Latest / Under Pressure: Compressor Talk / From Summer Job to Entrepreneurial Insight: Matt Harriman's Journey

Transcript

From Summer Job to Entrepreneurial Insight: Matt Harriman's Journey · Under Pressure: Compressor Talk

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: This is David Abshire with Under Pressure Podcast.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: This morning we have Matt Harriman.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: Matt, thanks for joining us this morning.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thanks for having me, David.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Matt, you've said that you intentionally didn't choose the oil and gas industry.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: You were looking for a summer job.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: You could afford an engagement ring.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Somehow that turned into an entire career.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: How'd that happen?
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so so that was that was it.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I was in Oklahoma City and I was in grad school at University of Central Oklahoma in Edmund and proposed to my wife and uh or was getting ready to propose to my wife and realized that you know I might need to buy a ring, and rings cost money.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was looking for a summer job in between in between semesters of grad school.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I I I spammed the city with resumes and applications and everything.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually started work for an insurance company in their call center.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: So this this wasn't doing actual any actual insurance work.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was taking the call and handing it off to somebody else.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I was in the in week two of a nine-week training program on how to answer a phone when Chesapeake called and and brought me in for an interview.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, a couple interviews went well.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm I went and told my my supervisor at the insurance call center, and he was like, Yes, go get out of here before you end up like me.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: So so that that would that was it was awesome.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, joined Chesapeake, great company, you know, very large company, a lot of benefits, a lot of good things there for sure.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so my first job was was resource development in the in the Utica.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's where I started planning, learning a bit about reservoir engineering, all that kind of stuff.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Nice, nice.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: So you've gone from working inside as an operator to writing a book, teaching and planning methodologies, consulting around the world, and eventually building software.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Looking back, what problem kept showing up over and over that convinced you that there had to be a better way to do things?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think that at work, people accidentally kind of become less human in a lot of ways, and let a lot of things distract from what actually matters.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So if if the purpose of a business is to make money, there's a whole lot of things that people spend time on that have nothing to do with money.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's a whole lot of stuff that if if the purpose of the business is to is to have some kind of impact, there's a whole bunch of crap that that distracts from that.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And and what I've found over the years is there's a big need for people that can really think clearly and cut through all of that stuff and and get at kind of the the purpose of whatever the topic is, the purpose of the business, the purpose of a process, the purpose of a a meeting that you're having, and and actually stay connected to to what you're trying to do.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's a that's a great point.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's one thing that I bring up lots of times in leadership meetings with my team is you know, let's focus on what's important and what we're trying to do here and don't forget that.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of the little things throughout the day-to-day definitely is easily to get you distracted and lose focus and kind of shift your priorities as well.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: And people sometimes just forget, you know, what they're doing there.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's most companies, especially in the low and gas world, uh, you know, they're they're trying to get a product out the door so the company stays profitable.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I think sometimes that's easily forgotten with the day-to-day stuff and forget what they're doing and just lose sight of all relevance of kind of the day-to-day, because sometimes, you know, we can always kind of go in these black holes, as I like to say, of different things, and then you lose sight of what's important.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: So no, that's great.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: So is that real early on?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So working, so Jess Peak is an 11,000-person company, I think, when I was there, and and it was uh I learned pretty quick that it wasn't a good fit for me, just a big company.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's so stuff that goes on that isn't that isn't real connected to the business.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um the core of it.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And and so over time I just kept getting closer and closer to something that you know was simpler and more straightforward.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I left Chesapeake, I joined a startup software company called Intersight.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I think I was employee number like 20.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: When I joined, I had to build my own desk.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um when I was let in on my first day at like 9.15, there were beer bottles all over the place.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, okay, this is a little different than Chesapeake.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it was it was cool to witness and and be part of something where it was a hundred percent focused on let's do a good job of the thing we're trying to do for the customers, for for the employees, and everything like that.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so I learned a lot in that time in those early days of a bootstrapped startup was really rewarding stuff.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: So one thing that really stood out to me is you've intentionally built your company differently.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's fully remote, heavily focused on ridden communication, and you self-funded the entire business.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: Why was it so important to build the company around the life you wanted instead of the other way around it?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: So at InterSight, like I said, bootstrapped startup.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually it got bought by a private equity-backed company that was doing a roll-up of all the different software companies in that vertical, in the planning vertical.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: So everything from portfolio optimization at the top to corporate planning, field development planning, et cetera.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And through that, I was able to meet a bunch of different founders of, by all measures, successful software companies.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of them had pretty deep regrets about things that they missed with their families, with their kids, with you know, divorces, all kinds of stuff in there.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And seeing that at the same time that I had my first child, it made it, it kind of set me on this path of how can I have both?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Where I want a successful professional life, I want to have an impact and make a bunch of money, and I want to have a a family life.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be a good husband, good dad, and and be a good friend and have a quality life besides work as well.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that that really started me on a whole bunch of different paths, but but that ultimately led me to connecting with a couple of other folks that I've started this business with.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: So in the very beginning, it was just me, but there was a another guy joined uh a couple of years, a year and a half after, and and we're very, very aligned on if we really stay true to what actually matters, stay focused, don't let all the other crap come in.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: We can do a really good job and have a very successful business that's growing everything without spending 60, 80 hours a week on it.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: I I think that's a great way.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, lots of times you hear people say the analogy, you know, to to build a life that you don't need a vacation from, right?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's awesome.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm the same way.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: I I've kind of on my side of things, both of my daughters work for me.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: So it's great to be able to spend that time with them and you know, be able to and be involved with them on the day-to-day, where in a normal situation, you know, you're just not able to do that.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I think too, that's one thing that we, you know, as being in business, we sometimes lose sight of, but great for you for putting that as a priority, especially as a young father and saying, hey, this is what I want to do, right?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: And those things are important, and that's great.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: So you've shared something I think a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: You've met founders who had built incredibly successful businesses, but hate but paid a huge personal price in the process.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: How does those conversations change the way you define success?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: It puts guardrails on what we're gonna allow ourselves to do.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: So we're fully bootstrapped, right, self-funded, and a big reason for that is you know, if we had investors, investors come with expectations of growth.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta pay that money back, right?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so we wouldn't have the option to not work harder or to take some extra time after my CTO has a kid and take it easy for a couple of months, right?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's there's things that we that we're able to do because we don't have those other constraints, so we've really optimize the business to give ourselves freedom.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I I don't know I'm not convinced that you know, if we had thrown a few million bucks of investor money and a whole bunch more time at this thing, I'm not convinced it would have grown a whole lot faster.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it would have, but the effort and and cost would have gone way, way up as well.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And and that that's a preference thing, right?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: So some people would rather have 10% of a hundred million dollar thing.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'd I'd rather have a hundred percent of a ten million dollar thing.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: I I agree a hundred percent.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: So one story that surprised me was when one of the projects you're most proud of is actually one that you got fired over.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: So you knew speaking up might cost you your job and you did it anyway.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: What happened?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: The a big part of, you know, when I do consulting work, I'm I'm doing a lot of advisory work and consulting work for oil and gas companies.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And and one of the things that I hated about working with, you know, other consultants that I had interacted with is they played really, really safe and they told managers what they wanted to hear.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can make a whole bunch of money telling people what they want to hear, but that wasn't really the game that I wanted to play.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: And and so I knew that a lot of my value was was in being very direct and very honest and and trying to change things for the better.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: So that specific story, I was I was a consultant brought in by by a company to to help advise on a project.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I wasn't the lead, I wasn't the project manager, uh, but I was kind of a senior advisor on this project.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the team was the way that that team was working together was awful.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And they weren't set up for success.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: There was a whole bunch of competing objectives and and and all sorts of things.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: But I got to a point where, you know, and this was at this time a few years ago, it was a big part of our business.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like a big part of our revenue stream was was really this project.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: This was before our software business had really taken off and and everything.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd I'd gotten to a point where being a part of this team was was so difficult that I was ready to either quit or or get fired.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so I I wasn't I wouldn't have felt good about myself if I hadn't uh if I had just walked away and not tried.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so so I I tried in the best way that I could to to directly, but with some kindness, call out the behaviors and say that, hey, if this team wants any chance of actually delivering on on this project, it was a very aspirational project.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was ambitious.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I I got laid it out and I said, hey, these are the behaviors that are you know really mistreating people and they're gonna kill this project, and it's not gonna work unless we change as a group.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't like that very much.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: So and and and looking back, you know, maybe it wasn't my place to to try to push the team that way, but I don't know.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: What uh what I saw was wrong, and and so I I think I I'd rather I'd rather call out what I think is wrong and you know lose a little bit of money than not be able to look myself in the mirror.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: I I think that's something along the way that when you get into those type of situations where you need to speak up and you know that moral compass is there as well, where you know doing the right thing versus doing the wrong thing in those situations.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: And when you speak up, sometimes, like you said, that they either appreciate it or they don't.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: And they have to make that decision.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, too, like you said, being able to sleep good at night, that's that's one thing I always tell everybody.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you have to make lots of decisions as a leader and you have to make them fast and to be successful.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes stepping away fast is a good thing, especially in a bad environment, right?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: And bad relationships and whatever they may look like.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: And we we deal with that on the daily, of course, on my side of the world where you have customers that are not so good, or you know, people that you know you do business with in one way or another, and you know, it's just not a good environment.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, being able to make those decisions to step away, definitely I've I've not regretted any of those decisions as well, just like yourself, where you know that you made the right one because sometimes just that peace of mind is worth so much in the long run and not to carry that weight with you either.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: So good for you.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's nothing that I can remember quitting that I regret quitting.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: If anything, I wish I would have done it earlier.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: So but I want to add on yeah, one thing.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I I think this this idea of right and wrong, I I think it it it comes down to your personal values and principles.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so the way that that team was behaving from my perspective was unacceptable.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: From some of their perspectives, maybe it was fine, but but I think especially for for folks coming up in the industry and and you know, when I was early career figuring out who I was was a big part of it.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I took over a Latin American business unit at one point.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: I I spoke with this advisor, kind of a mentor kind of guy, and one of the first questions he asked me is he said, You're gonna have to decide if you're gonna offer and accept bribes or not.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: You just gotta decide if you're gonna be playing business that that way or not.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: And and a lot of people do, and and it's quote unquote normal in in a lot of a lot of places, and and figuring out who you are and and what you stand for, I think, is is one of the most powerful things that can help you with those big decisions on where to go, where not to go, and and and it takes time to figure that out.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: So you've described writing your book almost like artists described creating music.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't something you forced, it it seemed to pour out once you found the right idea.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: Did writing that book change the way you thought about your own work?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: It helped me realize how important it is to do things even if you're not sure of what the outcome is.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: It felt like a good thing to do.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: It felt like I needed to write down all this knowledge and this perspective that that I'd gained over the years and everything.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And there wasn't a big business driver behind it.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't strategic and all that stuff.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: It it felt like something that just needed to exist.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so created it, and lots and lots and lots of good things have come from it.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: The the total possible readership for that book is, you know, in the hundreds of people.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's very, very niche, you know, integrated upstream planning and in oil and gas, right?
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: There might be 2,000 people on Earth that might care about that, but I've it it's sold to a bunch of them.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that book has been passed around at companies that I'm have never talked to.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I met I don't remember his title, but he's VP or director at a at a reasonably large company a couple weeks ago.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I and he said that he somebody gave him gave him my book and he he read it over the last few weeks, and it's changing how he's making decisions and stuff.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's impactful and and it's cool.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I had no idea what it was gonna be when I when I got into it.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Nice, nice.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I love your company tagline.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: It says, make work suck less.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's funny, but there's actually a seriously philosophy behind it.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: What does that mean to you?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so my life's purpose, uh my contribution to society in my mind is to help people reduce their suffering.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: I want I want people to be happier, I want to be more fulfilled in their lives and and make work suck less is the is the is the catchy work version of that.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: So so our purpose as a company is is really to help people's days be better.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: So yes, we do software, but the why behind it is you know, if the people using that software because it's faster, because it's better, if they're able to go home a little bit earlier, if they're able to go home a little bit less stressed out, they'll interact with their kids better.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: They'll be more present, they'll take care of themselves, all of those sorts of things, and they'll enjoy their their work lives more.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's a it's a good catchy tagline, but yeah, it it means something real to us.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, that's that's so cool.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: So you built software, but you also continue coaching executives one-on-one.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: There are two different, very different ways of creating impact.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Why have you chosen to keep doing both?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: I see our impact as there's kind of two ways you can think about impact.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: One is broad, so reaching a lot of people in some way, and then the other is deep, so reaching fewer people very significantly.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think the software it's very scalable, right?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of a lot of people can use the software at like with not as much effort and energy coming from us once it's created and once it can get distributed.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: But there's only one me.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh having, you know, whatever my personal flavor of impact is on individual people, it's it's really limited, and but it's extremely rewarding.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, working with folks that are in leadership positions gives out a chance to be a multiplier and and helping them design their business a little bit better, be a little more intentional about their culture, it it'll have a long-lasting impact on a bunch of folks that that work with them.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I enjoy it.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: If if I go too long without having some deep conversations and some deep impact with folks, uh I I get unhappy if I spend too much time doing that, then I'll get really drained and and and I'll so a good balance to to have in both is is great for me personally and and for the business.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I love that.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: So you've told students something refreshingly simple, go do stuff.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds obvious, but there's a lot packed into those three words.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: What do you mean by that?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're not always gonna know what the right thing to do is, especially early, especially early in your career, or in my career at least, my my experience was I I didn't know what my purpose was, the purpose of my life's work, you know, early career, I just got married, I didn't have kids, all of that kind of stuff.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so the the way to learn what you want to do is to is by doing things.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so I started with a job.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: I've said, hey, there's some interesting parts about this job, but there's a whole pile of stuff that I don't want to do anymore.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm gonna find a job that, you know, if that first one is 20% stuff I like and 80 that I don't, I'm gonna try to find one that's 3070 next or or more and more, and just keep iterating and and paying attention to what I like and what I don't like, what am I good at, and all those things.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: And and eventually filters down into okay, this is the type of stuff that I really want to do.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is the stuff that I really don't want to do.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: And back to the make work suck less thing, right?
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Anytime you're trying to do something interesting, there's gonna be parts of it that suck.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: So the the tagline isn't make work not suck at all, but is less.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's gonna be some suck whenever you're you're doing something that's that's creative or and or difficult that you gotta fight through, and that's what makes it fulfilling.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: I I I you know that's one of those little moments where when I hear those words, you know, and I think too, when you're trying to create a culture as a leader, you want to make it to where it don't, you know, it's not very hard for people.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: You want them to enjoy coming to work and and you know, build relationships.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I look back over my career and all of those relationships where I had and I worked at different places when I was younger, they really helped develop who I am today.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I look back at that and I think about the great people that I worked with.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, you think about the bad people that you worked with.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I have some of my leaders remind me occasionally, they say, you know, be better than you know some of the leaders you had in the past and don't be those leaders for the future.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, sometimes it's hard to break some of those habits because you know that's how you have managed for so long and you kind of got used to that culture.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: But I I do think that being able to create a good culture is extremely important to have a productive and successful company.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't do that, and I'm guilty, I think every leader is guilty of you know making mistakes along the way and you realize that hey, you know, I could have done things better, and especially when you lose good people, it's definitely a reflection.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: To and it reminds you, you know, hey, I probably should have done better at certain things and building those relationships and kind of helping you grow as a leader.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I I love that for sure.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: So you've also admitted that many of the goals you chased early on in your career, titles, achievements, success, turned out to be not actually what made you happy.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: Looking back, what do you wish you'd understand earlier in your career?
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think we the only thing that I wish I had understood better early on was the importance of of the connections with people.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think that yeah, early on first started the career, the the salary and the title, that was the scoreboard.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, okay, that's the game.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna try to maximize both of those.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a very privileged pro position to be in and to say, you know, I'm I I hit a lot of those targets and and they didn't make me happy.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're somebody who's struggling to make ends meet, then that money is all that really matters in a lot of ways.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: So very grateful for for how things turned out there.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: But it was it was clear pretty quickly when I'd set my sights on a promotion or a dollar amount or or whatever, I would reach it and then I'd be happy for about 20 minutes and then I'd I'd set the next goal, set the next goal, and and just be kind of on that, on that treadmill of of goal setting, which is fine, but uh you can't imagine that the next one is gonna be the one that makes you happy.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think that I would have listened to anybody that told me differently early on.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think that that's a normal and just natural progression to go through.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you you run at one thing and you figure out that it's not really the game you want to play, and then and then you you find your way.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: So what I wish I had done differently was stay connected with the people I really liked.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's a few, but especially, you know, in those startup years where, you know, it was a hustle.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I traveled a bunch, I was gone a bunch, and and very, very busy.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I I wish I'd done a better job of um just keeping in touch with the people I enjoyed working with.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because after I started doing that, you know, I'll I'll just send a text to somebody that I'd worked with a few years ago.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, do you want to have coffee?
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a sales meeting, it's not a anything else.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's I liked working with you, and so I want to talk to you again, and that's it.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's that's a great point for sure.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: No, I love that.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: So, Matt, what's the name of your book, buddy?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: Called Integrated Upstream Planning.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: Integrated Upstream Planning.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well, uh, anybody that's listening, of course, go get a copy of it and check it out.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: Sounds like a cool book.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'll definitely have to put it on my read list for sure.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: I I definitely love anything that gets you forward thinking, it kind of gets you in the right direction, definitely helps.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: I've read lots of good books, and uh, you know, I'm I'm one of those that sometimes anytime I feel like I can take a step ahead in life by reading a book from someone else's experiences to kind of step me forward in my career.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: I always love to love to read it.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: So, what's the name of your company as well, Matt?
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: So the name of the company is Pod 2, so POD, and then the number two.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and the company was named based on an inside joke that about six people uh understood, so it has no marketing relevance at all.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Some some I I think way after the fact I somebody said it could stand for planning on demand, so maybe we'll do something dumb with that, but but no, the uh the goofy name it sticks.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: And and yeah, the the book is on Amazon.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: It'll take you about an hour to read.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: I've had folks that you know know nothing about planning, and even some that know nothing about oil and gas say that it they could follow it and it was helpful for them to understand this this aspect of decision making uh in the industry.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because it it very much just kind of lays out, you know, here are the things to think about when making decisions as an operator.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's it the people that have read it, it's a lot of people said that, like, man, finally this book exists and it needed to.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Said you're speaking my language is is what I heard from a lot of folks.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Matt, thanks so much for your contribution to the oil and gas space, and thanks so much for all your kind words today on the show and sharing your experience and your wisdom and knowledge with the younger generation that's coming up.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, one of the things we like to do for all the guests that are able to come on the show, we like to mail out just a thank you box saying, hey, thanks for jumping on the show and taking time out of your day and you know giving back to you know our industry.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: So just whenever you get a chance, if you can just shoot me an email with your mailing address and we'll get this mailed out.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: I have the girls in the office put uh these nice boxes together just saying thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule and jumping on today.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: So uh it's really thoughtful.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks so much, Matt, for jumping on today.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for you know being a great guest.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, too, I always like to meet people that's uh been to my hometown, which is very rare in our industry.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, it's cool to know that you graduated from USAO too.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's a that's a you and your wife, so that's that's super cool.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, go fighting drovers or whatever we were.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks so much, Matt.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: Have a great rest of your week, buddy, and uh look forward to hearing from you soon.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, David.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: All right, bye bye.