What The Funk?

0:00 And we're back with tripping over the barrel on blue shirt Friday. Nobody told me that to him. Where was the memo? I didn't know this is a complete fluke, man. I probably have some. Although as

0:13 you know, I'm on the road. We didn't do a recording last week. When I was up in New Hampshire, staying in a basement with the family. Now I'm staying in a basement in Massachusetts with the

0:20 family. I can get used to this basement life. It's not too bad. A little counter. So if you're considered a vacation, if you're just in a basement up there. It's more of a trip It's more of a

0:30 trip. The trip to Mexico was a vacation, even with the family. This is, this is a trip. We've been in the car a lot doing lots of, you know, swimming at lakes and driving from this place to

0:43 that place, making people go to restaurants. I worked at 20 something years ago, even if they're bad, whatever. But here we are, right? We're in Sharon, Massachusetts, just outside of Foxboro,

0:54 home of the six time Super Bowl champion. New England Patriots. But we also have a Dallas Cowboys fan here with us. So Tim, if you'd like to introduce our friend, Joe. You know, when we started

1:09 this podcast, man, almost a year and a half ago now, I was just kind of thumbing through LinkedIn, looking for people who were doing things on LinkedIn, adding content, thought that'd be a good

1:18 thing to add and stumbled across Joe or Joseph here. And thought, man, this would be a good guy to bring on because it's going to bring a field exposure that we haven't had. Almost everybody we

1:29 talked to are in the office or sales guys or something like that. So anyway, I finally, it dawned on me. He released a video and it caught me again. I was like, oh, we need to bring Joseph on.

1:39 So anyway, here we are. He's got a great background. This is going to be a lot of fun. He's geeked up for this. So I think we should just get started. So I can jump in, Joe. I know we've got a

1:51 whole bunch of questions for you, but when I was getting a beer upstairs, shout out, Trillium Brewing, one of my favorite breweries in the world, right down the street, you were saying that

2:03 you've been in movies and maybe even met Mark Wahlberg. We got to get into that. But before we jump into that segment, who are you? Give me the full deep dive on Joe Norman. Who am I? Joseph?

2:17 I'm Joseph Anthony Norman. You know, I'm from boy and raised in Midland, Texas, which is oil and gas country, Permian Basin. Midland Lee Rebel. You know,

2:29 two time state champion, one time national champion football

2:34 in football. Yeah, correct. I was a middle linebacker. Wahl. Defensive MVP along with Cedric Benson, who was the offensive MVP.

2:44 Rest in peace said, God bless the dead. And so, you know, football is my background This Texas is my background. I got a full scholarship to go to Texas Tech University, I played up there a

2:58 three-year letterman. And, whoa, and yeah, I left there and went straight into Hollywood making movies. Then after Hollywood making movies, I jumped back into the off-road where I was always

3:10 from. So yeah, that's kind of like the quick rundown of Joseph Anthony Norman, man. And

3:17 it's been a life of, you know, what do you call it? Just different experiences, man I've lived from the East Coast to the West Coast, you know,

3:30 I've dabbled in a lot of things. So yeah, man, just shoot, just shoot. And then we'll see where it goes. Let's talk about what

3:40 you're doing right now. You know, so the videos on LinkedIn that caught my attention, you were, I guess the first one was early in COVID, you were like, hey, is anybody doing any echo meters in

3:53 the field anymore, and I saw you. heading out to well sites going to do, I guess, echometers to shoot some echometers, but yeah. So what is your company? What do you do? So I'll just tell you

4:06 a little background on that. So I've been in oil for my entire life, man. My dad was a, he got on with Exxon back in the 70s. The only reason my dad got on with Exxon is because of affirmative

4:18 action. Okay. That's the only reason they hired him. They were not hiring black people before the 70s, right? Well, they got this mandate here, so I guess we got a hire black guy. Literally,

4:30 that's what happened. So my dad got on, they didn't even tell him who needed what kind of clothes to wear, anything. So his first day out in the field was on a rig on a pulling unit, and he was

4:41 wearing a silk shirt, nice clothes like he's working in an office. He's on

4:46 top of the derrick. So I heard these guys at Exxon like to dress nice. It was outside roses but off the top of the day and it was kind of like he he thinks that they were trying to give them the

5:01 credit but he never quit so he ended up working with exxon for close to twenty years sure and he felt like he hit the glass ceiling and he went out on his own as a lease operator contract lease

5:12 operator contract proper so in junior high man during the summers I had to wake up six am to go to the fill my Desk I've engage in tanks chicken meter runs and a durant rast about work since I was

5:27 twelve years old so I've been in the field my entire life and I worked with my dad of course it would his company and every summer and in between breaks as well you know Christmas and Spring Break I

5:42 was out on the field So I grew up in Ortho Man and I work with my Dad and in two thousand and Thirteen I decided to go out on my own and I started the AM, which is a well optimization service, and I

5:55 use echometer equipment to acquire fluid level data, dynamometer surveys, and basically we help operators optimize artificial lift systems. And that's what I've been doing, and so most of my

6:08 content on LinkedIn, most of my network on LinkedIn is oil and gas related people. So most of my content is oil and gas content that I post I think one time I posted something that had nothing to do

6:21 with oil and gas like two weeks ago, I talked about a trip that I took to Fort Worth, but most of everything that I talk about on LinkedIn is oil and gas related, but I do have other interests that

6:31 I'm involved in, but you have to follow me on my other social media to see those type of things. But yeah, so, so, you know, being in this West Texas growing up in the oil film, man, it was

6:43 just, it was just natural for me to start oil and gas business And this one is the one that was the easiest pivot from what I was already doing. I was a lease operator, and this was kind of the

6:55 next step was to be a well technician. So I went out on my own as a well technician. And that's what I've been doing since 2013.

7:02 Yeah, us, but yeah. Yeah, last year was hard though. Last year was hard, of course, in March, when the oil goes negative44 or whatever. Yeah, I started getting the calls, Hey, on an as

7:17 needed basis, hey, as needed basis I said, Hey, we don't need you anymore. So I had to pivot, do a lot of different things, but yeah, I'm still here, man. And this week was one of my busiest

7:29 weeks that I've had in 18 months. I went out to the field three days in a row. So I'm right right now. Don't dance. Don't dance. Don't dance, man. I'm feeling blessed. So I got a lot of

7:41 questions, but also have some quick commentary. Like, Tim knows this about me There's somewhere in. Somewhere in my soul where I somehow believe that I also was an all state linebacker at a school

7:53 like Midland Lee and got a scholarship to college somewhere in Texas and got asked, yeah, it was awesome. It never actually happened in my mind. It actually was Division III intramural sports.

8:08 Flag football, which was still fun in its own right. But as far as Midland Lee, Colin McClellan went there, do you know Colin? Colin McClellan I'm McClellan, 'cause I think he's the same - Colin

8:19 McClellan. Similar age, I think. Was it Class of 2000? I don't think he's younger than that. He's like 2009 or something. He's the one with Digital Wildcatters platform. He was, I think, the

8:32 CEO. He just got an award congrats. Colin, shout out. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no idea he went to Midland Lee. Yeah, for sure, for sure. He went to Midland Lee 100. Well, no, I did

8:45 not know that. Thanks for letting me know that.

8:48 I figured there was some connection, but maybe it's a huge, huge high school. So that's like, you know, I grew up in just another part of the world in, in, uh, New Hampshire, right? New

8:57 England. And I went to a high school that football was really important, but never on the same like level as a national team, like you guys would have just run us completely off the field. But

9:05 nonetheless, there was a book written and movies and all that stuff about your school and sort of hold that, that whole area and how it is. Like, what is it like being part of that whole, like

9:16 that's as prestigious in my mind as it gets for high school level football. What was that like with 20, 000 people in the stands for high school football games? Or more? Well, it was nice. It

9:27 was intense. I can say, looking back as an adult, what we went through as teenagers, you know, the Olympics are on. I don't want to compare anything to that bigger stage, but it felt like the

9:40 Olympics. For sure. Every time that you lined up in 4 or 5A football, which was, it was District 4 or 5A back then, Every time you lined up in that district, you knew you were going to war, and

9:50 you knew that it was going to be a close game, you knew it was going to be a battle, and you then having them write in the book, Friday Night Lights, and having them come up with the movie and the

10:02 TV show

10:05 with Friday Night Lights, you knew that you were part of history. You knew every time Midland Lee played Odessa Permian that you were going to be the first highlight on the high school football

10:18 showcase tonight. That's awesome. So you knew you were going to be on TV, so you got to show out. You got to, and not only that, all the scouts were at those games. The Texas is - Yeah, those

10:30 were playing in the NFL, right? Those guys playing in those games. So you knew it was big, and we felt that weight and that that intenseness, and besides our coaches reminding us who we were

10:42 playing, our parents are reminding us who we were playing, Our classmates are reminding us. about the big game. Our teachers are asking us, are we ready? You know, so it was nowhere you can go

10:52 in the whole city where nobody's reminding you what's coming up on Friday night. Yeah, but you didn't need to be reminded. Well, no, no, no, not at all, because you know what our coaches used

11:02 to do, Coach Prochman and Coach Smith and Coach Rieger, they used to go get article clippings and posted in the locker room about how this, how old that superman was going to rip our face. Yeah,

11:14 of course That was pure motivation for us. That's all you had to do is tell us who was going to slap us around. And this is like, oh no, that's not happening today, not tonight, you know? So

11:27 it was always intense. It was always a highlight of my high school career because we did so well. We responded well to it and we went through the playoffs and we won a championship. So we did what

11:43 we were supposed to do and the notoriety that we still get to this day. and it was twenty one years ago Nah just got adapted into the hollow into the hall of fame like we just had a twenty year

11:56 championship reunion these are still my friends these are still my My my teammates you know and we haven't been in high school in twenty years so he was a badass never going to be broken so I have my

12:09 my connection and mentally we were am class eighty eight hype from High School del Rio Texas so Our Senior year we contracted with mid and lead a meet for a scrimmage for our preseason scrimmage and

12:23 we met halfway in the thriving metropolis of Ozuna Texas with what's in the middle layer of ozone has got a good restaurant I could hit up the ozone the same is the is is I tend to only think NATO

12:40 Zone but you know, we didn't belong on the same field, but you know, I remember when the coach came in and announced that our scrimmage was going to be Midland Lee, this was in spring ball. And I

12:49 was, I had just moved to Del Rio. And I just said, my eyes went big. Cause I was the only one who knew Midland Lee had just played in a semi finals a year before and we were going to ask like,

12:59 holy crap, we don't belong on the field with those guys and, and we didn't, but you know, anyway. You had to fight out for yourself though. No, that's, that, I mean, that's tremendous I mean,

13:11 it's just exciting to hear. I wonder if a lot of those guys end up in the, in the oil field, right? Because it really is the business out there. You know, it's 90, 90 of it of the, all of the

13:22 business out there is oil and gas related. In some way, shape or flavor. Yeah, I have friends who are superintendents, drill and supervisors, pumpers,

13:34 engineers. Just right off the top of my head Yeah, I can probably name a dozen. teammates that are in the industry. So yeah, that's pretty much, you know, the direction you go, depending on

13:47 where you go in college, or what you do, you know, you probably go end up in an oil field somewhere. Even if you don't try to get into the oil business, in Midland, Texas, 2018, I'm talking to

14:01 a bartender at the local Sheridan Hotel, and he says, I get offered daily to go work somewhere in the field. He said, You can't avoid it out there. So it is a boom town. When it's going good,

14:16 holy crap, you can't shake this dick out. Right now, that's what you were saying, right? It's good right now. Yeah, when it's going good, there's no lack of work out here, and the rent goes

14:28 higher too. So it's like a give and a take, you know, saying like, Yeah, it's more jobs available, more high-paying jobs available but usually everything else, the groceries, the rent,

14:41 everything else goes up. So, you know, it's a give and take, but for the most part, the majority of the people in this area are working in the oil and gas industry, and there's no way around it.

14:52 So, you have to have a little bit, I have a lot of respect for it, 'cause that's how I was raised. I was raised with a daddy in the oil field. You know, I was raised with

15:04 all of his friends were his coworkers in the oil field So, you know, that's just, that's just the way things goes in West Texas, man. Yeah, there was a, I'm on this energy fin twit, right? I

15:17 love it. You're on Twitter, there's a bunch of these, it's all these oil field guys or back office guys, a lot of them with anonymous personalities, some with some without. But what's happened,

15:27 which has been amazing, is more and more video and content coming from the field, which is really what I like because I don't really have the time or desire to go to the field Doesn't like fully

15:37 benefit. what I do professionally, but I'm curious about it, right? Because I'm selling solutions that add value to it. So it's great to see like, hey, went to this well right here. It needed

15:47 this piece to replace that and it increased production. It's like, ah, that is such great, tangible content. So is that kind of what you started doing? You started kind of filming what it was

15:58 like like a day in the life or just take a look at this. We can learn something. What got you going on the social media and content kick?

16:07 So back in the day, we called it vlogging. So I don't know what they call it nowadays. But I call myself, you know, I started a YouTube channel. I started creating content. I was like, well,

16:19 I at least want to capture what I'm doing. So I was like, and people don't get to see this. The way I thought of it was if I could have saw my dad starting out in the oil field,

16:40 with a silk shirt on in the '70s, wouldn't it be cruel for him to capture that moment and for me to relive that moment somehow? So I'm looking at my youngest children that are in the house with me,

16:49 are 10, four, and a one-year-old baby girl. And I want them to, when they get older, to see what did Daddy do in the field? So that was my reasoning behind creating content in the field. It's

17:06 just 'cause you normally can't really bring kids to the field, you know, you can do it inconspicuously if the market is right. Stay in the truck. Stay in the truck, right, get down, and

17:18 somebody's coming in. But yeah, so I took it upon myself to capture my work and what I'm doing out in the field and share with the world some of the stuff I have so many videos, I haven't even

17:31 shared an artist. I'm 'cause, know you,

17:35 To some aspect, I'm an artist, so what I put out there, I kind of want it to be a little bit curated. It's not all just raw, but I felt like people don't see what goes on in the field as well.

17:53 So I feel like if they, you have to make it, people have this idea of what the oil field is It's a bunch of guys running around, spilling oil everywhere, not giving a dang about the environment,

18:08 right? So you have to kind of change that narrative by documenting what you're doing. So you document what you're doing and say, Yeah, I do care about the environment. I care about this oil well.

18:20 And everybody else cares about it too because you're all using our products. So we got to find a common ground here to come together and find a new agreement on this industry This whole thing is

18:38 being basically - Well, it's under attack. It's under attack is being marginalized, is being demonized. And so we got to find a way to change the narrative for the oil and gas. And I felt like I

18:55 could be an advocate for that by basically just showing what I'm doing every day in the oil field So I thought it would be a good idea to do that. We should hook him up with Mike Gumbro Jeremy. Yeah,

19:08 I mean, we should have come up with Colin McClellan. Yeah, that's right. But no, really, I mean, that's fantastic. And I'm going to dive deeper into all of your content since it sounds like

19:20 you've put out a decent bit. But after I was a high school football national and Texas state champion as the captain of the defense and lettered at Division One School. In the ranked program and

19:36 started I was like what AM I going to do so of course like I went to Hollywood and started hanging out with Eric Walberg it was it was I actually was obviously the play so I just stuck with

19:53 that I've created this this is me you are may your life to mine I'm curious well so was busy you finish your like I'm done with with a college and I'm done with ball I want to go do something else and

20:07 you decide you want to be a moose yeah it was actually a hard transition for me at that time because I was teeter tottering between continue in my football career and then move it on to to Hollywood

20:20 so initially when I came into Texas Tech I was a theater arts major while in with theatre arts you have to get shop hours nobody told me that I had to get a certain amount of shop hours to pass my

20:35 craft is huge. And I had to go to football practice. I had to go to study hall. I had to do everything that I had to do for football. So they couldn't coexist. And nobody explained that to me

20:47 before I went to school. You'll figure it out. I mean, that's what I tell you, right? Yeah, figure it out.

20:54 Exactly. So they figured it out for me, and they switched my major to broadcast journalism. I hated broadcast journalism It was like, the only thing we're going in there is reading articles about

21:05 politics. I was like, this is not for me. I don't, it's not for me. So I got disinterested in school, and I did not play my senior year. So that time, Friday Night Lights was recruiting

21:22 football players in Odessa, Texas, to be in this movie, Friday Night Lights. Right, right on. Right, and so I had a choice.

21:33 uh, try out for this movie and be labeled a professional because they would be, they would be paying me. And I would lose the rest of my eligibility. Oh, which they just changed. Finally. Oh my

21:46 God. Come on, man. I take the movie. I mean, let's, let's say no, I'm going pro. I'm taking the movie. It's, it's always been such bullshit, right? And to have that firsthand example,

21:57 it's like, uh, okay, because you're really good at something. You can't get paid to do something else Right. And that has nothing to do with it. It's got nothing to do with it. You weren't paid

22:07 to be on a football commercial, right? Right. It's like, I'm glad the NIO rules have changed. But when I was playing back in the day, um, that, that was, that was the, uh, options that I

22:20 had. So I could either, uh, play professionally, which was, they were calling it, or I could, uh, you know, uh, I would have to give up my eligibility, or I could try to, you know, finish

22:32 my college career. I made the movie, they hired me for the movie for Friday Night Lights, and I ended up filming in Odessa, in Austin, in Houston. You know, the big game was in Houston versus

22:46 Dallas Carter, so we filmed for three or four weeks in Houston, and I got to know several people on the set, including.

22:58 Hey, I can't even remember his name right now. Mark Wahlberg. No, no. It was Billy Bob Thornton. I'm sorry,

23:06 Billy Bob Thornton. Yeah, Billy Bob Thornton, and Berg, he's

23:13 the one who directed that movie. Really good, really good people, man So

23:22 what happened was they hired a group of football players to play all the other teams that Permian was playing. So all the teams like I played. mittley lee i was on mittley lee's tea nice uh and so

23:35 give me your own number no they didn't i was a different position i was a uh defensive end or something and so if you look at the movie where booby miles had uh gouged uh got his eyes gouged like that

23:49 if you go but watch re-watch the movie that was me doing that and i had a hard time doing that because i was like no man we we don't cheat like that we don't play dirty you know just beat you up you

24:02 know i don't have middle and late stop right so i was like i'm doing this i lived this man so let's be real about it but um but yeah so so so we i played on really lee i played on ohs middling high uh

24:16 the the Dallas Carter team so we we all missed and matched you know um whichever team yeah so it was cool and throughout that i made contacts and made a network of people so the next movie that came

24:31 around they just called me up and say Hey you Wanna be apart so that's how I got into invincible when Mark Wahlberg and we were in a Philadelphia film and find the the story of Vince properly the

24:44 thirty year old bartender who rocks onto the Philadelphia Eagles in place for three and a half four years in League so which is incredible and Mark Robert he's one of the coolest Guys I've ever worked

24:55 with because after every single day filming he would have his personal chef cater dinner Oh My God regarding the forty Guys like make an amazing Rashmi Me Yeah he was the coolest guy ever made he

25:13 would invite us out golfing he would he would invite us out to the club or whatever we were doing I remember this specifically because if y'all are familiar with boxing win an Oscar de la Hoya versus

25:30 uh uh it was a pack y'all and no it was it was Bernard Hopkins. Oh right.

25:41 Bernard Hopkins in Philly when Oscar got hit with the uh with the body blow and went down. Hopkins got hit. I was with Mark Walberg that night and we had basically quarantined off a whole section of

25:56 the club and we were watching this while while you know the ladies were serving us chicken wings chicken chips, chicken chips, chicken chips, chicken chips, chicken chips, chicken chips, our

26:12 cootery boards. Yeah there you go. That's tremendous. And it was an amazing night and then we went to the we took over the club it was just I mean when you talk about living the Hollywood lifestyle

26:26 I was living it cuz like it was It was pretty spectacular so from Invincible I Think we went to we are Marshall which was with Matthew McConaughey plank on We were in Atlanta right in the data was it

26:42 was it was tragic because the first scene that we filmed was in West Virginia at the Cemetery where those guys were buried and that was tough man it was tough filming it it was tough talking about it

26:57 it was tough reliving it because everybody in the whole community still felt the the the Ripple effects from it and then hear these Hollywood Guys coming in here filming the movie at the actual ground

27:10 where these these players were buried it was a real real sensitive thing they're so bright it was Fun I got to I got a film with Anthony mackie who is now the I mean he's Captain America now I Guess

27:27 Yeah So I was in a movie with Anthony Mackie and it was just a fun time in and out we also I also got the opportunity to film in Boston So I lived in Boston for a couple of months okay We already

27:45 know I'm a Texas Boy I'm a Texas Boy I Sat him in a Batman I'm Aware the Astros Cowboys You Know That's All that matters now the Astros are Nice Yeah So Anyway I got to film in Boston with Dwayne the

28:02 Rock Johnson and it was called the Game Plan and we filmed it was a Disney movie it was a fun movie with a rock was a quarterback and he finds out he has a little girl and take heart and balls and

28:14 everything Yeah I have three daughters so we had to watch that movie but so Yeah it's definitely a a a daddy daughter date movie Jeremy I started our name drop Thing with the last episode We just

28:30 upgraded the name drops on this show quite a bit over the last one which thank

28:36 God Matthew McConaughey Hey Billy Bob Thornton it's Mark Walker will Mark Wahlberg comes in third Grade I Yeah what's The Billy Bob Thornton Yeah that's captain America you know the full year the full

28:58 Hollywood lifestyle acting career going and why dude what see then you pivot he pivoted to Oilfield what was the the what happened why did you Yeah so it wasn't so even though I was in Hollywood

29:09 living in a Hollywood lifestyle I didn't have the Hollywood inco

29:14 so naturally naturally I go back to what my skill set is in my skill set is in oil and gas in the production so my Dad like he says he prayed me back home and and I came back and I worked for him for

29:29 a few years and then I went out on my own in two thousand and thirteen so it was really a move just because of finances and it was a it was an easy pivot because it was something that I already knew

29:44 and this was back in to it right after I got to film and movies tried two thousand and seven to the think two thousand and eight was when a barrel of oil was one hundred and forty eight dollars and

29:56 people were going absolutely nuts out here and it was just money being thrown everywhere so it was easy to just slip back in here and find my lane and so so I began lease operating in in pop -in under

30:15 My Dad's company I did that for a four or five years and my brother my oldest brother John Who's The City Councilman in Midland Texas Right Now We are took over the business and I wrote for my brother

30:30 for like a year and I was the one who had worked this whole entire time come at the natural choice rather give me the business

30:40 Nad come on

30:44 Yeah Man So I found out who's his favorite son when that happened but Yeah

30:53 but what was the best thing for me because it it it it made me you know he lit a fire under me so I was able to go out a year later start my business and we've been in business ever since in in just

31:05 imagine the UPs and downs since two thousand and thirteen and all yes however we've been able to survive all those uPs and downs the biggest down was last year we still been able to survive that

31:16 because early on when I was making the high six figures I paint things off man Like, I paid off my equipment, I paid off my trucks, I paid off everything, and I wasn't sitting here with a whole

31:30 bunch of debt, you know, trying to keep up. So that was the biggest - I'll tell you what, a lot of the companies you were doing contract work for, we didn't do that. And that's why they had so

31:41 much trouble. That's true, that's true. And so a lot of people got caught when the tide goes out. What's the only saying, you know, if you, when the tide goes out, you find out who's swimming

31:52 naked, like so sort of time went out. I like that one. The emperor's new clothes, right? The emperor's new clothes. Right, right. And you find out who's swimming naked. So I wasn't exactly

32:03 swimming naked, but I only had a pair of shorts on, I have nothing else, so. Well at least you had that. Yeah, that's, yeah, definitely that would be part of my life curve too, right? Is

32:14 after my acting career, 'cause I wasn't making enough money, even though everybody wanted me to, and there was lots of promises, It was time to go back home to the oil field a little bit rich,

32:26 but then ultimately everything starts to crash. You see the bottom. What am I supposed to do? Well, what you're supposed to do is exactly what you're doing because you're still riding, riding the

32:38 tide, right? This is, this is an industry that has been cyclical forever, right? And it's something that I've been able to accept and fully understand. And being back in New Hampshire this last

32:49 week, I'll never forget it because there's always one place I used to drive by when I went to work to wait tables, Hart's turkey farm, where it's Thanksgiving every day except for Christmas, it's

32:58 got to be closed one day. But anyways, what, going back and forth every day to Hart's Cumberland farms, cumbies, 99 cents, this must have been what, 99, 2000 era, 99 cents, maybe a dollar

33:10 nine for gas, right? I drove past that this time. And I want to say it was 325, right? So that's just the reflection, right? When you want to present thanks I mean it's just that kind of

33:23 industry right and it's it's very tight so of course that the whole I thought it was going to be easy forever to I got introduced to this industry two thousand a brief blip then back out and really

33:34 good till two thousand and fifteen you're paying off everything you get used to a certain style life you like complete making like sixty percent of what I made last year forty percent eighty percent

33:44 or whatever percent it is if it's under one hundred that's probably right and I think people in this industry learn real quick this is a you Gotta be careful right this is going to be peaks and

33:55 valleys you Gotta be real people learn real quick and other people are just like Lord please just give me one more boom and I'll promise not to mess it up this time

34:08 bumper Sticker bumper Sticker it's So Funny though so true so true it's easier so Joseph Yeah You've You've obviously got a lot of windshield time out in the field you're you're going out to wellsite

34:20 your contract to go out to do optimize a well strikes me that you know sometimes you just don't know what you're going to find when you show up on site they may tell you one thing you're going to go

34:32 out and do whatever what's the craziest thing that you've run across out on a well pad or on a wellsite you know just complete shock yeah well I will say if you drive up to location and you about to

34:49 go up to the tank battery to gauge a tank and you you you just you and your own zone your in your mind because you're out there by yourself and then you look up and then you look right dead and a

35:01 bobcat staring right at all

35:07 up so Yeah I'm driving the location of a pink I'm Down south in Upton County and the It and I'm driving And I'll park in front of the battery and I start walking up with my gauge line And I'm looking

35:20 at him and he's looking at me, and he gets scared and I get scared So I'm jettin right back down the stairs

35:28 And he follows me down and runs off and I'm just like oh my goodness I was like where's my knife at I could I could have got scratched up What the hell is a bobcat doing on top of a tank? What's he

35:41 looking for up there? Well, that's this is what they do the bobcats. They'll hunt they'll go find a rodent or something like that And then they'll climb up there to eat it So a lot of the times in

35:52 the field you'll see the remnants of guts and stuff like that from animals That have been eaten and they usually climb the tank battery to stay safe from anything else trying to get it And that's

36:04 where they go. So I mean it's kind of Common I would say but another time which is a

36:13 crazy time well one of the biggest it was a it was intentional accident so I had two loans I had two loads to sail I had written up two tickets waiting to be hauled I come back the next morning and

36:32 all my oil is on the ground oH no one left the valve open oH no someone went out there to sabotage the distance the tank batteries errors and they were in open every single valve these are followed a

36:53 barrel while not even three hundred three hundred barrel takes to protect local each tank they open the valve on each one and they open the water tank about and we had a Dyke we had a Dyke around it

37:05 of course but that big nuttin well it filled up the dike but the load line is outside of the dike because you know the truck has to pull up to it they left that one open so it flooded the entire area

37:20 and it was just straight crude in the entire area and that was probably we had to call the sheriff and had to call the environmental and had to call it everybody because it was the worst thing i've

37:31 ever seen uh in the field man and besides i don't want to get too well besides the wrecks you know yeah disasters but not the wrecks and the stuff that you run into on these highways out here that's

37:46 the craziest thing that i've seen those rows are very dangerous very dangerous i mean that that's oh god that first of all with the bobcat it's like i'm in how stupid are you bobcat what you go up

37:59 there like any animal that's going to be able to get you can also climb up the fucking stabs man, they'll figure it, including you, including you, by the way. I think they just, you know, it's

38:08 like a true, it's the tallest tree around, I guess. It's their, it's their instinct that that's, that's very funny. I'd expect that maybe for a Lisa, uh, or pumper in Colorado. Not, not so

38:19 much. But who knows man, West Texas, it's, it's just got a little bit of everything. Wow, man. When I did my internships in South Texas, it was badgers.

38:30 They're always badger down around the, you know, in the scrub land. So that's, we saw badgers, well, not all the time, but you'd see their, their dens all the time and every once in a while,

38:40 you see one of them up.

38:43 Man,

38:45 the whole oil thing. So, so then like, how does that get remediated? How does that get cleaned up? Like you said, you basically started a process. Is there insurance on that? Because that's

38:54 akin to if you're selling a physical product that's worth20, 000 in your bag and somebody steals it, right? I mean, that's40, 000. There's liability to someone, right? So how's things like

39:06 that? is definitely

39:09 a felony. It's a felony offense. And

39:15 the way we handle it is, of course, it goes up the ladder. So we contact our superintendents and they have to contact corporate because it's an environmental thing. So they have to make sure they

39:28 remediate it. So the first thing they do is build a dyke around it all and try to contain it as much as possible Then they get a vacuum truck over there to try to suck all the oil up to put as much

39:40 as they can back in. But overnight, most of it soaked into the ground. So you have to dig down into where there's no oil soaking and you have to take that dirt and you have to haul it off and

39:52 remediate it. So it's a whole process that you have to go through just for that, not after losing two loads of oil, but you have to go through the whole process of cleaning it up. So I'm guessing,

40:05 man, that was

40:07 at least100, 000 ticket just to get back to normal on that deal. And you probably had to shut the well in for those two weeks that - Well, those were, well, no, no, we didn't. Only thing we

40:18 had to do was close the valves. Okay, yeah.

40:24 And we - I mean, man, that is, that's really something. Well, you know, it's good for me to hear that because look, you treat the environmental disaster the same way anybody would, right? You

40:33 sort of build isolation to this, try to remediate it, take any product out if you're able to retain something, but ultimately make it like salvageable land and not just total oil and, you know,

40:47 frack fluid wasteland, which is great, right? Right, not the idea of - That's the perception.

40:54 The idea is to leave the environment the same way you found it Whether that happens or not is a whole nother story. but the idea is to leave things exactly the way you found it. The way when they

41:08 cleared that land, when they started clearing the path to drill that well, you need to go back exactly the way it was. All those mesquite bushes that were out there need to be put back. But at the

41:22 end of the lifecycle of the well, it's not usually the operator who drill that well. Yeah. It's some guy down the line that's in third stage of recovery and he's an entry level operator and they're

41:37 not gonna have the cash to remediate all of those things. So we have to find a way

41:48 to prevent that, to have some sort of system to prevent that and to put the environment back right where it was because the people, the environmentalists are gonna continue to come after you And if

42:00 they have something to come after. I mean, if they don't have anything to come after, then what are we talking about? Yeah. So we have to be responsible. And, but I understand it's a, you open

42:12 in the can of worms, we talk about that. No, no doubt. All right, I want to pivot a little bit, more social here on this one. So I kind of told you we might get into this, but I really want to

42:24 dig in. You already said your dad was hired by Exxon due to affirmative action. But obviously you grew up West Texas in the oil field You've been around it, but I just want to understand as a black

42:35 man in the industry, for now, you've got quite a bit of experience now, what's that been like? How's it different for you than say somebody else, the regular old white guy on West Texas joining

42:47 the industry? What's that been like for you? Well, I was told to always put out my best effort because I'm going to be looked at and scrutinized more heavily than some of my white counterparts So

43:00 everything that we did in the field is. We is top notch. We never left nothing on turn when we were operating. So every little small detail that we could do, we performed it. It was times that we

43:16 got alarms, we had to go out in the middle of the night and stay out there all night. And we had to do that because other people wasn't willing to. And if we didn't, we would be looked at a little

43:26 bit differently or a little bit more harshly. And so I can say that a lot of that was, a lot of it was true. But some of it is, I call it PTSD. PTSD from generational PTSD. 'Cause my dad, he

43:45 had a way harder than me. Yeah. But some of the things that

43:50 he had to avoid, I didn't have to avoid. But we still kind of live in under that same thought process where you have to about, you know, We have to think about - those types of rules. I know when

44:05 I went out on my own, you know, I have locks. I have long hair too. So I'm black with long hair. I don't look like I'll be long out here. You know, so so people perceptions can be off. But I

44:18 tell you what, God has brought me to people in the oil and gas industry that has totally changed my perspective. The first contract I got was with the Energy Incorporation. And I walked in. Yeah,

44:34 exactly. Straight up from Alabama. And I walk into this super into this foreman's office. He's an older white man. And I'm coming in here with long hair, trying to get work from him. And the

44:48 only thing I can think of is my perception to him. I'm like, what is he going to say? What is going to do? We got in there. And he looked me in my eyes. He's like, I'll give you a shot.

45:02 just don't bull crap me. And I was like, yes sir, I understand. I couldn't bull crap my daddy. So I know I can't bull crap you. And we got in there and we didn't even end up talking about the

45:13 services I was going to provide. We ended up talking about his church down the street. His back to church, it's like it totally changed my perspective on how I should conduct myself in the oil and

45:24 gas industry. I shouldn't be afraid of what someone else thinks of me Even though the

45:33 prejudice, the girl boy syndrome is still exist, is still to this day. But you can't let that hold you back as a black man in America. You cannot let nothing hold you back from that because most

45:49 of the things that are going on are not really happening is just

45:56 your mindset So change your mindset and you can overcome most of those things. but there's still hurdles that we got to overcome. There's still stigmas to, you know, black people are lazy or they

46:09 don't do the right job or they cut corners or something like that. So all those stereotypes, you got to blow out of the water with your hard work and with your perseverance. Yeah, and now you've

46:20 got a reputation. So I assume it's now easier for you now. You've developed reputation, they know you do it right. I can't never do that though. I can't go there Yeah. I can never go there

46:31 because I can never take my foot off the gas. Well, once you have your reputation, you got to hear it. Right, they know me, they know that this and then, no, no, no, no, no. I'm still

46:42 going to perform my job at 100 because I don't want any excuses on my end. And that's the mindset that you have to have, especially being a black man out here, is 'cause

46:53 at the end of the day, like

46:58 as a black man, we don't have the benefit of the doubt. No. Okay. We don't have the benefit of the doubt. I don't know what it's like other elsewhere, but in this country, no, you're like two

47:09 strikes every time you step to the plate. I hate to say it, and I don't feel that way, but that sucks. Yeah, that's what I did. So we live with that, and so with that, we're gonna take that

47:20 into consideration, and we're gonna perform accordingly. So not taking anything away from anybody else, but that's just how we're gonna do things over here And that's just the kind of microscope

47:30 that we're under. And my dad was under, like, I feel like I'm under it, but I feel like it has, I mean, it's gotten a thousand times better since my dad entered the oil field 45 years ago. So

47:44 we gotta take it with a grain of salt. You know, but here's a great thing. You've now made it easier, because of the hard work you've done. You've made it easier Maybe.

47:56 I don't want anyone to start with any strikes, but maybe the next guy starts with one strike instead of two because of your efforts, your dad's efforts, and the others before you.

48:06 Yeah. Hopefully, obviously I want it to be a level playing field, but

48:13 your efforts are getting us there. This is important, right? 'Cause it's sort of the times that we live in, but also sort of just fundamentally, like we've talked about this before, I went to a

48:23 high school with 800 kids and I was the only Jew, right? So in my mindset, I have this chip on my shoulder as well, whether or not it's realistic, you get out in the world, you realize Jews,

48:33 you're afforded every opportunity and I'm white, right? So I mean, yes, I've been given every possible opportunity there is. That said, there's still a mindset of like, I've gotta do this and

48:46 that's never gonna go away. And what you're doing is shaping perception for other people you meet. So because I grew up in an area that there were no Jews, It was very important for me for people

48:56 to see how I was, 'cause I might be the only exposure of some of these country kids ever have to a Jew, right? And I want them to see, it's a nice guy, he's funny, he's cool, he's hardworking,

49:06 you know what I mean? Any of the things like, I view that as important, and one of my best friends from high school said, you know, my dad left my mom, he cheated on her with this Jewish woman

49:17 and married her, and if it wasn't for you, I'd hate Jewish people. You know what I mean? So like, it doesn't take much if you're born with anything close to a strike against you, right? So I

49:27 really appreciate your story, man. Yeah, I agree with that because, and I think, you know, going back to Tim, that's part

49:38 of the reason why I want to create content in the more field, because I feel like, at the end of the day, at least you can see someone who may not look like you,

49:53 someone who

49:56 may not come from the same cultural background as you, but we're in the same industry. We're dealing with the same oil field related things. We're trying to solve the same artificial lift problems.

50:10 I just happen to be black. So I do kind of, I know that that's there, and I know that

50:19 when people see a black man in the oil field with long hair like this, had my own business for the last eight years, it can change your perspective. So I appreciate you saying that. Yeah, so -

50:28 Yeah, keep hustling that man. We really appreciate you.

50:32 So let's let's let you plug away here. So, you know, now all of our friends in West Texas who need to contract someone to come and help them with their artificial lift. How do they get ahold of

50:41 you, Joseph? So they can get ahold of me several ways. They can hit me up on LinkedIn. I'm Joseph Anthony Norman, on LinkedIn. You can also go to fluidlevelscom, FLU ID.

50:52 L-E-V-E-L-S dot com. Send me an inquiry, let me know what you got. You know,

50:60 at this point, like, I know what I'm doing when it comes to a well optimization, and my specialty is artificial lift systems, is rod pumps, that's what I do, but I can shoot fluid levels on

51:12 anything, on any type of oil, I can shoot fluid levels up to 5, 000 psi. So if you have any need for that, yeah, hit me up, let me know. All right, let's get a busy five days a week, out of

51:25 the field, five days a week, next time.

51:28 All right, my wife is gonna love me if I'm not in the house.

51:34 Joe Norman, my man. Thank you so much for coming on, sharing your story with us and best of luck, man. I also wanna give a shout out real quick because you mentioned Tall City Brewing. A lot of

51:46 people have mentioned that place to me now, so next time I go to Midland, I might put an event together or something there,

51:52 Make sure you give me the invite, bro. Funk features a tall city. Let's do it. Let's do it.