The E.A.S.Y Framework That Makes CMMC Actually Doable

If someone tells you CMMC compliance can't be easy… they’re not necessarily wrong — but they’re also missing the point.

In this episode of the CMMC Compliance Guide Podcast, Austin and Brooke from Justice IT Consulting break down one of the biggest myths in the compliance space: that achieving CMMC compliance has to be overwhelming, time-consuming, and painfully complex.

Using our E.A.S.Y. framework, we’re showing you how strategic companies are simplifying their compliance efforts and turning cybersecurity into a competitive edge:

✅ E – Expert Guided: Why going it alone can cost you more in time and money.
✅ A – Aligned to Requirements: How to avoid the tech-first trap and focus on business process.
✅ S – Streamlined Approach: Proven tools, trusted frameworks, and no need to reinvent the wheel.
✅ Y – Your Competitive Advantage: Compliance isn’t just a checkbox — it’s a business differentiator.

Whether you're a defense contractor starting your compliance journey or trying to stay ahead of evolving requirements, this episode gives you the mindset and framework to make CMMC easier — not effortless, but easier.

📞 Need help fast-tracking your compliance?
Reach out at: cmmccomplianceguide.com/podcast — we’ll answer your questions for free right here on the show.

Transcript

Austin: 0:21

Hey there, welcome to the CMMC Compliance Guide Podcast. I'm Austin. And I'm Brooke. From Justice IT Consulting. We're here to help businesses like yours navigate CMMC and NIST 800-171 compliance. We're hired guns getting companies fast-tracked to compliance, but today we're here to give you all the secrets for free, so if you want to tackle it yourself, you are equipped to do so. Let's dive into today's episode and keep your business on track. Today, we're tackling one of the biggest misconceptions we hear tattered about CMMC compliance. isn't that right brooke absolutely right that misconception is that it has to be difficult overwhelming and borderline impossible to simplify cmmc compliance we here at cmmc compliance guide completely reject that idea this entire channel exists to make compliance more approachable more strategic and yes easier the truth is compliance doesn't have to be scary Most of the roadblocks people run into are caused by lack of clear guidance, not because CMMC is impossible. Right, Brooke? That's right. And that is what we try to do here. Today's episode is all about showing you that easy doesn't mean effortless. It means being strategic. We're going to show you exactly what that looks like. Okay, what I'd like to do is break down what easy really means when we talk about compliance and why we believe that CMMC compliance can be easy if you do it right. We're using the acronym EASY. Easy, E-A-S-Y, as a framework. Let's get into it. First up in our easy acronym is expert guided. One of the biggest mistakes we see companies make is trying to go at it alone. Sure, you can DIY compliance, but it'll take you two or three times longer And usually costs more.

Brooke: 2:02

Isn't that right, Brooke? That's absolutely right. So, you know, we've talked about it on other episodes as well. You know, DIY approach is fine, but you need to have your own experts in-house. And I mean actual experts, not, you know, Johnny who you don't like and so you assigned CMMC compliance to him. E for expert guided. You want a CMMC expert. And so, you know, a lot of times instead of DIY, you can hire somebody expert to come help you. You know, it's about bringing in a coach who can who can guide you through it and basically call the plays right uh they can uh they don't necessarily they're not going to be coming in and and uh running the plays uh scoring the touchdown and all that kind of fun stuff for you necessarily but but uh they will call the plays they can they can call the plays they can help you strategy and how to how to complete all

Austin: 2:50

this so even if someone diys i mean you don't have to fully outsource your compliance to somebody but it's it's good to just bring in an export regardless whether you're going to do it yourself in-house or just like you would a lawyer you're not going to you can either hire your own lawyer right or you can have a consultant they don't have to do the entire thing for you

Brooke: 3:13

right that's exactly right it's not all or nothing you know I say if you can you can outsource every single bit of it and you can with the understanding that that you're still going to be heavily involved in it, and you have to know all this, have to have some idea of all the controls and what you're supposed to be doing because you're the one that has to execute on them no matter what. So there can be somebody that comes in and helps you get the policies done, helps you through implementation, helps you with ongoing support and all that. So that would be fully outsourced, basically. You still have to be involved. You still have to understand. You still have to be part of that whole process. Or if you DIY, you can say, hey, hey, we need somebody expert to come in and just consult with us and call the plays, right, and tell us where we're at, where we need to be, and tell us where we need to go, right? And so that would be kind of the difference. And you can hire somebody for any part of this, but it's not necessarily

Austin: 4:14

all or nothing. So that would be the first step in making compliance easy would be having someone that is an expert come in and at least consult with you. Yes. Absolutely. Okay. Next up in our acronym EASY is A. aligned for requirements. What we've noticed in consulting with a lot of companies and doing their compliance with them, not for them, but with them, is how we approach it. A huge pitfall that we notice from the get-go is most people tend to focus on tech first, technical. What firewall do I need? What tool solves this? What security license can I buy? And we view that as a huge pitfall. Can you kind of tell me why?

Brooke: 4:56

Sure. It is a huge pitfall because And really because it's not a technical problem. It's just not. It is a business process. Compliances. Compliances, yes. Compliance with CMMC, right? And really any compliance. It's business process. It's the way you do things, right? And yes, part of that is going to be technology. Absolutely. 100% it is. This is not strictly IT. It's not strictly technology. So first of all, you have to know what you have and why you're supposed to be compliant, right? Then you have to know where does that data go? Where does it come from? Where does it go? What happens with it? And that all helps you to know what you have. to know what the flow of the data is to scope your problem correctly. Scope your compliance correctly. Once you have that scoped, you may not necessarily want to start with access control in the A's. You may want to start somewhere else in there, but you really need to start with knowing what you have and where it goes. And then, of course, you have to be aligned with controls. This is where a knowledgeable partner comes in. The coach, the expert, they'll help you trace everything back to the appropriate controls they'll align everything for you that's where an expert comes in to help you with this and help you align everything back to controls to where it's supposed to be and not just doing things willy-nilly by you know we got to have the we got to figure out the technology solutions right and it's again it's not about technology part of it but it's it's about the whole business process and making sure you're aligned to those controls and not just not just the NIST controls but the rest of the rest

Austin: 6:37

of CMMC. To your point, you may not want to start with access control. And if you're doing tech solutions first, you might end up with a $15,000 iPad system at the front door and a man trap to track all the visitors that come through in and out of your building whenever a piece of paper might work. That's true.

Brooke: 6:55

You know, you can figure out how exactly, once you have a holistic idea of everything, of what all is needed, which would be your POAM, right? Then you can kind of figure out where your technology where your solutions need to be. Or you can have a $15,000 solution for what a piece of paper might work for, along with, you know, other very expensive solutions that will do the job that are not necessary. Right.

Austin: 7:21

Hey, some of us like shiny things, you know. The next in our acronym, EASY, is S for streamlined approach. CMMC shouldn't feel like you're wandering through the dark. What can you say about that, Brooke?

Brooke: 7:33

The DOD really has laid out some good streamlined processes. CAP, the CMMC assessment process, which assessors have to follow that. There can always be differences, of course, but it lays out a really good streamlined approach to making sure all the assessments are as similar as possible. They've got the assessment guidelines to show you how you're supposed to assess these things, which you do not have access to. We go through and do our gaps analysis and all that kind of fun stuff, but they have the those assessment guidelines to help you out and help you figure this out, right? And then there's common accepted tools, you know, like Microsoft 365 GCC High, you know? You don't have to reinvent the wheel on every one of these things, you know? Unless you don't want to pay the cost of Microsoft 365 GCC High, which I understand, you know, then, you know, do you want to go with another vendor or do you, what do you want to do? But there are some accepted solutions that you don't necessarily have to reinvent

Austin: 8:30

the wheel on. So really, we're just talking about using proven approaches instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. Much like I think we've said in previous episodes, if you're a metal fabricator or a CNC shop, you're not... I mean, I guess... By all means, if you want to buy the foundry and smelt your own metal, you can, but sometimes it's easier to bite the bullet and get the raw materials elsewhere, just like GCC High. You don't have to use it. There are other solutions, or you could go and create your own email server and prove it to an assessor that that's going to work, or you could just use something that they're familiar with and that they're more likely to approve, and that's kind of what we're suggesting is go streamline go with what's accepted practice and make it a little easier. You can absolutely

Brooke: 9:20

design your own solutions, but one, is it going to check off all the boxes? I have a problem with people just checking boxes, so that's a different story. But is it going to check all the boxes off for this compliance? Yes or no, maybe so. But what's the ongoing management of it? What does that look like? If you design your own solution, is it going to depend on what it is, how you get it updated, how you make sure it continues to comply How do you do all these things, right? Or if you use something that's 365 GCC high or Prevail or something else, you know where it stands and you know ongoing what it's going to take.

Austin: 9:55

Why is for you your competitive edge? Because I stop at E-A-S. That's no fun. We have customers and prospective customers that fall on a couple different camps. And the ones that we see kind of on the leading edge of things and that are leaning into compliance are using this as a competitive advantage. And using appliance in their favor. And so, um, I'll let you take it over from there, but, um, you know, it kind of, they, they feel that helps them with maybe contracts and stuff in the future.

Brooke: 10:38

Absolutely. That's what we've heard, you know, and, and, uh, what we can, what we kind of see is that forward thinking businesses are, are, uh, going to use this, uh, as a competitive edge, just like you said. Uh, and, and they, they kind of see, um, uh, being careful not to tell you necessarily what I'm thinking, but that's, you know, This is probably going to wash out quite a few suppliers or some suppliers, however many that may be. It's going to wash some out because they don't want to deal with compliance. Shoot, I had somebody tell me the other day, if I have to do all this and I have to spend $100,000 just for an assessment every three years, I'm not going to do it. I will go find business elsewhere. I don't blame you. If it's not that much business to you, then don't blame me a bit. It will wash some people out. The The pool will get smaller as a result of this compliance. And so those who are left and have risen to the challenge and met the bar of compliance and got their L2 certification, they will have a competitive advantage. And the sooner you get that, the sooner you'll be able to win contracts easier because you have that. All you have to do is say, here it is,

Austin: 11:50

basically. Two sides to every coin. There is. In an opportunity or one that doesn't look like an opportunity. It looks more like an imposition. That's right. Some people do. That's right. Okay, so here's the recap. Easy doesn't mean that compliance is effortless. It means E, you've got expert guidance instead of going at it alone. A, you align everything to the actual real requirements, not focusing on tools or tech first. S, you follow a streamlined, proven process instead of reinventing the wheel. And Y, you turn your compliance requirements into a competitive edge or an advantage.

Brooke: 12:26

And if anybody's telling you that CMMC compliance can't be easy... They're not necessarily wrong, but it can be made easier. That's what people like us are out here to do is help you out, make it easier, not make it effortless because there will be effort involved. It'll just... It'll just be less effort and guided expert

Austin: 12:50

help to get you there. If you have any questions about what we've covered here, please reach out to us. We're here to help fast-track your compliance journey. Please text, email, or call us, and we'll answer your questions for free here on the podcast. Find our contact information at cmmccomplianceguide.com. Stay tuned for our next episode. Until then, stay compliant and stay secure. Like, subscribe, and share.