『GovCon Unscripted』のカバーアート

GovCon Unscripted

GovCon Unscripted

著者： 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.

All rights reserved. マネジメント マネジメント・リーダーシップ 政治・政府 政治学 経済学
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  • The Resume Is Dead. So Are Job Boards. Here's What Federal Hiring Looks Like Now. | Richie Lampani

    The Resume Is Dead. So Are Job Boards. Here's What Federal Hiring Looks Like Now. | Richie Lampani
    2026/06/02
    A cleared-defense billet drew 350 applications in 24 hours. Every resume looked perfect. Most of them weren't real.That's where the federal hiring market actually is right now, and it's the conversation Chelsea Roberts has with Richie Lampani in this episode of GovCon Unscripted.Richie is a Fractional Head of Talent who has built recruiting infrastructure from zero for EarthDaily Federal (geospatial intelligence, cleared defense) and runs his own firm, Rebel Talent Systems. His path is not traditional. He came up in the music industry, booked Wu-Tang Clan and Marilyn Manson, and learned to act as an agent for both sides of every deal. He brought that instinct into 14 years of recruiting and now applies it to one of the toughest cleared-talent markets in recent memory.In this conversation, Richie and Chelsea walk through the structural shifts every federal contractor and every job seeker needs to understand right now. They cover why the resume has stopped working as a screening signal, why job boards now flood roles with 150 to 350 applications inside hours, and why AI-tailored resumes have collapsed the differentiation any candidate can claim on paper. Richie shares his frontline experience with fraudulent applicants, suspected overseas operators using AI and stolen profiles to bid on US technical and even cleared roles, and walks through the specific tells that catch them, including a memorable Chicago subway question that broke one candidate. He explains why TS/SCI full-scope-poly roles are paradoxically the safest hiring ground in the current environment, and why networking has reclaimed its position as the only durable channel for sales and capture hires in a 12-to-18-month federal sales cycle.Practitioners on the job-search side will hear specific tactics: how to construct a LinkedIn profile that actually surfaces in recruiter back-end SEO, why your About section and tagline matter more than your headline, why political content on LinkedIn is shrinking your opportunity set, and why Richie himself took a third-shift stocking job at Walmart during his last search rather than burn cash chasing roles he hadn't networked into.Timestamps:00:00 — Open · Richie introduces himself and his three current fractional engagements 00:50 — The music-industry-to-recruiting path · why booking bands taught him to agent both sides 03:20 — What Richie is hiring for now · AI/ML and all levels of sales 04:30 — The fraudulent candidate problem · who is doing it and why it is so hard to catch 07:50 — The Chicago subway tell · how a single geography question broke a fraudulent applicant 10:30 — Why cleared roles are the safest place to hire right now 11:30 — 350 applications in 24 hours · why the job board model has broken 13:30 — "The resume is probably dead" · why AI-tailored resumes have collapsed differentiation 14:45 — Why sales hires now come almost entirely from networking, not applications 15:30 — Richie's own job search · 30 interviews from referrals, one callback from an application 16:15 — Walking into Walmart for third-shift stocking work mid-search · the case against shame 17:20 — Drop the resume off in person · why the hybrid candidate has the edge 19:30 — LinkedIn hygiene · why open-networking is hurting your algorithm 22:00 — The Rebel Talent Systems free LinkedIn SEO tool 23:45 — Top two pieces of advice: clean resume, and keep politics off your profile 28:00 — How to actually stand out · build something useful and show your work 29:30 — How to find Richie · Rebel Talent Systems and Rachel Tyrell, his autonomous AI assistantResource links:Richie's LinkedIn ProfileChelsea's LinkedIn profileRebel Talent Systems (free LinkedIn SEO tool): https://rebeltalentsystems.comRichie's books: Head and Heart: Winning the AI Recruiting War · Unfinished Rooms: Why Great Employees Keep One Foot Out the DoorOther resources:https://rebeltalentsystems.comrichie@rebeltalentsystems.com🎧 Listen now on:🔹 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/govcon-unscripted/id1766384482🔹 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NL0kFAvmgECLTJpUZYNHyLike and follow us:🔹 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GovConUnscriptedUS🔹 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/govconunscriptedpodcast/🔹 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/govcon-unscripted/posts/Join our #govcon #communityhttps://www.linkedin.com/groups/14618490/
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    32 分
  • $30 Million, One-to-One Match, Five Agencies: Inside the Strategic Breakthrough Award | Jerry Hollister

    $30 Million, One-to-One Match, Five Agencies: Inside the Strategic Breakthrough Award | Jerry Hollister
    2026/05/26

    The SBIR reauthorization is done. Public Law 119-83, signed April 13, in force through September 30, 2031. The headlines focused on the $30 million Strategic Breakthrough Award. The real story is everything underneath it.

    In this episode of GovCon Unscripted, host Chelsea Roberts sits down with Jerry Hollister, Co-Owner of BBC Entrepreneurial Training & Consulting (BBCetc) and a former DoD contracting officer with three decades in the SBIR/STTR space. Jerry walks through the actual mechanics of what changed in the reauthorization, what didn't, and where the program quietly shifted in ways most companies haven't internalized yet.

    The conversation covers Strategic Breakthrough Awards (up to $30M, five agencies, 1:1 match, must come from existing SBIR budget). The sole source training mandate for contracting officers, an authority that has existed since Reagan but that most KOs are afraid to use. The new foreign influence disclosure regime and the eight-list cross-check that agencies must now run. The shift to monthly topic releases at DoD. And the multiple award winner debate, where the senator from Massachusetts and the SBIR mill problem held up the entire bill for two months.

    Jerry also discusses BBCetc's pricing model (hourly, no success fees, no equity), the FAST Program network across 42 states, and his recommendation for any company sitting on the edge of the program.

    Timestamps:

    00:00 Cold open

    00:30 Welcome and introductions

    01:00 What BBCetc does and the SBIR/STTR consulting model

    01:40 The reauthorization fight and Public Law 119-83

    03:20 SBIR program mechanics. Phase one, phase two, phase three

    07:30 The phase two to phase three valley of death

    08:50 Why DoD acquisition timelines kill SBIR transitions

    12:30 What the reauthorization actually changed

    13:00 Sole source training for contracting officers

    14:00 The Strategic Breakthrough Award explained

    16:00 Where the match dollars can come from

    17:30 Why a $30M award is unlikely in practice

    19:00 No new money. Just new authority.

    20:00 DoD's shift to monthly topic releases

    21:30 Why the cycle changed and whether it sticks

    24:00 Pre-solicitation, DSIP, and the FAR-based dialogue rules

    29:00 Foreign influence disclosures and the eight-list check

    33:30 The SBIR mill debate and the multiple award winner question

    36:00 The benchmark proposal that didn't pass

    38:30 What the new topic limits will look like starting October 1

    40:30 BBCetc's pricing model and the FAST Program network

    43:30 How to reach Jerry

    Resources:

    • Jerry's LinkedIn Profile
    • Chelsea's LinkedIn profile
    • BBCetc Website


    Additional Resources:

    • Public Law 119-83 DSIP (Defense SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal): https://www.congress.gov/119/plaws/publ83/PLAW-119publ83.pdf
    • SBA FAST Program: https://www.sbir.gov/community/fast


    🎧 Listen now on:

    🔹 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/govcon-unscripted/id1766384482

    🔹 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NL0kFAvmgECLTJpUZYNHy

    Like and follow us:

    🔹 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GovConUnscriptedUS

    🔹 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/govconunscriptedpodcast/

    🔹 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/govcon-unscripted/posts/

    Join our #govcon #community

    https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14618490/
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    46 分
  • The Proposal Doesn't Win the Contract | David Stearman

    The Proposal Doesn't Win the Contract | David Stearman
    2026/05/19
    The proposal doesn't win the contract. The offer wins. And the offer is built on strategy, and strategy is built on relationships. By the time the RFP shows up on eBuy, the contract is usually already decided.That's the through-line of this week's conversation with David Stearman, Founder and CEO of Proposal Strategy and Development Consulting, who has spent 27 years inside federal proposals at firms like Booz Allen and on the consulting side serving small and midsize GovCons. David walks Chelsea through the structural problems facing small businesses in the current environment, the bid/no-bid discipline most smalls lack, why PWin above 70 percent is almost always a fiction, and where AI fits (and doesn't) in proposal work.David Stearman founded Proposal Strategy and Development Consulting in February 2015 after a career that took him from freelance academic editor to senior director of proposals at large GovCons. His firm provides full-spectrum proposal support to small and midsize federal contractors, including direct support, staff augmentation, training, coaching, mentoring, and consulting. The firm's stated values are relationships over transactions and radical honesty, and David's idea of value to a client often includes telling them not to pursue an opportunity, even when that costs him consulting hours.In this episode, David and Chelsea cover the past year's impact on small GovCons from DOGE, the FAR overhaul, and reorienting priorities. They get into why the smalls who marketed themselves as nimble were often the ones caught flat-footed, particularly narrow-banded firms in PMO support that lost contracts and now have nothing to sell in an M&A. David argues that the real path to success on GSA Schedules and large IDIQs is not winning task orders, it is creating them: shaping opportunities, marketing the vehicle to customers, and building relationships long before the RFP drops.The conversation goes deep on bid/no-bid discipline. David presents his three-circle Venn diagram for pursuit decisions (can we do it, can we win it, can we make money doing it), explains why PWin is a "made-up number," and makes the case that win rate and capture rate together tell a very different story than either does alone. He also unpacks why the proposal field has a structural burnout problem and how owners who hand RFPs to proposal pros without upstream work are part of the cause.On AI, David is neither an evangelist nor a Luddite. He breaks down where AI tools (RFP shredders, outline generators, gate-review prep) have given him a net-negative ROI because the quality-check time exceeded the original task. His framing: AI is a tool, the implementation matters more than the tool, and "more and faster is not the same as better."The episode closes on relationships and the principle David calls the three degrees of Kevin Bacon. 95 percent of his business has come through referrals, including a client he met after spending the first 20 minutes of a discovery call playing Jewish geography rather than talking shop. David's standing offer: he will always take a conversation.Timestamps00:00 — Welcome and David's introduction01:00 — How a philosophy degree leads to federal proposals04:00 — The love-hate relationship with the industry07:00 — The past year: DOGE, FAR overhaul, and small business impact10:00 — The perfect storm: NAICS graduation, PMO cancellations, no M&A assets13:00 — GSA strategy: don't win task orders, create them15:00 — The proposal is not what wins, the offer is17:00 — Why proposal professionals burn out at a structural level20:00 — Bid/no-bid as growth strategy and the three-circle Venn diagram22:00 — Why PWin is a made-up number and what to measure instead24:00 — AI in proposals: the cautious case29:00 — When AI use cases backfire34:00 — Where AI actually works in proposal workflows40:00 — Contact and how to reach David42:00 — Three degrees of Kevin Bacon and why every conversation mattersResources:Follow David on LinkedInProposal Strategy and Development Consulting WebsiteDavid's email: dstearman@proposal-strategy-consulting.comChelsea's LinkedIn profile🎧 Listen now on:🔹 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/govcon-unscripted/id1766384482🔹 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NL0kFAvmgECLTJpUZYNHyLike and follow us:🔹 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GovConUnscriptedUS🔹 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/govconunscriptedpodcast/🔹 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/govcon-unscripted/posts/Join our #govcon #community:https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14618490/
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    50 分
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