2479 - Combining Veteran Leadership and AI to Empower Small Businesses with Protech Consulting Group's Kamar Perkins

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0:46Visit podverified.com if you'd like to be featured as a future guest. I'm Josh Elledge. Let's get into it. With us right now, Kamar Perkins. Kamar, you are the founder and president of ProTech Consulting Group. You're found on the web at ProTechConsultingGroup.com. And I understand that you also have another company that you've just launched. I'll ask you to talk about that as well when we get to that. Kamar, it's great to have you. It's a pleasure to be here, Josh. Thank you so much for having me. Fellow military vet business owner as well. Always love having our fellow military vets on. So thank you for your service.

1:23An Army vet. What did you do in the Army, by the way? I was a quartermaster officer when I retired. So I did quartermaster work and then retired out of the National Guard here in North Carolina. Okay. So I know what a quartermaster does. Logistics. Okay. Logistics. So why do you call it quartermaster? So the quartermaster, so the, so quartermaster is basically the branch, right? So in the army, you have your branch, right? So your logies fall under quartermaster branch, right? And that's, that's just how that works. It's just the same like signal officers, right? If you're a signal officer, you're, you're under the signal branch.

2:03So Intel is under the Intel branch and then logistics is under the court master branch yeah uh so like what would be an example like if you're doing military logistics like what would be an example of like what is that i mean he's just transporting we got a bunch of stuff we got to take it from here we got to get it over there yeah well you know what they say nothing happens until something moves right so so i mean yeah you transport so i mean it's it's the it's the big moving grooving piece of the army right the yeah the soldiers the equipment the weapon systems the munitions the vehicles the I mean it's you think of it anything that moves comes through that quarter master's quarter master branch uh and those quarter master officers are responsible for that yeah so even down to the food supply right we're responsible for that like um you know getting cooks out there or getting our our MREs moved and pallets moved and everything that move pens, you name it.

3:06That's our thing. You know, I've heard it said, you know, U.S. military has some great things to brag about, you know, in terms of like our ability. But logistics is one that tends to be pretty highly respected among militaries throughout the world is the United States Armed Forces logistics, just how we can move things so efficiently, you know, generally don't make too many mistakes. But but I'm sure you have some experience with that reputation. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it can be it can, they can be some very long days in the life for sure. But honestly, you know, we have the greatest military in the world.

3:53And the reason that we have it is because of our NCO Corps. We have the greatest NCO Corps. When they say the NCO Corps is a backbone of the United States military, it's not, that's not a figment. That's not an overstep. Like that is a factual statement because without our NCO Corps, we would be nothing. An NCO Corps just, again, is non-commissioned. Okay. And what does that mean? What does a non-commissioned officer mean? an officer that has not been, that was ridiculous the way I was about to explain that. So your officers are your officers that are sworn in or oathed in under the president or into the military.

4:34So you have your lieutenants all the way up to your generals. Okay. Your non-commissioned officers are above the lower enlisted. So you have private to specialist and then junior non-commissioned officer is your E-5, right? That's sergeant. And then from staff sergeant or all of those are non-commissioned officers, E-5, which is a sergeant, all the way up to sergeant major or command sergeant, obviously, and those command sergeant major bullets. ncos have so much on the ground tactical experience at all of that activity knowledge truly yeah it it is truly a thing to behold you know if you can spend some time you know with someone who's you know gotten up to you know in the navy would chief you know at east you know e67 e8 i mean those are some capable yeah folks no we're not even talking about it and you just mentioned it like chiefs we're not even talking about the warrant officers i mean yeah officers Officers are like little gurus that you never see, but they're making it happen.

5:36You know what I mean? Because they carry all of that enlisted knowledge right up to their point. For us, I think in order for you to be a chief, you've got to be, I think, at least a staff sergeant, I believe, with a deployment or something. Somewhere around there is the specifications for it. So you have all of those user experience, staff sergeant backwards, and then you become a chief warrant officer for, I mean, give it up to the chief. chief warrant officer corps. So yeah. All right. So thank you so much for that. I normally ask people what they geek out on, but I really wanted to ask you about your background because again, just my personal interest in that as well.

6:13So tell me about the work that you do with ProTech and your new venture. Yeah. So ProTech Consulting Group, the best way to explain us, right, is we're a software development company and we specialize in building systems and solutions or applications that encompass the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning. I like to say, and we do this for federal, state, local, and commercial clients. I like to say we take an idea and we make it a reality and we're able to scale and service that afterwards, right? And that's the best way to describe us without, you know, getting too in the weeds, right?

6:45Data analytics, you think of all those things that go along. data analytics, system optimization, et cetera, right? Building out applications, et cetera. KDP Advisory is a company that I just launched. We have one client right now, which is perfect. That's fine. And this company, what we're doing is I've spent the majority of the intel into my military career and my career as an entrepreneur building out relationships and connecting dots and pieces, building teams, right? That's what I'm really good at is building teams and connecting the pieces. So I'm taking that experience and that network and I'm going into, and I'm only accepting a small amount, maybe 10 clients at max.

7:31And we're going strictly for growth, right? Hey, what is your idea? Like, what is your business working on? Where are you at in the process? How can we be better? And who do I need to put you in a room with to get you a win? that's the reality of cut and dry right it's it's and then let's let's continue to scale and grow from here maybe you need a teammate okay i have a i have a pipeline of teammates etc um that we can bring you into um so that's that's what we're doing there and and i'm very adamant about it because um i don't want to i really that's that's the key focuses right like a lot of it is not exactly what you know but who you know and how do we get in with those individuals that are decision makers or movers and shakers, as we like to call.

8:16Even in government contracting, because you might think that, you know, the government contracting is like, listen, it just, oh, we care about the numbers. I don't care who you are. I don't care who you know. Whoever's got the best bid, that's who we're going with. That's what you might think. Yeah, ideally, you would think that. But I mean, it's more, it's imperative. I mean, you think about the small businesses, right? Like we can very clearly see the government is not spending less money, right? There's no less money. Good God, not now. They sure aren't. They should be maybe. Yeah, but they're spending more money than ever.

8:52But the reality of it is there's less small businesses competing after opportunities and winning those pots of money. And the reality of it is, is because we've switched to this new, well, it's not new, but we've really honed in on the concept of agile procurement. And the reality of it is the size of your business is not indicative to the quality of work that you can do. However, it's more imperatively important that small businesses are attaching themselves to winning larger primes or mid-sized primes that are winning or have these opportunities or these relationships within these agencies that are spending the money, right?

9:33Because, I mean, like YouTube gurus would tell you, oh, you can win$30 million in your first month of business. Yeah, sure. You can win the lottery, too, if you play two, three lottery tickets, you might hit the mega million, right? But the reality of it is, unless you are networking and you have that peer that can bring you along within those conversations, I'm not writing a brand new business, 30 days, a$30 million check on an RFP. That's just not going to happen. You know, you don't have the past performance to do that. If now and if a large prime brings you on as a sub, we're having a whole different conversation.

10:11Sure. Now, you have worked with some pretty big government organizations, CDC, Health and Human Services, Dominion, and then you've worked with some big government contractors. What is it about ProTech that makes – well, you kind of already talked about this a little bit. Let me ask you – actually, editor, go ahead and take this question out. I'm going to redo that question. Kamar, tell me about your venture that you're – I know you're going through some growth right now. Well, you're talking about the advisory, right? Yes. Yeah. So essentially, like I said, right, we're we're we're leaning into helping other companies grow.

10:49Right. Advising, hey, where is the hiccups at? What direction do you want to grow in? What verticals are we looking at and things of that nature? Right. And so we're taking it from a holistic point of view where I'm leveraging my personal connections and those individuals I know and across different agencies to help other companies get. Because I wish, you know, and I'm not charging a fortune for it at all, right? I'm not charging a fortune for the engagement, nor am I making it a requirement that we engage over X amount of time. It's based on the customer. And I'm only taking a small amount of customers because I want to add value and give the best that I can.

11:23And I understand. I wish someone would have brought me in in the beginning, which they did eventually after we found a large problem or found a partner. I wish someone would have been like, hey, don't spend all your money getting these RFPs written and things like that. This is where you need to spend your time focusing in. And then they hand walked me in there because in the reality of it, that's what it takes to win, right? It's somebody has to give you a chance and you got to get in there when you get your chance and you got to be a rock star. Yeah. Kamar, how are you? Yeah. Where do people go?

11:55But like if someone, so as I understand it, then if someone wants to do, become far more successful with government contracting, that's something, that's what you're assisting them with then? Not just government contract, I think in general, right? Like I have so many, I do so much, right? I just left the board of MVSBC. I sit on the board of AFSEA North Carolina. I was a 40 under 40 recipient down in Baltimore, Maryland with AFSEA International. national. I'll be moderating for them as well in Augusta, Georgia during their tech net. So I touch so many people in so many different movers and shakers on a daily basis.

12:31Being able to just be in those rooms and help my customers have those conversations. I'm already in the room having a conversation for myself, right? If you start prospecting, you start dying. We always have to prospect as business owners, right? Once we start prospecting, we start dying as a company. but while I'm in there, I'm having those conversations on behalf of my clients as well. You know, I'm already there. I'm going to be there come rain, hail, sleet of snow. Awesome. Someone else get through the door. Yeah. Well, how does someone learn from you? Like to our friend that's been listening to our conversation right now, what would you recommend they do?

13:06Yeah. Reach out to me on LinkedIn, Kamara Perkins. You can email me, kamaraprotechconsultinggroup.com. You can reach out to my assistant and schedule a meeting with me at Anna, it's Anna, A-N-N-A at ProTechConsultingGroup.com. You know, shoot me a, shoot me a message on LinkedIn. I'm very responsive. So it's, it's not hard. I'm not a hard guy to reach. Kamar Perkins, ProTechConsultingGroup.com. Kamar, thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me.

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