IAM931- Founder Helps Businesses Grow Their Investment

Barrett Y. Bogue is president and founder of Evocati LLC, a marketing and consulting firm that helps businesses grow their investment in the military-connected community. Prior to founding Evocati, he served in executive leadership roles in the federal and non-profit sectors including the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He served six years in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and was deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom II. Barrett is a 2009 Presidential Management Fellow and 2019 Scholar with the George W. Bush Institute's Stand-To Veteran Leadership Program. He lives with his wife and daughter in Fairfax, VA.

• CEO Hack: Practicing inbox zero
• CEO Nugget: Give yourself permission to wait until you feel ready to take the leap
• CEO Defined: Servant leader who leads the team and clients to success

Website: http://www.evocatillc.com/

Full Interview:

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[00:00:10.59] – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

[00:00:39.89] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Barrett Vogue of Evocati LLC. Barrett, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:48.89] – Barrett Y. Bogue

Gresh, it's great to be here. I appreciate the opportunity to come and talk with future and current CEOs. CEOs.

[00:00:54.50] – Gresham Harkless

CEOs. CEOs. Definitely. Definitely. And you're doing so many awesome things. I truly appreciate you for hopping on as well. And what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Barrett so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Barrett is president and founder of Evocati LLC, a marketing consulting firm that helps businesses grow their investment in the military-connected community.

Before founding Evocati, he served in executive leadership roles in the federal and nonprofit sectors including the US Department of Veteran Affairs. He served six years in the US Marine Corps reserves and was deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom two. Barrett is a two thousand nine president management fellow and twenty-nineteen scholar with the George W. Bush Institute Stand to Veteran Leadership Program. He lives with his wife and daughter in Fairfax, Virginia. Barrett, thank you for your service. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:42.79] – Barrett Y. Bogue

Yeah. I appreciate it, Gresh. Let's let's get going.

[00:01:45.29] – Gresham Harkless

Let's do it then. So to kinda kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit here a little bit more on how you got started. Could you take us through your CEO story? Well, then did you get started with your business?

[00:01:54.09] – Barrett Y. Bogue

Yeah. So Evocati started as an idea. Working through the nonprofit and federal sectors, I kept hearing from our partners at the time, how much they struggled to reach the military-connected community. They have they would have a great mentoring program or a great scholarship program and they would come to us and say, Can you help us do this? And I thought, Well, I could, I could teach people how to do that and in some cases do it on their behalf. So that was the business idea.

And so Evocati started as a side hustle. I had, one pro bono client while I was working full-time. My good friend, Todd Connor, former CEO of Bunker Labs, called it, being a third-shift entrepreneur. So if you're listening and you're working full time and you're thinking about starting that side hustle, let me tell you, it can be done and it's a great way to to test your business idea. So we did that and, it worked out great to the extent that I quit my job and said I was gonna do Evocati full time, and that was in two thousand eighteen. And thus far, we've been able to serve about, six or seven clients in reaching the military-connected communities.

[00:03:13.30] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I appreciate that. I appreciate, you know, how everything started and how you've been able to grow it. I think so many times as you said, we think that we have to go from zero to sixty, and we don't realize that there are steps, there's a process to it. As you said, start with an idea, it became a side hustle, and then you went into it full-time. So I love to hear that transition, of course, here, you know, all the awesome things that you're doing to help serve the community.

[00:03:34.09] – Barrett Y. Bogue

Yeah. Look. The best way I can describe it and how Bunker Labs taught me is when you're an entrepreneur, it's gonna feel like you're you're climbing up a mountain, and typically when we have that illustration, you're climbing straight up a mountain, but that's not the case. In reality, being an entrepreneur, when you climb a mountain, it's got switchbacks, okay? You sometimes have to go down to go up to make that summit, and that's that's the journey of an entrepreneur I'd stress with you and your listeners.

[00:03:59.40] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. I say it so many times that we forget that sometimes we have to take some steps back to go forward. And I love that switchbacks and that kind of visual because it helps us remind us of the journey and that is not a straight path by any stretch of the imagination.

[00:04:12.19] – Barrett Y. Bogue

It's not. Not at all, man. Awesome. Awesome.

[00:04:13.40] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I want to drill a little bit deeper here and a little bit more about your business. Could you take us through exactly what you do and how you serve the clients you work with?

[00:04:20.50] – Barrett Y. Bogue

So Evocati is, as you described at the beginning, we're a marketing and service firm. We are a service-connected, disabled veteran-owned small business and we're licensed to operate in Virginia. Our clients, typically operate in the Metro DC area and serve the military community as a whole. Our ideal client is the nonprofit, the federal proprietary executive who has a program or initiative that they want to do within the military-connected community. So when we say military-connected community, we're talking about the military family. We're talking about active duty, spouses, the twenty-two military veterans in America, their spouses, and their children as well. And Evocati has three different lines of business.

We have Evocati Creative which is the the marketing side of the company and if you have a a social media platform or if you have a program that you want to market out there to the public or a a subset of the military-connected community in general, we can help you do that. We have Evocati Growth, which is the consultation side of the company. So, what we've generally found is there are, mid to to large-sized companies that want to establish an internal program for the veterans who work there, a mentoring program, or an employee resource group, they can join us as partners and we can help them establish that.

So we'll work for about eight to twelve weeks, set up the program, set some KPIs, and then be on our way. And then finally, Evocati experience which is our event planning side of the company. So if you've got, a great idea for an event you wanna do but don't have an event coordinator, you can hire us to help you do that, be it virtual or in person. They're all virtual right now, but I'm putting it out there when we're back to in-person. We can help you do that. We can also help you amplify that opportunity and that event within the military-connected community.

[00:06:17.89] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I definitely appreciate that. And I don't know if you find this, you know when you work with your clients or even talk with your, clients as well too. It kinda sounds like a lot there can be a lot of overlap between each of those different pieces where, you know, especially if you're you're trying to grow, there's different ways that you can do it. It could be having an event. It could be, you know, growing yourself within your, organization and how you're connecting with that, military aspect, but also that marketing piece that you mentioned, that creative piece.

[00:06:40.10] – Barrett Y. Bogue

It does. And we started out having all of the the three services combined, and what we found is if we divide if we divide it up, a la carte Mhmm. We're able to do more targeted, marketing and SEO that way. Also sometimes clients may come in and say they wanna do everything and when we talk with them, we say, you're not built to do everything right now, but here's, one slice that we can do and work on together, and have some success and when you're ready to expand that, we can talk further. So we don't wanna I'm very big on not overselling our capability. I'm very big on trying to match opportunities with cost-efficient solutions. That's one of our that's that's our mission is to provide cost-efficient solutions for anybody to grow their impact within the military-connected community.

[00:07:29.10] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Yeah. I appreciate that and I think yeah. Absolutely. When people, you know, see the full menu, they always check all the above. But having that opportunity to engage and have that conversation is really when you get to see what can make the most impact. And when you have those conversations, you look at it. You can see what might fit in, the best. And so I want to drill down a little bit deeper here a little bit more on what I call your secret sauce. This could be for yourself or your business or a combination of both, but what do you feel kinda sets you apart and makes you unique?

[00:07:56.80] – Barrett Y. Bogue

Well, so the number one mistake that we see companies make when they want to target the military-connected community is to hire one person to do all of the work. They'll bring in a, a retired colonel or, you know, a retired captain or, somebody enlisted and they say, you're wearing the veteran's hat in our company and you're just going to do it all. Sometimes that is successful, but it can also be entirely burdensome and our secret sauce is we're able to do that for your company at a fraction of the cost. Instead of hiring one expert for full-time, you can outsource to us and we can bring on board, multiple experts that we have at our disposal to help you maximize your impact within the military-connected community.

So that's the cost-efficient solution that we provide. And so we my my five-second pitch is we're your company's fractional director of military and veterans affairs. So maybe you want to do this, maybe maybe you want to, implement a new program in the military and into the community, or better yet, maybe you want to hire more veterans and you don't know how. If you want to have a space safe space to operate in that world and to do that without bringing somebody on full-time, then reach out to Evocati and we can help you do that and explore that area at a fraction of the cost. And, hey, the best solution is you don't need our help anymore because your entire team is empowered to do it, and you're in a better position financially to bring somebody on board full-time.

[00:09:35.39] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to, switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:09:45.70] – Barrett Y. Bogue

Well, that's a great question. I'll give you a hack, and then I'd like to give just, one piece of advice that, was helpful to me. I practice inbox zero. So I firmly believe that, if you can manage your inbox, you can manage anything. Alright? Because we're all getting inundated with stuff. So I practice inbox zero as a CEO. I end the day with zero unread messages. I have a set aside time, what I call executive time throughout my day to check my inbox, because if you're working from your inbox, you're working on other people's priorities. You're not working on your priorities. So I set aside time.

I check my inbox. If I read something, I need to respond to it right away. I do. But if I don't, I'll tag it, categorize it, and mark it to read for later. And I've been doing that, in all different roles in the federal nonprofit and now entrepreneurial sector, and it's just been a great benefit. So inbox zero, go check it out and, implement it. If you've got three thousand unread messages, man, that makes me itch if I have, like, a single unread message now. So it is, it's been wonderful to follow that.

The last piece of hack or advice I would give you, your listeners here, is I started Evocati when I was thirty-eight, and I could not have started it and been successful at twenty-eight. So permit yourself to wait. Permit yourself to date your business idea before you marry your business idea. I'm so glad that I waited, until I'd, built a a network and had a successful career in these two sectors before I founded Evocati. So if you still have that that business idea, but you enjoy the job that you're doing, that's that's okay. Permit yourself to wait until you feel ready to take that leap.

[00:11:41.89] – Gresham Harkless

Would you consider that to be what I call your CEO nugget, which is kinda like that word of wisdom or piece of advice, something you might tell yourself or you can tell somebody if they're a client?

[00:11:51.89] – Barrett Y. Bogue

I do. So when I started this, business as a side hustle, I've had several other friends, colleagues, and just people through my LinkedIn network reach out to me and say, hey. We've I've seen what you did and I want to do the same thing, and so I tell them that is, start small, think big. Like I said earlier, date your business idea before you're ready to marry it, and, you know, be intentional and purposeful in what you're doing. It's gonna feel like, it's gonna feel like you're taking on the world and I promise you you're not. The last thing is to get what I call a kitchen cabinet.

Your spouse, your significant other, your family, talk to them about what you're interested in doing. They're going to be the cheerleaders in your life. They're the ones who are going to provide that feedback to you and, encouragement and build that kitchen cabinet out before you even find an LLC or a nonprofit. Alright?

[00:12:47.79] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Love that visual, especially at the kitchen cabinet because what you're trying to do, I always believe, you know, at the heart of the business is minimizing, your risks as much as possible and being able to have those, you know, significant others, those that you love and care about that are gonna support you through those times that may not be that may be less than ideal which will come. It allows you to be successful, but as you talked about taking courses, and doing so many different things, it just increases your likelihood of being successful because you can really focus on basically providing those products and services, being of service to the clients, and doing that great work. And I think once we are able to take care of that cabinet, that kitchen cabinet, that allows us to really be, of serving and be present.

[00:13:25.50] – Barrett Y. Bogue

It is. And you're you're spot on with that. And I would just say, to those of you listening and watching right now, like, this idea started when I was thirty. So it's been baking for it was baking for eight years really before I started doing it full time just to kinda give you a concept. So, don't feel discouraged if you're five years into it and you haven't done it yet. That's okay. You're still refining and investing in yourself.

[00:13:53.79] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And we often forget that the people who are the most successful are those, who do the ten thousand hours, that put in the time and it doesn't happen overnight. The secret to overnight success is it takes ten years, and we often forget that aspect of it.

[00:14:07.20] – Barrett Y. Bogue

We do. We do, man. And I'm glad we have an opportunity to emphasize that today.

[00:14:12.60] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. Because it's so important. And so now I wanna ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So, Barrett, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:14:23.70] – Barrett Y. Bogue

Look. At the end of the day, I am a servant leader at heart, and so I derive satisfaction and value and feel accomplished when I lift others to success. So my role as as a CEO and as president of Evocati is not only to lift our our clients to success but, our team as well. So I'm their biggest cheerleader. I'm investing in them as much as I'm investing in the company. And so, servant leadership is really what being a CEO means to me.

[00:14:55.29] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I appreciate that and that kind of, that, effect that we have, the domino effect that we have and we don't realize sometimes that we have not just on our but also the team members that we're working with, the people that we even come across or it might even have on a podcast. We make that impact and it it creates that ripple effect that we often, don't see all the time on every given day. So, I appreciate that perspective and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

[00:15:28.10] – Barrett Y. Bogue

Yeah, Gresh. I appreciate it. So if you're listening and you're thinking about starting a business and you're a military veteran, definitely check out the Bunker Labs community. But if you're not a military veteran and you still wanna learn more, just, find me on LinkedIn. Reach out to me. I'm more than happy to talk to you, about that process. If you want to learn more about Evocati and the clients that we serve, just visit Evocati l l c dot com.

[00:15:52.89] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much again, Barrett. We definitely have the links and information in the show notes. I love that visual about the kitchen cabinet and having a kitchen cabinet is reaching out and getting help and finding out about finding out about those resources that can help us to be successful. So I appreciate you for reminding us of that and doing it as well, and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

[00:16:11.29] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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