The GOAT Expands His Business Out of Oil & Gas to New Industries

Jeremy Jenson 🐐’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyjenson/

You’ve probably seen Jeremy Jenson’s posts or name on LinkedIn. Born, raised, and residing in Houston, TX, Jeremy is the owner of Encore Search Partners. He founded the company in 2010 specializing in oil and gas placements, where he’s had great success for many years. Since the downturn in 2015, Jeremy has worked to expand their industry coverage to legal services and wealth management (among others). He’s seen the ups and downs in the oil business first hand as he’s placed top professionals in many of the industry’s largest firms. I really appreciate his openness and perspective on business, careers, and mindset.

My big takeaway was that Jeremy’s focus since dropping out of college is to be compensated for his work by how much revenue he can generate. It’s an incredible lesson for many petrotechnical experts that were high salaried employees with very little impact from direct “revenue generation”.

I hope you enjoy the episode as much as I did! And if you did enjoy the podcast, consider rating it 5* in iTunes and leaving a review.

Jeremy took his strengths in Mathematics and pursued a B.S. of Mathematics from the University of Houston. When he was halfway through his studies, Jeremy landed his first lucrative sales job at www.GoDish.com where he sold DirecTV and Dish network (cold calls) on the phone. He liked sales and the money associated with the job. And after making $108,000 as a 21 year old, “slinging Dish Network and DirecTV”, he dropped out of college and doubled down on his sales career full-time. Never looked back.

When he was 25, Jeremy started his first company - a lead generation company. At the time he was engaged to a Chemical Engineer working at BP and his future inlaws tried to disown him because he didn’t have a college degree. Jeremy appreciated getting paid on what he produced rather than focusing on his certifications or accolades. 

Jeremy is a STRONG presence on LinkedIn. He’s “Jeremy Janson (GOAT emoji)”. 

His mentor told him: “Money is made on the phone. Stop playing around on the internet.” He started using LinkedIn as a lead generation tool. Today he’s got 40,000 LinkedIn followers, he is selective with his “approving of connections”. He is picky about who he lets into his network. Engagement on the content - likes, comments, and shares - allows him to reach many new people and see some “virality” in his posts. 

What is the biggest mistake that Jeremy sees on LinkedIn? People like posts and don’t engage much. The best way to get out there is to ENGAGE in content by COMMENTing publicly. These people will click on your profile to learn more. Comment on everything!

Second tip: Let’s say you’re unemployed and so you have an “END DATE” on your unemployment, so that is not your “current title”. Most recruiters when they search on LinkedIn are looking for “CURRENT TITLE” you won’t return on their results as easily. If you’re unemployed and looking for an opportunity put your desired job title e.g. “Completion Engineer / Petroleum Engineer” with “Seeking new opportunities”. 

Focusing on the recruiting side:

• Shied away from recruiting for oil and gas operators: they can waste recruiters time trying to interview 40 people to find the perfect candidate
• Focused on oilfield service firms because they have work in place and need people now
  • Were able to help service companies meet their mandates
• Most managers would come to a headhunter and they’ve exhausted 45 days of using Indeed, LinkedIn, etc. and the internal recruiters have come up short

Drilling ENgineer in West Texas ($220,000) and Sales person in West Texas makes $700,000 because they closed a $14,000,000.

Moving from salaried to sales positions for strong, talented, ambitious and aggressive technical people is a likely path for many.

Because “The days of buying from the guy in the boots and blue jeans because he and I go to church together and we go to West Texas Permian High together. These companies are starting to hire and train technical engineers to sell those products and services since you can provide a full suite of solutions rather than just fulfill the purchase order.”

Sales people are losing their interest in “cold calling”.  And the ability to just have a massive rolodex of people to call on is losing a little bit of its value because of the internet and need for technical sales people to solve problems and provide technical support.

Accuracy of data

Having a technical sale ability

Having the confidence to ask for the business - technical engineers struggle

• A select few that are fearless and willing to pick up the phone

Believe in the product or service you’re selling

• If you’re not passionate about the product and solution it provides in the marketplace, then it won’t carry through in the sales pitch

Tons of industries that would love to have you in an entry level position.

Displaced six-figure earners in oil and gas… go into wealth management or insurance… I don’t know anything about these industry.

A lot of companies CAN teach you about their business and train you in the products or services. But very few of these companies can teach you how to find dozens and dozens of oil and gas employees with 10-15 years of earning 6-figures. You have a rolodex of people with nest eggs. They’re probably working with someone that doesn’t understand their career, risk tolerance, or salary.

• Displaced oil and gas workers consider selling insurance, investments  

Showed up on time, did great work, and were smart - these characteristics transfer to most other jobs.

• A players will always be A players 

The peak of oil and gas workforce was probably July 2014. But let’s talk about the recent local peak of March 1, 2020. Most companies can now operate and go back to normal with only 80% of their workforce because they’ve invested heavily in software technologies to eliminate full times jobs, investing in automation and scada systems at the wellsite, and companies are investing more in employees working remotely. 

We’ve seen over the last few months that technical folks can work effectively remotely. So there are a several hypothetical reasons that petrotechnical workers might see a decline in salaries:

1. Reduction in demand for petrotechnical specialists due to software, automation technology, and decreased activity

1. Competitiveness in jobs creating an oversupply of petrotechnical employees
2. E&P operators will want to cut costs as much as possible to take advantage of any possible increases in commodity prices in the future
3. Increased importance of remote work leads to negotiating working location flexibility and trading it for salary or vacation days.

People are realizing WHY THEY GO TO WORK - their kids and family. And now they want to preserve that through vacation, work from home, and spending more time with everyone.

BECOME A REVENUE PRODUCER. If you generate revenue for the company, your job is important to the company. And your company will compensate you based on the direct revenue that you bring to them.

Jeremy talks about technical employees that he’s had in the past that transition from a technical role to a commission-based one and succeed greatly!

Three things every candidate should emphasize in their resume or interviews

1. Confidence - walk the line between confidence (positive) and arrogance (avoid)
2. Accuracy - excellence in verbal and written communication
3. Humility - recognize the individuals that afforded you the ability to gain that confidence
   1. The reason that I’m good is because I had to walk through all that shit
4. Grit
5. Work ethic
6. Ability to wear many hats - experience in multi-disciplines, highlight (drilling, completions, reservoir, etc)

We have access to so much data now. The experience and “gut feel” decisions aren’t as critical. We can focus on what the data is telling us and spend time interpreting the data to help us make the right calls.

Data science and statistical analysis is a huge vertical in many companies now. 

• Strong technical backgrounds, meticulous, accurate

Resources:

• Traction by Gino Wickman - helped early / mid career entrepreneurs gain clarity in their business
  • Helped entrepreneurs gain scale
  • Help eliminate the white noise that distracts

Don’t pull by saying “give me a job”. Instead, give value and share content to inspire and motivate supporting each other.

• Create a network of people
• Jeremy was getting an inbound call once a week because they built a relationship with their persona on LinkedIn
• Gave real / transparent stories from the field
• And when it was time to make a sale - he was ready to make the call
• Responsibility and responsiveness - responds on Linkedin within 24 hours
• Don’t string people along

How to find Mentorship

• Cocky and arrogant 30 year old entrepreneur (“God’s greatest gift in recruitment”)
• Joined Vistage International - Mastermind group
  • Surrounded himself with executives with large
• After 3 years, migrated into “Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO)”
  • A global fraternity of 14,000 entrepreneurs (180 in Houston). 
• The trick is that these people are around you but don’t need anything from you.
• They’re there to genuinely share experiences with like-minded individuals 

“When the person on the otherside of the table doesn’t need your business… that’s how true friendship and mentorship can be cultivated”

 

What gets you up in the morning?

• #1 love language is “Words of Affirmation”
• Fear of “That guy didn’t help me out. He’s no good.”
• The reason I grind: The company supports 20 families.

The American way has taught us that we need to be greedy and scratch and claw our way to the top

• If you can find a job that gets you excited to prepare for Monday work on Sunday morning, then you’ve got it made

Do you know  someone that would be a great interview for the podcast? Email Reed@ExOilfield.com

Was the podcast valuable to you? There are 2 free ways to support the show. Subscribe in Apple Podcasts or Spotify and consider rating the podcast 5 stars and writing a quick review.