Govcon Giants

Today's guest Stephanie Addo Principal Owner at ACJ Luxury Maintenance LLC. ACJ provides janitorial services in the NYC/NJ area to commercial and government entities.

Stephannie Addo is what you would call a 'serial entrepreneur'. Not only does she strive to succeed at achieving her own business and life goals, she is on a mission to inspire and counsel other women to pursue their own dreams by overcoming the fears that may be holding them back.

A veteran of the United States Army, Stephannie was the recipient of the Army Achievement Medal for her dedication to serving her country. Stephannie was mentored by CEO's from the Nation's Top Fortune 500 Companies through the University of Connecticut at their Veteran's Entrepreneur Boot Camp Program. She was chosen out of 1,200 Veterans to be a part of the mentoring program and went on to win the Most Innovative Pitch Award for her business presentation.

One of the stories that you will hear in today's episode is the story of Stephanie working alongside one of our podcast guests to help support a federal facility in crisis due to the pandemic. I'll give you a hint, the guest is Chris Dambach, episode 46. But you'll have to listen to get the whole story. We share her story of going from a daycare center owner to government contractor in this episode of Making a Giant.

Today's podcast guest Molly Mayhew is the founder and President of Mayhew Technology Solutions, a small business systems integrator supporting customers in the federal, state and local marketplace. She began Her career in the US Air Force as an Information Systems specialist, where she was introduced to the world of government contracting from the buyer perspective. Post-military, Mayhew was a leading member of the team who received the 1999 Tinker AFB Business Management Award, and the 2001 Air Force Productivity Excellence Award. Mayhew also was Verizon's South Area B2B Sales ICON winner in both 2013 and 2014.

Molly was a Subject Matter Expert and program manager for a $35 million DoD communications platform consolidation that centralized operations at Andrews Air Force Base and integrated several systems and communications programs. After years of working as BD Manager, Sr. Account Exec, Strategic Mgr, Sales Mgr of Government sales for multiple entities she decided it was time to take the leap on her own. In 2017 she founded Mayhew Technology Solutions (MTS).

MTS provides installation services for fiber optic, telecommunications, ISP, OSP, physical security, low voltage, audiovisual systems, and network management and operations services. They also have additional services that include facilities support, all other business support, consultation, analysis, design, and turn-key deployment, long-term service and maintenance, and temporary staffing services. MTS's contracting expertise spans the federal, state, municipal and commercial market places.

On today's show you will hear how your skills from the military to private sector like Verizon and Graybar to being a mother are all transferable. You will learn how Molly came to the realization that it was time to make the leap and why she decided to do it now. Tune in for this upcoming episode with our latest Giant, Molly Mayhew.

In today's episode, Mike Cantave shares his background story as an immigrant to this country who was raised in Canada. He came to the United States for college where he would eventually meet his lovely wife. Later he went on to eventually become a pilot and start his government contracting business. Today he has 3 planes and is continuing to grow his contracting business with his wife and kids plus a sales staff that he built from scratch.

Mike is the President of the 2Lyons Aerospace LLC, since 2014, they have been in the business of supplying airlines worldwide quality aviation spare parts in a timely, cost effective manner. They cater and provide spare parts, repair management, professional services or government procurement.

When 2Lyons Aerospace first started out, Mike's vision was to contribute honesty, personal pride, hard work and transparency to an industry where things are not always so transparent.

They now serve customers literally all over the world, now able to turn their passion into what they do everyday. Looking for innovative ways to serve our clients and their business needs.

Enjoy this episode with Mike Cantave while he is interviewed by Maria Martinez

We are bringing you an earth shattering govcon superstar in today's episode. Venus Quates if you've never heard the name is a servant leader, forward-thinker and proud veteran of the US Air Force. Her company LaunchTech where she serves as the CEO solves the presentation and launches the future of technology in the space, financial services, healthcare and public sectors. Her firm was ranked #66 on the 2021 Inc 5000 list with a 3 year growth rate of 5,682%.

Venus, with over 20 years of domestic and international experience, has acquired a wealth of technical and business knowledge across a wide range of demanding roles and sectors. She has led several engineering, technology, and data-driven initiatives with major Fortune 100 and 500 companies, global banking giants, and leaders in the Intelligence and Defense industries.

Venus has traveled all over the world and educated the masses on technology innovation in business, diversity, and inclusion in STEM, the utilization of data science, and how implementing all can benefit community and economic growth.

What I love about this interview is how Venus was very specific in describing what her company does well. We discuss her sources for wisdom and inspiration, mentors and more. Which one of her previous jobs impacted her Govcon Journey the most and lessons learned.

Stay tuned for what is sure to be a fan favorite episode for our next Giant, Venus Quates.

On today's episode with Making a Giant, our guest is Demetrius Walker, a Marine Corps veteran and the CEO of Fhito Logistics. Demetreus' company specializes in logistics services, facilities support and management services, and supply chain management.

Originally from Alabama Demetrius worked odd jobs prior to the military. Including being a DJ in Atlanta. As a veteran Marine he thought like many others that he would be guaranteed a job for the post office or State worker. That didn't pan out so well. So he went off and found work in a manufacturing facility on the Assembly line.

This episode takes you from the beginning stages of founding Fhito Logistics all the way to the point of winning his first 5 contracts. I hope you enjoy this episode with Maria Martinez and Demetrius Walker.

In this episode, we're discussing the all new, effective immediate policy: the SBA deciding to suspend bona fide place of business requirements for 8(a) construction contracts.

We have Meghan Leemon from PilieroMazza, a business law firm that serves a strategic partner to government contractors and commercial business from across the United States in numerous industries.

Meghan counsels on a broad range of government contracting matters. She advises companies on small business procurement matters, particularly on issues related to eligibility and participation in small business federal procurement programs, such as the Small Business Administration's Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSBs), 8(a) Business Development, and HUBZone programs as well as the All Small Mentor Protégé Program and the VA's VetBiz VIP program. She also assists clients in maintaining compliance with the FAR and small business regulations.

Meghan discussed what does this policy mean, how does it impact small businesses, what is a bonafide office in the first place, why was it created and we also got into the other rules and changes that have been implemented recently that may be affecting you and your small business.

Stay tuned for this episode, as Meghan shared helpful insights that would help your business.

Our guest for this week's episode, Mr. Eli LaSalle, is a GovCon Edu student that is into the commercial real estate investing. Eli shared his knowledge about a lot of new and interesting concepts of real estate investing that will peak your interest.

This episode may not be directly related to Government contracting but for the vast majority of folks that are very successful at the GovCon realm, the next arena that we go into is real estate investing.

Eli has founded Dynamic Property Concepts in 2012 as an independently owned and operated real estate, project management and construction services firm. Dynamic Property Concepts LLC (DPC) is a full service Real Estate development and Government Contractor.

Their portfolio now includes residential, multi-use, and commercial development initiatives with the core value to deliver quality service to every client, every time, and everywhere.

Stay tuned in this episode with Eli and learn more about investing in commercial real estate.

Our guests for this week's episode are the President and CEO of CIWRX. CIWRX has people, processes and technology to create full life-cycle business and technology solutions, customized for each organization. With access to business and technology leaders, they help businesses thrive in the most hostile business climate.

Jerry and Jim who have been in technology for multiple decades are now combining their skill sets to leverage their knowledge of Artificial Intelligence and bring that into the federal contracting arena. With access to more than 50 patents, their solutions are currently being tested by several agencies for applicable / practical use in the federal sector.

Their decades of work in Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery are especially timely during and after this coronavirus pandemic. As a sought-after consultant, they help organizations harden their security infrastructure. Jim has also given seminars and training in the Darknet, Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies.

Stay tuned to learn all about CIWRX and how you can harness an idea or invention, and start your technology company doing federal business.

Our guest for this week's episode, Margery Newman is an income member at Bryce Downey & Lenkov. Her practice encompasses construction mediation, arbitration and litigation in both the private and public sectors, and related business litigation. Her clients include owners, general contractors, subcontractors, specialty trade contractors and disadvantaged business enterprises.

Margery counsels clients on drafting and negotiating construction contracts—including dangerous subcontractor clauses—mechanics' lien claims and foreclosure actions, construction defects, MBE, WBE and DBE certification and compliance. She has been recognized by Chambers USA, Super Lawyers and Leading Lawyers for her work in construction law.

In today's episode, we sit down and go over some of the dangerous subcontractor clauses, however, as we talked about in our previous episode, they are favorable if you're the prime and they are only dangerous if you're the sub.

We also got into some interesting topics because she had done seminars and presentations on post-Covid 19 construction contract clauses, implicit bias and its impact on diversity, construction industry, returning to work issues following covid and much much more.

We are doing something a little different in this episode, we do not have a special guest, but what I will be discussing is about the seven construction contract clauses that pose special challenges for contractors.

This is a Youtube live that I streamed back in July this year and the reason why I streamed it was as a response to the deadly collapse of the deadly Florida building and the reason for the episode is because I want for all the small business construction contractors and subcontractors out there to be aware of some of these potentially dangerous construction contract clauses.

I listed seven in this particular video but I discussed four other areas of concern outside of these seven construction clauses.

We decided to make it into an official podcast as we have a different audience to reach more people and so I hope as a result of listening to this episode, you may want to do something different and revisit some of your contracts.

I also give you strategies and things to consider and ways of approaching that. So tune in to this episode and get your notes ready.