Impact Warrior
Impact Warrior
From Breaking Point to Breakthrough with Karwanna Dyson
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And we’re back! Welcome to the Impact Warrior podcast!
If you're struggling to turn a profit with your business and feeling like your hard work isn't paying off, or if you're a bit afraid to speak up and ask for help, stick around.
In this episode, I talk to Karwanna Dyson, founder of the Trillion Dollar Secret, small business influencer, speaker, and government contract strategist. Her passion is teaching women and minority small business owners to be successful and create a sustainable income through contracting with government agencies.
Karwanna shares her journey and how she went from struggling to make ends meet to thriving and being able to help others do the same. She also shares her top tips for small business owners to help them get started in the world of government contracts, and as it turns out, it's not as intimidating as it sounds.
Karwanna's story is so inspiring. I cannot wait for you all to hear firsthand about how she's gone from barely scraping by to being able to impact thousands of people with her business. I learned a ton from our interview, and I think you will, too.
More episodes will be released soon, so subscribe to Impact Warrior wherever you listen to podcasts to be the first to see when a new episode goes live.
Don’t forget to check the show notes after each episode for links, free gifts, and additional resources for our listeners! All episodes can be found at CaseyZeman.com.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
[2:20] Karwanna and Casey share how they got their start as business owners.
[7:26] Karwanna shares how overcame her fear of being "too intrusive" and how asking for help completely changed her business–and her life.
[13:28] Hear how government contracts work and how your business might be able to contract with federal, state, or even local governments.
[17:00] Karwanna outlines the three steps you need to take in order to sell your business's products and services to the government.
[22:47] Karwanna shares how her own experience has enabled her to have a massive impact on small business owners across the nation.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Where to find Karwanna Dyson:
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You're listening to the Impact Warrior podcast. This podcast was created out of a vision of like-minded entrepreneurs who have faced similar battles and understand how difficult entrepreneurship can be. We will feature guests who are here to share with you how rewarding the journey can be, if you stay focused and disciplined, to achieve the desires of your heart. Every business owner will face a certain level of difficulty at some point, regardless of the industry. And we are here to share with you the story of warriors who have knocked down massive walls to inspire you to keep fighting on this journey. Let's conquer the journey together. And here's your host, Casey Zeman.
Casey::What's up everybody? Welcome to this episode of Impact Warrior. I am super pumped because I get to interview Karwanna Dyson. Now, Karwanna is a small business influencer, speaker, and government contract strategist. Now this is so interesting to me. And she's been helping women and minority small business owners grow successful, sustainable businesses. She's the founder of the Trillion Dollar Secret to Government Contracts, which develops courses and trainings for small businesses. So I'm, I'm really excited to talk to you because, Karwanna, I have not talked to somebody who creates, who has an in with the government, who's actually been able to crack that nut, it feels like one of the most ironclad, locked down, not possible bridges to cross, and you've done it. And I want to know more about it. So first off, welcome, and thank you for being here at the podcast.
Karwanna:Thank you. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. It's an honor to be here. I appreciate you for sharing your platform.
Casey::Of course. So, obviously, this podcast, we talk about people's beginnings and roadblocks they've had. But can you can you break down how you even got into this business?
Karwanna:Yeah, yeah!
Casey::Obviously, so you're doing courses, and you're a strategist now. But like...was it always that way? Or did you
Karwanna:Yeah, no, so I was actually...so I started in business 20 years ago. But of course, like most business owners, especially if you're bootstrapping your way to the have to, you know...What was your trajectory there? top, we figured it out all wrong, right? So traditionally, you know, I went to school for business. And I learned that, you know, to start a business, basically, you know, you need startup capital, you need marketing budgets, you need to, you know, create your ideal target market and figure out who's in your space and all those things. So I did, I did all those things, right, in the beginning, and it really brought me $0 on the back end. I did a lot of...just a lot of stuff. And so for the first few years in business, you know, I actually made very little money- and we're talking about limited, under $20,000 a year - but rather, I was still working more than like 40 hour work weeks. More than. Especially when you're an entrepreneur, you're working like 60-70 hours, you know, workweeks. And so it really did not add up, right? Because I was spending more time chasing customers than I was actually making money in my business. And so after just like, you know, a few years in, I was trying to really figure out well, how do I really get to the top? How can I really position myself to actually feel like an entrepreneur? Because right at that time, I was just feeling like I was just hustling, you know. And so I had learned, and I can go into the story a little bit more in more detail later, but I had learned that the government actually buys with small business owners. And once I understood how that worked, it completely changed the game. And one of the biggest takeaways from that experience was, like, learning that you don't have to start from zero, you don't have to do all those things that you know, that traditionally small businesses do to get started. It doesn't take two to five years, you know, to turn a profit. If you sell to the government, you can be profitable right away. And so the thing that kind of, I guess, catapulted all of this was just like being tired of being broke. And that's where I was for the first few years. I was really tired of being broke, and spending all this time spinning my wheels getting no results.
Casey::I mean, you know, when it comes to what motivates us, you know, I always say that the people that break through walls are the ones that are pushed up against a wall. You know, like we're pushed up against a wall so hard that our bodies break through it, you know. Like, we have to do something. It's like, the stakes are raised so high at those moments in life, that we have to create something from nothing.
Karwanna:Exactly. And you just made me think about, like, the moment when I said enough was enough. And you're absolutely right, when your back is against the wall, and you're a fighter like that, start swinging your way out, right? There's some stuff that takes you to go all the way there in order to really get a breakthrough. And so my"all the way there" was the moment when I was actually in business. And I had a family and I was married, but going through divorce, and I could not afford to pay my bills, things started getting repossessed. And my son, who was, I think, probably about seven years old at the time, he literally was, like going through a growth spurt, and I couldn't afford to buy him clothes, and his shoes...he had literally walked his toes out the bottom. And there was nothing that I can do, financially, for him. And so that, like, "Ugh!" You know, just like pulling all the strings... I was like, "I really got to figure this out." Like, it doesn't make sense to have a business if you can't live, at least live, right? You know, so that was the breaking point for me. And I just figured, like, I was gonna go all in and figure out how to actually make this thing work.
Casey::Thank you for sharing that. I mean that, because I, you know, I understand those moments. I had a moment where, like, I had to get my business working, because I was in foreclosure on my house. And, you know, I had to try to figure out how to either try to keep my house or keep a business going. And I had to just do something, right? I was, really was that I was so tired of not having any money. And it was, it was just jumping in and saying, I'm going to burn the candle, but do it to where I know that something can happen, you know? And I actually started as a consultant, you know, doing more like retainer work, so that I had some cash while I started building courses online and stuff like that. So...I hear you, and I love that you shared that. Could you could you go into like, you know, when once you had that moment, how long did it take for you to finally have that breakthrough? You know what I mean?
Karwanna:Yeah, that's, yeah, good question. So, during that time, like I really had started doing freelancing in order to start having a little bit more consistency. And I was freelancing for other small businesses I had, and I had become a consultant for an entrepreneurship center called the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center. And so I had started doing a lot of consulting services for these businesses, which kind of helped me to kind of start getting some regular income. But what I eventually found was one of the persons that I was doing consulting with, I was actually building his website, doing photography, video production services, and just kind of helping him get, like, his business in order to take it to the next level, and he had happened to be a billion dollar company already, right? And so I literally was asking, like, "Well, how did you do it?" Like I just, you know, initially like before, I would never ask people questions about their secret, you know, secret to success, because I felt like, I will be violating their space. But I was like, at the point to where I was, I just...it was all or nothing. And I was like, I don't even care if I'm violating your space. So this was like, the moment that when I asked him actually, he said, you know, the same thing you're doing for me you can do for the government, and they pay you double, triple, quadruple the amount that you're getting paid. Large contracts, all these things, right. So that was the moment. I think it was like...I want to say it was, like, 2010? So it was 2013. So it was like two and a half years after I learned about it, where I actually got serious enough to figure out how it works. And I landed my first contract. And that first contract was actually$70,000. And it was for 28 days of work. And I had, like, I started my business coming from, like, a corporate job where I was making about 80,000 a year working 40 hour work weeks and so when I landed that contract, that first contract, in 2013 for$70,000, which is almost my whole revenue of working for someone, for just 28 days of work, that was a game changer. I was just like, I thought it was a mistake. And I was like, well, how is this? I thought, you're supposed to trade time for dollars, right? And I thought the hours that you put in is supposed to add up to the money in your bank account. But that completely showed me that we were doing, I was completely doing business different. And wrong. And everything that I learned about and thought I knew about business was completely upside down. So it was like a two-and-a-half to three year period.
Casey::But that flipped your world around.
Karwanna:Yeah.
Casey::My takeaway on that is that you asked the questions. I think a lot of times, when we're fighters, we also don't want to ask people for help.
Karwanna:Yup, that's right.
Casey::And, that's one thing I've actually been trying to change in my life around reaching out, or how do I get to this point, you know, asking those questions. And it's just so, you know, what's funny is every single time...it's been every single time, it's not like, it's only been once or twice, but every single time I do something that I think is scary, like ask somebody a particular question about, you know, I'm inspired by what they did, how'd they do it? 9 times out of 10, I get the answer I want. They're okay with talking to me about it. It's not like, I get, like, "Get out of here, what are you doing?" We don't get, you know, kicked out. But that's our big fear, right? We don't want to ask these questions that that we see as these like, "gatekeeper" moments. And, and I think a lot of times that we, you know, this is our one time on Earth, right? Like, if we think about it like that, like, we need to ask these questions and just allow ourselves to, you know, as fighters, be vulnerable in those moments, and ask the questions and just trust that we'll get the response that we're looking for, you know. So my takeaway from that is that you asked the question that got you the the result and the answer, and you stood up against your fear of asking that question. And you pushed forward, which I think, as a takeaway, that's a big one, you know? Just being able to swallow whatever pride or whatever notion we have about gatekeepers, you know? And just being able to communicate on a human-to-human level with somebody, and how that can create a trajectory for us. So I love that you said that. Yeah, I mean, that's crazy, that that moment happened, and that you discovered, like government contracts. So like, what kind of government contracts are out there? Tell me more about like, what, you know, what are some things...as someone who has a software company, right. Like, I have a software company around webinars. Sometimes we do services for people building out, you know, like a webinar funnel. How would I approach a government with something, you know?
Karwanna:That's a really good question. So here's, here's some of the things that I've found. So I'm gonna just go on a backtrack a little bit. So when I first discovered that the government buys products and services, the first question that I asked myself was, why don't people know about this, right? And so, which brings me to, here's some of the things that I that I actually discovered. So, the federal government alone actually spends upwards of $10 trillion, $10 trillion a year on business products and services, right. But 26% of that is obligated and mandated by law to go to small businesses, right? And small businesses are any business that has under 500 employees, generate under $30 million in a year over an average of three years. So a lot of people fall into that category. And so with that, they buy everything. So what I learned also was that not only like the services that you can sell to B2B or B2C, the government buys everything they they do not self-source or sell-fulfill anything. So things like IT services, software, you can sell webinars, communications, event planning, janitorial, construction, everything. The government buys, wigs, they buy dog treats, they buy, you know, speaking services, like, literally you can sell paperclips and paper and pens to the government and make millions of dollars doing it, simply because they buy everything. And so there's not a thing that you can't sell to the government. And so most people think that you have to sell like war weapons or anything that has to do with Boeing airplanes, and they, of course, they buy those things as well. But they also buy hair. You know, they buy wigs. You know, they buy barber services and, like, catering and event planning. So you can sell everything like technology, internet services...like there's all this, the list goes on. And so like, there's a there's a site, or there's a thing called the NAICS code. It's like industry code, standard industry code index, right. And they're all services that the government buys. So if you go to naics.com, and look at all the services or put in a keyword that you sell, you'll be able to see all the different codes of services that the government buys. And it's everything from farming, to technology, to everything. So yeah,
Casey::Okay, what is that link? Because I think you just dropped a nugget.
Karwanna:NAICS.com
Casey::Okay, NAICS.com.
Karwanna:And you pretty much can look up any industry code or any industry keyword. And if it's on there, the government buys it. Yeah. So...
Casey::Wow. Well, with that in mind, you know, and I feel like that's, that's one thing, so you can look and see what the government buys. How do you send a proposal through? How do you...Now, I only want you to share, you know...you don't have to go into all of it.
Karwanna:I got you. Okay, so for those who probably are new to who I am, I actually...so I went from actually selling to the government to also showing other people how to do that. So I'm glad that you asked that question. Because as a consultant, I actually kind of break down all of the, you know, it's a lot that goes into like selling to the government. But I also kind of broke it down, all those steps, into three simple steps. And so the first step actually, is you have to have a business in order to sell to the government, your business has to be legitimate. And so that means there's a list of things that you should have as a business, if you're an LLC, you should have your articles of incorporation, your operating agreement, your bylaws, and all those things. But you also can be a sole proprietorship and sell to the government as well. So your business foundation has to be set. And the second thing is there's such things that's considered small business certifications. And so these certifications actually help you to get access to even more dollars that's specifically set aside for women in business, small businesses, disadvantaged businesses, LGBT businesses, veteran-owned businesses and minority businesses. So there's pools of money that they actually set aside to spend and buy with those particular groups, right? And so the third step is proposal. So this is like my three step methodology is business, certifications, and proposals. So the proposals is basically like, these are opportunities that are being published every single day, across every level of government, we're talking about federal, state, and local, right? Every agency, every county, every, like, government building, they all post out these opportunities, that falls under various scopes. And so basically, you see an opportunity, you read it, you respond to it, and that's it. So it's a 50/50 chance that you're going to win it or not, right. And so those odds are way better than, you know, playing the lottery. And people play the lottery all the time. And so once you get through that process, then it's just rinse and repeat, the more bids you submit, the more opportunities that you have to landing these contracts. And ideally, the contracts are like, two to five years in term minimum, right. So now you have consistent sustainable income that you need, you know, you protect your bottom line, all those things. And they're large contracts, they're like multiple six figures or even into the millions, depending on the scope and the length of the contract. Yeah.
Casey::Now I have a question, Karwanna. Do they...do they buy? Do they buy, like... we have, obviously, customers who buy a subscription...do they invest? Or do they buy, like...do they buy a part of the company, do they buy the company or anything like that? They just buy the service?
Karwanna:They just buy the service. So basically, it's like...so if you, let's just say you have iTunes Store, people walk in your store, and they're buying. Those are, they're customers. Well, the government is a customer.
Casey::Yeah. The government's a customer, right.
Karwanna:So they're not going to own your business, they're not gonna buy your business, none of that stuff. So you're just selling the same thing that you're selling to a person, you're selling it to the government, only they buy it in bulk, and they pay big dollars for it.
Casey::I see. So, well, like I could, you know, go to a government agency, they may need a webinar platform for a specific "arm" of the government, right, where they need it for 500 of their employees or something, right? And so we figure out and put together a request for proposal, same type of concept. Is that any other sort of, B2B sort of type of scenario in that regard?
Karwanna:Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Casey::Wow. Wow, that's...is it is it more or less in terms of like, competition wise, are fewer people knowing about this, therefore, there's not as much competition, when you do submit a proposal?
Karwanna:There's not enough people like for it to be, like, really competitive. I mean, there is some competitive advantages to it. But it's less competitive when you have your certifications, because only those particular groups are bidding on those things. And the great thing about it is, there's not a lot of people doing government contracting. There's not a lot of people who even know that they can sell to the government. So at the end of the fiscal year, there's still billions of dollars left on the table that they're looking...the government is literally, agencies are specifically begging people to come buy, you know, come let me buy your stuff. You know?
Casey::They need to spend that money, is what you're saying.
Karwanna:They have to spend the money. Yeah, they have to, they have to clear their cupboards you know, before the end of the fiscal year, right, so yeah, so it's...there's huge demand for products and services. Right,
Casey::That's really interesting. And it's so cool that you kind of got into this, as we talked about, just by asking some questions, you know, and it kind of like, sent you on your trajectory. So, I mean, first off, I think this podcast is very informative. You know, beyond this, I, you know, we're gonna want to tell people where they can go to, like, learn more about what you're doing. But um, what are you excited about right now? Like, you know, what's coming down the pipeline for you? And what are you excited about, kind of in your life and your business, and you know what I mean?
Karwanna:Yeah, so I'm just, I'm just really excited about, like, how I've been able to take this concept and impact the business community across the nation like to help entrepreneurs who are just either stuck in their business, trying to take their business to the next level. I've helped over, over the past five years, I've helped over 200 small business owners generate upwards of $3 million in just government contracts alone. And that helped them to sustain themselves to actually not even just pay bills, but to be able to actually take their business and leverage it as a vehicle to generate wealth, to be able to become philanthropists, to go on, and, you know, be changemakers in their communities, to create jobs. And so, it's the bigger picture, and I'm so excited that I'm able to be able to say, you know, I have the ability to be able to say that I contributed to that, just by showing people the steps so that, you know, they actually get the success by going through the simple steps that I've laid out. They don't have to figure it out from scratch and take years to try to figure it out. And so, the other thing that I'm excited about is like--it changes lives. Like government contracting really changed my life, from from not being able to provide for my kids to more than being able to not only provide but create trust funds, and like legacy things and to be able to create assets and, and all those things. But also to see it change the lives of my clients. Like I literally have had business owners who were sleeping in their cars get started with government contracting, and now they can afford to change their lives and their lifestyles are changing. And so yeah, so there's this whole movement, you know, of just like helping business owners stop chasing customers and get with a customer who's actually looking for them right to buy their service.
Casey::That's so awesome. Now, do have a program? So like, what kind of programs do you do you put together for that? Like coaching, courses, and things like that?
Karwanna:Yeah, great question. So I do have a coaching program, that is a six- to eight-week program where I actually help you walk through, I walk you specifically through all the steps of getting started, getting your business foundation, going through the certifications, understanding how to market and position yourself, and how to bid and where to look for those opportunities. And so we have, it's a real streamlined system, where, in six weeks, we have people that are landing contracts in their third week of going through the program, in their fifth week, in their sixth weeks...So it just, you know, people have different, like, success rates, depending on how quickly they execute the things that are already laid out. And this is the exact system that I do. Like, I'm still selling to the government, even though I'm still consulting and helping other people. I'm still landing contracts. And so the system that I have, it's the exact system that I use for my own business to get the results that I have in my own business as well. And so we also have, we offer a five day challenge, which is typically a entry point into before you're ready to get into our high ticket, like, coaching program. Yeah, some people go right into the high ticket pro coaching program. But the five day challenge, which is located at govconchallenge.com, is a really great entry point because over the five days you actually get pre-qualified.'Cause I know as a small business, it's not easy gathering all of those documents like your EIN, Dun &[Bradstreet]...like, what is all that stuff? And your taxes, like all these things that the government needs, right? So we actually help you get pre-qualified over this five days. So we go through the business foundation, I help you identify all the socio-economic disadvantaged statuses that you can qualify for, that will get you more access to more money from the government, specifically. And then I also walk you through basically, what agencies are buying your stuff, how to get in front of them, and all those other strategies. So you walk away completely pre-qualified with a game plan to take your business to the next level during the five day challenge.
Casey::Awesome. Sorry. The gardeners, they signaled they were doing, like, tree cutting, and they just showed up, right at this exact moment. So that's cool. And I completely understand like, going through the challenge process that pre-qualifies, they get to understand the EIN number, they understand if they need their bylaws, and all the articles of incorporation and everything like that, which totally makes sense. Yeah. Karwanna, this was so amazing. Thank you so much for your time today. Where can people...where should they go to learn more? I mean, I know you could probably just go to your, you have a website, Karwanna Dyson dot com, don't you? Or something like that?
Karwanna:It's karwannaspeaks.com. But if you want to know more about like the challenge, you can go to govconchallenge.com. But I'm under Karwanna D Speaks on Instagram and Facebook. And you can also find me under Kawanna D on YouTube. So I have a, you know, a YouTube channel with a bunch of different free trainings on there. But yeah, I'm available on all of those platforms.
Casey::That's so awesome. Well, I just want to thank you...This was an incredible, you know, quick interview. We got to learn a lot about about you, about some of the ways that you're creating an impact in the world. And we want to just keep on following you. So everybody, go check out what Karwanna has on YouTube, her website, we'll put put links probably also to the challenge here in the show notes. So Karwanna, again, thank you for your time today. I know you're super busy. So this was just such an honor, so helpful, and I can't wait to follow up with you at some point in the future.
Karwanna:Thank you, same here.
Casey::Thanks so much.