WTC : 005 – Starting A Non-Profit To Being Appointed By An Elected Official

Roger Campos

In this episode of the Wartime CEO Podcast, Roger Campos joins the show. Roger was appointed by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and serves as an assistant secretary for project core and small business development. He’s founded Minority Business Round Table (MBRT), the first national organization for CEOs as well as the US Hispanic Youth Entrepreneur Education (USHYEE) and more recently has released a rock novel, “Sleeping with an Angel”.

Roger’s inspiration to start MBRT

[4:40] We had an internship program called HACU. HACU that short for the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities has given opportunities to Hispanic college students. Because of my experience networking in the federal government, knowing Capitol Hill, knowing members of Congress, and also knowing how to get federal contracts, I got very successful in getting about $12 million in contracts for HACU to establish and really launch it successfully.

[6:34] Both Luis and I were appointed to our positions by governor Larry Hogan after he won the election in 2014. And so I actually had my nonprofit experience under my belt before I started douchey and also before I started the minority business round table. In the year right after I had worked at HACU, I was recruited again by the federal government to set up a new nonprofit organization called the minority business round table. The minority business round table is an organization made up of the nation’s largest minority-owned companies.

The ADA Program

[11:42] If you’re an entrepreneur, I recommend that you go to sba.gov and look at the ADA program. You can learn about its eligibility. One of the things I think is really important is that if you have a business, you should have a solid revenue stream first before you even consider going into the ADA program.

Starting the MBRT

[14:23] I was very fortunate that we had a federal contract that launched us. 

[15:43] What I found was that these various ethnic CEOs generally hired their ethnic background in their businesses. Asians hired Asians, African-Americans hired African-Americans, Hispanics hired Hispanics. That was very rewarding to me to see that these CEOs are giving back to their community.

Process of starting a non-profit

[22:07]  First thing you have to do is figure out what you want to do. You have to have a passion for it, something that you really want and something that is just so burning, that you just really need to do something and help people. The hard part is really figuring out your mission and then writing a business plan, and taking the next step to get money into your organization.

Receiving an appointment by the government, how?

[26:06] Because of my experience working in Washington DC, working in the white house, working in Capitol Hill with members of Congress, I have always had an interest in politics. During governor Ehrlcihs’s campaign for governor of Maryland, I was helpful and, I served on his transition team.

Biggest Challenges

{31:25] So the biggest challenge was the riots 2015. April 2015, we had the unrest in Baltimore city. We had over 400 businesses destroyed, ransacked damaged. And so I led the coordination of state agencies to provide relief to business owners.

Advice for people who’s interested in getting into politics

[33:03] I think you need to know people, you need to get involved. For instance, chambers of commerce are great ways to get involved. There are a lot of people that are business owners who are politically connected to politicians. So I think getting involved in anything, any kind of organization like the chamber in particular because that’s business-focused.

Rock novel, “Sleeping with an Angel”

[36:32] That was a labor of love. I wrote a novel called “Sleeping with an angel” and it is the first rock novel. What’s unique is that the book comes with a 13 track music CD songs that were written and performed by my son, John Compos.

The biggest challenge in writing the novel

[45:22] I wrote a hundred pages, I took it to my next door neighbor who happened to be an editor of a magazine and I left it with her and I said, I’d like you to read this and tell me what you think. And about a month later, she came knocking at my door and said, I really like this.

I think you need to get it published she said, but, you need to engage a professional writer that knows how to do dialogue. Even though I wrote the premise of the book, I interviewed several writers, professional writers.

Key Quotes:

[18:42-18:50]

“You had to have felt a lot of pride in being able to help these companies and minorities to kind of progress.”

[35:28-35:35]

“I would say most business owners really don’t care about politics. They care about business survival.”

Connect with Roger: https://www.sleepingwithanangel.com