GovCon Unscripted
Claim This Podcastby Chelsea Roberts
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<p>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.</p>
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Publishing Since
9/3/2024
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Recent Episodes
June 16, 2026
The Vehicle Is Not the Sale | Shene Commodore
<p>Landing a spot on a GSA schedule feels like the win. It is really just permission to start competing, and the clock starts the day you sign.</p><p>Most small businesses treat a contract vehicle as the goal. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/shenecommodore/" rel="nofollow">Shenê Commodore</a>, CPCM, founder and CEO of <a href="https://www.commodoreconsulting.com" rel="nofollow">Commodore Consulting</a>, has been on both sides of that assumption, as a former government contracts professional and now as the consultant companies call when they need to actually use the vehicle they fought to get.</p><p>In this conversation, Shenê and host <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseadroberts/" rel="nofollow">Chelsea Roberts</a> get into the real state of <a href="https://www.gsa.gov/" rel="nofollow">GSA</a> in a year of fast-moving change: the largest FAR revision in more than 40 years, GSA's move toward centralized procurement, and the compliance math that decides whether you keep your schedule or lose it. Shenê explains why a BPA, a schedule, or a spot on OASIS+ is access rather than revenue, what actually counts as past performance, and how to map your project scope to the right NAICS code so you pass GSA's scope review, which is now partly run by AI. She also walks through where AI genuinely helps a small contractor, from market research to oral presentation prep, and the data-verification discipline that keeps you out of trouble.</p><p>If you are weighing whether you need a GSA schedule, or you have one and it is not producing, this episode is the practitioner's map.</p><p><strong>Timestamps</strong></p><p>00:00 Intro</p><p>00:50 Meet Shenê Commodore and Commodore Consulting</p><p>01:20 From a DCAA internship to TRICARE, both sides of the table</p><p>03:30 Losing a job, finding NCMA, and going out on her own</p><p>06:30 Turbulent times and the pace of change</p><p>07:00 The FAR revisions, the biggest in 40-plus years</p><p>08:40 The qualification myth, it was always required</p><p>09:50 GSA as the centralized procurement agency</p><p>11:00 Do you actually need a GSA schedule?</p><p>12:30 GSA teaming, credit as a sub and MAS JV schedules</p><p>17:00 Compliance, sales thresholds and transactional data reporting</p><p>19:00 BPAs, OASIS+, and what counts as a real sale</p><p>20:00 The car you cannot drive, a vehicle is not a sale</p><p>22:00 Scope review, NAICS mapping, and GSA's use of AI</p><p>25:00 Where AI fits, automations, research, oral presentations</p><p>28:00 Guardrails, hallucinations, and the C.R.A.P. test</p><p>33:00 How to reach Shene and her closing advice</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Resource links:</strong></p><p>Shene Commodore on LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/shenecommodore/" rel="nofollow">https://www.linkedin.com/in/shenecommodore/</a></p><p>Commodore Consulting: <a href="https://www.commodoreconsulting.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.commodoreconsulting.com</a></p><p>Shene's Stan store: <a href="https://stan.store/SheneCommodore" rel="nofollow">https://stan.store/SheneCommodore</a></p><p>Chelsea Roberts on LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseadroberts/" rel="nofollow">https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseadroberts/</a></p><p><br></p><p>🎧 Listen now on:</p><p>🔹 Apple: <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/govcon-unscripted/id1766384482" rel="nofollow">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/govcon-unscripted/id1766384482</a></p><p>🔹 Spotify: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/1NL0kFAvmgECLTJpUZYNHy" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/show/1NL0kFAvmgECLTJpUZYNHy</a></p><p>Like and follow us:</p><p>🔹 YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@GovConUnscriptedUS" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/@GovConUnscriptedUS</a></p><p>🔹 Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/govconunscriptedpodcast/" rel="nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/govconunscriptedpodcast/</a></p><p>🔹 LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/govcon-unscripted/posts/" rel="nofollow">https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/govcon-unscripted/posts/</a></p><p><br></p><p>Join our #govcon #community:</p><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14618490/" rel="nofollow">https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14618490/</a></p>
June 9, 2026
Same Mission, Different Uniform: Why a 24-Year Sergeant Major Chose GovCon | Josh Brandt
<p>Twenty-four years in, retired as a sergeant major out of JSOC, and the hardest part of leaving wasn't the job market. It was turning in the badge and trusting the mission would carry forward without him.</p><p>In this Success After Service episode of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@GovConUnscriptedUS" rel="nofollow">GovCon Unscripted</a>, host <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseadroberts/" rel="nofollow">Chelsea Roberts</a> talks with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshbrandt30/" rel="nofollow">Josh Brandt</a>, Technology Director for C5 Systems at<a href="https://www.mantech.com/" rel="nofollow"> ManTech</a>, about what military transition actually demands once the uniform comes off. Josh spent 24 years in the Army, served at NATO, instructed, deployed to Iraq, and finished his career as the J6R sergeant major at JSOC before moving into industry. </p><p>He's candid about the myths that trip people up: that your value automatically translates, that the biggest offer is the best one, and that you can do this alone. The conversation covers building marketability before you separate, running a job search like a target package, choosing a company on culture rather than comp, and using DoD SkillBridge to test-drive an employer. </p><p>Josh also points listeners to the programs that carried him through: The Honor Foundation, Warriors Ethos, and Home Base.</p><p><br></p><p>Timestamps: </p><p>00:00 Welcome and the Success After Service series </p><p>01:00 Meet Josh Brandt </p><p>06:30 Be comfortable being uncomfortable </p><p>12:00 The myth of automatic recognition </p><p>14:00 Same mission, different uniform </p><p>24:00 Run your job search like a target package </p><p>28:00 It doesn't have to be the forever place </p><p>29:00 SkillBridge and time pressure </p><p>31:30 Resources and how to reach Josh</p><p><br></p><p>Resources:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshbrandt30/" rel="nofollow">Josh Brandt's LinkedIn Profile</a></li><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseadroberts/" rel="nofollow">Chelsea's LinkedIn Profile</a></li><li><a href="https://www.mantech.com/" rel="nofollow">ManTech's Website</a></li></ul><p><br></p><p>Other resources: </p><ul><li><a href="https://www.honor.org/" rel="nofollow">The Honor Foundation</a>: </li><li><a href="https://www.warriorsethos.org/" rel="nofollow">Warriors Ethos</a></li><li><a href="https://homebase.org/" rel="nofollow">Home Base</a></li></ul><p><br></p><p>🎧 Listen now on: </p><p>🔹 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/govcon-unscripted/id1766384482 </p><p>🔹 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NL0kFAvmgECLTJpUZYNHy </p><p><br></p><p>Like and follow us: </p><p>🔹 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GovConUnscriptedUS </p><p>🔹 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/govconunscriptedpodcast/ </p><p>🔹 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/govcon-unscripted/posts/ </p>
June 2, 2026
The Resume Is Dead. So Are Job Boards. Here's What Federal Hiring Looks Like Now. | Richie Lampani
<p>A cleared-defense billet drew 350 applications in 24 hours. Every resume looked perfect. Most of them weren't real.</p><p>That's where the federal hiring market actually is right now, and it's the conversation <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseadroberts/" rel="nofollow">Chelsea Roberts</a> has with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/richielampani/" rel="nofollow">Richie Lampani</a> in this episode of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@GovConUnscriptedUS" rel="nofollow">GovCon Unscripted</a>.</p><p>Richie is a Fractional Head of Talent who has built recruiting infrastructure from zero for <a href="https://www.earthdailyfederal.com/" rel="nofollow">EarthDaily Federal</a> (geospatial intelligence, cleared defense) and runs his own firm, <a href="https://rebeltalentsystems.com/" rel="nofollow">Rebel Talent Systems</a>. 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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Timestamps:</p><p>00:00 — Open · Richie introduces himself and his three current fractional engagements </p><p>00:50 — The music-industry-to-recruiting path · why booking bands taught him to agent both sides </p><p>03:20 — What Richie is hiring for now · AI/ML and all levels of sales </p><p>04:30 — The fraudulent candidate problem · who is doing it and why it is so hard to catch </p><p>07:50 — The Chicago subway tell · how a single geography question broke a fraudulent applicant </p><p>10:30 — Why cleared roles are the safest place to hire right now </p><p>11:30 — 350 applications in 24 hours · why the job board model has broken </p><p>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 </p><p>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 </p><p>19:30 — LinkedIn hygiene · why open-networking is hurting your algorithm </p><p>22:00 — The Rebel Talent Systems free LinkedIn SEO tool </p><p>23:45 — Top two pieces of advice: clean resume, and keep politics off your profile </p><p>28:00 — How to actually stand out · build something useful and show your work </p><p>29:30 — How to find Richie · Rebel Talent Systems and Rachel Tyrell, his autonomous AI assistant</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Resource links:</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/richielampani/" rel="nofollow"><strong>Richie's LinkedIn Profile</strong></a></li><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseadroberts/" rel="nofollow"><strong>Chelsea's LinkedIn profile</strong></a></li><li>Rebel Talent Systems (free LinkedIn SEO tool): https://rebeltalentsystems.com</li><li>Richie's books: Head and Heart: Winning the AI Recruiting War · Unfinished Rooms: Why Great Employees Keep One Foot Out the Door</li></ul><p><strong>Other resources:</strong></p><ul><li>https://rebeltalentsystems.com</li><li>richie@rebeltalentsystems.com</li></ul><p><br></p><p>🎧 Listen now on:</p><p>🔹 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/govcon-unscripted/id1766384482</p><p>🔹 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NL0kFAvmgECLTJpUZYNHy</p><p><br></p><p>Like and follow us:</p><p>🔹 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GovConUnscriptedUS</p><p>🔹 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/govconunscriptedpodcast/</p><p>🔹 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/govcon-unscripted/posts/</p><p><br></p><p>Join our #govcon #community</p><p>https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14618490/</p><p><br></p>
92 total episodes available
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- What is GovCon Unscripted?
<p>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.</p> - How often does this podcast release new episodes?
This podcast updates daily.
- Where can I listen to this podcast?
This podcast is available on 6 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
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Information about guest appearances is not available.
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