October 16, 2023 • 19 mins
Stephanie Alexander is the Co-Founder/Partner of govmates, a premier, FREE, teaming platform for innovative federal contractors. She and her team provide teaming introductions, help commercial companies navigate the federal space, offer technology scouting, and collaborate with some of the most innovative companies in the Federal market. Essentially, govmates connects people, and Stephanie strongly believes in the power of collaboration to help the government solve its challenges. She also enjoys the process.
In addition to her role at govmates, Stephanie serves as the Founder/CEO of BOOST LLC, a company that provides GovCons support in the areas of Accounting, Contracts, HR, Recruiting, and Strategic Pricing. With expertise in the field, Stephanie and her team help companies navigate the intricacies of running a business while keeping the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) in mind. They exclusively support federal contractors and provide effective solutions.
Prior to her current ventures, Stephanie held the position of CFO and VP of Corporate Administration at a professional services SDVOSB DoD contractor that achieved significant growth within 5 years. In this role, she was responsible for maintaining the integrity of financial information and overseeing all internal company operations. Before that, Stephanie was a PMP certified Program Manager for a small business DoD contractor. She successfully led multiple key software development programs concurrently, including the company's lead account with the US Army, which was worth more than $10 million annually.
Today, Stephanie is a certified leadership coach, a frequent writer, and a speaker on various GovCon subjects, including successful teaming, growth and sustainability, navigating the seasons of business, and gaining insights into the world of subcontracting. Her clients encompass a wide range of GovCons seeking advice on matters such as traditional business challenges and strategies for sustainable growth. Stephanie has dedicated over a decade to supporting government contractors in making connections to enhance their bottom line.
Specialties: Business Strategy, Influence, Diversity & Inclusion, Team Development, Mentorship, Board Leadership, Innovative Partnerships, Business Development, Teaming, Technology Scouting
In addition to her role at govmates, Stephanie serves as the Founder/CEO of BOOST LLC, a company that provides GovCons support in the areas of Accounting, Contracts, HR, Recruiting, and Strategic Pricing. With expertise in the field, Stephanie and her team help companies navigate the intricacies of running a business while keeping the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) in mind. They exclusively support federal contractors and provide effective solutions.
Prior to her current ventures, Stephanie held the position of CFO and VP of Corporate Administration at a professional services SDVOSB DoD contractor that achieved significant growth within 5 years. In this role, she was responsible for maintaining the integrity of financial information and overseeing all internal company operations. Before that, Stephanie was a PMP certified Program Manager for a small business DoD contractor. She successfully led multiple key software development programs concurrently, including the company's lead account with the US Army, which was worth more than $10 million annually.
Today, Stephanie is a certified leadership coach, a frequent writer, and a speaker on various GovCon subjects, including successful teaming, growth and sustainability, navigating the seasons of business, and gaining insights into the world of subcontracting. Her clients encompass a wide range of GovCons seeking advice on matters such as traditional business challenges and strategies for sustainable growth. Stephanie has dedicated over a decade to supporting government contractors in making connections to enhance their bottom line.
Specialties: Business Strategy, Influence, Diversity & Inclusion, Team Development, Mentorship, Board Leadership, Innovative Partnerships, Business Development, Teaming, Technology Scouting
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
M and T Bank, Prison andCEOs. You should know power by iHeart
Media. Let's meet Stephanie Alexander.She is the CEO and the founder for
a Boost LLC, a company locatedin the DMV that provides back office solutions
for government contractors such as a countycontracts, HR recruiting and sourcing and strategic
(00:20):
pricing. Before we talk more aboutStephanie's company, I first asked her to
talk a little bit about herself,where she's from, and her origin story.
I am at Tidewater Growl. Igrew up down in Noffolk, and
you know that because the way Isay it, I grew up in the
Hampton Roads area and then found myselfgoing to Virginia Tech for undergrad so go
(00:41):
Hokies, and as soon as Iwas finished there, rolled up to Northern
Virginia and have not left. SoI am definitely a Virginia girl. If
Stephanie's name sounds familiar, you're right. We've had her on before and we
talked about gub Mates, which isa really cool company that she partnered with
somebody else, but this was yousee, he owned founder and if I
(01:02):
did my math correctly, just overeleven years Stephanie with a company and before
we get into Boosted, everything asmission statement, capabilities and programs. When
you work in the gov con space, I'm kind of curious and I think
that we have so many budding CEOsthat are thinking about starting a company,
let alone you started too. Sowith that said, it's women owned,
(01:23):
it's two companies. I know youhave a partner and the other one.
What's it like to run two companies? And what kind of advice can you
impart to people? Because it soundslike there might be zero sleep time.
It feels that way some days.I think you are definitely challenged and having
your head in the game in twodifferent organizations. And I think the only
(01:45):
way that I've been able to keepeven a slice of my sanity is by
having excellent partners. So it definatesI am a business partner that I trust
implicitly that we are very aligned interms of our business goals and what we're
doing. And at BOOST, Ihave been so extremely fortunate to have a
COO in Lisa Lindon, who's beenwith me almost practically since day one,
(02:09):
and she knows where all the bodiesare buried, she knows where all the
skeletons are and she is extremely complimentaryto my skill set. So in both
of these, I think it's havinga solid partner or a number two that
is very complimentary but not the same. Skill set is what you may possess.
(02:30):
You need to hire and have partnersthat do things that you don't do
and know where your swim lanes are. I think that has made it work.
I want to talk one more thingabout skill set, because you have
a very cool resume. You've beenan analyst, you've been a program manager,
you've been a business manager and theCFO and a VP. Now you're
(02:52):
running two companies, and I'm curiouswith all those different things. We all
want to go and climb up thecorporate ladder, But how did all those
different jobs get you to where wewere to day? And how did they
help for you being a founder andCEO of two companies. Sure, so
I started in finance and just kindof like a basic job after college,
much like what many other people do, and started kind of got into operations.
(03:15):
So I started in corporate, wentto operations, which allowed me to
understand what was important in delivery tothe customer, what was important in terms
of scalability and what we needed toget projects don and then I fell back
into the corporate side. But havingthat boots on the ground experience as a
(03:36):
project manager really was critical to understandingkind of the struggles that happened from the
operation side, then moving into corporateso I could see where we needed corporate
resources, what that allowed for,what was important, what wasn't, what
was important for my CEO that Iworked under, and then starting my own
company, right, So you've gotto have like in the weeds knowledge,
(03:59):
but you also have to have bigpicture strategic knowledge, and then you've going
to have trusted people that you thatcan kind of implement the vision as you
see it. And so I've beenable to kind of layer on experience on
top of the experience, and it'sgiven me an unusual perspective of both client
delivery business development because obviously we selland you know, we grow our companies,
(04:24):
but also the corporate and so it'skind of a unique perspective. You
know, it's such a great lifelesson and all part of something personally what
you had talked about here when itcomes to my daughter who's in college and
she is a centiment television arts major. She wants to be a director and
a DP someday, which is greatand you'll be good at that. But
I said, listen, you haveto if you're going to be a director,
(04:45):
that means your boss and everybody around. You're in charge of everybody,
So you know how to have audiolighting boom. I could go on and
on. You know just what allthe hundreds of jobs that are on to
set TV or movies. When youknow their jobs, you'll know that job
better. And it sounds like that'swhat you did, That is exactly it.
So I have been a practitioner foreach of the things that each of
(05:06):
the services that we offer at BOOST. I am by no means a subject
matter expert. I hire people,but I know enough to call bs when
I need to, right, likeI know enough to be dangerous. I
know enough I know the struggles.I can identify and very readily with other
CEOs. I understand the struggles thatthey're going through. I'm in them myself
(05:27):
sometimes, right. So it's reallyhaving the background and the understanding in perspective,
and you just keep layering on thedifferent experiences that will finally get you
to a place where your leadership isbelievable. It's authentic. You know it
because you've been there and you understandit. You understand the struggles that folks
have. Makes a lot of sense. All right, let's get to the
(05:49):
meat and potatoes. We are hereto talk about BOOST, and before we
talk about your capabilities, your programs, and kind of who you work with.
When it comes to the gov conspace, what is the mission statement
of BOOST? Boost is here tohelp you propel and accelerate as I can't
tell you the mission statement without givingyou my passion, and my passion is
(06:11):
helping people continue to grow and scaletheir organizations. I am here to help
other entrepreneurs. I am here tohelp small businesses. I am passionate about
it, and you see that bothat BOOST you see and at GOVERNMTS.
I love to watch people grow.I love to watch people call and tell
me five years later, I rememberwhen you were helping us when you were
small. I remember when you cameback and helped us when I was trying
(06:32):
to sell. I remember I getinvited to the signing parties where they've sold
their companies. I love watching people. I feel like I was put on
this earth to help other organizations,not necessarily individual helping, but helping people
grow in scale companies because I believeif you do that, then you've got
a better company, right and ifyou're a better run company, then you've
(06:55):
got better employees. You were abetter employer you were helping your customers.
Think, the whole ecosystem kind ofcontinues to grow and expand, and if
you can help there, then youcan have a bigger impact. I love
that, Stephanie. And there's acommon thread about what you just said,
not specifically, it's passion when wetalk to all our CEOs and our leaders
(07:16):
out there, passion for what youdo when working with clients, trying to
make it a better world. SoI'm glad you shared all that. Okay,
let's do this. If somebody hasnot been introduced into your company BOOST
until today, what would you tellthem that you exactly do. Okay,
First, I would start with whowe help. We help federal contractors.
(07:38):
So if you are a nonprofit ora commercial organization not associated with federal contracting,
we are not your company. AndI think it's just as important to
say what you do as to whatyou don't do. So we work,
we're very specialized and we only workin this one industry. However, this
industry is ginormous, as we allknow, especially in the DC measure,
(08:00):
and then in terms of how weserve our customers. We serve our clients
in multiple disciplines, all within thecorporate back office. So we work in
accounting, and that can be anythingfrom day to day entry up to CFOs
who help you sell your company.We work in contracts. We negotiate contracts
on your behalf. We redline,we negotiate with the big guys. We
(08:22):
help you set up a pipeline,help you kind of understand what your contract
waterfall look like looks like. Wework in HR and talent acquisition, so
we work. We help you hirepeople, we help you fire people.
We help you put in place policies. We help you figure out what your
benefits need to look like two yearsfrom now, whether or not you need
(08:45):
that internship program, like what arethe things, what is the workforce planning
and succession planning that you need?How do you build an intentional culture?
We work with all of those typesof things. We do not do it
because I can barely spell it,and there's plenty of great people out there.
We do not do proposals except forthe pricing, because there's plenty of
(09:05):
great proposal shops out there, andhonestly, I can't imagine doing that for
a living because it sounds horrible,because I hate them, and we do
not do business development or capture becauseI believe truly you have to you as
the CEO, have to be ableto sell your own company and sell your
own you know what it is youdo your own product or owned services,
(09:26):
and I feel strongly that you haveto have the internally, but we can
help you with all the other stuffas you try and get there standing Thank
you for sharing all that. That'swonderful. I did want to ask you
about differentiating yourself now. I don'twant to assume that there's any other companies
to do exactly what you do,but if there are similarities out there of
competition, how do you differentiate yourselffrom that competition. I think the critical
(09:48):
foot factor is the fact that we'reso specific on gop con. We actually
turned down business and we'll refer itto two partners that we know will do
a good job because we know thatthis is our Bailey Wick and this is
what we're going at. This iswhy you pay us is to know the
different levels of compliance, the differentlevels of complexity and legal needs if you
(10:11):
will, that's why you want us. That's why if you are a growing
gov con, if you are acommercial company trying to get into the gov
con space, you pay us forgov Con expertise. And there's very few
to know companies out there that actuallywill turn away work because they you know,
they are only specific to this industry. One of the big things that
(10:31):
is, it's not a worry,it's not a concern, but just that
you have to deal with. We'rein a new world where people are working
at home and on location. Nobody'sin the office place, and I believe
that's one hundred percent for you whenit comes to all the staff. Now,
with that said, and once againwe're talking to current CEOs and budding
leaders out there, and I geta pitch pos still of answers about who
(10:52):
should be in the office and whoshouldn't and how many days a week.
With all that said that everybody isout, how do you make sure that
you have that that work life happybalance with your employees. You're paying them
well, but also they're getting thejob done for you. As you see
fit. It's a multitude of ways. We were completely virtual before COVID,
(11:16):
so we started virtual, we've maintainedvirtual. We were ready, you know,
in March of twenty twenty and justwe're kind of like, okay,
so I guess less events, butthis is what we're doing. We've had
a small office, but basically it'swhere we collect mail, so we do
it. There's two sides to thisequation. One is the quality and making
sure that you were delivering quality productsto your clients. You were doing what
(11:39):
you said you were going to do, and that is one of my biggest
missives, right like that is oneof the things that I live and die
by. Did you do what yousaid you were going to do. And
part of that is just putting inchecks and balances. Part of that is
having oversight that sort of thing.The other scientistic equation is creating a culture.
These were people who work together dayin and day out, but it
(12:01):
will not haven't met each other inperson. We have employees that I've never
met in person. And as muchas I try to meet as many people
as possible, anytime they come inthe DC metro area or I'm on travel,
I will go out of my way. I will drive the hour to
go meet that person to have thecoffee. It is still you have to
build an intentional culture. So wedo things online. We have happy hours,
(12:22):
we have virtual happy hours, youknow, and I know it's hard.
It's definitely hard. It is somuch easier when you can see each
other. We still have leadership meetingswhere I ask our directors to come to
the DC metro area because I wantto see them in person. I am
flying to go see my directors.I visit them in their hometowns, in
their home locations at least once ayear so that I can spend two days
(12:46):
of just quality time. Take meto your favorite restaurant, tell me what
your life's like. Walk, youknow, let's go for a walk,
right like, just just being oneon one to be human and to be
colleagues. I like that you dothat because when it comes down to you
know, people want simple acknowledgment andalso accessibility to the boss, and you
(13:07):
support both of those. It onlymight be once a year, but you've
got everybody spread all over the UnitedStates, so you know you're spread thin
and you just do the best youcan. But I like that you roll
that way, and I'm sure thatthe staff appreciates that as well. I
did want to ask you about stories, specifically a great story that was really
cool that maybe happened over the lastcouple of years. But I want to
put a pin in that just fornow, because I know that CEOs,
(13:30):
especially when it comes to your competitivego con space, are still challenges today.
What might those be for our clients? I think, always new business,
always having a differentiation. It issuch a saturated market. It is
so easy to you know, Ido cyber and now everybody does AI right,
(13:50):
whether it is they just say theword AI right, but it's when
everybody says that. And the USgovernment is the largest client that you can
have, but there's so many,many different facets and just because you got
into one program office and one nuancedyou know, division of the Navy doesn't
mean that it translates to the Army, which doesn't mean that it translates to
(14:11):
department and education. So getting toknow and getting in front of potential your
customer with the US government, Ithink is one of the hardest things.
Finding customers who have budget and whoactually want to buy the things that you
have to sell, and you area product or your software or your services.
I think that remains a challenge andwill always be for our clients.
(14:35):
All right, let's talk about astory that just really impressed you where you
said, you know, with meand the staff, we knocked that one
on the park. You don't haveto mention the client, because I know
there's still some super secret stuff thatyou do the you can't mention. But
was there a time and a placeand something that happened? He said,
you know what, that was agood day for everybody that day. So
it wasn't necessarily I do nothing.My people are the smart ones. They
(14:56):
do all the work. I actuallyus that on conference girls and do emails
and go to others. So andI am very much aware that I am
not the smartest one in the room, and I am perfectly okay with us.
But we do have a success storythat we actually just write a little
case study on that's on our websitewhere one of our senior contracts folks,
we had one of our small guysand they had been told multiple times by
(15:22):
their large prime integrator, you knowa big brand name that you know,
don't worry, we'll get you thepaperwork. We'll get you the paperwork,
you know, kind of like workingat risk then wanting to put all these
different types of terms and conditions ontheir contracts. That didn't make sense that
what weren't what they agreed to.So they brought us in and we were
(15:43):
able to negotiate directly. It tookmore time than you know, just signing
the paperwork and signing your life away, but we were able to negotiate with
them and with our clients prime getthe terms that they wanted, get the
payment terms that they had asked for, and actually get back to where they
had a really good working relationship.And so we did that, and it's
(16:06):
only because our team of contracts expertsknew their team of contract you know,
we were able to negotiate and doall the right things. And our client
is super happy and is now gettingpaid at a reasonable price on reasonable terms,
with things that he can live with, and so he's able to grow
and scale his company. Take usfor great past performance, and even though
we had to work at risk fora little bit, he was able to
(16:27):
kind of like stick to his gunsand get what he wanted. And I
love watching our smaller clients do reallywell, even in this large this large
ecosystem that's standing. Thanks for sharingthat as we put a pin in our
conversation about just kind of wrapping upeverything, is there maybe one takeaway when
(16:48):
it comes to all the people thatare listening that maybe want to work with
you, maybe work at Boost,and we'll talk about website and career opportunities
in just a second, But justone last takeaway when it comes to Boost
for our listeners. If you're afederal crimientor and you're working with the government,
work with people who know your industry. You do not pay to get
(17:08):
your consultants schooled up on a newindustry. Work with people who know what
they're doing. There's a very bigdifference between hiring somebody off crankslist for twenty
five bucks an hour and working withan expert. You will pay for what
you get and you will reap therewards and the not too great things that
happen with it. If you workin dot con, work with people who
(17:30):
know go con. Yeah, that'sreally well said. Okay, we have
website coming up and any other contactinformation social channels you want to give,
and we should mention there currently arecareer opportunities with Boost and Stephanie's going to
talk about that right now, anda website and any other kind of contact
information that you can reach out to. So Stephanie, what do you have
for us? Sure? Our websiteis boost to llc dot net. I
(17:52):
know I hate it too. It'sa dot net, but a million years
ago I couldn't get the dot com. And we do have some open positions
in our account team. I ami am Desbert to find a Uniet implementer.
So if anyone does that, pleasecall call smoke signal, send me.
I will send you flowers. Tellme I need to find you.
I don't know what rock you wereliving under, but I am trying to
(18:14):
find you. But we've got acouple of other accounting positions, including a
CFO position. I believe that isstill open. So we are actively recruiting
for our accounting team. That isjust kind of blowing up this year,
so we're really happy about that.You can also find us on LinkedIn and
LinkedIn. Our handle is boost llc, So we try and post ams daily.
(18:36):
We try to post kind of informativethings that you know, make you
kind of think and here's something thatwe didn't know, or here's something that
we want to share. We wantto provide good, meaningful conversations for folks
in our industry for the stuff thatwe do. We also have a newsletter.
Well, thank you, Stephanie.I just can't tell you how much
I appreciate time. Again, it'sgreat to revisit with you. And once
(18:57):
again, it's just amazing that you'remany two companies out there and everybody listening
to where does she find the energy? And you just do when you're a
CEO, when you're a founder,you just make it happen. So we're
very appreciative of your valuable time continuedsuccess, give our best to all your
staff, and thank you so muchfor joining us on CEOs. You should
know, thanks so much, somuch. Our community partner, M and
(19:18):
T Bank supports CEOs you should know. Is part of their ongoing commitment to
building strong communities, and that startsby backing the businesses within them. As
a Bank for Communities, M andT believes in dedicating time, talent,
and resources to help local businesses thrive, because when businesses succeed, our community succeed
M and T Bank, Prison andCEOs. You should know power by iHeart
Media. Let's meet Stephanie Alexander.She is the CEO and the founder for
a Boost LLC, a company locatedin the DMV that provides back office solutions
for government contractors such as a countycontracts, HR recruiting and sourcing and strategic
(00:20):
pricing. Before we talk more aboutStephanie's company, I first asked her to
talk a little bit about herself,where she's from, and her origin story.
I am at Tidewater Growl. Igrew up down in Noffolk, and
you know that because the way Isay it, I grew up in the
Hampton Roads area and then found myselfgoing to Virginia Tech for undergrad so go
(00:41):
Hokies, and as soon as Iwas finished there, rolled up to Northern
Virginia and have not left. SoI am definitely a Virginia girl. If
Stephanie's name sounds familiar, you're right. We've had her on before and we
talked about gub Mates, which isa really cool company that she partnered with
somebody else, but this was yousee, he owned founder and if I
(01:02):
did my math correctly, just overeleven years Stephanie with a company and before
we get into Boosted, everything asmission statement, capabilities and programs. When
you work in the gov con space, I'm kind of curious and I think
that we have so many budding CEOsthat are thinking about starting a company,
let alone you started too. Sowith that said, it's women owned,
(01:23):
it's two companies. I know youhave a partner and the other one.
What's it like to run two companies? And what kind of advice can you
impart to people? Because it soundslike there might be zero sleep time.
It feels that way some days.I think you are definitely challenged and having
your head in the game in twodifferent organizations. And I think the only
(01:45):
way that I've been able to keepeven a slice of my sanity is by
having excellent partners. So it definatesI am a business partner that I trust
implicitly that we are very aligned interms of our business goals and what we're
doing. And at BOOST, Ihave been so extremely fortunate to have a
COO in Lisa Lindon, who's beenwith me almost practically since day one,
(02:09):
and she knows where all the bodiesare buried, she knows where all the
skeletons are and she is extremely complimentaryto my skill set. So in both
of these, I think it's havinga solid partner or a number two that
is very complimentary but not the same. Skill set is what you may possess.
(02:30):
You need to hire and have partnersthat do things that you don't do
and know where your swim lanes are. I think that has made it work.
I want to talk one more thingabout skill set, because you have
a very cool resume. You've beenan analyst, you've been a program manager,
you've been a business manager and theCFO and a VP. Now you're
(02:52):
running two companies, and I'm curiouswith all those different things. We all
want to go and climb up thecorporate ladder, But how did all those
different jobs get you to where wewere to day? And how did they
help for you being a founder andCEO of two companies. Sure, so
I started in finance and just kindof like a basic job after college,
much like what many other people do, and started kind of got into operations.
(03:15):
So I started in corporate, wentto operations, which allowed me to
understand what was important in delivery tothe customer, what was important in terms
of scalability and what we needed toget projects don and then I fell back
into the corporate side. But havingthat boots on the ground experience as a
(03:36):
project manager really was critical to understandingkind of the struggles that happened from the
operation side, then moving into corporateso I could see where we needed corporate
resources, what that allowed for,what was important, what wasn't, what
was important for my CEO that Iworked under, and then starting my own
company, right, So you've gotto have like in the weeds knowledge,
(03:59):
but you also have to have bigpicture strategic knowledge, and then you've going
to have trusted people that you thatcan kind of implement the vision as you
see it. And so I've beenable to kind of layer on experience on
top of the experience, and it'sgiven me an unusual perspective of both client
delivery business development because obviously we selland you know, we grow our companies,
(04:24):
but also the corporate and so it'skind of a unique perspective. You
know, it's such a great lifelesson and all part of something personally what
you had talked about here when itcomes to my daughter who's in college and
she is a centiment television arts major. She wants to be a director and
a DP someday, which is greatand you'll be good at that. But
I said, listen, you haveto if you're going to be a director,
(04:45):
that means your boss and everybody around. You're in charge of everybody,
So you know how to have audiolighting boom. I could go on and
on. You know just what allthe hundreds of jobs that are on to
set TV or movies. When youknow their jobs, you'll know that job
better. And it sounds like that'swhat you did, That is exactly it.
So I have been a practitioner foreach of the things that each of
(05:06):
the services that we offer at BOOST. I am by no means a subject
matter expert. I hire people,but I know enough to call bs when
I need to, right, likeI know enough to be dangerous. I
know enough I know the struggles.I can identify and very readily with other
CEOs. I understand the struggles thatthey're going through. I'm in them myself
(05:27):
sometimes, right. So it's reallyhaving the background and the understanding in perspective,
and you just keep layering on thedifferent experiences that will finally get you
to a place where your leadership isbelievable. It's authentic. You know it
because you've been there and you understandit. You understand the struggles that folks
have. Makes a lot of sense. All right, let's get to the
(05:49):
meat and potatoes. We are hereto talk about BOOST, and before we
talk about your capabilities, your programs, and kind of who you work with.
When it comes to the gov conspace, what is the mission statement
of BOOST? Boost is here tohelp you propel and accelerate as I can't
tell you the mission statement without givingyou my passion, and my passion is
(06:11):
helping people continue to grow and scaletheir organizations. I am here to help
other entrepreneurs. I am here tohelp small businesses. I am passionate about
it, and you see that bothat BOOST you see and at GOVERNMTS.
I love to watch people grow.I love to watch people call and tell
me five years later, I rememberwhen you were helping us when you were
small. I remember when you cameback and helped us when I was trying
(06:32):
to sell. I remember I getinvited to the signing parties where they've sold
their companies. I love watching people. I feel like I was put on
this earth to help other organizations,not necessarily individual helping, but helping people
grow in scale companies because I believeif you do that, then you've got
a better company, right and ifyou're a better run company, then you've
(06:55):
got better employees. You were abetter employer you were helping your customers.
Think, the whole ecosystem kind ofcontinues to grow and expand, and if
you can help there, then youcan have a bigger impact. I love
that, Stephanie. And there's acommon thread about what you just said,
not specifically, it's passion when wetalk to all our CEOs and our leaders
(07:16):
out there, passion for what youdo when working with clients, trying to
make it a better world. SoI'm glad you shared all that. Okay,
let's do this. If somebody hasnot been introduced into your company BOOST
until today, what would you tellthem that you exactly do. Okay,
First, I would start with whowe help. We help federal contractors.
(07:38):
So if you are a nonprofit ora commercial organization not associated with federal contracting,
we are not your company. AndI think it's just as important to
say what you do as to whatyou don't do. So we work,
we're very specialized and we only workin this one industry. However, this
industry is ginormous, as we allknow, especially in the DC measure,
(08:00):
and then in terms of how weserve our customers. We serve our clients
in multiple disciplines, all within thecorporate back office. So we work in
accounting, and that can be anythingfrom day to day entry up to CFOs
who help you sell your company.We work in contracts. We negotiate contracts
on your behalf. We redline,we negotiate with the big guys. We
(08:22):
help you set up a pipeline,help you kind of understand what your contract
waterfall look like looks like. Wework in HR and talent acquisition, so
we work. We help you hirepeople, we help you fire people.
We help you put in place policies. We help you figure out what your
benefits need to look like two yearsfrom now, whether or not you need
(08:45):
that internship program, like what arethe things, what is the workforce planning
and succession planning that you need?How do you build an intentional culture?
We work with all of those typesof things. We do not do it
because I can barely spell it,and there's plenty of great people out there.
We do not do proposals except forthe pricing, because there's plenty of
(09:05):
great proposal shops out there, andhonestly, I can't imagine doing that for
a living because it sounds horrible,because I hate them, and we do
not do business development or capture becauseI believe truly you have to you as
the CEO, have to be ableto sell your own company and sell your
own you know what it is youdo your own product or owned services,
(09:26):
and I feel strongly that you haveto have the internally, but we can
help you with all the other stuffas you try and get there standing Thank
you for sharing all that. That'swonderful. I did want to ask you
about differentiating yourself now. I don'twant to assume that there's any other companies
to do exactly what you do,but if there are similarities out there of
competition, how do you differentiate yourselffrom that competition. I think the critical
(09:48):
foot factor is the fact that we'reso specific on gop con. We actually
turned down business and we'll refer itto two partners that we know will do
a good job because we know thatthis is our Bailey Wick and this is
what we're going at. This iswhy you pay us is to know the
different levels of compliance, the differentlevels of complexity and legal needs if you
(10:11):
will, that's why you want us. That's why if you are a growing
gov con, if you are acommercial company trying to get into the gov
con space, you pay us forgov Con expertise. And there's very few
to know companies out there that actuallywill turn away work because they you know,
they are only specific to this industry. One of the big things that
(10:31):
is, it's not a worry,it's not a concern, but just that
you have to deal with. We'rein a new world where people are working
at home and on location. Nobody'sin the office place, and I believe
that's one hundred percent for you whenit comes to all the staff. Now,
with that said, and once againwe're talking to current CEOs and budding
leaders out there, and I geta pitch pos still of answers about who
(10:52):
should be in the office and whoshouldn't and how many days a week.
With all that said that everybody isout, how do you make sure that
you have that that work life happybalance with your employees. You're paying them
well, but also they're getting thejob done for you. As you see
fit. It's a multitude of ways. We were completely virtual before COVID,
(11:16):
so we started virtual, we've maintainedvirtual. We were ready, you know,
in March of twenty twenty and justwe're kind of like, okay,
so I guess less events, butthis is what we're doing. We've had
a small office, but basically it'swhere we collect mail, so we do
it. There's two sides to thisequation. One is the quality and making
sure that you were delivering quality productsto your clients. You were doing what
(11:39):
you said you were going to do, and that is one of my biggest
missives, right like that is oneof the things that I live and die
by. Did you do what yousaid you were going to do. And
part of that is just putting inchecks and balances. Part of that is
having oversight that sort of thing.The other scientistic equation is creating a culture.
These were people who work together dayin and day out, but it
(12:01):
will not haven't met each other inperson. We have employees that I've never
met in person. And as muchas I try to meet as many people
as possible, anytime they come inthe DC metro area or I'm on travel,
I will go out of my way. I will drive the hour to
go meet that person to have thecoffee. It is still you have to
build an intentional culture. So wedo things online. We have happy hours,
(12:22):
we have virtual happy hours, youknow, and I know it's hard.
It's definitely hard. It is somuch easier when you can see each
other. We still have leadership meetingswhere I ask our directors to come to
the DC metro area because I wantto see them in person. I am
flying to go see my directors.I visit them in their hometowns, in
their home locations at least once ayear so that I can spend two days
(12:46):
of just quality time. Take meto your favorite restaurant, tell me what
your life's like. Walk, youknow, let's go for a walk,
right like, just just being oneon one to be human and to be
colleagues. I like that you dothat because when it comes down to you
know, people want simple acknowledgment andalso accessibility to the boss, and you
(13:07):
support both of those. It onlymight be once a year, but you've
got everybody spread all over the UnitedStates, so you know you're spread thin
and you just do the best youcan. But I like that you roll
that way, and I'm sure thatthe staff appreciates that as well. I
did want to ask you about stories, specifically a great story that was really
cool that maybe happened over the lastcouple of years. But I want to
put a pin in that just fornow, because I know that CEOs,
(13:30):
especially when it comes to your competitivego con space, are still challenges today.
What might those be for our clients? I think, always new business,
always having a differentiation. It issuch a saturated market. It is
so easy to you know, Ido cyber and now everybody does AI right,
(13:50):
whether it is they just say theword AI right, but it's when
everybody says that. And the USgovernment is the largest client that you can
have, but there's so many,many different facets and just because you got
into one program office and one nuancedyou know, division of the Navy doesn't
mean that it translates to the Army, which doesn't mean that it translates to
(14:11):
department and education. So getting toknow and getting in front of potential your
customer with the US government, Ithink is one of the hardest things.
Finding customers who have budget and whoactually want to buy the things that you
have to sell, and you area product or your software or your services.
I think that remains a challenge andwill always be for our clients.
(14:35):
All right, let's talk about astory that just really impressed you where you
said, you know, with meand the staff, we knocked that one
on the park. You don't haveto mention the client, because I know
there's still some super secret stuff thatyou do the you can't mention. But
was there a time and a placeand something that happened? He said,
you know what, that was agood day for everybody that day. So
it wasn't necessarily I do nothing.My people are the smart ones. They
(14:56):
do all the work. I actuallyus that on conference girls and do emails
and go to others. So andI am very much aware that I am
not the smartest one in the room, and I am perfectly okay with us.
But we do have a success storythat we actually just write a little
case study on that's on our websitewhere one of our senior contracts folks,
we had one of our small guysand they had been told multiple times by
(15:22):
their large prime integrator, you knowa big brand name that you know,
don't worry, we'll get you thepaperwork. We'll get you the paperwork,
you know, kind of like workingat risk then wanting to put all these
different types of terms and conditions ontheir contracts. That didn't make sense that
what weren't what they agreed to.So they brought us in and we were
(15:43):
able to negotiate directly. It tookmore time than you know, just signing
the paperwork and signing your life away, but we were able to negotiate with
them and with our clients prime getthe terms that they wanted, get the
payment terms that they had asked for, and actually get back to where they
had a really good working relationship.And so we did that, and it's
(16:06):
only because our team of contracts expertsknew their team of contract you know,
we were able to negotiate and doall the right things. And our client
is super happy and is now gettingpaid at a reasonable price on reasonable terms,
with things that he can live with, and so he's able to grow
and scale his company. Take usfor great past performance, and even though
we had to work at risk fora little bit, he was able to
(16:27):
kind of like stick to his gunsand get what he wanted. And I
love watching our smaller clients do reallywell, even in this large this large
ecosystem that's standing. Thanks for sharingthat as we put a pin in our
conversation about just kind of wrapping upeverything, is there maybe one takeaway when
(16:48):
it comes to all the people thatare listening that maybe want to work with
you, maybe work at Boost,and we'll talk about website and career opportunities
in just a second, But justone last takeaway when it comes to Boost
for our listeners. If you're afederal crimientor and you're working with the government,
work with people who know your industry. You do not pay to get
(17:08):
your consultants schooled up on a newindustry. Work with people who know what
they're doing. There's a very bigdifference between hiring somebody off crankslist for twenty
five bucks an hour and working withan expert. You will pay for what
you get and you will reap therewards and the not too great things that
happen with it. If you workin dot con, work with people who
(17:30):
know go con. Yeah, that'sreally well said. Okay, we have
website coming up and any other contactinformation social channels you want to give,
and we should mention there currently arecareer opportunities with Boost and Stephanie's going to
talk about that right now, anda website and any other kind of contact
information that you can reach out to. So Stephanie, what do you have
for us? Sure? Our websiteis boost to llc dot net. I
(17:52):
know I hate it too. It'sa dot net, but a million years
ago I couldn't get the dot com. And we do have some open positions
in our account team. I ami am Desbert to find a Uniet implementer.
So if anyone does that, pleasecall call smoke signal, send me.
I will send you flowers. Tellme I need to find you.
I don't know what rock you wereliving under, but I am trying to
(18:14):
find you. But we've got acouple of other accounting positions, including a
CFO position. I believe that isstill open. So we are actively recruiting
for our accounting team. That isjust kind of blowing up this year,
so we're really happy about that.You can also find us on LinkedIn and
LinkedIn. Our handle is boost llc, So we try and post ams daily.
(18:36):
We try to post kind of informativethings that you know, make you
kind of think and here's something thatwe didn't know, or here's something that
we want to share. We wantto provide good, meaningful conversations for folks
in our industry for the stuff thatwe do. We also have a newsletter.
Well, thank you, Stephanie.I just can't tell you how much
I appreciate time. Again, it'sgreat to revisit with you. And once
(18:57):
again, it's just amazing that you'remany two companies out there and everybody listening
to where does she find the energy? And you just do when you're a
CEO, when you're a founder,you just make it happen. So we're
very appreciative of your valuable time continuedsuccess, give our best to all your
staff, and thank you so muchfor joining us on CEOs. You should
know, thanks so much, somuch. Our community partner, M and
(19:18):
T Bank supports CEOs you should know. Is part of their ongoing commitment to
building strong communities, and that startsby backing the businesses within them. As
a Bank for Communities, M andT believes in dedicating time, talent,
and resources to help local businesses thrive, because when businesses succeed, our community succeed
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