govcon giants podcast · web viewbefore we get started today. i just want to let everyone know out...

Eric Coffie: 00:00 Episode 31.

Renona : 00:01 One of the things I would tell a veteran is, you know, the first thing you need to do is take an assessment of where you are. And you know if you are having a hard time out there in the workforce and you're unable to, you know, to function, you know, know that there are programs out there that will help you.

Raffa: 00:21 Be resilient. Don't give up, don't stop at the first step, Road block you hit.

Speaker 2: 00:28 Welcome to the Govcon Giants podcast, federal contracting for people on the outside looking in. If you are here to learn how to win a piece of a pie without getting your face smashed in, then you've tuned in to the right place. Now the giant that not only walks the walk but talks the talk, your host Eric Coffie.

Eric Coffie: 00:47 Before we get started today. I just want to let everyone know out here at Govcon Giants family that this episode, like all of our episodes, we highlight the transcripts, the show notes, book recommendations, all of the notes from the actual episode, our feature on our website over at Govcongiants.com/podcast and by the way, future giants. If you have not already visited our website, freegovconcourse.com take a look. It's our 100% all free, no strings attached, teach you how to get started in doing business with the federal arena. Many people have reached out to our guests inquiring about what they should be doing and starting, but we've already got this free resource developed for you over at freegovconcourse.com as an introductory level version of our dummies course. Again, it's a free crash course for beginners that takes you through what it looks like to win a contract with tools and resources that you need all the way up to getting registered in system for award management, Sam and using the new login.gov if you've not already taken that leap and are needing guidance, visit us over at freegovconcourse.Com now and today's episode, we're doing things a little bit differently.

Eric Coffie: 01:57 Instead of featuring just one guest, I'm actually interviewing two guests, two very unique business owners. In fact, two women, both veterans that have leveraged the Veterans Administration

Govcon Giants POdcast Eric Coffie

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=eric+coffie

https://www.benefits.va.gov/vocrehab/

http://www.freegovconcourse.com/

https://govcongiants.com/podcast/

Vocational Rehabilitation and employment program to build their businesses. Raffa Gibbard of Brave One Contract Agency and Renona Riddle Brown of HurMar Solutions. What makes them unique is that they've used two different Voc rehab veteran implement tracks to accomplish their goals. In this episode, we explore each person's story, how they were able to design their own path to entrepreneurship while the department of Veteran Affairs supported, aided them along and their journey. Even if you're not a veteran, chances are likely that you know someone who is and they may be able to take advantage of the programs that exist for military service members coming back from duty who want to re-engage with the workforce in a unique way. When I first heard that the VA was supporting entrepreneurs build businesses, I knew that I wanted to showcase this story and share it with the world, because if we can show as doable, practical, and highlight success stories, then we are supporting our Nation's longterm viability and success by empowering service members.

Eric Coffie: 03:09 I'd like to welcome on today's episode and future Giant Renona Brown and Raffa Gibbert. So if you wouldn't mind Raffa if you want to introduce yourself and the name of your business.

Raffa: 03:20 Okay. Yes. my name is Rafa Gibbert. I'm the owner of Brave One Contract Agency. I'm located in Salisbury, North Carolina, and I have created the business with the focus on construction for the federal government.

Eric Coffie: 03:36 Okay. Okay, wonderful. And Renona.

Renona : 03:39 Hi Eric. Thanks for having me. We appreciate you. And my name is Renona Riddle Brown and I'm the CEO and founder of HuRmar Solutions. And I, my main market is going to be the federal government sector as well as private sector. And I'm in the startup phase of my business at this point.

Eric Coffie: 04:00 Okay. Okay. And, and the point, the reason why I want to have you on today was because I know that I receive a lot of inquiries from veterans out there asking me how do they. You know, they want a mentorship, they want specialized services that I, and knowing your two stories, I was familiar that you were able to get some of those services paid for or reimbursed by the VA


https://www.linkedin.com/in/reownyourlife/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/raffa-gibbard-846371102/

https://www.benefits.va.gov/vocrehab/

hospital. And so that was the idea is like, let me come on and help you share that so that you can maybe give someone an idea of what's available. And then also you know, be kind of like a, a testimony to the fact that the government does have programs out there to help people who want to pursue these respective avenues. Well, would you say that's the case Renona in your situation?

Renona : 04:45 Yes, yes sir. For me what initially happened was I was working for, after I retired from the military, I went and continued my service for the federal government sector. I worked at Social Security Administration and I went on to the VA and then I went onto CBP, Custom Borders and Protection. And while doing that, I got sick. That was, I'm already a service disabled veteran, but my disabilities were exasperated through the duties the things that I was performing as a federal government employee and as a branch chief. And so, you know, I felt like I said so much to offer, you know, to the world and also wanting to have that quality of life for myself to feel that I'm giving back. And so I learned about the self-employment track and then I actually applied for the self-employment trac When I was at the VA, I was still working and I was disapproved. And the self-employment chart, by the way, it's under the vocational rehabilitation. And so the, yeah.

Eric Coffie: 06:00 Can you pull up those tracks, please share it on a screen for everyone to see. Go ahead. We're going gonna keep talking. We'll just pull it up while you're talking.

Renona : 06:08 Right. And so most veterans are aware of the first three tracks, which are all educational tracks, but that many actually pursue the self-employment track in the independent living track. And so you know, I wanted to do, continue to do something, you know, after I was retired on disability from the federal government and actually had my business idea back in 2005 when I initially retired. And so I was, you know, learned about the different programs that were available through vocational rehabilitation. And that's when I learned about the self-employment track maybe a few years before I retired. And so I applied for self-employment try the first time. I didn't do it right the second time. You know, I did my homework read the regulations that the different resources and I was more


prepared when I went in to apply for self employment and I was approved.

Eric Coffie: 07:05 Okay. Can you guys one of you give me a high like level overview of, cause you mentioned a couple of different tracks now you said vocational rehab and then you said self employment. How do you, what is the difference?

Raffa: 07:20 Actually vocational rehabilitation is one of the branches of the veterans affairs. And what they help with is they tried to help veterans reintegrate into the workforce.

Eric Coffie: 07:35 Okay.

Raffa: 07:36 I've got a screenshot. Let me see if I can show it to you. I took down that, that one that we just talked about and let's see if I can share this one. Nope. It looks like it's beyond my ability. But anyway, they look at reemployment, rapid access to employment, self-employment employment through longterm services and independent living. So those are the five tracks. And I think most veterans are familiar with going back to school and getting a degree or getting some kind of certificate.

Eric Coffie: 08:12 Okay. Okay. So what did you guys, what did, so what did you, and your particular case roughly, what did you do different than [inaudible] the go back to school and get the education? Because from what I understand, most people, you know, they do like a master's degree or they do like a formal education.

Raffa: 08:26 Absolutely. Well, first of all, I had my bachelor's. I didn't have a master's, but I wasn't in a career field where a master's would have made me any more viable in the, the job market. When I was in the military, I was with the engineers and I did a lot of training to work in construction and my interest was construction. After my second deployment I came back and one of the things, when you go to vocational rehab, I think a lot of veterans have it in their mind that, that they can go in and say, well, this is what I want to do. I want to get my Juris doctorate, or I want to become a social worker or whatever. When the focus should be the end result. You know, I would like to be involved with construction. I, and I'm no longer able to handle the physical requirements of my current job. I'd like to be in, in


IT or something like that. Rather than discussing, you know, the five meter target, which is I want to go back to school. In my case, going back to school didn't make sense. And I had done some contracting when I was in Afghanistan. So I saw, you know, how much opportunity was up there. And having received some of my acquisition certifications, I came back and I, I told my counselor that I wanted to continue working with the federal government but to do it as a contractor.

Eric Coffie: 10:04 Okay. Okay. And then can you walk us through that process? So then what was the next step?

Raffa: 10:09 After we agreed that I wasn't physically able to handle my duties any more, I had been employed in the post office. Once we, we both agreed that I wouldn't be able to do that. We started looking at different options. Now, something that I've been doing for a long time is rather than going to a counselor or a supervisor to give me an evaluation, I'll write my own accomplishments and objectives and it just makes it easier. So knowing that I wanted to go into federal contracting, I went and I had already approached the company, which was called Concrete Moisture Solutions, and I gave them a presentation and basically I gave a PowerPoint selling them on the idea of doing business with the federal government. Once they agreed to represent me, I took that back to my counselor and I told her that I wanted to be a consultant in the federal market and that I wanted to bring this admixture for Concrete Moisture Solutions to the forefront. So they put me in the OJT track, which meant that while I was working for concrete moisture solutions, I was pursuing my certifications. I was going to conferences, I was taking different courses online and, and attending different classes I was receiving per diem from the vocational rehabilitation.

Eric Coffie: 11:46 Okay. So, now does the OJT track, fall under vocational rehab as well?

Raffa: 11:53 It does.

Eric Coffie: 11:54 Okay. All right. So on a vocational rehab, you took the OJT track and there were no took self-employment track.


Raffa: 12:00 Yes.

Eric Coffie: 12:02 When you were going to the conferences and the certifications, how does that work? Do you pay for that stuff and the government reimburses you or do they pay you for how does that I was at working

Raffa: 12:13 Well the per diem comes every month. There's a form that I filled out. I think Concrete Moisture Solutions was giving me 1200 a month and I think that vocational rehab was around 19. And I had to fill out how many hours I spent getting presentations. I would show them how much travel time I spend, how much time I was spending, sending out solicitations and filling out bids and attending conferences. And then I would give them an invoice for the travel arrangements that I had done, including the hotel and the, the flights and things like that, and then they would reimburse me with that.

Eric Coffie: 12:56 Okay. Was that the same thing for like the courses as well?

Raffa: 13:00 Yes. Once I enrolled in a course, I would send them the invoice and then I would be reimbursed for it within a month.

Eric Coffie: 13:08 Okay Renona?

Renona : 13:10 Yes, sir.

Eric Coffie: 13:11 You took self-employment track?

Renona : 13:13 Yes. The self-employment track is a little bit more, I'm not, is a little bit, it is more specific to your specific business when it comes to a comprehensive training supplies soft supplies, meaning paper and pencil and things like that that you may need to run your business. With regard to the self-employment track, the first step more for all the tracks is, is of course you have to go to Voc rehab. They do a a comprehensive evaluation to see what your skill sets are. And just as Rafa said, you know, if you are unable, the key here is to help them reintegrate you into the workforce. So you had able to do, you know, what you did with your job and you need to learn a new skill. And so with self-employment, for me, you know, I've been an employee, I


was a specialist, I was a branch chief, you know, at every level. However, you know, I did not have the skill and knowledge and experience to start a company. And you know how that will look. And so, you know, once you sell your ideal to your counselor, you know, and get them to believe in you, then they have a program that they put you in to. They have several programs, but the one that they actually highly recommend is the accelerator program and accelerator program brings you in to see, okay, you had this idea about this business. So let's qualify and quantify that business. And let's see, is it just an ideal? Is it a hobby or is it something that we can qualify and quantify? And then is it something that can be sustainable? And once you go through the accelerator program and, and they help you do your business plan and and everything like that, then you're supposed to do, and this doesn't happen, but it's supposed to be a feasibility study.

Renona : 15:15 So for me, my opinion was a HR consultant company. And so you look at that and you say, okay, what are all of the hard costs that you need? You know, to do this? Do you need to be incorporated? They will reimburse you on that. Do you need a professional photo? Do you need a website? You need any hard or soft costs. As you can imagine, including a computer or whatever you need. You know, you had that on your feasibility study. Any certification, any courses like your course the Govcon course Is this something that can specifically help you with regard to doing government contracts? Then they'll, pay for that. They'll pay for any certifications that you need. You need your project management certification. They'll pay for traditional type of business. They'll pay for anything that is in alignment with what your company, your specific company is. And once you get, like initially when you go in, you have to apply for it and then they determine what tracking. So if you have a serious employment handicap or if you just have an employment handicap is one of the criteria. They look at a four, four track one, you can receive $1,000 in reimbursement for your, for track two, you can receive what the $25,000 now what that amount said, it's, it's not you can exceed that if you verify that. I knew this is fingerprint machine, you know, for my business, you know, in order for me to stand my business up because this is what my idea was by let's say I'm a staffing company or whatnot. So I need the specific computer or this


specific fingerprint machine or I need this. If you're a photographer, I need this type of camera, you know, I need this or feel farmer, I need these type of tools.

Renona : 17:14 Some things they don't reimburse it. Regulation is clear on that. And so as you go through the process, there's the, the things that they have reimburse you, academic wise, luminary stuff. And then when you get into the failings of standing your business up where you actually need those specific things, like let's say Govcon training, you need that, you need a mentor coach, they will reimburse your and so that's the self-employment track. Kind of in a nutshell is a little bit more you know, more detail because when you're dealing with your counselors, you think of it like a patient - doctor relationship where you know, you're constantly in communication with them about, you know, you may need to take a pivot or a turn for this and you may need this that you didn't realize in your feasibility study that you need now, you know, in order to stand up. And they'll say, okay, you got to sell that ideal and why. And then they can reimburse you, you know, either they can pay for, with a credit card or anything. If you pay out of pocket, then they'll reimburse you what you paid.

Eric Coffie: 18:24 A couple questions who devises a feasibility study? You do?

Renona : 18:29 Well, the feasibility study can be done with the accelarator through the accelerator program. Or you can even, let's say if you were a company that did a feasibility study for government contracts. Okay. You know, and I went in and I said, okay, here's the Govcon and Eric Coffie's company provides feasibility studies for this specific part of what my HR company needs because I would like to enter into the federal government market space. You know, what that looks like. And then my company ideal in my business. And you'll say, okay Renona, you want to do this? You want, okay, so maybe you need a mentoring and coaching certification and this is how much it's going to cost. Maybe you need to have I need to hire my, my, my, Oh, well if you're doing a specific feasibility study and you're looking at the company and say, well maybe you need Govcon that I could give you a step by step to show you everything you need to do with regard to registering and Sam's and you know, and then we'll hold your hand. So when you go


to post part of it, then you can hire us again, you know, for a one year because they do the postcard. Once you stand up where you can actually get a mentor and you can request these things. A lot of veterans don't notice. Part of, in fact, I learned as I went that I could've went, well, I need not just the accelerator, but I may need a specific HR company that I can model or mentor protege, they can give me, okay, what do you, what exactly do you want your business to look like? You know, are you going to be a staffing? Are you going to benefits or how does that relate to government contracts? So it's you gotta be really clear, you know, what you want to do when you're talking to your counselor and explaining that to them and hope that they get that picture and then that they believe in the ideal and you know, and then they'll checkmark. Okay. And if, and if you, if they don't, you have to convince them as to why. And most times you know, you're able to do that if you, if you really have those needs for the business.

Eric Coffie: 20:47 Now you said there's different tracks and you'd mentioned track one right?

Renona : 20:51 The track, the, there's the first three tracks or like Raffa said, was for a on the job training and the other two, they're all academic. They're there. Oh tracks, let's say a person, Oh let me say this too, just so veterans and, no, no, I have my masters degree and it doesn't matter about, but if you have a degree because the Volk rehab will give you that challenge, you know, some offices will say, well we're not a degree program and we're not there, but that's specific degree may not be what you need that you can use too if you are unable based on your service connected disabilities to either get a job or start a business. And so, you know, in a way the more empowered and educated that veterans are with regulation in what they say, you know, the better off you are with regard to challenging those type of obstacles that will come your way. Cause they, they will come your way in the program. Just so there's, so the independent living there's another one that is,

Eric Coffie: 22:11 Can you see my screen? Can you see it?

Renona : 22:13 Yes sir. I can see.


Eric Coffie: 22:14 Okay. Right. So is that, is that what we're talking about? The veteran employment attracts redeployment, rapid access to employment, self-employment.

Renona : 22:22 I see, I see the five employment tracks, but I don't,

Eric Coffie: 22:25 okay, let me, lets do this, well I have mine. Okay.

Raffa: 22:37 Yeah, that looks like a good list right there.

Eric Coffie: 22:40 Okay. So I think I need Rafa Oh yeah, that's it. Okay. You stopped sharing Rafa.

Raffa: 22:45 okay. I think I stopped. Does it look like that?

Renona : 22:49 Okay. I see the top one one. Okay.

Renona : 22:53 You got a mom reemployment you did, that's good. Can you see that? Yes. All right.

Eric Coffie: 22:57 Reemployement. Rapid access employment, self-employment and employement through longterm services and independent living. Yeah, that's it. Okay, perfect. All right, keep going. Okay.

Renona : 23:06 And so I think I answered, I think I, but I didn't just let me know specifically, I lost my,

Eric Coffie: 23:13 okay. Now while I was asking you, you said track one and track two, track three. Yeah. Most of them are all educational tracks. And you were beyond the education port port?

Renona : 23:24 Well for me because I, I, you know, I had a business, I had an ideal to start a business. Okay. And so for me, I was, I was unable to continue to work and, and that is one of the criteria I couldn't have sustainable. So self-employment and independent living are along those lines where you can't Work. Mmm. You know, but you can start a business, you know, we have the flexibility or independent living where you can start a business but maybe there was a hobby or, so you want to do the, we have a fulfilled life and that's what independent living is also. Oh, closely along with self employment.


Eric Coffie: 24:08 Now, Raffa what made you, okay, what made you choose OJT over self-employment? Well, I, by the way, before I asked you the question, I don't see OJT on this screen.

Renona : 24:18 OJT, I believe falls underneath balm. One of these, I forgot which one of the other three. I'm not as familiar as I am with self appointment, but it falls underneath one of those.

Eric Coffie: 24:30 Right. Okay. Okay. All right.

Raffa: 24:33 Yeah, it probably falls under that long term employment through longterm services. Okay. But yes, it does.

Eric Coffie: 24:42 You're right. It's, I see it here on the job training.

Raffa: 24:44 Right, right. My reason for it was two fold. First of all, I was entering the market with the product that I really believed that has application long term application. So if if I was able to get the admixtures into the federal market, I would have a reoccurring supply with the federal government from concrete moisture solutions and I would continue receiving revenue from that company.

Eric Coffie: 25:17 Gotcha. Okay.

Raffa: 25:18 I'll, so with the self-employment track, I've, it wasn't my personal experience, but I have known other people that say they're simply pointed towards the small business administration for guidance on how to do a business plan and how to go forward and, and they're put in contact with a PTAC, all of that. I could do without vocationalrehabilitation. So for me to do the OJT, it gave me a two prong approach to getting into federal contracting. One, I had the civilian company supporting my, my endeavors, and then I also had vocational rehabilitation giving me that additional platform to move forward. So, yeah, I don't know how it was with her. Renona Once I left the post office and I began going forward with getting my certifications and registering in SAM and, getting my LLC registered and, and going to Washington D C for conferences and Orlando to meet with NASA and to South Carolina to meet with his fan, the nuclear plant. And just doing that, traveling it it pulled me away from any source of revenue if I hadn't been going this track that


I, I had built up, you know, every point along the way, I was receiving the two sources of income, one from the company that wanted me to get them into the government and one from the government wanting me to get the certifications to be able to stand up on my own. Having said that, I also want to be very clear that when I set up Brave One Contract Agency in order for me to get my certifications, my Service Disabled Veteran certification, my economically disadvantaged woman owned small business, my HUBZones certification, all of that was contingent on my personal demographics. And that required me to be my own LLC. Even though I was working for concrete moisture, I was not directly an employee for them. . And it goes along the pattern of what you're talking about being a consultant. Right.

Eric Coffie: 27:43 So, Now let me ask you this. What did it, I know we know that you approached them, but what made you believe that you could approach them?

Raffa: 27:53 Vocational rehabilitation.

Eric Coffie: 27:55 Yeah. What made you believe that they would go for that?

Raffa: 27:58 Well, I kind of operate off this rule of three and I think we've talked about this. You're gonna have to tell me no three times before I give up. And like Renona probably 10 years ago after I got back from Afghanistan, I came back to the States. I went through my yellow ribbon and I did my medical evaluation and I was having problems with my hips. So I received a disability rating and I got the letter and I contacted the Winston Salem vocation rehabilitation. I told them I am now qualified as a disabled veteran. I'd like to come and do my evaluation. I thought I could just go in and, and talk to them and convince them that the post office was no longer a viable career. Cause I was in the national guard and I went in and I think I addressed it incorrectly, you know, and again, that was about 10, 12 years ago, maybe 15 now.

Raffa: 28:57 And I went in with the idea that I could get another degree or I could readjust myself to go into another career field. After I got back from Kuwait, my disability rating was increased and I realized you don't really go in and, and say, you know, I want to


go to school and this is what I want and I need this Apple computer and I, you know, I want to have these ergonomic chairs and desks and everything. It was more, I'm not physically able to do this job anymore. And my interest is contracting, you know, having deployed three times and working in contracting two of the three times. It gave me an idea that it was an area that I was interested in, something that was exciting to me, you know, Meeting a need and being able to supply something. It kept me involved, but, and I knew after Kuwait that my time with the military is going to be limited. I've been diagnosed with cancer. I physically I just wasn't going to be able to continue through. So I started examining my options.

Eric Coffie: 30:06 Renona, Something that Raffa mentioned interesting enough was that did you experience that in a self-employment track where they tried to send you to the SBA for all your training and to the PTACS? Was that your experience?

Renona : 30:18 Yeah, that's, that's absolutely right. Well she said because the self employement track is not a popular track. They tried to, I don't want to say they, and I don't want to say what they tried, but it's, it's true. It, you know, it's yes, they shy you away from apply for self-employment track because it's a process and there's a lot who it, you know, you're walking in there and you're saying, know I'm unable to because of my disability. No, I have an Employment barrier. I can't work for anyone. You know, and then you're saying that I need help, you know, and I, I still have, I have the strong desire to start my business. Can you help me? You know, and then they're gonna say, well, we can retrain you, blah, blah blah, you know, and they're going to kind of discourage you into self employment. Try. That's what one of the things I say, to people that I talked to about it is you gotta do your homework. First time I went, I was denied, you know, because I didn't, and then the second time I dug into regulation and I saw, but this is the self-employment track is for veterans and guarding the monies. I mean to start a business. That's what a lot of, Oh, a lot of people is the startup called, are you looking for grants? And they send me on a wild goose says going in the SBS V has gotten better. Go to SBA. You can listen to all these videos and things like that. And you know, there's days that you have to do but it costs money. So do your LLC costs money, you know, to do certain things. It's going to cost you money. You


know, the do all these things in the VA is saying, Hey, you have this service, this disabled employment handicap and we're going to help you, you know, retrain you and we're going to provide X amount of monies to help you stand your business up. Know once we verified that it is quantity, quantity, qualifying, Mmm yeah, sustainable business, yes, we're going to pay these things. Now you got to tell us the things that you need. What, what are the specific things that you need, you know, to help your business.

Renona : 32:42 And this is where the other tracks don't pay, is they will pay for these things. They will pay not only for your, would they pay for the computer and the desks and all that kind of stuff. If, especially if you have a reasonable combination, they'll pay for that, but that's outside of what you need to stay in your business. If you need a special computer that may, you know, cause you $5,000 or whatever the case may be, I'm just throwing an amount out there then and you can't afford to pay for that, you know, to start, that's going to stop you, preclude you from starting your business and you in this, in your feasibility study that you need this, then the VA will pay for that for you. Okay. And so to answer a question, do they discourage and is it attract that people don't necessarily pursue? That's true. You know, cause everybody is not a business owner minded type thinking person. Initially I just knew I was at the end of my rope when it came to working for someone I couldn't do. Right. Well my next thing was I want to start my business. I want to give back and here's a track that VA has. What do I need to do to be eligible to qualify for this track right now?

Eric Coffie: 33:56 Where'd you find that information at? Well, in terms of how you determine if you're eligible for that particular track?

Renona : 34:03 and the in, in and the N28, what is it N28R? I can provide all the resources, but.

Eric Coffie: 34:12 we can do it. We can share it afterwards. Yeah. Yeah. I provide all the resources. I.

Renona : 34:17 also follow a Bejamin Kraus. Oh, on a veteran to veteran. He's one of the only veteran lawyers that talks about all the tracks. It doesn't talk about self employment a lot, but he does talk about


self employment. And so he has a workbook on how to prepare yourself before you go talk to your counselor. Actually followed his steps. And that's when I did that. That's when I got approved. So it says getting into the regulation and chapter eight talks about the self employment track and the N28R, and this is not a very user friendly cause they also climb compare with war worms. So it's all kind of separated this way that you're scrolling now. But if you go to Benjamin Krause, Mmm. Oh website Benjamin Krause, there you go. And he has a mess. His newsletter that he puts out and it gives you vote, rehab tips. He has a website that actually has an Intuit like altogether. So you don't have to try to navigate through.

Renona : 35:27 Okay. You know, and find everything that you need. So he has everything. A once in one, I'm in one spot. Okay. Okay. I researched. So to answer your question, our research, I read, I did my homework and when I went to talk to the counselor, I was prepared. So I will tell, you know, veterans, just be prepared, know what you're entitled to, figuring out what is best for you, what you'd like to do and then pursue that. Don't want, won't take no for an answer. Like Raffa said, no, I go three times, I go more than three, I do eight, I'm excessive. But you know, that's where I'm successful. You know, persistence is the number one key to success. Not, not talking persistent. Now, you know.

Eric Coffie: 36:18 No, no, I have it here in chapter eight. The guidelines for development administration of a self-employment plan. You got it. Okay. Now you you talked about you know, once you get on the track you had to put together the budget. Do you have is that something that's, we can maybe a tweak so we could share it with people later on. We could take yours and revamp it and make it something that's non non secretive, you know?

Renona : 36:44 Yeah, yeah. I I did it in a yes, I'll definitely share it with you. I shared with a lot of my veteran friends that are pursuing it now.

Eric Coffie: 36:53 Yeah. Okay. Okay. Excellent. Okay, good. Now So again, it won't be the first step for someone worth. Where should they start?

Renona : 37:02 The first step is the contact vote rehabilitation. And so you're interested in the services through both rehab. You don't have to


be specific to what service because most of the offices you have to go through a four hour. I don't have no assessment. Assessment seminar. They'll send you a test. Did you have to take prior to your, Oh, you know, prior to going to that appointment. So you gotta make sure you do that. And then when you go in, you need to have the application, which I share. I don't have the form number off the top of my head. You need to add an application submitted. So you should have an idea of what it is you want to do because they'll bring the group in, they'll do this assessment, and then they'll break you off into individual counselors. And then at that point is a vital, that's your first appointment. And you need to be prepared because that's when you go in there and you use selling your ideal on what track, if it's self employment or one of the other tracks, no, what you want to do and why. And that's when you're talking to that counselor about that. Then they'll pull up and they'll look at your assessment and they'll say, I remember the first time I went, well, you know, you're qualified for these other types of things. You know? And I'm like, yeah, but I'm not interested in those other types of things. This is what I want to do, you know? So it's based on your interests. You know, so they discourage you and then, you know, you just have to sell yourself To your counselor.

Eric Coffie: 38:32 Would that be the same thing Raffa you experience an OJT Trak? What would be some of the steps?

Raffa: 38:37 Pretty much. It didn't go exactly like Renona said. I contacted vocational rehab, made the appointment, walked into a conference room with probably 20 other that veterans waited for my name to be called out when I eventually got back with my counselor. Like I said earlier, I already had a plan to go forward. I had an idea what I wanted to address and, and how I wanted to sell it to her. Renona is right. This isn't something that you go into thinking, I'll just ask them if they can helped me start my business. You know, they, they want to know that it's got legs, that it has some kind of foundation under it. You know, there, there's a lot of resources out there for veterans and sometimes it's almost like information overload, you know, there's just so much out there. And Renona and I both went to different training that We know it was a federally funded event, but to walk away with something that was valuable that was


kind of questionable. When you go in, you talk to your vocational rehabilitation counselor, let them know that you're working towards that goal, whatever it is. In my case, it was to get into the construction field and Renona's case it was human resources. And you know, I, I'm sure there's some veterans out there that would like to start a brewery or they want to do an eBay store or, or graphic arts or something like that. So go with that plan and help them realize the end point that you're going towards. You know, don't go in and say, I just need you to help me because they have a really heavy workload. You know, I've seen where the goal is one counselor to 125 veterans that I understand a lot of them have more than that. So when you go in, have that, have that end goal in your mind when you're talking to them. I think the reason they prefer academics is because that's a Trident true Avenue that a lot of veterans use. You know, but and even with that,

Eric Coffie: 40:59 Well it's tried and true in terms of I guess you could say effectively you can achieve a receiving a degree, right? So that's the only tried-and-true portion of it. But in terms of you know, workforce work, work force or employment or needs or compensation for being paid, that doesn't, it's no longer tried and true.

Raffa: 41:20 Absolutely. And the thing with veterans is when you get out of the military, you know, the Montgomery bill was a great educational program. I mean, you go to college and you receive E5 Stipend, that's a very good allowance to have. So a lot of vets will leave the military and they'll begin their college and it will be like a job. But the end, it's not a guarantee. There are other programs and if you look back at the one that I felt, you know, OJT, they also have apprenticeship, which is brilliant.

Eric Coffie: 41:55 You know, the apprenticeship is wonderful. I think that's the way to go. I absolutely, you know, especially if you're going to go into a trade like air conditioning or electrical or carpentry versus a education.

Raffa: 42:08 Absolutely. And you know, one of the really sweet things that I found out, I've been putting in beds and one of my areas is elevator maintenance. You don't even need a college degree and you know, you're looking at 80 K plus as an apprentice. So,


and why not go that route, right? I mean, we're short in the crafts in America and it's something that vocational rehab will help you follow. You know, I did the OJT because there's a lot of paperwork involved with being a contractor, you know, and we've had that conversation where, you know, how many businesses want to sit there and, and write the solicitation and make sure we're compliant with DFARS, you know, understand that our cybersecurity's on point and all that. So, you know, that happens to be my sweet spot. So I enjoy doing it. But I also like construction, so, but it's hard, you know, it's hard to do a demo and then do a solicitation and then, you know, make sure your crews out there painting when they need to be and the roofers are using the right kind of screws. You know what I mean? So to stay on top of it. But I do think the apprenticeship program with the vocational rehab is, it might be under utilized. I think it's a great way to go forward.

Eric Coffie: 43:26 Wow. Apprenticeship program. We're known as you were saying that you learned some new things recently you want to share?

Renona : 43:33 Yeah, as a matter of fact, I was on the phone this morning for almost two hours with the VA. Okay. Regarding my own case. And I'm one of the things that I learned, which they do, they have an a M Oh my goodness. I lost my train of thought. Well, but okay. But they have a headquarters that you can call when you have issues with your. You know, with your counselor if you're not getting the answers that you need. And I reached out to them. Well, one of the things I learned is that when they talk about the $25,000 in the a hundred thousand dollars they're talking about the 25,000 that's specific to whatever your business needs are. Tha can even exceed that amount if your business needs Lord. That in both cases, and I didn't know that I, I thought that those were things that were the preliminary part. Meaning, you know, the, the your LLC to get incorporated, Which they pay for all of that to do for your wet, your website, your professional photo, your insurance for up to one year. You know, in anything other preliminary stuff that you need just to be in the ready mode for your business. You know, they will pay, but they don't count that those monies as the monies that you need that are specific. Your business, which is that $25,000


or a hundred thousand now, depending on what track you get approval.

Raffa: 45:04 I read the self-employment track to that when [inaudible] was talking about, and there are certain things that the vocation we have won't pay for it. They won't pay for you to purchase vehicles or to purchase a building or lease office space per se. Yeah.

Renona : 45:24 And that's true. That's true, Raffa. But I'll tell you that there's less things that they won't pay for and what they will. So like the office space, I mean, that makes sense. Okay. Or based business, you can do it at home, so they're not going to pay for your lease. But they also pay for posts. Okay. So if you need a mentor for a year or business consultant, they'll pay for that.

Eric Coffie: 45:49 That's great. That's, that's golden.

Renona : 45:52 Yeah. They want you, they want you to be successful. They want you to stand your business up and to be successful. And they created this program, you know. To, to do just that. It's an excellent program. It really is. It doesn't have to be, it could be any business like Rocky is, you know, anything. Yeah. Providing opportunities or for yourself or for other veterans. Well, now one thing that they won't do, they do help with franchise businesses, but they don't pay the franchise fees. Okay. And they, they do they don't do nonprofit. So if you do a nonprofit has to be a nonprofit for profit. So those are some specific things that they know. Oh, but they don't reimburse.

Eric Coffie: 46:41 Okay. I'm a veteran, I'm coming out and I'm, I'm listening to this and I'm excited. I'm saying, okay. You know, I want to get started and you know, I, I've got an idea for business and I want to get into the government contracting space for what's my business, you know, how long is this going to take me to get up and running? How long is it going to take me to get into these programs? What does that, what's the timeframe like? Yeah. Well, or better yet. Raffa what was your timeframe before you, you know, you were able to get any sort of, you know, you went to the company for the concrete moisture. How long before, you know, the you gotta you were approved and the


government started reimbursing you or paying you your per diem. How long was that timeframe?

Raffa: 47:32 I think if you can remember right. I think within two months, I'm sure within two months I was getting checks from both CMS and vocational rehab at that time. Okay. And you know, again, there's, there's a difference between my construction side and my federal side. Like I, I have different jobs going on, but it, it took me several solicitations before I had any kind of response, you know, I mean, I did not have a first time homerun and I don't know if I'm the exception or the rule on this, but.

Eric Coffie: 48:11 no one has first time home runs.

Raffa: 48:14 So while I was going through that, I was still being supported. You know, I still have vocational where you have on the left shoulder and I had, you know, CMS on the right, you know, saying, keep going, keep going forward with this.

Eric Coffie: 48:25 Okay. Okay. Renona, how long did it take before you, when you, you know, when, why don't you made a decision, how long before you were be able to be reimbursed for your expenses? Are the tracks or you know, the education, things like that, that the travel, the conferences,

Renona : 48:42 Well, the, the education part of it was pretty much immediately because I was eligible for post 911 monies. So the BA, the H part of it was, you know, as soon as the semester started, which was maybe 60 days. Okay. When I was there to eligible to see that. Now the track itself, I applied for track one. And that took over a year for them to disapprove me. However, I was still allowed to go into the accelerator to see if my business was, you know, go through the process, so to speak. Right. and when I was disapproved for the track one, you automatically approved for track two, but that's that's over a year before yeah, before they approved.

Eric Coffie: 49:35 That was just for the, I'm sorry, go ahead. Yeah, that was for the track. Right, right, right, right. But they were still you were still getting per diem for one piece of it.


Renona : 49:46 I was still getting paid and they still reimbursed me. You know, some of the expenses that I incuured.

Eric Coffie: 49:50 Okay. All right. Okay. What would you, is it either one of you could take a stab at this? What would you like to say to someone out here who's considering going down this path?

Raffa: 50:01 Be resilient. Don't give up. Don't stop at the first step. Road block you hit, because I know I said it earlier, there's so much out there that is being offered to the veterans, the vocational rehab. You can find a way through this, you know, do your homework, go in, have an idea where you're going with it. And even between Renona and myself, we took slightly different course of actions. But in truth, I think we received a lot of the same stipends and, and pay outs. You know, I got paid to take training, I got paid to do my LLC and my certifications. But when I presented it to my counselor, I did it in tandem with a company that already been established. It's worth it. But it's not a walk in the park. You have to, you have to put in your time.

Eric Coffie: 51:02 Renona?

Renona : 51:04 Well, one of the things I would would tell a veteran is, you know, the first thing you need to do is take an assessment of where you are. And you know, if you are having a hard time out there in the workforce and you're unable to, you know, to function, you know, know that there are programs out there that will help you. And once you know that within yourself, you know, you identify that with whatever path. If it's that you need to be trained into a new skill or you have an idea for a business, or maybe you just can't function and you know, and you need the independent living track, but you want to feel fulfilled, you want to learn how to crochet, you want to learn how to knit or whatever it is, you know, so that you feel fulfilled and that you're able to help your family. When you decide that and you assess that, then the next step is to prepare and know that you have resources out there, they're going to help you. No. One thing I want to be clear about is that the regulations are clear. They're clear and what you're entitled to. And there are some offices or not the same officers.


Renona : 52:22 We may go in and talk to a counselor and you may get things like Raffa was really blessing some of the things was able to get, but those things aren't necessarily covered in the regulation. So the regulation and policy is on your side, prepare, do your homework. And when you're going back and forth with them, you just say, well, doesn't it say right here? Then I'm entitled to blah, blah, blah. And you sold them and then they can't deny that. And if you're not getting resolution, well then you take it to the next level. You take it to the next level. And I remember what I was going to say. There's a liaison office, Mmm. That you can contact. Did you can, you know, let them know that I'm not getting the support that I need, you know, from, and they'll, they'll look at policy. That's all they do is they'll look at policy, they'll contact that office and they'll say, okay, tell us why you're not supporting this veteran for this ideal or this, that. And the other. So you do have a support system out there, you know, just do, do, assess yourself, see where you are, you know where you are with your family, you know how you are functioning out there in society. You know, at the workplace if you aren't able to do certain things, know that there are resources I'll do to help you so that you can continue. Life doesn't stop because you can't, no, you can't continue to move forward. So, you know, I really want to emphasize that because there's a lot of veterans out there, PSD D and certain, they just feel lost and that there's programs out there for you, nonprofit organizations, no all types of things. And this is one excellent program that that will help you. Voc rehab will help you.

Eric Coffie: 54:08 What I'd like to say in closing, if there's any additional resources that you, either one of you have that you want to send to me, I can make sure to include that with the show notes from this particular recording so that way wherever we people find us or find the information, all of your company's show notes, like for example, Renona I know you mentioned about the Benjamin Krouse and I know you have a few other resources that she, you know, that was able to utilize. And I helped you along the way. Same thing with your Rafa. I know if you've got any other resources that you might, can help steer people and guide them. They can, you know, do some research on her own while thinking about how to pursue this. That will be helpful. And then I could make sure to include the links for those pages and any other additional notes with the content. Okay, fair enough.


Renona : 54:59 Can I just say one more thing?

Eric Coffie: 55:00 Sure. Yeah.

Renona : 55:01 And also with Eric's program with Govcon, you know, I, I, and he didn't say, he didn't ask me to say this, but I just want to endorse this is that Govcon is it's one of the few programs and I did a lot of research if you guys are interested in pursuing the federal government sector, you know, the Govcon, Govcon con process in Eric's presence on YouTube, I found him on YouTube is excellent. It does snippets, well there's not a whole lot of information. You understand it, you follow his step-by-step and I'm telling you, you'd be 50% ahead of, you know, where you need to be when you get ready to enter into the federal tgovernment sector. And then your next phase is of course with Voc rehabilitation. They can help you with the rest to include paying for any program or services that he offers. So he didn't pay me to say that I wanted to endorse your name.

Eric Coffie: 56:04 No, no, no, I didn't. Well, you know, one of the things that you mentioned was, again education right there, most people are teaching and you get, how do you say that? You said they're teaching you what the educational piece, but not the practical side.

Renona : 56:16 They teach you the academics, but they let you how to start your business. You know, well, how do I become a business owner? How do I enter into the Federal government? What do I do? I write a solicitation research. How do I do all these things that you teach?

Eric Coffie: 56:31 And I would agree with you. I see that even when I read people's contents, they tell you about the far in the rules and, you know, but that doesn't help me to learn how to actually pursue a contract action or an activity or I like, or like Raffa go out and find myself someone, a company that I can represent and take their product to the market and be able to benefit from it. And I think, you know, Raffa you did that and I know you're still in that process and there were no one I know, you know, working with you. We were able to help a company get right there. We were to match up a company and as an agency. And so I know you're working on that particular project and


we've got some more stuff coming out. So I listen, I'm happy. I'm happy for the progress that everyone's making the sake both of you for coming on today and sharing your knowledge and your information. And I, and I just thought it was valuable because again. I am receiving a lot of inquiries from people that are veterans and it seems to me that they're not aware of these programs exist because if they were, they would have, you know, their inqueries would be different. And so based on the information they're sharing you know, I know that I said, look, we've got to grab some people cause I, cause even before the two of you, someone else I know took advantage of the program, but I never was able to to like wrestle them down and get that information. But I had heard it before. So there's some other people that are in the community that have done this.

Eric Coffie: 58:02 I can't remember who they were, but I know that just because it's the two of you. I interact with regularly or visa, visa through Maria. I do those, the two of you at least or two people that I knew that successfully did it. And you know, we've got the reimbursement for the course, everything paid for. So I thought that was great. And again, like I said, I'm not the expert on this particular subject matter. So I said let me bring us some people who've actually done it, gone through the process and can share it with others. So I thank you for that. Thank you for your service. And so with that we're going to go ahead and close out and I will make sure, like I said, all the notes, send them to me and I will put them and publish them on the website and also wherever we run these videos.

Eric Coffie: 58:46 Okay. Sounds good. That was great. Thank you so much guys. Today's episode was special for me because it reminded me of a much larger issue that I faced while writing a grant application submission from Miami Dade County. There are a host of program services, grants, foundations, agencies, organizations that are supporting women, minorities, Fetterman, small businesses, but they don't have the budget to promote themselves like say a visa or MasterCard commercial. So it's up to us to discover, to learn about them, to leverage, to take advantage of this vast array of opportunities. And this is why I'm so thankful that I've been given the to where I can share these programs as I learn about them. I hope that this episode can be a blessing to someone out there in the world, and I hope that


you too can share it with someone who has great potential, but may have lost their way. We cannot forget those persons who gave so much to protect us from harm's way. Thank you for listening. Thank you for giving me this platform to be a blessing to others. This is Eric Coffie signing out. Until next time.


govcon giants podcast · web viewbefore we get started today. i just want to let everyone know out...

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