From Political Science to Global Manufacturing: The Power of Reinvention

Speaker A: Be able to tell yourself a story, right. And make it a very simple story, construct, uh, a mental framework. And this is something that I try to practice every day. You know, you remember the who, what, when, why, how like and what. I think that is so practical in daily life and in different orders. But if you can simplify everything into figuring out what goes in each of those boxes and starting with what, what is it that I want to do, then how I'm going to do it and then when is it going to be achieved and then why. Right. I think a lot of people have a hard time, myself included, figuring out like you, starting with the why. We don't know. We don't know a lot. But that has been instrumental to me and not only like my own personal life, but also business too.

Speaker B: You're listening to Flipping the Barrel podcast, a women's perspective in oil and gas. We are your hosts Macy and Jamie

Speaker C: and our mission here is simple, to bring you the untold stories of this industry.

Speaker B: Hello Jacob, welcome to the podcast. Excited to have you here. Welcome to Flipping the Barrel.

Speaker A: Thanks for having me.

Speaker B: So you are the CCO at uh, UTEX Industries. Tell me a little bit more about just what you do today. You said you do a lot of things. You wear multiple hats.

Speaker A: Yeah, I wear a lot of different hats. I run all the commercial operations at ah, utex. Uh, I've been with the company a pretty short period of time right now I think I started in September of 2024 in a different capacity. I was looking after the international operations. They have a manufacturing um, facility in Johor Bahru, Malaysia and kind of a regional Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore. We also have a manufacturing facility just outside of Newcastle UK and uh, run some commercial operations there. So I started doing that. There's kind of a under supported business line and we did a little bit of restructuring uh there. So started there doing that and I took over the cco. So all the commercial operations in January of this year.

Speaker B: Oh wow. Okay. We're going to get into all of it and uh, uh, see all the cool things that you guys are doing at utex. But first, where are you from?

Speaker A: I am originally from a place called Brownwood, Texas. Most people haven't heard of it. The closest, yeah, yeah. So the closest bigger city is Abilene. So it's kind of right dead center of Texas, about three hours away from Midland, three hours away from DFW, five hours away from here. But small, um, 18,000 people, people live there. Wow.

Speaker B: What did your parents do for a living?

Speaker A: So my mom, she was a general manager of a, I think it was, I can't remember now, Toyota or Chevrolet dealership there in town. And my dad. My dad worked at a company called Superior Essex.

Speaker B: Is it oil field?

Speaker A: No, no.

Speaker B: It sounds oil field.

Speaker A: Yeah, no, it wasn't. So they manufactured, I believe it was like, um, cable. Fiber optic cable is what it was.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker A: Yeah. So in Brownwood, there was two major factories there that employed basically the entire town. Yeah. So Superior Essex was one of them and 3M was the other. I take that back. Kohler was also there. So between those three companies that employed most of the people. So my dad worked there for, I think, 20 years. And then, uh, he. My mom ended up separating or divorcing. Whenever I was around 15 or so, my dad moved off and he ended up kind of going out and doing his own thing. And my mom stayed in Brownwood.

Speaker B: Wow. Growing up in that small town, did you think you wanted to leave one day? Did you see yourself at working at one of those three manufacturing facilities? No.

Speaker A: Uh, it's been really interesting living here. So I think I've been in the Houston area for eight to 10 years or something like that. And it was really my first kind of dose of big city. So I lived in San Antonio for about five years, which is sizable. And then to Midland, then to Houston. It's become very clear to me that there's so much more opportunity that somebody from a small town, you don't even know what there is. So I was a first generation college grad, so I had no idea what to do after leaving high school. Just knew my friends were gonna go to school, so I was therefore going to go to school. And I didn't want to be in that town any longer.

Speaker B: So where did you study? Where'd you go to college?

Speaker A: My undergrad, I went to Sam Houston State. I actually lived in College Station with, uh, a few friends from high school and then transferred back and forth. Went a couple days a week to Sam Houston State. It took me a little bit longer than most people to get through.

Speaker B: To graduate?

Speaker A: Uh, yeah, to get through. I worked quite a bit through it, and I was not a very good student. I ended up majoring in political science with, uh, I think a minor in history. I don't. I don't even recall. I'm pretty sure.

Speaker B: What did you want to do with that?

Speaker A: Like, I had no idea.

Speaker B: Okay. No, I know what's funny. A lot of people when I was back in college, and they'd say, like, I'm Doing political science, to me, it was like, oh, you don't know what you want to do in life.

Speaker A: That's right.

Speaker B: It's like that degree. And I'm like, and your parents are paying for this?

Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's exactly right. So the reason I remember now, the reason I picked it is because I, uh, think it was my freshman year. I had, you know, the obligatory political science class 101 or one or whatever it was. You know, I was doing really well. And, uh, it was very narrative and paper driven. And I did well enough for some of the professors to be like, oh, this is a good opinion. So I think I maybe just kind of took that and, like, I don't know anything else I want to do, so I'll just stick with it. Very much random.

Speaker B: Wow. And so when you graduated, did you go straight into oil and gas? Like, how did you fall in here?

Speaker A: Not so mostly, but, uh, there was about a year period where I had no idea what to do after I got out of school. So I actually went back to Brownwood, where my dad had taken over a, uh, car dealership there at that time. And I worked for him for about six months in, like, the service department, like riding service. You go to somebody, say, well, shop.

Speaker B: And he owned the shop, or he was like a partner.

Speaker A: He was a general manager of it. Yeah. So I did that. And it was awful. Right. Not only was it. I didn't. I didn't want to be there, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I certainly didn't want to work for my dad. I didn't like it, so I don't blame you.

Speaker B: I don't think I would like to work with any of my parents.

Speaker A: Yeah. But I didn't really have any other options. Right. I still didn't know what I wanted to do. But my cousin, he played baseball at utpb. And then his dad lived in Midland or Odessa. And then whenever he got out of school, he went to work for Baker Hughes Drill Bits. Or I think it was probably still Hughes Christensen at that time. He's five years older than me, and he was telling me a little bit about what he did. And, man, that sounds like the best job. Like, that's what I want to do, but there's no opportunity like that for in Brownwood. So I started looking around. I found this little tiny drill bit company in Fort Worth. It's called Diamond Drilling Industries. And I thought that was, like, the same thing as what Baker Hughes is doing. And I didn't want to move to Midland. Right.

Speaker B: Had you been to Midland and, like, knew about oil and gas to the extent.

Speaker A: No. I mean, I had been to Midland, Odessa, uh, a few times just to see my cousin, my uncle, etc. But I didn't know anything about oil and gas. I knew enough about it. Like, well, his money here, uh. Right. And his job sounds awesome. Anyway, I didn't want to move out there. There were probably opportunities, but there was this tiny company in Fort Worth that was selling drill bits. I'm like, I'm going to go try that. They hired me. It was the worst experience. Right. It ended up being.

Speaker B: What did you get hired for?

Speaker A: A sales rep. Yeah.

Speaker B: So I thought it was a bet on you.

Speaker A: They took a. Well, they didn't take a big bet on me. They didn't pay me hardly any.

Speaker B: I took a bet on you.

Speaker A: No doubt. They didn't pay hardly anything. And it turned out that, I mean, they sell, like, water well drill bits. Right. I thought it was a position where I get to go to the Barnett Shale, even though it was very slow. So even at that time, I found this niche opportunity, but it just turned out to not be that at all. And I ended up learning about Alterra through one of the people I was trying to sell drill bits to. And like, well, I run Altera Bits and I'm never going to change from that. And I didn't. So I started Googling what Alterra was and trying to figure out my exit from this place. I hated it. I just reached out to Altera on the.

Speaker B: And they were also out of Fort Worth.

Speaker A: They said the HQs in Fort Worth. Yeah. I ended up reaching out to, I think, just like a corporate box. They had no job postings open. But I said I wanted to, uh, this. I want to go work for Altera. Somebody ended up calling me six months later, like, hey, we don't really have any openings here in here in dfw, but our South Texas group is growing. Like, there's a warehouse position open. Like, it's kind of like a training position. Would you be interested?

Speaker B: I was like, yeah, it gets me in the door.

Speaker A: Yeah, it gets me in the door. So I packed up and moved to San Antonio and did that.

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Speaker B: Wow. And how was that learning curve of what Altera was doing? They were also pretty small when they started to like where they are now.

Speaker A: Super small. Yeah, it was super small. At the time I joined Altera, I think it was probably like 2012 or 2013 in the Eagle Ford. Like it was still very much slumber J. Baker and Halliburton Bits and Alterra had a small position in the market, maybe 10 or 15% market share there. So I got to experience a lot of growth, the growth. But I was in that warehouse position for I think like less than a month. We're like, all right, well, we need you to, here's a territory of rigs we need you to go call on. Like, here's some keys, load up some bits and go sell them. There was no formal training. You just kind of had to figure it out.

Speaker B: Wow. And how did you enjoy that? Like going rig to rig, trying to talk to the company man, sell your drill bits?

Speaker A: I loved it and I still have. I miss it. It was the best job.

Speaker B: That's so cool. And you took care of South Texas,

Speaker A: mainly two different territories in my time there. I was in South Texas for about five years before I, um, transferred to Midland. So I think there was five or six, maybe seven field sales, like technical field sales people whenever I was there.

Speaker B: So cool. Yeah, yeah, I definitely, I think when you think back of the field, I do miss it sometimes. But sometimes I myself, I'm like, you just miss it because you don't remember all of the late nights and the sleepless nights, but far away. I like. I'm like, oh, it was such a great time. Like, I love the feel going out to the rig, but maybe I wonder if it's because we're blocking out all the crap.

Speaker A: Maybe. I think there's probably a large portion of that. And I also think that the. What I miss is like, the immediate satisfaction by seeing a win. Like you see it right then especially. It was very hard to sell Altera bits for many of the years that I was there because we were new. We were.

Speaker B: People didn't know if they could trust you. How many runs do you have? Like, you had none of that history to be like, I can compete with a Slumber Jay bit.

Speaker A: Exactly. Dropping off a bit, knowing that it's probably not going to get run, but the company manages. Allowing you to leave it because he wants to be nice to you, and then pulling up a week later and find that bit dirty sitting on. On the ground in front of his shack is the best feeling in the world. Like, it was the best. I miss that.

Speaker B: That's so cool. So how long were you, I guess while you were doing sales, did you have aspirations like, hey, I want to get out of this sales job at some point and like, move up the corporate ladder, become an executive one day? Or were you just content with like, hey, I could do this for the rest of my life?

Speaker A: No, I definitely wasn't content. I wanted to move up, I guess, but I had very specific aspirations. Like I wanted to go into city sales or account management role, like in Houston, dfw, et cetera. And we found like, the people that are the best at that role are the people that have field experience, right? Um, because they're able to speak on things at a technical level and the field level. So that was my aspiration, like from probably two years in. I knew that's what I wanted to do.

Speaker B: So is that what happened? I guess you went to Midland to be an account manager?

Speaker A: No. So I can't remember the year. I do really babble years, but I was in San Antonio, the Eagle for about five years, and then a downturn happened and I grew really close to a lot of the people there and I even the management very close with one another. And you could see the writing on the wall. We had to get rid of some people right to right size, this thing. And Midland was growing, or, uh, it may not have been growing at that point, but it was still bus and they needed some help. So I was like, I'll just. I'll go out there and hopefully m. Maybe spare somebody else's role and I'll get some new experience in a new basin.

Speaker B: And Midland's such a hot basin too. Like, when people complain about Midland and, like, we don't know any better. Like, me too. I was like, oh, I don't know if I want to go to Midland. But now that I went to Midland or the people who have gone to Midland, it's like, it's a badge of honor. Like, you can say you worked in the Permian, like, the hottest place where technology is being used every day. The longest laterals. It's like, if you can get that on your resume, like, I tell people, I'm like, just do it. It's a few years of your life. And a lot of people, like, end up loving it and staying there and, like, building a family.

Speaker A: I miss Midland. Yeah. Right. I do. So I was there for a very short period of time. But it kind of brought me back to the smaller town feel. Right. I mean, it was. It's certainly not Houston. It was not San Antonio. I mean, it had its drawbacks, right? But Midland's a great place. I went out there in the same role for about a year. And it happened. It kind of coincided at a time where it was really kind of a difficult decision. Uh, because our son, my oldest son, he was three at the time. And my wife was a teacher in San Antonio who was also pregnant with our second son at that time.

Speaker B: When you were moving to Midland.

Speaker A: Yeah. Well, yes, exactly. So I actually ended up. She's the best. I ended up leaving her. We got an apartment in San Antonio to put her in for, I think. I don't know. It was like four or five months. And I was commuting back and forth as she finished up her stint in the school. Because if she stayed through the year, she would get whatever other benefits, more time off. I can't remember exactly the details of it. So I was going back and forth, and then whenever my middle son was born, I obviously came back for that. I left Midland in the middle of the night and made it back. And then two days later, we were all going to Midland. Right. It didn't take us any time to get there. Yeah. So it was a wild ride.

Speaker B: So how long did you end up staying in Midland? Because you moved the whole family now? Two children.

Speaker A: That's right, yeah. Bought a house there. I think maybe a month or so after. No, I think we ended up getting into buying the house. Whenever she was pregnant, we knew that this was kind of the stage. Yeah. So we were there for. I don't even know if it was a full year. It might have been 11 months. I got the call to come to Houston as an account manager.

Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Yeah, it sucks, but I've heard it so often. It's just the oil field. It's like, we moved to Midland, or I sold my house, and then, like, nine months later, I'm transferred overseas. Or, you know, it's like you just the oil and gas, you just never know.

Speaker A: Exactly.

Speaker B: So they moved you to Houston. Was that, I guess, the first big, big city that you guys all lived in? Where's your wife from?

Speaker A: She's originally from Brownwood to the interesting thing. I didn't know her until after, uh, I graduated from college, and her mom was a neighbor to my dad, who lived right across the street. The lady my dad was dating had a daughter who was friends with my wife. So, yeah, so I didn't know her. She graduated a year before me, but I didn't know of her existence.

Speaker B: Yes, you would have thought in such a small town, everyone knew each other for sure. Wow. Okay, that's cool. And so you guys moved back to Houston. How long did you stay at Alterra in total?

Speaker A: I think it was, uh, either 11 or 12 years. So I left Altera in September of 2024.

Speaker B: Uh, and two Utex directly. Okay, cool. I'm trying to, like, draw the timelines. I want to talk about Altera's marketing and branding as you were there for so long and kind of saw the growth of it. I don't know much about their business. I know a few people there that I really like. But what does stand out for me? And I always tell people it's just what they did in the market in terms of branding and marketing themselves was very smart and just genius. And the reason I say it is because a few years ago, when I would go on Instagram and just find a sticker, when I would put, like, drilling or oil field, it was all terrorist stickers. Like, they owned Instagram. No other oil field service company even had an Instagram account. And they were already kind of dabbling into the young generation making stickers. They had Benny the Bit, like, whoever did the marketing is like, a genius. And I would always hear people be like, yeah, we want to be like Altera. Like, they're small, but no one would know that they're small. Maybe their stuff wasn't as great as, uh, other people's. But Their marketing just was so good. Like, tell me a little bit about behind the scenes, even just you representing the company and like, had great marketing.

Speaker A: Yeah. I don't think there's anybody. Even at the period of time, uh, whenever I first started, which I can't remember exactly when Altera was founded, maybe 2005, 6, somewhere around there. So it had been in existence for a while. But Even at the 10% market share, I told you it was in the Eagle Ford when I started that. That may have been an understatement to a degree. I don't know. But it was not huge. Hm. Everybody, including myself, believed we were the best. Like, period. Still do. Like, there was a firm belief that we were the best and if we're not today, then we would be tomorrow.

Speaker B: It was like a culture thing.

Speaker A: It's 100% a culture. Altera is one of the best run companies I've ever seen, period. It is an amazing. So behind this, you know, you had the culture of everyone believing that. You also had a culture of people that are willing to take risk. It was very much driven at the field level. Like, the closer to the wellhead you get, the more empowered that person is, because that person knows more than anybody else, especially at corporate. Right. There's encouragement to take risk.

Speaker B: Wow. And what made you decide to leave or what happened to, uh, look outside after 10, 12 years? That's a lot. Especially you coming new into the oil field. This was like your first family, let's say.

Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. I still miss them.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: I love everyone over there. They're amazing, amazing people and just a great business. And it's a very. I think one thing that sets them apart from everybody else in that space is it's very specific. Right. We do PDC drill bits and it's application of performance driven. Period. Nothing else. Right. It's that simple. Where even the big guys, like, it's somewhat dilutive, like, oh, yeah, we have it, it's a great product, but.

Speaker B: But it's not their focus.

Speaker A: That's not, it's not the focus. So they had that on my transition. So I started business school in, I think it was 2022. I met a guy that was not on the board at Altair, but he worked for Blackstone. Blackstone owned Altair at that time. And I met him at the gym and I had an Altera bag and he's like, oh, it's Alter. Is one of our portfolio companies. Didn't have anything to do with the business. So I got to know him. He was an asset manager for them or like a portfolio manager. Right. He wasn't on the deal teams, anything like that. And that sounded like the best job.

Speaker B: Right? M. Like something you didn't even know existed as a job.

Speaker A: Didn't even know it existed. Yeah, but I knew that I didn't have any technical background as a polyscience major.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: No technical background. And I was kind of at a point in my life where I knew I wanted to do a bit more than what I was doing. I had been promoted a few different times at Altera and always kind of put in positions like, we either have a problem here or we want to grow it. You've got a proven track record. Yeah. So I got a lot of opportunities, but I knew that those opportunities, or probably fewer and far between, just because Altera has been successful. And yeah, honestly, I wanted to challenge myself through business school to see if I can get the technical background. And I found this guy who seemed like he had the best job. I'm going to equip myself with at least the finance skills because maybe that's what I want to do.

Speaker B: So where did you end up going? Your mba, where did you go?

Speaker A: Uh, smu.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And that was two ish years. Three years.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's. It's two years.

Speaker B: Was it in person?

Speaker A: Some of it. It was hybrid. Yes, hybrid. Because during that time, uh, luckily I was traveling a lot. So at that period of time, I was looking over international groups for Altera, like the Eurasian continent, and I was having to travel a lot. And at that time I had three kids.

Speaker B: It's a lot.

Speaker A: It's a lot in business school. Like, there's a lot going on there too.

Speaker B: It's funny because I wanted to challenge myself and I loved school, or at least what I remembered school was like during my degree. So I was like, I want to do an mba, because that's what everybody does. And I felt like I wanted to keep learning. So I signed up. Started in January. I already had to drop out, like, just being fully transparent, because I was like, whoa. I think why it became hard is because I was like, I didn't have the right. Why I was just doing it because I was like, I need to challenge myself. I want to learn. I want to go back to school. And an MBA sounded like a great idea in theory, but then when I was in it and the hours that I had to spend to learn the modules and accounting and the PNL and all the stuff that, like, okay, it's cool, like, I want to Learn this. But when I had to look at inward of my life, like, this is not what I want to do. I will never want to do this. Like I left corporate America last year and so it was kind of like, why did you do an mba? Like I was just following the trend. I was following what everybody else did and I thought I needed to do it. But I thought, wow, people who do an mba, like kudos to you because it was so much work. I lasted four months and even like the accounting exam, like I was just like, I was working all day doing some modules in the evenings and then I was like on Saturday, Sunday, like I had to do that. And then I would look at my husband and my daughter and they'd be like, why are you doing an mba? Like this is dumb, you know? And I'm like, I don't know, why is this Saturday 7pm and I'm reading a module. Like it was just, I had to look back inward and be like, this was not necessary for my life currently maybe at some point. And so I had to drop out, which was very hard for my ego because I'm like, I thought I was a great student. It just, it wasn't the right timing. But that's a lot of work to go through an mba. Like tell me a little bit more on how you manage that.

Speaker A: The number one management tool was my wife and I want to go back to the whys a little bit. So I already told you one of the whys.

Speaker B: You had a good why, that's part

Speaker A: of the reason why. And uh, I would say most of it. But also I didn't do good in school, in high school and college. I didn't buy books for half of my college classes or maybe more. I just was not a good student. And it's always eaten in me to know that. Mhm. To know that I just didn't try. Like imagine, imagine what would have happened if I would have tried. What would I have known? And that bothered me. It bothered me up until the point that was one of the motivators. And I figured it was a risky for me to do this because I had uh, not a sound academic record and it had been 10 years since I was any type of mathematical, any type of math. Right.

Speaker B: Or homework or testing stuff. Yeah.

Speaker A: Like I'm going to do this because I know I'm capable of it. If only that I want to show myself that I can do it. That was a big, as a big driver. So it's just a force like you just do it by force, you force yourself to do it. And I actually did really well. And I think a big part of this is. I wanted. It was very interesting to me.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: Uh, I didn't know most of the information that they were teaching. It's very immersive and you're working with very distinct groups of people. And you have to figure that out because you all don't really get along. Right. Everybody's.

Speaker B: Everyone's like, older and set in their way. It's very different to make friends mid career for sure.

Speaker A: And I think I was like, out of the cohort of, I don't know, a couple hundred people. There's like three people in oil and gas. Everybody else is in, like, technology or healthcare or stuff that I could care less about. I probably couldn't care less about oil and gas.

Speaker B: Right. Wow. And would you say that guy that you met at the gym kind of, like, inspired you?

Speaker A: He did.

Speaker B: Okay. That's cool.

Speaker A: Yeah, he did inspire me. So that was, like I said, one of the bigger drivers. I knew that the ceiling wasn't completely gone at Altera. Uh, I could just. It wasn't. But I knew that I wanted more. I didn't know what I. Exactly what I wanted more of. His job sounded amazing. That's what I went and did. And I kind of had a plan. Once I get out of school, I'm going to go try to find that job. Well, lo and behold, Blackstone was not really in oil and gas after that. I think it was one of their last funds. It may have been their last fund. And I also didn't want to work for a gigantic company, but I thought, you know, maybe I could go work for a smaller private equity group, do the same thing. That was the intention, but it didn't exactly work out that way. But SMU has a great network of people that are ex oil and gas. Just an amazing network, I would say

Speaker B: for a lot of people. Get an MBA for the network. Yeah, it's probably a good portion of is like, who you might meet, who you might start a company with, who you might get hired with. Like, that network, in my opinion, is definitely worth it for sure.

Speaker A: I mean, that's what landed me. Where I am today is completely because of that. So I finished that up. I had a concentration in finance. I'm like, all right, well, I'm going to pursue this. What steps do I need to take? I got connected to some of the alumni there. One of them is md, uh, of an investment bank here in town. That's all ofs I thought that they could kind of introduce me to some of the smaller PE groups and I can go do this dream job. Well, lo and behold, there's not a whole lot of private equity investment in oil and gas anymore or ofs. But anyway, I met with the investment bank. We could probably just get you on here and kind of get you the experience needed to go into pe. But, like, don't do it. They tell me, like, don't do it. You need to be in operations. You have all this experience. Don't do it. But they connected me to one of the PE groups and I talked to them a little bit, but it was going to be more deal team. And I could already kind of smell that that's probably not what I want to do. The due diligence part sounded really fun, but I like the operations. But anyway, another one of the connections introduced me to a guy named Charlie Thompson, who happens to be the CEO of utex. I wasn't introduced to him in that regard. The investment bank actually prompted him and said he and a partner on this small townhole tool company that might be looking for some leadership. So I went and talked to them. That's where I met Charlie. And we didn't come to any kind of agreement on that, but that's when he asked me to come to utex. So that's kind of the shortened journey.

Speaker B: It's all network who you know, et cetera, for sure. Wow. And coming into UTEX now, that's heavily in the elastomer.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's right, yeah. Elastomers and thermoplastics.

Speaker B: Yeah. Different from drill bits. And you service the majority of frac fleets in the fracking space, not in the drilling space. So how is that similar? Different?

Speaker A: It's completely different in everything you just described. And it's also very similar where we're not only in oil and gas, we're in various other industries. But I mean, a large portion of our business is within oil and gas service. So actually, most of our customers are the service companies to oil and gas operators. So it's different in that dynamic, but it's the same. The dynamic of the same type of mentality and people are in the space. It's similar there. Now, I learn every day on the frac side.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: It's the opposite of drilling, but we still have elements of our business that touch drilling and like downhill tools and, uh, RCDs and things like that. So it's a little closer to home.

Speaker B: Wow. Okay. So for people who don't know Who UTEX is. Give me like an overview of the company, where you're located, what are the different industries that you work in, etc.

Speaker A: Yeah. So Utex Industries is a seal and m. I mean material development company. Uh, material development for seals. I think it was started and founded in like 1945 in Wymer, Texas, which is, I don't know, an hour west of here. That was the original headquarters and I think it was at that time called like Universal Packing and Gasket. So it has the pump packing routes. It's been through a series of acquisitions, et cetera. But the roots are very much still in Weimer. But we have manufacturing facilities across the globe. One's in Conroe that does a lot of like, big parts. They have some gigantic, gigantic presses there. And then we actually have a facility not too far from here. It's on Britmore. It's m. The thermoplastic side of things. So they do like spring energized seals for downhole tools and well, uh, like gate valves, things like that. And then we have the two international locations or manufacturing sites today. But everything that we do is not just in oil and gas, but it touches very application specific. If you need to contain fluid either really hot or really cold, it's got, uh, abrasive environments. I. Sand for frac. Right. Um, or it's got some sort of corrosive media in it. That's. That's where we excel. Is trying to figure out the right combination of material blend and design to come up with a lasting solution.

Speaker B: Wow. Seems complicated, but very needed. Very needed. It's like almost any machinery, I guess, that you can think of. Like you're gonna need some sort of sealing or packing. Everything's got a seal. Everything's got a seal in it. Wow.

Speaker A: Everything's got a se.

Speaker B: I think it's oil and gas mining.

Speaker A: Oil and gas mining. We have a pretty substantial part of our businesses in the water infrastructure space. So there's uh, different valves and kind of residential and commercial waterways. That's a big part of our business. We make a shock sub for the rotary heads on mining, uh, rigs. That's honestly a little bit close to home too. I did a little bit of in the mining space for Alterra. Wow. A lot in downhole completions tools. So completion stools in terms of oil and gas split is probably 30% of our oil and gas space in the non well serviced packing side. The well service packing side of the business is our bread and butter. Um, we've held the market in terms of packing, uh, for a very long period of time. It's an amazing product. Really good product. And some really, really, really experienced people that run that.

Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I think you said started in 19.

Speaker A: I think it's 45. During World War II.

Speaker B: Uh, yeah. That's incredible. Just the history company and to your point, like, different acquisitions, different mergers, but it's always kind of stayed at its root of like, this is what we do for a living. This is what we're good at.

Speaker A: That's right.

Speaker B: Wow. And, you know, I think what's cool sometimes when I get to speak to people who play a small but very important part in oil and gas that people don't think about you. They're like, yeah, the operator or the frac company. And it's like, yeah, but there's all these small little companies that, uh, like hold all of this products together, from the sand to the water to the downhole tools. It's like. Like there's so much that needs to come together. But then certain items like this, where if this fails or if there's a problem, the whole thing goes. And so it's like out of sight of the mind. But you guys play such an important role in the industry. I think it's super cool.

Speaker A: It is cool. It's cool. I learn every day. Like, obviously I told you about my background. I had no background in this. That's probably one of the most fun parts of my job is getting to learn, uh, especially on the material side. Every day, the, uh, amount that we can do in terms of development of a material. I mean, it's amazing.

Speaker B: Wow. You have to have a lot of smart, like, material science engineers and PhDs.

Speaker A: PhDs running around. Yeah.

Speaker B: Wow. And I think something that I thought was really cool about UTEX is, I think you had mentioned it to me, where it's like, if you have a problem or you need a solution and maybe it's not in our catalog, we will literally come up with a solution for you. We have enough people on the team that can put together for sure.

Speaker A: That's what we do really well with. There's a few catalog parts, but not many. We really like to come up with an organic solution for people's problems. Right. And a lot of time a customer might send us a gland dimension or like, what they're trying to do with the part, and it's like, well, they've got the drawing. We need to find a material to fit that. And it may be that a. We could do that. But if you just change this gland dimension a little bit this way we can use this material and put a fabric reinforcement somewhere within that and it's going to last two or three times longer. So it's that type of collaboration with the piece people that are actually developing the tools like, like our customers where we, we have not some say in it. Right. Like they'll listen.

Speaker B: You're the experts in that space.

Speaker A: Yeah. That's what we're good at.

Speaker B: Wow. How has it been, uh, growing your career from the field to where you are today? A lot of travel involved and then managing three children, your wife. Like, how do you manage? I wouldn't say where's life balance? I hate that word. But like, how do you still stay present at home and like be there, but also when you're high up in a company like you. A lot of responsibility.

Speaker A: Yeah. I get up really early.

Speaker B: Yeah. To make sure to get everybody in.

Speaker A: Yeah. Well, the first few hours of my day from 4 to 6:30 is for me. I go to the gym, I do whatever. But that's the only time I have. Right. Nobody else is going to allow any me time beyond those hours. So I don't like getting up that early. But it's become natural over the year. So it's very much a part of my routine on how to manage the work life balance or whatever that is. That's something I have struggled with, but I've gotten a lot better with over probably the last year or so and just taking a step out of the present because especially as I've gotten into this position and really even the last one, we've had to restructure a lot of things and it's been a lot of change. And I'm not a person that's afraid of change. But some people don't like it. Right. Gets nervous. So you're constantly going to be bombarded with problems. Most times people are going to bring problems to you.

Speaker B: Yeah. They're not coming to you to be like grade. You're there to solve a lot of things.

Speaker A: Yeah. Learning to step out, having the ability to zoom in and quickly zoom back out. You need to zoom in and understand what's going on and then step back out of it and think. Taking the time to step in, see it, step out, think. That's not probably as detailed as I would like to give, but that's how I envision it and that's how I do it now. Because if you don't, if you stay zoomed in.

Speaker B: Yeah. It's not gonna.

Speaker A: You'll crack, you'll crack. And I've gotten to the point like that before. Right. I'm the kind of person, I'll take on a lot. I've got a lot of energy. I'm always willing to take on new things. So I've had to put myself in check.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: Like, okay, well, maybe you shouldn't do

Speaker B: that, saying no to certain things. I feel like we're the type of people that are going to say yes to everything. And just like, to your point, I like what you mentioned about not staying in it, because when you're in it, it's so hard to just get a different perspective and like the level set again and kind of look from the outside. And I think when you could take a different view, an eagle side view, you could be like, okay, it's not as bad as I thought, or the problem isn't as big as I think when I'm in it. And so it's kind of like being able to position it for everybody's good, for everyone's mental health, including your families. Have to deal with you.

Speaker A: For sure. For sure. That's a work in progress, right. I don't think anybody's probably ever perfect at it. Um, some people are better than others. There's certainly people that are better than me, but that's one thing I have improved on, and that saves a lot of heartache. And I don't ever let things, or I don't think at least, uh, my wife might tell a different story. I don't let it drag me in at home, or at least I don't let it show. Like, I'm usually thinking about things in the background, which is probably not good, but I'm working on it.

Speaker B: I think it's a work in progress for all of us. You mentioned three children.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: What are their ages?

Speaker A: So 12, 8 and 6.

Speaker B: So you're in a busy stage in your life. It's not like they're like 17. They don't care about mom and dad. They're like, present. Like they care about, uh, family time.

Speaker A: Oh, for sure. Yeah, for sure. It's super busy all the time. There's not a quiet M moment in our house.

Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Especially like after school activities, games, the weekends. Plus you've got a very demanding job. And so.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. My oldest, he starts middle school, or not middle school is junior high, whatever. He goes into seventh grade, uh, this next year. So that's like, um. I'm just kind of shocked.

Speaker B: Like, wow, how did that happen?

Speaker A: How did that happen? And yeah, as you look back, the time, the time has flown by.

Speaker B: Wow. Okay, well, last question that I have for you is looking back at you starting your career or even struggling through school, not really knowing what to do to where you are today and just how all the pieces have come together with a lot of hard work and sacrifice. What's like, one piece of advice that you would have to someone, maybe one of your children one day when they're 19 or 20, and they're like, I don't know what to do. What piece of advice would you tell yourself back then M of like, hey, it's going to be okay. You're going to be pretty high up in this really cool company and doing great impact towards the industry.

Speaker A: My number one piece of advice is be able to tell yourself a story. Right. And make it a very simple story. Construct, uh, a mental framework. And this is something that I try to practice every day. You know, you remember the who, what, when, where, how, like, and what. I think that is so practical in daily life and in different orders. But if you can simplify everything into figuring out what goes in each of those boxes and starting with what, what is it that I want to do, then how I'm gonna do it and then when is it gonna be achieved and then why. Right. I think a lot of people have a hard time, myself included, figuring out, like, you. Starting with the why. We don't know. We don't know a lot. But that has been instrumental to me and not only, like, my own personal life, but also business too. I try to coach a lot of the people that are working with me. Like, I need things in this framework and I wanna know what it is that you wanna do. Like, why are you coming to me with this? And not in a rude way, like, what exactly? How can I help you do this? So what, how and when and why, and then what's the expected outcome? Right. If you can't answer all those boxes, then you just want me to do your work for you.

Speaker B: Yeah. And I think that's a great way of being able to. I think a lot of times when you are a leader in your position, you have a lot to manage. So you have to start letting people kind of, like, do their own thing. Like, I'm here to watch, but, like, you could probably take this on. It's not like Jacob needs to solve the this, but it's easy to be like, let me help. You want to always jump in and, like, help.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: But then you're like, my plate's full. And now I'm not doing my job of leading the company.

Speaker A: That's right. You know, that's right. It's easy to get sucked into that, and I think that would be really helpful. And it's something. Just something you can have on a piece of paper. And it's just your own thoughts. It's like, what it is you want to do, whether it's personal, professional. So what is it? What is it that you want to do? Whether it's like, I want to make a, uh, billion dollars or I want to, you know, work for Altar, whatever. Right. Just start there. I think that would be helpful for a lot of people.

Speaker B: I love that. I think that's a great advice. Because I think to your point, we're just going through life just, like, doing things, and then we forget, like, where am I going? Why am I doing this? Why did I do an mba? It's important to just have a direction, and then, like, life's going to take you differently. Like, your path would look so different from anybody else's. But at least you had a.

Speaker A: Why?

Speaker B: Like, I want to go work at alter. I'm going to find a way to get the there.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: I want to get a degree, because this is going to give me better opportunities. And, um, you know, and then you kind of, like, shape it. But I think I love that piece of advice.

Speaker A: Just needs to be directionally accurate. Yeah, that's it.

Speaker B: I love it.

Speaker A: Everything else will fall into place.

Speaker B: Well, Jacob, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Where can people find you? And then where can people find more about utext or how to reach out to someone, uh, at your company.

Speaker A: Yeah. So you can find utext. Our website is utextind.com it has all of our information on there. I think my contact information we have be on there. You can reach out anytime.

Speaker B: And then they can find you on LinkedIn. Jake Bun, double N. That's it. Awesome. Okay, well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. We'll catch you guys on the next one.

Speaker A: All right, thanks for having me.

Speaker B: Thank you.