Oil and Gas Careers Podcast

Oil and Gas Careers Podcast is BACK! We discuss 6 positions that need strong strategic leadership competencies with IHS, Cameron, Halliburton and more. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #037: Strategic Leadership Competencies Needed Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes Positions Director, Oil and Gas Corporate & Business Strategy, strategy& part of the PwC network – Houston, Texas Sr. Director, IHS Energy Geoscience & Engineering Commercialization, IHS – Houston, Texas US Houston Chief Product Manager – Drilling, Halliburton – Houston, Texas Senior Manager Supply Chain, Systems and Processes, McDermott International Inc. – Houston, Texas Service Line Manager, Cameron – Houston, Texas Product Stewardship Advisor, Motiva Enterprises LLC – Houston, Texas Mark’s Career Tip of the Week Lean into the pushback. Growth only happens outside your comfort zone. Quote of the Week In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity. – Sun Tzu Set-up Mark’s LinkedIn Search     Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #037 Oil and Gas Careers Podcast: Strategic Leadership Competencies Needed appeared first on .

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before. A survey party chief and an archeologist walk into a bar. Both get high-paying jobs in the oilfield! But seriously folks, there are hundreds of jobs in this industry you would never associate with oil and gas. This week, we take a look at six of them. Which one surprises you the most? CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #036: A Survey Party Chief & An Archeologist Walk Into A Bar Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes Positions Class A or B CDL Truck Driver- Frac Services, Pilot Thomas Logistics – Odessa, TX Survey Party Chief, Fenstermaker – Midland, Texas Java Developer, Seneca Resources Corporation – McLean, VA, US Corporate & Securities Paralegal, Frank’s International N.V. – Houston, Texas Records Lead, Newfield Exploration – Houston, Texas Area Archaeological Technician (On-call), Amec Foster Wheeler – Knoxville, TN, US Mark’s Career Tip of the Week Every journey is different. Quote of the Week Success is not a stereotype. Success is not a Ferrari. Success is not an automobile. It’s not a house. It’s not a place. It’s not money in the bank. It’s not a million dollars. That’s not success. Success is the continual unfolding of the design of your own life and pulling it off. That’s what success is. – Mr. Jim Rohn iTunes Reviews Click Here to Leave Us A Review – Don’t Be Shy Set-up Mark’s LinkedIn Search     Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #036 Oil and Gas Careers Podcast: A Survey Party Chief & An Archeologist Walk Into A Bar appeared first on .

If you’re a senior oilfield oilfield leader who got laid off, you might think your career is over. But oil management jobs are everywhere. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #035: Oil Management Jobs – Opportunities Are Everywhere Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes Positions Senior Contract Consultant (6842), Statoil – Houston, TX, US Requirements Management Process Leader, GE Oil & Gas – Houston, Texas Area Project Accountant, Jacobs – Fort Worth, TX, US Project Engineer, Jacobs – Sugar Land, TX, US Voice/Network Engineer, ConocoPhillips – Bartlesville, OK, US HSE Manager, Dover Artificial Lift – Tulsa, OK, US Mark’s Career Tip of the Week Get involved with professional associations, volunteering or consulting. Quote of the Week The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. ? Ralph Waldo Emerson iTunes Review Needed – Apply Within! Ratings or reviews, anything you can do to help is GREATLY appreciated! Click Here to Review OGCP on iTunes Set-up Mark’s LinkedIn Search     Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #035 Oil and Gas Careers Podcast: Oil Management Jobs – Opportunities Are Everywhere appeared first on .

We’re 34 shows in and everyone’s still convinced there aren’t jobs in the patch. If that’s true, why is this oil services company hiring in droves? CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #034: Oil Services Company Hiring (hint: Weatherford!) Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes Positions Material Handler, Weatherford – Odessa, TX, US Cased Hole Wireline Junior Field Operator, Weatherford – Odessa, TX, US Equipment Operator II, Weatherford – Odessa, TX, US Development Specialist, Weatherford – Houston, TX, US Global Asset Manager, Weatherford – Houston, TX, US Mark’s Career Tip of the Week When networking, keep talking. Quote of the Week You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want. – Zig Ziglar iTunes Review Needed – Apply Within! We need to hear from you. Do you like this show? Should we keep doing it? 1-Star or 5-Stars, let us know! Click Here to Review OGCP on iTunes Set-up Mark’s LinkedIn Search     Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #034 Oil and Gas Careers Podcast: Oil Services Company Hiring (hint: Weatherford!) appeared first on .

If you got laid off upstream, midstream oil and downstream are still hiring. Here is how to transfer your skills into Kinder Morgan. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #033: Midstream Oil – How to Transfer Your Skills Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes Positions Operation Specialist, Kinder Morgan – Cropsey, IL, US Maintenance Manager, Kinder Morgan – Saint Paul, MN, US Associate Controller/Scheduler, Kinder Morgan – Galena Park, TX Crew Leader, LNG, Kinder Morgan – Savannah, GA, US Relief Plant Operator, Kinder Morgan – Iraan, TX, US Mark’s Career Tip of the Week Develop abilities that can’t be automated away. Quote of the Week Only those who constantly retool themselves stand a chance of staying employed in the years ahead. – Tom Peters Set-up Mark’s LinkedIn Search     Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #033 Oil and Gas Careers Podcast: Midstream Oil – How to Transfer Your Skills appeared first on .

You sure there aren’t any jobs in oil and gas right now? Mark found dozens of oil and gas tech jobs in ONE company. Inquire within. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #032: Oil and Gas Tech Jobs Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes Positions Service Desk Technician (Monday – Friday 1st Shift (7:30 AM- 4:00 PM), Seneca Resources Corporation – Alexandria, VA, US iOS/Android Developer, Seneca Resources Corporation – Richmond, VA, US Junior .Net Application Developer, Seneca Resources Corporation – Oakton, VA, US Sr. Sharepoint Developer (Clearance required), Seneca Resources Corporation – Quantico, VA, US Senior RBAC Architect (Senior Oracle Identity Access Management Architect), Seneca Resources Corporation – Alexandria, VA, US Mark’s Career Tip of the Week Do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do. Quote of the Week The Principle of Priority states (a) you must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and (b) you must do what’s important first. – Steven Pressfield Set-up Mark’s LinkedIn Search     Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #032 Oil and Gas Careers Podcast: Oil and Gas Tech Jobs appeared first on .

Social Media Expert and LinkedIn Master, Melonie Dodaro, stops by to discuss how to win your oil and gas LinkedIn job search. Background Melonie Dodaro is a LinkedIn Expert, Keynote Speaker, Social Selling Evangelist, and CEO of Top Dog Social Media. Inc. Magazine recently named her International #1 Bestselling book “The LinkedIn Code” one of the Top 10 Sales Books of 2015. She is passionate about sharing her knowledge of LinkedIn and social selling as a powerful lead generation tool to grow businesses. She shifts gears with us today to share a treasure-trove of tips on how to win your oil and gas LinkedIn job search. Enjoy! CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #031: Oil and Gas LinkedIn Wins w/ Melonie Dodaro Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes Connect with Melonie Melonie Dodaro: LinkedIn – Email – Top Dog Social Media Resources The LinkedIn Code “Cracking The LinkedIn Code” Master Class: Attract Better, Higher Paying Clients Using These Little-known LinkedIn Secrets! Simon Sinek TED Talk: How Great Leaders Inspire Action Set-up Mark’s LinkedIn Search     Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #031 Oil and Gas Careers Podcast: Oil and Gas LinkedIn Wins w/ Melonie Dodaro appeared first on .

We’ve spent the past few weeks discussing how to get into the oil industry. Today, we focus on companies looking for senior oilfield leaders. Correction! We still have the Oil and Gas This Week Podcast. For a strange reason unbeknownst to me I thought I said “This Week in Oil & Gas”, which of course became OGTW CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #030: Senior Oilfield Leaders Needed Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes Positions Project Manager – Supply Chain, DistributionNOW – Houston, Texas Area Global Director of HRMS, Weatherford – Houston, Texas Area Account Manager, BP – Houston, Texas Business Development Manager (Advanced Applications – Ingenious), Wood Group Mustang – Houston, Texas Senior Gas Pipeline Engineer, DeBary, Magnolia River – DeBary, Florida – Decatur, Alabama – Dallas, Texas Mark’s Career Tip of the Week Billions of dollars are wasted every year from pointless meetings. Don’t do that! Quote of the Week If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings. – Dave Barry Set-up Mark’s LinkedIn Search     Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #030 Oil and Gas Careers Podcast: Senior Oilfield Leaders Needed appeared first on .

Oil internships are a great way into the industry. Mark gives tips to make it happen. We also discuss positions with Valero, Dow Chemical, Kinder Morgan and more. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #029: Oil Internships – How to Get In Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes Positions Transportation & Cost Analysis Intern (Summer 2016), Valero Energy Corporation – San Antonio, TX, US College Co-op (Admin) — Procure to Pay, The Dow Chemical Company – Midland, MI, US Manager, Completions/Commissioning, WorleyParsons – Houston, TX, US Mobile Application Developer, Plains All American – Houston, Texas Area CREW LEADER, Kinder Morgan – Fairless Hills, PA Mark’s Career Tip of the Week 6 for 5 – Write a five-year plan that answers the following: Where do you want to be? What do you want to do? How much do you want to make? If you saw your ideal job on a website, what would the posting look like? What does your resume look like? Where do you want to be 10 years from now. Quote of the Week Nothing happens in the world that does not first happen in human hearts. – Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Set-up Mark’s LinkedIn Search     Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #029 Oil and Gas Careers Podcast: Oil Internships – How to Get In appeared first on .

For many, the path to a high oil field worker salary starts on a rig. Halliburton, Expro, and Exceed Oilfield Equipment are great places to start. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #028: How to Get A High Oil Field Worker Salary Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes Positions Account Manager, Exceed Oilfield Equipment Inc – Odessa/Midland, Texas Area US Burleson: A392 Material Coordinator II, Halliburton – Burleson, TX Asst Operator Well Testing, Expro – Oklahoma Business Applications Developer, TETRA Technologies, Inc. – The Woodlands, US-TX FACILITY WORKER, Kinder Morgan, Inc. – Newport News, VA Mark’s Career Tip of the Week Jump on every opportunity to speak out and take initiative. Quote of the Week In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing. – Theodore Roosevelt Overtime HUGE shout-out to OGCP’s #1 Fan, John in Robinson on Twitter! He stayed on our case in our absence, and we can’t thank him enough!! And if you’re a Top 10-percenter in the Northwest, Ngoc Quan would love to hear from you! Click here to see the position description and apply. Click here to email Ngoc directly. Set-up Mark’s LinkedIn Search     Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #028 Oil and Gas Careers Podcast: How to Get A High Oil Field Worker Salary appeared first on .

Episodes 25 and 26 were late. Unacceptable! To make it up to y’all, we recorded a show dedicated to FREE resources for your oil careers job search. Occidental careers offer opportunities like no other oil company, NOV needs a developer is Houston, and 3 opportunities for y’all outside of Texas. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #027: Oil Careers Job Search – FREE Resources! Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes Resources LinkedIn Indeed.com modalpoint newsletter Meetup.com iTunes U By Apple MIT OpenCourseWare UC Berkley Webcasts Swift Worldwide Resources CSI Recruiting Talascend Petroplan Mark’s Career Tip of the Week Take risks. If you win you will be happy. If you lose, you will be learn. Learning leads to wisdom Quote of the Week If you don’t have peace, it isn’t because someone took it from you; you gave it away. You cannot always control what happens to you, but you can control what happens in you. ? John C. Maxwell Set-up Mark’s LinkedIn Search     Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #027 Oil and Gas Careers Podcast: Oil Careers Job Search – FREE Resources! appeared first on .

Who isn’t looking for Shell Global jobs? Mark walks us through how you can design your career by focusing on ONE company. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #026: Shell Global Jobs & Designing Your Career Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes Positions MOTIVA – Risk Analyst – Shell – Houston, TX, US MOTIVA – Computer Applications Lead – Shell – Norco, LA, US Offshore Technical Coordinator, Shell – United, LA, US Learning Advisor: Senior Leader Development, Shell – Houston, TX, US Onshore Corrosion Technician, Shell – United, LA, US Mark’s Career Tip of the Week Find a mentor. Quote of the Week No one learns as much about a subject as one who is forced to teach it. – Peter F. Drucker Set-up Mark’s LinkedIn Search     Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #026 Oil and Gas Careers Podcast: Shell Global Jobs & Designing Your Career appeared first on .

The Oil and Gas Careers Podcast is for y’all looking to make oil industry career moves AND for y’all who want in. This week we look at how to get into oil and gas. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #025: How to Get Into Oil and Gas Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes Positions Accounting Intern, Kleenco Maintenance & Construction – Alexandria, IN, US Wireline Operator, Progressive GE – Odessa/Midland, Texas Area Class A Driver – Bessemer, Alabama, Ferrellgas – Bessemer, AL, US SUPV-Technical Services, Kinder Morgan – Williston, ND, US Sr. SAP PI Developer, ConocoPhillips – Bartlesville, OK, US Mark’s Career Tip of the Week Become a resource for others. Quote of the Week You can make more friends in 2 months by becoming interested in other people than you can in 2 years by trying to get other people interested in you. – Dale Carnegie Set-up Mark’s LinkedIn Search     Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #025 Oil and Gas Careers Podcast: How to Get Into Oil and Gas appeared first on .

Occidental careers offer opportunities like no other oil company, NOV needs a developer is Houston, and 3 opportunities for y’all outside of Texas. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #024: Occidental Careers – Still A Lean Start-Up Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes Positions Senior Front End Developer, National Oilwell Varco – Houston, Texas Patent Prosecution Counsel or Junior Partner, Mestel & Company – Washington DC Material Handler, Flint Hills Resources, LP – Shell Rock, Iowa Senior Engineer, Process, Air Liquide USA – Township of Branchburg, New Jersey Crude Accountant, OXY Inc. – Houston, Texas Mark’s Career Tip of the Week Make career planning an annual event. Quote of the Week It is never too late to be what you might have been. – George Eliot Set-up Mark’s LinkedIn Search     Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #024 Oil and Gas Careers Podcast: Occidental Careers – Still A Lean Start-Up appeared first on .

Hey, oil and gas personnel. Wood Group wants YOU! Phillips 66, Intergraph PP&M, Wood Mackenzie, and NRG Energy need help too. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #022: Oil and Gas Recruitment Agency Leverage Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes Positions Community Solar Sales and Marketing, Sr. Analyst, NRG Energy – Houston, Texas Business Development Manager, Petrochemicals, Wood Mackenzie – Houston, Texas Oil/Gas Production Operations Personnel, Wood Group – Houston, Texas Executive Process Consultant (Oil & Gas), Intergraph PP&M – Houston, Texas Director, Commercial Logistics, Phillips 66 – Houston, Texas Mark’s Career Tip of the Week You don’t need an advanced degree. Or maybe not a degree at all. Experience is what employers seek more than anything in 2016. Quote of the Week Traditional education will make you a living. Self-education will make you a fortune. – Mr. Jim Rohn Set-up Mark’s LinkedIn Search     Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #023 Oil and Gas Careers Podcast: Oil and Gas Personnel, Production Ops appeared first on .

Gate is an oil and gas recruitment agency. They need oilfield maintenance technicians and mechanics. You know what to do! CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #022: Oil and Gas Recruitment Agency Leverage Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes Positions Intern/Apprentice – Upstream Oil and Gas, IHS | Houston, Texas Oil and Gas Maintenance Technicians and Mechanics, GATE Premier Solutions (GPS) | Houston, Texas Strategic Account Manager, Pentair Thermal Management | Houston, Texas Major Account Manager, FMC Technologies | Houston, Texas Senior Sales Director USA & North America, FORTE ICT | Houston, Texas Mark’s Career Tip of the Week Stop being loyal to your company. Instead be loyal to yourself. Quote of the Week If you don’t design your own life plan you’ll probably end up in someone else’s plan. And guess what someone else might have planned for you. Not much. – Mr. Jim Rohn Set-up Mark’s LinkedIn Search     Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #022 Oil and Gas Careers Podcast: Oil and Gas Recruitment Agency Leverage appeared first on .

Optimus and Wood Group hiring in droves, while LK Consulting and Intergraph PP&M need someone with very specialized oil and gas analysis skills.   CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW     Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #021: Specialized Oil and Gas Analysis Careers Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes     Positions Entry Level Oil & Gas Opportunities, Optimus – Commodities Search | Houston, Texas Area Oil and Gas Production Operations Personnel, Wood Group | Houston, Texas Analyst II – Upstream Oil and Gas, IHS | Houston, Texas Global Product Manager – Specialty Oil and Gas/Mining Chemicals, LK Consulting Partners | Houston, Texas Executive Process Consultant (Oil and Gas), Intergraph PP&M | Houston, Texas     Mark’s Career Tip of the Week Don’t just answer questions. Interview the interviewer.     Quote of the Week I don’t even know why I’m saying this in an interview situation, but I always feel like I’m not good enough for some reason. I wish that wasn’t the case, but left to my own devices, that voice starts speaking up. – Trent Reznor     Set-up Mark’s LinkedIn Search     Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month     Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #021 Oil and Gas Careers Podcast: Specialized Oil and Gas Analysis appeared first on .

Companies are hiring sales oil and gas jobs left and right. As George Foreman said, “If you can learn to sell, you’ll never starve!” CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #020: Now With More Sales Oil and Gas Jobs! Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes Positions Junior Relationship Manager (Oil & Gas industry experience required), Société Générale – Houston, Texas Director Regional Sales – Instrumentation and Sampling – North America, CIRCOR Instrumentation — “The small bore instrumentation specialists” – Houston, Texas Director, National Key Accounts, BP – Chicago, Illinois Director of Leadership Development, Crown Castle – Houston, Texas Head Construction (Oil & Gas), Sofomation Energy – Houston, Texas Area Mark’s Career Tip of the Week When applying for a new role, have a consulting mindset. Quote of the Week My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions. – Peter Drucker Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #020 Oil and Gas Careers Podcast: Now With More Sales Oil and Gas Jobs! appeared first on .

Majors might have done layoffs, but that doesn’t mean you can’t work at Shell. The same applies to Weatherford and companies across the board. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW Subscribe, Rate, & Review Click Play to Hear Episode #019: Can You Still Work at Shell? YES! Click Play to Catch Up on the Past 10 Episodes Positions Oil and Gas Accountant/Contract, Addison Group, West Houston, Texas Product Marketing – Oil & Gas, Allegro Development Corporation, Dallas, Texas MOTIVA – Wholesale Territory Manager, Shell, Houston, Texas Director of Commercial Structuring – 2409, Just Energy, Houston, Texas Global Director of HRMS, Weatherford, Houston, Texas Mark’s Career Tip of the Week Find out what you like doing best, and get someone to pay you for it. Quote of the Week Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals. – Mr. Jim Rohn Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Mark & James Mark LaCour | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | modalpoint.com James Hahn II | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook The post #019 OGCP: Can You Still Work at Shell? YES! appeared first on .

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW For many in the oilfield, oil and gas debt is a serious problem. When oil is at $100/bbl we buy trucks we don’t need and houses we can’t afford. We’re like the guy who finally hit his weight loss goals only to turn around and dive into a gallon of cookies n’ cream saying, “I told myself I wouldn’t do this again!” Thus explains the old oilman’s prayer, “Please God, give us another oil boom. We promise not to piss it away this time.” But, in the words of Papa Bear Bill O’Reilly, “The sun goes up. The sun goes down.” So do oil prices. And so do our bank accounts. Life or Debt The oilfield needs a good talkin’ to from Victor Antonio. He grew up in the crucible of poverty on Chicago’s South Side. But he didn’t stay there. After graduating high school, he earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and his MBA. He went on to build a 20-year career as a top sales executive and became President of Global Sales and Marketing for a $420M company. He subsequently became CEO of a multimillion dollar high-tech enterprise. Never one to rest on his laurels, Victor moved onto become Vice President of International Sales for a $3B Fortune 500 corporation where he was selected from over 500 sales managers to join the President’s Advisory Council for Excellence in Sales and Management. Victor has conducted business in Europe, Asia, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Latin America, the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa. He can now add TV Host to his resume. His new show Life or Debt debuts on Spike TV this Sunday, March 13th. It’s a MUST WATCH that’s full of lessons for oil pros trying to survives the market’s ups and downs. Click here to watch the extended trailer for the series. Full Disclosure Victor has been an outstanding friend and mentor of mine for years. But, let’s be clear. I’m not saying to watch because he’s a friend. I’m saying it because I’m still getting my financial act together. The principles Victor teaches have helped me … a lot. I hope they do the same for you. Subscribe, Rate, & Review        Click Play to Hear #053.5: Life or Oil and Gas Debt with Victor Antonio Click Play to Catch Up on the Last 10 Episodes Listen on YouTube Click Here to Listen on YouTube Connect with Victor Click Here to Visit victorantonio.com Click Here to Watch The Motivator – The Business of Selling Hope First Friday Q&A Got oilfield questions? We got answers. Click here to submit your questions for the next FFQA. Share the Show Click any of the links below to share the show! LinkedIn Twitter Facebook Global Oil and Gas Network LinkedIn Group Click here to join. Get Mark’s Monthly Events Email Get Automatically Notified About Oil & Gas Events Once a Month Connect with Us James Hahn II | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Email Mark LaCour | Twitter | LinkedIn | Email | modalpoint.com #053.5: Life or Oil and Gas Debt with Victor Antonio Transcripts Courtesy Of [0:00:00] James: I’m James Hahn II, and you’re listening to the Oil and Gas This Week Podcast, Brought To You By Red Wing. This is episode 53.5. .5 episodes are my chance to speak with entrepreneurs, executives, and thought leaders from inside and outside the industry. To hear their stories. What inspires their work. What culture drives their company. What innovations they’re bringing to the oilfield. My guest is Victor Antonio. Victor came from a poor upbringing in one of the roughest areas of Chicago but that didn’t stop him from earning his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and his MBA. He went on to build a 20-year career as a top sales executive and became President of Global Sales and Marketing for a $420 million company, and subsequently CEO of a multi-million dollar high tech enterprise. Never wanting to rest on his laurels, Victor moved on to become Vice President of International Sales in a $3 billion Fortune 500 company where he was selected from over 500 sales managers to join the President’s Advisory Council for excellence in sales and management. Victor has conducted business in Europe, Asia, Saudi Arabia, Australia Latin America, the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates, and South Africa. He can now add TV host to his resume because his new show, Life or Debt, debuts on Spike TV this Sunday, March 13th. Victor Antonio, welcome to the Oil and Gas This Week Podcast. It’s a pleasure, my man. Victor: I’m glad to be here, James. I’m looking forward to this conversation. James: It has been quite some time since we first met back in 2009. I saw the documentary that was made on you. I said, “I got to be friends with this guy.” Victor: You saw my documentary The Motivator. James: I did. I saw the documentary The Motivator. I was trying my first business. I was like “I’m just going to fake it until I make it. I’m going to get on the phone with this guy. We’re going to become friends.” By my dumb luck, it has happened. A lot has changed since then. Let’s start back with your story. First of all, we have to preface this because you do have a show coming out. It’s debuting on Spike TV called Life or Debt. It debuts March 13th. Is that right? Victor: That is correct, James. James: I remember talking to you more than a year ago when you were doing the pilots. I can’t wait for the show. You have a very fascinating back story before you became the big time celebrity that’s given me a hard time before I press record. Tell us where you come from, Victor. Victor: All right. I was born and raised in Chicago. My family is originally from Puerto Rico but I was born in Chicago near the Humboldt Park area which is really not too far from Cabrini–Green, kind of a little triangle area there. I went to William H. Wells High School. Back in the day it was a little rough neighborhood if you know what I mean. It was really the hood. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up. I remember the food stamps and stuff like that. We struggled. I always got the hand-me-down because I was the youngest of seven. It was always interesting. Mom was always like “You go to school. Get the education. Get the JOB.” So I went to school, got the education, had electrical engineering degree and an MBA, did Corporate America. I did that for a while. I hated engineering when I first got into it. I did it for the money, James, which is not always a good reason to do something. Three years into my gig I said, “I hate this.” I started meandering in different positions but when I found sales it’s like — I always say I hit that hyper pad. I found my thing, the thing I’m good at. From there, everything took off. I became Director of Sales, Vice President of Sales, President of Sales and Marketing, and then eventually a CEO of a technology company out of Virginia. Back in May 9, 2001, 3: 48 PM to be exact, I walked away. It was simply because I wanted to do other things. I wanted to write books. I wanted to reach back into the neighborhood and help other people. That’s been a 15-year journey now. It’s been a very interesting career path. James: I want to go back to the beginning though. Victor: Like when I was born? James: No. Where you grew up because it’s very interesting to me that now you have this Life or Debt series coming out, and you grew up in poverty in Chicago. What was it like for you growing up? Did you live in the projects? Victor: No, no, no. Near the projects. Like I said, the Cabrini–Green housing projects were about, I’ll say about a mile or two from us, maybe three. They’re no longer there. They tore them down. [0:05:05] When you’re a kid you don’t realize that you’re poor. You just know you don’t have a lot of things. Back in the day, before video games and all these other things, electronic devices, you will go outside and you’re on the street all the time. You play kick the can, kickball, play baseball, games like pinners, fastball pitching with a rubber ball. You find ways to entertain yourself. At the time you don’t realize you’re poor. You’re just growing up. It really starts hitting you that you’re poor when you get to high school because then the peer pressure kicks in and the comparisons begin. You know how people like different clothing, and you realize you can’t afford the clothing. I remember that I realized I was poor because I always wanted a pair of Chuck Taylors, Converse All Stars. My older brother got a pair. My mother couldn’t afford to buy me a pair so she took me over to the store called — it was like a five-and-dime store called Jupiter. She got me one of those really low-cost gym shoes that had the plastic bottoms that every time you try to stop in a gym if you’re on a wooden floor you’d slide. I remember everybody making fun of my cheap gym shoes all the time. They didn’t have the $20 at the time, whatever it cost to buy a pair of Chuck Taylors and Converse All Stars. Those are things where you start realizing maybe we don’t have a lot of money. I remember having patches in my pants. Yes. When I had a hole in my pants my mother would put patches. I just remember all these little things that just reminded us that we don’t have that much money. It was a good upbringing though given the limited resources. James: Was that what informed your decision in engineering? You said, “All right. I realize I don’t have money. I want money. Engineers make money. I’m going to go become an engineer.” Victor: Yeah. It was pretty much that but let me put some texture to that. My father was working at a place called the Acme Frame Planning Company. It was like a dirty job. It was beyond blue-collar. It was black color because it was dirty. It was like a dirty factory. I remember he would come home. His hands were always like gnarled, real calloused. He would always blow his nose and black stuff would come out. I remember my older brother dropped out of high school. He had to go work at the factory with my father. He didn’t like that after a year. I’m almost sure he regretted leaving high school. The thought of dropping out of high school was pretty much a moot point because my mother would remind me “If you drop out of high school you have to go work with your father at the factory.” I’m like “Whoa! I’m not doing that.” When I graduated from high school my mother was like “Well, if you don’t go to college you got to go work at the factory with your father.” So I’m like “Let’s go to college.” I remember I was sitting in my physics class in high school and I had to pick a college. There were these advertisements on the wall. We called those the cork boards. I saw Illinois Institute of Technology. I asked my teacher “Is this a good school?” He’s like “It’s a very good school. It’s an engineering school.” I said, “Do engineers make a lot of money?” He said, “Yes, they do, Victor.” I still remember to this day. I went to that bingo card I call it where you can check out if you want more information on civil engineering, mechanical engineering, send you the application plus more information. I didn’t know what civil engineers were. I didn’t know really what mechanical engineers did. The only thing that resonated with me was electrical engineering. I asked again, “Do electrical engineers make a lot of money?” He’s like “Yeah, they make pretty good money.” Boom! I’m done. Fill up the form, send it in. I remember I applied to two colleges. The reason I chose IIT is that the other one wanted a matriculation fee. In other words fee to, say, I’m committed to go your school, of $250. IIT only wanted like $50. All my parents could afford was $50. So that’s how I chose my college. James: How did you pay to get through college? Victor: We were so poor. I had Pell grants, every type of government grant. I wound up, just to put it in today’s dollars, I wound up owing when I graduate only one year worth of tuition. James: Wow! Victor: It wasn’t much. At the time when I was paying for college tuition, just to show you how out of whack things are now, my annual tuition was almost like $5,000. I think it was like $4,800 a year. Maybe it went up like $5,000. I graduated only owing about $5,000, a far cry from what you see today. James: So you graduated from college and then go where? Victor: I got an engineering degree. During college I interned at a lot of different companies. I worked at Channel 5, WMAQ, in Chicago, the Merchandise Mart. I was actually running the camera for the 5: 00, 6: 00 and 10: 00 news as part of my internship program. James: Really? Victor: Yes. That was my first exposure to TV and behind the scenes. [0:10:00] And then I worked for a company out of Burns Harbor, Indiana during the summer called Bethlehem Steel, the first time I’ve ever been to a steel mill. Amazing. Amazing people, amazing production and facility. And then I got a summer job working for Honeywell in their undersea systems division. That was the division that actually produced the torpedoes, the Mark 46 and the Mark 50 torpedoes. If you saw the movie The Hunt for Red October, the American sub was actually firing Mark 46 torpedoes. I was working on some of the software algorithm for the newer version, for the Mark 50. When I graduated from college there was a job offer waiting for me to go work at their test center where we would test components that would go into all the munitions and all the military equipment. James: It’s really interesting because Honeywell has a very strong presence in oil and gas. Victor: Do they? I didn’t know that, James. I didn’t know that. James: Yes, they do. You’re talking to a lot of engineers right now. They understand where you’re coming from. Victor: Again, I loved engineering. I worked in the electronic test center where, again, we would test all what they called discrete or digital components that went through system, everything from the electrical side to the environmental side. I’m testing thermal shock, heats and all that. It was really fascinating to find out all about quality assurance. At that time that was starting to become very big before Six Sigma. So total quality management. The Malcolm Baldrige Award, I think we won it one time. I got to appreciate quality production at an early age. James: How long were you climbing the corporate ladder before you went out on your own? Victor: Think about it. I graduated in ’86 December. I started in ’87 officially, January of ’87, all the way through 2001. I can’t do math right now but I think that’s 17. Is that right? James: Yeah. Somewhere around that. Victor: So that’s how long. The first three years, maybe four but I think it’s more like three, I was in engineering. It was hard-core engineering. We were programming these testers, these test components. We were doing circuit board testing. We were always writing programs out. I realized it just wasn’t me. “Why don’t you supervise the test facility for us, Victor?” So then I moved into a supervisory role which was good because I got to really get a bigger view of all the things that are done within a facility. I kind of said, “Meh, I’m not digging this either.” And then I moved over to a wireless company. I left Honeywell. I went over to a wireless company. I became an application engineer designing wireless systems for the public safety market, so for police officers and fire departments. I worked in that market. I would actually design the actual systems, everything from the base stations to the antennas, the towers, all that good stuff. I liked the application engineering because it wasn’t so detailed. It was a little more removed from the bits and the bytes. It was almost like putting a system together. I really enjoyed that more. If I can just take one step further, once I did that, I became very good at it when I was at the company called EF Johnson which is still around in Minnesota. Sales position opened up in Latin America. They were looking for a person who was an engineer and can speak Spanish. I was like “Hello.” Around that time we had our first child. My wife wanted to stay home and we wanted to make money. So let me see. Technology background, he speaks Spanish and he needed to make money. Yeah. That’s me again. So I got into sales. James: How did your journey work out with money taking the transition from out of the hood, if you will? I know for myself personally, I’m still working on this, where I grew up in a household that had a horrible philosophy around money. I’ve heard it I don’t even know how many thousands of times, it’s just money. It comes and it goes. Victor: We would always hear money doesn’t grow on trees. James: Did you grow up then knowing how to save and how to take care of your money? Victor: No, not really. I’d like to tell you I did but I didn’t. The way I would make money is I would hustle for money. For example, one of my first jobs was a newspaper kids but I hated it because you had to go pick up the money. I don’t know if you know that back in the day you had to go collect the money. Sometimes you had to knock on door. Depending on what you collected, it basically determined how much you got paid. I didn’t like that. I still remember also collecting bottles. Remember back in the day we collected bottles just to have some pennies in your pocket. James: Up in Illinois and Michigan, down here in Texas. Victor: Yeah. I used to collect bottles. I used to collect cans. I remember I spent a whole day collecting cans, took it over to the junkyard, big bag. The guy gave me like — I don’t know. I’m going to say $.75. I’m like “Are you kidding me?” [0:15:06] The next time what I did was — this is so wrong and I do not recommend this because this is so wrong, what I did back then — is that I got the idea — I file this under innovation — I got the idea to put mud in the cans, and then I would smash the cans and let them dry. They were much heavier when I took them to the junkyard. It’s so wrong. It’s so wrong. James: It’s the poor kid hustling for some cash though. Victor: Yeah. I made a little more money that way. We were never taught to save because there was nothing to save. Everything was always on the layaway plan. You remember back in the day where you bought a pair of pants and you had to put it on layaway. James: I bought my first television on layaway. Victor: Yeah. Where I was at, you couldn’t take it home. I don’t know if you knew that. You had to leave it there, right/ James: Yeah. Victor: You got to keep paying for it until you finally paid it. By that time it was out of fashion because it took so long to actually pay for the clothes. That was the thing, that we were that financially in the hole sometimes. I remember there were times where our neighbors would sneak food to us. My father would get mad. My father early on had a drinking problem. He would drink a lot of the money. I can only imagine because of the stress he was under. We would just try and make ends meet, man. Everybody had to get a job. Everybody had to go to work just to bring some money home. Sometimes we had to wait, I remember, to the end of the month to get some food. We were so excited when the food stamps came at the end of the month because, man, the pantry was dry, if you know what I mean. There was nothing in there. Growing up all I knew was rice and beans. I believed that rice and beans was worth everything. It was automatic. Chicken, rice and beans. Pork chops, rice and beans. Everything. Spaghetti, rice and beans. You know what I mean? Everything. You don’t understand, James. It was all about the rice and the beans. My mother would buy this 100-pound bag of rice that would basically sustain us for a whole month. No joke. Look. I went to my first restaurant to eat, like an official sit-down restaurant, I went in my second year college. That’s how I got the intern at NBC. I remember when I sat down at a restaurant for the first time it was like “Wow! So this is a restaurant.” Think about that, James. I’m like 19, 20. I remember the lady comes over. I was with somebody. She looks at me and she goes, “Would you like a carafe of water?” I’m thinking “Did she just say giraffe?” I’m not making this up. I remember I looked at her and I go “What’s that?” She goes “Carafe of water.” I’m like “What’s that?” I didn’t even what the word appetizer was. I’m not making this up, James. I’m just telling you. I went to a culture shock. College took me out of the hood. I’m 19. I’m in college. That took me out of the hood. That’s when I really began experiencing life outside the hood. James: So you were 19 until you sat down in a restaurant for the first time. Victor: That’s correct. You get a hotdog at the corner store. Chicago is known for their great hotdogs, right? James: Yes. Victor: That’s the first time I’ve ever been in a restaurant. We didn’t have sit-down meals at the table. We didn’t sit down together because everybody was always doing something. We never got together as a family to sit down and have dinner and polite conversation. It’s weird. You know what I mean? James: Everybody had to hustle. Victor: Right. I remember when I met my wife and we went to her house for dinner for the first time. I’m like “Oh, my God. They actually sit down at the same time at the same table.” They say grace. It may sound petty but I’m just telling you. This is real. This is what I went through. All this was like a new world because you’re so busy hustling just to make ends meet. James: Once you started making money did you just blow through it? Victor: No. I’ve never been in serious debt. I’ve never been in serious debt. The only stupid decision I made was when I graduated from college and I bought a new RX-7. I had to pay $357 every month for five years. I’ll never do that again. It was almost like we were always breaking even. I met my wife in my last year of college. We got married about two years later after I graduated. When we had our first child we were struggling. Even with a job we were struggling. Sometimes we had only about $100 in the bank. That was it. Sometimes we had to borrow $100 or $200 because we were struggling early on but we were never in debt though. That was the good thing. [0:20:06] James: You knew or you learned to not take on credit cards and debt? Victor: I think we learned. I’d like to tell you that I knew that intuitively but I learned. I think that first car and/or payments I said, “I’ll never do that again.” So we’ve always strived to be zero debt. We’ve been zero debt for, I don’t know, I’m going to say at least 10 years, maybe more, close to 15. By zero debt I mean everything’s paid off which means you zero out everything at the end of the month. We’re talking mortgage, car payments, everything. James: The reason I’m bringing this up is because it’s a difficult time for a lot of people in the oilfield right now. Prices are low in the upstream oilfield, I should say. Midstream is doing pretty relatively well. I mean they’re printing money downstream. There are a lot of layoffs and there are a lot of people struggling. You see a lot of these oilfield names and so forth of, the oilfield at $100 a barrel and there’s a big mega truck there, the oilfield today, and somebody eating ramen noodles or something. It breaks my heart because these guys make so damn much money when they’re out there in the field. I don’t know how many of us in this industry plan for the future. This is a cyclical market. If you’re reliant on upstream you’re going to go through boom and bust. If you don’t store that away it’s going to be difficult for you. That’s kind of why I’m digging into all of this with you because it’s interesting to hear where you came from and what those of us in the oilfield, even myself personally, I’m still admittedly working on getting my finances together so that I cannot be struggling when maybe that client doesn’t come through or whatever that month. At what point in your career did you really start to understand money? Victor: My wife gets a lot of credit for that because early on she hates bill, she hates paying finance fees on credit cards and things like that. Early on she was more like that. My wife is the definition of frugal. If you look it up on the dictionary, you will see her face in there because she’s very frugal. I’ve always enjoyed that about her. She’s one of these people who doesn’t like to overspend and just buys enough all the time. I think I’ve learned a lot from her. Some people are just flamboyant. They have to have the latest purses with the latest name brands and all that stuff. She’s just not like that. She’s very simple but yet classy. She doesn’t like to spend money on things that don’t need to be bought. In the show Life or Debt, referencing the show, we work with a lot of families who didn’t put the money away. Let’s look at why they didn’t put the money away. Well, they were trying to keep up with the Joneses. They were living beyond their means. Everything was on the credit card. You buy things you don’t really need. I’ll tie this back to what happened back in 2000 or was it 2001 when the market crashed. I think 2001 was the tech bubble. In 2007 and 2008, the market crashed again. One of the things I learned early on is the zero debt. I have friends who would tell me I was an idiot. They said, “Victor, you got all your money in your house. That money is just sitting there not doing anything.” I came from a very low income family. I want security, James. That’s how my upbringing conditioned me. I don’t trust anything. When you’re poor and you live a life of insecurity where you don’t know where your next meal is coming from, where you don’t know what you can afford or you don’t if the landlord is going to kick us out because we never owned a home, it was just apartment to apartment to apartment, when you get to my age you wanted to have your own house. People didn’t understand that. I didn’t care if I could use that money or leverage it to do other things with it. I wanted a house that I knew was mine. That was the driving force to own it. If somebody’s listening to this and they’re in a big house they can’t afford, get the hell out of the big house. Go find a small house you can afford. Pay that thing off because once you have your home base secure, James, and I think this is something people don’t think about, when you have everything paid off — again, some debt is okay, if it’s rotating debt, but if you clear out at the end of the month, you’re not paying a lot of interest that’s okay. [0:25:08] If you have a house right now and moved to something that you can afford, once you can afford your lifestyle and begin to reduce your debt, put that under your control, what happens, James, is now you can make better decisions about your future. In other words, because I didn’t have debt I decided I want to do a lot of public speaking or as you know, the public speaking world is not just turn on the switch and you start making money. James: It takes years. Victor: Yes. Now, if I was in debt, in the hole, I would never have made that decision but because I was financially stable I can make a better decision and take more risk. See. This is the true cost of debt, and that is you’re not allowed to take chances, risk, try something new because you’re so in debt, you’re worried. I think that robs us of our dreams, of things we want to do. Does make sense? James: It makes perfect sense. As Zig Ziglar would say, money isn’t everything but it ranks right up there with oxygen. Victor: Correct. James: Money gives you the freedom to be able to make decisions to go and do what you want to do, follow your dreams and so forth or even just keep up with an acceptable standard of living, whatever that means to you, to plan for that. Victor: That’s it right there. What it means to you, not what it means to other people or how people view you. I drive a Volvo. It’s a 2000 Volvo, James. That means it’s 16 years old. I’m still driving it. I’m about to hit 200,000 miles in this bad boy. I always get the question “Why don’t you buy a new car, Victor?” I’m like “Why?” I said, “This one runs just fine.” You see the mindset? It’s just a different mindset. James: If I can just jump in there. That’s got to be a little different than some of your neighbors because you live in a pretty nice neighborhood in Georgia. Victor: My neighbor has a Porsche. He has a Cayenne Porsche. He drives his little Audi also, the sports car, for shits and grins. You know what I mean? I don’t care what he drives. You know what I mean? I don’t care. I’ll tell you a quick story to really drive home how I learned this lesson from my wife. We’ve been out together almost 30 years now so I learned a lot from her. I remember when we were starting out. We bought her a second car. Imagine. I had the new RX-7. She has this Buick Skylark. We’re living in Minnesota. This thing has so many rust holes in it. It’s just ugly. One day I’m by the kitchen window. I’m looking out at the car. I told my wife “We need to get you a new car?” She said, “Why?” I said, “What do you mean why? Just look at it.” Now, what you need to know about this car, James, is that inside it was immaculate but outside it was horrible. I said, “We need to get a new car.” She goes “Why?” I said, “Look at it. It looks horrible.” She goes “What do I care? I’m on the inside looking out. I don’t ever have to look at it.” Think about that for a second. My brain just locked up. What my wife taught me was that I don’t care what other people think of it. What I see is fine. That’s an interesting paradigm shift. James: It changes everything because if you’re keeping up with the Joneses you’re always going to be in debt. Victor: In this show we talk about 75% of American families are living paycheck to paycheck. Most of them don’t even have $1,000 to cover an emergency. Think about that. 75% are struggling. When you look around your neighborhood, guess what. Three out of those four houses are struggling. You’re trying to keep up with the Joneses who are broke. It’s almost like we’re feeding on each other. James: You see that all over Houston. I look around and I see really expensive cars and all the other things that go along with it, the bags and so forth. It’s interesting to me. There are people here that have money. Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of people with money but you can’t really tell who is the actual baller, if you will, because so many of us Americans are living in debt. Okay. So you’re driving a new Bentley or whatever the case is. I don’t even know if you can afford that car. Victor: It’s probably leased. Leased equals fleeced because that’s what they’re doing. They’re fleecing you for your money. Again, it’s all about the image. It’s all about you want people to perceive you in a certain way. I see that a lot. [0:30:07] We work with 11 families. I remember one in particular. If you saw this family, James, you would swear this is like the ideal family, beautiful Caucasian couple. He was like an Adonis. He’s just a handsome dude, ‘6″3. She was like a prom queen or something. Beautiful couple, gorgeous couple, four kids, four beautiful kids, two boys, two girls, beautiful kids. Beautiful house, the white picket fence, lovely cars, and a dog named Boo to complete the set. You know what I mean? When you look at them you’re like “This is a perfect family” until I go in there and I start scratching the surface just a little bit. Guess what. It wasn’t perfect. No savings, in debt, they were going into the hole every month. From the outside, damn, they look good. That’s what I see now. After doing this show I really now see people in a whole different light. If you drive a nice expensive car, it doesn’t impress me. The only thing that impresses me is the size of your bank account. Remember the book that came out? I think it was back in 1995 or something like that. The Millionaire Next Door. James: Yes. Victor: Remember that? It talks about the average millionaire drives a 230 pickup truck, wears jeans, buys them over at Walmart, doesn’t spent a lot of money. He’s sucking away money. I think this show is about getting back to the basics and stop trying to live somebody else’s dream. So if somebody in the oil and gas industry is listening to this and they’ve just been laid off, that’s unfortunate because now it might be tough to get another job. But if you still have a job today, if you still have a job today, man, start cutting back on your expenses, start living within your means, stop trying to impress people. You know what I mean? If you got to move to a smaller house, that’s okay. Just try to pay things off. Look. We got a recession coming down the road. It can be next year or two years from now. It’s coming, James. You know it is. Something’s not right. Wages have stagnated since the 1970s. This is kind of how it all works. Since the 1970s wages haven’t really gone up. So what happens? Two people now go to work instead of one, dual-income families, because people want to maintain their lifestyle. So the wife or the husband had to go to work now. So what happen? Inflation kicks in again, that wasn’t enough, so then people move on to credit cards. They start putting stuff down on credit card. After they exhaust their credit cards and they still can’t keep up, they start using their house like an ATM machine taking our second mortgages, equity loans. Then what happens? The collapse and everything just falls apart like the House of Cards. I don’t care what the unemployment number is. That’s a bogus number, 4. whatever it is. It’s such a bogus number. We have the lowest job participation rate in 30 years. The wages that people are earning are nowhere near what they were earning let’s say five to seven years ago. Inflation is real. All you got to do is go to the grocery store to see that your $100 doesn’t buy that four or five bags of groceries that it used to. James: Just try to buy some bacon. Come on, man. Look at the price of bacon. Come on. I just want some bacon. Victor: I’m looking at the media. They make it sound like everything is fine. I’m like no. Everybody knows intuitively something’s wrong. I’m going to the grocery store and I can’t buy as much as I used to buy. What happened? My wages haven’t gone up. My house is still expensive. The property taxes are going up. I don’t even want to talk about Obama Care and what’s that done especially to people who are self-employed who are 1099s. It’s amazing how all these cost are just going out and how some people do it is amazing. I always get back to the fact, start reducing your debt load. You’re really just start getting rid of stuff and just start paying things down. James: I just went through that in my move. I was going “Okay. I got to give the new landlord $1,200. Okay. Let me sell this, let me sell this.” I ended up with $1,500 in things that were just sitting in my house that I just didn’t use. I got to imagine that’s the case for the majority of Americans. Victor: Absolutely. One of the things we do when we work with these families is we look for the hidden assets in their house. We could find maybe $2,000 to $3,000 worth of hidden assets in their house. What we do is we take them to consignments or stores to sell or we just try to sell them outright, and then we use that money to pay down some of their debt. That’s part of the strategy of Life or Debt. James: You’ve enlightened us with a lot today. What would you say then — it sounds like we’ve maybe covered it already — the one thing that you learned from working with these families that anyone in the oilfield could take away? [0:35:07] Victor: There are a lot of things. It’s a tough question. I want to put a top spin and not an emphasis on this. We always believe that our house is our biggest investment. I no longer believe that. I used to also repeat that lie. I now believe that the biggest investment is the individual and your job. By that I mean is that if you’re in the oil and gas industry or any industry and you just do a particular job, I would take care to try to learn other types of jobs within that field. You know what I mean? Really expand my knowledge. Really try to become more valuable. So if I only know about drilling, then I want to know what’s beyond drilling. You know what I mean? I want to know about operations. I want to know about cost. I want to know about how things work. I want to know more. In other words, instead of just doing my job I want to learn everything around my job so I create more value for myself and my bosses will notice that. If you’re thinking “My boss won’t notice it,” it doesn’t matter. Even if you go to another job you’re taking all this skill set with you, this new amplified skill set with you to another job. So if you’re listening and you’re in that position where you’re learning something, try to learn more. Invest in yourself. Take an extra course. Just learn different things or try different position, by the way, within a company. That’s one of the things I did early on, James. I forgot to mention that. When I decided I didn’t want to be an engineer, I moved around a lot within Honeywell and I played different positions, put it that way. That allowed me to get an understanding of different aspects of the business. That just made me more valuable over time. I remember we went through a downsizing. I was one of the few people who didn’t get caught. It could’ve been my salary but I think it was also because I knew a lot about the business. I can work different positions. For those folks listening, learn how to play different positions. James: Yeah. I couldn’t agree more. We just mentioned that on the Careers Show a couple of weeks ago. Mark was talking to someone. The particular company in the industry is laying people off but the person that he knew was interviewing for a promotion that same day. It just reinforces your point. You got to be a lifelong learner and you got to get to know everything about what you do so that you increase your value. Victor: Absolutely. James: The more you increase your value the more — obviously we know that security doesn’t actually exist in this world — but the more secure you can be. Victor, thank you for enlightening us today and for being on the show. I can’t thank you enough, brother. I really, really look forward. Actually March 13th is my sister’s birthday. So it’s my birthday present for her. I can’t wait for this. Do you know what time and how people can tune in? Victor: It’s going to be on Spike TV, March 13th, next Sunday, not this Sunday, March 13th. It’s going to premiere at 10: 00 PM Eastern Time, right after Bar Rescue time, 9: 00 Central. James: Perfect. If anybody wants to get in touch with you or get to know you more where would you send them? Victor: Victorantonio.com. James: Perfect. Thanks so much, Victor. Victor: Thank you, James. I appreciate your time. James: Thanks for listening to this .5 episode of the Oil and Gas This Week Podcast. Join us again tomorrow when we will talk to James Wanjama as we promised about his passion for oil and gas and how it was cultivated growing up in rural Kenya with no running water or electricity until he was a teenager. Until then, go find some grease, guys. The post #053.5 Oil and Gas This Week Podcast: Life or Oil and Gas Debt with Spike TV’s Victor Antonio appeared first on .