Rae McElroy

I think I'm just a big daydreamer. I've always wanted to give back, in a sense, and even though I may have success, I get more joy from pouring into my children and pouring into others, because I've been in the shoes of wanting to do something and not know how. So if I can give someone a slight head start, at least, or even if it's not a head start, if I can give them encouragement and just sharpen their minds to some capacity, because I really am a firm believer it's in your mind. I will feel like I've done my part. So, away from the clients, and the revenue, and the awards, and the recognition, if one person can say, yeah, you know, because of Ray, I was able to change my mind frame, and it got me to where I wanted to go, that would measure success to me.

I would say if you want to get in, picture yourself already there. So that's what you want to do. I always say reverse engineer, picture yourself already there, and figure out how, or create the pathway of how you got there. And that's the journey, that's the fun part. But make up in your mind first. This is something that you want to do for sure, and have fun with building your dream life on the way there.

The biggest challenge in my field right now is that there are a lot of Department of Defense contractors that are on the verge of losing their contracts, which can put them out of business, and I don't think there's enough sense of urgency on their part. I think they kind of think, oh, we can wait, but there's a long wait list due to the fact of there being a shortage of assessors. Their calendars are full, so contractors aren't moving fast enough, and I would hate for them to lose their contracts, possibly go out of business, and lose the biggest person you could do business with, which is the government. I just wish there was a way that they would take it a tad bit more serious and realize that it's not as complex as it may seem. On the opportunities side, there are so many opportunities. I got in, I feel like, or I would say I pivoted at a really good time before it kind of got blown up and bigger, because there's deadlines approaching as far as having these controls in place and these compliances in place. Right now, for those that are in cybersecurity and not really sure which way to go, it's so many different domains, and it's such a broad field. The CMMC space is a very, very niche sector, and if you can get in, it's a little bit hard as far as getting hired to work with a certain company, because they want you to have all this experience. However, a lot of your experience is transferable. But I'm such an advocate for entrepreneurship that I would always say, start off consulting. Once you learn the process and make an investment to get your CCP certification, you can almost start right away if you network enough and put yourself out there, instead of waiting and applying for 200, 300 roles in cybersecurity or GRC. You can create your own lane here. There's a lot of opportunity. They're hiring. There's over 200,000 contractors and only 2,000 assessors, and that's on the high end.

I would say integrity, self-awareness, and grace are the values most important to me in both my work and personal life.