Drilling Is Changing Faster Than You Think

[00:00:00] Josh Lowrey: Welcome to the Energy Pipeline Podcast, sponsored by Caterpillar. My name is Josh Lowrey. We are coming to you live from the Daniel Energy Partners. Thrive Energy Conference 2026, powered by Upright Digital. My name is Josh Lowrey. Uh, I am joined. This is a good one, Brett, a friend of mine actually too. This is Brett Sheinberg, the Vice President of Global Sales at Nabors Industries.

[00:00:24] Josh Lowrey: Welcome Brett.

[00:00:25] Brett Schellenberg : Thanks. I'm happy to be here. Happy to be at the stadium and looking forward to some baseball coming up pretty soon, but,

[00:00:30] Josh Lowrey: so I agree. Spring training has kind of already started actually.

[00:00:33] Brett Schellenberg : Yep,

[00:00:34] Josh Lowrey: yep. Um, I don't even know the dates. Like we're mid, we're late February right now. Mm-hmm. Um. This is Daikin Park now.

[00:00:40] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:00:40] Josh Lowrey: Um, it is, we are on the suite level. This is, I mean, have you, you've been to the Thrive before though, right?

[00:00:46] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah, yeah. We love it. We love it. How many? There's not, there's not a ton of events that we do.

[00:00:49] Josh Lowrey: Mm-hmm.

[00:00:50] Brett Schellenberg : Um, thrive is always one of 'em that's on the calendar. The barbecue is one of the toys on the calendar.

[00:00:54] Brett Schellenberg : Right. And then Addie pack, you kind of, you kind of gotta be there, but, uh, we're pretty selective. And this is, this is one of the ones that [00:01:00] we, we spent some time on.

[00:01:00] Josh Lowrey: Well, we're gonna come to APAC and Soay here in a minute because that, that kind of blends with some of our conversations we were having offline.

[00:01:06] Josh Lowrey: Um. You know, there's a lot to talk about. You, you know this about me, that I like to think I'm the greatest person in the room at all times. I'm reading your bio here and I wanna hear how great you are, but you were a 40 under 40 honoree.

[00:01:21] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:01:21] Josh Lowrey: How old are you right now?

[00:01:23] Brett Schellenberg : Well, I'm about to be 40, so I, oh,

[00:01:24] Josh Lowrey: you just got this, this is a recent 40.

[00:01:26] Josh Lowrey: This

[00:01:26] Brett Schellenberg : is a couple years ago. Well, 'cause it's under 40, so I think I got it a couple years ago. We're getting, we're getting close to 40. I'm, I'm running away from it, but it's, it's getting closer. We're a couple months away.

[00:01:35] Josh Lowrey: Well, I did not. Get honored with such the award. And I remember all my, I had many friends get this.

[00:01:42] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:01:42] Josh Lowrey: And I remember I saw yours. Now you're saying this. And a couple of other guys and girls got have been awarded with this. And I'm like, you know, I was, I was under 40 once.

[00:01:51] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:01:52] Josh Lowrey: I was doing things.

[00:01:53] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. Maybe a late bloomer. I mean, you, I'm def that's, that's, that could be it. Maybe just a. Maybe just a [00:02:00] late bloomer.

[00:02:01] Josh Lowrey: That's, thank you. Uh, my,

[00:02:02] Brett Schellenberg : maybe, maybe there's still 50. Under 50. We got, we 60. Under 60. We got, we got, we got opportunity to, I'm

[00:02:07] Josh Lowrey: gonna start my own award just for that, but I mean, really that is a huge award. Yeah. Let's be honest. Yeah. What did you, you know, when you're going through college, you were going through your twenties and thirties, like, I really am interested, how did you feel when you were, when you won that award?

[00:02:21] Brett Schellenberg : It was cool, man.

[00:02:22] Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

[00:02:22] Brett Schellenberg : I, I felt, uh. Really good. I, I think, uh, I like, uh, many have, uh, a little bit of imposter syndrome. So when you get it, you're like, what, what, what are these dummies thinking? Like, what are, like, what are, uh, and so, yeah, I think most of it, it's kind of just, you know, uh, trying to be humble and accept, you know, the award and, and be grateful for it.

[00:02:41] Brett Schellenberg : But, uh, like for me it was like definitely a hundred percent imposter syndrome.

[00:02:44] Josh Lowrey: Yeah. See, I have the opposite. I'm imposter syndrome. On the flip side, I'm just like, it's, I'm the greatest thing of all time. Yeah. How did this not happen?

[00:02:51] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah, yeah. No, I get it.

[00:02:52] Josh Lowrey: Well listen, um, you came up, how long have you been with neighbors?

[00:02:58] Brett Schellenberg : I was actually looking, looking at my [00:03:00] LinkedIn the other day. So I've been here about eight and a half years now.

[00:03:02] Josh Lowrey: Okay.

[00:03:02] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah, so my whole career has been in, in and around drilling rigs. I worked for a small independent drilling company.

[00:03:08] Josh Lowrey: What year did you start in that world?

[00:03:10] Brett Schellenberg : Uh, 2007. I was roughnecking. Oh

[00:03:12] Josh Lowrey: man.

[00:03:13] Brett Schellenberg : So 2007 I was roughnecking. Um, and then ended up staying with that company, uh, until I came to Nabors. So got to. Do all the positions, uh, on the rig and then move through the company, carried the CEO's bag and changed his oil and built spreadsheets and sat in meetings that I shouldn't have sat in. And so it was a cool, kind of

[00:03:32] Josh Lowrey: unique,

[00:03:33] Brett Schellenberg : yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:03:34] Brett Schellenberg : Like I was, I was talking to a, a young gentleman this morning. His name was Cade. Um, he's with, uh, Oso Perf and, and, uh, he's like two or three weeks into the business. I was like, man, dude. Whatever you can do to sit into meetings that you shouldn't be in. Yeah. And be a fly on the wall. Love it. It's so important right now.

[00:03:48] Josh Lowrey: That's great advice by

[00:03:49] Brett Schellenberg : the way. Uh, and, uh, and so anyway, I'm, I'm hopeful that, that, uh, that uh, K gets the opportunity to do that.

[00:03:55] Josh Lowrey: I mean, that's a nice way to look at for all. Get k to shout out on this. Yeah. You know, oh [00:04:00] seven

[00:04:00] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:04:00] Josh Lowrey: Boom. Years. Yeah.

[00:04:02] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:04:02] Josh Lowrey: Boom. Years for drilling especially. Yeah. Um, and I'm actually want to hear, because we're gonna talk about some of the neighbors technology here in a minute, and your role in that.

[00:04:12] Josh Lowrey: Can you go back and talk about some of the oh 7 0 8 technologies then versus what they look like now? And I mean, I'm sure it feels like if somebody would've shown you 2026 technology in 2007 or eight, you'd be like, this is the future.

[00:04:24] Brett Schellenberg : And it's, it's funny 'cause like back then, like we, at the time we had SCR rigs, but they had a joystick on 'em and they had, uh.

[00:04:32] Brett Schellenberg : Uh, air conditioned, uh, drillers consoles. And so we were like excited about like, this is, this is so cool. There can be nothing that can like, uh, get better than this. And then, then there's an automatic catwalk that shows up and then there's a top drive mm-hmm. That shows up and then you go, there's nothing that can get better than this.

[00:04:46] Brett Schellenberg : And then now we've got automated pipe handling. And so like that's, uh, definitely something I have learned is that when you think that you're done innovating, there's always going to be something. I'm sure you guys have talked a lot, a lot about it on the podcast, but there's, there's always an opportunity for innovation [00:05:00] and that's something that's been fun to be a part of.

[00:05:02] Josh Lowrey: Well, I think part of, um, the term energy transition is, you know, no longer really used. I, it's more like energy expansion. Yeah. But I think what really has been discovered, it's probably a better way to say it, of energy transition, is that it's the technology advances. Is what the transition really was.

[00:05:21] Brett Schellenberg : Right?

[00:05:21] Josh Lowrey: Like the advances in technology, the advances in efficiencies, the safety, the, you know, the way what you're talking about, some of these walking rigs. Yeah, yeah. You know, that is a energy transition when you can keep people at home versus, uh, on the rig safe for safety purposes. Yeah. And or away from the danger zone.

[00:05:40] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:05:40] Josh Lowrey: I mean, that's, that's a phenomenal advance.

[00:05:43] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. And a lot of times it's just these like pie in the sky ideas and you know, if you can get. You know, uh, a customer that you're aligned with to commit with you and go on that journey and, and suffering some of the pain of, you know, serial number one never works out perfectly, right?

[00:05:57] Josh Lowrey: Right.

[00:05:57] Brett Schellenberg : But if you've got patients and you've got [00:06:00] teams that you're working with, that you can kind of go through that growing together, then you can wind up where yeah, you really start to remove people from the rig floor and you can start to automate directional drilling and a lot of these things. Can happen, but, but, uh, I think anyone that thinks that you're gonna go out on serial number one and, and nail it, I, I don't think, uh, is living in reality.

[00:06:18] Brett Schellenberg : Right. And the reality is a lot of these failures end up creating new opportunities to make the original product better. And you just have to think about it with that mindset.

[00:06:26] Josh Lowrey: We just had a well servicing guy on one of the first podcasts this morning, and he essentially said the same thing. Yeah. And he's like, you know, we have the financial capabilities to fail fast.

[00:06:34] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:06:35] Josh Lowrey: And, and why not seek to fail.

[00:06:36] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:06:36] Josh Lowrey: And learn from the mistake. And, and that's not only with equipment, but with people. Right. And you know, if you can keep good people, then it's an investment in that person. Yeah. 'cause in the, if the person leaves, the investment's gone.

[00:06:48] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:06:48] Josh Lowrey: Man. And, and the, the lessons learned from that person are gone.

[00:06:51] Brett Schellenberg : I would say that's, um, that's something that's probably, definitely changed in the industry as a whole. I, like, I go back to 2007 and something got screwed up on a rig. Something broke, [00:07:00] someone got hurt. It was whose faults it, whose fault this hit?

[00:07:03] Josh Lowrey: Right.

[00:07:03] Brett Schellenberg : And when are they going home? Right. And I think all of us have done a pretty good job of learning, like, Hey, that guy's never gonna do that again.

[00:07:09] Brett Schellenberg : Right. Right. If there's somebody that you shouldn't let go of, like that's the guy that you should

[00:07:13] Josh Lowrey: Yeah. You, you just, how much did you just pay for that lesson to be learned?

[00:07:16] Brett Schellenberg : Exactly.

[00:07:16] Josh Lowrey: Right.

[00:07:16] Brett Schellenberg : Exactly. So, and, and hopefully he's gonna share that with other people and, uh, you know, we, we won't have those issues again.

[00:07:21] Josh Lowrey: Well, and you know, at $140 a barrel. Yeah. 2007. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

[00:07:24] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:07:25] Josh Lowrey: You can, you can churn through people Yeah. And things. Yeah. In a, you know what I mean by that? But. 60, $70 or actually $60 oil. Yeah. And you've gotta be careful. Yeah. You really, these efficiencies need to be learned because the lessons you don't wanna, you don't wanna pay that price twice.

[00:07:42] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:07:42] Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

[00:07:43] Brett Schellenberg : I was, I was thinking about this when you were talking about the, the well servicing guy that, uh, was talking about like these growings and something like, uh, I was reminded of, and this is like important in products too, so a lot of things, you stick serial number one out, it doesn't work. But there you can see.

[00:07:58] Brett Schellenberg : That it's got a future. Mm-hmm. And so you [00:08:00] go through that process. There's something in, in product management, um, that's, that's called killing your baby. And, and I think this is actually important in developing and innovating too, which is sometimes you're gonna have a serial number one and it's not gonna perform and you want it to work so bad 'cause you love the idea, but sometimes you actually do need to go.

[00:08:19] Josh Lowrey: It can't happen.

[00:08:19] Brett Schellenberg : It can't happen.

[00:08:20] Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

[00:08:20] Brett Schellenberg : And, and I think, um, that, that can be something that's difficult for innovators and um, is. Having the balance of saying, this one we keep, and this one we don't. When you've already invested your heart mm-hmm. You know, the, you know, the, um, everything into it. So I think that's also something to be mindful of is some of 'em you keep and some of 'em you gotta kill.

[00:08:37] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. Yeah,

[00:08:39] Josh Lowrey: man. A lot of things just went through my head on that one. It is. There's things like pride.

[00:08:43] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:08:44] Josh Lowrey: Right. There's things like time.

[00:08:45] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:08:45] Josh Lowrey: You could apply that to bad relationships for crying out loud. Mm-hmm. You know, I mean, like at some point it just. You're, you're just throwing good, good money or good time after bad, right?

[00:08:53] Josh Lowrey: Yep.

[00:08:54] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. It's a, it's a sunk cost and do you wanna keep throwing money at it or not? And, and is that gonna prevent you that time, that effort, that [00:09:00] money from actually developing the next thing that needs to get solved?

[00:09:02] Josh Lowrey: Yeah. So neighbors.

[00:09:05] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:09:05] Josh Lowrey: An amazing company.

[00:09:06] Brett Schellenberg : Cool.

[00:09:06] Josh Lowrey: How, how old is neighbors?

[00:09:08] Brett Schellenberg : Shoot, man.

[00:09:08] Brett Schellenberg : We've been around forever, man. That's what

[00:09:09] Josh Lowrey: I thought.

[00:09:10] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, since the forties we go, we go back to, um, uh, the forties and it's, uh, uh, been a long road of, um, uh, the team building this company mainly through acquisition in the early days. Uh, and I think that's like a lot of what has given us the global footprint that we have today.

[00:09:26] Brett Schellenberg : So if you look at things that, you know, we do in Alaska mm-hmm. That comes from the original. Uh, neighbors company, um, Laughlin Brothers recently, Parker. I mean, there's just this, uh, acquisition of companies and knowledge taking the best of what they did and applying it to yours, killing some of the ideas that you had at, at Nabors originally.

[00:09:44] Brett Schellenberg : And I think that's what makes us unique and special is that this company has been combined over a very long period of time.

[00:09:49] Josh Lowrey: Well, I mean, I'm being honest. I feel like Neighbors has had a. Really phenomenal last decade.

[00:09:55] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:09:55] Josh Lowrey: You know, like it wasn't easy to survive the last decade.

[00:09:58] Brett Schellenberg : No, it was tricky.

[00:09:58] Josh Lowrey: It really was very tricky.

[00:09:59] Josh Lowrey: [00:10:00] Yeah. And the companies that, I have a business partner that said this is, let's call this, you know, I'm, I'm from the world of frack. I used to sell actually to, uh, drill pipe to neighbors back in the 2007 through 12 days. Yeah. So, nabs was a good customer of mine. I, we sold small diameter two, two and three eighths drill pipe to you guys.

[00:10:19] Josh Lowrey: So I've always liked neighbors, but, um, then I moved into the frac world. Mm-hmm. And we were pheno, we were huge in the frac world. And then we weren't, you know, then the downturn happened. Yeah. From 2015 through 17. Right. And my partner said to me, he goes, you know, we've gotta survive this. Yep. And he said, at the end of it, he said.

[00:10:39] Josh Lowrey: Whoever's left in the room, no one's gonna ask you what you had to do to survive. Right? That's right. And we survived. And not only that, we just kept plowing and working and, and we were better than ever at the end. And we went from 20, call it 18 when it balanced from 18 to 23 record year every year.

[00:10:56] Josh Lowrey: Mm-hmm. And, you know, a company like Neighbors from [00:11:00] 1940s to now, they're gonna have to re, and which they've done reinvent themselves, figure things out, fail quickly, fail fast, whatever that is. And, you know, I look at neighbors and I'm like, that is a great way to readjust itself in a very tricky market.

[00:11:14] Josh Lowrey: Yeah. In a very changing North American climate. Mm-hmm. Um, and I wanna talk about the, the other, in your international markets as well, and you've been there eight years, so you've seen kind of the, the bounce in a big part of that. Right? So what does it look like in the last eight years? How has it felt at neighbors to go from, you know, lack of a better term, carrying the bag?

[00:11:36] Josh Lowrey: Being in rooms to, you're like, you're running, you're running the show internationally and domestically for these guys in sales.

[00:11:41] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. So I think, uh, like a couple thoughts come to mind. So when, when you think about, um, neighbors over a period of time when you buy these companies, a lot of them are not just well servicing companies, they're not just rack companies, they're not just Workovers, they're not just rigs.

[00:11:55] Brett Schellenberg : They always have these other things, and I think. As the company grew into what we [00:12:00] have today, we were very thoughtful about developing it into what we have today to the core business. Uh, and, and sometimes that meant spinning things off. Sometimes that meant, um, getting rid rid of portions of the business that weren't, uh, contributing.

[00:12:14] Brett Schellenberg : Um, overall, and, and then most importantly, something that. You didn't see, uh, as a platform for, um, the future of your company. And I would say like one of the things that, uh, Tony and Ziggy and team, uh, at Nabors did a really good job of is they were always ahead of the curve. Uh, on rig design, on technology adoption, uh, to the point of, you know, a lot of people going, man, that's way too far out there.

[00:12:40] Brett Schellenberg : We, it's, it's never gonna happen. But if you look at the platform that we have today and the technologies that we're using today, like these are all things that started 10 years ago, 15 years ago. Um, and, uh, and at the time they were crazy ideas. You know, if, if you had a, a boardroom full of people of all just worker bees, they, they would've all [00:13:00] said no to the idea.

[00:13:00] Brett Schellenberg : 'cause it didn't make financial sense. But I think the success that we've had have been from that innovation and that entrepreneurial mindset

[00:13:06] Josh Lowrey: from that much forward-looking thing. Really.

[00:13:08] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah, man. Yeah, man. And, and if I'm being honest, like, I don't know that I would've made those decisions, uh, back then on like some of the investments that they were making, internalizing all of our controls and automation building.

[00:13:18] Brett Schellenberg : Robotic rigs. I don't, I don't know that I would've done that, but, um, I, I hope I would.

[00:13:22] Josh Lowrey: What year, what years are you talking about when, when you're saying this?

[00:13:25] Brett Schellenberg : So if you go back to like, even the early two thousands, like the, oh wow. Okay. The idea of pulling a top drive, which was an offshore piece of equipment onto land, like that was, uh, that was something that was an insane idea.

[00:13:38] Brett Schellenberg : Hmm. Um, you have offshore, you have static equipment that's not moving. You've gotta figure out how to get that thing in and out and, and again, back to growing pains. Trust me, there was a lot of downtime on those top drives. Um, and, uh, and I think the whole industry, but you know, we were the first to kind of get, get that out there and go through that learning curve and you can't do what we're doing today without that piece of equipment.

[00:13:59] Brett Schellenberg : And that, that's [00:14:00] just, that's just one component of it. But then if you like, fast forward to now, like, and look at all of the automation that we're running on the rig, like we couldn't do what we're doing today and we couldn't partner with all these people that we're partnering with, like to run our platform if we hadn't built it in-house.

[00:14:14] Brett Schellenberg : So like, you know, kva, Halliburton, Berger, Roji, all these guys live on this platform. If we had went and bought one, you're gonna use all their stuff. Uh, and again, we went through a ton of growing pain, building this thing ourself, but it, it worked out pretty good.

[00:14:28] Josh Lowrey: You know, KVA loves you guys.

[00:14:29] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. We love them.

[00:14:30] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:14:30] Josh Lowrey: That's, that's great. It's here because it's, it's mutual, you know, we've done a lot. Ryan is a very sharp guy.

[00:14:36] Brett Schellenberg : Yep.

[00:14:36] Josh Lowrey: And so is his team.

[00:14:37] Brett Schellenberg : Yep.

[00:14:38] Josh Lowrey: His, uh, the CTO over there is just a genius. Yeah. I'm trying to think of his name right now. He's an Aggie.

[00:14:43] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. So I spend a, I spend a lot of my time with, um, not as much recently.

[00:14:47] Brett Schellenberg : We've both been busy, but, but Ryan, I, I certainly love er and Dharmesh, those guys. Mm-hmm.

[00:14:51] Josh Lowrey: Uh, they're sharp.

[00:14:52] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah, man, I, I always tell, uh, er man, he's like the most interesting man in the world, Mike. He's a man of mystery man. He's, uh, just such a cool dude.

[00:14:58] Josh Lowrey: Yeah, they are, they're impressive.

[00:14:59] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. [00:15:00] When I, when I grow up, I wanna be as.

[00:15:01] Brett Schellenberg : Cool. As Alistair, you may have competition for like, coolest dude in the room when Alistair walks in, you know, you know,

[00:15:06] Josh Lowrey: just gimme a bunch of money.

[00:15:08] Brett Schellenberg : Okay, that's

[00:15:09] Josh Lowrey: fine. Yeah. Just gimme a bunch of money and I'll be cool. I can, I can do cool stuff at that point.

[00:15:13] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. Yeah.

[00:15:13] Josh Lowrey: Um, you know, that's why I was asking what years you were talking about.

[00:15:17] Josh Lowrey: Yeah. 'cause sometimes, you know, you don't know what's an advantage until the, until it's over. Yeah. Right. You know, when you're down being down's an advantage sometimes. Yeah. When you're at the top, it's really hard to see. Um. To put yourself in perspective of, of the, the underdog.

[00:15:36] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:15:36] Josh Lowrey: You know, and you guys were number one, a long time.

[00:15:39] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:15:39] Josh Lowrey: You know, and it's kind of nice to learn how to fight, fight again.

[00:15:43] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:15:43] Josh Lowrey: If that makes sense.

[00:15:44] Brett Schellenberg : Right. No, no, I get it. And I mean, we're having a. A ton of fun right now. I mean, not to

[00:15:48] Josh Lowrey: get, and, and you're, I'm telling you, the comeback has been, I mean, I'm, I've always, everybody knows nabs. Yeah,

[00:15:53] Brett Schellenberg : yeah, yeah.

[00:15:53] Josh Lowrey: You know, nabs is a huge worldwide brand.

[00:15:56] Josh Lowrey: Let's be honest. It's not, it's not a brand that you have to teach people who neighbors is.

[00:15:59] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. Yeah. I'll [00:16:00] tell you this. I'll tell you a, a funny story about that. So when, when I joined Nabors, I was, I was in West Texas and I came from a small drilling company that was South Texas based, privately owned company.

[00:16:09] Brett Schellenberg : Most people hadn't heard of it, right? Yep. And I thought I was a pretty good sales guy. I'd pick up the phone and I try to get in to go see that drilling manager. I could never get in, go see that drilling manager. The next week I go from, yep. Office one to office two, and I've got a neighbor's name now, right?

[00:16:24] Brett Schellenberg : And I call that same. Stinking Drilling manager that I've been trying to get ahold of for two years, and I say, Hey, I'm Brett with Neighbor, come on over. Yeah. Like, what the hell man? Like this is same Brett, this is, yeah. Yeah. This is not fair. This is not cool. But yeah, we experience it all over the world, man.

[00:16:37] Brett Schellenberg : Like, whether it's Algeria or Oman or, you know, Asher Bajan, it doesn't matter where we show up when you're with neighbors, like they're gonna make the time, which is a, that's

[00:16:45] Josh Lowrey: awesome.

[00:16:45] Brett Schellenberg : It's flattering and it's a cool thing and, and we're lucky to have, um, the brand and reputation that we do. Uh,

[00:16:52] Josh Lowrey: well, you're adding, you're adding to it, that's for

[00:16:53] Brett Schellenberg : sure.

[00:16:53] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. Yeah. Appreciate that.

[00:16:54] Josh Lowrey: Um, let's see. What do I want to, what do I, they give me notes. Yeah,

[00:16:57] Brett Schellenberg : they

[00:16:57] Josh Lowrey: give me notes. Any good

[00:16:58] Brett Schellenberg : ones?

[00:16:58] Josh Lowrey: I don't know. [00:17:00] Everyone's so prepared. So this is the caterpillar.

[00:17:01] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:17:02] Josh Lowrey: Right. By the way, I said Cat, they're like, we're not cat. Or

[00:17:04] Brett Schellenberg : Caterpillar.

[00:17:05] Josh Lowrey: Caterpillar. Okay. I'm like, oh, okay.

[00:17:06] Brett Schellenberg : Do we emphasize the R

[00:17:08] Josh Lowrey: Well, I don't, how do you say Caterpillar?

[00:17:10] Josh Lowrey: I dunno. Caterpillar. I say Caterpillar, right?

[00:17:11] Brett Schellenberg : Okay. Yeah.

[00:17:12] Josh Lowrey: Cater.

[00:17:12] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. I don't know that I have that R in there. Yeah,

[00:17:15] Josh Lowrey: they're, by the way, they're so great. Yeah. They're a hundred year old company.

[00:17:18] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. And we're a big customer of Caterpillar. We, uh, we've, we've got a lot of time and, uh, and a lot of love for, for Caterpillar and, um Yeah.

[00:17:26] Brett Schellenberg : Have for a long time, so.

[00:17:27] Josh Lowrey: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, again. At some level, everybody touches Caterpillar, right? Yeah,

[00:17:31] Brett Schellenberg : yeah.

[00:17:31] Josh Lowrey: They're, they're enormous. They've been around a hundred years. We, we used to sell 'em steel. Yeah. I mean, if you're doing a forging in the Midwest, you're, you're working with Caterpillar at some point.

[00:17:39] Josh Lowrey: Yeah. Machining or otherwise. Yeah. But, um, you know, they, are they a hundred year old business? You know, you're, you think they haven't seen something since 19 20, 26?

[00:17:51] Brett Schellenberg : And I'll, I'll, I'll tell you something about them too, is like you wanna talk about. Product management and developing, uh, products. Um, caterpillar has [00:18:00] done a very, very good job.

[00:18:01] Brett Schellenberg : My, my neighbor across the street, he actually just moved to Chicago with, with Caterpillar. But, uh, talking to him about product, uh, they, they, uh, they do a very good job thinking through how to build the right thing, solve problems that people care about, problems that people are willing to pay money for, right.

[00:18:15] Brett Schellenberg : Problems that are pervasive throughout the industry.

[00:18:17] Josh Lowrey: By the way, what a great point you just brought up there.

[00:18:19] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah,

[00:18:19] Josh Lowrey: yeah, yeah. Problems that people are willing to pay money for.

[00:18:21] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, that's, that's, that's how I think of it. I think, I think of three things. Number one, is it a problem we're solving?

[00:18:26] Josh Lowrey: Yep.

[00:18:27] Brett Schellenberg : Number two, is it a pervasive problem? Meaning am I only solving Josh's correct. Josh's problem or am I solving everyone's problem or a large? And then number three, the important, are they gonna pay

[00:18:35] Josh Lowrey: for it? Are they gonna pay for Correct.

[00:18:36] Brett Schellenberg : They got those three things, it's probably worth we're

[00:18:37] Josh Lowrey: interested.

[00:18:38] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah,

[00:18:38] Josh Lowrey: yeah,

[00:18:38] Brett Schellenberg : yeah,

[00:18:39] Josh Lowrey: yeah. You can't, 90 10 rule doesn't really.

[00:18:40] Brett Schellenberg : No.

[00:18:41] Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

[00:18:41] Brett Schellenberg : No.

[00:18:41] Josh Lowrey: Let's go to someone else. They'll solve. Yeah.

[00:18:42] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:18:43] Josh Lowrey: Well, um, you know, I always tell people that tier one brands like to work with tier one brands. That's

[00:18:47] Brett Schellenberg : right.

[00:18:47] Josh Lowrey: Yeah. So that's, that's exactly where you guys are. Um. I'm really interested in technology.

[00:18:52] Brett Schellenberg : Yep.

[00:18:52] Josh Lowrey: I wanna know how you guys are using technology. Yep. So, do you have anything that you want to highlight on that front?

[00:18:56] Brett Schellenberg : I mean, a couple things. So, like, on the,

[00:18:57] Josh Lowrey: because my, my partner Richard is sitting over there [00:19:00] and when I'm, if I really wanna annoy Richard, I just walk around saying ai.

[00:19:03] Brett Schellenberg : Yes.

[00:19:03] Josh Lowrey: I'm like, we do ai.

[00:19:04] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. Yeah.

[00:19:05] Josh Lowrey: He's like, Josh, we don't do ai. I'm like, we do it. We're all inclusive.

[00:19:08] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:19:08] Josh Lowrey: We do it all, all inclusive. Ai. That's not apparently what AI stands for, but, uh. So that's just, that's my annoying thing to him. I do, but what in the world of technology are you guys getting into?

[00:19:19] Brett Schellenberg : So, yeah, a couple things.

[00:19:21] Brett Schellenberg : Uh, and I'm probably gonna miss some. I like, we, I didn't, I didn't prepare. No,

[00:19:24] Josh Lowrey: this is by the way,

[00:19:25] Brett Schellenberg : couple things. Yeah, couple things. So, so number one, um, what

[00:19:27] Josh Lowrey: do you think is the coolest? How about that?

[00:19:29] Brett Schellenberg : I think there's two things that like that, that come to mind. So number one is around automation and robotics and pipe handling, right?

[00:19:36] Brett Schellenberg : So again, a roll of the dice. 10 years ago that looked insane was us trying to figure out. How we could automate pipe handling again, onshore on an offshore, uh, vessel or platform that's static. Building something like that. It's not tricky when you have to move the rig every 30 days, every 45 days and move that pipe handling system becomes increasingly difficult.

[00:19:57] Brett Schellenberg : So I think one of the cool things that we're doing is around automated [00:20:00] pipe handling. We have a system that we built in-house, which is called Razor. Uh, we've got two of those deployed right now. Um, and uh, and again, we were fortunate to have a customer. Serial number one, you go through growing pains and then serial number two or serial one and a half, like you can really start to, to roll on it, right?

[00:20:17] Brett Schellenberg : It's starting to roll. Uh, right now, um, the, the objective for us in the short term is, uh, top quartile performance, um, in, uh, with that customer and then in the basin against our own rigs. So you gotta be. Top quartile.

[00:20:30] Josh Lowrey: Okay.

[00:20:31] Brett Schellenberg : Uh, and, and then you wanna be top 10%. And then you need that to be the best, right?

[00:20:35] Brett Schellenberg : Because all of these things, like, so, so pipe handling is a good example. So when you start the conversation with a customer, they go, and this is actually a good product lesson. They go, Hey, we wanna do this 'cause we wanna get people outta the way, we wanna be safe, right? And you go, Hey, we, we've got a solution for that.

[00:20:49] Brett Schellenberg : And you put it out there and they go, Hey, we haven't gotten anyone hurt. Everyone is safe. But that other one's a little bit faster.

[00:20:55] Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

[00:20:56] Brett Schellenberg : You know that, that other guy, you know, that I know they, they've got hands in the way, but it's a little bit faster. Yeah. And so it [00:21:00] starts off altruistic, but ultimately just for the reasons that you talked about, the efficiency and the demand and the pressure of pricing.

[00:21:06] Brett Schellenberg : Like eventually you have to figure out, I know how to get faster. And so when, when we went to iteration too, it was like, look, we, we can, we know that we can get people outta the way, but we've got to figure out. How to do it better than we're doing it today with people. And so like, that's kind of where a lot of this, uh, process has gone through to get us to where at.

[00:21:21] Brett Schellenberg : So I think, I think that's, I think that's one thing. And then the second thing is like this platform that we've built, this automation platform on the rig that KVA and Halliburton and Schlumberger and others can tie into. And we we're really proud of the fact that we have this open ecosystem where if any customer of ours builds their own app, that they want to have their own auto driller, they want to have their own widget.

[00:21:42] Brett Schellenberg : It can tie directly into the rig. And we've seen a lot of really good success with that. Those are the two cool things. There's others.

[00:21:49] Josh Lowrey: Well, you know, it's funny when you're talking about that equipment, I, I guess I didn't realize how much equipment manufacturing neighbors is doing.

[00:21:55] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah,

[00:21:55] Josh Lowrey: yeah. You know, I would always think you guys would go to other capital equipment manufacturers for that.

[00:21:59] Josh Lowrey: But you're doing a [00:22:00] lot of in-house.

[00:22:00] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. Yeah. We can, we can do a fact check, uh, on, on, on the caption here, but the, the last, the last that I heard is that behind NOV, we have the, the largest number of top drives in the world. So NOV number one. Neighbors number two, because the, and if you think about it, we had can rigs Yeah.

[00:22:16] Brett Schellenberg : Significant number of can rig top drives in the world. And then we bought Tesco, right? Which had another large portion of top drives in the world. So we can fact check me. But the, the last I heard is that behind NOV, we have the, the largest number of, uh, second largest number of top drives in the world.

[00:22:29] Brett Schellenberg : And so we are a very large

[00:22:30] Josh Lowrey: equipment.

[00:22:31] Brett Schellenberg : Equipment, yeah, equipment manufacturer. And then that's

[00:22:33] Josh Lowrey: a nice differentiator, really.

[00:22:34] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. Yeah. And then again, it's, it's all vertically integrated. And so when you start to think about when we've had the need for this, this was back. You know, in the early two thousands when people were pumping out rigs and you couldn't get top trucks correct, you couldn't get engine.

[00:22:45] Brett Schellenberg : And so we vertically integrated this thing and we were able to, to build it to, to what it's at today.

[00:22:50] Josh Lowrey: Well, again, I was in the steel business in those times. I remember all the forging castings, investment casting, et cetera and all that stuff. Alright, I wanna talk about [00:23:00] the market.

[00:23:00] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:23:01] Josh Lowrey: Um, let's start with North American market.

[00:23:04] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:23:05] Josh Lowrey: How do you, how do you feel about the north? You know, what year did you actually, you started in oh seven.

[00:23:09] Brett Schellenberg : Seven.

[00:23:09] Josh Lowrey: So that would, let's, let's see if we can put our caps on here. That's, the rig count was probably. 2,500 back then.

[00:23:16] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah, yeah. We, we were, yeah. O over 1500 somewhere. Oh,

[00:23:19] Josh Lowrey: it was over 2000 for sure.

[00:23:21] Brett Schellenberg : Okay.

[00:23:21] Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

[00:23:21] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. 'cause we, yeah, we had the dip in, uh, 2008, the natural gas. Yep. Um, but uh, yeah, there were a lot. Yeah. So I've, uh, fortunately or unfortunately seen the, uh, couple

[00:23:30] Josh Lowrey: ups and downs. Yeah.

[00:23:31] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah, for sure.

[00:23:32] Josh Lowrey: And then, you know, obviously. Productivity's improve the entire time.

[00:23:35] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:23:35] Josh Lowrey: Right.

[00:23:36] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:23:36] Josh Lowrey: So what do you think the market is North America now?

[00:23:39] Josh Lowrey: What do you think it's gonna be doing in the next couple of years? And, you know, we're at this conference and everybody, there's lots of talk of, you know, consolidation 'cause there's a lot of EMP companies here, but it's more about just efficiencies.

[00:23:51] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:23:51] Josh Lowrey: And obviously you guys are seeing that you're, you're hearing that, um, so your North American market thoughts.

[00:23:58] Josh Lowrey: Yeah. What's,

[00:23:58] Brett Schellenberg : I don't wanna put

[00:23:59] Josh Lowrey: words

[00:23:59] Brett Schellenberg : in your mouth. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:24:00] No, no. I mean, I think, uh. And this may be, and

[00:24:03] Josh Lowrey: I won't hold you this, if you don't like it, we'll delete it.

[00:24:05] Brett Schellenberg : No, I think it may be, uh, an unoriginal uh, opinion, but I think it's the general consensus. I mean, Brett's crystal Ball says that, um, you know, US land will remain relatively flat, but it's gonna have a little bit of a, a downward curve on it.

[00:24:21] Brett Schellenberg : I don't know where that thing

[00:24:23] Josh Lowrey: Right.

[00:24:23] Brett Schellenberg : Finally flattens out at and, and I'll talk about maybe again, Brett's opinion on like what, what that may be, but. The, the reality is, again, you, you need fewer rigs to, to drill the same number of wells, which is gonna drive that rig count down. Number two, um, you know, you know, when operators consolidate together, 10 plus 10 does not equal 20.

[00:24:43] Brett Schellenberg : So like, I think that's a, uh, second, uh, mm-hmm. Contributing factor. Now, the, you know, my, my hope is, um, and this is maybe my optimistic hope, is that as we start to get into this tier two, tier three acreage, um, the need to keep up. Punching holes [00:25:00] in the ground could potentially increase. Um, and if that's the case, there could be some stabilization on that downward curve.

[00:25:07] Brett Schellenberg : Now,

can

[00:25:08] Josh Lowrey: you say that part again for the needs, the tier? Say that one more time.

[00:25:12] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. So if you're drilling, yeah. So, so right now everyone is focused mostly on their tier one needs, correct? Right. As you start to move into lower rock and reservoir quality, in order to keep your production numbers where they're at, you may need to drill more.

[00:25:26] Brett Schellenberg : Mm-hmm. Or. What is probably more likely to happen is you need to innovate and you need to figure out how to frack better. Right? How to produce better, you know? Uh, and, and so there's some things that are happening on both sides of that. Now, as a pure driller, my hope is yeah, all that crap doesn't work out there.

[00:25:42] Brett Schellenberg : We just punched more holes in the ground. So I, I think, um,

[00:25:45] Josh Lowrey: that's the part I don't, I don't wanna hold you to that, but it sounded optimistic. That's why I wanted to hear

[00:25:49] Brett Schellenberg : you. So, yeah. And, and, uh, and, and the, you know, the, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle of there I can buy that. Ultimately what, what happens?

[00:25:55] Brett Schellenberg : But, um. But yeah, I mean, that, that is the reality. I think if you look at, you know, the, [00:26:00] the completions world, the production world, they, they are figuring out on this, you know, what should be crappy acreage, how to make it, you know, squeeze out some good juice.

[00:26:08] Josh Lowrey: Well, so what I've done here is I've set you up.

[00:26:10] Brett Schellenberg : Ooh,

[00:26:11] Josh Lowrey: yes. Because I do have kind of a loaded agenda here at the very end, if, if you wanna call it that. But it's a, it's a positive spin because I'm, I'm so pro Middle East right now. Yeah. That I need someone to talk me off the ledge. I believe. Hey buddy. I believe that, I forget, we're on a podcast here.

[00:26:32] Josh Lowrey: Sorry. People are walking. We're we're live. Yeah. Yeah, we're live on the suite level here. Um, I believe that the Middle East is just going to boom.

[00:26:42] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:26:43] Josh Lowrey: For years.

[00:26:44] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:26:44] Josh Lowrey: And neighbors perfectly positioned.

[00:26:46] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:26:47] Josh Lowrey: You know, internationally. What does that look like for you guys? You don't have to speak specifically on the Middle East, but like what does your international footprint look like?

[00:26:55] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah, I mean, um, uh, about half of our business, maybe a little bit more is it

[00:26:59] Josh Lowrey: really

[00:26:59] Brett Schellenberg : is [00:27:00] international. Oh, okay. I mean, so, so like if you look at Saudi, for example, so we have a joint venture with Aramco. Yep. We jointly own a drilling company together that's called Ana. So today we've got over 50 rigs, uh, running in Kingdom, uh, with Aramco.

[00:27:13] Brett Schellenberg : Uh, we've had a large presence in the Middle East, north Africa, Southeast Asia, uh, Caspian region for a very, very long time. Right. This is, uh, you know, for us, I think it's one of our strengths is that there's, there's not a lot of places that we've been to, uh, that, uh, you know, we, you know, there's not a lot of places that we can go that we haven't already seen something similar.

[00:27:34] Brett Schellenberg : We haven't already been

[00:27:35] Josh Lowrey: there. I would think that's true. Yeah.

[00:27:36] Brett Schellenberg : I can, I think, like, again, if you look from a a, a equipment perspective. We've got rigs in Alaska. We had rigs in Russia. We have rigs in the desert. We've had rigs in the jungles. We've had rigs in beautiful East Texas. But like we have from an engineering perspective, all of those things require different types of solutions.

[00:27:55] Brett Schellenberg : And then on the people side, each area has its own dynamics. Uhhuh, whether [00:28:00] it's union, whether it's, um, local content requirements, whether it, you know what, whether it's geopolitical and, and risk and security and things like that. We've, we've kind of been through. All of those things. And so I would say like for us, uh, you know, if, if you're right and, and your optimism of international growth, which I would say we are also, uh, optimistic about that we are very uniquely positioned, uh, that there's really not a country that you can point to or an environment that you can point to that we can't go execute on.

[00:28:27] Brett Schellenberg : 'cause we've probably already done it and, and now we know how to scale it and bring the technology and bring this equipment into those areas.

[00:28:34] Josh Lowrey: Well, I mean. That's what I'm saying.

[00:28:36] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:28:36] Josh Lowrey: You know, the, the loaded question wasn't really for me, it's loaded for you. I just feel like the people, like neighbors are uniquely positioned here.

[00:28:45] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. Yeah. And, and man, I'll tell you dude, like it's, it's, a lot of these places are not easy to get into, especially if you, if you've been lower 48 focused and you, and you go and you go call on a customer, yes. You create a relationship and you pro provide, it

[00:28:58] Josh Lowrey: doesn't

[00:28:58] Brett Schellenberg : happen. It doesn't work [00:29:00] like that, right?

[00:29:00] Brett Schellenberg : Mm-hmm. And, and even just. Incorporating your company, getting on the tender list. You know, the, these tenders are all very long cycle, right? So the thing I may be bidding on today has been in the works for two years before the tender process. Right? And so if I'm setting up my company today, 'cause there's a tender in a month, I'm, I'm two years too late.

[00:29:18] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. Right? And, and uh, and so I think that, you know, that's, that's the important thing. Now, uh, there there's other areas of the world that I think you can be a bit more nimble in. And like I am a huge fan, uh, of Argentina. Right. I mean, um, and, and I'll, I'll talk about that a little bit. I mean, if you look at the vaca mor to shale in Argentina, um, they are drilling very similar wells to us.

[00:29:41] Brett Schellenberg : One of the cool things about Argentina is like when we're deploying technology in the us, not so much today, but let's go back a couple years ago, I've got this cool new auto driller. It's gonna do better than a driller can. Your engineers are gonna program it and it is gonna make sure that it happens exactly the way you want it to.

[00:29:56] Brett Schellenberg : On the rig and AI and all the cool, the jumbo gonna make it work really good. Okay. [00:30:00] Well, I get it to the well site and the company man goes, this thing, can't do it better than I can. Yeah. Like, you know, I, I've been

[00:30:08] Josh Lowrey: this so same attitude no matter what country.

[00:30:09] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah, yeah. Well, no, no, no. So, so here in the States that's, you know, you got a lot of company men, you've got a lot of company representatives that I did it this way, my dad did it this way, my grandfather did it this way.

[00:30:17] Brett Schellenberg : And this is how you drill this way where you go to Argentina and there is such, I mean, number one, a highly educated population. That is driven by innovation that wants to do things similar to what we're doing, but they don't want to go through the growing pains that we go through. So when you deploy something there, everyone is bought in.

[00:30:35] Brett Schellenberg : CEO, drilling Manager company, man, everyone. And the success that you have with technology there is far better

[00:30:42] Josh Lowrey: really,

[00:30:42] Brett Schellenberg : I think. Yeah. And the adoption phase, uh, than here. Uh, and they are smoking wells down there and it's a little bit easier to operate. Getting money's out, money out is a little bit tricky, but.

[00:30:51] Brett Schellenberg : Mr. Mr. Malay has, um, they're

[00:30:53] Josh Lowrey: changing some things.

[00:30:54] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. Mr. Malays done a really good job. Yeah. Kind of, um, helping things out there. So that's a, that's another cool [00:31:00] spot that may be not Middle East, but it's a, it's a cool spot.

[00:31:03] Josh Lowrey: Well, yeah, you did take me off my Middle East, you know, track.

Oh,

[00:31:05] Brett Schellenberg : yeah. So, yeah, so, so middle.

[00:31:07] Brett Schellenberg : So yeah, so, so, so Middle East, like I, I would say like, uh, it's a, there's good growth opportunity. Obviously the reservoirs over there are incredible. Um, and, um. And from a capital equipment perspective, they're still buying stuff, right? It's like, so for our capital equipment business can rig, like, it's a, it's a really good business for that.

[00:31:25] Brett Schellenberg : Um, my hope is that, um, you know, I, I think there's an opportunity to be a bit more nimble on their decision making. Yeah. I think that, I think that could benefit them. Uh, and I think that would help drive performance as the key metric for equipment selection rather than just price. And I think that's something that kind of still needs to get worked through in, in some parts of the world.

[00:31:49] Josh Lowrey: So where do you, you live in Houston?

[00:31:51] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:31:51] Josh Lowrey: Okay. But you're traveling constantly? A

[00:31:53] Brett Schellenberg : lot.

[00:31:53] Josh Lowrey: A lot, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Where are you spending? I mean, just all over the place.

[00:31:57] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. I mean,

[00:31:57] Josh Lowrey: checking on your teams, I would imagine.

[00:31:59] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I [00:32:00] mean, so yeah, spread out, uh, quite a bit between South America, uh, the Middle East, north Africa.

[00:32:05] Brett Schellenberg : We've been spending a lot of time. Yeah. In North Africa. We've got, uh, a great partnership right now in Libya. So we've got a few rigs running through that partnership. Uh, right now, uh, Algeria as well.

[00:32:15] Josh Lowrey: Man, you're all over the place.

[00:32:16] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some fun places.

[00:32:18] Josh Lowrey: Wow.

[00:32:18] Brett Schellenberg : Okay. Yeah, so, so we've, uh, yeah. So yeah, kind of all, all over the, all over the place.

[00:32:23] Brett Schellenberg : Okay. Yeah.

[00:32:24] Josh Lowrey: Um, is there anything that I haven't asked you about that I need to know about that the people the people need to know about this is, by the way, you are speaking to the people right now?

[00:32:31] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. Yeah. Well, number one. Oh, I did wanna tell you this. And, and for those of you that are listening in your car right now, I'm gonna, I'm gonna stop the job on you right now.

[00:32:40] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. So. So for those of you that listen to podcasts, you probably also subscribe to to Josh on Instagram. And one thing I wanna call you out on is this dude gets on his phone and FaceTimes and does his things while he is driving. This is not a good idea, dude. It's

[00:32:54] Josh Lowrey: not

[00:32:54] Brett Schellenberg : safe and you are not, you are not setting a good example.

[00:32:57] Brett Schellenberg : And so for those of you that are driving right now, my ask of you [00:33:00] is be like Josh and be cool and be successful and be smart.

[00:33:04] Josh Lowrey: Don't,

[00:33:05] Brett Schellenberg : don't be like Josh and get on your damn phone and FaceTime. While you're driving, that is not a good idea. You're, and I wanna challenge you and I wanna challenge you.

[00:33:13] Josh Lowrey: You're right.

[00:33:13] Josh Lowrey: I get, I get a lot of flack to consider that. I will, I will reconsider this. I've, you know, I've justified it in my head. They're like, I'm only in the neighborhood.

[00:33:19] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:33:19] Josh Lowrey: I'm under 40 miles an hour. But that's, that's just stupid,

[00:33:22] Brett Schellenberg : isn't it? Yeah. Where the kids are riding their bike, dude.

[00:33:24] Josh Lowrey: Just little children.

[00:33:25] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. Yeah. 10 points a piece. Right.

[00:33:28] Josh Lowrey: You know what, I, I will accept that.

[00:33:29] Brett Schellenberg : Good.

[00:33:30] Josh Lowrey: Good. That is a, um. You know, this is, I'm a big iron sharpens iron guy.

[00:33:34] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:33:35] Josh Lowrey: That is a, I I truly accept it. Yeah. I don't think I wanna be better as a person.

[00:33:38] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. 'cause man, I, I wanna listen. You always got good things to say, but in the back of my mind, I'm going, dude, that's

idiot

[00:33:42] Josh Lowrey: dumb.

[00:33:42] Brett Schellenberg : This

[00:33:43] Josh Lowrey: idiots get off the phone.

[00:33:43] Brett Schellenberg : That stop it, man.

[00:33:44] Josh Lowrey: You know, you're, this is where I need friends in big companies.

[00:33:47] Brett Schellenberg : That's right. That's

[00:33:47] Josh Lowrey: right. Because.

[00:33:48] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. And I'm not saying that you need three points of contact while walking the stairs here at, uh, Daikin. Let's, let's, let's

[00:33:53] Josh Lowrey: be realistic about, but you know's what funny, funny is, I, if you watch me, I actually do that when I wa 'cause I, when I used to tra visit with Schlumberger.

[00:33:58] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah, yeah.

[00:33:59] Josh Lowrey: They were on you.

[00:33:59] Brett Schellenberg : [00:34:00] Yeah.

[00:34:00] Josh Lowrey: Three points of contact. Yeah. And when you would exit their parking lot, honk before you'd back out

[00:34:04] Brett Schellenberg : Right.

[00:34:04] Josh Lowrey: At Smith too. You know, it's so, I actually accept your

[00:34:08] Brett Schellenberg : good, good

[00:34:08] Josh Lowrey: rebuke.

[00:34:09] Brett Schellenberg : Good, good.

[00:34:10] Josh Lowrey: Um, and I will not do it.

[00:34:11] Brett Schellenberg : Yes. Thank you.

[00:34:12] Josh Lowrey: Love it. This is great. Yeah. Well, other than, you know.

[00:34:15] Josh Lowrey: Me. Is there any advice that you would give to a, your younger self

[00:34:20] Brett Schellenberg : man,

[00:34:20] Josh Lowrey: that you, uh, a piece of advice, a piece of wisdom, something you've learned by the way, your younger self? You just got 4,040. I'm not real happy with that, but whatever. Yeah. Congratulations. Thank

[00:34:29] Brett Schellenberg : you.

[00:34:29] Josh Lowrey: Thank you to your success.

[00:34:31] Brett Schellenberg : I, I would say, or

[00:34:31] Josh Lowrey: whatever

[00:34:32] Brett Schellenberg : I would say like kind of what we opened with talking about Cade man.

[00:34:35] Brett Schellenberg : Like I think if you are young in the industry, actually two things. Number one, uh, if you're in this industry, the, the first thing that you need to do is get yourself as close to the rotary table for as long as you can. You're gonna want to get to the comfy office, you're gonna want to get to the big meetings, but the more time that you can spend at the Rotary, you will not regret it, and you will use that experience the rest of your life.

[00:34:54] Brett Schellenberg : And I think you can also attest to this, doing the dirty work sometimes pays off. So I think

[00:34:59] Josh Lowrey: funny.

[00:34:59] Brett Schellenberg : [00:35:00] Yeah, I know.

[00:35:01] Josh Lowrey: I'm serious.

[00:35:01] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I think, I think that would,

[00:35:04] Josh Lowrey: I've been the, I've been the janitor.

[00:35:05] Brett Schellenberg : No, I know. So I would say like, that would be number one, like. I mean, you, you just, you just got outta college and you, you, you want to do the cool thing and you wanna wear the sweater vest and you want to go, but like, dude, you gotta get, you gotta get close to the rotary table, close to the frack spread, close to whatever it is that you're doing, I think.

[00:35:21] Brett Schellenberg : I think that's number one. And, and stay there a little bit longer than you need to. Okay. The second thing is, once you get done with that, find a mentor and figure out how you can sit into meetings you shouldn't be in and you're not gonna say anything. You're just gonna listen and you're gonna absorb and you're gonna observe how people.

[00:35:38] Brett Schellenberg : Uh, behave and you're gonna understand how deals are made and you're gonna understand all these dynamics. I'd say like those are two super important things and do the stupid jobs.

[00:35:45] Josh Lowrey: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[00:35:46] Brett Schellenberg : I was getting my boss's oil change. I was, uh, washing his car. I was building stupid spreadsheets for him that I thought meant nothing.

[00:35:53] Brett Schellenberg : And I can tell you that all of those things have helped develop me into the person that I'm today. So when you're doing this stupid job, I promise. You doing that [00:36:00] stupid job for him is gonna allow him and give him the confidence to bring you into that next meeting that you should be in. You, you got, you're gonna contribute nothing.

[00:36:06] Brett Schellenberg : But he's, he's, uh, investing in you.

[00:36:09] Josh Lowrey: You know, you remind me, I, I typically, I, I want to end this on that, but you reminded me of a great story. When I was 23, 24, I was living in Los Angeles, my first job post college. So I was 23 and I had just gotten a new car. My boss worked for IBM, so I had to wear a suit every day.

[00:36:25] Josh Lowrey: And you know, this is a suit. With a tie. Um, so I, my car was clean, I was in my suit. I looked good. I'm got a haircut, time to go to work, and I pull up to the stoplight and I'm like, man, I look great. I'm ready for work today. And I'm looking in the mirror, kind of checking myself out. I'm like, look how great I look today.

[00:36:43] Josh Lowrey: It's ready to just, I'm gonna kill work. It's awesome. And then I look in front of me, there's a plumbing truck, and then there's a FedEx truck, and then there's a, you know, a whatever. Another kind of work type truck. Right. And it, and as I'm staring at these three trucks off at the stoplight, [00:37:00] it just hit me, it's 8:00 AM you know, we're going to work.

[00:37:03] Josh Lowrey: And it realized like, Josh, these guys are going to work. You're not special.

[00:37:08] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:37:08] Josh Lowrey: You're going to work.

[00:37:09] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:37:09] Josh Lowrey: Like what make, you're in a, you're car looks different. Mm-hmm. But you're, you're all going to work.

[00:37:14] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:37:14] Josh Lowrey: Like, dude, like take a, take a breath buddy.

[00:37:17] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:37:17] Josh Lowrey: Just like, this is what it's so like, I, I appreciate you saying like.

[00:37:21] Josh Lowrey: Go to the rotor table, do the thing. Just acknowledge what you're, it's we're, we're all trying to make it here, buddy.

[00:37:26] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah, man. It's, it's, uh, so important and I think, uh, it can make you a better leader in the future and, and you can contribute to the business better if you, if you know what's happening there at the ground level.

[00:37:34] Josh Lowrey: By the way, I'm not looking at my watch be rude. I'm being, I looking at my watch too. Be to acknowledge your hard stop here. Thank you. This has been a pleasure.

[00:37:42] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:37:43] Josh Lowrey: Um, we're gonna see at the soiree,

[00:37:45] Brett Schellenberg : we'll be there, man,

[00:37:45] Josh Lowrey: in, um, November.

[00:37:47] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. I, we went to the inaugural, we went to last year's.

[00:37:49] Josh Lowrey: You did. You've always been great.

[00:37:51] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah. And so we're, we're looking for, this

[00:37:52] Josh Lowrey: one's gonna be ridiculous.

[00:37:53] Brett Schellenberg : We're ready, man. We're ready.

[00:37:54] Josh Lowrey: Ready. I told, I, I, I told everybody I want to stage on the water.

[00:37:57] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah,

[00:37:57] Josh Lowrey: I said I want a whole stage on the water and I wanna be able [00:38:00] to give a speech back. And Mark Amicus is like, uh, and I said, and I want a piano on this.

[00:38:04] Josh Lowrey: And you know, mark, he's great. Yeah. But he thinks I'm a total idiot. Yeah. And he goes, uh, Josh, um. You're gonna electrocute everybody.

[00:38:14] Brett Schellenberg : Yeah.

[00:38:15] Josh Lowrey: And I'm like, we'll figure it out, man. Come on. We'll figure it

[00:38:17] Brett Schellenberg : out. Yeah. He's, he's your, the, the, the yin to the yang. Yes. You need someone like, like Mark and, and shout, shout out to Mark on, uh, all of his hard work, putting all this stuff together, man, in this.

[00:38:25] Josh Lowrey: Incredible. Yeah.

[00:38:25] Brett Schellenberg : And Andy, I, I've, I've known Mark, uh, since the early days, uh. The old Doug conferences back in the early two thousands, man.

[00:38:32] Josh Lowrey: Yeah. Mark, I've been Mark for a long time. Great. He's changed the trajectory of our company for sure. There's no doubt about it's. He's

[00:38:37] Brett Schellenberg : a good dude.

[00:38:38] Josh Lowrey: Well, listen, Brett Schoenberg, VP of Global Sales at Neighbors Industries.

[00:38:42] Josh Lowrey: Thank you for your time. Thanks. If there's anything we can do, anything we can do for you, just let us know. Um, this is the, what is this? The, the Energy Pipeline Podcast. Sponsored by Caterpillar. Um, check out their website, caterpillar.com. It's their oil and gas one. Have you ever seen their setup?

[00:38:56] Brett Schellenberg : Oh yeah.

[00:38:57] Josh Lowrey: They've got, they got a hell of a setup. Yeah. And, and really, you know, [00:39:00] they, they're we're pretty excited to be working with these guys and they said, Hey, we're gonna do this. And I went and met with these guys and you realize how organized a 100-year-old company is.

[00:39:07] Brett Schellenberg : Totally. Oh yeah.

[00:39:08] Josh Lowrey: And like, Josh, we sent you an email and I'm like, Uhhuh, Uhhuh, I'll go ahead.

[00:39:11] Josh Lowrey: And so yeah. Brett, thank you for everybody. Good luck to you my man. Man, tear it up.