 Hey, Gulfconn Giants family. Today, we bring you another episode of our Make It a Giant podcast featuring Maria Martinez with our latest and greatest guest, Mike Contave. Mike actually immigrated to the United States from Canada where after some time of going through the university and studying college, he eventually became a pilot. And when him and his wife made the decision to get into the government contract arena, they decided to do what they know best, which is resell airplane parts. Today, Mike owns three planes and he has been a successful contractor and vendor with the DLA bidboard system, DIBS. So if you want to learn all about Mike and his journey and how he was able to do over 90 plus contract actions and a million dollars in revenue through the DLA DIBS system, stay tuned for this upcoming and most illuminating episode with Mike Contave. Well, on today's episode, I want to welcome someone that I saw grow from the first day. I remember when he reached out to us when he first came to the virtual meet and greet. I believe it was a special occasion, but he made that extra effort to go outside and just to say hello and introduce himself. So today I want to welcome Mike Contave from Two Lions Aerospace. He is actually the president of Two Lions and he's based here in South Florida. So he is, we just found out we're neighbors almost. So I'm very excited to finally meet him in person. Like you guys know, I love meeting every single one of you guys in person just because I like to not put a name to a face because I see you guys. But I just like to say hello like in person, especially after everything we've gone through this past year and a half. It's really exciting to meet you guys in person in person. So Mike, thank you. Thank you so much. And I wanted to welcome you to our show. No, no, thank you so much for having me. And more importantly, thank you for even remembering that first of all, I remembered it, but I didn't know that you would pay attention would remember this. This was ages ago. And yes, I think it was my son's graduation last time we had real school and we went to celebrate for dinner. And so yeah, I stepped outside to take the call. I can't believe you remember that. Yeah, I'm like, I know it was either your birthday or something because I remember we did the virtual meet and greet. And you had just joined. So I sent you that email and I remember saying he's making that extra effort. And I told you now go back inside to your family. That's exactly what you said. So now that you are on the show, it seems like that extra effort actually turned out to be successful and you reaching all your goals. I'm about reaching all my goals, but I do see some progress. I do see progress. It's paying off and it's starting to make sense and come together more and more on a daily basis. So we're very excited about that. That's awesome. That's awesome to hear. And I think that's one of my personal goals is like once I talk to someone, I like to see them grow. And like you said, is that process and the progress that you guys are making, even little ones, I get excited about them. So it's awesome to have you here. So I like to take people back to the beginning just because like when we're talking offline, a lot of people resonate with my story. So I want people to know where Mike is from, where he grew up, where things like that. Tell us a little bit about you growing up and things you, and I'm a kindergarten teacher. So I asked people, what did you want to be when you grew up? So go ahead. Well, no, no, funny you say that because if you were to ask me 10 years ago, I had, I would have had no idea that I wouldn't have a government contracting business. And let alone, you know, something that would get me to have a discussion with you. So no, I grew up in Montreal, Canada, which is the in in a city, in the city of Montreal, in a province of Quebec, which is the only province which here in the States, we meet, which is the state that is French over there. So I grew up in French, if I speak funny, you know, that's why. And I remember I didn't do so well in school, actually, at first. And but all I knew is that I wanted to manage people. That's all I knew that I wanted to do. I didn't know what capacity. I didn't know what and how. And long story short, you know, I was in school and I wasn't doing too well and I got put on academic probation. And so for my first year, I went and knocked on doors and I wanted to get a job where there was a McDonald's at Burger King and loading trucks and I got turned down. And I said, man, no matter what, where I go, what application I fill out, you know, I keep getting turned down. And at the time, my father had came here ahead of us to apply for the papers. So I got my payers and I came here, I moved to Jersey. It was my first time coming to the state to live with him and to get a fresh start if you would. And I attended Montclair State College. Okay, so you came after you graduated high school? Correct, after I graduated high school. Like right brand new 18 year old, now you're a grown adult, now go live the world in a new country basically because I'm sure it's different. Yeah, yeah, hardly even spoke English. You know, I remember if I went to school and if the teachers didn't ask me any questions, then I would spend a day without speaking. That's how bad it was. And you know, as someone from another heritage, I'm sure you can relate to that. Oh, yes, a while. So yes, coming to another country, coming to another culture, and the living conditions are different than what you used to. You don't have a social network. It was different. I can't imagine at 18, because I went to Tallahassee, but I grew up in the United States. So for me, it was just an exciting opportunity like I chose to go. So yeah, like that next phase in your life. So you couldn't get a job. You knew you wanted to manage people. What was your first like grown up job? Well, my first grown up job, as soon as I moved to the States, and I realized that, okay, well, I can't get basking my friends for money. I have to earn my own. I got two jobs at the same time. I got a job at Ikea in the plant department that was the guy offloading the truck full of plants and put them on the floor. Like plants? Yeah, like plants do. And if people come up to me and ask, hey, I have a living room with a lot of sunlight, which plant should I use? And one lady is like, hey, you know, I need a plant that doesn't take too much water. So I had to know all this stuff. Oh, yeah, yeah. So that's what I did. And I also got a second job part-time working at FedEx, loading bags onto airplanes. And that I'm going to say is the beginning of my aviation career, which will get to it, which led me here today. Okay. So you had the FedEx loading the bags and Ikea. But those were entry level. Were you more excited that you finally were out there and managing other people or having people come and ask you questions? No, at this point, you know, these were entry level jobs. And it's not until I saw an opportunity because FedEx believed in promoting from within. And at the time, I decided to put in the work and put in the whatever time effort energy that was required and did all the studies. And I became one of the youngest manager in the Northeast at FedEx at the time at 22 years old. So at 22, I became a manager for FedEx, which most people don't know this, but which is considered an airline. And that was my first real job with my first real salary and real people to manage. You know, I think my first group was like 35 employees or something like that. Oh, wow. It wasn't like you're managing just like a small group of two or three guys. You went from brand new to putting in your work and your time and effort. And I'm glad that there's companies out there that do see that. Yeah, regardless of what we do, we want to be appreciated for the work we do. Yeah. So then at 22, managing people, I, what was I doing at 22? I had just graduated college at 22. Wow. That's a huge accomplishment in itself. A lot of people don't do that. So which is not good or bad, but that itself speaks volumes of you and your ability to complete that. I don't think I was managing people, especially 35 people. Where did you go from there? What was your next phase? Well, pretty much after this long story short, they had openings for managers in South Florida. So that FedEx facility at Fort Lauderdale Airport, that was one of the five managers that got hired to run this facility. And that's when I started being an aircraft operations manager, which was my first exposure to aviation, because now I was responsible for making sure the planes were loaded on time and that they were launched on time. And you know, I had a group of people of different skill set to make sure that this happens. And it's while I was there working with airplanes, I got tired with the corporate life, the regular corporate life that I said, you know, a friend of mine asked me, if you didn't do this, what would you be doing? And I said, well, I should be flying airplanes instead of managing them. And he said, yeah, why don't you do it? And long story short, I took flying lessons with a goal of becoming a FedEx pilot. And, you know, life has a funny way of happening, but took flying lessons and did everything that I was supposed to do. And now I'm an airline pilot for Delta Airlines instead of FedEx. Did you ever wanted to fly a plane before that? I can't even lie, Maria. I can't say that I was sitting on the wall and had a poster of top gun and wanted to say, hey, you know, I'm going to be flying. That's really not how that happened. You know, as a minority, I must say that's not even something that I considered that was possible or within my reach or within my realm. I didn't know anyone who did that. So I started, and I think it was a good thing that I started with so much ignorance, because had I known everything that was required, I may not have pursued it or I may have quit along the way. It was one of those things I'll jump and figure out the parachute on the way down. And I was learning as I was going along. Well, you were a manager then in Jersey for about two years before you decided to make the big move again, because Jersey and Florida, they could be similar, but they're very different at the same time. Oh, yeah, no, no, they're very different. The only similarity is people, you know, people are people and we're more like them. We're different. But other than that, everything's different, you know, the weather is different, the housing industry is different, the social things you can do for fun are different. I mean, I can't even begin to enumerate all the differences, but no, it's very different. But you know what? I was used to the process, right? Yeah, I was gonna say, like, you're not afraid of change, especially very drastic changes, but it's like moving total locations. Yeah, yeah. Now, if anything, I'm afraid of not being able to adapt to change, you know, because I figured out that the one constant thing in our lives is change. And once you understand that, then you become more comfortable with change. That's a very good way of seeing things because a lot of people don't do, like you said, you're glad you're ignorant. But in a way, it's like, it's a good thing because it allows you to just do it and not talk yourself out of it just because and like people are scared of change. So a lot of people get stuck on like, no, no, no, no, no, no, I came and try because what if what if what if what if. Absolutely. And unfortunately, we don't give ourselves enough credit because we're better than at things that we know that we are. And you won't know that until you try and the more you try. And even if you learn something that it's not something you're going to stick with, it's just a new hobby or or something new, you know, a lot of times we'll surprise ourselves with how much we can accomplish. And the hardest part, a lot of times just starting. Oh, yes. And you said that like you did it with a little bit of ignorance. I think government contracting, I did it with a lot of ignorance because I had no clue. I hadn't even had a clue how this existed. So as I learned, it was very new. So I couldn't question a lot of it because I had no idea what it was. So whatever they told me is what I took from it. So that's how I was able to like, okay. Exactly. That innocence, I believe allows you to take more action because sometimes we know too much for our own good. And we question all our decisions. And you know, just like a kid, they just go and they do, you know, and that's that's pretty much how it is. So you went from when you were a manager in New Jersey, you were still loading the bags. And when you came to South Florida, that's when you started doing the more of the logistics kind of like the timing and making sure everything was on the plane. Well, as a manager, I was in charge of the people loading the boxes and the and the planes. But yes. And then I moved into Florida, then I was interacting more with the airplanes and the pilots and then for sort of a few years, you know, after becoming a pilot, you know, being a pilot, I call it the greatest part time job in the world. You know, we work just about half of the month, you know, we have at least 15 days off a month. And in my mind, I said, Well, you know, what do you do with those next 15 days off that you have? Do you pick up a new hobby? Do you relax? You know, in my mind, I decided to, to start a business. And no, I don't sit around and it's like, you know what, I have an extra half a month. I should just start a business. Well, you know, it's, it's just, you know, I always feel like I'm always excited about saying again, how fast human beings, we could take things and how did you know what kind of business or was it any business? Well, you know, I've had different businesses in the past. Oh, okay. So I'm having a business not new. No, having a business was not new. I didn't have that learning curve by the time this business started. Okay. So what was this new business with your part time job, full time job would be? Well, you know, at the time I started with consulting for other people, because one of the things that happened, I had friends and other people who had businesses, they were excellent salesmen, they had great productivity, but they weren't quite good at managing people or, you know, implementing processes. So as a FedEx manager going through their leadership and management classes and training programs, that's one thing that I thought that I could bring to the table. So people started asking me to help them consult and bring order to their chaos, if you would. And so that's kind of like how I got started one the business and one of the business I helped was an aviation parts business that would buy airplanes and resell the parts to airlines, you know, in countries all over the world. And after some time of consulting for that business, that's kind of like, but I, you know, I saw the challenges and difficulties that he had with dealing with countries like Indonesia and Madagascar and Zimbabwe. I said, well, you know, you're putting up all this effort overseas, but man, there's right here in your backyard, this spot of gold called the US government. You know, if we could just figure out how to crack this code, you know, you would have a pot of gold right here without having to do all that extra stuff that you're doing. So that's kind of like what led to my curiosity into government contracting. How did you know the government would need those parts? Well, I didn't know that they would need those parts, but I just always understood that the government is so massive and especially, you know, one of my favorite movies of all time, War Dogs. You know, I had a feeling and then when I saw that movie, man, the light bulb just went off. I said, I bet you we could do the same thing in aviation. Oh, that's awesome. That's pretty cool. Yeah. So even my kids, I think you've seen that movie like three times, before times, we love that movie. When I saw it, like, I know it said based on a real story, but it still didn't make me think that the government actually bought stuff from normal people. So for me, I watched it and I just like, okay, cool movie next. Yes. Now that you have this idea, you have this company that you've been working with, how do you go about cracking the code as you say? Well, then, you know, just like everything else, you know, just like when it was time to move to the state. So when it was time to understand the promotion system at FedEx and do the work in the same way it was time to put in the work to become an airline pilot, it was the same thing. I said, well, if I don't know it, there's information out here, let me go and learn it. So I started looking for books going on YouTube. And that's one of the great things when we talk about the ignorance that I had in the past. When I started flying, there wasn't all this access to information. Whereas today, anything anyone wants to do, it's right here at your fingertips. So when a lot of YouTube videos went on a lot of different, you know, read a lot of articles, and that's when I came across Eric and his channel and the GovCon channel. And the one thing I liked about Eric, I felt that it is not a plug or commercial, but I feel like he was genuine. I felt like it was real. And I really liked the fact that he took it down from the complicated level and broke it down to a language that the everyday person understands, you know, and which is what I needed at the time. No, and I hear that a lot. And I think that's his biggest thing of me, like people like myself and other people that don't know anything, he's able to explain it and have the patience to be able to explain it in a different kind of way. Like you might understand it one way, somebody else might understand another way, but he's able to take whatever subject it is and make you understand it at what you see, what you think and things like that. Exactly. Exactly. Like you said, you know, at first you don't think that the government will buy from people like you and I, but then Eric has a way of pulling the curtain and let you know, hey, you know, this is how you do it. And then the advantage of the community is when you do get on the call and I see other people that are having, you know, stories to share and successes and different experiences. So now you really begin to believe that, wow, this is something that I could do if what one man does, another one can or woman, you know, or person, anything anyone could do at this point, you know, someone else can do. That's awesome. You have a very good positive way of seeing things, especially when it comes to learning something and like just new challenges. You don't see it as a challenge. You see it as like, okay, let's do it. Like I have to figure it out. I have to find a way. And that's really good. Exactly. No, well, thank you. But I do believe that's something that we could use more of, you know, we want to do something that is really not much stopping us. Yeah, sure, there are barriers of entries, but there's always another way around it. So if you may not have the capital, then what else can you do? How else can I compete at that space? What unique skill do you have to bring to the table? And you won't know those skills until you put yourself through the test, through some challenges, you find out who you are, and then you know what you have to bring to the table, other than maybe the obvious things such as capital or, you know, different resources. That's true. So you found the channel and now, but before this, have you had any doing business with the government? No, no, I had never done business with the government. All you had done was consult for them, getting their stuff in order. With companies, private companies, no one that ever dealt with the government. I had never dealt with anything or anyone who has dealt with the government. Okay, so starting the videos and starting, because you jumped into the courses and stuff like that. How easy do you think it was to learn this? You know, looking back, you know, people say knowledge is power. That's not true. Applied knowledge is power. So if you learn something, you don't do anything with it, it doesn't help you. So every time I would hear something like the Osdabu or, you know, the different offices, the different resources that would be mentioned, I would call up those people. So I would call up, you know, my PTAC, my professional technical assistance person, I call them all. I would call a, what is this? What is that? My SBA office and I called people and I asked questions. That kind of like helped me put it together because I find that it was very fast. The government world is so vast and so big. And when you hear all the different ways to bid and all the different agencies, it didn't make sense to me. But again, going through the videos allowed me to kind of start narrowing it down and narrow things down. And when I spoke to different people, even if I figured out that this wasn't for me or this was not the part I was looking for, at least it gave me a moment of clarity and I understood how and where it fit in the puzzle. I like that approach. Like you watch something, you do something, you watch something. Because I tell people, it is not the type of course that you're going to sit down and watch video one through 100 and poof, it just happened. No, no. You know, it's kind of like learning how to drive. You could read the book till you blew in the face, but at some point you got to get, start to keep, put your foot in the gas, feel how the steering wheel feels in your hand. Or waiting for a trip and you want to leave your house and wait until all the lights are green before you start going. It's never going to happen. So at some point, you got to jump in and start doing and you're going to stub your toe and you're going to make mistakes. But again, there's a lot of resources out there and a lot of them are free. And that's the one thing about the government world is most resources are free and these people are happy to get a phone call. So it makes all the sense to give someone a phone call and find out, hey, I learned about how do I do this. And they're very patient. They're very patient. Okay. And that's good to know. Because I personally, I am scared to pick up that phone. I'll be the first one to say it. And I know I've done it, but you were like, no, you're not like, yes, I am. But you're, I think we need to hear other people, other people need to hear that these people want to pick up a phone. They want to talk to someone. They want to have questions. They want to be able to explain it to you because in turn, they're sitting in an office all day. So it gives them a human interaction, but also helps them get make their jobs easier. If you know the process and they don't have to explain it to you again. Yeah. But and you know, even if you don't know the process, what they're happy and excited about is people, once they give you a piece of animation, people who take action on that information. So they may know realize, okay, you don't know much, but you're trying, you're putting an effort and you want to know when you're consistent. You call them however many times it takes to get it done. I think that helps separate, for them, they separate you from the pack. Because you know, there's some Thai kickers and time wasters, but they like to see people, okay, you know what, this person is doing something. And the more you do that, the more encouraged and excited they are speaking with you. Oh, that's nice of them. One day I will try this. No, but see, that's the other thing too though, you know, different people have different ways of succeeding because I know your story going to the Coast Guard and you go for one visit and people talk to you and they like you and one thing leads to another, you get this contract and people just so again, you know, it's just different ways of doing it. And that's a beautiful thing. You don't have to do it. It's not a one size fit all formula. You know, we have different personalities, different backgrounds, different skillset. So it's all about whatever resonates with you. And that's why your story, I love your story and I love, you know, for people to hear your story. So now that you started making the phone calls, starting putting all the little pieces together, do you see them coming together and actually something's happening? Or do you have to wait a little bit longer to actually see like the fruits of your labor? No, for me, you know, I like to see results, you know, I don't want to do things just for the heck of doing things. And I like to see results at some point. So, and I knew that at the time, Eric was very busy and I looked for people in my space and I asked them, how do you do this? And how did you get started? And how do you put the rest of the pieces together? The one thing is I knew how big the space was, but I couldn't find anything that was specific to my industry. And until I found one person that did teach this to my industry. And again, I got to hold this person and I stuck to them like, why don't rice until, you know, at least they gave me the basics to get started. And from that point on, I started to bid on aviation parts for the U.S. government. Where did you start bidding? Well, you know, at first I went to all the bid boards and there were so many and again, I couldn't figure it out. And it's not until I started to go to SAM.gov at the time. And then that was, you know, that was the main place where all the solicitations were at. And that was my primary point of contact at first. And you only were doing aviation parts. That was your niche? Yes. At first that's the bulk and that's still the majority of what we do. And it's a little different than the service industry. And it's a little different than, you know, the goods. And again, there's something for everyone because this approach the government puts out, I don't know, maybe 100,000 solicitations every day at least. And we narrow down to the ones that are in our space. So we use software for that, you know, we ask around and there's ways you could filter through and have searches. And if let's say there's, I don't know, we end up with 500 solicitations on a daily basis, we bid on all those solicitations. We bid them all. And yeah, we started to bid, bid, bid, bid. It's a numbers game. The more you bid, the more you win, the more you win, the more money you make, you know. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. So how many do you think you bid on already? I have to pull up that data. I do have it. But just so you know, this marks, you know, long story short, I do, I did have the consulting business and everything did fall apart during COVID. Hold on, we'll go back to that one. So you start bidding, everything's going great. You're getting the process. And then you said something COVID happened. And COVID wasn't that long ago. So where was the first like messed up? I don't want to call it messed up with the first couple in the road that you're like, because things are things the way we're hearing it, things are going good. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. And that's the part of the story I want to hear because I don't want people to take away of like, oh, I just need an idea and things are going to be fun. I just have to follow the course and things are just going to be put to me on a silver platter. Absolutely not. No, no, no. So first of all, again, you know, we had someone show us the way in terms of how to narrow down the bids and the different softwares that were available. So I had to go ahead and, so again, I had to consulting business and doing COVID, everything fell apart. And that's when I decided to say, you know what, the one thing that's recession proof, unless there's a government shutdown is doing business for the government. So we just started this just, we just celebrated our one year anniversary here. It's last year, last July, that we started our government contracting business. Absolutely. So man, the learning curve of assembling a team and figuring out the software and getting the capital to, you know, have at least, you know, some money to not only get the stuff to bid, but once the government gives you a contract, you have to pay for it upfront, you know. So even learning that, just learning the process. And again, there's something that we had to learn where we had to learn how to read a contract. And then we had to learn how to submit a bid. And then we had to learn how to communicate with the government. And then once we received an award, people think that that's when it ends. No, that's when it begins. Wow. Oh crap, it works. What do I do? And the one thing with shipping goods to the government, especially the military, especially aviation parts, the packaging requirements are so specific. What do you mean? I can't just put it in the box. What do you mean? I have to get the special end flow and, you know, navigating different boards because as we know, dealing with the government is so complicated. So once you get the award, then where you go to get registered and where you go to get paid are two different websites and even how to set that up, you know, and then so no, you kidding? So no, we had a lot of challenges. Okay. So because you just made me realize you started this thinking you were going to help this other company sell to the government. And then you, I just, two lines is yours. So then you switched it up and it's you are the one selling these products. Yeah, you are the one that you have to know where to get the products to begin with. Because I'm sure aviation parts for planes and other things are not found on Amazon or eBay. No, and even if you did the allies want to see the paperwork. Now my, my advantage that I did have because I consulted in the aviation space hadn't been a pilot and haven't worked with FedEx to airlines and having consulting for that company that was in the aviation space, the concept was the same or similar enough where whether you sell to a commercial airline or you sell to the Air Force, the process was very similar. So where to look up parts and how to find them and what they are, whether it's a wing on a Boeing on the jet on let's say Delta, whether it's a wing on an F16, a wing is a wing, you know, and there's only so many people who make airplane wings, you know, so. Okay, but I'm sure there's a paperwork that goes with it. It's not like I'm just gonna send you a wing and a FedEx box and. Yeah, no. And you know, the government at first, they didn't know us and said, well, who are these people? And the one thing they wanted in addition to a capability statement was almost like a buyer of your entire companies. Well, I don't know you. So if I give you this contract, will you be able to fulfill it? So I had to put together this massive document at the time, again, but you know, I was really asking about your business, who you are, and will you be able to deliver these goods because you don't have past performance. So I had to use, you know, my past performance from my private sector. So well, this is what I've done in the industry in the private sector. And this is why I have the confidence and the ability that I'll be able to do it for you kind of stuff. So we had to bid on any and everything, not just airplane parts. We bid on screws. We built on anything. Rulers, just so that we'd win small awards, the dollar amount wasn't the key here, but really building the past performance. And you get a ruler and you could ship it to that office that needs it. Well, guess what? You completed the cycle. It didn't matter the dollar amount. They just wanted to see that you understood the sale cycle, if you would. So when you were bid, bid, bid, bid, bid, and what was that first one that came through? Well, you know, that's public information. And so if I go ahead and pull that up on DLA, we started to bid. Let me pull it up while we're talking here, but we started to bid. And we bid for even that the ability to bid after you register with SNAM.gov. You said DLA. DLA is one that I never understood. So the fact that you understand DLA system, it's just for me, it was over complicated and it looked antiquated. So if you understand DLA, that's one that you have on a lot of people. And just so we clear, I don't want to lose so many people. The one thing I got to understand is the government for different things, different agencies, different branches, all have their way, their portal, where you can submit your bids and DLA is the Defense Logistic Agency, which is the one the Department of Defense uses. But again, it took us a long time to understand. I say a long time, maybe a month or two of hitting our heads against the wall, but doing this every day. We assemble a team. I'm not here by myself. I can't take the glory. I share the vision with a few people that are foolish enough to believe, to jump on the ride with me and say, okay, let's go. And they help make this thing a reality. But no, so that's how it started. And we bid, let's say, for probably a couple of months until we got our first award. Let me go ahead. And I'm glad you said you did it for a couple of months. It's not like you bid, bid, bid. And within that same month, you got like, hey, you got this. No, absolutely not. That's not how it worked at all. We, again, it was really a matter of we put in the bid. And when you bid for goods, it's again, if there's a hundredth of a station and you go ahead and bid for 50, at least, hey, you'll wait for one. And there's some things that over time, you get better and better. It's not, it's no longer stabbing the dark, you know, and excuse that you look for the procurement history, how much did they pay for it in the past? Is this something that they buy often? You know, sometimes you can even tell projections of when they're going to need to restock things. So once you learn how to read, you know, those patterns, then you could bid on things and increase, you know, your wins, if you would. Oh, wow. Would it kept you going month after month until you heard back? The belief because I knew it was real. You know, I saw other people doing it. I stayed plugged in with the calls. It didn't matter that it wasn't what I was doing, but because other people were winning on your team and Eric's team that, you know, I said, well, we're going to win two, you know, other people are winning and I could hear people with their first awards and their first contracts. And I said, you know, our turn will come. And so we did, you know, and here we are a year later, it came actually 96 times. We've won 96 awards in that one year. One year. Yeah, one year, us, you know, trying to figure out what we're doing. So one year ago, you started the company with zero contracts, zero contracts, started to put a team together for all your brains to come together to one person understands this one person understands that I could explain it creating that team that understands the whole picture. Yeah, start bidding and to this day is 96 awards. Correct. That is amazing. Well, again, you know, I can't take all the credit, you know, we have a team like, you know, I'm the big picture guy and I see the vision, you know, my wife, you know, works with the company as the VP of government operations details and runs the day to day operation and the money and things like that. I get the money. I know how to get the money. She knows how to budget it nicely. Whether it's at home or in the business, you know, hey, I got awards I need to pay to pay for I need some money. What did she think when you started this when you came to her? The idea is like, you know what, I'm going to sell airplane parts to the government. Well, you know, she was like, well, you know, I do give her credit. She did believe in the track record, you know, of my crazy unconventional ideas. And so she I give her credit. She believed in that. And also, because we put together a plan, you say, okay, and we knew, okay, we're going to reach out to people that have success in this arena, you know, and Eric again, being one of the major players in there, we're going to pick their brains and follow their blueprint and adapt it to what we do. So because we had a plan, he believed and she came on board and, you know, she is, you know, really the other half of making this happen as well. Oh, yes. So first win. What was it? First win, it was some kind of a toggle switch, almost like a light switch. It was for about like 2400 bucks. And it was, yeah, so that was the first win. And we said, wow, how much was this switch? Like, how much does this switch mean to you? Oh, my gosh, it meant the world because it meant like, wow, if we get one, then we can get a whole bunch of others. And, you know, at first, we, you know, we just did all kinds of things and all kinds of different profit margins. But, you know, we're excited to get it, you know, we're excited to get it because it was real. And then we had to go buy it from the vendor and from the manufacturer. And we had to receive it, we had to inspect it and we had to figure out what the paperwork meant. And, you know, we went through the process of shipping. And, you know, we're very fortunate because so far, everything we sent has been accepted. Because if you mess up, the government either will hold your money or hold a package and send it back to you at some future date. So far, so good, knock on wood, nothing's been sent back and everything's been paid for so far. So even that first one, you know, we, we, you know, we read and we call people and, you know, we sit down and we divide the task, divide and conquer and leverage the skills of who's good at this and who's good at that. Someone's better at reading the details and following the instructions and doing it. And, you know, even if you get stuck, you know, I would call, you know, DLA and I would call, you know, Sam and I would call, hey, you know, how does that work? You know, I would call, you know, the shipping company, the shipping branch of the government, PSM, hey, I can't, this is not working. What am I doing wrong kind of stuff? So throughout the process, we got help. So you're never alone. You just, as you're stuck and they say, okay, this is what I've done so far. And this is why I am, what do I need to do differently? You get people to, to, to help you. Was the switch an airplane switch? Yes, it was an airplane switch. Oh, so your first award was for an aviation part? Yes, absolutely. Yeah, I'm going to say 90% of our awards are aviation related items. Yes, you know, but there's all kinds of things that people wouldn't think going an airplane or electronic components, screws, bearings and stuff like that. Yeah, we used a lot of those things. Yeah. So your switch came in, you sent it in, you get it shipped. And I've seen some of these products, the way they want it shipped, like you said, like it has to be on a wooden crate this size by this size, then it has to be covered in this kind of insulation. And it has to be shipped over to this side of the dock and things like that. Yeah. And we're like, what do you mean? So we got an award that was exactly as funny as you say that. It said, oh, it needs to be on a crate. It's okay. I just go in the back, you know, there's a warehouse and say, dude, can I grab this crate? And I put it on this wooden pallet. And then, you know, our inspector calls, hey, is this our government inspector? We do have one that comes and checks. And he goes, okay, is this on a heat-treated pallet? I said, what? What is that? You know, a heat-treated pallet. So, you know, we hit Google right away, heat sealed and heat treated and, okay, and this is how you recognize that. So we have to go back and, you know, an employee jumped in the car and went to a warehouse somewhere and bought one for like 30 bucks and, okay, I guess this is what it is. But, you know, again, till today, we learn as we go. We learn as we go. You know, you're not going to know everything. But if you wait for all the lights to be green before you leave your house, you'll never leave. You know, so same thing. We don't know everything. We don't pretend to. But we're very open to learning and we always ask for help. We always do. And we just keep doing, you know. From that first award to this next one, was it a little bit of time or was it a long time in between? So, our timing, we started in July and, you know, we started in the worst time and the best time, you know, because it's COVID. July 2020. On July 2020. So, you know, that's when COVID is really hitting and people are now working from home more. There's less staffing. It's an election year. We're coming close to the end of the government fiscal year. Yes. So, to answer your question, they came in a trickle and then all of a sudden, as we reached the end of the fiscal year, we got bombarded with awards like bam, bam, bam. We get sometimes two a day, three a day. Yeah. Sometimes five a week, you know, and so we'll go through dry periods and then we'll get bombarded with awards. But from the first to the second one, they started coming in steadily. That must have been a nice feeling. It was. It was. And you know, we say, okay, this thing is real. We didn't do this for nothing. This was not a hoax or this story, you know, so and it's happening to us who knew nothing about this a year ago. I didn't know anything about this. Yeah. So that's amazing to hear. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So but now it's exciting. It's exciting. And you know, now we, we, you know, we keep looking for ways to do what we do more efficiently and to be better at it and to get to the level where, you know, something like you where we meet someone, go to a base and have direct relationships with the buyers directly. So we could get soul source contracts. We're not there yet, but that's something that we're working towards. Yeah. And, and it's going to happen. Like you did a lot of the big parts, which was picking up that phone and you picked up the phone when, like you said, they were not in their office. So getting in contact with a real person last year was very difficult because like you said, COVID end of the fiscal year. And then it's hot. Then it was a budget. They have to realign the budget. So that takes a little and then it's right after they finally get the budget, they go into holiday. They go into holiday. That's what I was going to say. Then they go on vacation because they're burnt out from all the work that they did to meet their fiscal year. So then everyone's on vacation. I'm like, how dang, you got to be kidding me. So it was not easy. And then when there's a new administration, doesn't matter who comes into office. Everyone, you know, there's a lot of changes and people are concerned about their jobs. And, you know, there's a lot of, you know, unease and uncertainty that happens. So it was just, you know, the best and the worst time, you know, at the same time. Was your switch your smallest award? No, no, because, you know, we've gotten awards for $75 for $15. But, you know, again, you know, sometimes the government will want one screw and that screw could cost like 25 cents. But, you know, the manufacturer is going to go, well, I'm not going to sell you this one screw for 25 cents. Or it's okay. Well, in order for me to sell you that screw for 25 cents, I got to charge you $25. So just to test the concept, we'd buy these 10 cents items and sell them for 25, 40, 50 bucks. And it worked. So no, we have awards that are 25, 15, $50. So yeah, the smallest I'm looking at right here is about $15. And then we have some that go up to the max of, you know, those, those IDICs of $250,000. What was your highest one? Yeah, we have some for, you'll see if you, you know, it's public information. If you go and pull up our cage code, the highest will be $250,000, average is about eight. We have some for $25,000, $16,000. They range $800. So there's a wide range. You know, it's not one thing. And, you know, we don't stick to one. We just do the whole gamut, you know, so. What was the weird, you said some of them are not aviation parts. What have been some of the odd ones? So like I told you the other day, they needed rulers. The government will. Oh, that was real. That's a true story. Yeah, yeah, they needed rulers. And I was like, oh, well, we can get these from Hope Depot for like 10 bucks and sell them at, you know, $25 kind of stuff. So yeah, batteries. We've sold batteries. We've also sold car parts and different things, circuit breakers we've sold. Actually, for this, because we're going to put this on YouTube too, just for those people watching, I want to share my screen because like he said, it's a lot of it is public information. Can you see it? Yes, I can see it. FPDS. Yes. So I put two lines up here, just their name. And then as you see, Department of Defense 93 contracts. So so you see that DLA, which is what he said, Defense Logistics Agency 93 and their name here. So and like you said, a year's time, it's been 93 of them. Yes. And you can see even the dollar amount is public information. So again, sometimes the only thing you're not going to see is what exactly what it was. Correct. Yes. But anything. Yeah. But still like I tell people an award is an award. I don't care. Like you said, your $15 screw because what if they were just looking to see if the screw is what they need and now they could order more and they know exactly. Absolutely. You know, the government does that all the time they put out a solicitation for one item and they just want to test it. So they'll spend the money so you could actually make more money testing the item than you can selling the item to the government because they're going to want you to go ahead and find a supplier that's going to set up shop and put up all the machinery and then create the item and then you send it to the government and then they're going to beat it up and put it under extreme conditions and stress test it. So just that whole setup, you actually charge the government for this and you charge them a fee in order to do that. And so the item can be a thousand dollar item, but the testing phase may cost five to $15,000. So absolutely. The 93 and you've I think you surpassed in quantity the number of contracts a person could get in one year. No, no, I believe there will be a day we could do a lot more than that. This is a story for our website. It should be in the front cover. 96 awards in 12 month period. You know, no, you know, again, you know, the team, you know, work well together. It's funny because sometimes we call DLAs, hey, we're stuck, there's that the other and they said, we're trying to get more awards and you'll see the age as well. Let me pull you guys up and they'll put our cage code and said, you did what? And how long? I said, do you notice people that go a year and two years don't even get one and you guys did what? So, no, so again, you know, right, we were right time to believe the great team. And, you know, again, I cannot take all the credit. But again, you did one thing. You didn't bid on like two things and wait. You, no matter how many you are waiting on every single day or however you did it weekly, you said, if there was 100, we bid on 100. There is 500, we bid on 500. That takes a lot of time, dedication, and even like perseverance and faith to know like this, like you said, this is going to be worth something. Like one day it's going to happen. One day it's going to happen. I just have to keep bidding on everything I see that I can provide. So it happens. Yeah, no, it really does. And you know, this is a numbers game and a pipeline game because we may have bid on something six months ago and you forget about it. But because you bid on it nine, 10, 11, 12 months ago, it doesn't mean that it's lost. It just means that the government doesn't need it today because what they do is they stock their shells in advance. And when it hits, let's say a certain level 50%, bam, that will trigger the system to buy more. Sometimes you get awards for things that we bid on six months ago or five months ago. So all the work, effort, and energy that you did, unless you get an email that says you are not the successful bidder, it's still fair game. It's still open. And lo and behold, we get a lot of those awards from a week ago, from a month ago to six months ago. Oh, I never thought about it. Yeah, you build a pipeline. They have to know where they could get it from when it hits that threshold of it's time to reorder. Correct. Yes. And you know, like I said, you know, the military doesn't like to at least react because when the troops are out there on the field and they need something right away, they need to be able to send it to the troops. So they monitor not only the quantities that they have on the shelf, but at which rate they're depleting a particular item. So that's what will trigger. Okay, before we get to zero, let's say we get to 25%, let's order some more kind of stuff. So and you never know when that's going to happen for you on this end who's selling to the government. Now we talked about this earlier. You said your office is in South Florida. You are based in South Florida. Have you shipped anything to South Florida? Well, actually, it's funny to say that because no, a lot of times before we sell overseas, we sell a lot, we ship a lot to Virginia to like a base. And then the base is who's going to go ahead and sort it out. Okay, so you're not sending it overseas, you ship it to a base that they will take care of it and take it overseas. Correct. And I'm glad you brought back to office because again, you know, when we talk about putting into action what we hear, you know, and I heard Eric talk about the different set-asides, you know, when you are either a minority or a woman or a veteran, so forth and so on. But there was something else. We could not be 8A at the time. And I did not want to be 8A yet until we do some teaming agreements, which partnering up with companies. However, I heard Eric mention something called the hub zone. And our lease was up. So we went crazy looking for an office that was in a hub zone because figure if we're going to move, let's move to a place that's a hub zone to get the opportunity to bid on government contracts that need to meet the hub zone requirement. So that's how we picked our office. So we looked for hub zone, go to sba.gov, you pull up the hub zone map, you put on your zip code and you see where they are. And then now you look for office space that is within that area. Oh, okay. But again, we picked that up from gov.com times. Did you do the certification yourself? Actually, I got the sba to help us out once again. So the sba will help you out and then they provided us with a consultant that did that for us. And it was a very minimal fee. It did not cost $1,000. So I don't want to give a price because different people in different areas, but it was not a thousand dollars. But you got your resources from the sba directly. You didn't go to this third party person that's charged because I've heard they charge like $10,000. Wow. No, I've heard like $5,000 to $10,000. No, no, no, we did not even reach $1,000 marks. So people, please, please, please use those resources. Like he said, he started calling ptag and sba and let them know that they are out there to help you. And even if you join the sba's like email list, like I constantly get emails from the sba, like we're having this, we're having this, we're helping with this. And you just have to use it. Don't go wasting money that as a new business, we all know we don't have. Exactly. No, there's tons of resources out there and there's no need to pay for expensive stuff. And like you said Maria, you get all kinds of email. You don't have to read them all because I don't, but I stand through something attention. Yeah, you'll read it, you know, but again, those people, their people at the sba office and your ptag office and seldom have access to great resources and, you know, they'll, they'll either forge information or they'll let you know. So when it was time for our hub zone certification, we call them, they give us someone and then we contacted that person and they give us a special rate because it was through the sba and they help us with the certification that took about a month, so give it to you. Okay, not bad at all. But now your hub zone. Correct. You have to update it once a year to prove that your employees are within the hub zone. Yeah, 35% of your employees. There you go. See, you know the numbers. Yeah. Yeah. And again, you know, it doesn't have, if you don't have someone just grab an intern on a college campus and that counts because most colleges in the country are in hub zones and get some kid that does your social media and you pay them 100 bucks a month that counts. You know, so. Okay, that's, you're very business smart. Like you. No, I'm, I listen, I take good notes from you guys. That's really what it is. Yeah, one of our podcast guys, that's what he said. He's like, all you have to do is get an intern. Most colleges are hub zones, so use them if you need a person. Yeah. So that is amazing. What is next? You hit that one year mark a couple months ago. Like what are, what's your next step in this? Well, now you know the goal is to triple, you know, the sales revenue that we did, you know, and we're going to do that very strategically specifically, you know, like Eric says, you know, the hub zone is a license to fish doesn't mean that you're going to catch more fish. So we're going to specialize now. Now we're going to specialize with, you know, hub zone, we're really going to go ahead and expand in that space. We're going to expand with the teaming agreements and to go for subcontractors for companies that have huge contracts that have to deal with, you know, smaller companies. So this is the strategy for this year. And really those three things, I think we're going to take us to the next level. That's awesome. Yeah. How do you feel a year later? Too busy to put out fires to really know how it feels. So, you know, we just focus on the doing, but we do have to celebrate the wins, whether they're small or win because the small ones do bring, you know, the bigger ones. So now we, we're very happy and excited that not only, you know, we made it alive after one year, but you have a few awards to show. Yes, you actually did something within that year and not just let a company name build time. You actually build a lot of past performance because you said people in DLA are surprised of how much you guys have within what we, it is a very time of a small timeframe. Yeah. So that's awesome. Like you guys were persistent and stayed at it. You were able to choose the right people and let, how do you, how did you know who to choose? Well, you know, I think sometimes the people chose us. Oh, we, we look for it. And again, this is a learning process. This was not a perfect formula. You know, team has changed and the team is always evolving. The more you know, you know, the next time you do a different decision, but hiring and putting together teams is not an exact science. You may have things that you'll do and some things that, you know, work for you, but it's higher, slow, fire, fast, unfortunately is really what I've picked up over the years. At least you're not as scared of like you keep them because they're part of your team and like they have to accomplish some part. I only want to be surrounded by people who want to be here. And we try to make it a family community environment, but at the same time, people know what they don't pull their weights because, you know, men lie, women lie, but numbers don't. Everyone sees their numbers and, you know, and everyone sees and they know by the time it's time to go, they know. Are you still a pilot for Delta? Or are you a client? Absolutely, great part-time job in the world. So yeah, I still fly. And, you know, I fly less or maybe I fly 10, 12 days a month or so. So I have maybe 18 days off a month. So yeah, between the days off and again, you know, my wife was running the operation and the rest of the team, there's always someone here seven days, you know, five days a week and we're on all the time, you know. But with technology, you monitor the business at all times, you know, as soon as I get to my hotel, you know, I love this stuff. So it's not a chore. I don't feel like it's extra work. You know, I like to log in and see what happened. I like to log in. I like to get the tech. I like to get the award. You know, every time I get an award, it's always exciting. And some days we get three, four awards in one day. And regardless of the amount, the next award is still as exciting as that first. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Once we get that DLA, you've been awarded this thing and it comes up. I don't even know what the dollars are. It doesn't matter what it is. Five digits, I don't care. We're just excited to get the awards, you know. Oh, that's great. And we love the game because we know, the only thing that I know is that I don't even know what I don't know. There's so much more out there between what we've done and what there is to do and how big this buy is. You know, there's not enough people who are doing this. So this is a space where there's more than we could ever do. And that's why I'm not afraid of telling others about it because even if a hundred new people joined this business, it would just be a drop in a bucket. Really, there's more than we could all do collectively. That's great to hear because when I first started all this, a lot of Eric used to tell me people don't want to share because they're afraid you're going to take theirs. Because you came along now, they can't get that award because you, and it's not like that. Like you said, there's so much opportunity out there. Look at 500 plus bids. How many do you get? So why not allow someone else to put their name in the bucket? Absolutely. You're not going to get them all. You know, we get about maybe three to five percent right now of what we get. You know, but so that means that 95 percent gets awarded to other people. So and some of them go unawarded. You know, if you went right now, you could go back and see how many contracts are unawarded or sometimes they still didn't get to it because people are still working from home and there's a pipeline that they can't get through fast enough. So there's a you can't slow it down either. Just because they're slowing, just because they're slowing down, you can't slow it down. You got to build the pipeline. You got to build the pipeline so that it's always flowing. But at first, you have to take the time. But the work that you did for months ago, for whatever reason, you know, is still going to be out there. But we can't be afraid of sharing that business. That's not how abundance work. You know, me having more does not mean you having less. You know, so we, the more we tell, I think the more people we help, then the more people win. I think the more we win. And the more people that look like us, and don't think that they are like people that were not so great at school, people that had careers that thought they were successful, people that think differently, people that look different, that way everyone's able to get into this and build something themselves. And like you said, it takes a lot of hard work. Like you took it as your hobby. And but it's not a hobby that you it's just all fun and games. Like you know, in the time you put in those night hours, those early hours, like you get to your hotel, you're probably tired of being the sky with the pressure difference and everything. And your wife had to learn this too. It's not just you learn how to run a business to your point. You know, she has an event planning business. She's a wedding planner by trade. You know, yes, sure. Before that, she worked at the bank as a mortgage loan officer. It has a sales background. But again, it's just to show this business doesn't care, you know, what you did in the past, you know, one of my bidders is my son, you know, he's a college kid, you know, so he bids. So he had to learn this. But the point is, the computer doesn't care what color, what age, what gender, what background, you know, you want it, you put into work, there it is, you know, we represent the different backgrounds that, you know, are possible educated, not educated, doesn't matter. Oh, yes, it doesn't matter. As long as you put it in the right way, how they asked for it at the time they want it. And that you deliver afterwards. Because like you said, getting awarded a contract is not the end. It's not the trophy you get. It's like where it starts. Now it's time to prove to them that you could get the next trophy. And the next one and the next one. Correct. So give us some words of wisdom of what how your life has changed or what you would tell somebody with this thought process. Like, where were you a year ago? And like, what could have made what advice would have you given yourself, even though you had a very good run? Well, you know, a year ago, again, you know, there was a lot of unknown, a lot of fear, a lot of uncertainty. But just like everything else, you know, it's it's you got to do it to break the fear and then to know the fear to understand the fear then to conquer the fear. So you got to do it multiple times and keep at it. And, you know, there's there's always painting growth and most things we want lie just outside of our comfort zone. So the more things you want, just get more uncomfortable because everything you want is just outside of your comfort zone. So get used to that. And, you know, and after a while, you see a pattern, you know, with getting uncomfortable and starting new projects. And, you know, so yeah, I may not know something, but after a while, you, you learn how to learn and you learn how to apply and execute kind of stuff. So, you know, don't focus on how much you don't know. Just focus on doing and the more you do, the more you learn and the better you get at executing and, you know, remain humble, remain humble and always be open to learning. Don't be afraid to ask, you know, others, peers, people who are more successful for people who are less successful, people who are doing things differently. And, you know, it all contributes to your growth at the end of the day. Awesome. Thank you for everything. Thank you for being an amazing story to share with others and being willing to share because, like you said, more people that know, more people that hear your story. And like I told you, I love doing these, like I was very apprehensive about being a podcast. But I love sharing the stories because like I said, it surprises me how many people learn from things I've done. And that's why I want someone to look at you and be like, I like, there's something about you that now I feel motivated and inspired that I could do this too. And the next person and they inspire the next person. So it's like paying it forward, like give people that chance to feel inspired, motivated because it's all in us, I think. Everyone just needs that little bit of a, you know, a little push to get going. And like you said, it's great that you're doing this using your platform for this because the aid is a ripple effect. You never know how far your actions go. And having the different guests and the different people with different backgrounds, someone we may be a listener for months until one day they connect, they hear someone who resonates with them and connects that, you know, make the jump or some people might feel, Oh, well, I'm too good for this. Or some of you, man, I don't have it in me kind of stuff. And they hear something. But again, nothing beats, you know, your, your story. I just love it. The amount of depth is how you move in. I'm like, man, I, I tell people about you all the time. So no, I love it. So at some point, I know people here, but we may have to recycle you being on the other side of the podcast so that more people, not that the group is bigger, get to hear your story and be inspired. Oh, thanks. I'll jump back into GovCon first. I know I've taken a little bit of time to go back into, I, a lot of people don't know this, but I went back into teaching this past year and a half because I didn't want our kids to not like going to school. But then I was talking to Eric and the other day and I was telling him like, I told my kids we hit a million viewers. Wow. So excited. Yeah. So I was like, thank you. They said something. I'm like, I'm on YouTube. They're like, no, you're not. So I pull up the video and they're like, they're in awe. So and also like days like today, I showed them something on YouTube and they're like, we want to see your video. Yeah. Even at the age of five and then they could see people like us on on YouTube. I hope that creates more of a sense of entrepreneurship because that is something we don't teach at school. Like you wanted to manage people, but how do you do it? I don't know. You know, the most important skills such as living with someone or raising kids or managing your personal budget, these things, you're not in credit. You're not really taught those things in schools, but these are the things that will get you through and exposing the kids like you're doing is great because not only you don't know what spark you might ignite in them, but you don't know when because those videos that you're posting, they're still going to be relevant a year, two years, five years from today. So one of your students might be, hey, I remember my teacher, Maria, and then you're going to look it up and you don't know what's going to happen that you have no idea. Yeah. So I'm loving that I'm there because they're getting a different side of a human of it being just a teacher. They get to see everything we do. And like I said, I share with them a million views. So they were so excited. So we made Eric a video and just to say congratulations. Oh, wow. That I love. But when I, I'm going to, I'm planning to go back, jumping back to GovCon just because I want to share more of, like you said, I have the knowledge and the values. I want to go back to it. So when I get there, I'll be on the other side again. I need some wins under me, some relevant, relevant ones. So all the wins are relevant whether it's with the kids, whether it's, you know, personal growth or whether it's the business. And we have to redefine a win, right? A win is not always what society says it is. We have to redefine a win as to what it is to us and learn how to recognize them. And you, with the kids, you know, I always say teachers, it's unbelievable because when I, my kids come home and they know how to read, my mind is blown. I wouldn't know how to teach how to read. You know, and it's, it's amazing how your kids do their 1915 and 11 now. And, you know, and when I see the pace at which they learn and the words that they know and the topics that they know so much more that I did in my time, you know, there's not enough words to describe the gratitude we should have towards educators. So no, so redefining our wins, you know, because they're not what society says they are. And we have to learn to recognize our own win and celebrate them along our own individual journeys, whatever they may be. Yes. Whether it's like you're learning your alphabet or you won your first bid or you won your first $5 million contract. Absolutely. So everything I celebrate every single thing from my kids to our next person or community that is growing. We celebrate the wins. We share the tears. We share everything in this community. And that's why I love it. And that's why I'm still here. And glad that you're here. You don't feel different when you took a momentary break, but we all need our own breaks, you know, me time. But no, absolutely. We're glad that you're here because you bring an integral part, special part to the team that, you know, yeah, everyone can try, but you have your own shoes that, you know, only you can feel kind of stuff. Thank you. Well, I won't hold you any longer. I know South Florida traffic. But at least we beat the traffic. It's done now. We're up north. So we don't get it as bad as down south. Yes, but the office is in Fort Lauderdale. So I know that's why I know like you have that trap. That's where I get stuck going home, by the way. Yeah. So thank you again. Thank you for everything. Thank you for all your words. And I know that somebody is going to feel something after listening to your words because you are amazing. Oh, no, no. Thank you. Thank you, Maria. And it's nothing different than everyone else. The information is here. There's a stake action and do something with it a little bit at a time. Don't compare yourself to the next person. Start where you are and see what happens, you know. Awesome. Great. Well, thank you, Maria. And looking forward to that cup of coffee. I'll send you my number. I try to look for your number on your email thing and I couldn't find it. So what's your number, sir? I'm going to send that over to you. There you go. The email. However, that being said, anyone in the girl community or anyone who needs help with getting them contracting or at least a little bit perspective that I have, I'd be more than happy to share and more than happy to go ahead and give whatever I can that could help someone make progress. So we could do that with either my email number if you could put it at the end of the podcast or whatever. We will. By all means. All right. Thank you. All right, Maria. Thank you. Have a great week. See you next time. All right.