Making A Giant 009: Maria Martinez & A Govcon Alumni - Understanding the value of time and harnessing your potential through learning and determination

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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