What The Funk?

0:00 Mr. Anson, we got Steven Anson on what the funk today. This is a fun day for me. It's my birthday, Steven. I think I told you that a couple of times. So you have a birthday. Thank you. Thank

0:13 you. 44 getting there, getting older every year. That's what happens in life. But yeah, it's nice to have a birthday on a Friday. And birthdays, I think, you know, you've got kids, the

0:25 family, which we'll talk about at this point And it's like, you know, me, I'm not really planning my own birthday. So we let my five-year-old son plan my birthday this year. So what he chose,

0:38 because he wanted to pick something that Daddy likes, is tomorrow we're going to go bowling, and then we're going to go to Benihana, and we're going to watch a movie together at home as a family.

0:48 And it's perfect, perfect little Saturday. I get to pick the movie I'm told. I have a feeling that's not actually going to be what happens. Uh-huh, yeah.

0:59 pick from what they want

1:02 that you're good with this, right? Uh huh. Yeah, yeah, sure. Um, but no, it's, uh, it's nice. And of course this time of year, right. Um, looking forward to things slowing down at least

1:13 a little bit. Got a couple more tough weeks of, of grinding to get through and then everyone goes down and we recharge and come back at it next year. But, um, I'm really excited to have you on

1:24 today Stephen, um, you and I met, man, we met in 2020, um, we had, you were interviewing and in consideration for taking over the measurement lead opportunity at W energy software and I'd been

1:40 there for about two or three months. COVID had really just, just gone crazy and we picked a place, a diner, I think, a broom field or something like that And that was like my first time actually

1:52 either leaving the house or meeting somebody We had to walk in a certain way. They're very like explicit directions. We had to wear masks. That was crazy. Come on. I do, I do. It was

2:04 interesting 'cause, you know, I'd done a few rounds of interviews with the leadership and they said, Oh, we have this guy who lives in Colorado, we want you to meet with him. So

2:17 yeah, you and I got in touch and

2:21 yeah, that experience was different. 'Cause it was like right at the peak I think it was like April, 2020. Right, right. You know, lockdowns were really getting serious and it was just weird

2:31 time, so. And like we had to pick something I feel like that was in Weld County, right? 'Cause I live in Boulder County and I think you were in

2:40 Jefferson, right? So things were a little bit more shut down there whereas Weld, I think in part because oil and gas was still happening. Right. It was like, all right, we'll be open but less

2:49 open right than other places but that was a funny experience. I remember my wife was like, how was it? I mean, you know, we just went to a diner and had breakfast. It was pretty normal aside

3:00 from all the weirdness, but I enjoyed that session with you. We talked about all kinds of things, whether it be measurement, mid-stream, oil and gas technology, which we'll dive into today as

3:13 well, and I also really enjoyed working with you. It was only about a year, maybe a little bit less, but I think you brought kind of a different flavor I'm responsible for standing up a new

3:24 division, the measurement arm of W Energy Software. And what I learned after that is you're well connected and sort of widely renowned in oil and gas is the measurement guy. I didn't know what that

3:38 meant coming into it, so I want to get into all that. But first, a question that I ask everybody that comes on, this podcast is, Who are you, man? Who is Steven Anson?

3:55 Yeah, I guess I like to think of myself as, you know, generally a good human being with interests in many things, right,

4:05 passionate about my family, passionate about my work.

4:12 And I like doing things that, you know, help me and help others. I like to kind of give where I can and lead by example, hopefully be a good role model for, for my son,

4:30 you know, in general, I would say that I think the last time I had to explain myself, I would say, you know, first and foremost, a man of God, husband, father, hopefully a friend of a few

4:45 people out there. And, you know, after that, it just trails off into hobbies and interests.

4:53 Yeah, so a couple of things there I wanted to dive into and then we'll get into some more of the specifics, but you did put on your LinkedIn page, Servant Leader. And it's something that I see

5:03 occasionally and I know there's books about it. I think I understand the concept generally, but what does that mean to you fundamentally and what is Servant Leadership? I think, you know, for me,

5:17 it's displaying that you're willing to do the things you ask other people to do. Right, you know, in the various leadership roles I've had, it's very hard to disconnect myself from being hands on

5:34 because I'm a technical person. I'm also very type A. So I like things done a very certain way.

5:45 But sometimes you just kind of have to let go and lead by example So, when I say. servant leadership, it's really just I am willing to get in there and do what needs to be done, whether that means

5:59 I'm

6:02 doing it alone or with others. You know, I want to help whatever I, whatever I need to do to help meet a common goal. I try not to make it about what I'm trying to accomplish individually, and at

6:17 the same time when I do have people who report up to me, making sure I'm addressing their needs for growth and development.

6:27 Nice. And you've had some opportunities to display servant leadership, including kind of in your in your current role at Waterbridge, which, which we'll talk about. But I want to get into some of

6:37 the specifics about you growing up. Like where are you from? Where'd you go to college? And then talk about your move as well. When we met, of course, you were living here in Colorado Now, as

6:47 you have a set from your Louisiana State Cup, I believe you're in Lafayette, Louisiana. So talk to me a little bit about your kind of upbringing where you were, where you went to school, and then

6:58 maybe some of the differences between Louisiana and Colorado.

7:03 Oh, yeah. Well, um, born and raised South Louisiana, um, a little town called Sunset. No one's really ever heard of it unless you're from there, right? It is literally a one-light town There

7:19 was one traffic light and we lived a little bit outside of town, right? Kind of in the middle of nowhere surrounded by woods and sugar cane fields. So it was a great way to grow up. I loved it.

7:30 We were always getting into all kinds of trouble that a young kid should when they're surrounded by, you know, woods and fields. So, yeah, um, grew up. I am number six in what I call a litter

7:46 of eight. Wow. So I guess I've got seven brothers and sisters. Um, and, you know, what kind of spread out, you know, my oldest sister is, uh, 57 and my youngest sister is

8:03 36, 37, something like that. So, wow. Yeah, we spanned it. Um, so yeah, it was always, yeah, I've got brothers and sisters who were older and sometimes they lived with us and sometimes they

8:17 didn't because they were out on their own and, um, so it was a big family and, uh, you know, we were, we were all, my dad was very, uh, religious. So, he was an ordained minister. Um, so

8:31 I'm a preacher's kid, a PK. Um, but he, he was always involved in the church, but he didn't go full time into the ministry until later in life. Uh, so he was a petroleum engineer, had his own

8:43 business. Um, and, uh, but after he kind of sold all that and went to the of the ministry full-time, he had his own church. My brother and I played in the church band. We went to private school

8:56 our whole lives up until the 11th grade, 11th and 12th grade I went to public school just 'cause parents couldn't afford it anymore. And then from there - They got eight kids, man. How do you

9:10 afford anything with eight kids? Dude,

9:14 keeping them all in public schools probably why I always felt like we were poor.

9:21 We were definitely the poor kids in private schools. Right. And I'm

9:29 thankful for all of that. It was a good opportunity for me and all of my siblings. So, and we've all taken different paths and done it in different ways. So, it's been exciting.

9:42 Went to college, radar high school, to University of Louisiana. Ended up losing my scholarship. So there's this whole thing in South Louisiana called the top's program. And it, uh, uh, anyways,

9:58 long story short, lost that and went to work and started working in oil and gas. So I mentioned my dad had his own company. Well, one of the guys who worked with my dad was working for this oil

10:12 and gas measurement services company. My dad reached out to him, said, Hey, my son's looking for work Um, you know, if you have anything, you know, he'd like to interview. So, uh, that's

10:24 how I got into it, um, outside of the fact that I was kind of only working at my dad's shop, you know, as a kid, uh, whatever he needed to be done is what my brother and I did. And, uh, so

10:35 anyways, kind of use some of that skill set going into work for a company called Southern Flow and, uh, I was a measurement technician.

10:44 What that is is all the meters, all the flow computers, all the devices and transmitters and things that measure oil and gas, I would calibrate them, I would install them, I would repair them,

10:57 take samples, different things like that. So that's kind of how my career segued into that And. I was doing a lot of work, all short in the Gulf of Mexico. So I would say 80 plus percent of my

11:10 work was in the Gulf of Mexico

11:15 And so after working in the Gulf for a few years, I realized that I don't wanna work in the Gulf the rest of my life.

11:26 So I went back to school at night on my days off. So it was really hard to do when you're offshore. So you kind of had to find programs that worked with you and was very flexible and it was hard.

11:38 It took a lot of time Anyways, I was able to. You eventually get a degree and

11:47 got out of college and used that to kind of start looking for other opportunities that got me out of the more manual side of things. I've taken a keen interest in data. And so

12:06 eventually I got hired by a company, Hess out of Houston. I've heard of them And that's what got me out of South Louisiana. And I remember going on this interview and this is kind of funny and

12:19 humbling, right? But it was totally country comes to town experience. Like they fly me to Houston. Lincoln town car picks me up. And, you know, I go to this, but I never seen a skyscraper

12:31 before. Wow. And I'd never walked through a revolving door, do you? Yeah. Okay. We're going in and. So when I went into the building, it was just like a normal dormer, right? And then I go

12:47 in through the interviews and then the guy who ended up hiring me takes me and the rest of the team out to lunch is kind of part of the interview process. And we're walking out the building, pure

12:58 revolving door, and I got in with him. Of course. You know? And so it's like,

13:06 we get out there and he goes, those are just designed for one person at a time.

13:15 So I was completely humiliating and humbling the, you know, ended up getting the job and that's what got me into the data side of things. So I was working with measurement data a lot.

13:28 And then that just progressed through the years. You know, I've had various roles and different data

13:37 analytics, management, engineering capacities. I've had the opportunity to design some really cool equipment that's gone all over the world.

13:49 I worked for a manufacturer for a little while, and that was a really great job. I had to do a lot of things with their flow technology and research and development and in new things. That really

14:04 piqued my interest in how do I just constantly improve a little at a time And then

14:12 I had an opportunity to get into software and that's how you and I met. So it was interesting. I like to tell people that I do not code. I will have a hard time programming my iPhone. But when it

14:27 comes to data analytics and structure and arrangement and getting the data to tell us something meaningful. I like to say it's creating a story. I've become very good at that. And I know how

14:43 measurement data

14:45 is created. I know how the values are calculated. I know what users want out of a measurement data management system, because I was a user of that data for - it's going on 23 years now. Sure.

15:00 Sure. So yeah, I knew what to do. I just didn't know how to do it. And so yeah, that was my time with Debbie Energy, was spent developing that. And

15:13 then I guess the kindest way to say it is our roads started to separate. And so we separated. And now I'm at Waterbridge, kind of back to my roots in an operational capacity. Loving it. Love the

15:28 people. It's a new twist, because it's not oil and gas. It's produced water. Right. So it's fundamentally - there's a lot of stuff that's

15:39 So I think I explained it the other day as someone is, you know, about 80 is the same as an oil and gas operation. That other 20 is about 180 degrees different. Yeah. So it's fun, it's fun. And

15:53 is there still a measurement slant to what you're doing on the produced water side at Waterbridge? 100. Yeah, so I have all of the, I work in our technical field services group and I have all the

16:06 field operations, field measurement operations report up to me. So I've got all the technicians and supervisors in the different assets. So we're responsible for design and construction through the

16:19 equipment that gets installed for measurement, all of the maintenance activities, repairs.

16:26 So all of those guys work up report up through me.

16:31 And then I have the whole data analytics team in our corporate office as well. I've got two analysts and one engineer who works for me and our whole objective is taking this data and

16:46 like I said, tell a story. We balance our assets every day. We make sure that our measurement coming in and our measurement going out is accurate and reliable because that's how we invoice. That's

16:58 how we make our money is transportation and sometimes disposal, sometimes reuse of our produce to water. So it really is, these meters are our cash register. They're everyone's cash register.

17:17 So with oil and gas, and I think this is probably a lot of our listeners know, but not all of them because we get a pretty wide range of listeners on this podcast and Digital Wildcatters podcast as

17:26 a whole, a company that goes out and produces oil produces a whole lot more water than they do oil, right? pulling pulling that product out of the ground. So somebody has to take that water and do

17:38 something with it, right? And fundamentally, that's where you guys start your process. Yeah, that's where we come in. So if you think about it, every well out there produces three fluids, oil,

17:49 gas and water.

17:52 Now, those ratios are different by well and by area. In West Texas, especially. I think the water to oil ratio is about 10 to one. So for every barrel of oil they produce and they can expect

18:06 about 10 barrels of water and you have to get that water out of there in order to recover the oil and the gas. And so similar to how oil's been transported over the years, you have two main methods.

18:20 You can store it in a tank and transfer it to the truck or you can store it in a tank and move it by pipe. So same thing with water except for a lot of years Water was just this nuisance by-product.

18:37 And so when you're putting a tank in, eventually someone would come up with a truck and what that truck did with it, you know, you could throw a dart. That was anybody's guess. An array of

18:47 options and, you know, maybe that's what happened to it. So, but the thing is, with all this fracking, especially down in West Texas, right, all this water,

19:00 so it's abundant, right? And there's not enough trucks on the road to get rid of it So, people started converting old oil and gas pipelines into water pipelines. Some people started doing their

19:12 own pipelines. And I got involved in some of that probably as far back as 2015 or '16 when I was with Noble Energy. And we were playing some of our own produced water lines and measuring the water

19:25 and transporting it to different disposal facilities. Yeah, so that's what Water Ridge does is we lay our own pipe We also acquired several. miles of pipe through their growth that we converted.

19:42 But yeah, you gotta get it off the well pad. And so that's what we do, is transport it, and we're a midstream, so we gather and move it. In some cases, what's really popular right now is the

19:53 reuse of the water. So we treat it, and we'll get it as clean as we can, and then we'll sell it back to the producers for the frack jobs.

20:04 That's pretty nice So you charge them to take it away, and then you charge them when you give it back to them. And then when you get to charge them again, take it away again.

20:14 That's beautiful, that's beautiful. But I'm sure that whatever you charge them is substantially less than what they get for their barrels of oil, right? A barrel of water. Yeah, it's

20:24 a barrel of water is not worth 80 bucks. Yeah, needless to say, needless to say. No,

20:32 that's cool, and I appreciate that. that insight. I want to talk about your move from Colorado to Louisiana. So what kind of prompted that? Obviously, you're from there and maybe your wife's

20:44 from there too. But you seem to be pretty happy living here in Colorado. And then you made a move. Was this for work? Was this for family? Is this? I can't imagine it's because you prefer the

20:55 weather in southern Louisiana. But what prompted the move? Yeah, hot and humid versus four seasons is

21:05 quite a difference. So, you know, I mentioned that I was hired by Hess and they moved me to Houston. Well, my time with Hess was I was looking for other opportunities and started a new job with

21:22 Williams and they moved me up to Colorado. So, that's all. Okay. Around two thousand left.

21:32 So yeah, it was work-related, it was a good opportunity. Williams was really getting into being a, they were a pipeline company, right? They were really getting into the exploration production

21:42 side of things, and they had bought some acre to get the North Dakota. They had a measurement team, but they were all gas-centric, right? They were looking for other members to join the team who

21:54 had some liquids experience, and that was a lot of my background was liquids, primarily from my service technician days. So yeah, had a good opportunity with them to move up there, and we lived

22:09 in Colorado for 12 years. Wow. Yeah, we lived right there in Jefferson County in the great little city of Golden. It was a fantastic place to live. Our son was born there, so I moved my wife up

22:24 there when she was eight months pregnant. Wow, that's so - That'll work out then. Hey, dear, can I uproot you from all of your friends and family and we can go somewhere that we don't have any

22:35 friends and family and then get birth to our son? So she's been great. She's following me around a lot of places and put up a lot of stuff. So thankful to have her in my support network. But yeah,

22:51 I've lived up there 12 years, worked for a few different companies while I was there.

22:57 We mentioned earlier, that's how I met you Sure. And then, you know, working with W Energy, I was a remote employee. So, we just started exploring like, do we want to stay in Colorado? And,

23:14 you know, my mom is getting older. My wife's parents are getting older and they all live in South Louisiana and we wanted to get closer to South Louisiana. We never really thought Lafayette

23:29 But we wanted to get closer. So what we kind of planned on was, why don't we just maybe try to execute the old retirement strategy earlier? You know, let's find some property on a lake somewhere

23:43 in the south. It was a little place we can call home and

23:49 just start living like that sooner than expected. Long story short We just, after we considered everything, and we kind of planned this out for a better part of two years. You know, visiting

24:02 lakes and looking at properties, but long story short, we didn't think it was the greatest thing to do from a family perspective. So, but we still wanted to move, so we just kept looking at

24:13 places closer to Lafayette. And every time we looked at stuff, it just bounced closer and closer and closer until finally we decided we were moving to Lafayette So move back here to be closer to

24:26 family. which is a really nice.

24:31 We just spent Thanksgiving with all of my wife's family.

24:35 You know, and my side of the family, I get to see, you know, frequently.

24:41 You know, getting my son into hunting and fishing, like I grew up hunting and fishing, is great. We just went hunting, duck hunting last week, him and myself and my father-in-law, we're going

24:54 back to 20 ducks, so we got a freezer full of meat, and, you know, getting ready to do some deer hunting later this winter. So, that's what brought us back here. Now, the differences, I mean,

25:08 outside

25:13 of the obvious, like weather, yeah, four real seasons in Colorado versus summer

25:19 and not quite summer.

25:24 Uh, like what would December 1st at 70 degrees outside might be warmer. I'm not sure. It's kind of nice though. Yeah. I mean, it is, right? But it's going to be a hundred degrees with a

25:37 hundred percent humidity in May. Yeah. Yeah. So that would be weird for me. I mean, being a, you know, I'm a new Hampshire kid. It spent the first really half my life. I mean, the first 20,

25:50 some odd years in, in, uh, Boston, North And the last 20s to the mod out here, it would be strange for me to not have four seasons, you know, like kind of guides what your year looks like and

26:03 what your probing looks like and what your travel schedule and all your routines and all that. Um, it's a little bit more temperate here, but you do get four seasons. Um, but I would think as a

26:15 kid, like, I, you know, that's something that's really nice as a kid, right? You go out and play in the snow and, uh, now your son's not going to get that But you know, you do come back here.

26:24 It seems like you guys have a good year. And look, I'm just a big kid. I like to play this stuff. Yeah. We ski almost every weekend from January to April for 12 years. Yeah.

26:41 Yeah, so definitely miss out on that. And, but yeah, we go back. We were just back there in October, you and I had dinner one night. That was awesome. We're gonna try to go back for some

26:53 spring skiing. Later, probably around March. So nothing planned or confirmed, but we're talking about it. And for work, you, your water bridge is based out of Houston and you go to Houston a

27:07 couple of times a month to be in the office and then spend the rest of the time either remote at home or somewhere else. Yeah, that's right. So they are headquartered in Houston.

27:18 And I go there every other week. So I'll work a week out of the Houston office in my home office, and then I have to go to our various assets pretty regularly, right? We have a lot of activity

27:30 going on.

27:33 The more producers are drilling, the more connections that we need to make to them. So we've got meter installs, equipment inspections, training, keeping our guys

27:45 inspired and trained. So it's been a lot of time in the field with those guys I mean, it seems like fundamentally it's a good business. Do you feel like you have a lot of competition or is it

27:58 segmented by geography?

28:03 Are some areas busier than others? Like I would think Permian is probably the busiest area for this, but are there sort of niche operators or what should I say, niche produce water companies that

28:12 exist in Colorado and in the Hanesville Shell and in Appalachia and so on? I'm sure there are. right. I mean, and there is competition to what we do. We're not the only produced water company out

28:30 there. Sure. So there is competition. And I mean, we operate in Permian down in the Eagle Fork and up in our coma. So as far as I can each operators in some of those different areas, probably,

28:46 I would guess there are. I don't know who they are, but I'm sure they exist They exist. And does natural gas produce as much water as an oil well does? So, I mean, it will. So the thing is with

29:03 hydraulic fracturing,

29:05 right? The old days of vertical drilling, it was an oil well or a gas well. An oil well would still produce a little bit of gas, and a gas well would still produce a little bit of oil, but hand

29:17 water, just how it comes but with fracturing.

29:22 it's all there, it's not evenly distributed, but you get

29:28 more, I'll say a more balanced ratio, but you just get more of all of the fluids. So, yeah, it's there, but I mean fracturing, and a lot of it with the fracturing process has to do with,

29:43 you're using water to fractions wells, right? So that water has to come back out. Sure So, yeah, wanna touch on something else, kind of shifted back more toward personal. And I think this is

29:57 something that we, we were expecting to get into, and I'm glad we have the chance to do it. I noticed when you, when we were at W Energy Software, and you presented at one of the QBRs that

30:07 quarterly business review meetings to the sales team, you did something similar to what you did today. You said, I'm Steve and Anson, first things first I do consider myself a man of faith, a

30:19 person of God. And you didn't mention your father being a preacher. You did when we were at dinner, which I found pretty fascinating, because my grandfather was a rabbi. So we have some of those

30:29 ties with strong religious leaning folks, but talk a little bit about your faith. Are you Baptist? Are you Protestant? Where do you kind of lead in terms of religion and talk about your path with

30:46 that? 'Cause for me, and I shared this the last time we sat down, it has really ebbed and flowed, really meant religion. Judaism meant a ton to me and was a big part of my identity up until

30:58 college, 17 or 18, started to rebel against it a

31:03 little bit and then got engaged, married, had kids, and now it's come back full force and really important to instill the cultural elements and the religious elements and belong to a synagogue and

31:13 all that stuff with my kids. Curious sort of what your path was like being in a family your dad was a preacher. And now somebody who still considers yourself a man of strong faith? Yeah, so I was

31:25 raised non-denominational Christian. And I mean, we were in church, it was twice a week. Sunday's, you know, and Wednesday nights. And, you know, a lot of Sundays they were like home groups

31:39 in the evening, so you had church in the morning, home group in the evening, and then you had, you know, a Wednesday night church, which was good because

31:50 that's when I participated in a program called Royal Rangers, which is like the Boy Scouts, but it's all done through the church. So, you know, that's when the Royal Rangers met, was on

32:02 Wednesday nights, okay, so that was really cool. And I mean, yeah, I mean, that was my life all the way through high school, because even when my dad went into the ministry full time and opened

32:12 his church, I was in church with him every week Oh

32:22 And so kind of like you said, I had a little bit of a hot, cold relationship. You're going into college, right? Once you're not living with your parents, they can't make you go to church.

32:37 You know, and so they're not kind of, you know, always not as active. And

32:43 then, yeah, did the whole work thing, go to school at night and

32:48 you encounter some hardships And then you remember that, oh, yeah, there's this being that I believe in called God, who I prayed to, and I believe in, and I trust him with things And.

33:01 so, you know, through a couple of different life events, I was like, you know, I really want to give back to this. So yeah, probably early mid-20s, you know, got pretty serious again. And

33:13 I'm really trying to make it a cornerstone in my life Since then, I'm not perfect.

33:21 And I make plenty of mistakes. And I do things that I regret and have hurt others, you know,

33:32 because I know I'm not perfect, right? I'm flawed and I make mistakes. But what I try to do is try to think and lead with my faith in my life And so we attend a Baptist church now. Come on. You

33:52 know, that's where I feel like I get fed through my faith the most. It's been interesting because we've raised our son in going to church. And fourth grade, maybe it was third grade, we moved him

34:08 out of Colorado public schools into a private school, a Catholic private school in Alabama. Yeah.

34:21 And we did that because of COVID and, you know, the public schools didn't know if they were going to meet in person and, you know, private schools had plans. And that's why we wanted them to be

34:30 in a classroom.

34:33 It's really inspired my son's or piqued his interest in the Catholic face. So

34:42 my son was baptized in the Baptist Church. And then after a couple years of attending a Catholic school,

34:50 you know, he said, Hey, Dad, I think I want to be a Catholic. And, I mean, he came to his mother and I, you know, like with that interest. That's cool. And so we explored what it was going

35:02 to take for him to convert to Catholicism while we were still in Colorado and he started taking those steps. And he continued it here in Louisiana because he didn't finish it up there And, you know,

35:17 getting near the end of it, he asked music. you're going to be upset if I would come

35:25 and I've already got guilt, dude. He's already got Catholic and

35:32 I thought I was very touching and special. You know, number one, it told me that he cares what I think. But number two, that he's taking this very seriously And so

35:46 I just told him, I said, Kyle, I

35:50 don't care if you're Baptist or Catholic or Pentecostals. And I just want you to have faith and believe and worshiped out. Yeah. And so, yeah, he's in a Catholic school here and we rotate

36:08 churches. We'll go to our Baptist church and we'll go to Catholic church And so we gotta, we go in between.

36:18 I always find it. fascinating when I go, well, typically when I end up going to a church, it's for either a wedding or a funeral. So two, like pretty far extremes, I would say, but I also

36:30 think about like my experience there is probably like when some of my friends come to like my kids, Bob Mitzvah or something like that or a service where we're being honored in some way, shape or

36:40 form at the temple, where there's, you know, there's these hymns and people are chanting. And it seems like everybody knows it and I don't know any of it, right? And it's, it's really kind of

36:50 fascinating to, to observe and, and watch. And I remember somebody coming up to me after my daughter's pot, Mitzvah, like, dude, like you've really know Hebrew and I'm like, actually, not

37:03 really, like if you put a book in front of me, I'd probably have a really hard time getting the words out. Yeah. I'd be much better at Spanish if we're being honest, but all of these like tombs

37:15 art and songs and and that chance are things that I've been hearing since I was a baby. So at this point, it's like, it just rolls off the tongue, second nature. And now you see your kids doing

37:26 the same thing, right? And that to me is sort of like what it's all about. The meaning of those words is something that I'm still trying to figure out and understand what it means to me. But the

37:37 chance and the pros and the cadence of it is something that you pick up from a really young age. So that's something I always find interesting and it's eye-opening, I think, is in my background in

37:48 faith, when I do go to a church, I try to listen to the words because most of them are in English and try to figure out what are they really saying here, right? Where are these tunes coming from

37:60 and the pace and the cadence of the pastor or the priest or the minister, whoever it is and how that differs from a rabbi or something like that. But it's fascinating. I don't know, religion is

38:12 one of those things and we're seeing it all over the world right now People. Care deeply about religion. It's a little bit like politics in some ways. It's personal to people. There's no, there's

38:23 a reason why people feel a certain way about their religion. But I think what's important is that you do have a faith and that that faith leads you to be open-minded and welcoming in terms of thought.

38:37 So it sounds like you've done a good job with your song in that

38:42 I mean, I'm sure you've heard this a hundred times, right? As a father yourself, but yeah, there's no book.

38:53 So you gotta do what you think is right, what you believe in and hope that they pick up on those things and

39:04 be there when they fall. 'Cause they have bad days too. They make mistakes and they're not perfect little humans there as much as we'd like to think they are.

39:14 And so I'm just I'm just proud of who he's become right now. And I'm excited to be there with him as he continues to grow. There you go. Just a couple more questions before I let you go and start

39:27 telling your dog to shut up here on a beautiful Friday.

39:33 Anything that you would go back in time and tell yourself, right? So you've had some time on this earth now and it's my birthday. Birthdays are always a good time to reflect and look back Don't

39:44 spend a lot of time doing that. But I'm curious if you would take a moment and kind of let us know if you were to give some advice to your younger self. You're 20-year-old self, you're 18-year-old

39:56 self, you're 25-year-old self. Like what would that advice be? And it can be anything. There's no right answer, no wrong answer. I'm just curious, like, what would Stephen Anson tell younger

40:05 Stephen Anson? Or even tell your son when he's 20 years old?

40:11 Just some sage advice.

40:15 Man, that's hard, right? 'Cause you

40:18 can look back on your life

40:23 and see where you made a mistake. Sure. And wonder, what if I didn't make that mistake? What if I didn't do that thing that caused so many problems?

40:36 And so it's hard to answer what advice you would give without thinking about making a different decision.

40:49 So I think, for me, it

40:54 would be

41:01 Looking at, as

41:05 I became an adult and was on my own, right, and trying to figure out things, not be so

41:17 stubborn and I have to figure this out myself,

41:23 you know, lean on the people who have the experience, you know, your parents, your grandparents, you know, whoever it is, you're mentors, right? Don't make a decision all on your own. I

41:41 think I did a lot of that in my 20s and my

41:47 dad passed away 11 years ago and it is crazy how much I wish I can get advice from him

42:00 You know, so, so I think that would be it is don't, you know, people would say, well, don't do things in a vacuum or whatever. It was like, you know, just don't be so stubborn and pick into

42:09 that you think you have to figure stuff out on your own. I like that. And it actually reminds me of, so I love asking this question because I get so many different responses, right? Yeah. From,

42:18 from the, uh, from the entrepreneur, from, from the, the CEO of a fast growing startup, they say, you know, whatever it is, you know, just go for it with conviction, right? And for others,

42:29 it's, you know, take time to, to find yourself because you're going to work the rest of your life and your career. Right. It's different. It's, you know, follow your passion. Uh, Matt Wilcox

42:39 and who came on the tripping over the barrel podcast, answered in a very similar way. He just gave it, um, a work's land. Uh, he's like my biggest advice for somebody young coming into business

42:50 or that I would have given to myself is like, don't be afraid to ask for health. Yeah It's the same fundamental concept that you're talking about right now. I think you just took it sort of to a

43:01 different level. I think that applies to business. It also applies to certainly your personal life. So I like that answer and I appreciate you, your thoughtfulness and in terms of sharing that.

43:14 You did mention, right? Sort of one pretty embarrassing story. Country boy goes to the city. He's walking out the doors. He goes in the same,

43:23 the same rotating doors, right? A revolving doors as the boss Anything else that comes to mind, either that you've presented or that you've attended where you're like, that was a disaster

43:34 presentation. Oh. That was a terrible meaning. Anything come to mind. You already shared a good one, so if the answer is you don't remember, that's fine too. You know, dude, there's plenty.

43:42 There's a couple that probably don't want podcasts in it.

43:52 But,

43:54 Man, I'm

43:57 just gonna stick with the revolving door for now.

44:01 Yeah, that works just fine. Well, one that I'll share with you, 'cause it's always worth bringing up. I mean, I've made plenty of mistakes and embarrassed myself many times over since then, but

44:09 we'll stick with the barrel. No doubt, yeah. So, you know, Tim Lozer, Rest in Peace, great, great friend, former podcast partner. When we started tripping over the barrel, the name tripping

44:19 over the barrel even was literally, to try to conjure up some thoughts around physical comedy 'Cause we had some good stories around physical comedy. And for me, kind of my most embarrassing story

44:33 is I was at BHP Billiton in the gallery in Houston. This is about 10 years ago. And I'm giving this really important presentation. It's a room full of suits and decision makers. This is a meeting

44:46 I've been really working hard to get. I finally get the meeting. I go through a passionate slide deck. I'm ready to hand it over to Sachinar and how Sachin's gonna go do the demo and I sit down and

44:58 my butt like hit the. front of the chair. You know what I mean? It didn't quite make it down and started to lean back and the chair flies out from behind me. And the next thing you see, I'm on

45:08 the ground and my legs are basically out by the table because I'm on my back

45:13 laying on the ground. And you hear this loud, slamming noise, the chair goes flying, right? The laptop gets mangled and these guys come over and they're like, dude, are you? Are you all right?

45:26 Like, yeah, I'm fine. But it's sort of one of those things where like everyone's like, okay, well, I guess now we move to the next part of the meeting. But it's one of those things too, where

45:35 like, I would see some of the guys from that meeting at different events or in different meetings going forward and they'd always be like, so like, you remember, you remember when you fell. I'm

45:45 like, I'm not going to ever forget that one. But things like that, there's no better icebreaker than something like that. Sure, right. Keeps us all honest and humble. Could never script

45:52 something like that.

45:58 Stephen, where can people find you, online, and some measurement, your business, your company? Where are you at? I am only on LinkedIn. Okay. I have done my best to avoid social media,

46:17 whether it's to buy detriment or not, but I don't get into it. I'm not, never, I didn't jump on that bandwagon. So yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn. Steven Anson with the PH. With the PH,

46:31 that's right. Yeah. And it's Anson, A-E-N-S-O-N. A lot of people like to say Hanson, there's no H. No, right. It's funny 'cause people usually just call me Hanson. So it's different. They

46:46 call me Hanson, they call you Hanson, whatever. But no, I just wanted to wrap up with this final thought. And this is something that I just wanted to share with you. So we didn't work together

46:59 for that long. We didn't even work all that closely together, despite the fact that I was one of the people that interviewed you during your time at W. But when you look at the time that you spend

47:10 with somebody in a work environment, you make a relatively quick decision on that person. Goes one of two ways. Did you like them or did you not? And I like you. And I'm really glad that we did

47:22 have the chance for our past to cross, albeit briefly, and look forward to continuing to build a personal and probably in other ways professional relationships with you, but you're a good dude.

47:31 And I urge you to continue to be as authentic as you've displayed to be with me. And I wish you and your family nothing but the best. Well, I appreciate that. And I would say that I have a lot of

47:44 the same feelings towards you. You know, if I didn't, I wouldn't have told you I was coming to Colorado mostly now. And it's kind of like gone out and had dinner with you. So I enjoy, I

47:55 appreciate you.

47:58 That we did work together, and I'm just glad that we could stay in touch and thank you for having me on On your show what the funk you know appreciate it man