What The Funk?

0:00 All right, we are back on what the funk little hiatus there took maybe three or four weeks off the pod. But we're back. And we are back on the spot on the dot with Will Dotson. I think I might

0:14 call this episode on the dot. I haven't said it yet. From Regret Shields, a newish newer funk futures client really excited about some of the offerings that you guys have. And the focus that you

0:27 have on operational technology, the OT side of the business. You hear about a lot of IT consulting firms, a lot of back office. You don't hear as much about OT. And I'm really excited about

0:39 working with you, getting to know your team. Seems like you guys really know what you're doing. And just trying to get past that initial, you know, you guys been around for a while. You got that

0:49 referral engine going. That's great. But you know, how do you take it to the next level, right? And hopefully my firm is the one that can get you there. We have every intention of doing We'll

0:57 talk about Regret Shields. We'll talk about all that fun stuff, but I have to hit you well with my favorite question that I ask everybody. Who are you, man? Who is? Will Dotson? Hard working,

1:09 driven, even as old as I am. Love what I do,

1:17 juggling work, kids. Sometimes you kind of lose some of who you are, so to speak, because I'm work will or I'm home will And they blend, right? Well, more so work creeps into family, but just

1:32 driven, you know, ultimately, it doesn't matter whether it's planning a project at home or at work, I want to do it well. And, you know, and I tend to over-communicate, so I've been labeled an

1:45 over-communicator. And again, I'll take - By your wife, by your wife. Oh, no, 100. So, well, not just my wife. My wife primarily, because I live with her, but. even some clients, but at

1:59 the end of the day, they typically appreciate it because it doesn't allow for gaps. Yeah, well, I wanna go even further back. I think that that's a good summation of who you are, but talk about

2:12 young Will Dots and like, where'd you grow up to go to school? Where'd you go to school, early stages of career? Like, I think you live in Cyprus, Texas now, but give me a little bit of like

2:22 the earlier days, right? And were you always interested in technology, right? Give me a little bit of the younger well story. No, so when I was younger, so I grew up, I lived in Keema 'cause

2:33 my grandparents owned restaurants in Keema, which is just a little, it's way outside of Houston. So I grew up fishing and just playing sports, and then we moved around. I lived in almost every

2:44 major city in Texas, excluding San Antonio, 'cause my mom and I moved around quite a bit, but wrapped up high school here in Houston and A-leaf, and then went to junior college for a couple of

2:55 years, And, uh, I ran track and then I came back to Texas and finished my track career at Sam Houston. But during my college years, my father had a consulting company and he was big into

3:12 computers. And this is late '80s, early '90s, mind you.

3:16 So had routers and switches and he did a lot of bill analysis for ATT, massive contract with ATT I saw one of an early day scanner. This is probably '92 when they were like15, 20, 000 for a

3:32 scanner and it was new. And I liked that. That was interesting to me. But I was like, I saw him and he could code. I was like, I don't know about all that. So I went to college, majored in

3:47 business, and then got out and was like, I was a little immature. So I was like, you know what? I think I need to join the military So I joined the Navy. And I end up, well, I went into the

4:00 Navy thinking, I want to do something that I can take outside of the Navy when I get out. So I ended up doing being an electricianinterior communications tech. And then I end up on an aircraft

4:12 carrier, the Abraham Lincoln, out of Everett, Washington. So I'm running the comms. And then what's called the gyro compass Now this is a device that looks like R2-D2, no lie. And it feeds

4:28 information to this cabinet. But ultimately, it feeds all the F-14s, the helos, the flight information so they understand pitch and roll of the carrier so they can land properly. So I ran that.

4:41 And then I got out of the military, and I started working for Worldcom. Funny enough, in the late '90s And

4:51 then it was there that. I had a boss, 'cause I had clients like Microsoft, Nordstrom, Alaska Airlines, did a lot of circuit delivery, toll-free, ring delivery, like any number of things. And

5:05 I had a boss come to me and say, Hey, you know, you'd be a good project manager. And she slapped the Pembok on my desk. So if you're not familiar with the Pembok, that's the Project Management

5:16 Book of Knowledge, okay? Or Body of Knowledge. It's like this big She drops that on my desk, I'm curious, I look at it. Some of it's interesting, but I look at the size and I'm like, no, I've

5:29 already had a couple of those 'cause I wasn't long out of the military. And I had manuals larger than that for the gyro. I was like, I don't know about all that. So I go through my first couple of

5:41 years at WorldCom. I'm in Seattle at the time. I transferred to Houston 'cause I missed Houston in the sun, obviously So came back here and then they finally, I. I started reading it more and

5:55 looking into it and it just seemed like a natural progression. So I migrated towards project management and this is probably 2002. Good point to pause because there's actually a lot there to

6:12 unpack. So you ran track. What did you run and track? What were your events? So four by one, four by four and the 400 hurdles Okay, so I also ran track in high school and then a little for about

6:23 a year and a half division three up at Brandeis. I ran four by one, four by four, 200, 400 through the JAV. I was like the Michael Johnson era where everybody would run the 200 and the 400.

6:37 Those were like the cool events to run back then. No, it's like kind of different skills. So I always liked it because it's where like the 100 meter guys met the 400 meter guys, right? right in

6:47 between. The 400 was was painful. That's ultimately why I quit doing track because it was just like, well, I would start to like dread it the night before, because I'm like, I know that I'm

6:58 going to push my body to a point where I might end up throwing up or I might get a cramp. It's not going to be a fun day tomorrow. And ultimately, I was like, I just, I didn't want that Friday

7:11 night feeling before the Saturday meet. That's why I stopped No, I get it. I get it. Well, I mean, I, you know, one of the beauties of, like in junior college, we ran indoor and I was in

7:22 Kansas at the time. So we'd go run at K State, KU, and

7:27 they've got good tracks. But, but again, it's so I didn't run the 400 as much in indoor. I ran the 300 and the 600 and then the four by four. Now, the 600 for me was bad because that was

7:39 literally still an all out sprint

7:43 And then when I got to, when I got to Sam. They converted me. Well, and in all honesty, I should have gone D2, like my Juco Coach said, and not D1.

7:53 I mean, I go to Texas Relays my senior year, and I'm the only one under 6'3 in my heat, but I could hang with them. I could run with everybody, but the problem was, is I would inevitably clip a

8:08 hurdle, usually on the last turn, and then that's when it become painful Like, I enjoyed that as funny as that sounds, because I could run through that, because I could hold my tempo, but as

8:23 soon as I hit a hurdle, it slowed my whole tempo down, and then I began to feel it, and that's when I began to think about it. That's what it is. It's

8:32 that last hundred of any distance, but I think especially the 400, 600, 400 hurdles, you can't think truly like you just you really have to i think the guy The US guy, he won the 400 in Paris. I

8:50 don't know, I love the Olympics and watching all that race, but I forget his name, but his form just went completely to shit. And you could tell, it's almost like he just blacked out and he just

9:00 gave it everything that he had. You can't do that if you're thinking. You just go. No. And he kicked back and he won and might have even run a reverse split, which is faster in the second half

9:12 than the first half, just super crazy. But I just remember watching that, I'm like, man, that just gives me chills, right? Even now to think about it, 'cause I know what that's like. And then

9:22 you see, you're in the lane next to that guy and you see this guy's out of his mind. And now you start thinking, I need to be out of my mind, but you can't let that click in. You just gotta go,

9:30 right? It's just gotta take over. Texas, I think too, like the level of competition is just so high, right? You can run outdoors most of the year. There's so many professional athletes out of

9:45 Texas that ended up being football players. A lot of those guys ran track at some point. So I think that the bar was high, right? And what I liked about also, like I ran D3, but our meats were

9:56 like, yeah, I went to little Brandeis, but we'd run against BC and BU and

10:03 Yukon and Syracuse even came down to some meats. There was like all new England meats where it would be D1 guys and D3 guys. And it's a clock, right? Like it doesn't matter, if you have four

10:17 22-year-olds running the four by four at a D3 school against a D1 school

10:24 with four 18-year-olds, you might end up beating them, you know? I mean, it was kind of cool just to see it. Oh yeah, no, no, I get it because being in Texas, even at Sam, which is a D1, we

10:36 ran against Baylor, UT, Texas. I mean, like, so there was always a dude, right?

10:44 at a minimum from each school. And like when you ran against Baylor back in the early 90s, there were multiple dudes. Like every one of their guys would be a top guy anywhere else. Yeah, like

10:54 Olympic level guys. Correct. You know, and I think that's part of it too. I mean, you and I could talk about track all day, I bet. But then I, for me, it was kind of eye opening when, you

11:03 know, in high school, I won a lot. I still have all these medals that I'd like to show off to my kids, right? 'Cause, you know, in track at a big meet, you win something or place, I think,

11:14 top six. You get like a medal or you get a ribbon. So I've got this whole, you know, like cedar box full of them. And I used to hang them on my wall when I was in high school. Well, then you

11:23 get to college and you're on like the 14th heat out of 19 and you come in third in your heat and then you realize there's 84 dudes that had a better time than you did and you couldn't even win your

11:39 heat And it would just be like, man. I think this dream is going to have to die here pretty soon, like, you know, it was to the point where I'm like,

11:51 you know, it doesn't really matter how hard I work at this. Some of these guys are just better. They're just faster, right? Oh, agreed, you know, and I had, I had, like, if I'm honest, I

12:02 had distractions. When I went from in JUCO, I had fewer distractions. When I went to SAM, there was more, I was back home, so to speak, like, I was distracted at a minimum. Put it to you like

12:14 that. Girls and boot boos and parties, not to mention, like, school, like, I remember, you know, I came home from freshman year, and my parents were like, So, you know, how was, how was

12:25 school? How was your freshman year? And I just talked about track, right, and talked about girls, and they're like, What about school? And I'm like, Oh, right, yeah, you're paying for me to

12:35 go to get an education I almost wish that I had, like, I

12:41 grew up a lot, certainly in college. I probably could have used a disciplinary type of experience like you had in the military. But I also, I think that maybe for me, it would have been better if

12:53 that happened between high school and college. Like I don't think I was really ready to be out on my own. If I'd have seen the world and gained a little more perspective or been a bar back or waited

13:04 tables, I would have really appreciated the opportunity that I had at school instead of kind of squandering away the first two or three semesters where I just thought I was supposed to be fun and you

13:15 get on academic warning and all this stuff and you're running track and you're partying and I'm like, I just wasn't mature, you know? So I almost had some regret, regret shield. Some regret

13:28 around kind of wasting away the first three or four semesters of college and then by the time that I started to really like it and find the right classes and appreciate the education and the

13:37 opportunity, I was more than halfway done, you know? So. If I could have gone back and done it differently, I think some sort of gap. I don't think I was ready. I should have seen more of the

13:50 world and the alternatives if I wasn't gonna go to college to see what it would have looked like. No, no, I'm with you. I mean, 'cause it was when I left Sam, 'cause I was three, I was nine

14:00 hours short of graduating from Sam when I left, because I wanted to make money, I wanted to go to work. And the way they offered the classes, I would have had to stay a whole 'nother year And I

14:12 was so short-sighted, I didn't do it. 'Cause I knew it wouldn't have ended well with that minimal load.

14:20 So I was like, no, I went to work. And then, you know, and worked a number of a couple of different jobs before I finally accepted the fact that, eh, it's time to grow up. 'Cause I lived in

14:30 Houston, had a lot of fun in Houston. Then I moved to New Orleans. Oh God. And yeah, that's where, that's where, well no, but that's where I realized, okay, this is, I've had enough fun.

14:41 for probably five people. So let me go ahead and do something smart. So I joined the military and honestly, best decision I made because I learned a lot. I grew up a lot and I saw a lot of things,

14:57 which is what I needed. So why did you pick the Navy? And you would have been a little bit older, right? I mean, you would have been at that point, what, 24, 25, something like that. So were

15:07 you older for like the comrades that you had? I was probably middle of the pack. When I was in boot camp, you had some that were older. You had others that were obviously younger. And it was a

15:21 very, very diverse group. I mean, you had some that had that ultimatum laid on them, Hey, you can go to jail or you can join the military. Which, Hey, you made the right choice, cool. I mean,

15:33 so boot was interesting. I mean, you know, boot was one of those things that taught me really, and I had lived areas across the US. So I got along with virtually everybody, but I saw how some

15:46 couldn't when you have all these different personalities and things. And I just found it very interesting. Yeah.

15:56 I love hearing about people's military stories. I'd say a lot of people in oil and gas that I've met. A lot of people have been on this podcast have various different military stories And I think

16:07 the component of discipline, it generally carries through the rest of your life, the rest of your career, because it just becomes instilled in you at a younger age when you're still formidable.

16:21 And having two co-exist with people from different places, with different backgrounds, different financial upbringings, different levels of intelligence can only be positive, because that's what

16:33 it's like in the rest of the world, right? And it's interesting to hear your perspective, because you've lived a little bit. Before that, it wasn't just school, military, then you get out and

16:44 you say, What do I do? You probably appreciated the military experience because you'd already seen a little bit of the world. Well, I'd seen a little bit, right? Well, it's mostly the US. But

16:55 when I got into the military, I didn't fully appreciate the military until I got out of the military. Because while I was in the military, 'cause we were based on the West Coast out of Everett,

17:06 Washington So we'd go to Victoria Island off the coast of Canada. We'd pull into San Diego. I was like, oh, so for a couple of days, it was almost an extension of college periodically, right?

17:21 But no, I mean, it wasn't really until I got out that I realized and then started working at WorldCom. After you've been in the military, like you can deal with, I mean virtually anything. So

17:33 when you go into, like when I went into WorldCom, There was nothing that they could throw at me that I couldn't handle. I may not know everything, but I'll figure it out. And I could handle it.

17:45 Whereas I had coworkers who might react differently, right? There might be some panic with a new customer or workload, whatever it was. And I was like, oh, that's like,

17:59 you'll be fine. You'll be fine. Just like jive in and go. Yeah, now this is good stuff. So WorldCom, like keep in mind, well, there's some younger listeners in this audience that might not

18:11 know the whole story with WorldCom. So why don't you educate us a little bit? 'Cause I put them in that bucket, time-wise and fraud-wise, with Enron. I don't think the story was quite as

18:22 pronounced or broadcasted as Enron, 'cause there was a movie about it and it was so public and they had commercials on TV, but what happened at WorldCom? It's, okay, so I've got to go back. I

18:35 mean, that's like literally 23 years.

18:40 And, you know, I had my clients in Houston. We were always talking about the stock price because like I didn't own Qualcomm stock, I had other stock, but everybody, all the account reps and the

18:54 people that I worked with, they were like, I don't understand why the stock is so low, right? And we're looking, and they're talking about the financials. And I'm kind of not really paying

19:03 attention, but paying attention because, you know, they're throwing out large numbers of stock they have So ultimately, everything was propped up and the books were being cooked. And, you know,

19:17 some didn't know it, but ironically, you know, I had Walmart and some other clients when I moved to Houston, right, that I supported. And Enron filed theirs. They were a client in our group.

19:31 So one of the account reps in our office had them. And we're all like, I mean, we were like, oh my goshCan you imagine? It's.

19:40 Oh, well, I mean, yeah, eventually I did, because I was on the receiving end of that layoff notice. Well, and it didn't help when I transferred from Seattle to Houston. I was one of the higher

19:51 paid in my technical consultants in my group. And so, I knew as I started watching and I'm listening, okay, we're filing bankruptcy, I knew I was done, it was just when, not if. So I just

20:05 started planning, trying to figure out timeline wise when I was gonna go snowboarding Yeah, yeah. I mean, literally, I was relegated to the fact that I knew I was gone because there were probably

20:15 four or five of us and I was at the higher end over the others. So I was like, oh, I know I'm cooked. I mean, so. This is coming. Yeah, so WorldCom,

20:27 yeah, it was fraud, right? I mean, ultimately they were cooking the books and dropping numbers up and making it look like the company was doing well and they were public.

20:37 questions start to come out and people are wondering what's going on and then boom they're gone. What did the pieces of WorldCom become? Because like for Enron, you know, EOG and I think Arthur

20:47 Anderson became Accenture. Like there were things that spun out of it that became other parts of other businesses and successful businesses. What happened with WorldCom's pieces? Well, so the bulk

20:59 of WorldCom's pieces were bought by Verizon Got it. The one, the one that I don't know what happened, what happened to was global crossing.

21:10 Because once I got laid off my interest in WorldCom kind of diminished,

21:16 plus I was in Utah snowboarding, so I didn't care. And I like even, you know, as it went through, I still talked to people that were there, my friends that remained, but it was like, you know,

21:29 they were there because it was a job for a number of them I mean some just some enjoyed it others were like, eh, yeah Yeah, I mean, God, such a, you think about the big companies in that period

21:42 of time and what they became. There was some hubris for sure. And egos, I think that got in the way, but I would say like Blockbuster, Yahoo, Worldcom and Ron. I mean, these were like blue

21:54 chip companies back then. The hot companies that you'd wanna go work for. And yeah, I mean, of course, Microsoft was there and Apple was having a resurgence and Google was coming up But those

22:06 weren't like the marquee names really at that point. I'd say Microsoft was. But some of the other ones, you know, they were up and coming. It's been, that was an interesting time, man. That

22:15 tech bubble burst, right? I mean, it was brutal. So you're in Utah at snowboarding. You're trying to figure out, okay. So I got my career off to this start. I'm part of this company that

22:27 committed massive, broad, cooking the books. I'm enjoying my time out here. Then what'd you decide to do? I decided to snowboard some more and then.

22:38 Well, because

22:41 I didn't love the way it ended. While I had wrapped my head around the fact that I was going to most likely be laid off, when it actually happened, it still hit a certain way.

22:52 Because then I hadn't fully migrated in title or search or anything to Project Manager. I could manage anything, but I didn't have the formal title or those things So I probably snowboarded for

23:05 about a month, give or take, and then came back to Houston and just for the next few weeks, because I remember this visitly. I had the PIMBOC in my apartment and I was like, well, all right,

23:19 let me take a look. So I did. And then after that, I was like, okay, I mean, I can learn this. Some of this I do already Now, there are some intricacies of getting the PMP and other things,

23:32 but so I got hired at Siemens Business Services. So I began, this is probably 2003 or yeah, probably mid 2003, and then consulted at FMC Technologies, which was funny.

23:50 Because it was a great environment to learn in, it was really fast paced, it was fun. It was challenging, but it was fun. And then that's where I really started prepping for the PMP, but that's

24:03 also what started me thinking about doing my own thing Okay, so you were pretty young, I mean, yeah. Yeah, I was 32-ish, 33, I mean, so I wasn't that young. And I had wanted to start a

24:20 business, but I didn't know what I wanted to do, right? Or what service I wanted to provide or product. So I kind of tabled it. Yeah, I mean, your skills, I wanna talk about project management

24:33 actually too, because I think it's just sort of one of those things that there's always a project manager. Right, any implementation, right? Any data conversion and acquisition, well, you need

24:44 a project manager. Like what makes a good project manager in your mind? I'm not talking about having the PMP or experience or qualifications. Like what in your mind makes a good project manager?

24:58 You know, so I think it's a couple of things. I think the big thing is you've got to be a good communicator

25:05 Another piece to that is, you know, as PMs, project managers, program managers, we're the messenger. Whether any of us love that or not, whether it's good news, bad news, whatever it is. And

25:18 I think being proactive in communicating that and just be willing to take the hit, because sometimes we make mistakes, everybody does.

25:27 So that's an important piece because I've seen PMs that did not want to be the messenger and chose not to be the messenger And, you know, it didn't work out well for anyone, right?

25:41 And then there's also a piece where, especially when you get into some of the larger companies, where you've got to be able to bring very different personalities together for a common goal. And

25:51 you've got to navigate that because it's not always easy. So, and it's not about managing people per se, it's more about aligning everyone, knowing that certain people have different opinions and

26:06 they're not happy So, you know, just getting them on board and aligned for the common goal. I think between those three things, if you can do those three things, you can be a very good PM. Yeah,

26:17 and I'm sure you're a better PM now than when you started. Like, 'cause you've been through it, right? Experience and wisdom. And of course, maybe you had the skills and chops and the military

26:28 background didn't hurt, but you know, you learn a lot going through large projects. Like, that's just the way it goes.

26:38 as a problem in, and this is not just oil and gas. I think this is sort of across the board is somebody decides, okay, we need to go by like an ERP system or enterprise content management system.

26:51 And they don't have a project manager. They put like a business analyst on it. And then somehow the business analyst is expected to manage the project. And then you kind of get to a point where

27:03 you're like, hey, who's actually running this, who's managing this? Who's keeping this on pace? And the business analyst is like, well, you guys kind of made me do, but that's not what I do.

27:15 That's not my job. I don't have any experience doing that. And then you get kind of deep into it. And you have to call in like you guys or you to say, hey, we're drowning here. Can you

27:28 save us? Like, have you seen that a bunch before? Where basically people are like a BM. and a BA. and a PM. is the same thing. I've even heard some people say that. It's, no, they're not. I

27:40 mean, but, oh, I've seen it quite a bit. I mean, we used to refer, so we used to get pulled into a number of things like that, and we used to just commonly refer to it as project rescue.

27:50 'Cause we're bailing someone out. I mean, but it's not limited to BAs. I mean, we've seen where technical resources, whether it's a network engineer or whatever it is, they are put in the PM

28:03 role and expected to deliver that as a growth opportunity, which I fully understand, right? But they're put in that role, but unrealistic expectations are assigned to them in that role, and

28:18 that's where the problems arise. And instead of raising their hand saying, I don't do this, they just say, All right, well, I'll just try at it and fail at it, or just ignore it all together.

28:27 And then you need project rescue, regret shield to come in and make it happen. So your early 30s, almost mid 30s, you got this inkling, right? I think I can. an entrepreneur. I think I can run

28:40 my own business. I saw my dad do it, right? Technology has come away. I've got some experience. I've got this pen book, right?

28:50 And you just went and did it, right? So tell me about what happened. Has it been, you know, was it a success out of the gate? How did you get your business? Talk to me about that. Like the

28:59 early stages of deciding to be an entrepreneur, making it happen So after Siemens Business Services, I started working for a value added reseller. So entity that sells hardware and services. And

29:15 so I left Siemens Business Services, went to the VAR, and I was there probably a couple months. I got my PMP. I was pumped because I had to study for that. And I hadn't typically had to study for

29:28 much, but I had to study for that I got my PMP, and then I had somebody reach out and say, Hey, you should probably, start a company because I might know of an opportunity for you. And I'm like,

29:42 mm, I need to start a company for that. He's like, you're gonna want to. I was like, okay, you know, I'm asking a million questions. When's this opportunity gonna kick off? Like, what are we

29:51 talking about here? He's like, I'm not sure it could be soon, it could be six months. I'm like, okay, all right, let's go. So I incorporated,

30:01 and I incorporated as Emergent Project Management Group. So that was my first company And started that. So I had the company, I've got my accountant, I have no clients. So I'm still working for

30:12 the VAR, mind you. Now, all of a sudden I get hit up out of nowhere. So a very large project at BP, they were building a ground, a building from the ground up. It's about 400, 000 square feet.

30:26 And they're interviewing me for the network project management role. And it was massive as far as the resources,

30:36 And so I interview for it, and I'm like, oh, I can do this, OK?

30:41 I interview, I think, three or four times. And they weren't sure. No, no, no, I'm being honest here. They weren't sure about me, because they had other candidates that weren't as technical as

30:51 I was. But they had experience in larger companies than I did, which was 100 fair. Because what I didn't know at the time is I was not fully prepared for that role But they offered it to me. It

31:05 was a salary increase. I had a four-month-old at the time. And I'm like, recently married, I'm like, oh, OK, I got to go. And I knew there were some gray areas with this. So I accepted it,

31:22 and then boom, there

31:27 was my first client. And it's been interesting from then on. So BP, did you know somebody at BP? like how did you find this opportunity? No, so effectively what happened was there was a

31:38 consulting entity that was supporting them with another resource. So I basically came into that consulting entity who was going direct to BP. So I wasn't direct to BP, but I was subbing under this

31:53 consultancy.

31:57 They were just a billing mechanism though. They weren't doing that. They were literally just providing the resources. And I don't mean that in negative connotation, but they were literally just

32:05 providing me and this other resource to the project. It sounds like a pretty good gig really, if you get it. It was, it was for them. But I'll say this, that was one of the most painful projects

32:18 I ever worked on. No, no, no, and not because of the project itself, but because I stepped in it. And I knew I had gaps. And I thought there were a couple of areas where I had gaps that worried

32:33 me. It was the areas that I'd didn't realize I had gaps that were the biggest learning curve for me that project in and of itself is the greatest single learning curve I had in my career because it

32:49 forced me to change how I communicated because I was very direct and BP at that time - well, they were very proper, well-spoken. I liked - I loved BP, right? But I was no match for the Queen's

33:04 English. And I was blunt. So I had to take my licks, so to speak, and get thumped a couple of times. Before I figured out, I needed to communicate dramatically different and not so abruptly,

33:20 because I was bricked to forehead. And it just wasn't well-received for the majority of the people that I interacted with I mean, it connotes to you for the self-awareness, right? And I think that

33:32 that's really, really important. And I always like to say this, it's, you know, if you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Sometimes, you know, you're in the middle bed, maybe it's,

33:44 you know, it doesn't do with your hands. Like, you know, I think it sounds like you were brick to forehead, you were the hammer. And they're saying, hey, we're not an ale. This is not an ale,

33:55 okay? And you're like, okay, maybe I need to go into my toolkit and grab other ways to

34:03 get this thing where it needs to go. Oh, I had to go into my toolkit, but I'll say this, it wasn't purely my awareness alone. I had a couple of team members who provided some feedback, one of

34:16 which who was British and the other who was from the US, but they had been on the project longer. But they highlighted things very respectfully, as far as what I was doing, maybe not quite so well,

34:30 help me along the way and literally I had to revamped the entire way I communicated, both verbally and in writing.

34:41 And then not to mention the documentation process that we went through, because it was capital value process, which is very documentation heavy, stage gate methodology, but very intense as far as

34:53 the documents go. And you're writing and rereading and rewriting documents quite a bit, 'cause this was a massive project.

35:01 So no, it helped me in my interaction with people, being more aware, right? Because I was pretty aware of certain things verbally, but I, and some to some degree body language and other things,

35:15 but I became, after that project, I became acutely aware of body language, verbal cues, nonverbal, everything, because I, well, I just figured it out, and I was guided that way, which was

35:30 very helpful It's helped me have every project or company I've been in. that project alone and the learnings from that project have helped me. I love that, no, great reflection. So how long was

35:43 that project? Two and a half, three years. It was a long one, yeah, so that project finishes a massive project, massive company. Now you've got a firm, right? You've proven that you can

35:57 execute on large projects. You've learned a lot. Where'd you kind of go from there? What are we talking at this point, like 2007-ish? Something like that? No, actually, we're talking that I

36:10 started that in

36:16 late 2006, got off in late 2008,

36:21 and then from there, I consulted in utilities on an IBR deployment I consulted, helped build out a data center for a hospital.

36:34 Um, and then went back to oil and gas.

36:40 And was doing work at, at BG group, which was purchased by shell. So I was doing a lot of, I built their corporate office down on Maine. And then I went back to BP

36:51 and then did a number of things for them. Like I was at BP from 2007, between 2007 and 2022, probably 10 years out of that time, off and on, they just called me back for certain things. It's

37:07 cool. So you're always as your firm and as a contractor, never as a direct W two to them. No, not, not not to BP. No. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's cool. And, and when did you have to start

37:21 like building out a team where it's not just Will Dotson anymore, and it's not just people that were given to you it's, it's you needed to then kind of spin up the remnants of a company. And then

37:33 manage people and do payroll and all that stuff. So that was

37:39 2010. 'Cause it was just after BP, we had landed a project in Austin building a trading facility. So all the IT scope. So I had to have exchange admins, domain controller admins, like

37:53 I had to have network engineers, architects, like the whole nine. And so I had to, I onboarded some of his employees and then other contractors and just kind of worked through that as it made

38:03 sense for the client. And then from there, had to really try to build up a pipeline, especially when you start having W2 employees, you've got those consistent costs and you need to have the

38:17 revenue to match those costs. Yeah, I get it, I get it. That is, man, this is really good stuff. So tell me like, when did regret shield become a thing? I told you, this wasn't a commercial

38:32 for Regret Shield. And I tell everybody, this isn't a commercial for your company, most people just launch in and start pitching their company right away. You, you went 39 minutes, you haven't

38:41 mentioned Regret Shield. I'm the one that's had, so talk to me a little bit about like, when did Regret Shield itself start up? Who are you guys? What do you do? What's your secret sauce? Like,

38:55 why would somebody work with you? Well, we are a company who is committed to delivering well, not just delivering. And I don't mean the end result, right? We worry about the process from start

39:07 to finish. Like, anybody can get a result, but it's our communication, our capability, like what we're committed to doing, right? Because I wanna do the right thing, regardless of who's

39:20 looking, right? As does our team. And we come in and we go above and beyond and so much so that we've had clients literally feel like our guys were just an extension of their team like there was

39:33 really no difference except we might have contractor on our Email right versus theirs. I mean and our most recent project, you know, the ci was very happy with Everything that we did. I mean we

39:47 went above and beyond but we also integrated well and that doesn't always happen like we worry about Everything possible the process How it goes how well we're communicating we're we're constantly

40:01 getting feedback right because it Because of my awareness primarily and and our team We want to make sure that we're getting that temperature check from clients so that you know We all have we try to

40:12 set it. We don't try we set expectations up front um And then so that we can everybody can have the best experience from start to finish to the final result And and that's what we focus on it's it's

40:27 the experience. It's not just the destination, right? It's the journey to and making sure that it's at least a pleasant experience. Because, you know, I think that I had a boss. He hated me. I

40:37 was in a miserable place in my career at this point in time. And I wanted his job. And I felt like I earned it and tried to hide at his job. And I was a difficult employee for him. And I remember

40:47 him saying to me, listen, I'm older than you, right? I'm deeper into my career. And you'll see this when you get a little bit older, you're in your early 30s right now. But when you think back

40:60 to people that you worked with, you're going to make kind of a quick snapshot decision. Did you like them or did you not like them?

41:09 And I really think you should think about whether or not you actually care what the answer is here. And I was like, damn, to be clear, I don't get a shit what you think about me. But you know,

41:19 because I was in like, who's in a bad frame of mind? But but it's something that stuck with me. And I think if that's something that you guys focusing on, right, is actually. Do we want to have

41:30 this be an experience that people will look back on, say it was positive? Yeah, well, then they liked you and they'll probably do business with you again. If they didn't, there's no shot, like,

41:37 no, we worked with them. Those guys are at goals and not working with them, like, simple as that. Now, talk to me a little bit about the, like technical scope and capabilities because what's

41:46 been fascinating for me and what intrigued me to you guys when we got initially connected is your, I think you guys do understand the IT side of things, but truly you're focused on operational

41:60 technology and what happens, whether it's at the wellhead or at the refinery or at the data center, where it really happens, right? So talk

42:12 to me about the focus areas that you guys lean into and sort of what makes you unique in that regard for a smaller company with this kind of OT expertise Sure, well, and keep in mind, when we

42:25 started out, so I've got experience in. facility build-out start to finish corporate headquarters a lot of the the majors here in Houston I've delivered their corporate headquarters trading

42:37 facilities data centers BCP that's how kind of that was my core competency for the longest time and then branched out into oddly enough and it says nothing to

42:49 OT IVRs other things because I wanted some I wanted broad experience and it wasn't until I was at BG I started doing more OT work but it was it was it wasn't modernization like we talk about now and

43:01 and carried through and then did pipeline facilities and I just found that very interesting well fast-forward to about two years ago I got brought into a client who wanted to modernize their estate

43:17 now we were talking about HQ but there was also a proof of concept they wanted to run at the well pad so we started with the proof And effectively, we were modernizing the equipment at their well pad,

43:30 getting them off serial towers, because they wanted to run a plunger optimization tool on LTE, right? Increase revenue. OK, it makes perfect sense. And then we had to do a lot of work in the

43:43 cloud and stand up a new tenant, signet.

43:47 And we got it to work quickly. Now, it wasn't without complexity and challenges. But we got the proof of concept up. And I found that so interesting And we went out to a couple of the well pads

43:58 over the course of probably eight weeks, probably four or five trips out there. And then you start to understand more and more of the PLCs, the RTUs, and how everything works. And just between

44:08 the oil and the gas tanks and everything that's there. And it was like, I found it very, very interesting beyond my past experience because I got more in depth in it. And so we went through the

44:21 proof of concept And then members of our team had more OT experience than I did. because they've supported well pad estates for large companies. But I was learning and I found that so intriguing.

44:36 We got through the proof of concept. The client loved what we did. And then next thing you know, we were bidding on an RFP to stage and configure all their equipment for the well pads to modernize

44:46 everything. And part of the driver for that was to enable cyber vision at the well pad so they had asset management, vulnerability management and then deploy ICE so they could secure it So we went

44:58 through all this, we staged and configured all the components and then shipped them back to the client. And then all of a sudden that client gets purchased. They get acquired. Like, I mean, it's

45:08 oil and gas, like a highly acquisitive industry but you're in the middle of doing all this fun stuff. And then they're like, oh, we just got bought. You're thinking, now what?

45:21 So what'd you do? What have you been doing since they got, Well, you know, TSA right there's a right so that client was acquired and I've been on on the TSA for the last six months as I'm I'm the

45:35 PM for that TSA until it closes out Here in the next 30 60 days What are the dependencies on 30 or 60 days? Is that on the acquiring side or is that on the divesting side? No, no It's well, it's

45:49 on it's on the company that's acquiring us Because you know, there there's there are a lot of pieces and parts of this right if imagine if you bought a company and it's entirety Because you've got

45:59 contracts and you've got all these different functions whether it's accounting legal production dnc And you've got

46:08 to wrap your head around all of that, right? Just understanding what the company you're buying has and then application rationalization Infrastructure rationalization. What are you going to keep

46:20 versus what are you going to deprecate? So I'm kind of, I'm facilitating all of that. on behalf of the company that's being acquired. So I'm working with the company that's buying us all day long.

46:32 Yeah, I bet. And they want, they're like, hey, we bought you and you being an extension of them. You get us answers right now. Correct, correct. We just spent a lot of money on this, okay?

46:43 So you get me answers when I need it. You get it. Yes. It's been an interesting spot. Oh, it is. With Regret Shield, what do you want the company to be? I mean, obviously you guys are what

46:56 you are and you've had a great run and the trajectory is clearly positive and you continue to add not just to the belt with more and more projects. But now you're kind of looking to sort of take that

47:05 next step as a company and what does that mean? Like where do you want to be? What are some of the goals that you have

47:16 professionally and as a business owner for your company? So really professionally it's about, we've expanded our capabilities, right? So. I don't want to grow exponentially, like I'm not trying

47:28 to become some behemoth. I want to keep this relatively small within certain financial parameters because I'm fortunate to do what I get to do and our team feels the same way. What I also want to do,

47:44 one of the goals I have is I want to bring on a couple of, and I haven't determined the number yet, a couple of junior to mid-level resources and help mentor them, and if that's something that if

47:57 they want to start their own business, go do it. I'll help you, right? Because I had help along the way. Every step of the way, someone helped me, whether that was before I even started my

48:06 company or when I had my, even now, right? I still have people who helped, and I'm grateful for that, but I won't return that favor, right? And you know, we have a lot of senior resources. We

48:19 have between mid-level and senior, if you will We don't have as many junior. or mid-level, and I want more junior or mid-level to help and mentor and give them opportunities like I had. Love it,

48:33 and I think that's not uncommon, right? So, you know, you need a certain skill set, you find somebody that's experienced and that's done it. Well, now you have a senior resource before you know,

48:44 you have a team of senior resources. Yeah, but who are they passing that knowledge then onto, right? And I think that that's important, the same way that it was passed on to you. Well, we're

48:53 coming up on time here This was really, really fun stuff. Where can people find you? Where can they find your website, more about your company and you, you know, personally? So I can be found

49:03 on LinkedIn.

49:06 Our website is rsconsultantsllccom.

49:11 Sharp. Between those two, those are the two easiest ways to get hold us and there are contact buttons on the website, they can push and send us an email and we'll respond typically within four

49:22 hours. Um, somebody on our team will respond. We're, we're pretty easy to get hold of. It ain't hard to find, just like coach prime says out here in Boulder. Well, Will Dotson, I appreciate

49:34 you, man. I'm excited to be working with you. It's been really fun to get to know you over the past month or so. I think you've got big things ahead. 2026 is going to be a transformative year.

49:43 Um, for regret shield as you guys get further outside of your, your friendlies and known network and start pitching your wares to people who don't know who you are So I think this is going to be a

49:53 lot of fun. And I'm excited to be along for the journey. So thank you for coming on the, what the fun pod, Bill dots.