Breaking Into GovTech: Certifications, Clearances, and Career Secrets with ft. @symonebeez ​

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't say anything about suck. [SPEAKER_00]: You say, I think, yes, everybody's like, oh, do you know about security plus yours and you're talking about cybersecurity? [SPEAKER_00]: No, I'm not. [SPEAKER_01]: I say you can get the security plus and get an entry level IT job in GovTech, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't have a clearance, [SPEAKER_01]: The likely that you're going straight to cyber security is like slim to what a lot of people need to do to be able to really outlast AI and do well long term and gov tech or just tech in general is like just see like I talked about earlier right with the AI boom you're going to see a lot of data centers go up right you don't have [SPEAKER_01]: to be an AI ML engineer, you could work in a data center, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: You could be an Oracle engineer, you could be an Oracle system administrator, you could be a data center technician, you know, you can focus on jobs like that. [SPEAKER_01]: And then when he comes to cybersecurity, same thing, right? [SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to [SPEAKER_01]: focus on like AI and cybersecurity security. [SPEAKER_01]: You could just focus on being a really good cybersecurity engineer that also knows how to utilize AI tool.

[SPEAKER_01]: I still recommend just security plus like even today. [SPEAKER_01]: I said all the time like me personally with what I do and go tech all I need is security plus like I don't have to go out there and get any other [SPEAKER_01]: And even if you're brand new, security plus is all you need.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there's people inside my community, they get their security plus, they land a data center technician role, IT technician, help desk role, IT support roles, which just the security plus, like literally it still worked.

[SPEAKER_03]: Working overseas, you get like tax free up to a hundred thousand, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so right now, you show first, hundred, twenty five thousand dollars is tax free. [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, hundred, twenty five. [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know, okay, let's go. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so it goes up every single year. [SPEAKER_01]: So when I was overseas, the first time it was the first hundred and four thousand because the inflation increased it every year.

[SPEAKER_01]: So now it's one twenty five. [SPEAKER_03]: Look, you probably have a security class, maybe even a security clearance, and nobody taught you how to write poems, or how to test a security control. [SPEAKER_03]: Or submit it to ATO Package. [SPEAKER_03]: I'm Chris Akpala, a three years ago, I was in your shoes, qualified on paper, but completely lost when it came to arm that. [SPEAKER_03]: I had a degree, I had to serve, so I had to drive.

[SPEAKER_03]: When somebody said, how to test an AC-II control, or down a date, stick finance, I had no clue what that actually looked like. [SPEAKER_03]: Last four or five years I worked across DOD and federal agencies, led control assessments, run ATO package, and pass orders.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's why I built our anfacademy to teach you the real world execution. [SPEAKER_03]: They don't cover in certification books. [SPEAKER_03]: Inside I'll show you how to write a poem. [SPEAKER_03]: And don't get bad as bad. [SPEAKER_03]: Test and validate security controls. [SPEAKER_03]: Translate tech jardan. [SPEAKER_03]: Navigate in this, eight hundred fifty three. [SPEAKER_03]: and RMF with confidence.

[SPEAKER_03]: If you're in IT support in the government systems, or stuck on edge of sub security, this is your way. [SPEAKER_03]: The people who go through my training don't just get hired, they hit the round runny, because they practice the work before they win. [SPEAKER_03]: Go to RMF Academy.io and let's get the work. [SPEAKER_03]: Welcome everybody to another edition of the TechWork podcast.

[SPEAKER_03]: I am your host, Chris, an information system security officer inside the Gov Tech space. [SPEAKER_03]: And in today's podcast, we have a very, very, very special guest. [SPEAKER_03]: Her name is Simone Berry. [SPEAKER_03]: Everybody knows her as Simone B's. [SPEAKER_03]: She's been revolutionizing the Gov Tech space. [SPEAKER_03]: She has gotten so many people in this space. [SPEAKER_03]: Made a lot of people money and expose the industry that was once kept secret.

[SPEAKER_03]: And without further ado, Simone Berry, how you doing? [SPEAKER_02]: Good. [SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for inviting me on. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so I appreciate you coming on on. [SPEAKER_03]: I reached on. [SPEAKER_03]: I didn't know. [SPEAKER_03]: I just like let me shoot my shot. [SPEAKER_03]: And when you when you said you want to come on, I was like, damn you, right? [SPEAKER_03]: Just let you know like a Henri Davis, your podcast, expire minus two.

[SPEAKER_03]: So [SPEAKER_03]: Now, I appreciate you putting all the content and helping so many people in this space. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, thank you. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_01]: Like I said, you know, I remember you asked me to last year to come over. [SPEAKER_01]: But I like super busy with Govtech on and everything. [SPEAKER_01]: So I figured like, all right, you know, I'm here. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm in town. [SPEAKER_01]: Let me see if you're available.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we made sure we are available. [SPEAKER_03]: I was like, I say listen, I said, there is a there is we're going to make it happen. [SPEAKER_03]: You know? [SPEAKER_03]: But Simone, this is a lot of things going on inside take the Govtech space currently. [SPEAKER_03]: We all know departments are being cut. [SPEAKER_03]: Doge is coming through departments, scaring everybody, people hiding in their desks. [SPEAKER_03]: We've already just hit this off.

[SPEAKER_03]: Is Govtech still a viable place? [SPEAKER_01]: I believe that it is and just all depends on what type of programs you work. [SPEAKER_01]: Like if you focus on working in mission critical programs, right, like even in the federal government, everybody's like, oh yeah, federal government, there's a hiring freeze, nobody's hiring, but if you go on a USA jobs and you look at who's hiring, it's all mission critical, it's all department and defense.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's also, you know, for intelligence agencies and things like that as well. [SPEAKER_01]: So if you try to stay as mission critical as possible, where you're supporting the Department of Defense or you're supporting intelligence agencies and you have a government security clearance, you should theoretically be safe, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Even if you aren't safe on the federal government side, there's a lot of government contracts, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So, as you know, like there's gold and dome, there's a Palantir just won a ten billion dollar AI contract from the Army yesterday, right, or two days ago. [SPEAKER_01]: So, it's definitely a lot of work still out there, but you have to use the right strategy and you've got to work in the right places.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so I'm going to test to you a hundred percent. [SPEAKER_03]: I work on a mission critical program. [SPEAKER_03]: So a lot of people begin fire, you know, departments have literally been destroyed, but I just miss them. [SPEAKER_03]: They're kind of chilling. [SPEAKER_03]: So mission critical. [SPEAKER_03]: I want to test that also too. [SPEAKER_03]: When you say doing your research, like, there's a lot of contracts out there. [SPEAKER_03]: Open how I just want to contract.

[SPEAKER_03]: Uh, uh, what's it called? [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, is a scale AI? [SPEAKER_03]: All these companies, they're wanting big contracts. [SPEAKER_03]: Actually, what you was just talking about will balance here. [SPEAKER_03]: I looked on their website the other day and they have a lot of [SPEAKER_03]: jobs that's coming up right now. [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, so I'm out here. [SPEAKER_01]: Open AI, scale or shield AI, and then also endure as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like those those companies they're doing a lot in the AI space, but of course you've got like the you know the older government contract is right like

[SPEAKER_01]: Lockheed Martin, you know, Boeing, they're still winning contracts, Raytheon, you know, all those big government contractors, they're still going to be the prominent government contractors for like the future of DoveTech, but the real thing is that people need to focus on is making sure that like their skillset aligns with where the government is headed and where government technology is headed, which is more focused and aligned to AI.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, obviously, you know, ML AI engineers, [SPEAKER_01]: You got data centers, all of the different data center roles. [SPEAKER_01]: And then of course, you're going to have the like software based cybersecurity base cloud. [SPEAKER_01]: And then if you're in the missile defense space like me, right? [SPEAKER_01]: You have all of these different roles and all these different jobs that like trickle down from all these different sectors that you can work in.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, I agree a hundred percent. [SPEAKER_03]: So I know a lot of the audience, when I first got into Govtech, I used to just get the security plus and I'm good. [SPEAKER_03]: Is it security plus still viable to get into the Govtech space? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I still recommend just security plus. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, even today's day, I say it all the time, like me personally with what I do in Govtech, all I need is security plus.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have to go out there and get any other search. [SPEAKER_01]: and even if you're brand new, security plus is all you need. [SPEAKER_01]: So there's people inside my community, they get their security plus, they land a data center technician, roll IT technician, help desk, roll IT support rolls with just the security plus, like literally it still works and it's because it's requirement to work in a government space.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I love what you always saying, because a lot of people want to get in the cyber, all these positions, I keep peeping. [SPEAKER_03]: You keep saying IT is, I don't say anything about that. [SPEAKER_00]: You say, yeah, everybody's like, oh, do you know about security plus yours and you're talking about cyber security? [SPEAKER_00]: No, I'm not. [SPEAKER_01]: I said you can get the security plus and get an entry level IT job in Govtech, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't have a clearance, the likelihood of you going straight to cyber security is like slim to not, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Even if you have a background in cybersecurity, this is going to be very hard to find a company that's going to sponsor you for a role for cybersecurity because they're going to need somebody to go right into working in the classified environments, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's going to be much easier for people to go straight into like the roles that I had talked about, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Like a either entry level IT role or a role that's not going to require you to work in a skip immediately. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no, I agree. [SPEAKER_03]: I was lucky to get straight in. [SPEAKER_03]: I was a, um, our American outstrain to it. [SPEAKER_03]: So I was lucky, but I just literally got lucky.

[SPEAKER_03]: I'd see, if I can go back, I would have started. [SPEAKER_03]: I'd see because it helps you learn more. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: Like in ports and protocols, uh, firewalls, even just talking to people. [SPEAKER_03]: So I tease definitely the way to go. [SPEAKER_03]: I didn't want to talk to you a little bit about Clarence.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's like now is almost impossible to, uh, to get Clarence's, uh, [SPEAKER_03]: There's very few companies that they sponsor for security or janitor, but how was the my final clearance? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, if you know what to look, you can always find company sponsor and clearance is right. [SPEAKER_01]: So literally just going to clearance jobs and then just type in ability obtain searched by the IT job category, and then you'll see all the jobs sponsor.

[SPEAKER_01]: I like I was just one clearance jobs a day. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm on every day, but I was just only here today and it was five thousand jobs sponsor and clearance is, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so literally it's just, you just have to know where to look at, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So you don't have to start with like security, janitor, bank tellers, you don't have to start in no type of roles, but it can be easier because there's high attrition with like security roles, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And even background investigator roles, there is a high attrition right there. [SPEAKER_01]: So it can be easier, but if people want to go straight to IT, they can for sure and still get sponsored for a clearance. [SPEAKER_03]: No, I love that because like when I first got in, I was a background investigator. [SPEAKER_03]: And then I know a couple of people did this security, but just always rolls you, always got to find in.

[SPEAKER_03]: Also, I talked to people, they said, other states too, do you think moving is a viable option? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, some people, you might just have to move, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So I've been seeing like a lot of people in Atlanta where they're like, oh, you know, there's not many jobs. [SPEAKER_01]: They are like Atlanta. [SPEAKER_01]: pre-COVID, they had a lot of different jobs that were still coming up for Govtech.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then even just in the like regular tech industry, it's just not as many jobs in Atlanta still. [SPEAKER_01]: But if you go three hours to Alabama and go to Huntsville, there's thousands of jobs, like literally like one of my coaches, she ended up moving from Dallas to Huntsville without even having a job. [SPEAKER_01]: She didn't have a clearance or anything like that. [SPEAKER_01]: She had helped us experience.

[SPEAKER_01]: She'd been working in tech for our guests about eight months. [SPEAKER_01]: and she moved to Huntsville, no job, no nothing, and within three weeks, she got two job offers as sponsor for her clearance. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, because everybody's talking about a DMV, but hey, if you forget about Alabama, you need FBI FBI. [SPEAKER_03]: I was there when they first got transitioned over there, so there's a lot of go-tech junk big companies down there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, literally everybody's at Huntsville. [SPEAKER_01]: Space Force is moving there, all the government contractors are there, FBI is there, and then you have like, [SPEAKER_01]: a lot of different government agencies like Mr. Defense Agency, they're out there.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's a bunch of different places, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So it's like it's not only the DMV, like you could work all over the US and still get in the gov tech. [SPEAKER_01]: Like people that a lot of people don't want to live in Boston, they're always sponsoring out there. [SPEAKER_01]: So Boston's another area. [SPEAKER_01]: I worked out there for the federal government out at Handsome Air Force Base.

[SPEAKER_01]: Also in Texas, too, whether it's like around four hood or in El Paso, even some jobs around in the Dallas area, too, as well. [SPEAKER_01]: Colorado Springs, if you want to go out that way to the West Coast, there's jogging California. [SPEAKER_01]: There's jobs literally all over Florida, like Destin, Palm Bay, Melbourne, like is literally jobs everywhere. [SPEAKER_01]: It just might not be where you currently live at.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you can look for remote jobs or you can look for jobs where they'll pay for your relocation and then for human some people if they don't pay for a relocation you could ask them to give you like a sign on bonus and then you know you just pay for that move out of pocket like you know you might have to do it efficiently where you got to drive get it you host stuff like that but [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, the clearance is worth six figures.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you kind of got to ask yourself like, what are you willing to do to get that clearance? [SPEAKER_01]: If you don't want to join the military, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Because it's like there's only a few ways to get it. [SPEAKER_01]: You either got to get a job just want to sponsor you for one or you got to join the military. [SPEAKER_01]: That's it. [SPEAKER_01]: So you know, you got to choose your heart, I guess.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's that's actually only to say I'm gonna go back and watch this to get that nose, but that that's that's story game people I'm working in the contract in space for ten years I didn't even know you can get sign home to see though So yeah, I don't know that yeah, look you visit I was our money here for we were oh for sure like the last job I got I got a twenty-one thousand all-sad almost was there just gonna you gotta get them wait

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I got a, hey, I got to chase that money. [SPEAKER_03]: But, um, can you pick you explain like the true value of a clearance? [SPEAKER_03]: Because when I first got a clearance, I was like, man, what is this, they just, they checking on my family, my aunt's, they call on everybody. [SPEAKER_03]: I got this clearance. [SPEAKER_03]: And then I noticed that in that sector, I would get way more money. [SPEAKER_03]: But I noticed in the private sector, I don't get paid as much.

[SPEAKER_03]: He tells them value of a class. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, the clearance is just so valuable. [SPEAKER_01]: Like the average clearance holder, they make six figures. [SPEAKER_01]: So, um, clearance job, they recently came out with their report. [SPEAKER_01]: And I believe it's like a secret clearance holder makes, I think it's a hundred and four thousand one oh four one oh two, just for having a secret, doesn't matter what job you work, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So, like we talked about, like, [SPEAKER_01]: you could be a security guard, you could be a janitor, you could be a bank tailor, like there's banks in the DMV where everybody in the bank has to have a clearance, right? [SPEAKER_01]: And that's all I got my clearance. [SPEAKER_01]: I was working helped SIT at one of the banks where everybody has to have a clearance. [SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, there's so many different ways for you to get it that way.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I forgot what the question was. [SPEAKER_03]: No, no, you guys are just a value of the clearance. [SPEAKER_01]: You didn't mean to it. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so yeah, so later than it clears and value is like super super valuable, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So in a reason why it's so valuable is because most people don't have clearances and it's funny because a lot of people think you can only get a clearance from the military, but what most people don't know is like it's like fifty percent of people who have clearances have never been in the military. [SPEAKER_01]: So it's more people without military experience than it is that have clearances.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's like you actually will be able to get a clearance by getting a job [SPEAKER_01]: And since so many people don't have clearances, that's what makes them so valuable, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, you're really stacking one, two valuable skills, like you, or well, it's not a skill to have a clearance, but you're stacking on two valuable things, right? [SPEAKER_01]: You're a clearance holder, and then you get those technical skills as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: Most people don't have the search, they don't have the technical skills, and then you combine that together, and it just puts you in a whole different league. [SPEAKER_03]: Facts, and just money, like you said, you can make a hunt, sometimes even two. [SPEAKER_03]: You can make hunt in all the break, you know? [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: No, literally.

[SPEAKER_03]: And it also too, like I noticed a lot of these companies like OpenAI, you got, um, yeah, and Tropic on Tropic, you got all these companies. [SPEAKER_03]: I was looking at a job the other day. [SPEAKER_03]: I was looking at OpenAI. [SPEAKER_03]: It was hiring for GRC specialists. [SPEAKER_03]: It was like two hundred bands. [SPEAKER_03]: So I'm like, even these private sector companies are understanding the value of clearance, right?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: Well, anthropic delivery will be a player. [SPEAKER_03]: They right as well. [SPEAKER_03]: I can send it to you if you want me to. [SPEAKER_01]: I wouldn't doubt it because what's happening right now, like I said, it's a big AI boom. [SPEAKER_01]: So the government, we do not want to lose the AI race. [SPEAKER_01]: You're the United States, like the US government does not want to lose the AI race.

[SPEAKER_01]: So because of that, we need clear professionals to be able to work on these classified programs, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So now, as you can see, it matters now working more with the government. [SPEAKER_01]: Open AI, they just want to think of two hundred million dollar contract. [SPEAKER_01]: And then also, [SPEAKER_01]: What is it? [SPEAKER_03]: Elon Musk company what X star oh, it's a good block because it was our Bronco. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so his company just won a conch.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so it's like it's a bunch of different companies that were they were anti government. [SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of funny right a lot of people don't know [SPEAKER_01]: background of this. [SPEAKER_01]: If you don't know the background of kind of like glove tech and where things are headed, you should definitely go read Alice Carbs book. [SPEAKER_01]: I forgot what the name of it is. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm happy with what is it?

[SPEAKER_01]: Is it the future of tech that the technological revolution? [SPEAKER_01]: I think this is the name of it. [SPEAKER_01]: Just look at that. [SPEAKER_01]: Just like quick, because I want to make sure I got the right name. [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm going to say the audio book, but people need to read this book. [SPEAKER_03]: So now the people. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: I'm a reader. [SPEAKER_03]: I'm a checker. [SPEAKER_03]: I'm a soul.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so it's called the technological republic and it's by Alex Gart who's the CEO of Palantir and so what a lot of people don't know is I had known this for a while like the way that the venture capitalist companies came up was by investing in government contractor companies back in the day like back in the sixties and the seventies right so all these Silicon Valley companies they came up they made a lot of money working with the government

[SPEAKER_01]: pushing our technology forward so that way, you know, we could compete at a global scale on the tech wise and beat out all the other countries. [SPEAKER_01]: And then at some point, I think it was in the seventies and became like a shift to where Silicon Valley became like anti-government.

[SPEAKER_01]: So then the people that worked at these companies, they didn't want to support the US government and the US military anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: So now the reason why these companies are now shifting back to being so pro American and pro US government is because of AI right it's going to get to a point where all these companies these software companies they know that the best customer to have is the government customer right because they never stopped spending money [SPEAKER_01]: They always, they're like, even just next year, the Pentagon has a trillion dollar budget with most of it going towards government technology.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it makes sense for the software companies that are AI focused to start working with the government because they know they're going to always have money coming in. [SPEAKER_01]: Now, as you can see, as you see Palantir, they've always been working with the government. [SPEAKER_01]: Talents are twenty years old. [SPEAKER_01]: They're stocks going crazy, right? [SPEAKER_01]: And Dural is like one of the big companies as well that was like very pro military, very pro government.

[SPEAKER_01]: and the CEO of that company is Palmer Lucky and he was like one of the people where he actually got kicked out of Silicon Valley because he was he was so pro US government and US military the people in Silicon Valley didn't like that and that was just back in twenty seventeen so that's why he started and rural because he wanted Oculus to be used for the army right so [SPEAKER_01]: That's basically kind of like how that stuff is. [SPEAKER_01]: I want to get too deep into it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But basically it went from all these companies being anti US government to now they're all pro government. [SPEAKER_01]: And now you can see like, you know, we really all have to come together because we have to beat out these other countries when it comes to like AI for really. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, because right now it's a race. [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not on too if you're familiar with this. [SPEAKER_03]: AGI, AGI smarter than actual humans.

[SPEAKER_03]: And they're all fighting to get to that. [SPEAKER_03]: That's why the government's doing what they're doing. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because I do my research. [SPEAKER_01]: I get there first. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, if we don't reach AGI first, who knows what's going to happen? [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we'll see, but when you're looking for government jobs, right? [SPEAKER_03]: Okay, we know that AI is big. [SPEAKER_03]: People got to learn that.

[SPEAKER_03]: We also know that the cloud's big, and we also know that risk management framework is big too. [SPEAKER_03]: So getting into the go-tox space now, is it viable to learn those skills to keep yourself in the field or what's your thoughts on that? [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it just depends on what you want to do, or you're like, most people aren't going to be AI specialists. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, that's just not going to happen, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Talking about that on Twitter all the time, all these people want to, they say they want to get the hundred million dollar offers, but they don't want to go to college, they don't want to get a master, they don't want to get a PhD. [SPEAKER_01]: So it's most likely just not going to happen for unless you are extremely gifted and you've been doing AI for like ten years already, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So what a lot of people need to do to be able to really outlast AI and do well long term and dub tech or just tech in general is like just see like I talked about earlier right with the AI boom you're going to see a lot of data centers go up right and you don't have to be an AI ML engineer. [SPEAKER_01]: You could work in a data center, right? [SPEAKER_01]: You could be an Oracle engineer. [SPEAKER_01]: You could be an Oracle system administrator.

[SPEAKER_01]: You could be a data center technician. [SPEAKER_01]: You know, you can focus on jobs like that. [SPEAKER_01]: And then when it comes to cybersecurity, same thing, right? [SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to focus on like AI and cybersecurity. [SPEAKER_01]: You could just focus on being a really good cybersecurity engineer that also knows how to utilize AI tools, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that's really how people are going to [SPEAKER_01]: sustain and do well long term is just seeing okay where is technology headed what type of roles can I do where um you know I'll be able to pretty much future prove myself and it doesn't always necessarily mean like oh I got to be AI engineer it just means that you need to focus and put yourself in a place where you're going to get benefits of the bone that AI is causing.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I agree because how my hopper pair I'm an RMF is a non-technical feel. [SPEAKER_03]: So when I'm learning I got to learn the clothes. [SPEAKER_03]: I got to adapt. [SPEAKER_03]: But you got to adapt the things that you like. [SPEAKER_03]: And they're like, and I love what you keep for focus on. [SPEAKER_03]: You focus on IT. [SPEAKER_03]: Like you stay on that.

[SPEAKER_03]: And also to your prom engineering, you can probably mess around and get a contract in the space if you can learn a pacific skill. [SPEAKER_03]: They don't know. [SPEAKER_03]: Because you know how a government is slow. [SPEAKER_03]: The government is slow.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, they're super slow, but yeah, I mean, it's just really like all you gotta do is go and see where's the government spending their money like you can go and just Google DOD awards and you'll see every single day all of these billion dollar contracts that are being awarded and you'll see what type of technology they're put in their money towards and if once you look at that you start looking at the different websites like [SPEAKER_01]: Lockheed Mar in a one.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it was like a two hundred billion dollar contract recently within the past few weeks. [SPEAKER_01]: If you look at that and go look at Lockheed Mar in his website, okay, see what type of roles are they hiring for, right? [SPEAKER_01]: And so for me, that's why I like I talk about IT because you can't be too trendy. [SPEAKER_01]: Like people are just so trendy. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, and I'm [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not trendy, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: But people what they do is they see one clip in a light. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, so you talk to security plus that cybersecurity, but they don't listen. [SPEAKER_01]: That's what you're like. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you keep talking about IT. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because I don't know what this person wants to do. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what this person wants to do. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know their background, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So that's really what like I specialize in.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's helping people understand, like, based off of your background, your skills that you have, what type of job might be best for you? [SPEAKER_01]: Because it's not one size fits all. [SPEAKER_01]: So like for me, [SPEAKER_01]: I ended up falling into a radar missile defense and that just happened to happen because of the type of job that I had coming out of college.

[SPEAKER_01]: But like it's not something where I'm like, yeah, everybody needs to get in a gov tech and try to be a radar system engineer like me. [SPEAKER_01]: That just doesn't make sense. [SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, I don't know what you're talking about. [SPEAKER_03]: You just got to go over what fits you. [SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: And there's the city jobs like that's why I'm like, you know, that's why I keep it to IT because most people are just trying to get their foot in and door. [SPEAKER_01]: But if you already have experience, let's say you're working in tech in another industry, you can get in a gov tech. [SPEAKER_01]: You just got to see like [SPEAKER_01]: Does your role that you work? [SPEAKER_01]: Does it isn't going to require you to get some certifications?

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you going to have to get the security plus? [SPEAKER_01]: Do you have to get, you know, some GRC certifications like the sizzle, like whatever it is that you're doing, right? [SPEAKER_01]: You might have to get some serves because in our industry certifications are requirement. [SPEAKER_01]: It literally, was it an eighty five, seventy, what is going there? [SPEAKER_01]: Do you know in my hearts? [SPEAKER_03]: Let me actually, okay, so, you know, I'm cyber.

[SPEAKER_03]: Everybody wants to get into cyber. [SPEAKER_03]: We talk about the RSA, the red has serves. [SPEAKER_03]: Like getting those type of serves can get you paid a lot of money. [SPEAKER_03]: Like, because of the technical serves, and you know, the government runs pretty much on redhead. [SPEAKER_03]: Everything runs all redhead. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, literally everything.

[SPEAKER_01]: Any type of system you see like the radars, the satellites, UAVs, and then even like the nine, you know, embedded systems that we have, they run on Red Hat too, just the servers and generals, because like the thing is what a lot of people don't know is like Red Hat, they offer support.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, if the government, something goes wrong, drastically wrong, one of these Red Hat servers, they can just call the Red Hat and they'll send out their specialists. [SPEAKER_01]: and Red Hat has cleared specialists that have clearance. [SPEAKER_01]: That can work only systems, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So it all just comes back to supporting the government, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So, well, yeah, I mean, you can definitely get jobs that pay a lot of money.

[SPEAKER_01]: So people can get the security plus and the Red Hat certifies this admin. [SPEAKER_01]: And then I also recommend them taking a step further and start learning Ansible as well. [SPEAKER_01]: And then there's also the red hat certified engineer certification too. [SPEAKER_01]: But if you get those certs, you'll be able to start working as a Linux system administrator. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, facts. [SPEAKER_03]: That's some good game.

[SPEAKER_03]: And you can be, how much can you make with Rick Raid hat period? [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's in the pins, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So like junior level roles, you can't expect anywhere from like, ninety to a hundred ten thousand, like more senior level roles with clearance is they can go a like well beyond two and fifty care. [SPEAKER_01]: Easily. [SPEAKER_01]: Check that out. [SPEAKER_01]: Are you all here? [SPEAKER_01]: It's the security plus, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you won't need security gloves and those. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so yeah, you need both. [SPEAKER_01]: So because this isn't this is the thing. [SPEAKER_01]: So you have to be in the security plus because to get administrative access, you have to have the security plus. [SPEAKER_03]: So you have to. [SPEAKER_03]: It's a requirement.

[SPEAKER_03]: No matter you can't go around it, you need to security plus if you need route access, you you need a [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I mean that that's the sort like an everybody like, well, can I just get the can I just be the goal of service security certificate now? [SPEAKER_01]: Can I just get no I just get the security plus and you're done with it. [SPEAKER_01]: You just get it one time [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know what the purpose is that Google why.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, but I mean, Google day like they have certificates, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Like, that's a certificate program. [SPEAKER_01]: It just says that you finished it, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So I mean, it teaches you some foundational skills. [SPEAKER_01]: I know what covers like Python, foundation, cybersecurity, but like it's not going to help you get a job. [SPEAKER_01]: Like you're not going to see any job that says, hey, you need to have this Google cybersecurity certificate.

[SPEAKER_03]: So the someone of some old new people can get into Gavtech, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, definitely definitely little anybody can get into Gavtech. [SPEAKER_03]: Okay, okay, so people you can still get into Gavtech, don't be scared. [SPEAKER_03]: Make sure you still apply. [SPEAKER_03]: There's other jobs you're going to apply for, you know, so I didn't want to actually about overseas roles like how do you even get to overseas?

[SPEAKER_03]: I've been applying overseas and that's still going to get a job. [SPEAKER_03]: What's the secret? [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: It was so suck. [SPEAKER_01]: I made it. [SPEAKER_01]: It was the pan's light. [SPEAKER_01]: So when it comes to overseas jobs, one, it's going to come down to like the certs again too. [SPEAKER_01]: And then when it comes to overseas jobs, they are typically like pure IT jobs. [SPEAKER_01]: So like we were talking about before, help desk.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's also networking jobs, like network administrator jobs, network technician. [SPEAKER_01]: There's cybersecurity jobs that are just cybersecurity analysts cybersecurity engineer. [SPEAKER_01]: There's also vulnerability analyst roles overseas too. [SPEAKER_01]: And then of course, there's like the radar system engineer jobs like what what I do when it comes to tech.

[SPEAKER_01]: So those are mostly the type of roles that's we're going to find overseas and then when it comes to getting those jobs like. [SPEAKER_01]: Most people are going to get their foot in a door working at a company like Vectress, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Unless you're already working at companies that have a lot of overseas government contracts, Vectress is probably going to be your easiest way to get your foot in a door just because they're constantly hiring.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, and then also why working overseas you get like tax free up to a hundred thousand, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so right now you share first hundred twenty five thousand dollars is tax free. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, hundred twenty five. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_01]: Okay. [SPEAKER_01]: That's good. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so it goes up every single year.

[SPEAKER_01]: So when I was overseas the first time it was the first hundred and four thousand, but because the inflation increase it every year. [SPEAKER_01]: So now it's one twenty five. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you know, I don't like what you talked about overseas. [SPEAKER_03]: Like you said, they pay for your room and books. [SPEAKER_03]: Like you didn't really just stack to be honest with you and invest.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, I mean, they literally pay for everything. [SPEAKER_01]: They pay for your food. [SPEAKER_01]: They pay for your housing. [SPEAKER_01]: They pay for your car. [SPEAKER_01]: And then they also pay for what they call like R&R, which is restabilization. [SPEAKER_01]: So typically, because like your visa, you have to leave the country every so often. [SPEAKER_01]: So the good contracts, they typically give you at least, twenty five hundred dollars a year just to travel.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that's a travel. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, just to travel.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so hey everyone go visit the next country you might as well right literally literally so it's like it's super easy And yeah, I mean you just you just basically just have to once you get over there You know you can stack up a bunch of money because you have no bills right you got to imagine if you have no expenses and on top of having to expenses you're making six figures your biggest six figures tax free like I mean it's it's really hard not to save money like even like pretty much all my coworkers they they had paid off houses

[SPEAKER_01]: paid off cars. [SPEAKER_01]: They got investments all over the place like real estate stocks. [SPEAKER_01]: I got my co-workers in a crypto when I was overseas the first time back at twenty seventeen, but like you know literally investments all over the place. [SPEAKER_01]: It's really hard to lose. [SPEAKER_01]: Like if you lose overseas, I literally don't know what you're doing. [SPEAKER_03]: because even when you first started you started crypto.

[SPEAKER_03]: I think you had a faceless. [SPEAKER_03]: You didn't have your face back then, right? [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't have, I didn't have like, I was completely anonymous. [SPEAKER_01]: So, um, so based on the kind of like, you, you, you with all of me says all this. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't do my research. [SPEAKER_01]: I just do my research.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so basically, like, when I was on Twitter, I was anonymous just because I never cared about anybody knowing what I looked like, knowing who I was or anything. [SPEAKER_01]: And then when I started working overseas, people were always, always acting a little crazy. [SPEAKER_01]: So I've always been telling people, like, hey, you can get certifications and you can work in tech. [SPEAKER_01]: I started saying that on Twitter back in, October, because I did it myself.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got the A+. [SPEAKER_01]: And I literally started working in tech a month later. [SPEAKER_01]: So I was, you know, giving out a bunch of game on Twitter, people were getting jobs and stuff like that. [SPEAKER_01]: And then like, some people, they just started acting a little weird. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, this one guy, he was just like, you know, I was coming back from overseas for vacation. [SPEAKER_01]: And he was like, yeah, you know, you'll meet up with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I know where your house is at in the States. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, whoa, I'm gonna blow your house up. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, whoa, like, so that made me just like really like stay anonymous for a while. [SPEAKER_01]: And it wasn't until another Twitter where it was like, oh, yeah, you know what? [SPEAKER_01]: I got these pictures and all that stuff. [SPEAKER_01]: stuff on my weaker pictures. [SPEAKER_01]: And so I just leap my own pictures.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, I mean, I don't know, Twitter's crazy. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't I stay away from Twitter. [SPEAKER_03]: That's a different beast. [SPEAKER_03]: I don't wanna know how you deal with it sometimes. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like yeah, Twitter's crazy. [SPEAKER_01]: I try to like state of myself in my friends on there because like people they just [SPEAKER_01]: Twitter is one of those places where I feel like it's really similar to like Reddit.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's full of people that literally just live on an internet and you can just really tell these people they live on an internet and they're they're just not regular people. [SPEAKER_01]: For actually just a troll was they live in trolls. [SPEAKER_01]: So they live in trolls right in there. [SPEAKER_01]: They're paying attention to everything that you tweet even if they aren't following you like they're probably paying attention what you're saying.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, a couple of questions on that. [SPEAKER_03]: So with DevTack, you use it to invest and grows. [SPEAKER_03]: You recommend that to all people, right? [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, of course. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: So like, you know, you can with DevTack, the nice thing about it is like a lot of these companies, the good ones, all right? [SPEAKER_01]: Like, because all companies aren't made equal in DevTack, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, all government contractors are not made equal. [SPEAKER_01]: Even all federal government agencies aren't made equal, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Some have higher pays than other one. [SPEAKER_01]: And then so when it comes to investing, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Like we have pretty good four on K programs and if you're with the federal government, you got your TSP.

[SPEAKER_01]: So of course, you definitely want to be investing your four on K. There's some companies that literally have four on K match that goes up to like, twenty one percent. [SPEAKER_01]: There's also companies that will pay for all of your education as well. [SPEAKER_01]: So I would say on average a lot of government contractors, they'll pay minimum like five thousand dollars for your education, but then go once pay anywhere from ten to twenty five thousand.

[SPEAKER_01]: and then I'll even drop some jams on here too. [SPEAKER_01]: But fighter, they pay a hundred percent of an engineering degree. [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, it doesn't matter how much it calls. [SPEAKER_01]: I had met somebody who he was working at a fighter and he was going back to school to get. [SPEAKER_01]: I think his second mass was, I think he said it was and I think he's at Cornell or something.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he's like a sixty thousand a year and they're paying a hundred percent of this crazy. [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't even know. [SPEAKER_03]: Hey, make sure you're listening. [SPEAKER_03]: Engineers are there. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: So, fighters are definitely in good company for sure. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so, Simone, we know you got some, you're getting some hate out here, you know, people hate you spreading the good knowledge.

[SPEAKER_03]: How do you keep your head strong? [SPEAKER_03]: Well, I still give another good information to help people. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, for me, I think when it comes to light. [SPEAKER_01]: trying to ignore the haters on the Leo. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if a lot of people know that so it's hard for me not to respond. [SPEAKER_01]: So like I've just got to the point where after all these years like I noticed like a lot of people don't stay stuff to me just to get a response.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I've started to get better with blocking somebody. [SPEAKER_01]: I got literally just bought somebody a couple minutes. [SPEAKER_01]: But I was over here, a block is somebody because I could just always twit a tail. [SPEAKER_01]: Like people try to bait me in a respondent. [SPEAKER_01]: And then so even when I'm like, let me just get a little response and then it just goes like left.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm like, I just I just try to like block the haters because a lot of people like they couldn't do what I do if they tried. [SPEAKER_01]: Like it would it when it comes to [SPEAKER_01]: The jobs that I work when it comes to helping people, like, I help people for free. [SPEAKER_01]: Of course, I help people that want to work with me one on one as well. [SPEAKER_01]: But like, all this stuff that I do, like, even with GovTechCon, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I've talked about it before, but like, I paid six figures out of my own pocket work, but yes, for GovTechCon. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I know. [SPEAKER_03]: I thought it was, I thought you just got a sponsor. [SPEAKER_03]: Be honest with you. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, no, no. [SPEAKER_01]: So go have to take guys through my nonprofit and that's what I was telling you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I don't get the support that a lot of the other conferences get and I'm literally doing it on my own pocket. [SPEAKER_01]: So like, I do this to help other people and I don't have to, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So they're definitely going to be some changes with gov tech coming in a future. [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, but like, you know, I try to do as much as I can. [SPEAKER_01]: I put out free YouTube videos, I got free courses.

[SPEAKER_01]: I put out free videos, tweets, all this type of stuff. [SPEAKER_01]: And then, you know, you're still going to get hate from people because they just don't want to see somebody that's doing well. [SPEAKER_01]: And then they don't want to see like, you know, all these people who're giving you love and stuff like that. [SPEAKER_01]: So I try to ignore it with sometimes, you know, I'm human. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm only going to respond sometimes.

[SPEAKER_03]: I don't understand, like being in the content space. [SPEAKER_03]: I understand what you go through. [SPEAKER_03]: I don't, you're at a different level. [SPEAKER_03]: So I don't only imagine, so keep going with you going to help people. [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm going to use it as a segue. [SPEAKER_03]: Tell me about go to that comment. [SPEAKER_03]: Why did you start it?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, so I mean, I pretty much started good take on because when I was in college, I was in Nesby, the National Society of Black Engineers, so what I was in Nesby like first time when I had joined Nesby, they kicked me out like, yeah, yeah shout out to Mr. Dean, what

[SPEAKER_01]: When they kicked me out, what I was in lesbian because I was just young and dumb doing dumb stuff. [SPEAKER_01]: First night, and then when it comes to lesbian, they have the biggest career fair with college students. [SPEAKER_01]: So they have the biggest career fair with government agency, government contractors. [SPEAKER_01]: I like just looking around and, you know, we really don't have any type of conferences for when you're a professional, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, from Arlington, Virginia, we definitely don't have anything for us like out here. [SPEAKER_01]: And just because like I have such like a global reach, I was just like, okay, you know, we got, we have all these professionals that are government technologies, professionals, or people that want to get into this industry. [SPEAKER_01]: And we don't have a conference where we can go to it.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's there's companies there hiring on the spot right like so last year we had interview booths at gov tech home people getting job offers at gov tech on like you don't see that anywhere right so I just wanted to make something that was for professionals that we could go to have like that network

[SPEAKER_01]: because like witness be like I got friends from Nesby that I'm still friends with today and yeah I met them back in twenty twelve right so I've been friends with them for like almost fifteen years now so you know I'm hoping that gut that con can like have that long lasting impact on people to where they can interview with companies they can meet people network

[SPEAKER_01]: And then you know, hopefully meet people that they can get jobs from in the future or just like have like solid friendships long term because this industry like we were talking about it before is like it was like a secret nobody to talk about it and we even know it's not like you can't talk about it right like literally gov tech.com we've made in like nineteen ninety eight I had lifted up like

[SPEAKER_01]: It was made in nineteen ninety eight like it's not anything that was a secret is just that people just didn't want to talk about it like that especially being in this area like you could talk to somebody and say oh yeah how'd you do this to send that and they they wouldn't tell you anything and once like they wouldn't tell you anything so it's like it was such a secret I wanted it to be more open obviously nobody's talking about anything classified is just kind of like didn't build in that community

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, because when I went to GovtechCon, I went to, in that year, I went to like, at least six conferences. [SPEAKER_03]: And that shout out to Nasbee also. [SPEAKER_03]: I went to six conferences, coming in the same space. [SPEAKER_03]: And out of all those conferences, today, and I actually made a video about it, actually. [SPEAKER_03]: I was like, that's the best conference that I've been to. [SPEAKER_03]: And the long time, my friends there, I met the young boy, Domo.

[SPEAKER_03]: out at this this dude is amazing like literally like it's twenty one i'm like and then you have all these different we have this uh... this guy talking about a i identical you had google and i'm like man this is probably going to be shot after take it's after text still is still a good conference and everything but i'm just saying whatever which you're building down there it was amazing definitely you know obviously i'm gonna be a speaker today or on a speaker this year's on the beater but

[SPEAKER_03]: which your building is amazing and for a place to congregate, you know, talk to people and just see other people that look like you, even though it's a very diverse conference, you can just see people that look like you. [SPEAKER_03]: Getting a lot of money. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was funny, like I think when we were having a conference last year, we were at the hotel and people were like, I've never seen all these black people making money like this, like, what are you all doing? [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, oh, yeah, we work in and go of tech, like you can get into this industry. [SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, I mean, it's definitely, it's crazy what we're doing, but people need to be able to see it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And based shout out to AfroTech as well, you know, I'm hosting AfroTech too. [SPEAKER_01]: So shout out to Morgan and Charles and everybody over there. [SPEAKER_01]: I love everything that they're doing, but yeah, I definitely, you know, I feel like we need this space for us for sure. [SPEAKER_03]: They're starting to have for tech, shout out to Morgan. [SPEAKER_03]: They're got killing it also. [SPEAKER_03]: So, what are we going to expect to see at this Gov TechCon?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: So, at this Gov TechCon. [SPEAKER_01]: So, it's going to be like last year, right? [SPEAKER_01]: But it's going to be like more intimate this time. [SPEAKER_01]: So, there's going to be more intimate and we're going to have a virtual side too. [SPEAKER_01]: So, our actually partner with Brockley City Fest. [SPEAKER_01]: Or does it not? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, partner with Brockley City Fest.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, we're going to have like a full virtual side too, as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: and then also part of which all that from afro tech and we're going to be having a close out party too so that's going to be good so like I said it's going to be just like last year we also have I haven't announced it yet but we have James Sanders he is the Maryland state chief information security officer yet he's going to be the keynote speaker [SPEAKER_01]: So we'll have a lot of great speakers there this year. [SPEAKER_01]: We have you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we want to try to have as many companies as we can. [SPEAKER_01]: So we've definitely been a challenge with everything happening with this administration and stuff like that. [SPEAKER_01]: But the goal is always the same. [SPEAKER_01]: Try to have as many companies try to have as much networking and helping people get jobs and meet people so they can just further elevate their career. [SPEAKER_03]: You can't wait to be.

[SPEAKER_03]: It would be a speaker with such great people. [SPEAKER_03]: That's amazing. [SPEAKER_03]: I appreciate you giving it opportunity to be there. [SPEAKER_03]: And remember everybody, if you're checking out this podcast, I'm going to put the GovTekCon link. [SPEAKER_03]: So just make sure you got checkout GovTekCon. [SPEAKER_03]: You'll be inspired. [SPEAKER_03]: There's no NBA personal NFL players. [SPEAKER_03]: It's people out here and tech getting money.

[SPEAKER_03]: So just make sure you check it out. [SPEAKER_03]: So someone, I have a question for you. [SPEAKER_03]: What does your goals put in next five years? [SPEAKER_01]: Mmm. [SPEAKER_01]: Go for the next five years. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I would say like it in terms of what just in general. [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, you want to make a twenty million. [SPEAKER_03]: You want to grow the biggest company. [SPEAKER_03]: You just anything that would that's you want to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, goals for me for the next five years. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going back overseas. [SPEAKER_01]: So I should be back overseas probably before the end of this year. [SPEAKER_01]: So my goal is I want to spend probably the next five to ten years overseas, right? [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the money that's overseas right now is ridiculous. [SPEAKER_01]: Like it's is ridiculous money overseas right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm talking people making anywhere like it's like back in two thousand six will got me interested in industry in the first place people making anywhere from three hundred to five hundred thousand dollars a year overseas. [SPEAKER_01]: So [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going back overseas, so that's one goal just to be over there. [SPEAKER_01]: Invest is much money, as I can, as possible, by as much real estate as possible, as much stocks and crypto, and I'm trying to invest in Enduro as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, that's really like my big goal. [SPEAKER_01]: Now I'm investing in Palancer to a public company already. [SPEAKER_01]: And then on top of that two other goal is, you know, just try to make Govetake Khan as big as it possibly can be with as many companies and just partner with more companies, keep helping people get jobs. [SPEAKER_01]: And just overall, just make sure that light.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, you know, with me helping as many people get jobs as I can, just just really just make sure that like I'm happy and I'm good, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Cause I do a lot of stuff for other people. [SPEAKER_01]: So just make sure that I'm able to kind of like show everybody alongside, you know, I was I was vlogging and I've slowed down some. [SPEAKER_01]: So hopefully I can like, you know, keep vlogging and keep making a YouTube videos.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, maybe maybe over the next five years, maybe hit five hundred thousand subs on YouTube, but I think that's a big goal. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm almost at a hundred K now. [SPEAKER_03]: Shout out to you. [SPEAKER_03]: I was looking at him. [SPEAKER_03]: I was like, oh my god, I was like, yes. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, it's been a grind.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're hard for me to stay consistent because like I would record like one or two videos one weekend and then I wouldn't record again for like a month. [SPEAKER_01]: So like YouTube is definitely a grind. [SPEAKER_01]: So now I got like more of like a system downpack for where it's easy for me to go. [SPEAKER_01]: I record for like all day on a weekend and then I just do that once a month and that's how I do it now.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, because I was looking at your cons, I'm like, [SPEAKER_03]: How do you do this? [SPEAKER_03]: Like, I can barely get one episode of we in her. [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, like, how do you? [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the podcast or tough. [SPEAKER_01]: The podcast or tough. [SPEAKER_01]: Like I said, I'm, I'm going to be switching on my podcast.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm becoming out with a new podcast, where it's going to be, I'm going to be doing interviews with like CEOs and see sweet technical professionals in the gov tech space or just technology space. [SPEAKER_01]: So that's going to be coming out. [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, I mean doing a podcast is really tough.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like you got a you got a basically like do a bunch in one day and it's hard for me to do the podcast episodes in a day because like I get tired after like the third or fourth episode. [SPEAKER_01]: So like at one point when I was doing my podcast day in my tech like I was doing like I do four to five episodes one day and then come back next day to do it all over again. [SPEAKER_01]: That's, yeah, I can't do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they know me, I filmed, but that's a whole different level. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, some of the day podcasts, they'll do eight episodes in one day. [SPEAKER_01]: And like, I just, I personally don't have it in me. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, as the host, like, after, like I said, after four, I'm kind of like, I've kind of over it. [SPEAKER_03]: You mean, Tara, you know, I'm super tired.

[SPEAKER_03]: Let me ask you, what is one quote you want to lead the audience with? [SPEAKER_03]: It could be a quote statement. [SPEAKER_03]: Anything you want to lead the audience with? [SPEAKER_01]: Um, hmm. [SPEAKER_01]: I guess one statement, I guess one statement I want to lead audience with. [SPEAKER_01]: I guess like I would say, you know, whatever your goals are, like, it's not going to work for you unless you put in the work. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, that's my main thing, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like so many people, they see, you know, maybe they see you, they see where you are, they might see me, they might see other people, but it's not going to just fall in your lap. [SPEAKER_01]: right, you have to put the work in, you got to be disciplined, you got to keep going even when it gets hard and just never give up. [SPEAKER_01]: So the only difference between winners and losers is that winners never gave up. [SPEAKER_01]: That's it.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's a good quote because like you said I could see you I don't know which work you're putting in this I might see me Maybe like oh Chris got the podcast Chris got there they don't understand how much work and then even staying on top of all these topics you have to do a lot of research to even know about what's going on So listen to that statement you got to put in the word and you know straight up nothing you can't avoid a word

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, Simone, I really appreciate you coming on this podcast, I give them an hour of your time to be on here to get an audience, especially talk about GovTech.

[SPEAKER_03]: So I really appreciate you coming along. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much, Chris. [SPEAKER_01]: Well, if you want to follow me, you want to come to GovTechCon, just visit GovTechCon.com. [SPEAKER_01]: We got in-person tickets, and we have virtual tickets, and you can follow me on all platforms at Simone B's. [SPEAKER_01]: And it's just S-Y-M-O-N-E-B-E-E-Z. [SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, thank you for inviting me out.

[SPEAKER_03]: No problem, and I'm gonna definitely make sure I put everything in a bio, so make sure you check out Simone B, check out Gavtecon, and the support her because she's on his journey, putting in a lot of her money, putting in a lot of her time, so make sure you support her because if we don't support her, who's on the support her? [SPEAKER_03]: Okay? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I always ask that question, if it's not us, who won't help us who won't do it? [SPEAKER_01]: Who's will help her?

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if I'm wrong to herself. [SPEAKER_03]: But, thank you everybody for watching the podcast and make sure you like the video, subscribe to the channel. [SPEAKER_03]: Comment down below if you like it or haven't even thoughts. [SPEAKER_03]: Also check out our MF Academy. [SPEAKER_03]: Here you try to learn about our MF, how to get into the Gov Tech space, and check out the merch, Techwork merch. [SPEAKER_03]: But remember everybody, get one percent better every day.

[SPEAKER_03]: Peace out. [SPEAKER_03]: I'll see you on the next one.