What if your CMMC compliance could be built on proven experience rather than guesswork? In this episode of Trust Issues, Brandon sits down with Nicholas Bakewell, Director of Information Security at Acuris Aerospace and Lead CCA at Redwood Cyber Services, to explore what CMMC compliance actually looks like from the inside, how to move from documentation theater to real security, and why the first step isn't buying tools - it's understanding your data. In this conversation, Nicholas shares hard-won insights on navigating assessor discretion, building defensible security programs with Microsoft's ecosystem and the critical mistake most organizations make before they even start. Turns out slow, deliberate planning is the way to go because slow is smooth and smooth is fast!