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Welcome to Energy 101 with Julie McLelland and Jacob Stiller. Join us on our mission to help raise the world's energy IQ.
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;21;08
Unknown
Welcome to energy 101. Today we have one of the Callide MVP's in the house, Yoshi, all the way from Midland, Texas. Welcome. Thank you for having me. So today we're going to talk about the field. We're going to talk about the industry and entrepreneurship as a whole. And who better? I'll send Yoshi sitting across from me Broly in a corner.
00;00;21;11 - 00;00;45;29
Unknown
So, I mean, you're past and, your whole build up in your career is just nonstop and so interesting. And anyone in our community, they already knows the story, but I would love to kind of walk through broadly like where you've been, where you are today, get that whole timeline. And, I have some questions along the way as we kind of go through this intro.
00;00;46;01 - 00;01;10;07
Unknown
But, starting in university, you know, how did that all end up going? Sure. So I went to the University of Texas. I graduated there in 2015. So I went there from 2011 to 2015 with my bachelor's in petroleum engineering, and I started working for Devon Energy out in the field. And I chose Midland as one of my choices for location.
00;01;10;09 - 00;01;31;12
Unknown
And the experience that I had in Midland was pretty great because I got to go on location. It was 20 minutes away from my apartment. The locate the pump tracks for 20 minutes away from my partner at the most an hour. So that was that was really fun. I was production engineer and then worked my way to work site supervisor kind of position for.
00;01;31;12 - 00;01;52;10
Unknown
I was under the mentorship of numerous consultants when working for the company, and then 2016 happened and what happened in 2016 and 2015. Timeline. Oil price took a nosedive and as a result, I was laid off from the company and I moved back to Houston in 2016 to look for other opportunities. And I grew up in Houston anyway.
00;01;52;12 - 00;02;16;09
Unknown
So in 2016, I was putting myself out there. I was actually putting myself out there in 2015. And what I mean by that is I built a LinkedIn presence. I would be active on LinkedIn, I would be actively networking with people, and I was preparing for what was the writing on the wall when 2016 or when the oil price went down?
00;02;16;12 - 00;02;53;03
Unknown
So I won the student paper contest in 2015 from the annual technical Conference and exhibition, or ATCC. So I won the international division for the bachelor's level, and that was over a Devin paper that I wrote. It's called Beaver Creek Unit Evaluation. So I had an internship with Devon prior to my employment, where I was working in the wind River Basin in Wyoming, and I wrote a paper along with a coworker and competed in a presentation contest, you could say, and I won that presentation contest.
00;02;53;05 - 00;03;20;14
Unknown
That achievement alone, actually, springboard did me to having an opportunity with university Lands because the former president of SPC in 2014, Jeff Spath, he was running a consulting firm for university lands called Texas Oil and Gas Institute. And once he learned that I won this competition, I was invited for an interview. And funny enough, I thought it was an internship.
00;03;20;16 - 00;03;51;17
Unknown
And so at the end of the interview, I was like, oh, I'm really excited. Is this an internship or a full time position? And he says, this is a full time position for a production engineer. And lo and behold, I got the job in week, and I worked for University lands for a couple of years, working as a production engineer, looking at 180 operators worth of data, of monthly production data, and developing technical studies to support the university land operators.
00;03;51;19 - 00;04;14;01
Unknown
So I would do field wide studies on artificial lift on reservoir engineering. And I published a number of papers on that at or tech. So that was that was 2016 through 2018. Then 2018 happened where, you know, oil price started going up a little bit. And I thought to myself, well, maybe it's probably time to go back and start working for an operator.
00;04;14;01 - 00;04;47;09
Unknown
So I chose Midland again, and I chose to work for endeavor Energy Resources in 2018, and they relocated me to Midland. I found the love of my life in Midland. His name is Ryan Yarbrough. He ended up moving there around the same time I moved there and we got married in 2020. So I worked for Endeavor from 2018 to around 2022, but found the love of my life, got married during Covid, and we made Covid as an excuse to have a small wedding and we got married at a puncture.
00;04;47;12 - 00;05;11;03
Unknown
So not surprised by a million people doing that. Yeah, so it was his idea where he said, let's get married at Elise. And I looked at him straight in the face saying, you're crazy. But two weeks later, a the idea grew on me, and I emailed the sole proprietor of Endeavor, and I was telling him that I found the love of my life in Midland, and I would like to get married to him at this point.
00;05;11;03 - 00;05;44;09
Unknown
Jack. And then he started this little proprietor, started talking about the history of the well. So with that being said, worked for endeavor from 2018 to 2022. And I thought to myself, well, I have seven years of Midland Basin experience, why don't I have some Delaware Basin experience? With that being said, I started working for Qatar in 2022 and then after working for co-chair in the Delaware Basin, I thought to myself, why don't I work for a larger company just to see what a larger major company feels like, having a large ecosystem.
00;05;44;09 - 00;06;03;17
Unknown
How scale? What scale looks like when you implement a lot of technology. So then I worked for Chevron, and then 2025 happened to where another downturn happened in the oil and gas industry. And I got laid off and I told myself, well, I worked for a number of companies. There has been a lot of feedback I've gotten throughout my career.
00;06;03;17 - 00;06;22;22
Unknown
Have you ever considered entrepreneurship? So, and I was the last person to admit that I'm an entrepreneur is kind of like an alcoholic that won't admit they're an alcoholic, but they're the last one to admit it. So I admitted to myself that I'm an entrepreneur and I decided to start Iron Lady Energy Advisor. So that's been going on for about a year now.
00;06;22;24 - 00;06;42;12
Unknown
All right. So you just spent five minutes covering your timeline. But it is so impressive and so interesting. And I think I kind of want to like go through it again and just ask all my dumb questions. Go for it. Cool. Okay. So going you went to UT for school to get into, oil and gas or petroleum, right?
00;06;42;15 - 00;07;01;10
Unknown
Right. Like when I think of Austin, UT, like I don't think there is a big majority there, studying that, like, what does that look like compared to somewhere like LSU, where you go to, ATC or Nape and they're full of like 50 LSU kids. Like, what are they, UT oil and gas kids. Petroleum kids look like petroleum kids.
00;07;01;10 - 00;07;34;20
Unknown
Petroleum students at the University of Texas, a small but mighty group. When I say small, I'm saying small compared to the rest of the university it has. The university has. The department has 600 graduates, undergraduates. So there's quite a few students that or that are in the university. But what I'm saying is, yes, there are quite a few students that that are outside of petroleum engineering, and they end up talking about why oil and gas is the root, is the cause of everything.
00;07;34;20 - 00;08;00;07
Unknown
It's the cause of everything negative. But they don't realize that university lands, for example, is where you get royalties from oil and gas production, and it funds the buildings in the University of Texas. So it's a different climate at University of Texas. But it you have a very supportive group that strives for energy education out in the department and outside the department.
00;08;00;07 - 00;08;23;23
Unknown
So we you learn how to be an advocate for your industry really early on when you choose petroleum engineering at UT. Right? You mentioned university lands. It's this acreage out in Midland. How exactly was this set up? And like, what is the point of it besides the money? I would recommend reading the book on university lands. I don't know the entire I don't remember the entire history.
00;08;23;23 - 00;08;49;19
Unknown
Off the top of my head. Is that a metaphoric book or an actual book? There's an actual book. There's an actual book on university land, on the permanent university fund. So many years ago, there was, there were there there's. But this has been a development of 2.1 million acres of land in the Permian Basin, and two thirds of it is leased out to over 300 operators.
00;08;49;22 - 00;09;08;12
Unknown
On and what it is calling university land acreage for oil and gas development. And the first well that was on that that was that was there was the Santa Rita. Well I believe and the Santa Rita. Well, was proof that there was oil and gas development, that it could be possible. That's on their acreage on there, I think.
00;09;08;12 - 00;09;29;16
Unknown
So that's like a historic site, like it is historic, but it's the, the well that every stock image copies of, of a good Ole wooden. Well that's crazy. And they're part of that. Maybe, maybe, I don't know, I, I need to look it up. I need to remember because that was proof that there is I mean, yes, there's oil in the Permian Basin.
00;09;29;16 - 00;09;46;11
Unknown
I mean, that's proof that there was oil in the Permian Basin. But also it inspired a lot of oil and gas development on university lands as well. No. Yeah. I actually took our little field trip, down there last year with TCU, and we were with a local ad man, and he was telling us a story about how to use to throw dynamite down a hole.
00;09;46;13 - 00;10;10;16
Unknown
And one time the pressure was so intense that the dynamite came back up and he had to catch it. And cut the wick so it wouldn't explode. Everyone. Crazy story. Yeah, just good Ole Ole Kan back then. Good Ole while carrying good Ole napalm for hydraulic fracturing. I mean, that's so crazy. Like, because what I understand is that they own all this acreage, they lease it out, whatever.
00;10;10;16 - 00;10;30;18
Unknown
But like, they're they're not actually sending their students out there. Like, I know, like, I feel like somewhere, like out in Lubbock or something, they have, like, a test rig. LSU has a rigs of some sort. And like I said, I'm traveling with TCU, with students like, and they're like looking at pump jacks and they're going on drilling rigs and effects and stuff like that.
00;10;30;18 - 00;10;56;16
Unknown
And it sounds like UT like, has that privilege but aren't utilizing it. I wouldn't say that. I would say UT has done a great job in terms of that, but they've used other avenues for that. So, for example, like there is the society, Petroleum Engineers, American Association of Drilling Engineers, the student chapters at UT, they would actively reach out to their alumni base in Midland to say, okay, a bunch of us juniors and seniors are coming out to Midland.
00;10;56;16 - 00;11;20;26
Unknown
Can we pop in at your at your rig and see what's going on and learn about production and learn about drilling. Learn about everything that we learned in the classroom. How can we apply it in real life? So there are different avenues for that. But I think that's a great opportunity to utilize the university land connections. Yeah, like you said, like real life examples, hands on learning.
00;11;20;26 - 00;11;42;27
Unknown
Like who doesn't agree with that, especially when it comes to stuff like this. Exactly. So straight out of UT, you went to Devon. So they are this big company I know in OKC. They're the big tall building right there. The ivory tower is the one, the one Ivory tower in OKC. It's like the biggest it's like the tallest tower, west of the Mississippi or something like that.
00;11;42;29 - 00;12;00;04
Unknown
Oh yeah. Good Ole saying good Ole saying okay, well hot take I saw or love it I love it. Yeah I think it's kind of cool. I really loved it. I think on paper, on paper it's like, yeah there's like this very cool local skyline. And then just like this monster ruining it. But in person I think it looks kind of cool.
00;12;00;11 - 00;12;22;03
Unknown
Oh loved it, I loved working, I was in the I was in that called the Ivory Tower, but I, I was in that Devon building in 2013 and 2014 during my internships and absolutely loved the facilities. I absolutely loved the view from, Oklahoma City. You could see from miles and miles up on the 54th floor. Yeah, it was great.
00;12;22;10 - 00;12;41;12
Unknown
Yeah. Okay. She's a weird but cool place. Yeah, but you were actually for Devon. I mean, besides the internship, you're actually working in Midland, you said. Right? Correct. I was working in the blood. So how does that work? How did they have their ivory tower in OKC? But all their money makers are in the Permian. Well, their core acreage.
00;12;41;12 - 00;13;08;07
Unknown
And you could look at their air presentations on what their core acreage is now. But yeah, core acreage is the Permian Basin. Like there. They would decentralize a lot of their operations to where or the decision making is, is casted to people that are boots on the ground that are working out in Midland or working out in the Rockies or working out in, the Eagle Ford, anywhere you name where the Devon operations are.
00;13;08;07 - 00;13;28;23
Unknown
And the decision would be like the people that are actually closest to the wellhead would influence the decisions. Right. When you're working for university lands, was that is that technically working for UT or it was working for the UT system. So like all the universities. But yes, I was helping UT make money. Okay. All right. And then endeavor and then endeavor.
00;13;28;23 - 00;13;53;28
Unknown
Yes. And that's in Midland. That's in Midland. So in these three businesses, and these operators are genuinely doing like the same thing. Or there were all different things just because there were different parts of the business in different acreage. So as a production engineer for Devin, I was working as a worksite supervisor. So in the field, every single day, learning about field things on a wrap rod pumps under my gas left, learning about ESP.
00;13;54;00 - 00;14;19;04
Unknown
Then I go into the office and work as a production engineer. Their field wide study is looking at large data sets, looking at different operators, data sets, how they record the data, what data is missing from different operators, what data they do have, and learning how to piece the puzzle. When you have two different operators that are right next to each other but their data source but but their data looks different.
00;14;19;04 - 00;14;38;28
Unknown
So you always wonder. You always wonder what are they doing that that's different? And that sparks a conversation that sparks a dialog with with different companies. Right? Yeah. So this whole endeavor, things after the downturn, though, that was after the downturn. That was in 2018. So let's I guess trickle back to that. So downturn is a word I hear a lot.
00;14;38;28 - 00;15;06;27
Unknown
And it basically goes to the oil market crashing or just being super low at some points. Super low crashing hiring freeze like anywhere, anytime. There's uncertainty for like now or yeah, anytime there's uncertainty. Well you wouldn't call this a downturn. You would just call this, a geopolitical tension hiccup a hiccup. Yes. Okay. So like, what's like a good price for oil, like 8090 or is this, like a big opinion?
00;15;06;27 - 00;15;36;04
Unknown
People I this is a big opinion people have. It honestly depends on what company you work for. And it depends on what you what your risk appetite is. So the company culture of innovation, risk appetite, what your existing assets are where you are in the development cycle of your asset. There's just so much that goes into it to determine that, okay, this is the oil price that is good for Iron Lady or some, some company that you can think of.
00;15;36;07 - 00;15;53;22
Unknown
Yeah. So you look at the scale, you look at like a five year, ten year chart of oil. Right. And just it's like slowly going up and then there's like the downturns that are very noticeable. Right. So there is like an average everyone like kind of understands whether they want it or not. So in 2016 it dips. Like how low does it dip.
00;15;53;22 - 00;16;14;10
Unknown
We're talking like zero. Like what are we talking about. It dipped like 28 or a dip like 2838 like $30. And I laugh at that now because Covid well when Covid happened that was like -37. Right. And everybody you know you see all these university students like with their heads sideways a little bit wondering what is going on.
00;16;14;10 - 00;16;31;03
Unknown
Like how can oil be negative if you round it up. It's like every five years, right? It's like 2016, 2020, 2025. So 55 almost like is this like, if you go back in the day or in the future, is this like what we're looking at? Like every five years you can just expect some dumb shit to happen.
00;16;31;03 - 00;16;52;00
Unknown
Or is it should it be more balanced? That's a really good question. I honestly, I think it depends on what is going on in the world. And I wouldn't say this happens every five years, because before the 2015 one there was 2008. So that was like a seven year difference. And I was like the housing crisis and the housing crisis was like the whole economy, the whole economy.
00;16;52;00 - 00;17;22;13
Unknown
Right? So honestly, the it really depends on what is happening in the world at the time. Yes. You're going to hear that. Hey, if you have a Republican candidate that is president, then you're going to lose your job. But if you have a Democratic candidate, then your salary is going to increase it. It really there's there's so many things that go into how often the cycles or the cycles are because who, who, who is going to predict Covid seems kind of dumb to me.
00;17;22;13 - 00;17;37;08
Unknown
It's like this is a commodity that we need and is always going up at the end of the day. So like, why are we all freaking out when it dips, when we just know it's going to go right back up? And like a few months or a year, like we don't know when it's going to go back up, right?
00;17;37;10 - 00;17;55;02
Unknown
That's the thing. And every day counts and every day kind of thing, every day does count. But and also it's people's jobs, right. And it's they don't have the money. They have to let them go, but then they can almost guarantee that they will be needed, you know, in the future, not too far away. But I guess it isn't as simple as that.
00;17;55;04 - 00;18;27;28
Unknown
It isn't as simple as that a lot. There's there's a lot that goes into it and, and people at different leadership levels are going to have different takes on it too. But you have to, sir. You have to answer to your stakeholders. You have to answer to your shareholders and if there was a series of decisions that were made that were high cost decisions, and then all of a sudden you have to make million dollar, billion dollar cuts to just to, to maintain, shareholder value.
00;18;28;01 - 00;18;51;12
Unknown
Then you it, it honestly really does depend on where the company stages and they're. Yeah. Do have a life cycle. Right. How are how did the small mom and pop places do during the downturns compared to these huge companies that have to make huge moves, they get to kind of like silently keep going in the background? It depends if they're public or private company, but if they're private mom and pop company.
00;18;51;15 - 00;19;13;20
Unknown
Yeah. Activity does slow down. Activity does slow down. And there you go back to your drawing board. You go back to planning. You go back to trying to figure out how else you can survive your mom and pop companies. Yeah, that's too much to deal with. It's a lot. It's a lot. And I say this because my husband, he worked for a mom and pop company right out of college.
00;19;13;22 - 00;19;33;18
Unknown
He worked for Hathaway, in Bakersfield, California. So he worked for a mom and pop shop. And when it was 2016, like, you still had to keep the wells going. You saw to keep the vertical wells going. He was working as a lease operator. And at the end of the day, you there was still work that had to be done.
00;19;33;18 - 00;20;06;08
Unknown
But you but you really had to look at what your costs were, where your costs were going. So one more downturn question. Sure. I was talking to Andrew Chan on one of my episodes, is a VC, and he was like, I am like one of ten VCs investing in oil and gas startups. And tech, which I don't. That sounds like a very hyperbole statement, but his point was that these downturns are the reason why, like VCs and, you know, this more modern stuff isn't being invested in.
00;20;06;10 - 00;20;27;23
Unknown
And as we will later transition into onto the entrepreneur side of oil and gas and energy, you know, what are your thoughts on that? Is that is that a hard way to raise money through, you know, capital and funds like that? I think depending on what is going on in the world, like there's a war going on, there's lots of geopolitical tensions.
00;20;27;26 - 00;20;55;18
Unknown
People are relatively hesitant to invest at the moment that that's what I've noticed. So from my experience of capital fundraising, that that has been the sentiment of like of VCs, not pulling the trigger in terms of investing yet now, because commodity cycles are going up and down, I wouldn't say that that is the reason for VCs to not invest in oil and gas.
00;20;55;20 - 00;21;20;09
Unknown
I would say that it depends on what is happening in the world or what is happening currently in the current ecosystem in, in geopolitically of that that's causing that's causing VCs to not pull the trigger. I don't think it's the up and down cycle. That's the reason why. Because you see the quite a few investment firms that do in I mean, that do invest in into oil and gas.
00;21;20;11 - 00;21;42;28
Unknown
Yeah. And I just find the statement ironic because like VCs will like invest in like the craziest stuff. I've been to stuff, you know, like the, like, science fiction, biotech sounding things. And I'm like, well, that sounds impossible. Meanwhile, like, collides here. Like, we got the the the proof, the like very interesting stuff. But I don't know, I just found it interesting.
00;21;42;28 - 00;22;02;17
Unknown
I didn't know how serious he was when he said that, but I know I mean, I'm sure he's being serious about it, but I would also say, but I have a different take on it. I have a different take on it because I've seen investments that come from proof points, and then I've seen investments that come from straight from an idea, and it depends on what else is happening in the world or what else is the flavor.
00;22;02;17 - 00;22;30;24
Unknown
Honestly, what else is the flavor of the month? Yeah. But but yeah, that that's that's my take on, that's my take on the commodity price investments. So getting back into the timeline, you know, your last stop before being your own woman was at Chevron. Before that we mentioned some names that, you know, might pique interest in some irony, which was like endeavor and call Tara and Devin, which yeah, diamond back into the mix.
00;22;30;24 - 00;22;54;05
Unknown
And you have two different mergers that have happened in my belt. What, last two years. Yeah. So if we start first with, endeavor, they're from my understanding, they're across the street from Diamondback. Yeah. They were literally. Yeah. Physical street there they were catty corner from the Diamondback building and. Yeah. And they, they got acquired in 20 2324.
00;22;54;05 - 00;23;13;12
Unknown
Yeah. Very recently relatively. Yeah. And what are your what is your I mean, you weren't there at the time, but like what's your takeaway is that was I predictable. Was that obvious. Was that surprising. And how has that age in the last few years. How is that going in your opinion. In my opinion? Well. It's kind of sad.
00;23;13;15 - 00;23;36;06
Unknown
It's sad. If you read the Wall Street Journal article that, Mr. Stevens wrote about, about selling endeavor to Diamond back or the, the acquisition that or people call it a merger or whatever you call it. It was kind of sad that the story of endeavor, had to come to a close. And there's a new story, which is the Diamondback story.
00;23;36;08 - 00;23;58;07
Unknown
So I it's sad that it had to end, but I'm also hopeful for the people that are in Diamondback that are that are working there. But how I feel about that is, you know, people are reluctant to change. A lot of people are reluctant to change. And you'll see a wave of people leaving companies and a wave of people coming into companies.
00;23;58;10 - 00;24;35;21
Unknown
That's what happens when mergers and acquisitions happen, like when people are not just reluctant to change, but there is a different culture. There's, a change in blended cultures. You evolve or you or you or you choose greener pastures for whatever is best for you. So I think that's also what happened in endeavor. And with endeavor in Diamondback, too, I've, I've heard multiple stories of people leaving the company or like connections that I knew at endeavor that just left the the new company, the new Diamondback and started searching for for greener pastures.
00;24;35;26 - 00;25;03;03
Unknown
Yeah. Makes sense. You mentioned Audrey. Audrey Stevens, I believe, is its full name. Yes, yes. So you met him. You worked with him? I didn't work with him all the time. I met him a couple times. Very nice man, very, very nice man. Very humble man. And he would every. Every day, 9:00 you'd be at his office reading the paper, and there would be a bunch of, well, logs in his office.
00;25;03;05 - 00;25;29;12
Unknown
He is the wildcatters, right? That everybody want. Everybody wanted to know the Audrey Stevens story. Yeah. I mean, he's. That's what I was going to say. He's he's a wildcat. The wildcat or he's a wildcat or like, there, there are these, like Michael Jordan's of the industry. Right. And it's these it's these guys who are out there poking holes back in the day and had become the legacy of what endeavor is one of many.
00;25;29;14 - 00;25;54;05
Unknown
Is there any other names that you like to compare to or appreciate? You know, not just a Michael Jordan's but the LeBron James? Like, who else is Bron James? Oh LeBron James. What other wildcatters are there. Wildcatters. Oh man. Or is Autry your man. Autry is someone I mean Autry somebody that I do look up to. He's the one who gave me a job in terms of I mean the in terms of endeavor.
00;25;54;07 - 00;26;12;13
Unknown
Lee. He's one who brought me back to Midland. He's the one who, you know, let me get married at a pump, Jack. Really? Just by emailing him, just by shooting him an email. And then he started talking about the history of the. Well. So I have I have a I, I have somewhat of a connection to Autry in that way.
00;26;12;16 - 00;26;45;01
Unknown
But other shout outs for wildcatters. There's there's quite a few that I can't even think of right now, but the one I'm thinking about is Harold Hamm from Continental. Building continental to what it is today. And now they're exploring globally. So there's always that, there's Mark Pappa from EOG. So the he, he's the one that really there's, there's a whole chapter in the new map from Daniel Yergin.
00;26;45;04 - 00;27;12;05
Unknown
It that it talks about EOG resources and how they've accelerated the unconventional boom year for the shale revolution. And there's like a whole story of Mark Papa on there, a George Mitchell. You know, the guy who the built up the Barnett of Mitchell Energy before it got acquired by Devon. So those are the those are the wildcatters I'd like to give a shout out to.
00;27;12;09 - 00;27;33;18
Unknown
And then there's always John D Rockefeller who founded University of Chicago as well. There you go. Yeah. He's invested into you. Chicago. You hit the list. Yeah. I don't know much about the EOG guy or Yogi in general, I guess, like, we just don't talk about it enough or they don't talk about it. Yeah, I they American.
00;27;33;21 - 00;27;52;22
Unknown
They are American. Okay. Yes. I mean like a whole like series because we have that old Wildcat, our series on our channel that we used to do, we used to hire like this really good writer. Yeah. Like write it all. And, Tim and Jake both not employees anymore, but commentate and, like, do the narrated narrative and I would animate and stuff and those are really good.
00;27;52;22 - 00;28;09;13
Unknown
Like they they still get views to this day because they're like these great evergreen recaps that like, like who else is on YouTube, like talking about Wildcat or history with like a high production. And I feel like we we missed the mark not covering that guy. What do you said his name was? Pop. Pop. Mark. Papa, Papa, Papa.
00;28;09;15 - 00;28;28;13
Unknown
But, I had to say that for another episode. Gets a deep dive on that. We brought all this up talking about the Endeavor Diamondback thing, but there's still a whole nother, acquisition that happened, which is the Katara and Devon. Yeah, which you literally worked for both. Both? For both. And this happened this year, like, within the last 300 days.
00;28;28;13 - 00;28;47;03
Unknown
Whatever. Two days. Yeah. So what is your opinion on that? Well, I've been asked that quite a bit, and I kind of knew which way it was going to go. I kind of knew that the larger company would take the name of the would take the name of the company. So I kind of knew it was still going to be Devon Energy.
00;28;47;05 - 00;29;06;25
Unknown
At least that was my opinion. That was all my opinion compared to like, Cortana. Yeah, compared to it. Like a mobile, like an ExxonMobil. No, it wasn't going to be a Devon Qatar. It was just going to be all on Devon, I thought. But other than that, they're I feel like there's a theme to that. Whenever I leave a company, something happens to it.
00;29;06;27 - 00;29;30;22
Unknown
As far as a merger and acquisition goes. But I find that really funny. But I, I thought it was a good decision to make. They complement each other's acreage quite a bit. Their development styles are pretty similar as well. The tools that they've used, the technologies that they use are also pretty similar when I've worked for both.
00;29;30;22 - 00;30;00;08
Unknown
So it you know, hindsight's 2020. No brainer that it would have happened. But it's also interesting. It will also be interesting to see where the where if there is a change or a radical change in culture or radical change in the company. What that would do to the people there is Katara and OKC as well, or based out of it co-chairs, but they have a office in Tulsa.
00;30;00;10 - 00;30;24;10
Unknown
Okay. So the Oklahoma guys. Yeah, the Oklahoma guys. You said Endeavor and Diamondback was kind of sad. Like, yes, but you didn't really have that same mood when we're talking about Devon and Katara. Was that that's a great question. And I think it's because there isn't a human element to it. There wasn't a human touch to it where with with the Wall Street Journal article and talking about with Autry Stevens, just reading that story was kind of sad.
00;30;24;12 - 00;30;41;21
Unknown
Just saying that there had to like there was there was going to be an end to it. With the Devon and Qatar merger, there's less of a there's less of a sad story associated with there. There wasn't a Wall Street Journal article, at least, that I've seen saying coming from clay gas bar, coming from Tom Jordan, like this had to happen.
00;30;41;21 - 00;31;04;15
Unknown
If that makes any of that makes sense. This is more mutual, this is more mutual and more of a strategic partnership in my opinion. Okay. Well, that brings us all the way back to the last job at Chevron, which I mean, having someone who worked for majors always interesting after working for these smaller operators, how does that all compare to the big one of the big ones like Chevron?
00;31;04;19 - 00;31;26;10
Unknown
It was definitely a change. It was a change because there were lots of systems that were in place that I had to figure out when I was working for independent operators. There was a lot of there. There were there was a lot of human elements into into Chevron's culture, which I appreciated a lot, like if you've heard of Hot Principles.
00;31;26;13 - 00;31;52;25
Unknown
And there were like 5 or 7 hot principles associated with it, like error is normal, blame fixes, nothing. Systems drive behaviors. In my head, I'm like, man, I wish someone told me that when I was working for an independent operator and I realized that there was a lot more grace that was given to human behavior, because there's a lot of data points, because there's over 40,000 people that work for Chevron.
00;31;52;28 - 00;32;15;15
Unknown
So I, I really appreciated that culture. I really like that culture, the human element to it, the how you get the result rather than actually getting the result, the the support system that you do have, as in, if you thought of an idea, there's probably something that's already been done. So just leverage what is already available in the company.
00;32;15;17 - 00;32;36;20
Unknown
On the other hand, there's always that question of, well, if everything has already been talked about and invented, then what? What can I bring to the table, too? There's always there's always that question that you, that you, that you bring yourself. So I like to consider myself I was kind of like a bull in a China shop because I would, I would be very direct.
00;32;36;20 - 00;32;59;23
Unknown
I would be very, I'd be very direct. Not that I didn't consider anyone's feelings, but I would just speak my mind or a lot at the time. And I would ask questions like, I had a leader that came up to me and told me, you are not typical. You know, you're not this typical company. Yeah. You ask questions, say you're making it sound like Chevron's like this huge operation, one of the biggest.
00;32;59;23 - 00;33;20;29
Unknown
But they manage to make it feel not like that. Like it's a huge operation. And no, no, there was definitely a family feel to it too, right? What you wouldn't expect? I didn't expect that. Right? I didn't expect that. It was a great company. Yeah. And there's like that motif of surrounding yourself by people who are smarter and, you know, be the dumbest person in the room.
00;33;21;01 - 00;33;37;27
Unknown
But you kind of contradicted that, saying that people love by saying, like every idea, I felt like they had already thought of. Right? Like, well, how do you balance? How do you balance that? Well, you kind of have to make it. You have to make it your own. What I'm saying is you don't have to. The beauty is that you don't have to start from scratch.
00;33;37;27 - 00;33;57;20
Unknown
You can leverage everything that has been done, but chances are that what has been done in the past may not have been, may not have been taken further to the next level, and you can be that person to take it to the next level. You could bring that person to tech to show it to the light. You could be that person that recognizes the person's hard work that was shelved, potentially.
00;33;57;23 - 00;34;24;19
Unknown
Love that. Well said. So after that, you know, there was another downturn, yada yada. Like yeah, we yeah we get it okay. We get it. Life sucks. Damn. And you are where you are now. And we'll get into that. But now we're past that. We're looking back at all these places you've worked. What is the advice you have for the student coming out of UTS, Petroleum Engineering, or someone who's leaving a small operator and wants to go bigger?
00;34;24;27 - 00;34;46;01
Unknown
How big do they go? Do they try to go to majors? Do they try to go for a Devin? What do you think is the right fit? For what kind of engineer, what kind of mindset? It's a hard answer to because it's hard to figure out in a 30 minute or a one hour interview on culture, you really need to figure out whether if there's a culture fit in the company that you're going to go for, should you make a move.
00;34;46;03 - 00;35;05;15
Unknown
So for a student at UT or a student anywhere at A&M, anywhere, the question I would ask is, what do you want to get out of the company that you want to work for? I know the first question that comes into the students mind is experience. So yes, there is experience, but then there's going to be something more than that.
00;35;05;18 - 00;35;27;07
Unknown
Do you want to be heard more? Do you want to do more technical work? Do you want to? Do you want to eventually do more field, more practical work? Do you then want to do more project management? Look at the levels of the company. Look at the investment relations presentations, the IR presentations, and look at how these companies communicate their results.
00;35;27;07 - 00;35;51;27
Unknown
And do you like how the companies communicate those results? And do you and then after interviewing people ask about the culture. And yes, they're going to put their best foot forward because at the end of the day, they also want to recruit you too. But listen for things that they do say, such as this is a culture of innovation, or that we're always trying new things like you can always speak your mind.
00;35;52;00 - 00;36;11;15
Unknown
I come to work every day really happy. Like asking those asking those hard questions is going to help you with whether the company is the right fit. It is less to do with the size of the company, and it's less to do with a lateral move. And it's more about it's more about the culture, in my opinion.
00;36;11;17 - 00;36;33;01
Unknown
Yeah. I mean, that's just good advice for any career choice, right? Yeah. And speaking of students, you know, I didn't go over like what you did after UT because that wasn't the end of your university stint. You went back for extra education. I did, and, logistically, it sounds insane. Can you tell the audience just why? Why did you do that?
00;36;33;01 - 00;36;55;04
Unknown
Why? What did you do? And why? What did I do and why? Well, when I work for University Lands, I had the inspiration to work with other technical experts in the industry, and they all had master's degree, so that inspired me. I always wanted to get a PhD actually, and I still have that dream of getting a PhD.
00;36;55;06 - 00;37;14;20
Unknown
But I thought, okay, well, why don't I go get a master's degree? And I don't want to leave the industry because the industry values experience. So why don't I get a virtual master's degree? Which is why I chose to go to A&M because it has a working professional degree program in petroleum engineering and I chose and I chose that program.
00;37;14;20 - 00;37;34;14
Unknown
I was inspired to ask a technical question, solve a technical problem in the industry. And I thought getting a master's degree, which it did work, getting a master's degree, helped me take a deep dive in, learn better about, about the problem that I was trying to solve and the problem that I was trying to solve was like drawdown management strategies.
00;37;34;14 - 00;37;58;11
Unknown
Like, how do you get the most recovery of out of the ground? And in, in the Midland Basin? Right, right. And then after that, in 2021, in 2022, I pursued a MBA at University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. So everyone calls it Booth or all the all the people that are familiar in the Chicago area for the MBA program.
00;37;58;11 - 00;38;19;22
Unknown
They call it Booth. So I went to Booth, and that was not a virtual program. Half of it was because they were still coming out of Covid. So I found a hack to where I would spend half of my classes virtually, and then the other half, I would spend ten weeks at a time traveling from Midland to Chicago.
00;38;19;22 - 00;38;38;08
Unknown
Notice that it's not a direct flight either. So ten weeks from hack. Some hack sounds like some hack the opposite of a hack. That's the opposite of hack. I mean, the hack really is you fly to Houston or you fly to Denver where the United hubs are, and then you go to Chicago. The hack is you give up and work at McDonald's.
00;38;38;14 - 00;38;58;17
Unknown
No, the hack is you suck it up, buttercup. Yeah, that's super motivating, but super crazy at the same time. And you did that right after being married, right? Yeah. Yeah. Right. To being married. You don't have kids, right? I don't have kids yet. God bless them. You. What did you want to know that. Oh, no.
00;38;58;17 - 00;39;17;27
Unknown
I do definitely want to know them. That is something that I do want in my future, right? Yeah. Well, that kind of brings us to maybe where we are now. Post Chevron now entrepreneur. You, you're doing your own thing finally, right? Yeah. So why don't we get to present day Yoshi. Future mother. Yoshi. What are we looking at?
00;39;17;27 - 00;39;36;28
Unknown
Life in Midland and what you're doing now? The entrepreneurship route was really a question. Kind of like dating. You never know what. You never know what's going to happen until you try it. And the worst that can happen is that it doesn't work out. So I wanted to do the entrepreneurship route because I was always told that maybe you should consider entrepreneurship.
00;39;36;28 - 00;40;01;15
Unknown
So I did. So I started Iron Lady Energy Advisors. Three days after I got laid off, I filed for an LLC. I started Iron Lady Energy Advisors. I was saying that I'm open to contract work, consulting work, business advising, data science, data analytics, production engineering, reservoir engineering, whatever. All my experiences that I've that I've had, I've put together, packaging that to consulting services.
00;40;01;17 - 00;40;29;18
Unknown
So that's where I'm at today in terms of accepting consulting work and then business development work and all sorts of all sorts of work that I can leverage my network off of and leverage my expert, my hard skills as well. And then for the future, well, future is always, I'm always open to different kinds of opportunities for Iron Lady Energy advisors, any kind of work that is related to petroleum engineering or business advising.
00;40;29;25 - 00;40;49;27
Unknown
More than happy to more than happy to partake in that as well. And I'm not being a control freak about it, honestly, when it comes to the entrepreneurship, I've really been enjoying it. There's always something to do every single day, and all I know is that I've been enjoying what I've been doing every single day, and and I think that's what's flattering.
00;40;49;27 - 00;41;13;22
Unknown
Nice. Has it been a year yet? It's going to be a year in July. Oh, you're going to celebrate I don't know, I probably should. That's a good idea. We're actually going to go to Wyoming in July. So yeah, I'll probably do there's a brew fest in Laramie, so I'll probably go celebrate there. Oh yeah. Yeah. You know, it's funny about being an entrepreneur because I, I was a freelance buff and I'm just the camera guy.
00;41;13;22 - 00;41;35;19
Unknown
Edit shoot, whatever. That's what I did before joining Clyde, as a full time gig, which any meet like, camera guy loves because like, that work is so inconsistent. You never know when your next meal is, but, technically an entrepreneur owned a business, LLC or whatever, and, you know, start it. And I'm like, well, I guess I do this forever, you know, till I die.
00;41;35;20 - 00;42;07;18
Unknown
Like, I don't know how big it goes or if it just gets consistent. But like, you know, that's just how how I felt. And then you meet other people who are entrepreneurs, business owners and stuff, and they're like, oh yeah, this is my seventh startup, or this is my, you know, fifth time at this. And it's like, how are they like standing here chilling, like knowing they failed, you know, multiple times and like, how do you there was almost this mindset of like, if you're an entrepreneur, the first thing you start will not be your last.
00;42;07;20 - 00;42;31;21
Unknown
And I mean, for in my scenario, technically it that's it's being my only one so far. But you're doing that right now, right? Like Iron Ladies is going strong almost a year now. Is it an end game or can you cope with like maybe having to transition yet again to something else? Well, I think Callide put it best on their sign evolve or die.
00;42;31;23 - 00;42;54;15
Unknown
I think based on what is happening in the world or based on what the needs are in the industry, I'm going to have to evolve with it. I'm going to have to adapt to it. But knowing that I built something to where I can serve the needs of other people or serve the needs to solve technical problems, is something that I can go to bed at night and and not lose a wink to sleep.
00;42;54;17 - 00;43;16;12
Unknown
Yeah, well, sad because it's not black and white like I put it. Like literally. Callide had a different name. We didn't have the product we have today. So technically it's like a second move. But yeah, it's all the same company, all the same founders, all the same money investment. So I think a little too binary sometimes. Yeah. Real quick.
00;43;16;16 - 00;43;45;05
Unknown
You brought it up twice now. Wyoming. You worked in Wyoming. You're about to go there again. What is your relationship with Wyoming? Oh great question. My husband went to University of Wyoming and he, he loves the mountains so. And I love the mountains, too, but I wasn't. Yeah. Who doesn't? But I fell in love with Wyoming in 2014 when I went there for, field trip to Riverton and most beautiful place in the world, in my opinion.
00;43;45;08 - 00;44;11;13
Unknown
And it was, it was just, ironically enough, I found, I found my husband, who also happened to live in Wyoming for school. So that's where the connection is. The connection also is where, you know, we love giving back to universities. So we've given back to UT and we've given back to University of Wyoming as well as as as part of our, as part of, as part of a gift that we've given to both universities.
00;44;11;13 - 00;44;34;08
Unknown
So. And Wyoming is home to a basin or two. Right. Powder River basin. Yeah. Shares that with Colorado or something. The DJ basin. Yeah. That one. I don't know the extent of the region. Yeah, but I believe so. Okay. Just keeping it energy related. I'm like, I never hear about those basins around here. There are multiple basins in Wyoming.
00;44;34;08 - 00;44;53;24
Unknown
So there's the big worm basin. There's the wind River basin, there's the powder River basin. But I haven't heard much about the JW up there. Okay. So at least basins like oil they gas are the older they're untapped tapped I don't like what's what's going on current day with these Wyoming basins. I can't speak too much to it so that they.
00;44;53;24 - 00;45;09;04
Unknown
I would say that they don't compete for capital compared to the wells that you get in the Permian Basin. Yet. Is it just like a bunch of small operators, just like a small operator, a pump jack, and they live right next to it and that's their life. Like that's what I'm picturing. That's what I'm picturing, too. And that's at least what I've seen.
00;45;09;06 - 00;45;29;10
Unknown
But I'm not saying that there isn't going to be a upsurge in the powder River basin. You know, there's a joke on Callide. There was a post that someone put like, is is the powder River going to letter buck? You know, that that's a saying like powder River and then letter buck. Okay. University of Wyoming. So okay. So it sounds about and the consensus shows it just us to that.
00;45;29;10 - 00;45;52;15
Unknown
Not a lot going on over there. Not a lot going on there yet. Yeah. All right. There's always there's always excitement I'm I'm I'm always talking about Australia and what they're doing up there. And you know there's always new discoveries to be found. And then talking about locations, you know, all these things we're covering and your timeline in the last decade, you're mostly operating out of Midland.
00;45;52;18 - 00;46;14;06
Unknown
And now that you, your your own business, your own person, you're still in Midland. You can you can go wherever you want. It's your company. Why are you in Midland still? Why are you in that wasteland desert nobody cares about? Because it's not something that nobody cares about. It's like, that's a double negative right there. But I would say that I think there's a lot of people should care about Midland.
00;46;14;06 - 00;46;34;00
Unknown
I'm a huge Midland booster. I am I, I chose to move to Midland for the development of my career. It's where you it's where you get a lot. It's where a lot of our energy comes from. It's where a lot of job opportunities are there. It's where you can raise a family there. It's it's also expanding, too.
00;46;34;00 - 00;46;53;26
Unknown
There's 194,000 people in Midland now. So there's quite a few. There's quite a few folks that are living in that Midland Odessa area. I really like Midland because there's a lot there's still a lot of work that needs to be done, like if it's not oil and gas related. There's also education. There's also nonprofit work. There's also, you know, being a voice for the voiceless.
00;46;53;26 - 00;47;14;09
Unknown
There's like there's there's a lot that needs to be done. Midland has like the highest number of nonprofits per capita. So that just shows you like it's a very giving community. And people want to get back, whether if they're from there, they're not from there. And you can you have just about everything that you need in that in the town.
00;47;14;12 - 00;47;35;09
Unknown
I like Midland. Every time we go, I'm, I'm trying new things. It isn't like it's like a strip mall with like a bunch of fast food, like there's little pockets everywhere. There's development there, you know, it isn't all just like centrally located. It's kind of like Houston. Like people not from here think it's like a shithole to. But it's like it's super cultural.
00;47;35;09 - 00;47;55;23
Unknown
Diverse, right? There's little pockets everywhere. You don't just go downtown and be like, that's it. Like, there are so many little places. And Midland is really broad and expansive and like you said, almost 200,000 people. Like, there's a lot going on there. And I'm on your side. I'm a I'm a midland booster. Thank you. Appreciate that. All right.
00;47;55;23 - 00;48;24;28
Unknown
Well let's kind of get into the tail end of all this. And you know, you're not just all in on your own Iron lady startup. You are kind of collaborating with other people. Like, for example, we had you on a power hour with one of the founders. If not, like I stuff, founder of OP Tsai. Yeah. And so obviously someone who's smart enough and tapped in is touching the AI side of just everything in general, but specifically in energy.
00;48;24;28 - 00;48;53;01
Unknown
There's so much opportunity to work with anything from the automation on the hard physical labor on rigs, to the insane data collection that has to do with energy, safety, you name it. Right. So what are you doing exactly with optics? So I work as a chief growth officer for OpEx, and we are we're always evolving to as well.
00;48;53;03 - 00;49;16;23
Unknown
So what we've developed is an app that is a think tank. Really, if you are a lease operator that is working in the field that hasn't had prior experience and doesn't know how to fix their wells, you can ask the app on how to how to fix your wells. So it's a think tank and it will generate a list of things for you, like your own work over procedure on how to fix your on how to fix your well right.
00;49;16;26 - 00;49;40;13
Unknown
So it's recording the conversations. We've also worked on alarm rationalization as well. There's 5000 alarms that are in an integrated operation center. How do you streamline that to three main things that I need to worry about. And I get those 2 a.m. calls that to go out on location. Right. And do you deal with like customers or selling or anything on that side?
00;49;40;13 - 00;50;00;29
Unknown
I deal with customers. Yeah. So what is your answer to the painful question that we deal with that collide all the time, which is, is this like some kind of GPT wrapper or, you know, like where is the data coming from? Are y'all, you know, describing to them, hey, we didn't just like Google a bunch of things and feed a database like no foundational.
00;50;01;00 - 00;50;21;28
Unknown
What's your secret sauce? Oh, the development of the foundational model has been like industry knowledge, right? The foundational model has been like the fundamentals, like what you get from your petroleum engineering textbooks. I mean, I mean, of course, like, it's actually surprising seeing the way GPT and Claude and all the language models have learned the industry. And you can say the same thing.
00;50;22;00 - 00;50;47;05
Unknown
You say the same about any like the medical industry or lawyers. Like you can actually get genuine, good, deep sounding answers out of these models. But at the end of the day, OPEC's and Callide, you know, we are building the foundation with our actual data and source to, you know, keep up with just translating to what is real talk for these people.
00;50;47;07 - 00;51;06;12
Unknown
Speaking of like there's that's one app, Callide is another. The way we were working with like regulatory filings and a lot of other boring, unsexy stuff. You know what? What exciting things are you seeing on the AI side of things and energy? And, whether it's right now or what you can expect in the future, in a few years?
00;51;06;14 - 00;51;32;20
Unknown
Oh, I see a lot of potential with artificial intelligence, if it can be used correctly. And what I mean by that is people taking AI outputs off of face value and not knowing that I can also hallucinate as well. So I see end users trying to refine their models, refine the refine the foundational model, or refine their what how you're training your AI.
00;51;32;23 - 00;51;52;02
Unknown
So I see people being smarter with AI in what AI is. That's what I see in the future. Another thing I see in the future are, yes, there is going to be development of data centers, and you're going to have people that have a lot of mixed feelings about data centers. But I think there's going to be a lot more democratized education on artificial intelligence, rather than something that's really scary.
00;51;52;04 - 00;52;17;20
Unknown
That's where I fluency becomes really important. What do you mean by that? What I mean by AI fluency is like knowing what's in the black box, like having a background and having not the major in statistics like in university, but having a having a basic understanding of statistics, having a basic understanding that generative AI is predicting what you're going to say next, like when you're typing your emails and you see that gray text that's generative AI.
00;52;17;28 - 00;52;45;09
Unknown
Yeah, I'm not a fan of that. That's like the only overkill side. Yeah, of the products. But what about energy specifically? Like what? What kind of sounds like a dream right now. But in 5 or 10 years will be like in the works or maybe even fully deployed. I think what is a dream right now is and this was asked in a panel that I was in, but getting a development plan approved using AI, which would typically look like what?
00;52;45;11 - 00;53;08;14
Unknown
Well, what a development plan looks like is you look at an asset, you look at the history of the asset, you look at where you were, other acreage you need to develop. You look at the zones, how and how you're going to develop them. And then based on that, you develop a package, a package of wells that you're going to, that you're going to approve.
00;53;08;16 - 00;53;33;24
Unknown
And through the approval process, you're going to need buy in from reservoir geology drilling, production facilities, completions, man, and then managers of all of them. And then you have the vice president approving this package. So this can be ranging from 50 million to $100 million worth of a package. But imagine not necessarily having fewer eyes to look at it.
00;53;33;24 - 00;53;55;14
Unknown
But in developing the work of, of of developing a package, get AI to do it, I don't know that that's something that I think would be pretty cool to do. That sounds doable. It sounds like something is going to do I think it's going to do in the future. I'm not saying a off of internal knowledge AI that honestly is or may be something we're doing it like.
00;53;55;15 - 00;54;14;25
Unknown
It just sounds like in our wheelhouse. What would this product be using, like the public data available, or would they do their own, like ANP work? It'd be a mixture. It would be a mixture of public data, and it'd be a mixture of internal data. Yeah, I guess it sounds like something like the well, database guys would do to if not, again, something they probably already do.
00;54;14;25 - 00;54;34;17
Unknown
I mean, if you can get a development plan approved, like what used to take weeks to do or a couple days, a few days to do, and if you can get that done in an hour, imagine how fast developments are going to be. Yeah. Well, if you want to be Richard and Jeff Bezos, write that down. That sounds crazy.
00;54;34;20 - 00;55;00;10
Unknown
And possible, scary enough. Let's wrap this up with, I want to talk a little bit about collide, which I already mentioned a bunch of times, but specifically collide and the, the energy folk on social media. So, a lot of people know your face. They know your story because you're very active. You're active on collide, our community platform.
00;55;00;10 - 00;55;27;11
Unknown
You're active on LinkedIn where, you know, surprisingly enough, according to this huge data set, I, studied for like, marketing purposes, oil and gas appears to be the number one, industry on LinkedIn. So we're kind of like which makes my job easier because like the audience is already there. Like, I also have the posts on TikTok and Instagram where that is not the major, but, it's kind of like perfect.
00;55;27;11 - 00;55;51;00
Unknown
And, you know, ten years ago, I don't think LinkedIn was full of all these oil and gas dudes, like taking selfies on the rigs and asking for work and stuff like that. Like, what is your whole perspective on social media in the industry and collide and what just kind of like give us a free endorsement, add on, like maybe what you like about us and why you chose to be active on our on our community.
00;55;51;03 - 00;56;19;21
Unknown
I chose collide because it's curated to oil and gas, and it's curated to an audience that is focused on oil and gas, where LinkedIn. That is cool that it makes your job easier, that oil and gas is number one. That's news to me. But I also felt like LinkedIn attracted multiple industries to a point where maybe the voice gets diluted or is in collide, the voice gets more concentrated because there's an audience of oil and gas, folks that are just as interested, if not more interested in the content that I would be developing related to oil and gas.
00;56;19;23 - 00;56;38;04
Unknown
But I have a whole book related on social media and oil and gas. In fact, it's coming out in July of 2026. It's called Fueling Impact. So how I've developed my brand for like 15 or 16 years and, it and like why it's so important to develop your brand in the oil and gas industry, your, your personal brand.
00;56;38;08 - 00;57;00;14
Unknown
But I think collide is really good at developing people's personal brand, because it's a good way to get people's name out there. It's a good way to share knowledge. It's a good way to develop the enterprising high that you probably that you guys are probably working on. And, I, I really, like, collide. I really thought it helped me get my name out there even more, and it helped.
00;57;00;19 - 00;57;21;15
Unknown
It helps other people as well to, to get the answers that they need when it comes to a technical question or when it comes to just getting help from an oil and gas community, it's just a good way to bring people together. Yeah, and I learned something recently on a podcast that I'm assuming in the space time of how things work, this episode will already be out.
00;57;21;17 - 00;57;48;26
Unknown
But I realize, like when you're on somewhere, like collide or even LinkedIn's fine and you have all these connections and stuff, you're able to, you know, come in to Houston for the first time, coming from Alberta or from Pennsylvania and what I essentially analogize is like, you download like 100 people where it's like you come into a city where you have no friends or anything, but technically this community that you're connected to.
00;57;48;28 - 00;58;09;12
Unknown
And so it's like, hey, let me go on to Callide or LinkedIn and reach out to these people and they'll invite me to, you know, get me into an event or meet me at the bar, go to their house for dinner or anything like that, like the end of the industry. So like community focused like that, that that's actually possible to do.
00;58;09;14 - 00;58;43;02
Unknown
And it's so cool that like the, the social media is actually doing the social part. Yeah. And helping you out and which helps your career just helps you not be lonely and isolated. And it's like, incredible. Exactly. You do correct topics like that in your book. In the topic like that, I don't necessarily talk about collide, but I do talk about the importance of social media or the importance of building your brand, how to be comfortable with posting, how to be comfortable with sharing your story, and just knowing that visibility is part of the equation.
00;58;43;04 - 00;59;01;24
Unknown
To, to help you get to where you need to be. Yeah. And, I always hear, like like I said, ten years ago, people weren't on LinkedIn talking like this, like you were there ten years ago on LinkedIn. Were you? Yeah. So like, you saw the shift of like LinkedIn becoming the more casual. Yes. Not so like sterile.
00;59;01;25 - 00;59;20;01
Unknown
Yeah. Platform. What was that like? And where were you? Part of the reason it transitioned. I have no idea if I was part of the reason that it transitioned, but I will say that, as I have used LinkedIn over the years, I've gotten more comfortable in sharing my story. I've gotten more comfortable, but I've seen a lot more people being comfortable, too.
00;59;20;03 - 00;59;38;25
Unknown
So I think it was like a group. There's a group shift, and I also think Kovit had something to do with it too. Where people are, people are all right. Humans are social creatures. And like when you're told to not interact with people or stay away from them six feet away, you know what? Where else are you going to turn to?
00;59;38;25 - 01;00;02;04
Unknown
And it's probably going to be to social media. So there's probably a shift due to Covid that caused people to be more casual on LinkedIn these days. Yeah, and a reason that gets people to get married in front of pump jacks. Exactly. Well, why don't you kind of, end it with, you know, staying on, like, your book and this whole brand that you're so aware of, like having a personal brand.
01;00;02;04 - 01;00;20;23
Unknown
And like I said, people, a lot of people in our community know your face and know your story because of a brand that you built. So what is your strategy? What are you trying to tell people in this book to replicate what you do? Like, what's the best takeaway is the funny thing is, I didn't come into building my personal brand knowing that I was going to build a personal brand.
01;00;20;23 - 01;00;49;13
Unknown
I was told that I had a personal brand two years into my career. But the fact that I was really active on LinkedIn, active on all social media platforms, and this lady came up to me and said, you do know you have a personal brand, right? And, that really threw me off. And I was confused. But as I thought about it, I realized, man, all this time of posting on LinkedIn was really just trying to show how employable I am and like, trying to I was just trying to survive and get a job after the downturns.
01;00;49;16 - 01;01;12;20
Unknown
So for me, it was less about trying to, you know, build a brand per se as a strategy and learn how to be visible on all platforms, learn how to craft my story so people can resonate. And because that's what's going to happen in an interview, when you share your story or when you share your experience, someone in the interview is going to resonate with that.
01;01;12;22 - 01;01;32;12
Unknown
You need to learn people's communication styles. You need to learn how to adapt to people's communication styles and things like that. So the book does cover that. The book covers the like all the experience, like you come home from a from the rig. How do you so like garnered the energy to sell post and to still fly to Chicago?
01;01;32;12 - 01;01;50;20
Unknown
Yeah, fly to Chicago or, you know, craft a story about being on the rig and talk about your and just talk about yourself and feel comfortable talking about yourself because I this is the first sentence of my book. I'm going to tell you something that you don't want to hear. Meritocracy isn't the only way to make it. Or isn't.
01;01;50;20 - 01;02;16;05
Unknown
Yeah. Isn't the way to make it boom. Yeah. And where's my signed copy? Oh, they'll come all right. They'll come. All right. Well, that's about it. You know, tomorrow night is an exciting night. You were going to sushi with Chuck? Yes. Which is, You know, Uchi is an esteemed Austin based sushi restaurant owner. American. One of the few American sushi sushi chefs.
01;02;16;05 - 01;02;41;08
Unknown
Tyson Cole. Do you know the law behind that? I don't know. Oh, he's like, one of, like, whatever's considered, like, master sushi chef. You know, they say it takes like, ten years or whatever. Like, yeah, he's one of the few Americans, if not, like, the only. And he's the guy behind Uchi. Nice. So we have a location here in Houston, and Chalke loves bringing people there to wine and dine, but we actually have this special tier on a doghouse, which is like our merch for our make believe currency.
01;02;41;08 - 01;03;02;26
Unknown
On a community side of collide, that Yoshi has hustled our way to the top to earn it and get that date with Chuck. So she gets to go there and enjoy some of the best dining you can get in this city. With one of the most centric men you can imagine, and he he can tell his stories to you as he has already in the past, to you.
01;03;02;26 - 01;03;21;27
Unknown
And you get to hear him over and over again and say, okay, grandpa, thank you. You excited for it? Okay, Boomer. Yeah, but Boomer is an understatement for Chuck. What do you what are you genuinely looking forward to? I'm generally looking to hearing his stories. Like when it comes to investment, like private equity investment banking like that side of the story.
01;03;22;03 - 01;03;51;05
Unknown
But then I'm also interested in hearing, his stories from the industry. Just, like, not just like, the advice that he's going to give and I want to hear his war stories, I really do. Yeah, yeah. He, I'm never going to get that side out of him just because I don't approach him. And that angle. But, you know, he's been doing some he's back on, you know, like here he is is up and downs in life and he is he is on a whole new chapter and he he's talking tech bro.
01;03;51;05 - 01;04;10;21
Unknown
He's talking software seller. And it's so funny seeing him because I've known him for like six years. So, you know, it's funny seeing a man like this like adapt and stay on top. And he's like back in his prime. It's like Tom Brady coming back out of retirement. Wow. The Tampa Bay. So, Yeah, I hope you enjoy it.
01;04;10;23 - 01;04;35;06
Unknown
Well, I see you hustling to earn. Knows what's to get, to get that dinner. And I may or may not show up tomorrow. Get some pictures. Sounds good. All right, Yoshi, thanks for coming in today. All the way from Midland just to see me and nothing else. Oh, thank you.