Disrupting the Project Management Scene: COO of DOL Coach Josh Cunio

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who were looking for what we're gonna do when we get out and he's like, have you ever heard of this PMP thing? I was like, no. So, you know, we googled it, we started reading all these requirements, you know, 4500 hours of pm experience a degree and you know, blah, blah, blah. And we looked at each other. And we said, yeah, we could never get that. But something happened in my brain. After we went out of my office KP and it was like Challenge accepted.

Today, we have a very special episode, we're gonna talk about project management, and how it applies to you, especially if you're in the military community. So make sure you stay tuned. Today, I have a guest on the show, who is following the concept of value plus action equals credibility. Because he's part of a movement to break the status quo of a business certification that has gone unchallenged for over 25 years. Not only has this certification gotten challenged, it solves a translation of skills and experience between the military and civilian professions. In other words, I want you to stay tuned, because you're going to see that this certification is not just for specific people in specific fields, but it's for everybody. This is something that's kind of near and dear to my heart, because I currently hold a MBA and project management. And I find myself many times having to explain to people what exactly that is. Our guest today is Mr. Josh Kunio, who is the chief operating officer of for DLL coach. Thank you for joining us today, Josh.

Hey, thanks for having me. KP.

So Josh was enlisted in the United States Army, from 2006 to 2016. impressively, Josh has three different degrees. He has a Bachelor of Science in criminal justice from California coast University, is a Master's of project management from post University. And he's currently working on a Doctorate of Business Administration with an emphasis of project management. So Josh, since we're talking about the business deal, well, coach, can you explain to everyone the meaning behind the name?

Oh, yeah, definitely. So deal coach is founded by Scott Kander. He's a former Special Forces greenbrae. And DLL is actually the Special Forces moto Dale presso. Live air which is Latin for free, the oppressed, take that free, the oppressed part, the DLL within coach, and what we're doing is looking to free people in organizations from what from that which oppresses them, right. So these types of oppression might come from poor practices and processes, to a lack of team synergy, or stagnation, and so forth. So our our main goal is to guide people. From that oppression, it makes

a lot of sense, I assume that many people get confused with Department of Labor. So I wanted to make that clear right off the bat that your coach has a complete different meaning and it's a lot deeper and more meaningful. So I'd like to pivot and learn a little bit about you as a person and as a military veteran. Can you tell us where you're originally from? And if you brief and can you briefly tell us why you joined the military? And what did you do while you're in service?

Yeah, so I'm just a small town country boy from Southeast Texas. I grew up in a little bitty town called Hampshire, Texas. Right out, probably about an hour away from Houston, near Louisiana.

It's like Friday Night Lights out there.

Yeah, exactly. You know, football is his religion in the great country, what we call Texas. And yeah, I grew up my older brother joined the army. And I kind of wanted to be like him. So I was like, you know, I'm gonna join the army to one day. So right before my senior year, I joined as a delayed entry program, soldier, so I was a debt. And two weeks after graduating high school shipped off to basic, and that started my journey in the military. And when I started out in the military, I worked on Apache helicopters as an armament, avionics electronics systems maintainer for Apache helicopters, and then did that for about five years. And then I was later on it, I was accepted into the CIT Special Agent program, which is the Criminal Investigation Division. So once I got accepted there, my main purpose was to investigate felony level cases for the DOB Nexus are Department of Defense Nexus. And then also we have a two prong mission that we don't just do felony investigations, but we did executive protection. So that entails protecting people like the Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff and foreign military dignitaries and so forth. I did that for for almost six years and then I decided I was going to go Special Forces or attempt to and got got to selection and Halfway through selection, and I got injured, which ultimately led to me getting medically retired from the army. So that's pretty much my military career. And I don't regret it any one bit. And I miss it every day, actually. So

yeah, I actually just interviewed someone recently who talked about the number of jumps that he did, and how eventually it led to his early retirement and mentioned the same thing about how he misses it every day, and being in the civilian world kind of had to figure out, you know, what's my role now. So I understand where you're coming from, with that I kind of went through the same thing, too, when I got out. But right off the bat, I want to ask, knowing what you know, now, about project management? How far back can you actually remember conducting tasks that are related to the project management spectrum?

You know, and in retrospect, if you would ask me this, you know, six years ago, I probably wouldn't like I don't even know you're talking about. But when I look back in my experiences in my life, you know, I would say, as early as middle school to early High School, when I was when I started in Future Farmers of America, which is a it's a big organization, in schools for, you know, agricultural learning, knowing how to take care of animals in the environment, so forth. And I got into showing animals and so forth, you know, like goats and cattle and stuff like that. And those are projects, right? As the student you have to, you know, find an animal or raise an animal, you have to properly clean it, and dress it and so forth and prep it for a show, you have to budget for your show for all of your tackle and kit for the animal. What are you going to take? And then oh, hopefully, the deliverable is that you're going to get that that ribbon and that trophy, with that animal wire at the show, right? And then you're closing it all out, by getting all the documentation time getting back home, and in putting the animal back in the barn and so forth, right? I mean, it's a very simple, simplified look at project management. But when we look at in retrospect, you know, that's project management. And that's as early back as I can remember actually managing some projects.

Yeah, I think that's important to underline, because I was fairly unaware of what project management really was until I started looking in, what concentration I would be doing for my MBA. And then when I started reading up on project management, I said, well, shoot, I've been doing this since like frickin High School. And I think a lot of people don't realize that. So I just wanted to ask you what initially started your path into project management? Can you take it back to the military?

Oh, definitely. It's It's funny, you asked that KP because the truth of the matter is, it all started out with with my partner, when I was still an agent, he came into my office one day, because he was getting ready to retire out. And he were looking for what we're going to do when we get out. And he's like, have you ever heard of this PMP thing? I was like, no. So you know, we googled it. We started reading all these requirements, you know, 4500 hours of pm experience a degree and you know, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. And we looked at each other. And we said, yeah, we could never get that. But something happened in my brain. After he went out of my office, Kp and it was like, Challenge accepted. Right? And I started really researching what is this project management thing. And that's really what started it. I got into a boot camp, I did get my PMP right before a few months before I retired out, and I got my first job in the civilian world as a project manager. And it's just been a passion Ever since then, that's just grown over the years. And now I just want to share with the world.

Yeah, it's funny how something so small, somebody walking into your office, mentioning it to you, and then all of a sudden you start doing a little bit of research. Next thing, you know, that's grown into a giant, and you're really into it, and not only are you into it, but you're literally breaking down barriers and challenging the the certification process. I mean, it all started with just that. Hey, have you heard about this before? So we understand that the military as well as many other professions don't have an MLS that's labeled as project management. And that's an issue because so most people think that these certifications are only for manufacturing or business. For example, I recently spoke to a gentleman who works in law enforcement. He's a patrol officer. And when I mentioned project management to him, I actually had to explain how the project management knowledge and certification could potentially apply to his specific profession. And, you know, most think that first responder professionals only involved patrolling and being reactive But it's also about being proactive within society. So doing things such as planning community projects is also something often that's missed. So how do we increase the importance and understanding of your certifications to people working in all these other industries?

Man, you know, and that's an amazing question KP. And I think it's important to know that our certifications that we issue out focus on skills, right, and project management, and then you're kind of wondering, well, how does, how does it go to the first responders and so forth? Well, I can speak because I was a law enforcement officer, I was also a volunteer firefighter, and a career firefighter, and a medic, so I can speak to a little bit of all of that, and that is everything we do. And all of those professions is almost all projects. You know, let's take a firefighter, for example, when they go out to do building inspections, or they're going to do pre planning, those are projects, they might be small, but their projects go to a structure fire, that's a project. Law enforcement, the same thing, you got a big case as a project. But it's not just even in these first responder industries, right, Kp, but we have it in any industry, you have project management. And I like how you, you, you mentioned that there's no MLS, that's a project manager. And then there's even civilian jobs out there that aren't you might not be called Project Manager, right. But if you're, let's say, a quality manager, you're probably still doing projects, maybe that project is how do we redefine our quality processes and procedures? That might be a project that you're managing, but you're not a product? You're not called a project manager? Right. So it's a fallacy when people believe that you must be called something to be something. And in the military? You're right, we don't have that. We're all servicemembers. Right? So but and then you ask, you know, how do we get people to understand the importance of these? It's simple kp. As the workforce becomes more saturated with personnel who have attended our courses, who have obtained our certifications, it's going to start to show right, right? More organizations are going to start winning in their projects, instead of failing, right. And they're going to start correlating that back to man, I just hired these people, these these people on and they all have this IPM certification from DLL coach, and all of a sudden, we start winning and projects. Oh, much quicker, or our P, our win rate is going up on uphill slope now instead of going down, right, and that correlation is just naturally gonna come along with the word of mouth and so forth that we have out there.

Yeah, that makes sense. Like the more people that that are out there, in the workforce, you know, basically validating, saying, hey, this this course right here is where it's at. Exactly. It's gonna bring more value. It's by it's sort of like word of mouth, word of mouth. Yeah, it makes less sense. And so how do you promote employers to recognize the value of such a certification as this one?

Well, so so what we really want to promote to them is that, you know, when we issue somebody a certification, let's just say, you know, CP, a CPM, a certified project Master, that person has demonstrated, they haven't just wrote down in a resume, or studied a book and passed an exam, they've actually demonstrated a certain level of skill to be able to obtain that level of certification. Right, right. So when they go into the workplace and go into that organization, they should be able to start at that level, you understand? I'm saying like, right, you're not going to take the CPM and put them as a project coordinator in an organization. They can do it, because they've done it before. But you're wasting that that ability, in my opinion, right. But you could put them into, hey, I need you to manage this complex project. And they should be winning in that project, right, or knowing how to get to a winning, because you basically get them to recognize that, hey, you've been here before you've done this before. This is nothing new to you. This is the level that you're at right now.

And here's why.

Yeah, it's not based off of reading some books and taking a test, right and saying that I've I think I've done this stuff, and I passed the test. So I can read a book and we can go, Hey, the book says we should do this now.

No, no, it's, Hey, no, we I've already been through this in real life. I've learned from those mistakes. So now I already know how to fix those mistakes and not or not do those mistakes again, right. So it's very practical, and very common sense oriented, what you just said right there and I can understand why the certification the deal, oh, Coach certification is is literally rivaling the certification. It's been around since like 1984, so it's nice to see That, you know, when other people show up on the court, it's kind of like, you're pushing for effectiveness, efficiency and proficiency of the actual certification, it gives it more meaning.

Correct.

Let's talk about the what's in it for me factor, because everybody uncomfortably likes to talk about salary. It's one of those things that you want to talk about, but you don't know how to talk about. So how can this certification be leveraged? In terms of salary?

Well, I would like to start off and say it's the what's in it. For me, it's not just about salary, in my opinion, right. And these IPM certifications that we are able to issue, promote, what what what I've seen is they promote confidence. And those holders, right, when I'm happy when I have a candidate come to me to be assessed at a level. And then I listen to them and get an assess their skills and abilities. And I issued in that certification, the confidence just just glue just glows off of them, right, they make they walk away with that sense of feeling, man, this, this third party unbiased organization has just publicly stated and sign their name to say that I have this level of skill, right? So it imbues confidence. So as for pay, though, right? It's going to be commensurate it with other pm certifications. You know, like the Department of Labor says, you know, a pm in the United States makes anywhere from 80 to 120,000 a year. But once again, that's going to be based off of the organization, it's going to be based off of location, the industry and so forth. Right? So it's really hard to say, I don't ever want to say, Well, if you get this certification, you're going to make $100,000 a year. Right? Because you can't say that, I don't know, right? What job or what industry or or where in the country, you're going to go work. But what I would say that the what's in it for me, that I take away is more than the salary is that that sense? That man? I've been assessed at this level by somebody who doesn't even know me, or whatever the case may be right. So now I have the confidence to walk into an organization and know what my worth is. Right? But what is my value? What What value do I bring to this company? And that, and I think that can help help them understand and make a better gauge of what salary they should be asking for? At an organization.

Right? The real value comes from being the master of your own profession, and your own position.

Exactly. Yep. So

even though most positions don't require a project management certification, it can give an individual a competitive edge. So how do you encourage people to commit to strategically plan their careers with a project management certification, such as what do coaches offering,

we'll see KP once again, this is one of those areas where we've kind of redefined this space, right? There's, there's no more of this, you know, let me go through this, you know, long arduous course, then after that I need to study for months on in. And then after that, I need to stress out about this exam, that's going to take three hours or more to complete, and then wait for my results. And then hopefully, I passed right to get my certification, right, the cool thing KP, is we don't get to do none of that, right? The only planning you need to do going are out is if you're going to take our basic course, commit to four to six weeks, of, of 12 sessions over a four to six week period. And then one hour of your time to be assessed. So it's a total of approximately 25 to 26 hours of your life, to go from zero to a high level certification, and project management. So we take all this stress and anxiety out, that's not necessary, we just focus on what's relevant, to show your skills to go out into the marketplace. And, and make make it make your way out there. Our whole job here is just a guide, Brett.

And you know what, when I got when I finished up my MBA and project management, that was the thing with me, like I looked at what it would take to get a PMI or a PMP certification. And I was just like, completely intimidated. And I just thought, wow, I gotta do all that I gotta check all these books, all these blocks, and then I have to take this three hour exam. And then after that, you have to recertify every so often. So you, you almost have to have an employer that's going to give you the opportunity to, to support that. And if you don't, and you're just doing it, you know, if your employer doesn't value that and you're doing it for yourself value, it's very hard, very difficult to even draw those lines to begin with because like you mentioned earlier, drawing the lines between what you've already done, and project management is a chore in itself, but you guys do all that and so Very practical, very common sense oriented. I just want to be upfront with everyone listening out there that during the act now education, LinkedIn presentation, the dmo coach CEO, Scott kendor described, gaining a project management certification like eating a dry loaf of toast with the liquids. And I agree 100% Is there any way you can tell me? How do well coach to make the course more enjoyable, more palatable? More explorative?

Definitely. Well, one of the main ways we're able to use the experiential learning is we have a cadre of highly qualified, certified project trainers, and they come from a variety of industries and backgrounds. Most of our prior service, we have a couple that are not prior service, but you know, maybe have been around military or something to that effect. But it's that backgrounds that that come to the table, right. And so when you're part of like, a DLL basic course, as the student, you're not getting just Josh Cuneo all 12 sessions, or, you know, Scott candor or Heather Coons or somebody else you're getting a variety of, of our instructors. So that way, you're getting different perceptions, you're getting different examples from their backgrounds, and so forth, that really helped tie a bow on what we're actually saying and how it's relevant. Right. And what happens is, when you couple that with a work atmosphere that is driven by a passionate people that just solely want to impart knowledge and experiences to others, especially in the realm of project management, you have a recipe like DLL coach that, that comes out, right? So that's what we do.

Everybody's firing on all cylinders, because I, when I watched the presentation that was put on by aktau, education, the the main team members, were there for DLL coach, and you can tell that the chemistry and the motivation and the fire to you know, get this thing moving and get it going and get people involved and certified is is all there, you know, and it's a, it's really refreshing to again, it's refreshing to see that there's a somebody challenging the status quo, because as someone myself that looked into getting a PMP, and then kind of was like, this may not be for me, it's nice that I have another option. Now, it's a more practical option, you

have another avenue, and I'm waiting for your case, right?

So you describe deal coaches being disruptive to the foundation of project management certification process, what was it like to brainstorm a change in the certification process? You

know, Kp, truthfully, this has been very humbling and rewarding to me to be part of such an amazing team, and also to be part of a such an amazing organization that has the same passions that I do, right? I have no problem telling people. I'm a big pm nerd, right. I almost eat, sleep and breathe project management. But I would say most of the people on our, on our team, that deal coach, we kind of have that same belief, right? Right. And it's not so much that we just needed to know everything about it. If we also have that passion to share it with others, we just want people to know about it, and know that they've been doing it, that they have those skills, and we want it to just kind of come to fruition. So we're constantly brainstorming, right? How do we improve the certification process? so it stays relevant to what's happening in the real world? You know? How do we make sure it's doesn't turn into an arduous process for somebody like yourself? Kp I don't ever want somebody who's, who learns about it in a degree program, or from another person says, How do I get a certification? And then they research us? And it turns out to be like, all these check the block things they need to do before they finally get to it. Right? It shouldn't be that difficult, right? We want to make it simple, but at the same time, right? We want to make sure we're holding to the standard, but because we're holding the standard doesn't mean it has to be complex. And I think that's I think that's a fallacy out there that people believe that. Oh, y'all, it's just too simple, right? So it must not be legit. And it's that's not true. We make it simple, because it should be simple.

It sounds like you understand the project management room inside and out. So and the entire team does as well. So to get together and to actually cut off like all the extras and get to the meat and potatoes, I guess of you know what is essential. And what is not essential is as a team is probably a little bit easier than just sitting down by yourself trying to figure out how do we make this better? Like how do we make this more practical for today's environment?

Oh, definitely. I mean, I could I couldn't tell you the countless hours of just team meetings. We have is it As a team as a whole, as an dlo, coach, and then also with, you know, us as the executive leadership team, Heather Scott, and I just, you know, what's the how are we going to make this happen? Right. But it's all with that same thought in the background, you know, how do we keep it within the DLL coach, you know, framework where people know they can come to us for that, for that the relevant way, and the relevant learning that's redefined to get a certification. So you can go out there and when it projects, right, all right, where can I go to get guidance? And that's where they come to us for so we can provide guidance and just guide people through that process.

I love it. So can you discuss the various levels of the deal coach certification to in relation to the familiar PMP certifications that are already out there being offered? Yeah.

So and this is kind of another little differentiator between us and PMI. And that's that we have seen your project management level certification, and so forth, whereas they have just, you know, the PMP. So once you're a PMP, you're always a PMP. So if you've had one for 20 years, you're still just a PMP. Right? We kind of look at the you know, how people naturally want to seek to get to the next level, right? I think naturally, people want to level themselves up, right, especially those who want to who want to do great things. So our first certification is the CPO, the certified project officer, which is that's just someone who has that formal foundational knowledge and project management, right? They've gone through like our basic course, or, or like yourself, KP, you've gone through a master's program with emphasis in project management. So you have that formal foundational level of knowledge. So you you right now, that's the only requirement for a cpos is to have that. But what that is, is a CPOE is able to go into a project team as an as an effective team member, they understand what needs to happen, they understand the processes, and so forth. So they're just going to be able to join any project team and be effective. The next level is our CPP certified project professional. And that is what is equivalent to PMI PMP. This is somebody who has, you know, about three years or more of actually managing some projects, okay, they have the foundational knowledge, they have some experience, and then they have some skills, managing some projects. Above that is what we got, well, I consider like our senior project management certification, which which PMI doesn't have this, so we're away from PMI now. And that's our CPM certified project master. This is somebody who has, you know, probably six or more years managing projects with at least three years of managing complex projects. And that complexity can be dealing with, with resources, super high valued projects, and so forth. And that's sorted by project master. And then our last level of certification is our CPD certified project director. And that's somebody who has probably nine or more years in project management, but they have about three years of project program management. And the key thing is with program is, is that they're actually managing other project managers. And I want to caveat that, for those listening, the government and most government and contractors and so forth, they kind of fail people by giving them the title of Program Manager. So people believe they are a program manager, but in fact, they're just managing projects. That's the kind of stuff we talk about in our basic course. Right? So how do you differentiate a project manager and a program manager, but the rcpd is our highest level. And then if we ever, if you ever want to come join our team at DLL coach and teach project management, and you have a CPD, we do have a CPT, which is a certified project trainer, who is a subject matter expert in Project program management, and then teaches the world about it.

I know it's very difficult to to get people to fully understand the project management spectrum. But what are you doing to educate hiring managers, recruiters, HR departments to better understand what it means to actually achieve and accept such a certification as project management?

I know you're seeing kind of what we do a little bit Kp, we're using social media, we're developing content like blogs, and videos. We make calls, we take calls we put together we get with awesome people like ukp, and we do podcasts. But you know, where I think I see a lot of it is that word of mouth happens. And we get those recruiters in those vice presidents and presidents and CEOs and directors and stuff that come to our basic course. Right and then high level military people I have everywhere from a from an E one all the way to oh six is that come to my course. Not my course but to our course they come out and they say man, this is where it's at. This is what we need. And that's what happens, you know, when you get a vice president of a massive company in the United States that's come through our course. And he goes out and he says, Man, I think this needs to be a standard for our company. That's how we're able to do that. It's really, we're just showing them what's really there, and they like it, and then they're going to take it back with them.

It's amazing sometimes how simple things are, and how they're just right under your nose. And you don't even realize it. That you know, you've already been doing project management all these years since, like you mentioned earlier, since high school, when you talk about the specifics on it, and you explain how and why that is, it makes total sense. Again, this certification is for everyone. Literally, if you're a law enforcement officer, or you're working in the fashion field, or you're working in a business or anything, like project management is something you've been doing. And what this does is this actually refines your processes, and helps you better understand how to be more efficient, and more goal oriented and on target. So I definitely recommend for you know, everyone out there to take a look at project management as as a growth for your career as a next step on how to be competitive with the person sitting next to you, or the people working in your department or the people within your within your organization. Yeah, definitely just wanted to close it out right now and ask Josh, do you have anything else to to provide to anyone else out there? That's listening right now?

Yeah, I would just say that, you know, deal, coach, our doors are open to everyone out there, reach out to us, you know, hit me up on LinkedIn, we're here if you need guidance, to get to that next level. And project management is where that path you want to take. Hit us up. We'll find somebody on our team to help guide you all the way. And then even after certification. We don't stop there and just saying certification granted, yes, it's a lifetime one. We wash our hands if you that's not how we operate. You still need some guidance on whatever. We're always here. Right. So yeah, that's it.

It's a very personal experience. Yeah, it's more one on one. And just recently, act education DLL coach offered a course, I believe it was last month, right.

So they actually so act. Now education, just about a month ago, became one of our tier one partners. And so we have a course for them that starts on May 10, for all of their following. And we actually just opened up another course for them that starts in June, they filled up an entire course of 1000 people, right for May, and they have almost 500 people in the second course. signed up. So yeah, it's it's been great. Well,

so anyone out there listening, I mean, you heard it right here, the first course is completely full, it's maxed out at 1000, that actually filled up in three days, Kp in three days, so and then the next one in June is already halfway there. So if you're listening to this, understand that that's your competition. That's the people that are going to be trying to get the jobs that you want to get. And those are the kind of people that are going to be looking to climb that ladder, and they're going to have that edge over you. So I highly suggest you check out do Oh, coach, check out act now education today, and sign up for this awesome opportunity that's being offered right now. You can't beat it. Yeah, most definitely. Josh, if anyone's interested in looking at what deal coach offers are interested in contacting you, or anyone on the team, how can they get ahold of you?

Yeah, so DLL coach Comm. That's our website, we'll have all of our classes posted on there. If you're a military, or veteran or first responder, you can go to deal coach comm slash military. And we have a section just for you guys there. Obviously, we are a veteran owned company. So so we pay homage to our brothers and sisters and green, blue, all the beautiful colors out there. First responders and stuff. So if you want to get ahold of me, you can look me up on LinkedIn, I'm the only Josh Cuneo with a bunch of letters after his last name on LinkedIn. And then you can hit me up. My email is Josh at DLL coach Comm. It's pretty simple. All right. And

are you on any other social media platforms?

We have Facebook, so deal coach has a Facebook website as well and an Instagram so y'all can like us and follow us on Instagram and Facebook.

It's been awesome talking to you. And I was really excited about doing this interview. Because for me, I've had to explain over the years, what is project management and how is it applicable. And it's nice to see that there's a movement taking place right now where you have a status quo, challenging the system type of situation right now. And it's very efficient, very effective towards military people specifically. So thank you and thank your team. I just want to thank you for your time today. Josh, I appreciate you getting on here and telling us a little bit about yourself and then going into more detail on do well, coach. Hey, I

really appreciate it. KP and thank you so much for having us on board.

All right. Well, that's it for today, folks. As for Josh and myself, KP Thank you for tuning in, and we're out.