 Ladies, gentlemen, boys and girls, what's going on? Today's the last day of the fiscal year. I hope you got your contracts in. Last day of fiscal year, I hope everyone got their contracts in today. I know I did. What's up, Maria, forever? What's up, one girl, one truck? Hey, make sure, Johnny Spive, Brandon, make sure, like I said, on all my chats, on all my lives, whatever I do, just make sure you drop where you're from, the city and the industry you're in, always, always, always, we want to network. Remember, network is your net worth, definitely. It looks like Fat Joe's always going live when I'm going live. Dang, Fat Joe? Don't be trying to steal my thunder, you know? But what's up, Jai Butler? And so definitely, listen, make sure, let people know what you're doing, what you're working on. Again, free throw frank, just join. If you don't tell people about your business, you're a secret business, you can't win contracts being a secret business. Use this as your chance to promote yourself, tell people what you're doing. Tell people like, hey, this is who I am, I'm in this industry, I'm in trucking, I'm in janitorial, I'm out in San Fran, I'm in Atlanta. What's up, Maria, just checked in. Okay, good stuff, spent all day learning, that's what I like to hear. My man, free throw frank, gotta love him. All right, taking the free course, taking it more every day, good stuff. So, what's up, King Norwood? Just starting out, how can I find out if I'm able to receive an advancement for materials? What you mean? Tell me. About being able to receive an advancement for materials. You know, if you're just starting out, you're in the free course, we actually just redirected it. Maria wants to see my shirt, the United States of America. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of how we feel right now, right? And it's tough out there, you know? We got, you know, that's a whole nother story. Maria wants to bring up some other stuff, but nevertheless, yes, we are living in the United States of America right now. Things are rough, but hey, we're gonna keep our eye on the prize and focus on the things that we can't control, not worry about the things that we can't control. So, okay, okay, all right, King Norwood. Listen, why don't you jump on if we could just chat about that? But by the way, anybody coming on now is to see there's 19 people on watching, drop, you know, again, Vicky from NorCal, manufacturing. I like to hear that. We actually, see, this is why you have to drop in there, where you're from and your industry, because it allows me to kind of see what you're doing. By the way, One Girl One Truck, MVP asked about you last night, MTP. She asked about you, Melissa, probably not. She asked about you in yesterday's live session, I saw you missed it, so. Definitely, she's looking for you, she's working with someone who's got 100 trucks, and she wanted, you know, she wanted to talk to you and consult with you on that, so. That's right, but the federal government is united in its spending. That's right, see, Maria? That's what we need to share. We need to say united in spending of America, because that's what we are. We are all united in the fact that they're gonna spend all this money, and so we just gotta kind of like figure it out, right? I mean, I, you know, good stuff. I mean, I picked up, literally, I signed four contracts today, four. And for all my people that were in the group last night, they knew I was stressing on two of my contracts because we didn't have the bonding. So, like, oof, we were able to, because they were negotiated jobs, we were able to talk with the government and have them push out the actual dates from when we had to actually deliver the bond. So, we were able to sign the contract awards and then the government pushed out the bond date for us to allow us to actually accept the contract. So, again, when you have relationships with these agencies, they can do all kind of things, make exceptions for you, change the rules, because again, we, you know, it's, they have that ability, but when you're just bidding blindly and you don't know the people, then it makes it really tough for you to ask for an exception to the rule. So, again, you know, I'm telling people out there is that build those relationships, nurture them, develop them, because they're gonna pay off dividends in the long term. I know it seems easier to go on bid match, bid surge, bid sing, and just bid, bid bid, but I'm telling you those relationships, if that wasn't for those relationships, I would not have, I would have lost $1.2 million in contracts today if it was not for relationships. I can promise you that. It was literally $1.2 million in contracts that we signed today that they wanted to give us, but we did not have our bonding. And because we didn't have bonding, that's a criteria of getting the contract. And we told them that we couldn't do it. So we were able to basically, ultimately what we did was, we said that because of the winter conditions, we were gonna start the projects after winter, which would be, you know, next year, and then could they then make the bonding due prior to us actually getting ready to mobilize and start the contract as opposed to, like normal standards, it's due right after you signed the actual agreement. So we were able to push back the bond dates, right, in terms of when they were due, in order to be able to fulfill the contracts. And because again, the government is trying to obligate funds today. This is the last day to obligate funds. So we worked it out. And yeah, free throw Franky doesn't seem real, but it is. And so what I want to say is, again, they can do a lot of things out here. Like they can do a lot of stuff. Let me go check in my man's child and then let's just talk to him real quick. What's up, Barbara world? Nicky Nick, Sean, Kevin. What's up, man? Hey, what's going on, baby? How you doing? Yeah, I was asking the question, trying to see how exactly do we, cause I watched a video and the woman was talking about how she got started in government contracting. And what happened was, for her to actually bid on those contracts, she was getting an advance to buy the materials up front. He didn't, I don't, the only time that I've seen him do that are really, really small items. Really small items? Yeah. It's far fewer in between that they do that on big stuff. You have to actually produce it in order to be able to get paid, right? So, but it's okay because, what we teach is building your supplier credit. So you don't need them to give you an advance. What's the item that you're considering? Right now I'm looking at a bid right now on bidder.SAM. What's the item? It's lighting fixtures. Okay, lighting fixtures. Okay, so let me give you an example. We have a student that just won a contract this year. I mean, this month, I'm sorry, that she bought a snow plow machine that was a hundred and like $30,000. Wow. Okay, she doesn't have a 700 score. She don't, I don't even know if she got a 600 score. I ain't wanna press her. I know she didn't have eight and she didn't have seven. She just told me to shut up after that. But because like you pick it on me now. But nevertheless, she went to the supplier and asked for credit to buy the item because it was going to the government. Okay. So what you do is you go to the supplier who has the item to see if they will give extended credit. What's the process of applying for credit, right? With that particular company that account or becoming a distributor for that particular company so that you can get a credit account set up. Okay. And then that's gonna help you in the long run anyways because I'm gonna tell you why. A couple of things it's gonna help you with is because one, you should get better pricing as a distributor. Yeah. Right? Yeah. So now you can be more competitive. And then the other thing is now you're actually building a business because you're building a relationship with the supply company, right? So even if you don't get that bid, that may could be your new industry. And what if something is like a one-off thing and you won't even use that company very often? But the thing is, so what happens if it's, so let's say I don't think this girl is gonna get into selling snow plows very often. Yeah. That's what I'm saying, right? Like, I mean, I live in Florida, we don't need snow plows. I don't even know what it looks like. I'm in Fortitude, I'm in Orlando, so you know. So there you go. So like, so to me, I don't think anyone buys snow plows all the time. So that's like a one-off thing. But what she said was, because again, going back to the government contract tip or angle, because it was for a government contract, they knew she wasn't buying a snow plow like she was done on a snow plow, so you get me? Like that's kind of what I try to explain to people is like, you guys don't understand. Supplier credit is not like a credit card. You can't go and waste it. We should go buy three snow plows, put it in a front yard, like they're just, you can't waste, so they understand that. The only reason why you'd want a snow plow is to sell it to the government. Well, the government, so they're basing off the government's credit. Yeah. So you get me? So it's a lot easier than you think to get credit set up with these people. In fact, Johnny on the chat just said to me, he got his IG credit line set up recently. He thanked me for that. So again, it's a lot easier than you believe. Most of us just don't try. And I'm sure if you're on my IG, you've seen some of that in my feed, right? Like you didn't even try. You already discussed, you don't, whoever told you about getting advance, I promise you that person. What do you think? What do you think? They're not, they're not, I would not, I would say they're not credible. What do you think is small though? Because she was saying that it was a, she was saying it was a small contract and it was like a hundred and something, grain and something like that. That's not true. That's not true. Okay. That's not true. That's not true. I'm telling you it's not true. Okay. I'll just, I'll just make a show. I'm just asking because I don't see it. Listen, I don't believe her. I don't believe her. I don't know what she is and I don't believe her. I don't. I would want, I would want her to show me the advance check. She made it like she got the contract being of her $75,000 check to buy them with you. She's like, she's like that hand that you would check. Like I'm like, like that sounds kind of, it's kind of crazy, you know what I'm saying? The government, so you're telling me the government's just handing people checks to buy stuff. No repercussion, like just get a check by it and show up with it. Yeah, I'll be careful. There's a lot of Charlotteans out there. There's a lot of Charlotteans. There's a lot of people out there, especially if they are IG. There's a lot of, I mean, there's a lot of people say stuff. And I will say this, when it came time for PPE, they did make those mistakes, but they don't do them anymore. And they learn from that. In fact, I interviewed someone where governments literally lost tens of millions of dollars Giving out checks to people in advance for PPE, but that was a pandemic. That's a once-in-a-lifetime You know type of issue, but for someone to and and by look Why would you let's say that it did happen to her? Right, that's not the norm. So do you want to base your business model on some that's an exception to the rule? Yeah, yeah You can't it's not a business model Yeah, tell her I would like it for me if she if she was on this call To you where you were sitting at I would tell her let's go I want to see that who the agency was that gave you that check I want to see it and then I want to go to them and I want a bit of contract. I see they'll give me a check, too That's what I would say That don't happen man, come on That's just sounds like to Don't don't don't fall for that stuff man. Trust me. You look you're in Orlando go to Orlando City procurement and see if they'll give you advances Watch how silly you look watch how silly you look This lady or IG said you I get advanced before, you know, I mean think about how much how if they did that we would never have a chance at building a business because Why would they need us? What what value do you bring? true I just I have the question that why what value do you need? What do you bring to the table? They were they were making the case in the video that The government needs to spend this money. So they're right, but why did they don't have to spend it with you? Yeah, so they were just but they don't have to spend it with you Yeah, so even though that they spend the money they don't have to spend it with you Yeah, why would the people that came along before us not already be doing this? True. How you know, how we how will we even get into the room? Would there be for us to create value in space? Like there wouldn't be no room for us to come into the marketplace that they were just giving out people blank checks It just it's not it again. I want you to I Want and I and I say this with all sincerity. I want people to realize that the reason why this Marketplace and what we do and what we show is so valuable is because it is hard That's what makes it valuable Yeah, it's valuable. It's hard. I got a register with Sam. I guess I got everything yesterday So look look look Karen just said governors are getting in trouble for hooking their friends up with Kobe federal money Yeah, yeah, I'm just saying it. I mean, yeah, I would uh next time you're on a check with that person Make them show you the check I Want to see your advanced check. I want to see you got a contract. I mean look Yeah, I would love to see that 75,000 just to me or I want to know I want to see 75,000 advanced Yeah, 75,000 on check is not impressive. I want to see a 75,000 on bands. Yeah, I Want to see a 75,000 vans my buddy one of my really he was one of my mentors He did PPE stuff and he got like 10% advanced or 20% advanced. He sent me a copy to check Yeah, I Mean he was like look they get because I was like I Mean I was I was struggling like hell To like get them to even agree with me on terms and he's getting a check Yeah, how'd you do that? Well? His friend knew the mayor so the mayor trusted them so they cut them a check in advance That's you're gonna build a business case up of that Yeah, that's gonna be far that's gonna be far That's I tell you I you know I started off Maria say I want to know who that liar is Nikki says I want to see that check see my these my people actually do this for living So we find the video man. This guy. He does on YouTube was a it's called casino is the name. I Don't know you've heard him. I don't I don't But he doesn't he doesn't the way she Explained she was a woman woman. She has a woman owned business minority and veteran All that so I guess none of that means anything I Always care to come on and tell you that What she said in our group she says you better not call me talking about you a woman you a minority I want to hear that. Can you do the job or not? That's it. What does that say about you doing a job? What is anything to just mention me to say how well you could do from the work If you come to my house and want to fix my recognition you tell me I'm a woman. I'm a minority. I'ma say What would you say You call these people they say I'm a woman. I'm a minority. I'm a veteran. What would you say to this? Thanks And so think about we don't look at that how silly we seem we're talking to procurement people and the people say look we We have a job for Eric is for the pair What are your qualifications? What what have you done this in the past how many times have you done this kind of Eric? Do you know what the kind of system is do you know what type of filters it's take do you know? What are the proper ratios a freon that goes in the line? Do you want to say how to do testing and balancing for the systems? Do you even know what testing and balancing is for a conditioning system? How many what type what types of matching systems are compliant with the ones that we have in here? What are some alternative systems that we could use? Is it squared duck is a roundup? I'm a woman. I'm a minority And that's the way I fear it when people tell me that and that's why again those people that are pushing that are Certification pushers they're trying to sell people and buying certifications And that's all they could sell you because they can't teach you how to actually do anything else. Yeah So I'm constantly having to disprove them. I look I always tell people I would love to do a versus with any of those people I Would I would look like if you put that up, bro be like look I got this guy say y'all some liars I do a versus with this guy. I Would love to do it They're not gonna do it. They're not they're not gonna do it because they this is not it's not it's not true That's not true. So, you know, it's not it's not that easy But again, you don't want to want it easy because if you know what I always think about and I tell my people And I learned this from a really wealthy guy who gave me advice about real estate and I said I Said hey, you know, it's really hard and I and so for me. I was new to real estate investing, right? So one of my guys likes to work at his house. He he literally this guy He lived like he live in the same neighborhood as Ray Allen did when Ray Allen played for the heat Like you gotta go through two gates He lived and I mean that neighborhood is so popular. There's nothing for sale There's like maybe one or two houses a year go for sale there because people don't want to leave like they don't even leave that neighborhood and So I said to him I said man. I said look I Said, you know, it's really hard buying real estate properties and I go It's you know, it's tough and he goes Eric. He says that's perfect for you He says because the smart people figure it out and they make all the money and That's the way that I want you to look at it Is that you want it to be hard because then all you have to just become one of the smart people who figured out And then you make all the money. That's why that's why I pulled off 1.2 million dollars in contracts today How many did you get? All the videos I've seen I've just found your videos or whatever I've been watching a lot of other videos and it's like everybody's like, oh, it's so easy You know, you go here. You just be the contract you get it and I'm looking at it. I'm like, man. I'm like, damn I gotta do pricing. I gotta see if I can get this ships. Oh my god, man Yeah, no It's not easy. It's it's not Look Karen just said too many people lose out on their 8a because they think that it's a slam dunk And people go and I get I get it people go out and push this stuff. They push push push push But you know again, I I come on to share examples of People winning people succeeding. So I let you know that's not impossible Right to do and that's you know, that's what we talk about. It's not impossible There's there's some really basic steps out there that you can follow and really start to understand the process So it's definitely not impossible. But yeah, it's it's hard. It takes work. You gotta You know, you've gotta put in the work. I mean, I you know, these contracts came from relationships that I developed for the last 18 months I've been working these relationships for 18 months 18 months Okay, so it this didn't I didn't get these contracts because of something I did yesterday This is something I did in 2018 So I plant dc to 2018 now they're starting to bear fruit Okay, so now I'm finally eating my mangoes. I'm eating my avocados for my seeds that I planted, you know, back in 2018 Now I'm eating my avocados and mangoes, but you can't expect to eat an avocado mango but a seed Like they don't eat the seed like they don't plant the seed also they go eat avocado the next day or mango like that Just not how it works. You got, you know, I had to water it. I had to make sure it had sunlight I had to make sure it had sunlight. I had to make sure you till the soil Like I had to do all of that kind of stuff for the last 18 months and really Now Again, now you're like you see it grow up a little bit You meet the people they talk to you they take your call they take a meeting But this is like months, right? It's not like the same month You know one month the guy takes your phone call. You're like, oh great. He took my phone call, right? And then two months later He's like, all right, we'll set up a meeting but he didn't set it up. He just said he will set it up, right? And then yeah, and then two months later, you know, he was like, all right We're gonna consider for a project and then and then two months later. He's like, yeah We're still working on project. I mean he kept saying follow up with me in two months Followed me in two months followed me in two months and I just kept Falling up in two months. I would follow up in two months and he was busy And he was like, I'm sorry. We're working on it. We're trying, you know, we're trying We're trying to get you to the right project and And then finally, right? You know say we have something Yeah, okay, and then can you do this? And by the way when they call you for something they call you it's like last minute We got something but we need it like done by friday And you're like, uh, right, so you've been like you've been waiting a whole year Half All of a sudden I got like We got something but I need it by friday. Yeah What are you gonna say? No After now after the year Yes, yes, I could do it. I could do it. Yeah, and so that's That's what happened. Um, is that they literally just again, it's a government The only reason I won't say the only reason but one of the reasons why they called me was because somebody else was not performing And not delivering on the contracts. So finally it made room for me to come in So that allowed me Huh Hey, what happened like a basketball or football or something quarterback get hurt. All right. Hey, get out here Get up and feel you've been practicing all this time. You want to get out here? You start you're the new starter, right? So just like that that's what I've been that pressure. All right. It's like, all right. Hey, your number's been called Get out here. Let's go like every two months when you followed up is like practice, man You're practicing your there you go. You're practicing your practicing for your time when it's game time And I was practicing and following up and practicing and practicing and I was ready. I have been training. I have been ready I've been doing my push-ups. I have been doing all my exercises. I've been doing my squats Look, I did my leg press. I did everything man. I've been eating right Just before that day came and then When he called my number Baby, I jumped in Your hand was raised high Hey Listen, you know, they called me out in the field. Guess what by next year I'll be Patrick Mahone You know, they gave my first shot like come on come on first day. Okay. All right So I'm performing good. You guys thought we're negotiating that kind of thing. That's what I'm talking about. You're negotiating that money He's starting to negotiate the money. So, you know, that's really I mean, that's what it is and that's kind of, you know That's you know in a fun light manner really and then you can see look, I like to have fun I'm I'm a joke. I'm silly but again we I look once you figure out and I'm going to say why why the reason why I say it's easy is because anyone can do it That's the easy part. It's easy because anyone can do it So, um, it's easy from the standpoint of the fact that, um What I like about the federal government is Yes, okay. The person says they're minority. That's great The the only thing I could would say about that is they don't discriminate So that's a good thing, right? Because there are industries where we can go into where people would discriminate against us Yeah, this is not one of them. So so that's what makes it also easy because you don't have you're not facing that That blockage there, you know, there's so that's not one more hurdle that you have to actually overcome So the fact that any one of us can do it and then the fact that we don't have to deal with the the adversity thing in terms of being minorities that That like my man just said this gives us a level playing field So then that makes it easy for us because we know as black and brown people We don't always have that in every particular marketplace in every industry. That's not always the case So that's what I really like about it. Um, is that those facts is because we can show up and no one's gonna be like Oh, no, this guy he not I'm not gonna look at him. I'm not gonna consider him for work, right? He's they're gonna be like, no, I mean What can you do? What do you form? I've never had anyone question me Um, because we we show performance and ability But I again, I don't lead with certifications or I'm brown. I'm black or minority. I don't lead with that stuff Yeah, I don't I tell people I'm a great company. Um, and we happen to be small business So you you think the a day certification all that do you think that's necessary or no? I think it's necessary. I don't think it's necessary at all I think that when people it's it's necessary only when people start asking you do you have a day? When people start asking you, right? Hey, um Jamal, do you have a day and you're like No, should I like well it would help and then, you know, go someplace. Hey Jamal, you got a day. Hey, you got a day You got it when people start asking those things then that's when you should get a day not before Yeah, okay Not before learn that you have to learn the business because again if you read the the chat Karen said earlier So many people get a day thinking it's a slam done And I mean I get I get emails and calls from people at a they have no contracts every week Yeah, three years four years in a program You can go to my youtube channel and see people's comments. This is I've been in a day for four years I have no contract Three years no contracts Go to my youtube channel type in a day and you'll see four or five videos where my guest talked about The one of the biggest mistakes that people make is getting a day too soon So yeah, because if you don't know how to do it Like you just told me you don't even have a supplier credit No, what's a day gonna do for you? I just tell me what's a day supposed to do so My a day is like this big cape What but then what are you gonna do but how are you gonna deliver how you're gonna perform? Where you're gonna get money from where you're gonna get resources Where's what a day doesn't do any of that for you? So what so where do you how do you get all the other stuff that you need to to actually be a business? When again going back to the ac example, okay Um, we have a we have an ac contract your a day will give you the ac contract You can we got you can have it What are you gonna do? You don't even know what to do like And they're not giving you no money up front. So all right. Here's a $300,000 on ac contract You're gonna you're gonna you're gonna get hurt you're gonna hurt yourself right um You know my my recommendation be to go work with someone who's already in that arena What's up Pierce and um and then find out from them the real ropes Yeah, you know go in there and work with someone who's in that arena find out the ropes and let them show you How it really goes down not what somebody on ig tells you Yeah Okay All right, man. Well, I mean, I appreciate some man. No, thanks for coming on But yeah, definitely watch those supply credit videos that they're good ones to watch and then uh, the a-day videos are good Look, you know, I've got 300 videos online. So you will there's not probably not a question You're gonna have I'm going I'm going through them, man. I'm really going through them like that It's a lot of information But it but also just use it to ask like a q&a to answer your questions when you have a question about something Yeah, all right. All right, man. Thanks for coming on be good All right, let's see Rafa Maybe she hit it by accident Johnny jump on Looks like my man moe's coming on Eric, what's up, brother? I said looks like moe's coming on What's up, man? Pretty good, man. Pretty good. What do you think about that last guy's call? uh I think that it sounds like he's on the right track as long as you know, he sticks to the script and uh Especially follow the instructions you give him about building relationships because I did definitely want to underline that and I think it's like the only reason why I I have any money coming in is because of relationships that I built, you know over the last Years almost years, right? So so wait, but have you ever had a government give in advance? No, but I did once get a credit card uh For a contract, but that's only because there was a there was a an emergency it was for a hurricane contract and they needed water So I think in Oh, yeah, yeah for sure for sure. I mean I wouldn't I mean I wouldn't even have asked You know the the lady from the contracting officer from the department of state for Any kind of you know an advance or anything? I just I wouldn't I I think I'd sound almost like a rookie if I did that Yeah, right like yeah No, I think you know, that's that's what happens. So good Yeah, but it is but I could imagine though. It must be really difficult though to You know to to cross that you know if you don't have supplier credit like it might Maybe bring in investors. Do you think that that would be? I think that I think that for me, um I wouldn't try to jump into an industry where I couldn't get supplier credit and I wouldn't even try to bring in investors the reason why is because You don't have any experience Like in your case, maybe yeah, because you you know, like you've done it before right and so You have the experience you've proven yourself But if you've never done this right and this is the example, I always tell people It's not just for the money because a lot of times I have the money to buy the stuff But what happens if your supplier brings you the wrong stuff? Yeah, yeah, you're you're on the hook You're on the hook you pay your cash And then What happens? You're absolutely right. But so what is what is when I've had situations where my supplier has brought the wrong stuff I'm not paying for this. Right. Right. Right. I'm like, so we then we go in and um We go back. We look at our documents. This is what I asked. That's what I requested You know, and then and they're like, oh, you're right. You said yellow We said to you blue Right, right. Right. Right. No, you make you make a really really good point. That's what that's where my argument is Right, right. I get the money because we have some some at some points. We have some money, right? Let's say, you know, you have more than maybe this particular contact calls for you could buy it Right, but then what happens if it's wrong? Mm-hmm. Yeah, you got there's no there's not much room for error. There's no room for error Yeah, and especially me right now like I don't know if you remember I told you I just recently quit my job, right? Yeah, I'm officially the only person that quits their job during the pandemic It opposed to getting fired. Well, you know, you quit your job because uh, you know, you brought in some money and stuff and For sure for sure. And then and I mean all I've been doing since I left my job is just, you know, sticking to the script just Looking to for who which contracting officers and which agencies are spending the money for things in my industry And then I just try to build Relationships just like the one that I have with with, you know, the lady that gave me those four contracts So I think that that's that's my plan just continue building these relationships And uh and continuing to work with integrity and and you know and and really do the right thing But I just wanted to just tell like a really quick story Uh, I won't take up too much time, but um I'm a college dropout All right I I don't want to say I hated school, but I was I was I'm really I really disliked having to go to school every day Um, also when I was 20 years old I was hanging out with the wrong crowd and I actually got arrested and I actually was locked up for a year and a half Um now fast forward, you know 14 years later Now I'm selling supplies to the same prison that I was locked up at So if that's not a complete 360, then I don't know what is You know, you know, it's funny mo that you said that Um, I was on a youtube live my boy john on monday And he didn't say this But when we went to dinner after the youtube because I went to his office to do the youtube He said eric, you know, it's crazy, right? I've been winning disinfecting contracts And the last one I won is at one of like the like the detention center Okay, he says my co-defendant when I got locked up We're sitting here cleaning the detention center going. Can you freaking believe this? That's crazy, you know And he spent like a couple years in jail as well or prison whatever whatever and he was like, can you believe we're not cleaning the detention center? Uh, and we were two co-defendants on this case. Look at that man. Look at that That's remarkable I really and a lot and I'm glad you shared that and I thank you for that because obviously it's a lot to tell the Truth and tell your story, but you know, what's amazing is um, and I had someone literally text me about this yesterday because He was looking at a form about whether he's incarcerated and he uh He said he got he got like one day arrested for like a traffic stop. I'm like, bro. Yeah, but you don't tell No one's gonna care, but he was still worried about that and he was he was apprehensive about that and um, and I'm like to You know, yeah, yeah So yeah, for me it was just like I wanted to really just prove to myself that I have turned the complete other page You know what I mean, right and and and and now I and I use all of you know Like my history and my experience to kind of just like really push me into you know Just moving further in my career and doing a better job and you know, just trying to outwork Anyone that's around me. There you go. I mean, that's the way that's the way to look at that That's awesome. I think I think honestly Um, it seems to me in my experiences, right that that people like yourself who experience those those challenges and hardship work harder Yeah, I do I honestly believe that I think people again one of the things I write in my book is that my you know My millionaire friends don't have college degrees and my college friends are not millionaires and And it's my my my most my people that are dropouts and and you know X cons whatever that those people are successful people because They take up trades and they go in the trade industries And because they have a felony or because you know, they can't get a job No, I'll hire them so they start businesses and they become business owners Right, and then they end up hiring all the college degree people to work for them. Look at that This is incredible It's it's it's that's been my real life experiences Just happening my my buddy now Who makes a a lot of money? I mean, he went to jail for he was robbing dope guys. He was kicking in people's doors. I'm like If you look at him, you're like Right, right, right. I mean think about think about the kind of person to be to rob a drug person Right, right, right. No. You have to be deep in there. You have to be deep in the game You gotta be deep to be like robbing Like you go to my house that has guns and weapons and stuff like you want to rob other bad people who already are I'm like, you gotta be Deep and look and look at him now and today. Oh no today. He's he's he's the most successful Uh contractor in certain categories in Miami-Dade County. There's two categories here He's the most successful guy in those categories He's been called in because they thought that he was paying like the mayor or stuff because he was getting so much work from them Incredible, it's just a matter of other people in his space never bothered to learn the business So they never got the supplier credits. They never got lines of credits They never, you know, they were spending their money as fast as they make it because that's another problem We have as small businesses As handyman behind the truck You know, we're not saving the capital. You make some money, right? And then they go out and buy a car. They stunt they buy clothes They're not keeping the money in the business. So then when it comes time to go to a bank and ask for some credit Right, right. They're banks. Like, well, what are your assets? Oh, I got this car Right, right, right. That's not an asset. You know, have nothing I know honestly Yeah, for me even like the last couple of concerts that I won like I made more money than I ever seen in my life And it's like, I'm definitely tempted to go get a Rolex Hang it in you beaver, but I'm like, you know what? No, this isn't the time now is a The time to build You know what I mean and really really focus and and get ready for the next contract that comes back around now Now mo let me ask you something because we've been talking for a while When did you start you didn't tell people about your history and how do we start like when we started Because I talked to your boss and stuff like the year, right, right so, yeah, so, um I so I got hired for a rough. I see you we're gonna tag you and Rafa afterwards so I uh When I didn't have a job somebody told me about a temp position in a police and military supply company And they needed someone that the sales so I had no job So I don't care what they would have anything any position they would have asked for I was like, yeah, I could do that I could do that. Just throw me in there. Yeah, so I started working for this company Doing sales for them. So I was reaching out to police departments and agencies all across America just Trying to see who would be interested in buying, you know, police military equipment, right? So then um, So so then they kept on directing me over to their like local websites or their state pages For us to sign for me to sign up as a vendor So I started doing that and doing that But you know in the meantime that we were getting phone calls from different government agencies Like the department of state different embassies all over the place department home and security asking us for stuff as well and they had told told me about website fed bid So I started bidding on fed bid and and and and I noticed that there was a lot of competition on fed bid But but the one thing that I actually did do though, which is really interesting. Well, wait So I started doing that for a while didn't win anything for for like about a year year and a half I came across your page because I youtube government contracting or government contractor for dummies or how do I sell government contracting? And I and I came across your youtube page and you know, and the way that you explained How to do it was in a very eloquent and very Simple way for you know, just the average person to just understand because somebody here is government contracting for them It's a little intimidating, right? Okay. Okay. Yeah, absolutely Right, so I'll tell you explain to them slowly so after you know watching those videos and signing up and doing the course I and how much you stress, you know having relationships that was you know for me That was like, you know what I'm really good at building relationships. I'm not really that good at selling But I'm really good at building a relationship, right? That's what I know how to do Um, and and I knew that I know that I was an honest person and I work with a lot of integrity So that's what I started doing and just so everyone out there knows how I got this that last Four contracts over the last six months What I did was if you sign up on fed bid and you have a question So when you're on fed bid and you're looking at a bid you usually don't have information about who the contracting officer is Because fed bid is the one who's pulling putting out these solicitations So but you can however request the contact information of the contracting officer Through fed bid so by sending them an email and putting the buy number in the subject real quick Real quick time about fed bid is now unison global. Yes. Yes. Sorry. Sorry. Yes unison global Yeah, so um, there was a bid uh for during the coronavirus for um, uh for masks gloves masks and gloves So if anybody's ever been on unison before you can't just bid on one of the items You have to bid on both of the items or none of the items So I requested the contact information from fed bid. They gave me the cell phone number of The contracting officer So I called her and I introduced myself and I said, listen, is there any way I could I could just bid on the on the masks And not bid on the gloves even though I knew what the answer was I just wanted her to hear my voice anyway and introduce myself and she says, you know what you you actually can't You're gonna have to bid on both of them or none of them So I told her, okay Well, I still wanted to just introduce myself and I wanted to let you know that If there's anything that you need or if you get stuck with something You could you could call me literally anytime 24 hours a day. I don't care if it's a holiday I don't care if it's my birthday call me anytime and Before I even got off the phone. She was like, wait, wait, wait, since I have you on the phone There are some other requests that I have that I that that you know that I have so I told her So she was like, can I send you an email? I'm like, yeah, of course you can So while I'm on the phone with her she's sending me all these emails and then I asked her I said, wait Are you gonna end up putting this off for bid anyway? So she says Actually, no, I don't need to put out the rest of these for bid. I could just award it to to to whoever gives me the best price, right? So I started grinding. I started working right. She asked me for like five different things. One of them was a pulse oximeter And and I never even heard of an oximeter before but I was like, she's like, can you get it? I'm like, yeah, I could definitely get it. Don't worry I'll worry about that later. I know you start That's when you start reaching out to us in the facebook Exactly exactly so um So out of the five different things that she asked me for I was able to get her to Yeah, and um, and she awarded us the contract but she awarded it through to my company to the company that I worked for Right. Yeah. So after a while, I just started so that I made some money, right? I made some money Yeah, you're like, yo, I made some money Right. So at that point by the way back by the way, that's back in the days when I used to give people my phone number Right, so So, uh, so uh months later, which is a couple of weeks ago She called me and she said hey, listen, um, is there any way you can get us more Oximeters, right? So I told her I said listen I actually opened up my own company. Is there any way we could just do it through my company? So she said Are you signed up? Do you have a don's number? Yes. Do you have your SAM registration? Yes So for me, it was just like thank god. I had all that stuff, right? Oh the whole checklist You know, that's in the first couple of chapters on the gubcom giants course so Next thing you know, I wake up in the morning like Like a week later I wake up in the morning And I see an email with a purchase order there with my company name on it And it was the greatest feeling ever. I mean like money's not everything right when you see Right, you know six of six figures on a purchase order. What's your name? Well, my name was I put a team. What's your name? Yeah Because I've been through so much bullshit man And I and I try to cut corners a lot when I was younger and then once I realized look, you could do this legitimately You know, I mean you can make money legitimately and and and don't look at other people Don't look at your competition. Just focus on on what you know, what you need to do And yeah, and I got to thank you for that Eric You know, I mean there's like that that whole bit on relationships relationships relationships Is truly the most important thing No, that's that's that's that was powerful man. That was a powerful story today, man And I made my day today, bro. Let me ask you something real quick. I just I mean When you bought the course did your company buy it or did you buy it the company bought it? Okay, that's what I thought a company bought it for you to learn, right? Yeah, yeah, they bought it for me to learn I convinced them and I told them I'm like, listen I mean it was a good investment for them because them paying for that led to me being able to score So I'm gonna ask you this because you know what let me tell you why when I ask this question Because so many people be like Uh, Eric, I don't have this money. How much did you pay for the course? Do you remember what you paid? I don't remember. I'm maybe like $7,800 $600 How much money did somebody make? Okay, and I made that do 350,000 dollars clean 350,000 dollars clean I made I made for him 350 clean Yeah, so everything's paid for I mean so yeah, he wasn't I mean he's not happy that I left Of course not. He's not happy at all. But but again, you know what the thing is Um, you're not the first person to hear like I'm saying like that. You're not the first guy to say that to happen to them People kind of forget like hey, you know take care of me I you know like and again you and I talked you never mentioned me were thinking about leaving, right? So I thought everything was an up and up And you know you were telling me hey, this is good and things are working out But I listen I get it. I was there before too. I look When I made this guy and it's funny you said 350. I remember we did this uh with my aida guys We did a 700,000 on contract and they you know, they made like 400 grand or something like that and the guy gave me like, you know, he gives you like 30 g's or 40 g's you're like What And then taxes on top of that It's like, oh, but you made 40 g's. I'm like, yeah, but what if you didn't do anything like I brought the whole deal To you. I found the supplier I got to put the whole thing together and you did nothing You didn't have to cut a check like you just put any money up front. You didn't make any investments and this is it this By the way, that guy never has done another federal contract since I left him really Because I did everything they never bothered to learn the business. They never bothered to learn the business That's why the disinformation is Is like a treasure, you know, it's like it's it's extremely important like Like, you know, but but I understand why he never took the time to learn it because it is intimidating like I have a crew of seven friends Um, and and you know, they asked me hey, how's work or what did you do? And as soon as I started telling them you could just see them like drifting away and they just not interested at all And it's like, you know what that's a good thing. I don't want this to be complicated and complex I don't want everybody to know how to do it, right? That's what I just said. That's what I just said I just I just told the young man that right before you jumped on I said the same I go You want this to be complicated? It's perfect. That's why the it creates more opportunities for people like you and myself Who take the time to learn how to do this business the right way? Absolutely. So I'm happy for it. I mean look Listen, we I'm not I'm not gonna open it up today. But when I I'm going to a meeting friday I'm flying friday to go discuss some really big stuff and you know what? I'm gonna wait till I pull it down before we talk about it. But it's just This it's mind blowing stuff So, you know, but I want to put it back because you know, I want to share it with you guys Because I know someone like yourself You're gonna be inspired you're gonna be motivated by this and you're gonna be like look if eric said because again you were I said to you guys because we're gonna call you can do this right the same I told him you can do it You can do it these people let everyone listen can do this You just said again your story background Right, arrest it a year and a half in prison Oh You know, so Um, did you get a felony or mr beater felony? Okay, so we got a felony on your record Okay, but people ask me these questions. Can I do this with a felony? A lot of times I can't say because I don't have a felony, you know, so I can't really and that's why honestly I told maria this and it's funny It's a joke, but it's not we you know, she texts me the day and I just got a 700 745 credit score But I was disappointed because I've always been telling people I've never had a 700 score And I've been able to do millions of dollars in contracts and with 600 scores So now I can't that story goes to go away because now I got a 700 score. So now Right The guys I said, oh well, Eric, of course because you got a 700 score like, you know, they're gonna use as an excuse I was very proud of my 600 score and doing having a $5 million credit line I was very proud of that because that's a great story Anyone could say you got 800 score that makes sense, right? Right. So so I was actually disappointed my 745 score because it takes away my story Well, look man, you you did it the hard way, you know what I'm saying like, yeah You really did it the hard way, but you know what? That's the best type of wins though The ones that come the hard way, you know what I mean? Like like if you grow up with money and this and that Getting another check, you know, you don't really you don't really feel like it doesn't it doesn't hit as well As you know what I'm saying when you earn it when you come when you come from the mud You know what I'm saying when you get it after not having anything and people doubt it You know how many times so my father and my twin brother have an identical twin brother He works in hospitality and my father works like in a residential building in Manhattan And they're union, right? I have a couple big family union Yeah, and my my I have a I have a son. I have a five year old son and I have another one on the way And you know, uh, they were every time we're at the dinner table Everyone including, you know, my sister-in-law my sister. Why don't you just get a job in a hotel get a union job? You'll you'll you'll get it. That sounds like my family, bro They love us, right? Because so that's why they say it, right? They're like, you know, get a job You know, you're a guaranteed check after this many years you get a 401k and blah blah blah And in my head, I'm like, I don't even want to have to worry about a 401k I want to make so much money that I'm not even concerned about A measly social security check that I'm that I'm gonna get you know what I'm saying? No, my father my father didn't come to this country for me to have to struggle and do the same job that he did You know what I'm saying? I'm I'm here. Oh, by the way, tell me where you're from because no one knows where you're from What's your background? Oh, so I'm Egyptian. I was born in Queens, New York. And actually this is my son over here Hey, joseph If I quit my job, what am I now? You're the boss. Exactly That's right, joseph. You say it brother. That's what I like Well, anyways, Eric, I gotta run. But again, I'm Egyptian Immigrant family born and raised in Queens, New York Not in the suburban part either, you know what I'm saying? But god willing one day if I stick to the script, I'll be in the illest of suburbs in the whole city All right, I love it. I love it, brother. Hey, man. Thanks mo. Thanks for sharing man. We'll keep talking. All right We'll keep around. Thank you so much. Good luck to everybody. Good story. Joseph. Take care of your dad It's okay All right, guys. I'll see you guys later. All right That was good. I was I think that was pretty that was fire, you know That is that that was fire. I mean, I couldn't even um, I couldn't ask for anything better today I couldn't ask for anything better. All right. Who wants to come behind that? No, um You look mo I you know, I knew his story We actually had a planned interview set up with Maria to to talk to some of the people who won their first contract So we definitely want to get mo on to to share and then he just happened to come on today like literally he he came on and uh And like I I didn't know like I didn't know oh rafa wants to tell a story. Hold up rafa. Hold on I'll tell you what we're gonna probably Rafa, let's do this guys because it's 8 56. You I mean you to Instagram's gonna cut me off in four minutes But I'm gonna if if we get cut off if we get cut off I'll come back on and then johnny spive. I know you've got something that you want to go over So, you know when it hits nine o'clock we'll go off, but then I'll come right back on live Give me like a minute and a half because I'm gonna have to like Save this to uh the ig snippets Brandy you didn't even know that story, huh? I told you I've been I've been Working with people a long time Helping a lot of people out here man. Just says you know Rafa click the button I'm uh says it's waiting for you. You have to push like to accept to go live with me Rafa's having technical difficulties No, listen brandon. We're doing good stuff man. We're really really impacting a lot of people I mean, I I'm very proud of the stuff that we're doing The content we're sharing information we're putting out there a lot of people um Over the last few years it's just been All right, rafa can't get on. All right johnny spive, uh Let's go live man johnny. Oh missy. You like the replay of a post of your story All right, we're cutting with johnny What's going on man? Hey, Eric. How you doing? I'm doing good. How are you? Not much listen you guys doing all right doing all right. Hey, listen Everyone's got story. Yeah. Yeah, but we're not yeah, this is the second We're not gonna we're not gonna. Yeah. So yeah, just go ahead This is the second week of uh doing that landscaping for nav fact. Oh and uh That's in line with that um With that sources saw the b.o.s. Yeah s c right that's one of the locations And they are very happy with the work we're doing The previous uh Landscapers left the place um a mess so So yeah, right now they're pretty happy with this Donny can you tell people? I know this is can you tell folks real quick in like 30 seconds? How did you get that contract? Give us a give us a 30 second version I give you okay So I walked into the navy exchange Over in san diego and I mean they got The landscaper is horrible. This happened during the same time when they got the fires out here. Yeah, and I say look I shop here What's going on and I said look I could go ahead provide landscaping work for you and and Would you be interested in that and they say sure? Um, do you set the uh credit cards? I said, yeah, we can do that. So they asked for me to provide a quote to them That was it. That was it. Okay, beautiful so and and then It's amazing how This happened and then a week or two later that sources sought came out And I'm like wait a minute. So right now. So they got they want is that that sources sought is is Seemed like it was haphazardly put together. Yeah, right because they mentioned this all to california, navada, arizona but At the very end of that sources sought It's it's it's focusing on san diego. Okay on the Everyone the id is kicking me off. We've got three seconds and then we'll just come back on and finish. Okay