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and you're going to find it informative. Welcome.
This is Veteran Radio's spotlight on the National
Veteran Business Development Council, known as
NVBDC .org. Fossone, the podcoast host here.
National Veteran Business Development Council,
NVBDC, is the nation's leading third -party authority
for certification of veteran -owned businesses
of all sizes. This 501c3 nonprofit is established
12 years ago, 2013, I believe. It addresses the
growing need to identify and certify both service
-disabled and veteran -owned businesses. in the
commercial or corporate marketplace. NVBDC administers
a rigorous certification process designed to
withstand the scrutiny of governmental and corporate
entities seeking to utilize certified veteran
-owned businesses. And we're fortunate to have
with us again its founder, CEO, Keith King. Keith,
welcome back to Veterans Radio. Thank you, Jim.
It's always good to be with you and your audience.
I always enjoy sharing new things and new activities
that NVBDC is featuring and launching. So this
is hot off the presses, so to speak, and I wanted
to make sure that you and your audience heard
it first. Well, that's great. We generally get
to talk to veteran -owned business owners that
you certify or maybe members, corporate members
of NVBDC. And if you go to nvbdc .org, you can
figure out how your company maybe could get certified
as a veteran owned business. But Keith, what's
new? Tell us what's going on. Well, what we have
been working on for years and, you know, sometimes
I know I, you know, as a founder, I come up with
a lot of strange ideas and I'm the first to admit
some of them are really bad. What every once
in a while you know you come up with a good one
so what i have been working on. What seems like
three years is this idea that we have a lot of
american veterans. Who live work in frankly owned
businesses overseas. And i always thought there.
So two -way street in this way. One, we have
a lot of veterans here in America who would love
to be involved in exporting and or importing
frankly. And we have obviously a lot of veterans
overseas who are not only directly importing
back here, but more important to me in many ways
is there already working with many. The corporate
members that we have who are international size
and scope. One of our corporate members asked
me about when you gonna watch internationally
that company was in a hundred and twenty three
company countries. Around the world well wait
a minute. Okay and then you know as things happen.
I've had many of you know we're in detroit many
of the other most no secret about working overseas
and all the things and then under our current
administration this whole remanufacturing if
you will or the idea of trying to bring manufacturing
back here to detroit i know they used to call
it reshoring. But anyways that whole idea came
up and i got a slew of calls from our corporation
saying i'll walk you know we have a lot of veteran
companies if they're coming back we want to make
sure they get certified but in the meantime.
It would hurt to reach out and start working
with them and that has now more if you will.
into what we're referring to as our international
initiatives. We have been working with the import,
or actually it's called the Export -Import Bank,
and we have been working with the Department
of Commerce. We've been working with ITA, the
International Trade Association, and I know,
Jim, you were there when I signed our national
agreement with them. And that itself also now
open the door to the apartment of commerce to
the sba to just a long list if you will of organizations
and i laugh about it but some of them like the
us trade and development agency. I've never heard
of what. What do you do and actually i'm kind
of cheating a little bit but i'm looking at the
card business card. What are the young ladies
i'm at dc couple weeks back and her business
card reads that she is the country manager of
europe and eurasia. That's a huge geographic
territory opportunity. And I started telling
her what we do with certification. And she said,
well, then you're really going to like me. And
I said, well, I like you already. Why will I
like you more? She said, well, we'll actually
help your veterans write the bid to and in the
language of the country that they want to export
with. Sure. And I said, you all of a sudden moved
up way high. I'm keeping this contact information.
And I have to admit that, you know, the Export
-Import Bank has somebody that I had been working
with directly and indirectly for a number of
years. Trying to see what we could do and it's
really what has happened and why I wanted to
make sure I had a chance to talk with you and
share all this what we are with your audience
is the fact that we are already moving to put
together some seminars webinars if you will.
that we're looking at doing in the sense of being
able to have your listeners are better in business
is actually here from. The corporations are the
people that i'm talking about the you know xm
bank the sba the ita and when we start looking
at these things are going to be in many ways
limited only because we're believing that. As
we put this together the number of people who
will want to get in on these and i wanted to
at least announce. You know what i would call
you know save the date kind of things the first
one we look expected to be hosted. I'm july twenty
fourth and the second one on september ninth.
Welcome will be from eleven a .m. to twelve thirty
eastern time. And yeah i know what that's long
but the more that we sat down and start working
on the agenda or working on the information.
What do we want our veteran businesses to know
and it's really one of those kind of things where.
The idea that this import export really does
work both ways in the sense of. Inbound and outbound
from the united states and we have met what i
call. The proper government people to help our
veterans and that's the other thing i want to
share. Let me let me make sure folks know where
to go get more information and i'm assuming that
they can learn more about how they might sign
up for this woman are. Import exporting for july
twenty fourth or september ninth. by going to
nvbdc .org and clicking and registering. Is that
how it would work? Yep, absolutely. Thank you
for that. And you know, we're already working
on the web page and the registration pages. So
you might get there and say, okay, I got to the
right place, but we're not ready yet. But I wanted
to give you a heads up because it's coming. But
yeah, it's exactly right. Come to my website,
you know, nvbdc .org. And you'll see your event
and under that event page then you will see this
webinar and our export initiatives it's so yeah
it will also. Give me an idea of who is going
to be speaking their backgrounds you know it's
amazing when you get somebody who wants to help
you. And all of a sudden people who are considered
expert in this industry and knowing how to do
this. I talked to a guy as an example who has
this. What's the million dollar contract to build
airport in Thailand. And as soon as he knew what
I was doing he said. You had a bunch of veterans
who served in town for years absolutely you said
you think you got anybody might be interested
in coming back. I want to know where most of
us are pretty old by now is it well. If you can
find guys who are interested in helping me build
airports and know what they're doing i don't
care how old they are let's talk and i thought
you know here's the guy just called me i don't
know who. He was before this meeting who just
come up and said if you got veterans and have
this knowledge i wanna so i think that you know
this is kind of part of the enthusiasm that i
have for this because i want other that meeting
in dc the three days we were there what the impression
that okay. I'm talking to the right people finally
i'm talking to people care. And honestly, people
who want to help our veterans either import or
export or both. And that was kind of an exciting
thing to the people I talked to who said, how
many of you guys are manufacturing? I said, I'm
from Detroit. A lot of them are manufacturing.
Oh my God. We need to talk to them. Yeah, and
then you talk to guys. Well, let me jump in here
because I want to get this point across to our
veteran radio listeners and those veteran business
owners who have been certified or should get
certified by MVBDC. You start out with this idea
of export -import and you go, ah, it's too scary.
I don't know what I'm doing. But through an organization
like MVBDC with these other contacts with corporate
members who are international who are there to
help, Once you start networking and get that
help, it's no longer scary, right? It becomes
an opportunity. And that's really what you're
creating is the chance to, hey, maybe you ought
to be playing on a bigger field. You ought to
seize this opportunity or at least explore it
to see if it's right for your company. Well,
thank you, Jim. And you're absolutely right,
as you probably know or remember when a group
of our corporate members Did their own financial
analysis. Those members, those corporate members
came out with an economic study that said that
they had collectively issued $4 .3 billion in
contracts to our certified vets. And it was like
oh my god okay this is a long way from you know
forty bucks. Where my back pocket is what i used
to say and you know when you start looking at
that kind of help and support. That really was
one of the things i know i mentioned but i think
it's worth repeating is when you have as we do.
The kind of corporations or international size
and scope call you. And say hey if you guys guys
who you know i wanna be in the export business
we wanna help me and we got guys overseas that
we want you to get certified. Help them come
back if they wanna bring their company back and
i was gonna mention that some of the people again
i was talking to you were very aware of the lack
of money. Yeah in the sense of capital and expenses
and you know i swore i would not mention names
or phone numbers i actually have it sitting here
in front of me. Another part of our government
operations that literally have no money in the
sense of loans button some of them at point blank
said look depending on the situation and what
we're looking at. we may be able to work a grant
and i would grant all anytime you talk grant
i'm interested that's right that's right and
if you're talking grants to me i wanna make sure
my best understand what's a great you know and
again the money that you're talking about. It's
like oh okay this isn't you know two fifty you
know two thousand fifty cents this is serious
money well i think i think one of the points
to get across to is. We mentioned the corporate
support you have, but what I'm hearing now on
the export import side, not only do you have
corporate member support to help veteran owned
businesses, you've now made connections and networking
with federal government agencies that can support
that effort as well. Exactly right. And it's
only taken me 12 years to do it. Well, you're
saving the veteran business owner 12 years. If
you get involved, business owner, with NVBDC,
you're going to skip through a lot of those growing
pains because they're going to be able to put
you in touch with maybe the right folks in that
right country for the right project. appreciate
that because I know when you were at my last
national event, you know, you begin to see the
corporations that are there and people, I mean,
I can't tell you how many the veterans have come
up to me and said, you know, I hear you talking
about all this stuff, but oh my God, I can't
believe over here is, you know, Amazon over here
is Walmart over here is whatever or whoever.
It's like yeah well these are the corporations
that you don't think i'd care about us being
better and care about veteran businesses and
you know obviously i knowledge them and credit
them whenever i can but that's the facts of it
and when i went into finally to sit down and
talk to these various. You know what about five
different government agencies but they were all
together at one place at one time and all five
of them said okay bring this to us you know we're
here and we would definitely put this together
you know with you so i want to give you know
you would you know the radio audience opportunity
to get a head start on this and the heads up
on it. You know we've been working together for
a long time as well so want to make sure that
they know that if you get certified with us you
start working with us this is. One thing here
in the sense of doing local business and doing
business with our corporations but we are also
now seriously headlong into our international
expansion effort and. The one thing i would love
to be able to do is make sure that next time
i go to dc or the next time i sit down and talk
to any of these elements of our federal government
i can say yeah i got you know hundred i got two
hundred i got whatever veteran businesses who
are interested in learning more about exporting
and or importing so i'm gonna plug it again nvbdc
.org. go to that page at the top bar, there's
something called global initiatives and that'll
track you back to the various agencies and the
Export -Import Bank and that sort of thing. Now
one more, I always say one more but there's never,
there's always another. So you've got a big program
coming up in October in Spartansburg, South Carolina.
Why don't you tell us about that? Our national
convention and all I can tell you is as we have
grown over the years, not only do the corporations,
you know, our book coming in and support that
event constantly every year. What we know is
the veterans, which one of the things that we
have done now for years has had what we call
a veteran panel. What that panel does is talk
about how those individual veteran companies
have done with the certification, what they're
doing, their marketing, their sales, their advertising,
whatever, and their success. And one of the ones
that we had always said is, look, I don't know
what you buy out of your company, but who are
you buying that from? What we support, what we
push. is better and helping veteran veteran buying
from veteran and one of the time in the panel.
Hey look guys this guy over here this guy over
here and this guy over here and all of us are
working together and last year i did about forty
million with a mall. Can you hear the room. What
did he say you did what. And you know so you
start looking at that potential in the sense
of just doing business with each other and then
you look at the corporations only did i mention
but one of the things that is really happened
over the years. We have what we call basically
an rfp rfq program with our corporate members
who will come to us and say hey i'm looking for
a veteran business that does whatever. What we
then do is take that it turn that around send
it out to our certified that saying hey if you
do you know what this corporate members looking
for. Please go to this link or come back and
tell us what you're doing will put you in contact
whatever they're comfortable they been corporation
however they want us to administer it do the
admin on it. I want to encourage folks to. Again,
go to the website, click on the link for this
upcoming event in October. Now's the time to
plan for that sort of stuff. Having been at NVBDC's
Detroit event last year in 2024, you're going
to walk out with all kinds of contacts and business
cards with people you want to stay in touch with
and do work with and be inspired by. Honestly,
some of these guys are so inspirational. Again,
this is a way that NVBDC helps its certified
members. This isn't just a rubber stamp, you
stamp it on your stuff and go. These events,
these initiatives, like the Goalball initiatives,
really make this a worthwhile certification to
obtain. If you're, you know, if you're entitled
to it, because it's going to be a rigorous process.
Well, if I may, Jim, one thing I do want to address,
and I hear this Is this whole thing about all
work too small and the corporations are never
going to hire us. I usually say yeah but that
attitude i wouldn't hire people say hey you should
be saying those kind of things but the truth
is. We have had to person to be able to man companies
hired. I mean, you know, major, largest corporations
in the world. I tell the story of a little four
-man crew that I had done a lot of nurturing
with and a lot of mentoring with. With that,
one of the events that we were working with,
you know, one of our corporate members, it just
happened. And, you know, I even tell people,
I don't know if it'll ever happen again. you
know what it happened and that to me was what
was important because a buyer was there who was
talking with these four members of the company
and they told her what they do. Hey she says
oh my god i have been looking for two years for
a company does exactly this. And they ended up
not only talking but ended up signing a five
-year contract. Again with you know one of the
major corporations in the world because they
have a specific skill and that's the kind of
things that we'd like to talk about what do you
do. Why would a company hire you can you do it
bigger better faster smarter right what is it
that you do and so those are the kind of things
that you know like i just said when. We can have
the corporations and we didn't do it they did
it you know economic impact study and come back
and say yeah by the way you know we issued four
point three billion in contracts. Well you know
to me it's like look if you're going to work
in the arena you know now's the time you know
the stuff up. I guess it's like your manufacturing
in the old demand you have an ISO rating. Or
you've passed some ISO program and have that
badge, if you will. Well, that's pretty much
what we do at the NVBDC. Yeah, and you do it
better than anybody else in the country. It's
absolutely the gold standard. We want to, again,
encourage people to think about maybe export
import. Participate in the webinar on July 24th
or September 9th. You can sign up by going to
NVBDC .org. think about, hey, maybe it's time
to get out of the shop, out of the office, go
to South Carolina, meet up with all these interesting
corporate members and other veteran -owned businesses
and get fired up and networked some. Again, go
to the website. You're going to find how to do
that. Keith, as always, we appreciate the update.
We're thrilled to hear about the worldwide expansion
of NBDC. And we look forward to the next time
we get to talk and see where it all leads to.
Thank you, Buddy. And I appreciate the work that
you do in letting our veterans and veteran businesses
know about not only what we do, but all the different
elements of being a veteran in a veteran community.
Jim, I know I'll see you soon. And again, thanks
for all your help and support. You got it, brother.
Take care. All right. You too. Bye. 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 -693 -4800 or legalhelpforveterans
.com on the web. You can follow Veterans Radio
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That's veteransradio .org. We would again want
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Veterans Business Development Council, nvbdc
.org. Legal Help for Veterans, a veterans disability
law firm with a national practice before The
VA can help you on your claims and your appeals.
It can be reached at LegalHelpForVeterans .com
or 1 -800 -693 -4800. And PuroClean, a leader
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