What The Funk?

0:00 all right we are on what the phone

0:06 a third of July recording about to head into the long weekend and this is a fun one because I have the uber positive incredibly fun and likable marry young from Welland Mary I don't say this to

0:24 everybody that comes on Podcast I'd probably say this about Bobby neal and also who you man and love of Course I I think we have a hard time finding somebody that would say something negative about

0:36 him yes you know HM and also you

0:43 were working with me being around me but I can also be a lot so I'm sure there are some people that are like woo okay enough marry Yeah I mean that's that's fine that's fine but you know there's

0:58 something about Mary Yeah but there are people like that people gravitate towards I I put you in the bucket of sales person but you're also technical but I think that ultimately for you it comes down

1:11 to relationships so you know going back a little bit going way back to when I started in oil and gas tech my first job was selling bolo and then I meet this guy named Mike mapes who took care of

1:27 himself indeed and he he politely and respectfully declined the invitation to come on the podcast with the two of US today but that's all right Mics you know is the CEO right has got to hold things

1:38 down if he's got a lot going on

1:43 and I were at a bar in Austin for the bolo user Conference in June of two thousand eight cuts like a whole different phase of life this point and I see mike I actually did a linkedin post about this

2:01 and like it I dunno a few months ago when we started re -engaging funk futures and and well and and I see mike just like dating off like like Alex staring off in the distance and like what is he

2:13 looking at well actually at the time he was looking at the woman who has his wife like dancing on the bar with a whole bunch of other people it was really quite an experience for me with like

2:24 accountants and software developers and not really ever seeing these people outside of the office then seeing them I you know partake in barrel races dancing on the bar of Coyote ugly and yet so

2:37 interesting experience but there's mike and I was like this guy he just doesn't care what people think about him you could just tell right he's just sort of off in a daze is checking out his wife is

2:49 probably thinking about business I Dunno and and then I was like

2:55 who are you man like you're the only person here that I don't know it's like Oh and I'm the Guy that makes the software that you guys sell and actually reportable I was like OH Right right Bolo

3:12 Connect Bolo is out now many moons later and mike came back into the picture here and there at at enter packed for a little bit we called him uncle Mike because he's just kind of like the forever

3:26 uncle and then I got to meet you as well a few years ago when we first started working together and it was made more and more clear I always thought of Welland is like Mike's company but really it's

3:36 like your company as well and you're the point person you do all the sales will talk about well and and all that a little bit more down the road but I'm going to hit you with a question you knew this

3:46 was the question is always number one usually I get to sooner than this but who are you who is mary

3:54 so you know it's funny because I know you gave me the question so I Can Care for this but then it's like at the same time I wanted it to be authentic so I actually did not and I have to say you just

4:04 marry young is just a girl trying to find herself in this world you know it's ah my hobbies are golfing baking traveling and spending as much time as I can with my husband and and our amazing dog

4:18 Drago who's a boxer and is just a delight drago like like rick from rocky yeah exactly seeing you got it if he dies he does method we should say it that ago but that takes so much effort Yeah he is he

4:38 is Ivan drago a little boxer while he's a big boxer but anyhow it's just you know ten years ago when I well actually it's fourteen years ago and I met Mike and greg working at Caterpillar we became

4:52 such good friends I was working for a different consulting firm they of course work for Welwyn And which is one of those things that Mike and I just became such good friends from day one and years

5:04 later I started working for them it was just we knew that we were just going to be friends forever and it has been that way and now it's I'm a happy girl been with whelan for ten plus years and is I

5:18 have no desire to ever go anywhere else

5:23 we have we have a great thing we're all remotes and that helps me be me it's like I can just be the coffee girl and you know I could go to the conferences and be social and it's i guess I'M just a

5:36 little bit of everything so Yeah you definitely liked you found a role that lets you be you but but I still want to go back further I think you You're you're a Baltimore kid right you grow up in the

5:48 in the in Maryland and in Baltimore to talk about some of your youth college and all that Stuff How'd you end up in Dallas Gimme Gimme about phase of your life Oh Gosh this this is going to be a story

5:58 so here we go so I definitely grew up in Baltimore Will I Say Baltimore because if I actually said the tiny town that we lived in called Whitehall Maryland it is in northern Baltimore County Tiny Tiny

6:10 Little Town and you would know Monkton Maryland and north of cock his Ville north of Taos in

6:17 the further north So I Am one of six I am the fourth child where there is five girls and one boy in our family so even though I'm Afford to actually to Me I always have acted like a first child just

6:32 because I'm pretty independent Pretty Pretty Outgoing pretty disk driven so and never think I have that like middle child syndrome is totally on me but sixteen years of private Catholic schools mom

6:47 Yeah honestly from first grade through college so I went to St Joe's first through eighth grade again private Catholic and I went to a maryvale all -girls private Catholic school for high school and

6:60 then from there to Villanova University in Philadelphia I visited there once spring called it violent Villa no Fun Yeah so I mean hopefully that's not when I was there cause I had a great time loved

7:15 it of just Joking I do remember some people called by one of my best friends from college actually went to law school there so I went out to visit him and I had a blast it was cool out there anyways

7:24 our interscope years not bad snowstorm cathedrals or an ironically enough the newest pope from Villanova Course yes Sir got a little shout out to look athletes out there but said so that was really

7:38 cool but let's see here so from the air I moved back Home I had a couple of craziness things that went on in My College Days I lost two sisters during college both Jason Fortenberry terrible accidents

7:52 and separate accidents and my Dad Was Company so the company that I thought it was Gonna work or when I graduated school that had been in the film for forty years and was again not there so when I

8:06 graduated college let's just say I Dunno how I graduated in four years but I did and after that I was in a really dark place and so I was drinking a lot and it just actonel and just trying just

8:24 does not being good a good person but then fast forward two years later I met the guy that axes went to be my husband and he as I always say saved my life and so it just meeting pastured he pulled me

8:40 out of that terrible place I was in and we celebrate twenty six years together in a couple of weeks so he is a he is my ride or die guy and he has been my Lifesaver since then and since he and I have

8:56 been together so we met in ninety nine we actually met on the same day two years later we got married on the same day so our editor and the day we met as the same which is Kinda Cool July Twenty

9:08 eighth and we bought our first house six months after we got married and then we lived in Baltimore actually in Baltimore downtown right at the inner harbor no no one of those row homes in federal

9:21 Hill absolutely loved it walked around everywhere got to go to Ravens Games Orioles games Inner Harbor Everything just Super Convenience then he got transferred to Houston So I was working with city

9:34 group at the time the city financial branch there on St Paul Street until I was also able to take a transfer to city bank again being in the city group Umbrella when he got his transfer to Houston so

9:46 we were there for six years but so but I went from citibank and then I started to work for baker hughes so Brian gas forgot to know all about oil and gas working for big argues worked my way up there

9:60 then from there I went to work for the Wit group who is now owned by GE working there but after six years in Houston five and a half years in Houston Houston I hated it really really hate it if God

10:17 could not take it anymore and so I'll never forget this Patrick and I were if one of our favorite places was called New York Pizzeria They're in Katy and We're sitting there and I'm drinking my wine

10:27 and eating our Pizza and Patrick has his beer and I look at him like Babe Mike I Can't do this any more I'm like I'm Done I'm like I really just want to live in New York and being from the East Coast

10:39 it's it's just one of those things as a kid and being an accountant at the time but you just always want to work and live in New York and it had just been a dream of mine so he goes to me okay well if

10:51 you can get a job and move us there then do it so whenever somebody like hands me like the Golden keys They're as like done six weeks later I was living in New York while mom had a job had the

11:05 apartment and oH my God babe to reshoot a move on up here

11:12 so so we did and so two months later he actually like re my brother was living with US so he actually took over a house in Houston and Patrick and our dogs to work the time who was a doberman so

11:26 Patrick and Thor moved up to New York City and so we lived there for three years so that was a wonderful we loved it we were on like football leagues we were on a Coed softball leagues together

11:39 central park we would we saw yo yo mon in a in central park with it and the Biscotti your orchestra like there is just so great just so many things that we did up there and Hugh Newark was Wonderful

11:53 Then Unfortunately Patrick's Dad got sick terminal brain cancer so we looked at each other and were like what do we do and it you know at the end of the day he does it you Gotta just make the right

12:06 choice and so for us the right choices we had to go home to help out so we both ironically quit our jobs and moved out anything and I was like don't worry about a baby Mike I'll get a job it's you

12:18 know I'm an Accountant I can work anywhere it's you know it's not that I wasn't you know being Braggadocio or anything which is like it's M at the skillset so somebody like I could gets hired

12:28 somewhere for anything just keep moving so we moved home we were actually living at their house cause again moved home with nothing just OK let's figure this out and then three weeks later I'm working

12:41 for Caterpillar as a consultant there and that's where I meets Mike and Greg aka Carrara this is good this is this is Oh I love the way you told the story Too cause I'm I'm know I'm Picturing it I

12:54 love the Visuals and I think you know I'm A I'm a Ne Kid I'm from New Hampshire went to college just outside of Boston and My Girlfriend this would have been my Juniors and Senior year was from like

13:14 northern Baltimore Pikesville area so she was a year older older women just love me Mariana what to say it's just really mature just very mature I surely driven and she was she was a year older and

13:30 like we decided to stay together long distance for like years so I spent a lot of time there so I can like really picture what you're talking about like walking around I remember like getting you know

13:42 walking walking by there was like an E S P N zone then the Irish which was Super fun and you know walking around and going over to like Camden and other places leaving eating crabs and and Yeah like

13:57 Great Great memories like a lifetime ago really but Baltimore's a nice like quaint little City I didn't end up marrying that woman but the woman that I did end up marrying whom with today is from York

14:11 Pennsylvania which as you know

14:15 Yeah he jumped over the stateline so if we fly back to see her family and York we fly to Baltimore so like there's a comfort for me down there but I I also like really understand what you're saying

14:26 about New York that there's this almost like a Romanticism a little bit to it if you go there and you visit as a kid which I did a lot and it sounds like you did to you you feel the energy and you

14:42 feel like it just so like American and and that there's this sense of I have pride and and you want to work and you you can really achieve the American dream and maybe that was more the case there

14:53 like one hundred years ago than it is now since it's so expensive and crazy but like truth be told it has that vibe like I like going there for conferences I like going there to visit a friend and

15:04 work for a day just to get that energy when you walk when you go on the subway or you walk you know down the city block to go to the hotel or the office or or the Conference center you you feel it too

15:18 I'd never live there but I'm I'm kind of jealous that you did and I also get why you left re like it it's sort of it's tighter right and and yeah there's things that happen there that that can only

15:30 happen there and you just sort of smiling and keep going

15:35 but you it seems like you just sort of adapt though that seems that's like part of the theme I'm getting here yet now you just you have to make the best of the hand that you're dealt and so we don't

15:44 get to choose the cards we have but we do get to choose how we play them and so you make the best of it man and so this is where we are in so you got here when one of my favorite things is people used

15:55 to always say New yorkers are rude and I'm like know they're not route a mic they are driven they're like put on the Sidewalk I'm like picture it like this I Go everywhere else you live the sidewalks

16:08 in New York are just like you in a car in Rush hour okay so just remember they're going somewhere they're walking somewhere they have a place to be you know they have a you know time to keep ago so if

16:19 you're just looking around lolly gagging of course or you're going to run into somebody but you have to remember I used to always say there should be two lanes on the sidewalks in a one for the

16:28 tourists and the one for the Pizza there yeah like Gotcha to do got all the damage

16:37 yet the building I know I will pass it every day Yeah

16:44 Yeah Totally Yeah I mean I think I Dunno I I've been to to Paris fortunately twice in the last like year or so having never had been there before and people were like you know be careful like the

16:58 French people are are rude especially to Americans I didn't feel that at all in fact I I felt some of the same kind of directness that you get from people in New York right it's just like maybe it's a

17:12 little bit more forced in in France in New York people are actually like working I'm pretty sure people in Paris don't really work but aside from like in restaurants but I don't know I it's like I

17:24 mean I dunno I'm not going to find anybody like to be particularly rude if you spend time in New York and Someone's actual what do you want right you're like oh Okay I better be ready to order in that

17:35 case you know and it's just like okay I'm not in like small town New Hampshire anymore it's like Hey Darlin What Can I Get for you which Houston has a lot of that element Two Houston is very southern

17:47 very charming but very hot and I think that would do my biggest issue with Houston is like right now it's and that's the thing that we saw because we were living in the suburbs when we first moved and

17:60 moved into mantras and we loved that area just cause we were cool people and we've loved it there but then I worked out of an ark of Cypress so I was like I Can't do this commute everyday and I had a

18:11 we had just gotten also a little convertible when we moved down there and as like I cannot drive a six stick shift in this traffic unlike we have got to move out there we moved out there and then I

18:23 think it was just like living in the sub suburbs we in our early thirties and I was like OH Shoot me now everybody has kids and you know they're doing the family thing and that was not us so then

18:34 we're just like alright so what do we do for fun so we actually bought motorcycles nice and we started we started motorcycle racing

18:46 Okay Yeah three years before we moved in Europe but Yeah so and My Husband's and My Bikes were Captain America and Wonder Woman I love It I love It Yeah you just you you Adapt right and I think that's

18:59 a that's an important skill to to have I think both in business but especially from a personal standpoint and and you know we we talked about this a little bit before you know you were Yeah we June we

19:13 we talked about this for like ten twelve minutes before we started this this this June of twenty twenty five was like the most unforgettable insane toughest craziest most exhausting month of of my

19:26 life

19:28 and you know when I was in Houston supposed to fly back to denver to meet you at a conference as a matter of fact you and mike at a conference at the Gaylord just by the airport which I was looking

19:39 forward to because I was going to see you Guys grab some dinner Come home see My Family come back the next day was it was like a nice way to close out a busy travel week and in Houston right little

19:51 more low key you and mike are just super easy to hang out with and positive so I was looking forward to it and I'm at Hobby and I get a call from My Mom and she said Hey Jeremy It's kind of Loud where

20:06 You Are I Go Yeah I'm in an airport what's going on just like Oh So dad wasn't feeling good so we took him to the E R and now we're not totally sure What's going on but he needs to be taken via

20:21 helicopter to Manchester for emergency open heart surgery who you're like let me keep my flight unlike before I could even like Act So I call my wife I called Ali an eclipse you know sounds like she's

20:37 like the equivalent of the Patrick right Yeah and I didn't know what to Do I just sort of froze Mike well I Guess if I get back to denver like that I'm close to home at least and I can always get from

20:48 Denver back to New England you know that I can figure that out and she's like I think what you need to do is not come to denver and go to Manchester New Hampshire now yet and I'm like Yeah so of

21:06 course as part of this I had to tell you that Hey Mary said Listen I'm not covered and this is why and you immediately kind of shifted into that like supportive like loving maternal friend mode which

21:21 made me feel really good because I have this like it's so fucked up but like you know this this like guilt about missing something for work even if it's for this crazy family situation it doesn't make

21:34 logical sense but it's like I'm programmed I'M supposed to go to the show your client the minute you pay US money you know we have some pizza deliver I committed to this but but my dad Might die today

21:47 and I was like nervous what your response was going to be almost like and this is like maybe I don't need to talk about this on this way ready to go to a therapist or something but I do appreciate the

21:57 way that you snapped into like supportive mode which I think is what but people would would do but just know that it meant something to me so I was like well yeah now Chesney family for man just as we

22:10 always say just work will get done we are not making a joke about this we are not curing cancer here who we were

22:20 OK I mean Trust Me I mean it's important it obviously pays for our lives and it's right at the end of the day is there is much bigger things out there in this world and we will we will figure it out

22:32 Yeah and we we did and you checked in a lot on Me and My Dad's grade three Three weeks ago today he was airlifted and my Dad's got such a good attitude just a Wonderful Wonderful Guy he you know when

22:48 they told me said Hey Joe We Gotta You've got a tornado order which if you look that up the survival rate is not good it's going to get better it's no it's not good Thank God that they caught it and

22:59 they're like Joe We Gotta get you in this helicopter right now we Gotta get you to Manchester we don't have the equipment there's not a surgeon here to do this procedure or how any his his response

23:10 was

23:12 seventy nine years olds my first time going and helicopter wow

23:18 Let's do this you know I I think he was just still kind of in shock about it and and that's just what came out and then you know he goes in and my God these these surgeons marry like just so cocky and

23:32 in the best possible way right so you know the whole family is like sitting in That The waiting area right in the in the I See You Ride wherever they're doing these procedures and all this Stuff I

23:44 wasn't there Yet I was still flying back and my older sister was basically like Yeah he just came out he's like he's good like what they like until they find like six for my last sex with tornadoes

23:58 you know get Dab got him in there for our procedure he's fine but he's fine that's it he's like me and he's Gonna have to like recover and all that but Yeah I fix them

24:12 like Oh My God It's so Confident you know SM but if I Ever Wanted Doctor like I want that Docker like how he remembered a shell like Iceland that Guy I don't need the bedside manners I need that Guy

24:25 no I I Want the Guy who's like what do you Mean I fixed him like that's my Job I'm guessing this is one of the highest paid people in the state of New Hampshire and I'll Tell you Why Like he's

24:38 underpaid at least in my mind he said my Dad He saved My Dad's Life you know and it just just really amazing like that not just like you know modern medical procedures and technological advancements

24:53 but like to actually enjoy things you don't think about when mary like the world that we're in you're right we're not curing cancer but we're we're taking care of our families and our spouses and

25:04 putting ourselves a position where we can go to weddings or take vacations or door by a motorcycle or have a dog and feed the dog I mean there's there's a value to that and and you know you could

25:16 argue well and actually does like save people from a lot of headaches thanks to the U unit data rocket software

25:24 but again you're not like performing open heart surgery so it put a lot in perspective for me about like how cool is that job right like yes like you sometimes you're going to have to tell it come out

25:39 until like the funk family or whoever it is like I couldn't save him he died and that sucks but then you honestly have to bounce back the next day and save somebody inherited in yet and like you've

25:49 committed to this is your like your your job is that you're a healer you know a leg it almost gives me chills think about it I couldn't do it because I pass out at the sight of somebody getting an

26:02 ultrasound or something like that like I can't I can't it wasn't no can't do it Yeah I making I could not be more like appreciative or impressed with that profession and I think like the mental

26:18 fortitude as much as like the physical capability to just stand there and perform the surgery but like mentally being able to do that and literally stay on call and do it again cause that happens

26:30 which is Insane I don't know how surgeons do it it is always amazing to me it's like you always see them in like in the movies too where like their surgeon said they won't even shake hands because

26:39 like in Annona these are the moneymakers as Yankee

26:44 to a you don't touch my hand you don't do anything and just and I appreciate that I'm like you know what's a mike he he can do that cause he's that good he can back up you know Yeah I just I guess

26:56 they make a ton of money i just don't think you'd do that job for the money like you don't get into that you can be a stockbroker I like that you probably have the level of intelligence and the drive

27:05 to do whatever job and make seven figures share but this is like there's like an emotional level to this type of job that's not like I lost you money from your pension or something like I lost you

27:18 your your sibling or your your parent or your best friend or your child

27:25 so in the hockey thing too I think it's a god complex tale like those surgeons they the good ones they they know that they're good and they can be What would life and death in their hands absolutely I

27:38 also think that there's a level of like well I started doing more research on this afterwards just because it's like this whole thing happens to to you and it's so close and I was basically mentally

27:49 writing out my Dad's eulogy on the flight from Houston to Chicago because once I looked up the survival rate of a tornado era I'm like he's he might not make it like he he might he might already be

28:03 dead you know like I really had these like thoughts and realizations and I mentally like thinking through

28:11 like what I would say at his funeral you know and it brought me back to I was really impressed with my Dad in two thousand and six when my grandfather his dad passed away and my Dad's composure and

28:27 the things that he said granted like a grandma grandpa was like ninety two and he'd been slowing down a lot and My Grandma had already died and you could tell he didn't even really have much of a will

28:37 to live anymore so it wasn't sad but like I'm sure for my data was sad he lost his dad like it'll be sad for me when my dad eventually dies but he did not only his composure but like what he said and

28:51 I remember saying to my dad like afterward either that the next day or something and before I was taking the train to like philly to see if a friend or go to the Jersey shore clear my head for a

29:02 minute type of thing and I said to my Dad Oh Yeah Yeah that's a whole different podcast okay we're not going to say that but I said that I just wanted to say like I like all the things that you said

29:19 about him like that's how I feel about you you know what I mean and I I thought like that that meant a lot to him and like I remember years later he told me like that that was the thing that he

29:30 remembers most from his dad's whole like funeral Time period but for me it was just I don't feel like I'd ever told him that you know and maybe it's because I hadn't heard somebody say it the way they

29:44 said it and maybe was hearing him say it but then I felt compelled now this time I'm like I have shit that I have to say to you that if if you die and I don't say these things to you that's going to

29:57 that's going to really stay with me forever right and and he's like not even close to one hundred percent he's like okay sure like the day after the Procedure I Go

30:07 You're the only man in the world who like one hundred per cent authentically truly wants me to be more successful than you

30:22 you know like so sweet it's just not like that even with your friends even with your best of friends there's still like if one of my best friends like won the lottery or whatever got ten million

30:34 dollars like there's still an element of like that should have been me me me see would have been

30:41 that

30:43 right then Yeah of course you're happy and like a genuine than an epithet like still some sort of hint of like maybe I'm jealous or maybe that should have been me and I just know with with dads in

30:53 general and with my dad like he genuinely wants me to be more successful than him and that's the only person in the world that I could say that about the only man you know Maybe my wife said she could

31:05 be a stay at home mom mature work ethic is crazy she gets up at four in the morning every day and looks beautiful and she's like a real CEO I just play one on Linkedin

31:15 but anyways I'M just like I didn't know where this was all going to go Mary I really do appreciate like so much about this this session but I felt like you were kind of a grounding force for me during

31:26 this time because you were like sort of with me not physically but with me In communication throughout this process and Sorta checking in and then I go silent for a few days and there was like Tuesday

31:37 right and you're like How's dad doing right right unlike any Maybe I took a day to get back or whatever but I'm like oh discharged good and like that's right you know

31:50 open -heart surgery after three days and he's discharged like that's crazy like modern medicine is amazing Yeah he truly looks better like he looks better than he did a month ago not even close like

32:04 he's he's healthier now like he wasn't taking care of himself and now it's like the celebrity impressive Yeah Yeah new lease on life at seventy nine is is really something else but sorry I didn't mean

32:19 to turn this into my therapeutic my Dad almost dying podcast but I did and I I want to flip it over to you a little bit sick because your story doesn't just end I would search Houston New York and

32:33 then back to Baltimore and Caterpillar are meeting well and there were still some more moves after that Yeah so that was Nashville so yes a way that was Nashville and that sink at Caterpillar and

32:42 That's where I met Mike and Greg and so then in twenty Twenty My husband took a promotion to go to Shanghai so he yeah so march thirteenth twenty twenty that day may ring a bell to a number of Us when

32:59 we signed the papers that he was going to lead the sales for Hunter Douglas Asia and wow Yeah so we sold everything literally everything sold our house cars everything we put the dude did you give

33:14 your notice to mike who will know I was going to work because we actually have hookers in Shanghai and Enhancement So I was going to work you know sort of off and on hours oH no no mike and Greg were

33:25 very supportive again they have supported me one hundred percent through every IT like just thought that African cool is that though Yeah hey My husband just got this job as the head of Asia sales in

33:36 Shanghai can i keep My Job Yeah Yeah Okay that's it Yeah

33:45 We'll figure it out it's like everything like he is just he's a great the greatest boss just he's like we will figure something out here you're not going anywhere I'm like Ok I'm like That's all I

33:55 needed to hear mike and Mike Thank you it means the world loyalty loyalty and and like support and friendship and like what I aspire to be as as a leader so sorry Keegan that's okay so we actually

34:08 never got to Asia because everybody knows the world than twenty twenty

34:13 days

34:15 a week but again we did sell everything except for my kitchen cause I'm an I'm a love to cook and bake until I was like I can't get rid of that Stuff I'll make it cost me way too much money at some

34:26 pictures and I think like Patrick's toolboxes in one little twelve by twelve

34:34 it was often a storage unit but everything else was sold or given away really most of it given away any who said then we moved into an apartment in downtown Nashville where we lived for basically two

34:45 and a half three years and patrick worked Asian hours and did his whole job Yeah he was he was crazy and he did that until then he took another transfer so they sent o'Hagan they'd asked him if he

34:59 wanted to go again you could re up for another three years and were like you know what's the climate is not as pleasant as it was so we we declined that offer and then he took a job here in Dallas and

35:13 so running the se for Hunter Douglas in that role in that capacity so again with my job love It I can work from anywhere so just like I could have worked from Shanghai I can work from Dallas so here

35:24 have in Dallas Now Yeah but to be completely honest being in Dallas probably makes more sense for your job as the as the As the face and the the salesperson cause I do remember like cause you were in

35:39 Nashville when we worked together previously the first time around and I was like that's kind of weird and like you would think that this role would be in like Houston Denver Dallas even Oklahoma or

35:49 something but then you can travel and it's technology so you Guys were sort of ahead of the curve with working from home and being a tech company so so then Dallas I'm like oh Okay You Move for work

36:00 but you actually didn't

36:03 want Yeah so now we live just north of Dallas and McKinney and They're a Golf club up here which we love and we made so many good friends among Ladies Golf League he's on the men's golf league now we

36:15 bought the dog it's yet life is good it is we cannot be happy or it was a really good move and I've heard that I'm not sure if you bought your house or if you rent but like real estate in that area

36:27 and that north Dallas area is kind of Gone Crazy Yes we Deny it so luckily and then so what I keep Seeing My My House I Go up and like who unlike Greece GS Glad Glad we got in When We Did I mean yes

36:39 it's similar here too I think it's leveled off I'm not sure that Texas might still have a little bit more room to run like there's no there's just more room and Yeah there's Pun intended just more

36:54 everything they're right but but I think here it's like and there's more like career opportunity down there hear it there was kind of this period where I feel like people were like Yeah real estate

37:05 went crazy everywhere but but people like wow Colorado is like actually awesome like it and it Sorta hit it's it is right it's sort of like hit its stride I was in San Francisco at Tony's Pizza which

37:19 I Dunno if You've ever been to San Francisco probably Tony's Pizza and Sandra Merritt You've got to go to Tony's Pizza it is probably my favorite Pizza place that I've ever been to and I like Pizza

37:35 Remember I'm Like a northeast Guy writes that some had some pizzas in My Day I like to eat look at me and but Tony's in north Beach they have seven different unique Pizza ovens and nine different

37:51 types of dough so depending on the kind of Pizza that you Order I E it's like Oh you want to Chicago South Think Cool that's going to be like this do and it goes in this oven and the sauce like it's

38:05 just truly amazing Amazing Caesar salad have ever had in fact I took my dad there and as we were we're out visiting some friends and going to baseball games he's like I'm so Mad at you for taking me

38:15 here because you've now ruined Pizza I'M like well at Least You're Really Old at least that didn't happen when you're twenty three and you have to deal with just like northern New Hampshire Pizza like

38:25 going through those that oscillator or whatever but and I was sitting there scraping by the way where the Giant St I'm assuming that's where you were going so Great So Great I mean it's probably just

38:39 as far as like venues Gulf We're going to talk venues for the whole country I mean red rocks out here just from like impure venue standpoint we're talking about sports venues I mean Fenway Park which

38:52 is behind me here in the months but it's not as comfortable as oracle and the weather's really nice generally in San Francisco except for the summer where it's like ice cold at night I have always

39:04 played with the stadium when we went to a giants game there is the the seagulls start circling in like the seventh inning and you just chuckle and like they know they are getting a snack here shortly

39:15 in like I mean map tons and tons of seagulls just start swirling around the stadium was so funny and they've had hours to just get stoned as they want because everybody that's sitting out on their

39:27 kayaks has just blown weed in the air the whole time that really stood out to me too I went to a World series game there against the Rangers actually and in twenty ten did like the full walk around

39:38 the stadium like okay this this smells like a like a phish concert you know like you're used to this when you go to certain concerts and the band starts playing people I don't write whatever you don't

39:49 really expect it at a baseball game like especially like high intensity baseball game but I'm like Well I guess that's just San Francisco in a years but now so so to go back rise this is during the

40:01 calvet issue I was at and Tony is sitting at the bar and talking to this Guy who's in the Stanford Real Estate Hall of Fame so he's done like very well for himself I would have he said that

40:17 A couple of things that really stood out to me he said but he's like if I could buy stock in two things moving forward from this point he goes one would just be Tom brady the Guy think Tom Brady has

40:26 as much like future life potential as any human being but that's that's what he's like but to he's like that front range of Colorado like I think that people have now discovered how great it is and

40:37 he's like now what can a shift more and more investments there is like it it you might have thought that you got in at the right time when you got in twelve years ago ten years ago this is actually

40:47 the writer like okay well sold this meals on me he's like nuts on the

40:56 Hall of Fame Sanford Hall of Fame Rails data which I didn't even know existed but apparently does

41:03 that is crazy this is I've I've done it like over one hundred and eighty of these this might be this is like top three oh there's something about Mary

41:14 there's something about Mary that there's There's also do something about your hesitant to come on as a teacher you haven't you haven't done a podcast before but I just I knew you'd be good because

41:30 your your sales people always do well podcasting and you're a conversationalist and and I think once I sent you like to some of the prep questions you're like oh Cool you're not asked me about like

41:40 the Macro economic coal and oil and gas subsidy market in China over the next twelve years yes right

41:51 we can talk about that if you Want I don't I don't have much but I'll try to sound intelligent I'm a sales guy but not I think like it this is about the people it's about the personalities it's why I

42:03 Podcast I've turned down people that want to come on the podcast and just like pimp their product and I've said to them before like that's like you you could do that on any other podcast in oil and

42:17 gas there's like forty other podcast that you can go do that like I just don't want this story to become a commercial for your company with that said we have literally not talked at all about why

42:29 Welland as other than mike and Greg are great guys but in a nutshell if you can give the the elevator pitch and I give you your your chance to do the commercial like what does well and what do you

42:39 Guys do what does it say what whaling is a great little consulting forum one of our biggest hamper products was actually written by Craig twenty five thirty years ago about export which is now morphed

42:51 into this amazing product that sits atop the universe Nina data and it actually makes anybody that uses act in the oil field it's in excalibur clients is wheat all the data in real time and we

43:04 normalize it and put it into SQL Oracle Snowflake or databricks so what and then you put a reporting platform on top of that and we can help you with that we can help set up or beyond for U S S R S

43:15 reports crystal reports target tablo whatever you've got but is rarely would a well and also goes great is it about the relationships like you and I were forty minutes into this podcast and we haven't

43:27 talked about whelan because that's what it's about it's about the relationships you want to do business with people you want to talk to you do and that's the thing and that's what it well and that's

43:37 what you get you get me and the sales side you get when it's export here so you don't have to worry about calling and coping you get somebody in the U S are going did you create a ticket for that no

43:47 you just call mary it is in that it we try to make working with US very easy so that you want to work with US and then you know we're in it for the long Haul Yeah and it's it's it's very mich it's

43:59 very nature it's if you use these systems in an oil and gas that's bolo Em Excalibur which there's probably I Dunno three hundred more companies that that use that and it's like A Massively important

44:15 part of the equation like St Otherwise I like to say this to you know when I when I started working at Bolo seventeen seventeen years ago Oh My God Yeah we can see that Yeah I'm Seventeen and I'm like

44:30 how long was this a lot whatever like a long time ago and people like well what's the what's the back end what's the database and unlike guts unit data that was that literally the response was unit

44:43 what we know is we're talking about like is there like a Microsoft SQL database what would you want that one yeah they're like Yeah I'm like oh well you Gotta talk the bulk and Echo

44:58 your Bella connected well in here might get the help you need and there's and there's wound right so so it's like critically important for the the niche that you plane and then of course like

45:09 obviously there's unit data is used outside of oil and gas as well so then you can play in the insurance pays the finance pays the healthcare space and it's it's a nice little niche Ie business you

45:23 know like it's it's one of those things where it's maybe not the greatest or sexiest like thing to describe to somebody at a Christmas Party Yeah well we we take data out of a really old database and

45:36 and put in an SQL so that you can bring it into your snowflake like what a cool I guess they build the dashboards and sort of like views and Ok the Dashboards

45:53 Felt estimate because they still think I'm an accountant and like so taxis it's your birthday

45:60 you must

46:02 you're probably getting ready for the extensions here you got the S corp filings are due and what about who Two months that

46:11 Yeah and everybody's it's not a fiscal calendar that closes in September Yeah It's Big Big Time for You Right there I'm Like Yes I can Start I just kept on Yeah it's a tough time for Me Yeah I'M Just

46:21 Summit Account So I'm Gonna get a ticket a Techie Techie account Yeah

46:27 So Mary where can people find Welland like website if they want to reach out you know email any of that stuff what's the easiest way to get a hold of you know not just to invite you on their podcast

46:39 since you did such a great job today but if you're on bowlers caliber and you're struggling to get data out and do some reporting and could really use it in a more usable format where do people find

46:50 you where they find your company so it's super -simple wWW Dot whelan W E L L A Nd Dot com or on Linkedin marry young it's Pretty simple as well and you can reach me on Linkedin you can find me on the

47:06 website I could give my phone number or six one five eight three eight seventy two one three only in it good callers no freebies please

47:16 there's probably some AI creeper that just heard that and is like well okay now we're going to add that you're getting spammed Zen caster or whatever is going to start listening to this and picking up

47:27 on it but Yeah indeed married there's something about you it's been so much fun to to work with you but but honestly much more important and well beyond our our professional relationship is becoming a

47:39 friend to you and into mike I think you guys are just the best of the best and I was explaining this to Josh Bailey who is on the podcast a few weeks ago where I have a conflict on Monday when you

47:53 Guys have a call like you know I kind of like for you to be there and then I get a re like he he doesn't know you and I'm like I'll just have max he's like are you sure that's I'm like Dude max

48:04 doesn't even need to be there like Mike and Mary are like the easiest people However I'm like I think It'll be good for max to be there just from like an educational perspective for him and the deer

48:14 stuff but but truthfully I'm like dude like there's nothing to be like conversation will not be difficult with guys like you'll get right into it you'll either not talk about business for twenty four

48:26 minutes and then be like crap you Gotta do this or you'll just cover it right away and then you'll transition into like so like you just had a kid how like regret what you do for the fourth and right

48:37 now how do we work together let's make this happen Yeah you guys are easy to partner with and just good folk so marry well and thank you for everything this was Cathartic and therapeutic and fun yes

48:54 and thank you for having me thanks for asking me multiple times that I do know that Yes Yes I can do this and I appreciate it so you can't I mean not only can you do it you can crush it so just keep

49:05 that matter at avery thank you very happy to talk to you later bye bye