Latest / Under Pressure: Compressor Talk / From Entry-Level to Industry Leader: Erica Honeycut's Journey

Transcript

From Entry-Level to Industry Leader: Erica Honeycut's Journey · Under Pressure: Compressor Talk

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is Under Pressure, Compressor Talk by Midwest Compressor.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Strategies, systems, and stories from the compressor world.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: With your host, David Abshire.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: And now, on to the show.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: Good afternoon.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: This is David Abshire with Under Pressure Podcast.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: This afternoon we have Erica Honeycut.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: Erica, thanks for joining us today.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, David.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm happy to be here.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we definitely appreciate your time and jumping on.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: We know everybody's busy, especially right before the holiday.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we'll uh we'll just jump right in.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: So it it looks like Erica, you've spent 25 years in oil and gas, but your story, you know, didn't start with the grand career plan.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: You started off an entry-level office role, uh, loading dishwashers, uh, you know, stocking supplies, filling in as a reception.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: How did that turn into running two companies?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's I kind of think about it and I didn't have like this master plan to work in oil and gas.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: I was actually planning to be a nurse because I have a strong passion for helping people.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think like most people in this industry, it started because I knew somebody, and that's how I got my foot in the door.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: For me specifically, my aunt was a reservoir engineer, and I started doing that office support, like you had mentioned.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: And every time somebody needed help with a project, I just volunteered.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: It didn't matter what the job was, if I was qualified for it, if I saw a need, I tried to jump in and do the best I could to provide value.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Never said that's not my job, because I think that those small opportunities really eventually lead in like become leadership opportunities.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like when I think about it, my career wasn't built by chasing titles.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: It was built by saying yes and learning whatever I could.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: I completely agree.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's so important, you know, uh like you mentioned, not chasing titles and just by doing the work, right?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I I think that's one thing that lots of folks think they can skip sometimes is the hard work.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, that's that's one of the things I think unfortunately today we see a lot of people have skipped on.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: You're freezing up for me.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: Can you hear me?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I can.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: For some reason, you're freezing up, or it's like being a little jumpy.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, I must have lost just for a second.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: No worries.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think we're were you were you asking about that competitive advantage?
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think uh the question was was you know, you refuse to silo yourself into one kind of job, and you know, you as open-minded and you know, being able to, you know, be competitive, you know, and of course be versatile in your in your space.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: And that that definitely has uh provided more opportunities for me.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: I look at other peers and I know that they become experts in like one area.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: I see that.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: And there's nothing wrong with that, but my natural curiosity, it allowed me to learn like many parts of the business, become comfortable with changes, new environments, understanding kind of that big picture.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that type of life cycle allows has allowed me to just become better at problem solving as a whole.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: And during downturns, because when things are great, experts are wonderful, but when there's downturns and in this volatile market that we're in, in this industry, in those downturns, companies are looking for people who can wear multiple hats that understand the business from different angles, and that's where they'll keep the people on that provide kind of that global value.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the way I look at it is specialists solve problems, right?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: But versatile people with big knowledge, they solve bigger problems.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I've been more on that latter side where I like to solve the big problems.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: I I think it's so important.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: And you bring up a good point, you know, when when things slow down in the oil and gas business, you have to be able to be diverse and be open-minded and be creative to survive the storm, especially in our industry, just because there's nobody coming to save you, right?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like you're you're you're either a value added or you're a non-value added when you know things take a turn, especially in our industry.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: I I completely agree.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: So for people outside the industry, land administration isn't exactly like a household term.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: So you describe it as a managing ownership and contract compliance.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: Why is that work so critical to the energy business?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: You're right.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: People hear land and outside the business, and they might think about buying property or real estate, but in our industry, land administration is more than that.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I like to kind of say it with three questions.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Who owns what?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what does every contract require, and who gets paid?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: So that's my big picture view of what land administration is for an oil and gas company.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of the business is built from that, those foundations and those answers because land administration impacts billing allocations, revenue distribution.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: We're looking at risk mitigation on the contract compliance.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: Marketing decisions are impacted by those questions, um, contractual regulatory compliance.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Millions of dollars kind of move throughout these organizations based specifically on the ownership records.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: And one mistake can cost, you know, it can impact thousands of people, it can cost millions of dollars, but good land data that's structured and organized, it keeps operators compliant, it makes sure owners are getting paid correctly, and that everybody's picking up their share of the costs where applicable, right?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: Especially to things like your business.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: The it's not just the operators that are paying for your services, it's also the other parties that own in those assets.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: And they have to share that um the risk associated with it.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I think too, that's one of the things that goes unseen in our industry, the the work that you guys do up front to make sure everything flows correctly.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I think too, in our industry, a lot of people don't understand sometimes, especially how many owners or companies are involved that own one particular well and investors.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, there's lots of moving pieces.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: And then, of course, you got to make sure your taxes are filed correctly by you know all of these different regulatory things that you know from the state level all the way up to the federal.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's a big deal.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: I completely agree.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I definitely know you have to be very, very good at your job to be successful, right?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: You you have to be on it because if like you said, if you miss one thing, like it could cost somebody millions of dollars easily.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: So moving on to Yeah.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, just to of course, just knowing that side of the business, uh, you know, and seeing the different, you know, regulations and stuff that come out, like it's hard to stay up with everything, too.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's the other thing, especially especially in different areas.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_02: But I know there's lots of different roles and regulations that I feel like change every year.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: So just you know, being able to monitor and manage that too from your side, I know it's extremely tough.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: So the the next question it looks like here, it says you eventually decided to build a software specifically for land professionals because the tools available were always designed for someone else, like accountants, engineers, but everybody except the people actually doing the work.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: So, what was the frustration that finally pushed you up to build your own solution to the problem?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I don't know if there's like one specific frustration versus accumulation, but I think overall, when you talk to land professionals about their software solutions and options, nobody was happy.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it didn't need it doesn't need to be that way because, like you said, the platforms they're forced onto were designed specifically for accountants or other folks, and it caused people, it's causing people to have manual workarounds with everything.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so then all of your data is disconnected, and I spent a lot of years just saying there's gotta be a better way.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: This has to change.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so when I was ready and the universe saw that I was ready, my amazing network introduced me to my business partner and co-founder, and together he and I had the skills to kind of make this software thing happen, and we decided to bootstrap our business and make it happen.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: And now we we've got some really good traction.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I I just love telling people that you know, we didn't build the software for investors, we built it for the users, and kind of going back to that service person in me, then the human nature where I want to help everybody.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: This is a way that I get to do that through my expertise and my resources for the industry.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm just excited to get it in as many hands as possible.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's such a cool story, and you know, it definitely tells me a lot about your personality too, by knowing that you've seen a problem and you came up with a solution, and now that solution is, you know, an answer and it's a company, right?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's you're able to sustain by solving a problem that you knew existed.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's that's such a that's such a cool story.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: I definitely appreciate that.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I know it's a lot of work.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: Anytime you develop any kind of software, it's a lot of work and a lot of trial and error.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: So hats off to you guys for being able to start that.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: So one of your strongest passions seems to be protecting mineral owners and helping people understand what they actually own.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: What are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about their ownership rights?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think in many cases, like people just don't even realize they own those rights.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: Or if they do, it's because they've inherited the interest.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: And number one, they inherited it and didn't even know it existed.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so then how can they have any idea on how to manage them, what it means?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: They don't know why their payments stop, what happens when there's ownership changes, how their decimal, how their decimal is calculated.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, knowledge is like one of the best protections a mineral owner can have.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: And there are organizations out there like NARO, the National Association of Royalty Owners, that specifically help owners better understand.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: But like my team with our owner relations approach and how we go about it is we want to have that human touch because everybody's trying to go automated and have robots, and it works in some cases, but there are some situations where you need to actually be on the phone and listen to what those owners say.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: If if I could just talk to owners all day and it paid my bills, I would.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: But I, you know, I'm solving other problems, and I have to I enjoy those little bits of time that I do get to help out individuals.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: So you were pretty candid that sometimes small owners get overwhelmed trying to deal with much larger operators.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: From your perspective, what would a more owner-friendly approach look like?
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think the industry as a whole should be investing more into this realm.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I know this isn't about criticizing operators or industry.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's just about enlightening folks to say there's better ways to do it.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the number one thing that an that operators can do to create a more owner-friendly environment is to invest in process efficiencies relating to owner accounts.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's always an afterthought.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: They put the money in the capital and the operations, the drilling.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: But this part of the GNA does save a lot of money.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: It does add value because you're not having nine points of contact.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think the example that I'm gonna use here is there's a there's a big operator out there, and one of my non-op clients, they own, they purchase some interest from somebody.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: So we had to transfer their ownership from the selling company to the buyer with a major operator.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: We know what's required to make that transfer.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: We provided all of the details, and this was for one well, not like a group of wells, David.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: It it was for one well, and we provided the paperwork, the transfers, everything they needed to get the account set up, um, even their property numbers, their record numbers down to the T.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, we just get a generic response back.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: We've received your message.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: This will take 90 to 120 days to process.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, being the people that actually process this for operators on certain aspects, this is literally a 30-minute process.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: Why is this 30-minute process being stretched out to reported 90 to 120 days?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Now that 90, 120 days has come, nothing has happened, we need to follow up on it.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: So we make another point of contact.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, we've received your message.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: No response, no reply.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: So here we are every month needing to follow up.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: It took this major operator over one year with all of the paperwork in alignment to even look at our case.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now, in the meantime, this one point of contact that we had turned into 15 points of contact with that particular operator that their team has to go through, sort, organize, adjust.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: How is this efficient, David?
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: This is and this is with somebody who has all of the major resources, all of the skills, all of the team.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Clearly, something is broken in our industry if it's taking a company a year to process something that is a 30-minute transaction.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: It just baffles me.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think I I agree a hundred percent.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: I see that so much on this side of the world too, where the major operators become so inefficient, and it's at, you know, like you said, something that would literally take 30 minutes to do, and it takes them over a year.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I think sometimes one of the things, the misconception in our industry is people think that since they are a major oil and gas company, that they're efficient, and that necessarily is not the case, right?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: So uh there's definitely lots of different analogies that I think of in my head when it comes to some of the ones that move a lot slower, but I definitely agree because it gets extremely painful for us folks that are living in the normal world of the day-to-day, and we know how long things take.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and these folks have access to everything, and unfortunately, and they have unlimited supply of funds to do whatever they need to do, but they just don't move fast, right?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes, from my perspective, I think it's uh it's a power and control thing over, you know, the assets and being able to, you know, make money in different ways, uh, you know, from a financial perspective.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: So I've got a whole nother take just because I've seen the slow pay where it costs smaller operators so much money to do big deals, like you mentioned, because it takes so long for them to even get their money back, right?
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: Or to get their get stuff transferred over into their name.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I completely, completely agree.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: So you've you participated in multiple acquisitions and divestures, including transactions worth up to$1.8 billion.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: So you mentioned that every deal you manage, the data closed with zero title effects.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: What's the secret to keeping something that complex organized?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: So like zero title defects, that might not mean a lot to some people, but those that are really intimately involved in the acquisition and divestiture can hopefully have an appreciation for what that means.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: And like it's not, there's no secret to it, right?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not luck.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: The bottom line is it's we were able to do that because we were prepared.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: We had the experience on how to do it, the discipline, and most mostly the passion.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like we cared.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: We want the data to be good, and that's where it really starts, is you have to have somebody that wants it to be there and sees the value in it.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: So early in my career, I learned that like which people I considered experts.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I gained that I gained experience myself watching those people and looking at what they were doing, and I was being able to build like effective processes for these this land data organization.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: And everybody like they get excited at the transaction, right?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then once it closes, everybody goes hands-off and then tries to go in maintenance mode and they forget that there's still work to do before they can use the data effectively.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: So from a high level, right?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: You have to start early on that data organization, you have to continuously clean them, organize them, put in the exceptions, rules, understand where things are in an have an anomaly in the data, and don't wait until due diligence or sales process.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's when they start focusing on this, and that's when it's almost impossible to solve.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: I had a small operator call me going through a sale, and they got a big defect, and they call me to say, Erica, what do we do?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I went through their options with them, and ultimately, I think for the timing, the headaches and everything, it's like the best thing you could probably do is cut your purchase price.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody wants to do that.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: But is it worth the headache to try to solve these problems in the short term?
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna spend more money on that and then have the headache of having to do it because you didn't have the proper planning.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think of it as like clean data.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just paperwork, right?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's risk management, it's being able to find your information quickly.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: So it I am the most passionate about land data than anybody I've ever met in my career, my life, but that's okay with me.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: I will own that.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_02: No, that's great.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: And and you bring up lots of good examples.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, when you get ready to close big major deals, you know, you have to have everything in order, and one little hiccup can delay and cost so much money because the due diligence wasn't it up front.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I see it lots of times in big transactions like that where you know big acquisitions get delayed because of certain things that got missed up front.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, especially if it's over a certain dollar amount, usually there's enough people involved, like you said, there'll be a hiccup somewhere, and it's better to either make some changes and make less money to get the deal closed on time because you know, usually contracts are already drawn up and you know, things are already in place, and it's gonna just cost more money in the long run.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: So I completely, completely see that a lot in our industry, especially.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: I I don't know if I ever see anybody drop the price as much as they probably need to, but I definitely see them push it over the finish line and you know either you know take something off the table or make some changes, but it definitely creates some tension and stress that's probably preventable as well.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: So it looks like on the next question, it's this is something that of course, too, it you mentioned early on.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, you you become a frequent speaker, a trainer, a mentor in the industry, and you talked about, you know, how much knowledge sharing has meant to you in your own career.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: Why is teaching others something you've invested so much time into?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think I come at it from two angles.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: The first is that I recognize and have so much gratitude that I wouldn't be where I am without my mentors.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Those people really added a lot of value to my career.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: They invested in me and I will always be grateful.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: I tell them that all the time, and I say, Erica, it's you know, you were easy to teach because you loved to learn, but teaching is how I kind of repay that type of investment.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um the other reason is that it does help with business, right?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: That when I share my knowledge, people know that I want to help.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: So if they have a project where they need help, they're gonna call.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: And that's all I want is for them to call.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: And if I can help, I'm going to.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: And if I can't, I'm gonna point them in another direction or tell them this is really this has stumped me, which doesn't happen very often.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: But and the reality, I was just at a conference, uh, at the AAPL conference in Salt Lake last week.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the big topics that they were honing in on everybody is that our industry has like decades of experience that are getting ready to retire, and we don't really have that next generation.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: When I started in the industry, this was the same story, so it's funny to see it come full full cycle, but we have to intentionally transfer knowledge, and that curiosity is one of the most valuable skills that I've had throughout my career.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: I so kind of I keep telling you this throughout this the conversation, but it every new skill lets you solve a different problem and gives people reasons to trust you with more and more responsibilities.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's a shared value, and I love it.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: And and I think everybody I've interviewed on the podcast has had some reference to, you know, having someone mentor them when they first got into the industry.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: And so much of the stuff uh that I know I've learned personally, sounds like you as well, has been so much self-taught too, where you know, you learn from other, like you mentioned earlier, experts in the industry or in the space at certain different little things, and you learn from them and take that knowledge and run with it.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's one of the things that I love about the oil and gas business is that you know, you can start out as a pumper one day and be a vice president or own your own production company if you want to, right?
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_02: And so the opportunity in the American dream still lives in our industry.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Which is one of the reasons I love it.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: And of course I have two daughters that, you know, are in the industry now and one day will be my successors because I do believe that, you know, it's g it's sustainable and it's gonna be here.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: But of course, do that transfer of knowledge, just being able to push it through and you know, learn from other folks, mentor and just be able to adapt and grow.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_02: But it it's definitely something that you have to have a passion for for sure.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: Some people like to just go to work and you know, check in and check out, and that's okay too.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: But definitely, definitely in our industry, I I feel like the folks that's been in it a long time, they definitely have a passion for it.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um so one piece of advice you you gave really stood out.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: It says, you know, be your your own advocate.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: Why do you think so many professionals wait for someone else to manage their career instead of them taking ownerships their self?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I mean I wish I had the magic answer, but I can see what I've observed, right?
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: Is that there's a lot of people that they wait, they wait for permission to do stuff, they wait for promotions, they wait for training, they wait for somebody to notice them.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: And the reality is is people assume that like good work will kind of speak for itself or give them opportunities, and sometimes it does, but most often and not always, nobody is gonna career care about your career as much as you do.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: And as soon as you kind of step back and accept that, set your eyes on that target, you have to be the one to get yourself there.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: And the people with the most successful careers, they're not the smartest people that I know.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: They're often the ones who stay curious, they keep learning, they get the mentors, they're not afraid to just jump in and do it, and they learn outside of that job description.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: They're not afraid to raise their hand.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: And those are the people that I see that have that courage to advocate for themselves and work towards their own goals, to have that responsibility, and your career is your responsibility.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's how I look at it.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: Completely agree.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, being your own advocate sometimes is something that's very important because, you know, if you don't speak up, nobody's gonna speak up for you most of the time.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I always like to ask everybody, you know, especially early on in their career, like where do they want to go?
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what do they want to see their self in five years?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I usually ask that up front on onboarding so that way you kind of know too what their focus is.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: And some folks say, hey, this is all I ever want to do, which is great.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: But you obviously have the other ones too that say, hey, I want to run the company one day.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_02: Go, that's the guy I want to hire, right?
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's the guy I'm gonna invest in, that's the guy I'm gonna take to lunch, and that's the guy I'm gonna mentor because one day he's gonna be running his own company or this company.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: And so being able to be open-minded and and look and invest in people, and usually people will tell you too.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: That's one thing I've learned that you know, the ones that want to advance and grow, they they bring it up and they do advocate in some form of a fashion.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that, you know, we definitely as leaders in the industry uh and as we become the the senior staff, you know, we we have to recognize the younger generation and develop and get them into the right spots too.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: But you're exactly right about being an advocate for yourself.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's tough for some of the younger folks coming in, but hopefully we can we can get them, you know, kind of in that sense too to learn to speak up, which is hard sometimes, which is really hard.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I know they they're they're lacking the confidence the more and more technology has interjected itself into our lives that like I think about my young kids and how afraid they are to sometimes just have a conversation with somebody.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: We have to we have to do that.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, yep, exactly.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and it's it's kind of funny.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: I went and seen a Toy Story, the new Toy Story movie this weekend.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: I've got a grandson that's five years old, and so one of the main topics of the Toy Story movie was about how technology was replacing toys in imagination, you know, with the interaction of toys that we we did when we were kids because we didn't have computers and iPads, of course.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, it was it was a real interesting spin that they put on Toy Story, but it really hit home too because just like you said with the technology, it definitely hurts the communication skills for the generation coming up today.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: I I I see it so much where they can't hold a conversation, they they don't want to make eye contact, they don't want to engage, they just want to send an email or a text instead of you know talking to somebody about their goals and you know and where they want to go.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_02: So I I completely get it.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_02: So if you could wave a magic wand and fix one problem across the industry tomorrow, you said it would be how how companies manage unpaid revenue and ownership records.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: Why is that an issue still and such a challenge?
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: And what would it solving mean for both operators and owners?
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think that it's always put on the back burner, but looking at the data that we have exposure to and talking to folks that were helping solve the problem, these dollar figures on this unpaid revenue that doesn't belong to the operators, they're big.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I've seen I've seen companies with hundreds of millions of unpaid revenue just on one company's account.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's money that doesn't belong to them that should be going to other places.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: The the problem isn't like it is solvable.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: There's processes in place, but companies are not automating it, they're not focused on it.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: I've heard CEOs say, Well, why should I spend my money giving somebody else theirs?
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I had to remind them, sir, it's not your money.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: And when you start to mess with other people's money, you know, there's legal liabilities in it.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: You have a fiduciary duty almost.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: People wait until litigation or statutory things to really focus on it.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: And there's some states, and I'll use Oklahoma as a best example, where they implement some strong penalties to operators for hanging on to unpaid revenue.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, those penalties are steep, they cost operators money, but you know what it does allow?
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: It forces operators to actually focus on the issue and get that, get those dollars off their books.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of ways to do it.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: Every industry has this problem, you know, an acheatment, unclaimed property, automations.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: How do you look at it?
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes now the problem becomes so large that it's not something you can manage in a spreadsheet or solve the problem because there's too many details.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: They're not tracking it at the level they need to, the data's disconnected, and it impacts everything.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: It slows down the whole business payments, acquisitions, drilling, owner relations, billing, compliance.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's not administrative work.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: People think of it as it's historically thought of, but with the shale boom, these are this is becoming real dollars.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: And companies need to see the writing on the wall that they're not going to be able to operate like this for very much longer.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: They should start working on the solutions now instead of when they're forced to, and everybody's trying to do it.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's the stuff that we're getting to help people solve for those that want to with our Lando solution.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's the software and with the consulting and services that we do at Honeycut.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: We come in and help people with these projects.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think that you know, every business decision is only as good as the data behind it.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't know the data and understand it, how can you even begin to solve the problem?
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: The longer it sits there, the worse it gets, David.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's crazy.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and you're exactly right.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_02: And you hear the horror stories, and it definitely makes my heart happy to know that Oklahoma is leading the way on that as well by you know, implementing the files, fines, and penalties, because obviously Oklahoma definitely has had some hiccups in the past for some major operators that I know of that, you know, had done that for so long.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_02: And you would hear the horror stories of the from the accounting side and the you know, talking from the folks that did the back office work on payments and stuff and delays and the amount of dollars.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: It was astonishing.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, just to think it's just one company, right?
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: And you're like, oh my gosh, there's thousands of companies out there, and you know this is happening every day across the industry where people are getting delayed on funds for a long amount of time, and it's turns into litigation, like you said, and usually it turns into lots of unwanted headache and stress too, because like you said, if they just would you know pay the money out that they know they got to pay and do their duty, uh, but sometimes fortunately it does not happen as smooth as they like.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, too, if you're making revenue off of those funds too and accounts, that's the other thing.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a it's a double double-edged sword for sure.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: I completely think I just tell tell people to think about it like what if that was your grandma?
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: I make the assumption in that comment that everybody loves their grandma and wants to protect them and take care of them.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: But I mean, but what if that's your grandma's money?
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: How would you want it to be treated?
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: How would you want it to be handled?
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: Is that are you doing the fair and right thing?
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's exactly right.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_02: You're you're exactly right.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I love that analogy because, like you said, everybody loves their grandma and wants to protect their grandma and take care of them.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: And you want to be fair.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, too, in business, it's hard sometimes uh to think about it, put it and add the personal touch to it because everybody just assumes it's another business and it's not somebody's grandma, but most of the time it is somebody's grandma or or mother or father or somebody that's affected by it one way or another, and it does cause tons of issues.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Erica, I definitely appreciate all the stuff that you've done in the industry and you sharing your experience with us today and definitely opening up and kind of telling us your passion and where it's led you throughout your career.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I just love to hear that because I think we don't have enough folks in our industry that are out here trying to promote our industry and be in a positive impact.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_02: And thank you for everything you're doing for our industry because it's it's extremely important.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's extremely important for the next generation.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: And it's going to be extremely important for the folks that are looking for mentors and being able to, you know, introduce themselves or hand out a card or you know, reach out in some form or fashion and be able to, you know, have someone to go to if they have questions.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just it's important to be a leader in our industry.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you once again for jumping on today.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_02: One of the one of the things that we like to do for all of our guests that come on the podcast, uh, we like to send out a goodie box.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_02: The ladies in the office put them together, and it's just a thank you for saying, hey, coming on to the Under Pressure podcast for Midwest Compressor, and we mail them out to all of our guests that come on the podcast.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: So just whenever you get a chance, if you just want to shoot me an email with your mailing address, uh, I'll have the ladies drop one in the mail and get it to you.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I just want to say thank you again for jumping on today, and thank you again for everything you're doing in the space.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: So I appreciate it, and you guys have a great 4th of July, and I look forward to talking to you soon.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, David.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you giving me the platform to share my story and uh help help people in general.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it was so great today uh getting to meet with you, and you did an amazing job.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: So you guys have a great 4th of July, okay?
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: You too.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_02: Bye bye.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: Bye.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: This has been another great episode of Under Pressure.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: Compressor Talk by Midwest Compressor with your host, David Abshire.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, keep pumping.