1. Contracting Officer Podcast Slides
Knowledge & Insights From Contracting Officers

2. What Kevin and Paul Wish They Had Known Then…
Episode 052
What Kevin and Paul Wish They Had Known Then…
Original Air Date: November 8, 2015
Hosts: Kevin Jans & Paul Schauer

3. Formatting notes
Hyperlinks: Blue font indicates hyperlinks – presentation must be in ‘Slide Show’ mode to activate the link
Red bold font indicates a point of emphasis
Green bold font indicates CO’s personal comment or perspective

4. Introduction
This is the 52nd episode – one year of Contracting Officer podcasts!
And it has been a very interesting year:
We’ve put out 20 hours of content
Met awesome people (even got to do a TEDx Talk)
And based on listener feedback, we’ve helped some people

5. The history so far…
We birthed the idea at NCMA’s World Congress in 2014
Took a few months to figure it out – first episode in November 2014
One year later = 52 episodes (including a couple cheater holiday repeats)
Full Disclosure:
It was ‘Crickets’ for the first few months
The goal was 50 episodes

6. The Rest of the Story Why we did this: To help people
A Podcast that talks about Government contracting?
Who is going to listen to that?
We recognize that Government and Industry don't always understand each other
We hope to be a bridge between the sides to help make things easier for everyone.

7. The Rest of the Story
We’ve put out 20 hours of content (and the topic list keeps growing!)
Your feedback is motivating
Where we’re going

8. What does the FAR say?
There are lots of classes that teach the FAR. Or you can just read it.
But the contracts profession is a thinking job.
Anyone can blindly follow policy and procedures (recognizing that there are some good reasons why we have policies...)
The real challenge is figuring out how to get things done efficiently (and legally) despite policy and procedures.

9. Paul – What I Wish I Knew Then…
Early Government career:
Entering straight from college and working major system acquisitions, wish I had more understanding of how big business works.
Good news: I didn't know how Big Government worked either, so I didn't know what wasn't "possible"
Mentors:
Bob Marx – How to take advantage of FAR Part 12
John Meyer – Carried the FAR to meetings
Jeff Mellott – Thinking job

10. Paul – What I Wish I Knew Then…
Mid Career
I didn't talk to my contractors enough (because I knew what I was doing....)
Actually annoyed by calls and visitors trying to shape the acquisition
Which is a good thing to keep me from making it more complicated than it needed to be
Not always a bad thing even though they are trying to shape for them
Industry
How little many industry contracting people understand about how hard it can be to get things done as a Government Contracting Officer

11. Kevin – What I Wish I Knew Then…
Early Government career:
Started in Research & Development
Aircraft, training simulators, space launch systems, software development
Learned the ropes by doing
What I wish knew: Learned there was always more to know
US Air Force, Wright Patterson AFB, Patrick AFB, Peterson AFB
Mentors:
Jeff Mellott
Shelley Hall

12. Kevin – What I Wish I Knew Then…
Mid Career
Got great training from experience
Learned by doing:
Ran more source selections for services, products, commercial products and services
What I wish I knew: The value of communication between acquisition team members

13. Kevin – What I Wish I Knew Then…
Industry
Started Skyway to help people.
We focus helping people Know More, Do More and Win More in the Federal market.
We take the complex and make it simple(er).
What we offer:
Free Stuff (like this podcast)
The Skyway Community (which starts at $15/month)
Our coaching and consulting services for a very competitive hourly rate

14. Where Are We Going?
More guests with in-depth experiences that we don't have
Contracting is a HUGE field: it’s very difficult to be an expert in everything
Other Contracting Officers as Subject Matter Experts in their specialties
More series about specific niches (while maintaining general topics)
More organization
Episodes sorted better so you can find them more easily
Three ‘levels’: Novice, Journeyman, and Advanced (Need your feedback)
Different metrics

15. Where Are We Going? More feedback from you
More engagement with our listeners
We want to know who you are so we can help you
Survey

16. Why Is This Important? Government Acquisition is hard.
Fixing policy from the top down is hard (if not impossible)
Lots of people are talking about the top of the cycle (budget, etc.) and we are talking about the ground level
We want to make Government contracts better, one contract at a time.

17. Summary Thanks for making it a great year!
We appreciate your interest and support, and are excited to make this podcast even better in the year to come.

18. Contact us We are on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook
We also started the Government Contracting Network Group on Facebook. Join us there!
Send your topics to
For Community support, contact Shelley Hall at