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All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.

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This is Veterans Radio.

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Welcome to Veterans Radio.

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I am Jim Fausone.

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I'm the officer of the deck today.

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We've got some great programs for you.

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I think you'll find very interesting.

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We always want to remind you you can find more about Veterans Radio at its Facebook site

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or at the web.

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VeteransRadio.org is our new URL, VeteransRadio.org.

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Where we're on the web 24-7, you can find a lot of our podcasts there as well.

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We post new ones every Tuesday, so you can get a new story, a new interview, something

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you didn't know before by going to VeteransRadio.org.

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And before we get started, we want to thank our sponsors.

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First up, we want to thank National Veteran Business Development Council, NVBDC.org.

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It was established to certify both service disabled and veteran owned businesses.

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You'll find out how they can help your business by going to NVBDC.org.

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We want to thank Legal Help for Veterans.

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Legal Help for Veterans fights for veterans disability rights all across the nation.

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I am Jim Fossone and this is Veterans Radio's spotlight on the National Veteran Business

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Development Council, well known as NVBDC.org.

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And we're honored today to have with us its founder and CEO, Keith King.

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Welcome back, Keith, to VeteransRadio.

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Well, thank you, Jim.

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It's always a pleasure to be with you.

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Well as our regular listeners know, NVBDC is the nation's leading third party authority

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for certification of veteran owned businesses, really of all sizes.

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And we're kind of talking today because it's about 10 years that this nonprofit that got

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started back in 2013 has been certifying companies.

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I think that's a great place to start, Keith.

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Give us a little, hey, what's going on after this decade of certifying veteran owned businesses?

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Well, you know, we never, you know, we talk to obviously a lot of businesses and small

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or any business that's been in, up and operating for a few years.

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The 10th year always seemed to be one of those, you know, anniversaries that you should pause

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and say, hey, I know we made it 10 years, but we actually have been certifying our veteran

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owned businesses for 10 years now.

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And, you know, people have said, well, we've done it 10 years, you know.

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And that's one of these things that really what we're trying to do is put out some of

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the information I think is surprising to not only our veterans, but to our corporate members.

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And I know one of them is we went back into our files and we have actually certified over

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3,000 veterans.

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So, you know, we're there, we're pounding and we continue to grow.

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Well, that level of certification has certainly also turned into a lot of contracts for sort

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of certified veteran owned businesses.

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And I know the billion dollar roundtable did some analysis and there's some other analysis

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of how big the market is for certified veteran owned businesses.

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And as I said, NVBDC is the gold standard for this.

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Give us some sense of how big the market is.

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Well, I'll start with the one that probably is the closest to my heart in the sense of

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they did, they being the BDR, did a impact study.

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And in that impact study, what they do among all the other information they gather is they

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have each of their members report the contract amount of what we call the spend per category

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women, minorities, veterans.

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And when they came out and said, well, the members of the billion dollar roundtable reported

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that they have spent 4.3 billion with our veteran owned businesses.

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And we went, well, that's even bigger than I could dream.

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And that's not over the 10 year period we're talking about, right?

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That's an annual spend.

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Yes, that was last year, 23.

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And now that we're working with them even closer with all of these things, one of the

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side, if you will, you know, the guys who love the numbers.

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We in this impact study said, does anybody know how much money is in the supplier diversity

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market, if you will, as a whole?

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And they actually said, yeah, it was $122 billion market.

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And as you know, Jim, I keep talking about, I want a bigger piece of this pie.

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Yep, yep, that's what our veteran business owners want, absolutely.

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Well, at $122 billion, I think I'm finally getting people's attention.

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Well, I would hope so.

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And that's, that's a, is that a corporate spend or is that a government spend or a combination?

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Either, strictly the 30 now 32 at the time was 26, 27 corporations that spent that much

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with our veterans.

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And I know in the opening, you mentioned, you know, that we certify, you know, small,

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medium, and large.

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And we have a corporation now that is over 2 billion veteran owned.

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You know, we had one that was at a 900 million a year, had 1800 employees in five countries.

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So that was one of the, one of the issues, I think, right from the beginning that our

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corporate members really drove home, really helped us.

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They said, don't ever get caught up in the small business.

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You know, everybody loves a small business, but if you're sitting here talking to, you

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know, some of the largest corporations in the world, we need to make sure that if we're

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hiring somebody as a supplier, that they can, in fact, meet our demands, you know, and do

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it the whatever they need to do to have the ability to, you know, expand and, and meet

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our goals.

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And that's how we got to the point we are.

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Well, and it's important because the government had had some programs not very successful

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in ways of certifying, and, and they were for small business, veteran owned businesses,

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and you kind of could grow out of them, which wasn't really good for the, anybody in the

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sequence, but that's sort of the problem with a government run program.

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And last time we talked, the Congress was moving certification out of the hands of

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the VA and over to the SBA, but that really hasn't gotten up and running very well, Hesit.

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Well, I hesitate only because.

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Okay, I can say it, Hesit.

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Well, that's okay.

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I know what they're going to do.

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You know, can't fire me.

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You know, what, what they did is they had, and I know we discussed that, that originally

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the plan was that the SBA was not going to, in essence, raid the VA, that they were going

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to go and build, you know, the whole new team, build a whole new program.

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That was a lie.

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And unfortunately in that form, they brought, and that's been a lot of time with these guys.

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They basically brought the key executives of the VA running the CVE or their verification

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program to the SBA.

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And I was like, well, what happened to, you're not going to be allowed.

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Well, I guess, you know, depending on your point of view, if you cry and wind it up,

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maybe somebody else say, yeah, okay, go ahead and hire them.

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Yeah, they just took the easy way out rather than creating, and this is what the beauty

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of NVBDC is.

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It's really a rigorous certification process.

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You really got to prove yourself up.

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And then there's some comfort to the corporate America that this certification was rigorous

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enough to withstand scrutiny, isn't it?

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Yeah.

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And again, I always try to acknowledge the National Women's Group called ReBank and the

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National Minority Group who were truly our mentors.

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I joke about it.

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They said, yeah, we'll take pity on you.

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Come on, we'll teach you.

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But they did.

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And, you know, that was like a 15-month process for us to take, learn what the rules are,

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learn why they do what they do, then write up the SOP and write up, you know, the whole

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program, design it, and then implement it.

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And that's what we did basically 10 years ago in April.

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So, you know, it was just a few weeks ago, we'd have been actually spied on 10 years.

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So we're always acknowledging and always thinking those groups for teaching us in for

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the corporations for accepting us because I get these calls more often than that of,

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you know, somebody will ask me a question and I'll jump into it and they'll go, no,

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that's enough.

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Okay, we believe you.

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Okay.

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Well, and that's really important and that's why you should celebrate 10 years of success

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because when you have that kind of rigorous standard and people say, well, that's a gold

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standard, we don't have to look any farther, you get opportunities to do things and partner

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with other groups that have similar reputations.

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And you have one of those going on at the moment with the International Trade Association.

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Tell me what that's about.

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Well, what we have been talking to them about is really how many, if you will, expats, how

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many patriots do we have all over the world?

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And a lot of the guys who got out of the military in Germany is probably one of the

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ones, England definitely, Philippines, Guam, there are a lot of Americans living overseas

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running what they call a veteran owned business.

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And our whole, you know, position is really, how do you know they're veterans?

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So you know, the ITA said, you know, the knowledge and I think that's one of the things that

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we've been really proud of is when you see the knowledge and you actually jump into what

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our veterans, well, soldiers, if you will, are being taught today, you know, I make the

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comment all the time, where do you think cybersecurity came from?

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You know, I mean, this is all military technologies, right?

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And so we have some very highly trained, very sophisticated people, you know, running businesses

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all over the world.

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And the ITA said, first off, we would love to know if they're really veterans.

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And secondly, you know, we'd love to work with you and see how many other people we

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have here, stateside, who would like, you know, to start looking at doing, you know,

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international trade.

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And they have, man, these guys got some incredible programs.

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And so, you know, what we said is what was, start putting programs together, put webinars

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together, put meetings together.

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We're involved with the UN weekly program.

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You know, besides the ones I've told you about, another group called Betsco Global.

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So between the ITA and Betsco Global and the UN, we are definitely, you know, building

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it and trying to make sure that whatever we do, in the sense of going international,

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we've got the main, the key players who will help us.

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So.

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Well, one of the things I want to do before we get into two other, three other areas I

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want to talk about is I want to say to veteran owned business owners who are listening, if

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you think certification is something that you ought to go on and do, go to NVBDC.org.

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They will help you through this process.

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It is important that you realize it'll be rigorous.

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You'll have to provide a lot of information.

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But that's exactly what you want coming out the other end so that when you have work opportunities,

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bid opportunities with corporate America, they know you're the real deal.

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So go to NVBDC.org.

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That's the easiest way to get started and reach out because it'll help you get going.

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Yeah, one of the things that I think you've done, I appreciate it because we have a certification

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team now in really that are outstanding.

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That would just simply say, okay, what do you need?

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How can we help you?

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No, actually, like you said, they'll, you know, basically hold your hand and walk you

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through it because the thing is, is what we want to be able to do and credit us to help

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veterans.

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So, you know, our attitude isn't like, eh, what's the matter with you?

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You can't do it yourself.

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I don't know.

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No, call us.

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We'll help you.

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You know, and that's the idea that when we just got a, what I call a success letter,

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the gentleman was kind enough.

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I was saying that because of his certification with us in the last year, he's got $200,000

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worth of new business.

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And not a curiosity, you know, because the way we're structured, anyone who's under

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a million dollars in revenue only pays $350 to get certified.

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And I know you know, I lose money on anti-health, but it wasn't the smartest decision I ever

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made, but hey, so the reason I'm bringing it up is I was joking with him.

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I said, wait a minute.

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You gave me $350, you know, in exchange, you got $200,000 back.

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Yeah.

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The essence of ROI.

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What the hell?

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You know, ROI is that, you know, I said, listen, I'll give you 350 today.

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If you give me $200,000 next year, you know.

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Well, that's one of the things that's unique about the certification and how NVBDC operates,

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and that is it's not just about giving you a stamp at the end of the analysis.

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There's an ongoing effort to network, connect, help veteran-owned businesses, get those opportunities.

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And in fact, you've got a couple of, you know, kind of annual events coming up one in August

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of this year and one in October of this year.

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Tell us about your events and why you do them.

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Well, we do them just basically, like you said, for the very purpose that we, when we've

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started this, one of the commitments that the corporations made to us was that they

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would, with their own supplier events, begin to invite our certified veterans to attend.

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And secondly, they would attend our events, if long as we are guaranteeing that we'll

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have some of our certified veterans show up.

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And the number of corporations as well as the names of these corporations is sometimes

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startling because, you know, you'll walk into a room with 50, 60, 80, 100 of our corporations

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and you're looking at, you know, the top 20 corporations in the world.

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And they're actually wanting to talk to you.

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And these are the corporate members.

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These are the buyers of who want certified veteran owned businesses.

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And I know some of the names are like Apple and Ford and, you know, every big name you

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can think of, as well as much more, I guess I'd call it locals, regional companies.

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Well, and it is, you know, we have all the high tech guys, Apple and Amazon, what I

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call the A team.

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And then we have, you know, the automotive teams and, you know, we have a lot of the

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financials, the banks, the insurance companies.

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You know, it's really quite impressive.

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Well, if you go to the website and click on corporate members, if you're trying to talk

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yourself into going through this process, just go look at the corporate members that

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scroll across the bottom.

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You can express Kellogg's American family insurance, Altira, I'm on the A team, as you

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can tell by the scroll.

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It's really an impressive group in that hundred or plus corporate members who support what

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NVBDC is doing.

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Well, thank you.

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Because again, one of the things that we have focused on is the idea that, look, when

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we first were working with this whole thing together, that's why the 10th has been so

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important to us, is when we sit down with these corporations and said, here's why our

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veterans should be supported.

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They said to us, point blank, create a certification program that meets our standard and will help

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you.

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Well, they have.

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And, you know, that's the kind of message I like to get out because I don't think a

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lot of the veterans who, I understand the skepticism, but when the skepticism, you know, gets being

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on what I call, you know, real, I mean, like you said, all I do is look at my website and

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see these names.

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You don't think I'm putting these names up there.

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Yeah, you know, if you didn't have authorization, they'd be all over you.

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Because they're biggest names in corporate America.

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Before we run out of time, because this happens to you and I all the time when we chat, we

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got too much to talk about in too little time, there's a program that I'm particularly interested

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in that I think veteran radio listeners would be because we've been talking about military

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recruiting over the last year and the problems they're in.

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And it's easy to talk about the problem.

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It's nice to talk to somebody who's doing something about the problem.

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And that brings me to wanting to talk about NVBDC getting involved with junior ROTC.

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Tell us why and tell us about it.

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The purpose was we were sitting around brainstorming about, hey, we're working very, very hard.

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To reach the veterans, you know, out of Afghanistan and Pershingoff.

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But we have a whole other population that is going to be the leaders of this country

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in someday.

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And what can we do to help them and make sure that if we can help give them some financial

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support to go to college, stay in college, how can we make this work?

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And one of my board members said he would love to be the director of the program and

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that he had the heart.

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He had the knowledge how to put a program like this together.

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All he needed was money.

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And time.

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Well, you know, and then it was like, oh my God.

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But thankfully the program we put together, we never hit anybody really hard in the sense

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of the money.

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But it was give us enough to offer, you know, the juniors are primarily the seniors in high

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school who are going to college.

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You know, a nice little scholarship that we can give them, you know, every year that they're

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in the program every year or four years in college.

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And that's what we did.

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That's what we've launched.

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What we've done is we built what we call state manager portfolio where we have literally

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gone around the country looking for veterans who may have a heart or an interest in helping

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these young next time, you know, leaders of our military.

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And we have been very surprised and very pleased of the quality of the people who have said,

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we love this man.

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No one's doing this, you know, jump in.

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So we have our 50 state managers.

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We've already, I've been teasing my guys.

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I'm getting hands cramps from writing checks.

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But yeah, you know, when I guess, you know, gentlemen, I put that way in a sense of when

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you believe.

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And, you know, we had an opportunity to say, let's see what we can do.

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And thankfully, my board said, well, you know, we're not afraid to fail, which is, you know,

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it's always a big deal.

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Let's just do the best we can.

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And that program is now in its fourth going into its fifth year.

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Yeah, it's just an amazing program.

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Again, I'd encourage veterans, even if you're not a veteran owned business, you don't need

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certification.

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Maybe you want to help out NVBDC by looking at their junior ROTC program in the 50 states.

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It's a scholarship program.

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I'm sure you can donate to it.

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Go to NVBDC.org.

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And there's actually a specific site, NVBDCJROC.org, to get you right into this scholarship program.

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And you know, we can talk about, hey, there's a problem in getting people interested in military

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service, but you're something you can do as a listener to get involved.

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Keith, this is a great program.

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As always, we appreciate the time that you give us here and the support that you give

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us here on Veterans Radio.

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Congratulations on a decade of fine work.

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And let's look forward to another decade of fine work.

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Well, you know, from your lips to God's ear, I hope I'm here another decade.

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But yeah, this has been a life, if you will.

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You know, you wake up one morning, you got this idea, and everybody tells you, oh, you're

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crazy, what are you doing?

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But 10 years later, I'm going, we're still here.

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And you're not so crazy anymore, right?

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Well, not as much as I was, apparently.

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So thank you again, my friend.

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You're welcome.

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And I want to thank everybody for listening to Veterans Radio today.

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I am Jim Fausone.

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It's been a pleasure to be your host.

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I'm a Veterans Disability lawyer at Legal Help for Veterans, and you can reach us at

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800-693-4800 or legalhelpforveterans.com on the web.

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You can follow Veterans Radio on Facebook and listen to its podcasts and internet radio

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shows by visiting us at veteransradio.org.

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That's veteransradio.org.

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And until next time, you are dismissed.

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If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans Appeals, contact Legal Help for

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Veterans at 1-800-693-4800.

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They're experts in handling cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

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The number again, 1-800-693-4800.

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We again want to thank our national sponsors, the National Veterans Business Development

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Council, NVBDC.org, VA Ann Arbor Health Care System, the Vietnam Veterans of America,

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Charles S. Kettles Chapter, Ann Arbor, Michigan, VFWGraph, O'Hara Post 423 in Ann Arbor, and

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the American Legion Press Corn Post 46 also in Ann Arbor.

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We appreciate all your support.

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You can go to veteransradio.net, click on the sponsor level, and continue to support

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keeping Veterans Radio on the air.

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And until next time, you are dismissed.