CEO Boardroom GovCon Exchange Recap Blog

Recently I had the honor of speaking at CEO Boardroom’s GovCon Exchange. During my speech, I was asked to talk about my career journey and share some of the key lessons I’ve learned along the way. I’m sharing the highlights of the discussion here in case these lessons are helpful to any up-and-coming entrepreneurs, fellow CEOs, or anyone in between searching for a little inspiration in a truly unprecedented time. 

I founded RIVA ten years ago. Over the past decade I’ve endeavored to define a culture that inspires employees to cultivate meaningful relationships with each other and clients, all while achieving incredible personal and professional growth. My main focus areas will always be results, innovation, values, and accountability (what RIVA stands for). In the early days, RIVA started as a niche digital company; today we continue to utilize quirky and provocative marketing. For instance, we have an Alpaca as a mascot. Beyond eye-catching campaigns and things you wouldn’t see on any other GovCon page, social media is a fantastic tool that allows me to share, in real time, my vision with the team and the community.  

Now that you have a brief overview, let’s go back to the beginning. I started my career in Silicon Valley during the dot-com era after completing my Bachelors and Masters University of Maryland. 20 years working for other people; including stints at government contracting titans Booz Allen and CACI, it was time to embark upon my own journey. Enter K4, where I became a first time business owner. My experience at K4 would prove invaluable as I built the two-year runway for RIVA via my exit. RIVA’s start wouldn’t have been possible without subbing through relationships, heavy networking and association involvement, and seeking out advice and experiences of other small business owners. Talking with other business owners who had graduated from 8(a) status before us allowed me to familiarize myself with potential pitfalls and strategies to combat them. Networking in-person and even now in our virtual environment, was imperative to put us on the map, and become a known entity in the GovCon space. We would not be here today if we hadn’t networked our asses off. 

Strategy development is also vitally important. I prefer to view strategy as an evolving process rather than an annual event. Long term 5 year plans are fine but forecasting so far out is like drawing lines in the sand when you’re growing a small business. Take this year for instance. Never in my wildest dreams could I have predicted our extremely social office would be operating in a work from home environment, but now that we’re here, we’ve found a way to not only survive, but thrive in telework. I try to live by the mantra, be stubborn about your goals, but flexible about how you get there. Set your big strategy but don’t allow it to gather dust on a shelf, instead, continue to evaluate, update, and measure impact regularly if you want to be successful. Pivot and communicate often with your team and maintain a “change is good motto”. A company who embraces agility will always surpass those that remain stagnant and married to the status quo.

Everyone has a unique story and yet oftentimes there are parallel trends. Hard work and enabling the success of others around me has been central to my journey for far, but my journey is far from over. Growing pains are inevitable in business and are among the toughest challenges I’ve faced in my career. For example, the decision between staying niche and focused versus diversifying is particularly tough with a growth goal in mind. Another obstacle I’m currently facing is scaling a strong culture and maintaining that “family” feel as we on-board more employees in a dispersed environment. I certainly don’t have all the answers and I am always learning from my mistakes. I am forever a student of the game. I share my story in the hopes that you might be able to understand and perhaps empathize with what it took to reach this point in my career. With that I’d like to leave you with a few values I’ve learned along the way: 

• Play the long game 
• Avoid being an emotional leader 
• Study the market to understand the new trends 
• Balance work life efficiently
• Anticipate challenges and obstacles

If any of these values resonate with you, I encourage you to check us out here: https://rivasolutionsinc.com/careers/

 Now it’s your turn. What values guide your professional and personal journey? What challenges are you currently struggling with? Let me know in the comments.