What The Funk?

0:00 We just had twelve and a half minutes of great content we believe that we lost it all of it is the first time and we're having to restart a podcast and for US it'll be redundant for a few minutes but

0:13 man frustrating sorry Braxton or being a content or it was really was listening if you don't get to hear it unbelievable stuff but Yeah I can't like I probably say some of the greatest twelve minutes

0:29 we've put down here on tripping over the barrel that none of you will ever be able to listen to and anatomy you know I don't even know if this is recording right now after what just happened

0:38 faith in humanity today you'd go back and do your meditation again I think avidity to that was a fun conversation to jump back into that and but a losing content you should know you are a young chief

0:52 marketing officer right so you can you can sympathize with that level of frustration but one of the things we lost here is Our guest today is Braxton Huggins, currently with data-gration. Braxton,

1:08 we need to kind of revisit your bio here. Kind of give us your background and then how you got into this space. Yeah, so for sure, I'll hit

1:12 the

1:21 high points because it is a little redundant for you guys, but for the listeners, it'll be new content, new fresh content

1:29 Yeah, so seven generation Texan, like I said, family's born and raised here in Fort Worth, grew up in a small town called Paradise, Texas, which is northwest of Fort Worth.

1:41 I've been in marketing for the last 12 years in various functions, various roles, worked with some great companies in the industry and that are non-industry as well. So Hearst, who happens the

1:54 Houston Chronicle there in Houston, I've got to do work with, and then Halliburton, which we all know. I've been able to to work with and Yesterday and got two incredible sons live here in fort

2:06 worth and like you said currently the CML for denigration saw seventh generation Texan so we discussed earlier but that we think that wins the the battle for the moat the best claim most Texan the

2:21 most Texan that we've ever had on this show for sure and not yet I was thinking I should get that tattooed you might as well Yeah Yeah Yeah you Think You're Texan I'm more Texan yet why you know and

2:33 so and while we're doing all this you know that that new show or eighteen eighty three the prequel that Yellowstone's going on that that set the first at least the first episode I Dunno about the rest

2:44 is really kind of set in Old Fort Worth and I was I was kind of shocked to see just how they portrayed fort worth I Dunno but that's how it was or not but we were discussing jeremy while you are off

2:54 but it's film right down the road from where he's living I know someone who can tell you how was

3:01 who's that? Well, you're, you happen to have them on your podcast. I know. I'm sure they have the, the written and the family animals somewhere about what it was like in the 1880s. No,

3:11 seriously. I mean, that's, uh, that's, that's really cool stuff. Are you going to watch that? Yes, of course. Yeah. I've watched the, the first one. And then like I was telling Tim a big

3:21 Yellowstone fan. So I've kind of followed it all the way till today. I've been slacking with the, with the shows lately, you know, Tim with the podcast we did earlier with Sarah Stogner. I

3:33 talked a lot about cannabis. And one of the things

3:38 I was thinking is the Hearst family is one of the ones that started the whole reefer madness campaign many, many years ago, right? That led to sort of the demonization of marijuana. Yeah,

3:48 interesting, interesting tale. So ties it all back somehow with our guests here. But I've got, I've got a bunch of questions for you, Braxton. And I think like one of them. Fortunately, I

4:01 don't really like the way that I asked it last time. So I'm going to ask it a different way this time. I see a lot of people not wanting to get into oil and gas younger people. Just in general,

4:13 even if I can say, Hey, here's an opportunity we're placing for it and I can make it sound really cool. It's just not as exciting as a well-funded SaaS technology company. That's sort of free of

4:26 the energy, oil and gas type routes Yeah, you've made the decision to stay focused in oil and gas tech. And I wanted to sort of see from your perspective, the opportunities you think there are,

4:42 despite the fact that there are some shortcomings with a lot of the data and technology in oil and gas. Yeah. So I think that for you and being able to recruit into the industry, positioning a lot

4:53 of these companies as true software companies and pulling comparisons from outside the industry. right is the best way just to get their attention. Not even mentioning oil and gas, not even

5:05 mentioning energy in some instances. It's a pure technology play and being able to position it in that manner is really what we're going to have to do here in the interim to continue building our

5:20 talent pools, continuing recruiting the top tier talent. And then I do think that as the industry transitions into new ways of positioning themselves in new ways of accomplishing a lot of their

5:35 personal and company goals, it'll be less oil and gas specific and they'll probably be going through a rebranding exercise as we see a lot of the operators doing today. And so that'll be the natural

5:50 progression I feel like is starting with tech and then five, 10 years from now, oil and gas might not even be in company's names anymore Yeah. Yeah, we've touched on that a little bit here. Yeah,

6:02 and I think the

6:06 industry has not done a good job of branding itself historically from the other than the JRU-ing, big money perception. It really hasn't done a great job of doing that. We had Dr. Spath from AM on,

6:23 he's the department head, and we talked about that. We know the future of oil and gas is strong There's a need for the young people coming in now. There's a strong need. And it's gonna be around,

6:36 well, I mean, for as long as our lifetimes exist. So there's gonna be an industry, and then it's gonna morph. We know that we're gonna need hydrogen storage and ammonia storage and all the other

6:49 things that we're gonna transition to in 50 years. The same technologies are gonna be needed for that. So I mean, it's a branding problem, It's going to be difficult to, I think, get the young

7:01 people. They all want to go into what's sexy and new and Bitcoin and whatever else is coming in. Sure.

7:09 So, as far as Braxton data gradation, so I wanted to talk a little bit about this company. Sort of, how did you end up there and what are you passionate about, right? What do you get up every

7:23 day in terms of work? And I prefaced that by saying, I know that your background is in data and you've got a pretty

7:31 broad view of technology solutions. And this is sort of the company that you chose to go to. So I'm curious what is it that stood out and what gets you going on a daily basis, so business-wise?

7:42 Yeah, so prior to data integration, I was actually doing a lot of consulting for energy tech companies there at QC, from geospatial companies to cyber security companies to

7:54 general data companies, like production data.

7:59 And whenever I was approached to join integration, understanding that the software plays nicely with all of those single solutions and all those different applications was nice because as a marketer,

8:17 I also have that challenge, right? There's very few platforms that are out there that are able to integrate all the different applications into a single view, I use HubSpot for that. And I no

8:33 longer have to worry about my email service, my social media service, my paid media service, all these different one-off solutions because HubSpot has it right there in that single view, very

8:46 similar to data ratio in the petrovisor platform. They're gonna be able to pull in that wells and drilling data, the HSC data, the petro physics geology data. all into a single location. And I

9:01 truly believe that it gives operators that advantage just from a data management perspective, but also being able to have visibility into their operations. And that's really what is attractive for

9:13 me is, being able to educate operators, educate the industry, that there are better ways to manage data, but there's also a solution that allows you to have it all in one place. Yes So your title

9:28 is CML or Chief Marketing Officer. So what's kind of the day-to-day for you from a marketing perspective?

9:37 Depends on the day.

9:40 Right, we could talk Monday, Tuesday, where there's a Friday and every day it's gonna be different. You know, one day I might be crafting a press release. The next day I might be working on the

9:50 website. And, you know, for me, I really pride myself on being a generalist in marketing and kind of being able

9:59 I manage everything from our website, to our social content, to our PR content, to all of our paid media and advertising opportunities. Any sponsorships or in-person events, I'll help coordinate

10:13 that. And then I do work a lot with our executives on their speaking engagements and how they can reach out to their peer network. So crafting those emails, crafting that content for them is a part

10:25 of just my day-to-day task

10:28 Now, Jeremy and I are, well, Jeremy's a sales guy. I'm kind of a sales guy, kind of a sales guy. But I think, hey, stop it. I think that so many times I find, if I say I'm in sales or Jeremy

10:48 says he's in sales, they always want to throw the end marketing afterwards

10:53 So I'm gonna use this opportunity kind of lets you define the difference between sales and marketing. What is the role of marketing? What is the role of sales? And why do they get stuck together so

11:05 often? You know, I'm going to be a biased marketer and say that marketing actually covers all business functions. I work with sales just as much as I do with our customer success teams. And that's

11:21 an important, you know, piece of the marketing role today is it's not so much getting inbound traffic, but also as marketers, we're going to have to retain our customers and come up with

11:33 strategies to, you know, kind of make their experience better, provide opportunities for upselling and cross-selling. And that's customer success because after implementation, it's going to roll

11:45 over to that, you know, business unit, and they're now in charge of, you know, keeping that customer happy. But just like all the inbound content, they're going to need PDFs, they're going to

11:55 need videos, they're going to need micro science, they're going to need all the different elements of marketing for their roles. So, looking at sales, the big differentiation from a customer

12:08 success in them is how I approach and the voice that I use in going after prospects. Yeah, 'cause I've seen it handled, I think it just kind of depends on the personality, especially in startups

12:22 I've seen where the sales function guy becomes the sales and own sales and marketing, and for them, marketing has one function, and that is to deliver leads, you know? And when marketing and

12:38 sales kind of have a separate approach, then you get into the branding and all the other things that aren't necessarily just straight lead generation, right? That's kind of why I phrased the

12:50 question, I really wanted to get into that just a little bit. Yeah, so, you know, for me, branding versus Legion are the same in terms of priority. And especially for companies like Datagration,

13:05 who are new to the market, you know, branding is extremely important because we need to be consistent in our visuals, our voice, you know, our product delivery, anything that we do has to be

13:17 consistent That's one of the biggest killers for startups today, I believe, is inconsistency. They can never get momentum in how they're delivering, you know, any type of strategy, any type of

13:29 product development. And because you do have these different voices of sales, product development, marketing that are all saying something different. And if you are an organization that are

13:42 getting ready to go to market, having a consistent message across your entire organization is super, super important is it is and you know I've actually been reflecting back and thinking back at I

13:53 mean I've worked at a number of different companies of course do consulting with various different organizations and I think that the best companies that I've seen the sales and marketing team have a

14:08 very strong feedback loop that would go from sales to marketing and marketing can then distill what the messages I've seen too many times marketing come in especially if it's a new chief marketing

14:20 officer come in and say this is the message and then the sales guy gets disgruntled because they don't believe that's actually what it does and now they're pissed off that they're saying that's the

14:27 message and this is what it really does need I've seen that a million times right so I think that feedback loop is is supercritical the alignment with the with the revenue side so so Yes I I agree

14:39 there's the customer success you need to have that alignments you can understand the stories you want to pitch press releases and I've seen a lot more of this too I think I as a as a sales guy and you

14:51 know it had generally just viewed like what Tim Said It just, whatever can drive leads, and that's how I can quantify if it was effective. I've talked to Colin McClellan about this. Like, how can

15:00 you say what the value is of their, one of their events? If somebody buys right away, then maybe it's gonna be a bust. Does it result in two meetings? Okay, maybe it's good. What if somebody

15:10 buys something 14 months down the road, and it's the biggest deal you've ever done, and you can trace it back. It's very hard, right? But was that past the statute of limitations for it to be of

15:19 value? So, you know, I think that's a challenge for marketing in general is how do you quantify the value that you provide over time when you know some of these things are gonna take a long time.

15:30 Sure, so for me, like I've made just a conscious effort to say, hey, if I'm not able to track return on any type of marketing event, I'm not gonna do it, right? And, you know, sometimes just

15:44 run all some individuals because, you know, they might wanna speak or might wanna sponsor an event Like, we got clay shoots, we got golf tournaments, great networking events, but for me as a

15:57 marketer and that's coming out of my marketing budget, I want to be able to prove my worth and my return for the company.

16:07 If I'm not able to track those metrics, I just don't do it. HubSpot is a great tool for that. Being able to showcase what is a marketing-sourced deal and marketing-sourced revenue versus

16:21 marketing-influenced revenue, that's an important differentiation. One of the KPIs that I look at every single day. That's interesting. I've got a side story. I've got a conference that I really

16:38 enjoy going to, and Jeremy does as well, put on by GDS. We really like the format. It's expensive. From a small company doing, it takes a good chunk of the budget.

16:52 It has a long sale cycle, OVS. And sometimes as you lose track, we make a sale, but it might be two years later, but it really came from a GDS conference. So it's real hard for when you're

17:06 pitching for marketing dollars to go back to a show that took two years to close, but it wound up being a six to one return on investment. So can you do it again? So there's a time window. So my

17:18 question to you is, and I'm not pitching that conference, although if anyone wants to talk about it, I'm happy to. What is the window that you would give a meeting or

17:31 an event or something like that to determine its success or not?

17:35 So for my success, it's getting meetings, right? They're in the very beginning. Is how is the market or can I get meetings, whether they're in person, whether they're virtual for our sales and

17:48 our BD teams? And that's how I first measure success. And for me, that needs to happen within the first seven days, 14 days. Sometimes I'm sending leads, and our sales team's following up within

18:04 15 minutes. So it really kind of depends. But as a marketer, first priority is to get meetings. Second priority is to influence those individuals to a point of sale. And that's when they're

18:18 putting pen to paper for that contract

18:22 And that could take, like you said, it could take six months, nine months, 12 months. It really depends for software sales. As I look at where I believe that we should stay, I'm looking at

18:33 other industries and how they're doing their software sales. And it's 30 to 45, 60 days. So your metric is delivering the meeting and getting the sales team involved. Do you continue on to measure,

18:46 does it go to close or? Yeah, absolutely. So being able to see the full pipeline, and being able to see the full progression of that lead from entry point to contract one, I'm able to have that

18:58 visibility. And that's important, 'cause like I mentioned, just because the contract has been signed, doesn't mean that the deal stops, because that is when we'll transition that out of our sales

19:13 pipeline into the customer success pipeline, and they go through a progression of steps too, which marketing's evolved at

19:21 I want to jump into, this is really insightful. I'm enjoying all the marketing talk. It shows me how little I actually know, even though at one point it was a VP of marketing, somewhere

19:29 technically. Yeah, I shouldn't have been.

19:32 I'm curious about the marketing approach for a new startup technology company versus going in and doing marketing or running marketing for a more established type company. Especially if that company

19:47 has a fairly good brand Can you talk a little bit about some of your experiences and do you have to be more aggressive in some ways or a little more gentle in others? Or, you know what I mean, be

19:59 more risque versus conservative? I'm just curious kind of your perspective in the two kind of opposite ends of the spectrum. Yeah. So I think that everybody is gonna have a different sales approach

20:13 and a different marketing approach, whether you're conservative or whether you're very forward in how you are trying to get customers. But the foundation really needs to remain the same. That's

20:27 where companies need to commit to that message, commit to that approach. They need to follow through with what they say they're gonna do, that's a big piece of it. I see a lot of startups where

20:39 they'll go and tell the world about their product, but they never showcase it. They never follow through with what they say that they truly have or what they say that they're going to give. the

20:50 industry, so focus, commit, follow through, and being able to have that as your core foundation as a marketer is important for these new companies trying to get into the space.

21:04 As far as like, just getting leads and stuff like that, there's so many tools, whether it's free or paid tools, that allow you to segment the audience that you are really focused on for a very low

21:17 commitment So you're gonna have the right people to talk to, it's no longer the days of having to find the business cards or go out and do door-to-door knocking. You have digital tools that can help

21:30 you scale those efforts way faster than it was five, even 10 years ago. Oh yeah, yeah. Just within last year, I've gotten into Zoom info. Matter of fact, if you look at my screen, I got the

21:41 little Z right here off the corner of my screen. So do I, so do I, I have both of us I'll go go find everything we want about Braxton Huggins at whatever company Yeah. Let's go back. I want to go

21:52 back in the history because I'm actually leading the witness on this one, Jeremy. I want to get back to the story, but so you're coming out of Fort Worth. You go attend Abilene Christian, you

22:03 know, looking at your history, you go, it looks like you went straight into marketing. Was that your, was that your aim was to go into marketing in school? Yeah. So it wasn't the initial aim.

22:13 I did want to be an international lawyer, but quickly under, found out that it was going to take way too long and I did not want to go to school for that. And you just began to start a good money

22:23 too. Yeah. I'm looking at my sister and she's getting her doctorate and she's going into like her ninth or tenth year of school and like for me, I just can't, can't do it, right? I was able to

22:34 graduate from ACU in three years. So I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. But understanding that the lawyer route was not going to be yet, I started doing kind of the Facebook business

22:49 pages or startups and churches there in the Abilene area. At the time, Facebook business pages had just launched. So using that as a way to get those companies noticed was how it really got into

23:04 marketing. And then you got out of school and I guess you went to work for Rig Day to pretty much straight out of school, right? Yeah, straight out of school was able to get a job at the family

23:13 company and the rest is history. Yeah, so anyway, so this is what I wanna plug into, but so while you're there, you're the social media marketing manager, and this was like 2010-ish. Yeah. And,

23:26 you know, I am leading you 'cause I wanna get to the story that was on the other recording we didn't get to, but you know, what was that like working with family and kind of building a marketing

23:36 program for Rig Day to? Yeah, so for Rig Day to the traditional marketing method was, you know, we had our calendars that we would send every year that would go to the dog house in the sand. and

23:50 they had our logo on it. And then our reports, which we mailed out every Friday, that was the main marketing. There wasn't a whole lot of effort there. So I came in 2010, helped rebrand and

24:04 rebuild the website. That was a core function that I did. And then, you know, social media, while it was interesting, I had launched the Rig Data Twitter account, had launched the Rig Data

24:16 LinkedIn and Facebook And, you know, my granddad had found it. And he's like, Hey, Braxton, there's no placefor social media and oil and gas. And so, if you wanna do social media for oil and

24:29 gas, you're gonna have to go do it somewhere else. And at that point is when I said, You know what, I think it's not a fad, it's gonna stay around. And so, ended up leaving Rig Data there for a

24:40 short step. So, would you say your own grandfather fired you?

24:46 I wouldn't say fired. is he married he showed him the door and said if you'd like to open it go right ahead and I believe on the other side there's really great things in his grandfather said then go

24:58 find them somewhere else it was a it was a heavily influenced conversation wow thanks grabbed hops but I mean it but nonetheless maybe you needed that for your own career anyway your own evolution

25:11 probably would have stayed more stagnant right I I truly think so and that really allowed me to go and have these great opportunities with a variety of different companies all in that kind of digital

25:24 marketing space and I know if I were to stay there read data I would have been stagnant and I just I wouldn't have as is always the case those adversities and challenges you know what's right you know

25:38 you know where you're going if as if this yet all that those challenges always when you look back while I was a I'm glad it happened Maybe not the way it did, but I'm glad it happened because now,

25:51 you know, CMO at an up-and-coming, oil and gas software company called Datigration. Right. It's a great story. Yeah, no, I mean, it's really, and really it's just getting started, right? I

26:03 mean, you know, you guys are a young company. You're still fairly young in your career, you know. I love the fact that, you know, he's in the very small percentage of people that he said he has

26:12 liked our podcast on YouTube, apparently, which is really, I mean, he kind of made my day. I'm not gonna lie 'cause I thought it was either my account or maybe, you know, my daughter's account

26:23 if I like signed myself out and signed in as her so I could like it additionally. But no, this is really insightful. I do wanna challenge you on the, is data duration really a young company?

26:36 There's a lot of history behind this company that goes back. I mean, one could argue to 2003, 2004 Well, yeah, I mean, sure. One could argue,

26:50 so there was a company formed in Austria years ago decide that wound up selling to slumber jay and over a long period of time that core group of people go out and start another company and you know,

27:05 and I guess the name data gration is what a year at 14 months old now Yes, so we launched last year so a little over a year and some change. I like

27:19 to answer your question. Yes, the technology that we have has been commercialized for well over a decade And so that's that's our petro visor platform, which was created in Austria by Michael

27:33 Stunner. And a lot of our team is still there and you know they are cranking out tons of work, tons of great work. But that's a date of gration. Yes, is new. That's what I think. You know, and

27:46 that's what I think. I think it's kind of cool about datagram it was it's been around awhile and then I forget the investment group but came in and the name Data gration comes about and suddenly I'm

27:60 Gonna Brag on you a little bit because my feed on Linkedin you know I've got some cookies I've done some research on decoration is covered with data gration ADS I mean I get all over the place I mean

28:12 I've seen it's very effective and some Crowdsale I aM constantly seeing data gracious and I might add a very consistent look and feel different messages that all kind of point you try to point back

28:26 but it was fashioning that's really spent I envy quite honestly as a Quasi competitor Day integration the effort that the way you spend your marketing dollars is I have been very effective at least

28:39 marketing to me who's not a buyer some great years but it's a mighty hit me but Ah It is has been very effective in my opinion

28:49 although you may be better to know that the the industry and the scene what we're putting out there that's always encouraging to to hear and obviously I can see the metrics are on My End and I have my

29:01 own metrics on what I'm Gonna say is successful but be able to to hear that individuals like yourself are are seeing our content and believe that it's a true consistent looking delay but a huge jug

29:12 bought in a mark on on my side Yeah I mean the the marketing is really good the product unfortunately is based on unit data

29:23 Yeah just kidding I wonder how many blisters even do a unit data is and if it if it's a disturbingly high number that's a problem that's just just your former clients of bolo that's all who know that

29:35 right people are still buying them oh Yeah Yeah oh so now that this is that I didn't know that because from my perspective, it was just a completely brand new thing without knowing that history,

29:49 right? So absolutely kudos on the branding side. And yeah, I do notice that it does crawl with me on my fantasy sites. So clearly it's got me kind of profiled, which it should - Fantasy sports

30:00 sites. Let's just make sure - Sorry, fantasy. So I make sure you're not getting a bad reputation with your fantasy sites. Thank you, Tim. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I do very much

30:10 appreciate that But yeah, I do admire brand building just because of the amount of consistency that it does require. And it's something that I've learned a little bit about this year, too, just

30:22 kind of in building my own brand. And that's a question I have for you, is how do you, as a person who understands the power in branding, in marketing, in the value of that? How do you separate

30:34 yourself from your brand? And I know it's an awkward question to ask somebody who's W2, but I'm just curious, right? because while you're building data-gration. The odds are you're not gonna be a

30:43 data gration for your entire career. You're still gonna be building your resume toward whatever chief marketing officer or beyond type role that you want. So how do you, like what advice would you

30:53 have to other marketers potentially or people in general that wanna build their company's brand, but also wanna build their own brand? Yeah,

31:02 first word of advice is find a good mentor, honestly. I think that as young individuals, we desperately need to have mentorship.

31:14 And as a marketer specifically, I can look back and there's been half a dozen or so individuals that I've considered a mentor in my life who basically have built my brand for me, through referrals,

31:27 through being able to brag on me and being able to really make those introductions who I'm very introverted by nature So I'm not going to have that, you know, extroverted. I Gotta go find leads I

31:42 Gotta go you know be proactive and I'm Canada I just want to sit back I want to do the work really really well I want to let that speak for for me and for what I can offer and it's up to companies but

31:54 beyond that all comes through good mentorship and that's what I would suggest for for anybody that is currently in the industry but also coming into the industry as a as a grader as a no one or two

32:06 year experienced hire yeah that's great advice great of US so Yeah and I think it it it really spanish is not just for marketing or brand items I think that is for for all walks of life and the

32:21 multiple your multiple roles in life I mean Braxton your Father your Marketing Manager You're I assume a husband I you know devastated Cowboys fan potentially Sound All

32:38 In all walks of life mentors are going to be a big thing right Yeah absolutely though Yeah

32:46 and now jeremy has his own set of Yoda's in his background as well who are mentoring him up so that Sir

32:54 They've been myth and screaming quite a bit not streaming that's screaming here in the lockdown cabin fever mid we've just watched home alone last night too oh Yeah and it's just so timeless right to

33:10 snuggle up with your kids watch home alone they they love it right it's just a totally timeless Classic I think I think I've watched the the grinch for a year and a half straight like my my oldest son

33:24 like that's what he wants to watch every night before he goes to bed for whatever reason so My Constant Day to Day is living and Christmas and so I I actually think I I've become the grudge so much to

33:35 say like for the holidays like White family has like matching Grinch Pajamas to who I am now Look I Can't Say I can empathize it may be even a little bit more than you but my father -in -law was a big

33:53 DR Seuss Grinch fan from the seventies and so during Christmas My Wife and My Girlfriend then wife now we would sit down every night before Crit are any Meal twenty Cynic twenty six minutes before the

34:07 meal we would start the cartoon so and he would just sit there and just recite the whole movie and as a consequence I now have the Grinch Little Cindy Lou who and Max in My Front yard as our Christmas

34:22 Decorations so there you go

34:25 in there's no sense in taking them down anytime soon cause it's not like you've got a snow coming through now doesn't look like it

34:34 then this Is This is good Stuff I wish we had the other twelve minutes too but I still feel like we crammed a lot in into s one Braxton where can where can people find you where can they find a data

34:45 gration yes it integration pretty simple decoration dot com for me getting checked with me on Linkedin and shoot me an email if you want at Braxton Huggins at GmAIl dot Com You Don't want to talk to

34:60 decoration all the time but Yup very simple and out there and more nappy to connect

35:08 Laura job racks and love having you on and there's a little bit awkward for me just because there is a certain level of competition we have but Thank God it's a it's it's not a big deal to to talk to

35:20 your competitors in a in a professional way so but Tim and I know we were supposed to sign off but I do want to chime in on this and Braxton has a responsibility to this really all all of US on this

35:31 colin surely some of the some of our listeners too A lot of people, all of everything sounds the same, right? And that's actually a problem. 'Cause surely what data integration does is different

35:41 than what OVS Group does versus what Spotfire does or Enla or whoever else is, you know, I can name a half dozen combo curve, other companies, like what you say it does or what somebody hears, it

35:53 sounds like it does. It could sound the same over and over again, right? So it really is a challenge to everyone to say, this is why, like we're different. Here's a second. And that's, I will

36:02 say that is the number one challenge that I currently have is differentiating away from everybody else. There's so much. And we're now starting a whole new thread that could last another 45 minutes,

36:14 but there are only so many words out there. You know, like the word digital oil field. Yeah. If you say that, you automatically triggered somebody, they now have you in a bucket that is not the

36:28 bucket you're in. But in fact, we use it this way. Petroleum experts uses it this way and then you know into your everyone's out there I remember when I was a spotfire we tried to corner the term

36:41 business analytics because business intelligence was already taken so we're going to be business analytics while we were too early the word analytics didn't take off until seven years later and

36:53 suddenly everybody claimed their their flag in the ground around analytics I was we were that firsts and you know it and it's really difficult because the words do you know at all of Us will say as

37:07 we're we work with operators to reduce operating expenses increased production and increase operational efficiency it allows to do that this week Yeah Yeah so what do you what do you really do Yeah

37:22 Yeah and I

37:25 empathize with marketing because you've got to try and come up with that phrase what is the 30 seconds that I can say that uniquely defines integration or spot fire or whatever else. Yeah. That's

37:37 difficult. It was really so much easier when there was less noise and less companies doing it, right? Like you could create what the story was and then it's, well, who else is doing it? All

37:52 right, it's just them. Now it feels like, oh, I can find endless options that do, I saw the same thing happen with AFU workflow There's one point where there was like two companies doing it and

38:01 then three years later, there's like 10 companies that have like a somewhat viable AFU work. And it's like, well, shit. All right, you know, and now I'm seeing sort of that data management

38:11 integration, BI piece. Oh, we can do that. You tell, like, you think a consultant, like I work with consultants, I would say, of course, that's what we do. What do you mean? We've proven

38:19 exactly that, right? So there's all different flavors, right? And certainly there's reasons that these companies exist, right? generally fool's goal.

38:29 Anyway, yeah. Hey, Brax is great. I, we kind of jumped into a new thread here, but it's great having you on and love to bring you back on if we get a chance. Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate

38:39 the time. See you, Brax.