What The Funk?

0:00 What's up, Funkers? We're back.

0:04 Yeah, exactly.

0:07 We are back with the Quorum Sales Leadership Team. Well, and Rouge, Sarush Sehoon came on tripping over the barrel, spent on other digital wildcatters podcast. This is old hat, so we don't need

0:21 to talk about Sarush anymore than we already have. That was good to me. This is about your boss lady. This is about Lindsey Lindsey Herndon Goodjian. Goodjian. Yeah, goodjian. Goodjian. It was

0:34 a lot easier for me to just type out L-H-G. Totally. Right? Yeah, it's much easier. I agree. I don't blame you. I don't blame you. But ironically, I was in a fantasy baseball league forever.

0:49 This sort of came from my college friends. And we referred to ourselves as the League of Handsome Gentlemen So every time I think of L-H-G, you know. Maybe now I'll think of you, but I always

1:01 think about my brand nice friends and the league of handsome gentlemen - Oh, that's great - That's great. So we're gonna get into this. Lindsey, you are the chief sales officer officially with

1:13 Corum and you've been at the company for a while. So we'll get into all that, but I wanna know a little bit about your background, like who you are. I think that you're a

1:24 Texan -

1:26 Yeah - A hook him. Go horns - A hook him horns. But yeah, kinda give us a little bit about your background and then we'll talk about all the fun things. Corum and life related, how to grow a

1:38 company into something that was medium sized, is something that is now one of the largest and most successful energy technology companies, the future, some of the past, but wanna get to know you a

1:48 little bit. So who are you, Lindsey? I love it. Thank you. Thanks for having me, first of all. So who am I? Well, it might surprise you. I actually grew up in San Diego, California. So I

2:01 have

2:03 two serious surfer brothers in, you know, one younger sister and then me, you know, now living in Texas and having a 20 plus year career and all in gas. So definitely could not have guessed my

2:17 path back then. So yeah, I grew up there, saw family there

2:23 and I went to Texas. I went to Texas. That was my road to, you know, to the whole state. And funny enough, you know, I was a Spanish major. There's another one back You're awesome. Yeah,

2:38 exactly. So I was a Spanish major and a bit of a gypsy when I was younger. So, you know, while at Texas, this will just. give you a glimpse into my personality. You do study abroad programs,

2:53 right? I was so excited about it. And my parents are like, Cool, where are you going to go? London, Barcelona? I'm like, No, I'm going to go to Merida Venezuela. Oh, my mouth is like, Say

3:07 what?

3:10 So I went there and did a semester there. It was awesome. By the way, it was gorgeous and awesome. And so finished at Texas and really wanted to, I don't know, just make money. I was just

3:24 excited to make money. And I really wanted to buy Tahoe. That was kind of my obsession at the time that drove my career progress. And I was very, very ambitious with a Spanish major.

3:38 So I interviewed with every consulting firm and everything you could think of. And I had a mutual friend. who had joined, who was an engineer, who had joined with Quorum, actually the year before,

3:51 and he convinced me to interview, and I don't know, they must have been drinking at the time or whatever, but I made it through the interview process with my solid Spanish major at a time where we

4:02 were really only hiring engineers 'cause it was very early on in Quorum's life. And so, yeah, I made it in, and my mom was like, what are you thinking? Like, how are you gonna figure this out?

4:16 You know? I was like, don't worry, mom, I got this, it's gonna be fine. And there is a history, so that's a little bit about how I got here - So how many years of Quorum now for you - So I

4:30 started in 2001, and I started, I started in our support organization, actually, so learned a lot about, we just learned our customers, learned about customer experience, and it was a. It was

4:46 actually, I'm so blessed that that's where I got going. Moved into the consulting world where I did implementations for a handful of years. And then because my mom had told me repeatedly that my

4:58 Spanish major, I was gonna be homeless at some point in my life. I went back, I had a bucket list item to get an MBA and I went back to Texas to do that. Left Quorum completely, went back to the

5:10 full-time program, took another job out of there, went into management consulting actually. And I really missed, I missed oil and gas, I missed the Quorum community, I missed just getting my

5:24 hands dirty, affecting how our customers do business every day, right? It's just cool. And so I made my way back and that was actually, when I started running sales for Quorum in 2009. So - Whoa,

5:40 wow, okay. I just learned a lot about you. This is no trouble. I mean, you said something that's, well, you said a few things that stood out to me. But first of all, like it didn't take you

5:50 long to become a Texan. Like you were in San Diego, you know, brah. And then you ended up in Texas and you wanted a Tahoe. So you're like, okay, officially became a Texan at that point in my

6:04 mind. Then you went to business school, right? After the whole Venezuela craziness.

6:10 And you worked, you came out and worked for the same company that you worked at Like that's, you don't often hear that maybe with a really big company. You hear that? That's kind of fascinating.

6:21 Did you entertain working for other companies or did you kind of have your heart set like toward the end of your MBA? Like I really want to go back there. Like I like - Oh, no, trust me. You know,

6:30 out of my MBA, I was like, you know, time to keep going. I got to keep learning new things, trying new things. I competed for a job that I thought it was just one of the most sought after And so

6:42 for me, it was like. you know, I just want it because it's hard to get. And so when I got it, it turns out that it, it actually, so it was a management consulting firm. And as luck would have

6:57 it, you know, you guys know this, '08, not the best year for oil and gas, right? So while I joined their oil and gas practice, I quickly found myself, I think I was working a project for like,

7:09 you know, a China healthcare strategy,

7:14 which no offense to China, but I'm not, I'm not overly interested in, wasn't at the time. And it was a whole lot of power point about Chinese healthcare strategy. So,

7:25 what I learned from that experience actually stayed with me for, it's been so helpful and it's really around how to structure your communication, how to really be thoughtful about your audience and

7:39 the takeaways instead of focusing on what you want to say. And so that I think has really stayed with me and my team can attest. I'm kind of serious about presentation, sloppy presentations will

7:55 get choice words. So, but anyway, so I did that job for a year and I just, you know, at the time, as soon as I started seeing some comeback in oil and gas, my CEO at the time was like, Hey,

8:09 Alans, if you ever wanna come back, we got a job for you And I was in Houston two weeks later in the rest of history, so. Yeah - Go ahead, Ruch. I know you're dying to speak - Yeah, well, I

8:22 mean 2009 to 2023,

8:25 I mean, the first thing that like pops into my mind is maybe just share a little bit about how the role, the same role has changed and evolved and grown over the course of over a decade - The role

8:40 being, You're writing sales here? Yeah. Well, when I was asked to take over sales, it was from our COOChief Commercial Officer at the

8:52 time who was quickly stepping into the CEO role. And sales, I mean, I thought he was insane. Sales was, you know, four very, very experienced oil and gas guys with palm pilots who were, you

9:08 know, less than thrilled to meet the sales manager at the time. You know, it was like we were, the team was competing, you know, against competitors and against each other at the same time. And

9:21 it was just, you know, old school sales. But, you know, I learned so much from those folks. And that was, that feels like, it feels like, you know, 10 companies ago from, you know, where

9:35 we started and where we are now. I think that's I've been at Quorum for so long, but I've been in different roles with literally what feels like different companies along the way. The things that

9:47 have stayed consistent are the things that get me up every morning. It's people like Roosh, right, and our customers. But the dynamics of what I face every day have changed so drastically that it

9:60 keeps it fun.

10:02 Yeah. Sorry. Go ahead, Roosh Yeah, I think it's one of the things that I admire about Lindsey. I mean, the role has changed over and over and over and not just because we grew from 2009 to the

10:17 first, you know, to the PE acquisitions that have happened and learning how to work within a PE model. But the company has grown, the product sets have grown, they've changed even the same

10:28 products have gone to different sort of segments of the market or spaces within the market I mean, the role has evolved so much. The team has, I don't know, how many times. bigger just in

10:38 headcount from back then, right? From four or five people to north of 15.

10:45 Yeah, I think just curious. You work as hard today as you did back then. And I don't know how you get all the things done that need to get done in a size company that we're at now versus back then.

10:60 So I don't know, what are some of your thoughts or strategies or what you've learned on how to maybe delegate or whatever sort of works for you? Like, why is it still running so well?

11:12 Well, I think that, first of all, I have you and you're stressed and whenever you're stressed, that means I'm

11:19 like a little stressed. So it's really good.

11:24 No, I think honestly, you guys both know, growing up in your career, right? It's every day is a strategy and prioritization, right?

11:36 what you see getting done are hopefully the most important things. What you don't see are the 200 things that don't get done. But it's really about, it's about prioritization and making sure that,

11:46 you know, that we all retain the right focus every single day. And that allows, that frees up time to knock down, you know, everything else. So I think, you know, I think it, everything from

11:58 making sure you have the right team and you're looking at, you know, for me, every single opportunity, be it, you know, a new private equity sponsor or another quorum acquisition or merger. I

12:10 mean, trust me, I look at the job and ask myself, like, do I have the skill set, right? Can I do this? Because I love this company so much, you guys. Like this, this company is, my personal

12:24 brand is so tight into the branded quorum at this point so proud of that, right? That like. If at some point I look up and say, you know what, I am not the right person, you know, for this next

12:36 phase, like I'll be the first one to raise my hand 'cause what matters more is that Quorum carries on and that we continue to scale and take care of our customers, right? But I think the way I've

12:48 been able to do it so far is by realizing first and foremost that it is not me.

12:54 It is building the right team and the right balance of skill to where every iteration of our team where it's just getting better and better and better, right? 'Cause we're adding the skills that we

13:06 lack and I think that's the key, that's the key and that's what makes it so fun - And from my standpoint, like candidly, I think it has. Like I think you guys have continued to upskill resources.

13:20 Like we've done a little bit of recruiting from futures with Quorum and the thing that strikes me the at look we when

13:26 quorum portfolio of products is it's really hard to master everything. So then how do you prioritize what you should become an expert at? Right? And maybe you don't. Maybe you just sort of have a

13:41 surface level understanding of everything and sort of become that eagle and look around at nowhere to bring in the right resources to help you. A question that I have about sort of the earlier days

13:51 of quorum, so some of my background, I started working at BOLO in late 2007 So I was selling upstream, accounting, land production software, and around the time that quorum was starting to kind

14:04 of branch into that area, you were running sales. Right? Or I guess a little bit later, and before you were running sales, how were you guys able to transition from midstream centric tips centric

14:18 sales organization to then competing with the P2s, the BOLO's, the inertia's, SAPs, and so on and so forth, and be competitive and eventually kind of went out. some of those upstream deals

14:29 because it's a different type of skill set, right? It's a different product. It's different buyers. It's different kinds of companies. I think upstream companies are generally a little bit more

14:38 risk-centric Midstream companies are more risk-averse. So I'm curious like how were you able to make that transition for your team to say? Okay, now we also have this upstream thing and we're gonna

14:49 go take over land and we're gonna go take over that ERP space

14:54 Yeah, no and Rish you should help me with this because you know, what's really funny if you look at the history of of what we now calling heritage corn, right because the the corn part of corn. So

15:06 you know folks like me and Rish we grew up on kind of different sides of the house. The reality was that you know the midstream solutions that was all built around tips and our strategy has always

15:17 been you know we have a core offering that was built in conjunction with with you know really strong operators or processors as the case may be and then we look We look at those customers to help us

15:29 drive out, like, where should we go next? What is the next biggest pain point that we can help solve, right? And so that is exactly how we ultimately built out the full midstream suite. It was

15:40 almost in parallel that we had amazing talent, you know, like Sarush that were on the upstream side of the house working around land and looking at, you know, the need to get into division orders.

15:53 And then ultimately, you know, why wouldn't we tackle revenue if we're going to do that? And so I think that what we wanted to do was provide the market with a quorum version of purpose-built, you

16:05 know, oil and gas software that they contributed

16:10 to, they being our customers. And that's kind of, that's how it all began. We really didn't start making acquisitions until we had, you know, pretty robust, comprehensive suites covering both

16:18 midstream and upstream. And then we got a lot smarter about looking at things like how can we advance our tech stocks certainly. You know, we can do it alone, but acquisitions are another really

16:29 strong way to get into, you know, native cloud software as an example, right? So from there, we really started looking at, you know, buying versus building, but only where we identified really

16:41 strategic gaps in our portfolio, right? Or really strategic technology that we wanted to acquire because we felt like that was the future and the value that we needed to bring to the market So

16:54 that's my short story is it was, you know, when you were living in one of those two segments, Mystery Repstream, it was almost like, you know, it was a company in it itself, right? And it took

17:04 years for us to kind of, for us to really bring it all together. And so, Sarush and I, I mean, when did we meet actually, man, like 10 years after we both started or something? You might have

17:13 actually met for the first time in Australia.

17:18 Yeah, so. I was going to just add a little bit of color to that because it applies back to, I think, the way you lead lens and it's There's this atmosphere that still exists of enabling or having

17:30 sort of a startup feel to each team that operates within Quorum, which means empowering everybody 'cause we're nothing if we're not our people, right? We're nothing, right? And so empowering

17:40 everybody to think for themselves and to raise their hand and say something when something is either not being thought of the right way or is not considering a customer or is not considering an

17:50 opportunity, right? And Lindsey, like Lindsey's the first to lead her entire team. And one of the things I've learned from her is don't take no for an answer when yes is the right one, right? In

18:01 general, like across any, you can apply that to almost any scenario, whether it's a sales deal or an internal struggle to kind of figure out what the right answer is on how to handle any particular

18:11 situation. But that element of Quorum, that startup that existed, exists within all of the acquisitions and these smaller companies that we've acquired and their people and their culture, that

18:23 there's an element of that that has to live forever. in order to make sure that people feel empowered to speak up and create something that is greater than the sum of the parts when you allow people

18:35 to bring those perspectives to these conversations. So upstream was living back then in this startup environment where we were like, OK, who's the next customer? What's the next - where do we

18:46 drive value for land customers? How do we take the next P2 customer, whoever it was? And when they told us, no, I had plenty of ships, sail and tell us no, and Lindsay's like, no, that's not

18:56 a no. That's a like - you didn't tell them the right things. Let's go back and make sure they heard things BC and D. And like, sure enough, I remember. I mean, I won't mention the deal, but

19:07 there was a massive land deal that we won in that way where the answer was no. They had already decided what they were doing, and it wasn't us. And we put our best foot forward again. And so

19:17 listen, we think you ought to listen to a few more things that we really think you ought to consider before. You truly go down this path that we don't think you want to go. Now, if I didn't

19:26 believe that, like I didn't have a sales bone in my body, I believed in the message and the reason and the passion behind it. And so like you've really instilled that culture within, I think both

19:36 the sales team and honestly anybody that you kind of influence or mentor within the custom within the quorum, you called it the quorum community, right?

19:47 You know, I think that this is something that I've seen and I've worked closely with Jason Webster for the last year, we'll get to him in a minute. But I actually don't think that most of the

19:57 people that I've met in sales at quorum are particularly salesy. I think that you guys have a way of vetting out and hiring certain types of people that are probably a little bit more consultative,

20:08 which would make sense, like going back to sort of a startup centric environment where you're letting your customers drive some of the innovation and technology deliverables.

20:20 Right? So, I was certain it was a big one. And maybe even in some ways like a turning point for Quorum as an organization, you added a lot of revenue, you added a lot of staff, you added

20:30 products that were more technically and economics oriented than the traditional kind of ERP systems that you had. And you inherited a number of different cultures, Canadian, whatever that were

20:45 rolled into one with Wayne Sim and that whole crew. So how are you able to, what looks like from the outside, fairly seamlessly integrate a very large acquisition of technology companies into what

21:01 was already a big technology company? Like I really wanted to ask you this because I'm at a loss for understanding how you can do that while still maintaining business at the same time

21:13 Yeah, no, it's a great question and obviously when we were looking. ahead at that merger. It's all any of us thought about, right?

21:24 But you mentioned the cultures, but I mean, when we emerged with a CERMA, we got a full global business, right? Quorum was a North American company with some opportunistic growth elsewhere. I

21:35 mean, we got a global business with every challenge that comes with that. What I would say is a big part of it is there was tremendous mutual respect between Quorum and CERMA. So we were, you know,

21:51 we really didn't have a ton of overlap. There's maybe a couple modules where we would have competed, right? One of them we actually had to divest as part of that deal. But in general, you know,

22:05 in general, what we found pretty early on was that we had a ton in common about just how we take care of our customers first of all who are customers. like we have so much overlap that our customers

22:22 were not, you know, they were going to push us to ensure that we were tightly integrated as soon as physically possible. They rightfully expected that of us and that was the, I think, added

22:33 motivation for us to really rip the band-aid off and figure out, you know, all right, we think a lot of, like, yes, different skill sets And, you know, we had to very quickly realize that,

22:45 you know, while certainly enablement of our teams was important, so that we could, again, take care of a customer who has both sides of the portfolio, we were not going to have our entire sales

22:58 team, you know, able to speak to and demonstrate every single product that we now had, right? Had we spent time and all of our investment in that, it would have taken us so much longer I think

23:12 instead what we invested in was really are going

23:17 straight to the customer and saying, okay, we now have these two portfolios with you. We are immediately going to focus on where is their value and things like where's their value and integration,

23:28 right? Where's their certain modules that fit perfectly in with the quorum suite? I have to give a shout out to Cerruci and guys like Michael Fodder any two here,

23:40 their leadership, like they did not wait for an instruction. It was like, hey, we have two teams in the US, that's done, we need one team, let's go. Like, let's go one team and we're gonna

23:53 immediately meet as a team, talk about our customers as a team. And like, I think that just sort of naturally created this situation where You know, we now have a fully integrated US team that's

24:05 capable of selling everything under the portfolio and more importantly capable of taking care of a customer that has everything in the portfolio, right? So that's, you know, that was that was them.

24:14 And we have, you know, a solution architect team that I can't speak highly enough about that, you know, they should immediately jumped on enablement for the global sales services, customer

24:26 support teams. Like, our crew is just awesome, Jeremy Like people just the initiative on with a challenge like that ahead is off the charts and so thankful for it. Nice.

24:41 Not easy though. Not easy. Oh, no, I can only imagine. And you know, this is a question I had Chris Dinkler with Chase Knoll, a couple of various guys on here not that long ago. Chris was kind

24:53 of an early career mentor of mine, great, great sales guy. And I asked him this question I'm going to ask you to.

25:01 How do you deal with the pressure of your job and actually take time to disconnect without just thinking about this massive revenue number that's over your head at all times? Sorry to remind you in

25:12 the middle of a podcast where you're probably not thinking about that, but anyways, or maybe that's Roosh's problem too. But nonetheless, that's hard, right? I run a small consulting company and

25:22 I still think all the time about revenue, it's definitely just a fraction of a percentage point of what you have to think about Yeah, are you able to unplug and de-stress every once in a while, or

25:34 do you just not? No, you know what, first of all, I love Chris, Chris and I are friends and they're, obviously we do a lot, we're good partners with Invera, so that's super cool that he was on

25:47 as well. I think, no, I definitely, you gotta know your limit where you are about to start performing lower because you're just maxed out, right? And I think that's just an important thing, an

26:06 important self-awareness item for everyone to have in their career because you will be so much more effective if you just step away and take a pause. For me, honestly, my husband makes fun of me.

26:19 I sleep like a teenager. I'm

26:21 just not the kind of person that like, I know, see, everybody hates it No, I mean, I love what I do. I love what I do. And like, yes, it's stressful, right? And it's hard. And sometimes I

26:37 have to pinch myself on just how big it is versus versus where we were even a couple of years ago in terms of the numbers that we're going for, the number of customers that we take care of, right?

26:49 But at the end of the day, it's fun. And we do it. We keep doing it, right? We keep raising And I think, you know, when you have the right team. You can breathe and you can sleep at night.

27:00 We're not gonna get it all right. We're not gonna make every quarter We're not you know and and you know, we're gonna get things wrong, but at the end of the day our industry First of all is is is

27:12 just freaking awesome. It's it's the kind of place where you know When you when you operate with integrity and you do what you say you're gonna do You know we keep going together like good things

27:24 happen And so I think I don't know stupid answer, but do I Sometimes I go rolling down a hill on you know, I guess snowboarding and go as fast as I can But there they're like times that I need to

27:38 just do something aggressive, but like but no in general in general It is stressful, but it's not it's not overwhelming Okay, but this is ridiculous Lindsay just does not sleep during the week like

27:48 I don't care who might think This at quorum. There's not any harder working individual in the company period. I'm sorry, whoever thinks maybe we can we can go back to the days of quest when

28:01 everyone put their hours in and we ran queries at the end of the year to figure out who actually who actually had the most hours. But Lindsey does not sleep during the week. That's a fact. She's

28:11 getting up before him. Now she has a global team. So she's got to wake up earlier to work with some of the folks but she's always kind of done that. Maybe she catches up on the weekends. Brian can

28:19 attest to that but she like I think also she takes the least amount of time off. But when she does you should talk a little bit about maybe sailing adventures and or snowboarding adventures which

28:33 like I've been snowboarding enough times at Lindsey to know that you don't want to follow in her tracks. Like I try and follow in her tracks in my career but snowboarding is a bad way to live because

28:44 you might not live for very long Okay, I'll let you add color. So dramatic. You get one tree so dramatic.

28:54 It could be the only one.

28:58 One tree for follow me - No, I, yeah - No, that is one thing, Jeremy, I will say, the global role, like with the Asserna and energy components, like, Phew, I'm the kind of person that like,

29:10 you know, I wanna be prepared for what's coming at me. Right? So I really enjoy getting up very early, freakishly early, and it allows me to like be ready to fire on that 730 or 8 am. you know,

29:22 call. And so when you got, you know, when you got Europe and Asia going on, like there is no two hour window or nobody's working, you know, it doesn't exist anymore. So I had to put myself in

29:32 check there, I literally would, would not sleep during the week. But yeah, no. So on, on what do I do when I take breaks? So my husband and I are, we have this goal where when we, when we

29:46 stop working as much as we currently do, we want to get a sailboat, like a live aboard, awesome sailboat and just basically sail the world.

29:57 And so we did

30:02 a trial run on set south of increase, which was unreal. And we did one in the Florida Keys. So yeah.

30:10 That sounds like fun. It's amazing. Sounds terrifying to me. Yeah. I'm sure Lindsay, I really support this dream. Can you just stay where we can see the shore? I'm like, what? What would be

30:23 fun about that? Right. I've got some white lotus vibes.

30:28 You guys have seen that. I just started that. Don't don't eat. Don't don't. It's entertaining for sure. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I want to play a little bit of rapid fire and then we're going to

30:39 talk a little bit more about other stuff. I didn't prepare you for this, but we're going to do it anyway. I am going to say a person's name and you are going to have to say the first word that

30:48 comes to mind. Oh, geez. OK.

30:53 Bill Lane

30:60 kids. You guys like a million of them. Let's first think in my kids. Yeah. How about you, Rish? Oh, I'm playing too. Oh, you're both playing.

31:10 Rice energy.

31:13 Okay. I don't have to. Right. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We actually talked about that. Well, that's it. That was a good one for sure. You guys were all over there. Marsha Ville.

31:25 Bad ass

31:32 I'm going to get a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a

31:41 You gotta go first, I just met the guy - I got three words, four words. Don't fuck with him - For real -

31:52 Okay, now I'm excited to really get to know him - Sleep doctor, I like to call him, he'll put you to sleep, not in the way that you want to be put to sleep.

32:02 Jason Webster -

32:04 I mean, Jason Webster is synonymous with land. Land - Land - For me, it's, for me, it's quorum - Yeah, yeah - He's just Mr. Quorum, right - I mean, he's my path to quorum. Maybe friend is

32:17 probably another great word - Friend is the next one. Yeah, Jason's a phenomenal guy -

32:25 Texas football -

32:30 Well, okay, first thing you can do mine for me was Vince Young because - Well, I mean, it's true - You had a championship game. I was there, it was amazing. Yes.

32:39 It was the best game ever. It was just really long. It was a really long time ago. So that's. So 2006 or something frustrating.

32:49 Nice. Smell my true Austin. Yeah. And final one, G. Austin. Oh, legend.

32:59 Yeah, I love that guy.

33:02 Love. That's usually your word, right? Soresh. Yeah. OK. Yeah. Love.

33:09 All right, I won't put you guys on the hot seat anymore, but that was fun. So I want to talk about the future a little bit with quorum because things have changed so much. Like I can actually

33:18 still picture where I was when I read about Silver Lake, the number three 10 comes to mind reading an article. I think it came up on LinkedIn. I was at the different house that I'm at now and

33:30 thinking, whoa, these guys are getting pretty big. Like somebody just invested a lot of money in them And obviously, it's grown significantly since. with all of the Toma Bravo and private equity

33:41 acquisitions that you have, I'm curious about where you go. You've consolidated much of the space that is logical for where Quorum has played and where Quorum is going. Really everything outside of

33:53 like data and invoicing. Like as I see it, you guys play almost everywhere. And I saw recently there was like a PIPAC position which furthers you into the engineering and forecasting world. So

34:06 what happens next? Like is it carbon capture accounting? Is it ESG related tech? Is it geo thermal related? I mean, so where do you go? Like of course you're gonna go deeper and continue to take

34:20 the market further where you exist today. As you think about this energy transition or whatever that means and Quorum is gonna look for additional opportunities. What does that mean for the future?

34:32 Like what does your company look like in five or 10 years?

34:36 Yeah, I'll start, Rish, and then you should give your perspectives too. I mean, I think first of all, what I love about the way that we have built what we are now is that we did not hire a bunch

34:51 of engineers and put them in a closet and say, okay, build a land system, build an accounting system, right? Oh, now we need a pipeline system, go. That companies do, you know, tech

35:04 companies do try to go that way. Man, it's a lot easier when you actually engage the customers to help you with the evolution of where you're going, right? It's because at the end of the day, it

35:18 doesn't matter what you think something should do. What matters is like, are you solving a problem for your customer every day? So I think we've learned through that that there's, you know, I

35:28 would be silly to even guess exactly what we're gonna look like in five years We could have never guessed where we would be right now. But I will say, Jeremy, I think that we have kind of two

35:42 tracks that we are very, very focused on. One is innovating in the space where we currently live. So we do not view these solutions as static or the market as static, right? So and that's a big

35:56 job, like continuing to push innovation where we currently cover is a huge job That said, we know that we need to be ahead of the game. And we need to be a leader in the energy transition. And so

36:11 that's been a huge focus for us, as you can imagine, especially as we look at the global business. I think one of, in the short term, over the next couple of years, I think you're going to see

36:20 us very, very incredibly strong in LNG. We believe as a company that when you talk about clean energy and what the world needs right now, It's like the world needs, the world needs to. to make

36:34 use of the amazing phenomenal resources, natural gas resources that we have, right? And we're working with the largest customers in the US there, and we have the LNG solution and energy components,

36:48 and we're out there talking globally about how we can help with this challenge. So I think you'll see a lot of that over the next couple of years, but at the same time, there's no question, the

36:59 emissions management carbon capture, we're gonna see that become table stakes, right? There's gonna be very mature processes and measurement and standards and solutions around that, and you're

37:10 gonna see forms brand all over that, no question -

37:14 Yeah, well said, the only thing I think I would add to that is back to the sort of the mentality of being a startup and always sort of innovating and thinking about what other opportunities are out

37:25 there. You know, we were the first to really kind of work within the renewable space if you think about the wind and solar companies? It's been over a decade of partnering with a few of those

37:36 customers to build out, take some of the solutions that we have already and build out functionality

37:42 specific for the renewable space really around ERP and land management in particular. So again, there's a space for that and an evolution and innovation that's still required to continue to evolve.

37:55 I think that offering as well. Yeah, this is, those are great answers And I am curious, like I'm going to go to connections again this year at a blast last time. It's not really hard to. It's in

38:06 Vegas. So if you get bored in any of the sessions, you can just go to the craps tables and see some of your friends hanging out there. Yeah. But I had a really fun time and I actually learned a

38:17 bunch in the sessions that I went to. I thought you guys incorporated thought leadership nicely without it just being, and this is so annoying, but like a commercial for what quorum is doing

38:30 Because that just turned, I mean, me, you know. I wanna hear what you're doing, but if it's just like, wow, look at all these great things we've done. That's not what people wanna hear. Like

38:38 you also wanna hear where things went wrong, right? Where things could be better. And where the company is going. And I thought there was a good balance with it being in Vegas of the social and

38:48 the educational aspect. And culturally, I was impressed with what you guys have going on. So definitely looking forward to go any connections, would definitely advise any of the people that use

38:59 any of the applications within Quorum to go to that event. It's a fun one. And this is just fun for me too, because you guys are sales guys. So I can ask you any question and you're gonna have

39:09 answers. So one that I wanna ask, and I'm not sure if you guys thought through this, but is there like a specific sales presentation or sales meeting that you guys just bombed terribly that stands

39:22 out in the history of your time at Quorum together? And if that's too much on the spot, you don't have to answer it. But generally speaking, like I have some that come to mind. for me and I'm

39:33 just curious if you can answer that - So you went in a very interesting order in bringing up connections which I'm so glad you're coming again and straight into, you know, bombing a sales

39:43 presentation. So I have a story on this action. So Richard, like relatively like well behaved, I guess, in general,

39:57 I don't know that together we've, we have any super embarrassing funny stories, but man connections, I'm not gonna call the individuals out, but they are absolutely still with Coron and two of my

40:03 favorites. So we have, you know, connections is like for the Coron employees, it is about endurance, right? Endurance and your alcohol tolerance. Like those are the two most important criteria

40:17 for being an invitation to connections because at the end of the day, the customer sessions are the utmost, like that is the priority, that's why we're there, right? But you can't eliminate the

40:28 rest. So the customer is also on a party. So you got to be customer services both sides. You just can't help. So there was a session, I want to say it was a divisional session. And there was a

40:40 literal tap out, meaning the main presenter was going, realized that he was about to throw up, kind of gave the very professional nod to his co-presenter, exited, took care of business, and then

40:55 came back in and continued to present. And I mean, this is probably 15 years ago, but it is to this day the most legendary connection story of all time. We have since, of course, told all of the

41:06 customers that were present, what happened, because it's hilarious. But at the time, they've completely pulled it off, which is astonishing. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah. You know who you are.

41:18 Hopefully you're listening to this.

41:21 Time to don't do it again. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like one of my friends at BOLO had a very similar story where it's like, hey, listen, Amanda's two hungover, she can't present today. So you're

41:34 gonna do it. It's like, what about me? Maybe I'm two hungover too. So I didn't think I was presenting. So I drank more than Amanda did last time - No, you always have to be ready. You have to

41:43 be ready for that tap on the shoulder - Yeah, 100. And last question I wanted to ask, both of you, Sarush, I want you to dive into this too. Like what advice would you give to either your

41:57 younger self in your career or some of the younger employees that come into your organization early to mid 20s? Anything that kind of comes to mind on what you would go back in time and sit down with

42:09 yourself and whatever early to mid 40s, self, or what you would tell to somebody that's new coming into the industry or your organization that might help them exponentially -

42:22 Rish Kefos.

42:25 Yeah, it's interesting. I have kids, so I feel like my oldest is 14 and a 12 and a five year old. And I feel like I'm starting to realize like what I tell them right now matters more than it did

42:36 three, four, five years ago. And I really want them to grasp some of the things that I'm saying. I don't know that they listen to me at all, but so sometimes I tell other dads to tell my kids the

42:45 things that don't listen to the same things from them more than they know from me. But yeah, no, I think there's a couple things that come to mind The first is really sort of a Gene Austin thing,

42:55 which I think I, for myself, like I try and adhere to every day, which is just simply do what you say you're gonna do. Right? Like I went to lunch yesterday with somebody and I told them that I

43:09 was gonna send out a note when I got back from lunch and connect people. And it was about 530 and I had to run to go to practice with the kids. And I realized I hadn't sent it yet. And I was like,

43:18 well, we're gonna be like the practice 'cause I'm gonna go send this email 'cause I said I was gonna send it And if I don't do it now, then it won't happen, right? That's just a very basic example

43:27 of the power behind your word. If you say you're going to do something and you do it and you hold yourself accountable first and foremost, like you are setting that standard for yourself and then

43:36 people learn to trust and rely on you in return as well. So. Great answer. Yeah. That's one. The other, the other one is like, man, just outwork everybody. Like just outwork everybody. Like

43:49 your competition, your peers, like in a healthy way, right? Like don't, don't like your, your effort be in the way of your own success, your company success, your reputation and your legacy.

44:01 Like just outwork everybody. I think those two things for me are, I can't fathom, you know, again, I didn't have a sales bone in my body, but I am super competitive. And what I realized, one

44:10 of the things that I love about sales is not convincing a customer to do something they're not sure about, but it's, it's once you know your driving value for the customer, if it's competitive,

44:18 like, I want to be sure. Yeah. You want to. Yeah and like yeah so. Okay, I'll stop - So, I think the passion and energy is contagious, by the way, it's so awesome for our whole team.

44:36 Yeah, so for me, you know, talking to my 20 year old, my younger self, I think what I would say is to have confidence that you will be very successful by being exactly who you are. I know it

44:51 sounds really cheesy, but what I mean by that is, you know, as someone who I join an industry, I don't know with a background that really should not have let me in the door.

45:03 It's very easy, you know, and I did. I spent two years, you know, being so nervous because I wanted to be like the other people in the room, right, like I wanted to code as well as our freaking,

45:15 you know, electrical engineers. And I wanted to know oil and gas as well as our customers. And I just felt like I couldn't be myself until until until, right? And what I realized, the second I

45:28 got on my first customer engagement, in person I can't help but be myself, like I don't really have a filter or any sort of off switch, I just am who I am. And what I realized was, my natural

45:41 curiosity and the people skills, I was learning so much about the business by just asking questions. And all of a sudden I was getting invited and more and more senior meetings with customers and

45:55 all of a sudden I'm selling out on deals without even, I didn't mean to you. And what I realized is that the best teams are made up of people who are aware of their core competency, not people who

46:09 are trying to have all the core competencies, right? Those are the best teams and I wish I knew that earlier because I would have a two year leg up on everybody else. A leg, three years. I mean,

46:21 this all speaks to me and I'll add into this a little bit more. Really, three words come to mind from the two answers, Sreusch accountability, right? And Lindsey, two words, authenticity and

46:35 curiosity. I think it took me like 10 or 11 years into my career to truly be myself. I really wanted to impress everybody and be all things to all people and not show any weakness whatsoever. And

46:52 it didn't really click for me until it got to the point where I'm like, you know what? Like, maybe I don't know the answer. And that's okay, because people don't expect me to know the answer

47:01 every single time. And people don't expect me to be perfect. Like, I'm gonna make mistakes. I'm trying to be perfect, but I'm a flawed individual. We all are. Yeah. So, but it took years and

47:12 years and years to learn that. So that does really stick out to me. to be curious and to be authentically you because that will be enough. And maybe it's not gonna be enough in your current role,

47:24 but you'll find the right position or the right company where it will be enough. And my final thought with this is like, I'm gonna be authentic in saying this. Like, I wish I worked with you guys,

47:36 honestly. Like, I think that having met the two of you and spent some time and been at your user conferences, I spent so many years trying to find the right employer. And I went through all these

47:49 interview processes with companies like P2 and just like never really found the fit. And it was actually right there. Like, there would have been like a natural marriage with my skills and my work

48:01 ethic and the way that Quorum does things. So it's been really cool for me in a different way to be able to provide value with you guys on the recruiting side, to be able to spend time user

48:13 conferences. Seeing one of my closest friends in the industry, Marsha, settle into the role, right? Seeing people like Tom and Musab, Exceed. And it's just awesome. Like I do think you guys

48:25 have a really good thing going. And Corum's not perfect, the products aren't perfect, but you guys definitely have an understanding of where you're strong. And I think where you are weaker, there

48:35 is a desire to be better, right? And I think that's all you can really look for, because nobody likes their ERP vendor Everybody seems to hate their accounting vendor. It doesn't matter who's

48:46 thinking, say, oh, I hear Corum's failing in this, and P2's failing in this. Accounts are never happy, right? Like that's just the deal, right? So accepting that and finding what can make

48:56 them at least like moderately happy and referenceable is probably a good thing. So kudos to you guys and really enjoyed this time. Any final thoughts you wanna throw out there, a shout out to

49:09 Connections or Nate Booth, I'm going to shout out one thing, because this topic of accountants are never happy. I literally got a quote from our, we have CSAT surveys that are constantly out there

49:22 in the wild for customers to respond to. And there was one today that was from an accountant, one of our customers, that was just thrilled with the level of service from our team. And so my shout

49:34 out is really around this support team around our on demand products in particular But yeah, I'm going to copy and paste it in the email to you Jeremy, so you can read a happy accountant quote. But

49:48 they do exist. And again, the reason it exists is because of a relationship, right?

49:54 And people treating people as people and wanting to serve each other, et cetera. But my other quick thought is that we each have a responsibility. Like it's one thing for us to pass on to children

50:06 in our own families, like some of these things But it's another, like we have a direct. influence on people that work with us every day in our teams. And these lessons are so important, right?

50:16 Everybody's sort of like, I was super insecure for the first 10 years of my imposter syndrome career. Like that environment doesn't have to exist in its leaders within organizations that ensure that

50:28 it doesn't exist by everybody sort of getting that sense of empowerment and comfortably with themselves, right? So that they can be themselves in the role they're fulfilling, sorry, done No, I

50:39 love that. Jeremy, I just wanted to thank you. I mean, the team, like you nailed it, I think, and you are such a great cultural fit that now, like when you give us a recommendation on a person,

50:49 it's like, oh, bring him in, let's go. So thank you for that. And, but no, the biggest compliment I've ever received at Connections had nothing to do with this session. It was a customer

51:00 saying, man, I look at how you guys, like the quorum team, interacts. And I want to work for something like that. Like I want to be on a team like that. You know, it really does help when you

51:13 come to work every day and love the people that you're hanging out with. And the last thing is I just love this, that you're doing this. I think that - I think you're really set it right. But our

51:22 industry is about people. Like we're solving problems. It is humans interacting to solve massive complex problems, right? And it helps so much when, especially in this post-COVID era, where we

51:37 don't walk the halls as much as we used to, right? It's so cool to have profiles out there of people that are contributing to our space, right? I think it's super cool. And I will be stalking

51:48 your podcast for the next - so thank you. Thank you, guys. This is a fun one. And definitely have your sales team listen to this. We like the downloads But you know, digital lock adders credit

52:02 to those guys. all the editing and platforming and do a great job with that. And I know they're big fans of your organization as well. So keep up the good work. I'll see you guys at NAIP and

52:12 definitely have a little party with you guys in Vegas. Love it. Thank you, Sarah. Have a good weekend.