Energy Crue
Jim Holmes - Building Trust, Accountability, and Growth
What does it take to build a successful chemical company and navigate the challenges of the energy industry? Join us as we sit down with the inspiring Jim Holmes, President, CEO, and founder of LFS Chemistry, to uncover the driving force behind his journey and the growth of his business.
Throughout our conversation, we explore the significance of focusing on multiple chemical markets, the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people, and how to build trust and accountability within your team. Jim also shares his fascinating story, from his days as a three-sport high school athlete to driving vacuum trucks in the oil field and founding LFS Chemistry.
Running a remote team is no easy feat, but Jim Holmes lays out strategies for overcoming these challenges and fostering genuine connections with customers and employees. Don't miss this opportunity to hear from the man himself as he imparts valuable lessons and stories that are sure to resonate with anyone interested in the energy sector and business growth.
What does it take to build a successful chemical company and navigate the challenges of the energy industry? Join us as we sit down with the inspiring Jim Holmes, President, CEO, and founder of LFS Chemistry, to uncover the driving force behind his journey and the growth of his business.
Throughout our conversation, we explore the significance of focusing on multiple chemical markets, the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people, and how to build trust and accountability within your team. Jim also shares his fascinating story, from his days as a three-sport high school athlete to driving vacuum trucks in the oil field and founding LFS Chemistry.
Running a remote team is no easy feat, but Jim Holmes lays out strategies for overcoming these challenges and fostering genuine connections with customers and employees. Don't miss this opportunity to hear from the man himself as he imparts valuable lessons and stories that are sure to resonate with anyone interested in the energy sector and business growth.
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Speaker 2:And welcome to a new and improved energy crew podcast. I'm pretty excited to do this. Uh, uh. I wanted to say, first off, thank you out there for everyone that have been a long time listeners and those that are listening for the first time. Thanks for tuning in. Um, uh, energy crew uh originally started out just kind of a conversation between two people to kind of get to know the person behind the position And, uh, that was an awesome, uh, awesome run. We had about 57, 59 different uh great, great conversations throughout, uh, throughout the last year and a half. However, this was brings us to why we're here today.
Speaker 2:I wasn't feeling passionate about it And you know, and I think you know, this is one of those new things bringing it into the new season of energy crew And, um, actually kind of what connection crew is about to launch in Q4. It's a perfect tie-in, i think, uh, you know being around a lot of conversations, a lot of people. Uh, when people start talking about their passions, it's, it's, uh, it's contagious, it's, it's, it's something that uh you, that they get, uh, there's a certain sense of uh energy that comes from them. There's a certain sense of uh, of, of, uh lack of a better term passion that comes from them And I thought it would be such a cool, uh cool thing to kind of for this new series, new season, uh, new episodes, to sit down with uh, other uh leaders, other people, um, uh, in the oil field, outside the oil field and all that stuff, and kind of find out what's making them tick. Where are they spending a lot of their time that when they should be doing X, y and Z, but they're kind of spending uh, enjoying spending their time And, um, yeah, and again, this is a great uh way to and I don't have a, an ad or anything like that, but this is a great uh plug to exec crew, which is something that connection crew will be launching uh in Q4. So if you are an executive, uh founder or an aspiring executive, uh looking to connect and also have some sort of knowledge share and genuine connections and learn from other people's passions, um, and you also share your own. The idea is everyone's a student and everyone's a teacher. So if you're looking to connect, uh, check out wwwconnectioncrewcom and head up to exec crew and register today. And I am pumped, we are back.
Speaker 2:This is your first podcast, is that right? It is my first podcast And if you're tuning out there and you didn't check who's talking right now, we are sitting with the legend Jim Holmes, the president, ceo, founder of LFS chemistry, and also you got a great little crew, little badass teammates, because you guys are also a part of crew club And I love that. So, jim, let's get this kicked off. Uh, this is your first podcast, right, and that's shocking to me. That's, that is sharp, you're. You're an interesting dude, you're. You got a great team working with you. You got. You got cool shit going on. So I love, uh, talking to you and I'm shocked that this is your first one.
Speaker 1:So thanks for joining us Absolutely, And I think it's. It's no surprise to me that it's my first podcast, because exactly what you're just saying having a wonderful team around me I actually don't mind and I I prefer that they have the spotlight. They're really the ones that make this company tick, So I love that Back to the people. I don't need all the all the fame. We got wonderful people around me and that's what makes the company run and they deserve most of the credit and the fame.
Speaker 2:Well, take your 15 minutes today. Yes, actually, uh, i've had the privilege to actually meet a lot, of, a lot of people that you work with, that you brought on board and all the stuff and really, yes, you have some great, great people. I'm serious about that, like it's. It's just like good people that, like you, just tag up outside of work and just kind of connect with and shoot this shit and have a beer with.
Speaker 1:Well, that's part of being in the industry for as as long as some of us have is you meet a lot of people and when you start a new company, as we did four years ago, you get to bring in some of the best people that you've ever met. So having that expertise around us and the drive and the passion has made this company what it is today. All right, Let's kind of back up a little bit.
Speaker 2:Let's do that elevator pitch. Who is so? those of you tuning in right now, who is Jim? Who? who is Jim? Give us a little background about yourself before we dive into this conversation. That's a. That's a very long story.
Speaker 1:I know we only have a few minutes, but born and raised in Atlanta, georgia moved to Kansas. Three sport high school kid who tried to go to Kansas station. What did you play? Well, it was wrestling baseball and soccer. Okay, all right, most of the passion was around wrestling Ultimately started with soccer. Were you one of those cats that like you?
Speaker 2:were always trying to go like the weight class under you. So in high school you'd like starve yourself under motion. They see it. Yeah, i feel like every wrestler in high school does that, whatever it took to win.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, absolutely Okay.
Speaker 2:Broken bones, weight loss, dehydration, mountain nutrition, i remember buddy Matt Dupay, he, he was a big time wrestler and stuff And yeah, he would drop down to like skeleton where he's like gotta compete. I was like, all right, man.
Speaker 1:Like Yeah, so it's. It's fascinating, you know, time coming up through high school and then in high school my family moved to Houston. I went to Kansas State University for a minute.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Didn't survive there very long. ended up moving to Houston to be with the family and jumped into the oil field.
Speaker 2:So Jumped in the oil field. What, what? so is it first generation oil field?
Speaker 1:I direct oil field. Yes, so my father was actually loosely in investor relations and other aspects and editing and publishing.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:For like oil and gas investor magazine. So you had a taste of it, Had a taste of it And of course, moving to Houston, it was almost natural as a job to go go get into the oil field.
Speaker 2:So that was your first job in the oil field, and what'd you think of?
Speaker 1:it. So the first job was both exciting and miserable at the same time. Yep, i took a job with key energy driving vac trucks out of the Bryan College station area. And then he moved me around to a few different areas and it was exciting at first, but then you realize that the life of a truck driver is actually pretty difficult in the oil field.
Speaker 2:Is that? because? what is it? The hours is being with family.
Speaker 1:It's the hours, it's the health. Generally, your diets aren't fantastic when you're working 12 to 14 hour days. Oh yeah, i was working nights trying to go to school during the day. So it's double meat water burgers at 6.30 in the morning and tukitos at 6 in the afternoon, trying to manage your diet. That sounds so bad. I mean, the time was wonderful.
Speaker 2:It's not sustainable.
Speaker 1:When you realize you put on 30 or 35 pounds in the first year and not muscle and you spend 20 hours a day sitting. That's not very conducive to a healthy environment.
Speaker 2:Okay, So what, I guess what pushed you to kind of get out of I'm going down the tangents again What kind of pushed you to get out of that role to pursue kind of going back to school and then doing all that?
Speaker 1:Well, so I got to go to a lot of different schools, and that's not necessarily something to be overly proud of, but I did get a lot of experience with a lot of different universities and colleges, so seven of them to be exact. I did not finish, so I sit here today with no advanced degrees, which is I love hearing.
Speaker 2:I do Because, like, i'm excited about that, because here in your kind of, here in your story, you went from a vacuum truck driver to a founder and CEO of a company. That's that's what's exciting about this industry. That's what's exciting is, you know, people think that we're filled with, like you know, dumb, rough, nags or this and all stuff, but it is such a complex, diverse industry of people that really you can kind of carve your own path.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I think probably one of the one of the drivers for that was watching the company that I worked for at the time go through a couple of bankruptcies for bad to sit, very, very bad financial decisions. Right And, matter of fact, one of one of my coworkers and good friends today worked at the same company just a few years later when he got into the oil field.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:But watching some of those decisions and then realizing that I didn't want to sit still and just be not. There's anything wrong with this. You know, being a truck driver it's a wonderful profession. You can make a great living doing it. If you manage it correctly, you get ample amounts of home time. But I wanted more than to be a truck driver and I wanted to grow.
Speaker 1:Okay, i wanted to develop, i wanted to create, and that led to joining another company. A few years later, after getting out of the oil field for a minute, i got back into an engineering and consulting firm.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And I started working offshore Gulf of Mexico doing some environmental work, containment work, mostly, mostly service and engineering as a non-engineer, you know. And then that company ultimately failed. I had nothing to do with the actual financial decisions within that company. It was a private entity that took on some private equity money. Quite honestly, we actually outgrew our cash flow Okay. So that was two really good lessons early in my career. At this point I'm in my late twenties when this one went under.
Speaker 2:So what was the lesson from the second? So I'm assuming the first lesson is you discovered that you want more for yourself, correct? And the second lesson would be what So?
Speaker 1:the second lesson was you really need to surround yourself with people that are experts in their areas?
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And not try to be the smartest person in the room all the time.
Speaker 2:Did you struggle with that, like early in your career? I feel like a lot of people struggle with that.
Speaker 1:So at that point in my career I was mostly focused on operations and sales Right, and we made a lot of mistakes there as well, and I think that's another part of it is don't be afraid to fail. We definitely put ourselves out there. We ran some risks, we made some attempts. The vendors that we actually had back then took a pretty good hit, but the way we managed those vendors actually allowed us to thrive on the next company that we started.
Speaker 1:That's a great one, so sitting down with some of those vendors saying here's what we're going through, here's what's happening, we're not going to make it through this. How do we take the next step? So, communication Absolutely communication And we're not ruining relationships along the way. Definitely some relationship tension, Whatever the money is involved there will be tension, but that's exactly the thing.
Speaker 2:It's communication being transparent, just kind of.
Speaker 1:Hey, we're going to walk you through this because we're in the same boat, correct, and I'm really good friends with several of those vendors today.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So we're actually business partners with one of them Really Help really launch what LFS is today.
Speaker 2:So let's quickly get in a kind of I guess what was your, because I'm always fascinated about the entrepreneurial stepping out, betting on yourself, because it's a feeling that I've experienced the last less than two years. What was the point for you? I guess, what was the you know what? I'm going to get off the pot right now. I'm actually going to commit to this and kind of take the plunge. What was the mindset behind that?
Speaker 1:Well, I can tell you, making that decision is not the best family decision out there.
Speaker 1:After that second company we were trying to raise money to keep that company afloat And a group of investors. We had several meetings. They came to me and said you know, instead of putting money into the current company that's way upside down, there's no recovery from this We're trying essentially dead And then there's no runway beyond it Why don't we invest in a new company that we would like you to essentially start up and run? And that company is still running today. So that group of mentors, especially at the time, who had been very successful in business, who had created their own investment firm here in Houston, invested in a group of five of us to start another company after that failure. And having them sit across the table and say we believe that you're the one that can do this, even given some of these other failures, spoke volumes. And at the time that happened, my wife was actually pregnant with our first child or daughter Right, and that was a very stressful point because she was pushing me to go take more of a corporate job.
Speaker 2:A safer job, yeah.
Speaker 1:Have a paycheck health insurance benefits.
Speaker 2:So I mean, but with all that, with all that home pressure pressure is not a bad term but with all that home pressure, your first child along the way, you have your daughter coming, all that stuff, this is going on. How did that not, i guess, force you to take that safe role, to take that corporate job?
Speaker 1:I think part of that was she knew the corporate role that I would have ended up taking. I would not have been happy. Really, i don't know if it's a personality thing. Necessarily I don't want to sit still and I get very bored if I do the same task over and over, so taking just a eight to five corporate job, whether it was in the oil and gas or not, she knew that I would not be happy.
Speaker 1:It's not a long term for you, so it would have affected our home life even more. It's not that I needed to go own something or start something or be the leader of that organization. It just needed something that offered challenge and growth.
Speaker 2:Flexibility challenges creativity. So, sitting across the table saying, hey look, Jim, we believe in you to kind of start this, We believe in you to know the. That's all fine, That's great to hear, That's great to hear. But on a personal level, because it's a lot of internal to take that plunge, to take that bet, to kind of bet on yourself. It's very internal. Did you believe in yourself starting off?
Speaker 1:You know, looking back on it, I wouldn't say that I had 100% confidence at that point in time, But the fact that others did really allowed me to have the confidence that I could make that work Kind of validated a little bit, Not to mention that, but the team that we were putting in place And again it's gonna come back to this. You know probably a little bit cliche, overused term of team, but I could not have done that by myself, Right? The investment group placed the CFO within the company Wonderful, wonderful, incredibly smart person. Without that person in place I couldn't have done it. We wouldn't be sitting here today. I'm not a CFO, I'm not a CPA.
Speaker 1:I know enough about finances to get in trouble.
Speaker 2:I don't.
Speaker 1:And I know enough of that's pushing it a little too far. We really need to take step back, but having somebody actually manage the business from a financial standpoint is critical. So you know and that plays into what we did here at LFS We ran into the exact same thing and we needed a very strong financial, very knowledgeable supporter. You know somebody that wanted to push growth but also control, do a response, control that so that we don't make the same mistakes we've made in the past.
Speaker 2:All right, so this is a great segue into kind of what we're discussing here today. But real quick, before we do, I wanna get people to understand a 15 second or less blurb on what LFS chemistry is Sure.
Speaker 1:so the 15 second blurb is we're a chemical research, development and manufacturing organization. So we started off in chemical distribution, primarily for upstream oil and gas stimulation markets, primarily frac. to be even more specific, we started the company little less than eight months before COVID hit in 2020.
Speaker 1:Fortunately, we had developed enough runway and enough financial stability in eight months to weather two to three months of almost no activity in the frac markets, cause we hadn't at that time, we hadn't expanded outside of a primary frac. Okay, and we were just starting to add people to the organization to really focus on driving into other markets and other technologies.
Speaker 1:We had an incredible technology partner at the time that ultimately ended up acquiring a portion of our company, okay, so that has really launched us. So now we have a team of three or four, depending on how you wanna place them in the organization guys that really put a lot of focus on what's next. What are we doing next in the chemical world? Not just for primary frac, but for re stems, clean outs, water floods, acidizing, you name it paraphernal scale controls. So it's really expanded beyond that, and now we're starting to put our toe into what you would generally consider to be the mining industry.
Speaker 2:Okay, All right.
Speaker 1:And there's huge room to go for companies like us right. The chemistry world is vast, it's not limited, and I think the companies that focus in one tiny little area are the ones that are gonna struggle. So we've put together a group of people that really focused on technology. How do we take whether it's existing molecules that are on the market and make them do something completely different and more effective to creating completely unique novel molecules that the world's never seen before, which we have also done? Damn, and there's pros and cons to all of that. When you develop a brand new molecule that has never been registered before, that takes a long time before you can actually make that a commercial product. So there's, you have to have this balance of products that we can create, market, create value around that people want, versus what you're working on for two, three, four years down the road. So it's a balance. It's a very big balance.
Speaker 2:All right, so let's talk about this. So, jim, you obviously you have a lot of stuff going on. You are, as a CEO and founder. I see you on the road more than I see a lot of people. I mean you and Dave Parker, i think you're always traveling. Okay, let's talk about this. What's? it's tiring, That's exhausting. You know, running a company traveling, being here shaking hands. Also, what is what are you passionate about? What's keeping you rolling? What's keeping you kind of waking up in the morning, kind of getting after it?
Speaker 1:So growth and stability for everybody in the organization. We're only as good as the people that are a part of the company And you know. You wake up every morning and you say there's a lot of people in this organization that depend on me doing my part And that's kind of the selfish portion of a bigger picture, right?
Speaker 2:so Doesn't that add on a lot of like pressure?
Speaker 1:It's incredible anxiety, especially in an industry that has wild swings and ups and downs and activity. And you know we're always trying to manage those peaks and valleys. And you know we sit here today knowing that at some point there's going to be a pretty big valley coming up. I couldn't tell you if that's going to be in six months or in six years. At this point in time The market's kind of all over the place. But if you look at the last 12 months we've had a $50 change in WTI oil prices From June of last year to June of this year. You know we're hovering right around $71, $72. Now We're at 120 a year ago for a minute And who knows what's going to happen in the next six hours to six months?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. So you know, as you know, managing a business, we want to make sure that our company is healthy enough that, when those down cycles come, that we're not laying people off for just because we mismanaged a company.
Speaker 2:So what side of the growth because companies can grow in many different ways. They can grow in market share, they can grow in exposure, they can grow in headcount, they can grow there What side of the growth aspect, kind of that, you dig the most?
Speaker 1:So I think at this point in the company I think this is an evolutionary process within every single company We mentioned it earlier that the ones that focus on one particular area, the ones that are ultimately going to fail or they're just going to stay in that one area and never really flow, out of it.
Speaker 1:And there are plenty of those companies that are very good at one thing and they stay there, and most of those are private companies, family health companies that they're fine being right there. We want to grow the company. We want more people coming into the company. So to do that we have to explore other opportunities. We have to push the limitations of the chemistry's potential into other industries like mining or agriculture, and then also within upstream oil and gas itself. Primary frac is seems to be the area that most new chemical companies want to focus on, and for good reason, because the invoices are a little bit larger. It helps you generate cash flow faster. You're moving more product quickly, whereas some of the other areas are smaller volume sales, but they're more consistent. They're more predictable. When you get into production chemistry, the downturns don't hit you quite as hard. So we're really working towards those aspects as a way to grow our entire portfolio but also bring in much stronger relationships in other parts of the industry as a whole and new industries.
Speaker 2:So I'm kind of picking up that y'all are kind of first off. yes, y'all are very passionate about the only gas based, naturally But I'm digging the fact that y'all are looking at other, different industries. I think this is kind of a this is kind of a reoccurring theme that I've talked to a lot of people in the industry about. It's like we have to be looking at other industries, not just to get best practices from, but also I mean, you're right, this industry is so cyclical. I mean, in order to kind of have that runway, to have that kind of diverse portfolio, it is probably a smarter idea to kind of see where else can we kind of if your product or service or whatever you offer can branch out of the industry.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and a lot of other industries have, from a chemistry standpoint, have a lot of similarities to what we do in upstream only gas. right, you get into mining and all of a sudden dealing with clay control, just like we deal with in primary frac or drilling. You get into industrial applications and you're talking about decreasing. That's exactly what we're trying to do in the oil field as well. We're trying to essentially decrease a reservoir and collect more oil from it.
Speaker 2:Dude, this sounds like such a comp like it sounds first off it sounds fascinating, but it sounds like overwhelming. because this is why, because we both know it's a mile a minute right now in the oil batch right Using this. So not only you take on that, not only handling business as usual for what we have today, but looking at it. The thing is so when you're ever researching a new market, new, this new, that that's a whole other process. It's not like, okay, i'll dive in for 20 minutes today, or 30 minutes or an hour today and look at this and where we can kind of get some wiggle room or, if there's an opportunity, that's like a full time gig.
Speaker 1:It is, and we have one of the guys on our team that was referring to before, neil Hayes, our chief commercial officer.
Speaker 2:He's an awesome dude.
Speaker 1:He spends most of his day focusing on where can we go next and how can a chemistry be applied next, and where can this chemistry being used over here in application A be used in application B? And then, what type of people do we need to bring into the organization to really flourish in this new application?
Speaker 2:So how? I think that's probably something good for you. Know people out there that are listening, that do have their own company or endeavor or thinking about it. What advice do you have if people are looking to, i guess, expand their industry that they serve, or that they that they offer their service at?
Speaker 1:I think what's driven a tremendous amount of success at our company that can really work in pretty much any company is to take the handcuffs off your employees. Let them run, let them do what they're going to do. They, you, set the mission. You know we have meetings about this, we talk about it.
Speaker 1:I think where a lot of companies fail is in this whole micromanagement thing. Micromanagement doesn't mean it has to be down to the minutiae, right. Micromanagement can happen at a very high level and you don't even realize you're doing it. You know I'm really in a harp on our entire group that if that's needed, then we don't have the right people in the team. Okay, right, so give them the runway. They know, we all know exactly what's got to happen to make this company achieve the next level, and that next level is for the company. So it's don't restrain them. Failure is not a bad thing, mistakes are not a bad thing. We can always look back on mistakes and little failures. I'm not saying drive the car straight off the cliff, yeah, right, right, but nothing wrong with letting it get close, right. And then you know, maybe you have to step in and pump the regs there. Are we really headed in the right direction?
Speaker 2:When did you realize that was kind of your style or your way to do business And kind of not only that? it's kind of a two-part question. What was your initial, i guess, what was your initial feeling of when you started kind of delegating kind of or just kind of releasing control, trusting your employees?
Speaker 1:So for me it started at a very early age. So my brother and I started a company when we were kids.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:We started a company loosely. It's lemonade stand, we're mowing yards And my brother still runs that company today.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:It's one that I started, you know, when I was eight or nine years old and he joined. He's three years younger and he joined a few years later And we were three sport guys both of us and mowing every yard we could possibly mow in the evenings and on weekends. And you know, you realize even then in just a partnership that if you don't trust your partner to get things done and to have the best interest of me and anybody else that's there and the company as a whole, or our investors or shareholders, that you're going to fail. So, even early on in, my brother and I are best friends today and his company obviously I've stepped away from it, but his company is a very large company here in the Houston area now But we had to trust each other every step of the way.
Speaker 1:There were days I couldn't be there. There were days I was tied up with whatever it was, whether it was sports or school or a girlfriend or you name it And I had to trust that things were going to get done and we were going to keep taking the next steps to get bigger and bigger and bigger, and I think that goes all the way to today.
Speaker 2:I was going to say. I mean, trusting your family is one thing, trusting your brother is one thing, Trusting your little brother is one thing, versus trusting an organization like yourself, and whether it's international, whatever that's. Trusting family is one thing. Trusting people that you bring on to your boat is a different thing.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and even with LFS, the only major decision that I made in hiring was Neil Hayes, who was the first one that we hired. After that, neil's brought on the next round of people until we got to Will Call Pepper, and now he's brought on more people. So it's allowing each layer, if you will. I'm not a big fan of the term layer, but it explains where we're going, really gives ownership into those spaces. So, for example, will Call Pepper, our senior vice president, one of the most genuine people you're ever going to meet. He's got stories. I love that dude.
Speaker 1:Be ready for Texas Tech stories now, until the time. You've got to let them make the decisions on who, when and how. As long as you can sit back and say this definitely has the best interest of everybody else in the company, then it's an easy decision.
Speaker 2:Well, okay, this is kind of a broad. It might be probably a stupid. I asked a lot of stupid questions but that seems to be a very effective way You go back to. I listened to Alan Watts, who's this Eastern British dude, studied Eastern philosophy and all that stuff, and he said one of the best things that you can do is relinquish control And to trust your employees or trust whoever's in your life to get it done. That way you're not kind of consumed by the anxiety, the over control. Is this going to be done? as the worry, the worry of things or tasks are going to be completed. I'm just kind of curious, like it seems like it's such a broad but like how do, what are some steps to know that you can trust this person to kind of get it done? What are some steps kind of to relinquish the control?
Speaker 1:so I think I think knowing the people and when we say know the people, it's different than a Walking in the the front office door and shake it hand and saying good morning, right, have a great day go getting, go crush it.
Speaker 2:You're right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's really getting to know what makes them tick right. You, you understand that Some people, family is is number one, it's everything. Some people don't have a close family. Yeah, some people have hobbies that they just are Incredibly passionate about. You know other ones that are developing brand new relationships outside of work. You know, for example, neil just Neil just got married, you know, and that takes a lot of time and a lot of energy and a lot of passion yeah to go from a starting relationship to we're one you know and You have to really understand what makes every single person tick.
Speaker 1:You can't expect people to go give a hundred percent into a job When it becomes a job when people think money is the main motivator.
Speaker 2:It's, yes, it's a motivator. It provides, it allows you the ability to purchase things, provide for your family and all that stuff. However it's, it's not the main motivator with a lot of people.
Speaker 1:It's not it's not what you, what I fight every day Is how do you keep a job from becoming a job? Okay, right, everybody's got it like that. Everybody has responsibilities, they have things they have to get done in the day so that everybody around them can be successful. You know, we have an entire ops team that depends on the success of sales. We have an entire sales team that depends on the success of our chemists and and R&D capabilities. We have an entire group of chemists and R&D folks that depend on the success of the executive and financial teams.
Speaker 2:None of that works without every single piece of that being successful, from ops to executive well, how do you measure the accountability from, from everyone, because I'm picking up a lot, there's a lot here, but how do you measure, i guess, the accountability to ensure that you got the right people, that you can't trust them?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's. You know, again, i think it's a measure of mistakes being made just as much as a measure of success. For every One or two good decisions, did we make one that was a little bit questionable, and can they admit that accountability? can you Sit around the management meeting table and say that didn't work? Probably shouldn't have done that. But here's what we took from that. Here's what we learned from that. Here's, maybe we just need a little change in that, versus Maybe we don't need to scrub it completely. Okay, you know, maybe we just took one step too far, too quickly. You know, it can be a lot of things, but for me It's when you have a group of people that can pick up the phone, call you or send you an email or, you know, say, hey, let's go to lunch.
Speaker 1:It's been a little bit, you know, because our team is pretty spread out. Yeah, you know, we have Canada to the Middle East, latin America, all over the US. You know, everybody's kind of spread out. We don't we don't all congregate in one building. Okay, and that that can lend some challenge. That too, you really have to trust everybody. When everybody's spread out, okay, i can't sit there and look in and say, oh well, he showed up at eight o'clock in the morning and left at five. That's not how that works. When everything's, when 90% of what you're doing is remote, right, so it's. Those people have to be able to call in when we have conference calls or or even privately, and say, hmm, let's not do that again.
Speaker 2:So having that, having that, i guess it's trust, it's two-way feedback For your team is that stress is that? I mean, it seems like you've mastered this trust, trusting others and delegate and all this stuff. I Would assume. Starting off, though, when you start Delegating and start this on stuff, there is probably a certain level of it's kind of like letting your kid off the bike, you know. It's like you want to see them go, you know, but at the same time you want to keep that hand back there just in case they fall, and it's like, oh shit, we should have waited another you know Month before we did this or something like that. So when was that? I guess? how was that for you when you initially took your hand off the seat?
Speaker 1:so it Speaking specifically to LFS, i don't know that I ever had to have the hand on the seat. Okay, right, we. We started with a very specific task and mission. We knew where we wanted to get to and we wanted to get there very quickly. So those first couple of people that joined LFS chemistry didn't need a hand on the seat, but it was. We've already been through that.
Speaker 1:We and I've already been through that with some of these people at Previous companies you know, yeah, yes, You know, i would say there's a there's a time when you do have new employees that are joining and you don't have that Complete comfort with them yet. And yes, you're holding the seat and you're running next to them, but at some point you got to let go. The next let go of the seat and just run next to them And then pretty soon you realize that now you're three feet behind them and now they're just running on their own and you can't even keep up with them. We have people on this, on our in our group now that I can't keep up with.
Speaker 2:That's exciting, i mean there, but that shit. but honestly, that challenges like that's, that's kind of intimidating to a lot of Founders or people that run a company. They don't want people that are smarter or hustlers below them.
Speaker 1:And that would be in that, you know yeah, whatever you know like. I can tell you I'm far from the smartest guy in this organization.
Speaker 1:I am surrounded by everybody that's smarter than me. I mean again, we have people that are very talented, very focused, very driven in Specific areas, but they also have a lot, of, a lot of cross. We don't have boundaries and a lot of what we do Okay, if somebody's got a way in or a way to do something, let's get it out there, let's get it on the table. You know we're next two weeks from now. We're having a what we call an S sales knobs meeting. Okay, everybody comes in. We're meeting out in San Antonio at one of the Hill Country Resorts, nice, and we spend the day together in a room Talking about how we can help other people in the company. How is what I'm doing here going to impact another part of the organization? How is that part of the organization going to respond to those inputs and Adapt to those inputs, and is it genuinely?
Speaker 2:better for the company. This is the first time I'm hearing of a sales and ops meeting being internally focused versus externally focused now.
Speaker 1:This is there's always going to be discussion about sales growth naturally. This is a lot of this is here's what we're doing. How can we adapt the company to make sure that we have smoothly transition on the same track into that growth?
Speaker 2:So okay, so we're kind of coming up on 35. I kind of want to conclude this with kind of look, you, you have a lot of First off. Every time I talk to you, i find another thing that you're kind of into or something that you You're quiet, though, about it. You're very quiet about what you're extremely, extremely good at What, but, but then again you're also good at admitting like, hey, look, yeah, we make feelers. I kind of want to make you know mistakes to learn from and also what. I guess, whether it's a Story or guidance or something like that for people that listen out there who are facing this issue, whether it's growth into a new market, or whether it's looking at other industries, or whether it's bringing the right people and Having that trust for them. So well, i, how would you, if how would you advise me to do that?
Speaker 1:Um Man, that's a good question. I we asked a lot of good questions here, i know you do, they're great questions. They're great questions, they're very leading questions and I like that, are they? like? you've done this before? It's been a while, but I I Think that interaction that we just had right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah is a great example that. Ask a leading question. Get them to open up. Find out what they've been successful in. What what you failed in? for me, when I, when you make a new friend down the street, new someone new moves into the neighborhood, you get invited over their house. You invite them over to the house, whatever it is, and you find out that They're gonna cook a brisket. Mm-hmm, you got to trust them to cook a brisket.
Speaker 2:But you are hoping it's not terrible. He also got to be judgy too, because I feel like the biggest most judgy piece of meat And in in Texas to just, yeah, it is pretty much right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that, and like an a3b for it. Yes, if you, if you can master those, then you're, you're in. Yeah, you know, but You get invited to this brand new person's house and you're trusting that they're going to provide food, quality food, entertainment, good conversations. You're going to get to know their families, and I think that's a great step in growing an organization And we touched on that before Really get to know the people.
Speaker 1:Don't talk about work all the time, dude amen. You know that's when it becomes a job. You know, and that's when it becomes. That's when it transitions into micromanagement. You know it's instead of having a conversation, or starting a conversation at least with you.
Speaker 1:Know, man, i know you went to lunch with so-and-so at this particular company. You know what'd you guys talk about? Yeah, well, we talked about this. You know product A, product B and this case study. Don't do that. They're not at lunch with you because they want to talk about product A, product B and a case study. Yes, they're there because you need to ask them how did your kid do in the soccer tournament this weekend? I know you had one coming up. You know, from the last time I talked to you, i saw that picture of your family. You know, behind your desk over there that when you're working at your computer you get to face, and then you turn around and face me, so I get to see that picture. You know I noticed that you got three kids. Tell me a little bit about those three kids. You know, when you build that relationship, even with your customers and your employees, it's rockstar.
Speaker 2:I mean even to the people that are in the sales role or customer business development role. How much easier is it to bring up work when you have that relationship? It's so much easier.
Speaker 2:So much easier You're tuned in, you're listening, you're having genuine conversations, they know why you're there, they know what LFS does, they know what whatever I did it all and stuff. But if you have the genuine conversation it's so much easier to bring up hey, look, you know you got this going on. I know this is happening. Let me know if you kind of need us. That's much more of a natural conversation. That's much more of a hey, i'm going to provide you kind of you know, help if you need it, versus okay, i'm listening to this guy, but I'm waiting for that moment to ask the question.
Speaker 1:I completely agree with that. There's a time for the technical aspect of a sale and there's the most of our time spent on the relationship. Yeah, you know you can have the best technical salespeople on the planet, but if they don't have a good enough relationship with the client's potential customers, future cut, whatever, you're never going to get the sale.
Speaker 2:I always try to promote the 2080 rule. I don't even think it's a rule for this, but I always say, hey look, talk work 20% of the time, talk personal 80% of the time. I mean, when you start to ask them about their lives and their families and all that stuff, they really open up. There's that bond that's created and there's the relationship that starts getting built there And they start to trust you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Once they trust you, then you can bring opportunities to the table and they believe that it's going to work. Then it's our job to make sure it does work, you know, and not break that trust, and that's something that every service company out there battles. How do you start your mornings? I usually start my mornings by reading emails having breakfast and then usually one or two phone calls while I'm going on a walk down the street.
Speaker 2:So you get out of the house, you kind of okay good.
Speaker 1:I have to get out of the house. I'm a very distracted person, especially on a phone call, so even if I'm sitting in front of my computer and somebody calls, i usually get up and I find myself half a mile away from the house.
Speaker 2:Just pacing down.
Speaker 1:I'm here sweating and taking my third shower of the day.
Speaker 2:What about books? Are you a book connoisseur? Do you read a lot of like business books? Are you reading for pleasure?
Speaker 1:I don't read enough. Okay, i don't think anyone does. I want to be a book connoisseur, but books have never been the best way for me to learn.
Speaker 2:Okay, and.
Speaker 1:I found that out through school, Mind you know.
Speaker 2:What's the best way for you to learn?
Speaker 1:Hands-on.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So if people do it and it works, i pick that up very quickly. You know I don't have a chemistry background. I never did well in any of the chemistry classes I took in high school and the one or two I took in college.
Speaker 2:I love that, though I love that aspect of you.
Speaker 1:And now we're running out. You know, essentially a global chemistry manufacturing group.
Speaker 2:All right, so I'm going to drop this off. I'm not sure if you want me to share this or not, but hey, this is Energy Crew Podcast. I'm digging this. So Jim and I have the pleasure of bumping each other on a lot of flights whenever we travel, whenever in first class Southwest, of course Yes, middle seat You do something kind of sneaky. All right, you do something very sneaky that I don't think you notice, that people notice, but people do notice. So we were going to Midland. It was Midland, right, or a clone.
Speaker 1:Whatever One of the places I've heard about that.
Speaker 2:Anyway. So Jim's all nice, bumping him at the airport, start chit-chatting, all the stuff, and he's sitting there with a and for those that don't know Jim, he's pretty stout dude. This dude's like an 80s action hero, right, like you know. So that's a compliment, thank you, all right. So this dude's walking around with a bag of these little Snickers. These is a bag of, like you know, families, you know fun sized Snickers and all that stuff. And I'm thinking, okay, well, this cat's obviously got a sweet tooth or what's going on. Well, you get on the flight and you hand it to the flight attendant right off the bat and just go sit down. I'm thinking, you know this gal. All right, so I love this move, talked about this.
Speaker 1:You know, it's kind of a kind of a respect, paying it forward. Thank you, you know, moment, for people in service that don't get a lot of thanks Yeah, flight attendants are certainly one of those. you know it's. you go to a restaurant, you can tip and you can thank them. That's kind of our way in our society to thank somebody like that. But you get a flight attendant that generally has to find a way to enjoy their job.
Speaker 2:They put up a lot of shit.
Speaker 1:They're stuck in a metal tube with people with a lot high expectations, have high expectations, really bad attitudes in some cases. It could be everything from somebody vomiting in the corner to somebody that probably got into the to the whiskey and drank too much of them. You know it's all screaming babies to. you know the person with a lapdog that won't stop yapping Yeah, and and they got to manage all of this. So it it started years ago. my kids do it when we travel together. My, we're all in this. I love that.
Speaker 1:Anytime we do that, we try to get to the airport just early enough to run into one of the little convenient stores We buy a couple of of wrapped candy bags, sometimes two, sometimes three. My kids love handing them out And when we're bored in the flight we just hand them a bag of candy and say thank you, you know thank you for putting up with all of us and thank you for doing your job So the best of your ability.
Speaker 2:Dude, i love that. That's such a good way to treat people man.
Speaker 1:It really is. It pays back.
Speaker 2:I mean yeah, i mean strangers, you know, people on flights and all that stuff. I mean it's such a cool way to treat people. I saw that.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I'm gonna, i'm gonna, and we do try to do it quietly. We're not doing it for, we don't do it for the attention.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Recognition or anything. It's just our little way of saying you know, thanks for doing what you did, because I don't even think that I found out from you.
Speaker 2:I think I was talking to Neil about this And he was like oh, dude, yeah, all the time. I was like really, i'm on, i'm on. If you don't mind, i'm gonna start kind of ripping that, move off.
Speaker 1:You go. I dig that man, I really do. I don't think we can appreciate the good people in this world enough.
Speaker 2:People always chime in on the negative shit, but you're right. I mean, it's definitely you got to pick others up. I mean, even just spreading that kindness, it can make a difference in someone. So so, Jim, how can people get in touch with you and learn and learn more about LFS, for we kind of tag out of here.
Speaker 1:Easiest ways is probably through the website or through LinkedIn. So it's wwwLFSChemistrycom, a wonderful website. We got a great marketing team that works with Neil and Will and the guys every day on creating content. Linkedin's the same thing. You just search LFS Chemistry or any one of the folks within the company. You know I'd be remiss if I couldn't mention every single person in the company by name. I know we don't have time for that. We don't have time for that, right, but I mean we have. we have the most incredible people. You can find them on LinkedIn. I can confirm that. You know, and you're going to get to meet a few more of them at at Ertec.
Speaker 2:I'm pumped about that.
Speaker 1:So we'll. We'll have Darren Oswald down from from Alberta Okay, canada, who's our VP of technology. He's going to be at the happy hour. Dig it, so you'll get to meet him again. Just some of the smartest, most passionate people you're ever going to meet.
Speaker 2:Well, i love that. Jim, first off, i want to thank you for coming down to the petroleum club, 35th floor, looking outside this beautiful day in Houston, taking the time to do this Cause I know it's a quite a commute But honestly, man, i've really enjoyed and I'm just and I'm speaking first I've really enjoyed getting to know you over the past was it seven, eight months now? Yeah, yeah, nine months, something like that And just the people that you bring on board, your leadership, your involvement, how you treat people and that candy move, man, that's I mean, it's little stuff like that that does make an impact And I'm going to take something away from this. That it's going to be one of those things too. I need to practice myself to start delegating more. I mean, i trust people, but it's like I trust you, but it's like let me take the care of this. I know my way to do this, so I do like that. That's something that I'm going to be taking away, man, so I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:All right, so, everyone, thank you for tuning in to Energy Crew Podcast and we are back. Hope you enjoyed it. If you enjoyed it, leave a review, give it five stars, or if you could give it six stars. I don't think that's possible. We're going to get there, but help spread the word and thank you everyone for tuning in and everyone have a good day and spread some kindness. Thanks for having me here. Absolutely, brother. We'll see you all soon.