 No, if y'all figure this out, but I have fun doing this. Y'all have to figure this out right now. The lines, yeah, this is cool. Yeah. All right. We are live. So while we wait for people to get into the room, let's see who's out here. LB, Maria, Yvonne. Who else do we have online? So what usually happens is once we go live, then it sends out the emails to everybody and it goes on. So it takes people a while to come on. So we can keep talking about Delaware. We can keep talking about Delaware. So I mean, I'm going to be there, but. But you just extra drive. What's that? When are you coming? It's going to be next week. I haven't bought near plan ticket, but at some point next week. Oh boy. Just saying. Well, let me know. I might dip there. Yes. That was like twice. I think I've only been there one time since she's been out there. Oh, really? Yeah. Because of the schedule. Yeah. That makes sense. No, I get it. No, I'm the same way with schedules. Trust me. I've been trying to get to New York all year and I have not been able to get to New York all year. I haven't been able to get to New York this year for like five hours. I was like, New York. There was no one from the streets. I'm saying exactly. It's got to be empty. It was. I don't know about now. It's starting up a little bit now. But again, we need to those that have been vaccinated and stuff. So they have. How are they with the COVID and stuff up there in New York? Well, now it's a little bit more strict. Yeah. Because they want everybody to be vaccinated. So you can't do the movies. You can't do the. Restaurants. Restaurants. None of that stuff unless you're vaccinated. Get out of here. Yeah. How do you show proof that you're vaccinated? They have, I think, like a pack, some type of passport card on the phone, your app, you have to carry around your vaccine, your vaccine card, make a copy of it. Really? For the people. Yeah. For the folks. Y'all never. I mean, here in Jersey is, you know, I'm in Jersey. So it's not bad. But New York is, they're very strict. So I've been sticking to being here in Jersey unless I'm making money in New York. You know, all those rules go out the window when there's an emergency, like Hurricane I. They didn't check for nothing. Right. And you know what? I actually, we have not seen any enforcement on our projects yet. Okay. That's a question that people always ask me about the vaccinations and the mandates. I haven't seen any enforcement. I have just the vaccinated or tested weekly. I think. Really? Right now with your workers? In Georgia too. Where? Where's the location where projects are? Georgia and Delaware. Maybe it's the state, maybe it's dependent. Is that a state project or federal? The federal one is here in Georgia, but the state one is Delaware. And they've enforced it on your federal project? Both. Yep. What kind of project is it? Genitorial. Okay. All right. So it's indoors. Ah. Maybe because I'm working outside. Yeah. I'm not me work outside, but maybe the people. Yeah. That's probably what it is. I haven't heard anything. We've had, we've had no, no enforcement. And even Delaware, like as a state, they're all the state and federal employees who like work in the building, not just contractors, but the actual employees have to do the same. Okay. Nice. Nice. Nice. All right. Well, it looks like we got some people in the room. By the way, I always tell everyone when you're on live, treat this as a conference event. Let us know who you are. Let us know the city you're from. As you see, we're talking about Delaware and New York and Jersey and all the fun places that we work at, but let us know who you are. Let us know your industry and the city that you're from. If you want to put your state, that's fine. If it's a little city that nobody knows the name of, you might want to put your state. You know what? I don't even know if I know a name of a city in Delaware. You won't, you won't. I know Wilmington. Okay. Wilmington. I've heard that. I was like, okay. I'm like, do I know a, do I even know a name of a city? Dover is the capital. I believe that's the major. Dover. Dover. Dover. South. Yeah. I've never heard that in my life. Oh. I have heard Wilmington. Okay. I've never heard, has anybody else heard of Dover, Delaware? I think that's the capital. It's a shame. I don't know, but I believe that's the capital, but Wilmington is close to Philly. That's probably why you know that. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. You know what? Maybe you're right. Yep. Maybe you're right. Okay. That's cool. All right. Well, listen, by the way, welcome, Tanya. Welcome, Robert. Welcome, Phillip. Welcome, Harold. Everyone else who chimed in is Alika. Jimmy Coleman. Yvonne. Welcome. Welcome. We're having a conversation today with two wonderful people. I'm going to let them introduce themselves. So that's why I don't mess up Stephanie last name and whatever she didn't want to call herself. But I will tell you this week, we have two more live sessions coming up. So if you're not already aware, look out for those live sessions come up this week. With that said, we are taking questions. We've already done a podcast interview with Stephanie. Maria has, it's not currently posted, but it really goes into details of her story, her background, her experiences, family life, and all that great stuff. So we're not planning on reviewing this. Because you can go in and watch that podcast. But we are going to have fun. And we've got her friend and partner and crime and, you know, travel buddy and all the other great stuff together with her. So who's who's a upcoming giant in her own right and her respect. And so you can find both of them everywhere. LinkedIn. I didn't see Stephanie has an IG profile. So I know she's as big on IG. I know she's a big fan of IG. I know she's a big fan of IG. So I know she has big on IG. I ain't seen Stephanie profile. I'm not saying she don't maybe just private. We talked about that today. We can talk about that. Don't be shy. Ask questions. This is really is your time. And it's not often that we all get together. I don't think we've ever been together, except in like a virtual happy hour session. But, you know, that's about it. But it's just very rare that we get together, that we get together to be able to have these conversations that I think are super, super important. And I know that when I first started off with my journey of doing government contracting, people would always ask me the same questions over and over again. And obviously that's why I started my channel. And I'm sure that as these ladies have progressed in the world of government contracting, people start asking them questions and they probably get the same kind of questions that I was receiving back when I first started So again, I just wanted to bring everyone together, have a conversation. They'll tell you a little bit about their stories from their backgrounds and then let people ask questions and be able to find out more about us and find out about them, whatever things they wanna share and reveal. And then also maybe some things that you've had questions what I know janitorial is a very popular industry that people always talk about, at least in the beginning. And it's funny, when I think of janitorial, you know what I think of? When you go to college and everyone starts off with like the same like engineering majors. And then by the time they finish college, everybody switches and they got all these different major like they're marketing, but anybody know that what I'm talking about? Like everybody has major, we all, I wanna do this, I wanna do that. So I think a lot of times that's what happens with janitorials that people, they think that janitorial sounds easy to do. And I want you to share on some of your experiences of it being not so easy as well. Because it's just, it's real. Whenever you're dealing with people and human resources, I tell you, I know it's not easy. I don't care what line of work, what field, what industry, what business. Whenever you're dealing with people and they're especially adults that they got their own minds it's just really hard to sometimes control, manage, discipline, and especially if you have to fire someone, right? So I don't know if you guys, any one of you have gotten to that point where you've had to fire someone, but it's not. But it's not easy. But it's not easy. But it's not easy. But it's not easy. But it's not easy. But it's not easy. But it's not easy. But it's not easy. But it's not easy. And it's interesting, it's because I always say, that's why it's really, you can't hire friends and family because firing them is tough. Not hiring them at all. Say no? Definitely no. Say no? Yes, ma'am. I hired my sister. It was a great experience. I got my kids. Everybody has been on payroll at some point. At some point. Right. Not continuously. Just one and done. One and done, right? No, no, no. We don't, one and done. Yeah, I've done the same thing. One and done. I have my brother. I have my other brother. I have my, I have my knees on payroll. Yeah, one and done. Yeah, one and done. That's the only way. Yeah. So, like I said, let us know who you are. Let us know in the room. Renee, welcome. You're very welcome. McDonough, McDonough, Georgia. You know Renee? All right, all right. You know Renee? Excellent. Look at that. She must have been at Gillam. She's a veteran. There you go. Sister warrior. There you go. Yes. Nice, nice, nice. So whoever wants to go first, tell us your name. Tell us, you know, tell us your background. Tell us a little bit about yourself. And then we'll let Sheena watch you to the start. Okay. Sheena Parker, Foresight Industries, Facility Support Services here in ATL, Hot Lanta. And unlike what you mentioned earlier, I didn't start off doing janitorial. I started off thinking I was going to be a floor contractor. So my first contract was flooring and waxing that went terribly bad and then I switched over to floor replacement for fire stations at the state level. So that's what I thought I was going to end up doing. And then of course, a janitorial contract came up and I had someone doing my contracts for me and she thought it would be a great opportunity. And it was. And that particular contract we're still on, that was about four years ago, excuse me, three years ago. It's one of my favorites, but I didn't plan on getting into janitorial at all. But with COVID, it has become about 70% of our business. So I'm trying to scale it back just a bit if I can and figure out what my favorite, within Facility Support, what my favorite pieces of that is, because it's so broad. You said flooring and waxing. Uh-huh. Like flooring and then stripping and waxing, yes. Okay. All right. So you were talking about putting in like carpet tiles, tiles, things like that. BCT, yep. BCT, okay. All right. Okay. All right. That's not janitorial. You're right. That's more long construction lines. All right. All right. I got you. I got you. All right, Stephanie. All right, guys. I'm Stephanie Ado Zunica, owner of ACJ Luxury Maintenance. I have a janitorial, specialized in janitorial painting and foreign for government, commercial and local municipalities here in the New Jersey, New York area, really in the New York area. I haven't had anything in Jersey yet. So anybody wants to do something in Jersey, hit me up. But and I work across state lines as well, if you make sense. I've had contracts, more one contract in Kentucky. So that went well, but that's overall what I do. All right. Nice. Nice. So Sheena said, she started off flooring and waxing and then went to janitorial. What did you start off doing? Mine is totally different. I started out in a daycare industry. Hello, daycare. She had a daycare for a number of years, about eight years. And then I stopped that for a little bit, the business coaching and then somehow when Sheena got her first contract, because she was telling me a lot about government contracting. And I was going to the conferences that I tell you got about all the time, actually, you know, was really persistent with Sheena to get her to these conferences as well. But at the conference, they talked a lot about government contracting. So, you know, once she got hers, I'm like, how did you do it? How, you know, where did this come about? And, you know, I asked her, that she told me about you, Eric. Watch this video. She's very big on that. So that's what I did. And that's kind of how I got into the government contracting arena. I took my time, but that's kind of how I got into it. Oh, that's cool. Now you said you were at daycare. So that to me, daycare is entrepreneurial. Yes. Yeah. So I mean, it's not, yes, going from daycare to government contracting, maybe it seems different, but it's still entrepreneurial. It's still, you know, having a business and managing people and doing payroll and stuff. I don't know. I think to me, daycare sounds harder. Um, I don't know. She's laughing. Yeah. And daycare, you know, you have to have a lot of patients. You're dealing with parents. You're dealing with children. So you have to finesse the way that you speak to people, um, but still be starting about your contract and things of that nature. Whereas in government contract, I could be as blunt as I want, which I kind of love. It's still a chess game, but you know, depending on who you're talking to, you can be, you know, more blunt with it. So that's the kind of like, I like that a little bit more in the hours as well. You know, government contracting. It can be a lot of hours, but daycare, you know, you're looking at 12 hours a day, pretty much. And then you still have to go get food, do all this stuff. So, you know, the hours, it, it was a lot. So government contracting a lot different in that, this past contract, you know, in the beginning, I was there all the time, but like towards the end, they barely saw me. No, my kids. Right. Right. And that actually, it's a good point. I would like to bring that up. So, um, let's, let's talk about that. You have a family. Yeah. Did you have your kids? So husband, how many kids? Married, um, mom of three, 14, 13 and nine. My oldest is on the spectrum. Um, so it's, it's a balancing act. Remembering everything. I don't use my calendar. You say you don't use your calendar. I try, but you know, and if I do put in the calendar, it has to go off three or four times. Like I had a past assistant, she's like, so I'm going to put in your calendar, um, for one minute. So that way, because I'll remember in the beginning, but then I'll, you know, ADHD, you start looking into something else and you're like, I forgot. So yeah, that, that's me. Nice. Nice. Nice. And Sheena, I know you had to put the dog away. How many kids? I was never supposed to be a dog, mom. I didn't even like animals. I don't know how this happened. Yeah. Really? Long story. But yes, married, um, two kids, 16 and 14. And, um, dog mom of two, which are more like, you know, extra children, but, you know, slowly as my kids are transitioning out, I'm like, okay, I kind of like this dog thing a little bit. Um, but yeah. And don't let Stephanie fool you. Stephanie does everything. She is like the master of all. She's had a gazillion types of businesses. We met on a business. We met on a business tip on Facebook. You know, we both veterans, you know, and it's, it's very rare to find someone who was a veteran black woman married mom. You know what I mean? Like it has to hustle like you do. So we just instantly clicked and over time she told me about some things, uh, some veteran entrepreneur programs. And then it was magic after that. So. No, that's awesome. So you met on Facebook. She's telling me there was a, uh, something she said to me, but I'm pretty sure I approached you. I can't, I got a scroll. She was talking about one of the houses that she owned. She was like renting or something or hope you were in the wholesaling and my husband was getting in the wholesaling. So I had, um, inboxed her about it to tell me a little bit more about her experience. She immediately asked me, you know, she said we could get on the phone and talk about it. And I'm like, wow, she's welcome in and then found out she was a veteran. So I told her more of the programs that I was a part of. And I'm like, you got to become a part of it because it's so good. And I'm very bad at explaining it, but, um, I'm just like, you've got to get in the network. I'm telling you it's going to help you. And, um, yeah, just based off of that, we kind of hit it off and we both have an obsession with business. Like we talk business 24 seven. That's all the kids in there. A little bit of husband in there, but yeah, all business. Yeah. All day, every day. Yeah. I actually, I think that's fascinating because I, I always tell people when they say, oh, I said, I think I'm pretty boring because this is all I talk about. So I think for me, I think maybe if another person has other interests would find me boring. So that's why y'all my people. Exactly. Because you talk about it all the time. And I think that's when you say that too, because today I was just telling my, my friend who's also like my tax consultant too, but I'm like, I'm pretty, my life seems interesting, but I'm pretty boring. Like this is all I do all day. Yeah. Actually, so, um, you know, opening up the conversation, is that something that you think, uh, other people that are watching this, that are learning from this, you think that's something that you need to have? So to your point about, um, after doing a couple of little interviews here and there, I have gotten a lot of people, you know, approach me for same stuff. And I send them to you. I'm like, don't watch Eric coffee's video. You don't need anything from me. Um, but yeah, I think you need to have a very, very keen sense of discipline. Um, not everybody's a 4am clubber like me. Some of us are night owls like Stephanie, but you have to be really, really disciplined. Like you have just reading the documentation, just making sure that you're compliant is a whole set of disciplinary actions within itself. So at some point you're going to have to really be engulfed in this. And I tell some people, if you want to get into government contracting, this is not part time. Like you can do, you can do a, have a job because I was working full-time for several years before I completely jumped ship, but I was doing the business full-time and working full-time. I mean, it was no time hustle. It was a, you know, I was working like 20 hours a day because I was just so determined and you really have to be that way because like, I think you mentioned in one of your previous videos, Eric, like it's, it's, it's easy to win, but when it's time to perform, that's a whole nother, you know, set of obligations. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about that. Yeah. That is very true. That is very true. Yeah. I was, I, to me, that is my, that I tell everyone that no one wants to accept it because they haven't been there. And I know it's hard when you're not, when you're looking from outside looking in and like, yeah, he just says that, but I'm telling you it winning is the easy part of the getting the job done, getting it done on time and being able to, you know, get your numbers right, you maximize, you know, the revenues, the profitability, all that stuff. That's a whole nother animal and people don't teach you that and that's, it's, it's hard to teach because again, it's your business and you're running the business and, you know, you have employees that, some of that are more responsible than others. Some that take more pride than others and it's difficult to control them. So, yeah, that's definitely true. I like that what you said about full-time business and full-time into this. Stephanie, how do you feel about that? One, I, when Sheena would tell me she's working, like I never believed she had a full-time job. I'm like, well, how in the world did she do that? But yeah, you do have to be full-time in it. You got to be really focused on what you want to, what you want to do. And one thing that Sheena's really good at is being focused and not having like that shiny object, shiny, shiny object syndrome. And then when I decided to get into government contracting, it was one of those things where I like put away everything and I was like, this is all I'm going to study, this is all I'm going to do. Because it's like, I got tied to chasing dollars. Like, you don't want to chase dollars no more. Like, I want to get to the millions. Like, and I was very focused and very serious on that. Like, you really don't want to chase any more of these little jobs or little things. You want to build your resume with the government that's going to pay you your work. A lot of these other jobs are not going to. You could utilize it for cash flow, I would say. If you need to pay bills, because there's people that do need to pay bills now, you know, because one of those people, like I was not, I've been a full-time entrepreneur since 23. So I've been creating like my check forever. So it's like me or, or nothing, you know, I do have my husband to fall back on, which is great. But I want to make my own money and I want to elevate my family as well. So I got tired of kind of chasing those dollars and got really focused. I like that. You know, I agree totally as you imagine. I hear people telling me that they're doing NFTs and crypto and forex trading and government. How do you know that stuff? How can you learn four different, you know, Amazon wholesaling and, you know, how can you learn? It really is chasing a dollar. And I get it because, you know, it's the power of numbers. Really when it comes to contracting, you might get lucky like Stephanie, but for some of the rest of us, you know, it's the power of numbers you have to be able to submit. You know, it's either connections or it's submitting bids. And so you cannot divert your, your energy or your time into something else. If you have to sit here and read a hundred page solicitation and then, you know, it's due by this time and you're like, I didn't know they needed 10 copies. And you're, you know, there's a lot of things that go into it. And it just cannot be separated by some other stuff. Like if you're going to do that, I would just say do one at a time. And a lot of people, I started almost telling people to stop doing government contracting. Like I like, don't do it. Because you're not ready. You know, you're not mentally ready, financially ready, you know, like even with me being, I guess considered kind of seasoned in this industry, you know, I have one of my contracts. They didn't pay me for like almost 90 days. You know, that's, and we're talking, you know, we're not talking about a thousand dollars. We're talking about like almost a hundred thousand dollars. Who plans for that? You know, no one plans for that. So, you know, people just, if they don't have the discipline to even read it or they throw money at everything and they're not sitting, when you don't have money, you, like Stephanie always says, you see the time of money. You don't have time. You have, you have money and vice versa. So if you're not willing to sit there and read something, then, you know, just, just go on to something else a little easier until you're ready to go into this world of contracting. It's crazy. I like that. I like that. I actually, I agree with you 2000%. I would, I, you know, I agree with you because I've heard people over the last four years. Just the way that they talk and the way that they, the way that they react to life experiences. I said, you know, this is going to be a tough road to plow. You don't want to be like that, but you don't want to be like that and try to pursue someone's dreams. No, I don't want to pursue anyone's dreams. I just tell them to be ready. But it's just being real about it, you know, if you don't have the money, you do have the time and you should spend the time reading more and absorbing and just kind of gaining the wisdom and insight and doing that type of research. Cause one of the things, you know, when I got my contract, it was me. It was like one person. And then we had to, like I always say, I had to get 40 people overnight and imagine that type of transition and all of the stuff that I had to learn. So it's like, it's a lot of learning in between. But if I wasn't doing all of that research before, like I wouldn't have been prepared. And I don't think I was 100% prepared, but I was prepared enough to work the contract, you know? So it's one of those things where don't feel some sort of way because you don't have a contract right now, just kind of bask in the fact that you're learning and everything that you're learning, you're going to put towards your contract when you do get it. Oh, it's interesting. One of the things that you kind of glanced over was how quickly you were able to pull it off in terms of the number of people. I think that you kind of like just glance over that story. I love your point, you've been a really good point. Yeah, you know, you kind of like went right over. And I'll say this. Some people, like you mentioned about their discourage because they didn't get a contract. And I don't know if you want to call one of our Tuesday sessions where I said to the person, I said, don't be so anxious to get a contract because maybe you're not ready yet. And you might just get that contract and fail. And so, you know, it's going to come after you've done all the work, after you've like you just mentioned after you've put in your time and you're now ready to receive it, then I can see it coming for you. And then she goes, you know what, you're right. I said, maybe the person who's going to give you the contract isn't so nice. And maybe they're going to be really hard on you. And maybe they're going to give you tough time about your money and making sure that everything is perfect before they approve your invoice. And then you've got to flow the whole bunch of money that you didn't have because you, it's your first contract. This is making me anxious. This sound like some stuff y'all have heard. Sound like some stuff y'all have heard. Almost every time. I like to tell people that. But Stephanie, go back to your point. I just, I know that. And from even my own personal experiences, right? So like in helping with the company out of Rhode Island, they went from a $40,000 contract to a $5,000 contract. And the guys say, Hey, I want to like go somewhere in between. I'm like, you don't get to pick. That's not. So you had a very similar story. Like you said, you were one person. And then he went to how many people? To 40 of us. 40. And how long? What period of time? Three days. She's a one-star. Oh, I'm talking about one person to 40 people in three days. Yeah. Yeah. And I think, you know, that has a lot to do with relationships and also just on your grind, you know, I called people. I called two people that I knew that had cleaning businesses. And I'm like, gather your people. And then I put out an ad on Indeed and I was calling people. I was calling them. I was calling them at like 930 at night. Okay. I would think it was a scam too. If you call me at 9. Tell my job. Anything you start tomorrow. Oh, we knew that was a scam. So she went from one person to 40 people in three days. I just want to emphasize that because she glanced over it. Like it's not the highlight reel for the conversation today. Because so many other people. Who were been asking for contracts. Even people that are watching us today. If I said, okay, no problem. You want to contract. Give me 40 people in three days and get started. How many of you could be, would be ready to do that and could pull it off. Would have, like you said, have the network have the connections. Be able to set everything up to pull it off. Not many people on this call could do that. So I think that's insurance. Like she did the work. Like insurance by itself is like, like they didn't believe I would get the workers come in time, but I got it. I don't even know what I got it. Well, you hustle and that's the difference between why, you know, that's why you're here and the other people are not because that's, that's what makes all the difference in the world. And we've, you know, that's actually something that I, you know, that's what makes all the difference in the world. And we've, you know, that's actually something that I find in my government content experiences happens more often than not. It's like last minute. Yeah. Get all this stuff together and be ready to go. Yeah. You know, if you saw the interview I did with Chris last week with the trucking, he had an IDI queue for 21 million, right? They didn't use it for one year. One year is that empty. When that hurricane hit. I had a Dora the other month. They were sending emails. 9pm, 10pm, midnight, one in the morning, two in the morning. It's that for a whole year. So he had to be patient for an entire year. And he kept telling the people it's coming, it's coming. They're like, I ain't seeing it. You know how people are. I ain't seeing none yet. I ain't seeing no money. And so within, from one year of waiting, he had to literally, like 50 something trucks a day for like the next two months. And so they did, you know, several million dollars in like a two month window. Cause after sitting one year, just, and then they blew through $20 million and two months. So, so I think that's great. And you being ready was amazing. And having a line for crisis situations, I guess, you know, because honestly, like you said, that's, that's really what it is. It could be overnight. When Hurricane Ida hit, they called us that morning. And it's like, Oh, I need 15 people right now within an hour. And it's like, how am I going to get to 50 people? Again, I called the onsite supervisor. And I'm like, let's get these people together. Like I literally woke up to like four texts. And I was just like, what? Cause I'm not an early, I'm not that great. You know, like Sheena and I, we've been up at four in the morning. We were side-checking four a.m. I'll send her a message at four in the morning. I just got to wait for a response. Oh, there you go. You're like me. I did that. I did that. You did it twice. You did it twice. Yeah. You got to go to school and be able to get them, you know, be able to get them fast and make the calls. And just out of faith. I love it. I love it. So Sheena, we were talking about, um, you know, and by the way, again, anyone has questions, let us know. Uh, we're talking today. We would just mention, uh, the contract is definitely, uh, she went from one person to 40 people in three days. Uh, staffing a contract that was supposed to last three months and end up for a year. A year. Yeah. Yeah. For a year. Um, but we're also talking about what it takes to do that. Right. And, uh, it didn't, again, it didn't happen overnight, even though it seemed like it happened overnight. Uh, All the preparation beforehand and putting things in place and being able to get workish compensation. Is there anymore try to file for workbench comp? It is a pain in the butt. Okay. And so to try to do anything in three days doing a pandemic. Yeah, my, And it's even worse than New York City. So some of the workers Gramp Perry insurance is don't cover That's what we're doing. You have to definitely call around, but like you also said, Eric, maintaining that, it was high, it was very high turnover for that whole month of April. Lots of firing, lots of rehiring, lots of repositioning and then balancing, because we were at the VA hospital, so the union workers didn't want us there and we were supposed to be utilizing their stuff because at this contract, they just needed bodies. They didn't want us to bring any equipment. We were supposed to use their equipment. So they would hide the equipment, they would cut the wires. Yeah, that's the union for you. That's the union, yeah. Yeah, they cut the wires on the equipment, try to make sure that we didn't get the job done. They didn't want us to succeed. Yeah, they didn't want us to succeed, but you just got to keep motivating your workers and work with the ones that are going to work with you, but I mean, my workers will tell you, I'm fair, but I'm extremely strict at the same time because I let them know we're a team. So it's not just me and it's not just you, but it's all of us on this contract. And if you lose, I lose, then we all lose, 40 of us lose. You're working in the middle of a pandemic and where everybody's not fortunate to work and you're working at a really, really high rate an hour, so you really should be the happiest people in the world. If I was at that rate, I'd be mopping up, I'd be mopping up. Right, I mean, I'm in the hospital. You can't tell me nothing, but it's just like, it was one of those things that was a blessing for me. It was a blessing to everyone, to everyone involved. Everyone involved. That's great. Someone had a question, Renee says, has your veteran certification come into play in achieving contracts yet? Stephanie? For me, no. Not right now. Oh, actually, let me not say that. Yes, the one in Kentucky. The one that you got recently? Yeah, the one about recently in Kentucky. I think that came into play. So let me ask, so actually, this is a really good point. I was on a webinar last Friday with Jennifer Schaus and Associates and we talked about set-asides. And I'm gonna bring this slide up because Uma Erman, I don't know if anybody knows her from the Department of State. She speaks at a lot of events. She put up a slide that I'm gonna steal it, but I'll keep her name on, I'll give her the credit, but I'm gonna steal it because I want people to understand. On her slide, it said that 80% of all contracts are not advertised as set-asides. Even though they meet the goals, they're not advertised as set-aside, they just take the credit for you having a set-aside. So they don't have to actually advertise it as a set-aside to receive the credit for meeting their goals. So they can put it out open market. And if you're a veteran or a woman, they take that as a credit, like, hey, women, but they didn't actually advertise it. So for me, my more important question is, was it advertised as a veteran? No, that makes a lot of sense because they emailed me and asked for a quote and I sent it to them. So I don't know whether it was a set-aside or not, but they ended up sending it as a sole source. Yeah, exactly. So, and that's kind of what the point was, she was saying was that they're not advertising these things but they're taking the credit for all this stuff. Yeah. And so we need people to understand, and that makes a difference, right? Because when people are looking at only set-aside opportunities, they're reducing the amount of pie that's impossible for them and their business. So I thought it was a really excellent slide that I'm gonna grab and pull up. All right, oh, Sheena, what about you? No, the certification has not benefited me. It starts a lot of conversations, so it will help with potential partnerships, whether that contract that we're going after as a JV or a Prime sub, it makes you more attractive, if you will, but I have not won any contracts based on my set-aside, but I will say, like if you can get it, it's free, go ahead and just get it, but it's not, a lot of people spend a lot of time going after the certifications and waste time, and they pay to do them and then they either do nothing with it or it really doesn't matter because again, throwing money at stuff does not get you a contract, you have to be completely in it. Right, okay. Tam, so there's an echo. Tam, is the echo on my part, Stephanie, Sheena? I heard it earlier, I... I'll bring my mic closer. I don't know, all right. Okay, yeah, good question. Thank you for that, Renee. All right, so we were talking about Sheena. Now, I saw a story where you said your first time you bid something, you lost money or you didn't bid it right, first project? Yeah, that was that waxing. Won the contract, I'm at the local level. I know you hate local, Eric, but I was trying my hand at local and I won and I was like, dancing in the street. Yeah, turn up. But I was in real estate before, like Stephanie said, but so I had the contractors, people ready to go that I did renovations with, and so my contractor was like, no, we can't do it for the price that you bid, you would have to come out of pocket like, I don't know, 10,000 and I was like, no way. Like, where am I getting this money from? So I actually canceled it. And it just so happens that in the contract, and I read through, it stated that you have a certain amount of days to cancel and I was like right at, I don't know, the fourth day or the fifth day and I was like, whew. So I won that one, but I didn't execute because I wouldn't have, it just wouldn't have worked. But then when I won my second one, I was like, this is a breeze. Like when the contracts, I could do this all day. This is too easy, you know? And that one was wonderful because it taught me a lot in that moment, kind of like what Stephanie's saying, on the go learning and just really figuring out how to manage people, you know, Army for almost 20 years. So I'm like, I know how to manage people, but it's different when you're the one cutting the check through them. So one of the things that was just so ironic about that particular contract is they gave me an advance and I have no idea why, that was extremely irresponsible on their part, but it's really interesting when you go from like having a little bit of money to having like a $70,000 check in your hand and makes you really think about some things like sure, you know. That was kind of the thought. So, you know, it was just, it was interesting. It just taught me so many things in that moment. And that was the only way the contract would have been executed because we had to, you know, it's for supplies. So we had to use it to kind of float and get the job done. So that was just, you know, the real entry into, wow, I have a six-figure business that's almost right out the gate. This is crazy, you know. Well, what she didn't say is she asked for the advance. Like they didn't just automatically put it in the contract, right? Well, like, yeah, go and negotiate and act. And that was something that she taught me because I was like, well, where would I get this money from? She's like, but you can ask them for an advance and a lot of people don't really know that to really know you can negotiate this stuff if you don't have it. Yeah, I always think that, and again, COVID is probably a really good indicator of that from all the people getting that PPP. They got all those advances for masks and gloves and stuff that they all, they didn't all get all the products but they did get a lot of advance checks. But no, everything is negotiable. And so, you know, we've had contracts where the government said that they would not pay us, but one time, like at the end of the contract. Yeah. I'm like, wait, this is a million-dollar contract. Where am I supposed to get the rest of the money from? Like, I don't have a million dollars afloat, y'all. I didn't. And so we told them that, hey, we wrote a letter and said, we're a small business. This is a small business contract. And that doesn't seem appropriate to expect a small business to float a million dollars to a federal government agency. So we told them, no, we'd like it broken down. And so they gave us, we were able to build one invoice and then a final payment. And so I just front-loaded that invoice. So I front, yeah, I fronted, oh, that first invoice was like 800,000. I'm like, that's how you do it. You're like, yeah, you know, it's 800,000. So, I mean. That's how you do it. And we still actually, believe it or not, because the contract was right around 1.5 million. We still need like another couple hundred grand. Like, we still almost ran out of money. Like, we still almost ran out of money. That's the scary part. People don't want to run out of money. What I keep telling people is, it doesn't matter what level you're at, you could always run out of money because you go bigger and bigger and bigger. So no matter how much money you think you have today, there's contracts that are bigger and that will eat all of that up, plus some. So you definitely have to learn about managing money and finances and things like that. Especially if you have multiple contracts, you know, like Robin Peter to pay Paul, some contracts are a lot more lenient than others. So then you're stealing from this one and then you're like, oh my God, my contractors. I got to go into hiding because I can't pay this contract and that contractor, which is basically driving the whole contract. And that's been one of the testimonies I have had is when you have to get everything in writing. If you don't get it in writing, then someone can say, well, I didn't tell her it was going to be $10,000 per bill and I thought it was going to be $3,000. You know, those types of things, you don't necessarily, there's no training for that. You just have to kind of, and then you don't want to lose a contract because they have 10 other people lined up to take your spot and they'll figure it out on the fly while I'm over here, you know, arguing about $50 or whatever the case may be. So there's just so many nuances and you have to be really thick-skinned. You have to, you know, have a support system. I have Stephanie, you know, someone to just say, oh my goodness, I'm about to lose it. Let me just get this vent out real quick. What do you suggest? And then we, you know, go out the rest of our day. So it's a lot. It's really a lot to manage. And especially if you have multiple industries and like facility support is so many industries. And then you're balancing contractors versus employees versus your executive staff. You know, one of the things I ran into is like, I got the labor force and then my executive staff. So my executive staff is getting the good old foresight culture and the labor force is kind of getting, you know, nothing. So that's also something when I didn't realize my managerial skills needed to really, really be redefined. So, you know, just so many nuances. Yeah, no, that's a good point. I think that, by the way, Stephanie, it's your mic that has the echo. People keep messaging people. Yeah, I didn't hear, but they said it's your mic. I don't know what you mean with the link. Yeah, yeah, like a headset, maybe my help. But either way, one of the things you mentioned, Sheena, that I really liked that I'm looking over here. And I brought this up recently. One of my podcast guests said the multiple journey is just as difficult as strategy. And so you talked about having Stephanie to be able to call and like, I'm about to blow up. And like, and so we have, you know, I have the same thing, a network of people that I deal with as well, that we all do contracts and we can talk to each other about situations and scenarios that you just, you know, you can't tell your employees, your spouses could care less. Friends, so don't wanna hear that stuff. Right, right. You know what, one thing I realized though, is I had to improve my friends. I mean, everyone knows that, but really not just business friends, but like that next level, because it's very difficult for your friend that's hustling oranges to understand that you have a million dollar contract. You know what I mean, a lot of $6 million contract or, you know, they don't really understand the concept in general, but then, you know, a million dollars is really nothing in the contracting world. Thank you, amen. Yeah, it's like. I try to tell people that. That's not even, don't get impressed by that. Don't get impressed by that. You'll be in a room with a lot of people that, like I was telling Stephanie that I went to VIP, Veterans Institute for Procurement. Yep, and so, and it was the VIP start. So it was people just touching the surface about contracting and the gentleman that was teaching us, he said that he doesn't do anything less than a million. So they just don't have the staff to do something so low. Right. And I was just like, oh my goodness, am I in the right room or the wrong room? You know, so it's just really understanding where you're at and what you have to balance. And, you know, again with the family, you got to include your family at some point in this whole, in this day, you know, like I really try to include my kids in a lot of the stuff that I do so they can understand that I'm not just, you know, out here being crazy, but they're like, wow, you know, I don't know how you haven't snapped because this is a lot, a lot to deal with in a day's time, you know? Sure, sure. No, I imagine. Let me see, someone says, at what point of the contract did you negotiate? After, you can put it in your bid, like when you submit your documents or sometimes... Now, this was, let's clarify, was this a state, federal or local contract? Right, that makes a difference. What contract was that that you were talking about, that you negotiated? For you? That was at the county level. County, okay, so that was a county contract first. So let's just clarify, okay. And now that was, you put that in your bid? No. You said, okay, when did you negotiate the advance? This is a little, I don't think they followed all the rules. Let's just say. Okay, all right, gotcha. And listen, you know what? Okay, that's a great segue because one of the things that I say about counties, if you say, why don't you teach county contracts? Because they all have different rules. Every county is different. It's impossible. If someone tells you they're gonna teach you how to do business with the county, they're lying to you because they can't. Because seriously, I mean, you just said, where are you at right now? What location, what city? I'm in Snailville, Georgia. Okay, and then you're going to Delaware. So people in Delaware don't do business like people in Snailville, and people in New York don't do business like people in New Jersey. So each county is different how they operate, what they can and can't do, which is why I tell people that stuff. So all right, now you can answer the question about, they didn't follow the rules. Yeah, I don't think they followed the rules. It was an on-call flooring contract. So with that, I was the only one that showed up to the site visit. And so it was just perfect for them because they wanted to include diversity. That particular county didn't have a whole lot of it. So I think that definitely played a part. And then after we did the site visit and we were going to give the quote, we asked for an advance. Me and my contractor. Oh yeah, all right. That was simple. And usually in construction, I know you know this, Eric, you can sometimes ask for an advance when it comes to like construction for materials. Right, there you go. Can we talk about me and local contractor? I hate local contractor. I know you do, I know you do. Listen, listen, listen. I have a very good reason for it. And I was watching something, you ever heard of Patrick David? Patrick David, he's a... Yeah, oh yeah. Motivational guy, yeah. Motivational guy, yeah, big time guy. So what's interesting is that Patrick David, he put out a video of this, like maybe last week, this week, last week. And he says, by the way, listen, make sure you give us a thumbs up. There's 57 people watching. Help us out, give us a thumbs up. Make sure you like the content as well. And then ask questions. We're gonna be taking questions throughout. So waiting for Stephanie to get her mic fixed. And I'll bring it back onto the stage. But nevertheless, Patrick David said something and he said that in the last, I think it was decade, three quarters of all of the money has ever been printed. United States was printing the last decade. And so, and he says, and the reason has to do with, again, all of these multiple stimulus packages and all of these relief packages, we have never in our history had this before. Right. These are unprecedented times we're facing. And the previous centuries, the previous decades, we've always let people fail. We've always let the businesses fail because it's capitalism, right? This is the first time in ever we've propped up all businesses, not just big ones, we propped everybody up. Little guys, we just, so if you look at historically, and I will, I'm gonna compare myself to Ray Dalio where he's made mistakes, okay? He looked at historical data and so he made a mistake on a bet one time on Wall Street and he lost a lot of money because the government then turned around and bailed the companies out. So historically, he was right, but the government bailed everybody out. So he was wrong on his big bets. Well, he ended up becoming one of the most successful investors in the world time. So yes, I've been wrong on that only because they bailed everybody out. Had they not, if they had, you take away all those relief packages. And all that money that they printed for everybody, all the cities, how much money would the cities have today? They'd be underwater. Yeah, I mean, but you know, one thing you did teach in that, in your, I guess, disdain for local contracting is every state is different. So, you know, we don't really have, now they pay slow, like in Georgia, who they pay slow in a lot of the cities and counties, but we don't have like no, where you don't get paid at all. Now you said- No, no, no, no, no, no, definitely not. And I'm like, okay, I don't know how I would be if I never got paid. That's a whole different Sheena that I'm like, yeah. Yeah, I know I'm gonna get paid probably slow with some of them, but I know I'm gonna get paid. So that does make a difference. If you mentioned doing your research about the county of the city. Oh yeah. So that is very important for people to know. Yeah, I say that. I definitely want to encourage people to do their research. And one thing, again, one of my friends is super, super successful from doing county contracts. And I think that that's a sign of maturity to change your position. Uh-oh, hold on. We're having some technical issues here. But even still, like you said, if you don't have, so if you don't have money, you can't afford to get paid slow. No. You can't. You can. If you don't have money, you gotta afford to get paid slow. You gotta have some kind of money to be able to get paid slow. And for people thinking that's a low hanging fruit, that's not a low hanging fruit because not having the resources to finish your project is putting you into potential bankruptcy. And when you run out of cash, you're out. Like, that's it. You're out. Doesn't matter how much money left on the contract, give me 10 million left on that contract, but if you want to get to zero and you can't pay people and you can't pay staff and you can't keep everything flowing, then you run out. Can you hear me, Sheena? Yep, I can hear you great. You can. You guys can hear me? Yep. Okay. You. Looks like I'm trying to add- I hear you. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh, we lost Eric. We lost Eric. Oh, we got to talk amongst ourselves. I won't, and you can't see if everyone is still in, so. Yeah, I don't know. I don't even get to see the questions, but. Right. Find these headphones and stuff. So I guess back to your state contracts, right? I did a state contract. I would say in New York City and New York state contracts, it works differently as well, because some of them are on 30-day invoices and stuff. My experience with the city, and that's more through daycare, they can pay slow and sometimes they might so-called forget-to-pay. We were on a every six-week type contract, but yeah. So it's really more about managing the money, managing the assets. For me, I didn't really spend anything until everybody's paid, and that's kind of how I managed the government contracting as well. Try to make sure the workers are paid, but it's also negotiating with your workers, too, letting them know, listen. Sometimes the government, like when I would hire, I'll let them know the government pays slow, and I'm gonna do my best to pay you, but there is a chance that we might have a delay, and if at any point there is a delay, then I will make sure that you know ahead of time. Like I never wanna wait until payday to say, hey, you guys, that's like a death sentence. You know? Especially, we're working with one of the, unfortunately, no disrespect, but one of the lowest tier of the labor force. So most of these people are living less than paycheck to paycheck. Like their paycheck is barely even covering what they need to do. So payroll is my first priority. Every other contract, I'm like, you're gonna have to wait. And so, you know, my contract just started getting spoiled because I would pay them so quick that if it went two weeks, then they're blowing up my phone. I was like, I'm gonna change this, okay? Yeah, exactly. You get paid after 30 days, just like I had to wait 30 days, because if you set that precedence up front, then they're not gonna be beating down your door looking for $40,000. You know what I mean? After the project is finished, the day after the project is finished. So, yeah. And we kind of been on both end of the stick. So we really know about living paycheck to paycheck and then not living paycheck to paycheck. So that's one of the reasons why I, you know, make sure like I understand both ends. I know what it is to struggle. I know to go to bank to see all that stuff where you need your check. And that's one of the reasons why I'm very adamant on being upfront with my employees, you know? So they can understand and know what is going on prior to all hell breaking loose. It's not like I didn't tell you ahead of time. It really is like all hell breaking loose. Yeah. All right, what about this question? Okay. What would be the best way to build past performance? I could start, I guess. I think one of the things I did to build past performance, I built it through the private industry. I worked with property management companies. I did rental turnovers. So when people would leave the apartments, I would clean out the apartments, repaint it. And, you know, we would do the floors and stuff. So that's kind of how I got my experience. I utilized friends as past performance. Sheena could tell you that she has been everything under the sun. A strong team. Got to have that strong team. You do have to have that strong team. So I'm like, girl, they about to call you. So you were, I work with you right under this contract. This is what I did. This is how much you paid me. I do it all the time, I do it all the time. We do it all the time. You know, things of that nature, you know? Make sure your friends are professional. Right. Yeah. And they're ready for the call because, you know, they'll be like, who is, what? Who? Sheena, you have to prep them for what they're gonna be saying. The term low hanging fruit. I'm not sure what they mean by that, but contrary to popular belief, janitoria is not it. That is not the low hanging fruit. The only reason why I think people feel that way is because they can always jump in and perform if they need to perform. But that does not mean that you wanna be scrubbing a hundred toilets every day. Right. That doesn't sound like low hanging fruit to me. I mean. Because sometimes you might have to step in if a staff is out. And that's something that you really, you know, you have to understand, you know, you might have to just step in. Or, you know, you're willing, I mean, I don't mind either way, but you're willing to do it yourselves too. But I wouldn't recommend that if you're trying to build a business. Like you gotta build your business from the outside and not the inside out. So, you know, you really gotta try to learn to outsource certain things. So Sienna, how did you build your past performance? Same way. Ditto. I mean, I was in real estate. So I kind of used that, which encompasses everything. As far as the janitorial, the first janitorial contract I won with the college, I don't believe they asked for much past performance. I think they were just looking to get more vendors. So, you know, I just utilized the same thing as Stephanie or just, you know, put, and they didn't mind that some of my, I think I put down five, they didn't mind that some of the things were not janitorial. Okay. I think it was one where I talked about putting down flooring again. And that was, you know, it was mentioned in our kickoff meeting that they were like, okay, cool. Like it's almost like you kind of know before something is cleaned, that, you know, the flooring goes in and then you clean it. You know, it was almost like they knew that we were more valuable than just janitorial. Right, sure. It makes sense, makes sense. Mark's question, with all the training I'll provide for veterans. What would you recommend the best value for your time? You mentioned best procurement. What would you recommend? That's our favorite topic. Go ahead, Steve. Yeah. So I am a part of the Institute for Veteran Military Families. That's where I started out at. I believe that is one of the greatest resources for veterans that are businesses because they have just some of the top people that come and speak to you that you're not going to be able to really like walk down the street and, you know, meet them. They have those people come and meet with you. And if you want to build your network that way, I would say do that. I went through their entrepreneurs bootcamp. That was back in 2014. And that's for disabled veterans. And that's a 10 day all expenses paid bootcamp. Yes, yeah, but it's really, it's literally like getting your MBA. If you already have it, it's like getting it again, but on a whole other level, because you're learning from the mistakes of Fortune 500 companies and they're really coming in and teaching you about just how to build your business. And for, like I told Sheena, cause she's like, well, I already know about business. I don't understand why I need to go. I was fighting it. Yeah. And like I told her, yes, you do know about business. About the time I joined them, I had already been in business for a long time. So I knew a lot of things as well. But I would say go through it again because there's always stuff to learn. But once you're in the network, you're in the network. So you can tap it to all the resources needed to be able to grow. I didn't do VIP yet. I'm actually going to get ready to do that. And we're both in Goldman Sachs, but Goldman Sachs is not only for a veteran. So that's something open to everyone if you meet the criteria. But yeah, that's my spiel. But I- Goldman Sachs is a little bit more difficult to get into. Yeah. You have to have a minimum. FYI for people, you gotta have some revenue numbers and employees and things like that. You gotta show some tax returns. So it's a little bit more challenging for folks to get into. Also, I joined Bunker Labs earlier this year and I met some amazing, this is my third. So it's funny because I think almost every program I applied for, I got denied the first time. So I got denied for VIP the first time, Bunker Labs twice and Goldman Sachs. So I'm on a mission. When I get denied to any of these programs, I'm on a mission to get in. So Bunker Labs is like a personal mission. I knew I wanted to go there to, and this is during COVID this year, I wanted to make connections. And so I would also encourage when you are joining these programs that you're going into a fully focused and knowing what you're trying to get out of it. Even you might not know exactly what the program entails, but it's a lot to sit there for 15 hours and talk about business. You have to be in it to win it. You have to be in it, you gotta be in it. But for 10 show, I think it's eight days now, eight straight days where that's all you're talking about. And then you're doing a pitch at the end and all that, but Bunker Labs is a great connector if you have a good cohort and I've met some amazing people in that. I'm trying to think of what other programs, I feel like I'm in all the programs. Anything that's veteran entrepreneur, I'm like, I'm in it. Have you guys ever tried the VBOX, Veteran Business Opportunity Centers? There was a reason why I didn't do it. I remember looking it up. They have a program called Boots to Business or something like that. I think that's IVMF. Yeah, that's under IVMF, Boots to Business. Is it following IVMF? It must be in their own. Okay, but I know that they, I mean, I don't think they have an exclusive over it, but I know they always promote that program. Did you do that one? Is that the one you did, Stephanie? Did you do Boots to Business? I did the EBV, that's the Entrepreneur's Boot Camp for veterans. Okay, okay. But they also have it for your family members too, the Entrepreneur's Boot Camps for family members. Right, right. We want you to come, Eric, we're trying, because I think you'd be an asset. You know, Yeah, we were talking about it. Yeah, we were. I'm putting this down in the suggestions. Yeah. Okay, that'd be great. You'd be a really good asset. No, you know what, I think that's amazing. And Sheena, we brought this up earlier about the certification question. I hope that everyone, all 53 people watching in the hundreds and thousands are gonna watch later, take away what they're saying. They are investing in learning education. Do you not hear that? They're in everything, okay? They've watching the free stuff on YouTube. They are the Gullcon giants. They are the veteran thing. They are the, I mean, are you not hear that? This is how you become successful. It's they're learning, they're learning, even though they've been in business for 10 years and five years, eight years, they're still learning. And so many people say, well, like you said, I know, I know people like Sheena added to it. Like, I don't know business already, they hate to. But you got the connections, you got the networks. And I'm sure there's, we can always learn from someone who's a lot further along than we are. I mean, there's something that you gotta learn from them. Whether it's, like you said, getting that pulling up, working on this compensation in three days, right? Like, everyone can't teach you how to do that or everyone doesn't have the ability to make a phone call on your behalf to make these things happen, that you really need to happen. And we just don't know what that looks like. So great question, Mark. I think that's a fabulous question because what it shows me is that they continue to invest in education and Sheena shows, she's fierce and determined. Cause she said, if they deny me, I'm coming back again and I'm trying again. And you know what's interesting? I have another group suggest for you that I love to death is entrepreneurs organization. Now it's not free. It's it costs money, but- Wait, how much? Well, okay, so if you, so, all right. I'll look at the whole thing. No, we could tell people because people wanna know. So the accelerator program is if you're at $250,000 or more, that one is $2,500 a year. And then the actual program with the million dollar plus group is 5,000 a year. But you're in your cities and you have to be a unanimous vote. So you have to be the primary owner of your business, 51% or more owner. You can't have like inherit the business from your parents, something like that. Cause they want people really built it up. And the entire organization, wherever the city that you're in, they have to be unanimous, improve like no one, if one person says no, because what they want is good people. So they don't want you coming in from industries like pornography or something like that. Just cause you make money. You get me? If you've done some bad business with someone, they don't want you in the group, right? So if you burn someone, you didn't pay a contractor and it's like, hey, I know she ain't paid me in that contract. Then you don't get it. But you have the most incredible experiences. I guarantee you then any of these groups could ever imagine put together because this is the upper echelon of episode. So I'll say this, the first event I went to, I met Gary Vee. Oh, wow. So they like, and then they had events with like, what's his name? The guy that owns the, the Steve Wynn, Wynn hotels in Vegas. Oh, okay. So you get like- See, Elevator friends. See, Elevator friends. That's it, Elevator friends. Listen, now you Elevator friends, right? Now you have billionaires and stuff. Like, so it just, they take you to a really like back level. So it's, again, I think it's worth it for folks to go in and try and it's an international organization. And like you said, once you're in, you're in, you're connected with people. And I can tell you going back to that, because I really believe in that whole emotional journey piece. That to me is so critical for all of us entrepreneurs. They saved me when I was down and out. They really did invite me to Christmas party, brought me in and say, hang on some people that love you and care about you. And they'll mind talking about business all the time. They just, they love it. They embrace it. They call it, we also were the crazy people. And so like you said- We are though. We are. We are the crazy people. Gotta be crazy to do this. We're all right to do all this. And so you can't talk about this to your friends and your family, your siblings and things like that. So- And you said it's called what now? Entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs. Organization, EO. Yeah. Okay, I think I've seen it. EO, all right. But I love that. It's the funny you say that though, because my mom, I've been doing quizzes with my family. I'm like, what do I do? And they're still like, like my sister worked for me and still didn't know. I'm like, how is, how did this, where am I missing? Am I not explaining in depth? Wow. How do y'all not know? I've been doing it for almost five years. Like everything- And I'm opposite. I don't say nothing. I don't even care what they think. They don't even know. I'll just be like, oh, I'll do something here and there. They haven't- That'll stop people from asking you for money. Exactly. I'll just stop here and there. I'm just not making it. I'm cool. Look, I have people that I was with. I had dinner with some friends of mine this weekend and one guy asked me, are you still doing real estate? I'm like, are you on my Facebook page? I'm like, dude. Like, even though you're on Eric, it says it right there in your title. Are you kidding me? Like, are you serious? And you know what, that's funny you say that because people still ask me about real estate. I think it's just easy for them to remember and to understand that. Like, oh yeah, I used to do wholesale and real estate. I'm like, you haven't seen me do that in a gazillion years. So it's just- I told my son when he was talking to his girlfriend, mom, I said, just tell him I'm an engineer. They like engineering. Engineering makes you smart. Like, you know, that's for a professional career path. People get that, they get it. I like that. Seriously, like just tell me about engineering. Don't tell people about YouTube and all this stuff. And now they think I'm dancing, I'm a rapper. You know, when people hear YouTube, what is YouTube historically? Older people think of YouTube as entertainment only, right? Not education. Not what we're doing here, giving knowledge, not helping folks. So they think of it just as entertainment because that's what kids play on. They play video games on YouTube. You know, they watch videos. They don't think of it as an entertainment, as like an education, or what is the word? YouTube university. Yeah. They don't think of it that way, so you know. A funny thing is when I first heard YouTube university, like I had to look it up. Cause I'm like, what is this YouTube university everybody's talking about? Like, what exactly is that? But I think that government contracting as a whole is a hard concept for people to understand. So when I tell them like, hey, I do government contract, they're like, so you work for the government? No, like I own my own business and I sell to the government. And they're like, so you sell on the behalf of the government? And it's like, no, no, we're not getting it. So, you know, it's a hard concept for people to really, I don't know why it's so hard, but it is a hard concept for people to really comprehend and understand. Yeah, I didn't understand there, I guess. I have to remember when the conversation first came to me. And I mean, literally, and I don't know if you know this story, Eric, but like the first time the conversation came up, I was at my job Christmas party. And someone said something about, oh, you're a veteran, you know, black female, you need to do government contracting. It was like, I don't know the words you speak, I don't understand. And so then on the way, driving back from that Christmas party, I started like looking up government contracting. And that's how I found your first video. And it was on and popping after that. So it was through Eric Coffey's YouTube university. And then just became so, you know, so dedicated and just really trying to understand what that actually meant. And then I went through the whole, oh man, I need to win a contract. I won one pretty fast, but I wasn't really taking it seriously until like 2018. So that was like maybe a year and a half after. And I was just like, okay, I'm writing down my goals. And really trying to understand the concept, buying the books, all of that. And, you know, it just kind of went from there. And then of course, meeting people in the industry and getting a clear understanding of what everything is. Can we, you said something about goals. Can we talk about goals? You said goals, you have goals, Stephanie have goals. Yeah, a lot. You know, actually said something to me and a Tuesday call. I remember it. That you had your goal and you hit it and you wish it had set your goal higher. Yes, yeah. Yeah, that is so true. That goal was in, I want to say 2019, when we were coming back from the conference, Sheena's screaming at me, like, you got my goals. It was March. It was March. You're right. It was 2020 March. And she's like, you got to write down your goals. You got to write down your goals. So I'm like, I'm right. I wrote it down. I didn't really write it. I typed it out on a plane coming back from the conference. And a goal was, one of the goals was that three... Which conference? Just for the people who had gone off. I'm sorry, the IVMF conference, Veteran Ed, I go there every single year. So we were coming back from that conference and the goal was to have about three, yeah, three employees and to make 250K in my business. That was the goal. And then like, I exceeded it. Cause, you know... In like two months. Believe me. Wait, I got to just throw this in there. When we were getting ready to go out to the airport, I'm like, Stephanie, write down your goals. She was doing everything but... Yeah. She was looking that way. She's like, I'm going to write it down. And then she stopped. I'm like, focus. Open to write down your goals. And it was almost like the pin had a magnet to where she couldn't be steady. What was the problem? What was the problem? I'm always thinking of others. I get distracted really easily. Okay. And I'm always thinking, thinking. I'm like an avid thinker. I think all the time. Like I just sit and thought. So sometimes to translate that from my head to the paper, it could be hard. So when I was on the plane, it was just like a little easier cause I didn't have any wifi. I had nothing else to do. So I'm like, I could sit down and focus and do these goals and kind of process everything that I learned, you know? And 250K was one of the things that I always wanted to make in my business. I thought it was like such a huge goal. That's just one thing. That's a good number. That's a great number. It was a big number. The EO accelerated start is 250K. Exactly. Like most of the big accelerated programs you can't get in without five employees and 250K. And you don't realize how actually easy it is to get when it comes to contracting. You just, you really don't. You really don't. So it was just one of those things where I wish I would have made it higher because once you hit it, you're kind of lost. You're like, so what do I do now? Easy. Yeah. Okay. Which way am I going now? So it was like one of those things like I really wish I could have set it maybe at 2 million. Like now it's the, you know, my husband tell you I'm going for that $10 million contract, you know? It's like that one, you know? Sure. Once I hit it, I think I'm a pass out even though it's really easy. It's really easy. Well, I was saying, that's good. Yeah, my goal for all of you is five million in revenue. And for me, I'm very happy for all of you to get to that $5 million mark. So that's, that's my internal goal for all of you out here that I want to see all of you hit the five million mark. In fact, like I said, I want 200 of you to hit five million mark. You know why? That's a billion dollar impact in our community. Wow. People don't realize that when I say it because they didn't want to do the math. But I know it's, I do my things with intention. And so when I say 200 of you hit the five million mark, which by the way, we have five people in a group that've already done it. So for 200 of you to do it, that's a billion dollar impact that we can have. And by the way, I'm going to really quickly, I'm going to segment into something because one of the things that we talked about in the beginning of this call that I was telling you two about is, and I'm going to show this on the screen, is we were talking about sponsorships and I was telling I was working on getting sponsorships. So one of the things that all of these organizations do really well is they get sponsors to pay for their trainings. And that's why they can offer them for free. So that's something that we're working on now. And we believe that we have some generous podcast guests that would love to donate and sponsor scholarships for students. And so I want to just encourage everyone there's 55 people watching, go online, fill out this survey. And what we're going to do is we're putting together a sponsorship letter, Maria, myself, Randy, and we're going to email back my old podcast guests and ask them to sponsor some of you for some of our programs and training so that we can work with you one-on-one. And we believe that they're going to give generously because everyone, even Chris, that you've worked with, Stephanie, you find those people, they're the most generous people, I've found from my experiences that they remember what it was like to first get started in business and what it took. And so they want to now go back and help other small businesses. And that has been the consistent thing with all of my podcast guests. So if everyone that's watching this could go on that link and click the survey, fill it out. I think it's like 12 questions. If you guys could fill that out, we're going to send an email and to our podcast guests and ask for sponsors to help us bring a new cohort of people who maybe need some help with paying for some of our trainings and courses. So I just wanted to share that because we do, we believe in what we're doing. And like I said, being, look, they're going to places and settings to be around people at their level. You want to be in places and settings to be at people that are where you're going. So like I said, 250K was nothing. It was much easier, you know? And I agree with you because it always scares me sometimes when I set goals and then you hit it and you're like, wow, this thing really works. What would you say to everyone that's listening to this call about goals? Write them down. Believe in them, write them down, recite them. I think a lot of times you, if you haven't, if you come from nothing or if you haven't been around anyone who had anything, it's very challenging to think that you can have it. So the first step is just writing your goals down. Whatever they are, as wild and outlandish as they may seem, just write them down, recite them and believe. Yeah, that's important. I agree with Sheena. Writing down your goal. I am a big component of prayer. I am one of those prayer warriors. So I'm a big component of prayer. I actually said that to myself today, you know, because it's like, I feel like your goals and prayer goes hand in hand for those that do believe in prayer. And, you know, faith without works is dead, right? And, you know, you have to do both. It really goes hand in hand. You could write down your goals, but if you don't do the work, it's not gonna happen. You could pray, but if you don't do the work, it ain't gonna happen. So it's like, you need both to work hand in hand. And that's one of the things that I do. I write down my goals and I write down my prayers and I literally go back over them. And I can go back and see where these prayers were answered or where it's something that I prayed for has happened. So it's just, you know, one of those things. And that's what I do. So that's how I believe in my goals and what I do. What did you, where did you learn the stuff from? Oh, Lord. Do you even remember? Anybody remember what I learned from? I can tell you Jim wrong is one of my favorites. Really? Yeah, I like him. I like him. I would say the real first adult memory of me believing in the power of like positive energy is when the movie, The Secret came out. That was probably the start. I wouldn't say that I really, do you have it? No, look, you can't say that. You can't say that. That's the one. I watched the movie. You can't say, look, I haven't seen it. I haven't seen it, so I gotta see it. What? I have not. It was the start. And I wouldn't even say that I carried on with believing it, but then I went through a really, really tough time right around that same time before the Christmas party. And I just was like, I need some motivation. Like, I don't know where it's coming from. And I just started watching motivational videos on YouTube. And it took me out of that moment, at least for the moment. And so then it just went from there, just looking at my favorite, you know, Uncle Les, all the people, all the favorites. The stuff they're saying is so simple, but you really do have to follow that practice. You cannot be on both sides. You can't be negative and positive. You have to really, really fully execute. And even though, you know, we always laugh like, I'm doing great, and you're about to snap. And you're just saying it, and just try to pretend like it's okay for that moment. So you're not just going into that rabbit hole of negativity and anger, so. Yeah, but that's like the reality of entrepreneurship. I feel so many emotions in one day, it's ridiculous. I'm like, everything's going amazing. And I'm like, oh my God, this is ridiculous. And it's like, okay, okay, I got it handled. And I'm like, I don't know what I got into. It's just like so sleepy. Exactly. And like, you know, I have the creative avoidance. Like I have my house warming this week. And I told people, I'm like, my house looks great because this is all creative avoidance. Like I get mad. And I got creative avoidance from my husband. He talks about that. But I get mad and then I go do something that's going to make me happy. But I would say like my prayer life, writing down my goals, all of that stuff started out little by little. So I started with meditating probably two minutes a day. And that was because I was a part of a MLM group actually. And they actually talked about this stuff. Oh no, MLMs are the best training program on some planet. I did, my mother was at Amway when I was like 12 years old and now I'm giving her the tapes. And I was like, at least though they MLM groups, they're a great training platform. They do. So yeah, it really started through MLM. And they were like, hey, you should be meditating two days a week, because we were reading, not two days a week, two minutes a day, we were reading the millionaire mindset. And the millionaire mindset really, really changed my entire life. So I started following that stuff. And then I started adding on to the meditation with prayer and writing down prayers and the vision board help. I haven't done a vision board in a while. I really want to, but the vision board has helped. Just those things. So that's kind of how it started for me. So you said millionaire mindset. So this is the best, I know I got all kind of stuff. Look, just to tell you, I've been doing this for a long time. I didn't just wake up one day and I was like, oh, I'm so positive, I'm so happy. Right, take some work. And again, I got this in CDs, so that should tell you how long this thing is. Oh, but it's called networking with millionaires. This from Thomas Stanley. Okay, this box set, right? I guess I got the box set. This thing is worth whatever $20 I paid for this thing. Okay. And it's called networking with a millionaires. They give you some ideas about, and again, it's the last that we're talking about now, going to conventions and conferences. That's where millionaires hang out at, right? Going to those places. If you're in the industry, going to industry shows because that's where the people are winning their awards. So I started doing a lot of these activities very, very young, like in my days. And so like yourself, I got involved in real estate, but I started hanging out with guys that own a hundred properties, a hundred units. And then those guys ended up helping me when I got my first couple of units in it. And not only that, they put up the money, they brought me the labor. And the guy was like, no, don't worry, Eric. I appreciate a young person trying. So just the fact that you're trying. And then I met some other people that had like class A buildings. And this guy lived in the same community where Miami Heat players lived and he was coaching me. And he said, he told me, when I went to buy my first, like a group of properties from like an auction, like five or six properties together, he coached me up on that deal. And he helped me to put the package together to go get the money for that deal. And so again, friends. Yeah, networking with millionaires. Do what you need to do. Do what everybody need to do. Like you said, a millionaire mindset. I think all that stuff is super, super critical. And then you apply that and bring it over to this world of government contracting. And you can just do some amazing things because there's no limit to what's possible out here. Like $10 million to me, I don't even flinch because that's so real that I can see it for you. So it's not even a, you know, if you, if we were in any other space, I could not see that for, especially us and our people and regardless of your education, right? No one, did anyone of us talk about our education level? You know what, honey, you mentioned that. A lot. It's funny. I was watching undercover billionaire. I don't know if you guys saw that undercover billionaire. Like that's, I've been doing that show as well. Basically, he is a billionaire. It's like a secret billionaire. They put you in a spot. So he was in Erie, Pennsylvania and he had to build a million dollar business in 90 days. He had to take away all his contacts, everything. He could, and they only gave him a pickup truck, a pickup truck and a hundred dollars. So he was saying that, and he's a billionaire and he's like, with my education, cause he was a high school dropout, he's like, with my education, I won't even be able to like make, I have to sell stuff, you know? Because if I get hired, I'm going to be at the bottom of the totem pole. And this is a billionaire. So it's like education, it matters, but I feel like experience matters even more and learning and developing yourself matters more. Absolutely, absolutely. No, I love it. I love it. There was something else that we were talking about. So education-wise, I guess, I mean, I do have a degree. Anybody else have a degree on here on stage? I just got mine in the middle of that contract. I graduated in 2020 in the middle of that crazy contract. You were still going to school and doing a contract. I was still going to school and I was a full-time student. And a full-time mom and a full-time wife. Yeah, yeah, all the above, so. No, I love that. For those of you who missed it, Sheena has two kids, Mary, Stephanie has three, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah, for those who missed the beginning. So they're full-time wives, full-time mothers, full-time government contractors. And then Stephanie went to school for some reason. I guess she was bored, I guess. She tried to throw it in school like as if everything else on her plate was not enough. And I just resigned from my job in July. Okay. I finally just said, and someone told me because I was like, it was pretty much, at my level, it was pretty easy. But I'm like, if someone mentioned that you're gonna come to that crossover when you have to choose and the choice was made. So not easy, because I quit my job before and started a business full-time and it went horribly wrong. And so I still had that fear of, what if this is like that? And I don't wanna have to go back to the struggle city and all that stuff. So that goes back to the belief. And I do have a degree, it took me 10 years to get it. I was literally, one more month, it would have hit, went into the 11th year. But it's really absolutely for bragging rights. Not even bragging rights, really, because no one really cares. But the military paid for it and I just went ahead and executed. And what's so funny is business administration is probably the most useless degree because you literally do not need to have a degree for business. So it was cute, it was real cute. And I'm a non-traditional parent. So my kids, they know they have to have some sort of business, some sort of trade. If they wanna go to school, they can. But if not, all that is for the birds. So I'm a proponent in learning, but traditional school is just not it for me. No, and, but what I will say is, like you said, all of you, you've mentioned all the different trainings you've gone in, that's self-education. Yeah, I love that. And that's what everyone talks about, right? Self-education pays a fortune. So for my education, you make a living, self-education pays a fortune. And that's why, like you said, you're 250K for a lot of people listening to this and watching it, they're gonna think, wow, 250K, man, I would be so happy if I had 250,000 with the contracts, you know, they, you know. And I think that that's another thing about me is that I really, I want people to shoot higher, or higher, you know, marks. And I think that now that you've, Stephanie, you've done it, and Ashini's been doing it, like now, does it make sense when I tell people like, hey, don't shoot for that, you know, micro contracts for $10,000, $5,000. It's just not gonna sustain you. You can't sustain you. You wouldn't be able to quit your job. You won't be able to replace your income. And you really still can't really support your family on that. I would agree. Oh, go ahead, Stephanie. No, what I was gonna say is, I think that people don't realize it takes the same amount of time for that $5,000 or $10,000 contract as it does for the million-dollar contract. So if you wanna really put your time in and do it wisely, like focus on that, but it is hard when people are in a desperate situation, you know, and one of my mentors said, if you need money right now, get a job. Like that's really what you ask them to do. No, but it's true. Like if you need money right now, you need to get a job. Don't try to, you know, jump out there and it's gonna be hard, you know? So get a job, get yourself a sponsor. If we, you know, if we wanna look at it that way, look at your job as a sponsor until you move on to that next level. But then at least if your bills are taken care of, you can focus more on getting that million-dollar contract and leaving as opposed to that everyday hustle, like that everyday of chasing of dollars, you know? So, you know, really understand it's the same amount of time that you put it in for both. I would, I slightly disagree. I think that if you don't have the financial resources, I don't see anything wrong with going after the crumbs, you know, just like in war dogs. I don't, I didn't go after the crumb necessary. I didn't know what the hell I was going after. I was like, whatever comes my way is gonna come my way. But if you're, if you see something and it is like a, you know, my first with the college, it was $4,000. Like that is, I don't even, I think I might've maybe came out with a hundred. But in that was they loved us so much they gave us like more of the campus and they gave us more jobs and ended up being floating us during COVID when these other agencies were like, we don't have any money right now. So we can't really front load any of these contracts that you may have won and we're not doing site visits and all those restrictions. So that ended up being just six, high six figures by itself. Right. Like they're 4,000. Now I hear it echo. Is that me? I didn't hear that echo. We're almost done now. It's too late now. It's too late now. We get hour and change into this thing. It's, it's, it's. But I would just say, you know, don't, don't discount the small ones because they turn it through. Yeah. I know that's not what you all were saying, but you know. I love, love. There's no wrong having your own. That's why we brought you. I don't want you to say what I want to say. I want you to say what you think. Because people, I think that having, even internally between the three of us having some healthy dialogue back and forth is good for people to understand that we don't all think the same. We're not robots. Right. Like you've got yourself experiences. That's why we, I made my thing about state contracts. Stephanie has her own experiences. Right. I mean, Stephanie, so let me tell you something funny, right? My guys in Rhode Island, they love unions. Oh, wow. You see, you see, look, maybe laughing at me about, oh, y'all got that old uneducated workforce. Y'all just want to hire at Legals and not pay them no money. That's the way they look at us to perceive us. And I'm like, that's not true. We don't, but that's the way, that's the what they're, that they're telling themselves in their brain that the non-union workers, are we trying to get cheap labor workforce that's, you know, that's immigrant labor that we could pay, you know, low wages. So all I'm saying, the point of the conversation is just that people think differently. That's all. Yeah. That's what it is. And I, there's nothing wrong with that. She made me believe about subs because I was like, I will never be a sub. She was very adamant on that, very adamant. I need to be a prime. I was like, no. And she became a million dollar sub. And I was like, okay, maybe I need to rethink this whole plan. You know, it's like, it can be the best of all worlds if you can, if you have a good person. And, you know, she had, luckily she had a great person and to go into that without the experience was phenomenal. So change my mind. But again, I mean, like her thing was what if we don't get paid? And it is scary if you're not going to get paid. And me and me and my prime, we had it out here and there, you know, we did. But he respects me for it, you know? Like you have to be able to stand your ground at times that you need to. So, but I wouldn't, I would say a sub is the easiest way to get in. Look, I love subcontract to work because it allows you to do things that you could not do based on your limitations and money. So when we talk about, Sina said about if you don't have money go up to 10,000 or I would say if you don't have money, go up to a sub work because then they can front load you the money they can pay for your contractors they can pay for your materials they get all that stuff that you would need money to do as a prime. They can cover that and you can still do bigger projects. That's the only way I was able to do a five minute contract and I was broke. Right. That's real. I almost went bankrupt two years before I had to do Uber and work a job and to keep paying my employees so they could finish my contracts. So I was working a full-time job and doing Uber to pay employees to finish my contracts. So I didn't default on my contract. That's the real. Nobody understands that. Nobody wants to talk to you. It's top priorities payroll. You said, Stephanie, that sometimes if the people don't show up you gotta clean the toilets. You gotta clean the bathrooms. Not that you want to, but you gotta make it work. I have some wealthy friends right now that own hotels and because of the lack of staff they had to go change their own rooms at the hotel and they own Marriott's. They don't own like some little... These people live in a $10 million house and they had to go clean toilets and change because they could find staff. Washington. So you have to do that. Marquette has a question. Has the pandemic had a negative impact in fulfilling government contracts? The STEMI has had a negative impact. It's like non-existent. It's non-existent, especially in this industry where we're at the lower of the labor force. It has been, for me it has been murder. It has been very, very challenging. And for me in Georgia though, like the lucky part is that some people have their own businesses. So it's like an entrepreneurial state. But in some of these other states where that's not the way of life, like the state we were talking about earlier, it is just, they cannot wait for you to fire them so they can get on unemployment. They're like, please stay the wrong thing and fire me so I can get this unemployment. They're just ready to go. For me, I would say it depends on how much you're paying. And for certain contracts, I did have to release a contract in Genesee County, New York because I couldn't find anybody to work. And it was a smaller contract, but they were going to get like 20, maybe like 20 an hour to clean up apartments, but they still didn't even want to do that. So, you know, but my other contract, and I also think it's on the location too, because Genesee is more like, I don't know, isolated location. Whereas in New York City, it's way easier because it's a little bit more populated there and you're paid more. So, I think it depends on the location. But the pandemic, isn't that where you picked up work and contracts? Oh yeah, that's where I picked up work. Yes. So, in 2020- You want all the contracts, you just don't find the people to fulfill them. Right, right, right. Yeah, and it's funny because there are a lot of contracts that are coming out where they're looking for a company for staffing because they can find the people. Right, right. So that's been a big one for now, but I would say for 2020, the challenge I was having was site visits. It was good because you don't have to go to a site visit, but then your pricing, and now we recorded it, but I mean, it's just not going to be the same and they're going to pick and choose. And then if you don't bid on it, then you're pushed out because someone else is going to bid on it. So, you're just kind of like going into a lot of these things blind without being able to be in person. Right, right, right. Hey, make sure you hit the like button. We're going to wrap up. I don't see... Okay, hold up. Melissa made a comment. I love the book, Failing Forward. It's a great book. What's up, Melissa? What's up, ATP? Yes, I have Failing Forward as well. I don't have it behind me, but I did have Failing Forward. It's one of my favorites. I love Failing Forward. Well, I'll add that to my library. Oh, Failing Forward? Oh my goodness. Yeah, I think I did see that one. Yeah, it's good. Failing Forward's a good one. So, it's definitely just made it really hard for anyone to give excuses. That part. Yeah, that's fine. That part. Hey, look, it's true because again, and I received these questions from people, well, do you think I can do this? And I'm a full-time mom. I'm a single mom. I'm a, you know, the parent. I'm a, whatever the thing, you know, whatever, I'm an A, B, C, D, E, F, G. So that's why, again, I want to show other people's stories who have a much more on their plate than I do, I would say, at this present time. I mean, I've had all the same stuff you guys have had in the past, but, you know, you have a full plate. Like my mom said, you got a platter. Oh yeah. Oh, so you don't have a plate, you have a platter. There's a lot of sacrifices in it. You know, a lot of people talk about that work-life balance BS. There's no such thing. Something's going to be sacrificed. I've missed many games, birthdays, Christmas, even with the military, of course, cause I'm, you know, almost 20 years in. So I've already, I guess, built my children up to be pretty resilient, but they're, they mentioned that they're really proud of me. So you just have to really figure out, you know, what the balance is, even though there's not a balance. So if you want to be in business for real and not just a side hustle, not just a, you know, when I feel like a type business, you have to be in a hundred percent in, and there's going to be a lot of friends, family and time that's set by sleep, sanity that's going to be, and I don't want to make it sound like it's so bad, but there's certain milestones that you're going to hit where all those things are going to be in question. So. No, that's true. And I, how do I balance it? I mean, I don't spend a lot of time like with the outside family members, I would say, but like my intermediate, like my kids, my husband, I try to make that a priority when I can. But I did, like the beginning of that contract, I was like barely home for the month of April. Yeah, when April, when it started and I had days where I would come in at two in the morning and leave at seven. So, you know, it can be a little challenging with that. And me and my husband was balancing, but I made sure to make it up with vacations and, you know, with things that we can do together, we could definitely do together. Cause I'm a big component on creating memories and, you know, at the conference, the IVMF conference, one of the people said to start scheduling, like we schedule everything else out, schedule time with your family and try to make sure that you keep that time. And one thing that always stuck with me is when me having younger children is you will never get a second chance to enjoy your child, your children's childhood. And like, I know Sheena heard me say this like a million times, but it stuck to me like glue. And, you know, I do want to be there for moments in my children's childhood, but they do understand that their mom is a boss and she does all of these different things. And I include them in everything in my successes and in my failures. So they really understand what I do and they don't feel lost in the sauce. You know, communication is very key. Like you say, you communicate with your kids, Sheena, like communication is key when it comes to your children. So they can understand that we're all kind of in this together. I love it. I love that. I love that. By the way, both of them are on LinkedIn. I didn't have your LinkedIn stuff in before the call, but at Sheena's, but if you want to drop it in there, you can, like that, feel free on there. And then you can find people that way. So somebody said, hold on, I got one more question and then we're gonna do some parting words because I'm hungry. I gotta eat. I gotta eat, you know, I gotta feed my stomach. All right, what are some of the methods you were forgetting workers before the pandemic? Some of your methods. Well, for me, I only had like one and done. So being here in Atlanta, there's a lot of people that have their own business. So it didn't seem to be a challenge, I guess. I didn't know how good I had it, I guess. So I would just connect with the people that I use when I was doing real estate. Stephanie, you mentioned some things that you did to go from the one employee to 40. Well, can you repeat that? Cause some people are new just coming on. I was the one employee. But it was me and my husband. That's right, it was me. So I connected with, well, for this particular contract, I connected with other people that I knew had cleaning businesses and that would be able to jump on. Cause my strategy with that was I had three different locations that I needed to cover. So I figured if I work with people that already have businesses, those could be my on-site supervisors. I wouldn't have to worry about that. And then they can bring on whatever employees they have and everybody gets paid through my company. Then after that, I developed a, I looked online, looked up a job template for janitorial, put it on Indeed, and everybody, when I say everybody that applied got a call from me, every single person got a call from me. And I would ask them, like, can you start tomorrow? Can you do this? And that was it. Eventually I had to start critiquing cause it didn't go well all the time with that. Cause you have people that couldn't strip and wax the floor and you're like, what in the world? So then I had to start asking a little bit more questions like, can do you understand what this means? And all of that stuff. So it was a learning curve, but I put myself out there to be able to learn and try to do it. That's great, that's great. All right. No. I put my LinkedIn in the chat, Eric. Okay, perfect. All right, so wait a minute. Also, just remind everyone who's just coming on, first of all, hit the thumbs up button, hit the like button to share this. The second thing is that go online, fill out the survey that we have. It's 10 questions. We are going to reach out back out to our podcast guests to ask them to sponsor some of our subscribers, some of our members, some of the people watching to help them to join some of our programs. So if you can kindly fill out the survey and follow the steps, that's more important than just filling it out, follow the steps. When we reach back out to our podcast guests and ask for sponsorship dollars, we'll throw your name in that hat as well. So we wanna get them, we believe that they've been very generous with their time and they've always asked me, hey, how can we help? And so we're gonna reach back out and ask them for some help this time around. And so we definitely wanna help some students that want to go through some of the programs to meet the right people, to make the right connections. Because again, one of the things that they mentioned very, very early on was how much different trainings they've all been to, right? And then they're making notes, I don't know if you know this, they're making notes in the books to read, right? The shows that they've shared, the courses that they take in, the experiences, all of that stuff and having someone that's at your same level, mentally, emotionally and being able to be there. Well, mostly when you need them there and then you're mostly for them when they need you there, right? So it's like, one of us was down, that has been probably, and again, we find that with a lot of my folks, like even last week, when we had Chris and Demetrius, they're in their own group for truckers. And so they communicate with each other. And so they talk offline about things and when we put stuff out, then they feel like, okay, you take this one or I'll take that one or I can't do this. It's a you handle it. And that's the way that I've seen people operating business at the billion dollar level the same way. So we're doing the same thing that these people are doing. And I'm excited because to me, I'm watching all of your growth, all of you, right? And it's so much fun for me. I'm excited because I wanna say, hey, I remember when she said she's gonna have that 10 million dollar contract and now she's got that 10 million dollar contract. You know, right? I wanna be part of that experience. And I'm excited. And then I'm also excited for all of you out here who's watching, who's gonna be the next ones coming behind us, right? And you're gonna get that first 200,000 dollar contract and that first million dollar contract and $500,000 job. And so some of these things that we've said, some of the books and the tidbits that we've shared, you're gonna remember that. And I remember actually going back to the money one, Sheena, one of my students, she was in construction. And she says, Eric, I remember you said, closed mouth, don't get fed. And I was running low funds and I just went and I just put it out and I told the guy, and he know what? Boom, I gotta check. She said to me, he was like, I gotta check. She's like, it was so easy. I'm like, yeah, you just had to ask. We forget that. We forget that. We think that we have to give people the impression that we're so, we have it all together. We got all the money, we got all this and that. Instead of humbling yourself and saying, hey, I need help, I need help. And so I think that's one of the things that sometimes not having so much education helps you to be able to do that. Oh yeah. And then you find out that there's a lot of people, regardless of what level they're at, they don't have it all together either, you know, behind the curtain. And like, especially at those veteran entrepreneur conferences, there's people way up in the millions and they're like, I don't know how I'm gonna make payroll next week, but when I'm talking about that, we're talking about what I'm talking about on stage. Yeah. You know, so it doesn't necessarily change. Like I think you mentioned earlier, like how much money you have that doesn't really matter. No. Offering this thing out. Yeah. All right, let's say some parting words and let the folks, let's close out for the day. Whoever wants to go first. Definitely. I see you. I was like, I was looking at you. I'm like, y'all, we have some cool guys out here. We've been talking all night, and I got shy. I'm cool, I'm cool, I'm cool, I'm cool, I'm cool, I'm cool. Thank you, Gail Burfield, about this very, very. Yes. All right. Well, first, thank you, Eric, for having me up here. I'm so excited. Like I said in my, I don't even know if you saw my posts on Facebook. This is like full circle because I've been joining you for like two years and then, and I always said like, if I have the chance and if I have the money to do it, I'm going to join GovCon. So that's exactly what I did when I got this contract and I was like, I'm joining and I'm going all in. But I guess the part and words that I have for people is the number one thing. A lot of the stuff that you heard up here sounds very easy, like writing down your goals, reading books, and many people, I just find that many people that ask for help overlook those two things. And you cannot start anything unless you have a goal, unless you have a plan and unless you have a vision. Those are the things that is the most important within your business because when all hell breaks loose, you're going to have to go back and look at your vision and see exactly where you need to go and what you're trying to do. So make sure that you do those three, those steps first, build your network. Don't be afraid to reach out to people via Facebook, but don't always like ask for people to give, give, try to add some value to somebody in some way that you can, in some way that you can, because those are the best ways to build relationships. When I inbox people on Facebook, I try to add value. And once I add value, they understand that I'm not coming with some type of gimme attitude. So add value first and then build those genuine relationships so that when doors open, you all could go through together. So I guess that's it. That's all I can say. I love that. Am I going to follow that? Ditto. I'll just add when it comes to the business side, a lot of people ask, what should I do? You really have to roll it down to, what can I do when this is not sexy anymore? When I'm not making any money, what can I actually continue to do with a semi smile on my face? Not that I necessarily love cleaning toilets, but it's just the whole aspect of, wow, I'm building, I'm revitalizing buildings, I'm bringing them back to life. I am renovating, I am changing the floors of a fire station. Like that means a lot to me personally. It really, it boils down to what can I do? Not just, Sheena, tell me what I should do. What can I do that I want to continue to do? Or a legacy business or something that I can do when I'm giving people jobs, giving people opportunities, all those things are super important to me for my personal mission. So that's where a lot of people should start when they want to go into government contracting. Cause I've been at IT for almost 20 years and people keep telling me, why are you not doing IT? No passion, there's no passion. I have to just follow, I don't want to use the cliche, follow your passion, but it doesn't have to be a passion, but it has to be something that you know you can do and it fits in with your personal missions. And go to conferences. Yeah, go to conferences, go to conferences, go to conferences. Go to conferences, but when you go to conferences, what should you have? Sheena, Stephanie, when you go to conferences, what should you have? Anything? A networking attitude. When you go to conferences and show up. Yeah, networking and networking and attitude. I can't stand, it's like one of my pet peeves, where people are at conferences and in a corner. Like for me, if I'm leaving my kids and my husband, I'm meeting everybody. You know, like I'm going to talk to everybody because it's your time, you know? And if I am, you know, I don't like leaving my babies and they're not babies, but you know, if I'm leaving my kids and my husband, I am going to talk, I'm going to make this time count because they're sacrificing for me and I'm making sure that I'm coming home with something. So have those goals, talk to people. Don't just sit in the corner because you're not building your business and you know, you're going to stay stagnant. So talk. I love that. I love that. All right. Hey, listen, thank you everyone. Thank you, Sheena. Thank you, Stephanie, for sharing your time and again, sacrificing that time from your family and your husband from folks out here. I did not see that Facebook post, Stephanie, so I didn't see it. I tagged you. You'll see it. Okay. When did it recently? Yeah, it was today. Oh, well, you know, I'm sitting right here and watching Facebook. I'm going to say, like, how do I ever see Facebook? You'll see it. I'll pop up. Yeah. So, no, that's cool. Yeah, actually it's funny because actually one of my project managers messaged me. So I don't know what's going on with him. I hope everything's good. See, I ate a crock of bread. I can't eat nothing right now except at 8.30 at night. Well, make sure you eat before you talk to him. Right. So you could be in a better mood. Yeah, because I'll be a brat move. Yes. All right, listen, everyone, thank you for joining us. Make sure to hit like button if you haven't already done that. Thank you, Maria for helping. Thanks, MTP, Renee. Thank you guys. As always, it's been a pleasure and we'll see you in a couple of days. All right. Thank you guys. Good night. Good night.