Govcon Giants

In today's episode we want to feature a newly minted 8a company that is doing things the right way.

Tomas Santos – Alejandro, CEO, Founder and Principal Engineer of Advent services of Florida began his roots in Mayaguez Puerto Rico. Advent Services empowers federal, state, local and private sector clients and partners to solve problems, manage risk and advance their corporate objectives. Certified 8(a), HUBZone and SDVOSB.

After working as a software engineer he founded a company that was eventually purchased by a tribal firm where became the manager for a firm that he once owned. The silver lining of the story is that during that stint of working for a large native corporation he learned how to grow and scale a business. After leaving the company he set his sights on bigger targets which eventually led him to creating Advent Services.

Funny thing is that when our resource specialist Erika set up this interview with Tomas he already met me in person 2 years prior. We knew each other from a NPS event in Orlando Florida that we both attended. The point I'm making is that if you keep showing up eventually the dots will start connecting.

Be prepared to hear the journey of how a small startup IT firm turned an idea into a successful growing business.

I want to welcome our next Giant, Tomas Santos Alejandro.

Over the course of the last two years in this podcast, it's been a journey. And now a community with seven thousand people who go through our free course and training and six hundred people going through the paid course. We're making a big impact in the government contracting world.

Doing this podcast has been really life-changing not only in the sense that it put me in a better place career-wise and my path towards everything that I want to achieve professionally, but it's introduced me to a lot of extraordinary people that I've now become friends with, I've now become colleagues with and we talk to a regular basis and it's given me a new set of relationships that I didn't have before that are tied directly to my industry.

So to anyone who is considering launching a podcast, don't worry about the money, don't think about it in terms of dollars and cents and how much you're going to make in terms of doing a podcast, think about it in terms of being able to shape and design the next five years of your life. The people who you want in your life, in your world, in your space, and being able to shape what that looks like for you.

I want to thank everyone who listened to my podcast and downloaded my show, everyone who gave reviews and it has been an incredible journey and I'm looking forward to the next hundred episodes.

In this episode I wanted to discuss a topic widely anticipated that is going to impact all small businesses around the world, the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification or more commonly known as CMMC.

To do that, I enlisted my friends Adam Austin and Alli Bay over at Totem Tech to help me discuss where the government is on this matter and more importantly how can you, as a small business, certify your business without needing a 10 or 20k consultant.

That's right, DIY CMMC. Because of the contracts that Haight Bey & Associates had with the government they were forced to become an early adopter of CMMC even before it was mandated to all contractors. As a result they went through the exercises themselves as contractors and are now coming on to tell us all about what that experience was like.

Over the next 90 minutes we cover Level 1 thru 3, NIST and they also give out a bunch of free goodies to help contractors understand this process as best as possible. Today's lesson is so great that if it wasn't on YT would qualify for a CEU credit. Grab your paper and pen. This is content rich learning today.

By the way, if you don't make it to the end they have an extensive list of downloadable links. Visit: https://govconeric.com/cmmc for a list of all things CMMC.

Now let's welcome our next Giant, Adam Austin.

So many people ask the question about needing past performance and how to start without certifications. Well, Micro purchase is one of the tools that are commonly used for small businesses to win contracts. People think that set aside is the key to winning but SAP also known as simplified acquisition can be an even more powerful tool.

Learn how easily a Federal buyer can purchase up to $10,000 from you immediately (and up to $20,000 or even more in times of emergency response). Not just products, but services, too! You'll learn how to create new low-risk offerings that can get you ahead of the competition. What an advantage – not just at fiscal year-end, but all year long, even when other buying is slow!

Imagine fast, easy, wins without expensive complicated proposals, opening the doors to bigger contracts. They can be closer than you ever imagined!

With more than $24B spending using SAP it is a method that most people commonly overlook strategies in their toolbox. This is the final part of our 4 part series with Judy Bradt. If you missed the first three go back and watch episode 98, 95 and 96. She is the CEO of Summit Insight and a 32 year government contracting wiz.

This episode was pre recorded on a YT live session that I hosted so you will hear us answer questions from the audience. Stay tuned and enjoy this power packed session with Judy Bradt.

You got your meeting...now what? We're going to be talking about the hidden wins you need to create, from contact to contract. You'll discover the concept of micro-wins (not micro-PURCHASES; something that comes even before THAT!) learn about the two types of wins you need to create with your buyers, and get the three GovCon checklists you'll use to get you from takeoff to landing, so your business can soar.

In today's interview with Judy Bradt we are discussing how to prepare for your call and get invited back. That's right! Not just call call call, you want someone to call you back on the other end. Well in today's 90 minute session Judy and I are going to discuss practical techniques and strategies for accomplishing just that. Stay tuned for today's episode with my colleague Judy Bradt.

We have not covered 3 of the 4 part of my series with Judy and boy has it been a blast. If you missed the first parts, go back and look at episode 95 and 96. How to Win your Meeting and the 5 people you want to meet.

If you love Judy's message, make sure to check her on her website summit insight, she is a regular on LI and puts on webinars, does coaching and a whole host of wonderful things for the Govcon community.

This week we bring you another managed service provider, Elizabeth Jimenez of NeoSystems. Neosystems is a full service IT integrator, managed security, cloud managed hosting, and managed services accounting, HR and IT.

Elizabeth Jimenez is the Executive Director, Strategic Development for NeoSystems, she is responsible for building and managing strategic relationships with partners, government agencies, industry influencers, and clients, as well as driving NeoSystems' brand vision, value, and culture.

She is also co-founder of The Cyber Guild, a non-profit, which is focused on transforming cyber groups into a cohesive human-centric organizational fabric, and the Executive Director and Advisory Chair of the Uniting Women in Cyber, an annual conference dedicated to celebrating women in cybersecurity, where she is instrumental in the organization's annual conference. She has a bachelor of arts degree from Radford University and is a registered practitioner of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program from the Department of Defense.

In this episode, Elizabeth will explain the concept in full detail of why small businesses should consider MSP as a viable option when scaling their business. Listen to our next Giant, Elizabeth Jimenez.

This is part of 2 of her 4 Part series that she filmed with me on our YouTube channel. For the month of July we are bringing back our resident superstar, Judy Bradt. For over 32 years, she's been an expert in federal contracting. We are so lucky to have Judy come on our show and share tidbits of the wisdom that she has accumulated over the last 3 decades.

Today's session, How to get in front of your federal buyer and win your meeting. This was a live session that we taped earlier this year and so you will hear Judy and I go for about 90 minutes fielding live audience questions. This is part of 2 of her 4 Part series that she filmed with me on our YT channel. Last week we discussed who are the people that you want to meet. If you missed it go back and listen as it was excellent.

Grab your paper and pen Judy is about to break it down into palatable pieces. If you have not had the chance to catch up to some of her earlier recordings on YT make sure to check them out as people raved about how great her message was.

Today's guest I want everyone to meet Judy Bradt, CEO of Summit Insight. For over 32 years she's been an expert in federal contracting. We are so lucky to have Judy come on our show and share tidbits of the wisdom that she has accumulated over the last 3 decades.

Today's session, 5 People you need to meet & the players and layers method we discuss getting in front of the right people sooner. This was a live session that we taped earlier this year and so you will hear Judy and I go for about 90 minutes fielding live audience questions. This is part of a 4 Part series that she filmed with me on our YT channel ▪How to get in front of your Federal Buyer and Win your meeting ▪How to prepare for your call and get invited back ▪5 People you need to meet & the players and layers method ▪5 Federal Lead Sources you Need to Know

You don't want to miss this next podcast episode with the always sweet, Judy Bradt.

Today's guest, Student Ash was researching the government market and quickly discovered what we call the certification trap. All of the agencies, so called experts and gurus, preached getting certifications as the pathway for small businesses to be successful. After doing some mental calculations Ash figured that if you make the pool smaller and smaller for businesses and we the 90% are all chasing the 20% pool who is really making the money?

She quickly learned that this was not a winning strategy and continued researching online for someone who taught a different methodology. That is where she ran across one of my YT videos that said, you don't need a certification to win a contract. My counter intuitiveness is what attracted her to me and Govcon Giants.

A self-proclaimed political enthusiast, this student came to us in the middle of COVID-19, after she was drawn into the Federal Government's Coronavirus Daily Briefings and what she perceived to be a constant request for supplies to help the U.S. combat the global pandemic, and although it wasn't a direct personal call-to action, she credits this as the best misunderstanding of her career.

Having NO previous experience with government contracting, she used the early on-set of the Stay-at-Home orders as an opportunity to learn how to do business with the government. Her GovCon journey started out with suggestions on the importance of becoming certified as a WOSB or 8A, but this path required past performance and were proving to be too long, and because she knew the chance to provide solutions to the government for COVID-19 would have a short window, she couldn't devote a lot of resources and time into obtaining certifications as a way to do business with government.

So, she decided to look for a path that provided a simpler method of doing government contracting, and she ultimately came across the GOVCON Giants (GCG) community in August 2020 and after coming across the GCG community, she found out the government had so many needs and request outside of just COVID-19 supplies.

As she continued watching our content and absorbing she decided to reach out to me directly for a few paid 1-on-1 sessions and eventually purchased our 2.0 program. From the onset I immediately knew the type of person she would become because she was investing her time and money in learning all the possibilities that existed. She took advantage of our business credit building program and Tuesday team calls.

It was on one of our members' calls that she met another GCG alumni and started pursuing projects together. They successfully won those projects and others moving forward. In fact they were working at the white house during the time of the insurrection.

But Ash did not stop there. She actually pursued multiple private sector jobs landing two large projects. As of the date of this recording her company was $70K shy of hitting the $1M mark for Q1 2021. In her email she writes to our team, if I didn't have the tools I would still be sitting around creating my 5-year plan with the hope of generating $1M for the year.

This is one of my most powerful student episodes to date. I know that you will enjoy this episode through the journey of one of our very own GCG alumni.

Joshua Duvall is the founder and managing partner at Matross Edwards LLC, a Washington, DC-based government contracts and business law firm serving government contractors nationwide.

Josh is trusted counsel and outside general counsel to small and mid-size government contractors, where he counsels clients in complex government contracts matters, including bid protests (agency level, GAO, COFC), disputes, teaming agreements, subcontracts, joint ventures, regulatory compliance, and cybersecurity. Josh received his law degree from The George Washington University Law School and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

He also has his own blog at GovConJudicata.com which provides news, insights, and legal analysis for anyone interested in staying current with government contracts and cybersecurity issues and finally, he enjoys all things coffee and golf.

In this interview we discuss everything about debriefings, pre-award and post award debriefings. The value and importance of debriefings and how to use debriefings as a business strategy and more.