March 24, 2025 • 32 mins
As CEO of HeiTech Services, Inc., Ms. Heidi Gerding is focused on setting the perception and tone of the company while skillfully laying the groundwork to foster the continued economic well‐being of the company. She works to ensure that employees understand the company’s vision, direction and goals.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
M and T Bank presion CEOs. You should know power Advite,
iHeart Media.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Let to meet Heidi Gerdik. She is the founder of
high Tech, a small business partner specializing in delivering staffing,
management and technical solutions for the federal government. Before we
talk more about Heidi's incredible twenty five plus year journey
starting this company, I first asked her to talk a
little bit about herself, where she's from, and her origin story.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I grew up in a little town in northeast Minneapolis
called spring Lake Park, and I went to spring Lake
Park High School and my father worked for Honeywell, so
we ended up transferring. He was a field service rep
for Honeywell servicing the Navy, so we started in I
(00:45):
was born in Rhode Island, but by the time I
was in second grade, we ended up in Minneapolis, which
of course is where the headquarters of Honeywell is. And
he retired from Honeywell, but that's where I grew up
was starting from second great on. I can remember coming
from the East Coast, they did put me in some
speech classes because I couldn't pronounce my urs correctly. So
(01:09):
now I enunciate my rs very well. So the class
that they put me in worked wonders.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
And where'd you go to school?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Spring Lake Park High School was where I went to
high school. But I ended up at the Naval Academy
and got a Bachelor of Science degree in English.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Amazingly so minor and engineering.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Eighty percent of the curriculum at the Naval Academy is
math and science, so everyone ends up with a bor
of Science degree and whatever your major is. And I
had a public relations officer who took a shining to
me in one of my English classes and told me
that I was probably one of the best writers he
had ever met, and then I should consider public affairs
as a career in the Navy. So I followed his
(01:54):
suit and I said, all right, this is what I
want to do, and I became an English major, which
in government contracting has benefit me very well because, as
you know, you write a lot of proposals in response
to requests for proposals.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
So the writing ability to write well has served me well.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So I'm curious and thank you for your service. How
many years did you serve and did you want to
make it a career at the time that you had joined?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
So yes, the answers I did want to make it
a career. I loved the Navy that much. I thought
that it would afford me opportunities that the civilian community would.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Not be able to do. And I served for nine
and a half years.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
I got out because the Navy was talking about sending
me to Korea unaccompanied for twelve months without my family,
and I had four small children at the time, and
that didn't serve my need.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
I wasn't leaving my kids for a year.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Now, in hindsight, I look back and say, you know,
twelve months away from my kids might not have been
such a bad thing after all.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
But I ended up getting out.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Of the Navy and at nine and a half years,
and it was nine and a half years. As you know,
we always felt in the Navy that once you hit
the ten year mark, it didn't make sense to get
out because you were so close to retirement at twenty.
So I did it at nine and a half years.
I went into the reserves for a couple of years
and did not find that as satisfying as active duty,
(03:19):
So spent a couple of years in the reserves, got
out of the reserves, and then focused on government contracting.
They're going forward at that point, which I had been
introduced to at that point in my life.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
So you've started your own business, and that is if
I did my math correctly thanks to LinkedIn, it's about
twenty five years, so a couple decades and then another
five years. And it's extraordinary for anybody that we talked
in the series that has had a business for that long.
It's a testament to your drive, your willingness to make
a successful business, but also the dedication you've had to
(03:51):
put through when it comes to high tech. I'd love
to hear the idea of the Ordin Story of high
tech because in this series we have current and future
eos and entrepreneurs by saying, you know, how do I
get started? Or I'm moving to a new CEO job
and I don't know what to do. What's the organ story?
And you wanting to start your own business.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
So I was fortunate when I got out of the Navy.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
I went to work for a government contractor right away,
and I can remember the first couple of days there.
They wanted to use me as a program manager on
a contract that they were bidding for HIV. HIV was
real big at the time, and I had one of
my last jobs in the Navy was managing the department
of the Navy's HIV AIDS program. And the program that
(04:32):
this company was bidding on was with the US Navy,
so they felt I had all the right contacts and whatnot.
They asked me to write the executive summary. And I
wrote this three page, incredible executive summary that took me
two weeks. And I went to lunch with another woman
who was working on the proposal, and she had a
stack of probably five hundred pages that she had written
(04:56):
in less than a week. And I went home that
night santo myself, there's no way I can do government contracting.
I cannot write that fast. Well, then I started hearing
about oiler plate, and I was so fascinated me because
oiler plate to me was something on a ship, and
in government contracting its material written material that's reused over
(05:18):
and over and over and.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Over again in a proposal.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
So if you write a management plan, you can use
that management plan and the next proposal, and the next
proposal and the next proposal.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
So it turned out.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
The material that she had come to the table with
she hadn't actually written. She had actually pulled together from
other proposals that the company had written gave me a
whole different perspective, and I said, you know what this
is for me?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
So I asked the.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Guy that I was working for for an opportunity to
spend a little time with the CFO.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Let me understand how they derive a budget.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Let me understand what goes into how all this comes
to be our indirect rate structures, and how many magazines
we can buy in subscriptions of this. Was fascinated that
it wasn't that complex. I mean, it is complex, but
it to.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Me made a lot of sets.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
And then I spent some time with the HR people.
I got to know the code of federal regulations. And
so those few years that I worked for that company,
I took the time I was working twenty hour days.
When I was working for this company, I knew that
they were letting people go, and I didn't want to
be one of those people that they let go. So
(06:29):
I made myself indispensable. I would sit in a boardroom
and they would be talking about, well, somebody needs to
do a B and C. So I would raise my
hand and volunteer to do it, not having a clue
how to do it, but I would figure it out,
and so it was those opportunities that when I left
that company, the idea came that we should start high
(06:50):
tech services.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
We could maybe do this on our own.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
And my business partner at the time and I used
the adage we were going to burn our boats on
the beach. We were either all going to be in
or not at all. My mother had just passed away.
I had just gotten a small inheritance for about thirty
thousand dollars. I remember the check coming to the house,
me sitting in the basement in my quasi office at
(07:15):
the time, and telling my business partner that I was
going to put a deck on the back of my house.
I finally could afford to do this, and he kindly
took the check and he said, no, we're going to
invest that in the business.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
And I remember thinking, oh, wow, no, I don't.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Think I want to do that, but I did, and
he withdrew some money from his four to one k
invested that in the business, and there was no looking back.
We were either going to make it or fail, and
we decided we were not going to fail.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Well, it's not going to surprise you. In this series,
everybody talks about when they start their own business, all
their chips are in and their passion for it. The
other thing that I love that you talked about, and
I've talked about this with my twenty two year old daughter,
who's a filmmaker in Brooklyn now. When she was still
in high school and wanted to get in an industry, Listen,
do everything on the set, Do absolutely everything, do lighting, blocking, audio,
(08:06):
the DP, watch the director, listen, and just do it.
So when you do what you want to do someday
and she wants to be a director of photography, what
she's starting to do now, you'll know what everybody else
is doing on it and you'll have peace of mind.
Sounds like that's what you did as well, too, would
I be correct?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
It was yes, absolutely, so I understood the different roles
in the business.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
I knew. I was fortunate.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
I had a business partner at the time that we
ended up parting ways later in life. But when we
were in the business, I didn't want to do the
back end office. I didn't want to do the HR
or the finance and accounting, and that's all he wanted
to do. So I was the face of the company,
which was fine. I was the ninety percent stockholder. Anyways,
I was the service disabled bet. I was the woman
(08:52):
owned small business, so I did all the business development.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
I did proposals.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
I was the ops person, so I would manage the contracts.
I'd go out and visit with my customers. As the
company began to grow, that was kind of scary letting
go of your customers because your customers are your lifeblood.
You know that you will always have work as long
as you have that direct connection. So all of a sudden,
when you're growing the business, you need to put somebody
(09:19):
between you and the customer. And the customer with a
small business struggles with that because they like being able
to call me at eight o'clock a night and complain
about something and having it fixed the next day. So
and I lose that. It becomes a little more risky
for me now that I don't have that direct connection
with the customer. And you know, it's funny, after twenty
(09:41):
five years, I don't even think about that anymore, but
I can remember back then having those thoughts. But now
the team that surrounds me is so confident and capable
of what they do it's almost frightening.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
I mean, I'm not sure they even need me.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
I really get that. And I'm also glad you talked
about dividing and conquer two going with your strengths as
a business person. But that's greg life lessons for life.
I know it might be simple to people, but folks,
go with your strengths, stay in your lane, and divide
and conquer if you have a partner out there. And
I think that's great stuff to live by. Well, listen, Heidi,
let's talk about high Tech. I think the first thing
(10:16):
before we find out exactly what you do with your programs,
your capabilities, is we get into the weeds of the company.
First of all, we'd love to hear about the mission statement.
What is that?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
So the mission statement is that high Tech Services helps
the government keep Americans safe. A lot of the programs
that we support hire a lot of lower level staff,
I want to say, minimum wage employees with high school degrees,
and we give these people a purpose. And it's interesting
(10:47):
that the mission statement came to be when I actually
went out.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
To talk to these people.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
I can remember going out to Nebraska and walking on
site and talking to some of our mail clerks. And
these mail clerks were sixties seventies. You know why, are
these people still working? And I remember asking one of
the mail clerks one day, what gets you up coming
to work every day? Because I know it's not the pay.
I mean, the benefits are good, but the pay can't
be the pay. And she says, oh, missus Girdy, I
(11:14):
helped keep terrorists out of the country. This was an
immigration program where we process immigration applications. So although she
delivered the mail every day, she felt strongly that what
she did every day helped keep terrorists out of this country.
Gave me a whole different perspective. So I get to Dallas,
I'm asking the same question, I'm getting the same answer
(11:38):
from different people. So I come back to Washington, d C.
Now I'm at the Food and Drug Administration, where we
process applications for new drugs for new medical devices, and
I ask these same people what gets them up motivated
in the morning. And their response to me is that
they help make sure that the drugs that are being
(11:58):
approved by the Food and Drug Administration are safe for
the public, or that the adverse event reports that were
processing where there was a manufacturer malfunction, a serious injury,
or a death as a result of a medical device
that we are on top of those things, we're redacting
personal information but posting those adverse events to the public
(12:21):
so that you can be more socially aware of what's
going on when you decide to pick a medical device.
So that's really how the mission statement came.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
To be, and it's very simple.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
It's one sentence that we continue to help the government
keep Americans safe.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
I love it. I love it. All right, let's do this.
If you were to give a thirty thousand foot view
to somebody that's new to high tech and you said
this is what we do, what would you tell them?
Speaker 1 (12:43):
So I used to start off by saying we process applications,
and people immediately go to it. Oh you write code. No,
So I've changed it.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Now we process paper and electronic forms that are submitted
to the government for approval. So it can be immigration applications,
it can be licenses for transportation, for hauling hazardous materials.
It can be at the Food and Drug Administration, processing
medical device applications for new medical devices, or for the
(13:14):
adversity BAT reports.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
And we do it really, really well. And these are
good sized projects.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
You know, we had a project that probably had one
hundred and fifty two hundred people on it processing these
paper and electronic forms for the government.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
We're not allowed to make the decisions at the Department
of Labor.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
They did evaluate us based on the recommendation. So my
staff would not only prepare the paperwork and make sure
it was complete, make sure the fees had come in
because a lot of these these programs are not funded
through congressional budgets. They're funded through fees that the public
submits when they when they submit their applications. So when
(13:56):
the government shuts down, my people keep working. Is critical
work every day. It's great work. The employees I think
love their work. We treat them well. You know, we
do a lot of creative things. We just had some
program reviews on our FDA project, and the cust I
sit through these program reviews is the owner of the business.
(14:19):
And I will ask very pointed questions of my team,
is there something more you need for me to help
you do your job better? And the customers rave about
the staff, and so we reward them with luncheons. You know,
will bring lunch in and we'll recognize them that the
whole team pulled together and got outstanding scores on their cepars.
(14:44):
That particular year as a result of the hard work
that they do. So it's very it's very rewarding to
go home and know that you're doing something good for
this country.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I bet it is. Thank you for all of that,
and to your team too. I did want to ask
you about the competition, and I don't want to assume
that anybody does is what you and your team do.
But what that said, in the competitive space, how do
you differ into yourself from being the best out there
against that competition.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
So we have a couple of things that we've developed
on the back end, and one of them is called
FARTS and it stands for the high Quality Automated Reporting
Tracking System. So we are evaluated on all of these
contracts with very stringent AQLS. We have to process an
application same day. We have to process a death report
(15:29):
within an hour of receipt, and these are large volumes.
Each month, We're talking two hundred thousand reports a month
may come in. So our staff is assigned quota US.
Every person has to do fifty widgets a day in
order to meet this two hundred thousand, and if they
don't do fifty widgets a day, then we fail the AQL,
(15:53):
so somebody else has to pick it up. And so
we monitor the performance and the quality of every employee
through this tracking system, so I can know at any
moment in time if there's a surge, if all of
a sudden, there's this onslaught. We didn't get two hundred
thousand this month, we got four hundred thousand.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
We know how to distribute the work to get that work.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Done through this automated reporting tracking system that we've developed
which has been extremely beneficial for our project managers to
evaluate the day to day performance of each employee.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
And if we have to.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Let someone go because they can't keep up with the work,
it doesn't it's not an indication that they're a bad employee.
It just means that this isn't the right type of
work for them. So they have to take stringent typing
tests before they're hired, because they have to type at
a certain accuracy level in order to process the number
(16:49):
of applications that we get in, and we have other
testing methods that we use to make sure that this
is the right person for this particular job.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
That's the first thing.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
The second thing that I think differentiates us is our
ability to develop a basis of estimate. When you go
into a customer site and you say, well, how many
people does it take to do this work? The customer
will say, well, I've got fifty people doing the work. Well,
that wasn't the question. The question was how many do
you need? Not many, how many do you have. So
(17:24):
based on a lot of information that we can glean
from the work, we can develop a very detailed basis
of estimate and put together really good staffing plans that
are supportable, so we can work on a fixed price basis,
which obviously reduces the risk on the customer side and
puts the risk on my side, which most customers like,
(17:46):
they would rather have the risk on my side. So
we have gotten as a small business, very very good
at basis of estimates HEDI.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
When it comes to challenges curly an industry specific for
you and your team, what are they today?
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Oh, the executive orders, let's start there.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
There's not a day that I hold my breath and think,
oh my gosh, this is going to impact one of
my contracts. Is this going to have an impact on
my employees, Is this going to have an impact on
the government people that are doing the work, and so on?
One of my contracts, we're ordering all of our employees
back to the office no later than the end of
(18:27):
March to mimic what the government is having to do,
because oftentimes the government, we don't want the government to
perceive that we're being treated differently and better than they are,
so we try to mimic what they're doing. So they're
all coming back to work, they're not happy about it.
We've tried to stage it and give them sufficient time
(18:50):
to make the necessary arrangements to be able to come
back to work. So that's a big challenge for us.
Another challenge is how do you get to the customer
post COVID. You know, when I used to do business development,
I could call a customer, a brand new customer, and say,
my name is Heidi, I'm the CEO of Hi Tech Services.
(19:10):
I like to set up a meeting and come out
and talk about my capabilities.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Thirty minutes.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
That's all I need and they would welcome those opportunities. Well,
after COVID and the government started working at home, nobody
was taking those meetings.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
They weren't.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Even if they did a zoom call, they always kept
their cameras off. So and I believe that people buy
from people they like and trust, which I think is
occurs within the first few seconds of meeting somebody and
the IDI contact. And I recognize that sometimes when I
go into a military installation, I can tell right away
(19:46):
whether or not I'm welcome, you know, as a woman, and.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
I don't make a big production about it.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
The government is a big place, so there's no sense
in getting upset with the person sitting across the table
that doesn't want to do business with me unerally pleasant.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Sometimes they're not.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
They're like, well, I don't want to do business with you, Okay,
thanks for your time, and I get up and leave
where there are other business owners that come that.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
By God, that customer is going to work with me,
whether they like it or not.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
You know, I wonder why would you want to put
yourself through that, because the whole time you're working with them,
it's going to be this hate relationship. So that has
become a challenge doing business development post COVID. I'll be
interested to see now that the government is being ordered
back to work, whether or not they'll start entertain or
face to face meetings so that I can market my
(20:35):
services better to them. Three you know, two years in
advance of an RFP being released, so they know when
they see my proposal and they see high tech services,
they'll say, oh, I know who this company is not,
instead of the reaction which they may get now, which
is I've never heard of this company, who are they?
So that's that's been another challenge for me.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
I want to put a pin in work just for
a second if we could. And I know how busy
you and your team are, but when it comes to
philanthropic or charity work, whether it's with the business or personally,
what do you like to be a part of.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Interestingly enough, it's not the military. It's a school in
northern Pennsylvania called King's College, and it's a Catholic school
that was put in place back in the nineteen fifties
for the purpose of making sure that the miners who
worked in those coal mines up there, the kids didn't
(21:32):
have to go back to the coal mines.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
They could get an education and do something different. My son.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I have a son who went to school up there,
and the Catholic community embraced me so much that I
fell in love with the school, the students that they have.
It's a small school, but the students they have. I
refer to them as students on steroids. Most of them
are double majoring. They have businesses on this side. They
(22:01):
bring fifty students they did pre COVID down to Washington,
d C. And people in the area who were graduates
of King's College or people like me would host a
few of those people so that they wouldn't have to
put them up in hotels. And I would always host
three or four young ladies. And I remember this one
young lady saying to me, no, I have a business
on the side. And I said, doing what she said makeup.
(22:24):
So my first thoughts Mary kay or something of that
ilk and she says, no, no, no, no, She says, I
do makeup, like for movie sets. And she started showing
me some of the makeup that she would do for
bloody scenes and different It was just the transformation of
(22:45):
these people was incredible. But she had a business, and
the movie industry out in California was hiring her to
do some of the makeup for some of the films
that they were doing in And I was just amazed
that these young ladies who grew up in very small
town in northern Pennsylvania had the same opportunity that I
(23:07):
was afforded from the Naval Academy was that they had
a way out and took advantage of it and got
a great education. So my philanthropic has really been giving
back to the school and the students and making sure
that those young people who are coming up from underserved
populations have an opportunity to do something different with their lives.
(23:28):
I find a lot of joy in being able to
do that.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
That's huge. Don't you love seeing ambition and young people?
Speaker 1 (23:35):
My goodness, it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
It's unbelievable to see how driven some of these are
and how proud.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
These are kids now that could be my grandkids, right,
But I look at them and I constantly am saying,
what do your parents say?
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Your parents must be so proud of what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
They must brag about you all the time, Because I
would be one of those.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Instead of dragging about them. That's great, it's exciting.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Well, listen, if you would indulge me in our audience,
I'd love to ask you about leadership. You know, Naval
Academy lots of structure there and I'd like to talk.
Maybe you could expound on the correlation of serving in
the military and then running your own business because you
have a team. And I kind of equate that to
sports too. There's got to be a quarterback out there
that's got to run everything. So when it comes to leadership,
(24:22):
you know, woman owned business, you've been doing this a
very long time. I'm sure you've learned a lot of
life lessons and how to get better when it comes
to starting your own company. And we have a lot
of future entrepreneurs. How do you that listen to the
series that always want to hear from people like you?
How do I do it? It seems so hard. I've
got doors closed. Nobody wants to talk to a woman,
and how on earth do I start a business? I
(24:44):
love to hear. I know this is your personal journey,
but just maybe a little advice, if you could, for everybody.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
So I think leadership starts from within and it's confidence,
you know, speaking with confidence when you're in front of
a group of people. I think one of the things
that served me well when I was young was I
started in declamation and a lot of people don't know
what declamation is. Declamation was an extracurricular activity. I was
an athlete too, but declamation was something that I loved,
(25:12):
and I would get up and orrate and get judged
against my peers who were doing the same category that
I was in, and I was in a humorous category.
So I think that a lot of my public speaking
started when I took declamation, and then I get to
the Naval Academy and you know, it's four years of
(25:33):
this is how you're going to be a leader. You
can't fail, And so the honor concept has served me. Well,
you know you're going to deal with tough times where
your customers want, even if it's bad news, tell them quickly,
don't wait, even if you don't have a solution for
the problem immediately. You don't want them to hear it
from someone else. They need to know so that when
(25:55):
someone calls says do you know this happened.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
They can say, yes, we're aware of it, and we're
on it.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
So leadership is I think, being strong and strong, being
able to listen to others yet be the one who
makes the decision at the end of the day. So
I oftentimes will start a meeting with, well, this is
what I want to do, and then I have to
back up and say, well, you know what I might
(26:23):
not have the best idea. Let's go around the room.
I'm interested what everybody has to say, because maybe there's
something I haven't considered, and oftentimes it's true, there's a
lot that I haven't considered. And so based on all
of that information, then having a structured plan and moving
out being decisive in your decisions. If we lose something,
(26:45):
not letting it drag you down, even though I might
come back to the office closed door and cry for
a few minutes that oh my gosh, you know we
really needed that contract. You have to go back out
and inspire everybody that this is not the end of
the world. Let's work on the next one. And you know,
leadership never stops. I'm constantly learning new things from people.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
The older I get, the more I listen.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Listening is a skill that has always been a challenge
for me because I want to talk.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
And you can learn so much by listening.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
So just putting your hands on your lap and letting
someone else tell you their story.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
It was interesting.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
I used to do a lot of social networking with
my business partner, but I was never comfortable going to
social settings parties and things like that because people would
congregate three or four people and have a discussion, and
there'd be another three or four people over here, and
I never wanted to interrupt because I wasn't invited. So
he gave me a really valuable tool to learn, which
(27:46):
was people love to talk about themselves. So go up
to somebody who's just standing there and ask them, Hi,
my name's Heidi, what's your name, what's your business? When
did you start it? And just start asking lot of questions,
and all of a sudden, you'll find a group that's
now focused on you and your your group.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Because people love to talk about themselves.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
So now when I go to social settings, that's the
first thing I do is I find somebody and I
immediately start a.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Dialogue about that. And I think that's been really really
helpful for me being able to get outside my shew.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
It's funny because I think I'm shy, but everybody else
is like, you are not shy, and Hei, oh my goodness,
You're one of the most public outreach person people that
I've ever seen. So how you perceive yourself is not
always how well yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
And it's okay to have two sides, but it is
outstanding advice. I really appreciate you sharing that about leadership
and all.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Well, let's do this.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
I really enjoyed the conversation, but I do want to
get some final thoughts from you about high tech and
kind of recap what we've talked about, and then we'll
give the website. You can talk to people if you
are hiring, because they always love to hear about that.
But Heidi, you did some final thoughts for you. The
floor is yours.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
So I do want to say that we have just
celebrated twenty five years in business. And I never took
time to celebrate the little things going on in the business,
but when we got to twenty five years, it became
I looked around and all the people that I had
started business with, my attorney, my accountant, you know, whoever,
(29:23):
they had all retired already and I was the last
man standing. And a lot of businesses failed along the way.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
We didn't.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
We survived a lot of challenges, I have to say,
and I view that as a huge milestone for the company.
I think that this leadership team that I've surrounded myself with,
the second level team, they're all in their thirties, they're
all eager, you know, they've got this energy that I
used to have in my thirties and forties, and as
(29:52):
I've aged, I just I can't do twenty hour long
days anymore. But these people are quick, and they're fast,
and they understand the regulations and what's going on in
the government.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
I think has been a big win. I love what
I do.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
I would encourage anybody who's thinking about starting a business.
It's not for the phantom heart. It is challenging. I
do think going from government contracting to commercial contracting is
much easier than going from commercial contracting to government contracting
because government contracting has so many regulations and transparency. They
(30:29):
want to get in your business. They want to see
your indirect rates, they want to see how you're spending
your money. And in the commercial world, all that's very private.
It's not the customer's business. And so I think that
it's just a good place. There's a lot of work
to be done. Even with the executive orders and the
downsizing of the federal government, I think that there's going
(30:49):
to be a lot of work that needs to be done.
So I do think that this is the future of
someone who's leaving the military or a young person who's
in stod in buying a business and doing something for themselves.
This is a legacy that I will always have outstanding.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
I think, thank you for sharing all that. Let's give
the website to everybody. There is a careers tab on there.
What's that website?
Speaker 3 (31:14):
So the website is www dot high Tech Services dot
com and high Tech is h EI Tecchservices dot com.
And then if you go to careers on that website,
we do have job postings. We are actively posting right
now for a national support services contract that we're getting
(31:34):
ready to staff in eleven different locations around the country,
so it's not just here in the DC. Are we
are looking to staff projects around the country.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
So fantastic, Heidi, thank you so much for your valuable time.
I really appreciate it. Give my best everybody there. Thank
you for serving our country and also what you do.
We really appreciate it when I get to talk to
people AQ and your team members, not knowing exactly what
you do. Because I'm a layman, I'm just always very happy,
especially as a DC resident, that I could sleep at
night that there are people taking care of us through
(32:04):
the night, through the day. Three sixty five twenty four
to seven, and I'm in awe of that, so thank
you to you and your team.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
We are we love what we do.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Thank you so much for the interview, and if you
need anything else, don't hesitate to reach out.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Our community partner, M and T Bank supports CEOs. You
should know is part of their ongoing commitment to building
strong communities and that starts by backing the businesses within them.
As a Bank for communities, M and T believes in
dedicating time, talent, and resources to help local businesses thrive
because when businesses succeed, our communities succeed.
M and T Bank presion CEOs. You should know power Advite,
iHeart Media.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Let to meet Heidi Gerdik. She is the founder of
high Tech, a small business partner specializing in delivering staffing,
management and technical solutions for the federal government. Before we
talk more about Heidi's incredible twenty five plus year journey
starting this company, I first asked her to talk a
little bit about herself, where she's from, and her origin story.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I grew up in a little town in northeast Minneapolis
called spring Lake Park, and I went to spring Lake
Park High School and my father worked for Honeywell, so
we ended up transferring. He was a field service rep
for Honeywell servicing the Navy, so we started in I
(00:45):
was born in Rhode Island, but by the time I
was in second grade, we ended up in Minneapolis, which
of course is where the headquarters of Honeywell is. And
he retired from Honeywell, but that's where I grew up
was starting from second great on. I can remember coming
from the East Coast, they did put me in some
speech classes because I couldn't pronounce my urs correctly. So
(01:09):
now I enunciate my rs very well. So the class
that they put me in worked wonders.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
And where'd you go to school?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Spring Lake Park High School was where I went to
high school. But I ended up at the Naval Academy
and got a Bachelor of Science degree in English.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Amazingly so minor and engineering.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Eighty percent of the curriculum at the Naval Academy is
math and science, so everyone ends up with a bor
of Science degree and whatever your major is. And I
had a public relations officer who took a shining to
me in one of my English classes and told me
that I was probably one of the best writers he
had ever met, and then I should consider public affairs
as a career in the Navy. So I followed his
(01:54):
suit and I said, all right, this is what I
want to do, and I became an English major, which
in government contracting has benefit me very well because, as
you know, you write a lot of proposals in response
to requests for proposals.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
So the writing ability to write well has served me well.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So I'm curious and thank you for your service. How
many years did you serve and did you want to
make it a career at the time that you had joined?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
So yes, the answers I did want to make it
a career. I loved the Navy that much. I thought
that it would afford me opportunities that the civilian community would.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Not be able to do. And I served for nine
and a half years.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
I got out because the Navy was talking about sending
me to Korea unaccompanied for twelve months without my family,
and I had four small children at the time, and
that didn't serve my need.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
I wasn't leaving my kids for a year.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Now, in hindsight, I look back and say, you know,
twelve months away from my kids might not have been
such a bad thing after all.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
But I ended up getting out.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Of the Navy and at nine and a half years,
and it was nine and a half years. As you know,
we always felt in the Navy that once you hit
the ten year mark, it didn't make sense to get
out because you were so close to retirement at twenty.
So I did it at nine and a half years.
I went into the reserves for a couple of years
and did not find that as satisfying as active duty,
(03:19):
So spent a couple of years in the reserves, got
out of the reserves, and then focused on government contracting.
They're going forward at that point, which I had been
introduced to at that point in my life.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
So you've started your own business, and that is if
I did my math correctly thanks to LinkedIn, it's about
twenty five years, so a couple decades and then another
five years. And it's extraordinary for anybody that we talked
in the series that has had a business for that long.
It's a testament to your drive, your willingness to make
a successful business, but also the dedication you've had to
(03:51):
put through when it comes to high tech. I'd love
to hear the idea of the Ordin Story of high
tech because in this series we have current and future
eos and entrepreneurs by saying, you know, how do I
get started? Or I'm moving to a new CEO job
and I don't know what to do. What's the organ story?
And you wanting to start your own business.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
So I was fortunate when I got out of the Navy.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
I went to work for a government contractor right away,
and I can remember the first couple of days there.
They wanted to use me as a program manager on
a contract that they were bidding for HIV. HIV was
real big at the time, and I had one of
my last jobs in the Navy was managing the department
of the Navy's HIV AIDS program. And the program that
(04:32):
this company was bidding on was with the US Navy,
so they felt I had all the right contacts and whatnot.
They asked me to write the executive summary. And I
wrote this three page, incredible executive summary that took me
two weeks. And I went to lunch with another woman
who was working on the proposal, and she had a
stack of probably five hundred pages that she had written
(04:56):
in less than a week. And I went home that
night santo myself, there's no way I can do government contracting.
I cannot write that fast. Well, then I started hearing
about oiler plate, and I was so fascinated me because
oiler plate to me was something on a ship, and
in government contracting its material written material that's reused over
(05:18):
and over and over and.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Over again in a proposal.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
So if you write a management plan, you can use
that management plan and the next proposal, and the next
proposal and the next proposal.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
So it turned out.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
The material that she had come to the table with
she hadn't actually written. She had actually pulled together from
other proposals that the company had written gave me a
whole different perspective, and I said, you know what this
is for me?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
So I asked the.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Guy that I was working for for an opportunity to
spend a little time with the CFO.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Let me understand how they derive a budget.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Let me understand what goes into how all this comes
to be our indirect rate structures, and how many magazines
we can buy in subscriptions of this. Was fascinated that
it wasn't that complex. I mean, it is complex, but
it to.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Me made a lot of sets.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
And then I spent some time with the HR people.
I got to know the code of federal regulations. And
so those few years that I worked for that company,
I took the time I was working twenty hour days.
When I was working for this company, I knew that
they were letting people go, and I didn't want to
be one of those people that they let go. So
(06:29):
I made myself indispensable. I would sit in a boardroom
and they would be talking about, well, somebody needs to
do a B and C. So I would raise my
hand and volunteer to do it, not having a clue
how to do it, but I would figure it out,
and so it was those opportunities that when I left
that company, the idea came that we should start high
(06:50):
tech services.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
We could maybe do this on our own.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
And my business partner at the time and I used
the adage we were going to burn our boats on
the beach. We were either all going to be in
or not at all. My mother had just passed away.
I had just gotten a small inheritance for about thirty
thousand dollars. I remember the check coming to the house,
me sitting in the basement in my quasi office at
(07:15):
the time, and telling my business partner that I was
going to put a deck on the back of my house.
I finally could afford to do this, and he kindly
took the check and he said, no, we're going to
invest that in the business.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
And I remember thinking, oh, wow, no, I don't.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Think I want to do that, but I did, and
he withdrew some money from his four to one k
invested that in the business, and there was no looking back.
We were either going to make it or fail, and
we decided we were not going to fail.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Well, it's not going to surprise you. In this series,
everybody talks about when they start their own business, all
their chips are in and their passion for it. The
other thing that I love that you talked about, and
I've talked about this with my twenty two year old daughter,
who's a filmmaker in Brooklyn now. When she was still
in high school and wanted to get in an industry, Listen,
do everything on the set, Do absolutely everything, do lighting, blocking, audio,
(08:06):
the DP, watch the director, listen, and just do it.
So when you do what you want to do someday
and she wants to be a director of photography, what
she's starting to do now, you'll know what everybody else
is doing on it and you'll have peace of mind.
Sounds like that's what you did as well, too, would
I be correct?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
It was yes, absolutely, so I understood the different roles
in the business.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
I knew. I was fortunate.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
I had a business partner at the time that we
ended up parting ways later in life. But when we
were in the business, I didn't want to do the
back end office. I didn't want to do the HR
or the finance and accounting, and that's all he wanted
to do. So I was the face of the company,
which was fine. I was the ninety percent stockholder. Anyways,
I was the service disabled bet. I was the woman
(08:52):
owned small business, so I did all the business development.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
I did proposals.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
I was the ops person, so I would manage the contracts.
I'd go out and visit with my customers. As the
company began to grow, that was kind of scary letting
go of your customers because your customers are your lifeblood.
You know that you will always have work as long
as you have that direct connection. So all of a sudden,
when you're growing the business, you need to put somebody
(09:19):
between you and the customer. And the customer with a
small business struggles with that because they like being able
to call me at eight o'clock a night and complain
about something and having it fixed the next day. So
and I lose that. It becomes a little more risky
for me now that I don't have that direct connection
with the customer. And you know, it's funny, after twenty
(09:41):
five years, I don't even think about that anymore, but
I can remember back then having those thoughts. But now
the team that surrounds me is so confident and capable
of what they do it's almost frightening.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
I mean, I'm not sure they even need me.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
I really get that. And I'm also glad you talked
about dividing and conquer two going with your strengths as
a business person. But that's greg life lessons for life.
I know it might be simple to people, but folks,
go with your strengths, stay in your lane, and divide
and conquer if you have a partner out there. And
I think that's great stuff to live by. Well, listen, Heidi,
let's talk about high Tech. I think the first thing
(10:16):
before we find out exactly what you do with your programs,
your capabilities, is we get into the weeds of the company.
First of all, we'd love to hear about the mission statement.
What is that?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
So the mission statement is that high Tech Services helps
the government keep Americans safe. A lot of the programs
that we support hire a lot of lower level staff,
I want to say, minimum wage employees with high school degrees,
and we give these people a purpose. And it's interesting
(10:47):
that the mission statement came to be when I actually
went out.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
To talk to these people.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
I can remember going out to Nebraska and walking on
site and talking to some of our mail clerks. And
these mail clerks were sixties seventies. You know why, are
these people still working? And I remember asking one of
the mail clerks one day, what gets you up coming
to work every day? Because I know it's not the pay.
I mean, the benefits are good, but the pay can't
be the pay. And she says, oh, missus Girdy, I
(11:14):
helped keep terrorists out of the country. This was an
immigration program where we process immigration applications. So although she
delivered the mail every day, she felt strongly that what
she did every day helped keep terrorists out of this country.
Gave me a whole different perspective. So I get to Dallas,
I'm asking the same question, I'm getting the same answer
(11:38):
from different people. So I come back to Washington, d C.
Now I'm at the Food and Drug Administration, where we
process applications for new drugs for new medical devices, and
I ask these same people what gets them up motivated
in the morning. And their response to me is that
they help make sure that the drugs that are being
(11:58):
approved by the Food and Drug Administration are safe for
the public, or that the adverse event reports that were
processing where there was a manufacturer malfunction, a serious injury,
or a death as a result of a medical device
that we are on top of those things, we're redacting
personal information but posting those adverse events to the public
(12:21):
so that you can be more socially aware of what's
going on when you decide to pick a medical device.
So that's really how the mission statement came.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
To be, and it's very simple.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
It's one sentence that we continue to help the government
keep Americans safe.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
I love it. I love it. All right, let's do this.
If you were to give a thirty thousand foot view
to somebody that's new to high tech and you said
this is what we do, what would you tell them?
Speaker 1 (12:43):
So I used to start off by saying we process applications,
and people immediately go to it. Oh you write code. No,
So I've changed it.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Now we process paper and electronic forms that are submitted
to the government for approval. So it can be immigration applications,
it can be licenses for transportation, for hauling hazardous materials.
It can be at the Food and Drug Administration, processing
medical device applications for new medical devices, or for the
(13:14):
adversity BAT reports.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
And we do it really, really well. And these are
good sized projects.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
You know, we had a project that probably had one
hundred and fifty two hundred people on it processing these
paper and electronic forms for the government.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
We're not allowed to make the decisions at the Department
of Labor.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
They did evaluate us based on the recommendation. So my
staff would not only prepare the paperwork and make sure
it was complete, make sure the fees had come in
because a lot of these these programs are not funded
through congressional budgets. They're funded through fees that the public
submits when they when they submit their applications. So when
(13:56):
the government shuts down, my people keep working. Is critical
work every day. It's great work. The employees I think
love their work. We treat them well. You know, we
do a lot of creative things. We just had some
program reviews on our FDA project, and the cust I
sit through these program reviews is the owner of the business.
(14:19):
And I will ask very pointed questions of my team,
is there something more you need for me to help
you do your job better? And the customers rave about
the staff, and so we reward them with luncheons. You know,
will bring lunch in and we'll recognize them that the
whole team pulled together and got outstanding scores on their cepars.
(14:44):
That particular year as a result of the hard work
that they do. So it's very it's very rewarding to
go home and know that you're doing something good for
this country.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I bet it is. Thank you for all of that,
and to your team too. I did want to ask
you about the competition, and I don't want to assume
that anybody does is what you and your team do.
But what that said, in the competitive space, how do
you differ into yourself from being the best out there
against that competition.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
So we have a couple of things that we've developed
on the back end, and one of them is called
FARTS and it stands for the high Quality Automated Reporting
Tracking System. So we are evaluated on all of these
contracts with very stringent AQLS. We have to process an
application same day. We have to process a death report
(15:29):
within an hour of receipt, and these are large volumes.
Each month, We're talking two hundred thousand reports a month
may come in. So our staff is assigned quota US.
Every person has to do fifty widgets a day in
order to meet this two hundred thousand, and if they
don't do fifty widgets a day, then we fail the AQL,
(15:53):
so somebody else has to pick it up. And so
we monitor the performance and the quality of every employee
through this tracking system, so I can know at any
moment in time if there's a surge, if all of
a sudden, there's this onslaught. We didn't get two hundred
thousand this month, we got four hundred thousand.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
We know how to distribute the work to get that work.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Done through this automated reporting tracking system that we've developed
which has been extremely beneficial for our project managers to
evaluate the day to day performance of each employee.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
And if we have to.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Let someone go because they can't keep up with the work,
it doesn't it's not an indication that they're a bad employee.
It just means that this isn't the right type of
work for them. So they have to take stringent typing
tests before they're hired, because they have to type at
a certain accuracy level in order to process the number
(16:49):
of applications that we get in, and we have other
testing methods that we use to make sure that this
is the right person for this particular job.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
That's the first thing.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
The second thing that I think differentiates us is our
ability to develop a basis of estimate. When you go
into a customer site and you say, well, how many
people does it take to do this work? The customer
will say, well, I've got fifty people doing the work. Well,
that wasn't the question. The question was how many do
you need? Not many, how many do you have. So
(17:24):
based on a lot of information that we can glean
from the work, we can develop a very detailed basis
of estimate and put together really good staffing plans that
are supportable, so we can work on a fixed price basis,
which obviously reduces the risk on the customer side and
puts the risk on my side, which most customers like,
(17:46):
they would rather have the risk on my side. So
we have gotten as a small business, very very good
at basis of estimates HEDI.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
When it comes to challenges curly an industry specific for
you and your team, what are they today?
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Oh, the executive orders, let's start there.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
There's not a day that I hold my breath and think,
oh my gosh, this is going to impact one of
my contracts. Is this going to have an impact on
my employees, Is this going to have an impact on
the government people that are doing the work, and so on?
One of my contracts, we're ordering all of our employees
back to the office no later than the end of
(18:27):
March to mimic what the government is having to do,
because oftentimes the government, we don't want the government to
perceive that we're being treated differently and better than they are,
so we try to mimic what they're doing. So they're
all coming back to work, they're not happy about it.
We've tried to stage it and give them sufficient time
(18:50):
to make the necessary arrangements to be able to come
back to work. So that's a big challenge for us.
Another challenge is how do you get to the customer
post COVID. You know, when I used to do business development,
I could call a customer, a brand new customer, and say,
my name is Heidi, I'm the CEO of Hi Tech Services.
(19:10):
I like to set up a meeting and come out
and talk about my capabilities.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Thirty minutes.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
That's all I need and they would welcome those opportunities. Well,
after COVID and the government started working at home, nobody
was taking those meetings.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
They weren't.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Even if they did a zoom call, they always kept
their cameras off. So and I believe that people buy
from people they like and trust, which I think is
occurs within the first few seconds of meeting somebody and
the IDI contact. And I recognize that sometimes when I
go into a military installation, I can tell right away
(19:46):
whether or not I'm welcome, you know, as a woman, and.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
I don't make a big production about it.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
The government is a big place, so there's no sense
in getting upset with the person sitting across the table
that doesn't want to do business with me unerally pleasant.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Sometimes they're not.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
They're like, well, I don't want to do business with you, Okay,
thanks for your time, and I get up and leave
where there are other business owners that come that.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
By God, that customer is going to work with me,
whether they like it or not.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
You know, I wonder why would you want to put
yourself through that, because the whole time you're working with them,
it's going to be this hate relationship. So that has
become a challenge doing business development post COVID. I'll be
interested to see now that the government is being ordered
back to work, whether or not they'll start entertain or
face to face meetings so that I can market my
(20:35):
services better to them. Three you know, two years in
advance of an RFP being released, so they know when
they see my proposal and they see high tech services,
they'll say, oh, I know who this company is not,
instead of the reaction which they may get now, which
is I've never heard of this company, who are they?
So that's that's been another challenge for me.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
I want to put a pin in work just for
a second if we could. And I know how busy
you and your team are, but when it comes to
philanthropic or charity work, whether it's with the business or personally,
what do you like to be a part of.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Interestingly enough, it's not the military. It's a school in
northern Pennsylvania called King's College, and it's a Catholic school
that was put in place back in the nineteen fifties
for the purpose of making sure that the miners who
worked in those coal mines up there, the kids didn't
(21:32):
have to go back to the coal mines.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
They could get an education and do something different. My son.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I have a son who went to school up there,
and the Catholic community embraced me so much that I
fell in love with the school, the students that they have.
It's a small school, but the students they have. I
refer to them as students on steroids. Most of them
are double majoring. They have businesses on this side. They
(22:01):
bring fifty students they did pre COVID down to Washington,
d C. And people in the area who were graduates
of King's College or people like me would host a
few of those people so that they wouldn't have to
put them up in hotels. And I would always host
three or four young ladies. And I remember this one
young lady saying to me, no, I have a business
on the side. And I said, doing what she said makeup.
(22:24):
So my first thoughts Mary kay or something of that
ilk and she says, no, no, no, no, She says, I
do makeup, like for movie sets. And she started showing
me some of the makeup that she would do for
bloody scenes and different It was just the transformation of
(22:45):
these people was incredible. But she had a business, and
the movie industry out in California was hiring her to
do some of the makeup for some of the films
that they were doing in And I was just amazed
that these young ladies who grew up in very small
town in northern Pennsylvania had the same opportunity that I
(23:07):
was afforded from the Naval Academy was that they had
a way out and took advantage of it and got
a great education. So my philanthropic has really been giving
back to the school and the students and making sure
that those young people who are coming up from underserved
populations have an opportunity to do something different with their lives.
(23:28):
I find a lot of joy in being able to
do that.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
That's huge. Don't you love seeing ambition and young people?
Speaker 1 (23:35):
My goodness, it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
It's unbelievable to see how driven some of these are
and how proud.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
These are kids now that could be my grandkids, right,
But I look at them and I constantly am saying,
what do your parents say?
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Your parents must be so proud of what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
They must brag about you all the time, Because I
would be one of those.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Instead of dragging about them. That's great, it's exciting.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Well, listen, if you would indulge me in our audience,
I'd love to ask you about leadership. You know, Naval
Academy lots of structure there and I'd like to talk.
Maybe you could expound on the correlation of serving in
the military and then running your own business because you
have a team. And I kind of equate that to
sports too. There's got to be a quarterback out there
that's got to run everything. So when it comes to leadership,
(24:22):
you know, woman owned business, you've been doing this a
very long time. I'm sure you've learned a lot of
life lessons and how to get better when it comes
to starting your own company. And we have a lot
of future entrepreneurs. How do you that listen to the
series that always want to hear from people like you?
How do I do it? It seems so hard. I've
got doors closed. Nobody wants to talk to a woman,
and how on earth do I start a business? I
(24:44):
love to hear. I know this is your personal journey,
but just maybe a little advice, if you could, for everybody.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
So I think leadership starts from within and it's confidence,
you know, speaking with confidence when you're in front of
a group of people. I think one of the things
that served me well when I was young was I
started in declamation and a lot of people don't know
what declamation is. Declamation was an extracurricular activity. I was
an athlete too, but declamation was something that I loved,
(25:12):
and I would get up and orrate and get judged
against my peers who were doing the same category that
I was in, and I was in a humorous category.
So I think that a lot of my public speaking
started when I took declamation, and then I get to
the Naval Academy and you know, it's four years of
(25:33):
this is how you're going to be a leader. You
can't fail, And so the honor concept has served me. Well,
you know you're going to deal with tough times where
your customers want, even if it's bad news, tell them quickly,
don't wait, even if you don't have a solution for
the problem immediately. You don't want them to hear it
from someone else. They need to know so that when
(25:55):
someone calls says do you know this happened.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
They can say, yes, we're aware of it, and we're
on it.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
So leadership is I think, being strong and strong, being
able to listen to others yet be the one who
makes the decision at the end of the day. So
I oftentimes will start a meeting with, well, this is
what I want to do, and then I have to
back up and say, well, you know what I might
(26:23):
not have the best idea. Let's go around the room.
I'm interested what everybody has to say, because maybe there's
something I haven't considered, and oftentimes it's true, there's a
lot that I haven't considered. And so based on all
of that information, then having a structured plan and moving
out being decisive in your decisions. If we lose something,
(26:45):
not letting it drag you down, even though I might
come back to the office closed door and cry for
a few minutes that oh my gosh, you know we
really needed that contract. You have to go back out
and inspire everybody that this is not the end of
the world. Let's work on the next one. And you know,
leadership never stops. I'm constantly learning new things from people.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
The older I get, the more I listen.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Listening is a skill that has always been a challenge
for me because I want to talk.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
And you can learn so much by listening.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
So just putting your hands on your lap and letting
someone else tell you their story.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
It was interesting.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
I used to do a lot of social networking with
my business partner, but I was never comfortable going to
social settings parties and things like that because people would
congregate three or four people and have a discussion, and
there'd be another three or four people over here, and
I never wanted to interrupt because I wasn't invited. So
he gave me a really valuable tool to learn, which
(27:46):
was people love to talk about themselves. So go up
to somebody who's just standing there and ask them, Hi,
my name's Heidi, what's your name, what's your business? When
did you start it? And just start asking lot of questions,
and all of a sudden, you'll find a group that's
now focused on you and your your group.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Because people love to talk about themselves.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
So now when I go to social settings, that's the
first thing I do is I find somebody and I
immediately start a.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Dialogue about that. And I think that's been really really
helpful for me being able to get outside my shew.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
It's funny because I think I'm shy, but everybody else
is like, you are not shy, and Hei, oh my goodness,
You're one of the most public outreach person people that
I've ever seen. So how you perceive yourself is not
always how well yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
And it's okay to have two sides, but it is
outstanding advice. I really appreciate you sharing that about leadership
and all.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Well, let's do this.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
I really enjoyed the conversation, but I do want to
get some final thoughts from you about high tech and
kind of recap what we've talked about, and then we'll
give the website. You can talk to people if you
are hiring, because they always love to hear about that.
But Heidi, you did some final thoughts for you. The
floor is yours.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
So I do want to say that we have just
celebrated twenty five years in business. And I never took
time to celebrate the little things going on in the business,
but when we got to twenty five years, it became
I looked around and all the people that I had
started business with, my attorney, my accountant, you know, whoever,
(29:23):
they had all retired already and I was the last
man standing. And a lot of businesses failed along the way.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
We didn't.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
We survived a lot of challenges, I have to say,
and I view that as a huge milestone for the company.
I think that this leadership team that I've surrounded myself with,
the second level team, they're all in their thirties, they're
all eager, you know, they've got this energy that I
used to have in my thirties and forties, and as
(29:52):
I've aged, I just I can't do twenty hour long
days anymore. But these people are quick, and they're fast,
and they understand the regulations and what's going on in
the government.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
I think has been a big win. I love what
I do.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
I would encourage anybody who's thinking about starting a business.
It's not for the phantom heart. It is challenging. I
do think going from government contracting to commercial contracting is
much easier than going from commercial contracting to government contracting
because government contracting has so many regulations and transparency. They
(30:29):
want to get in your business. They want to see
your indirect rates, they want to see how you're spending
your money. And in the commercial world, all that's very private.
It's not the customer's business. And so I think that
it's just a good place. There's a lot of work
to be done. Even with the executive orders and the
downsizing of the federal government, I think that there's going
(30:49):
to be a lot of work that needs to be done.
So I do think that this is the future of
someone who's leaving the military or a young person who's
in stod in buying a business and doing something for themselves.
This is a legacy that I will always have outstanding.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
I think, thank you for sharing all that. Let's give
the website to everybody. There is a careers tab on there.
What's that website?
Speaker 3 (31:14):
So the website is www dot high Tech Services dot
com and high Tech is h EI Tecchservices dot com.
And then if you go to careers on that website,
we do have job postings. We are actively posting right
now for a national support services contract that we're getting
(31:34):
ready to staff in eleven different locations around the country,
so it's not just here in the DC. Are we
are looking to staff projects around the country.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
So fantastic, Heidi, thank you so much for your valuable time.
I really appreciate it. Give my best everybody there. Thank
you for serving our country and also what you do.
We really appreciate it when I get to talk to
people AQ and your team members, not knowing exactly what
you do. Because I'm a layman, I'm just always very happy,
especially as a DC resident, that I could sleep at
night that there are people taking care of us through
(32:04):
the night, through the day. Three sixty five twenty four
to seven, and I'm in awe of that, so thank
you to you and your team.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
We are we love what we do.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Thank you so much for the interview, and if you
need anything else, don't hesitate to reach out.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Our community partner, M and T Bank supports CEOs. You
should know is part of their ongoing commitment to building
strong communities and that starts by backing the businesses within them.
As a Bank for communities, M and T believes in
dedicating time, talent, and resources to help local businesses thrive
because when businesses succeed, our communities succeed.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!