Adam Torres and Roy White discuss best practices in life and business.
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Show Notes:
Core values have the ability to strengthen one’s life and business. In this episode, Adam Torres and Roy White, CEO of Strategic Technical Solutions and Consulting, explore core values and Roy’s new book, Mission Matters: World’s Leading Entrepreneurs Reveal Their Top Tips To Success (Business Leaders Vol. 9).
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About Roy White
Introducing Mr. Roy White, a 24+ year veteran of the USAF, a tech virtuoso, executive powerhouse, co-author, and master strategist. His accolades include an Executive Leadership Master’s (Jack Welch Institute, Strayer Univ.), a BSc in Comp. Networking, and AA in Bus. Admin. (American Intercontinental Univ.), bolstered by a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.
For a decade, White helmed Diverse Concepts, Inc. (DCI), highlighting exceptional leadership, precision, and collaborative prowess, propelling remarkable growth. His pioneering programs for warfighters and property firms raked in millions in revenue and cost savings.Roles of Booz Allen Hamilton and Lockheed Martin further underscored his transformative influence, leveraging his acumen to leave an indelible mark.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right, so today is a special interview. We’re bringing back Roy White onto the line.
He’s the CEO. CEO of strategic technical solutions and consulting. And I’m proud to say a newly minted author in our best selling business leaders book series. So, Hey, Roy, first off, just welcome back and congrats, man. You’re published author. Thank you. Thank you very much. Glad to be here and thank you for having me.
All right, Roy. So it’s been a lot of fun working with you through this publishing journey. We’ve done interviews. We published a book together. I mean, a whole lot that and a whole lot more and excited to get more into the book, of course, and your contribution. And of course, we’re going to talk about strategic technical solutions and consulting.
But before we get into all of that, we’ll start this episode the way that we start them all. You already know the drill with our mission matters minute. So Roy, we at Mission Matters, we amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives and experts. That’s our mission. Roy, what mission matters to you? The mission of you know, giving back to the community and making sure that your leadership is impactful not only professionally, but you know, personally as well.
You know, you kind of create the world that you’re going to live in. Yeah, it’s great. Love bringing mission based executives and entrepreneurs on the line to share why they do what they do and really what we can all learn from that. So we all grow together. So great having you back on and just to just to dive right in.
I don’t want to assume that maybe some of our newer listeners or audience maybe caught some of our previous work together. So let’s just start with your background. I mean, how did you get started in the business? You know, previously after the military, I worked for a couple contracting companies and found myself you know wanting to explore owning my own business, which, you know, I had the opportunity to with my previous company and you know really had that knack for leadership.
And, you know, as I mentioned in the book about chief Turner, I wanted it to be You know, I wanted to ensure that, you know, my leadership was impactful on the people around me like he did, you know, the rest of us. Yeah, it’s so I want to stick on the background just a little bit longer before we, before we get into the book, as you, if we’re kind of working your way up and, you know, going from military to entrepreneurship, I mean, that transition period, like, like, tell us a little bit more about that, because I know that there’ll be some other veterans and, you know, individuals may be planning on exiting that’ll be, might be thinking of going that entrepreneurial route, like what kind of things would you tell them?
I mean, you know gather as much information as you can. I usually tell a lot of people that to to meet and spit out the bones. You know, there’s a lot of stuff that people will tell you, you know, that could be true that, you know, and do your own research. I mean, the more informative you are, going into this, you know, the successful, you know, more successful you can be.
And I think that, you know, being prepared as, you know, as one of the things we’re taught in the military is, you know, the key to execute, you know, to execute in the right plan. And I think that, you know, as you start to transition, you kind of feel yourself, you know, drifting away from that military life, you know, into civilian life, you know, the support factor, you know, there’s no safety net there.
You know you know, for you to do it. So, you know, a lot of it is just stay the course, you know, and be prepared and, you know, ready to execute. Man. That sounds like a book title, by the way, to the meat and spit out the bone. No, I don’t know. I’m like, that’s a good one. So. As you were kind of getting further along on this entrepreneur side of things, like, I know that I know for myself, I’ll speak for myself.
I can, I can look back and I can think of all kinds of things that I’m like, man, I should have thought of this, or I could have done this. And, and I, in hindsight, you know, hindsight’s 2020, right? You look Back and say something could have been done differently. But is there anything that, like, as you look back into your entrepreneur career, you’re like, man, I would’ve tweaked that a little bit or changed that a bit.
Like anything that you would’ve looked back and, and kind of changed a bit. Yeah. I mean, you know one of two things one of the things is, you know, I would’ve followed my gut a little more. Mm-hmm. , you know, trusting myself, things like that. You know, I think that some of the things that I, you know, endured and Have been through have, you know, contributed to the fact that a matter that, you know, I had the internal insecurities and things like that.
And I think we all do as a leader, especially you know, a lot of pressure to make sure that things are right at home and at work. The second part you know, if I may add is, you know, just ensure that you know, you keep keep yourself and don’t lose it in the business is what I mean. And I mean, a lot of times, you know, we get so involved that we forget about, you know, the outside world and everything else in it and things like that.
And, you know, you can have a lot of casualties behind, you know, that and, you know, hurt a lot of people and things of that nature in your blaze. You know, you may be a public success and a private failure, but, you know, You never do know that. And I, I mean, I’ve experienced all of those and those are probably the most important things that I would tell anybody, or if I could go back and change anything I would do.
Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that beginning. The reason I asked that question, by the way, is I know there’s other entrepreneurs out there that are going through it, you know, at different stages of their career. Some of our are already on the other side, some are just starting somewhere in the middle of it.
And in your words, they’re going to be like, ha, I’m not the only one, right? So I like our show is also a bit of an entrepreneur support group, right? No problem. So let’s let’s talk a little bit about the book. So your topic within the book. So core value, strengthen your life and your business. A lot of different things that you could have written about.
How do you want to start this? Like why, why this? Well, I mean I didn’t understand what core values were until, you know, when in the military, but you know, you kind of go through things and you’d be like, oh, Well, that’s what that means. And, you know, that’s why I’m doing this and, you know, things like that.
And you know, that, you know, people along the way helped you and installed that, you know, in you in one way or another, either through discipline correction over, you know, just accountability. And, you know, you never really recognize that until, you know, later on down the road and you have those aha moments or whatever.
So I thought maybe, you know, Bye. Alerting people of those aha moments, you know, and things like that. Like, Hey, you know, message, you know, the footstop or whatever you used to do. And you had tests and things, they were trying to give you the answer. And, you know, if you’re prepared to, you know, receive that type of constructive criticism or, or information, you know, to make you a better person or to make you a better leader.
I mean, it makes you you know, prepared to be, you know, successful in life, especially if you’re trying to you know, create the world that you want to live in. Right. Yeah. And so in the book, you said you share a couple of stories, maybe go into a little bit of the content and what you wrote in NY.
Yeah. So just, you know, I went into you know, one of the stories that, you know, primarily, you know, like I said, I mentioned chief Turner, which was, you know, one of my first supervisors coming in the Air Force. You. You don’t understand, you know, like leadership until you, you know, you directly been under it and, you know you know, prior to that, you know, single family household, things like that with my grandmother and, and things of that nature.
Yes, my father was in my life, but, you know, it was 1 of those things where, you know, you didn’t really have a lot of that direction and being to get under somebody that showed you, you know, just admiration and love constantly and made you feel like, even though you, you didn’t feel like you could do it, you could do it.
Yeah. And, you know, being able to do that, you know, to people, you know, and do that in return kind of kind of got me to where I was today. And, you know, I know that, you know, the kids that I touch, you know, the kids that I help and things like that with my you know, Bringing them exposure to technology and cyber and things like that and getting them excited, you know, early on, I wish I had somebody and we had that conversation.
You and I getting us excited about the different things that they could do in this world early on in life. When you know that they’re probably not getting that conversation at home, you know, other business owners aren’t having that conversation and nobody’s coming back and saying, I appreciate you or package you on the back.
You know, as long as you sign the checks, that’s all that matters. Right? Yeah. Totally. No, I totally get it. And I and I did want to bring that up because I think that you’re your niche and your way of helping the community. Well, one of the things I like about it is that sometimes, you know, we don’t realize what we have to give back.
So meaning. You have this expertise in tech and this ability to introduce the youth to this whole field that maybe they didn’t know was even available to them. Maybe tell us a little bit more about, about that and kind of how you’re working in the community and and providing that exposure.
Yeah, so I’m working with you know, a couple of nonprofits and you know, 1 of the things that, you know, we primarily do is, you know, the picture technology center. Mr. Thurman Jones you know, he’s been doing this for, like, 29 years and he gave me an opportunity to provide kids with a you know, an exposure to you know, with us getting more reliance.
Technology and things like that. Kids, you know, during COVID got everybody got email addresses and things like that, which makes you a target for phishing and things of that nature, you know, the kids, you know, we’re dealing with many different things going through these issues, but, you know, getting them to be cyber aware and things like that, understanding the different avenues they are, there are out there about work and career and things of that nature and getting them excited about something more than, you know, what they see on TV.
You can do this, you can be this and you can provide the same thing to the community. As you know, as I have and use my influence to help those kids see that there’s, you know, a lot more. to this world has been, you know, a blessing to me through my pain and trauma and things like that. You know, I’ve been able to bless others.
Did you say over 20 years that things that, that that organization has been running? Yes. Yes, sir. Wow. That’s amazing. How like advance and how like far ahead to try to introduce the youth to technology, like even way back then, right? Like I’m thinking about what I was doing 20 years ago. It wasn’t that.
Yeah. And I mean, you know, and it’s, you know, that gap, you know that we all see and understand that, hey, you know, we’ve been pushed to use you know, technology, but I mean, you know, what am I using it for? Why am I doing it? You know, you know, and a lot of, you know, a lot of people are intrigued to understand why.
And I think if they understand why they understand to protect and you know, and in that process, you know, be a better human about it and things like that. I know another organization you’re working with is run. Hope work. Tell us a little bit more about that. So I teamed up with them to help out with you know, a grant program that they they have and you know, helping them organize and set up their I.
T. Support as they begin to create a A ecosystem of students through cohorts to help them get jobs you know, in I. T. And construction, but learn how to do things internally. You know, shout out to Mr Leonard Howard and you know, his team down there because we’ve we’ve really, you know, first cohort graduates from Friday and things like that.
And at least seven out of the 11 have Been placed already on in jobs. Get out of here. That’s amazing. Yeah. So we’re really moving along even before finishing the program. Yeah. Yeah. Just, I’m just helping along from the technical side and giving technical expertise and things like that of what we need and how we need to get it done.
And I, you know, very grateful to be a part of, you know, the things that they’re doing. That’s an accomplishment right there. Let’s go. I want, I want to shift gears here a little bit and talk a little bit more about your company. So strategic technical solutions and consulting. So tell us a little bit more about what you do and maybe who you work with.
So now, you know, it’s kind of shifted and, you know, I told you that as well, you know, my, my focus, you know my focus has been more so about, you know, working in the community and things like that and working with organizations to help them from the strategic side of the technical aspects of marketing as well as, you know, building business and as well as.
Business infrastructure has been kind of that, you know, supportive role of being an advisor to help, you know, help them get along with things of that nature as far as what, you know, what they need to do, you know, and this is how you execute and things like that. And, you know, providing those footprints, because I, you know, I know, even though they have to learn their own way to do it, it’s just treating, you know, treating every being agnostic to every, every way.
And everybody’s thought process and understanding how them. Help them grow from that. Yeah. And, and it also like you help them kind of lay out that roadmap for like their, their tech stack or like, let’s get in the weeds a little bit because I want to, I want to have, I mean, a lot of business owners, a lot of executives watch this show and I want to make sure that if you’re their guy that they reach out.
So are you helping them with like their tech stack? They’re back in like, tell us. Yeah, it’s from you know, from the infrastructure within, you know, a lot of people don’t know what they don’t know. And, you know, having, having my expertise is, and I, you know, as a business owner in the past and the it side and understanding, you know, you know.
Even talking to different business owners and understanding that they have different issues and they approach different issues because of, you know, a HR person isn’t gonna protect their home network, like, you know, like an IT person is, you know, and you know, you’re not gonna have all the IT procedures if you’re, you know, but marrying those and using the connections and the mm-hmm.
The people that I’ve known, you know, to help marry together all the resources that an organization needs or whatever has been, you know, very. fruitful from the aspect of you know, being able to help others. And, you know, that feeling at the end of that, what is so, and I, I don’t want to generalize too much here, but I know that like you, you go into a new organization and sometimes the same themes tend to apply or tend to come up.
What are some of those? Themes are those gaps or those loopholes where you’re like, Oh, got to fix this. Like, what are some of those common ones that just tend to come up over and over again? Kind of, that’s the way it’s always been done. Type mentality or you know, the rejection of change, you know, that’s primarily what my masters was in.
I mean, it was, we had a great curriculum behind, you know, do you get scared once you hear that’s the way we’ve always been a little bit. You’re like, ah, here we go. Cause it’s a barrier, you know you know, that that’s already letting you know that they’re rejecting change before they even get to see what it is.
So, you know, you don’t know what I’m going to change, but you, you saying that you’re rejecting the change and it, it kind of builds, you know, a barrier automatically that, you know, that person isn’t going to listen. You’re already turned off at that point. Yeah. So getting to that person is probably the last person that you’re going to try to, you know, influence or change, you know, immediately.
You know, most importantly, sometimes you would want to get into him you know, kind of meet with them in the beginning, just to kind of, especially if they’re a stakeholder, well, understanding that, You know, a lot of people are setting their ways and it’s always worked this way, but you have to pivot a little bit, you know, if you want to expand, yes, you know, you’re still down that road, but you’re still doing the same thing that you’ve been doing, you know, it hasn’t changed.
So, you know, when does that will run dry? Do you expand and do you start to look outside of the box and see that there’s something else out there for you? Well, Roy, that’s the way we’ve always done it. No, I didn’t do it to you. Yes, that’s you know, like I said, that’s probably the biggest barrier other than that, you know, when people have, you know, the truth, you know, a culture of true group mindset and understanding that they want to progress and, you know, the team wants to progress and do things efficiently because yes, you know you, you know, In a business, especially a small business, you’re, you know, you have to choose to do less with more, you know, do more with less.
Yeah. And doing more with less, it means that a lot of people are gonna get bogged down. There’s gonna be bottlenecks and things of that nature, but when you find a way efficient ways to work together and say, Hey, you know, I’m gonna streamline this so that we can do this and use technology to help the business you know, operate, I mean, it’s a win-win.
Yeah, it’s great. Well, Roy I got one last question for you here today, actually. And that is, you know, for your book, I want to circle back to the book. What, what do you hope that your readers kind of take away from this? Like after they put the book down and they read your read your writing, what do you hope they get?
All right. You know the, the understanding that, you know, the journey and the endurance of the journey, you’re going to learn things along the way. And, you know, you can’t look at every, you know lesson or blessing you know, as something that you, you know, may not be, you know, it may not be that that gratifying at that point.
But, you know, later on down the road, it may contribute to something else. And, you know, I didn’t know that my grandfather You know, his business and his influence was going to lead to me having my own business. I just inspired to want to do it. Or, you know, chief Turner making me want to be a leader and a better leader because of the way he made me feel and things like that, or basketball coaches, or, you know, me pouring back into, you know, the community and things like that.
I think that, really contributes to, you know, who I am and how I see that a lot of people should want to see being a good human and continuing on to create the world that they want to live in. Ah, it’s a great story. Great success story, right? And again, it was great. I’m excited to continue promoting this.
book with you. We’re just getting started on the promo. If somebody, oh, by the way, oh, I think I lied. So I got one more question. If somebody wants to connect with you or follow up, I mean, how, how do people reach out? Most importantly, linkedin, things like that, you know I you know, kind of you get a screen.
A lot of people do, you know, come in and the connection on linkedin always works. To me, just put, just put that you you, you saw this mission matters. Yes, absolutely. And I’ll I’ll definitely reach out and I thank you for your time, man. Definitely. Awesome. Well, Hey, again, appreciate you coming back on the show and to the audience as always, thank you for tuning in.
Hope you got a lot of value out of this. Hope you learned a lot. I sure did. And if you did, and if. This is the type of content that you, you like to explore. We bring on mission based individuals and guests onto the show all the time. And we want to make sure you don’t miss any episodes. So definitely hit that subscribe button.
We have many more mission based individuals coming up and we don’t want you to miss a thing. Roy, as always, it’s been a blast, man. Thanks again for coming on. No problem. Thank you. Have a good one.