Latest / Under Pressure: Compressor Talk / From Homeless to CEO: John Fernando's Inspiring Journey

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From Homeless to CEO: John Fernando's Inspiring Journey · Under Pressure: Compressor Talk

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: This is Under Pressure, Compressor Talk by Midwest Compressor.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: Strategies, systems, and stories from the compressor world.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: With your host, David Abshire.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: And now, on to the show.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: This is David Abshire with Under Pressure Podcast.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: This morning we've got John Fernando.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: John, thanks for being on with us this morning.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you for having me, David.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, John, we'll we'll jump right in.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: So you've been in mineral and land business since you were 19 years old, and you've been in multiple industry booms and busts looking back over your yearly near three decades.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: What keep pulling you back into this industry through all the ups and downs over your career?
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and I got started in the oil and gas business.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I what started me was uh I used to fork caddy for the oilmans, and I just remember how great they would all at all the c golf tournaments that were at Dorna Keels were they were the ones who gave the way the most golf balls to the kids.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so that kind of intrigued me.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I started running my family's minerals after when I got into when I was 19, and then you know, I didn't even know it was a business.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I ended up working for RD Williams in my lower 20s and just really I didn't really like running title, but I liked the I liked the leasing side of it.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, absolutely.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: So one of the most incredible parts of your story when you launched Craftsland's acquisitions, you were from a brand new company to more than 160 employees in just a few months.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: How did that growth happen so quickly for you?
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: It happened because, well, I've been trained a lot on leadership as far as and when I got started, it's I I was I was the way y'all got started, I was working down in the Barnett Shell and ended up really having successful numbers there for um a group called Cimarron Field Services.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I ended up there was there was was one big lease that we had to get.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: We were doing uh rules rule 37s, which were trespass tracks, and we delivered, we had to get 167.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: We ended up getting 166.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: The in-house landman for Chesapeake said told me to go ahead and just go to the house and and stay there until I got it.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just took it literally.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: So he called me after about 45 hours and was like, he goes, Have you seen him yet?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, he's he hadn't come yet.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, he's probably coming at night.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: I said, No, he hadn't, because I've been here for 45 hours straight.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I ended up staying at that house for about 73 hours and had everything you needed to sit in a car for that long.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: And there was a gas station close by, but we ended up getting that lease and he asked me to start my own company.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then I just took what I've learned in leadership through a couple things that I'd done in my life, and we just started to grow it and scale it.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Ended up getting real blessed to get on with Gulfport Energy, and um it scaled from that point.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Then we went down to the Permian.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that I knew I had to be in the Permian for the land service to actually make it over the years because of the liftoff cost.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: The Permians was substantially lower than any other play in the entire nation.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew I had to have an office there.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that was our main headquarters, and we continually have had work done in the Permian.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Nice, nice.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: So you you've shared that before becoming a successful entrepreneur, you were actually homeless and struggling with addiction in your twenties.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: What changed in your life that completely altered the trajectory of your career?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I struggled with oxycotton and I was kind of I was couch surfing homeless.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't living under a bridge homeless, but I went to a ministry that's uh kind of a rehab, but it's kind of it's kind of like a Christian boot camp, but at the time I wasn't a Christian.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I ended up becoming a Christian and it was extremely difficult.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: They ended up teaching me a lot of discipline.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I got in trouble one time and they handed me a pair of scissors and a ruler, told me to cut a one-acre field to three inches.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was my discipline.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but I got mentored by them and they taught me the leadership that I mentioned before on the first question, and it made it to where I just they really understood authority.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, which is why when I got into the workforce, I hadn't for 182 days I stayed at this facility and just it it wasn't luxurious.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was 92 guys living in a 5,000 square foot house, and I slept on the floor for the last three months.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: And but when I got out in the workforce, I was and we and I also kind of perfected sales because we sold uh banana nut bread pretty much on a corner to support the ministry.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I got out and they were gonna finally pay me, you know, they're gonna pay me$275 a day.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it was a blessing to me.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody else griped about it, but for me, it was like, golly, I'm finally getting paid.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't have to stand on the corner.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, air conditioning.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I just took that and and ran with it and took the teachings that they've taught me.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And and there's a whole lot that can be learned when you take away all the distractions.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I had no phone, no TV, no newspaper, and it was a h it was 100% of my time for 182 days, pretty much devoted to helping other people.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: So when I took that, took it to the job force, it rose, you know, I was working seven days a week and only getting paid five, but so my numbers would be the highest just out of just compute pure competitiveness.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that got me to that um the uh the trespass track, which was called SWAT team back then.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I got to, and we did a a hundred percent job.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: We were only supposed to deliver sixty percent, but I was like, if we're gonna do this, what's delivered at a hundred?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we did, and that got me to where I could actually start my own company because of the performance that we had.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: Nice, that's awesome.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: I I love that story, and I definitely loved to hear where, you know, of course, going through a difficult time was able to transform you and your faith too, of course, and bring you closer to God and make you a Christian, and of course, to just get you better at what you do, and that's definitely God's power because I am a Christian and that's something I'm extremely proud of.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, definitely that's one thing that's helped me be successful in my career.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like, you know, definitely by God's grace and his, you know, wisdom and and being able to, you know, be blessed from the hard work that he's taught me to be able to do.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I love to hear that.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: So you said that there was a point where you know you stopped thinking like a hustler and started thinking like a CEO.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: What was the biggest mindset shift that allowed you to make that transition?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that took that took time.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: So that that's more recent than uh most of the time is probably, you know, I thought when I started making more money than I thought I was worth, I started to think that I had to work 18 hours a day to justify it.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was through that insecurity that I had that I really only knew how to be a hustler.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then I ended up joining about a year ago, I joined the boardroom mastermind, which is they incredible group that I've, you know, I've just one of the best business decisions that I've made.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: But that's kind of their slogan is to go from hustler to CEO.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I really didn't know how to do it.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I was good at operations, but when I got in that room, I found out that I was pretty subpar at it.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: And they uh they recommended EOS.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so they also recommended a few things that I just had never heard of.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: That we we changed our CRM and it made it to where I finally got to go on a vacation this year, where, you know, I went on vacations, but I was, you know, getting up at four o'clock in the morning to answer emails before everybody woke up.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm throughout the day, I'm sitting on my phone.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm there physically, but I'm really not there mentally, which drove my wife crazy.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so this was been the first year that really that I've been able to actually be a CEO and just not a pure hustler.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so that came with a lot of uh a lot of time and just others kind of really that group, they're unique.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Most groups I get invited to are they want something from you.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: That group is a group of guys that are all successful in real estate, and what they want to do is have a collective group all get successful together.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd never been in a room like that.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's great.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds like a great organization for sure.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: And are are they based out of Oklahoma as well?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Or they have they're based out of Dallas, and then they have a the main guy, which is Kent Clothier, he lives in San Diego.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, nice, nice.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: So one story that really stood out was how your company became one of the first digitized entire county courthouses so landman could work remotely years before, you know, cloud-based workflows became common.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: How did the idea come about?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Really out of need because, you know, there's really two types of land service companies.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's the guys that started before 1980, and then there's this lag of like 20 years where there's really no companies that ever started.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's the the post-2000 guys, which was me.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, when you're going up against these huge land services that have been in business for 30 years, the only way I know how to beat them is either innovation or just be better than them.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew it was going to be hard to just beat them at their own game.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to add technology and innovation to do it.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: So when we arrived in um St.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Clairsville, Ohio, we it was it was kind of the perfect storm because it was hard to find landmen.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so we were always taught you had to pull 80 days, 80 books a day to justify an eight-hour bill cycle.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: These guys are pulling like 16.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, dear lords.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: I even packed up the whole family to go figure out why.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: And they just weren't experienced.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I was had to think, how can we get the guys that are experts in Oklahoma and Texas to work up there?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And about that time, the Dropbox came out and boxed and some of these other programs that they were just really new.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so we kind of collectively got together and said, like, what if we just digitized the whole courthouse, every book?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so we just sent 20 imagers up to Ohio and started to now we got kicked out, so we had to go back and find some law to justify us actually going in so they wouldn't let our imagers in there.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: We found the uh the court case that allowed it, and we imaged the whole thing.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Gulfport loved it.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, they they started doing it themselves, so we gave them the window into our system so they could use it, and that's kind of how we got kicked off.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we that's how we got from five guys and immediately went up to 82 guys within probably the first 60 days.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: So it's nice, that's awesome.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: I love that story.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: And that's just definitely one way of thinking outside the box and and you know, trying to streamline processes to where it's not a manual, a manual thing and just being able to sit in front of your computer and pull that information.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's pretty cool.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we actually do business with Golfport too, out of Oklahoma, of course.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: So they're one of our customers, great customers, uh, of course.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: So we do they've got several compressors out uh that uh that we take care of for them.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: So you're great to work with.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: No, they everybody has been definitely very, very exceptional, very, very professional and you know, really on top of their business, which is great.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: So you've you built a business buying minerals and interests, but your strategy is very different from our most investors.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of simply holding those assets, use those to generate capital and then move capital into commercial real estate.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: What led you to that approach?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, the tax the taxes was a big thing.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: You you know, you only get depletion on uh minerals.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so I noticed that I could make, well, if I were to keep them, uh I could make enough margin by buying and selling them, and it which would take me about four years to get to catch up.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm still paying taxes on it, which is if you don't, if you, you know, which could be considerable.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, a lot of times, well, when I moved to that strategy, the taxes were going to be considerable because you're at a 39% tax bracket plus you have capital gains.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we did uh at first we started 1031 into different mineral deals.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: We did that for a while, and then we started buying historical buildings and capturing uh historical tax credits by rent uh renovating the building.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then, but I still I wouldn't say that I was I had to go find somebody.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: I knew how to underwrite minerals, but I wasn't very good at doing the building.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I tried like a whole different, even down to single family to where we were buying single family foreclosed homes from banks.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: We were then with we'd pay all cash and then we'd refinance, so you're not paying anything any taxes on the refinance, but the write-offs weren't there on that.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then we would owner finance it out using the bank's money to hold the loan.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: So still weren't capturing the tax amount.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: So now it's uh we go out, we find commercial buildings, and and mostly we use, you know, right now we've moved to using the boardroom again to because that's what they do.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: They're really good at it.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And me going instead of taking the GP stands, I take an LP stands.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: So we were, we've been looking over, we're gonna go into storage unit this next or in the fourth quarter of this year, and also RV parts.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: And we're also looking at car washes and gas stations for different things because the write-offs are so good.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so we've just been it kind of it starts off where you really don't know what you're doing, and then you look at these, the tax bill and you're like, dear lord, how do I get rid of this deal?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so you hear these mystical figures of these guys that pay zero taxes, but you never meet one, you know, and and they really don't want to share why they do it anyways.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then we started, I sat at a table with a bunch of guys and they said, What's your problem?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, I got a tax problem and I got a passive income problem.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: My IRR problem is not a problem.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: We do well on the IRR side, but when we we don't have passive income because we don't keep the minerals, and we also have a tax problem.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, Would you be shocked if I told you everybody at this table hasn't paid taxes in 10 years?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: I go, yes.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I've just like I've just found the promised land.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: So they've really kind of come beside me and helped me and just been real.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: I can call them and ask them questions and was able to get a tax strategist that they recommended.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that really helped too.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, but over the years, I've just dabbled buying buildings, 1031, into buildings and doing trying different markets because I know this is uh a shocker, but Ardmore is not the great biggest town in the world.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not like I could just go walk over to somebody's building and start asking questions.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: They might think you're you're you know cocky because you're bragging.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Really, you're just trying to find information.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: So the information and the people that mentor me along the way are probably the most bad.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think that's one thing that I definitely have a learned over my career, especially as I've gotten older.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's not about sometimes, you know, relying on your CPA, but finding that tax strategy person that can, you know, help you and guide you and and get you where you need to be because it's extremely difficult for guys like us that work really hard and you generate revenue and then you go to a CPA at the end of the year and he goes, you know, this is the number.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: And you're like, well, how do I, you know, how do I, how do I improve on that?
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's kind of defeating to guys like us to get out there.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's a great, great example of just being able to, you know, be around a great group of leaders and let them help you to you and you know get you to where you need to be, because that's something too, like growing up in Chick-ashere, of course, or even anywhere law, like there's not a lot of people that's gonna give you that information unless you're around those type of folks to be able to set you up for success.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I I completely, completely agree.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: So one lesson that came up several times is the importance of leaving value on the table for your customers instead of squeezing every dollar out of every deal.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Why has that philosophy been so successful for you?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you call, they're excited to hear your call.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: When you're first getting started and you don't have any money and you're brokering deals, you know, no one really wants to hear from you because you're you're kind of a bottom feeder.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're and so the one thing I just picked, and all the guys that I was doing deals with along the way, they were much older, 70s, you know, 75.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think the youngest guy we were doing deals with at the time were maybe 65.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: So they would allow me to ask questions and because I was trying to, you know, like anybody would, I was trying to get the maximum amount of dollars out of this deal.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so it would take them a while to call me back, and then it would, they would, you know, take two weeks for them to turn do a turnaround on how much they wanted to pay.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sitting over here trying to get this deal sold.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when I figured out that, hey, what if I just and and one of them gave me this information, he was like, the reason I don't look at your deals is they're always so high.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so he goes, but if you would just leave some meat on the bone for me and I'll do your deals first, and I'll give I'll do a turnaround of, you know, maybe two or three days.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, once I started doing that, I noticed that at those two or three days, when I sent, hey, I'm sending this out to five groups, these guys started answering minutes, not not days, but like some of them, the the last deal I sold, it's it was like 52 tracks.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: It sold in seven minutes.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was gone.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I I and the thing that I learned from that is you can make a whole bunch on one deal or you can make a little on a ton of deals, but you never have problems selling them.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that was a big learn for me.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: I completely agree.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, that's that's definitely one thing I've tried to do in business is you know, you know, we all have to make money and definitely on both sides of the business, the customers or, you know, the person that owned the business, you know, understand that.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I think to if you're able to reduce costs internally and you know, be able to pass that on to your customers to where you're not the most expensive guy in the market because you're overhead, you know, you stay lean and do the right things.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it definitely goes a long way with especially people you do business with because it creates relationships and they know that you're not gonna, you know, try to nickel and dime them off of every deal, so which is which is really good.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's very, very valuable in business for sure.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: So one of the stories that says a lot about your leadership was when you voluntarily told a client about a subcontractor who had misrepresented their capabilities, even though you thought it might cost you the contract.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Why was being transparent so important to you?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: That that whole deal was it wasn't he didn't really misrepresent, he was uh pretty fraudulent.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we noticed when we first went to Ohio, when we first started with Gulf Warp, you know, we had to have five guys there in really three days, which was extremely difficult to do, but we pulled it off, and then we we noticed that there the amount of, you know, he he tells me we had to do a subbroker.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: So when we got the subbroker up there to run the project, which we because we just didn't have access to people that are willing to travel a thousand miles and do it in three days.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's those are kind of unique individuals.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we noticed that they're only doing about 16 books a day.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so I we immediately I loaded up my wife and two kids, which we had we had a one-year-old and pretty a five or six-year-old at that point.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we drove straight from Ardmore to St.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Clairsville, and I immediately just got dropped off and walked right into the courtroom or the county clerk's office.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Who in here works for Grasslands?
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: And they came out and I said, What what's what's taking you guys so long?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, I uh I don't know.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, you guys are seven-year guys, you should be pulling 80 books.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, There's no one here that's a seven-year guy.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: We're all brand new.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew he was middlemanning me.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: We had invoiced for this, but we'd never been paid, luckily.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: But I called the in-house landman, a gentleman by the name of Bill Eyeschide, which is just a really, really good individual.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I told him what was going on.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: I told my partner first, and my partner was way more business savvy than me.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I just I said, Well, we need to tell Gulfport.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, Bobby, you can't, you can't tell.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: You can't tell Gulfport uh because they're gonna fire you.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, They're gonna fire us.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, well, uh they're he goes, they're publicly traded.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: They have to.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, I just I'm gonna make the executive decision.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're just gonna have to do it.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I called Bill and I told him, and he goes, Why don't you hang up the phone and just act like you never called me today?
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, No, no, I'd rather you go in and tell them.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, I'm going into a boardroom, but Bob, they're gonna fire you.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's 100%.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, let's go ahead and do it.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Because, you know, I'd I would rather tell them and get it out there that because my I I felt like my grandfather always told me that your your name is your most valuable asset.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and it kind of makes me emotional, think about it.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: But so he comes back after four hours, we're on pins and needles, and he said, I said, Well, am I fired?
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Well, I told him exactly what you wanted to say.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a preacher on the board, the preacher's name's uh Craig Rochelle, and he thought that it was so admirable what you did.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go ahead and not fire you, and we want you to add 40 more guys.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, three weeks later, another group lied to him, and they called me back and said, Hey, a group lied to us.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: We want you to add another 40.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how I got to 85.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and just what and pretty much it boiled down to just going to that ministry and just really learning just your words, you know, everything in business.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was a big thing for me.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that I do deals to this day.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: If the person thinks the deal's bigger than their name, then I never do business with them.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's all about their name being the most valuable to them.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: I love that story.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, too, Craig Rochelle, of course, such a well-known pastor and you know, very, very uh, you know, successful in his career as a preacher and just great, great guy.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: I listen to his leadership talks all the time and uh just a big, big fan of, you know, lots of the things he talks about on leadership.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's amazing that he was on the board, right?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's like yeah, don't say that's how you know he's on the board.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: That that's super cool.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: But of course, too, it just goes to show you, you know, what integrity, integrity can do in, you know, your faith and and know by doing the right thing, of course, too, and passing that information on and just being transparent.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes, like I always tell my folks, if you walk in the office hat in hand and you're honest when you make mistakes, it sure does go a lot further with them, even if you do get fired, right?
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like you just know you did the right thing at the end of the day and you sleep good.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: And that's one thing I always tell my folks on this side of the business is you know, if you're honest and you tell them, you know, the truth, whether they want to hear it or not, of course, on the mistakes that's gonna get made, because we all make mistakes because we're human, I think too it it goes a long way.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's such a cool story though.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: I love it because you know that just shows you too by getting out there and going seeing what's actually happening.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's one of the things too that people struggle with in business today.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: The example of you loading up your wife and kids and going, hey, we're going to Ohio to go figure this thing out and see what the heck's going on.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: It really says a lot about you and your character as well, too, because so many people don't do that anymore and they just go off of what people are telling them.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm one of these guys that I love to show up in the field and my guys don't know I'm coming, you know, and it's like I show up and I'm like, hey, I'm just out here today, you know, just want to stop in and say hi.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, of course, it definitely clears the air on, you know, just making sure that everything's running smoothly too, especially being a small business.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I definitely commend you on that.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say that most guys, when you're dealing with, you know, most of our investors now are they're high character guys too.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, the second something bad happens, I just say, we're gonna go and just be a hundred percent honest about it the second it happens.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of people will try to brush it under the rug and hope it's not noticed for weeks, and then it becomes a problem because they haven't heard about it.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so we just really it just taught me to just be completely transparent and not just say the word transparency, just actually live the transparency has been a big thing.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: And really, I don't think to date when I've told any any investor bad news, it's ended up in a negative negative for us.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's always been, okay, well, let's not do it again, but and let's what did we fix?
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: What's the solution to not making this happen again?
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: So once we we learned that, it's it's really, really made our company better.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: So today you're involved in everything.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: Land service and manual acquisitions.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think I lost sound.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, can you hear me now?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, great.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes that mic drops out.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: Today you're involved in everything from land services and manual acquisitions to premium finance and now geothermal projects.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: As you look into the future of energy, what opportunities excite you the most?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: I always love minerals, you know, as far as that goes, because I like the deal regardless if it's five acres or a hundred.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Just putting together a deal, people that want to sell, and then helping them teach them how to alleviate the taxes, you know, through 1031s or, you know, buying, you know, real estate.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say that the geothermal's new.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: So we're still, we're still working on that one.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't kick off till about October or November.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: But we like, we like the mineral, the we like everything there is about minerals and what it does for us and always have.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say that that's it as far as that goes.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Grass Grasslands pretty much works for Firethorn, and we just run when, and that's another thing.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: We when we deliver the deals, we also deliver the title, run sheets, backup documents, and things of that nature.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of another separator, but it's exciting watching, you know, there's a lot of deals out there, and it's exciting the amount of great investors that we have that want to buy them.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: So the market's really, really hot right now.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: So that's but that's a company that I is probably has my the biggest, my biggest passion is sitting there working deals.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's just uh it excites me to do it to this day.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I love it.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, you've built companies, navigated downturns, reinvented yourself personally and professionally, and learned from both successes and failures.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: If if a young entrepreneur or a lay-in professional asked you for one piece of advice, what would you tell them today?
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: I would say that, you know, my son asked this question one time to a friend of mine that's way more successful than me and he answered it really well.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: It most people think that the people who become really, really successful, and I'm not putting myself in that category, but it's one colossal deal, but it's it's really just thousands of right decisions.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and I look at it as most people, they and I always I was taught this is you know, there's always two roads to go down.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: And usually I always say the hard road is usually God's road.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's that's been something that's really stuck with me because you have to make as a business owner just really thousands of decisions every year.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: And one really bad decision could really crush you.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: So really just staying in in character and just always doing the right thing and just trying and then putting together a team, you're writing down what your core values are and your decisions are based on your core values.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and I see companies that don't really have core values and and they and I see other companies that I watch how they run when I go and I get to go behind the scenes sometimes and look over people's company and say, where do you see the holes?
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times they don't have established jobs and don't really know what their job criteria is.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so, but all those things combined are are the things you have to start worrying about when you first get started.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: The other big thing is that I would say is when you choose your partner, your partner has to almost complete you.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like they had they have to be totally opposite.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: So if I'm gonna be the deal maker and the visionary, I've got to find somebody that's gonna be the numbers guy behind the scenes that doesn't really care to get out in front of the camera.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and I had that guy, and that guy just happened to be the guy I knew since I was two years old.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And he's still a partner to this day.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And without him, I never would have become as successful as I'd become because of what he taught me.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like I knew how to make money, but I had zero clue how to keep it.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: If it was up to me, I'd spend it all.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it he kind of taught me how to invest in things and the way taxes work and how to buy EO policies and everything that you have to do in a business.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: He he pretty much taught me everything.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't learn it in school because I was never in class.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and I was a terrible student, but he he was the one that deserves all the credit of teaching me how to actually be a businessman.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: Nice, nice.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I love that.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think I think too, that's one thing that you know you you bring up a very good point of having a partner like that that balances you out and you know, being able to be a coach and a mentor in a business relationship like that.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure there's things that you do for him as well, of course, and that's where you know you know, he looks to you for leadership and and different strengths that he don't have as well.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's the cool thing about partnerships, of course, and and having somebody, especially you've known since he was two years old, to be able to, you know, see them uh, you know, in a business relationship as well as, you know, a friendship, of course, which is great.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I I think too, any good leaders I've noticed, they try to surround themselves by people that they're not alike, right?
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: And that's one thing that, you know, you brought up a good thing about not being taught a lot of this stuff in school.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like, you know, there were so many things in school that we learned and that of course they just can't teach you.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: My daughter just graduated business school and you know, there's so many things that she still don't know.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I try to, you know, bring it to life on a day-to-day basis now that she works for us.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I think too, it it's one of those things that, you know, school gets you so far, which is great, the education process and all those things, but real life experiences into, you know, making the right decisions uh more than making the wrong decisions and definitely listening to, you know, your your instinct and and trusting your faith and and being able to be honest and transparent with you know anybody you do business with is extremely, extremely helpful.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: But one of the things that you said that I really appreciated, too, was thousands of decisions of the right decisions.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's one of the things that lots of people don't understand if they don't own a business.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that I've learned too, of course, just being on this side of things, it's you know, all the questions that you get asked every day and how many decisions you make.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I think sometimes we forget that as business owners, you know, as well.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: So thanks for reminding me of that today because I know I make lots of decisions every day, and it's definitely easy to get lost in the in the process.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: So, John, one of the one of the things I'll tell you today, uh, you know, we do for all our guests that come on the show, is uh we send out a care package, of course, too, uh just kind of saying, hey, thank you for for coming on the show and being part of the show and letting us promote the oil and gas industry and promote what you do, of course, too as well.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: So just whenever you get a chance, whenever we jump off today, if you just want to shoot me an email with your contact information and your home address, uh, we send out a care package to all our guests just to say, Hey, thank you for coming on the show and being part of the podcast, and definitely sharing your story and your testimony too, which I love because, you know, you know, being from Oklahoma, of course, there's definitely a a piece of my heart can definitely relate to to your story and and you know where you became.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: And sounds like, you know, you've had a great career and you're definitely uh definitely set yourself up for success and your family up for success.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you for being on today.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_01: And uh we'll jump off today.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: But if uh anything ever comes up in the future, if I ever run into you in Oklahoma, I'm over there all the time.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: So uh we'll uh look forward to staying in touch, buddy.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: So appreciate your time today, John.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you for having me, David.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate you.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: Have a great week, buddy.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: You too.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: This has been another great episode of Under Pressure Compressor Talk by Midwest Compressor.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_02: With your host, David Abshire.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_02: Until next time, keep pumping.