October 23, 2025 • 27 mins
Travis Mack is a distinguished entrepreneur, business leader, and the Chairman & CEO of Saalex Corporation, a federal aerospace
and defense engineering and information technology services company providing support to battlefield environments. Saalex is
focused on information technology, cybersecurity support, test range operations and management services, training and training
support, Software Development and engineering logistics services for various federal agencies, primarily for the Department of
Defense.
With over 25 years of dedication to Saalex, he has played a pivotal role in driving success and growth. With Mr. Mack as Chairman
& CEO, Saalex has completed 11+ company acquisitions growing the Saalex Corporation family of companies to include Saalex
Solutions, Netsimco and Spalding Consulting. Saalex has flourished into a thriving organization, generating over $175 million in
annual revenue and employing over 1,200 people nationwide.
Mr. Mack provides leadership and direction, developing strategies to ensure Saalex’s continued success while earning admiration
among the company’s stakeholders and communities. Notably, Saalex Corporation was awarded the prestigious Small Business
of the Year award by the SBA Los Angeles in 2015. He has in-depth expertise in software applications services and defense
acquisition contracting. Under his leadership, Saalex has also prioritized a strong workplace culture, implementing an Employee
Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) that makes 40% of the company employee-owned, fostering shared success and long-term
commitment.
Prior to his remarkable entrepreneurial journey, Travis Mack served in the U.S. Navy for over 7 years, demonstrating his
unwavering dedication and earning recognition as a decorated service-disabled Veteran. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree
in Business Management and has been honored with an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Business from Webber International
University. To further enhance his business acumen and leadership skills, Travis has completed prestigious executive programs
such as the Senior Executive Management Program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, the Junior Executive
Management Program at Clark Atlanta University, and graduated from the USC Marshall School of Business Executive Leadership
program as well as the UCLA Anderson School of Business Executive Leadership program. Travis Mack is a certified Asset Manager
by the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC).
Committed to making a positive impact in society, Travis Mack is the founder of "The Mack Foundation," a philanthropic nonprofit organization dedicated to providing support, scholarships, and educational opportunities to underserved communities,
particularly children and families. Through this foundation, Mr. Mack aims to empower and uplift those in need.
Under his leadership, Saalex continues to drive innovation in defense contracting, cybersecurity, and federal technology solutions,
delivering high-impact advancements while remaining committed to its employees, customers, and the communities it serves.
and defense engineering and information technology services company providing support to battlefield environments. Saalex is
focused on information technology, cybersecurity support, test range operations and management services, training and training
support, Software Development and engineering logistics services for various federal agencies, primarily for the Department of
Defense.
With over 25 years of dedication to Saalex, he has played a pivotal role in driving success and growth. With Mr. Mack as Chairman
& CEO, Saalex has completed 11+ company acquisitions growing the Saalex Corporation family of companies to include Saalex
Solutions, Netsimco and Spalding Consulting. Saalex has flourished into a thriving organization, generating over $175 million in
annual revenue and employing over 1,200 people nationwide.
Mr. Mack provides leadership and direction, developing strategies to ensure Saalex’s continued success while earning admiration
among the company’s stakeholders and communities. Notably, Saalex Corporation was awarded the prestigious Small Business
of the Year award by the SBA Los Angeles in 2015. He has in-depth expertise in software applications services and defense
acquisition contracting. Under his leadership, Saalex has also prioritized a strong workplace culture, implementing an Employee
Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) that makes 40% of the company employee-owned, fostering shared success and long-term
commitment.
Prior to his remarkable entrepreneurial journey, Travis Mack served in the U.S. Navy for over 7 years, demonstrating his
unwavering dedication and earning recognition as a decorated service-disabled Veteran. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree
in Business Management and has been honored with an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Business from Webber International
University. To further enhance his business acumen and leadership skills, Travis has completed prestigious executive programs
such as the Senior Executive Management Program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, the Junior Executive
Management Program at Clark Atlanta University, and graduated from the USC Marshall School of Business Executive Leadership
program as well as the UCLA Anderson School of Business Executive Leadership program. Travis Mack is a certified Asset Manager
by the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC).
Committed to making a positive impact in society, Travis Mack is the founder of "The Mack Foundation," a philanthropic nonprofit organization dedicated to providing support, scholarships, and educational opportunities to underserved communities,
particularly children and families. Through this foundation, Mr. Mack aims to empower and uplift those in need.
Under his leadership, Saalex continues to drive innovation in defense contracting, cybersecurity, and federal technology solutions,
delivering high-impact advancements while remaining committed to its employees, customers, and the communities it serves.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
M and T Bank presents CEOs.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You should know Howard by iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Let's be Travis Mack. He is the CEO and chairman
of the board for Salek Solutions, a federal services contractor
that provides engineering, IT data analytics, and test range, operations
and management services to the military, NASA, and corporate clients.
Before we talk more about Travis's company, I first has
him to talk a little bit about himself, where he's
from and his origin story.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I am from a little city in East Texas. It's
called Longview, Texas, and it's toward the eastern border of
Texas and Louisiana.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
And you know, it's.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Uh, it's it's it's where the cows are big and
the mosquitoes are bigger.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
From from East Texas.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
So I grew grew up in what they like to
call the Sticks, and I'm proud of it. I learned
a lot of valuable lessons coming from from a small
coming from a small city and really taught me a lot,
you know, as I progressed through the years and and
i've been I've been really fortunate to have.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
You know that that that upbringing.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
I military guy. I left East Texas back in the
early nineties went into the military.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Really, Dennis, it was something.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
That changed my life tremendously and really kind of set
me on the right track.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Gave me that discipline that young man absolutely needs and
was able to do. You know, eight good years in
the Navy.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Left the Navy as a service disable veteran, and I
was fortunate to be able to serve my country.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Really thrilled about that.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Don't worry, Dennis, I didn't catch a bullet or anything.
It wasn't right. I was walking through the jungle, tripped,
hurt my knee. I'm kind of clumsy anyway, and the
Navy said, hey, you know what, your your service connected
disability there.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
So that's that. But you know I was I was
proud of doing it, and I was proud to serve.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
All right, Well, listen, we appreciate your service. And you know,
whether it's combat or not, it's rough out there when
you're doing military. And a little bit later on our conversation,
because I know this is not going to surprise you, Travis,
we talked to so many former military personnel that have
started their own companies and done so well, and later
on I want to talk to you about leadership because
I think there are a lot of correlations. You know,
(02:26):
I'm a sports guy, I know you are too, but
military when it comes to leadership, service, duty, team, all
those things can translate to the private sector as well too,
and we'll talk about that. It's a little bit, but
I want to talk also about the origin story of SALEX,
your company for twenty seven years now, and it's always
really interesting to figure out, you know, why somebody starts
(02:47):
a company, how they do it, why they did it,
and noticing there might be a certain hole in the
industry that they see and they see, you know what,
I think, with my skill set, I can feel that.
So tell us about the origin story of starting the company.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Dennis. Well listen, I will say this.
I cannot tell you that I woke up one morning
and I said, hey, I want to go out.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
And start an aerospace and defense contract.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
But not everybody does that, right, right, So I don't
think many many individuals wake up with that with that vision.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I certainly wasn't wasn't one of them.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
And so back in I started, say let's back in
ninety eight ninety nine time frame, and I had done
my stint in the military, and as I was coming
out of the military, I was like, Okay, well let
me go into the private sector, because I got to
tell you then, it's coming out of the military, and
(03:43):
I think most military personnel will tell you this, it's
a very scary time when you make that transition from
the military to the civilian population and you're not quite
sure what your skill set translated to.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And so I was really trying to figure it out.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Had got a lot of a lot of great discipline,
had gotten a lot lot of training, had done some
really cool stuff, had traveled, traveled the world and learned
a lot of great things.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
But I wasn't quite sure what I should be next.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
I left the military, got into the civilian world, got
in some of some some of the technical aspects of
the civilian world, landed up at homestore dot com which
is now real to dot Com, and really kind of
built out their technical engineering group, and that was that
was exciting. But I always had this yearning to because
(04:31):
I'm really curious, and I always had this yearning saying,
you know what, you have to try something on your own.
So Dennis, when I when I went out, I didn't
go out to start Salet's as some aerospace and defense juggernaut.
I went out just to create something, and that creation was, Hey,
start your own small business. We actually started out as
an IT consulting firm. Slix started out as an IT
(04:52):
consulting firm. But you know, with my brilliance, Dennis, I
started an IT consulting.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Firm during the dot com employee right, So.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
You can only imagine, you know, some of.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
The challenges early on that we had to go through.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
But I think through those challenges kind of helped me
persevere and literally that's how we got our start.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
And so when the dot com implosion.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Happened, I'm sitting in my living room and I'm saying, Wow,
what do I do now?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
You know, left my job. Now I got two part.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Time jobs, and you know, my entrepreneurial journey is already over.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Got a call from a friend.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
That I've been working with on another project that we
had and he was down at TIW at the time,
and he said, hey, you know, and I got an
opportunity for you to come down here and support TRW.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Are you interested?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Now? At this time, I had done no aerospace stuff.
I had no clue what the aerospace industry was and
he said, I remember three questions that he asked me.
He said, are you interested? I paused, yeah, I'm interested,
having no clue, Yeah, I'm interested.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Uh can you be here in two weeks? Yeah? I
could be there in two weeks? Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Do you know anything about aerospace and defense?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, yeah, I know. I know a good amount about
aerospace defense.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
And that was the beginning of right there, and so
we got on as a subcontractors a TRW before they
were brought by Northork.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Okay, listen, you're not the first one, because I did
it too in my media career. I fudge a little
bit about what I did and did not do just
to get ahead. And we all have there, man, So
you ain't alone in that one.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I bet I browned up though, Dennis, I spin, I.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Bet you did. There you go, I probbed up crash course.
So well, listen, we're going to talk a lot about SILEX,
and before we get into programs and capabilities and exactly
what you do. I know that mission and vision or
important to all our CEOs and entrepreneurs and people of
the Lord companies. So can you share with our audience
what mission and vision is for Sale Solutions, Well for.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Me and salex Solutions, I mean mission is very simple.
My mission, this organization's mission is to support the warfighter
in any manner, form or fashion will stop for us.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Having been there, I understand those challenges. I understand you
know those needs, and I.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Know how difficult and the sacrifice that each and every
last one of those individuals are making. Remember this is voluntary.
You volunteer to go and do these kind of things.
And so that is my mission, right is to support
the war fighter. It may sound cheesy, Dennis, but it's
that simple for me. And now that we are upsized
(07:55):
and a player in the vertical, it's even that much
more important to me to make sure that we're part
of supporting the warfighter to whatever and whatever capacity that's
needed from my perspective.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
And how about the vision of the company, Travis.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
You know, the vision of the company for me is
to really make sure that we are providing the best
service that we can possibly provide to the government.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
We think that there are a.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Lot of opportunities for us to get more efficient. We
think there are a lot of opportunities for us to
provide a better service. We think there's a lot of
opportunities for us to be more responsive, you know, and
which in turn that goes.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
To the d support goes back to the warfighter.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
So to me that that vision and that mission are
tied together and one supports the other.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
All right, So this is a good segue. So there's
going to be a lot of our listeners that are
being introduced to say the solutions for the first time ever. Travis,
And if you were to give a thirty thousand foot
view and a short version about what the company does,
what would you tell people?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Well we are.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
You know, the Sentence Corporation is an aerospace and defense contractor.
Our primary customer is the Department of Defense now the
Department of War, and we are excited to be supporting
such a wonderful organization.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
So we mainly.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Provide services in the areas of software development, test, range management,
you know, information technology support, engineering logistics, primarily for weapon
system platforms, avionic platforms, large scale.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
IT environments and things of that nature. So we've been.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Been doing that since about ninety eight ninety nine, and
we've become really good at it, providing those services and
those tools and that support to our DOW customers.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
So without any assumption, Travis, I imagine it is a
competitive landscape out there with some of the different people.
Do what you do with that said, as you talk
to your client and do you spread your net out there?
How do you differentiate yourself from competition out there?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Well, I mean, Dennis, I think you know right now
is a very I call it a transformative time for
the defense industrial base.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
But I also think it is a very innovative time.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
I think we're headed as far as the defense contracting base,
and I'm just going to talk about that base because
I know it very well.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I think this is one of the most innovative.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Times as defense contractors there has been in the last
you know, forty to fifty years from my perspective, with
the introduction of AI. And I really think that government
service contractors or government service providers or defense contractors, whatever
you want to call them, we're moving into what I
like to you know, what I like to call government
(10:57):
service providers four point zero with AI, and how do
we harness that power to better support the end customers?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
And so right now this is.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
The most challenging time because nobody's figured it out yet.
It is and we're trying to figure out what does
the next solution set to our end customers? What does
that look like, you know, and how do we harness
the power of AI and how do we bring that
into our organization, you know, because we're not going to
go build large language models for the federal government. But
(11:28):
you know what, there's a lot of things because we
we manage a lot of data, we do a lot
of support, We.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Understand the program, we manage the program and board.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
We got to come together and we really got to
drive AI as the intelligence and connecting it with you know,
those digital connections which are automation, really putting those together
and really harnessing that and providing a much greater service
to the end customer.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
You know, Travis, My next question could be its own podcast,
but it has to be brought up because I'm always
in awe of people like you and your team members
in the field you're in because I can only assume
as a layman that things are moving very quickly, and
now with AI that's integrated and everything, the learning curve
must be steep, but it's also quick. Now you have
to make sure that you and your team are is
(12:15):
educated as heck, before you present where you arguet your clients.
Can you tell me about just maybe the last five
or ten years on the education of products and capabilities
and how quickly it's moving so it's ready for your
client and what you have to do to get it
ready to present to your clients out there.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
I think that's such an important topic. And you talk
about the pace. The pace of what we do, Dennis
has has quickened and literally and I'll go back, you know,
just just three years ago, right November twenty twenty two. Right,
we get chat, GPT, and we get AI and really
(12:51):
automation becomes centerfold and what we should be looking like
as an organization. So managing the pace Dennis right now
is really and it's the pace of innovation. It's the
pace of change that's really the hard part. And I
equate it to just really moving fast and being okay
(13:14):
with iterations. And what I mean by that is I'm
telling an organization don't wait to start engage, embrace, move forward,
and be okay with making those failures because it's going
to be an iterative process. But if you wait before
you start trying to iterate and put AI and automation
(13:34):
everything into.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Your business model.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Then you're going to be two years behind, and two
years behind in an age of AI is like a
decade literally, And so I'm saying, push faster, make quicker decisions,
be okay with false starts, because you're going to be
that much further ahead.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
And instead of.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
You trying to wait for the perfect strategy, iterate into
a very productive strategy and be fast paced about it.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
You got to move. You can't.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
You can't afford to have analysis paralysis right now. You
have to move, and you got to be okay with
making those false starts or those mistakes, Dennis, because if not,
you're going to you're gonna be stuck and you're got
to look up and you're gonna be too far behind
to catch up.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah. I can't begin to tell you how much I
agree with you, Travis, and I want to stand this
and I'm going to talk to you about leadership in
a second. But I learned a long time ago in
my business of sports, and my boss just said, hey, listen,
instead of you just kind of sitting there and trying
to do the perfect whatever, run a play. And I
think that's exactly what you're talking about, you know, because
I've heard from a lot of leaders out there that
(14:44):
you know, if if you're freeze, it could be paramount
and not in a good way. So what you're just saying, listen,
whatever idea is, whatever execution, run a play. There's going
to be failure there, but you're going to learn from that.
But just executing something gets everything moving, so you don't freeze.
And am I kind of getting what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I love how how you capture that. Right, run a play.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Just run a play right, Choose the play, run the play,
see what the results are right, right, and if the
play didn't go as you expected it, right, make some
tweaks to it. Yeah, you know, and go in that direction.
But at least you're making forward progress. At least you're
trying to go in the right direction. And I think
that's the value of what we're doing because we have
(15:31):
not seen this before.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
And if anyone comes up to you, Dennis and says.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Hey, you know what, I got this, I got this
AI automation stuff, I'll figure it out. You know, absolutely,
they are not telling you the truth, So I couldn't
agree with you more.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, just just run the play.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah, I subscribe to it A long time ago, and
it was great advice and it made a lot of sense.
And that's what I tell young people my business. Just
you know, run one man and let's see how it goes.
And this is a good segue into leadership. And I
always love to talk to ex military because you know,
between structure, honor, duty, not only love for your country, Travis,
(16:08):
but also what all the military can bring from leadership
that you can bring into the private sector, whether you're
a for profit or nonprofit. And I'd love for you
to talk about leadership with what you do, not only
working with your clients, but your team members. And you've
kind of headshun a couple of things that have really
interested me. But talk about leadership, about what you learned
from the military and how you brought it over to
(16:30):
what you've been doing the last twenty seven years in
your business, how you conduct business, but also how you
work with your team members and your clients.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
When it comes to leadership, Dennis, I consider myself because
of you know, the infinite number of battle scars that
I have obtained over the years.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
I consider myself to be an expert in.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Starting businesses, growing businesses, and scaling businesses. Right and I
love it because I love that process. Military instills so
many valuable, so many valuable things. And I'll also say
that it's not only the military, it's any organized program
(17:13):
that demands that you show up on time, you eat it,
this time, you do practices at this time, you got
these duties, whatever that structure is.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
And that equates to a lot of sports, right, you know, football, football.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
You get the same thing, basketball, right, you get all
of that, you know, really rigid academics and following the process.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
That's all valuable because it teaches you. It teaches you.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Structure teaches you discipline, and discipline will carry you a
lot further than just having motivation, because motivation, you know,
gets old after a while. Discipline says, you know what
I got to I gotta get up every single day
and I gotta keep doing the same thing. And yeah,
it's a slow process, but you know, it's kind of
built into you. And so the military, certainly, that discipline
(18:05):
was something that I got from my state of service. Also,
I learned that you know what, you gotta work with everybody.
You gotta work with everybody who's ever next to you
in that box.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Hole or in that tank or on that carrier.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
That is your shipmate, and you have to make sure
that your shipmate is okay, because if you don't make
sure your shipmate is okay, your shipmate's I got to
make sure that you're okay.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
So you got to learn from.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
A management perspective, everybody's opinion is valid, everybody, everybody has
something positive to say, and then everybody has a task,
and how do you deliver those tasks make sure that
the end goal of the mission is completed. I think
I think I'll end by saying perseverance.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Bad things are going to happen, full stop, going to happen.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
How you persevere, how you respond, how you react, what's
the plan. Militak does a great job and helping you plan.
If you figure out how to plan things out and
walk through the process, that perseverance and you continuing to
get up and do those things day in and day out,
making those pivots, making those adjustments, planning your way through it.
I think are some wonderful lifetime Leffn lessons that have
(19:24):
been instilled in me and that I still use today
with the organization, and that has been very valuable.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Well, it's some great stuff and I appreciate you sharing
all that travels. I think you and I subscribe to
all those same models that it comes to leadership with
duty and responsibility and something it's very simple that I
told my daughter who's a filmmaker in Brooklyn. Now she's
twenty three, and you know, I got a lot of
eye rolls. And I know you're a family man too
(19:51):
and have kids. Is that being on timing means being early.
If he can be early and be on time, people
really respect those little things things that can go a
long ways for somebody who might be really gifted but
late all the time. And uh that that's that's just
one of those small qualities of leadership that you can
have out there, of being honorable and trustworthy and those
(20:14):
kind of things. So I'm glad that you shared that.
When it capture leadership.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
On time, Dennis, Yeah, have the battle is showing up.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
I I agree, I agree, right.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
It takes a little discipline to show up on time.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
That's right. That's right. Well, listen before I get some
final thoughts from your travels, so I want to talk
about the industry in just the future, and I know
people like you are always looking forward to what's next.
And I know that we're knee deep in AI. But
as you look at the next couple two to five
years of your industry, where do you see it going?
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Well, listen, I I think I think the administration has
in a very strong signal about they want to go faster, right,
they want to deploy. We think that the way that
we fight wars and battles has changed. I think we've
learned and a lot of lessons from our support in
other areas, and the signal, the signal that we are getting,
(21:08):
you know, on the contractor side of the house, is
we need to go faster.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
We need to iterate faster, we need to deploy faster.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
We need to remove obstacles, we need to delete processes,
We need to figure out how we can develop you know,
innovative platforms quickly, efficiently, and we need to own, uh,
you know, own that process. So we got to be
a leaders in a lot of these areas. And really,
(21:38):
you know, we here just go faster and how do
we go faster? And how do we utilize technology to
help us go faster and iterate faster and get rid
of a lot of the red tape that's hindering us
from going faster, so we hear that message loud and clear,
(22:00):
and that's what we're trying to do. That is, I mean,
and we have technology that's kind of helping us do that.
Now we have to figure out a way to integrate
that into our business models very efficiently.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
And then we got to move out and then we.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Got Yeah, it's all about harnessing it, right.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
It is?
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yeah, it is, it is.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
And that's that's that's the struggle, you right, What's what's
the right way to harness it? And again I go
back to iteration, I go back to being innovative. We're
not going to get We're not going to get it
right on the first on the first go around, I'm
certain of that, we're not going to get it right,
you know. But through iteration, through going faster, through making
those mistakes.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Right, I encourage failure.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
You learn nothing from success, nothing except hey, let's just
keep doing it the same way it's been successful. Failure hurts,
and failure tells you, you know what, that hurts so
bad that time, I'm not going to do it that way,
but I'm going to figure out.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Another way to do it. And so, you know, those
are some really important you know points.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
From my perspective, it is and it's good advice. And
once again, as I head back to the sports field,
if you see any Hall of Famer talk about their victories,
it's not about that. It's those losses that they remember
and that stick with them and that's why they're the
best the best. So I appreciate your advice on that, Travis,
it makes a lot of sense. Well, let's do this
before we give the website. And I know that there
(23:25):
are always people that are looking to join great companies.
If you're hiring the best of the best, Travis, you
can talk about that. But I want to get some
final thoughts about our conversation and just kind of recap everything.
Serve the floor as yours.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Well, well listen, Dennis.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
First, I appreciate you having me on to talk about
the story of SALEX and you know what we're doing
for the warfighter. That's always an exciting topic for me
and always happy to share.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Just know, I think we're in a time of innovation.
I think we have to lean forward with automation and AI,
and we got to figure out how it is driven
into our business, into our business methodology and the way
that we do work, Dennis is going is changed, and
I think everybody needs.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
To adopt that premise.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
The way that we do work today has changed the
way that we will do work going forward. It's going
to be totally different, and I think that premise is
really important for everyone to understand. So don't look at
the world, Mike, Well, I've been doing it the same
way because it's it's you know, the job that you
had today isn't the job isn't going to look like
the job that you will have tomorrow. And I think
it's really important, you know, And we are looking for
(24:38):
that type of workforce, right Send me you know our
pa robody process automation analysts, Send me design workflow mapping analysts,
you know, send me you know low code software developers,
you know, send us mapping specialists, you know, those who
can map and define, uh, you know, workflows and things
(25:02):
of that nature. Those are the kind of individuals that
you know are really important to us as we continue
to reshape our workforce to be to be more supportive
and to be more innovative to our end to our
end customer.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
All right, and I want you to give the website
and as I go through the nav bar I see
the careers tab. There are several positions open. I know
you're always looking for the best, the best. What's that
website for everybody?
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Absolutely please visit us at www dot Salex.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
That's s A A L e x dot com.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
We would love to talk to you about you know,
the numerous positions that we have available. We are hiring,
that's for sure, and we would love for you to
be a part of the team.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Again.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
That's www dot salets dot com. And you can also
follow me Dennis on LinkedIn Travis t mac m A
c K and you can follow you on the Instagram
as well. Travis MACMSK dot CEO. Would love every any questions.
I love answering them and love giving you my two
(26:07):
cents on where I think where I think things are headed.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
I'm standingel Travis. I really enjoyed the conversation and I
appreciate your valuable time. Please give my best to your
team and all you do. And I'm always in awe
even though I'm a layman of people that work with
our military that protect us so we can sleep well
at night. So thank you for all that you and
your team do. Continue success, and I'm really glad we
could feature you on CEOs you should know.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Thank you so much, Dennis. It was my pleasure and
I appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
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 community succeed.
M and T Bank presents CEOs.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You should know Howard by iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Let's be Travis Mack. He is the CEO and chairman
of the board for Salek Solutions, a federal services contractor
that provides engineering, IT data analytics, and test range, operations
and management services to the military, NASA, and corporate clients.
Before we talk more about Travis's company, I first has
him to talk a little bit about himself, where he's
from and his origin story.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I am from a little city in East Texas. It's
called Longview, Texas, and it's toward the eastern border of
Texas and Louisiana.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
And you know, it's.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Uh, it's it's it's where the cows are big and
the mosquitoes are bigger.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
From from East Texas.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
So I grew grew up in what they like to
call the Sticks, and I'm proud of it. I learned
a lot of valuable lessons coming from from a small
coming from a small city and really taught me a lot,
you know, as I progressed through the years and and
i've been I've been really fortunate to have.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
You know that that that upbringing.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
I military guy. I left East Texas back in the
early nineties went into the military.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Really, Dennis, it was something.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
That changed my life tremendously and really kind of set
me on the right track.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Gave me that discipline that young man absolutely needs and
was able to do. You know, eight good years in
the Navy.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Left the Navy as a service disable veteran, and I
was fortunate to be able to serve my country.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Really thrilled about that.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Don't worry, Dennis, I didn't catch a bullet or anything.
It wasn't right. I was walking through the jungle, tripped,
hurt my knee. I'm kind of clumsy anyway, and the
Navy said, hey, you know what, your your service connected
disability there.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
So that's that. But you know I was I was
proud of doing it, and I was proud to serve.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
All right, Well, listen, we appreciate your service. And you know,
whether it's combat or not, it's rough out there when
you're doing military. And a little bit later on our conversation,
because I know this is not going to surprise you, Travis,
we talked to so many former military personnel that have
started their own companies and done so well, and later
on I want to talk to you about leadership because
I think there are a lot of correlations. You know,
(02:26):
I'm a sports guy, I know you are too, but
military when it comes to leadership, service, duty, team, all
those things can translate to the private sector as well too,
and we'll talk about that. It's a little bit, but
I want to talk also about the origin story of SALEX,
your company for twenty seven years now, and it's always
really interesting to figure out, you know, why somebody starts
(02:47):
a company, how they do it, why they did it,
and noticing there might be a certain hole in the
industry that they see and they see, you know what,
I think, with my skill set, I can feel that.
So tell us about the origin story of starting the company.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Dennis. Well listen, I will say this.
I cannot tell you that I woke up one morning
and I said, hey, I want to go out.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
And start an aerospace and defense contract.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
But not everybody does that, right, right, So I don't
think many many individuals wake up with that with that vision.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I certainly wasn't wasn't one of them.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
And so back in I started, say let's back in
ninety eight ninety nine time frame, and I had done
my stint in the military, and as I was coming
out of the military, I was like, Okay, well let
me go into the private sector, because I got to
tell you then, it's coming out of the military, and
(03:43):
I think most military personnel will tell you this, it's
a very scary time when you make that transition from
the military to the civilian population and you're not quite
sure what your skill set translated to.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And so I was really trying to figure it out.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Had got a lot of a lot of great discipline,
had gotten a lot lot of training, had done some
really cool stuff, had traveled, traveled the world and learned
a lot of great things.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
But I wasn't quite sure what I should be next.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
I left the military, got into the civilian world, got
in some of some some of the technical aspects of
the civilian world, landed up at homestore dot com which
is now real to dot Com, and really kind of
built out their technical engineering group, and that was that
was exciting. But I always had this yearning to because
(04:31):
I'm really curious, and I always had this yearning saying,
you know what, you have to try something on your own.
So Dennis, when I when I went out, I didn't
go out to start Salet's as some aerospace and defense juggernaut.
I went out just to create something, and that creation was, Hey,
start your own small business. We actually started out as
an IT consulting firm. Slix started out as an IT
(04:52):
consulting firm. But you know, with my brilliance, Dennis, I
started an IT consulting.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Firm during the dot com employee right, So.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
You can only imagine, you know, some of.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
The challenges early on that we had to go through.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
But I think through those challenges kind of helped me
persevere and literally that's how we got our start.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
And so when the dot com implosion.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Happened, I'm sitting in my living room and I'm saying, Wow,
what do I do now?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
You know, left my job. Now I got two part.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Time jobs, and you know, my entrepreneurial journey is already over.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Got a call from a friend.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
That I've been working with on another project that we
had and he was down at TIW at the time,
and he said, hey, you know, and I got an
opportunity for you to come down here and support TRW.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Are you interested?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Now? At this time, I had done no aerospace stuff.
I had no clue what the aerospace industry was and
he said, I remember three questions that he asked me.
He said, are you interested? I paused, yeah, I'm interested,
having no clue, Yeah, I'm interested.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Uh can you be here in two weeks? Yeah? I
could be there in two weeks? Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Do you know anything about aerospace and defense?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, yeah, I know. I know a good amount about
aerospace defense.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
And that was the beginning of right there, and so
we got on as a subcontractors a TRW before they
were brought by Northork.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Okay, listen, you're not the first one, because I did
it too in my media career. I fudge a little
bit about what I did and did not do just
to get ahead. And we all have there, man, So
you ain't alone in that one.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I bet I browned up though, Dennis, I spin, I.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Bet you did. There you go, I probbed up crash course.
So well, listen, we're going to talk a lot about SILEX,
and before we get into programs and capabilities and exactly
what you do. I know that mission and vision or
important to all our CEOs and entrepreneurs and people of
the Lord companies. So can you share with our audience
what mission and vision is for Sale Solutions, Well for.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Me and salex Solutions, I mean mission is very simple.
My mission, this organization's mission is to support the warfighter
in any manner, form or fashion will stop for us.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Having been there, I understand those challenges. I understand you
know those needs, and I.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Know how difficult and the sacrifice that each and every
last one of those individuals are making. Remember this is voluntary.
You volunteer to go and do these kind of things.
And so that is my mission, right is to support
the war fighter. It may sound cheesy, Dennis, but it's
that simple for me. And now that we are upsized
(07:55):
and a player in the vertical, it's even that much
more important to me to make sure that we're part
of supporting the warfighter to whatever and whatever capacity that's
needed from my perspective.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
And how about the vision of the company, Travis.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
You know, the vision of the company for me is
to really make sure that we are providing the best
service that we can possibly provide to the government.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
We think that there are a.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Lot of opportunities for us to get more efficient. We
think there are a lot of opportunities for us to
provide a better service. We think there's a lot of
opportunities for us to be more responsive, you know, and
which in turn that goes.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
To the d support goes back to the warfighter.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
So to me that that vision and that mission are
tied together and one supports the other.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
All right, So this is a good segue. So there's
going to be a lot of our listeners that are
being introduced to say the solutions for the first time ever. Travis,
And if you were to give a thirty thousand foot
view and a short version about what the company does,
what would you tell people?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Well we are.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
You know, the Sentence Corporation is an aerospace and defense contractor.
Our primary customer is the Department of Defense now the
Department of War, and we are excited to be supporting
such a wonderful organization.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
So we mainly.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Provide services in the areas of software development, test, range management,
you know, information technology support, engineering logistics, primarily for weapon
system platforms, avionic platforms, large scale.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
IT environments and things of that nature. So we've been.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Been doing that since about ninety eight ninety nine, and
we've become really good at it, providing those services and
those tools and that support to our DOW customers.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
So without any assumption, Travis, I imagine it is a
competitive landscape out there with some of the different people.
Do what you do with that said, as you talk
to your client and do you spread your net out there?
How do you differentiate yourself from competition out there?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Well, I mean, Dennis, I think you know right now
is a very I call it a transformative time for
the defense industrial base.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
But I also think it is a very innovative time.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
I think we're headed as far as the defense contracting base,
and I'm just going to talk about that base because
I know it very well.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I think this is one of the most innovative.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Times as defense contractors there has been in the last
you know, forty to fifty years from my perspective, with
the introduction of AI. And I really think that government
service contractors or government service providers or defense contractors, whatever
you want to call them, we're moving into what I
like to you know, what I like to call government
(10:57):
service providers four point zero with AI, and how do
we harness that power to better support the end customers?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
And so right now this is.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
The most challenging time because nobody's figured it out yet.
It is and we're trying to figure out what does
the next solution set to our end customers? What does
that look like, you know, and how do we harness
the power of AI and how do we bring that
into our organization, you know, because we're not going to
go build large language models for the federal government. But
(11:28):
you know what, there's a lot of things because we
we manage a lot of data, we do a lot
of support, We.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Understand the program, we manage the program and board.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
We got to come together and we really got to
drive AI as the intelligence and connecting it with you know,
those digital connections which are automation, really putting those together
and really harnessing that and providing a much greater service
to the end customer.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
You know, Travis, My next question could be its own podcast,
but it has to be brought up because I'm always
in awe of people like you and your team members
in the field you're in because I can only assume
as a layman that things are moving very quickly, and
now with AI that's integrated and everything, the learning curve
must be steep, but it's also quick. Now you have
to make sure that you and your team are is
(12:15):
educated as heck, before you present where you arguet your clients.
Can you tell me about just maybe the last five
or ten years on the education of products and capabilities
and how quickly it's moving so it's ready for your
client and what you have to do to get it
ready to present to your clients out there.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
I think that's such an important topic. And you talk
about the pace. The pace of what we do, Dennis
has has quickened and literally and I'll go back, you know,
just just three years ago, right November twenty twenty two. Right,
we get chat, GPT, and we get AI and really
(12:51):
automation becomes centerfold and what we should be looking like
as an organization. So managing the pace Dennis right now
is really and it's the pace of innovation. It's the
pace of change that's really the hard part. And I
equate it to just really moving fast and being okay
(13:14):
with iterations. And what I mean by that is I'm
telling an organization don't wait to start engage, embrace, move forward,
and be okay with making those failures because it's going
to be an iterative process. But if you wait before
you start trying to iterate and put AI and automation
(13:34):
everything into.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Your business model.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Then you're going to be two years behind, and two
years behind in an age of AI is like a
decade literally, And so I'm saying, push faster, make quicker decisions,
be okay with false starts, because you're going to be
that much further ahead.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
And instead of.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
You trying to wait for the perfect strategy, iterate into
a very productive strategy and be fast paced about it.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
You got to move. You can't.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
You can't afford to have analysis paralysis right now. You
have to move, and you got to be okay with
making those false starts or those mistakes, Dennis, because if not,
you're going to you're gonna be stuck and you're got
to look up and you're gonna be too far behind
to catch up.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah. I can't begin to tell you how much I
agree with you, Travis, and I want to stand this
and I'm going to talk to you about leadership in
a second. But I learned a long time ago in
my business of sports, and my boss just said, hey, listen,
instead of you just kind of sitting there and trying
to do the perfect whatever, run a play. And I
think that's exactly what you're talking about, you know, because
I've heard from a lot of leaders out there that
(14:44):
you know, if if you're freeze, it could be paramount
and not in a good way. So what you're just saying, listen,
whatever idea is, whatever execution, run a play. There's going
to be failure there, but you're going to learn from that.
But just executing something gets everything moving, so you don't freeze.
And am I kind of getting what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I love how how you capture that. Right, run a play.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Just run a play right, Choose the play, run the play,
see what the results are right, right, and if the
play didn't go as you expected it, right, make some
tweaks to it. Yeah, you know, and go in that direction.
But at least you're making forward progress. At least you're
trying to go in the right direction. And I think
that's the value of what we're doing because we have
(15:31):
not seen this before.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
And if anyone comes up to you, Dennis and says.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Hey, you know what, I got this, I got this
AI automation stuff, I'll figure it out. You know, absolutely,
they are not telling you the truth, So I couldn't
agree with you more.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, just just run the play.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah, I subscribe to it A long time ago, and
it was great advice and it made a lot of sense.
And that's what I tell young people my business. Just
you know, run one man and let's see how it goes.
And this is a good segue into leadership. And I
always love to talk to ex military because you know,
between structure, honor, duty, not only love for your country, Travis,
(16:08):
but also what all the military can bring from leadership
that you can bring into the private sector, whether you're
a for profit or nonprofit. And I'd love for you
to talk about leadership with what you do, not only
working with your clients, but your team members. And you've
kind of headshun a couple of things that have really
interested me. But talk about leadership, about what you learned
from the military and how you brought it over to
(16:30):
what you've been doing the last twenty seven years in
your business, how you conduct business, but also how you
work with your team members and your clients.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
When it comes to leadership, Dennis, I consider myself because
of you know, the infinite number of battle scars that
I have obtained over the years.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
I consider myself to be an expert in.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Starting businesses, growing businesses, and scaling businesses. Right and I
love it because I love that process. Military instills so
many valuable, so many valuable things. And I'll also say
that it's not only the military, it's any organized program
(17:13):
that demands that you show up on time, you eat it,
this time, you do practices at this time, you got
these duties, whatever that structure is.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
And that equates to a lot of sports, right, you know, football, football.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
You get the same thing, basketball, right, you get all
of that, you know, really rigid academics and following the process.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
That's all valuable because it teaches you. It teaches you.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Structure teaches you discipline, and discipline will carry you a
lot further than just having motivation, because motivation, you know,
gets old after a while. Discipline says, you know what
I got to I gotta get up every single day
and I gotta keep doing the same thing. And yeah,
it's a slow process, but you know, it's kind of
built into you. And so the military, certainly, that discipline
(18:05):
was something that I got from my state of service. Also,
I learned that you know what, you gotta work with everybody.
You gotta work with everybody who's ever next to you
in that box.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Hole or in that tank or on that carrier.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
That is your shipmate, and you have to make sure
that your shipmate is okay, because if you don't make
sure your shipmate is okay, your shipmate's I got to
make sure that you're okay.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
So you got to learn from.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
A management perspective, everybody's opinion is valid, everybody, everybody has
something positive to say, and then everybody has a task,
and how do you deliver those tasks make sure that
the end goal of the mission is completed. I think
I think I'll end by saying perseverance.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Bad things are going to happen, full stop, going to happen.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
How you persevere, how you respond, how you react, what's
the plan. Militak does a great job and helping you plan.
If you figure out how to plan things out and
walk through the process, that perseverance and you continuing to
get up and do those things day in and day out,
making those pivots, making those adjustments, planning your way through it.
I think are some wonderful lifetime Leffn lessons that have
(19:24):
been instilled in me and that I still use today
with the organization, and that has been very valuable.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Well, it's some great stuff and I appreciate you sharing
all that travels. I think you and I subscribe to
all those same models that it comes to leadership with
duty and responsibility and something it's very simple that I
told my daughter who's a filmmaker in Brooklyn. Now she's
twenty three, and you know, I got a lot of
eye rolls. And I know you're a family man too
(19:51):
and have kids. Is that being on timing means being early.
If he can be early and be on time, people
really respect those little things things that can go a
long ways for somebody who might be really gifted but
late all the time. And uh that that's that's just
one of those small qualities of leadership that you can
have out there, of being honorable and trustworthy and those
(20:14):
kind of things. So I'm glad that you shared that.
When it capture leadership.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
On time, Dennis, Yeah, have the battle is showing up.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
I I agree, I agree, right.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
It takes a little discipline to show up on time.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
That's right. That's right. Well, listen before I get some
final thoughts from your travels, so I want to talk
about the industry in just the future, and I know
people like you are always looking forward to what's next.
And I know that we're knee deep in AI. But
as you look at the next couple two to five
years of your industry, where do you see it going?
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Well, listen, I I think I think the administration has
in a very strong signal about they want to go faster, right,
they want to deploy. We think that the way that
we fight wars and battles has changed. I think we've
learned and a lot of lessons from our support in
other areas, and the signal, the signal that we are getting,
(21:08):
you know, on the contractor side of the house, is
we need to go faster.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
We need to iterate faster, we need to deploy faster.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
We need to remove obstacles, we need to delete processes,
We need to figure out how we can develop you know,
innovative platforms quickly, efficiently, and we need to own, uh,
you know, own that process. So we got to be
a leaders in a lot of these areas. And really,
(21:38):
you know, we here just go faster and how do
we go faster? And how do we utilize technology to
help us go faster and iterate faster and get rid
of a lot of the red tape that's hindering us
from going faster, so we hear that message loud and clear,
(22:00):
and that's what we're trying to do. That is, I mean,
and we have technology that's kind of helping us do that.
Now we have to figure out a way to integrate
that into our business models very efficiently.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
And then we got to move out and then we.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Got Yeah, it's all about harnessing it, right.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
It is?
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yeah, it is, it is.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
And that's that's that's the struggle, you right, What's what's
the right way to harness it? And again I go
back to iteration, I go back to being innovative. We're
not going to get We're not going to get it
right on the first on the first go around, I'm
certain of that, we're not going to get it right,
you know. But through iteration, through going faster, through making
those mistakes.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Right, I encourage failure.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
You learn nothing from success, nothing except hey, let's just
keep doing it the same way it's been successful. Failure hurts,
and failure tells you, you know what, that hurts so
bad that time, I'm not going to do it that way,
but I'm going to figure out.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Another way to do it. And so, you know, those
are some really important you know points.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
From my perspective, it is and it's good advice. And
once again, as I head back to the sports field,
if you see any Hall of Famer talk about their victories,
it's not about that. It's those losses that they remember
and that stick with them and that's why they're the
best the best. So I appreciate your advice on that, Travis,
it makes a lot of sense. Well, let's do this
before we give the website. And I know that there
(23:25):
are always people that are looking to join great companies.
If you're hiring the best of the best, Travis, you
can talk about that. But I want to get some
final thoughts about our conversation and just kind of recap everything.
Serve the floor as yours.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Well, well listen, Dennis.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
First, I appreciate you having me on to talk about
the story of SALEX and you know what we're doing
for the warfighter. That's always an exciting topic for me
and always happy to share.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Just know, I think we're in a time of innovation.
I think we have to lean forward with automation and AI,
and we got to figure out how it is driven
into our business, into our business methodology and the way
that we do work, Dennis is going is changed, and
I think everybody needs.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
To adopt that premise.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
The way that we do work today has changed the
way that we will do work going forward. It's going
to be totally different, and I think that premise is
really important for everyone to understand. So don't look at
the world, Mike, Well, I've been doing it the same
way because it's it's you know, the job that you
had today isn't the job isn't going to look like
the job that you will have tomorrow. And I think
it's really important, you know, And we are looking for
(24:38):
that type of workforce, right Send me you know our
pa robody process automation analysts, Send me design workflow mapping analysts,
you know, send me you know low code software developers,
you know, send us mapping specialists, you know, those who
can map and define, uh, you know, workflows and things
(25:02):
of that nature. Those are the kind of individuals that
you know are really important to us as we continue
to reshape our workforce to be to be more supportive
and to be more innovative to our end to our
end customer.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
All right, and I want you to give the website
and as I go through the nav bar I see
the careers tab. There are several positions open. I know
you're always looking for the best, the best. What's that
website for everybody?
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Absolutely please visit us at www dot Salex.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
That's s A A L e x dot com.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
We would love to talk to you about you know,
the numerous positions that we have available. We are hiring,
that's for sure, and we would love for you to
be a part of the team.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Again.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
That's www dot salets dot com. And you can also
follow me Dennis on LinkedIn Travis t mac m A
c K and you can follow you on the Instagram
as well. Travis MACMSK dot CEO. Would love every any questions.
I love answering them and love giving you my two
(26:07):
cents on where I think where I think things are headed.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
I'm standingel Travis. I really enjoyed the conversation and I
appreciate your valuable time. Please give my best to your
team and all you do. And I'm always in awe
even though I'm a layman of people that work with
our military that protect us so we can sleep well
at night. So thank you for all that you and
your team do. Continue success, and I'm really glad we
could feature you on CEOs you should know.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Thank you so much, Dennis. It was my pleasure and
I appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
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 community succeed.
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