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Black Entrepreneur Experience
BEE 541 From Military & FBI to Tech CEO: Malcolm K. "M.K." Palmore on Building Security-First Leadership That Scales
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MK Palmore
Foreign.
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Podcast Announcer
Welcome to the Black Entrepreneur Experience Podcast Inside the business buzz and brilliance of Black Entrepreneurs. Here is your host, Dr. Francis Arlene.
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Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Intro)
Quick note before we get into today's episode. If you're a small home health agency owner, you already know this. Most agencies don't fail because of census they fail because of continuity and compliance gaps that don't show up until it's too late. I've been working directly with small agencies around continuity, planning, compliance, readiness and operational stability, especially owners who are wearing too many hats and don't have a real plan if key people, systems or processes break. This isn't coaching and it's not a course. It's hands on consulting to help you reduce risk and build something that can actually survive audits, turnover and growth. If that's you and you want to talk, you can find me@drfrancisrichards.com all right,
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Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
let's get back to the show. What happens in Vegas goes all over the world on Black Entrepreneurial experience, episode number 541. Thank you for joining us as we elevate the Black Entrepreneur experience by interviewing CEOs, thought leaders, innovative thinkers and black entrepreneurs across the globe. I'm your host, Dr. Frances Arlene. Today's guest is M.K. palmore, CEO of Apology Global RMS, guiding organizations to navigate cyber and physical risks with strategy, leadership and real world results.
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MK Palmore
Welcome MK thanks Dr. Francis. I appreciate being here and it's Apogee Global RMS. Appreciate the invite and thank you for
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Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
the correction on that. I've given our audience such a brief bio. Why don't you fill in the gaps and share with our audience what you'd like them to know about you and your company.
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MK Palmore
Again, appreciate the opportunity to have a conversation with you. MK Palmore. I'm the Founder and Principal Advisor at Apogee Global rms. We are a consulting firm engaged in cyber and physical security risk assessments. We also conduct strategy and leadership development and also talent acquisition services. Our proposition for small to medium sized businesses is around the idea that in your digital transformation efforts there are other requirements that need to be met and certainly dealing with the development of people and the identification of talent for particular roles and we try and cover down on that entire ecosystem for small to medium sized businesses. I came to the consulting space after a career in both the US Federal government and also in the enterprise space. I spent more than 32 years in the US federal government, 22 of which were spent as a Special agent for the Federal Bureau of investigation and another 10 years in Department of Defense. I'm a U.S. naval Academy graduate and also a United States Marine. After my retirement from Federal service, I went to work for two Fortune 500 companies. One was Palo Alto Networks and the other was Google. I served as a senior cybersecurity advisor for both of those companies before putting out my own shield, as it were, and starting my own enterprise.
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Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
What is something as a small business that we don't know about cybersecurity that we should know?
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MK Palmore
A lot of times small businesses, especially those operating in the, what I would say anywhere from 50 to 1,000 people, oftentimes the misunderstanding, certainly from external sources, is that those small businesses have to operate at the same size, scale and capability as a much larger enterprise. On the cybersecurity landscape, the challenges are the same. No matter what size your business happens to be and a larger scale business, Those operating above 1200, 1500 people oftentimes have deeper pockets they can withstand cyber attacks. But for small to medium sized business, a cyber attack might actually cripple the business to the point where they are no longer operational. And so the risk and the scale of the risk is actually heightened for small to medium sized businesses because they can't withstand the impact of an attack, but they still have to operate as if they have the same resources as the larger scale enterprises. And so they have to make very skilled and particular and focused investments in their cybersecurity offering and apparatus. And that's where firms like mine come in to help them understand how best to scale with limited budget.
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Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
And we're seeing such sophistication and I don't want to say strategies or what hackers are doing now. Can you give three tips that you would say as a small business listening to this, what should they do today?
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MK Palmore
Yeah, I won't narrow it down to just three tips, but I will tell you that small to medium sized businesses, one should engage the external services of firms like mine in order to help them understand how best to position themselves in terms of protecting their digital assets. Oftentimes I think SMBs don't have the necessary resources or skill set to determine for themselves how best to scale. They're oftentimes competing with and trying to build the same size apparatus as say a JP Morgan Chase or even a Google, when in fact they can't scale to those sizes. The second thing I would tell you is that the fundamentals continue to prevail. During my time in the FBI and during my time in enterprise space. I will tell you that every breach that I had the benefit of doing a postmortem on there was always a failure in doing the cybersecurity basics and fundamentals. And those are things like making easy protections going outside of the default settings on the technology that you use in order to protect your enterprise. Oftentimes, providers like Google, like Microsoft provide advanced protections for work suites. And then of course, you know, the tools that you buy to further protect the enterprise oftentimes come and require a little bit of expertise in order to implement effectively in order to protect your enterprise. So get help where you can and where you can afford to get help. And then the third thing I would say is that understand that the adversary views you as a target and it doesn't matter what size you happen to be. Don't assume that because you're a small business that no one's paying attention to what you're doing or that you through obscurity, that your business somehow is going to be safe from cyber attack. When an adversary sends out an exploit, they don't necessarily always target businesses. Sometimes those exploits are just looking for vulnerabilities that exist wherever they may find them. In fact, they play numbers just as good as anyone. And so they oftentimes look for the widest potential attack surface. And so they're looking for vulnerabilities that exist anywhere. They exploit those vulnerabilities and then make a determination if there's something of value to be had in the environments that they gain access to.
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Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
Talk about that moment in time when you decided to become an entrepreneur. What was that determining factor in? Why the industry? Why did you choose cybersecurity?
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MK Palmore
Yeah, my whole career has been a career of service. I'm always thinking about what service I might be able to provide to others. And even during my time at large scale enterprises, I had the benefit of operating in a capacity that allowed me to be in a position to help customers. And so I'm always thinking about how I can take my deep experience through all of those years of federal service and my time in the enterprise space and then provide that as a service to others. The cybersecurity industry has gained a lot of steam over the past decade plus, and I think will be around for decades to come because we've shown our reliance on the digital footprint, the technology that we use day in and day out. You know, you and I are communicating right now on a piece of technology that requires cybersecurity expertise in order to protect. Everything that we do has a technology component. And so the need for cybersecurity services is not going anywhere. And because of my deep expertise I find it helpful to the organizations that I've had the benefit of helping, that if you can bring in the kind of expertise that I and my team have, that it's oftentimes impactful to organizations and can help them grow to the next level.
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Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
Speaking of service, I want to not gloss over that, but thank you for serving and protecting.
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MK Palmore
Thank you.
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Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
Thank you. I appreciate that. What problem exists in the world today, mk, that you would like to solve?
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MK Palmore
The challenge I would like to participate in solving is helping organizations understand the risk associated with not doing something about their digital posture. It's oftentimes interesting to watch organizations go through their decision matrix to make determinations as to how best, like where to make investments. And certainly protecting yourself against digital threats is a place where those investments are debated, like, should we be investing our time, effort and money in protecting ourselves? You know, in many instances, there will be companies and entities that haven't had any challenges or problems, and they'll say to themselves, well, why do we need to spend money here? Nothing has happened to us. And it's not until there's an entity in close proximity to them that experiences a challenge that they even think about moving forward with protecting their assets. But I would tell them that inaction is not the appropriate pathway here and that taking steps to at the very least assess what your risk posture is, what the chances of potential impact to you are as an organization, is a step that organizations absolutely need to take. And so my call to action is getting organizations to get off of the dime to make a decision around assessing your posture, and then you can make informed decisions after making those assessments as to whether or not you need to make continual investments in your posture. But helping organizations get their hands wrapped around that is the challenge that I have undertaken.
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Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
And as an sbe, I think about just being here in Vegas and the various casinos that have been hit with invasion of privacy, of which people are sitting back thinking, gosh, if they were hit, and all the resources and funding that they have put into cybersecurity, what can I do? Where should they start?
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MK Palmore
They should start with an assessment like the ones that I've been advocating for. The statement that you make is not uncommon. Certainly when you see organizations that have the depth of resources like Las Vegas Casino, you wonder to yourself, well, I can't even make a similar size investment. What efforts can I make to make my business secure? And there's a lot that you can do. I guarantee you that if you were to go back and look at the post mortem of those events impacting those large scale casinos. It would be a failure of adhering to basics and fundamentals. Some issue with identity or access management or some issue with configuration of technology basics, things that as organizations scale and grow, the more complex they get and the more they actually have to pay attention to their digital footprint because the complexity of it just grows exponentially. And the challenge is they try and keep up with by adding additional personnel and they don't oftentimes take a step back and say where are we on our digital evolution and what kinds of things do we need to be doing to protect against the threats of the future? There's no use in fighting a digital war that occurred a decade ago. They need to be thinking about what's present and what the future is going to look like and continually investing and making changes in their digital footprint in order to protect themselves. And the unfortunate reality in the examples that you just noted is that they oftentimes wait for something bad to happen in order to do that.
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Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
Who is your ideal client?
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MK Palmore
My ideal client is someone operating in the SMB space. Again, 50 to 1200 employees, potentially tens of millions in revenue. And understand that their reliance on their digital technology requires them to be thinking ahead. And we offer as a firm what I like to call the big four deep experience and capabilities. Without the big four pricing, you're not going to folks will go out and spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars bringing in the likes of PwC and Deloitte. And those are great firms with great deep expertise, but oftentimes unaffordable for SMBs to be able to use their consulting services. We bring in a similar level of expertise, but not at big four pricing.
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Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
I like that talk about your top two influencers, mentors and what lessons do they teach you?
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MK Palmore
My top mentors or influencers are people who have impressed upon me the idea that your network means everything to you and I. By network I mean your professional network. The people with whom you have created relationships with over time are going to be the source of everything good that comes your way. And that certainly has been the reality for me throughout my entire career. I've had some amazing opportunities that I've been able to engage in. And each one of those opportunities has come as a benefit of having a network available to me that is engaged in my success, which means that their interest is in seeing me be successful. And I've been able to leverage that network at every step of the way in order to gain access to those opportunities. And I try and do the same for Others, in other words, as young folks, reach out to me, as people in the industry reach out to me, I always make time to have conversations with people to give them the tidbits of advice that I have to offer. And it's in those conversations that you should expect to gain morsels of advice. You don't need to take anyone's advice wholesale, but there are always, in any conversation, elements of advice that you can use to then scale your own opportunities. And then somewhere down the line, when you're top of mind for folks and they're thinking about you and they're presented with something that doesn't quite meet their particular professional needs, oftentimes they'll pass that off. And they only do that to folks with whom they build trusted relationships with. And that. That's the business that I'm in, building trusted relationships.
- [14:08]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
I want you to have a monologue. I want you to name this person, living or not, and this person has inspired you so much. MK who is that person and what are you saying to that person?
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MK Palmore
Yeah, that's a great question. Instead of an individual person, I would sort of combine these folks into an aggregate of an individual with whom I would have a conversation. Just about how much I've learned over time. You know, when you're young, starting off in your career, you start with a couple of principles in mind and maybe some things that you assume to be true. And what you learn over time is that the things that you thought were definitive oftentimes turn gray by the time you reach my stage in your professional career and you begin to realize how little you know for certain. And so really, that dialogue would be about the individual times where folks told me to either be more circumspect and or to question more. I've learned over time that the things that I knew to be definitive, very few of those things still exist once you reach my stage.
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Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
Speaking of legacy, or the stage you're at right now, when it's all said and done, how do you want to be remembered?
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MK Palmore
MK I want to be remembered as someone who provided opportunities for other people, even in establishing my own firm. The idea is to create an environment where a very small but focused team of individuals can contribute to customer success, but at the same time build something for themselves that represents a positive impression or time that they've spent in terms of their professional career. I'm at a stage where I get to select the people that I work with, and that is probably the most enjoyable phase of this particular point in my career. I get to hand select the people that I bring on board to this opportunity. And I surround myself with people who not just have similar cultural affects, but at the same time are pleasurable to work with. And you don't oftentimes get that in terms of your professional ascent. Oftentimes you're sort of thrown into the mix with people who you have to work with. And I'm at the point where I get to be a bit more selective about that, and that's enjoyable. And so for those people for whom we've chosen one another to have professional or to participate in each other's professional journey, I'd love for them to look back on it and say, hey, that was a fantastic time that we spent trying to build those things together.
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Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
And speaking of vetting your team, how do you look and vet your team members?
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MK Palmore
I look for folks who are hungry. I look for people who have demonstrated an ability to get things done, and I look for folks who are interested in expanding their comfort zone, as it were. There's no growth without sort of pushing yourself. And so I look for people who have a similar approach to those kinds of things than me. In other words, you come to the table with some deep competency, some capabilities, but an interest in growing, which means that I could throw them into an unfamiliar situation and they are likely to be successful, but if they're not, they're going to take away lessons from that experience. Experience so that they can grow and become better at their professional undertakings. And so I look for people with that similar mindset, which is a growth mindset, and understanding that you're not going to hit it out of the park every time, but you're going to make the attempt and that you're going to learn something from each iteration.
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Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
Advice you wish you had followed.
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MK Palmore
Interesting. Yeah, I have to pause on that a bit. Advice I wish I had followed. Maybe in starting my own business, I could have started a little bit smaller than what I did. I put up my own shingle and I explained to you at the top of the conversation all of the various service lines that we cover down on. It's proving to be a little bit of a challenge getting all of those in flight all at the same time. So maybe I could have concentrated on one particular service area, gotten that foundationally settled, and then built upon it with the other service areas. But I was so keen on establishing the firm in the vision that I originally had for it, which was this sort of full service advisory firm. And if I had to do it all over again, I would probably Start with a singular service line and build from there.
- [18:07]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
Talk about naming your business. How did you come up with the name?
- [18:11]
MK Palmore
So apogee is a term that not everyone is familiar with. So as I indicate, I went to one of the U.S. service academies and I had to take a class in the rocket Trajectory and understanding engineering. Apogee is a term that essentially means the height of a flight pattern. In other words, for a rocket trajectory, it is the highest point that a rocket will reach as it ascends. And that name has always resonated with me. So when I think about helping folks to elevate their professional businesses, I think about taking those businesses to the highest level possible through our assistance and advisory work. So the tagline for our business is taking people, process and technology to the next level. And that's where the term apogee comes from.
- [18:54]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
I like that. Thank you for sharing. Talk about only what you can talk about in terms of one of your clients and the success story behind that.
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MK Palmore
Yeah, so our typical client comes to us at a stage where they recognize finally that they need a bit more help in the security realm than what they have dedicated currently. They need a particular level of executive expertise and guidance. And so we come to the table with that executive expertise and guidance. We help build out a functioning security apparatus through the injection of interim personnel. And then my goal over the course of a six month period or longer, is to help the organization build out a fully functioning security apparatus through the introduction of talent that will help them be able to scale and grow at a pace that works for their business. And so we are idealistically engaging with clients who are in a growth trajectory. They recognize that security is a component and function that requires their investment and time. And they are open to the idea of having interim services as they think about the long term build out of their company. And so that ideal profile is representative across most of the customers that we engage. And our goal of course, is to offer as many service lines as we possibly can in those short project based interactions. But oftentimes customers may come to us and only need one of the service lines as opposed to all three of them.
- [20:25]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
What is the biggest achievement so far in your business?
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MK Palmore
The biggest achievement so far is simply in starting the idea. I don't know about you, but as an entrepreneur I sat around for a long time, obviously long career in government service and then the time in the enterprise space. I've always wanted to start my own business. There was no perfect time. I don't know that there exists a perfect time. To actually start your own business from an economic standpoint, a personal standpoint. I made the decision to move on this because I'm mature enough to understand that I don't have an unlimited number of work years remaining. And I wanted to spend the time that I do have remaining engaged in something that I personally invested in and passionate about. And so that big move, or pivot as we like to call, is the idea of even stepping out on my own. I walked away from what I like to say was a very comfortable compensation package at one of the top companies in the world in order to start my own thing. And I'm grateful that I was in a position to do that. Whether or not I'm going to be wholly successful at it is still yet to be determined. But it was something I felt comfortable doing and I still, you know, I couldn't have gone my entire life without giving it a shot. So that's the place that I'm in at the moment.
- [21:34]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
And what is a lesson that you wish you knew before starting your business that you know now start sooner.
- [21:43]
MK Palmore
People wait a long time before they strike off on their own. Most entrepreneur, you know, it's taking a leap can be daunting. And taking that leap to strike off on your own, to do something that is unknown to you, can strike a lot of fear and uncertainty in you as an individual. But once you're on the other side of that and you're actually engaged, you recognize that it couldn't have happened any other way. So if you're out there and you're an entrepreneur and you're waiting for again those perfect signals, you're never going to get the perfect signals. It's just time to do it. Take action, give it a shot. Whether it works out is a whole other aspect of making those kinds of decisions. And even if it doesn't work out, at least the mindset that I'm taking, if it doesn't work out, you still have an extremely valuable experience having spent that time attempting to run your own business. And then you can take that. And maybe you need to go back to corporate for some time to sort of lick your wounds, as it were. But I don't think that that's going to be the case, certainly not for myself and for others. Give it a shot, Take that leap.
- [22:40]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
And what's working well for you now in your business?
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MK Palmore
What's working well is the team that I continue to assemble. I continue to surround myself with people who come from service oriented backgrounds. And that's a little bit of a key component or a pull through that I look for in most of the folks that I bring to the table. They don't necessarily have to come from the veteran space or have to having served the government, but they need to understand that mentality and at least come from a mindset of service. And having been in a position to identify those kinds of folks, that's been a pretty successful leap for me. I find that most of us come to the table just believing, hey, there's some stuff we need to get done. And that tends to wade through a lot of the BS that you typically experience in corporate settings.
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Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
And how do you create culture for your team and your business?
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MK Palmore
Yeah, that culture is around leadership. Everything that we do has a leadership focus. The people that we bring on board understand that every leader in my organization is first and foremost a leader, regardless of what vertical they happen to be leading. And so we're people focused, which means that we're always looking out for our people and their development. And as long as we do that, I'm sure that we're going to be successful.
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Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
Anything that we should know about your industry that we don't know especially, I want you to, if possible, tap in and around artificial intelligence.
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MK Palmore
Yeah, I'm bullish on AI and I will tell anyone that I had the benefit of working for again one of the largest companies on the planet that's at, quite frankly, the center of much of the AI transformational activity that's going on. And so I saw firsthand the level of interest I see firsthand as a business owner, the level of productivity that my team and I get out of using AI. And it's not all roses. Certainly there are certain aspects of the use of AI that we need to be circumspect about and diligent about the adoption of. And that's part of the component that we help organizations with in terms of the services that we offer. But I'm bullish on the, on the potential outcome because I've seen firsthand how it can change productivity for both individuals and businesses. And I love exploring and seeing where we can leverage the use of AI to make us move faster and to grow faster.
- [24:51]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
Talk to a younger you. What advice would you give to a younger mk?
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MK Palmore
Believe. Believe that it's going to work out. I've been particularly diligent about planning my professional outcomes and every one of them has worked out to my advantage, not necessarily in exactly the way that I had planned them, but there's nothing that I've done professionally that hasn't Been a huge win for me. The only thing I would give to, you know, advice I would give to my younger selves that believe in the process, stay the path and things are going to work out.
- [25:24]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
What have you not done in life that you dream about often that you would like to do?
- [25:30]
MK Palmore
Nothing. I've been able to do nearly everything that I, you know, and I look back on that young boy growing up in Washington D.C. i've done everything I planned on doing to include building and growing a wonderful family. I have no complaints. Things have worked out in a way that I have found my experience professionally and personally to be enjoyable.
- [25:51]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
And what do you need right now that you don't have to move the business forward?
- [25:57]
MK Palmore
We're trying to scale. Increasing the pipeline could be extremely helpful. So I'm looking for partnerships. I'm looking for opportunities to bring on new logos in the partnership realm. And so I'm looking for complementary businesses, businesses where maybe they think that the services that we offer at Apogee might be helpful for them to break into accounts and then vice versa. So I'm looking for partners and then always looking to add to the pipeline. Growth should be a first world problem. And I would love to have that problem of having too much in the pipeline. That way we could be more discerning around the clients that, that we undertake and where we really feel like we can be helpful.
- [26:32]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
I appreciate that. Let's talk about your why. I've heard someone say, if your why doesn't make you cry, it's not big enough. Why do you do what you do?
- [26:43]
MK Palmore
I do what I do because I understand that experience should be valued and that experience can be helpful to others if they're willing to listen. Being in the consulting and advisory space is someplace that I've always intended to end up. And I knew that my experiences over the course of a long career that I have would be helpful to people. And so my why is around. Helping others overcome their challenges through guidance. Tapping into the experience of me and others and helping other people is a thread that quite frankly, moves its way through the entirety of my professional career.
- [27:21]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
Fill in the blank. I am better because I am better
- [27:25]
MK Palmore
because I've had some failures. Every now and then I bump my head in the dark or bumped my knees, whatever analogy you want to use. And those failures always teach me something. And I take those and incorporate them into the things that I do in the future. I'm typically not one to have multiple failures of the same kind back to back. And I learn from every experience. So Those experiences have made me who I am.
- [27:50]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
And speaking of failures, talk about a failure. And what lesson did it teach you?
- [27:56]
MK Palmore
The biggest failure, if I want to continue to use comfort in that term that I had, is in shifting my focus around mission oriented accomplishment to people oriented accomplishment. Serving in the, in the U.S. armed forces and specifically the Marine Corps mission was oftentimes elevated above all, accomplish the mission, accomplish the mission, which is rightfully so. You're there to do a job, but taking care of people rides paramount over all of that. And there was a point in my career where I had to learn that value, that in taking care of people you will absolutely accomplish the mission and people will remember you more so for taking care of them than they will accomplishing the mission. So being very people oriented has been a benefit of a pivot that I had fairly early in my career. And nothing means more to me than having someone comment to me later that I was helpful to them in terms of their individual development or their professional development. And those things that I'll carry with me throughout my professional career, helping individuals rather than doing some amazing things for some institution that I happen to be working for.
- [29:03]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
If you lost everything and you had to rebuild in 30 days, what industry and why?
- [29:10]
MK Palmore
Well, it would definitely be the technology space because I think that our reliance on technology continues to grow and I think our adherence to and need for it will continue to grow. So it would be something in the technology space. If I lost everything, I would restart the steps there. And I don't know that it would be product focus. I think products are. It's a difficult time for technology products. Most of the big firms on the planet are the ones who are kind of taking up all the oxygen in the room there. But I would find some way to develop a service or product aligned to the technology space that, that I think would be suitable for growth.
- [29:47]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
Describe a moment when you were on the verge of giving up. What pulled you through?
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MK Palmore
That could have been yesterday or even six months ago. The thing that pulls me through is, as I stated earlier, I've been relatively successful at everything that I've undertaken. And I'm a believer that past performance is a indicator of future success. With that, in my background that I have been successful at everything that I've undertaken, I have every reason to believe that ultimately I'm going to be successful as a business owner. But anyone who started anything or founded a business understands that every day is like a roller coaster ride. So there are ups and downs, positives, things that give you indication that there's light at the end of the tunnel. And then there are things that set you back one or two paces. And so living in that environment is a little bit of a challenge. And I just need to get used to that, that back and forth of successes and failures all baked into one day.
- [30:44]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
Let's take a snapshot of the last 30 days. What was your biggest win?
- [30:49]
MK Palmore
Biggest win over the last 30 days has been a pivot in terms of the focus of our business. I started out with an idea that I would focus in on the commercial space very heavily and only some limited public sector work. And we decided recently to focus the vast majority of our efforts on public sector work. And that's been. I had indications or signal that that's the smarter decision for me at the moment. And so making that pivot and deciding and then getting my team focused in on that pivot has been our focus of the last month or so. It's still yet to be determined, but I think that we're going to be successful concentrating on helping public sector entities more so than commercial entities.
- [31:28]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
Let's talk about becoming mk. How are you becoming or do you feel you have became, you have finished that process of becoming?
- [31:39]
MK Palmore
I'm in continual evolution. As I indicated, I'm in a particular phase of my professional development. And while this may be the last phase of my professional development development as a human, it's definitely an evolution. It's something that will evolve over time. And when I come out on the other end of it, I'm sure I'll be a different professional than what I am today. My entire life has been again, I've been diligent about the planning of it. So it's been fairly focused on outcomes and planning around what I wanted to secure in the way of experiences and what I wanted to get out of those particular experiences. And to the degree that I can, that planning has panned out for me. So again, in this last phase, I have every reason to believe that that will pan out as well. But becoming me has been the aggregation of all of those experiences built upon one another. But I have, again, absolutely no regrets about the path that I took and the experiences that I've had. They've all led me to this point and I feel very comfortable in who I am as both an individual and a professional, because I think those are the aggregate of all, all of the experiences that I've had through life.
- [32:43]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
The audience that's listening to this podcast interview, what is their takeaway? What do you want them to take away from this Interview be people of action.
- [32:52]
MK Palmore
I have found that being a person of action has gotten me much farther in life than almost anything. And I hear that iterated from time to time by other professionals who have been successful. Take action. Take the steps you need in order to get the things that you would like to get out of your professional life. And if you can do that, whether you succeed or fail, you will be moving. And movement is the key in many different aspects of life. You got to keep moving, you got to keep changing, you got to keep evolving. If you're feeling stagnant, that's because you're likely not evolving, you're not challenging yourself. And I would say that is akin to me, to a, I liken it to death of a sort. So just stay moving, stay evolving.
- [33:33]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
And I want to ask you, if you conducted this interview, what is the one question you would have asked yourself? I want you to ask the question and answer it.
- [33:46]
MK Palmore
You've been pretty good about outlining questions. I'm not sure that I have anything additional that I would add. Been able to touch on many different aspects of my own personal development and professional development. I will say this. People may ask a question like what's been the one singular factor to your success? And I would say that singular factor has been grit and or resilience. I've been replicating that answer in a couple of different conversations that I've had recently. And resilience to me is an important concept because it allows us to understand that not everything is going to work out exactly the way that we planned it to, but that in understanding the need to be resilient, that you're capable of picking up the pieces and then moving on to the next thing. Resilience is key. And if there's anything I would ask a question around what's been that critical factor? And for me that critical piece has been resilience.
- [34:37]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
Let's talk about mental wellness. How do you take care of your mental wellness?
- [34:44]
MK Palmore
That's a great question. I'm at a stage where I'm not sure I'm the best person to respond to that because I am engaged in like a seven day effort, seven day, a week effort to get a business off the ground. But I do carve out boundaries and time. I have a good understanding of what my own limitations are. And when I reach those points where I think I need to disengage or pull back, I'm capable of doing that, you know, under my own steam. And I don't need much. Maybe it's only some Physical activity, like a run, or spending some time exercising, or spending some time on this acoustic drum set behind me, which you can't see because it's blocked. I know how to disengage and get myself re leveled. And I've been fortunate enough to understand that for nearly the entirety of my life. But wellness is very important and I would encourage people to understand what your own limitations are and to take advantage of those times where you just need to pull back and take care of yourself. And I would encourage people to do that in each instance where that's a need.
- [35:41]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
What feeds your soul what feeds my
- [35:44]
MK Palmore
soul is the possibility of success for my children. I have three kids and they are the center point of the life that my wife and I have built for ourselves. And they're now starting their journeys. They're at the age where my two sons are young men, adults, and my daughter still developmental stages, very young. But I look forward to seeing them be successful in their life's pursuits, whatever that happens to be. And quite frankly, that's a little piece of the motivation I use to get up and engage every day because I gotta be around to see them be successful. And when that happens, I'll know that I've crossed the finish line and will have seen and done everything that I needed to do.
- [36:25]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
Talk about marriage and entrepreneurialship.
- [36:29]
MK Palmore
Yeah, well, I just stated that I'm working seven days a week right now on trying to get my own consulting business off the ground. It can be very daunting. Luckily enough, I've started this during a phase in my marriage where we've been together for two decades plus. So I get a lot of leeway in how much time I spend from a business standpoint on the business. But I know that had I done this at an earlier stage in marriage when maybe our kids were younger, it would be infinitely more difficult to do that because, you know, I was very certainly hands on with my boys when they were young and hands on with my daughter when she was much younger. So I've been involved, you know, as a dad, I'm there to do my part. I'm not sure I could have done this and keep a marriage afloat earlier in my career because there's just too many moving parts.
- [37:13]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
Mk, what is your zone of genius?
- [37:16]
MK Palmore
That's a great question. My zone of genius is, again, in acting, getting stuff done, as I like to say. And maybe I wouldn't necessarily title it genius, but I would title it the thing that I bring to the table that I've seen others lacking in. I am someone who gets things accomplished and I do that through action, through affirmative action, through actively engaging in the problem and trying to identify solutions to it. While I've seen others sort of sit and talk in theory about what that action might look like, I am one to sort of pick a path and move in that direction. And that's helped me be successful in many ways in life. It certainly helped me as a, as a Marine, helped me as a young investigator when I was a young special agent in the FBI. It's helped me as an entrepreneur, and it certainly helped me in the commercial space develop a reputation for myself. So being a person of action is the space that I operate in.
- [38:08]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
MK what are you most proud of?
- [38:11]
MK Palmore
I'm most proud of my family. My wife and I are both professionals and we both went through and matriculated through a very tough professional track at the same time. We kept our family together and we're on the other end of this now, again on the cusp of seeing our children strike off and begin their own lives. And so I'm most proud of the time, effort, investment in building that foundation and what's resulted from it.
- [38:36]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
We've come to the part of our interview, it's called Rapid Round of Fun. I'm going to ask you a series of questions and I'd like you to give me very quick answers. If it's something you desire not to answer, feel free to say pass. Are you ready for the Rapid Round of Fun?
- [38:50]
MK Palmore
Let's do it.
- [38:51]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
What is your favorite comfort food?
- [38:54]
MK Palmore
My favorite comfort food is pizza. Oh man. I can't eat it because I'm. I'm continually on a diet. But if a slice of I think pizza is the most perfect food ever created.
- [39:04]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
The last movie you saw?
- [39:06]
MK Palmore
I'll tell you the last movie I rewatched that I've watched lots of different times. I had the pleasure of re watching Interstellar with my daughter and I'm a big Christopher Nolan fan and I've seen Interstellar multiple times. But it was interesting for me to sit down with her and watch the movie through someone who's both young, so some of the concepts probably flew over her head, but at the same time getting enjoyment out of seeing someone else watch a film that I I've derived an immense amount of pleasure from.
- [39:32]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
You relax. Doing what?
- [39:35]
MK Palmore
Playing the drums.
- [39:36]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
Your favorite singer or rapper?
- [39:39]
MK Palmore
My favorite singer is Sting. I've been a fan of Sting since the early 1980s and have followed his career. Seen him in concert multiple times. He stands heads and heads and tails above most of the competition.
- [39:52]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
For me, your favorite dance song.
- [39:57]
MK Palmore
Favorite dance song. I'm not sure that I have one in my prime. I would say in the 90s. So pick anything new jack swing era from the 90s and you'd probably be on par there.
- [40:06]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
For me, what food you eat every week no matter what beef, work out or hit the couch workout mk thank you so much for joining us on Black Entrepreneur Experience podcast. Before we let you go, share with our audience the best way for them to connect with you to do business with you. And feel free to leave all your social media handles.
- [40:28]
MK Palmore
Yeah, you bet. So MK Palomore, you can find me on LinkedIn under MK Palomore or you can visit our website at ApolloGlobalRMSIO and you can contact us through the site.
- [40:41]
Dr. Frances Arlene (Host Interviewer)
Thank you mk. That's a wrap.
- [40:42]
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