We recently had the chance to connect with steve samuelian and have shared our conversation below.
steve, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
I am very proud of my family. Family comes first and
My wife and I could not be more proud of our two sons. Both of our sons are recent graduates of the University of Southern California. Their hard work and determination was instrumental to their academic success at USC. They both also were very involved in on campus activities and made life long friendships during their time at USC.
We are proud USC parents and it brigs us happiness to see our sons grow up to be the young men that they are today.
The Trojan family and alumni network played a critical role in their job search and both of my sons had job offers before they graduated. My wife and I are very proud and find great joy in the success of our sons as they launch their careers. A parents true happiness is seeing the success of their children.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My wife and I founded California Consulting, Inc. almost twenty two years ago. Our company is a grant writing and grant reporting/grant administration company. We started with zero clients and zero staff members. We are not a team of more than 45 talented and hard working team members. Cal. Consulting has contracts with approximately 250 public agencies including many Cities, School Districts, Counties, Special Districts, and others.
Our grant writers have written more than 1600 grant applications that have been funded for our clients. With steady year over year growth every year our team goes above and beyond to assist our clients with all of their grant needs.
We focus primarily on writing federal and state grant applications for our clients.
Now more than ever public agencies are turning to Cal. Consulting to fulfill their grant writing and grant administration needs.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who taught you the most about work?
My clients teach me every day about our work. Listening and learning every day is critical to what we do at Cal. Consulting. Nobody knows a city better than the city leadership team. Nobody knows a school district better than the District leadership team. Our goal is to listen to their needs and match their needs with applicable grant opportunities that fit those needs.
Once we have matched the grant to the need we must write an effective top shelf grant application that coincides with the scoring rubric laid out by the federal of state agency. We collaboratively and closely with our clients to draft applications that will score high and be very competitive.
What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
Several defining words come to mind that I use every day in my business and my life. Treating people the way you would like to be treated is significant and not cliche. If you treat people respectfully, honestly, and with integrity 99% of the time they will treat you respectfully and with honesty and integrity.
Another axiom that I have found to be very true is to never get too elated and happy when things are going well and to never get too down or pessimistic when things are not going well. In any business there are ups and downs. Keeping an even temper and neutral demeanor is critical to success in my experience owning a Company. Another way to say it is, things are never as great as they seem and never as horrible as they appear.
The camaraderie at Cal. Consulting is superb. We have a “team” approach and we all help each other and truly care about our clients, our work, and each other. All of our team members share a common spirit of respect and treat each other with dignity while we work hard every day to meet our clients expectations. If something goes not go perfectly there is not any finger pointing or blame assessed we move forward to resolve the issue and ensure steps are taken to make sure it does not reoccur in the future.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Whom do you admire for their character, not their power?
I would say all of our team members at Cal. Consulting. Our team members have high character and values. They take their jobs personal and have pride in their work. Our team wants to produce a high quality product because they know public agencies are relying on them and their expertise. I admire our team members not because they are “powerful” but because they are dedicated to a common mission and have pride of ownership in their work product. I am honored to work with high caliber very intelligent people who also have high character and values.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: How do you know when you’re out of your depth?
Easy question. When I am staring at a 150 page federal grant application that a client has just hired us to write I immediately know it is time to call upon one of our Senior experienced grant writers. My philosophy has always been to hire the best people and let them use their expertise to complete the task at hand. Also, to provide the tools and resources to help to the team if they need assistance.
No one is an expert in every field. Grant writing is a unique industry and requires unique expertise. For example, writing a grant application greenhouse gas emission reduction takes a different set of skills than writing an application for a police department about another technical matter such as automated license plate readers.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.californiaconsulting.org
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