Mastering Government Contracts: Recruiting Secrets by Kim Henderson

Intro [00:00:00]:
Welcome to the elite recruiter podcast with your host, Benjamin Menna, where we focus on what it takes to win in the recruiting game. We cover it all from sales, marketing, mindset, money, leadership, and placements.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:18]:
You guys listening to this amazing podcast, but few quick things before we get started. First of all, the recruiting growth summit, gonna be the very beginning of March. We have Rich Rosen, David Stefan Patterson, Tricia Tampkin, Scott Love, Brian Fink, Will McGee, Clark Wilcox, Madison Loomis, Keely Flood, and Diane Prince to share Some of the best things that they know to help level up your recruiting business, your recruiting career this year. So excited to share them. Secondly, we have Book club of the month? It is gonna be relentless by Tim Grover and bonus book, Search in Plainsight by Somer Hackley. So excited for you guys to listen to those. Excited for you guys to grow, and this is gonna be an awesome podcast. Let's go, guys.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:03]:
I am excited about this episode of the Elite Recruiter podcast. I know most of you guys know that I am in the GovCon space. I mostly do perm placement and some consulting work, but there is big money to be made when it comes to Federal contracting, state contracting, and government contracting. I'm telling you, like, big money. And we have Our guest today who has built, scaled, and prepped a company to be sold, sharing the secrets of how to win those government contracts and how to win that work. And I'm excited because I'm excited about learning. I've been in this world for 20 years. I've always stayed on this side of the fence because I enjoy this side.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:46]:
But if you're looking at making real money in the GovCon, It's on this side, so I have my special guest, Kim Henderson, to talk about the secrets of winning government work, Making it work for you. But, yeah, I'm excited about this podcast. So, Kim, welcome to the podcast.

Kim Henderson [00:02:06]:
And thank you so much for inviting and excited to be here. Excited to talk about government contracting and how we can how we can make money off of that as as staffers.

Benjamin Mena [00:02:15]:
Awesome. And before we get started on all that, you are a coach and consultant within the staffing industry. So talk about real quick, Cobalt Compass.

Kim Henderson [00:02:24]:
Sure. Sure. Thank you. I provide trading and consulting services for the staffing industry and or with Cobalt Plus. Prior to that, then I was in the staffing industry. I worked for 2 companies, my entire career. 1 was international and one was national, And they were, you know, were large players that you're you probably would be familiar with and did roles anything anywhere from, you know, recruiting to Sales at the desk level to national accounts, to government solutions, you know, branch and division management, actually, all the way up. I was fortunate, for executive leadership at at both companies.

Kim Henderson [00:03:01]:
So I thought I would bundle up that information, that knowledge over the course of 28 years, And and I'll try to apply it and and help folks in the staffing industry. And and if they can learn and fast track something that took me years to go and and then years to kind of, you know, figure out and I could them and help them. Hey. It's all the better. That that makes it work better.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:23]:
That's awesome. And, like, one of the things I've seen of my almost 20 years in GovCon is A lot of the players, like like, the the biggest secret about government contractors is they're just complex staffing companies at the end of the day. 99% of them.

Kim Henderson [00:03:39]:
Exactly right. You know, for companies like, for instance, like Northrop Grumman or Gerald Dynamics, You know, they do, in essence, similar to what we do. They go and and try to win a big government contract, and then they turn around and go, well, we have to staff this. We don't have the people, so they ultimately end up coming to folks such as yourself, and me, you know, where I was and say, hey. We need these IT resources or finance accounting resources. So It's a very similar model, and most people probably don't realize that.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:06]:
Yeah. It's it's it's a dirty little secret about the space, and I can't tell you how many that I have the conversation with them. I know you're you are a staffing company at this point in your business. No. I'm not. No. You are. You're looking for people.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:18]:
All the contracts you have Require a button to see.

Kim Henderson [00:04:20]:
Exactly. Because that's how they make their money. If they're if they, you know, win a prime, you know, DOD engagement and the seats are empty, they've had billable hunts. They're not making any money, so it's very much the same as our model. And, most folks don't actually realize that we're kind of in it together. We really can't vote.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:39]:
Be before we start really doing a deep dive in that, how did you even get involved in this wonderful world of recruiting?

Kim Henderson [00:04:45]:
It was interesting. It was, again, about 28 years ago around, like, 1993 ish, 1990 beginning of 94 and 93. And I had a friend who was, in staffing. I didn't really know much about it. Didn't, you know, didn't really resonate with me. I was a a financial analyst, for Transamerica Corporation. And, my friend told me about the staffing industry. Next thing you know, I got a call, from a recruiter at Kforce, which is where I I spent, you know, the 1st part of my career, and came in and talked to him and and met with multiple folks on the team, had a of interviews.

Kim Henderson [00:05:19]:
And full disclosure, Ben, in all honesty, my first thought was, wow, I can make a lot of money. You know? If I'm able to do this right. The allure of the money was was really, really attractive at that time, especially when you're, you know, starting out, 1st job out of school as a financial analyst, you're making that much. So I made the job and and really just just learned and, you know, it was a sponge and then, you know, said, hey. Whatever you tell me to do, I'll do. I'll listen. And just sat there and build my business, from from the ground up. So Fast forward, you know, you get into it for the money, you know, when you're about, you know, 23, 24 years old.

Kim Henderson [00:05:56]:
But what you realize over time and And maturity, and as you're in the business, is that you know, we provide, like, such a an incredible service. It it really is amazing what we do. We help businesses, you know, meet your objectives. Businesses can run without without us in terms of giving them the talent. They would they would fold like a like a house of cards. And then well, so too, people get a livelihood, you know, from from what we do. Think about it. You know, jobs I always say jobs cure many of the ills in society, and jobs are so key, and we help connect people to jobs.

Kim Henderson [00:06:31]:
And you and I both know if you're out there alone trying to get a job on the road, difficult it is, you really do need that recruiter to help broker that experience for you and guide you through So we provide an invaluable service, and I didn't really realize that back, you know, when I'm 23. But today, I I do. There's a lot more to it than just being able to make, You know, good money, good at it.

Benjamin Mena [00:06:50]:
Absolutely. And then, like, how'd you end up in the gov con side of the house? Will?

Kim Henderson [00:06:56]:
That's a that's a great question because most people hear government. They they, they run screaming for the hills and and, you know, conjures up images of calling the IRS and and sitting on the phone for, You know, 6 to 8 months, and that's what a lot of people think about it. When I left Kforce, he was there about thirteen and a half years, and, a group of fellow k Forcers had broken off and started their own company. And they lured me in and said, why don't you come To our company, for an an equity stake and start government solutions and start, you know, large strategic accounts and help us open some more offices because ultimately, eventually, what we wanna do is scale it and and sell it. Right? Like, what a lot of folks have this goal on staffing. So, you know, these were people that I I'm friends with, that I know, that I trusted, and I said, okay. Let me go ahead and make this leap. So I did, and that was in actually 2008.

Kim Henderson [00:07:49]:
And then, of course, you know, things started kind of sliding down a hill at o eight. But it really was been at the very beginning, as I'll call it, gutting it out on the phone, figuring out. I mean, the only thing I knew about government Ben was, I don't like paying taxes, and that's pretty much the extent of my knowledge. So I really had to figure out quickly, How do I get in this? How do I build this business? How do I make money at it? Right? Because you gotta put numbers on the board, without going down a rabbit hole and Wasting time and wasting resources, which you can do. So you really just kinda had to quickly take the information at hand, assess it, Try something, see if it worked, you know, and then and have, you know, multiple, I guess, approaches into this type of business. And that that's really How I got started, and, ultimately, it worked out well. We we ended up having between state, local. In the integrators, you're just under 200 billables, So on assignment.

Kim Henderson [00:08:45]:
So we really were able to get it to take hold and and grow within our offices.

Benjamin Mena [00:08:52]:
And there's, like, a lot of government contractors out there that never even come close to hitting that 200, like, person mark. Like, that's like, 200 person mark at GovCon, That's a huge win and a huge success the way these contractors work. She I'm sorry.

Kim Henderson [00:09:06]:
I was I would say half of that then was on the Federal integration space, and then the other half of that was made up of state and local government, as well. So we'll get a little bit more into that for our discussion. Well, at

Benjamin Mena [00:09:18]:
least at least for recruiters that have thought about this and thinking about this, why should you even look at government contracting?

Kim Henderson [00:09:24]:
Okay. That's a great question. You know, what what are the benefits to us? Right? The what's enough for us to go ahead and do this? And there's actually a a lot of things that maybe you wouldn't consider. So first, you know, if you're talking about this federal, integration space, those are long term master services agreement. Right. You'll get one in, and it's sometimes the commercial side. They want you to renew every year and evaluate you every year. These are typically written to coincide with how long Their their their contract is with the government.

Kim Henderson [00:09:55]:
Right? So if a prime has a 3 year DOD, program, typically, that's a Texas contract They'll sign with you 3 years so that they match up. So they're long term. Number 2, if you're interested in building a contract business, these are Long term contract assignment. Whether it be what I learned state, or local or the fed integration space, people go out there and they day. They renew the agreement. They excuse me. They renew the contractors over and over, which was an absolutely I'd say the third thing is There's this, I think, a fallacy that, government uses outdated skill sets, and it's a bunch of guys doing COBOL, JCL, you know, that are, And that's not the case whatsoever. They really do, at least from my experience, have the skill sets that that are used on the commercial side.

Kim Henderson [00:10:44]:
Right. So it's not like you're gonna go, oh, gosh. I gotta find the purple squirrel, to go sell these wrecks. It's basically it's reusable inventory from your recruitment activity on Commercials, which I thought was great. Bill rates, that's another huge benefit. Right? You would think bill rates might be low. They really were. They were all par with the, the commercial sector for the most part.

Kim Henderson [00:11:06]:
And, you know, just like if we get a low bill rate on the commercial side, We go back and educate our customer, try to raise that bill rate and explain to them the reasons why. Same thing in government. If the rate was too low, You'd explain it and and oftentimes, they would doubt it in understanding to to raise it. But they were pretty equal, all things considered equal. Economic downturns. So we all experience that. Right? You know, we've done it. We've seen it 2,001, 2009, and and we're scrambling around for looking for For for dollars and looking for customers, think about government.

Kim Henderson [00:11:39]:
Right? Whether it's county or state integration. They have to keep Public service is going. They have to keep infrastructure going. You've gotta have police. You've gotta have fire. You've gotta have water, sewer, all these type of things. These services can't stop just because there's an economic downturn. So what what we found was that even while things were not so rosy in 2009, Government was still hiring.

Kim Henderson [00:12:04]:
They were hiring. They were keeping people, but they have to keep things up and running. Right? It's it's it's the name of public safety and and infrastructure. So that was a beautiful thing. It offset our business over the course

Benjamin Mena [00:12:14]:
of Even looking at 2023, like, tech sector, we started, like, dabbling a little towards tech, and then tech just, you know, hit. It It turned into a dumpster fire, and we just like, alright. We're we're loving the GovCon even more this year because the government, guess what, keeps on paying their bills.

Kim Henderson [00:12:30]:
Yeah. You're right. You're actually you must have read ahead because I was gonna actually be my next bullet point. They pay their bills. You know? They they typically cut you a purchase order. They pay. They pay on time. What we found is if if if a if a payment was ever late, it's simply our fault.

Kim Henderson [00:12:45]:
We didn't send the bill out the proper way or all the time, but They pay you, so you don't have to worry about, you know, chasing down AR, which I'm sure every one of us has done and Just like that as part of our job. Another piece is, you know, I wanna talk about competition. So we all know it. Right? In the commercial side, you know, we're calling company x, And we get a manager on the phone. He's like, gosh. I've heard from, you know, 6 other staffing companies today. What makes you different? You know, all those things that that we deal with. What I found was that a lot of staffing suppliers didn't focus necessarily on the government side.

Kim Henderson [00:13:20]:
Right? Because we've got all these preconceived notions. So when I get someone on the phone, they hadn't necessarily been beat up, you know, by all of our competition, calling them, trying to get in, and then things of that nature, they were a little bit more receptive. And along with that risk receptivity line, they would be more willing to meet with With us, you could come into their office. They'd sit down. They'd talk to you. You know, they were kind of I found to be a little more open with information. You could kinda guide and lead them in a conversation. They seem a bit more relaxed, you know, in terms of of their job.

Kim Henderson [00:13:52]:
They were as you know, some of us we meet with with folks with. Yeah. Cool. Crap. Let's get in and get you out. It just they they were more open to it, to a conversation, and they were more free flowing with information, which Which I feel great.

Benjamin Mena [00:14:05]:
And just to kinda chime in on that, one of the things that I know in the gov con space and I've seen over the years outside in the commercial world, direct placements is A big way to go. In the gov con space, like, teaming partners and long term contracts is Most of the time, what they actually want is You're right. Depending on their budget, sometimes they don't have the wiggle room to cut a 20% check, but they're super happy to have that person on for a 2 year 2 years of

Kim Henderson [00:14:30]:
You're exactly right. And another interesting thing we found that I found in the, the local space, state and local, is if they're trying to hire some of them for, Oh my gosh. It can just take it could take forever. You know, they have all these civil service, you know, type hoops they have to jump through and Jar, we've gotta talk to a 100 people and leave it open for 6 months and interview everyone internally at the county, all these things. So it could take forever for them to bring an individual on. So what I found is we're like, you know, they had deadlines too. Right? You know, just because remember, they still do got deadlines. They're like, hey.

Kim Henderson [00:15:03]:
We wanna bring this personal contract, and then maybe eventually contract the firm because we gotta fast track this. We need someone in here within a month. We don't have 6 months to go and play out that whole civil service, you know, process to get an individual in. So if you're right, It's a very right contract type of background in terms of what they hire at all levels of government. But the interesting thing then was once we started to Do a lot of the county and city stuff? Starting to work directly in some counties, but one in particular, the clerk of court. And she was like, hey. We need to hire a CIO for the clerk of court, and we're willing to pay a fee. Send us your top 3 candidates.

Kim Henderson [00:15:44]:
It was it was great. We had been there building up, you know, that trust factor of contractors, and it just builds a a reputation there. So next thing you know, we started to get a few firm fees in local government, which kinda, I'll be honest, shocked me because I didn't think we ever would. But, again, it's just the the fun part piece And it blossomed and grew and, like like, you know, in our in commercial side. You you get a reputation. You try to do a good job. You get that client share, your folks are out there billing, and it leads to more business.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:14]:
Well and before we, like, do a little more dive on that part of it Mhmm. I have, You knew probably know from experience. I know from experience. There are a lot of ways to go broken recruiting in the GovCon space. So what are some lessons and things that recruiters should either know or stay away from?

Kim Henderson [00:16:33]:
That is a great question because you're right. You can't go down the raw rabbit hole and just really have no results. So what I learned, here's here's what I wouldn't do. Let me tell you a huge mistake Got it. A big mistake I made early on was actually getting a GSA schedule, and and you're probably going, what? You know, peep people love those. Those are great. What I found was a few things. Number 1, it was the most complex thing to get in.

Kim Henderson [00:16:58]:
I've written tons of RFPs in in in My lifetime. Right? I feel like I can navigate reasonably well through them. This required that we hired a consultant to put it together. It was that complex. Remember we paid this individual about 7 k for that, and then they wanted these very complex stream of reporting, every month and then even more complex reporting every quarter. And what I found out is when I went to go and take this GSA schedule to to State, local, and and fed integrators here is what I got. I said, well they said, well, Kim, you're already on state contract. We wanna buy off of that.

Kim Henderson [00:17:35]:
It's easier. Well, Kim, we already have an agreement with you in place. You know, if you're at the, you know, the city of Tampa or Hillsborough County, we'll just work off of that. Then on the fed side, you know, hey, Kim. You have a master services agreement in place with HP Federal and EuroDynamics North. We're just gonna work off of that. So what I found was I couldn't really even sell it, and, you know, maybe that was, you know, buy deficiency. But I found out all the customers wanted to buy off of the existing contracts that they had with us first.

Kim Henderson [00:18:06]:
So what ended up happening was this This TSA schedule somewhat died of slow and painful death, and it was my my biggest mistake in building out the government breakfast because we we absolutely got 0 business out of it because everyone just opted to go and buy off of these other vehicles and said, hey. It's easy. We understand There's less reporting for us

Benjamin Mena [00:18:28]:
on the client's side.

Kim Henderson [00:18:29]:
So it ended up being a little bit of a waste of of of time and and dollars, but luckily, we made up with the billable headcount that we got, so was it a loss?

Benjamin Mena [00:18:38]:
I think I think that's, that's something that I've actually seen a lot of people jumping into the GovCon space where the recruiters are not recruiters is They're so busy chasing these certifications and, like, in the GSA schedule. And at the end of the day, the thing that's gonna bring you in business is the relationships that you have.

Kim Henderson [00:18:54]:
You hit the nail red. I mean, it's just like the commercial side. It's face to face relationships, Getting in, finding out, again, like we do, asking questions, finding their pain points, and then being able to go and match that with the right people to solve whatever problem that that they have. And then one thing was really interesting, to move to the in the commercial side, you know, can we still necessarily talk to each other? Right? Yeah. You're Verizon and T Mobile, you know, collaborating and talking all the time. But what I found is when you start to work with 1 county in Florida, and let's say, like, Like, in particular, one was doing an Oracle Ebizzness Suite implementation. Then another county said, we're gonna be doing that same implementation. Who are you using? And so it basically would open up doors, at other counties because they all kind of talk to one of them.

Kim Henderson [00:19:41]:
They were actually more I found a very close knit, tight knit community, which was interesting. You don't see that on the commercial side. Yes. TSA was put in the loss category for for Kim. And then one other thing then I would say that that I I didn't I tried it one time, and I've found it to be an incredible consumer of time And not necessarily have a great yield. The teaming agreements. So I know a lot of companies do that, but for where we work, When I would try to do a teaming agreement, it was, hey. We're bidding this business.

Kim Henderson [00:20:15]:
Bundle up 32 different resumes for Java and dot The developers sent them to us, and they were gonna find out in 6 months of we wireless business. But then you go to your recruitment team, and they're like, oh gosh, Jimmy. We all get paid for License, we're not gonna go bundle up anything and give it to you because we need to go and work on real business over here. So what I found was very quickly, We just didn't have an appetite for that. A lot of companies do, and they they probably had reigned with it. We just put more again. We wanna put numbers on the board, A a teaming agreement that may or may not pay out 6 months down the road and then get, you know, then be contested. And the people are already gone anyway that we bundled up is not where we wanted to get.

Kim Henderson [00:20:57]:
And it was okay. It was a decision that we made, but I learned that pretty quickly. Teaming was probably not gonna be in our for immediate future.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:05]:
Oh, and that I think it's a place where a lot of, like, recruiters get initially get caught up is because, Yo. They're getting the relationships. They're having the conversations, and they're like, oh, we're chasing this contract. Well, they're also one of, like, 25 other companies chasing this contract. And they're like, hey. We need these awesome people. Your expertise is recruiting. Can you go find us these, you know, These key resumes and go get letters of intent.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:27]:
But at the end of the day, how long it takes to win this work, you as a recruiter, like like, okay. Still, I need to figure out how to make money.

Kim Henderson [00:21:34]:
Great.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:34]:
And those people are gonna be gone, so there is not gonna be a placement fee by the time this work is at 1 or if it's 1. Exactly. So

Kim Henderson [00:21:41]:
You're a heavy. Right? So Some companies are good at that, but I think and maybe it's to your your bigger staffing companies at that time while we were building it. We just weren't large enough and didn't have the bandwidth to go and, You know, dabble on teaming and bundle up our resumes that, you know, may or may not yield, you know, 6 months from now. We had to focus on you know, again, put the numbers on the board, get the the folks billable into the seats. Those are probably 2 of my lessons learned of of 2 rabbit holes not to go down, I think, if you're just starting Go and build out a practice like this.

Benjamin Mena [00:22:13]:
And I do wanna throw 1 quick thing in there. If you do get pulled into, like, a a teaming partnership, find a way to get paid to for those key resumes and for that work that you've that you've done. So set up your agreement so that way you get paid on the front end and also The 1% chance that person would start.

Kim Henderson [00:22:31]:
Yeah. Great point. And that's something that that we didn't do. I will say the only teaming arrangement that worked out For us, we did, some work with the army human resources center of excellence project, and that was in Fort Knox, Kentucky. And we had a whole group of billable folks there, and they, of course, came up for rebid. And they said, hey. Can you, yeah, again, bundle up the resumes, etcetera, etcetera, for us. And and basically, I said, okay.

Kim Henderson [00:22:57]:
If if we're going to go ahead and do that, then, you know, I want some type of, Let's put some skin in the game, some type of exclusivity. Right? Because he was pretty much assured they were gonna re re rewin the contract and have it again and extend. At that point, I said, how about exclusivity? And so they gave us 10 exclusives, where nobody else was competing on it. So, again, to that point, if you're gonna spend the time And, like, in that scenario, get try to get something in return, and I think that puts you

Benjamin Mena [00:23:24]:
in more sense.

Kim Henderson [00:23:25]:
Yeah. Very, very

Benjamin Mena [00:23:26]:
So what are, like, What are some of the best approaches to actually chasing the government work and winning the government work?

Kim Henderson [00:23:33]:
I'd say I'd call it the the 3 pronged stool. Right. So first, local government, 2nd, state, and then 3rd, the federal integrator. So let's start with local government. It probably was my my absolute favorite Because in all candor, it was kind of it it was much much easier. Right? So think about local government in the city that you live in. And it's not just the city and county that you live in. There's all these other entities like tax collectors, supervisor of elections, property appraiser, Public defender, state's attorney's office, the sheriff's office, fire department.

Kim Henderson [00:24:08]:
And depending on how the county is set up, Sometimes that could be a completely centralized, just huge IT team or finance and accounting team. But what I found in a lot, at least in the Florida counties where I live, is they were decentralized. Like, the sheriff's office would have its own IT, and tech selector would have their own IT. Public to figure out how they're in IT. See, what I did was basically or what you could do, is, first of all, just go look at your city and county. And the first thing that you do is go to their website. And the amazing thing is, you know, while we all find people to call and talk to on LinkedIn, Usually, they put the information right on their website. Here's the director of IT.

Kim Henderson [00:24:50]:
Here's their contact information. Here's the director of procurement. And the approach I took was, okay. I'm gonna try both angles at the same time. I'm gonna get in to see procurement, and I'm gonna get in to see the director or VP of IT And just start to do intake and ask questions. And that's one of the way I approached every single entity, and then you really just learn. They're all a little bit different. Some actually signed our contract that I handed them, our company contract.

Kim Henderson [00:25:17]:
Others said, hey. Can we have our own contract? You sign it, which is great too. Some, if they wouldn't give us a contract, I said, well, hey. How about you write us a PO or an individual statement of work if we place someone here? That way, you know, you're not bound to go in a long term contract, and you'll maybe that would be more attractive to them. So there were a few that actually did that. And then finally, there were some that bought off of State contract, right, which we we were on, and we'll get to that in a second. But I think the key is, for anyone approaching this, You know, go to the city, go to the county. If assuming you're selling IT or finance to the county, get in with the, you know, the IT leader, the c, the accounting leader.

Kim Henderson [00:25:57]:
Get in with procurement. Ask them how they hire, how they they they bring on staff augmentation resources. Right? 1st. 2nd, And I know it's checking a box. Go to their website and just fill out your the vendor information. It doesn't take that long, but it's Checking a box, eventually, you'll have to do it anyway. Right? The third thing is, at that time, we lost our designation later on due to size We were acquired by British company, but early on, we were designated as a minority, business provider. If your company is that, that all day long.

Kim Henderson [00:26:35]:
Make sure they know that. Make sure that they're aware of that. Provide them more state certificate. Again, we lost it. Really had it for a couple of years, But nevertheless, it was a little I won't say that it that it was the w d forty, you know, that opens up the can, but I think it was a tool in the toolkit. So if you have that, you know, I would say use it, let people know about it. And then, really, it went from there as far as, like, just to penetrate the part the, department like you would on the commercial side. So that's why I'd say start our cities and counties and then Branch out to some of those smaller IT areas.

Kim Henderson [00:27:09]:
It might be the tax collector, the property appraiser, public defender, state attorney, sheriff's office, all of those, and do the same thing. Go to the website. Go to LinkedIn. Find out who's running IT or finance and accounting and procurement. Go out there and meet with them concurrently and figure out how to do business with them. And one thing I found too, guys, is while all those entities hire and keep contractors, sheriff's office was a huge one. Huge because they've got all kinds of public safety, all kinds of things that they have they're responsible for for keeping running. Don't discount your local police fire, And don't discount the clerk of corp either.

Kim Henderson [00:27:49]:
You would say clerk of corp, you know, but they have a huge IT department. They're man managing all their court records and And their schedules and things like that. So, hit each one of those entities and meet with the leader ship there and find out how they buy into business. And I think you'll be press pleasantly and how eager they will be to work with you, and of how quickly you can make a new.

Benjamin Mena [00:28:13]:
That's cool. And they you said the next after that, you typically you advise going towards state after local.

Kim Henderson [00:28:20]:
Yes. Yes. So the, 2nd leg of the stool is, state blood pressure. So we were on state contract actually in Florida, but also in Virginia up where you are, Ben. And it's interesting. It's different state by state is what I would tell you. So in Florida, there was an RFP process That it happens, you know, every other year. Right.

Kim Henderson [00:28:39]:
So, unfortunately, if you, you know, were in the off cycle, you could go and sub through another Provider was all out there. It was all public information. But then when you did the RFP and got on state contact, I have to say, it was quite easy. It they weren't really the looking for quality. You just had Check all the boxes, fill out the ERP, and and and and handle the detail the way they wanted it handled. They weren't really reading. And then that basically was her hunting license. Right? You could go into any state agency like the Department of Education, Transportation, Department of Children and Families, whatever it is, Department of Corrections, and just say, hey.

Kim Henderson [00:29:14]:
I'm on state contract. Right? And we provide IT contract services, and it was amazing how Willing they were to talk to you. I let in with that with every conversation. We're all state contract. And I was like, oh, okay. Already got boxes. And for

Benjamin Mena [00:29:29]:
the for those that know the GovCon space, is that kinda like a IDIQ contract?

Kim Henderson [00:29:32]:
Oh, indefinite quantity. Yes. Yes. Yes. And, yeah, definite delivery. Absolutely. I oh, IDIQ. I never heard That next question, well, you're right.

Kim Henderson [00:29:39]:
With this IT IT, it's just basically a hunting license that shows you've been vetted as an approved state provider for IT or or Finance and whatever it is, contract services. So that was huge in Florida. Now flash forward in contrast to Virginia. Virginia was much easier. What we found at that time was, obviously, it was run out of Richmond. There was an MSP On-site that was running the state business. And I contacted the MSP, had a conversation with her over the phone and boom, we were on their list. It was it was much easier than Florida.

Kim Henderson [00:30:15]:
And so the next day, we had a Richmond office and we had a DC office. We just started to go out. They sort of sent us the ranks. Right? Like, we would see DOTs doing a lot of hiring. Corrections doing a lot of hiring. And, again, got on the phone, went out and met and said, hey. We're an approved provider and just started doing exactly how you do it on the commercial side. So I have to say state of Virginia was Quicker to make money in in the state of war.

Kim Henderson [00:30:40]:
Def it depends. For for the state level, go out to, you know, the the the state website, and they will tell you, you know, what their process is.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:50]:
Okay. And, and I love that that you've, like, focused on those 2 first because, like, when you most people think government contracts, the 1st thing that you think about is DC, GovCon, DOD, all that stuff. I know that's a 30 year leg year or so, so I'll let you keep going. But Based on the discussions that we've had offline, I definitely check out the local and state before you start jumping into into fighting against Lockheed Martin. Absolutely.

Kim Henderson [00:31:14]:
It's yeah. Because it's it happens more quickly then. Right? You know, it can take a little longer on the fed side. I found that the state and especially the low Happens quicker. So if you've got a boss over here saying, you know, hey. Gotta give a heads on the sun, they gotta be making placements. You know, At least that that'll keep keep the lights on, keep people fed, keep people going, you know, while you build out a federal integration side. And I want to final comment on state then.

Kim Henderson [00:31:39]:
You may think that happens only in the state capitals, right, like Richmond and, you know, and and Tallahassee, if you're in Florida and, you know, places like that, what I found was that was not all accurate either. So Places like Orlando, they had an offshoot, Department of Transportation that was the turnpike system. They had, like, about a 100 contractors at turnpike. Right? We didn't have all 100, of course, but, you know, We started getting we're making plays with it. In Tampa, there was, you know, Department of Children and Families, a a big offshoot of that. There was a state agency. So don't think that state agencies are gonna be concentrated to the state capital. That's where a lot of the business will be, but we'll fight offshoots, You know, in in other cities throughout, you know, throughout the state that you're in.

Kim Henderson [00:32:23]:
So, Ben, I'm sure that where you are with Northern Virginia area, I'm sure there's still a lot of state work there as well. And I remember, actually, Virginia had a data center. It was called the I think it was VITA, v I t a, whole data center that was, outside of Richmond. So, Yeah. Just trying to get people to think about it in terms of more broadly than than maybe what they normally would would would consider. So Awesome. The 3rd line is

Benjamin Mena [00:32:49]:
the last peg.

Kim Henderson [00:32:50]:
Yeah. The last peg. Okay. So in a federal integration space so I I think it would be remiss to to to for us to say, hey. You know, we're a fewer staffing company. We're gonna go straight to the government and start bidding, you these these particular programs. It's just you know, there's all the government's fault. There's things that you're not gonna know, not gonna understand.

Kim Henderson [00:33:11]:
I mean, it's it's it's complex. Right? So what we found is the best place to be was to be a sub to these integrators. Right? And the integrators, the big ones, like, I think we we alluded you know, like Northrop Grumman, Gerald Dynamics, HP Federal, SAIC, Lockheed Martin. And what we did was approach them. Right. And, again, just like the commercial side, it was different different process to get on board and become a vendor for every one of them. So for instance, HP Federal. I happened to sign an RFP for it, and I thought, well, probably not gonna win this.

Kim Henderson [00:33:44]:
Filled it out. Lo and behold, we got on the list. And, ultimately, we had about a 106 contractors there in her payday. And, you know, it was it was a beautiful thing. Now Geraldine Emmett was much easier. I joined Armed Forces Communications Electronics Association, that's kind of a mouthful to say, And NDIA, National Defense Industrial Association. So we'll get to that in that. Those are professional associations that where all these integrators tryna Hang out and and go to their meetings and and, you know, do their thing.

Kim Henderson [00:34:13]:
So I started to do that. Right? And I actually got on a committee, an easy committee. I'm, oh, gosh. I don't wanna do too too much work, but I go on a committee to get involved and then put me in contact with folks at Dural Dynamics and Northrop Grumman. And, again, At any networking event, you meet them, you shake their hand, you have a conversation with them. Hey. I'd like to come into your office and talk to you a little bit more about your business. Got in front of them, talked to them about, you know, what their needs were in their office, what programs, gov programs they were supporting.

Kim Henderson [00:34:41]:
Lo and behold, Next thing you know, we were able to go and get agreements in place with Dural Dynamics in Norfolk. So that gave us an anchor of three Three big integrators with HP, DD, and Grumman. And then I look to your smaller integrators. There's a whole space of a sub tier, We call tier 2 and tier 3 integrators that oftentimes people don't consider. And I didn't really know about it either until I started to attend those networking events that I mentioned, those associations, and just met them. And, you know, it'd be a b c, you know, contracting or whatever. I'm like, oh gosh. I have it in front of you.

Kim Henderson [00:35:15]:
And then those folks really had a need because they were small. They didn't have the staffing engine behind them then when they'd go out and win business. So they were like, oh gosh. We really need you. We need your help to go give us Java developer reserve, you know, QA folks, whatever that case may be, because they were small. You know? They couldn't go out and fire or hurt benching by 2 people or or absorb, you know, relocating people like any feast at a real quick. So that's what I'd say. It's a team on starter.

Kim Henderson [00:35:43]:
Look at the key the big integrators. Right? And I think the way to get in with them, the smarter way, Start to attend those professional association meetings. They exist in every market. I know they're in the Virginia area. I know they're in Florida. They're in Georgia. Went to those meetings, consistently every single month. They always have lunch meetings.

Kim Henderson [00:36:04]:
And meet people, get involved To a degree, you know, as much as you feel like you can do, but then go sit down with them in front of their their office and learn about their business and learn about their pain points. That's the best way to get in. And then don't discount the tier 2 and tier threes. They need our help even more. Right? So, again, you also meet them with the professional association events.

Benjamin Mena [00:36:27]:
And I love that you talked about the tier 2 and the tier threes because, you know, the government over the past few years has done a lot of set aside for small businesses.

Kim Henderson [00:36:34]:
Right.

Benjamin Mena [00:36:34]:
And those small businesses, You know, they do have the team you partner over a large player, but most of them don't have their built out recruiting engine set up. So they literally like, They'll chase the work. They're great at writing the proposals, but at the end of the day, they're not the best on the recruiting side of the house.

Kim Henderson [00:36:50]:
Yeah. That's

Benjamin Mena [00:36:51]:
that's our that's our honey hole.

Kim Henderson [00:36:52]:
Yeah. So think of a bit infrastructure to go and and, you know, hire all these Java developers and and maybe, you know, keep them billable while they're onboarding people. They just they just don't have that. So That's where we as staffing providers come in and can provide a huge service for. There are a couple other things I wanna talk about, the space then or clearances. Right? Because that there's there's take these to it. Yeah. On the DOD side, If you're going to go and sub and need that business, it's likely that you'll have to have, be able to to go and and recruit in whole Secret and maybe sometimes top secret clearances.

Kim Henderson [00:37:29]:
Right? And we'll get to how to do that in a second. But what I also found is, let's say you have no appetite for that as a What I found is it working for those integrators, they also have a lot of Fed civilian work. You know? Who the heck is Fed civilian? That's a delay with me, say, if HP goes out and wins a contract with HUD or they win a contract with the VA or the post office, or the Federal Reserve. Those are called fed civilian. They're not DOD specific. So what we found there was, which was beautiful, Those folks didn't need a secret or top secret clearance. What they needed was called, like, a public trust clearance, which basically anyone that you know, Anyone that that that doesn't walk straight yielding an x, I mean, could get a a public trust clearance. That was probably a bad joke, but, meaning it's very easy to get a public trust clearance, and, actually, that was something that the government, handled.

Kim Henderson [00:38:26]:
Right? So we didn't even handle it. Place a contractor on assignment that would be out at the Federal Reserve. They would handle HP say would handle that process of getting them their public trust, which would take a few weeks, and then boom, they were out on assignment. So for anyone that doesn't wanna necessarily have to deal With getting a facility clearance to do DOD work, you can't aim yourselves at fed civilian and fed health care. Right? Because they're always spending money, you know, post office, you know, VA, US and T, All those particular programs, and it won't require you to have to get that facility.

Benjamin Mena [00:39:03]:
Oh, and trust me. It's At least the way the the market has been over the past few years, everybody's fighting for these highly cleared professionals because most of them left the cleared role during COVID. So, definitely, like, if you get the chance to focus on, like, a t TSSCI full scope poly job or a job that just has a public trust, Focus on the public trust work.

Kim Henderson [00:39:23]:
Ben, you no truer word has ever been spoken. It's so much easier. Number 1, it's gonna be easier to Find that individual, right, that can pass a public trust clearance, to go and find people. You know? So we We'll get to this in a second. We did have the facility players, and it was something that Okay. I had to put in place and the whole whole other process. But after you get it in place, You know, you have to find people that are clearable. Right? And not everyone can get a clearance, and you could go through a whole process.

Kim Henderson [00:39:54]:
Think you've got a, you know, a great person, and I'm sure they are great people. But for whatever reason, they didn't get cleared. Right? And next thing you know, you're like, Well, I've wasted all of this time and, you know, I I can't start the assignment. Right? Or, you know, you get a cleared person, and then Sometimes they they may wanna convert them to a perm employer going, oh, gosh. I really wanna keep them for another couple of years. So, anyway, it it's it's it's a whole Different segment, and we can dive into that a little bit, maybe the pros and cons of getting facility clearance if you want to then.

Benjamin Mena [00:40:25]:
Let's just, like, Real quick, I think for this, if they want to go to the full pros and cons, reach out to Kim. Have a conversation with Kim. She is the expert and the consultant. But If you're looking at growing a government contracting business on the fed side of the house, should you put in the work time, effort, and money to get that facility, Clarence.

Kim Henderson [00:40:47]:
What I would say is yes, and and here's why. First, A company will pass to sponsor you to do it. So Northrop Grumman actually sponsored us, because they had a need. They had a, a program, you know, a doc Called a d d two fifty four. It was basically the security requirements of a program, and they needed people back. So, basically, they sponsored us, And I went through the process with the department of Defense Security Services, and, you know, you you complete you fill out, you know, the forms, and here your The key management personnel have to get cleared, all that good stuff. And then ultimately, you get your facility clearance, you know, a few months later. What I would say is it it was free to get the clearance.

Kim Henderson [00:41:30]:
Right? Where the cost comes in is, you know, you either have to Designate someone as your facility, officer, you know, so FSO to go and manage those clearances and pay that person. Or 2nd route is you could outsource somebody to be the FSO and do all that work for you. Or the final thing is you could have someone like Kim who did did that at nighttime and did her day job during the day, so you'll have to go pay somebody else. So I I kinda drew the short straw on that one and ended up having to be the As well as run the government business and and, you know, it is a from a paperwork standpoint, it was a bit consuming, But the upside was it didn't cost anything to get. You really just had to follow their process, and then we did have so many cleared people that we were holding on our our facility clearance over our cage cut. We had a lot of different folks, which again, is billable heads, revenue, and, we started to get better and better recruiting those people that already had declared so we didn't have to take them from scratch. So what I'd say is it's it's worth doing. Just realize it's gonna take a little bit of commitment, and it's gonna take a little bit of to go ahead and and and do that on your part as you designate someone to manage that process.

Kim Henderson [00:42:47]:
But if you don't wanna go down that route, as BIN SAT, Start on the fed civilian side with those 1st and second tier integrators, and you could still make a ton of money doing that and just ignore the DOD, you know, all day long. Right.

Benjamin Mena [00:43:01]:
Awesome. Well, before we, jump into the next part of the podcast, is there anything else that you wanna share about government contracting?

Kim Henderson [00:43:08]:
I think the the the key takeaway from this is, again, when I started, as I mentioned, I didn't know anything about government wants it. So it's it's Easy to actually make money if you focus and you do all the things that you do on the commercial side. You go out. You meet people. You develop relationships. You find out where their pain points are, and then you provide a solution to them. It really is no different. It's just getting in front of them and asking the questions, and I'm telling you, there really is money there.

Kim Henderson [00:43:40]:
They're much more open to meeting with us again. Think they were on the commercial side. And as I indicated earlier, at least at the the the county and the local level, they talk to one another. They'll open doors for you. They'll make introductions for you. I'm the CIO in this county. Oh, I mean, this know the CIO over at Orange County. I'll introduce you to them.

Kim Henderson [00:44:00]:
So they have much more of a community. And so if you're in there doing a good job, you're actually gonna think you'll expand your reach quicker and farther than you can sometimes on the commercial side. So I'd say if you haven't tried it, give it a try. It's not as daunting as you might think. It's actually much easier than you

Benjamin Mena [00:44:17]:
Well, that is awesome. And if you have, like, any more questions about growing your staffing company and also growing into GovCon, definitely reach out to Kim. She's fantabulous. So over to the quick fire questions, what advice would you give to a brand new recruiter that's actually just starting out Recruiting in 2023.

Kim Henderson [00:44:36]:
Okay. Oh my gosh. Brand new recruiter. It's about relationships. You know? It is about relationships and a Long term mindset, a long term mentality. The recruiters that that I've worked with that have been successful in the business for, you know, 20 plus years, What have they done well? They have developed a referral business, and, you know, like like none you've ever seen. They place people over and over and over again throughout their career, and then those people refer folks to them. And they've done that really through, you know, Caring.

Kim Henderson [00:45:10]:
Caring. Listen. You know? Really being working on the best interest in the best interest of the candidate, Helping them through their job search, going that extra mile, you know, in contrast to recruiters I've seen that are flashing the pan that don't last this business and maybe don't do, You know, such a great job are the ones that I I I I call just going through the motions. Right? They go through the motions. They ask the questions. They don't really care. It's all about that quick. And it shows.

Kim Henderson [00:45:38]:
Right? If you're genuine and you're sincere in anything that you do, it's gonna come through, and people can see it. You know? They can they can feel it. And if you really have that, you know, I'm a one hit wonder mentality, let me just place this guy or gal and forget about them, then it's gonna reflect in your career. So I'd say Engage from a long term mindset, build those relationships, and go that extra mile and network, network, network, You know, and keep in touch with these folks you place with. Referral business is gonna make your job and life so much easier as you get into your, you know, 5, 8, 10, and and beyond. At that point, really, a lot of people should be coming from referrals and and lot less cold calling. So that's what I'd say. If I can Say, Ben, what sets people apart would have been amazing at this business versus ones that maybe, you know, play now in recruiting.

Kim Henderson [00:46:28]:
It's really the ability to to foster relationships in a sincere way.

Benjamin Mena [00:46:33]:
Awesome. And the same question, but for experienced recruiters, like, what advice would you say to them to continue to See success.

Kim Henderson [00:46:40]:
1st area's recruit. That's a great question. I think number 1, embrace technology. Right? We've all seen upsets and successful recruiters, but they don't embrace technology, and they don't embrace some of the changes that are happening in our market. They kinda dig in and, you know, just go old school Well, I'm thinking, oh, I've always done it this way. I'm a continue to do this way. But, you know, if it's embracing AI, you'd help me take better notes so you can go and actually listen and engage in a conversation with the can. Yeah.

Kim Henderson [00:47:05]:
Try that. Whatever it is, try it. Engage technology to make your job easier. Right? And, and again, I think continually keep networking. Don't ever stop networking. It's it's sales. Right? We're all in sales whether it's sales or recruiting. Gotta continually fill that pipeline, so the whole networking piece is key.

Kim Henderson [00:47:25]:
And then finally, you know, From a recruiter standpoint, I see a lot of recruiters that dig in, for lack of a better word, firm placement. I wanna do firm placement. I wanna I'm the executive Executive search also, and that's great. That's good. What I call it sometimes, guys, is the, is is the perm sugar high. Right. And I think what we find, especially if we have a down economy, like in o eight and o one, is contract resources that keep the lights on. Right? You know, contractors still get hired in an economic downturn, you know, just like what we talked about.

Kim Henderson [00:47:59]:
Businesses have to run. They have to do payroll. They have to have IT security, whatever that is. So be open minded to different types of business models. Don't always think because you've been a permanent placement recruiter that that's what you should always be. Open your mind a little bit. Recruit contracts folks. Place them on assignment because I'll tell you, that annuity every month and not starting at 0 is a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Kim Henderson [00:48:23]:
Once you have a a whole group of billable contractors on assignment, and you don't have that anxiety. Oh my gosh. I'm starting at 0. So, again, Be open minded. Just don't dig into, I call it a rut then. You know, the difference between a rut and a grave is the size of the hole. Right. So don't get in that rut and say, I've only done it this way.

Kim Henderson [00:48:41]:
I've only done for a placement. Think about it differently. Be open to other business models Like contract.

Benjamin Mena [00:48:48]:
So rut in a grave. I'm gonna remember that one.

Kim Henderson [00:48:51]:
It was the size of the hole. It's the only difference.

Benjamin Mena [00:48:55]:
Well, looking looking at your careers, the or has there been a book that has had a huge impact on your career?

Kim Henderson [00:49:00]:
There there were have been a couple, I would say, One of the probably one of the more recent ones is I mentioned too that we built our business for sale, and we were acquired by a large British company. And, I stayed on excuse me, for several years after we were acquired and gained so much So much experience. I learned so much working for an international organization. Right? You know, we're doing, deployable deals with with other countries. You know, how do you formulate that? How do you interact with customers? How do you handle the cultural differences? How do you handle pricing and different laws. You know? We have contracts that are going, you know, for for multiple countries all at one time. So what I learned there was It wasn't for, you know, getting global business experience. I'd say that was key.

Kim Henderson [00:49:46]:
I would say probably the the other Key point was really just kind of starting with whole government solutions, and national strategic accounts practice for the company that got that got acquired. You're there. You're I'll call it, you know, as I said, gutting it out. But it's so rewarding to actually see a couple years into it when the fruits of The labor and all those cold calls and all those meetings start to pay out, and you start to see the business grow. It's just it was just, You know, a very rewarding, you know, feeling for for everyone that was on the team as well as, you know, our customers and and me as well. So probably 2 2 big points right there.

Benjamin Mena [00:50:23]:
Now when you're looking at your own personal success, what do you think has been a driver for that?

Kim Henderson [00:50:30]:
Tenacity. I think especially in in recruitment, if he thinks you have tenacity, you you can't give up. You know? We realize that It probably takes you, what, 8 calls to go and get that 1st customer callback. I was reading stat about that. You know, that may even be maybe more than There's that tenacity that just really staying on it and not giving up and just really the perseverance. I mean, staffing's, You know, it's a simple business, but it's not easy. Right? And I think we've we've we've seen that here. There are the days that are they're kinda dark.

Kim Henderson [00:51:01]:
You know? Lose people off assignment, in candidate, goes AWOL. I don't show up for an interview. I don't show up for the wherever the case may be. We've all had those dark moments in staffing, And I think you see I had a little old boss that termed it, hey. Fight through the loss and move on. And that's what you do. You know? Fight through the loss. You put it behind you, And you start fresh, you know, you know, 10 minutes later, go, okay.

Kim Henderson [00:51:24]:
We're gonna make something good happen here and just persevering through it and just keeping after it day after day. The amazing thing is the more activity you do, the more actions that you take, the more successful you get. And you just have to be willing to put in the work, The time and the effort consistently. Right? And that may even be been some things that you don't wanna do. Like, I mentioned those professional associations. Do we enjoy going to those things at nighttime? Do we enjoy going with those things at, you know, at lunch? I mean, You know, chances are you probably would rather be somewhere else, but, you know, try to go on and embrace it and determine what can I gain out of this? How can I have fun with this? How can I meet people, and how can I go and, you know, and and help them out? And if you of just your mindset, you know, things like that become so much more Easy and so much more fun. So I'd say, again, you know, tenacity, perseverance, and really just having a mindset that you know? The big picture's here. Yeah.

Kim Henderson [00:52:22]:
It's helping companies. It's helping people get jobs, and also making it rewarding to fill out for myself and and for my team and for my team. So I'd say that that's That would probably be the the key elements of of, you know, being able to build success within this business or really any business you're in.

Benjamin Mena [00:52:40]:
For for yourself, like, did you always have this tenacity, or was it something that developed?

Kim Henderson [00:52:48]:
I think I've always had it. You know, when you start to get into, you know, staffing, you either have it or you don't. If you don't have to ask, you're not gonna last in business. And when I got there, I thought, well, you know, I really like this, and I looked at I looked at people that had been there a little longer than me that were maybe a little bit older. And, know, I mentioned looking through the eyes of a 23 year old. You know, these folks are you know, they're doing well. They're making money, and I'm going well. You know, I wanna have I wanna do that.

Kim Henderson [00:53:14]:
If I just listen to them and do what they tell me to do and follow their blueprint, you know, I can make this happen, and they were all very, you know, driven, tenacious, you know, persevering type of people. And so I just kind of Thought, well, this is what I need to do and just just modeled myself after that and did what they did. It really just kinda followed the plan.

Benjamin Mena [00:53:35]:
I I I think that's the thing a lot of us recruiters probably well, first of all, like, a lot of recruiters don't walk into a Kforce that has a great training where it's just like follow the plan. You will who you so you will see success. But it really is, like, down to the basics, and Many of us like to skip past the basics, so keep on right there.

Kim Henderson [00:53:55]:
And then you made a great point. When I started at Kforce, at that time, it was it was called Romac. They changed their name in the later nineties. And when I first got there, they were 30,000,000 in revenue. Very small company and then ultimately, yes. And ultimately through organic growth and chain acquisition, there are, I think, about a 1000000000 and a half now or or something along those lines. They were they were at a 1,000,000,000 when I was there. And, we didn't have a training program at 30,000,000.

Kim Henderson [00:54:21]:
I remember, my my first training was I sat in my my cubicle, which was actually a library chair. Hold on if you remember those from your callous days. And my boss said, there's the phone. There's computer. Just get on the phone and get some job offers. That was my very first day. That was my very first sentence, and I'm like, oh my gosh. I'm like, Okay.

Kim Henderson [00:54:41]:
And then he just started to work with me. Okay. Here's what you say on the phone. Here's what you don't say. Okay. Here's our job. We'll report. And and it was kind of more of an ad hoc training by my boss, but that was the very first direction walking into the company.

Benjamin Mena [00:54:56]:
Oh. Yeah. Okay.

Kim Henderson [00:54:57]:
Yeah. He's still a great friend today, but, nevertheless, okay, we didn't have it in training program. He's really taught more than one By the guy sitting next to you or boss sitting over there leaning out of his cube saying, hey. Put him on a hole. This is what you need to say. Don't say that. So

Benjamin Mena [00:55:13]:
Alrighty then. Yeah. I I know their training program has changed a lot since then.

Kim Henderson [00:55:18]:
They actually have a one day off in the.

Benjamin Mena [00:55:20]:
They yeah. You you still live in Tampa for a few years, so they were always there seeing them out at lunch and stuff like that. So but it kinda goes into my next question. So, like, you've you've worked for 2 amazing organizations. You've scaled 1. You've helped to to get sold. You've Seeing Kforce grow like crazy, and you've probably had, like, a lot of scenarios that have happened to you personally and things that you've seen. If you had the chance to, right now, go back in time and have a cup of coffee with yourself, your 1st, 2nd week in the job, What would you tell yourself?

Kim Henderson [00:55:54]:
Wow. That is a that is well, what I would tell myself, there's a couple things. The first, I'd say, If we're looking at through the vision of today, you know, today, obviously, there's LinkedIn. There's, you know, there's there's the whole social media piece that didn't necessarily exist, you know, of course, back in the 19 nineties, when I told myself today if I could go back to my Hays days is I didn't leverage their marketing And social media department the way that I should have. You know, Hazy, they they they used to boast that they were the most followed staffing company on LinkedIn, And they had a great marketing department. You know? And I never leveraged it. Right? You know, when it comes to, like, personal branding and and building that out, they would have helped me do that while I was there. They would have done it for me.

Kim Henderson [00:56:38]:
But to have my gliders on and running my business, I just didn't care. I didn't think about Fast forward a day to being, You know, my my on my business side, right, you know, your marketing, your operations, your sales, your back office, your everything when you have your business. And had I been smarter back then to leverage, you know, a Hayes marketing team, I could've started early building that personal brand Before, you know, I ever went out on my own. Right? And that was a a huge mistake or mistake on my part to not take advantage of resources that were in Sarah, take that to the big picture. If you're working in a staffing company right now and they've got resources, whatever it is, you know, from Marketing, the PR, the, you know, back office, the training, whatever it is, you know, that you feel like you can use to enhance your self in your career. You know? Embrace it. Use it. Learn it.

Kim Henderson [00:57:34]:
Absorb it. Whatever it is, Take advantage of resources that are in your company because I don't think I necessarily did a good job of that the way I should have throughout time. And then, you know, one other thing you mentioned, if you could have a cup of coffee with yourself. So flashing back to, to Kforce, at one point, I was, promoted to the executive team. And at that time, I was actually the only female, on their executive team and and the youngest person at that time. And, you know, what I would tell myself today is, You know, when you're doing that in retrospect, you know, build do a better job or I should've done a better job, I think, building alliances, You know, with people. Right? You you you look at it more of an individual or either individualistic type of thing. Let me still go in, do my job, run my teens, Get results and and and things will be great, and things work pretty good, but they could've been better if I had Personally been better at building alliances and getting buy in for people, before, you know, I will roll out a new roll out a new initiative.

Kim Henderson [00:58:39]:
Right? Getting that buy in and giving people their their their input into things versus just more doing it. That's probably a schwuck coming that I had. Well, I could go back and do it all over again. I would revisit and do it different. Build alliances, get buy in from people, You know, versus more, you know, charging ahead like a like a bull bull in a China shot some sometimes. So live and learn. Well, that

Benjamin Mena [00:59:02]:
is awesome. Absolutely. Well, Kim, before I let you go, if anybody wants to get ahold of you, how do they reach you?

Kim Henderson [00:59:10]:
Oh, thank you. I'm on LinkedIn. Jim Henderson on LinkedIn or, also my email address, kh@cobalcumpassolutions.com. And that's my website, football compassolutions.com, and there's, you know, a form in there, or you can hit the button, and then you'll shoot an email to me so you don't have to remember that email address. Or feel free just to drop me a message on LinkedIn. If anyone has good questions about, you know, the whole government space and how to go and and fast track that or fast forward it, Very happy to answer any questions that can help anybody, you know, cut through some of the minutiae and start to make it happy to help.

Benjamin Mena [00:59:48]:
Awesome. Well, Kim, before I let you go, is there anything else that you wanna share with the listeners?

Kim Henderson [00:59:52]:
First, I thank you so much for the opportunity to you you inviting me in today to kinda share It was Staffing Journey. What I'd say is, you know, whether whether it's government business or whether it's national accounts, again, embrace new business models For your staffing company as we move into 2024 and beyond, if if, you know, we have to constantly be evolving and if you're constantly just doing the Same thing over and over and over again. You're probably gonna miss out on a whole lot of revenue. So whether it's contract business, government, National accounts getting into, different vertical like health care or finance and accounting. Think through it, embrace it, and then set forth a plan and go for it. Right? Don't just stay stagnant doing the same thing year after year. It's a great way to grow your business to look at other models.

Benjamin Mena [01:00:37]:
Well, Kim, I just wanna say thank you so much for coming on, sharing the secrets of how to get government work.

Kim Henderson [01:00:44]:
Thank you very

Benjamin Mena [01:00:45]:
much. It's a place that I'm so grateful you came on because, like, you know, I'm in the space, but I feel like, you know, I'm always, like, telling people, like, to watch out the space. There's a lot going on, But I've never built out the contract side of the house, and that's where like, if you're looking at making real money, it's really on the contract side when it comes to government contracting. So, bringing in somebody like yourself that's, you know, built, scaled, and sold was the absolute right person for this conversation. So thank you, Kim.

Kim Henderson [01:01:12]:
Thank you, Bennett. Appreciate it. Take care. Have a great Alright.

Benjamin Mena [01:01:16]:
For the listeners, until next time, guys. Keep crushing it.

Intro [01:01:18]:
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