Hello! In this video, let's talk about migration. We will discuss why it is such a debated topic, and most importantly, how to ensure a humane and efficient migration and asylum policy in the European Union. Migration is a natural phenomenon, as old as humankind itself. Attempting to stop it by building walls and fences will fail and will increase the suffering of those fleeing walls, poverty or climate disasters. Let's look at some facts and figures about the current situation. The EU has 500 million inhabitants and a gross domestic product making up 22% of the global economy. In 2015, the year with the highest level of displaced people globally since the Second World War, over 1 million people arrived in the EU. This makes up around 0.2% of the EU population. Since then, the numbers have gone down significantly. In total, European countries currently only host 13% of the world's refugees. The vast majority are in Turkey as well as in the global south where Lebanon and Pakistan take in the highest numbers. Due to the ageing of the EU population, figures estimate that the workforce is expected to decline by nearly 42 million over the next 50 years. Migration and increased numbers in the EU workforce will help to close skill gaps and will fill struggling jobs. If the EU is well equipped to manage the recent arrivals of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, why are so many resistant to it? Many EU citizens are concerned about migration. Their fears are fueled by media and by politicians who sensationalise this issue, often using expressions such as waves, swarm and crisis in relation to migrants. Newcomers and those who seek protection have become a target for populist right-wing parties all over Europe who use them as scapegoats for increased social inequalities and unjust housing and labour policies. This politics of fear with the aim of gaining electoral support is damaging. So what would be a more constructive approach? Here are the first steps we should be taking to improve the current situation. First, a humanitarian visa system. The 1951 Geneva Convention guarantees international protection to all people who flee their countries due to the risk of serious human rights violations or persecution against them. The right to asylum is non-negotiable, but far too often people need to risk their lives to travel to Europe. An EU-level humanitarian visa system would allow asylum seekers to apply for visas at embassies and consulates outside the EU, travel to a member state in a safe and legal way after passing proper security checks, and then seek asylum. Second, the end to the criminalisation of humanitarian assistance. As there is no safe and legal way to reach the EU, those fleeing war and persecution rely on a smuggling industry that doesn't ensure their safety. Since 2014, over 12,000 people have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach the EU. NGOs carrying out vital rescue operations are being increasingly criminalised. This is a consequence of the so-called facilitation directive from 2002 which requests EU member states to impose sanctions on those who assist with clandestine entry or residency. The legislation provides exemptions if the assistance is humanitarian in nature. However, because this exemption isn't mandatory, only a quarter of member states have adopted this exemption in their legislation. Third, we need a fair European asylum system with shared responsibilities. It's clear that the current common European asylum system with the Dublin Regulation as a key component is dysfunctional and needs to be reformed. A new Dublin Regulation, introducing a system based on solidarity and shared responsibility among member states, is urgently needed. This would mean the first country of entry rule is replaced by a permanent and automatic reallocation mechanism. This takes into account as much as possible the ties and preferences of asylum seekers to a certain member state, such as family relations, community links and knowledge of language. Every member state must contribute to hosting refugees. By introducing a fair and binding distribution key, the EU can reduce the pressure on individual member states. And finally, we need safe and regular channels for migrants. The pressure on the EU asylum system is due to the lack of alternative to get an official status in the EU. The high number of asylum applications takes a lot of time and resources to be properly processed. Other ways of legal migration should be offered. Here's an idea. What about an immigration code which would establish safe and legal ways to migrate, facilitating family reunification and making it easier for migrant workers and students to come to the European Union without putting themselves in danger? So yes, we need more responsibility and a humane and efficient policy around migration, refugees and asylum seekers. Because the EU can, it should take on a leading role in the international community to protect the most vulnerable.


Last play again, about 54 yards, and what's going on there? It was a great play by CP, I think. The call we had on had multiple options across the board, but saw it was going to be man-to-man coverage with an opportunity for him on the sideline. He ran a great route and made a really good catch. And so as he's done all year at different times, he stepped up, made a huge play for us.  I don't know if you got hit on that play, but you're like, oh man, that's the way if you're going to do this. I felt good. You know, I felt pretty good after that one. My mind always immediately goes to what's next and the situation that's next. And so I was excited. We needed to make a play. We needed to win that game. And proud of the guys for getting the job done. Was this when you got in three wins or did teams that have losing records, how big was this one over a team that came in here five or two in our second place in the division? They're all big. It's hard, regardless of who you're going against in this league, it's hard to win. And this is a tough place. I've played here a lot. And I know how difficult it is to win in this environment. And I'm proud of the guys because it's a harder win. What do you feel like? Once the Saints took the lead, what's your mindset there as you guys find yourself down and leading the play? Yeah, let's go win the game. Let's find a way to get the job done. There was a minute, I think, in two seconds or something like that. And we had two timeouts. So plenty of time. We need a field goal to go win. Just figure out a way to get the job done. Coach said you got the match up, you were looking for? Yeah, for sure. Man-to-man coverage in that last situation. We had multiple guys across the board at that point. It's just about feeling like picking the best one. We felt like that was. And it worked out for us. CP made a great play. Why do you feel like you've been so good at your career in those circumstances? Well, I've been lucky to play with great players throughout my career. And I think that helps when you've got guys you can trust and players that can go up and make plays and win one-on-one matchups. I think that part has really helped. And then I work hard during the week to get myself prepared and to try and put myself through every scenario that's going to come up in the game so that when it comes up, I feel like I'm ready for it. Is there something that can be a mental thing for you too because you have that experience?  I just try and do the same thing I'm always doing. I don't try and overcomplicate it. I really feel like the longer you play, the more you realize, let's keep things simple. Let's hear the play call, let's know the coverage, let's know our matchup that we want to throw it, and let's make a good throw. Don't make it any more difficult than it needs to be. Do you have any congratulations with Arthur during the game about maybe coming back to this one? I saw this here. Maybe think about coming back to this one. Does that happen throughout the course of the game? Yeah, absolutely. Constant dialogue throughout the game. And I'm pretty much locked into what's being called. And sometimes I'll have a suggestion or something like that. But he's always coming over to check in with those things. Did that happen with this play? Or else you would write it on the first series. Did you mention at any point maybe come back Well, he told me that's what we were starting with. I said, all right, I'm good with it. A lot of the time, he asked me, do you feel good with this? Or do you feel good with that? I liked it. Yeah, we hit it to CP, I think, on the first third down of the game. So if it's not broke, don't fix it, all right? Just keep going back to the same thing. You put together two of the four longest drives in season back to back here. What kind of rhythm do you have in that? Yeah, I thought that was good. I thought the one right before the half, you talk about, I think it was, we're on the five maybe, coming out, something like that? Eight, yeah, the eight yard line coming out. And so to do that before the half, to finish it with the touchdown, I thought that was huge for us. But it's about with this defense, you know it's going to be tough sledding at times. There's going to be negative plays. You have to create explosives. You have to try and convert third downs. I thought we did a pretty good job of that. Every game being 31-10, but is the way that this team is going?    But in this league, it's just not that way very often. And you've got to find ways to win these one-score games. We've been decent at it this year. I think we can continue to improve. And hopefully that's going to be the case for us as we move forward. Has there been a team that you think goes where you're going, Davey Baffin, came the identity? Yeah, I mean, lots of them. You know, I think the teams that end up with good records, the ones that make playoffs are the ones that find ways late in games to win. I've been on a number of those teams. Do you feel like there is a growing belief from the guys around you in those fourth quarter to say, like, you guys can do this? Is it not just you telling them? It's them really? Yeah, I think success breeds success. And when you do it, you start believing that you can do it. And I think that's huge for a lot of our guys. We have a young football team and a lot of guys who it's either their first or second year really going through this.  And I think that for a lot of those guys, this is their first real time going through it. And you have to adapt and adjust. And so I do believe when you go through it and you start getting some success and you start making the plays that you need to make, it breeds confidence. Do you have little stats advantage here you're looking to run in for the score there? I guess that's two Russian touchdowns now. I mean, maybe Stetson Bennett has a little of me and him, huh? I've been doing this, been running in some touchdowns for a long time. That is something you need more for the future? I feel good. I feel like I've always moved well enough. I feel like outside the pocket has been a big part of my game since I was a rookie. Mike Malarkey, it was a lot of what we did early in my career. We continued that through Kyle and Sark and those guys. So it's always been part of what I do. I think at different times, you've got to make plays moving the chains with your legs. And I feel like I can do it well enough. Last one. Matt, that was game winning drive 41 for you. When you are in that kind of situation with a chance to drive for a winning score, do you have something you like to say in the huddle beforehand? Is it normal, same as always, is it kind of tailored to the situation? Yeah, I think you just tell the guys, we're going to get the job done. Believe we're going to go out there and get the job done and just do whatever it is you have to do on each specific play really well. It's all you got to do. Whatever we're asking you to do, whether it's protection, your route, my read, whatever that is, let's do it really well. And believe that we're going to get the job done. OK, thank you.


I'd like to try to get into some of the metaphysics of the Course and how the mind works and not keep it too abstract and theoretical. If we start talking and there's a point where something's resonating, but you need a concrete example or something, please speak up. To deceive mind believes so much in the specifics of this world that we have to start with the specifics and work our way back, kind of like from the bottom up, as Jesus says in the workbook or in the text. So we need to start to relate with the way we perceive things initially and that can be kind of like our presenting problem or our situation and then we're kind of working back to the mind, to the beliefs and what's going on in the mind. Because that's really where our release is. It's like this ongoing thing of just wanting to hold that intention to get real clear about the ego thing and to really be able to see the ego for what it is and to remain kind of above the battlefield or to remain above it. That you get to notice where your attachments are, which is really a lot to be grateful for because you can't start to let go of something until you can see it. Whatever questions come up, if you have a question formulated in your mind, just feel free to come forth with it and everything because there aren't any good questions or bad questions or whatever, so we can kind of go into things. Is there anybody who has any questions right off the bat about the cook? Yes? About money. Yeah, that's something new. Money, finances. So really, I've been trying to get straight in my mind about applying to course and then having things met best in a certain way or explaining things. Everybody knows. We all know. Yeah, that whole question of manifesting. Well, I just keep reading how you make these corrections and then you step into a consequence of that part and then somehow that leads up into being at peace and meaning that you kind of have nothing. But it's true that the course just comes straight out and says that it has one goal and that's the peace of mind or the peace of God. And a lot of times people will take the course and kind of say what is this thing about abundance or what is this thing about manifesting or those kind of things. And basically, the first thing that needs to be worked on is the course in the sense that everyone that comes to this world perceives themselves as very tiny and weak and frail in some sense. Others, you can deal with that in a certain way. Some people try to overcompensate with money or possessions, with particular relationships. Some people try to... I myself was in college for 10 years and it was kind of that thing of feeling like if you read enough or you have enough degrees, kind of. There's just so many ways that people try to kind of achieve a sense of worth in this world. And the course is basically saying that your worth is established by God. That nothing you think or say or do is needed to establish your work. But the whole system is kind of a... the mind believes that it's a small teeny person in a body and that it's got to constantly strive and struggle to keep its head above water, whether it's financially or health-wise or in a number of ways. I really don't think that. I really don't think that. That's not what I think. And I don't have to have a lot of extra. I just want to have enough. Just enough. Well, the idea of manifesting too sometimes comes in whereas in a sense there are a lot of metaphysical systems that talk about that. If you really focus on visualizing or holding a certain thing in mind and you can have it come. What I would see that as is like a stepping stone. For instance, like in the song of prayer, Jesus talks about prayer. The highest aim of prayer is for the atonement or for peace of mind. And along the way, a stepping stone may be is that you may discover that you do seem to be able to manifest certain things. And along the way, that could be a stepping stone towards seeing that my mind is powerful. But it's like the Course is leading us to the point where as soon as you can start to have experiences that you have a powerful mind, then what do you want the goal to be?  Now the thing about money has always been a thing for me, too, is kind of like the more I study this and the more I start to just let go of my worldly pursuits and trying to achieve certain outcomes and just to not judge the outcome.  And it's been, it's taken the experience of actually just going with this and following it in and seeing that everything's working out. It's kind of like we all have this safety net which is the Holy Spirit is there and sometimes we feel like we're walking on the Tigra and we hear the Holy Spirit is down there but sometimes it's not until you seem to teeter or fall off sometimes and land on the net that you go, ah, it's always been here for me. It comes down to what is it for? And that's something we'll get into, I think, more as we go on tonight, this whole form content issue, you know, content being a purpose in our minds, content being what is the purpose or what is it for which is a real alien question to the ego because the ego basically is really bent on form, on outcomes coming out a certain way, on setting specific external goals and then striving to achieve them and then when you do it, then, gee, I'm still not happy. What's next? You know, kind of that game of I'll be happy when going on and on. What are you waiting for? Peace form. I'm going to wait and be peaceful when I get this or get better, achieve this or achieve that and then play peace now. And what was an artwork for me is when I read that post that you set up a situation, you know, you can have those goals and things but like, if it's temperature, my peace depends on whether it's the 80 degrees or 60 degrees, whether I live in this neighborhood or that neighborhood, or whether, you know, I'm going to this club or that club or whether I have this personally or that much better and it doesn't have to be a decision. You know, to claim peace now. Yeah. A powerful idea to think that peace is a decision. In a sense, that's where the course kind of veers away from a lot of psychotherapies and practices where basically it was kind of like go into your past and get in touch with some of these unconscious memories and scenes that were causing you the problem and here comes the course that it says there's nothing in your past that's causing the problem which is kind of a radical thing because so many psychotherapies, you know, say, you've got a big delve into your past and the course comes along and says that your peace of mind is what we were just hearing or the guilt and fear and anger and whatever you're feeling is based on a present decision, a decision that you're making this very instant. And that's like, hmm, that really is a radical kind of idea instead of going on a witch hunt into your past to try to uncover these things, it's based on a present decision. Now, if we follow that in a little bit further, it says that a decision is a conclusion based on everything that you believe. That's an interesting idea. So my peace of mind or my state of mind is dependent on a present decision and a decision is a conclusion based on everything that I believe. It's so important to get in touch with the unconscious beliefs that we have in our minds because it's kind of like without getting in touch with them, without raising them to the light and being able to look right at them and see what they are, these assumptions that are under the surface, then it's kind of like more of like being a robot. Getting up in the morning, automatically going maybe to brush your teeth, get ready for work, go through the motions. How many of us get up in the morning and just sit there in bed and go, what is the nature of reality? I don't want to even brush my teeth yet until I really get a handle on this. It's kind of like you click into gear and maybe during your lunch hour or during some time at work or whatever, you'll have some of those questions come in. Sometimes they come into the form like, what am I doing here? What's the purpose of any of this? They come back into our consciousness but a lot of times they kind of get brushed aside. It's like, well, I've got too much to do. I've got too many practical things to do to start investigating these questions. And the ego would have us keep some of those questions in mind because the more we start to really question, the more we start to go into the mind and we start to question the belief that this world's built on. When we talk about the idea of decision, there is that whole idea of choice. And then when I was growing up, I always had this sense of destiny, that there was some kind of a destiny involved. But I didn't really like the idea of predetermination because the more I thought about destiny or predetermination, it seemed to eliminate my choice. If everything was predetermined, when I was in psychology, I studied behaviorism and they were saying that it was all predetermined in the sense by your environment. It was like a stimulus response. You just keep reacting to your environment. And if something about that idea was kind of like, I don't know if I like that because that means I'm just a victim or I'm just completely determined by my circumstances. So I like the idea of choice and then I would hear about psychics and different people who would literally kind of read the future and read the past and everything and it was kind of like they were just reading from a script or something. How could these psychics be predicting these things that would happen almost like they were reading the future and it seemed to be there was a sense of destiny there. But how do you put the two together? How do you put free will or choice together with destiny? And to me, when I finally came to the course, it's like that's where it came together because Jesus is saying that the script is written. In other words, during the unholy instant, all the scripts and all the perceptions were spun out in an instant and the Holy Spirit was given as a simultaneous answer. But all of the happenings took place in a specific one instant. And where does choice come in then? And Jesus is saying that really what you do is you have choice on how you're going to look on what's on the screen. You always have the choice whether you're going to look through the ego's lens or the Holy Spirit's lens, so to speak. And really within the dream framework that's the only choice that we have. Now that's not the way it seems because it seems like that we're persons in this vast world and it doesn't seem at the beginning like we're dreaming a dream. It seems like we're figures in the dream that we go through every day. And it seems like we have choice as persons. In other words, we can choose what I'm going to wear in the morning, what I'm going to eat, where I'm going to go, those kind of things. Whether I'm going to wear the green shirt or the blue shirt or buy this car or that car. And in this world, that's what choice stands for. And of course, the ego counts with too that the more money you have, the more choice you have. That's why money is important in the sense of like, you know, it's like if I have more money then I can choose, I have more places to choose where I want to live. I'm not so constricted. I can choose what kind of foods I want to eat and where I want to go, whether I want to travel or not. And you know, the ego counts with in the sense the more money you have, the more freedom that you have. And here comes, of course, the miracles in saying that really the only choice you always have every instance is how do you look upon what's happening. And so that's where the freedom lies. Not in the freedom of choosing between illusions, so to speak. Choosing a green shirt and a blue shirt, you know, it's okay. Jesus is kind of saying, you know, don't arrest your mind in just choosing between illusions.  Do I want to read the course tonight or do I want to watch this TV show? You know. And basically what it comes down to is the real question is is the purpose that I'm going to bring? Welcome. What purpose will I bring to reading the course? What purpose will I bring to watching the TV show?  What is the purpose? The only way that you can wake up and when I mean wake up it's kind of like wake up to the eternal reality of our true identity as Christ, the Son of God is you have to see the choice where it is. Now, and another way of saying it is you have to see the problem where it is. In the deceased state, as we go through life, the problem seems to be on the screen in the world. The problem is I don't have enough money to pay the rent. The problem is this person cut me off on the highway but the problem is, you know, my mother-in-law won't speak to me or I have cancer or, you know, one of hundreds and thousands of things that seem to be problems in this world. And basically the message of the course is if you perceive the problem as to be on the screen or in the world then you're kind of stuck because there's no solution to the external problems. We seem to come up with solutions in other words we seem to come up with enough rent or we seem to come up like polio. Polio seems to be a big problem and then we seem to come up with a polio vaccination. Ah, a solution. And it's kind of like a dam breaking where you try to keep putting those things in the hole. And what the course is saying is the reason it's important to see the decision where it is and to see the choice where it is and to see the problem where it is because it can


Hey, Gulfconn Giants family, your host, Eric Coffey here today. Today's guest for this particular episode is Judy Bratt. Judy Bratt has written two books on the subject of government contracting that one of which helped me tremendously and getting some of the concrete information that I needed. It wasn't a lot of fluff, it was just direct info on program managers, nine people you should be talking to in government, and more. She's been in this space for 32 years and helped thousands of thousands of companies from solarpreneurs to multi-million dollar corporations. You're definitely going to want to check out this episode and hear how Judy came from Canada training Canadian firms that are winning US contracts for all those international people that are always asking me, Eric, how do I do US contracts? She started doing that some 30 plus years ago and that's what helped lead her to becoming the expert she is today. So stay tuned. Judy in fact is also going to be doing some coaching and training alongside of GovCon Giants. So we're looking forward to that as well. So again, take a look at this particular episode, listen, take notes, write it down. This is going to be one for the ages. By the way, we're still in the month of December. We are still offering the GovCon 1.0 course for those persons who may be a little bit tight on budget. We re-release 1.0 for those persons and because of the Christmas holidays we went ahead and threw in the latest two books that I have, GovCon Launch, as a bonus for those persons who buy it this month. GovCon Launch and Billion Dollar Playbook. So again, that's still out there. Visit our website for more information and details on that as well. And if you've not already picked up your copy of GovCon Launch or Billion Dollar Playbook, check it out on amazon.com or anywhere else where you find your latest and greatest books. Stay tuned for today's giant, Judy Brett. When I'm working with an individual company team for eight weeks, it's not a class, it's not a database, it's not really even a course. It's a company team that is dedicated to growing their federal business and understands they're ready to make the flip between looking at what can I bid and who's my buyer. Somebody who's ready and willing and understands the power of making that fundamental flip of the lens, they're my people. So these are folks that they've been around the block. They are, the owner is not billable. There is at least two people dedicated to federal sales and business development. The company is at least an eight, nine, or 10 out of 10 priority for growing their federal business. And they probably got more than a couple million in revenue already. So somebody who's there, they're my people. When somebody works with me, they do the three things they've got to do to be successful. And I'm always trying to find a more succinct way to say it. If I had to boil it down in an even more compact way, it is really focus, connect, win. Each of those has a subset. Focus is not only on two or three agencies, but it's also on the individual federal humans that are involved in buying in your part of the federal arena. So that's the focus part. The connect part is to know what to do and say and ask to be in front of the right person with the right message and information at the right time. And actually, so to know that in theory and actually do the thing, buck up, be brave, make the call. And the third bucket, win, is to understand that your first win is not the million-dollar win. It's not the micro-purchase win. Your first win is they return your phone call. They open your email. Your next win is the conversation where you feel that connection where you've made a difference for them because you've talked to that individual federal human about a thing that you know matters to them because you did your research in the focus stage. So you have some idea of what they're responsible for, what they buy, who they're in love with now. You've looked at them on LinkedIn. You've got a sense of, hey, what's happening with this person? Oh, they've been in the job a year. What did it feel like when I was in a job a year? Was I comfortable or uncomfortable? Did I really want to make my way or did I think I know it all? What could make a difference for this person in their job? Oh, this one. They've been in that job 22 years. I wonder if they're looking to make a move to a new agency. Maybe they're planning a career transition. What could be going on for them? And so you want to set up your win so that your person, your individual federal human knows that any time they hear from Eric, I got to return Eric's call. Eric is great. Eric sees me. Eric cares about me. Whatever it is Eric's got, I want some of it. He's always got something that he just always makes my day worthwhile. You want to be Eric. Nice. No, I like it. I like it. I feel like we've already started. Listen, why don't we go ahead and jump in and introduce yourself to the name of your organization. Hey Eric, I'm Judy Bratt. I'm CEO of Summit Insight and I work with folks who want to grow their federal business and really understand that they need to do something different and they want to figure out what that is because it should be easier. Now, Judy, I can tell you how I first came to know about you is through your book, Government Contracts Made Easier. I apologize for not having the second edition, but I do have the first edition all marked up. So I can tell you, and I probably own a dozen or so books. You're the only ones that looks like that. Oh my goodness. That's amazing. Hey, what parts of it? Tell me, what are some of the parts of it that you got the most doggiered stickies? I'm curious. What parts of the first book made a difference for you? Let's go into my stickies and let's go with the stickies. All right. So right here, okay, on my stickies, I'm on page 20, Exercise 7, Critical Resources. All right, Required, Estimated Costs, Availability, where we're looking at the resources that you need. Successful companies get the Insight scoop on both the resources they need and where they could help from other companies and similar industries. Mm-hmm. Right? So that's like my first sticky. I think, and you know, I can tell you this from now speaking to hundreds of people and contracting, I feel like you could never say this enough. Right? I think so many of us, we assume because maybe we've done commercial work, we assume maybe because we've done, you know, a house flip or some house renovation that we could jump into the federal arena without having the proper resources. And so for me, I love this section because it talks about what exactly people need. Well, you know, Eric, you actually hit on something really important though. One of the biggest misapprehensions about the federal market is that somehow there's this elaborate kabuki and all these rules and some magic, magical process. And there are anyone who is successful in the federal arena, it's extremely rare for someone who is a freshly minted startup to then get on a multi-million dollar trajectory in the first 12 months. Typically, somebody who is successful in the federal arena has already had somebody pay you money for what you do. So you've got in the most generic sense past performance of some kind. Some people make the distinction between experience and capital P, capital P past performance, which is as a federal prime. I have a looser definition of past performance, but if you're successful in the federal market, you do need to appear to your prospective buyer that you're the low risk choice because federal buyers don't like risk. They're probably one of the most risk averse life forms on the planet, but your past performance, can you show them you've solved their problem for someone who looks just like them yesterday afternoon? Oh, that helps them breathe because they have everything on the line when they award work of any value to you. But cheer up. Someone who has a successful business, which is to say you are comfortable with what you do, you are competent at what you do, you are profitable at what you do. You have some idea of what your plans are to grow that business. Based on your experience, Eric, what percentage of the average business owner's business comes from strong relationships at the end of the day, whether it's federal, state, local, commercial? What percentage of business comes from relationships? To me, it's got to be above 90%. That's it. Okay.  You have the most important wiring and commitment that it takes to be successful in the federal arena. Everything else you can learn. About 80% of what it takes to be successful in commercial is what it takes to be successful in federal. That 20%, that extra overlay of process and regulations, that's learnable. But true success means you never lose sight, never lose heart, never lose your grasp of the idea that there's no such thing as doing business with government. You heard me, there's no such thing as doing business with government. There's only doing business with people, real people with hopes and dreams and fears and performance evaluations and the desire to take care of their families and their futures, who have everything riding on whether or not their performance appraisal file looks perfect. No mistakes, no protests, no contractors gone wrong, but a perfect file. You as the contractor, they choose our part of their personal record of success or failure. You're part of what their management sees when they look in the file and go, gee, should we promote Eric or should we promote Jack? Who's got the strongest track record? Who's the one that is going to lead us to more success? You know what, I like that. And let me tell you, I actually made a note on your website where you wrote that there's still something that's doing business with the federal government. And I love that quote about how they say, how you write here, it says, many governments use databases to look for their next opportunity and can waste $1,000 in hours chasing work. That's opportunity illusion. Instead of asking, what can I bid, winners focus on the right questions, who's my buyer? That's because winners know you do business with people whose needs, fears and priorities aren't in those databases. You got it. I've put everything that's important right there in my website. Eric, you were talking about the first edition of my book. The second edition is now out and it's an Amazon number one bestseller. And my gift to you and your listeners is that you can pick up chapter one of that book for free right off my website. It's growfedbiz.com slash book. That's growfedbiz.com slash book. You can download the first chapter, which is all about strategy. So if you're thinking about whether or not you want to be in the federal market or in how to decide or whether to go deeper and what will it really take you, that chapter one is for you. I will say this. I definitely pick up my copy of the second book as much as I like the first book. By the way, I'm going to try to get Judy to sign my book because I'm a fan of hers as well. So definitely want to get a signed copy of my book, Judy. You know, everyone listening to this, you know, I do not or have ever promoted anyone, but I would say because of all the knowledge that I've gained from this particular book, I will stand behind Judy's second book and advocating as a supporter, as a reader of the first book. I can only imagine how much more content she has. And in the beginning, before we can get started, you said something, Judy, about the differences between the first book and the second book, and how it shows where you how you've evolved the last 10 years and your businesses. Yeah, the biggest difference I had really noticed this in between everything that I've learned in the last 10 years between the first edition and the second edition. You can see even before you open it in the first edition. I'm on the cover in the second edition. You're on the cover, which is to say my focus is on the individual federal humans in the federal arena. And that is the partnerships between government and industry in delivering missions and learning together and growing together. We're all in this together. And the biggest lessons I've learned over the last 10 years are understanding not just the mechanics, but what happens on the journey to building relationships between humans in the federal arena. And that's become the core of my practice. That's what sets what I do apart from everyone else that you'll talk to who's offering consulting coaching stuff in the federal arena. Now, Judy, can we go back and just talk about your story for a little bit?  And who is Judy Brad? And where does she come from? And what makes her so smart at knowing all this government contracting stuff? Well, you know, how I got to writing the book itself when I was chatting with a really lovely guy who'd been sent out from the Midwest to build some human capital business development in the federal arena. Lovely guy named Mike Oz Redker. And we were chatting and he'd been really doing his best and going to meetings and trying to figure out the market. You know, Judy, he said, selling to the federal government is like swimming in the ocean with no mile posts. I went, ooh, surely I can make it better for Mike. And it was that conversation that finally tipped me over into thinking, hey, I don't have anything new, anything different to say. And that conversation with Mike inspired me to just kick out of the doldrums and go, I need to get this done for Mike because there's more people like Mike out there. And that launched me on to one stage of the journey. But if I go back, I will always wanted to be a strategist. When I got out of business school, IBM, this was in the mid 80s, early 80s. And the PC was just coming off the slab out of the lab in Boca Raton. The face of computing was about to change forever. And IBM was hiring thousands of freshly minted business grads. And they said, Oh, yeah, sure, you're going to be a strategist. I said, Great. And it took me six months to realize that I was employed by the planet's largest sales organization. I was so horrified that I literally left the country. It took me two and a half years to figure out how to get out of IBM Canada in Toronto and figure out what I wanted to do next. But my next move ended up being leaving the computer industry, leaving my home in native land, leaving my family, leaving Canada and going down to the Canadian embassy in Washington DC, where Canada in the United States had just signed a free trade agreement that was a year from implementation. There was a new section on non defense government procurement. And I was learning about that literally one step ahead of the clientele. At that point, oh, yes, let's make our life really interesting. I also got married. Okay, so I spent my first wedding anniversary on Her Majesty's, not a specially secret service on a 14 stop road show, telling thousands of Canadian companies how to under the trade agreements sell to the US federal government. I had to talk for 25 minutes and answer five minutes of questions in every city, which worked out fine, because I only knew 31 minutes of anything, but it was 31 minutes more than they knew. And so over the next 15 years, I became Canada's top expert helping over 5,000 Canadian companies, went over $200 million in federal business. But I hit a point where I had run out of the ability to learn and grow and made a really tough decision to leave government service serving my country of birth and spread my wings. I knew I had more to learn, I had more to give. And well, I was not, my business wasn't terribly successful. Honestly, I always paid my bills, but I like you, I wanted to make a difference in the world. It wasn't for the money, but I really wish I could have made a little more profit out of the whole thing. That would have been nice. I didn't really have and this is important. I couldn't, I could tell you anything you wanted to know about how to win a federal contract of laws and regulations and this and that and small business programs. I could tell you anything you wanted to know. I got to the point where I'd written my first book. I could tell you anything you wanted to know except this one thing. How did anyone actually win the business? It wasn't that I didn't want to tell you. It was that I honestly didn't know, which was just fine. It didn't really matter till it really, really did. So in 2014, after I'd struggled, got up and down, I had this wonderful contract. Everybody had that contract of your dreams. This one was for a whole year. I was going to work with seven companies and help them with their strategy and their sales plan. I had enough margin. I could actually hire somebody to do some of that stuff in the training and the sales plan. This was going to be great. Ever do one of those contracts.  It was that contract. It was great. So I get to the end of the first two months and I say, all right guys, off you go. Good luck with that sales call. We'll check in next week. And they said, great. When are you making the introductions? I said, the what? They said the introductions. I said, no, no, no, no, no. They said, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. No, no, no, no, no, no. They said, yes, yes, yes, yes. And I went through shock and anger and denial and there's some screaming in an empty room. And at this point, I had three big problems. First, I have a graduate degree. I don't make sales calls. I had spent 25 years avoiding sales calls and suddenly it was staring me right in the face because two, this was my only contract for the whole year. In the immortal words of Gene Kranz, failure was not an option. The third, I was terrified that I would be found out to be a fraud. I was an author. I worked, given thousands of presentations and I didn't know how to do this.  I was on the hook for thousands of calls and hundreds of introductions for 40 weeks, literally epic. And at first, it was awful. It was awkward. It was the one thing I was really, really afraid of that somebody would yell at me. Well, these federal public servants are not going to yell at me only once in thousands of calls. Did anybody say, don't ever call me again. You're not supposed to talk to me. One person. Everybody else. I was confused. They were kind. I was awkward. I lost my words. They didn't mind. They were happy to pawn me off on somebody else, pat me on the head, give me a cookie and send me in the right direction. And the breakthrough moment came. I was making calls for everything from backup generators the size of a city block and waterless shampoo, uninterruptible power supply, snap lock, glass containers for food, and my favorite root canal equipment. That's right. I was dialing for dollars for endodontics. And I was on the phone with Dr. Ned Robertson with the Indian Health Service in Penobscot, Maine. And Dr. Ned was telling me what he was doing on his Tuesday off. Dr. Ned was making curtains. And he was telling me about his nephew who had just got accepted into Georgetown Medical School. He was so proud of him. And, oh yeah, those guys from BNL Biotexture. He'll talk to them. Just set up a call. He hung up the phone. Oh, that was it. That was all I had to do.  All right. Well, we've got another eight months to go. And so in short, it did get easier. And at the end of that whole year, I got my reports done, I met my goals, and the seven companies I did this for, they didn't win a dime because they didn't take the handoff and build the relationship. But at the end of this project and more reporting, I will ever do again in my life. All right, I'm done. I'm not telling a single soul. I know how to wait a second. I cannot be the only book smart person who does who struggles with this thing that's really just about human connection. It's not that hard until you realize what it is. What if we do this again? So I called up my friend and business partner, my training partner, Eileen, I said, Eileen, could we do this again? She said, sure. And off we went. And that became the core of the focus, my entire practice, which is now my flagship program, the federal business intensive, and the focus of all of my marketing communications as well and the things that I put out in the marketplace. Understanding how to connect with your federal humans, whether you work with me or not, is an essential part of success. If somebody has been going bid, bid, bid, bid, bid, lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, and it's hurting. If you're not winning the work that you set out to win, if you are losing by a tiny margin, if somebody is telling you, you just didn't understand the statement of work, you just didn't understand the scope. Worse yet, if your buyer is awarding stuff to the guys who are higher priced, all of that boils down to how do you make your relationship stronger? How do you be the person who was talking to the buyer long before that statement of work got written? Understanding how that breaks out into the players at all the layers, what to do and say and ask. How to use free public data to focus and how to have a structured federal sales plan. So you have a systematic methodical way to build those relationships and relentless focus on the tiniest of successes that otherwise you might miss. That is the core of my practice and I learned that by having to do it. But I do that for those companies and business owners who are dedicated to your success in the federal arena because it doesn't have to be that hard, but because I know something about you. If you're in the federal arena, there are a lot of places where you could go to take your business to be successful. Lots of places to make money. The fact that you have chosen the federal arena means that you've got something special. You have a sense of purpose and mission. You know that you can help a federal buyer deliver their mission and change the world. You've got that dedication to your customer and that's why I have that dedication to you, to make it possible for you to change the world so you can have a life that you love in a business you love, serving a country you love. Well, I don't know, Judy. I don't even think I need any of these questions. We were worried about questions to ask. Did I give you an origin story you need? Let me tell you, Judy. I just pushed go and then you just take it from there and run. That's really, I love it because I agree with you. I've seen so many people out there that are telling people how to get contracts. They've never won a contract. They've never made phone calls. Even at the intro, I said, I'm the host that actually walks and walks and talks and talks. I make those phone calls. I've had to deal with those government agencies and those clients. I might have to make a couple phone calls this week, but I like it because it keeps my skills fresh. I hone in on what's going on in the marketplace. I have my fingers on the pulse and the beat of what's happening today, not 10 years ago or not eight years ago. Today, we're in a different climate. It's a different environment. Even excluding the pandemic, that's a whole other, that takes to another level. You can tell me what you've been saying, but I've seen a different set of, and you mentioned this in the beginning. I'm not sure if this was before the recording, but you mentioned this at some point, which is you've got the first year contracting officers, contracting specialists, program managers, and then you have those 22 year veteran. Well, I'm seeing a lot more of the first year people. Is that what you're experiencing out there? You get both ends of the spectrum, both are true. You've still got a large chunk of people who, and pandemic is making a lot of decisions happen faster. There may be people who are getting ready to leave government and going, okay, I'm done. You're going to see people exiting, you're going to see new people coming in, and there can be a huge gap in the middle. Both of those are happening. The interesting thing about pandemic, I'm hearing as well, you're talking about polar opposites.  The people who are having that experience are the ones who aren't making phone calls in the first place, because people who are making phone calls are saying, oh my goodness, my federal buyers just won't get off the phone. They're so desperate to have a conversation with somebody who's not hunting for Cheerios. Persistence matters, having a short, cheerful voicemail, and you're not expecting to reach them, but you're going to say, I'm going to call you back Thursday at 2, and you call back Thursday at 2. You've shown you're persistent, you've shown you're cheerful, and you've shown you do what you say you're going to do. Dick, you put a marble in the trust jar, and so the opportunities for those micro wins is huge. And everything about pandemic gives us the ability to use one of our human superpowers, and that's human connection. Eric, we as humans are wired to be connected with each other. There is a reason why solitary confinement is the most extreme form of human punishment. Whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, connection with other humans is something that we need as beings to thrive. Now, in pandemic, we have all gone through extraordinary difficulties, incredible things that we couldn't have begun to expect, and we've learned a lot as well. And the ability to just say, how are you doing? No, really. And care about the answer and just listen. How hard is that? Your average government employee you talk to, they'll talk to you about their kids or their family or what's going on with their, can they get out to walk the dog or with, and are they worried about mask wearers and all of those things? You have an ability to connect on a human level and just relax a little. Say, how are you doing? Has your family? And listen and care about that answer leaves you with that ability to connect on a really human level like never before. And it's, and that's one of our human superpowers. I would say that, yeah, we're on the opposite side where the phone you call them. And I've said this before to some of my students. I said, look, I have to get off the phone with the government because they just keep talking and talking. And I remember this one particular agency, the guy said, listen, call me back anytime. Don't feel ashamed. Listen, I'm here to help whatever you need.  And going to your point, you know, it is genuine, right? Because we all are isolated from each other. We're not in buildings. We're not in offices. And I think going back to our human superpower, you do empathize with people you care. Like, I mean, I really do care how you're doing, right? Because maybe you've experienced death, maybe you've experienced death, you know, through a friend or a family or a loved one, you start to realize that, well, that does weigh in on you and how you feel and your perspective and your outlook of the world changes. So it does for me at least, and, you know, it brings it closer to, okay, how is this person doing and what are some of the things, their challenges they're experiencing. So I agree with that. One of the things that I am offering folks, and maybe this would be timely for your listeners, is a federal 2021 launch checklist. Do you think some of the folks who are listening would like to get, like some ideas for how to get their federal 2021 off to a bang up start? From Judy Brett, absolutely. Because they won't take it from anyone because, but from Judy Brett, absolutely. I think they won't take it. Well, let me tell you, I've gone through and I've just put the link in the chat and you can share this in the show notes. We're going to have this available through the whole first quarter, all the way through till the end of December. Okay. The most important thing that somebody listening can do, first, celebrate. I really mean that. Now, I am the Mary Tyler Moore giver of parties. If you're old enough to remember Mary Tyler Moore, I am not a real party animal. I have to be really kick-drag kicking and screaming because I'm all, oh, good, we won. What's next? I have learned there's research that shows that the time we take to celebrate builds resilience. If we could roll the clock back 12 months and somebody could whisper in your ear, 2020 is going to be hard. Never mind why, but if you take the time to celebrate now, it'll go better for you when the unimaginable happens. Would you have gone and gone out and party because you never know? Would you have done that a year ago? No, no, that's true. You would. You'd think about that. All right. So you know what? It's a year later. Anybody know what 2021 is going to turn up? Nope. But you want to go and celebrate. Bucket of resilience. So take the time. Raise a glass of whatever bubbly suits you. My favorite is sparkling ciders followed by bubbly water. Whatever it is, celebrate by yourself, celebrate with your family, all the things you went through, not just what you earned, but also what you learned. Take that moment. Raise the virtual glass. Get on the phone with your federal buyers and partners. Say, hey, we did great stuff. Here's to you. Here's to us. Talk to your team, your partners. Take that moment. I've had a wonderful experience. We learned a lot with birthday parties in my family over the last year. The first birthday party was my brother, Dave, and it was in April, like within three or four weeks, everything closing down. My family's in Canada. So by the time I got to the end of April, I realized I was not going home for Christmas. One of the gut punch moments. So all of this stuff was unfolding. My brother, Dave, was the first one in our family to in sequence have a birthday. Well, boy, that was hard. Watching the birthday person open their little piece of cake all by themselves. It just felt, we tried to put on a happy face, but boy, it felt awful. We all hung up the phone. Honestly, we all cried. It was awful.  There's other things we figure out how to log on to zoom. That was helpful. Even grandma figured it out. So my birthday's coming up in September. So I think, all right, what have we learned?  Second, send party packages to people. Much better ideas. So everybody, okay, and send an invitation saying you're going to get a party kit. So please RSVP so we can get your party kit in time. People said, oh, I'm going to be there. Send my party kit. And everybody opened their party kits at the same time. It was much more fun. And so, and we didn't send cake. It turned out that we sent cookies because cookies weren't going to kind of melt on the front porch and not get delivered and stuff. That cookies worked out better. We watched people open their cookies and my mom just turned out ahead. My husband sent me some, some macarons. And so they were just quite wonderful. And so, but we all celebrated together. And so I learned from that. And so I've been hosting some federal New Year's parties with my community and with my clients. And so we're all getting on together. And we're going around the room and everybody's sharing a thing that they earned, a thing that they learned. And just this bubbling up of feel good. It's the, the feeling of the dopamine hit of celebrating a success is almost as much when you're celebrating with somebody else's win as when you're celebrating your own. Eric, do you watch professional sports? I do. Okay. Do you get a rush when your team wins? Oh, absolutely. There you go. I'm not a watcher of professional sports. So I had to read about this in theory. But, but that's, that's the big throw. But that was a great, that was a great point because last night the Lakers won the championship. So I thought you were going to pull that in, Judy, but that's okay. I knew you were thinking it. You were thinking, that's where you were headed. Last night was the NBA finals and the Lakers won the championship. Yeah. So it feels great to celebrate other people's wins as well. But that, so the number one thing I want you to do is you're launching your federal 2021 is stand up and celebrate. That's the first thing. The second one is stand down.  So over the course of a 12 month period on the road to winning federal contracts. If you don't stop and say, Hey, what went really well? What did? No, it was not really a great use of money and what are we never honestly going to do again? The red, yellow, green. If you don't do that, then you're on the course that led to picking your own pocket and letting your money get siphoned out of your back pocket for the year ahead. Don't do that. You can get the less, you can ring the last few dollars of return on investment out of last year's marketing investment by doing that after action review, that hot wash. That's not the same as an annual plan, but it lets you level your own playing field instead of tilting the field against yourself. Clean up. It's in natural terms. Summer is really harvest season. That's true in the natural world. It's also true in federal contracting. You hit fall, you clean up the fields. You make things tidy. You make things ready for what's ahead as the fields go quiet.  You're throwing in pepper over top of the bulb, so the squirrels don't get them. You're, you're readying things for the year ahead, and that's what October, November, December is all about in, in the natural world, in the natural flow of federal contracting. So hot wash, then cleaning things up. It's your after action review. So first, celebrate. Second, hot wash. Third, October into November. What happens in November? What's the big thing that happens in November in the United States, Eric? Come on, November. Thanksgiving is coming in. What is it? Thanksgiving. Yes, Thanksgiving. Give thanks. Give thanks. We get more of the things we are grateful for. Lots of people. You'll find lots and lots of research out there, but the power of a gratitude practice. Whatever your personal practices are, there's a ton of research out there. We get more of what we give thanks for. We get more of those things that we envision and focus on. Giving thanks also means take the time to write the thank you note to the people in the federal arena who helped you and not just the contracting officer who signed the contract, but also the contracting specialist who helped you understand how to fill out your paperwork. The small business specialist who guided you, who encouraged you, find out who their management is, write that letter on the letterhead and put it in the mail. Remember we talked about their personnel files? Those letters from industry set your people apart from the ones that they're competing against for promotions. That thank you letter that you write is life changing. It is career altering in a good way. Those letters are not complicated, but I want to thank Sally Brown. She helped me figure out something I had struggled with for years and it meant that I was able to serve your agency and perform well and do a flawless job that she told me we completed better than anyone she'd ever seen on this contract. So make clear what they did, why they were skilled, the difference that they made to you and also to the way you were able to serve their agency. That's not hard. So give thanks is the third thing that I want to encourage people to do. What could be more natural? All the rest of the tips and I have a total of seven are in my federal 2021 launch checklist and you can go and get that link that I left in the chat for you and your community, Eric. And we'll make sure to have that link on the show notes page for this episode, wherever people find it and tune in to listen to it. So that was great. I love it. Actually, that's wonderful. I think I'm going to celebrate next week with our group, internally, of all our Gulf Coast students who won contracts and the ones who tried. Like you said, celebrate what you learned and celebrate what you earned. Both. Yeah. I think that's a good, that's a great exercise for us. We did celebrate it and we, you know, we posted a post, but we didn't actually talk about it and have a dialogue about what happened and what what was. So I think that's a great, that's a great exercise that I'm going to actually implement this week. Wonderful. And I've, if somebody is listening to this, for goodness sake, write it's judy.brat, b-r-a-d-t at growfedbiz.com or connect with me on LinkedIn. I'd love to hear what you're doing to celebrate and let me know which of the tips really turned out to be especially valuable for you. Not really. Going back to your first book, you were asking me early on, Eric, where are some of the things you pulled out of it? Let's go back to another section that I found. There must be a reason why I chose pink. And then yellow. Let me see. Oh, I know what it was. One of the areas that I really enjoyed was your go-no-go criterion. Because when I first got started, again, and then look, a newly small business, what you just mentioned, we bid, bid, bid, bid, bid, right? Without giving it any thought. Hey, this looks like a project fit, bid, bid, bid, right? We're spending our exercise, spending our wills. So that was really helpful for me as helping me to determine when is a good time to bid versus not bid. Also, things to ask when hiring a proposal writer. As we start growing our businesses and start going after bigger projects, we're gonna have to start putting together more technical proposals. And you hire people that tell you they can do all these wonderful things. Their resumes are impressive, but really, it's difficult to gauge. And I didn't know what to ask. I didn't know what to look for. So that was beneficial. But one of the ones that I really loved was the five people you need to meet. Those are so important. I'm gonna pull them right out. So if you're listening to this, take notes. There are players, you need to know at least one player at all five of these layers. This is our players and layers method. And here they are. And I'm gonna tell you the ones I teach because my work evolves even in the course of between finishing the book and what I'm actually teaching. So I'm gonna actually do a little tweak and I'm gonna tell you the way I teach it when I do my big program one on one. All right. And everybody that is listening, you've got your own list of contacts and clients. And there are usually players that are really overrepresented and then there are ones that are underrepresented. You need to know who the players are. Have at least one player at all five layers every place you want to be successful. So here we go. First layer, stakeholder. My friend Eileen Kent says, this is the person who gets tied to the stake and tart and feathered if things go tango uniform. So this is can be the base commander. It can be the cabinet secretary, the deputy assistant director. They are the ones often that are speaking at events. They are not your buyer. They're not signing the contract. They're not personally stuck day to day with the consequences of who they're not choosing the buyers. They are the one where the buck stops. They are the one who's going to get on the front page of the Washington Post below the fold if things go bad. They're the one who's going to have to resign if things don't go well. All right. That's your stakeholder. Second layer. Okay. Small business specialist. The small business specialist, you probably have a ton of their business cards in the offices of small and disadvantaged business utilization or the small and disadvantaged business utilization office, the sad booze. They're not your buyers either. They are on the hook for they have inward and outward facing responsibilities. They are the ones that have to report back to the small business administration on how the agency is meeting their goals. They're the ones who are always asking before the solicitation gets published. Hey, can this be awarded to small business? But they are not your buyer. They can be your advocate. The more research you do before you talk to them, the more helpful they're going to be paradoxically. But they're not your buyer. So when you're looking and if you've got lots of small business specialists in your database, you need to balance those out with the people at the other three layers. I'm going to tell you about now. Third layer. Contracting. That can include the contracting officer, KO or CO. That person has an authority that the president of the United States does not have. That's the ability to legally bind your company to the government of these United States to provide a product or service at a price and under specific conditions. That's a legal authority. Contracting specialist is a contracting officer's right-hand person. And that they're in this contracting layer together. And they're bound by the federal acquisition regulations every day of every year. So stakeholder, small business specialist, contracting. Next layer. End user. That's a big bucket. That can include the person who's at the pointy end of the stick, the person who's in the queue, the person who's at the help desk, the person who is the program manager and controls and authorizes a whole lot of money. But they're the ones who are stuck day to day with the consequences and operational implications and quality of what you are providing. And they feed, they influence the specifications, they define that requirement. You really need to be talking to them. And their titles are the same as the titles of end users and clients and customers you've always had in your business. You need to know who they are. There's six free sources of federal market research that I talk about in my work and in the book so people can find out as much as you can about your end users and who they are. So stakeholder, small business specialist, contracting, end user and the last layer is industry, is the prime. Both the people who are already performing that contract or want to be. Some of them you're going to have to team with. Some of them you're going to have to displace. But I want to encourage you to consider the concept of competitive mates. It's very rare that one person you're never going to team with them. You always have to push them out. Sometimes you'll team, sometimes you won't. But understand, think about opportunity, not as pie, but as dough. Add warmth, dough rises, there's more for everybody. I like that. I like that. You've been doing this a long time, Judy. How many people have you helped now so far? Come please. Oh my goodness. Between people that have been to presentations and as well as clients, probably over 10,000. Wow.  I love to hear people's stories. All right. All right. All right. Where are you, what are you focusing on now? Obviously, you know, you have the release of your second book and you have your programs on your platform, brofedbiz.com. What are the things that you focus on now? The big focus that I have right now is in working with companies who are ready to take their federal success to the next level. The federal business intensive is my flagship offering, and that's designed for a company that has got success in the federal market and is looking to take it to the next level. They have been around the block. They have made the commitment to build business through relationships, to get in their head of everybody else because they're tired of losing. They really want to make that difference and to invest in as a team, understanding what it takes to focus, to connect, and to win. The companies who do the work are successful. So 100% of my effort that flows from conversations like ours, that flows from outreach and participation in industry events is all about connecting with business owners who put up a hand and say, I'm ready for change. I'm ready for success beyond my wildest dreams. Show me the way and we'll do the work. Those are my people. I love it. I love it. Again, let's mention some of your sites again, growfedbiz.com. You said you gave us an email address. I did, judy.bratt. That's b-r-a-d-t at growfedbiz.com. Connect with me on LinkedIn. You can get the first chapter of my book, which is Government Contracts Made Easier. That's because easy is fiction. Government contracts made easier. Chapter one at growfedbiz.com slash book. You can get the whole book, which is number one Amazon bestseller on Amazon. Do you have any spare time? I do when I'm not in pandemic, which has driven me into the same kind of bad numbing behavior and overwork as everybody else, which is not good for me. The things that I do when I'm not doing this, the number one thing I miss is actually I've helped over 1,000 people go up a wall. I'm a professional climbing instructor at Sport Rock in Alexandria. I have taught for the last 13 years, taught the basic climbing basic skills class. It is just a joy. Your brain literally changes. I take a group of anywhere from one to nine people through this transformation in two hours where people just sort of stand around and look at each other. And two hours later, they are literally putting each other's lives in each other's hands. Imagine being able to do that. Can you send us a picture so we can add it to your profile? I'd love to see a picture of you doing that. Oh, I will share one. In fact, you hear about people having vision boards and all that kind of stuff. And sometimes a lot of the time I go, that works for other people. That does not work for me. What's the deal with the woo? I never got the woo. I had a vision board. Honestly, I threw it out finally. I just got so exasperated. Visions are funny things. One of the things that I had on the vision board was sort of depicting wanting more adventure. I had a picture that somebody took of me at the very top of the very first climb I did outdoors on real rock in the summer of 2006.  My head is thrown back in this expression of ecstatic joy. It's out of focus. The rock is in focus. I'm out of focus. But that picture of ecstasy, that was on the board. Fast forward 14 years, I spent my 60th birthday last year on the island of Kalimnos in Greece with seven Australians climbing 100 foot cliffs. So this stuff gets into your head. It really does. I'm a private pilot with an instrument rating. That's something else that is hard to get to practice six feet away from anybody. So this was going to be the year I got back in the cockpit and did the rust busting and put the hood on and got my instrument rating written. Nope, that wasn't happening. The other thing I love to do, I'm a scuba diver.  So I am right now very intent on doing what I call staying under the sofa. Because I want to do all of these things again, have plenty of cardio capacity and lots of good lungs supporting me to do it. So that's why I'm staying the frock out of everybody's way and just staying home. But one of my other friends in government contracting, Chris Brinker, was teaching an online class to learn Tai Chi. So if these all sound like very adrenaline based things, actually what they have in common with Tai Chi is this. I like to do things that are interesting. I love to explore my world. And to do that, I find the best instructors that I can who stay by my elbow and answer my questions and keep me alive. I tip the guide heavily and follow instructions so as nobody gets killed. It works out really well. But good instruction, good instruction is the key to great adventures. And I want to make sure that all of my clients get the very best guidance. And I don't always have the answers, just like you say that you don't. But having a strong infrastructure, I don't do GSA schedule work. You couldn't pay me enough money to do a GSA schedule proposal, not because they're not important, but because I'm not any good at them, but I have great partners. So great instruction and great partners and a great referral network, all of that plays right into who I am.  And you're going to have somebody go, yep, this is normal. This happens. Let's pick you up and see where you can go. So you're going underwater, up in the air, and then up the sides of rocks. Land, air and sea. Julie, you're remarkable. Not just in terms of context, but wow. I don't know if I'd pick those three hobbies. I like to stay on a golf cart. Everybody has things they love. Eric, I am terrible with everything involving spheroid objects and striking implements. I'm terrible at all things involving sports and ball. I got skipped a grade in school, so I was a year younger than everybody else. Nobody wanted me on their team. It took me years to figure out. I was just a year younger. A year makes a big difference in physical development, but I'm terrible at team sports. I didn't find a sport I loved until I learned how to climb when I was 46. Tell us, did you shop on Amazon? I do. What was your last purchase that made you happy? The last purchase I made that made me happy was I bought a set of 32 colored white board markers for my friend, Will Randolph, who's one of my top gun coaches in my program. He does something called Williams Whiteboard on LinkedIn. Anybody who's listening, check out Williams Whiteboard. It's another example of the amazing partners that I have. I met Will when he was a panelist at the Contract Ready conference at Joint Base Langley Fort Eustis last January, just before everything closed up. He is now one of the folks who's part of my team. My clients get to Eric, are you a Navy guy? I'm not. Do you know where the top gun program came from? In the 60s in Vietnam, the Navy decided they had new technology. They're going to really have this sort of over the horizon radar to hit the button, send off the missiles, not even have to engage. It was going to be great. And the Navy experienced a drop in the combat efficiency ratio. Normally, their typical experience is that they would lose one aircraft and crew for every 12 of the other side they took out. Well, with this new technology and this new strategy, new tactics, their combat efficiency ratio dropped to 2.5 to 1. You think about what that means. They were losing pilots and air crew at a horrendous rate. If a pilot couldn't survive, if they got a pilot could survive past their first three or four missions, their odds of coming back alive were better. But to get to that point, they were losing hundreds of people. And so the Navy stepped back and said, what's going on? We need to understand what's happening. And there's something called the ALT, AULT, the ALT report, came back and said, okay, you got two problems. First, your missile technology is not working. That was a technical problem that was fixable. But the other problem is that pilots weren't being trained in air combat. And so they didn't have that close-up fighter tactics skills anymore. Nine guys, nine Navy pilots went to the desert, perloined a trailer and rebuilt the fighter tactics curriculum. And on March 3rd of 1969, Top Gun opened its doors. They started training the trainers in a matter of months. The combat efficiency ratio went up from 2.5 to 1 to 13 to 1.  And here's why I mentioned that. When I'm working with clients, if you do the work, if you do your research into your federal humans, you get one-on-one time with one of my Top Gun coaches. And Will Randolph is one of them who's a former federal contracting officer who's been in the chair. You can literally reset the simulator, do a role play, say, hey, could I ask my contracting officer this? What's going to happen? So that by the time you're having that conversation with somebody who's got your future in their pocketbook, it's comfortable like breathing. That is something you can't get anywhere else. And that's something that happens with my clients. I like that. Any quotes that you live by? I'm sure you have a dozen of them are still floating around that head of yours. My goodness. I can see them bouncing around. The Rolodex is going wild. Let me think about that for a second. I think to remember. Yes, I do. The one I love is from Dr. Maya Angelou. People will forget what you did. People will forget what you said. What people will never forget how you made them feel. That was a good one. That was a great one, actually. That's as relevant in everyday life as it sure is in federal contracting. How did you make somebody feel? Outside of your particular book that we've talked about several times, any other recommendations do you have for people for learning, education, expanding? I do. Some of my favorites are Brene Brown, everything by Brene Brown, but particularly one of her most recent books called Dare to Lead. It takes a lot of her work on connection, shame, vulnerability, and puts it into a leadership context. So whether you're leading a government contracting team or something in your church community or something, even in your family, understanding those things that are the difference between showing up all shielded and showing up a complete hot mess, understanding where the zone is and being vulnerable enough and knowing who can tell your story, understanding how trust is built. Absolutely critical. Critical work. Another one. When you're talking about being in really simple, doing planning for the year, Patrick Thean Rhythm, a great, great book I like very much, and it breaks out your year into four 13 week quarters. How hard is that? And lets you look at your red, yellow, green, what are your markers for something that's successful? What is the markers that you're running behind? What are the things that show you need action? Really simple, really powerful. Another one I like is Chip and Dan Heath, The Power of Moments, which I also just love. It really has to do with how do you get to a sticky learning experience? How do you give someone an experience that resonates with them that they're going to remember? Another one, and I don't have the book with me, another author, Joey Coleman, and he talks about the first 100 days. Your customer decides within the first 100 days whether they're going to do business with you again or they're not. And so what are those things that you can do to enhance that experience from the very first time that they engage with you? Those things, and we forget that not everything is email, that whether it's a video, it's a handwritten note. It might be a very small physical item in the mail that's worth well under $25, and that's tricky with your federal buyers, sometimes don't send them anything. That thank you note. No commercial value, real value, priceless. So Dan and Chip Heath, that's another one. So those are some that are top of my mind right now. I'm building a reading list. Oh, there's another one, Try Softer. We've had Try Harder told to us by all these people who love us, Try Softer. Really important for understanding self-compassion, which takes me to the work by Dr. Kristin Neff, as well called self-compassion. We spend a lot of time being ambitious and beating ourselves up. The phrase, the beatings will continue until morale improves. No, not really. In fact, self-compassion actually lets us support ourselves better and also support those around us better. It's incredibly powerful. So those are just some of the things, the ideas, the resources that are top of mind for me, and they play into everything to do with how I coach my clients and everything that I routinely fall down on and fail at pretty much every day of the week, three times a day. Two more questions, and then we're going to let you run. If you weren't doing this, what would you be doing? If I weren't doing this, what would I be doing? I would be traveling. I would be out seeing more of the world with my nieces and nephews and taking photographs and adventuring, just looking, seeing and enjoying the beauty and appreciating the beauty of the natural world. I think, honestly, I would be doing more of that. I would like to say that I would be looking for opportunities to make the world better for the people and situations that I run into as I go along. But those are two pieces. There's so much work to do to be, to make a difference for others. And I think that there's new adventures and new opportunities to do that that I know that I will find in my journey. So my next adventures are still unfolding. And I remember in reading here, your bio from the book that you talked about helping women on businesses. That was one of the things that you started with. So I think that's great.  Oh, for the longest time, I hated sales. I spent 25 years avoiding everything to do with sales from that moment when I literally ran screaming from IBM Canada looking for something else to do. I spent and my failure to understand and embrace sales cost me a million dollars in foregone income. I'm not making that up. If I had understood that, I'd be sitting on a cool extra million dollars now. And so part of what I want to do is to help other people win many, many millions of dollars more and not take 25 years about it. Because I discovered that sales wasn't the horrible awful icky thing I thought it was. It was actually something that I love and am passionate about. And that's the power of human connection.  And you think an introvert can do it? Of course. Of course. Because, you know, people think of the stereotype of the person in the loud plaid suit who's trying to get you into this car today. Nobody's that guy. You do you. Nobody does you the way you do. There are people who care about the things you care about. And all of us have that in us to woo, to care, to delight in, to delight someone else. All of us have built human connection with others over time. And so understanding what's the natural way you do that and to be able to go in a place where you can do more of that, find that place. And so yeah, you can do that too. And can you leave us with some parting words? I mean, I think you've crushed the interview so far. So I don't even know how you can top yourself, but I'm going to make you try. If there's, if there's one thing that I would like people, like people to remember, I'm going to get much better at doing this interview when I figure that the fastest answer to this and to have it handy. If there's one thing that I want people to remember, it's to take care of your fellow human to real, to, to understand we are all connected. We have something in common, whatever that is with every person that we run into, we are all connected in some way. And the person that you're in front of is doing the best they can, whatever their experience is, whatever's going on, if something seems to be going on there, as you can never know what's going on with somebody. So just be there for them. And to realize you really have no idea what's going on with somebody. So be compassionate, be, let go until you really know and just remember that whatever it is it's going on. They're doing the best they can and you are too in that moment. So be gentle with them. Be gentle with yourself. I think that the one message that my, that my dad would give me, he would say, be very kind to yourself. And so I think that's probably the thing I would pass along. Be very kind to yourself and that plays out and makes everything better. No, that was, I think, given the moment, the times, everything that we're all going through is really, I don't think we can ever say it enough. I don't think we can ever say it enough. Thank you for your kindness and for just such an engaging interview and the chance to get to know each other, Eric. It's been a pleasure. No, it's really thank you for coming on. I, you know, it's just, I, even today, and maybe this is happening to you because you wrote this book and you've been a bestseller a long time, but I'm new to people knowing me and knowing who I am. So it's a change and I now have had the experience of the feeling that what people feel like to meet me for the first time and meeting you. So thank you for making this easier on me. Thank you for, no, because people are always, when they see me, they say, oh this, you're Eric, you're the guy, you're the, you're that Eric. So for me, I say, hey, Judy, you're, you're that Judy, you're the person from the book that I read about. So it's great to get a chance to engage with you. If I lived up to my billing.


What's up everybody, Jason here for jaspierscasebrakes.com. Happy new release day guys. 2021 contenders optic basketball is here This is a 10 box inner case break picker teams number one on jaspierscasebrakes.com So again guys, we sold the remaining six teams in a random number block style Quickly turn on the camera for you guys So these teams here Sacramento, O.K.C. Cleveland Miami Phoenix and PDX which of course is Portland We'll be putting a random number block Style right there. Let me actually change this really quick. I should be putting Cleveland on Cav I'll reprint this one out But yes, we sold a random number block style. So thank you to those customers and then of course Here is the rest of the teams there And customers that grab this team. So really appreciate you guys and again, let me quickly show you guys names of teams again All right, and here is the whole case Camera just a little bit don't like it too low One to the left four five six for the right Five one two three four five six. So this will be for pick your team number two Boxer up there He went to number two and again guys the second half is available. There's 13 teams left Like I said, if you want to start potentially grabbing those teams if not, they're gonna be put in a random number block most likely and Sold that way First look at it for myself. I Usually try to not watch other people break it until I do but Take a look at what we got here And then usually there's two Base-quart at the bottom Which is a nice playing the numbers game Luka Donchich assists and pick and roll harm alone and John Stockton for Utah So Shane got those straight up and again, sometimes these inserts actually so extremely well, and if they're gradable a Lot of people like to grade these Cache in pretty well So those are both taken by customers straight up Thank you So we have feel my little so again, that's a non-numbered base. That'll be randomized to the group of customers Chris Paul Silver, that'll also be randomized to the group of customers and Trey young Hawks that straight up Brian Lofford I think they actually gave us a extra base or something It's usually one base in two colors. All right, so we'll randomize these at the end of the break and our first autograph is Moises Brown up and coming that is 73 or yeah 73 out of 99. I don't know if you guys can kind of see that but that's a 3 73 that's for the Thunder and Josh already hidden first time doing a random number blog, right? 73 nice Already hidden the first one the next one We have playing the numbers game Jamal Murray for the Nuggets and Pick and roll Raja and Rondo Kevin Garnett Celtics edition. So this will be Nuggets Cody Boston Celtics case sharing Deandre Hunter We have a Victor Ladeeple silver base for the heat that'll be a random number block Randomizer and Aaron Gordon for Denver. That's straight up Cody. That is a red Which is actually not Desmond Bain is your first autograph very nice and look how tiny Memphis Grizzlies David Batrino. There you go. And it looks like on the back They usually do stack these autographs on top of each other, but it looks like there's a little bit of ink on the back there I don't know if that's Save that but sort of why there's the first one there Sweet Next one guys We have a Kevin Garnett all-star Aspirations nice little crack dice and a Paul George Sweet spots Paul George I heard the beatwriter here in LA is saying playing like an MVP Contender I was like, mm-hmm. What's up, Mark? I know good morning slash afternoon now. It is actually afternoon All right, so Clipper straight up Brian and T-Wolves that would be Mark straight up so we have Ben Simmons we have for the Houston Rockets John Walton 99 and whoa, is this a black? It looks black.  I thought that was a 101 for a second day. DeAngelo Russell looks really nice Maybe black Pandora is a not numbered. I don't see any number on here. That's cool So they have a new little color parallel there black Pandora probably Sweet The John wall is gonna be number 1199 Houston Rockets When EA and then Philly going to Ken Goldberg and your autograph Is not your little Sophomore contenders for Portland. That's an orange And that is six out of 25 six spot six It's going to Tony last spot mojo for the R&B. So R&B already has two autographs out of the 10 awesome So we have a superstar Dica for the first time nice Vince Carter for Toronto and Yana Santa Di Compo superstars Dica has Milwaukee going to Brian and of course Vince Carter Here's really nice for Toronto going to Steve Wright Victor Oladipo. We have a Colin Sexton and a DeAndre and Silver So then these will be randomized here all to the non-numbered R&B All three of these here. So I'll be going there Nice little not number base so far We have to 149 Aaron Naismith had a great summer league, right? I'm not sure how he's doing now if he's even getting plenty time But nice hit there for the Boston Celtics and K-Chon. All right after this boss will be halfway through guys After this box we will be halfway through so again guys XR was down to like three left.  It's a red and Derek Rose so back-to-back Nick's which we're going to David B. And Utah Shane straight up here as well compaso Pasundo compaso That is a rookie ticket there for Denver Going to Cody all right halfway through guys got five more boxes So guys look ahead potentially guys other half way there to grabbing your teams available in the second half because Nick might put those in a random number block very soon So if I were you guys I would probably start grabbing my teams now just to be safe We are down to five left a number two of XR like I said, we're still stuck at three in the random number block but Like I said, we can sell that out. We can break that right after this Very nice. I don't know what guys whoo hoop dreams. This is actually one of my favorite inches They just put in here and look at that lotter tickets like really clean over the top and lotter ticket back looks great I don't know if the center in here is a little off. It looks like it's off, but Very nice though, and then hoop dreams are here. Denny of DJ was a very nice one Is it awesome? These would be look great great? We have a Terry Rosier red and a kerosene word for the Pacers Pacers Brian Wofford and Buzzity Charlie Hornets Brown Wofford as well and to 99 Cole Anthony nice little color maps look how beautiful that looks Very nice Orlando magic. That's going to David B. Very nice hit Very very nice man Him and Tyrese Maxman the plane lights out start off this season We have 18 tandems there of Donna Mitchell Rudy go bear and a lottery ticket obi topping cracked ice Looks very nice Centering is definitely much better on this So it's gonna go to the next David B. You thought jazz been ashamed. We have RJ Barrett Julius Randall and Kobe White Onyeka a Kongu very nice for Atlanta. We're getting some nice rookie tickets now. That's a nice blue 18 out of 99 Atlanta going to Brian Woff. There you go, man. All right XR down the two left guys XR RMB is down the two left. What's up, right? How's it going, buddy?  So-called resident next next month's crime so I can go party at your house in Marina del Rey We're in a del Rey All stars right there Donovan Mitchell and a Denny of Dija lottery ticket cracked ice We pulled a nice onyeka Kongu blue and a Cole Anthony color match blue So far that's been pretty strong other than that nothing. Nothing's super crazy Gary Trent jr. Christian wood and Seth Curry nice Well, I just moved to downtown Long Beach, so I'm a little farther away from here now, but Still under 15 miles from here though, so it's not too bad. Oh Alan Iverson 11 out of 25. Look at that. That's the old tribute autograph. Damn. That is sick Alan Iverson the answer The 76ers in Ken Goldberg very nice Very nice. It's a nice good. Let's take it right there To love so again guys that's two boxes here I would go and grab your teams in number two because they might be putting around a number block while I'm doing XR If Nick hasn't done it already So there's 13 teams with a lot of inexpensive teams a lot of teams Of course haven't really hit anything on this half so they could be hiding in the second half So really try to get those teams secured in the second half guys D-Wade and a uniformity Kevin Durant these actually sell really well these uniformities are nice Brooklyn going to Brian and of course D-Wade Miami Heats. That's gonna be a part of the Run on lower vlog. That's like the first color for the run on our block Chris Middleton Yolk it's Tray young Hey, these are both pink parallels and they're both That's a blaster. That's probably something else. This is probably a oh, it's probably a blaster But it's probably like the pink version instead because they have two different blasters, so Unless they change it, I got it though. Okay, maybe a Tex-Nik that Can you check on the car too? And our video sub onus for the blazers 21 RV that's the bonus are and that's gonna be 21 spot one going to Tony I'm at the R&B got three out of the ten autographs so far. That's not bad It's only ten autographs in photos R&B not bad Last box mojo guys here again the second half is in the store again a lot of teams of course Didn't hit too much here And there's still gonna be some monsters hiding in the second half guys.  We got Jarl and bead we got a D'Angelo Russell blue 90 out of 99 and a Anthony Davis red. That's the first Lakers hit so far Lakers have a monstrous checklist guys. I do expect the Lakers to be pretty low in the second half I mean unless it's just not a Laker case in general, but it could be pretty loaded the last hit here It's like a little gold. Maybe a little gold Mark price for the calves and that does look like gold Six out of ten legendary contenders autographs Six out of ten spot six went to Tony Tony did really nice in this break R&B there you go, man That's last Bob Mojo as well. Yeah, I'll show you all the cars, but don't worry man All right, so there you go guys So again, these are the only non numbered cars that I seen I'll double check for the R&B So this is heat heat calves sons sons thunder I'll double check that I didn't leave any of you here and I'll do a quick recap of all the hits here So there's some base base on Iverson tribute was really nice out of 25 base base base Take it there on Yaga Congo To 99 was really nice base base base Lotter to get there again coaxing it was a really nice one. This was actually probably one of the hotter ones right now It's 99 so there was some good rookies here. It's just none of the main top four chasers hoop dreams We got one there We top in compasso for Denver was an autograph Naysmith autograph This is like a black Pandora. I don't know if you guys can see that but not number the black Doesn't in vain rookie ticket That's actually Luka Stocked in there So these will be randomized and then these of course like I said one autograph two three four five six And then these autographs were in the random number block mark price to 10 for the calves RV does For the blazers not see a little for the blazers to 25 over leaf and Moises Brown for the thunder tonight So there's the remaining four autographs. So four out of the 10 autographs went to the round number block Some solid hits though guys. I think these last three to three are probably the better ones besides the bane So there you go guys that was the first half Like I said, I'm gonna randomize the customer name and we'll just give away these all in one lot for the random number blocks This is probably the only color card. So It's pretty nice Again, go grab your teams in the second half Of course if they're available or you're feeling lucky grab some teams that you didn't grab the first half But they're available in the second half because they might hit something nice So this lot right here that's unnumbered guys will be randomized to the customers in the random number block on one Switch scenes. Let's quickly get a dice roll new list there and I guess so we're randomized by the customer name Roll the dice and it is a two and a one three times. Name a number one get to that three times one two Three boom three times Three Cody Westfield. There you go, man.  So I appreciate you guys Just pick your two number one. I guess I go grab your spots and pick your number two It should be ready to roll looks like maybe XRs coming up next. Yes, that's great And like I said, watch out for the next pick your teams to be going out Looks like a couple people bought spots in the next bigger team number two right there again 12 teams still left a lot of teams unfortunately didn't hit too much on the first half So they could be some nice hits for let's say like the nets in there The Lakers of course are probably one of the biggest teams remaining thunder Bucks potentially some Yanis and like I said, a lot of the teams like the Kings didn't really hit But that's another bigger team. So I expect it to be some big hits potentially. So appreciate you guys Jaspiers case breaks calm