paid 10 times the amount for it. So I told all they hiring. And you're like, yeah, so I waited a year and I finally got on. They just took that long and they sent me out there and I came in ground level service desk. And the first thing I did when I got out there was, hey, middle of nowhere. I said, what do I do to get to the next level? And she said, administration. And they say, okay, you need to one, I'm glad you asked, because nobody does. They just go, oh, I made it. No, it don't work like that. So he said, I'm one of the guys who used to do this. And I like to say, my site was small. So I'm like, what are the odds? It's only like three guys in the whole place. In the whole, you know, out of thousands. So he told me what to do. He studied with me and he said, you got to get your security plus, but you got to go to another site because we were small. So I went through five days, just two days, just waiting to leave, you know, like camping out because out in that world contractors, you in the back because the military is first because it's really going down over there. So you're gonna sit down somewhere. These guys need to get in choppers for real weight through your security plus. What year was this? This was 2012. Okay, so right in the middle of things going on over there. Oh yeah, yeah. It was getting a little bit better this time. It was still, you know, it never stops, I guess. No. But I wasn't in, luckily I was more high ground. So I didn't experience a lot of these things. Ew, high ground is not. But the possibility is still there. Oh, it's really there. And it's still harder life because you're now high ground. You know, mountains, those are like, this ain't grass, you know, nobody's playing out here. And so people thought, I guess I was crazy because it was miserable out there. I was happy. I'm like, yeah. Like you thought you made it. Like this is your chance to grow. And we're safe compared to most people. What are you guys doing out here? So I got in there, got an interview to get to the next level and got an interview was like, hey man, it's 50-50. I don't know what to do. I said, I don't know what to do. I said, listen, man, I just started, I'll do what I need to do. And I'm already here. I'm gonna learn from these guys and grow. He said, yeah, you know what you're right. Gave me a chance. So I got, yeah. So next level was get to go up, you know, go up a little higher. And luckily that happened right on time because a couple of months later, that location was closing. And yeah, as soon as I got this, I really didn't get a chance to train yet. So I'm like. And they're like, it's all right. Soon as soon as I get there, I said, okay. And I interviewed for another location, the biggest location. And I ended up getting the job as a lead out there. I don't know how it happened, but it happened. And I was, you know, I was like, thank you. And most people was like, you shouldn't go out there. You know, that's the spotlight. Everybody's gonna know what you're doing. So you're being negative. I said, man, spotlight. I said, man, whatever. Let me go and do what I have to do. And so I get up there and just did my job was, didn't ask questions. Yes, sir. Handling the customer, helping out. And then luckily I did that because a couple months later, that contract changed. And the people above me who I reported to with two managers, both their positions got eliminated. So it was just one site manager. And it used to be three kind of like pyramid type. But after that, it was like, hey, Alex, site manager can handle all of this load. Can you, you know, step in for, we'll make a job for you, which is a combination of the other two guys. It was called automations. Okay. So I was over like, most of the, the strategic side was like, you know, help desk, system administration, network administration, both the customer service and not really the com side. But not too long, of course, with a new contract, the site manager, oh, before I say that, the site managers told me, and I was lucky I met him. He said, my job is to make sure you know my job. So he took me under his wing. And off top, he had me just working on metrics and measurements and stuff like that. So we can report it up to the contractor, the contractor officer and people who use it to a paying for it. So we gather, we work, we O and M, and then we transport that information. And so that's what the site manager is. He's like the hub from the top to the bottom. So it was actually better than that. There were two, there were two guys before I got promoted to site manager. When that guy left, who taught me a lot, there was another guy. So I gotta tell you about both of them. One, the first guy, his thing was to teach me everything he knows. I'm like, thank you for that. I started doing his work immediately. And if I had questions, I asked him. And so I was the one who was already used to presenting work. It made sense easy, you know, just get it together. I was hard to beat. So then the other guy was like, every time I had a question, he was like, read the manual. Okay. Read the company. You have a handbook, we got a pyops. We had, this company had everything you needed. I'm like, every question, it was crazy. So he got me reading the whole thing every time. And so I had both best of both worlds. And so I don't understand how to find my own answers because people were asking me questions left and right from other sites from all these managers, like 13 different departments, a hundred some people. I was getting questions everywhere. Payroll, training, you know, the audits, CCRI. So I learned a lot. I learned about, you know, it's the security side, patent scanning. I know that's what it's all about at the end of the day. Keep our network safe. Okay. And is it up? And is it safe? That's it. That's it. And then send us the data. So after that, I got to open up my own site in a remote location. It's not my site, but I'll just sit and manage that. Okay. Yes. So it's from the ground up. And I thought it was more of like, I go out there and everything to be set up. It's a site. No, it was computers and boxes. No place to sit. It was like they gave you an empty building with materials and boxes. Here you go. Middle of the nowhere desert. Just get out here and go through the gates. But the worst part about it is that was nothing because it took us months just to get into the gates. It was worse than we got out there like, who are you people? Who are you people? So it was a whole another level. It wasn't even, you know, it was like, who are you at the gate? So we had, I had to learn, you know, political, you had to learn how to deal with other foreign countries a little bit and talk to people. I learned hustle, like just sit here and wait for the right person and talk to them. So I ended up just by any means necessary because it was a good location and I didn't want to leave and go back to the BS. It's like, you know, no more hard life. Oh, open up my own site. And the thing about it is go out there. Who are you people? So I had to not only learn how to do logistics, you go to a department in another country, you got washers and dryers, people's departments flooding, you got people, it's everything's on me, you know, life. So you know, taking care of talking to different types of leaderships because you still have a country and then you still have the agency that you're working with. So bottom line is I learned how to build stuff in the ground up for real, how it actually works. Like you get the internet comes through here and this is what you do with it. Oh. You take some cables, you put fiber, you go underground digs and trenches. So we were digging trenches. I was out of digging trenches with my guys. I didn't care. I was like, you know what? We're gonna do this job and we're gonna do it right. This is our site. We're gonna say we're not leaving. This is a good life. And I was out, yeah, 100 degrees, 100, some degrees digging. I didn't care. It's like, man, I was a man. I loved it. But you know what? It's very important, I think in an organization to see the leader, and we've heard this from other podcasts, to see the leader going out there and doing what needs to be done and showing that you're not above everybody else. Yeah, and the customer love because they didn't really like us at first because we weren't supposed to get there like, who are you? Because nobody just shows up at this location. And so we had to establish a whole another way being the first company to be on that soil. So by the time we got in there, it was like, okay, we've been paying you guys this whole time. Who are you? So we're getting there. They don't like us off the top. But once I was out there working, man, and we got to go ahead and we got in, and I got in and we started working, working, working. Had to find a place to stay. We had to find a location that was just a tin, had to negotiate to get an old tin, had cat urine, and he was like, so guess what we did? We got hoses and power wash and we scrubbed with bleach for the whole team. Let's go. Let's figure it out. Let's figure it out. We're not trying to go back. So let's go. We did it. And the customer started like, man, these guys are serious. Started learning the rules, like the security rules on how to start having data now. Now you got it, the stuff running. You got cyber information assurance. You got the right people, the Fed ramp and what we didn't do fair straight up, straight up die cap, which was the same thing. Goes back to NIST 800, the same type of phone. Oh. So yeah, so you have to patch cyber. We had to get the right type of certifications for people to sign off on it. So bottom line, I was learning all sorts of things. And then you get to, okay, what happens to the point where let's say a user shows up and now my access keys now work. You're in the middle of nowhere. What do you do? So I learned a lot of little things and into that. How long were you there? I was there, I was there for about a year, but the whole process of management is about five years and different location management, yes. And all overseas at this point? Yes. And the other one that had me right, when you had like a group of 100 people, 13 people was, you know, I was too close. That was a problem, I'm too close because you got to do it. So, but yeah. And at that point, you are one of the staff members being contracted out for the government. Yeah, same thing, same thing. Just finally moved, you know, making it up to the ladder. And then I'm thinking, I'm really getting up there, right? And then I'm like, having management meetings and it was great and the person above me said, one day I'm gonna have my own program. I'm like, okay, that sounds like a good dream because I'm like, what do you do? Everybody's waking up for five years from now. Everybody doesn't do that. We got family to take care of, yeah. What are we gonna do? Like what do you want? So I was like, okay, that's good. Your goal in life is to be a program manager. I'm like, that's great, but I'd rather have my own company debt, you know what I mean? Has the contract. You're the contract holder now. I said, your goal is to still work in your life. Yeah. But you know what? I've learned recently, because my whole life I worked and ever since I was 16, I've never thought in my normal brain that I wanted my own business and what that would feel like. But you grew up very different. Your dad had his own business. So you saw the positives from that. So I guess is that the moment it clicked like, you know what, I'm gonna stop working for this person and I wanna be the person that holds the contract and holds everybody accountable. Yes, he messed up when he told me that, cause I wasn't even thinking about that. Cause I used to think I was younger five years. Like I don't even own that anymore. I'm like, so like over 40 years old and that's what you're... Still thinking next. You know what? In five years, I'm gonna do it. Five years, five years, five years. Right now, watching lettuce. Yeah, so, and it still wasn't a bad, it wasn't a bad dream. I'm like, that's good, cause I wanna be. I remember when I first got going to the first, next level, I was like, man, I could be a site manager. I was thinking just like him, but he, the next level of it, you know, why not just have your own company? I'm like, that's impossible. That's impossible. So five years down the road, but maybe five years down the road, I mentioned my, who I still work with, he started his own company. I'm like, no, you didn't. See, I started, I started my own government company. I'm like, okay, you can do it. I know I can't, cause I was, his boss too. I'm like, man, nah. And I was like, you know, I actually understood how the information flows. And so that's, that's kind of where it just started hitting me when he did it. I'm like, you see somebody else doing it. Okay. Yeah, it made it real. Like if you could, wait, like you said, if you could do it, that means I, like I could definitely do it. I didn't know where to start. So I said, who's your guy? First, you spend all this money, you can work with this person. All I had to do was watch y'all's video. But I would have been at my company maybe 10 years ago. Who knows? I'm just saying. So you start looking to see how he did it. He pointed to you one direction. And you saw that, that was not the way to go. So then. No, I took it. Oh, you took it. I jumped on it. And I wish I had did more research. Not saying nothing's wrong cause everything has been blessed. Everything is lined up perfectly. So I'm not knocking on anything. Everything happens for a reason and you learned something from that person. But you also saw that there's something there and you knew there was something more to go look for more. Yeah, I just didn't know. Like I think where everybody who's helped me, nobody's done me wrong. It's actually worked out great to why I got my brand feeling right. And so whoever's been with me is still being meant to be. So I'm just saying that there's other ways of doing it. And you can save a lot of time and it won't cost you anything. That's all. So when did you start learning the operations of how to now have your own business and be the contract holder? Okay, because the site management position has kind of morphed into more of a task, site management starting to go that route where you're not just doing all the panning here. You're more of like, how does this align with the actual contract? Looking at the deliverables. And like, how do you tailor it to mesh to go right? And you still presented to the guys. And then from this level, now you see how the information flows back down to the contractor officer. So you're just learning. And I'm like, okay, I can do this. Because if I work for the ground up, I know not only how to get the information, I know exactly what they did to get it. They answered the call. So what did you do next? So from there, I did a little bit of engineering too. That was blessing, man. I went to a site where I went to system leadership. I said it was time to still get my technical side back too. Cause I needed more, I still like to learn. But management was stressful too. Where sometimes, yeah, especially we got phone ringing 24 seven and I've been doing it my whole life. Like, you know, give me a break sometimes. So I went into more a line with the technical side too, to get my roots back a little bit. Cause I, you know, and so I was always good certifications along the way. No matter how I do, I get certifications. And I said, but let me get back into actually doing it's been so long. And I ended up doing some architect domain, the active director architect type work. I've never seen it being built for an enterprise level from the ground up. So I got to see like, this is our domain name. This is our demand controller. Like Alex, go build the, you know, the GNC server. You know, I'm working with Microsoft and yeah. And so that helped me to get the next level job was virtualization, which is that changed my life. Where I'm learning how to, well, I learned how to use VMware, Cisco, all these types of things. And I learned how to, you know, work with it. Clouds, have anything about cloud. And how does it get from your location to the next location? And for some of us, like even for me, you talking, I've heard these words because of our previous guess and I've seen like opportunities come up. But for me, as long as it works, thank you. That's all I need to know. I turn on my computer, I do something and hopefully like when I put my credit card in, nothing happens. But then we stop, we don't stop to think everything that people have to do and all the systems that have to be in place in order to make it work. And you took your opportunity and you learned all that from having to unpack boxes and dig together, internet going all the way to the top and seeing now you're seeing a contract, you're reading the deliverables and the scope of work and having to follow that to make all this happen for all of us and even our country. Yes, man, thank you. And that's why I get so happy once I knew I was going to the so-called bomb land, whatever, like limit. Thank you, Lord, for letting me, thank you for letting me a chance because I'm gonna take it. And so, you know, that's where I'm at. I was gonna say something. Trying to remember, it was nice, it was nice. Maybe you'll trigger it again. Yeah, so now you started your own company and now what? How do you, because I didn't know I could start my own company that easy, but you've seen it. So now you start your own company, now what do you do with it? Well, that's the thing, it's pretty fresh. It's pretty fresh and I'm gonna take you, I wanna take advantage personally of the digital transformation era, which means software as a service, people are now using Dropbox, that you come to secure, people are using Office 365 everywhere, Cloud, but the good part about it is the digital transformation, you got everybody going to the cloud, but a lot of people are really not going to the cloud now. All the stuff on your own site with different types of hardware in the same, so I wanna play both sides. So, I think we missed a big part. You started learning about, your friend came to you, he told you how to do it, and then you found Eric, I'm gonna guess, who I think both of us have learned a lot from. What was it, because I asked people this a lot, what was it about Eric that got you to keep going and take the next step, to take the next step, to go and believe that you could be the contractor next? The main thing is professionalism, because of the chase, you got stuff as crisp and clear, it's not all scratching the background, power pulling boring, like you all just talk, it's a one feeling, and it's straight to the point, and it's real advice, I've used you guys' stuff twice. So, the way I came to know about you is Eric forwarded me an email from back in July 23rd, and I actually have it here, and I'm gonna read it, it says, I hope you're doing well, first off, let me thank you for encouraging people to not be so scared, and go out there and try to win, because I won my first contract, and that was July 23rd. So, how did you win your first contract? You've always been on the other side, there had to be something that clicked, or something you had to do extra, in order to go from being an employee and someone that worked for a contract to getting that contract. I hate to say this, but I have to thank you to COVID-19, because you gave me the opportunities to have, to work from home, to take advantage of time. Okay, so now you're at home working, what did you do during that time? During that time, as soon as I, first thing I did was jump into Unison Global for the easy wins. Okay. Bed, bed, Unison Global, and I just started looking at contracts and reading them, what do they want? What can I do? And I found one that was like, it could be a revolving fixed year type thing, and it was more like site maintenance, but it was maintaining software, but it's even though I didn't know nothing about it, I understand that you don't have technicians. Okay. And you don't want some deliverables. So when you looked at this opportunity, you didn't even understand all of it, but something in you gave you the confidence to know, you're gonna make it happen. Yeah, because you guys can't cut the chase. Eric says, just how you read a contract, where it's going, who it is, skip out of mumbo jumbo. This is what they want. And I'm seeing this stuff at work anyway. So I'm like, man, like just, can you do this or not? This is what they want, this is requirements. And let's start there. So you just went for it? Yeah, I found a professional who works in that, but I don't just look for anybody. I look for, took advice, people who've been there for 20, 30 years, this is what they do. So I reached out to somebody in my area though, Ziz and Chase. And I found out they were like one of the top people period in providing the service. And the customer loved it. What did that person that's been in the field for 20, 30 years, what was their, how was their reaction when you came to them? Because a lot of us are scared to like, when am I gonna, I'm new to this, I'm going to someone who's been doing it. So it's like, that fear stops them from even approaching them, from making a phone call. So walk us through like what you thought when you went to this person that's been doing this for so long and what was their reaction? Let me tell you something, man. The way this game is, I just, I just about to have fun with everybody on this list. It felt like a phone book. I'm gonna go to all these contracts. I'm gonna take it back for this time. So I just call, I was cop, I was copping. I looked at voicemail. I said, hey, this is my company. I'm here for this type of contract. I know you do it. It's for government though. And they usually do commercial. I said, so just let me know what you're doing, these requirements. I think we can win it, you know? Gave me that fear like, okay, who's this government guy? Can you take that really? Yeah, so he just called me back and we talked. I said, I need a quote. I said, here's what it is. It's just, I was able to understand the technical part of it. So I'll understand the servers and how it worked. Like this is what they need. It's just simple, this, this and this. And kind of send it to them. And I think that that's probably something that they knew what you were talking about. You did not just call them and ask for a quote and that's it. You were able to walk them through it. I think that's very important that I think the way we carry ourselves and like you said, you had confidence. Let's, we could win this. Like that gave them a sense of confidence too. Like, oh, this guy's for real. So you get the quote, you do the proposal and you send it off. Send it off. The first time nothing happened. Okay. Oh man. We didn't hear anything. It's like reverse bid. I'm like, I think we lost. I don't know. Cause it was behind. And so it was over. And then I told the dude, I was like, you know what? I've seen it happen. I've seen it reappeared many times. So I said, you know what? They may call us back cause we're, but we're done. We're not going to keep playing and going back and forth with the numbers. We'll see what happens. Next thing I know out of nowhere, I get an email back from the guy. Hey, can you go and reset it for the next, you know? Like we're going to repost it again. But I was winning. Cause they liked, they did a research about me, the company. They're like, okay, these guys are going to do it right. And that's all they care about. We need this job done. Thank you. What do they care about? We need this job done. So not that I'm the lowest bidder. Not that this and that. It's the fact that you were able to show that you are going to get the job done. And I think that's very important for people to hear. Like the government is very risk-evers. You could have the lowest price, but they have to have confidence in whatever you submit that you're going to get it done. So you resubmit and then? Resubmit makes me know it starts saying I was at the front for the longest. And it was just over. So like we, what happened? What happened? Like I think we won, but I don't know anything. As I get these emails start coming in, you know, you want to hear just how you get your money. I'm like, okay. Yeah, man, it was, it just happened at the blue and everybody was happy. And I hope I build a relationship with the agency and then with the company I was working with. Cause they're both professionals. That's how it happened. That's awesome. How was that feeling of getting that first contract? Now I can't stop. That's the problem. Cause it's two AM in the morning. I wake up just trying to, cause you know, I'm right. Currently I'm my time zone is different. So I need to make sure everything's in sync. So I don't care. I'm excited. I wake up with energy. I wake up with joy and just, I can go all day with this. Okay. So from the time you first start your company to the time you find the opportunity, how long is that? Oh, that took a while, but I didn't get serious. By the time I started, it took about, I say that was one of the first people I reached out to immediately. It's like three calls. Okay. So after you find the opportunity and you submit it your bid, how long was, how long did it take for you to hear something? Took until about maybe 21 days for everything was right. Okay. So it's, it happened quick for you, but so, but people think like you submit and that's it. You get a yes or no. And like you told us, like you submit it, resubmit, and then you wait, and then you wait again. So, but once they gave it to you, when did you start performing? Still under wraps. Actually, it takes a while to even get started. So just kind of get all the paperwork ready and make sure before, you know, we give you access just cause it's government type stuff, but. Yeah. But you started, you know, having meetings and talking to deliverables and discussions. I gained reinforced that is not a rush. We're here, we got it. The confidence that we're going to do the job. And it was like, I saw smiles on her faces, remote it like this. Thank you. We needed somebody who's going to be right. And it's true because I just actually went to a site visit and they're telling us like, one of the contracting ladies is like, we just need someone good in here. And the government, that's what they need. They're looking for good people, but did they call you or did you call them? It went straight through the site, the site handler, they were getting all the responses. But I think what happens is they let the first one slip through the crash so they can re-look at the bid proposal and take their time and make sure and do some research. Cause I think that's what it was all about was the proposal. And is this a one-time task or is it ongoing? It can have options. Of how much? Five. Wow. That must feel great. Like, so now what's next? That's the digital stuff. They let me into distribution and learning about this. I'm like, okay. Now I know the pain points of almost the basic IT stuff for the user into the technician in. So there's so much hardware, software, cloud, support, it's, oh man, so I'm trying to, I'm building my bubble right now and just trying to be everywhere. Kind of like CDW or WWT, they offer equipment and software support, tech support engineering, but they'll do a project too though. So I want to be kind of like that mixed with Raytheon, SAIC, all these guys too, same thing. You know, that's what I'm doing. Oh, that's awesome. So now that you're a contract holder, do you feel like this was way beyond your capabilities? Like, did you see it before it happened or did you are now here and you're like, wow, it actually is happening? It's crazy, but I saw it and I learned, I learned that I finally gave in to the fact that you get what you want and just say, you know what, it's true. Because sometimes we just don't aim high enough. Because once you say it, I'm gonna be a program manager, you know what I'm saying? Oh, you just, and I looked at myself, I'm like, you know, I kind of do give what I want, but I don't aim high enough. I'm a site manager, right? Oh, if you're a site manager, here I am. So it's crazy to say that, that we don't aim high enough. And I think that has been the biggest lesson I personally have learned in the past couple of months, even like afterwards. And I tell people, I think I'm lucky and I'm blessed that I did have Eric as my mentor because he's the one that pushes me to like stop messing with these little contracts or I am doing the contract and I'm have all these subcontractors, headaches and stuff like that. But then I see him having the same issues. I'm like, wait, if I'm gonna have the same headaches for a $20,000 project and that you're having it for four months, I'm like, I think I'm gonna get the headaches for $4 million because if it's the same thing we go through, but yeah, it's like now my goals are higher. And if you set your goals higher, that means you're going to get higher things and you're gonna do more. Like I think we fail as people to do that. If we have it, if we have it in us, we just don't even know it. I didn't, nobody wants to believe it. Like you can get what you want. If you really look back, I guarantee you probably have what you wanted. You don't know it, but you probably want to aim it. Sometimes you're not a fortunate, you know, with disabilities, but you got everything. There's a lot of times you kind of got what you want, man. Yeah, so now that you're a contract holder with the federal government, you are the boss. You are the one that's going to make all this happen for us. What advice would you give all of, I say us, but all of the people out there that have worked for the government, that have this idea or inkling of wanting to do it, but they just don't know what step to take? I'll say this, first of all, I got a chance to see it from, we're really fighting out there and saving lives, making a difference for real. There's no, our network has to be up. Like we were, millions of people depending on some of the work I was doing. So sometimes you got to understand when you take these contracts, you need to understand how real of a difference you're making, how bad it needs you, people need you. So it's not even about the money. It really, it definitely helps. But when you understand how important it is, it's really not that hard just to communicate with people. Just communicate and ask questions. I ask questions, I'll cast through where they sound. People be like, I'm going like, what? Hey man, I don't have time. So I'm just going to jump to your phone number. So I call straight to the source and give it in the worst case scenario to point you to another source, which is even better. Now they give you a whole website, like, thanks, I send you some information, yes. So just ask questions, get in there. Cause I got my advice from somebody who, who gots a billion dollar contract said, just hurry up, learn and get in there. Like, cause this thing is not going to wait for you. We get older and you got to think of all these people like, you know, million dollar basketball players and their life goes fast. So they live with their dreams. People do that. Like you're here to live your dream and then you're gone. Instead of sitting around questioning, oh, I wish I had this, or what if I would have done that? What if I would have registered? What if I would have turned in that proposal at a time? And, and you say learn, what do you, what do you think is the best advice or best resources for, to give people out there that want to learn this? Well, we're going to government contract. The best thing is, oh, you are enough. Just go ahead and go to start off at Air Copy's free course, where he takes you through okay, bam, you go here, sign up for free. Go here, sign up for free. He's going to take this long. Dude, you're already set up. Did you do all your registrations? Oh yeah. Was it hard? Oh, no, the basic stuff? No, man. Email address like some, come on, man. And I say that because people call me and even when I was going through it, I tell people the reason we have those SAM quick minute videos because no lie, I think minimum of 10 to 15 times I got the email back IRS 10 fail on match thing on my SAM profile. And I'm like, what am I doing wrong? I'm like, and like, yeah, you get stuck but it's like you have to keep trying. You have to keep trying because it doesn't happen overnight. And I've seen it and you've seen it. These things don't happen overnight and you have to put in the time to learn this. It's not a get quick, rich overnight thing. Oh, especially not consulting. That's a whole nother ball game. Especially for you. You have to convince people, like, take me. I don't know what to say. You know what? I know how to do this for you. And people are going to be like, and I did that this past few days, we were out there and meeting with these companies and I'm sitting in front of these men that have been doing this for 30 years. And I'm like, I know we could do this. Like, I promise you. And like you said, it's a hard world out there. And I don't come from business background at all. And people know that. But I'm very honest with them. And I tell them, I don't come from a business background. And it's just hard. So that's my take on it. It's like, you learn, you have to do. And like you said, just pick up the phone, find the source of it, because the answers are not going to come to you. Yeah, and people like a good image and brand. Like, just know how you want to come out and look. Get your website clean, crisp. That's the key, I think. If you just want to, oh, the website looks good. Once they have that good information, they can trust you better. Be registered, and just make sure you can do it and look good. So what is your goal? You were talking about five-year plan. People had always asked you your five-year plan. What's five years? We're not even going to go two years. Let's go halfway, two years from now. Where do you see yourself and your company? I have so many. The digital transformation has so many doors and windows. And I'm just going to just go through everyone simultaneously, whether it be as long as I could provide. I just want to be able to provide the service from end to end with any business. And that could be, I need some stuff installed. I need some software. I need somebody to connect me to the cloud. I need somebody to monitor my cloud. I need somebody to scan me. I need somebody to give us 1,000 servers, whatever. I need 365. I want to be able to provide that like WWT, CDW. And like I said, combine that with a little bit of great thing where we can maintain it and help you update, upgrade, scale you out and grow with people. I just want to just be there to show up and say, I can give you whatever you need and I will make it happen. And I'm just the gateway to the wholesaling and everything. So I'm gonna save you money. And we all eat and we all get it done because you have to get the job done and you want deliverables. Yes. And it's a project management, I guess, at the end of the day is what it goes down to managing the customer's product and relationship. Do you expect it to be easy? No. Well, I don't know. I mean, at this point, at this point, I don't know, man, stuff's starting to happen. So I think it may be pretty smooth because it may be work. But if you, if you make a sense of value in yourself, it's easy. But I think you also have put in the work before. It wasn't like, I worked for this company, I learned and next thing, I don't have a contract either. There's moments in between that, that we're not the greatest. And I think we need to be able to show people and for people to hear, though, there are gonna be tough moments and there are gonna be people that, in between that don't believe in it. You had very good mentors and you had people that believed in you. But did you also have people that were like, looking at you like, what are you doing? Why are you, because I know when I love teaching my parents, they're like, why are you leaving a job with benefits? Why are you, did you have those kind of people there too? No, I just kept quiet. But working out was good because I always got to show up, you know, at a higher level every time I showed up. Okay. If I see me a couple of years later, I'm a different person. Now, turning that, I can't, you know, I try to morph all the time and grow. That's just what you can do till your time's up. That's awesome. I was blessed, though, I was blessed to see from the, like again, for the bottom level, how you produce the production to the deliverable. That's crazy that I was in that position. And so that is a blessing. Do you think that has been your biggest, like the best thing that you were able to do is see it from the ground up, like in every step of the way. And I think that's what's gonna make you a very good leader. I don't wanna say boss either. That's gonna make you an awesome boss because you could, you understand where they're coming from as well. I could talk to them. Like I know, oh, and just a little quick tidbit. I'll wait in the head. Let me show you something. Let me show it to you real quick. I went ahead and bought this. See that? That's a Cisco route network and equipment. It's like some routers and switches. The reason I bought that is because one, I found a gap in my IT game is the network people. I couldn't understand them enough. So at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how good your computer system is, but out there internet going, nobody's, your network down, everybody's. And so those guys think they're hot. But I respect network guys so much, man, because they make it go. So I said, man, how does this, I could never learn it. So when I was like, just you gotta buy it and see how it goes. So I understand how electricity comes out of your wall, put the internet through a switch and it gets to the across the world. And I didn't get too deeper than that. I just know how a packet travels across the internet. So now I can talk to a network guy. I'd be like, hey man, we stop here with the router, the switch. You know, did you check this? I could talk to him now. I'm not gonna tell him what to do, but you can't just tell me anything. Anything. So you're continually working and that way you're not finding these guys that gives you some excuse to tell you why it's not working. They get everybody. You have to listen to them. You can't do nothing but wait for them. I'm going to lunch. But I get back to the network should be back. What can you do? Like they're the only person in the middle of nowhere. So I had to learn. So I did that just to be able to communicate all the way around the IT because it's not gonna operate without the network. And you are not, are you in the middle of nowhere right now? All right now, Hawaii. I'm just talking about, but I'm Houston, I'm Houston, Texas. That's the base. Right now I'm Hawaii, just working another project trying to make stuff happen. That's awesome. So you're living the life. You got a contract in a beautiful island, a beautiful weather, like the sky's the limit at this point. It's a low-high Friday, did you know that? A low-high Friday. I'm in the hard way. I came out here like, man, relax. I'm like, oh, I can finally relax. Cause I've been doing 60 hours, all day working, now that we're coming in, do your job, go back. You start shitting. That's awesome. Well, here I'm in Florida. You enjoy your Aloha Friday. We're actually looking out for a tropical depression out in the ocean. But it's Florida life. Like, I think we just have to look at things in the positive ways. Now, before we go, any last words for our people out there? Okay, let's cut to the chase. Just, you gotta go ahead. If you try to hurry up and get some information, the best thing to do is just go from one source. These guys got everything you need to know. Start with the basic. Ross the videos, get the step-by-step, and then you can go to whatever you want from there. But get your foundation. Then you can start digging. I guarantee you come back. You'll come back. So, just take advantage of this, because it really is free. You learn a lot. And it's true, you have to set that foundation. Just like any building, any tree, that foundation has to be solid. But once you have that, just take it and run with it. And you touched on it. Like, you can't have that fear to let you get stuck. You can't get stuck either. You can't get too comfortable. You have to aim high, like you said. Aim high and you'll reach that one. And then you want something higher and higher and just got to keep going. Yeah, just high off top. And I guarantee you, everything else you're just stepping over. You're just like going, like, probably good, like, you just aim so high, you're gonna just jump way over the little in-between time line. Yeah. And then you look back and look at you. Then you look back, you're like, okay, I made it. Like, okay. Now we've got to go on to the next thing. So, but enjoy while you're there. So Alex, thank you, thank you, thank you. I really like hearing stories of people that made it and people that have these goals. And actually just by following simple steps are now in a position that we all want to be. So I appreciate your time and enjoy Hawaii. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha. Thank you for the time and you guys giving people guidance right to the point. That's what the future is all about. Just getting it in and get it out. We don't have time to play, man. So thank you guys for being an excellent resource. Hey, thank you.