The Government Could Become Your Best Customer! Part 4

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios. It’s time for Women in Motion. Brought to you by WBEC West. Join forces, Succeed Together. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:27] Another episode of Women in Motion. This is Lee Kantor with my co-host, Dr. Pamela Williamson. So excited to be talking to everybody today. And today we’re going to cover an important topic. Can the government become your best customer? Welcome, Pamela.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:00:44] Hi. Thank you. I’m excited for this show. This month, we are all about government contracting and providing information to stir up curiosity and hopefully some action in women business owners who have not considered doing business with the government. And for those listening that currently are already doing business with the federal government, we are hoping to share some nuggets to help you expand on that business. Today we have a powerhouse of guests. I would like to start with by introducing Dana Arnett. She is the CEO and co-founder of Wicked Bionic, a Los Angeles based agency that crafts multicultural marketing and advertising campaigns. Since 2015, the agency under Dana’s leadership has worked with large organizations and government agencies impacting millions of lives through strategic media campaigns and initiatives. Dana, welcome.

Dana Arnett: [00:01:33] Thank you.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:01:34] We also have Margie Mauldin, president and owner of Executive Forum, a boutique learning company. In the past 35 years, Margie has earned the trust of the Colorado and national business community. Is an entrepreneur and successful business owner. She effectively manages executive forum boards, clients, client list that includes a variety of compelling projects galvanizing talented employees and business partners. She has a creative she has created a firm that makes a difference in the lives of corporate and government business leaders delivering training to thousands of people each year. She is also the best selling author of Feedback Revolution Building Relationships and Boosting Results. Welcome. Thank you. And last but not least, we have Beverly Kuykendall, president of Kuykendall and Associates. Her company helps to establish and establish enterprise wide corporate and government growth strategies by leveraging tenured experience, relationships and regulatory knowledge to increase agency’s penetration through collaborative solution development. And Beverly, I’m going to start with you. I’ve known you for almost, gosh, almost 12 years now. That’s crazy.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:02:46] How quickly time flies very quickly when you’re having fun in federal contracting.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:02:50] Because that is insane. And so when I first met you, I think right after you said hello, pleasure to meet you, what are you doing to help women with government contracting?

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:03:02] Yes, you did. And I’m prepared to answer. That’s a very, very good question. But I would allow you to phrase the question. I have lots to say on the topic, and I look forward to engaging with the others on this call.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:03:14] So my question is going to be what specific advantages do women owned businesses gain from participating in government contracting opportunities?

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:03:23] Well, the the federal government there’s I will try to narrow the discussion and with hopes that we’ll be able to have more. But the the government helps to provide a level playing field for women owned small businesses by limiting the competition only among that category of companies to businesses that participate in the women owned small business program. So if you’re if you are a certified woman owned small business and we’re talking about the federal government, right, because there’s also state and local, which is different. But in the federal government has a very specific program that’s well designed, it’s well resourced. It’s well known. What I hope to get through this conversation is to talk about how can women make that program work for them in order to gain the result that the government is dictating will happen. So it’s a special program for women owned small businesses so that you only compete among yourself. And that’s really important because you want to level you want to limit the the competitive field. You don’t want to compete with large companies, small companies, big companies, all companies. And if they narrow and limit the competition, it increases your odds to getting the business. And there are very specific areas of the Federal Acquisition Regulation that discuss that hope that helps.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:04:52] Because, Dana, I can see you have something to add.

Dana Arnett: [00:04:56] Well, I’m thinking and I’m so happy to be here. And thank you, Dr. Pamela and Margie and Beverly’s. Lovely to be with you. What our experience has been and where our OSB certified as well as Quebec West WB certified and a few other certifications. But I think what you were speaking of was federal. Our experience is city, county, state and I and I believe in some ways that that narrow playing field by being a WB is what what changes the way that we’re able to compete 100% and we fortunate enough to be 85% of our work is in government contracting. And I believe that there is that I know that the opportunities are there for women, but so many women are either scared of being in the space, right? What is that? Or they don’t bid. A lot of people will see proposals come through, but they don’t bid. And I always say if you can’t if you don’t write a proposal, you can’t win. Right? So there’s a lot of opportunity for for work in that in that space for women.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:05:56] I do want to add something because that’s that’s very, very, very good input. And in the federal arena, the government sends out what’s called a sources sought because they’re looking for women owned small businesses. And if they don’t, even before the bid comes out, if women don’t respond to the source of salt and to say, I have these capabilities, here’s my capability statement, I can absolutely participate in this requirement, then it’s not set aside for women owned small businesses, and we’ve lost that opportunity. So thank you for mentioning that.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:28] Now, before we get really deep into this, can you explain the differences? You mentioned the different types of certifications and why is that important?

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:06:45] So on the federal side, right, you must be certified because the government offers a number of different resources and federal contracting is very lucrative. So they want to make sure that you are who you say you are. The federal government has a 23% requirement that all of government contracts must go through some element of small business and women owned small businesses are a part of that. So they want to make sure you are who you say you are. And it also helps when they are looking at statistics to see how many contracts actually went to certified women owned small businesses, economically disadvantaged women owned small businesses. And I also want to bring up that in federal. So in the federal contracting arena, if you’re a WB and you’re certified as a WB, it means nothing. So for a woman owned small business in the federal sector, you must be WSB certified or WSB certified in order to be able to participate for the set aside programs along what’s called there’s about 750 eligible industries. So certification is critical and very important.

Dana Arnett: [00:08:00] The correct certification, you said you said it beautifully. One of the best things about Webrequest or Webbank in getting certified is that you can get certified at the same time as a WB and a WSB. Super helpful. Thank you for that. Dr. Pamela.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:08:12] Oh, that’s good.Excellent.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:08:15] Beverly, you mentioned a a source of in the federal government source of and I didn’t catch the entire title. That’s not something that I’m familiar with. Could you explain that a little bit?

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:08:31] Absolutely. And thank you for asking the question. The government engages in what’s called market research in order to determine if there is a specific requirement that they can set aside for a certain category of business. One part of that market research is there’s several. So there’s one called a Sources sought. Sources sought says the government is looking for, for example, a woman owned small business who can fulfill a requirement with the army for advertising and media campaigns. So they will set that out and they will say they’re looking for you. Are there any women owned small businesses that can do that? And many times, as as Dana said, women just don’t respond. And so the government says, well, we looked and there was nobody. So now we’re no longer going to set that aside. We’re going to send it out for small business. There’s also something called in that market research, a request for information, an RFI. And again, the government is saying we’re thinking about coming out with a solicitation for a certain requirement and we’re looking for any small business. Here’s what we’re looking for. What do you think about this? So they’re actually asking industry for input to to in order to say, yes, I can do that, but maybe if you tweaked it a little bit over here, it might be better, better source for women owned small businesses or maybe it’s something technical in their draft statement of work that they’ve included with that RFI and you get an opportunity for for input. So sources sought or an RFI and so also a pre solicitation is another type. So there’s various types of market research that the federal government can engage in.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:10:20] Thank you. That was very helpful. There’s there’s.

Dana Arnett: [00:10:24] Also. Oh, I’m sorry. Did I interrupt you?

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:10:26] No, no, no, no, no.

Dana Arnett: [00:10:28] I was going to say, it’s it’s so federal is is different in the language for sure than than city, state, county. And I know it’s at least in Los Angeles, they’re trying very hard, especially county, to really look at bringing in women owned businesses. And really doing those set asides were just the county’s just started with LGBTQ getting having that certification mean something and give an advantage, which is very fortunate for us. But I really believe that over time as the work is done right, we can get more government agencies, at least on city, state, local, get them to, you know, be able to bring in other women owned businesses as something that is valuable and important.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:11:12] Well, Dana, I have a question for you. I’m from Los Angeles and lived there all my life. I’ve only been gone about seven years. And it’s really exciting to hear that the that state and local government are actually looking at set asides because when I was there, all they did was it was really kind of like a goal. So they didn’t really carve out right areas for LGBT or women owned small businesses or for minority owned companies. So that’s that to hear that that’s happening is that’s monumental.

Dana Arnett: [00:11:40] And think about if the state of California did it, because with state of California, it’s just small business and veteran owned businesses. So we always bring that partner in because that’s being a good sport. But we always do, you know, show our certification whether it’s accepted or not, that we’re a woman owned small business or a woman owned business, because it matters to us, right, that they get to see that. That’s another advantage of hiring a diverse business is to be able to have have that that thought leadership and that connection with people that are I think it makes us more real in some way. You know.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:12:13] I agree with you. I think also that for for women owned small businesses and people that have been looking for years to do business in the federal government, they are really are they want to get past the conversation and they want to be able to say, how can I really what is the certification really mean? What does it really do for me? And on the federal side, particularly, there’s an executive order, executive order 13985 that discusses diversity, equity and inclusion in federal procurement. And the government under the Biden-Harris administration has actually targeted $100 million no $100 billion over the next five years. A good distinction to make, right? Eo 13985. You can look it up and $100 billion for and it says for small disadvantaged businesses and so are so and you can actually see, for example the Department of the Navy they’re looking at large multibillion dollar contracts. Now. They’re disaggregating and unbundling some of those contracts and making it set aside for different socioeconomic categories, including women owned small businesses and economically disadvantaged small businesses. So as people listen to this program, I know there are many who have been disillusioned over the years because they’ve been trying. And I’m really proud to be on this panel because it truly is about execution. And I realize there are new entrants coming into these programs all the time. And I always say federal contracting is not for the faint of heart. There are so many different elements to it. And that’s why I’m glad that there are organizations like Rebecca West that have this continuous, ongoing conversation. And even thinking for a follow up, maybe don’t get mad at me, Pamela. Take one company and just walk them through the entire process. On the federal side, just one company. That’s something I’d like to just offer maybe for the future and then come back and demonstrate to people, here’s what we did, here’s what’s happening, here’s how they were hopefully awarded a contract. So it’s it’s just happy to be here.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:14:26] So I have a follow up question.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:14:28] So, Margie, I know that your one of your expertise is in building relationships. And I’m curious, how does I know in the non-government sector we are always talking about relationship, relationship, relationship. You have to build an authentic relationship with that buyer, that supplier diversity person. Is that the same philosophy in government contracting and do you have any insight into that?

Margie Mauldin: [00:14:54] Yes, I think relationships are relationships. We’re all human no matter where the paycheck is coming from. And it is with the desire for me, at least, with the desire of looking for information and as Dana said, helping people, bringing in other people to help when you need help. Um, on government contracting. I did find it curious. A couple of years ago, I was working on a federal contract and it came time to do our invoicing and I was talking with the with the budget analyst and different folks and I said, You do know that we’re a certified small business woman owned business? I said, You can check that box with this contract. And he was stunned. We were on a zoom and he was just stunned and so happy that he got to check one of his boxes for the year so that it’s So the relationship combined with education is the way I look at it. And it goes both ways. Um, educating our subcontractors and then educating, getting educated and providing information for our current bosses, whoever that might be.

Dana Arnett: [00:16:27] You know, I loved what you said because you made me think of I didn’t know this in the beginning, but we were very, very fortunate when we got into government contracting. We were a year and a half in business. And my my business partner said, you know, we should get into government contracts. I’m like, what are you talking? It sounds equal, right and right. And I was like, That’s no way. Right? But then as you go, right, so we got our certifications as a small business and we got woman owned. But we, we wrote a proposal for the Los Angeles Public Library. So our first proposal, it was gorgeous. It was fantastic. There weren’t a lot of rules because it was City of Los Angeles and we won. We won our very first proposal. When does that happen? But let me tell you, six years later, six years later, and the renewals and we do media campaigns for them all over the city. But I will tell you, that relationship that our client over there, she is one of our biggest cheerleaders, I thank her every year because I don’t know that we would have the business that we have if she hadn’t put us on that right path. You know, it’s it’s a revenue base for us every year, right? So we’ve been so fortunate. But on the relationship we use, we use this this person as a referral she’s our top referral. When you have to write a you know your references right and when you’re submitting a new proposal and she is our top referral, I will tell you we have three wonderful ones but that I know that’s what separates us because of the work we do for them that these fantastic people recommend us when they make a call or they fill out the survey about how we are as an agency, that relationships, those relationships are game changers, I think, for us. So that is the on the inside once you get in, being able to have that relationship is is wonderful.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:18:11] Wonderful.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:18:12] So I know in the private world we do a lot of education about how to build relationships with buyers. So what are some tips that you guys have that you’d like to share with the audience around? How do you build relationships with those federal or state or city government relationships? How do you go about that? What are some best practices?

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:18:35] I will I’d love to weigh in on that. And so for me, in federal contracting, right, there’s always conferences and workshops and other types of engagements. So I think it’s a very good question. Right. How do you start and you’ve heard me say this before, Dr. Williamson, that if I’m at a conference, I know I’ve already studied the literature. I know who’s going to be there. I am the first one to ask any questions. My hand goes up right away. Stand up. I say Beverly Kuykendall. Carr And then I ask a question that’s relevant to the entire audience. So one gives you an opportunity to be seen to the person on the on the stage is now they’ve seen you and now we can follow up exchange cards and then there’s that continuous involvement. But it takes a lot of study to just understand how can you engage with them from a relevant perspective. And that again, research, understanding you’re at the conference, you’re there for a specific reason. Maybe it’s the Army, maybe it’s the Navy, maybe it’s the Air Force. And you know, what kind of requirements are are coming up and are available. You can ask a question and then you continue to follow up. I just think that it’s really important also on the federal side and I’ll make this quick, whenever there’s a source of sort, an RFI or Preesall, there’s a contact person’s name and at that point you can ask questions, you can call them, you can send them an email. And as you engage, those relationships start to be built. And as someone said earlier, they last for a very long time. So those are my tips for the federal side. Make sure that you’re there.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:20:06] Thanks Beverly. And I just have to say again, I’ve known Beverly for quite a while, and one of the first things she taught me is you got to make sure that you might not be the prettiest person in the room, but you will definitely be the most noticed person in the room. She’s like, You need to stand up, say your name, say your company name, and be proud of those two things, your name and your company name. And so I think that is is extremely important because I can’t tell you how many conferences I go to where people will ask a question and I’m like, who are you? What do you do? Because they don’t do that. So I think that that is a great tip for building relationships and just engagement.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:20:42] And standing up. And they give you that microphone stand up even if nobody else has stood up and you say, well, nobody else has stood up, so I’m not going to stand up. No, stand up. You got to.

Dana Arnett: [00:20:51] And you said a great thing. Ask a question that is pertinent to the audience. Not so my little narrow niche. I think that is a great, great, great little give there. Thank you.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:21:02] Thank you. It sure is. And if I’ll just follow up with one other thing that I keep in mind, and I, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Beverly preparing to attend a conference is a lot of work. It’s not ten minutes before it’s 30 minutes every day prior to spending time on the agenda, the people there. And another aspect I try to build on with that is give to get does someone have a question that maybe you might have an answer to? I will seek them out and say, I have this experience and here’s what I did specifically. And so we’ve gone from relationships to being present and giving to get. I think those are three really, really fine points for people listening.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:22:00] Quick story. I had a recent event with the Centers for Disease Control, and there was a large requirement that was coming out for medical products and supplies. They’re really trying to stock their storehouses to make sure that we don’t have a repeat of what happened during Covid. Right. They want to they want to make sure that the warehouses are full. And so they sent out the the source of sort. I answered it and I said, is there an opportunity for industry to hear from you on a virtual meeting exactly what you’re looking for in the contracting officer wrote back and said, no, no, we don’t do the government doesn’t do that. Now I know better. We have a lot of young contracting officers. So I, I patiently and politely said wrote her an email and said, Thank you so much for providing me the information which states that the government cannot conduct industry meetings. That’s this is new information to me. And I copied her supervisor. The woman called me on us and because. Right. I didn’t say you didn’t give me the wrong information. I said, you know, that’s that’s news to me. She called me on a Saturday and apologized and said, I am so sorry. Thank you so much for posing the question in that way. And I wanted to call and tell you that I made a mistake. So fast forward 7 or 8 months later, she’s on an evaluation committee. Guess who got the contract right? So always be kind. That’s the other piece. Always be kind. Always.

Dana Arnett: [00:23:22] I always say that when you have a if they’re looking, you’ve got ten reviewers or five reviewers and they’re looking through all this, all these proposals, all these proposals, and there’s name recognition. It’s just a bias that is there no matter what. And I’d rather be the recognized name. I think it can make a difference if it’s be close between me and someone else. Yes.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:23:41] And that is a great point. I will also share a story that’s not really a happy story, but I learned my lesson in refreshing my network. We had done business locally out at the Denver Federal Center with an organization for 15 years. And it was it was revenue that we depended on, just like you, Dana, and they had changeover at the top and the area that makes the decisions and we were not his favorite and we have not gotten any work from them in the last three years. And we should have been out there when we knew that that transition was taking place. We should have been out there renewing and enlivening, energizing our relationships across the board.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:24:41] That that is a really that’s really good, humbling information for all of us. Right. Right. To make sure that that we know that something tells me you recovered somehow. I was going to say.

Dana Arnett: [00:24:53] It never happens again.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:24:54] Right.

Dana Arnett: [00:24:55] It only happens 20% of your revenue in anything. Right. Is just going to kill us all.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:25:01] I’m sorry, Did I interrupt someone? I just wanted to share also that so I’m a geek. I identify myself as a geek. I love federal contracting. I’m always reading the news. So we know that the war was in with Ukraine. Is really something that’s happening right now. You read the newspaper, you know, the government, the US government is giving lots of aid in a number of different ways. They’re providing weapons, they’re providing emergency supplies. And so I looked at the agency. There’s an agency called Federal Foreign Military Sales. And I had already had a contract, a very large one, about 2 or $3 million for the Syrian refugee effort. I saw that that was happening. It was in the news. I called him and I said, listen, I’m sitting on the outside looking in right now because I haven’t I’m just not sure how those dollars are being spent and how to work my way in. Quite frankly, I’ve got my nose pressed against the window hoping that I have an opportunity. Right. It helps to make them laugh a little bit, too. So and he said, you know what? And people have been going out for Covid.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:26:06] They’re not working. He says, I’m working three days a week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. If you want to fly to Philadelphia, let’s talk about it. And you better believe I’ve already got my plane ticket. So just having conversations and being aware of what’s going on because the government, especially now, is spending so much money on both grants and contracts. And if you could talk about something that’s really relevant and understand the agency that has been that has those dollars to spend, it’s a great way and a great reason to renew old contacts as well, because to to Margie’s point, people change and move all the time. And this gentleman is getting ready to take a lateral move. And so I asked him, I said, I’d love to be able to be introduced to the person that’s going to be taking your place because I know that you have to train them. So I am dusting off my shoes, making the trip to Philadelphia. I’m going to say hello to him and I’m also hopefully going to be meeting the new person. So thanks for that, Margie. You triggered something in my brain. Thank you. Well done.

Lee Kantor: [00:27:08] Now, at a tactical level, on a day to day basis for somebody who’s never done this before, what are some of the activities they should be doing? You know, to get their feet wet and to explore if this is a right fit for them to pursue government contracting work. Are there certain number of proposals a month they should be doing, or is there places they can go to see where there’s opportunity? Like what? What is kind of the the work they should be doing on a daily or weekly or monthly basis in order to be successful in this space?

Dana Arnett: [00:27:39] So best question ever. I was thinking earlier that we all jumped into the, hey, you know, we’re up here, but but there’s you know, you got to get your feet wet and and government contracting. I think you said it before Beverly isn’t for everyone, whether it’s city, state, federal, whatever. It’s not for everybody. But I will say that also the certification is if you’re any of those things, a small business, a woman owned business, LGBTQ, a veteran disadvantaged, look at what those certifications might apply because just in general, you join a wonderful community. But for what I would do is I would go and because I didn’t know anything and I would look at every possible place where I could get there called vendor portals, and I’d go into the vendor portal and I’d register wicked bionic and it could be a government portal, it could be a private industry portal. And I just was like, Oh, I’ve got to get all these portals. I had no idea if they needed my services. I had no idea if they bought bought marketing and advertising. But I thought with the volume, something will stick, right? And so what I say first and foremost is find and look at private and public entities that would want your services or have issued contracts around those type of services so you’re not wasting your time. We’re working on corporate corporate engagement this year. And I have to you said at Beverley Research, I have to know, does somebody do what we do? Otherwise we’re going, you know, put an energy so I know the right people within.

Dana Arnett: [00:29:05] It doesn’t matter if they don’t buy. I have a new friend, but it doesn’t help. So I think research and find who who wants what you have to sell. And then you start with these vendor portals and you start registering yourself and they’re easy. Like if you literally do, you know, supplier portal or vendor portal for coca or for whatever, you know, city of Los Angeles or whatever, and you become a registered vendor, what happens then is and I’m not even going to talk about the codes or anything, but then you start to get notifications of opportunities that might be right, that would be a good fit. Then you investigate an opportunity and you read it. They usually they can be 50, 60 pages, but you look at it and, you know, I used to I used to read every single word and I don’t read so many words. But, you know, you look at it, is it right? Is this right for me and for my company? Do I have the resources that could take on this kind of a job? Right. It’s usually a minimum of a year. And and if it’s right for you, then, you know, we thankfully now gratefully have a team that write our proposals because Dana Dana does not have the time, but I sign off on it. And then you start figuring out, you know, there’s a million templates out there and things and start looking at how do we craft a proposal? Because it is a.

Dana Arnett: [00:30:16] Very particular way. I learned very early with the city of Los Angeles. I was in this wonderful small business academy and they said they said, if you miss one signature on your proposal, it is it can be a reason for disqualification. And I’ll tell you, I would lay the proposal out all over the conference room and I would look making sure that every single thing. Right, because it had to be a paper copy. So so I think there’s a particular thing there’s a lot of particulars about it to learn. But and the other thing I want to go back to, there’s a lot of details you can learn and you can also search this or ask a colleague. But is is that people look at it, it overwhelms them. They want to respond. They know they can do it, but they don’t. Right. We thought we had 20 agencies that had to be competing for this, something within Oregon for this contract. In Oregon, there were three of us and we won it. Three people had the time, the energy, the focus to respond. So you think you’ve got all this competition And sometimes we want to to with the county at the end of the year because we were the only ones that wrote, the only ones that took the time. So, you know, there’s a lot of stories that can go on in your head. But if you focus on what you do best and how to share that with and respond properly, there’s a great opportunity there.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:31:42] I wanted to on the federal side. So I always think about I think in analogies, right? You start telling yourself stories. So where are the best basketball players? Are they in the NBA? Probably not. Right there in Denver.

Dana Arnett: [00:31:59] The way to go.

Margie Mauldin: [00:32:04] Softball.

Margie Mauldin: [00:32:05] That was a that was an easy layup, Beverly.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:32:08] I’m a straight man, Margie. All day long. Well done. It’s just like in entertainment, right? The best people are the ones that they’re the ones that we see because they have discipline. Their attitudes are correct. They do the hard work. They spend the 10,000 hours. Right. Those are the ones that make it pass the barrier so that we see them in the NBA. So I think of you made me think of that. Dana, Dana, as you were talking about, you know that all of you have only three companies were awarded the contract because they’re the ones that had the discipline and the insight. Now, where do you go to look for where would somebody really get started? On the federal side, it’s called the System for Acquisition Management. Sam.gov, you can go into it, you can look in there, you can put in search terms, you can put in your naches code. I don’t know if we want to get that deep right now, but the North American Industrial classification system.

Dana Arnett: [00:33:06] Don’t go there, don’t go there.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:33:09] Won’t go there. And also, I wanted to say in the federal government, and it probably exists on the municipalities as well, that you have Apex, which used to be the procurement technical assistance Center, free Resources, Free Services, SBA.gov, Small Business Administration, dot gov, free resources, free information, local offices where you can meet people, sit down, engage with them. The small business development centers also.gov there. So there’s all these free resources where you can start and engage. And so we do consulting, right? For, for, for K we’re consultants, but I always tell people you don’t want to start with me. I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I’m looking for clients that have already done some aspect of federal contracting. I’m not going to fill out a CRM. I’m not going to go out and make sales calls for you. You and I are going to sit down and structure a strategy together and then an execution strategy as well. So start with the free resources and then also for federal look on Sam.gov. And I’m sure there are a number of other portals, but start there so that that to me, that’s a specific answer to the question On the federal side.

Speaker7: [00:34:25] Yeah.

Margie Mauldin: [00:34:26] I totally agree with that. Another first start would be developing your statement of qualifications. My last two government contracts. That’s all they wanted. And they didn’t put out an RFP. They they did interviews and then they made their selection. And that was kind of weird, to tell you the truth. But a lot of people don’t have that basic 1 or 2 page statement of qualifications, and that’s pretty easy to do.

Speaker7: [00:35:04] Yeah.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:35:05] Well, Margie, maybe for those of us on the phone. Right.

Margie Mauldin: [00:35:09] What I was going to say, if you’re a WBE and part of WEBEC West or part of Webank, there’s there’s lots of opportunities to build that capability statement. Yeah.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:35:17] Very, very good. Lots of training. I agree and I think so. So in on the federal side there’s something called the rule of two. Margie, you made me think about this, right? This is why I like working with other people. She was saying how the government just made some phone calls. They looked at the at the capability statement and they made a decision. And the federal government, there’s something called the rule of two. So if you are a wosb or a and you can Google it or an ed Wosb economically disadvantaged woman owned small business, then the government, the contracting officer has the option to, if there are two women owned small businesses that can meet the requirement, the government, the contracting officer can just set it aside, call those two, set it aside for women owned small business. But but you have to I don’t think they necessarily do it on their own. You have to understand how to make that certification really work for you. What is it? What? How does it really work? What are the step by steps? And that’s why I think it’s one thing to kind of talk about all the opportunities that are there. And it’s another conversation to say, all right, how do I execute? How do I really engage so that I will see a return on my investment by doing all of this research, by doing all of this study, by going to the conferences and spending the money, how do I get a return on my investment? I think that that’s a separate discussion, and I think some of those questions can be answered through apex sba.gov, sbdc.gov and some of the workshops that I know Rebecca West and Webbank put on.

Speaker7: [00:36:53] Yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:36:55] Now, is it reasonable for a new person to just do this on their own and figure it out? Or is this something that they have to enlist the aid of somebody that’s been there, done that and either, you know, pay for a consultant or or work with a team that has already kind of knows how to navigate this and can be their Sherpa through it, Or is it is it kind of plausible and reasonable for a lay person to just kind of figure this out?

Dana Arnett: [00:37:25] We did.

Dana Arnett: [00:37:26] We did. When there probably weren’t that many resources. We did. My business partner and I just started to read and we didn’t even know what we were going to do with any of it. But we learned, right? We learned and we started small. That’s why we started local, right? Local city. We didn’t Federal scared us, you know, it doesn’t scare us anymore. But, you know, like what’s going on in my community that I could maybe look at and join. So I think it’s possible. But there are, as Beverly stated, so many wonderful resources and then we met with the SBA and then we met with the Sbdc person assigned to us. So we just because it is an understanding, but you want an understanding based upon who you are and who your business is. So having those resources and those those people that are so willing and knowledgeable is a great advantage and it’s important to to have them in your on your team.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:38:16] And I guarantee you I’ve not met Dana or Margie before, but these are very special women, right? So when you ask the question about, you know, is it just easy to go in, I believe I’m looking at Dana and her body language. Dana could do anything. Margie can do anything. Look, look how sophisticated. Margie They’re like the cream of the crop, right? You already know that already. So they’re. They’re kind of special. And if you’re if you’re doing if you are just kind of curious about it, I say start with the free resources because these women are already. I’m looking at you guys. You guys are so special. If if nobody else is telling you, has told you, I’m telling you, you know that you guys are some awesome women.

Speaker7: [00:39:00] Thank you Beverly.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:39:02] Well, and there are so many free resources. You don’t even you if you have the money to retain a consultant, that’s great. But you don’t even know what questions to ask. And you should if you are a member of the especially we. And I always want to I the old name. I’m still hooked on the old name. I can’t do it. We back west. Um. I can call for advice. I can call for all kinds of things. And one of the prior employees went to a new job and she recommended me for a current contract that I am delivering. And it’s because we had a relationship and we were human. We treated each other as equals, as humans, as women, as colleagues. And it was just fantastic. The amount of knowledge that you can gain. I don’t mind taking some time to answer some questions, but all of those those resources are available, especially at conferencing and those sorts of things.

Dana Arnett: [00:40:22] You said such a great thing. The thing I think is paramount when we all because we all get in in fear between our ears, right about something. We make up a story that’s not true.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:40:31] But every single that down, right.

Dana Arnett: [00:40:35] Every single resource that I have asked for help, whether it’s Web or any other SBA or any resource or colleague

Dana Arnett: [00:40:47] Everybody I know wants us to succeed. Like, why aren’t you know, Dr. Pamela is the best cheerleader of, like, why women owned businesses in that space and why agencies, you know, should take us in. Right. And consider because I think that’s I think that’s the biggest thing. And the other side of that is I also heard and I think it’s so true, is to to not participate with these agencies is you’re holding back your gift. You’re holding back your gift. You have a gift to give. And it’s not like people want what we have and they want us to solve whatever their problem is. So that’s why they need us as well. So I think that’s what, you know, when you’re proposing, and I think it’s a really good way to keep it all in the positive and to keep us motivated to moving forward.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:41:34] Yeah. And on the relationship side, you know, sometimes I think folks out there, they think they have to wait or wait to be invited. Last year, I got together with six women. I invited them to Washington, DC to have a dinner with me because I thought that there was so much. One was the president and CEO of something called the US Ability one commission, one who is a partner in a law firm. Another one was a contracting officer, high level executive with the VA women that I had already had relationships with, and I wanted them to meet each other. I wanted them so I didn’t have to wait and say, Oh, you know, I don’t get invited. I took it upon myself to sit down and have dinner. I’ve gone into business with one another. One has been promoted to a very high level executive position with a large, well known manufacturing company. And so I’m doing business with her and they’re doing business with one another. You can develop a network of your own and just say, I just want to make sure that you all already know one another. I want you to meet one another. And it that really wasn’t my I was just lonely because I was so isolated during Covid. But it ended up being a wonderful engagement. And now they’ve called me and said, We want to do that again. And I thought, that’s a great thing. I don’t want it to be anything formal. Let’s just go sit down and have dinner and chat. Ladies.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:43:00] I want to go. I’ll go.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:43:02] I love it. I love it. I’m going to hold you to that.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:43:08] I would like to add one other thing. And let’s say you do your statement of qualifications. You find a contract small and you you write your proposal and you win it. That is your first opportunity to outwork the competition. You all my mantra, I’m getting it back now, but is always do more. We agreed on four meetings. We’re doing six. We agreed on this timeframe and this depth. We’re doing more. And nothing is more fulfilling than your client getting their first document from you. Your first report and saying, Wow, this exceeds my expectations by. 100% finished with this contract. Now I went, Oh, no, no, no, no, no. We got more. But it only takes 1,015% to work harder on to first class. It’s just. It’s not that hard.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:44:24] And think about it for clients and contracting officers, right? First of all, we talked about relationships. So maybe there’s a multi-million dollar or a multi-billion dollar contract that’s out there on the street. So the government does what’s called matrix, multiple award task order contracts matrix, and they’ll award a contract to maybe ten, 15 companies. And that contract may be worth $1 billion or, you know, over a 5 to 10 year period. But you’re one of the contractors on that contract. So now you have a way for the government to buy. But if you can, there’s something if you can do great work and you record that, you’ve done that great work during the course of that contract, the government also has something called the Contractors Performer Performance Assessment Rating System, Cpars. It’s a public the contracting officer ranks you within that system. Cpr dot gov you can get there, they rank you within that system. And then for the next contract, rather than ask you for a reference, they’ll go into the cpars to see how you were ranked by that contracting officer. And so what Margie, you reminded me I do quarterly reviews so that I show what we’ve shipped, what what it was like, what our fill rate was, how many did we actually deliver based versus how many they actually ordered, who we engaged with.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:45:55] If we did something great, if we got a compliment. All of that is recorded and that goes into the quarterly review and you can do that even as a federal contractor. So, you know, one of the things that we do is we want to make sure that we’re communicating with you. And and you would be surprised sometimes I have a meeting. I have a contract with the United States Army Medical Materiel Agency for medical repair parts for capital equipment. I go in to the meeting and they have all seven of their buyers at that meeting. And they gave me some information. That wasn’t the Margie’s point. Humbling. That wasn’t good information, but I needed it wasn’t a good report on us, but it gave me the opportunity to hear it, to go back and to fix it. So definitely engagement definitely reports and make sure that you find a way to stay engaged.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:46:44] I’ve got a that’s a wonderful story that demonstrates the power of the the portals and the information that’s gathered. In fact, I want another computer so I can go on and see if we’re listed. But this is my question. Is it, um, is it appropriate to ask the people that we have done work for to go on and complete that, or do they do that as a matter of record?

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:47:14] So if in federal contracting it’s they will send it to you and say, Margie, we have a we you’ve had contract number Abcdefgh we’re giving you a ranking and then you go in, you see how they’ve ranked you and then you can actually respond. So it’s specific to government contracting. They actually go into it and then have you let you inform you that it’s there and then you go in and you respond to the cpars. So that’s I think that. But the way that you’ve worded it, I still think that’s a really good thing that you can still do and say, Would you write me a separate reference? Sometimes government contracting officers don’t necessarily want to do that. Um. Okay. They don’t necessarily want to do that. But you can always I always say if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Speaker7: [00:48:05] Right. Right.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:48:06] Perfectly All right.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:48:08] And what was the name of that again? Beverly.

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:48:10] The contractor’s performance assessment. Rating. System. Cpars And if you’ve ever had a government contract, they will give you your ranking and say how you’re doing, the status of the contract, and you have an opportunity to go in and agree or disagree. And what I’m training companies to do is don’t just check a box. Somebody said that earlier. Don’t just check a box. You go in, they give you some of like 15,000 characters and you can write. This was a great experience for my company. Here’s what we did. We helped them solve this problem and make that cpars work for you.

Lee Kantor: [00:48:50] Now, before we wrap, I think it’s important for the listener if they want to connect with each of you. I’ll start with you, Beverley. Can you share a little bit about maybe your ideal prospect and the website and best way for someone to connect with you?

Beverly Kuykendall: [00:49:06] Leigh I love that question. Ideal prospect for, for me, there are companies that have done business in the federal government before. We generally work with companies that are $30 Million in revenue and above. So they’re a little bit larger. They’re not they’re still considered small, right? Because small is based on your NAiCs code, a whole nother conversation. So those that have been involved in the federal sector before. I also like to work with companies that potentially have feet on the street who can actually make sales calls and or be involved. If I were to bring an introduction to the table, I can be reached at. The name of my company is Kuykendall Associates and I’m Beverly at CA llc.com. Beverly at K a llc.com. And what I try to I try to engage in some training um whenever I’m asked and I don’t charge for that but and it’s I just really want people to have the information and right now that executive order, you know, the administration might change in a couple of years and all that money is going to be left on the table. That’s my biggest fear. So I want people to be able to understand executive Order 13985 and how to take advantage of it. Thank you, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:50:17] And Margie, if somebody wants to get a hold of your book Feedback Revolution or connect with you or somebody on your team, ideal prospect and the website and contact information.

Margie Mauldin: [00:50:29] Ideal prospect for me would be since we’re talking about government agencies, um, agencies that are changing their culture. Agencies that are have conflict in their organization. For instance, the return to work conflict is just killing people and killing leaders. That’s a wrong word. It’s it’s very hard for people to do that. Um, my book is on Amazon. You can find it, you can get it on Kindle. Um, and my I can be reached at Margie Margie I dot Malden m a u l d i n at executive forum dot net and the website is executive forum dot net.

Lee Kantor: [00:51:31] Dana for folks who want to get a hold of you and others at wicked bionic can you share ideal prospect and your website and contact?

Dana Arnett: [00:51:42] Absolutely.

Dana Arnett: [00:51:43] Thank you for asking. You know, wicked bionic. We say that we connect millions of diverse consumers to products and services and initiatives that changed their lives. I think that really sums up the work that we do. Our ideal client is is in the government space, but I will say even more than that, we are always looking for other diverse partners. My goal since last year is to have a partner in every state and that might be a public relations person. That might be a transcription company because we can expand to other states if we have partners in there that if we have people that we can partner with that allow us that in in that state. And there’s, you know, state by state we see so many. So we actually have a spreadsheet that we send out. So if somebody wants to make contact to be a partner in ours, but you have to have already been in the government space in any form of government, because I think, as we’ve all said today, it’s a very different understanding. My email is Dana Dana at wicked bionic.com my website wouldn’t you know wicked bionic.com and so yes happy happy to speak to anyone or help in any way so I appreciate the ask.

Lee Kantor: [00:52:57] Well Pamela great show big a lot of big takeaways today.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:53:03] Yeah, it was a ladies, thank you for a fantastic dynamic show. I’ve taken so many notes. There were so many nuggets. But the one I want our listeners to take away from is, you know, if you have not considered or considered government contracting and you are now interested in taking that leap, you know, take advantage of the free resources that are out there. And those range from sam.gov, the Sbdcs in your local area or the SBA. So, you know, start there. And we hope that this information was valuable. So, Leah, I’ll send it off to you to close out.

Lee Kantor: [00:53:46] All right. This is Lee Kantor for Dr. Pamela Williamson. We will see you all next time on Women in Motion.