Finding Recess

In this episode of Finding Recess podcast, Kyle Jones have two guests their names are Danielle Miller and James Stewart, they will talk about entrepreneurship. Ms. Miller is the CEO of ESS Group Inc, they are a government contractor. And Mr. Stewart is the owner of NEXGEN Financial Group LLC, a financial education. 

Episode Timeline

1:19

Ms. Miller is the CEO of ESS Group Inc, they are a government contractor. It basically provides training and development services, administrators, services, program management, contract management, and acquisition services. Plus, they have a lot of strategic partnerships where they can dip into different industries.

2:00

The primary focus is to build strategic partnerships, and win contracts. The company still offers a little bit of coaching programs where it can still assist small businesses, but they don't really necessarily do it in the consulting room anymore.

5:00

Mr. Stewart is the owner of NEXGEN Financial Group LLC. They teach a lot to help people get out of debt or move to the next level. They have people in different financial levels. They also do different life insurance and annuity products. His business of restaurant has just opened. And he thought losing the same predicament because he already had to plan everything and rolling right before COVID. But luckily, God blesses that the business is still going. It's still rolling. They’re not having a chance to expand, but it's a Thai restaurant.

10:30

We all have some product that we are selling, get some insight into that product, get it out there, get it, go have conversations with not just friends and family because they tend to, they tend to be sympathetic to what we're trying to accomplish. But get someone who's really going to tell you the truth about that particular product,

14:20

A lot of people don't have mentors in their field. You want to get around with people who are doing what you aspire to do. Educate yourself on those principles of business.

18:20

Sales and marketing are the most critical piece. You're going to educate yourself in business. The very first thing that you need to do is educate yourself in sales and marketing process. Because, the more you sell, the more you can get to the point where you don't have to do the selling.

25:20

It's important to surround yourself around the right people who are achieving more who are like minded like you where you don't feel like you are the smartest person in the room and finding those organizations can help. We've met a lot of different successful companies who are doing really well and it also helps to network and meet other people that you can go to for information.

31:10

There's an old saying that if there's six more people in the room, if there are five smart people in the room, you'd be the six ones. If there's five dumb people, you'd be the sixth one, You need to move to a different location for different people and that's when you can find better mentors, and somebody's doing higher than you.

36:00

You need to kind of understand your personality. I've done a few personality tests around very high improvise. So I can get into a situation and understand what's going on with that situation and then make decisions based on you what know on the information that I'm presented at that point in time.

40:32

Once you kind of know what you know, you know what you can get away with what you know. You can hit the ground running. We already have our foundations that we already know. We want to worry about getting the next product and moving forward because, our mindsets are already in business mode.

45:26

People think that failure is a bad thing. You can't get to success without going through failure. As a matter of fact, success is built on the steps of failure. If you're going, if you want more success, you have to find more ways to fail more. And I don't mean that in a negative way, but you got to find ways to mess this up.

49:34

I think the first thing is to really make sure that you've identified your market and how large that market is. Once you kind of target that audience, how are you getting feedback and data from that audience to determine whether or not your product is one that's meaningful to them.

50:10

If they don't like your product, then maybe you need to develop another product. I think it's important to have the data once you kind of understand if you're moving in the right direction and the last thing that you want to be doing is spending.

55:20

More and more people started to come back to their business simply because of the relationship that they built. That's part of marketing is to build rapport with the people you plan to market to will do sales and business with, but you can't look at them.

57:30

Your sales will double because your mentality is going to change and your behavior and how you approach that situation is going to change.

1:00:01

Most importantly, in any partnership, it has to be a win-win for both sides. So, if you're asking for money, or you want someone to donate or partner with you in any shape or form what are you also bringing to the table to be enticing to the other person. You don't want to be in a situation where you're just asking for money, and you have nothing to offer the other person in this particular partnership.

1:08:25

Make sure that this person is backing you. You're going to advertise this piece of backing but it doesn't want to infringe of what your business is doing or what your non-profits doing. Make sure that you're getting the correct money from the people.

1:12:14

The difference between folks who become successful with those ideas is really the devotion, the drive, and the focused energy on making it happen. In order to build a strong business that's going to be successful, it's going to take time, energy, and painstakingly you're just gonna have to commit.

Connect with us on:

http://findingrecess.com/ | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

An interview with Stas Matias about how networking changed his life and helped him become a successful Real Estate Broker in Florida. 

In this episode of Finding Recess, we have invited Cameron Lam to talk to us about his journey into restate and getting on the game. Cameron was raised in Los Angeles, California but he moved out to sunny Phoenix, Arizona about four years ago, after graduating from college. He started working in the corporate but six months one year into the corporate grind, he realized that it wasn’t for him. And that’s where his journey in real estate began.

Episode Timeline

 [02:55]                                                                               

Cameron worked at Intel and was making he thought was a great salary, $57,000 out of college, He worked in Finance and went to day to day, even months but there was no training. Cameron found out that a few months in, his was deemed low performer by Intel standard.

[07:16]

The Phoenix area is a hotbed for new build communities. There’s suburb called Gilbert southeast of Phoenix, about 25 minutes. There’s a lot of farmland, there's new builds going on, when he stumbled upon the community. He went and look at the home purchase price, and it's $263,000. Cameron thought that's a great price.

[14:23]

Cameron wish he had known back that then you don’t need to put 20% down. Family and friends, other are people who don't really know a lot about real estate might tell you, hey, put 20% down, try and pay off the house as fast as possible. So you can have a lower payment, you can avoid PMI private mortgage insurance.

[15:13]

You could do a 5% down for your primary home, so that prompted Cameron to start reading, like all about bigger pockets. And Cameron though maybe this is something that he could do if I only have to put 5% down on the home he was purchasing

[26:22]

Cameron’s no 1 for those who want to get into real estate is don't quit your day job and try to maximize your day job income. When you get into restate game, there’s a lot of people who jump all in, and they're doing creative financing deals, they're trying to, you know, they might not necessarily have that steady w two income, they're doing fix and flips. But for Cameron, being able to have that steady w two income, and now, much higher w two income has allowed him to qualify for all these properties. So he can get into the real estate game and stay in the real estate game

[29:12]

Cameron wouldn’t consider himself a real estate guru. But looking back on his journey, he saw how much he changed and learned together with his wife.

[30:20]

If you are interested in real estate, if you run the analysis, if you know if you know how to run the numbers, run the cash on cash run, you know, run all the revenue, expenses, CAPEX, repairs, vacancy, get all that stuff, you just got to go in and do it.

[39:09]

Cameron’s biggest mistake so far is when he bought a tiny house he got from a great deal.  He came to terms $30,000 on this tiny home. And he is paying like 550 bucks a month, zero percent interest, and just wanted to pay it over for 5 years like a car loan. His grand plan was he was going to put this tiny home in his backyard in Gilbert, and connect it to the sewer system,  connect to the electric,  and make a nice backyard and put on Airbnb. Then Cameron found out that in the city of Gilbert, that's illegal.

Books mentioned on the podcast:

• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Get free real estate knowledge at https://www.biggerpockets.com/

To get to know more about Cameron’s story in his journey from how he started in real estate and staying in the game, visit his website at https://www.sixfigurepassiveincome.com/.

You can also check out his socials:

Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn

In this episode of Finding Recess podcast, Kareem “Plug” Chapman joins the show. Plug shares his journey pursuing his dream, the challenges that he went through, and how he overcome those.

Episode Timeline:

[03:39]

Plug has been a comedian for nine years.

[05:23]

Plug won a comedy contest up in Woodstock, Georgia. He won $450 for a 10 minute set. Whereas, he only gets to earn $500 for a 40-hr work in his job.

[21:14]

If you grow up in a house, where people are showing you entrepreneurship, then naturally you start to fall into that. Chap wants to make sure that she includes her daughter as a big part of his brand and what he is dong. Maybe one day, she can be his road manager her daughter is very mature and smart.

 [23:16]

Stay away from the people that that say that use the word “Can't”. Stay away from the people with no dreams.

[26:03]

For people who are looking to start and who got a dream, just get up, kill the excuses and do the work. Go and watch what happens in six months.

[35:33]

Some people project the energies and problems on the people, and they never take ownership for stuff. That's a big reason why a lot of people can't get nothing done. They don't pursue dreams. For a long time, Plug walked around like the world owes me something. But the minute he realized that he was looking at the wrong way, his life changed. And the next thing he did is to stop worrying about things he can't control.

Connect with Plug on his social media and follow him to be updated with his latest news

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In this episode of Finding Recess podcast, Danielle Miller joins the show to share some tips on government contracting and other services they provide in her company, ESS Group, Inc. Danielle and her team work with clients on various aspects of strategy and planning to create a customized solution designed to help the company reach their goals.

All about ESS Group, Inc.

[01:56]

Danielle Miller helps small businesses who are interested in the government market and how to win government contracts. They help through the process by doing proposal writing, market research, market strategies, business development, and ultimately just even coaching and training for small businesses so they can even understand how to even get contracts in the government space.

[03:08]

Talking to a lot of her clients, Danielle realize that there really was a need for proposal writing. She went back to school and took training courses and proposal writing. She started gaining clients as a proposal writer.

Going Through a Thorough Process

[04:24]

It's very important to know how long you've been in business.

[04:34]

There a lot of free services out there to educate yourself. Before you come to a consultant, please educate yourself as much as possible. It not only helps you understand what you're getting yourself into, because it's completely different from the commercial market. But it also helps consultants to be able to coach you.

[05:29]

Danielle and her team set up clients with all the proper registrations required. Clients need to be registered properly to do business with the government. And that starts out with the SAM registration, which is the System of Award Management.

[06:07]

The consultation services try to elicit if clients are qualified for government certifications, search for opportunities and a lot of the government platforms, and can find opportunities at that point.

Dealing a Male Dominated Industry

[07:27]

Danielle initially perceived that being a woman color will be a problem in the industry and it held her back in the industry, but then she realized that that necessarily wasn't the case. People want to do business with people that they like, and they want to do business that people they feel like they're qualified and people that they trust.

[08:00]

Danielle started understanding how to communicate with different types of people, how to communicate with different races and different cultures, and how to talk to a woman opposed to talking to a man. At the end of the day, they just want to make sure that you can give them what they need, and that they can trust you.

Where do you see yourself growing with the business?

[10:08]

In the next couple years, Danielle hopes to have a few different locations definitely get farther outside of my business.

[10:32]

She’s slowly getting herself outside of the business, and starting to delegate things off to a lot of other people and different consultants, and even hiring people

Challenges in the Business and Getting Pass Them

[12:37]

Owning a business is a lot about personal growth. It is your bread and butter. This is something that you think about all the time. When you make mistakes, it hurts personally.

[12:49]

Danielle has under negotiated and devalued myself when doing business with clients before, she didn’t take the time initially to really study the market in the way she should have.

[13:47]

She got into business with partners that were just trying to steal proprietary information, steal her process or product, and really just picking her brain.

[15:56]

Danielle had to realize that everyone is not her client, everyone is not her customer.

[16:36]

Now, when Danielle can’t close deals, she focuses on what went wrong and how could she do better to be able to close the deal next time. She sees failures as opportunities to communicate and relate better with whoever she’s speaking with

 [18:31]

Danielle focuses only on things she can control. She believes she can control what other people do and what other people say. If she didn't get the results that she wanted, she looks at it not why didn't they want to do business? Did they not like me?  What was it about me? Instead she shifted her focus and started answer questions like, what I had to focus on was what could I do better? What can I control?

[20:42]

Every time Danielle messes up a contract, a lawyer had to get involved. She was able to leverage this experience to advise other people and really understand the process a lot better for her clients, which ultimately made her more qualified.

[21:01]

Dealing with different contracting officers gave her the inside scoop of what not only can government contracting can be good, but it also can have its downfalls. And people need to understand the downfalls of government contracting, as well.

Favorite Book

[22:43]

Choice theory. It has helped Danielle channel where she puts certain emotions and thoughts, not only in her personal life, but in business as well.

Check Her Out and Connect with Danielle Miller on Social Media & Website

Facebook |LinkedIn | Website

Wife, pastor, author, serial entrepreneur empowering creative around the globe with her book Daughters of Triumph. Rashatta Daugett is the wife of Spiritual Soul Music singer and Pastor, Titus, Min. Rashatta, adds to his ministry her gift to minister to young women.  She brings powerful and intimate, personal testimonies that carry what she has to say directly to their hearts. 

What inspired you to pool this people together?

The main inspiration for the book is to give people hope that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, there is trials but you can get through it. There is definitely hope. [06:40]

Bring woman together from all walks of life to be transparent and open about their stories and help and inspire others too. [07:10]

It has transformed the lives of women because it allowed them confront, heal, and get over the things that they’ve held for so long. [07:20]

Advices for People to Become Vulnerable and Confront Their Baggage

Be honest and understanding that there is purpose in everything. [08:55]

All of these things are helping in our character building. It shapes and molds us on how we view and respond to things [09:35]

These trials are God’s ways on molding us to the kind of being he envisioned us to be. [10:00]

Take the trials and tribulation as teaching moments of life. Figure out what God has for you to learn [11:25]

The Decision to Heal and Change from Her Own “Daddy Issues”

Rashatta had to take responsibility for her own life. When she realized that she can only control herself and no one else, and that she’s responsible for her own happiness and she reacts on certain things and situations. She couldn’t let his father what she wants him to be but she can choose to be happy regardless.  [17:23]

Looking back, Rashatta is glad that she didn’t have a dad not because he was bad but she wouldn’t have had the exposure that she had growing up if her dad was present for her. [19:29]

Channeling the Pain & Hurt and Create an Impactful Content

Rashatta will be bringing her book around to an audio book because it has become more popular and a lot of people will be able to hear women share their testimony via audio [24:10]

Rashatta is planning to put together a series to hear and see a visual of the women’s testimonies on the next step. [24:20]

Key Quotes:

“What you are going through right now, it doesn’t have to stay that way.” [08:12]

“Nothing escapes the will of God” [12:47]

Instagram | Twitter | Channel | Website

Check out Rashatta’s book Daughters of Triumph on Amazon