They Thought I was Just the Token Woman, Until I Outperformed Them

Is being a woman in oil and gas an advantage or a disadvantage? In this video, we're going to get into what it's really like to lead in one of the most male dominated industries in the country and how I use that to my advantage as a successful oil and gas investor. Here's what we're going to what actually shifts when you don't try to fit in, the real reasons investors lose money in oil and gas and how I avoid those same pitfalls. Why my pitch decks don't look like everyone else's and why that works better than the competition. What the industry might look like if women ran 90% of it instead of 10 and stick around. If you want to hear the raw truth, let's get into it. You know, I think being a woman in any space is always an advantage. I think being able to take being a woman and use it to my advantage is always a plus. And you know, somehow throughout my entire life, I have always found myself in very male dominated fields. When I was in the Navy, I was in avionics and I worked in a shop with 78 men and myself. And I used it to my advantage. I, you know, if I needed to get new parts in faster or something like that, I was always able to get that done. And I think you can either be a victim and you can focus on the negative parts or that of it, or you can take it and use it to your advantage and get stuff done. And that is what I chose to do. And so, you know, after leaving the Navy, I got involved in the oil and gas space, obviously through my dad's company. And a lot of these men didn't want to talk to me. They would only address my husband. And it's such a good old boy network. And that's okay too. I think once a lot of these men in that space have conversations with me and figure out that I actually really do know what I'm talking about. And I'm not just a girl out there running around in my red heels trying to make things happen. I, I think their tune shifts a little bit. But I've, I've been very dismissed. I've, I've had people dismiss me in circles with other people and it's, it's frustrating and sometime, sometimes it's even just down flat embarrassing and sometimes I tell them to because that's what they deserve and we just go with it. I'm very aware of my knowledge and what I can and can't do and I'm never going to let somebody else Diminish that. And you know what? I'm going to take it, and I'm going to use it to my advantage and even in the investing space. So, you know, the investing space is very male dominated. The oil and gas space is very male dominated. The spaces in the Navy were very male dominated. But I think at the end of the day, your either really good at what you do or you're not. And I think once people are able to see that I'm really good at what I do, it gives me a whole nother level of credibility that I may or may not have had before. And it's funny, when I got into the investing space, there were some tables that I got invited to that I thought, holy cow, how did I get a seat at this table? I'm. I'm so honored to be here. And then I figured out very quickly that a lot of these men in that space had no clue as to what was going on. You know, I was so enamored by having that seat and then come to find out that they didn't have a clue. And, you know, I've once again, you know, turned that around and used that to my advantage. Space that you're in, there's always going to be a learning curve, especially if you're new to that space. When I got involved in investing, I was totally blown away. When I found out that people syndicated different asset classes that they were pooling money together from investors to buy assets. I was like, man, I'm a pretty smart girl. How did I never figure that out before now? And so I think it's just a matter of stepping in, taking a look at what holes there are, where are things lacking, how is it going wrong, or maybe not the best in other places. And even as I have invested with other people, I figured out, okay, I don't like the lack of communication in this deal, or I like how maybe they presented the information here. And so when I started bringing syndications and investment opportunities to people, I kind of pulled what I learned as an investor myself and piece that together to try to kind of fill some of those gaps. I went to a conference a couple of months ago, and I was super excited about it. I got to meet a lot of really amazing top operators, But I really kind of felt like it was a gathering. It was a gathering of these men to sit there and congratulate each other on being the kings of the world. And it was like, what have I just walked into? Like, I thought I was gonna step in here and meet some amazing People and I. But at the end of the day, it was really just. It kind of reminded me of the Titanic. You know, they're having dinner, everybody's gathered with their cocktail, you know, after dinner in the, the smoking room or the cigar room, and they're having their cigars, congratulating each other on being the kings of the world. And I felt that was like, that was exactly what I stepped into at that oil and gas conference. And I was like, man, yeah, it what a freaking show. When I very first got involved in oil and gas, I didn't know what I didn't know about putting investments together. And so I didn't really feel like I could question things because I was like, ah, you know, I'm new to this space and these people have been doing this for a long time. So I just didn't feel like, like who am I to question what they're doing? And, and then I figured out very quickly that I should have listened to that because those questions were actually very valid and is kind of what helped me form and shape into who I am today. Because now if I've got those questions, people are either going to answer them or we aren't going to work together. Whereas before, I just didn't feel confident in being able to demand that the things I was requesting, you know, when I was newer to the space, I felt like, oh, I don't have a degree in finance, I didn't go to school for this. And then what I realized was that I didn't need to have that financial background, I didn't need to have a degree in this. That, you know, at the end of the day, I am, I am honest, I am full of ethics and integrity and, and I believe in presenting with that first. And I think that's really lacking in a lot of places across the board. And that's one of the things that I'm trying to bring to the table and do differently. You know, I've had some people or a person reach out and let me know that they didn't feel like my pitch deck was professional enough and it needed to be tweaked. And, you know, I really like my marketing materials. I feel like, I think one of the special things that I bring to the table is being able to relay information in a way that people can actually grasp it and understand it. I think so many people try to be so much smarter, and I'm not saying that they're not smarter than what they are, but they present things in a way that people just can't understand it and grasp it. And so I think one of the differentiations that I have is that my materials are put out and built in a way that people can read it and understand it and see how it applies to their situation. And I had somebody tell me that I needed to hire somebody to redo my pitch decks because they just weren't professional enough. And you know what? It bothered me enough to the point where it kept me up a couple nights. And so I reached out to some other people that have invested with me and some other people that are putting deals together, and they're like, no, your marketing materials are amazing. You need to keep them the way they are. They're different than everybody else's. You know, don't jump on that train and do it the way everybody else has done it. There's a reason that you are having the success that you are, and it's because you do things differently. You do it your own way, and you haven't conformed to the way that everybody else has done things. Well, you know, specifically for oil and gas, a lot of the times when I take a look at other oil and gas investment opportunities, there are slides and slides of geological data and rock information. And I am not geologist. I don't know how to read that, and neither do most investors. I don't even put the geological reports in my pitch deck because nobody knows what that means. And it leaves. It creates confusion. And I'm not trying to create confusion. I want to talk about, what do those geological reports mean? We can talk about, hey, we've got really high pressure. We've got a really good reservoir that I'll pull the important data from those geological reports and share that without sharing the geological reports, because nobody. It's like looking at a painting that somebody paint, you know, some kind of Picasso painting with craziness going on. And nobody knows how to interpret that unless you're a geologist. I didn't go to school for that. You know, I'll just take that important data and share what we need to know, and the rest of it they can keep. I think that's what's hard, is a lot of these companies, they try to get so technical and nobody understands that technical information, and it just leaves people confused. And I'm not trying to create confusion. I'm trying to create education and understanding. One of the things that I do differently is, is really just supplying or providing the education that people need for the oil and gas space. It's such a great space to be in. It's Such an, a great investment asset class. But I think people don't know how to do the due diligence on it. They don't know how to take a look at that kind of opportunity and vet it and see if it's a good investment. You know, all of these syndic and these people that are, you know, bringing investment opportunities forth do a really, really great job of talking about how amazing it is and it's going to make all this money and you know, do this and that. I, I've made that mistake. I've invested in things that I didn't understand. I didn't know how to do the due diligence and I lost my money. So whether people are investing in my oil and gas deals or not, I want them to understand that hey, these interests are recorded like real estate are. You can verify them through a governmental agency, you know, through a third party agency myself. All of the information I'm providing can all be verified. I can't fake it. And I've, I see a lot of, not a lot, but I mean I see deals where people don't even own the interest, you know, that they're selling, you know, the investment that they're selling or maybe it's fake altogether. And so there's, I think the difference I'm bringing is showing people how to verify that somebody actually owns the rights, you know, to that oil and gas investment and, and how to verify, you know, once they're online and producing, how do verify that that's the oil that those wells produced and that you're getting paid the right amount. And the great thing about the oil and gas industry is because it is so federally regulated, all of it is public information and can be verified. And I just want to show people how to do that. I have investors that have invested in other oil and gas deals and been burned. I've had people that are brand new to the oil and gas space and you know, even with the way I present information, it's still like drinking from a fire h hose. It's, it's a lot of information and if you're used to real estate, it's just about kind of, you know, shifting your perspective a little bit and understanding it as an asset class and that it's going to be a little bit different than real estate, it's going to be different than venture capital, but just having a good grasp of what to look for and what to pay attention to, those are the things that matter. Yeah, a lot of people when they lose their money, they have either Invested in a project that was one well. You know, it was completely dependent upon the success of one well, which is why I will never have an offering that has less than four. We've got, you know, a minimum number of wells so that if we do have an underperforming well in there, it's not going to impact the entire project. And so most people, it's a one well project or they, they invested with a small operator that's out drilling in some random area. And it's so hit or miss when you, you're drilling with major operators in top proven areas, the success rates of those wells are 90% plus. They're very, very high. The likelihood of not having oil is almost non existent. And so that's just, it's, it matters who you drill with and where you're drilling. Just like in real estate. I don't know what it is, but it's definitely very male dominated. Usually probably, I, I mean, I would say it's probably 90 plus, you know, male dominated. Well, first of all, I think, you know, a lot of the ways things are done, first of all the records, you know, for oil and gas, it's kind of like real estate. Real estate is such an old dinosaur. And to get anything to be done differently in real estate, it's like takes an act of Congress to make that happen. You know, the way that real estate transactions have been recorded have been done the same way for so long. Well, oil and gas is the same way. It's very resistant to change. And I think if, if we had 90% women and just 10% men, it would be done a lot more efficiently. And researching oil and gas ownership records would be so much more efficient because that stuff wouldn't be sitting in freaking metal sheds on the side of some courthouse from 80 years ago. And you'd be able to find who owns things. And not just that I think the equip would be, would run more, I just think everything would be a lot more efficient. But the records is the biggest problem. Well, and when I take a look at these rigs and where they're drilling, you know, they have, you know, they bring in all of these portable buildings and everything else. I mean if I was out there running the rig, I mean we would have a Keurig with really good coffee and snacks and you know, maybe we bring out a chef where we've got actually good food and you know, we're not having to run into town to grab crappy town and country food on the, the side of the road and Pecos. You know, I don't want to sit here and ever discount men and what they're doing and what they bring to the table. I mean, you know, and especially a lot of these oil and gas executives, they. They got to where they are because they're really good at what they do. I just think that there is always a way to do things better and smarter, and I think it's just a matter of being open to that. And I'm not saying I could step in and do things better, but. But like I said, I. I think there's always a way to be more efficient. There's always a way to do things a little bit better, to make little tweaks that have really big impacts, and I think it's just a matter of being open to that. And what are those suggestions and what could that potentially look like? It doesn't matter how much at the top of my game I think I am, there's always room for improvement, and I think it's that way in any industry.