GovCon Unscripted copertina

GovCon Unscripted

GovCon Unscripted

Di: Chelsea Roberts
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Welcome to GovCon Unscripted, where we dive into the unfiltered stories and strategies from all around the world of government contracting. Join host Chelsea Roberts as she explores how to navigate, thrive, and win in this complex but rewarding industry.

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Episodi
  • How a Veteran Founder Scaled With a Train the Trainer Model

    How a Veteran Founder Scaled With a Train the Trainer Model
    Nov 10 2026
    When the work customers pay for is work only you can do, every new client lands on one calendar and growth stops there.Army veteran Zachary Leyden, founder and owner of Ocean View Stables and author of Soft Is Strong, hit that wall once clients started booking faster than he could deliver. He joins Chelsea Roberts for the Success After Service series to explain The Trainer Ladder, the system that got him out from under it.Zachary served in long-range surveillance, deployed to Afghanistan, and built a horse business minutes from the San Francisco Zoo that now runs alongside a food truck, a store, tiny-house lodging, and a sip and paint experience. The scaling problem he describes will be familiar to anyone running a small federal contractor.You will hear why he stopped teaching level one students and started teaching level one instructors, and how that put his own students on payroll. He explains why leading from rank had to give way to reading the people in front of him, how he war games a multi-line operation so the pieces don’t collide, and why he never pushes a strong performer into management. One of his barn managers started out mucking stalls and asked his way up.For a GovCon firm, the translation is direct. If the capability that wins your proposals and delivers your contracts lives in one person, your pipeline, your bench, and your recompete readiness all stop at that person’s calendar. And promoting your best performer to fix it usually costs you the performer.Timestamps:00:03:18 What does a veteran actually lose in the first year out of uniform?00:05:21 What changes when you let customers book without a human in the loop?00:06:46 Why can’t a business scale when only the founder can do the work?00:08:25 What military leadership habit do veterans have to unlearn to lead civilians?00:10:21 Why does repetition beat real-time thinking when the window is short?00:16:29 How do you win the contract when the operator in charge fails?00:17:24 How do you run a multi-line small business without the pieces colliding?00:18:59 Is running your own business really harder than climbing the corporate ladder?00:21:27 How do you build a training system where your people teach the next level?00:22:57 Why don’t most people want to lead, even when they say they do?00:24:26 How does someone climb from entry level to management without being pushed?00:25:07 Should you push strong performers into management or wait for them to ask?00:26:14 What is Saved by the Saddle, and who does it serve?Resources:Follow Chelsea Roberts on LinkedInFollow Zachary Leyden on LinkedInOther Resources:Ocean View Stables Website: https://www.oceanviewstables.comLeyden Horsemanship: https://www.leydenhorsemanship.comListen now on:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/govcon-unscripted/id1766384482Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NL0kFAvmgECLTJpUZYNHyLike and follow us:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GovConUnscriptedUSInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/govconunscriptedpod/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/govconunscripted/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/govcon-unscripted/posts/Join our GovCon communities:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14618490/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/govconunscriptedcommunity
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    30 min
  • $71B Reclassified, No New Work: The SBA Size Standards Proposal

    $71B Reclassified, No New Work: The SBA Size Standards Proposal
    Nov 4 2026
    SBA can grow its small business numbers by $71 billion without awarding a single new contract.That is The Reclassification Illusion. The scoreboard changes, the work doesn't, and the firms the program was built for are the ones who pay for it.SBA's own analysis says $71 billion in existing contracts would count as small under its size standards proposal, and none of those awards is new.Ben Shotzberger, Founder and Chief Backstop of In Foul Territory and a 10-year homeland security fed, joins Chelsea Roberts to unpack what that means for your set-aside pipeline.That is The Reclassification Illusion. Roughly 37,000 contractors become small on paper, the agency's numbers climb, and the $10 million shop that built its capture plan on today's NAICS standards now competes with a $530 million company carrying the same label.Ben has worked on both sides of the table, as a COTR inside Homeland Security and in industry at small businesses, mid-tiers, and large primes. He now leads the proposed Small Posse, a coalition of firms asking SBA to open its methodology and talk with industry before the rule moves forward.Ben and Chelsea cover why reclassification adds no new small business work, what agencies lose when small firms drop out of the market, and why the people opposing this proposal are not opposing modernization. They also get into the small business cliff, the case for a separate mid-tier or emerging category instead of stretching IT services from under $50 million to $531 million, and what a win looks like, whether that is dialogue with SBA or a challenge in court. If your next recompete sits in a set-aside, this is the conversation to hear before the November 20, 2026 comment deadline.Timestamps:00:02:38 Why did small business advocates form a single coalition when WOSB, SDVOSB, and other groups were already commenting on the SBA size standards proposal?00:04:43 Does reclassifying $71 billion in existing contracts as small create any new small business work?00:05:34 Could a household-name tech company qualify as small under the proposed size standards?00:07:19 How many viable small business prime contractors could the federal market support under the new size standards?00:08:04 Can a $10 million small business compete with a $530 million firm that also counts as small?00:08:43 What do agencies lose when small business contractors drop out of the market?00:10:09 Would newly small large firms even pursue simplified acquisition and purchase card work?00:10:41 Why does the extended SBA comment period worry small business advocates?00:11:40 Are opponents of the SBA size standards proposal against modernizing size standards?00:12:16 What does a win look like for small businesses fighting the size standards proposal?00:13:30 Should mid-tier contractors get their own size category instead of a $531 million small business standard?00:14:23 How did past SBA size standard increases affect small firms approaching their limit?00:16:53 Does the size standards proposal solve the small business cliff or push it down the road?00:17:58 Why does incubating small contractors matter for the next generation of large primes?00:23:04 Why are some contractors afraid to publicly oppose the SBA size standards proposal?00:24:55 How is the Small Posse governed, and does a two-person firm get the same vote as a large association?00:26:38 How can contractors join the Small Posse or contact the coalition?Resources:Follow Chelsea RobertsFollow Ben ShotzbergerOther Resources:Small Posse WebsiteSmall Posse email: RideWithUs@SmallPosse.orgListen now on:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/govcon-unscripted/id1766384482Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NL0kFAvmgECLTJpUZYNHy Like and follow us:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GovConUnscriptedUSInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/govconunscriptedpod/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/govconunscripted/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/govcon-unscripted/posts/ Join our GovCon communities:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14618490/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/govconunscriptedcommunity
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    31 min
  • How GovCon Firms Get Findable on LinkedIn | The Waldo Problem

    How GovCon Firms Get Findable on LinkedIn | The Waldo Problem
    Oct 27 2026
    Mark Amtower has marketed to the government for more than 40 years, and he calls the federal market a vast Where's Waldo picture.A Partner at Amtower & Company, he has hosted Amtower Off Center on Federal News Network for 19 years, contributed to Washington Technology for 18 years, and written 10 books, 5 on GovCon, including the new Findable.Your firm can be fully capable and still invisible to the one buying office that matters. In a market of hundreds of federal activities, being capable and being findable are two different jobs, and posting more, connecting with everyone, and giving yourself a bigger title only add to the noise.Mark's sequence is to differentiate first and connect second. Describe what you do in terms that resonate with a particular agency or type of activity, share past performance if you have it, and build educational content around that expertise. Only then should you connect with the agencies using that technology and the companies embedded inside them. He walks through his annual census of feds on LinkedIn, which by his count covers 820 federal activity pages and about 2.7 million feds. He also explains why a seat on an Army vehicle means sorting through 130 Army URLs to find the actual buying activities. He unpacks Army Directive 2026-17 and why consolidating official accounts does not make the people behind them disappear.From there, the conversation turns to how he vets every connection request, why content should educate rather than end in a pitch, and why account-based marketing matters more for small businesses as agency information gets harder to find. Mark shares how he uses Gemini to sharpen his own ideas without handing it the writing. He describes the 18- to 24-month runway he puts in front of new entrants, and why the market, not the author, decides who earns a leading voice. If you use LinkedIn for GovCon business development, this one resets where the effort goes.Timestamps:02:06 Is LinkedIn still a business platform for federal contractors, or is it turning into Facebook?03:28 How should you ask an established GovCon voice to connect with you on LinkedIn?06:57 How do you tell whether a GovCon expert on LinkedIn is legitimate?07:56 Does refusing most LinkedIn connection requests limit your reach in GovCon?10:00 How long does it take a new federal contractor to win its first contract, and what does it cost?12:13 Do small business set-aside programs still help new federal contractors under the current administration?14:37 Are the recent executive orders actually speeding up federal procurement?16:03 How should a small business differentiate itself to a federal agency?16:47 Why is it so hard to stand out in the federal market, and should your content end with a sales pitch?18:15 How can small businesses use LinkedIn to find the buying activities inside an agency?19:55 Is the Army shutting down its LinkedIn pages, and what does that mean for contractors?21:31 Why does account-based marketing matter more when agency information gets harder to find?22:48 How should GovCon professionals use AI to write content without losing their voice?24:48 Can you give yourself a leading title in GovCon, or does the market decide?25:33 Is there a legitimate path to building a subject matter expert platform in GovCon?Resources:Connect with Chelsea RobertsConnect with Mark AmtowerOther Resources:Federal News Network WebsiteAmtower and CompanyListen now on:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/govcon-unscripted/id1766384482Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NL0kFAvmgECLTJpUZYNHy Like and follow us:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GovConUnscriptedUSInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/govconunscriptedpod/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/govconunscripted/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/govcon-unscripted/posts/ Join our GovCon communities:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14618490/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/govconunscriptedcommunity
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    29 min
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