All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
This is Veterans Radio.
Welcome to Veterans Radio.
I am Jim Fossone.
I'm the officer of the deck today.
We've got some great programs for you.
I think you'll find very interesting.
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something you didn't know before by going to VeteransRadio.org.
And before we get started, we want to thank our sponsors.
First up, we want to thank National Veteran Business Development Council, NVBDC.org.
It was established to certify both service disabled and veteran-owned businesses.
You'll find out how they can help your business by going to NVBDC.org.
We want to thank Legal Help for Veterans.
Legal Help for Veterans fights for veterans disability rights all across the nation.
You can reach them at 800-693-4800 or on the web at LegalHelpForVeterans.com.
Welcome, I am Jim Fosso and this is a VeteransRadio spotlight on the National Veteran Business
Development Council, commonly known as NVBDC.org.
We have the opportunity today to talk to its CEO and founder, Keith King, about NVBDC,
which is the nation's leading third-party authority for certification of veteran-owned
businesses, really of all sizes.
This nonprofit started in 2013.
We're going to talk about some of the really amazing things that NVBDC has been able to
do here in 2023, validating what's been going on in this space.
Keith, welcome back to VeteransRadio.
Thank you, Jim.
It's good to be back.
Well, yeah, exactly.
You're coming off a great 2023 year with a couple of national events, one down in Louisville
in particular.
Talk about some of the cool things that you're able to do now with your NVBDC team and the
certified veteran-owned businesses and folks who are helping out.
One of the companies everybody knows.
Well, that company is, of course, one of our corporate supporters and what we call corporate
members.
We're talking about Denny's, in the sense of Denny's restaurants.
As the event was coming up, we were talking to them and we started brainstorming because
I laugh about it, but they asked me if I knew that they had a food truck.
Now, when somebody says food truck, I'm thinking one of these little food trucks.
Yeah, tacos and burgers.
Yeah.
Come on, big deal, really, seriously.
And he goes, no, no, no.
We have an 18-wheeler.
We have a five-star restaurant inside the, I went, what?
In other words, the more we talked about it, it became a situation in which we were in
Louisville.
And just a little bit south of Louisville is a place that I knew very well back in 1969
because I did basic training at Fort Knox.
Anyways, General Miller reached out to the commanding officer down there and said, hey,
we can bring in Denny's, we hate to keep calling it a food truck, so we'll call it the
trailer.
But we're going to bring in Denny's and serve the family's breakfast.
And they said, oh, you know, we would love that.
And I got to tell you, anyone who's ever been in a restaurant, anybody who's ever seen food
being produced, I mean, those live on the spot cooking and they would cook it, put it,
pack it into a go box and then hand it out.
We set it up to where it was like a drive-through.
But the people from that base, Fort Knox has kind of been turned into an education center.
And so we literally had people from all over the country.
We had people from all the different branches of the military.
And the news had spread.
And then, of course, once we started serving and people got the food, then the word really
spread because we ended up serving 975 meals to the active duty military on that base and
their children and their families.
And I mean, it was just such a great day.
It was just to walk and see the impact of that.
And Denny's had enough.
They had 200 meals extra that we wouldn't deliver down to the Red Cross who immediately
started putting those to use.
So it was something that when we talk about the military, we talk about our vets, we start
talking about military families, we had a chance to not only do that firsthand and see
that, it was a very heartwarming, very sophisticated program in the sense of how it was all handled.
And I got to tell you, we're looking forward to working with Denny's in our next national
event.
And this is the kind of things that we hope that people understand that, yes, we certify
veteran-owned businesses and they're disabled veteran-owned businesses, but the impact of
what we do and frankly, what our corporations are now willing to do with us and the ideas
we share, all I can tell you is that was one of the best days for us and to be able to
sit back and say, hey, thank you to a corporate partner and they did an outstanding job.
Absolutely.
And it's just really inspiring to see the results of this kind of networking.
It's the networking between, which is what NVBDC is so good at while it is a certifying
company entity.
What it's really good at in my opinion is this networking you do with your 175 corporate
members and you're over 2,000 certified veteran-owned businesses and it's that result, which is,
hey Denny's, would you like to feed a bunch of military service members and their families
down by Fort Naxx and you get them to say yes and they show up with the semi trailer
full of sausage, hash browns and eggs for breakfast.
It's really, and I think there's a, I want your reaction to this, my sense is there are
a lot of companies out there who want to do more than just say thank you for your service
and this is a good example of Denny saying, hey, we want to do more than just lip service.
We want to actually help people and is it your sense there's a lot of corporations out
there who want to do more than just give lip service?
Yeah, one of the things that, you know, we don't get a chance to talk about very often
is the employee resources groups at these corporations, which really is the veterans,
if you will, that were hired as employees and these, what they call employee resource
groups, they pull all their veterans together.
And one of the things that we have been offering now for several years is for either myself
or General Miller to come in and sit down and talk to these groups about what are they
actually doing and can we plug in, use our networking experience to their efforts and
I tell the story of we did this with one of the corporate resources groups and there were
three homeless programs in their headquarters area and we introduced them to one of the
houses that really needed a lot of repair work and when I was talking to them I just
asked them, hey, anybody knows how to swing a hammer and they went what?
I said, anybody know how to do a paint brush?
How about anybody know how to do a roof?
And you know, these guys said, oh my God, we want to meet these people, we want to talk
to them, they did.
And I call them about six months later and all of a sudden that house became their house.
And I went, what?
Oh yeah, we don't let anybody touch our house.
What do you mean?
Yeah, they're invested, they get invested in it, absolutely.
And that's where the networking is so important, which is what NVBDC does so well.
And we're talking to Keith King who is the CEO and founder of NVBDC, you can find it
at NVBDC.org.
Keith, I want to move to your Louisville event.
We've talked about something that was sort of a part of it and Denny's feeding this,
you know, a thousand people essentially down by Fort Knox.
But talk to us about the purpose and the gathering that occurred in Louisville.
Well, what we do is we focus on, we've been using word networking and I'll continue with
that word, but we call it one-on-one matchmaking.
And what we do is we invite our veteran-owned businesses to participate in these meetings
with our corporations and we ask our corporations to give us an idea of what products or services
they need or would like to talk to a veteran-owned business that does, you know, fulfills whatever
their needs are.
And so we match them up.
Actually, it's the idea of providing us, the veterans provide us with their capability
statements.
We hear all that with the corporation.
So when these meetings happen, they're pretty well attuned to what they do and have a chance
to actually talk to them privately one-on-one and say, okay, this is what we're looking
for, what is it that you actually do?
And I draw some of the issues.
Can you scale up if need be?
You know, how are you financially?
They have some very good, what I call good business type conversations.
And I can tell you, my veterans will come up to me and go, oh my God, you know, I had
no idea that they're going to ask me all these other kinds of questions.
And I said, well, the only reason they ask you that question is because they're interested.
Right, right.
And all I can tell you is that those two days, we had something I'm really proud of, the
supplier diversity professionals from the corporations.
We had a panel and we had the moderator and the panelists and three out of the four people
on that panel in that conversation from our supplier diversity were all members of the
billion dollar roundtable.
I mean, you talk about like a powerhouse group.
I mean, even other supplier diversity people who are not part of the billion dollar roundtable,
I came up to him and my God, this is one of the best panels I've ever seen.
Because again, they're talking about the business of supplier diversity.
And they were teaching now only their fellow supplier diversity, but the veterans.
And that's really what we talk about.
We talk about come in here and learn the business, learn who you're dealing with, understand
why they do this.
It's not just because they love veterans.
They're looking for a damn good supplier.
And if you can do that job, then you will get at least the opportunity to pitch and
possibly contracts because what we're now seeing and doing this next year will be our
10th year of certifying.
We've already been in business 10 years, but it took us a little more than, well, it took
us about 15 months to get everything written and it started doing certification.
But anyways, what we're talking about is the impact now of the, not only the members of
the billion dollar roundtable, but the impact of all 170 some 175 corporate members that
we have, the contracts being issued to our certified vets.
The numbers that we're now seeing was last when I just saw 2013 number, I'm sorry, 2022,
2023 number through their fiscal year was 4.3 billion.
That's with a B, that's with a B, $4.3 billion to veteran certified veteran owned businesses
by the members of the billion dollar roundtable, which is that corporate group of big purchasing
guys.
Well, yeah, and what happened, I guess, when we started looking back at all of this stuff
and you know, Jim, you and I have been talking about these kind of things about, oh, they
did it because they wanted to help vets.
Yeah, that's half truth.
Yes, and God bless them for that because they really do want.
But like I said earlier, never lose sight of what they really want as a good supplier.
You got to produce, you got to produce, you may get, they may call you because you've
got certification, but you still got to be able to demonstrate you can produce.
Exactly.
And you know, we got to produce it, but as you know, you got to do it on time and on
budget.
And, you know, those are the kind of things that when I get an opportunity to talk to
my corporate members like that, they will tell us over and over again that their vets
suppliers are always efficient.
They're always on time.
They do the job.
They love their veteran suppliers and the veteran suppliers don't give them, you know,
BS excuses.
They just tell them, point, plank, hey, this is what's happened and we're going to make
it right.
And well, you know what that is to me?
It is a veteran helping a veteran and we preach that never lose sight of helping your fellow
veteran and how you perform as a supplier.
It's going to help the next, you know, veteran business who may qualify to also, you know,
work with that corporation.
The, you know, the good feelings of that.
Yes, that's important because I think too, when we look at this event, this event was
somewhat of a watershed for us.
And I think when we look at how we do what we do, this was held in the Omni Hotel.
It was a beautiful facility.
We had all, if you will, the breakout rooms.
We had all of the main dining room.
We had all of them, you know, the run of the hotel and made sure that all the things that
we could do to make this a event not only for our corporate members, but for our vets.
We poured into this and I just have to acknowledge my entire team.
You know, they poured their heart and time and soul into making this a great event.
And the one thing that kind of is another one of the, I guess, bonuses is we have had
what we call vets night out.
And I will tell you, that's where that started as some beer and pizzas in the local, you
know, okay.
So that's where that started.
We can relate to that.
Yeah, everybody can relate to that.
Right, well, this vets night out was held hosted by Beam Sun Tory.
This is the Jim Beam Company and they're probably one of their most famous brands, and they
got many, is Makers Mark.
Well, we normally was at their facility.
We were at the restaurant in a sense that they own and they became our host.
And oh my God, what a host they are.
We also had a guest speaker who was a former Green Beret who happened to serve in Afghanistan
with General Miller.
So you can imagine this became not only great stories.
The sky, you know, being a Green Beret and all of those kind of stories.
But when your host, you know, produces some of the best whiskey in America.
There were adult beverages consumed in tall tales told.
Well, what we did is we went out and arranged for buses.
So nobody had to drive.
We'll take it there and we'll bring you back.
And it's funny how many compliments we got on the buses.
But it's the kind of thing that that was, again, another one of the hits, if you will.
It just said that people were saying, hey, you know what, man, this was great.
You know, this, you know, beam was unbelievably generous with their food, with their facility,
with their spirits and what a great partner they were and what a great show that was.
So we tried to make this not only, you know, business, but as you can tell, we also try
to have some fun.
Well, absolutely, and we've all been to conferences where we've had more fun than we've had business.
And I think that's one of the keys to this is, and your reference to it as one-on-one
matchmaking is much better than referencing it as networking, because we've all been to
those networking things and say, yeah, that was like eating cotton candy.
I didn't really get anything nutritious out of it.
But one-on-one matchmaking, which was what NVBDC does so well, really gives you an nutritional
bite.
It's a much, much better description.
Yeah, well, you know, and that's why the Vets night out, if you will, are of the classic
type of networking events.
But you know, I can tell you that the people were eating well and enjoying each other's
company.
Well, yeah, absolutely.
Anyplace that's Jim Bean Makers Mark, count me in.
So let's talk about the future a little bit as we move into 2024.
Do you anticipate doing another similar annual conference like you did in Louisville?
And what are you looking for NVBDC to do in 2024?
Well, the two events that we host, the one that is one of what we call the smaller event,
all I can tell you is that if you are a professional in the financial industry, this is our annual
event with the Federal Reserve Bank.
We had Chicago, Atlanta is now actively involved with us.
We've been talking to all 12 branches, San Francisco, Cleveland, New York, on and on
and on.
Anyways, this is an event that when I talk to the insurance companies, I talk to the
banks, I talk to any of the financial, the brokerages, all of these different industries,
if you will, representatives.
They go, you actually have members of the Federal Reserve Bank there.
And I tell them, and I wasn't kidding, so that was one chart of a quorum.
They got a little nervous.
Oh my God, you had the board there?
Yeah, they wanted to see all this, talk to the vets.
So anyways, that is one of, even though it's not as large as it is traditionally now kind
of embedded in our annual events, we expect that may actually move down to Atlanta because
I know Atlanta wants a bigger role, but we will have that in the summertime.
Usually it's in late July, early August time period.
Just check my website once I have that date down, I'll lock it down.
Now the big event, of course, is our national matchmaking event.
That we're telling people, we have to walk around the Tuesday national election.
So it'll probably be Wednesday and Thursday or possibly Thursday and Friday, so I think
we're talking November, I think it's like the 7th, 8th, 9th, or 8th, 9th, and 10th.
Again, as soon as I have that locked down, but we're talking about this one, it's probably
going to be back here in Detroit.
We had a lot of requests for it, and I know that we're looking for venues down in South
Carolina.
We already have corporate people that say, hey, come on down here and we'll show you
some more stuff in hospitality.
Well, these are annual events, really at this point, and while we haven't really talked
in this interview, we've done it many times about the certification process, and if you're
a veteran owned business out there and you're thinking, maybe I need to expand what I'm
doing, maybe I need to get certified, go to NVBDC.org.
They'll walk you through this process.
It is rigorous, but it's supposed to be so that when you come out the other side, corporations
can actually rely on the fact that you're a veteran owned business.
And Keith, you've got a great website there at NVBDC.org that gets updated regularly.
It sounds like 2024 should be a continuation and a build on what you did this year, and
that billion dollar roundtable economic impact is going to go up from $4.3 billion to veteran
owned businesses.
I don't know how high it can go, but it's going to go up, isn't it?
Well, yeah, because actually the billion dollar roundtable report showed that the members
total purchasing was $123 billion.
And I have been saying, well, look, I just want a bigger piece of the pie for my vats.
Certainly.
Yeah, so hell, if I could jump it up, I'm going to get two points or whatever.
Because again, if we look at the women in the minority specifically, they are either
obviously the largest groups in the sense of percentage and dollars spent.
But we also talk about the fact that a lot of women are veterans, a lot of minorities
are veterans.
And so we're saying, hey, what we're doing is trying to make sure that if they are a
veteran and they're woman certified or minority certified, that they get certified by the
NVBDC.
And the pitch is simple, look, you have less competition with us and you have the opportunity
to at least have access that you may not have.
And that's something that we're working very hard on because we're talking to groups that
aren't necessarily business owners up front just to find out, like, hey, one of the groups
we're talking to, one of the women's groups has 30,000 members.
And we asked them, do you know how many of your members actually own the business?
And they said, well, no, that's not something that we ever looked at or know that wasn't
anything that we ever were involved in.
And I said, you are now.
Yeah, a lot of great partnering, a lot of great partnering opportunities.
Well, we really appreciate the time that Keith King, founder and CEO of NVBDC.org, the nation's
leading certifying company has spent with us today.
Keith, as always, we'll have you back.
We really appreciate the update and this one in particular because it gave us a good sense
of what happened down in Louisville.
Well, thank you, Jim, and I appreciate the opportunity, you know, talking to you as well
as your audience and you do a great job in letting people know that if they are a veteran
on business, one, they should be certified and secondly, we're to get it.
So thank you very much.
And I want to thank everybody for listening to Veterans Radio today.
I am Jim Fossone.
It's been a pleasure to be your host.
I'm a Veterans Disability Lawyer at Legal Help for Veterans and you can reach us at
800-6934800 or legalhelpforveterans.com on the web.
You can follow Veterans Radio on Facebook and listen to its podcasts and internet radio
shows by visiting us at veteransradio.org.
That's veteransradio.org.
And until next time, you are dismissed.
If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans Appeals, contact Legal Help for
Veterans at 1-800-6934800.
They're experts in handling cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
Their number again, 1-800-6934800.
We again want to thank our national sponsors, the National Veterans Business Development
Council, NVBDC.org, VA Ann Arbor Health Care System, the Vietnam Veterans of America,
Charles S. Kettles Chapter, Ann Arbor, Michigan, VFW, Graf O'Hara Post, 423 Ann Arbor, and
the American Legion Press Corn Post, 46 also in Ann Arbor.
We appreciate all your support.
You can go to veteransradio.net, click on the sponsor level and continue to support keeping
Veterans Radio on the air.
And until next time, you are dismissed.