Maria Martinez shows middle man technique with engineering firm

Hello, hello, hello! We going live. Can you guys see me? Can you hear me? Let me know who's out there.

All right, my man truly blessed. First one, what's up? Barbara world, all right. Colin, I see my man calling, jumping on. What's going on, brother? Hey y'all gonna ask me some hard questions today? What are we gonna do? How's everyone? Actually, it's funny. Marie and I, we just left from the site visit over here by the space center. It's really cool. I don't know if you guys saw the pics that we put on here, but we were at the space center and some people that recognized me was like, 'Eric!' So we hooked up. It was great seeing folks out here actually attending site visits. It's the first physical site visit that we've been to that I can remember since COVID happened. So the first time we actually went to a real site visit, that was really neat. We were happy about that. That was cool. And then of course to see some other GovCon giants on a site visit was even better. I was more incredible. I hit her story and it was just an awesome feeling. I was really, really thrilled to see other people out there. And I tell them, they're like, 'Eric, we did not expect to see you out here.' I go, 'Look, you're telling me you're gonna look? There's a four million dollar contract in my backyard and you don't expect to see me?' So they thought it was funny. But listen, oh yeah. So you like Maria's shirts? So you saw the Maria's MJ Global shirts? Maria's coming up. Colin, you see little Maria? She's coming up. Yeah, we had MJ Global shirts. So we're actually in Jupiter now and we're going to look at another project tomorrow. So yeah, it was nice. I like the shirts. What's up, Piggy Banks? But no, Maria has a lot of opportunities. She received some more opportunities today. We're on the road in between site visits, so things are looking really good for her. I can see a day in her near future, even though she may not want to hear it. Did anyone catch last week's YouTube live? Anybody have anything they're working on that they have any challenges with? I know we're getting close to the end of the fiscal year out there. Anybody have anything they're working on, any challenges? Any you graduated 8(a)? Wow, when did you graduate?

So I heard you guys talking about my shirt, so I had to share it. There you go, there's MJ Global. And also to thank everyone. I know I said I was nervous, and it's true. It was a huge project, but I reflected and I have to do it. I have to make that jump in order to achieve more. And like you said, I have to have bigger goals so they could come to me. So today has been a very exciting day.

Nice, nice. So tell, you know, it's interesting. We were talking last week about smaller projects versus the larger projects. By the way, so everyone knows, we did not plan this. Maria did not tell me she was going to jump on live. So I just want to let you guys know that this is totally out of the blue. She did not plan this at all. Okay, but I'm happy she did come on live. So since everybody's so quiet, like everyone's nervous. By the way, Maria's too nervous to show her video, so now she's like... It's cool. But yeah, talk to us. So tell us about the smaller contracts and then the bigger projects and the amount of work that goes into it.

I think that's one of the biggest reasons I'm taking a chance and going to the bigger project was because the smaller projects have been great, trust me. They've given me past performance and everything, but they bring headaches, like dealing with subcontractors on something that's like four grand, versus then I see you dealing with the same issues at other prices. It's like, dude, wait a second. You said four grand? So what are my other prices? Your prices are like millions, four million. So use zeros to yours. But like subcontractors not showing up, or then they come and say, 'Oh, there's a change order, we didn't see that in the scope of work, nobody gave us this.' All those things drain you physically and mentally. I've learned that I have to put my foot down and be more stern. I think that's one of the biggest lessons I'm taking away from being in business. You can't just be like, 'Okay, you're gonna be late, it's okay,' and hear all these excuses. So if I'm gonna get headaches, I'm gonna get worth headaches. They're gonna be worth it. It's okay if you're giving me a headache if this is something huge. So I think that has been the biggest pivot point in trying to go for these bigger contracts. And also, the small projects gave me a little bit of confidence, but okay, small headaches, big headaches, it's the same frustration that you go through. So you don't equate the dollar amount with the amount of headaches? No, I think people are still going to frustrate you, and I just got to make it worth the frustration at the end of the day.

Okay, okay, continue. Of course.

No, and like I was, somebody told me today, you said I had an opportunity to come up. And the owner of this company, he's like, 'I'm on a bear hunt.' I'm like, 'What?' He's like, so he's up there in North Carolina enjoying his life while he sends other people to go to site visits. So it's just that level that I want to get to. I'm not the one traveling and going to sites, I'm not the one sitting down writing proposals, I'm not the one having to get the phone calls and having to tell the commander engineer, 'Oh, the guy's not coming again.' So it's just so much that someone could take for what we're getting.

Right, right, right. No, that's interesting. But yeah, Colin says bigger budget headaches, I'll take bigger budget headaches any day. I agree. But it's interesting that you know, and I have, I don't know how many people ever read the book The Secret. I don't know if anyone out here read the book The Secret, but I really do believe that when you start setting your mind to something, the world conspires to help you, to assist you, and it comes together. And Marie was very worried or very concerned about this particular project and how it was gonna all come together. And when we went up here, did the stars start aligning for you?

Yeah, reached out. Yeah, it started from the beginning. I didn't think I was gonna do it. I was like, 'How am I gonna pull this off?' And even coming here, I was nervous. And even being at the site visit, that place is huge. That is a huge base. I was telling my mom, just in the bus, it took us 30 minutes just to circle it. So then that came up, and then one of our greatest podcast guests says that he'll help me because that's what he does. So that alone calmed my nerves a little bit. Then getting here again, I got nervous again because how am I gonna know numbers? And somebody else like, 'Oh, if you want, I'll help you out.' He was one of the other people here. So it's like people come to you when you need them. And like I was telling you earlier, you can't do this alone. There's no way. And I tell other people, we have to work together, if not we're gonna get stuck.

Okay, so when we say that, right, one, two of the people that attended the site... So how many people were outside? Was it about six? About six people, six groups? I thought it was more like ten. All right, let's say ten people. But out of the ten companies, right, two of the companies agreed to work with us.

Yeah, so just by us showing up and being present, two of the companies agreed to work with us. And one of the companies actually said they weren't even going to bid it. Yeah, he's like, 'You know what, I don't know if I'm ready for that headache. It's a good one and everything, but if I'm not putting my hat in there, but if you want to do it, I'll give you my people.' He told me about what he knows, what the issues are going to be already, what I'm going to need. He has project managers because he does other big landscaping projects somewhere else, like Camp Lejeune and stuff like that. So he's like, 'I'll give it to you. I'll help you put it together and we just go for it.'

Nice, no, I like it. I like it. I mean, again, I could have predicted that. I didn't know that was gonna happen. I always say just trust, have faith. And that's how I live. I tell people, 'Look, don't go forward. Take the first step. Go to the stop sign. After you get to the stop sign, go to the next stop sign.' So many people are brain wrestling about how am I going to do this and how am I going to handle that. And Maria was like, 'Well Eric, but the guy who was supposed to come is not going with us to the site. Is it the guy who was supposed to help us bid it? And he didn't call us back. And this person let us know.' And it was like so many, I don't want to say excuses, but just so many reasons to have something. I'm gonna say that I was gonna like, you can't allow the excuses to stop you. Because I could easily stay at home because I left a project in Miami. I was like, 'I can't deal with you guys right now. I need to be on the road.' And even the people at the Coast Guard, my engineer was excited, the maintenance guy was excited for me and things like that. So it's like I just had to keep going. Just show up. Because I said, even if I think it's too much and it's overwhelming, if I show up at least I don't have to what if. What if I would have went? What if I did? What if that? So what if I put it in? I put my name in the hat in order to even have a little chance.

Actually, we had one of our podcast guests, it's not out yet, Carol Craig from Craig Technologies. She's coming out with a podcast. And she submitted an RFI. NASA had some equipment that they didn't want to use. They wanted someone to take over the NASA equipment, have it for five years, and then give it back to them. And she submitted an RFI to actually be the recipient of this NASA equipment, and she won it. And she's like, 'We just didn't think that we would win it.' And I mean, she literally got access to this free NASA equipment for five years to use it and then return it back to NASA. And that's kind of where the manufacturing side of her business took off. And she just really started doing some incredible things. And now, when you guys hear the podcast when it comes out in a few weeks, you'll hear about how now she's working with NASA and she's actually helping with some of the satellites, the launches, the manifest. If you want to send your product up in space and you want to get it on the space station, you go through her company and she can do it at a very affordable cost versus using SpaceX or Blue Origin. And I mean, just think if you're comparing yourself and your company to SpaceX, you are like... Like everybody's gonna show up. She's like, 'Up there, my opinion, some people know that I'm the one that helps put, get find the guest for the podcast.' When I heard Carol speak at the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce, I was like, 'Oh, she's a beast.' I heard her speak and I came back to you and I told her, and I even told her, 'Here you speak because it wasn't like your typical speech, like, 'Oh, I do this, I do that,' and your typical soft spoken. She's out there and saying, 'If you're a woman-owned business, you better be in the forefront of your business. You better know what your business is, how you're running your business, everything. Don't let other people think that you're in the admin side.' And it's funny because today when I got there, the people from Miami, they're very like, it's hard being women in business, especially like construction and all this stuff. People look at you, I'm all by five too, so as soon as people look at me, they're like, 'Oh,' and even now he's like, 'You're GC?' I'm like, 'Do you need me to show you something to prove that I am?' So it's like hearing her speak and telling people, 'Just do it.' And that was before I knew she was even with robot arms and stuff like that. So she's awesome.

All right, well listen, thank you for coming on. Bye guys. It's a chance to talk. I want somebody to jump. I want someone else to try. All right, see you, take care. All right, good stuff. Landscape South, where y'all at? I was supposed to jump in. Come on. By the way, I'm not hanging out with y'all for an hour tonight, so I'm telling y'all now. I'm gonna go ahead and plug it because it's my gig. Every Monday at 6 PM Eastern time, we do YouTube lives. And now what I've been doing is every Monday we set up around a theme. I think last week was proposal writing. I gave some examples of proposal writing. We talked about RFIs before. We've talked about subcontracting. And now coming up, we're going to do management consulting, joint ventures, teaming arrangements. But hold on, let me see somebody wants to join. Hold on, let's figure this thing out.

Hello, hey, how are you? I'm fine, how are you doing? Excellent, that's good. Mangroves, these mosquitoes bite me up. Oh yeah, I had to come inside. I was outside for a second and I was like, 'Nah, this is not gonna work out.' You know, I keep like being cute with my face, like you know, this nice. I wanted to join because I was like, 'Let me come online, let me request this thing.' First, I really, really want to appreciate everything you've done concerning your resources. I know I keep digging you up like, 'Yo, you're doing like you're in my mind each time.' Like I was like, I think what was it last week? You were like, 'Every single thing I have a video of.' I was like, 'No, he doesn't.' So like I would go online and then I'll get directed to your video. I'm like, 'Damn it, he's right.' I took the video. Use it, use the... I mean, I was telling someone today, 336 videos and counting online. Use that knowledge base. Just type whatever they get.

Yeah, so my ideal is I'm beginning to get a little more discouraged because it's an engineering firm. My husband is the engineer and I am operations, you know. So I'm working and I'm trying as much as possible to put us out there and put us in front of people. And I know the first couple of months is going to be hard, but sometimes I just need encouragement, you know. And I'm just like, 'I might not go. I did not see me. Do I need to put a placard up? Do I need to hold signs? Do I need to wait for my phone?' And I'm guessing then someone said, 'You're not the only one. You got to do something to show some.' I was like, 'But I don't know what else to do. Should I just go into landscaping and start? No, I don't even know anything about landscaping. I'm an engineer, although I'm not really an engineer.

No, no, no, no. I look, I don't. One of the misconceptions is that we all have to go into landscaping or janitorial. That's a big misconception. If you're an engineer, like I just mentioned that Carol Craig, one of my guests, she's got 400 engineers working for her that sends stuff up to space. That's something that everyone can't do. Someone just can't jump into that field and say, 'All right, I must start an engineering firm.' And by the way, I don't know if you heard my comment. She received when she set up her manufacturing business, they gave her NASA equipment for free. Can you imagine? But again, if you're looking at, you're juggling between, 'Well, I'm an engineer, where I'm a janitorial, where I'm at.' If you're juggling through three to four different things, you're going to miss out on those opportunities that come specifically for you, that are meant for you, that no one else sees. Yeah, so a couple of things. You were great. You had us reach out to our PTAC person. We did. Great resource. He was really super awesome. So in that sense, that would be with Department of Transportation. Okay, so he's like, 'Complete certain things, get your pre-qualification thing going.' So we're set to fill it out this week. We've been delayed on it because we saw some things that kind of held us back. When he asked for prior jobs, and I'm like, 'We don't have any.' Just said, 'Okay.' There's two things you mentioned. You said that you reached out to PTAC, but then you said you reached out to DOT. But there you should have a PTAC that doesn't fall into DLT. Well, from what I've seen, he's on the DLT. Even his email address is at the DLT. In fact, that's local to your area. Yeah, it should be. They should be tied to a college or university. Okay, I'll look again. But when I went, just pretend like you, you know, one thing I would say is children are very curious. We should all be more like a child, to be more curious and keep asking, 'Why? And why?' And so it's like, 'Wait, did I do the right thing?' Because you're saying you're frustrated, but I can tell you, one of the things that I encourage people to do with the PTAC specifically was to have your PTAC help you find existing contracts. That's exactly what I said. So Maria was very successful. Her PTAC actually sent her a list of existing contractors that won contracts that she could reach out to for opportunities to sub. Okay, and that's what I said. And I want to be very clear because it's easy. And what I've found for being online for three years talking to people is people will hear me talk, then they'll go listen to somebody else talk, and they'll go listen to somebody else talk, and then they'll try to match up all the information, and then they'll be like, 'Hey, what did Eric say again?' So your fault. You know, they'll follow three or four different people and they'll try different messages. Exactly. Barbara, IDVs, right? Barbara quoted me IDVs. So I was very specific in the request. So I was just so, one of the things like I said for me, I would say use your PTAC to help you identify engineering opportunities and engineering contracts. Yes. If you try to go as a prime with the DLT, they're going to ask you for past performance and history. But I know a lot of engineering companies that are contracting out some of their smaller engineering jobs that you guys could start and get past performance. Okay, okay, and they will count your husband's work or his history working as a 1099er or as a consultant. They'll count that because they just really want to get it done. And I think that's a real distinction. A lot of folks believe that we have to go out and, like even I tell people, you don't have to be registered SAM. The only reason you need to be registered SAM is if you want to be a prime contractor and you want to get a direct with the government. But the my podcast guest that we posted today, Heather from Savvy Links out of Maine, she was the Inc. 500 award winner. She had 9,000% revenue growth in three years and she was a subcontractor. She just now, she started business 2013, it's 2020, she's now seven years later starting to do prime contractor work. So it's not required that you go and work directly with the DOT. That's not the only avenue. In fact, I think that's the hardest avenue that you could take. Because not only is the DLT a difficult entity to do business with, but depending upon whether you're, and I'm pretty sure just my assumption that you're talking to DLT which is state side, they have more stringent requirements. Yeah, they do. So it's like to be, that's the path that's the hardest path you could possibly take. I would be discouraged, yeah.

Because I mean like, what I would never give you some back from some back information. So I did the PTAC and then we spoke with someone from the from Neko and then he was really helpful also. He gave us some of the contractors that had won some of the contracts in the Navy area, okay, and especially in the engineering field, and he gave us their contact information, how much and everything like that, told us to reach out and also reach out to the one in our state, okay, to make sure. And then we found this one company that just won like I think 64 million, a billion or something like that, to build equipment. Okay, so like we're just, we're right now we're trying to look at how do I approach those people? Do I just come like, 'Hey, I'm an engineer, hire me?' But I'm okay.

So you've already read, you already have their information, you just haven't reached out to them.

No, I haven't, because I'm just, there's nothing. So why would you be discouraged? No, because I don't know what to put in the email. Like, do I just go in there like, 'Yeah, that's your girl?' I would put in the email, do you have a capability statement? No, not yet. I'm not done yet. See, and that's what throws me off. It's kept glory straight in my mind. I'm thinking as a statement, when I see other people's, I see it's a PDF, it's this whole graphic.

Yeah, but again, the thing is, you can't worry about what other people are doing. First of all, you can't be confused about other people. It doesn't have to have graphics. I've never seen one with graphics on it. Okay, listen, a resource: templatecapabilitystatements.com. Maria just put it in there. Or you could even Google sample capability statements. There's no reason why you should be afraid. Because if this is your industry and you know what you're doing, and hey, Harry, that's the engineer. Oh, hi, hi everybody. Sir, I'm trying to stand in the lights a little bit on Instagram and YouTube. Good stuff, good stuff. No, that's awesome. Yeah, this is really educational stuff, man. Thank you so much. Now I'm glad you enjoyed. You know, I was telling you, I'm talking to your wife here. And like I said, what I would encourage you to do is really don't be so concerned about, like you have the issue I'm hearing is you're not putting yourself out there, but you didn't try. Okay, so what I'm hearing is you didn't even try.

Yeah, I'm going to. So I'm using, I'm we're going to speak with someone, okay. You said template, Maria just put it up. Template, okay, I got it. Capability statements. Okay, there's hundreds of samples. Get someone to help us with our logo and design and then go from there. Okay, but you have to try.

I put up a quote that says most people don't actually fail. They're self-defeated because they never attempt it. You haven't even failed. You haven't told me you made one email, one phone call. What if the people need you? We're doing it this week. It's just I didn't have to put in like in the email. My belief is they need you now, not next week. Yes, let me tell you why. It's the end of the fiscal year. And I can tell you right now, one of my students, she is turning down work because she doesn't have enough people to help her support her. So what if there's some engineering firm out there that's turning down engineering projects because they don't have enough people to help support them, and they're turning it down, and you're complaining because you don't have it? Thanks, Maria, I see that. Thank you. What if they, what if the people, what if that's happening? Yes, that is true. That's true. Well, honestly, I really believe that that's happening out here more so than we think, and we are self-defeating. Yeah, I'm definitely, like I said, we started strong, we're still strong. My husband is, I'm more of the cautious one, and he's like, 'Just do it.' And I'm like, 'We just, it's like credit to me. I'm like, man, I just messed up my credit. I just said something stupid tonight.' Ah, you can't mess with me. No, you're not gonna mess it up. You're not, because you're gonna be able to back up everything that you're doing. You're gonna back up what you're saying. So you can't mess it up. Okay, yeah, definitely. I love, by the way, I love that you came on. I'm really happy that you did, because I think a lot of people need to hear this. Because it's not just you. You're not on the island by yourself. A lot of people are wanting to throw in the towel, but they never tried. They never tried. And I can tell you, Maria, on her own personal journey, her story, the first couple companies she tried working with, they were not successful. I know, Maria, you can't see me. I'm trying to find light. Whereas I can't see me. I'm trying to find the light. Find the light. It's all right. You guys can hear me, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's go to the audio is good. Audio's good. Maria, she's like, she's going to sit here. I'm going to bend down in front of a light. All right, there you go. Now you can see me. But definitely, what I would say is, as fast as you possibly can, get your stuff together in terms of your statement, everything like that, your logo, whatever you need, and start reaching out to those people right away. I think that there's opportunities happening that they are literally turning down because they don't have people like yourself to help them do it. And I honestly believe that that again, until you let them know who you are and you exist and that you can help them take on some more of these projects, you're not going to make that connection. Okay, okay. I'm just taking notes too. So I saw some other things that Maria was saying. So for the logo and for the statements, some of the places in which I'm gonna try to visit tonight and yeah, and try to knock this out. And then you know, we have a better way to not try. No, no, no, no. We're not going to try. We're going to do. We're going to do it. Yeah, right, right. There we go. We got to do this.

All right, let's do it. Let me tell you, by the way, just so you know, one of the stories that motivates me to do what I do was an engineering firm that took advantage of me. So you better believe I got your back. Because I got burned by an engineering firm and I lost a lot of money. And so I would love to help you guys grow up big and we challenge those guys one day. Yeah, okay. Yeah, put you with some people, help you raise a bunch of money, hire a team. Oh, okay. And we're gonna stand up to these guys and we're gonna put good people in place and get rid of these bad clowns out here. So you better be, I have a particular place in my heart for engineering companies because I was burned really bad by this big engineering company. I'm not going to say their name, Pond Constructors, but... We need... I was burned really bad by these clowns and I want to get them back. So definitely, let's jump on to it and help you guys build up your team. All right, all right. Thank you, thanks guys. Thanks for coming on. Everyone be good. Bye bye.

All right, listen, I'm signing off because I got to get some eat tonight and my camera's going dark. Thanks everyone. Next week we'll be back on same time, same place. Monday YouTube live, 6 PM Eastern. And then we'll come back on. Hold on, someone's tapping me. What's this? Huh? All right, so all right, listen, we'll jump back on next week same time. I gotta go because I gotta get some E and there's a lot of curfews around here. But actually, I think this is kind of cool, the dark image with my head in it. Yeah, there's curfews around here and we gotta grab some folks. Yes, this will be posted on our IG and our stories for live sessions. Thanks guys, we'll talk. Hey, oh, you owe me lunch. Okay, no, no, listen, next week jump on and we'll hop on and do this again.