Energy Crue
Welcome to 'Energy Crüe', the podcast that dives deep into the heart of industry innovation, entrepreneurship, and personal growth. I'm your host, JP Warren, and each episode, we embark on a journey to uncover the passions and motivations that fuel industry leaders. We're not just talking business here; we're exploring the personal drives, the triumphs, and the challenges that shape today's pioneers. Alongside these inspiring conversations, I'll be sharing my own story - the battles with imposter syndrome, the pivotal mindset shifts, and the lessons learned throughout my entrepreneurial voyage. As a certified coach, my goal is to empower you, our listeners, to break free from the barriers holding you back. Join me as we navigate both the professional and personal landscapes, learning and growing together with 'Energy Crüe'
Energy Crue
Hot Seat with Randy Nicodemus (Complete Solids Control)
Ready to uncover the secrets behind a successful oil field venture? Join us in this illuminating episode of the Energy Crew Podcast, where industry veteran Randy Nicodemus reveals how he turned his vision into reality by founding Complete Solids Control. Learn firsthand about the initial motivations that propelled Randy to leave the comfort of employment and how those motivations evolved over nearly two decades in the oil industry. Whether you're curious about the challenges of starting a business or eager to understand the nuances of fluid management, Randy's candid reflections and practical advice offer a treasure trove of insights.
Randy and I dive deep into the world of leadership, authenticity, and the importance of fostering a healthy company culture. We discuss his experiences navigating through toxic environments and implementing better business practices to bridge gaps between service companies and operators. Highlighting pivotal moments and lessons learned, Randy answers a thought-provoking question: does entrepreneurship ever get easier? Don't miss this rich conversation packed with rapid-fire questions, personal stories, and invaluable tips for aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals alike.
Welcome. Welcome to a new Energy Crew podcast. I'm your host, jp Warren. I'm excited about these new episodes that we're doing. These are the hot seats that we're taking with industry leaders, entrepreneurs, business owners to learn about what drives them, what inspires them, lessons learned along the way and other fun tangents we get on and I'm excited. Actually, this is the first one we're doing in person in this beautiful Oklahoma City, 35 floors up, and we're going to have a hot seat style roundabout question with my good friend, randy Nicodemus, and I want you to kind of do a little elevator spiel on kind of your background, who you are, where you're at and all that stuff, before we start diving into questions about leadership, vulnerability, building a business and leading others and yourself and whatever other questions that are on this notepad aka phone that I have in front of me. So, randy, welcome to Energy Crew Podcast. Give us a little brief update on kind of who you are and where you're at.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks for having me, man. It's awesome to be here. Energy Crew. We are in OKC right now for our Power Lunch power lunch from crew club, that's right, yep, and, and had an absolute blast and, uh, good folks to to be around a good company. So, uh, background, let's see, jumped into oil field 19 years ago, going on year 20, um, uh yeah, it's pretty wild I think um, it's really wild.
Speaker 1:Oh wait, dude, wait Dude, I'm 19 years in, too 2005.
Speaker 2:It's crazy 2005. Time flies, april 7th, okay, so I was June, okay.
Speaker 1:Right behind. Okay, so you can learn from my experience. Yeah, absolutely, you can learn a little bit more from my experience. Absolutely, is this your first podcast?
Speaker 2:This is my second podcast. First with you, though? Yeah, okay, absolutely Obviously first with me, I'd remember that.
Speaker 1:I think the listeners would remember that too. Yeah, yeah, all right, so talk about your company real quick. Talk to me about six and a half years ago.
Speaker 2:Talk to me, yeah, so six and a half years ago, we set out to pretty much provide the service ourselves. What service? What's the name of your company? Fluid management, okay, and so, basically, the reason for starting it, we just saw, or I saw it. Well, let me back up it was something I always wanted to do, okay. And then, basically, the reasons for it changed over time.
Speaker 2:Right, like number one, it's for you and your wife, and then it becomes you and your first child, then you and your second and third, possibly six, six at some point yeah, so the the reasons have changed over time, but the initially it was just seeing a big disconnect between service companies and operators, and that was the disconnect Really Well, number one, I would say the wrong practices in solids control period Right, like the way we were taught to do business, exactly, yeah, from a field level on basic, just mechanics and operations to, yes, how you run the business.
Speaker 2:Right, like the way we were taught to business, exactly yeah, from a field level on basic, just mechanics and operations to, yes, how you run the business. Okay, you know, um, and just, you see different cultures, right, and you see cultures that are toxic, cultures that are that are not healthy, and so you see a place where, hey, I can, I can, I can change that and that's what needs to change, right? So when you're with so many different companies and those companies lose work because this, that and the other, you're like I could do this and I could do it better.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean Love it, rapid fire question now. So, randy, six and a half years ago you started your own company, complete Solids Control 2, bridged that gap on pretty much how so I've only been in my running a business, entrepreneurship three years in. I would like to say that things get easier six years in. Let me ask you a question Are things downhill after the four or five year mark for you? Downhill as in as in, things get easier and kind of less stressful and the business is kind of going well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so are things easier. And how about this? How about?
Speaker 2:it? That's a great question. I'm kind of shooting from there right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah what is easier, uh, about uh, and also what is the same sort of uh frantic, uh, stress levels, chaoticness when it comes to running a business, in the last uh six and a half years what has gotten easier.
Speaker 2:What has gotten easier. What has gotten easier? Um, you know, I would say, just the basic day-to-day operations of things. Right, because you start to streamline processes, policies, everything from safety to just core values, you know, building that team around you, obviously hiring smarter people than me to lead the way, right, so I can help build the business in the way it needs to be built and they can help run it. And that's basically back to the first question. I have to get too off track was not seeing people in the right places, right?
Speaker 2:I mean well, like you know, having just managers, that wasn't managing correctly, that wasn't leaders. You know what I mean. Technicians that that wasn't doing technician things. Technician things. Right, you know what I'm saying and then therefore not teaching us, right? Okay, so it's kind of like the blind leading the blind, yeah, and you just know there's a better way for it. So you put yourself in a position, right, to put other people in position to be successful and change the face of solids control in the way that operators think and look at us.
Speaker 1:I dig that man. So you're changing not just how companies operate, but also the perception. Correct, 100%, all right. So what is the most significant leadership lesson you have learned early in your career?
Speaker 2:Early in my career.
Speaker 1:So for those, starting out their journey. What significant thing can you share? What piece of advice can you have about building a business or leadership?
Speaker 2:that you can share, not to get emotional like your personal emotions. Do not put your personal emotions into it at all. It 100% cannot be involved in your business. And you got to have a team. Okay, you got to have a great team, so you got to hire people and build yourself or build your team around involving people that you can trust and that you know are smarter than you to do what they do.
Speaker 1:So today's environment with everyone being actually no, I'm just going to leave that to that, without setting it. With today's environment, how do you lead effectively? How do you lead a team effectively?
Speaker 2:How do I lead a team effectively? Good question. So basically, we just try to. We implement the, the hard lessons that we learn. We bring that into basically a weekly sales personal development meeting with the team. Right, let's not do this, let's do this, let's respond quicker, let's roll out the red carpet, no matter what. Let's not get emotional, let's not get our personal feelings involved. Let's do whatever the customer needs us to do, as long as it's safe and it makes sense, right. You know, let's do whatever the customer needs us to do as long as it's safe and it makes sense, right. And um, we, we pour into our managers as well by. I mean, this is this is kind of crazy, because this isn't my first time being a manager, but we read the book, um, first time manager. Okay, we, we have like a book club, me and my I love that yeah.
Speaker 2:So we read a chapter a week. Then every monday we jump on a call and we talk about the things that we read as a first-time manager, right so we're learning from other people's mistakes, like the leaders before us that are doing this on a much higher level, right with much bigger firms, you know that are at the top, you know, like the top one percenters, we're learning from them, and so that's what we do.
Speaker 2:So, even as a manager for several, several years now, uh, we're back to, to square one, like you know what I like about that.
Speaker 1:I feel like in this day and age, when it comes like that's kind of why we're leaning into like personal growth, professional growth, there's not dude, there we go, it's still recording it's okay. So so, going back to that, I love that because in this day and age, either it's an audible or a book that you can read, or a podcast. There's not a lot of roundtable discussions that you engage in about lessons learned, have those discussions. So I love that.
Speaker 2:That your team does that. So hats off to y'all and as and love it that. That's what you know you're doing here with uh, you know, the crew club man. It's like being here today engaging with real people and real discussions. You can't compare that to a PDF download.
Speaker 1:No, or being in a major conference sitting in the audience. Yeah, all right. So what strategies do you use? Listen, you wear many hats. You are a father, a coach, a leader, uh, uh, running a company, see, and all that stuff. So what, that's a lot. That's a lot. That's a lot of spinning wheels. What do you?
Speaker 2:use to stay time, you know. So inspiration now is, is the family, it is the team that we have, you know. It is the customers that we, you know, make promises to, um it, you know, to, to our industry friends here at crew club. You know what I mean. Like inspiration to just keep. I gotta be doing well to make sure that there's an opportunity for them, for you, right? I mean it's so. So that's that's the inspiration, right there. And what was the? I'm sorry, what was the first?
Speaker 1:one. How do you say focused.
Speaker 2:How do I stay focused? Wow, Uh, hardcore Before bed every night I have the entire day planned out almost by the hour. You know what I mean Because it has to be Because, like you said, kids sports. Now the older girls are starting to play sports. The team is growing, the company is growing, the promises are getting bigger like get out of your lane and get something.
Speaker 1:But I think I love how you did that. That's having intention and focus towards your schedule 100%. I love that 100%. A lot of times you see a lot of people's day that controls them. They wake up, they get on the phone. They have to do this. They do this. I always say pause, take a break, set your day, whether it's the night before or the morning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're too busy to freestyle anymore.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. You can't freestyle you, freestyle you get in trouble, man big time. I didn't realize I'm learning that lesson right now, yeah 100% and you can't even have fun, right?
Speaker 2:You can't have fun if you're just freestyling Because I don't know. For me it's like an anxiety thing. 100%.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying? Entrepreneur, like that's what you're supposed to do. Yeah, and I just for me.
Speaker 2:I like it, but I need to throw out train wreck.
Speaker 1:I like it when you structure, building your business. What were some most, what were some of the most significant challenges that you faced, I guess, when starting, and how'd you overcome them?
Speaker 2:significant challenges starting your business, starting a solid control company, yeah. And having no name, yeah, like my name in the industry, uh, because you know we're six and a half years old, so everything before that I was in the field, so I'd have no relationships whatsoever in the emp world. Okay, no, like nobody, nobody whatsoever. And, like I said, helping other companies build their bit, their their business, right, like, uh, buddy of mine who's no longer with us and another, uh, helping them build their business. That's what I was hired to do. So I was able to make my relationships, but I was also bringing home the circus and collecting peanuts at the end of the day, and that wasn't going to work for me.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying Got too big of a family and too too big of visions and dreams. So I thought, you know what, uh, I'm going to go ahead and set out for myself and make it happen. But, um, but, um. But to the question, um, the challenges, that the challenge was not having a name, right? So you're knocking on everybody's door and like who are?
Speaker 1:you. What is the important? That's a great question. I'm not even I'm saying I'm freestyling, it's okay, let's do it. How important is a name when a name, a brand reputation, when you are doing business in the oil and gas space or even spaces outside? How important is?
Speaker 2:it. It's the most important thing in my opinion. You know, like Omar was saying today at lunch, it's like people remember you for how you made them feel Right, not so much the things that you say, but how you made them feel, how you treated people. And you know, early on in our career was there, was there, some folks that probably didn't want nothing to do with us? Sure, because we had the wrong people in the wrong places. But you know, you learn over time and obviously we're not the same uh group anymore. We've learned and grown from those things. But, yeah, your reputation is everything. That's why they're going to, that's why they're, that's why 90% of our business right now is word of mouth. You know what I mean. You got to have reputation.
Speaker 1:You can't have word of mouth and reputation.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Huge, huge. All right. So let's talk about out there the other people that are trying to scale up. So you said you got to a point. You bring it on the circus collecting peanuts and all that stuff. What was the position or the, I guess the, what you use to kind of scale up, to kind of like take that next step? Because, for example, I'm in that before three year childhood phase of a business right now and I'm looking to kind of get to that next level. When did you and what did you do to get to that next level?
Speaker 2:you feel like you know, obviously nothing happens without God, obviously. But just putting my faith in Him and knowing that you know, as a little boy right, that there was always huge things ahead. I didn't know what it was especially oil and gas, yeah, but whatever it was and everything that I've ever touched has just went crazy. You know what I mean, so I just always knew. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:No, no, no, stop, that's that's huge right there. What do you mean? Everything you touch and all that stuff kind of like shine, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, like, for example, uh, my buddy Terry, who's no longer with us right, who got me into the oil field, we had several uh businesses together and, uh, you know, cause he believed in me right as going in there and building this thing, he's got a vision. I share the vision with him. I believe in it. Let's go build it. So any business, whether it was a car dealership or oil and gas, we went out there and I made things happen, you know, okay, yeah, so you get the job done, I get the job done, I build businesses.
Speaker 2:What's your least favorite thing about building a?
Speaker 1:business, uh doing it myself you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like just, I guess at the time it was all by myself. You know what I mean, like hitting the road by myself, jumping on planes by myself, not having any connections, trying to make a name all by myself. You know no army. You know what I mean, you see, you see groups that are like established. They've been doing it 20, 30 years and they got, you know, all the support in the world and they had a reputation and you know they can walk in anywhere and just because they've been here 20, 30 years, you know what I mean there's a safe feeling with, with that group. And then here's Randy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, randy, yeah Right, yeah, randy coming in knocking her over for the first time. Yeah, randy coming in knocking it over for the first time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we don't know him from college. He didn't go to college we have no history. Who are?
Speaker 1:you.
Speaker 2:Why, randy, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:What would be the playbook? Okay, so there's a lot of people out there that probably might feel behind networking, or maybe don't have a name, or maybe this, maybe that, what would be pages out of your playbook to not only establish a name, such as you did, but also kind of get those networks and kind of get plugged in. And obviously this is like now. I'm not talking about a crew club, I'm talking about like early in your career, like what stuff out of your playbook to like get on the ground, get that name, get those connections to build your name uh, you gotta trust in yourself.
Speaker 1:Hold on, I'm gonna start that. Okay, I'm gonna start that over. Listen, we're having're having technical difficulties. It's apparently overcast here, so the Wi-Fi service is kind of in and out. So the question I want to ask, randy, is that starting your career without any connections, without a name and all that stuff, what are some pages out of your playbook to kind of guide people that are starting kind of in those situations?
Speaker 2:maybe that want to start their own business without the connections, without the name or that one, and I want to build it. You got to believe in yourself 100. You got to believe in what you're uh, in your product, and you just have to stay consistent. I mean it's kind of old school, but like getting out there and getting the name and trying to. You know, prove yourself to everybody, because that's what you, that's what I have to do. Right, that's what you got to do is prove yourself. Nobody knows who you are. You know you may not like me. You probably don't have the money to go out there and buy an oil field service company, you know what I mean. Or sweet tickets to taylor swift when she comes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I'm saying you just don't have it like that. So here we are knocking on doors and you know, I come from it's old school. I mean, I used to sell magazines door to door, you know what I mean, like they would pick me up, drop me magazines or you go through and I didn't show up with a magazine it was just a subscription in my mouth.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. So, and I was the top leading yeah, but that's the old school mentality is like you just got to believe in yourself, trust in your product, know what you're doing, why you're doing it, be passionate about it and and and that's that. That's what people will see you, I mean. And you got to stay consistent. So like message.
Speaker 1:Come on.
Speaker 2:Listen, it was my first MSA ever. Complete solace for Troy's first MSA ever. Yes, it was from I left the message and he called me back. I love that. Yeah, this was eight years ago too. Well, it wasn't CSC, forgive me, it was from my buddy's company at the time. But yeah, exactly. So first win.
Speaker 1:So how do you deal with rejection? Yeah, I mean, how do you deal with rejection? You're starting a company. You get a lot of no's, got a lot of this and that. How does that continue to motivate you? You know?
Speaker 2:it does. It does, like our guy said earlier today at lunch, was I'm paraphrasing, but he takes some of the negative as fire and fuel and that's what used to light me up. You know being rigid but to be able to accept rejection. I was rejected a lot of my life man. You know, growing up in in in the in the rougher parts of Dallas. You know, being the only white complected kid in the neighborhood, you know what I'm saying. Like we were up against struggles daily, so it was constant rejection. So getting door slammed in my face was like kind of like, you know, in a way, part of life. You know what I mean. So, um, you know just uh, understanding that, yeah, for, for, for every, so many people that don't want anything to do with you. There's somebody out there looking for you.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. I dig that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:So hey, listen we legacy, what, what advice would what? What? What guide, what path of guidance would you give out there? Um, out there to people that kind of tuning in right now that are interested about building their own empire.
Speaker 2:Man, and of course that's going to change over time. There's no right answer, that'd be different a year from now. But I would just say again believe in yourself. You know, stay focused, don't let anything or anybody get you off off track. And you know, know why you're doing it, you know what I mean. And wake up every day and just just you know, stay consistent and go, go 100 percent and everything.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. You've also mentioned many times there are a lot of conversations too and, probably because we're wrapping this up, you've also mentioned something about people, about people around you and teams and all that stuff. What about the team team side of, or or the building a team side of of it? Would you like to advice? Would you have?
Speaker 2:you know, you just have to early on. Like I said before I, I made decisions on people that I thought were were the one yeah you know and to find out it was the complete opposite. You have people stealing from you along the way, lying to you along the way, doing underhanded yeah, absolutely yeah absolutely they'll.
Speaker 2:You know they'll take you for everything you got if you're not paying attention, but for us, I'm I'm, you know I. I can't be perfect at everything that I do. I like to say you know what I mean, but I do. I do pay very close attention. But, um, just surround yourself with good quality people. If you can surround yours, I mean, they don't even need the experience, because you can teach what you know. You can teach somebody how to do something, as long as they have the willingness to show up and to learn and they're a good quality human being like yourself, jp Well also we talked about the intention and attitude, positive attitude, a good attitude 100%, 100%.
Speaker 2:I mean that's what you need, right? I'd rather have somebody and we say it all the time. You know, we got 20 year veterans out there that that do you know what we do, and they can do it with their eyes closed.
Speaker 1:We've got horrible attitudes and nobody wants to work with them, and, honestly, here's the deal too no one wants to help you out when you're in a pinch you know like your own management team doesn't want to help you out. I love this. Randy, let me ask you a question how can people find you, how can people get in contact with you and how can people connect? Yeah, so LinkedIn is pretty simple. I know what this was. I was doing this.
Speaker 2:How can people do this? I have no idea. Linkedin, Randy Nicodemus, you can follow our page. Complete Solids Control.
Speaker 1:We got Instagram Complete Solids Control. I think all the social media platforms are equal when it comes to kind of exposure.
Speaker 2:You know I wouldn't say equal. You know what I mean. I know we see our, our, our team's shows obviously shows us the analytics of engagement and stuff like that, and I mean we do every platform just because you know you actually. I mean, man, come on, you're an entrepreneur, or you don't have a name, or you're trying to get out there. You need to be everywhere, you need to be everywhere, you need to be everywhere at the same time, and that social media allows you to do that.
Speaker 2:So you know, that's what do I think they're equally as effective for our industry.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Not equally but still, you know you still got to get, we hit them all I dig that. So what other podcast can we find? Randy, oh, the.
Speaker 2:Krista Escamilla show. Okay, you can find we did an episode with Krista and her husband Al and it was awesome to be there and good folks over there and right here on Energy Curve.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it. Well, everyone, thank you for doing randy, always great, hanging with you all. Thanks for coming to okc for this and then, uh, later we got a little. We got a little emp connection mix where we're bringing the spe students, interns, to kind of bridge the uh generation between you know current professionals, you know the future generation and all everyone. Thank you out there for energy crew. Uh, treat people right. Surround yourself with people. Uh, with good people. Uh, believe in yourself, believe in yourself.
Speaker 2:I know it sounds kind of like the shade, but listen man all the cliche stuff, though, makes sense.
Speaker 2:Believe yourself, it's very simple, it's when we start. Oh, like you were telling me earlier, man, sometimes you're just overthinking your own self. But let me tell you something if you don't believe in yourself, right, how are you going to look in front of someone who you're trying to get an opportunity from, if you don't even believe in yourself? How much, how bad would that hurt you? So obviously, how much will it help you by believing that belief?
Speaker 1:is everything. And I also want to say like, even if you have a series of sometimes self-doubt or sometimes a positive syndrome like that's still. That doesn't mean you don't believe in yourself. That's just me like. At the same time, that's one of the things I think you should pause and say wait a minute. Why am I doing this? What's my purpose? Not only that, wait a minute. I've made it this far. I made these all, all these successes right. I'm not worried about this self-doubt.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna keep on moving. Yeah, look where you are right now, yeah, and obviously you're scaling. So all the way up, it is all the way up, hey you heard here on energy crew check out.
Speaker 1:Uh, randy, check out complete solids control. Always appreciate it and, uh, I guess everyone else. Uh, stay and keep your energy moving in the right direction, which is what positive and up, I don't know.
Speaker 2:That's it that kind of makes sense. Go with it all right. See y'all later. Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 1:Thank you.