What The Funk?

0:00 We're back on what the funk. We got a late January recording here with my man, Leon Aloya. I don't know if I can call my man. I've only met him once, but I can tell that he'd be my man if we

0:12 spent a little bit more time together. So I'm excited, I'm excited to have you on Leon. This was a connection through the Digital Log Catter's Fuse event. That was a little bit of your kind of go

0:22 to market party for your new company, which, which we'll get all into But as we introduced each other kind of on a high level introduction call, I found your background pretty fascinating. You

0:34 know, I believe that you're from California. You've worked in the big company role. You've started your own kind of entrepreneurial gig. I think maybe you even played football at one point.

0:44 There's a, there's a bunch of things I want to dig into here. So awesome to get introduced to somebody through the Digital Log Catter's network. I hope you got value out of the Fuse show. And Leon,

0:54 I'm just going to get right into it Who is Leona Loya? Appreciate it. So no, I'm glad to be here. And yes, I will first say we will be friends We will be people that he's boys all of the above.

1:06 It's only a matter of time Yeah, so who's Lee on a lawyer? So like you mentioned Lee on a lawyer grew up in San Diego born in Detroit So I do cheer for it all that Detroit teams. Oh, well, we

1:17 could just stop right there. How about it, man? This is a look at the lions the lions. I'm telling you. Yeah, I have Very standards on on the on the wall picture that my brother drew. I'm

1:28 definitely lions fan Pistons fan Tigers fan anything Detroit Again, that's what that's what the parents and my mom's had a family cheer for but we moved to San Diego I was three years old. So it was

1:40 San Diego's what I you know call home when I do go home grew up there in Southeast San Diego Modest at the time inner city community is a bit gentrified now. We think of San Diego at the time. It

1:56 was typical inner city that you would see on the West Coast. Parents were very,

2:04 how would I say this? They're very educated, but had a high value in education. Probably amongst above anything else. So to the point where my mom's family went to Catholic schools and what not in

2:16 Detroit, not because they were Catholic, but because that was the best education. And then over the years, yeah, you

2:24 kind of come accustomed to the teachings and whatnot and growing to it. And a very similar, growing up in San Diego, we went off that same front where my mom, but look, I care about education

2:35 enough, let me find a private school to put my kids in and started at that aspect of, yes, education matters. And education is not only school, but it's how you're learning in every aspect,

2:51 interpersonal, out of nature but as well as the textbooks, actually the novels. that same education and value of, got me a high school scholarship. So I went to a private school in San Diego

3:04 called Miriam Catholic High, which actually dollar for dollar gave me a higher scholarship than my college scholarship. Nice, let's talk about that. But yeah, I went on academicathletics

3:16 scholarship and I was a straight-aid student there, kind of doing the general class, but also a few APhonors classes, especially in the STEM-based subjects, played football, basketball, or in

3:31 track, that awarded me a scholarship to New Mexico State University, I married where I majored in civil engineering, while playing football for the Aggies, who went back-to-back bowl games, at

3:45 least the first time that I think maybe ever won 10 games this past season. Well, that's awesome. Yeah, for us Aggies fans, that was a big deal.

3:55 out of New Mexico State, hired on with ExxonMobil. And it was an interesting scenario where I had an opportunity to coach college football upon graduation, but also had this job of being an

4:08 engineer in front of me. And starting salaries were about the same. And I'll give my receiver coach a lot of credit 'cause he was quick to tell me, on starting salaries are the same. Well,

4:17 believe me, it'll pay off more if you go that. Yeah, wait till you see what it's like in 10 years, unless you become a coach somewhere You might wanna go to Exxon. That's right, that's right,

4:26 yeah. So I mean, yeah, the one if you savor the Jim Harbaugh's, I get those12 million kind of paydays, they get it, but everybody else is a journeyman, moving their family around, you know,

4:37 GA in for 20 grand a year, just getting to snot beat out of you. It's not necessarily everybody's profession. So it worked out well for me to go to Exxon Mobile route. I started within the

4:47 pipeline group or department, doing crude oil and product. movement out in southeast Louisiana and in Mississippi, and go from Mexico.

4:58 That was a position that came across the Katrina time frame. So at a rapid acceleration of project rebuilds because of all the damage that was done in the area. And so as a young engineer, to be

5:12 able to see, call it 10 years worth of projects in a year and a half, two years was pretty impressive. And so that definitely jump started my career with Exxon Mobile, not only being able to

5:24 tackle unique problems where you have underwater pipelines that nobody has, housing and anything else, infrastructure, and your lab is in need and get rebuilt, but you're still trying to keep

5:35 refineries up. And so you're relocating stuff, just all kinds of unique challenges that people that can work in third year or 40 year career might not see that I was able to see in that two, two

5:46 and a half years stint there in that role So after they moved over to. Similar role in Southern California at that time X on mobile owned a torrent you find me back home That's right. Yeah, so I

5:57 was there and in the Los Angeles area only about an hour and a half away from yeah From from San Diego. It's kind of interesting because I was only hour and a half away But I probably visited San

6:08 Diego about as much as I did when I lived in Houston So we talk about the cost of living adjustment and whatnot. He said But yeah, I could probably live in Houston and visit home more I can't just

6:20 drive down I-5 but uh, you know, I worked out. Well, again learned a time the unique challenges there was operating pipelines in City Street So you think of now give them underwater area where

6:32 you're having to do stuff with divers and whatnot that most of the nation Didn't necessarily deal with now. I'm working in, you know, Main Street LA where you're cutting down Cut down the the

6:44 middle of support but you can't even start till 9 pm. Because you have to wait till rush hour gets off, right? all your insurance plates back on by 530 am. so you can beat the rush hour traffic

6:54 coming out. So it's a completely unique type of work environment as a young engineer, but definitely help me kind of hone the skill sets that I still rely on now and get unique challenges or

7:07 differences and how do you stay with the base but then add on the uniqueness to address there and so do that role for about a year and a half, move back to Houston. At this point in time they have

7:22 me on what they call the managerial development track and so there can be experiences around the business and it's a ran operations group and damage prevention, third party digging towards a lot of

7:34 part of that assignment. I went back to school so I went to Rice University here in Houston and got my MBA and about that time started going on a commercial track. So I first went commercial

7:44 pipeline where you're cutting connection agreements with other as well as other companies like Chevron and Shell and people that you might be in a competitor, but also when you use your same

7:54 infrastructure.

7:56 Flopped into every findings. I went to Baton Rouge for four years and did three different assignments there. First running the maintenance on off-site. Then one of the 12 units that they have,

8:06 which did all the clean products blended and shipping. And then last, I was a section supervisor in what they call coordination and product quality I think it was the economic arm of the refinery

8:18 there. Came back into Houston and went logistics commercial again, went to a what they call a crude optimizer. So covering the Gulf Coast buys and sells a crude oil for ExxonMobil as well as if we

8:32 were to give a trade signal. Traders can go and execute barrels to other third parties. Short stint as a department head of engineering with the pipeline group and then the last rule that I had was

8:45 the executive role over the West Coast PL. So on

8:50 the downstream side, the West Coast Rockies geographic region, PL fell under my team, whatnot. So big job, executive job, we're sitting there at the age of 40, but the company love that treated

9:04 you well. And able to run, you know, talking about a couple billion dollars worth of revenue, you know, hundreds million dollars, the probably a little shy of 200, just shy of200 million in

9:15 that profit. So I mean, decent sized firms, you know, like, like a Starbucks, even, I mean, you look at their, their, their P and L, it's about, you know, about in range, especially in

9:27 the US base. And so you think about that, about that, that kind of magnitude, you say, look, well, if you can do it here, yes, it takes 90 hours a week and what not. And so I still want to

9:38 do that same grind. Can you do that elsewhere? And so, yeah, beginning of February 2022, we close on a real estate You know, buddy of mine. of our project manager and kind of going, Look, I

9:50 can do that. And I can, you know, do the ExxonMobil equivalent, you know, consulting and value and data driven strategy development outside. And if you do a good job and you provide a good

10:02 product, you know, it'll work out. And so, yeah, it's been a year and a half now, almost two years.

10:11 And, you know, definitely a rollercoaster coming across 2023 with banking and all those changes in retirement. But, you know, it's what we signed up for and it's enjoyable. I tell people all

10:22 time, it's not work if you're having fun. And it's definitely a fun ride. Well, there's a there's a lot to jump into there. I appreciate you sharing the whole story. Question that I have about

10:32 about ExxonMobil. So, if I got this right, it was Houston, Louisiana, LA, Houston, Baton Rouge, right, Rockies, you're all over the place. Is that common for A big company like that,

10:48 because I always think of, oh, you're a big company. You just go into the office every day. You're based in the large Houston headquarters, but you were really all over the place. One, is that

10:57 sort of normal? And two, did you like that? Or did you feel like that was like a challenge for you to have to adjust, make new friends, find new apartments and living in different cities? No, I

11:08 mean, one thing that I would say that, that I think ExxonMobil does it right is they definitely are probably the best training ground that you can have. And I'd argue, probably in any profession,

11:20 I mean, it happened to be engineering, but in the latter part of my career I was doing very little engineering with more of others. But their desire to make sure that you have the experiences that

11:30 you need to be able to be a global leader do require you at times, especially when a short circuit, the time, to move to find, okay, you need to be, you need to run a unit in a refinery there's

11:44 been a pipeline. Well, you can sit here in Houston and wait until Baytown has an opening, and that might be five or six years, or you can leave next month and go on to Baton Rouge, which is the

11:54 equivalent of the, you know, academies, they used to call it, and pick up that experience, you know, there. And so, while I went and called it typical all the way through your career, I was

12:03 at a definitely the first three to five, so I'll say three assignments that you see, like at the Exxon Mobil. They do a good job of trying to move you around If you do have restrictions, okay, I

12:16 have school-aged children or taking care of my mom, yeah, they will definitely work, especially if you're in Houston, there's a ton of jobs in Houston that you can't necessarily have to move. But

12:27 if you don't have a restriction, I was one that said, look, I don't, I mean, I'm a single male, no kids, fresh out of college, I don't care where - Send me wherever, yeah. Second, send me,

12:37 send me wherever, let me work, let me learn, it's only a three hour flight from wherever I want to be anyway, so I can fly up somewhere. about a night and still be back by Sunday, you know, and

12:47 work. So there's definitely that flexibility. Now, later on in your career, especially in your upper level management roles, those executive roles, they truly are a couple that might come about.

12:59 So you start saying, no, well, you know, hey, you say no to this role, it might be, you know, your off-ramp. Wow. They also took that position and now gave them that experience that they

13:09 demonstrated their capability in, and then went on So, you know, it's, I would say it's the right level of desire, you know, if you want more of it, yes, you can move more, if you want less

13:23 of it, yes, you can do less, but there are different experiences you get in each one. So you just have to realize that, yeah, you can say no or move away or ask not to be considered for such,

13:36 but that's just, you know, another variable that I got turned off that, you know, that makes it a little harder to get to that end goal. If you said I needed to be a global leader, a little

13:47 harder to be at that end goal without running out of time. Yeah, I appreciate that insight and it lines up with what some of my other friends have seen and done at bigger companies, whether it be

14:02 pharmaceutical, medical, healthcare, oil and gas, you name it, it's sort of like, Hey, you're on this VP track And at some of these larger companies, that VP position could be multiple

14:14 millions of dollars every year, right? Could life-changing amounts of money potentially? But it might involve, well, we're gonna need you to live in Malaysia for six months and you're like, Well,

14:26 I don't want to live in Malaysiafor six months. And it's like, well, maybe you're not really wanting to be a VP, is what you're telling me by answering that question. So you're faced with

14:36 interesting life decisions challenges Um, that probably only continue to get harder as you do have a family as you want to kind of settle into living in one place. Um, so kudos to you for taking

14:49 those opportunities, but then also going out to take the entrepreneurial route. So, so let's talk about that a little bit. Right. So you spent my account about 17 years, like 17 years, right?

15:01 17 years, eight months to the day, yeah,

15:06 three weeks, two days and, uh, one hour and 16 minutes, 37 seconds, but we haven't seen people with their retirement counters on their desk. That's no, it's in the middle of the second. So

15:16 that's

15:20 three. That's amazing. So, so you're in a spot where you, you've done all these things, right? You're on this management track. You, you started at 23 and then you find yourself your early 40s.

15:31 And you decide to go off and start your own thing. Like, was that a hard decision for you and tell me more a little bit about your company today and what you guys do. So yeah, so from a decision

15:41 that I definitely, I would say it's hard. And I think what's actually makes it harder is that you work comfortably. Yeah, I think it'll be very easy to say you hated your job. Sure. You're

15:51 holding there. But no, you're sitting there saying, well, look, you have a good job. You're working with good people. What are you doing? But it is that feeling that there's more out there.

16:01 And I don't have to turn off the good aspects of this job just because I do leave So my phone number didn't change. I still go grab a beer of the same folks that I was working with. And I find

16:17 myself still trying to fight the same challenge and the problem sets that they are. And it gets fun when you have a different set of tools because you are an entrepreneur. And you do own the firm

16:27 that you can say, hey, look, we're going to go try this. So we're going to go invest time and money and here. And yeah, it wasn't in the budget, but we're going to try it because we think it's

16:35 the right thing to do and so on and so forth And so that nimbleness. That ability to have a little bit more risk but reward is really what drove me to say, let's call it quits here in this chapter

16:51 and open up the Canada technical chapter and meet me thereafter. And so, that ride of, okay, you start a firm that has zero marketing. Nobody knows who Canada technical is. You have a nice

17:07 especially to in today's world with the ability to have LinkedIn profiles and all that. You have a decent role and that's what you can take with people kind of get the update. But people are still

17:16 saying, well, like, what do you do? Like, what is Canada, how are you? And so, trying to show folks, this is, these are the answers that we can answer and the data that we can provide to

17:27 give you value add and so on and so forth has been that challenge. So you mentioned the digital bobcatters views you've been there at the music hall. here in Houston and that was an opportunity for

17:40 Canada to get out in front of the public a little bit and show this is what we do. This is how we do it. We're actually co-inhabiting a booth with RefineryCalc who utilized as a as a calculator, as

17:54 a tool to help us articulate you know the magnitude and the value adder or reduced with some of the decisions and strategies that that might be sought. Obviously specifically that for that case for

18:07 Refineries. But yeah we try to provide data driven strategies and and when folks say okay well what does that mean it's a lot of times understanding the base so there is a little bit of research. I

18:24 think you know the thing that we do a little better we'd like to utilize on the digital platforms whether it be data lakes things that nature where we can not only get the call it some of the

18:34 qualitative stuff like you know that we interview. these 10 people or went out on site and how they're doing it. But also that interdependent

18:47 cause

18:53 and effect type, I guess, insights that you gather when you truly start overlaying data. So not only utilizing the shipping reports and asking them, hey, why do we have so much demerage, but

19:05 looking at the rail schedule, overlaying the weather overlays, who the operator was on shift. And you find out, man, I don't know what Jeremy does. Every time Jeremy's on shift, we get five

19:15 more KBD out of the system than we do. So let's - Jeremy's Jeremy just happened to be pretty special. Let's be honest. But no, I'll put a pin in that right there. So it's, you're basically

19:29 looking for, and you said this to Max and me when we were on the call, like you're, you're trying to find pennies and nickels that that through data that eventually add up to be millions of dollars.

19:41 Yeah. And that could be something that companies are overlooking right now because there's still a level of profitability associated with their business. And to me, that's kind of cool. Are you,

19:54 do you have competition? Like are there big companies that do this? Are there other candors in the world that do this? Or do you feel like you've kind of carved out a little bit of a niche that

20:03 just didn't really exist? No, definitely. So first I would say these are, so a lot of times they're actually even dollars and tens of dollars even in the initial. And the reason why is there are

20:17 times that data or the lack thereof doesn't even allow folks to look in certain places. So we'll have folks, for instance, like a trader, we'll sit there and talk about a nickel-a-barrel. Hey,

20:29 should I go trade this person? You talk about a nickel-a-barrel, but you're ignoring the mode of transportation. It's2 a barrel difference. 10 a barrel versus rail and so, you know, yes You know

20:40 some people might chase that penny we do try to prioritize it So we'll look at it from magnitude top to bottom and if it is only a penny like we'll get that Knock out these other not but it you know a

20:52 lot of the bigger ones It's it's it's we don't necessarily know the reason why but we know Jeremy's better and Jeremy that five kvD more that he's making He's actually twenty five dollars twenty five

21:02 thousand a day. Mm-hmm So so whatever whatever we need to do even if it means Jeremy can you can you be a can you be a trainer for our team? And now a sudden Jeremy gets a thirty thousand dollar

21:16 Bonus he goes out and trains all the shifts and sends one of his debt and now we're getting that five kvD out of everybody That needle movement in the first month can support probably 10 to 15 years

21:29 of a candor is doing And so that and so that's what we try to to leverage is look. Here's what we're seeing which your data or with our relationships or what we've seen in other projects. Let's

21:40 validate if that's the case or let us test it. Let us turn this knob and we see that improvement. Great, let's keep on going. But if we don't, the improvement turned it off. And so you are

21:53 looking at that cause and effect and seeing what is giving you the value. A lot of times they are like we know about it already. And then this was the case next I'm over We know that this line is

22:05 derated. And we just have to find a way to justify this project. But we have all of the stuff that we have going on. And people are changing jobs. And this person's boss quit. And new boss came

22:16 in and changed up the work list. And now they think of this project on the shelf. And so sometimes it's like they already know the problem. Caners just executing the work. And so that's where I

22:24 would say we're using much more of our sound training and practices and background that we learned but is there really anything overly strategic? Maybe not. doing a lot of stuff well and getting to

22:38 repeat business. But while you're doing that, you are picking up trends. So that's a lot of times when you see the hey, I don't know if you notice, but Jerry's ship is kicking tail. And you were

22:49 just doing the project implementation of some other item. And that's where you pick up that this little nuance here might actually save you 10 or 15 KBD. And so we had several examples. I remember

23:01 one, we used a software called Jump where you can kind of now overlay a lot of these data sets and see what correlates with one. But yeah, it was pipeline repair costs that we were trying to get

23:14 our hands around. How do you lower the cost when it comes to find out that some of the biggest impacted items were associated with how does the job site look from a beautification process of, you

23:28 know, was it? Really? Matt, Mark, the Matt, Timber Matt.

23:34 double, triple the cost of a pipeline, or that hit somebody's radar and the pipeline integrity department. Because they're thinking about repair methods or some other toggle that might be adjusting

23:46 the cost. But the reality was this factor. That subject or that practice, that

23:54 capability, we leverage with oil and gas more than any other sector because of our background with the global majors That we've also leveraged in a real estate, we leverage it in supply, so looking

24:08 at self-storage and where's the best place to build self-storage and you're looking at the analytics to say where is there population growth, that with the right land cost, with the right level of

24:18 backlog and storage at Reynolds, you can start doing the same data-driven strategy that says this is an ideal location. So that's something that candor has done for an affiliate of mine and say

24:31 anything I'm working on. I don't want to say their name because I'm an NDA, but call it a Fortune 3. And you can look at the top three and see which one does a supply chain. Let's see, Fortune 3,

24:45 supply chain. That's the beauty of Google these days that there's no such thing as, but yeah, the firm is looking at how do we efficiently implement some of our programs and while it's not oil and

24:59 gas, it's still commodity type transactions that you're efficiently trying to use

25:09 logistics to provide the lowest cost to the consumer or maintain the highest revenue. So the same data to

25:19 our digital

25:21 and data-driven strategies are utilized and employed to make those recommendations

25:29 Do you? Do you like it? Like, have you found this to be? Obviously there's different challenges between what you were doing at Exxon and what you're doing here. I can't imagine what it's like to

25:39 run a billion dollar business with, you know, 20 margins and having to maintain that, the pressure associated with it and trying to find advantages. And then all of a sudden you go to a place

25:51 where you're at zero. Right. And you're probably sleeping a little bit less, man, I know I can do this, but I gotta get this off the ground Do I have the level of confidence?

26:03 Like you're gonna get some kicks in the shins every once in a while. Like you sound energized about it, but like how do you feel about it so far? Do you like it? You feel like this was the right

26:13 move? And what do you think the future is for this company? So, yeah, so do I like it?

26:20 So the answer is yes, but I probably say I like the outcome more. It's kind of like working out. Do I like to work out so?

26:26 You know, but you like the outcome, right? Yeah. I do think that it's necessary to get into a uncomfortable challenge in order to get growth, right? Totally. And so, but it was the same inside

26:39 the fence. At ExxonMobil, I was, you know, an 80 hour work week was nothing. I mean, you had the best of the best that you could find around the world and you put them in one organization and

26:49 then you tell them to compete against each other. Yeah. You have another ranking standpoint. I mean, you have folks that can easily be CEOs of billion dollar companies that were considered middle

27:01 of the pack. You know, just say, all right, he's good. She's good. You know, it's cool. They got a PhD and been a top school and PE stamped and whatever. Like that was not abnormal. And one

27:15 thing that Exxon had is he had a brand. So if you say one of the biggest differences is like, when I was an ExxonMobil, I could walk into a meeting room and say, hey, look, my name is Leon the

27:26 PL owner. but West Coast Rockies for Exxon Mobil. Everybody would listen, you know? For sure. Who's that guy? Like let's, let me grab him out of the meeting. Well, you must have an important

27:37 job here. Right, exactly, that's right, that's right. That's right, and so you have that brand that when you come in now to - What'd you say? You're the same guy, say, Hey, my name is Loya,

27:54 I work for candor. You know, okay, you know, everybody says they're head down riding, and just not to say, Well, I'm formerly Exxon Mobil Now they started listening again, you know, again.

27:58 And so that, that has probably been, I'll call the, probably one of the more challenging diamonds, but it was known, I mean, I can't say, I knew that the brand of Exxon Mobil is much higher

28:11 than candor technical. I mean, for that,

28:17 the biggest reason, and the biggest opportunity is, you know, that the upside with, you know, some of the deals that we worked, And I would say, you know, quite regularly, not even like the

28:28 home run deals that we've had, but some of the ones that were, Yeah, you do two or three of these a year on private industry, that'll be much higher than an ExxonMobil executive salary, and it's

28:38 a typical, and then especially if you actually get it scaled up and you actually sell it, or you can exit all these various things of that nature,

28:48 it gets better, and so that belief, that, Look, if I do the same level of run that I've done before, it didn't start actually even before, but I was getting straight A's and playing high school

29:02 football, and then doing the same as engineering student and at New Mexico State while playing football, and then doing a while working a Katrina response with ExxonMobil, and it doesn't stop, you

29:15 got to keep on doing that, and that's what people are saying that they like, and that's what they're paying for, but if you continue to do that, and you hone your craft, and you get at your craft,

29:25 and you lock in.

29:27 people will pay for that, no matter what. I don't care what it is, if you wanna make ball caps, then if you get educated on how to make good ball caps and they get those experiences and battle

29:36 tested back and forth and dial in, okay, what is that good formula? And now you just get over and over and over again for your 80 or 90 hours a week, it will pay. And so that's the philosophy and

29:51 I was a confidence that I felt like was necessary needed, but also what I employed internally and when I was saying, look, I quit. I remember a day when my boss was like, you quit? He was like,

30:05 you what? What? I didn't even have a reservation letter. So do you have a reservation letter? I'm like, oh no, I'll get you one free at the end of the day. And I knew, and I'm like, look, I

30:16 still wanna help you guys. I'm not leaving in hate. So like, y'all know, I'll transition and so on and so forth. How does that now tailor into candor? Well, we do still want to be that provider.

30:27 So still to this day, I have people at ExxonMobil that I'm into it. And I'm like, that doesn't have to change, it's just because of my badge. That's right. And if I can get share you a nugget

30:36 that you can then use since a better year career, then you're probably gonna remember, hey, look, Leon, help me with this nugget, let me ask him the next question. And so on and so forth. And

30:46 so I do find myself now, when candor finds up now, building off of those same laurels that the good product that you provided to the ExxonMobil world and ExxonMobil. Now, their buddies are calling

30:59 and saying, hey, look, I talked to songs while they recommended you what else can you do here? And so I do think that that boutique kind of bespoke, targeted, made you feel like

31:14 addressing up challenges and providing solutions that our value add We'll continue to keep candor in the spotlight. I don't see candor being, you know, a large thousand, two thousand, three

31:29 thousand type firm. I see you call us like the way you called Olivia Pope in scandal. You call us in when

31:40 you need to get the answers strategically done when

31:46 you need to get the results section one now and make them unique to you I'll write a package and hand it over to somebody and let them slap their name on it and take it into their management. I know

31:59 their management and I know what they're going to want to see and if that allows you now to go do what you need to do for the next two weeks, you look at me and say that's a value add item you gave

32:09 me two weeks of my life back or you didn't choose to work on something else and so we've done more work done effectively and so yeah I mean I think that that's the path. There are some things that

32:21 that has as we identify opportunities, it does allow us to play a little bit in a different role. So not only the strategy provider and whatnot, but then also we can take the risk with the firm.

32:36 So the true part, if you will, we'll go find the capital and get this item stood up. But we'll help you get the off-take agreement and whatnot because we have intimately been involved with the data

32:51 acquisition and review so can, but it feels pretty good about this path forward. Let's go make this argument together. And that's some of the stuff that you can do with a small nimble firm that

33:04 it's kind of hard to do at Exxon Mobil. Nice. Yeah, you said something a couple minutes ago that I really latched onto, which is when you walked into a room and you were the head of the Rockies

33:16 Business Unit and managing a billion dollar PL. People really respected. and appreciated that. And then all of a sudden, you start your own company. It's like, what the hell is this? That is

33:27 actually the antithesis of what my experience was in terms of starting my own company. See, I was just, I was a sales guy, right, for some small oil and gas technology companies. And I think I

33:41 was lumped into a bucket of, well, this is just sort of what you are, right? I always had this deep internal belief, like, no, I'm more than that, right? I'm a content creator and I'm a

33:52 marketer, you know, and I'm a salesman and I'm a coach and I'm a trainer and a connector and all these things. And what happened when I decided to go out and just say, I'm launching my own firm

34:04 and it's called Fung Futures. I put my name right on it, right? And said, we're going to do, you know, contract sales and recruiting for emerging oil and gas tech companies. There was like an

34:14 outpouring of love and respect and appreciation that I didn't see when I was in a previous role. And in a lot of ways, it probably went to my head in the wrong way. Like it sounds like your

34:27 experience was kind of the opposite where it was kind of humbling, where it's like, wow, this is Leon, he manages a billion dollar PL. And now all of a sudden, it's like, who the hell is this

34:35 candor experience, you know? So I find that kind of fascinating. Yeah, no,

34:41 and I wouldn't even,

34:44 I would say that was expected to it. And not that that reaction came from the people I knew So I would say like, if you were already my LinkedIn, no, I said I'm leaving, I'm going to Canada. It

34:55 was like, like, to where you just go, hey, where are you going? Let me know. What are you guys working on? You know, I love to hear more set of coffee. But to that true stranger, like,

35:03 you're out, you're doing a booth at Digital Wildcatters. And if I just had a candor tent set up, you know, I don't have to, they would come and ask me way more questions versus if I had the Exxon

35:13 Mobil tent where they would already know, okay, look, this is what you're, what you do and so on and so forth and so forth. your marketing has to change. I mean, hell, we need to get kicked

35:22 off with our True Linked In campaign until probably about four months ago. When in reality, stuff like that, you have somebody in a whole nother department has been doing it for years prior to you,

35:36 and mastering your logo and your cut sheets and all that stuff that you as an entrepreneur,

35:42 you have to bring that to yourself. You gotta figure that out. Figure that out. You gotta figure that out. And so I do think that as you figure that out, when you figure it out with the right

35:53 people, the work itself. And it's pretty, you know, it kind of gets into a,

36:02 you know, like even a deeper philosophy on how, you know, how people flange up even randomly bumping to each other, or where there's so much like items that they were kind of already kind of

36:11 gravitating to the same type of reading material. And then kind of bumping to each other that way. You know, how long it

36:18 works. It gets real interesting, but that's what makes it fun. You know, I'm going back to campus and you're seeing friends and old classmates, and they're asking what you're working on and you

36:27 explain what you're doing, and then they throw another project on your lap that you never would even talk about if you didn't talk about how you left and you were doing these new things. Yeah. You

36:37 know, so it definitely comes for a circle, and I think the space that we're doing it in, it's energy, which is not going anywhere, in my opinion, even, you know, stuff, maybe in certain brand

36:50 new installations, but, you know, you're not gonna just slip a switch overnight, so you know, it's energy. It's data slash digital. And

36:60 that is the way that we're going. Everything is being digitized. If you wanted to have any kind of true repeatability and true, you know, efficiency, you'll at least digitize it in some way,

37:13 shape or form And then it's going in the terms of like value add. And so with that, it's machine. AI, or whatever gets you smart, or gets you a better answer than what you have before, because

37:24 now you have new insights and data. It's a fun space to be in. It really is. Yeah, yeah. So talk to me about like, what is the target company and like persona, you know, buyer, user of candor,

37:40 technical services? So if somebody's listening to this podcast, like who are you going to thread the needle with? Right. So it's multiple. I would say, if I had to bucket it, I would say

37:53 downstream oil and gas. So from the wellhead, though, downstream. So it doesn't, you know, not necessarily downholed, but downstream, if you're a producer, you're probably asking about

38:05 improved netbacks as some sort. And so a lot of analysis around, let me see your crew type, your assay. How does that, who are you selling So it's a day and kind of what is that compared to the

38:15 market price? Who might value it more? or how do you get it to them cheaper? So therefore you're recognizing a healthier net back than what you had before. If you're a midstream company, I would

38:28 say that with a lot of work, especially on the ExxonMobil idea, but how do you optimize that operation where you can move more barrels down your pipe cheaper if you reduce the mortgage, where you

38:39 can justify expansions because you're handling higher throughputs, where you can blend crews or different feedstocks and make unique combinations for different sites. And then if you're a refiner,

38:52 it's kind of looking at the palm a little bit differently no longer they have an idea of what they like, but they don't necessarily know where to source, they know how they can do it in combination

38:59 or how they can use their mode or transportation and get it there to them cheaper. So, hey, you're still running WTI crew, like you always ran WTI crew, instead of going through these three

39:08 market centers and paying every value, take or pay, or doing some jump overs and losing quality over tank hills, Here's the way you can do it in that fashion. That's what I would say is our

39:20 prototypical called an oil and gas client. And we'll use different tools to describe such. And sometimes the tool is just a relationship. Oh yeah, you need to talk to the crew trading manager over

39:32 here at this front. Yeah, there's value in that relationships. And in this industry still mean a lot. It's kind of an old school handshake network and trust has to be built by delivering value.

39:41 That's interesting. So you do work with operators, right? Within the marketing group, you're gonna work with refiners You're gonna work with the transportation and gathering groups a little bit,

39:50 too. So really anywhere you can sort of find a little bit of value or a lot of value in some cases, you're gonna do it. Which is cool. And I think you'll go ahead. Thanks, that's another one.

40:00 It's kind of like banks and fund managers. They trade. They trade and they want to build the refinery. Yeah, I want to build a requirement. I see them know where I can take these barrels. I can

40:10 get an off-take agreement. I can get all the funding I need to have my refinery built The senior debt's already lined up. The equity's already there. We need to obtain agreement. So they need

40:21 somebody to get into a bite-sized type argument and take it to somebody that can do that. And so, yeah, that's probably a little bit of a non-conventional

40:34 value chain provider, value chain adder, that's looking at who can give me that answer, that strategy that can now let the whole

40:48 equation take place.

40:52 Yeah, good. I'm gonna put you on the hot seat for a second. Throw some rapid fire at you. I like it. I didn't prepare you for this, but we're getting into it. One, where's your favorite place

41:04 that you've lived? You've lived in a bunch of places. Where's your favorite? Favorite place.

41:11 I probably didn't see So San Diego to me is America's finest. So, but that's kind of cheating. I'm so Houston. Really? Yeah, Houston has a lot. And I'm talking from industry is made up of a lot

41:24 of folks that aren't necessarily from here. Yeah, it's very diverse. Very diverse. I think the economic climate is very healthy, especially places in the nation. And you can get to anywhere.

41:34 You can fly United or Southwest, you know, pretty much nonstop to almost any city around here. You can, you know, the hardest part was trying to drive across Texas. But yeah, I probably say, I

41:46 probably say Houston number one Um, place to live. I dig Houston way too hot in the summer for me. And you're from San Diego, but the secret about San Diego is it actually never gets that hot. It

41:58 doesn't, which is the, which is the beauty. You can have summers where it doesn't even hit 70 degrees for, for days at the time, weeks at the time, which is, which is, you don't have

42:08 AC. I never had an AC and it's out to New Mexico. So. And then in Houston, you would, you'd die You might not see a mumble, you might not have jail if you're a landlord.

42:19 Now, I see that about Houston. I like to rib on my friends from Houston, just because, you know, the traffic, the heat, I like to say, it's sort of like all of the things that it's very

42:30 similar to Los Angeles, right? Like it's very spread out. If you're if you're in the woodlands or if you're in 1000 Oaks, right, to get to Newport Beach or to get to what Katie or Galveston or

42:42 something like good luck, you know what I mean? You're on the other side of the world that could take you two, three hours, depending on traffic. But all the things that that people like about LA,

42:51 you don't have in Houston, but all the things that you don't like about LA, you still have in Houston. But now actually, Houston's been like, I've probably been to Houston 200 times at this point

43:01 about 17 year, your career in oil and gas. And then the food, it's probably the best food city in America. I like the diversity. I feel like if you want Afghani food or air, any type of

43:14 Mediterranean food or. Asian fusion that you've never had before, all and of course, tax max, not true Mexican, but tax max, but yeah, I can see that with with Houston and also you don't have

43:26 to pay the 133 extra state income tax that you'd have to pay if you lived in San Diego. So so there's that. Number two, who is your favorite football player of all time and who's the greatest

43:38 football player of all time?

43:41 So

43:43 favorite

43:46 I'm gonna say favorite and greatest, but maybe I'm certainly

43:52 demonstrated. I'm gonna say Barry Sanders. So cool. And so

44:00 that was little resources. But he had he had a heart like no other loyal to his team to the point where you rather stop the sport all together if you couldn't give it is all.

44:11 Yeah, I mean, and just enjoy a board of watch and know that he had more gas than a tank than what he showed. So that's going to be my vote. And again, I'm going to say a little bit biased, but I

44:23 want to be glad, like I said, we grew up cheering for Detroit teams all together. But I think a lot of folks can support that. Yeah, if he's not your top running back in the top three. And yeah,

44:35 it went with a sub-par line and whatnot Yeah, I mean, I have a bunch of friends from Michigan, my financial advisor is actually from Flint. And people think of Flint today differently than I think

44:48 he grew up in Flint was actually kind of an affluent area. And now people think of Flint and they think of like bad water and stuff like that, right? Crime. He's like, it wasn't like that when I

44:57 was growing up. There was still wealth left over from the automotive industry back then. But he's a big lines fan and you know, I'm throwing my support behind these guys.

45:08 I remember legitimately, I think it was 99 in the summer when he retired and actually feeling upset. I'm not a Lions fan, I'm a Patriots fan, but feeling legitimately disappointed because he was

45:21 just so fun to watch and you knew he had more left in the tank, he was going to smash every record there was. And he was just so humble that it was like, I felt something. Even though he wasn't on

45:31 my team, I'm like, damn, Calvin Johnson did it too. And I'm like, yeah, that organization's just, they had been broken. So it's nice to see where they're at this weekend. I think the greatest

45:42 player, the toughest player of all time is Tom Brady.

45:48 I don't think he's any secret. California

45:51 guy, right? San Mateo. I think that, and I've even said this to people too. I think he's underrated because there are things that he did, especially from just Sheerly toughness. Just probably

46:05 underrated in terms of how tough he was and maybe even some of his leadership quality, because I think the quarterback positions, the most important position in all of sports, and probably 80 of

46:15 what goes into being a great quarterback is decision-making more so than any of the physical skills. And you can argue that his decision-making is better than anybody, maybe paid manning in the

46:24 history of the sport.

46:30 So I like Tom, but Barry Sanders to me has the greatest highlight reel of all time And certainly as a kid growing up and watching him, anytime the lions were on, you're just waiting for that one,

46:37 you know, juke, ankle-breaking move. Right. And just shaking your head at it, you know. That's right. No, I think it's spot-at. One thing you said about Tom Brady, and I can appreciate it,

46:47 and I, you know, I live this myself is the value of leadership. And so, yeah, I mean, I would say you probably was, I mean, you're in the NFL as a starting quarterback, So you're not, not

47:01 athletic, you're not, but. If he didn't have the biggest honor, he definitely wasn't fast. He was tall, but

47:09 he knew how to command leadership and what came out of his pours got absorbed by his teammates and I'm like, he had a very average team across like, look at everybody else. I mean, some, you know,

47:23 you have a couple of shifty receivers but no real, just blazer, but when you get Randy Moss or you're not getting folks in their prime and every year you're trying to train a new set of characters,

47:35 you know, it was very Michael Jordanish where like, but when you walk into his presence, you're gonna, no, no, this is the leader and he demands excellence. And when you can have that same

47:45 level of respect, appreciation for your leader, it's crazy how things can change. And like, you know, there's a book that we build our organization called Extreme Ownership. Oh, by Ijaco. In

47:59 Ijaco, love it That's great. Emotional intelligence. you know, and how you can get expertise out of just, you know, doing the right leadership. And so you look at teams and how they can improve

48:12 because of that. And that, when you say Tom Brady, I mean, that that's what I feel, you know, I feel somebody that has the, you know, he has the ability to bring up a grok out of retirement

48:23 that he says, we got to go do this. He says, yes, you're my leader, you know, and, and, and I think that's the, that there's some value, a whole lot of value Yeah. Yeah, that's a, that's

48:34 a really good point. And I think some of it is, is leading by example and, and of course, mental toughness and the line of work that we're in, it doesn't require as much physical toughness, but

48:43 there is a level of physical toughness when you're working 80 hour weeks, which I said this before and I'll say it again. I tend to max out at about 65. Honestly, I think that in some cases, less

48:54 is more, I think if you grind too hard, sometimes you start to burn out, you start to lose some of your creativity. you know what I mean? So there's always a balance and as you know, when you're

49:04 running your own business, you never really shut off, right? So in those rare opportunities that you have a chance to shut off, I think it's important to practice mindfulness to kind of get away

49:14 from work, spend time with family, but it's hard. Like my son's kicking around the soccer ball with me six years old, and my mind starts drifting to, okay, what does next month look like? Do I

49:23 have enough resources to man up my accounts?

49:28 What's falling off? What's kind of in the green? What's in the yellow? What's in the red? How are we doing on placing that resource? I need to check him out with my recruiter and my son's like,

49:37 dad.

49:41 You know, it's like, cause the kids need love and they need attention and appreciation. Do you have kids? I do. I have two girls, 15 and 11. I have daughters

49:52 who are 13 and 11 and a son who's

49:55 We just went back in after you did. But yeah, so you really get in. I think it's important for us to be dads first, but also demonstrate kind of what work ethic looks like. But, you know, kids

50:08 just wanna be loved and shown attention and I hate when I get stuck on this, right, and responding to this and getting on the phone. And I even hear it breaks my heart sometimes, my kid to be like,

50:20 I wanna kick the ball with daddy, but he's working Yeah, it breaks your heart because you work from home and it's different if you're in the office and just like, Ugh, buddy, I'm sorry, I'm

50:30 sorry. And now you're right, you're right. That is actually, I think about my wife taps into that resource a little bit 'cause she like, I showed you my phone rings as my daughter's, I'll answer

50:40 it, first pick up. For sure. And my wife, I'm like, Oh, she knows the code and she has to call back twice and

50:47 it's really cool. I can just hear my wife say, Look, go nudge on that heart-string and call down real quick. See if you can answer on the sign. But you're right, I mean, we have to be able to

50:57 do that. And that's some of the, they said, like, when I quit, what are you doing tomorrow, Leon? I said, I'm gonna take my kids to school. This is February, February 15th, February, that

51:08 Thursday. And I said, I'm gonna take my kids to school tomorrow 'cause I don't normally do that 'cause I'm normally in the office by 730. And that

51:16 next day, I'm using Waze, 'cause, you know, it's February now. So even the school says August, and I don't know how to

51:23 get to the Waze Like, that's an issue. So, you know, that's when you know, like, I don't know, there's a better way to do this. And it's not, you know, not that you have to stay on to your

51:33 point all the time. You can find ways to work and have fun and do it the right way. But you can't, you know, work on important things, gathering value, doing it the right way, candor. I mean,

51:44 that we're honest, where we wanna give you the honest stories. It's, you know, even if it's not the popular one, It truly is the right answer. And, and, and that's in all aspects. And I think,

51:56 you know, when you do it that way, and that's the reason why I keep on harping on the, the extreme ownership pathway, when you do it that way, people feel that. I can, I can kind of say, like

52:07 you have teammates rallying around you, that you will call that person average, now they're busting their tail because, you know the boss, treats me well. You know, it takes, it takes very

52:16 little. And I always say, showing appreciation for those around you without asking for anything in return is something that I wish more leaders did. At least I could have used some of that more

52:29 from leaders in my career. And I make sure that I do that with my people.

52:34 Because, you know, it's like a bank, right? You're just constantly making these deposits and investments in a bank so that when you do need to ask for withdrawal, you're entitled to ask for that

52:43 withdrawal if you do so in the right way. Exactly. No, that's spot on. Now, can I ask you, I know we're getting close to time, But I got all day for you, my man. Okay, first of all, do you

52:55 have any more rapid fire ones? 'Cause I feel like I'm supposed to be answering them faster, but I keep on babbling. Yeah, we're having fun. I want to know what you think the score of the Lions.

53:06 After this comes out, I'll probably be after the Super Bowl anyway. So maybe Lions will have won by then. But what's your prediction? What is your heart tell you? What is your head tell you

53:13 on this Lions 9 or NFC Championship game?

53:18 You know, I honestly believe the Lions can do it You know, it's weird what happens when somebody actually thinks, okay, like, no, we can actually win this thing. And them saying the Niners,

53:29 you know, call it, you know, skirt by the, you know, barely by Green Bay when the game, they probably could have lost. I should have lost it, you know. I don't say shit 'em, but you probably

53:37 could have lost. They should have lost that game. Yeah, yeah. I think it tells them why, like, like, we know we can do this. This is not just a Cinderella, we got lucky here. Like, no, we

53:47 have a coach So, you know, I would say 10 points. You know, I don't think any of these games will be a massive blowout, but I think Lions by 10, which will be a big win. It's not going to be,

54:00 I hope, you know, but I think it's not going to be a nail bite and I think it's going to be Lions and the Ravens actually. Yeah, that's what I want. Just because we see the Chiefs so much, you

54:11 can memorize the roster by now. I'd like to see Lamar get a chance. He's had such a good season. And they're just kind of a model franchise, great defense They got to be the favorites right now.

54:23 But I like San Francisco seam. You know, I'm out here in Colorado. Christian McCaffrey is a Colorado kid. Even some of his high school games were on TV. So he would score like five touchdowns a

54:31 game. You know, and you know, I just, he's a beast. So it's fun to watch them. But I hope the Lions win. I've got a lot of friends who are Lions fans. Also, as a Patriots fan, we got six.

54:43 The Niners have five. I don't really want to see them get six. Also, I kind of like to keep that wrong above them. But my final question for you before I get to you telling us how to find you and

54:56 your company, all that is, is what advice, if any, would you give to yourself to Leon Aloya at 21, 22, 23 years old? You've gained wisdom, which is really important. You've done the

55:09 entrepreneurial thing now for a while. You worked at the big company up the corporate ladder. You've moved around, you got kids, you got a family. What advice, if any, would you have for the

55:21 Leon half your age? That's a good one.

55:27 Advice. I'd probably say

55:31 be more intentional on some of the things that I, and I probably did them, but be more intentional on how you can utilize that to improve. So I'll give you an example. I went to grad school at

55:46 Rice and then when I signed up and he said Leon why are you going to grad school?

56:49 So, and have fun while doing it. And so what that meant was, you know, I accidentally learned things. I accidentally got exposed to items. And next thing you know, you pick up, oh, you

56:59 actually like this score. You like golf. You know, you didn't think you were gonna like it, but you started playing 'cause somebody else and, you know, introduced you. And you didn't take that.

57:07 Ah, I can't do that, that's boring. And now a sudden, so, yeah, that's probably what I would say, the younger Leon, you know, going back to some of the stuff that I tried still my daughters

57:18 is like, you know, think through like, you know, what are you dreaming about? You know, what what are you? What what what goals do you want to have? And I got like, what are some of the

57:27 things to get there? I don't want to say you have to be militant and do so. Strick on how you how you how you charted out at age 11. But if you think like, hey, I want to, you know, get faster

57:39 and run track like, Hey, think about like, I eat this bag of Cheetos right now.

57:45 Come on man, when you're 15 years old, you can have a bag of Cheetos, you'll be so right. Right, right, right. And I don't, I guess I don't wanna say big and be so melted, but if you know, I

57:54 have a desire that I want this. You know, you might, we get a big kick off saving money. My kids are real. This is the reason why, one of the questions I'm asking about is Bitcoin and it's on a

58:03 budget. I'm a big fan in digital currency. Me too. Not that I can explain it that well, but I know it works I'll see my kids want Robux so bad for their Robux game that they would do any physical

58:18 utility work right then and there. And I'm like, see that passion that you have for that digital dollar right now, like that's, that was your goal. I gotta get this rolling. I don't know what

58:27 the buying on the game, but

58:31 that goal was so strong that we need me to do. And I go, they go, knock it out. I give them a five bucks a hand to write back to me So that way I can go put the. the dollar is in on Microsoft and

58:42 they're off. And

58:45 it shows that, yeah, can you thought about something you wanted? You were intentional about it. You actually dialed in and said, Hey, I can figure out a way how to get this. I might have to go

58:55 wash dishes when I don't want to or go read a book or do something I don't want to do right now. But yeah, I can get there. So yeah, that's the, I

59:07 would say, where I will give myself a little more advice to add a baby to me. Yeah, be more intentional and lack some judgment. I think that you probably were intentional. So I think you were

59:19 reaching a little bit. You have a great amount of discipline. But the idea of like, yeah, why am I doing, why am I going to grad school? Oh, because it's a good school. My company's gonna pay

59:30 for it. That's not uncommon for somebody that was in your shoes to do it But the right answer should have been. because I'm gonna learn things to become a better global leader and enhance my network.

59:41 And maybe those were on the list, but they weren't one on the list. They weren't one, that's right. Right, that's right, that's right. So yeah, no, it's, but yeah, I do think that as we're

59:51 getting smarter and things like AI and when I feel like life expectancy is gonna grow, it's a hopefully, you know, those last years or delays will, I can still add them up on the back end here

1:00:05 Well, with inflation, you and I are gonna be working for another 35 years now, especially with kids. Leon, where can people find you, you know, social media, your company website, things of

1:00:17 that nature? Where

1:00:24 can you be found? Yeah, so candortechnicalcom, C-A-N-D as in dog, O-R technicalcom. You can also find us on LinkedIn. Those are probably our two best locations. We are trying to beef up our

1:00:32 social media presence So you might see some additional outlets after that. Also on my email suffix and you'll see on the website, I do have an hour set up where you can click in County and book time.

1:00:44 So, you know, we like to get in front of people, but I can chat with people, I can understand problems and see how we can solve them. And so, please, please reach out, you know, anything. I

1:00:55 love the name, candor technical. You know, if you look on my website and in any of the kind of pitch decks that I throw out there, I talk about the pillars of funk, right, that's sort of the

1:01:06 five things that matter to funk futures. And I don't use the word candor, I use the word authenticity, but I think the concept is the same, right? It's we have to be honest with ourselves, with

1:01:17 our teammates, and especially with our clients. And I think that is one thing that's going to help separate us and kudos to you for leaning into that as well. And don't lose that, right? Because

1:01:28 there's gonna be opportunities that you have

1:01:32 where candor may not be the most financially beneficial answer. Right. So my small bit of advice, but whether it's candor, whether if it's being genuine, whether it's authenticity, Leon, I

1:01:44 think you bring all those qualities to the table, I think your business is going to crush it. And I'm glad you came on today. So appreciate No, thank you so much. I hope to do this again very

1:01:52 soon.