Building Energy Events with Mark Immekus

00:00:00] Josh Lowrey: Welcome to the Energy Pipeline Podcast, sponsored by Caterpillar. My name is Josh Lowery. We are coming to you live from the Upright Digital media studios at Prein & Associates offices in Memorial, Texas. I am joined today by a unique and fun op- uh, guest. It's been a minute. It's been a minute since we've done this podcast.

[00:00:20] Josh Lowrey: We've had... This is our first podcast post summer break. Um, but my guest today is... Actually, I think it's gonna surprise you how long we've known each other. Do you know how long we've known each other?

[00:00:31] Mark Immekus: Probably since 2015 or '

[00:00:33] Josh Lowrey: 16. Man, 2008, Mark. Is

[00:00:36] Mark Immekus: it 2008?

[00:00:37] Josh Lowrey: 2008. 2008, Mark.

[00:00:41] Mark Immekus: I can't keep count of the years anymore.

[00:00:42] Josh Lowrey: That's all right. That's all right. So 2008, and we met in Fort Worth, Texas at the DUG event in 2008. Uh, Mark Immekus. Yeah, welcome Mark Immekus, by the way.

[00:00:54] Mark Immekus: Thank you. Thank you. Great to be here.

[00:00:56] Josh Lowrey: So Mark, have you ever done a podcast before?

[00:00:58] Mark Immekus: I have not. This'll be my [00:01:00] first one. You've been trying to get me to do this for so long and, and, uh, I finally agreed to it, so let's go.

[00:01:05] Josh Lowrey: I actually find that surprising you've never done one of these.

[00:01:07] Mark Immekus: Yeah.

[00:01:08] Josh Lowrey: So just so everybody knows, Mark Immekus is the president of events, uh, at Upright Digital. Um, Mark has been at Upright Digital since 2020, October of 2020. And remember that date, October of 2020, because we're gonna come back to that at a later time.

[00:01:23] Josh Lowrey: Uh, I actually met Mark in 2008 in Fort Worth, uh, at an event, the DUG event in Fort Worth, which was my opinion, was the craziest event of all time. Oil was, like, $140 a barrel. Um, George Bush spoke at that one, or did he speak in '09?

[00:01:43] Mark Immekus: It would've been '08. That would... Our keynote would probably have been Aubrey McClendon.

[00:01:46] Mark Immekus: In '

[00:01:47] Josh Lowrey: 08?

[00:01:47] Mark Immekus: Mm-hmm.

[00:01:48] Josh Lowrey: Okay. Did Bush speak in s- yeah, you're right. Yeah. Would he have probably spoke in s... Uh, no, he would've been post his presidency.

[00:01:54] Mark Immekus: Yeah, '08 is probably when the DUGs were just starting to come around. We were still... We were building them, and they [00:02:00] start to hit a peak around 2010. That's when we started getting those big speakers.

[00:02:03] Josh Lowrey: Okay. So I wanna... We're gonna come to that in a minute here too. So Mark Immekus, uh, a Georgia boy. Been in Houston a long time. So Mark, again- I'm doing this podcast with you for a number of reasons. Uh, number one, I think you're a great guy. I enjoy working with you. But more importantly, I don't think people have any idea what influence you've had on the oil and gas industry over the last 20 years.

[00:02:29] Josh Lowrey: Almost 20 years, really. Um, 15 at a minimum, 20 if you wanna push some, some limits on that '07, '08 timeframe. Um, I don't think people really understand what you've actually done, uh, what you've been a part of building, what you've built yourself. And I'm a huge believer... I always tell people, "It's not the widget, it's, it, it's how does the widget change your life?"

[00:02:51] Josh Lowrey: And there's a... there's people out there that build widgets that, um, they just... they're unaware that that guy built the widget. And [00:03:00] as a, just a friend of yours, as an admirer of yours, I mean, I mean, truly, uh, I think it's, it's high time that you get recognized. And you're one of these guys that you don't like the spotlight as much as I do.

[00:03:11] Josh Lowrey: So I, I like to jump out there. I always tell people I get a lot of credit for a lot of things I don't do. And, um, it's gonna be very fun to highlight you today. So thank you for being the guest on the Energy Pipeline Podcast today. Great to be here.

[00:03:23] Mark Immekus: All right. Now, Marcus.

[00:03:26] Josh Lowrey: It's actually Mark. I like to call him Marcus.

[00:03:28] Josh Lowrey: Um, you have You've been, we've, we've worked together for six years now.

[00:03:34] Mark Immekus: Yeah.

[00:03:35] Josh Lowrey: That's a long time. I love it.

[00:03:36] Mark Immekus: Long time.

[00:03:36] Josh Lowrey: But tell me how you actually got to Houston, how you got into this industry. You did not start out to become the, the event extor- the event planner extraordinaire.

[00:03:46] Mark Immekus: I do have a unique story.

[00:03:47] Mark Immekus: It's a, I kind of laugh at it every time I tell it, I tell it. Um, I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm from Chicago, but grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. And- Are

[00:03:55] Josh Lowrey: you an Atlanta fan

[00:03:57] Mark Immekus: of- I am a huge Atlanta Braves fan. We did [00:04:00] nothing in the trade deadline. Kind of upset right now, but we'll move forward.

[00:04:03] Josh Lowrey: Okay.

[00:04:04] Mark Immekus: Um, yeah, huge Falcons fan, Georgia Bulldogs.

[00:04:07] Mark Immekus: Uh, all my schooling was done in, in Georgia. And in 1996, the, Atlanta hosted the '96 Summer Games. And so when you host the Summer Games, you qualify in every single sport. Um, and so you had to build teams. So they had, there's all these grants that get put in around all the schools, uh, to develop all these different sports.

[00:04:29] Mark Immekus: And I first went to a junior college before I went to my university, and, um, I went a little late after college. Um, I, I actually worked in the printing industry in Heidelberg, and then I, um, got an opportunity to go to school, and I went in like mid, like I started in January of that year, and I met a guy from Bosnia who's now a five-time Paralympic skier.

[00:04:53] Mark Immekus: Um, but he got me into, involved in this sport called handball. And it's not what you think. It's not the wall ball [00:05:00] that everybody here in America thinks it is. It's a, almost like soccer or water polo without the water. It's, you know, but- It's way

[00:05:06] Josh Lowrey: more physical than people think

[00:05:06] Mark Immekus: it is. Way, yeah, it's, it's one of the most...

[00:05:09] Mark Immekus: I've played a lot of sports in my life, football, baseball, everything, and handball was one of the most taxing sports I've ever played. Uh, I was, I was undersized, but I used my football, um, abilities and what I knew as a defensive back to become a defensive player in handball. So I got into handball and, you know, because we were growing it, my junior college was in the SEC, and we won the SEC because the guy from Bosnia was really good.

[00:05:34] Mark Immekus: Um, and I st- uh, and I fell in love with the sport. Uh, made an SEC All-Star team. Uh, started traveling around. Was going to University of Georgia, University of North Carolina. We were going to West Point, playing in their big tournament every year. Uh, so it was a lot of fun. Uh, it got, you know, I couldn't play football at the next level 'cause I was too small, so this was my, this was my way to compensate for that.

[00:05:58] Mark Immekus: So- [00:06:00] Then I got involved with a nonprofit company, um, Rock Handball. It was developing youths to build them into future Olympians. And so, and that was, you know, my, spent my summers helping these kids learn how to play handball, and we'd, we'd take them over to Sweden, the largest handball tournament in the world.

[00:06:17] Mark Immekus: Thousands of kids, like opening ceremonies was incredible. And the leader of that group had an opportunity to move here to Houston because we did our world cha- our, our club championships in Houston like two or three years in a row. And at the time, Oliver Luck- Yep ... you know, all the older generations know that Oliver Luck as the quarterback of the Houston Oilers, and then all the younger generation knows Andrew Luck, his son, you know, former quarterback of the Colts.

[00:06:46] Mark Immekus: So I think Andrew was still in high school when I came over here, or maybe even younger. But we, uh... He fell in love with the sport. He was the Harris County Sports Authority CEO at the time, and he fell in love with handball. He's like, "I wanna build this. This is [00:07:00] cool. This is like high-scoring, physical.

[00:07:02] Mark Immekus: Let's get this put into... Let's get this put all over Texas." Um, so he recruited, um, the leader of Rock Handball over, and then a couple months later, she was like, "I need somebody to run the, uh, college division." And I, at the time I was working, uh, I was working at a restaurant in Greenville, South Carolina of all places, and I wanted out of that.

[00:07:22] Mark Immekus: And so I was like, "Okay, I'll come over." There's no money in handball. Mm. So she got me a part-time job at a oil and gas listing service. It was a real estate, it was called PLS at the time. Uh, Ronnie Weiss played handball at, at A&M, and so he's like... And he knew Oliver, and he was like, "I'll take him on part-time."

[00:07:42] Mark Immekus: So I, I went over there, and I started selling subscriptions, and I'm, I'm like-

[00:07:47] Josh Lowrey: That's crazy. It's

[00:07:49] Mark Immekus: wild. That's just

[00:07:49] Josh Lowrey: crazy. Yeah.

[00:07:50] Mark Immekus: So I'm sitting here selling subscriptions, and I'm doing pretty good. Then I realize, okay, there's an opportunity to sell advertising in this thing. And so I, I built a whole new, like- [00:08:00] Like almost new division of like selling advertising and that.

[00:08:03] Mark Immekus: And then I worked part-time on the, um, handball for a couple years, but then I was doing too well at, at PLS that I focused, you know, my focus went there. Um, so that's how I got to Houston was through Oliver Lux- Yeah ... love of handball.

[00:08:18] Josh Lowrey: That is absolutely... Isn't that just nuts how the world works?

[00:08:22] Mark Immekus: Yeah.

[00:08:22] Josh Lowrey: Okay.

[00:08:23] Josh Lowrey: All right, so you've made your way over here. You've realized... By the way, I mean, you're an athlete. You're still an athlete. You're, you're huge in cornhole. We'll talk about that. I mean, you're l- literally a professional cornhole player e- on ESPN, so your competitive drive is just, it's very clear if you know Mark Immekus, very competitive dude.

[00:08:40] Josh Lowrey: Um, so you had that edge of I wanna be an athlete, not an NFL guy, but how, how can I still compete? It leads you to Houston. Now, you're here. You're also winning at selling advertising. Um, you, I, I, I'm gonna skip just a little bit 'cause I know that you also had a run at selling advertising for pro sports teams too, correct?

[00:08:59] Mark Immekus: I [00:09:00] did, I did work at, uh, the Chicago Rush arena football team. Um, I did an internship up there- Okay ... for like six months. Okay. Um, so I, I learned a lot up there. I l- I had to learn under a guy named Kurt Gruber, who was the, he used to be the m- national marketing director for Jim Beam and Wrigley's Gum, so I, I learned a lot- A lot

[00:09:17] Mark Immekus: a lot of cool things, like attention to detail from him.

[00:09:20] Josh Lowrey: Okay. So then how did you get into kind of the world that people would know you at today?

[00:09:28] Mark Immekus: So when I was at PLS, uh, we did a lot with NAPE. And so I, I used to go over to NAPE, and I would build our trade show booth, and I used to do all these little things at NAPE, and I fell in love with the, the whole concept of NAPE

[00:09:39] Josh Lowrey: and- What years are we talking here?

[00:09:40] Mark Immekus: That would've been '04 to '06, '07. Okay, so

[00:09:45] Josh Lowrey: great years.

[00:09:46] Mark Immekus: And, um, yeah, I'm gonna get on how I a- actually moved over to Penwell, and this is actually a pretty cool story too. So Ronnie would send me to these OGIS IPAA events. Um, and they were great 'cause I [00:10:00] got to meet all the CEOs at them, and we'd put our publications- What is

[00:10:02] Josh Lowrey: OGIS?

[00:10:03] Mark Immekus: OGIS was the Oil and Gas Investment Symposium.

[00:10:05] Josh Lowrey: Okay. And- And IPAA, Independent Producer Association ...

[00:10:08] Mark Immekus: and so they used to do... They did one in New York, they did one in, um, West Palm, they did one in, uh, San Francisco. Um, so- You

[00:10:16] Josh Lowrey: took, you took one for the team.

[00:10:18] Mark Immekus: Yeah, um, David Prang used to sponsor all the, uh... I think it was the vodka room in the one at New York, which was always fun.

[00:10:23] Mark Immekus: Um, and then so Ronnie sent me to OGIS West one year, and he, uh, he got me a cheap flight out to Oakland, and I had to take the Bay Bridge over with all these boxes of magazines, so I had to fly with the boxes of magazines. You know, I'm a young guy. I, you know, have to cut my teeth- Yeah, sure ... in the industry.

[00:10:42] Josh Lowrey: You gotta do what needs to be done.

[00:10:44] Mark Immekus: And I'm staying at a hotel, you know, far away from the Palace Hotel, which is... You know, if you've ever been to San Francisco, it's, uh, a lot of hills. It's pouring down rain. I've gotta get these magazines out to, out to the, uh, to the Palace, and [00:11:00] I'm drenched. I'm in a suit.

[00:11:02] Mark Immekus: I am exhausted carrying these magazines up this massive hill. I get into OGIS, and I start putting out the magazines. And the guy who ran the Oil and Gas Financial Journal at the time was Greg Smith, and they were in the process of launching a new co- a new, um, event called the Houston Energy Symposium, which was another investment fo- um, symposium for, for the Oil and Gas Financial Journal.

[00:11:27] Mark Immekus: And he looks over and sees me drenched putting this stuff out and goes, "I want that guy." And so the next week, uh, they called me, brought me in, and, uh, pretty much quadrupled my pay, and I was out. Um, and now I'm working for Penwell.

[00:11:43] Josh Lowrey: Okay.

[00:11:44] Mark Immekus: And so we're developing that event, and I also started selling advertising for the magazine as well.

[00:11:49] Josh Lowrey: Okay. So then y- that crushes- That crushes ... and then you get picked up by?

[00:11:55] Mark Immekus: Well, then the '08 financial crisis hits.

[00:11:57] Josh Lowrey: Oh, okay, so this is before- [00:12:00] Okay, so maybe I did meet you in '08. What-

[00:12:02] Mark Immekus: I think you met me around 2010

[00:12:04] Josh Lowrey: That, which- whatever one the Bush was. Yeah I remember Bush was speaking.

[00:12:07] Mark Immekus: Yeah, that'd been around 2010 and '12.

[00:12:08] Josh Lowrey: Okay.

[00:12:10] Mark Immekus: Yeah. It's hard to remember the years I've been doing this. Seriously.

[00:12:12] Josh Lowrey: Man, we're getting- Yeah, this is not great. Our memories are-

[00:12:15] Mark Immekus: Yeah. So, so the '08 financial crisis hits, and if you run an investment symposium, it don't work no more, right? Yeah. No one's gonna be selling ads at a financial magazine anymore, so, um, I was out.

[00:12:27] Mark Immekus: Okay. Um, you know, a lot of people lost their jobs. A lot of people were out. A lot of people lost their jobs. Um, but, um, the guys at Hard Energy knew who I was. And, uh, one of the, one of the leaders there, he

[00:12:42] Mark Immekus: He actually made me play in a softball league for Hart to earn the job. So I had to pitch for Hart, um, and then he gave me the job selling-

[00:12:53] Josh Lowrey: People, are you picking up a theme here? Competition.

[00:12:57] Mark Immekus: Yeah. That, that- I do love sports and competition

[00:12:59] Josh Lowrey: Well, I... Look, [00:13:00] you like sports, but you, you are a very competitive person.

[00:13:03] Mark Immekus: Yes.

[00:13:03] Josh Lowrey: You are. So I just wanna... Like, that theme goes throughout. It doesn't matter what you're doing.

[00:13:08] Mark Immekus: Mm-hmm.

[00:13:09] Josh Lowrey: Okay. I, I want people to understand who Mark Kamickas really is .

[00:13:14] Mark Immekus: So I play in this, uh, I play in this softball league for, like, I don't know, it took, like, six, seven weeks. And they gave me a job selling, uh, subscriptions for The Oil and Gas Investor.

[00:13:24] Mark Immekus: Um, not exactly what I wanted, but, you know, it's... I'm, I'm young and, you know, I, I, I need a job, and most people are, are leaving. I mean, I'm pretty sure I was bringing a box up, up into that office while people were leaving.

[00:13:37] Josh Lowrey: Mm.

[00:13:38] Mark Immekus: So it was a weird time.

[00:13:39] Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

[00:13:40] Mark Immekus: And so that's, that's how I got to, to Hart Energy.

[00:13:43] Josh Lowrey: Okay. So... And then you have a phenomenal career at Hart.

[00:13:48] Mark Immekus: Yeah.

[00:13:48] Josh Lowrey: Truly, and your, your positioning there, your timing there, the market there, their ideas, your ideas. Uh, you were there 12 years?

[00:13:56] Mark Immekus: Yeah, 11 years.

[00:13:57] Josh Lowrey: 11 years, okay. Um, [00:14:00] I do kinda wanna hear that story. I mean, the good stuff. Um, you, you guys built some big platforms while you were there.

[00:14:07] Mark Immekus: We did. We, uh... You know, there was a editor named Peggy Williams who says we need to be talking about the Barnett Shale, and-

[00:14:15] Josh Lowrey: All these were new terms at that time ...

[00:14:17] Mark Immekus: yeah. This... Everything was offshore, like, kind of back then. That's right. This is a... Lot of, a lot of this was the development of the Barnett Shale.

[00:14:23] Mark Immekus: It's so funny to hear that word, Barnett Shale, 'cause no one ever mentions it anymore. Never gets said like that. The Barnett was the king at the time. It was,

[00:14:29] Josh Lowrey: it was it.

[00:14:30] Mark Immekus: And so we had this hotel show, and I think there was one other show, uh, A&D Strategies. Oh, Energy Capital we had. Those were the three little hotel shows.

[00:14:42] Mark Immekus: And Craig Moritz came over from Penwell, who, who I, I worked under over at Penwell too. So he came over to run the events, and he brought me over to the events side, 'cause I did not wanna be selling subscriptions.

[00:14:54] Josh Lowrey: Okay. I, I've always wondered if the difference actually.

[00:14:57] Mark Immekus: So, so I got over there. There was an opportunity [00:15:00] for sell ads, 'cause there was a lot of le- legacy ad salesmen at Hart at the time.

[00:15:03] Mark Immekus: So I got into the events side, and I think within the first couple weeks I sold out, I sold out like the 10 booths in front of the, in front of the, uh, the DUG Conference Center. It was, like, in a hotel. There was no trade show. And I'm telling Craig, I'm going, "Man, we can, we can really, like, build this thing.

[00:15:24] Mark Immekus: Let's go. Like, let's ... We can do this. Like, let's move across the street." And so we started doing all this stuff, and I kept g- kept at him, and he was like, "Oh, I don't know." And, and then one day, I rec- I can remember this. This was a pretty defining moment in my career is he walked up and he pinned a floor plan of the convention center across the street, and he goes, "Well, you got it.

[00:15:47] Mark Immekus: You've got, now got, like, three months to sell 80 booths."

[00:15:50] Josh Lowrey: Shit. Happy on one hand and freaking out on the

[00:15:53] Mark Immekus: other. Yeah, and he, he walks away, and I look up at that thing and I go, "What did I do? Can I [00:16:00] do this?"

[00:16:00] Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

[00:16:01] Mark Immekus: And I had to, I had to buckle down, and I ended up getting 108 booths.

[00:16:05] Josh Lowrey: I was gonna say, 'cause selling 10 is one thing.

[00:16:07] Josh Lowrey: Selling 80 is a totally different deal.

[00:16:08] Mark Immekus: Yeah.

[00:16:09] Josh Lowrey: Okay. And you had a hundred and how many?

[00:16:10] Mark Immekus: 108 I think.

[00:16:11] Josh Lowrey: Okay.

[00:16:12] Mark Immekus: And so we moved it across the street, but we were still on, um ... We still had contracts with the hotel, so it was re- it was really odd. We had to, we had the conference over there, but we had to move everybody across the street to lunch because we had the food and beverage stuff that we were on the hook for.

[00:16:25] Mark Immekus: And then move them back, and then while we were at, um, while we were in Fort Worth at that event, it was going so well. Like, um, we, uh ... I started going around asking people... The Eagle Ford was starting to come online, and I started going, "Hey, would you do an Eagle Ford show? Would you do an Eagle Ford show?"

[00:16:42] Mark Immekus: And I started having them sign cocktail napkins. And I remember walking up to the CEO of Hart, and I'm, and I go, "And everybody's been talk- We've all been talking about it all week, about possibly doing an Eagle Ford show." And I was like, I was like, "Rich, look. This guy, this guy, this guy, this guy, they all want in."

[00:16:58] Mark Immekus: And so [00:17:00] we went back to the drawing board, and I think we launched, I think we launched, um, DUG Eagle Ford, like, four months later, and we ended up selling, like, 180 booths for that thing, and the, that whole DUG thing just took off after that. Took

[00:17:13] Josh Lowrey: off.

[00:17:14] Mark Immekus: DUG East, Marcellus Midstream. Uh, I think we were doing 16 events at a time.

[00:17:19] Josh Lowrey: You had, 'cause you had the DUGs. You had the DUOs- Yeah ... which became one. Um- I, I mean, look, you can say lightning in a bottle, but the vision that it took... I mean, honestly, asking, I, I try not to make these things commercials- ... for the people that I interview. You know what I... 'Cause I know a lot of the guys we interview- Mm-hmm

[00:17:39] Josh Lowrey: or the girls we interview, but some I don't, some I do. For those of you listening that are thinking about that 10 through, call it 10 through 20, I mean, really, it- I know there's some ups and downs, and we'll talk about that in a minute, but you think about those events, um, that changed the entire... [00:18:00] Like, I lo- I've always loved OTC.

[00:18:01] Josh Lowrey: It's been around however long it's been around, but the shift is when those events started.

[00:18:06] Mark Immekus: Oh, yeah.

[00:18:07] Josh Lowrey: And they, they became very niche, very, you know, Fort Worth, uh, San Antonio or whatever it was, uh, Shreveport. Um, they changed what everybody had to do with their marketing dollars and time.

[00:18:21] Mark Immekus: Yeah. We hit on it first.

[00:18:22] Mark Immekus: We had a good editorial team over at, over at Hart that was able to get some incredible lineups. Like I said earlier, Auburn McLendon was one of the, one of the people, and Harold Hamm, all those guys were, were on those original, uh, lineups that helped us out there, and it was cool. I mean, it was... You know, we were selling out everything.

[00:18:42] Mark Immekus: I think Doug Eagleford at one point hit 450 booths.

[00:18:45] Josh Lowrey: Oh, my gosh.

[00:18:46] Mark Immekus: I mean, we were wall to wall, and it was, it was incredible. It was... We got to be creative and try to find new sponsorships to sell, and it was like everything just sold out, so you were just coming up with- It was- ... new

[00:18:58] Josh Lowrey: people- They were dying to be a part of it

[00:18:59] Mark Immekus: dying to be a [00:19:00] part of it. I mean, everybody in the industry or that next step out of the industry wanted to be involved in these conferences. Yeah. 'Cause we were the only ones doing it. And then- Yeah ... and because we were the only ones doing it, no one could really compete with what we were doing.

[00:19:15] Josh Lowrey: I mean, I'm listening to you talk and, like, 50 questions are coming to my head. So all right, so that crushes. You guys just crush the unconventional plays. I mean, honestly, I'll never forget, uh, OTC one year Going to it and it's the Offshore Technology Conference.

[00:19:35] Mark Immekus: Mm-hmm.

[00:19:36] Josh Lowrey: And I went there and it was... It looked like a mini DUG.

[00:19:39] Mark Immekus: Yeah.

[00:19:40] Josh Lowrey: And I... Somebody said, "You have to go onshore to get onshore," because they were trying to mimic what you guys were doing. And I can't... Maybe that was 2014 timeframe.

[00:19:51] Mark Immekus: It was funny, so they had all those guys in the arena because you had to earn your way to the, the main- That's right ... so all the original DUG unconventional [00:20:00] companies that were launching had to start over there, and so it was kind of funny.

[00:20:03] Mark Immekus: I just got to go over to that. I'd just go over to the arena because that most

[00:20:05] Josh Lowrey: of my clients- That's where all your customers were there ... most of

[00:20:06] Mark Immekus: my customers were over

[00:20:07] Josh Lowrey: there. Yeah, 'cause they weren't offshore guys.

[00:20:08] Mark Immekus: Yeah.

[00:20:09] Josh Lowrey: Okay. All right. I could spend an entire episode on that 10-year run.

[00:20:14] Mark Immekus: That was incredible.

[00:20:15] Mark Immekus: The whole industry had a lot of fun.

[00:20:16] Josh Lowrey: Oh, my God. Wasn't it amazing?

[00:20:18] Mark Immekus: It was amazing.

[00:20:20] Josh Lowrey: You know, it's funny, every time, like we... I'll have a Caterpillar person on and they're like, "Oh, yeah, I'm with the SPM," and they try to go... I go, "Can we just stay on that for a little bit? Can we just talk about frack for an hour?"

[00:20:30] Mark Immekus: Mm.

[00:20:30] Josh Lowrey: Like the world... Tell... If you don't mind, tell that one story about Shane Uh, Hamilton

[00:20:38] Mark Immekus: Oh, one of his, um... Yeah, he-

[00:20:41] Josh Lowrey: That's the only shout-out this dude's ever gonna get on our pod.

[00:20:43] Mark Immekus: It wasn't Shane. It was somebody within his organization. Uh, they bought a small booth at, at Dua, I believe.

[00:20:49] Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

[00:20:50] Mark Immekus: And the guy sets up, and I think he puts, like, a little banner.

[00:20:54] Mark Immekus: He got it down the street at Kinko's or whatever

[00:20:57] Josh Lowrey: and- Yeah, Justin ... yeah,

[00:20:57] Mark Immekus: and it was, it was a pretty [00:21:00] sad little booth, and they put their little valves or something out. And I remember one of these guys come up, and they pick up a valve, and they're like... And the, the guy starts, like, trying to sell the valve, and he's like, "Well, I don't need it for that, but I think I need it for something else."

[00:21:12] Mark Immekus: And then from what I heard is that that helped launch, like, Valtec.

[00:21:17] Josh Lowrey: 100%.

[00:21:17] Mark Immekus: That, yeah, that, that one agreement ended up putting him on another level.

[00:21:20] Josh Lowrey: So the reason I bring that story... So at this time, I'm, uh... We were selling Sunbelt Steel in 2012. I was launching Galway Industries right after that. So it was all forgings all the time.

[00:21:31] Josh Lowrey: So the world of, uh, frack was, uh, it's all I did. Um, Valtec, ATMs, you know, you name it, uh, dragons, form, whatever. And so your events, maybe that's why I'm so passionate about this. They were… Every single customer that I had was there- Mm-hmm … whether it be the frack guys or the wi- pipeline guy, whatever. Um, and I was good friends with Valtec, Shane Hamilton, and he did.

[00:21:57] Josh Lowrey: He had one little thing that you're [00:22:00] talking about, but the next event, he had a center booth.

[00:22:04] Mark Immekus: He did.

[00:22:05] Josh Lowrey: Yeah, I mean, he

[00:22:06] Mark Immekus: blew it up. He, he called me, like, a couple weeks later or a couple months later, and he's like, "I want the largest booth at every single one." So I think we had, like, four or five dubs at the time, so he ended up becoming a, one of the largest sponsors almost overnight.

[00:22:18] Josh Lowrey: And that, that changed the course of his company-

[00:22:20] Mark Immekus: Yeah …

[00:22:21] Josh Lowrey: because they went from being really a West Texas machine shop to being one of the major players in frack-

[00:22:25] Mark Immekus: Mm-hmm …

[00:22:26] Josh Lowrey: instantly. And that, that is a... Look, lots of little things, but really marketing and m- visibility-wise, it was those events, and he took full advantage of it.

[00:22:35] Josh Lowrey: He crushed it at those events. Yeah. We did. I mean, we were out there... I mean, honestly, I...

[00:22:39] Mark Immekus: It's,

[00:22:39] Josh Lowrey: it's amazing how impactful those were.

[00:22:41] Mark Immekus: So that's, that's one deal that I know of.

[00:22:43] Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

[00:22:44] Mark Immekus: But there's so many deals that happen at those events that you don't know of. So that's when you, when you say how much did we impact the industry with these events, you really don't know- Billions of dollars … but it's, you know, this is where this company met this company, and that acquisition was there, or they formed this new division.

[00:22:59] Mark Immekus: So [00:23:00] that's one of the cool parts about running an event is, um, those interactions, that, that networking, and if you can facilitate that networking, that's what make it a... That's what makes a great event.

[00:23:10] Josh Lowrey: So I'm gonna, I'm gonna jump a little bit here because I wanna get to s- a phrase that you always talk about on, uh, why events are going to stay here.

[00:23:19] Josh Lowrey: Um- You, we talked about the downturns off air. There was the '08 downturn, the 2014 downturn, which were '15 through '17, a really long time, and then 2020.

[00:23:31] Mark Immekus: Mm-hmm.

[00:23:32] Josh Lowrey: So 2020 happens, COVID. Uh, you and a... I mean, the world, everybody changes jobs in 2020.

[00:23:40] Mark Immekus: Yeah.

[00:23:41] Josh Lowrey: Uh, I call you. Well, so John Daniel, that summer, John Daniel and I had started Daniel Energy Partners.

[00:23:46] Josh Lowrey: And John, we... He was trying to sell research only, and John was trying to sell research basically through his IR contacts. And what they said was, "That's... We don't have money for that. We don't have money for that." [00:24:00] Um, and we realized... So then we said, "Well, let's throw an event," and we were gonna do a batting practice at the Astros stadium, and we called it the Houston Energy Symposium.

[00:24:12] Josh Lowrey: And it became quickly, uh, our first sponsor was S&S Industries, our second sponsor was Galway Industries, and that's it, and then Daniel Energy Partners. You know, so Houston Energy Symposium sponsored by Daniel Energy Partners. Um, but it gained traction because people were like, "Ah, we like John. We'll get involved with this."

[00:24:33] Josh Lowrey: And all of a sudden, Mark Immekus became available on, uh, no longer at Hart on LinkedIn. And I called you, call it June of that year. I love telling this story. And I said, "Mark," Josh Lowrie said, uh, "Got a great opportunity. Would... I want you to come over and work with us," blah, blah, blah, "Daniel Energy Partners."

[00:24:58] Josh Lowrey: "Who?" [00:25:00] "Don't worry about it. It's gonna be great." "Uh, I don't know, man. I think I'm gonna enjoy my summer break. COVID's happening. Nothing's going on. You call me in October." And I went, "Okay." And I hung up the phone, and I put on my calendar, "Call Mark Immekus, Immekus, October 1st."

[00:25:17] Mark Immekus: I needed the break.

[00:25:19] Josh Lowrey: Yeah, no, I...

[00:25:19] Josh Lowrey: Listen, I totally understand it. And what's really funny, though, it was like that's how confident you were because at that time everybody was freaking out.

[00:25:27] Mark Immekus: Yeah.

[00:25:27] Josh Lowrey: And you're like, "I'm taking the summer off."

[00:25:29] Mark Immekus: Oh, man. I mean, I was getting... Government was paying for my house bill, so- I got some pool time in. F-

[00:25:35] Josh Lowrey: yeah,

[00:25:36] Mark Immekus: listen- I was, I was running 16-something events.

[00:25:38] Mark Immekus: You were, you were cr- So it was just one after another- Yeah ... like two a month, so it was like I was worn out, and I... So I needed that break. I needed that charge.

[00:25:44] Josh Lowrey: And listen, I, I don't blame you. And honestly, I... You would maybe have been a little bit early had you come earlier anyway. So the, the reason I'm telling this long-winded story is v- when Mark Immekus came on board of Galway, or excuse me, of Upright Digital, that's when I realized the difference [00:26:00] between a party and an event.

[00:26:03] Josh Lowrey: And I'm gonna turn this over y- to you in a minute, but I really wanna set the stage for you. Um- The Houston Energy Symposium became, quickly became something that was big. It was bigger... It was not 100 people, it was 500 people, and it was, it ended up being, like, 900 people, if I'm not mistaken, right? Mm-hmm.

[00:26:22] Josh Lowrey: And it, it turned... The Houston Energy Symposium turned into Thrive Energy Conference. But at the time we didn't know that. It was gonna be the Houston Symposium. So Thrive was quickly becoming something that I had never seen before. And at the time, you know, still freaking out about COVID, the world's down, no other business was taking off, and I'd, I'd never worked with you before.

[00:26:47] Josh Lowrey: I'd, I'd known you, but I'd never worked with you. And I was like, I was very nervous because you were mo- the way you operate is very... You, you said this early in the podcast, very organized, [00:27:00] attention to detail, and you are, I'm not gonna say keep your stuff close to the vest. You're just, you like the way things the way you like things, and I don't mean that in any negative sense of the terms.

[00:27:11] Josh Lowrey: It's just you have, you have a structure, and no one's gonna break your structure. So, um, including customers and, and because you have a vision, uh, for something, and honestly, nine out of 10 times, even if I disagree, I'm like, "Actually, that was the right thing to do." Um, so all that being said is, so we go through that process and you...

[00:27:31] Josh Lowrey: And I said, "Mark, I, I don't know about..." I was... I mean, if you... Do you remember that moment? I was like- Yeah ... "I'm, I'm very scared." And you go, "Josh." You go, "My name is on the line on this." And I remember thinking like, "What is he talking about?" Like, and that's the whole reason for this pod- I was like, "What is he talking about?

[00:27:45] Josh Lowrey: His name's on the line." And I didn't realize how much pride you took in these events. Mm. How much ownership you took in these events. And you said, "Let me do my thing." And I was like, [00:28:00] "Okay." I was very nervous. And all of a sudden, it was, it was a... You talk about a turning point in your career. It was a turning point in my career 'cause I'm a, I'm a...

[00:28:09] Josh Lowrey: You know me, dude. I'm a- Yeah ... I like my hands on things. So I put full trust in Mark Emmerich and go to the first Thrive. And this is such a dumb thing, but it matters so much. I've... You've heard me say this story 10 times. We go to this first Thrive, and this is at Minute Maid Park. It's the very first event post-COVID.

[00:28:32] Josh Lowrey: So the world is on edge. The restrictions were incredible for us to throw this event there. And I walk in, and the organization is something I've never seen in my entire life, number one, but that's not what blew my mind. Uh, there was security. There was organization. There was things I'd never seen before.

[00:28:52] Josh Lowrey: Things you see at a professional show, an event, not a party. And I will never forget walking to the train station, and there was a [00:29:00] sticker on the ground directing people this way to whatever, right? And I sat, and I looked at that sticker for however long, and I remember thinking I would have never thought of this.

[00:29:16] Josh Lowrey: I would have never thought of this detail that Mark did. I would have never put this much thought into the customer experience that Mark did. And that moment before the show even started, I realized that Mark Immekus was the best I'd ever seen. And that wrapped up the my name is on the line, that wrapped up the way you do certain things for me, that wrapped up trust me, that wrapped up all of the doubts, concerns, maybe doubts is the wrong word, but concerns, whatever you want to say, that I had, sat there and looked at that sticker.

[00:29:56] Josh Lowrey: So it's a long way to say [00:30:00] you came on in 2020.

[00:30:01] Mark Immekus: Yep.

[00:30:02] Josh Lowrey: Okay? Now, I want you to tell people now what that looked like from your perspective, from 2020. So just so people know, Caterpillar, uh, you know, huge sponsor of us. If you're listening to this podcast, you have 100% attended or want to attend either the Daniel and His Partners Thrive or Daniel and His Partners Barbecue.

[00:30:28] Josh Lowrey: Uh, Upright Digital, both of those events are sponsored by Upright Digital, or p- powered by Upright Digital. Mark Immekus is the president of events at Upright Digital. So

[00:30:40] Josh Lowrey: The excellence and the experience that you see at these events is Mark Amicus. Now, JD, greatest agenda builder on the planet, right? I'm not taking anything away from their, them. Daniel Energy Partners is a phenomenal partner for us. Um, and [00:31:00] they are, their attention to customer experience is, is phenomenal too.

[00:31:05] Josh Lowrey: So I'm not taking anything away from those guys. Love them, love being partners with them, love them. But I would love for you to describe you coming on in just, in October of '20 to now. Have I said it properly? I, I really do want... I, I'm not kidding. I want people to understand how powerful Mark Amicus is, and i- it's, it's nothing short of

[00:31:32] Josh Lowrey: If, if Mark wasn't... I, I, look, dude, I'm gonna sound s- stupid here. These events aren't done without Mark Immekus.

[00:31:39] Mark Immekus: Go. Can you follow me around everywhere I go and just tell people? Dude, listen. By the way, I

[00:31:43] Josh Lowrey: do tell people this. I know you do. I actually do tell people this, 'cause it, it... Look, I'm pro- I'm proud to be your...

[00:31:49] Josh Lowrey: I love being your partner, I love being your friend, I love working with you. This is the reason you're on this podcast. I don't think people understand. I don't think people get to understand what you really have done for this industry. If [00:32:00] you were Harold Hamm, you would've been... Like, how many billions of dollars have been created by these events that you've created?

[00:32:07] Josh Lowrey: Billions of dollars, dude. So yeah, I'ma stop talking. 2020, go.

[00:32:15] Mark Immekus: Well, first, it takes a lot more than me. There's a, there's a- That's a fact ... there's a great team around us. But, uh, yeah, when we came in, when I came in in October, we had to launch in, we had to launch Thrive in February. And as you s-

[00:32:27] Josh Lowrey: D- wait real quick.

[00:32:28] Josh Lowrey: You came on, I called you on a Friday, I said, "You have to start on Monday."

[00:32:32] Mark Immekus: Yeah, and I had to start calling the, the, the v- Like I, I called a bunch of people to say, "Okay, who's, who, who is John Daniel?" And- That's right ... and I, I knew he worked at Simmons, and I, and half my, uh, former softball team used to work at Simmons.

[00:32:46] Mark Immekus: I made one call and, uh, my friend goes, "Uh, take the job. You wanna work with John." I was like, "Okay." So I show up on Monday and I'm like... I think we had a venue, you had the two [00:33:00] sponsors you said, and we had a somewhat of a name that sounded too familiar because it was very close to the Houston Energy Financial Symposium that I started with- Right

[00:33:11] Mark Immekus: with Penwell. And so, and, and then John is very... John at the time didn't want any really unique names, so we had to, like, kid gloves with all these different names. And, uh, but when I was coming, uh, we wanted to build a brand for him, and-

[00:33:29] Josh Lowrey: Which was so foreign to us at the time. We had- Yeah ... not even thought of it.

[00:33:31] Mark Immekus: Yeah. The, the, the key was I w- I, I, I tell you this all the time, I tell other people, like, when we went into Thrive my, my goal, my vision for Thrive was I wanted people in there saying, "How did I not know about this? How long has this been going on?" I wanted it to look like it was an established show and not an am- like a first year show.

[00:33:53] Mark Immekus: So we didn't put first year on anything. We wanted it to look like it was a longtime show. And we [00:34:00] held a lot of sponsorships. We didn't do a lot of marketing until January 1st to keep- 'Cause Pra- ... to keep,

[00:34:05] Josh Lowrey: keep competitor at- 'Cause Crane didn't really want a lot of marketing done.

[00:34:07] Mark Immekus: Yeah. And then there was, there was all kinds of stuff happening in the industry.

[00:34:09] Mark Immekus: Crane, remember he

[00:34:09] Josh Lowrey: said, "Don't get me arrested."

[00:34:12] Mark Immekus: Uh, so we, so I came on board. We, we started de- developing everything, and, you know, because it was, uh... Because it was COVID, I had a lot of connections, uh, with, you know, like exhibit networks and all these people that just wanted to put their people to work. And there was- Vendors

[00:34:28] Josh Lowrey: for trade shows, he's talking about.

[00:34:29] Josh Lowrey: Yes. And

[00:34:30] Mark Immekus: events. Vendors. So they were- ... they were all scared they were gonna lose their employees. So it's like, "Man, I'll, I'll take a deal, whatever it is. Like, I don't even need revenue on this, I just wanna get my people paid." And so a lot of companies jumped on board, 'cause usually you couldn't do this in three months, you know?

[00:34:45] Mark Immekus: That's a good point. To have, to have general service contractors and all this kind of stuff. And, you know, I, we had to build agreements and websites and, you know, I think the first few weeks were visiting every s- visiting with every single [00:35:00] registration site. Um, Bill, Bill Austin was at the- He had,

[00:35:04] Josh Lowrey: he had just started.

[00:35:04] Mark Immekus: He had just started. So it was, it was Bill and John and, and then us. And then, uh- Kevin ... Bill... Yeah, and Kevin. And Bill was, Bill was also one of the ones that wanted to get a, uh, a cool name, so he, he helped push the Thrive through. And, you know, Thrive was like, you know, we were in a, we were in a rut. The whole world was in a rut, and we wanted to build a conference that, you know, was a thriving energy future.

[00:35:27] Mark Immekus: And that's, that's where the name came from.

[00:35:29] Josh Lowrey: Didn't John say, "Look, I just want my fr- my friends to thrive right now"?

[00:35:32] Mark Immekus: Yeah.

[00:35:33] Josh Lowrey: Yeah. And you go, "That's it." Yeah. Thrive.

[00:35:35] Mark Immekus: Thrive. And so that's, that's how Thrive came about.

[00:35:38] Josh Lowrey: I love it. People don't know that. The Thrive Conference name came from... 'Cause there was a fight.

[00:35:43] Josh Lowrey: Mm. John w- John was adama- John... If you know John, he's amazing. We all love John, but he's adamant about just simplicity. And he goes, he, he's like, "I don't care. That's, that's not..." Yeah. He just wanted to sell research at the time.

[00:35:53] Mark Immekus: Yeah.

[00:35:53] Josh Lowrey: And he said, "I just want my friends to thrive." And Mark Emigh is like, "It, that's the name."

[00:35:59] Josh Lowrey: Absolutely. Thrive Energy [00:36:00] Conference.

[00:36:00] Mark Immekus: So we came up with Thrive Energy Conference, and, um, man, and we worked our tails off to get that thing launched in such a short period of time, and John, John was relentless too. I remember, you know- That's the word, by the way ... one of the things, one of the things I love about John is he, when we sat down and we started talking about, okay, how do we make this thing successful?

[00:36:17] Mark Immekus: And he came from the service side, and he, he didn't know a lot of operators at the time. I was like, "John, we have to get operators. It's all about operators." And he's like, "Okay." And for the next six years, he w- he has worked diligently- Correct ... to make sure he knows every single operator, every one of his team, they all, they know everybody there.

[00:36:38] Mark Immekus: But they,

[00:36:38] Josh Lowrey: it's a phenomenal deal.

[00:36:39] Mark Immekus: Everybody.

[00:36:40] Josh Lowrey: And- They're about to know everybody in AI too.

[00:36:41] Mark Immekus: Yeah. So it's, uh...

[00:36:42] Josh Lowrey: Dude, Daniel Energy Partners, if you don't know these guys, you should. And if you don't, then you're probably not in our industry very long. But, uh, yeah, John and the team have just crushed it.

[00:36:52] Mark Immekus: Yeah, so their, their, their work ethic, you know, it motivates me too.

[00:36:54] Mark Immekus: So it's, you know- Agreed ... so when I can work as hard as I do and, you know, late hours, and [00:37:00] because I know that they're doing that too, and so it's, it makes it fun. And so-

[00:37:05] Josh Lowrey: Okay, so Thrive launches Very short, from October to February, right? Feb- early February. Is that about right?

[00:37:14] Mark Immekus: Yeah.

[00:37:14] Josh Lowrey: And it goes off, and what's unique about that Thrive 2021 was it's the first event post-COVID.

[00:37:24] Mark Immekus: Yes.

[00:37:25] Josh Lowrey: Like, no one has seen each other in almost- Sent,

[00:37:27] Mark Immekus: sent shock waves.

[00:37:28] Josh Lowrey: Like, so people walk into this event and they are, uh, shaking hands, hugging. We were technically supposed to wear masks at the time. Uh, it was cold, so there were the heaters in the...

[00:37:39] Mark Immekus: We had six-foot dis- social distancing-

[00:37:41] Josh Lowrey: That's right ...

[00:37:42] Mark Immekus: in the Union Station.

[00:37:43] Mark Immekus: They had s- seats every six feet. That's

[00:37:45] Josh Lowrey: right. It looked so

[00:37:45] Mark Immekus: weird.

[00:37:45] Josh Lowrey: That's right. You know, the stadium had to move the, um, plastic fans. The, the, the... You r- Remember they put up, uh, cardboard fans in the stands so they could look like it was somebody on TV? Like, that's [00:38:00] where the idea of us... 'Cause you, we actually projected...

[00:38:03] Josh Lowrey: I do love this story. Uh, they came out and they said, "You can only put 50 people into the train station." We said, "That's not enough." And we said, "Well, can we project the presentation onto the big screen?" And they go, "We've never done that before." They go, "If you guys can do it." I go, "Yeah, we have somebody for that.

[00:38:20] Josh Lowrey: Kevin can do it." And we... I was like, "God, Kevin, you'll figure it out." And then it, remember, it was cold, so we tour this. So we walk upstairs just because we're just trying to warm up, 'cause they had the roof open.

[00:38:30] Mark Immekus: Mm-hmm. '

[00:38:31] Josh Lowrey: Cause it's the middle of the winter. And you, I'll never forget, you sat there and you looked at the suite level, 'cause we were trying to stay warm, and you go, "Well, if you can put it up on the big screen, can we run that into these suites?"

[00:38:44] Josh Lowrey: And the guy's like, "Yeah, I guess, I guess you can." And then that's how the idea of renting out the suites came, was you going up there and saying, "Well, I'll just put them in the suites." And I was blown away by that idea. I, you know, it, all the little things that kind of trickled in. So [00:39:00] people go to the show.

[00:39:01] Josh Lowrey: It is a hit. It is a well-run event. It is a, um, 900 people attended, just under 1,000 people, but it's invite only. The agenda's perfect. People are like, all right, thankful. They're happy to see somebody. Um, so Thrive '21, massive win. And-

[00:39:23] Mark Immekus: It set the industry back to normal. Like- It,

[00:39:25] Josh Lowrey: it really did ...

[00:39:25] Mark Immekus: everybody, it gave the confidence to, you know, everybody else to launch their events again.

[00:39:31] Mark Immekus: And so, like, months later you started seeing everything popping back, uh, quicker.

[00:39:34] Josh Lowrey: But we were first.

[00:39:35] Mark Immekus: We were first.

[00:39:36] Josh Lowrey: And I, I'll just never forget that. That was such a crazy experience. So Thrive 2021, big win, puts really DEP and Upright on the map. Uh, Mark Immekus is now within the circles of DEP and Upright, like, "Oh, okay, so what else can you do?"

[00:39:55] Josh Lowrey: And the barbecue, um, out in West Texas [00:40:00] was has always been something. First year we went, there was, you know, one barbecue pit and 100 people. And then we ran it, you know, Galway Industries was the, or Galway Marketing actually was the master of ceremonies for a couple years there, and it started to become too big for about 1,000 people, but it was pretty big.

[00:40:17] Josh Lowrey: But again, it was a party. And so there was this little entity called The Barbecue, and Mark says, "Let me have that." And all of a sudden, Mark transforms, and with... You know, look, I'm not, I don't mean to keep saying Mark, but the Daniel Energy Partners Barbecue in October of that year, um, becomes an absolute event.

[00:40:45] Josh Lowrey: Do you remember the first 21 Barbecue?

[00:40:47] Mark Immekus: Oh, my clothes are probably still dirty.

[00:40:49] Josh Lowrey: Correct.

[00:40:50] Mark Immekus: I think I had to burn them all.

[00:40:50] Josh Lowrey: Where, where was that one? That was at the, um-

[00:40:53] Mark Immekus: Uh, Rolling Sevens Ranch ...

[00:40:54] Josh Lowrey: the Rolling Sevens.

[00:40:55] Mark Immekus: Rattlesnakes and all.

[00:40:57] Josh Lowrey: It was a, they, remember they had to clear land?

[00:40:59] Mark Immekus: Oh, yeah. We had to [00:41:00] put caliche in.

[00:41:01] Mark Immekus: Like, it was, it was wild. We had to, we had to take all those like, what, hickory trees out. That's

[00:41:05] Josh Lowrey: right

[00:41:08] Mark Immekus: Yep. Oh my God, I forgot about that. That was a fun experience. That was my first outdoor experience. Was it? Oh, yeah. That was another one of those- '

[00:41:17] Josh Lowrey: Cause you had to fence everything, get a security, everything?

[00:41:20] Mark Immekus: Yeah. That was one of those, another one of those days, uh, like when I said, and Craig Moritz put that, he pinned that thing up there, and when I got the barbecue I was like, "Oh, okay."

[00:41:29] Josh Lowrey: "What have I done?" "

[00:41:29] Mark Immekus: I gotta figure this one out." But, uh, I've always wanted to work on a barbecue. So when I first moved to Houston, one of the things I became enamored with was the Houston Rodeo's Barbecue- Okay ... Cookoff. Phenomenal. That thing is so great. It's

[00:41:41] Josh Lowrey: ridiculous.

[00:41:42] Mark Immekus: And at the time, um, CGG Veritas was the overall sponsor and, uh, one of my clients, Danielle Landry, ran that thing, and she would always get me tickets to it.

[00:41:52] Mark Immekus: And they were, since they were, since they were the overall sponsor, they had, like, all these great bands. Like, Wade Bowen was in there and Bart Crow Band, and [00:42:00] it's like, I love this. And I remember when we were launching event after event at Heart, I put a business proposal together, um, to launch a barbecue in the energy industry.

[00:42:11] Mark Immekus: And, uh, I guess we were too busy at the time, or it just, you know, didn't, didn't make sense or, or some people thought it wasn't professional enough, and we decided not to do it. So I always wanted to get involved in a, in some kind of barbecue like this, so this was, this was cool. So it's, it was a passion of mine and, and so we ended up, you know, we, we launched this thing.

[00:42:32] Mark Immekus: It was, it was already launched. I think John had been running it already, what, for four years or something, three years they were with Piper Sandler. Yeah, four

[00:42:38] Josh Lowrey: years. It, it

[00:42:38] Mark Immekus: took off- And so- ...

[00:42:39] Josh Lowrey: during

[00:42:39] Mark Immekus: COVID. This will be the first time that he did it under the Dana Energy wing. Correct. And so he, I think they were at the museum before, and they moved it o- we moved it over to the Rolling Sevens.

[00:42:49] Mark Immekus: Um, it's a great venue. Um, we outgrew it really fast. Quickly. Really fast. And, uh, I actually remember, uh, we had Mike and the Moonpies, which is now Silverado, [00:43:00] and we did the, we did the events, uh, the ceremony, gave out all the awards. We announced Mike and Moonpies to the stage, and it rained.

[00:43:10] Josh Lowrey: Right then.

[00:43:11] Mark Immekus: Right then, as soon as they got up, and it short-circuited-

[00:43:13] Josh Lowrey: Correct ... everything. So we had no power.

[00:43:18] Mark Immekus: Yeah,

[00:43:19] Josh Lowrey: I remember that.

[00:43:19] Mark Immekus: You know, everything's about power, so that's, uh... Yeah, we had no power. Uh, we had, I think Mike and the Moonpies ended up doing an acoustic set back in the barn.

[00:43:27] Josh Lowrey: Yeah, they did. They just went to their van to for the, till the rain stopped for a minute, they came back around.

[00:43:31] Mark Immekus: Yeah.

[00:43:31] Josh Lowrey: Which was awesome.

[00:43:32] Mark Immekus: And it, it rained. It didn't, it wasn't pouring, but it was just like a nice little just mist, and no one left.

[00:43:39] Josh Lowrey: No.

[00:43:39] Mark Immekus: Everyone stayed.

[00:43:40] Josh Lowrey: I forgot about that, too. That's right. You know, that's one of the things about the barbecue that I love is the camaraderie at these events. The VIP night now is designed to be a little bit more intimate.

[00:43:52] Mark Immekus: Mm-hmm.

[00:43:52] Josh Lowrey: But man, those, it's one of these things, I, like, remember when type guys, but those, those early barbecue [00:44:00] first night setups when everybody was tired from their setup, they were cooking just to get the stuff ready. It really, I think that's one of the things that sets DEP apart, and is that camaraderie within the industry.

[00:44:12] Josh Lowrey: It's really unique.

[00:44:13] Mark Immekus: Yeah.

[00:44:14] Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

[00:44:14] Mark Immekus: It's a, uh... I always tell people when you go to a trade show, there's this awkwardness when you walk up to a booth. Like, "Do I want to talk to this person? Do they want to talk to me? Do we have a connection?" It's just this weird awkwardness sometimes. But with a barbecue, there isn't.

[00:44:30] Josh Lowrey: That's a good

[00:44:30] Mark Immekus: point. 'Cause you're enjoying a beer or you're trying their brisket stuffed waffle cone. Bacon ice cream. Like yeah. And it just cuts that tension away.

[00:44:41] Josh Lowrey: Yeah. Well, what's cool about that is it, oftentimes it's the CEO of the company serving-

[00:44:47] Mark Immekus: Mm ...

[00:44:48] Josh Lowrey: bacon ice cream.

[00:44:49] Mark Immekus: Yeah.

[00:44:49] Josh Lowrey: Or, you know, bragging about his employees and his friends that he works with and, you know, it's very, it's a very approachable situation.

[00:44:57] Josh Lowrey: Yeah. That's a good point.

[00:44:58] Mark Immekus: They do have those executive guys that go to these, [00:45:00] go to this thing, and that's... Another thing I'll give props to Dana Energy is that they didn't get greedy and want to blow this thing up to 20,000 people.

[00:45:09] Josh Lowrey: Oh, no.

[00:45:10] Mark Immekus: They're keep trying, we're trying to keep this thing exclusive. You know, the DUG's got too big at one point, and if you get too big, get too many service companies, you dilute the operators that can get to all of them.

[00:45:20] Mark Immekus: Yep.

[00:45:21] Josh Lowrey: Then they just all get pawed at all the time.

[00:45:22] Mark Immekus: And then, and so it's, you know, we, we strive. I mean, John's always like, "We're not going past that 6,000." You know- And so it's nice to have, you know, have partners like that, that-

[00:45:31] Josh Lowrey: That aren't just money hungry.

[00:45:32] Mark Immekus: Yeah. It's- I agree ... it's about the experience, the, that-

[00:45:35] Josh Lowrey: I, I said that a second ago.

[00:45:36] Josh Lowrey: I said how much the, the DEP... Look, I give Sean Mitchell, uh, really Courtney Mitchell, both, I... The Mitchells do a really good job of kind of setting the tone of exclusive, right? I mean, they're not- Mm ... they don't let anything get in the way of their, that brand. And too many people would get in the way of the brand.

[00:45:58] Josh Lowrey: Mm-hmm. 'Cause it would make it... You, if your, [00:46:00] if your customer's getting pawed at, that's not, that's not a good look for you, right? If- Yeah ... if you have 10 people waiting in line to talk to this guy, that's not a good look. And I think they just do, I think they, they being the DEP group... And, and listen, Upright Digital is hand in glove with this because I always say, like, there's...

[00:46:17] Josh Lowrey: Like, I don't want to get pawed at. Yeah. I, I, I like velvet ropes. Yeah. You know, like, I don't want, I don't want my people getting grabbed at. And, you know, anytime... One of the things I love about our events is if you see somebody, like, handing out a bunch of cards, we have people that walk around. I don't know if, audience, I don't know if you know this or not, but we have people that are walking around looking for- O- over card hander outers, whatever you want to call that.

[00:46:41] Josh Lowrey: If you're being aggressive, you will be asked to stop and then leave.

[00:46:44] Mark Immekus: Yep.

[00:46:45] Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

[00:46:46] Mark Immekus: Yeah. No, no soliciting booth.

[00:46:47] Josh Lowrey: There you go. That's, I'm just trying to think.

[00:46:48] Mark Immekus: As soon as somebody comes up

[00:46:49] Josh Lowrey: and- Card hander outer is not the proper term ...

[00:46:51] Mark Immekus: I, I tell my customers all the time, "If somebody comes up and tries to sell you a copier, uh, call me right away."

[00:46:55] Josh Lowrey: Yeah, that's right. Listen, I'm gonna... That brings me to a good point though, Mark [00:47:00] I don't know if you and I fight more than we do about a customer experience. Like, you won't break protocol, I don't know if that's the right word, brand standards for, like, "Hey, I wanna do this." You're like, "No. Why are you doing this?

[00:47:19] Josh Lowrey: That does- that's not a good experience for the customer." Yeah. And, you know, listen, e- all politics are local, right? Yeah. I have my own agenda that I want on certain things. 'Cause look, I'm fighting for different companies as well. I'm trying to position things, and you're never not looking at it from the customer experience.

[00:47:35] Mark Immekus: Yeah.

[00:47:35] Josh Lowrey: It, it's incredible. And I, I, you've heard me on other podcasts. It's a shame you don't listen to my podcast, Mark, 'cause I'm really good at this, is-

[00:47:41] Mark Immekus: Keep me too busy.

[00:47:43] Josh Lowrey: But I've, I've actually said, I've, I've told people on other podcasts, I've said, "You won't get Mark." I said, "Mark will do what's right for the show," and I said, "And honestly, even the customer, he will talk the customer out of what they think they want because his vision for them is, is better."

[00:47:59] Josh Lowrey: [00:48:00] Speaking of that, like Caterpillar. So Caterpillar is a huge sponsor of these events. Yep. And, you know, a couple years ago, I... This is one of my funny things, like, uh, the elevator at Thrive was broken. Was it the elevator or escalator?

[00:48:15] Mark Immekus: Uh, they were redoing the escalator.

[00:48:17] Josh Lowrey: Redoing the escalator. So as a result of that, the only way to get upstairs was to go through the elevator, through Caterpillar's booth, or suite, or whatever you call it.

[00:48:29] Josh Lowrey: And so they had 2,000 people, every person that mattered, come through their booth. And I remember thinking, "Oh man, this

[00:48:37] Mark Immekus: is-" It was the elevator. Every year it's something different 'cause they're- Yeah, '

[00:48:39] Josh Lowrey: cause they're, that's, it's the off-season ...

[00:48:40] Mark Immekus: it's the off-season, so they're renovating something. So yeah, it was the elevator that year, and they had to take the escalator up to the back-

[00:48:45] Josh Lowrey: Okay

[00:48:46] Mark Immekus: of the Gallagher Club. And so everybody to get on the suite level either had to go by registration or they had to go through that escalator. So they walked through their club.

[00:48:54] Josh Lowrey: So Caterpillar, by the way, if your marketing team is listening to this, you guys do a wonderful [00:49:00] job. Thank you. Um- Fantastic

[00:49:01] Mark Immekus: job

[00:49:01] Josh Lowrey: thank you for your sponsorship. But they, I remember thinking, "Oh man, they're gonna be so pissed next year when not, when 2,000 people don't roll through their booth like they did just- Mm-hmm ... did this year. So next year, elevator's fixed. It's a, it's a still a good event for them, but the reason I'm telling that story is this year.

[00:49:20] Josh Lowrey: So this year, the, there's a level on the suite. Am I allowed to tell this information yet?

[00:49:26] Mark Immekus: Yeah, I think you can.

[00:49:27] Josh Lowrey: Okay. There's a, there's a level on the, uh, suite level that, or a spot on the suite level that they're gonna want. And it is, in my opinion, if it's not the number one spot in the entire, uh, suite level, it's number two.

[00:49:41] Josh Lowrey: It's phenomenal. It is also owned, in the last fi- six years, by Upright Digital. We've been there. So Mark calls me, he's like, "Hey man, this is where Caterpillar needs to go. They're a great sponsor. They need to be here," blah, blah, blah. Gives me the... And I'm like, You know, the argument's the correct argument.

[00:49:57] Mark Immekus: Yeah.

[00:49:58] Josh Lowrey: But if people [00:50:00] were- This goes back to Mark Amicus, DEP, Upright Digital, like I, and I think a lot of this, I think you and John Daniel work hand-in-glove on what is the right thing for the customer. I think John has learned how to trust you over the last six years, uh, that he knows you're gonna do the right thing.

[00:50:21] Josh Lowrey: And, like, this is one of those things where I- I- I'm not even gonna put up an argument, 'cause I think that you guys are, know what's best for the customer. The other thing is, I also know that you're gonna fix whatever issue... I always tell people, Mark is like a duck on the water at these events. He's cruising around, nothing's bothering him.

[00:50:37] Josh Lowrey: Wrong, wrong. Those feet are moving 100 miles an hour. His brain is moving. He's constantly looking at things. He's got his earpiece in. Am I right on that?

[00:50:47] Mark Immekus: Yeah, I look at everything.

[00:50:48] Josh Lowrey: Everything.

[00:50:49] Mark Immekus: Everything.

[00:50:49] Josh Lowrey: You don't drink at these events.

[00:50:51] Mark Immekus: Nope. If there's a, if there's bottled water missing, or if that tea is out, I'll know.

[00:50:58] Josh Lowrey: You run... Tell, tell [00:51:00] people how you run your team at these events.

[00:51:02] Mark Immekus: Um, I love my team, by the way. We have a, we have a really good team, um, a team that will f- follow me through a fire, so I love them.

[00:51:08] Josh Lowrey: They are phenomenal.

[00:51:09] Mark Immekus: They are phenomenal. Um, Peyton Holcomb, um, Henaro, Amy, whole team, they're-

[00:51:14] Josh Lowrey: Yeah ...

[00:51:14] Mark Immekus: absolutely phenomenal.

[00:51:15] Mark Immekus: And so I, I've got them, you know, in different stations, and they're looking at those little things, too. And, you know, they, they didn't understand why I, I look at those little things at first, but now they do, and now I, I have full trust in, in them now that I can focus my w- uh, focus around, 'cause s- I need to be doing business development, too.

[00:51:36] Josh Lowrey: Correct.

[00:51:37] Mark Immekus: I can't be looking at tea, and so they've taken that, they've taken that pressure off me. And so that's, that's, that's been nice, uh, with that group. Let

[00:51:45] Josh Lowrey: me, let me a- 'cause we're, we're gonna push up on some time here, but that's an important comment you said. They didn't understand why I looked at these things, but now they do.

[00:51:53] Josh Lowrey: Why do you look at those things?

[00:51:55] Mark Immekus: It's the overall experience. They all add up. If there's one little thing that's missing, I mean, [00:52:00] if you run a restaurant and there's one dead roach-

[00:52:03] Josh Lowrey: Oh ...

[00:52:04] Mark Immekus: that customer- My

[00:52:04] Josh Lowrey: God, that made my stomach turn a little bit- ... so that I can see what you mean, actually.

[00:52:08] Mark Immekus: That's, that customer's gonna walk away- Yeah, he doesn't remember the steak, does he?

[00:52:11] Mark Immekus: and never, and never forget about that, even though that steak was phenomenal So those, those little things add up, and so making sure all those little things are solved. And, and they're simple stuff, it's just people lose, you know, lack of focus on things. And so you're just having the team looking, look at every nook and cranny, going through the event making sure that those empty chairs are not just stacked up there and look like...

[00:52:37] Mark Immekus: Make sure everything's perfect. And, um, and now I trust them. They, they go and do it for me now. Yeah. And then I just check up, and I usually don't find anything 'cause they're-

[00:52:46] Josh Lowrey: They're on top of it ... they're on top of it. Peyton, by the way, I mean, I like... I always tell people Henaro's the cooler, right? If you're, if you got somebody's pissed, you send it Henaro.

[00:52:53] Josh Lowrey: 'Cause he, he's smooth.

[00:52:54] Mark Immekus: He's great. If people don't know Henaro, man, Henaro and I have worked together, we worked at Who doesn't know Henaro at this point? You know what [00:53:00]

[00:53:01] Josh Lowrey: I mean? Right? I feel, I feel like he's kinda gotten famous

[00:53:03] Mark Immekus: a

[00:53:03] Josh Lowrey: little bit.

[00:53:03] Mark Immekus: He's, he's, uh, he's an incredible guy, and always kept my spirits up when things were, things were, uh, getting rough there at the end at, over at Heart with, uh, 2020 and everything.

[00:53:14] Mark Immekus: But, uh, yeah, I love Henaro, so he's, he's, he's the guy. He's the dude. He took two weeks off a couple weeks ago to go see our, uh, colleagues out in Colombia. Yeah. And you could really tell, uh, we were missing him in the office with the- '

[00:53:27] Josh Lowrey: Cause his attitude is- Yeah ... uh, you know, I told Henaro one time, I said, "Henaro," I go, "How you go, so goes the office."

[00:53:34] Josh Lowrey: 'Cause he really, uh, like I f- every, I get in trouble 'cause every time he says a joke I laugh, and I think people think I take his side. I'm like, "Have you heard what he said?" Like, he's, he's funny. Cracks me up, dude. He cracks me up. Look, Andy's a different... Andy's funny, but Andy's a serious adult.

[00:53:51] Mark Immekus: Andy and I are in our office

[00:53:52] Josh Lowrey: You guys are lock- He's in the

[00:53:52] Mark Immekus: bullpen with Paul

[00:53:53] Josh Lowrey: and- By the way, if you ever come see our office, you've got Mark is locked down.[00:54:00]

[00:54:00] Josh Lowrey: JD is just... Like, we have the Thrive, what are we on? We're, we're working on the barbecue right now, and John calls me two weeks ago asking me Thrive questions. Thrive is in February, March, and the barbecue is in October, and he's already... I heard the agenda for Thrive was

[00:54:16] Mark Immekus: already done. I built the brochure last night.

[00:54:18] Josh Lowrey: Oh my God. See, this is what I'm talk- Like, the amount of work. B- folks, it is August. It is August. I know we gotta g- get moving here. I don't wanna hold you two. Mark, I have 50 questions on here that are really good questions, the things I actually do wanna know. I don't have time for them. W- tell me, and I'm serious, have I...

[00:54:37] Josh Lowrey: What have I not told people that they need to know?

[00:54:42] Mark Immekus: That's a good question. I don't know.

[00:54:44] Josh Lowrey: Okay.

[00:54:44] Mark Immekus: Um-

[00:54:45] Josh Lowrey: I am the foremost podcast host in oil and gas, but that's fine.

[00:54:47] Mark Immekus: You are. Yeah. Everybody knows that.

[00:54:50] Josh Lowrey: Yeah, 'cause I tell people.

[00:54:51] Mark Immekus: You tell people. That's right.

[00:54:55] Josh Lowrey: We have a good team, dude.

[00:54:57] Mark Immekus: Yeah.

[00:54:57] Josh Lowrey: We really do. It's a fun... Listen, you know, [00:55:00] uh, not gonna, this isn't a counseling session, but listen, it's our podcast. We do what we want. Mm. It's our new studio. It looks great, by the way. It's

[00:55:06] Mark Immekus: fantastic.

[00:55:06] Josh Lowrey: Um, you know, this is what I always tell people, like, companies are nothing more than where people work.

[00:55:14] Josh Lowrey: You know? It r- and that's it. And it is, if you can't think of what you forgot to tell people, I'll make sure that I tell people. But it is No BS, dude. I keep said dude a lot. Like, I would never say this unless I knew you so well. I'm sorry, Mark. It is a It has been a true pleasure to work with you through the fights, the ups and downs, all of it.

[00:55:39] Josh Lowrey: And, but really what... I'm a control freak. I really am. And I actually had conversations with our partners sometimes, like, "You've gotta let Mark do what Mark does. Your life will be better if you do this." Like, "You're not gonna tell Mark to do something that he hasn't already thought of. Mark, Mark has [00:56:00] already thought of that."

[00:56:01] Josh Lowrey: And I think what is lacking today, and a lot of people wanna micromanage people. It, it... Like, that is a surefire way to steal the motivation of a guy like Mark Immekus. And what you've done, like, you've changed the fortune of, you've changed the fortune of this entire company. No question. Upright did... You know, you, you and I talked about something, and you said, "Well, yeah, you're building the company you wanna build."

[00:56:28] Josh Lowrey: I said, "Am I?" And I'm like, "Mark, this is, this is your company. You're a partner in this company. You are doing..." Like, I want people to know, like, Upright Digital gets where it, doesn't get where it is today without Mark Immekus. Fact. And, and again, I'm not trying to... Uh, Andy's involved now. You know, Kevin, I love Kevin.

[00:56:48] Josh Lowrey: I can never... You know, Peyton, et cetera. But, you know, because you're kind of a quiet guy, you, you're never gonna tell this story.

[00:56:59] Mark Immekus: Not [00:57:00] when I'm playing sports, though.

[00:57:01] Josh Lowrey: Well, by the way, he talks more shit than anybody on the cornhole field, whatever you call that. But you deserve this moment, and I want people to understand, like, who they, when they run into you, your, your product is excellence, and your e- And their, that excellence promotes their product, and they need to know that.

[00:57:23] Josh Lowrey: Yeah. Because if you were selling a widget, that widget would be the most famous widget in our industry. So well done, dude. Ah. Well done, Mark.

[00:57:34] Mark Immekus: Appreciate it. I enjoy it. I enjoy putting people together and making connections, and there's... It's so satisfying when you come off a really good event, and you just see everybody smiling, and you sit back and you're like, "Hey, you know, we built this."

[00:57:47] Mark Immekus: Yeah. You know, we helped put this together. So it's, uh-

[00:57:50] Josh Lowrey: How- It's

[00:57:51] Mark Immekus: motivating.

[00:57:51] Josh Lowrey: Before you leave that, I- how do you feel when you come off the... I... Did you ever, like, do long-distance training and running? I mean, you've... You're an athlete. I would feel like if you came [00:58:00] off the field of an event, you're pretty worn out.

[00:58:04] Mark Immekus: Yeah, you're worn out. Um, but there's still... I beat myself up, um, mentally sometimes, you know, after an event. So even after an event, I don't go celebrate too hard. I start thinking about, "Okay, what did I do wrong?" Even if it was a... Most people think it's a perfect event, I start looking at all the little things that could've been better.

[00:58:24] Mark Immekus: Um, you know, and there's... You know, I've told John this, and he gets it, that- I don't care how great your event is, you can have 500 booths, there's gonna be a guy that didn't like your event.

[00:58:36] Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

[00:58:36] Mark Immekus: And he's gonna trash your event. And you can't let that bother you. You, you know, you know what's good for the customer, and you gotta stick to that, and you can't let that one person, you know, change how you're doing it.

[00:58:51] Josh Lowrey: Do you hear that, John Daniel?

[00:58:54] Mark Immekus: It's not to him. You- It's, it's everybody, fr- over the course of my 20-something year career, I've, there's, [00:59:00] those, one person, it bothers me. It really does bother me. Yeah. But I have to keep reminding myself, okay, I can't-

[00:59:05] Josh Lowrey: That 499 other people had a great time.

[00:59:06] Mark Immekus: Yeah. And I try my best to let make, to make that guy happy.

[00:59:11] Mark Immekus: Um, but you have to look at the big picture, and I can't let that one person change what was great for 499 other people.

[00:59:20] Josh Lowrey: I always tell people this, Mark. Everybody wants to be president until you're president. And it is, you know, when you are in your spot, like when you're maneuvering this many people, it's, you're gonna have...

[00:59:36] Josh Lowrey: It's like everyone's gonna be able to find something. You're, you, you do a masterful job of keeping those people happy. But look, the, if you're looking at T- You know, the event's gonna be great. If there's a sign on the floor that tells people where to go, those de- the details are covered. So Mark Immekus, [01:00:00] I could go...

[01:00:00] Josh Lowrey: I really could do this for another hour.

[01:00:02] Mark Immekus: We'll do a part two sometime.

[01:00:03] Josh Lowrey: Let's, we should do that. We should do that. Um, but if you're looking at this, Mark and I are one week apart in age, by the way. I don't like that at all. He looks much younger than I do. Um, I wish you the best of luck with your upcoming events.

[01:00:19] Josh Lowrey: Um, you have the... How do people get a hold of you? You're on, you're on LinkedIn, of course. Mm-hmm. Um, don't give out your email. That's a terrible idea.

[01:00:26] Mark Immekus: Everybody knows it already.

[01:00:27] Josh Lowrey: Okay. Well, find him online. He's very findable. Uh, the barbecue is coming up in October. If you have any questions, actually reach out to John or Bill, I would imagine.

[01:00:35] Josh Lowrey: Um, anything else you wanna lead with or leave with?

[01:00:39] Mark Immekus: I'm excited about, uh, the barbecue coming up. We got some big bands we're gonna be announcing here soon.

[01:00:44] Josh Lowrey: I was wondering, who's playing at this thing?

[01:00:46] Mark Immekus: I can only announce one right now.

[01:00:47] Josh Lowrey: That's

[01:00:47] Mark Immekus: the... Yeah, The Spazmatics.

[01:00:50] Josh Lowrey: That, they're fun.

[01:00:50] Mark Immekus: Yeah. We're gonna have a fun little VIP party.

[01:00:53] Josh Lowrey: Okay. They are very fun,

[01:00:54] Mark Immekus: actually. And then we got a more current country band as soon as the- Contract ... contract's all done. [01:01:00] Okay. Then I'm allowed to say who it is, but it's gonna be fun. Um-

[01:01:03] Josh Lowrey: Uh, can I tell you, do you remember the story about the very first Thrive, who John wanted to have at the first Thrive?

[01:01:08] Mark Immekus: Oh, George Strait?

[01:01:08] Josh Lowrey: No, no, no. Carrie Underwood. Carrie Underwood. He goes, uh, he goes, "Let's get Carrie Underwood." I said, "John, we don't have any money." He's, oh, she goes, "Oh, is she expensive?" I'm like, "She's very expensive."

[01:01:18] Mark Immekus: Yeah. These bands. In 2020, these bands were, like, 15, 20 grand. Yeah. Now they're, now they're incredible.

[01:01:24] Josh Lowrey: Well, what's really funny, one last story about you. I, I was reading the rider for one of these guys, and he, he said he wanted, like, green M&Ms. I go, "Green M&Ms?" And you know, he doesn't mean that. He just, you're just... He just wants to know that you read his rider.

[01:01:35] Mark Immekus: Yeah. They wanna make sure you're paying attention.

[01:01:36] Mark Immekus: Yeah. They wanna make sure that tea's full.

[01:01:38] Josh Lowrey: Right. So Mark, what a pleasure. Thank you very much. Thank you. Caterpillar, thank you very much for the sponsorship. If you have any questions, we're on all the socials, we're on all the LinkedIn, uh, we're on where you get your fa- your favorite, uh, podcasts, so check us out.

[01:01:52] Josh Lowrey: The new studio, it's updated cameras, so hopefully this viewing experience is better for you. So if you're listening to us, check us out. If you're on [01:02:00] Spotify, you should click the video. Uh, you should come check Mark out, meet him in the Houston office. It's in the Heights, which is also apparently eight feet from his, uh, house because he rides a scooter to work every day, which I think is brilliant.

[01:02:12] Josh Lowrey: Um, Mark Immekus, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your partnership. Thank you for all the work. Yes. And, uh, great day, buddy. Thank you very much.

[01:02:19] Mark Immekus: And thank you, Caterpillar.

[01:02:20] Josh Lowrey: That's right