Joe Sinnott, Witting Partners and the host of The Energy Detox Podcast, joins Jason Spiess to talk about transition in life and how to determine what you really really want.
Transcript From The Interview
And we’re gonna go over to our zoom line and talk to Mr. Joe Sinnott, about wedding partners. He’s also the host of the energy detox podcast. So a little bit of a cross promotional podcast, Tricia Curtis calls at the mashup over at Petro nerds. And so, Joe Sinnott, I don’t know if you’ve got any sort of name, dueling podcasts or what the case is. But in this particular one, you are the guest and I am the host and, and in fact, in a half an hour, I’m going to be on the radio.
And then that gets turned into a podcast on statewide super talk radio in North Dakota out of Bismarck man, Dan, and we just had this talk this week. The host and I because him and I are both talk show hosts and I told them I said one of us has to be the host. One of us has to be the interviewee, I said are the person getting the interview I said otherwise, it doesn’t play the same and he agrees. So when I go on there, I get to see what’s on my mind and act like I care about life. And with Mr. Joe Sinnott, I get to find out what he cares about in life, because he’s the expert in the things that we’re going to be talking about today. And what we’re going to be talking about today is what you want, what you really, really want. And Mr. Joe Sinnott apparently is a big Spice Girls fan because he was singing me some tasty licks out of that tune the other day wanting to talk about what he really, really wants. And it’s a good topic because we’re going through some times right now where people are really lost. And this actually this happens folks all the way back to the Roman Empire and beyond. Every four generations or so it’s about four generations and generations I think are 1520 years, whatever it might be.
Neil ha was the author is he’s documented this before. But the fourth generation is known as the last generation, the first generation does it themselves. The second generation learns a little bit from the first generation adds a little bit of change, that third generation really, they get to kind of use all of the information that they get from the previous two generations, but they end up resting on their laurels, and the fourth generation becomes lost. And it’s a cycle that’s been happening since the dawn of man. So Mr. Joe Sinnott, how you doing today?
I’m doing all right, Jason happy to be here as always.
So as we kind of are meandering through this last generation, you know, some people don’t know if they want to work remotely. Some people don’t know if they want to go back to the office. Some people don’t even know if they want to work anymore. So people are really lost. And what is it that people want? What do they really, really want? But also I think they need to find out how to get there. I mean, how do people find out what they want in today’s world? So let’s help some people find out a way to get on lost. Is that a word? On last fall last fall on?
The crude life where yes, we invent words, we have insightful conversations, and we help people figure out what they really, really want.
And listen, we speak before we think here.
Well, that’s it. There’s there’s enough thoughtful, scripted, colourless conversations out there. And obviously, our goal, Jason is to be the antithesis of that. But But with that being said, in terms of Yeah, helping people figure out what they want, or, you know, what is it that people want? I think it is to have a little bit of color to, you know, again, to kind of break the script, right, and feel like you’re moving forward in life and not just going through the motions, that you’re headed towards something bigger and better and greater, and not just settling for the, for the status quo. So, you know, we can start there, if you want, I think it’s a, again, I think it’s indicative of what you try to do on the crew life. And that is, again, shake things up a little bit, not just have the same trite conversations and, and do the same darn things that everybody else is doing. By and large. When I’m working with people. That’s what they want. You know, they want to differentiate themselves and their life so we can start
one of the things that we try to do at the crude life is to keep the critical thinking going, because whether you’re working on the farm, you’re working in the garage, or Are you working out at the oil rig, you have to, you have to troubleshoot a lot life does not always go the way that this simulation says it’s gonna go. And so you know, having to have the ability to think on your feet and, and basically get found that that’s, that’s priceless.
This last generation just kind of wanted to equate that a little bit one of our previous podcasts with the velvet glove, if you will, because that’s part of it. The first the first generations of self made entrepreneur, the second generation, they end up becoming, you know, they learn because they, they go to dad’s shop, and they learn as a kid, and then they kinda, you know, they go to school, so they become a hybrid of an office employee and an out on the field employee, that third generation, that velvet glove builder that’s never picked up a hammer, that velvet glove, oil, you know, oil, roused about whatever you want to call it.
Hotshot drivers never driven a car or drove never driven a truck before type of a thing. So what ends up happening is that fourth generation does not get any of that information from the third because the third really no longer does what the first generation did. Really, they’re they’re making money off of it and benefiting from it, but that they’ve never picked up a hammer. So they don’t know how to build a house. So therefore, they can’t teach their kid how to build a house. And that’s what ends up happening. And that’s what’s happening right now. And that’s what I meant by that. So right now, there’s a real opportunity for someone to reinvent themselves, for somebody to grab that brass ring that they’ve always wanted to grab before, because it’s more than likely available right now. Joe Sinnott, how can someone reinvent themselves on the fly in today’s world? I mean, you know, how can they add some color? How can they get that passion? Let’s just call it let’s start there. How about that?
Well, a lot of it comes down to what I would call reverse engineering. And not just because I’m showing my, my engineering bias as a at least degreed engineer but because that is what you need to do. You need to start with the end in mind, right? And as cliche as it is, right, you can, you can read a million leadership books. I think Stephen Covey is one of the famous authors, writers, leadership coaches out there. And that was one of his big things, start with the end in mind, a lot of the problems with people who are trying to, you know, figure themselves out and figure out what they want to do and shake things up, is that they don’t know what their end goal is. So, I mean, that’s the first place to start. Jason, that’s the first place I start with anybody that I’m working with, whether it’s from an executive coaching standpoint, from a career coaching standpoint, it’s really honing in on alright, what are your core pillars? What are your values? What is it that you ultimately want, and then we’ll start talking about the ways to get there. But that is the first and for sure, the most important step, otherwise, you wind up getting caught and all the different, you know, methods and tricks and different things and trying things out, but you know, testing things out without some end goal, you know, that’s going to lead to frustration. So that’s the first big thing I’d say to that, Jason.
So when you figure out that sort of thing, if you figure out if you want to be baby, or if you want to be Scary Spice, or you want to be Posh Spice, or whatever, you know, whichever Spice Girl you want to reverse engineer and be like, or we can go over to my world, the WWE and aw, aw, where you if you want to be Chris Jericho or stone cold, Steve Austin, hey, you know, whatever, whatever you want to do.
So you find out your goal, you’ll find out your image, you find out your direction. And then then what then you just kind of just start throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks? Or what do you think after that? I mean, how much work do I got to do here?
Well, I think the key is, before you start throwing the spaghetti at the wall, before you even start boiling, the spaghetti is first listing out all of the different types of spaghetti or noodles or pasta that are out there. Because that’s a mistake a lot of people make, right, it’s, you know, you gravitate towards one or two, you know, sexy things that you could try to, you know, to reach your end goal, if you will. And then you know, people tend to over invest or they put on the blinders and they go down that path. And next thing, you know, they’re so far down this path. And they don’t even know what other options were out there. So that’s the first thing Jason is to you know, kind of diverge quite a bit right and say, right, what are all the different paths to get there, not the one or two paths, you know, if you want to be Posh Spice, you can go ahead and and try to marry a you know, billionaire soccer star. But, you know, what are the other ways to become Posh Spice? What are all the different avenues? So again, that’s where I enjoy working with people to say, All right, you know, here’s some, here’s some sort of default methods you can use to become the CEO of a company or two run your own business, or, again to become a singer or superstar, whatever. But let’s just let’s just get creative here, let’s look at all the different paths that are out there things that other people have tried and things that nobody’s tried. One, that’s a lot of fun. And two, once you do inevitably start honing in on a path that works for you, you’re going to do so much more confidently, much more effectively. And with a lot more energy, because you likely will not have, you know, over invested time, energy and money, testing out paths that were never really going to be compatible with you and your end goal anyway.
So where are we at? You brought up a great, great analogy about the Posh Spice because out of all of the Spice Girls, that is the most difficult to achieve. Now going out and marrying a billionaire, maybe you could do that going out and Mary Anna did look and soccer star, maybe you could do that. But she’s born gorgeous. And in order to be you know, to become that kind of that model esque type thing. Not everybody can do that. Not everybody can get behind a microphone like you and I, not everybody can can’t fix a car, I know I can’t. And so part of this has to be you got to know a little bit of your own abilities too. Otherwise, you’re going to end up like Rudy, you’re going to go to school for seven years, four years, or whatever it took in order to play one play. And what was that the same as going out there every single day and playing Notre Dame football week after week after week, or because of Rudy’s inability to look at his own size, his inability to look at his own athletic ability, he spent a lot of time pursuing a goal that really at the end of the day, he played one play. And it took an enormous amount of support from the fans and the team in order to overturn what what what was the status quo, the status quo was guys like Rudy, don’t play, because they don’t look the part. People that don’t look like Posh Spice. Don’t get David Beckham, the soccer star, how much of that plays into this that, you know, you got to know your role, you got to know not not your role. You got to know your roles, your tasks, you got to know what you can bring? Because if you’re gonna try to, you know, reverse engineer, what do you reverse engineering really? At the at the core? Do you understand my question?
I think I do. And I’d say two things to that. Jason. The first is that, yes, obviously, it’s important to know, you know, what you’re working with? What are the tools that you have? Again, that’s a very common conversation, when I’m working with people who are in career transitions, it’s, Hey, laying out all the different things that differentiate you from everyone else, because there’s a good chance that your resume is gonna look like, you know, hundreds, if not 1000s of other people. So what is it really that differentiate you, and then you can build on those. So that’s, again, that’s, again, a very basic thing that needs to get done. But that can be missed, when people just try to replicate what other people are doing to get the attention of recruiters and employers. You know, again, it’s it happens, it’s human nature to just kind of replicate what other people are doing. But it’s far more important to figure out how you’re different and how to leverage those.
The other thing I’ll say, Jason, when it comes to Rudy, and, you know, recognizing your limitations, and recognizing the tool that you have that can differentiate you is statistics. So I will say one thing that helps a lot of the people that I work with, is a fundamental understanding of statistics. Like you said, you know, Victoria Beckham, she had a lot of things going for her early on, that led to her current status as Posh Spice. But at the end of the day was statistics, there’s no guarantee that having you know, being born with good looks is going to lead to this life. But it helps it’s a variable. And so too, with Rudy, you know, the fact that he was small, obviously, it was going to reduce the odds of him going and playing football at Notre Dame, but the odds that he, you know, were able to overcome or were in part because of his work ethic was higher. So again, without going down the mathematical path, necessarily thinking statistically, at least allows you to know what you’re working with, so that you have a realistic outlook. And again, that’s not to say that, you know, you want a defeatist attitude and say, Well, there’s only a, a 5% chance that I’m going to ascend and be the CEO of, you know, some 10,000 person company that I’m currently working for, but but knowing that and saying, Hey, look, all else being equal, I probably have with no other effort, a 5% chance of becoming CEO. That’s my dream goal. Okay, well, how can we bump that up to 10%? What are the variables we can change? Getting into, you know, when we’re talking about reverse engineering, actually getting under the hood and saying, alright, we can tweak this we can turn this up, we can turn this down. That becomes a very, you know, non emotional approach. to achieving your long term goals and when I’m working with folks and again, putting on sort of this, you know, engineering or statistical or mathematical hat, it’s a great way to cut through some of the emotions that are involved when you’re talking about trying to achieve your life, life lifelong dreams or whatever it is.
Those of you keeping notes out there it is stream Moneyball, not Rudy tonight, so stream Moneyball tonight on Netflix, not Rudy. That’s the moral of that last anecdote. So I did want to talk about the writing the list down, because that’s one thing I do think is needed, and almost anything you do, no matter what it is, and for some people, it’s a pros and cons. For other people, it’s a past and a present. And I’ll bring up the WWE WCW back when they had their big Monday night wars. And, you know, they were the number one cable rating thing and the New World Order the NWO took over and all this stuff. Well, that started because a small marketing executive named Eric Bischoff was given an opportunity. And the first thing he did is he made a list. He made a list, he wanted to turn WCW, away from a small time independent promotion into the big time. And the first thing on his list was to get rid of anyone with a southern accent.
He did not want to pitch in himself pigeonhole himself into the southern territory. So his his image had to change, his audio image had to change. And I think a lot of people that’s lost on a lot of people, there’s an audio image, as well as a video image. And then there’s the whole different package image as well. So what Eric Bischoff did, when he ended up taking over WCW, he made a list of all the things that they needed to change in order to become a successful national organization from a small, independent, Midwestern, sorry, they were a southern at that time. So there might be some things that people need to either change within themselves, or find a totally new direction. Do you understand what I mean by that?
I think so. And it’s funny, you mentioned direction, because I’m thinking back to how you open things talking about, you know, the last generation, and yeah, you know, and if you want to not be just driving down the superhighway like everybody else, and again, you want to differentiate yourself, you almost need to get lost, right, you need to find a different path. And you need to, you know, explore a little bit and figure out a new way to get to, again, the same place where a lot of other people are trying to get to. So yeah, it’s shifting direction, asking, you know, how else you can get there, recognizing, again, if we want to really go down the, you know, directional and GPS path here, you know, really finding different ways to get there, it might take a little bit longer, you might have to go out of your way. And again, that’s what a lot of people are not willing to do, or they’re not willing to get started on that path of hey, going out of your way, getting lost finding different ways of doing things, but you’re absolutely right, Jason that shifted direction and asking, you know, what are all the ways I can shift direction and get off the superhighway and, and, you know, have a more sustained path towards my ultimate destination. That’s the key. That’s the key to getting, you know, ultimately getting on lost, if you will.
Well, the other thing I wanted to bring up about that WCW example, with the southern promotion and the guys with the southern voices was one of the first things that Eric bishop had to do in order to change his organizational image, his organizational direction, his organizational intention, because that’s what he was doing. It wasn’t him personally. He was doing this for Ted Turner for the organization to go on Monday night. He had to fire Jim Ross and Jim Ross is a Hall of Fame. Announcer Jim Ross is probably top you know, as far as the Mount Rushmore of announcers go you know, you got gorilla monsoon you got Bobby The Brain Heenan, you’ve got Jesse The Body Ventura, and you probably have Jim Ross up there with these guys because he’s that good. Well, he got fired. He got fired because he had a southern accent. He’s from Oklahoma. And he’s by the way he sells barbecue sauce. Good old Jr’s barbecue so if you want to go there and get some it’s really good. But that was and even Jr understood the business not at the time it took him a few years but when he under stood what Eric Bischoff was doing, he was fine with it. And it actually forced him to change his craft a little bit. So he did not pitch in US pigeonhole himself as only a southern guy. So there’s, you know, there’s some tough decisions that you may have to make, personally, about yourself. And there may be some tough decisions you may have to make for your organization for your, your Ted Turner, whoever that might be in your life. And I think that’s what’s happening in a lot of places right now. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, Joe. But a lot of oil and gas companies are no longer called oil and gas companies. They’re going through an identity crisis. They’re dropping the name oil, they’re dropping the name petroleum for the word energy. This is something a lot of people advise them to do 10 years ago, and they would and then they did not do it. And now they are. And so there’s a lot of oil and gas companies going through identity crisis is right now, because they don’t know what direction to go, should they be energy? Should they go all in and say no oil, American energy oil. So there’s, there’s, there’s a little bit of that, that you’ve got to play into there? How do you advise people on those tough decisions, whether it’s a tough decision on behalf of the boss, and they got a fire that Hall of Fame announcer, or because he’s got one flaw, and that flaw is he’s got a southern accent. And unfortunately, his talent is better than probably the guy we’re gonna hire. But that guy doesn’t have a southern accent, it’s kind of a weird position to be in. But when you’re going through major changes, sometimes you got to really stay focused on what your intention is, and what your end goal is. So I’ll let you speak now I’ve been I can’t, I haven’t stood up there. Holy smokes.
I felt it, Jason as you ascended your soapbox there, I felt it, and it’s good. And I agree, rather than another thing, I’m sorry, I’m starting to get them. Maybe not the soapbox, I don’t know, maybe, maybe I can see you climbing the ropes there with all of your
things. But I mean, in terms of, you know, sort of driving home the message and figuring out how to accomplish that. One, it comes back to what we talked about earlier, which is getting clear what your ultimate goal is, because, unfortunately, for a lot of companies, you know, they lose sight of the ultimate goal. And it comes down to appeasing, you know, the powers that be, you know, their audience, what they perceive to be, you know, what their investors want, or what, you know, ratings agencies want. And, again, that’s a piece of things, you know, rule number one, right? When you’re, when you’re trying to sell something, or do something is knowing your audience. So, okay. There’s some stakeholders and big stakeholders, obviously, for a public company investors, and, and, and, you know, rating agencies and all that type of stuff. But, again, are those short lived audiences? Are they really going to be tuning in to your figurative wrestling program, three years from now, five years from now? And those are the things that just human nature, again, some leaders, some executive level folks lose sight of. And with things changing as fast as they are, I mean, it again, you can’t lose sight of the ultimate goal. So I’m sorry, Jason. Yeah, go ahead.
Oh, no, I was just gonna say too. And if if you’re the individual, you know, you mentioned before, the list is very good for people when they’re doing their resumes, right. So hey, I just got fired, I just got laid off. I just told my boss, take this job and ship it, because it used to be shove it but we ship the jobs now. We take this job and we ship it. And, you know, whatever. The reason is that you’re unemployed. You said to write down, you know, all these different lists. Well, there comes a time where reality sets in, where you could be the most qualified person, but you have that southern accent, because let’s transition it now to Spice Girls. The Spice Girls were pretty specific. They were going to become the female Menudo, they were going to become the female and sink and the back boy, Backstreet Boys, or whatever. Menudo was from the 80s. Once you turned 18, they kicked you out. It was a boy band. And then came some American ones, whether it be n sync or Backstreet Boys or whatever. Well, when the Spice Girls came out, they were baby spice, Posh Spice, Sporty Spice, Scary Spice. I mean, so was it. Did they have those names already picked out? Or did they pick out the talent and then give them the names? So that’s something people have to remember that if it was the first, well, if they already have a baby spice, they’re not going to get another baby spice. So you could be we could take it to the NBA
You don’t want to NBA All Star senators on your team? I mean, yeah, you do, but you don’t, you need to have some diversity. And so sometimes employers, they need diversity. And that’s not why you’re gonna get hired. Because they already have the person who’s already really good at Excel, they already have the person that’s really good at sales, they already you see it, I mean, to where sometimes they already have a posh or a baby, or that’s what they’re looking for. So because you don’t fit into that little box, they don’t, they don’t want you further bigger part of their, their, their program, or their company or their play, or whatever it might be. So there is a little bit of that I think people need to be aware of as they go out there last in the world that just because you’re you don’t get the job doesn’t mean you weren’t the most talented. It’s just you didn’t have the right.
Is that the right stuff? Are we in space? Are we out of this world? I mean, where are we at now? Help me out here? Am I
the right stuff for that New Kids on the Block? What was that song? I think we’re going through our, our memory bank here.
I’m gonna say bad. I’ve started to just trail off and die on the vine, you got to step in and help me out here. Come on.
Ah, yeah, I don’t even know where we weren’t on that. But yeah, in terms. But yes, I mean, and again, that comes down to just a fundamental understanding of trying to take emotion out of it, and look at the statistics, if a company needs to fill, you know, X types of roles, you know, again, from the oilfield standpoint, you know, if they are in need of drilling engineers, and you know, you are a completions engineer, then your odds of getting that role as a drilling engineer are less, however, and, you know, kudos to a lot of companies who recognize this, there obviously, is a role for, again, if we want to we have in our sports analogies, sort of that you know, that general athlete, right, you know, that’s, that’s a huge, sometimes schools just recruit athletes, right, and they’ll shift positions later, you have somebody that’s available, and they you know, they have some other intangibles, just besides the raw talent, and you say, well, we’re gonna figure this out later. So in terms of just practically speaking, and again, maybe we’ve gone down sort of a career coaching path here for a moment, but don’t lose sight of that. And this comes back to differentiating yourself, you may have only been in one specific segment of the energy industry. But I guarantee you, there are a list. Again, we talked about lists, right? There’s a long list of I don’t want to just say transferable skills, because again, that that can can still lead to people being somewhat closed minded, but there was a long list of things that you can do and have done that can add value to a company that go beyond the current job openings and job descriptions they have. So again, try to take the emotion out of it. And remember that there are companies there are colleges that are looking to recruit all around athletes, all around workers who have a you know, sort of a minimum skill set that can be honed and, and, and molded over the coming years, you know, once you’re on board with that team or that company.
And here’s the thing, folks. And of course, we’re gonna get a little bit out there and existential now because this is the crude life and it wouldn’t be a interview with Joe Sinnott and Jason species, if we didn’t know we haven’t got weird yet, folks, that’s the that’s the beauty of this.
When I was a 2016, when I became a single parent, it was during the downturn, basically the 2015 downturn, when I was going through my personal issues with with my, with my ex, and our son. And when I got custody and became the full time parent, I made a list, I made a list of my priorities in life. And my, my son was number one, my son and my relationship was number two. Number three was my health. And number four, was my job. So my career actually was number four on my list. So that changed a lot of how I viewed life, because my number one priority was to make sure that I would drop off and pick up my son every day from school, because I felt he needed that rock that foundation in his life in a one parent household that I got somebody picking me up every day, I don’t have to take the bus I don’t have, you know, quote unquote, Uncle Jack picking me up and Aunt Jane and anybody else, you know, Dad’s dad’s buddy from the bar, whatever it might be. And so for me, I didn’t drink I didn’t date. I didn’t do a lot of these things. And now that I take a step back and look,
the reason I am alive today is because I did not pursue the almighty dollar. And I’m not trying to get religious. I’m not trying to get that at all. What I’m saying is that if I would have went out and networked that would have involved going out at night, possibly drinking, possibly, you know, stayed out late.
Because the very few times that I did network, that’s, that’s what was what, what was involved didn’t matter what industry I was in, that was always the case you, you go out and you know, and then sometimes it’s only just having dinner four bottles of wine over, you know dinner. And that sort of thing. The reason I keep bringing up the drinking is because if I would have had three to five glasses of wine every night that I would have networked, my stage for cancer would have been beyond repair. Keep in mind, folks, I was stage four cancer, then I was stage two, six years, I tried to fight the medical community. So I actively did alternative treatments to myself, because I was told I had hemorrhoids when I had cancer. So for me, my career being the fourth priority on my list, I made the least amount of money in my life, I had the best relationship with a child that I’ve ever had in my son, we have a great relationship. But here’s the most important part, I’m alive today because of it. If I would have went out and pursued the money, I’d be debt. But because I made that list, follow that list over the priorities in my life, we are having this conversation today to pass along and say now, in my next chapter, Joe, you should see my list, it’s fun, it is going to be so fun, and we’re going to do things. So like, I feel like I’m not lost anymore. As everybody’s getting lost. I’m not lost, I’ve been more focused than ever, because I just spent the last three years surviving lost, trying to hang on and fighting cancer and do all these different things. So little bit of that soothsayer that you’d like to call me and that Nostradamus and prognostication type of a thing. So I’m just what I’m trying to tell people out there is that when you’re making your list, if money isn’t everything, then actually make a list that does not involve money. If money is everything, make that list about money, and go after it. Because that’s what I’m doing right now. That’s the list I’m making right now, is I’m going after the dollars. So I made the list to go out just to save my life and my NF thank goodness, it was actually because of my son. And so because of my family values in my upbringing, you know, I was a former altar boy and a Sunday school teacher. So you know, even though I was the kid behind the shed, you know, doing you know, gambling and that sort of play in three card monte at the church. I learned a little bit by osmosis a little bit by just hanging out. I guess. So Joe, did I lose here? Did you go to did you hang up on me?
No, the question is, is Jason How can we were saying before the show that you just liquidated all your life savings, and you just invested it in the mega million so that you can win that billion dollar jackpot next week? I’m confused. Nom.
Did you see the list number one was when the lottery I told you the bucks.
The only way to get rich today is to win the lottery after that it’s get a job. So though actually, we’re, this is a true story, Joe,
not to take over your time and your podcast time and everything in our in our interview. But one of the things that we are doing now through the ESG University and the industrial forest and the crude life is we’re actually doing social media policies for companies. Because we have a tenure body of work now that we’ve been called more than professional more than fair, because we usually promote other people before ourselves, because that’s part of our business model as a media company. And we’re actually training in the northwest, they’re doing they do training up in Willesden, for the state of North Dakota, they’re very heavy in the oil and gas industry. They do the training for the oil and gas industry for like hazmat and that kind of stuff. We’re sitting down, and we’re doing their social media policy. And then they’re gonna turn around and train of course, other people on that. And one of the things that we’re doing is we’re meeting with the anti bully groups, the task forces, the leader of the LGBTQ tea movement, the fantasy football people, you know, you name it. If you’re on social media, and you’ve got a committee or a force, we’re going to reach out to you and find out what’s the good, bad and ugly. What can we incorporate into the social media policy? And, and so we’re going to actually present it to people as you know, this is the entry level. This is what you should at least be doing.
This is the recommended and this is the hey, if you want to act like you’re some big corporate person, this is what you got to do. This is what the corporation’s do. And it’s night and day
You know, it’s night and day because right now there is a very big I don’t even know what the word is because movement is not right. Division is not right. There’s there’s some increasing accountability coming to social media. And it’s gonna thump people like they’ve never been thumped before. Let’s just put it that way. There’s this fall, there’s going to be a big change coming to social media. And a lot of it’s ESG driven, because the election,
at least from the notes that I’m getting in the, and the things I’m seeing from the FCC and the FCC, so there’s a little preview for you. So Mr. Joe Sinnott, if you know anybody out there that would like to have a refresher on their social media. That’s something that maybe you and I can take him on. Because I know you’re very qualified for this you are.
Well, I wouldn’t go that far, Jason, but I know how to consume social media I, I know how to make fun of social media, I know how to avoid, maybe I don’t know how to avoid social media, but
But I agree, it’s, it’s inescapable. And therefore, if you are not investing an appropriate amount of time and energy, and if you’re not looking at the risks and the opportunities, then again, you’re leaving a lot of value on the table. So yeah, happy to help spread the word and get people the resources that they need, and that you and ESG University are, are able to help provide.
In fact, this will be a preview for our next podcast, I would like us to talk about social media etiquette for professionals, because there’s a few things that that I’m starting to see happen here. And this will be a preview folks. And we’ll talk more in depth about it because I don’t do not want to put Joe Sinnott, on on the line here or back them into a corner because some of the things I’m about to say, I’ve done and I know other people have done in fact, Joe Sinnott, has done it too. So it’s this is all about how are you doing it? Are they okay with it, and it involves children. I’m starting to see more kids on social media pop up as prompts. Their parents are certainly use their kids as props. The one that I’m talking about with you, Joe is your family picture. That’s not, that’s not inappropriate for social media at all. In fact, it even looks like you’re at some parade or some family event or some community events. Those are very much appropriate for social media. When you start dressing up your kid with your logoed hat and your shirt, and you put them out there and you act like he’s, you know your mascot.
You really need to think about what you’re doing to your kid because I did that to my kid 15 years ago. Well, when my kid was in eighth grade, he came to me and said, Hey, Dad, can you not post me on social media? He was referring to Facebook actually, you said can you not post me on Facebook anymore, I want to own my identity. And I didn’t even argue with them. I have not even posted another picture of my kids since then. So professionally, people are doing it. But I’m talking about it from a personal standpoint. So the next time you post a picture of your kid, think about maybe you should ask him, that’s his identity. That’s that’s that you are now putting your kids picture out there for Facebook to own forever. And he didn’t even get a say in it. So those are some things to think about. And that’s what we’re going to be talking about with the social media policies and some of the educational sides of things. So sorry, that’s what I didn’t want to back into a corner on that job. Because that can become a very controversial topic. People can become very defensive on both sides. On
Oh, don’t worry, I’m slippery. I’m small and slippery. I don’t mind getting back into a corner. I’ll get out of the cornerl Plus, I’m from New Jersey. So you know we have we have a way of getting out of situations if you know what I mean.
Your accent came out is what you said jersey, by the way, and this whole interview. Hey, man, it’s okay. I’m from New Jersey.
Well, again, again, all roads, see, look at that we have another accent tie in Jason, you’re talking about, you know, removing southern accent. So, again, you never know what you’re gonna get on the crude life other than about, you know, 20 different dots that ultimately will try to connect. But one thing I do want to say and again, I think, yeah, we could talk about social media forever. And I look forward to that upcoming conversation. But as you were talking about using kids as props, I do think and again, maybe this is a setup for our next conversation. It is worth talking about a lot of corporations who are making a big push on social media to spotlight their employees. But again, the question is, are you spotlighting your employees to boost morale and help generate interest for potential future employees and job applicants? Or are you using your employees as props? And again, that’s not to say that companies are doing it. But if somebody’s asking them that question, or do you have a social media department whoever is running these things, just going full steam ahead without any checks and balances?
So, you know, it’s a again, I think it’s a fair question. It’s a question that needs to get asked. But as companies try to replicate what other companies are doing, and, you know, seemingly for a good reason, are they doing it unconsciously? Or somebody challenged them, you know, challenging them along the way and saying, hey, you know, is there another path? Do we really want to just be replicating what our competitors doing when it comes to employee spotlights? For example, not just from a negative standpoint, but also, are you leaving stuff on the table as well? So that’s the other thing?
No, no, this is a great topic. This is a great topic. And let’s, we’ll, we’ll talk more about it, then the next social media as well, because this is a topic that I think all employees and all employers need to really understand what they’re doing. Now, what Joe was talking about, that I’m hearing, as he’s talking about the checkboxes, and here’s a great way for me to bring it home. In the media.
We’ve got a little dirty secret, you ready for the dirty secret?
If you are a minority, who’s disabled?
Military? And what was the third, the fourth one?
I can’t remember the fourth one.
You you were you know, it used to be the trifecta. But then this other gal came along, and she was a disabled vet. And I’m like, Oh, my word. That’s another box that I never thought of. People look for the different boxes to check to satisfy, you know, government forms. And
you know, these different groups and these different agencies and things like that, these corporations are doing the same thing. I go back and look at my women that we spotlight for.
For for women and energy. It’s extremely diverse. We have Hispanic, we have African American, we’ve got Native American, we’ve got Caucasian, that’s done on purpose. It’s not, it’s not you know, it’s not our number one priority. But when we see a guest have certain checkboxes, we definitely try to make those happen much more than Oh, it’s you know, it’s another five foot 10, white guy, great. You know, it’s like, that’s the thing in wrestling, if you’re five, you know, if you’re six feet and white, you got to change your trunks every every year, the colors so that least that he can make some money because you’re nothing special. If you’re not six foot five, you know, you’re not special in that arena. So the idea is, you know, that’s what these corporations are trying to do. That’s what we try to do at the crude life tool, is show the diversity. And yes, it’s manufactured. But our manufactured diversity is done with good intention. And we have no problem talking about it and explaining why, what Joe’s talking about, at least what I’m hearing is, is that what that corporation is doing, or are they just using you in the moment, and they don’t care what’s going to happen tomorrow, because today, they got your female of minority with the military promoted right there on social media. So the Social Media Manager can go have some drinks with the girls at five o’clock. You know, that type of thing? Or guys, I guess drinks with the girls or guys, it didn’t mean to be sexist there. But look at me, just just slinging all kinds of daggers there, I guess. But that’s more or less what we’re talking about. Is it a joke or no?
I think I’ll let you dagger yourself on that one. Jason. No, you’re right. Yeah, that’s Yeah, I think, you know, like you said, I mean, I think we can we can go in a lot of different directions, which undoubtedly, we will do whenever we speak about this topic again. But But I think the most important thing you said, Jason, is, are you doing this as a way to achieve some ultimate goal? Or is some of your box checking as you put it, an end in and of itself? Because when it becomes an end in and of itself, that is a recipe for disaster?
Well, and one of the things that we’ve done, you know, like, I’ll give you an example of our box checking. Okay, so we ended up our, our, the, our African American, if you will, female, and it was ended up where it was working for BP, British Petroleum. And that was all by happenstance. And by you know, we didn’t go out and actively look for that. But we did actively look for the Native Americans.
Because we had all of the other minorities so to speak, checked, right, all those box checked. And so in order for us to fulfill our intention, which is demonstrating showcasing, celebrating the diversity, we had to do a little bit of work and go out and find somebody number one, willing, number two qualified
I had. And number three articulate. And I’ll tell you what we’ve had people from India that we cannot put on the air because they’re not articulate. And they’re geniuses and they’re brilliant. But because they don’t check our box of being able to have articulation over audio, we feel that’s a waste of everybody’s time at the end of the day. Because if nobody can understand the information, and then that person is much better in print for us type of a thing. How can you know that? Yeah, we’re using them for that and using this and that, but we’re also trying to figure out what’s going to benefit them as well. So if your company highlights you on social media, because it’s it’s female, Hispanic day?
Are they doing it to celebrate? Are they doing it to us that these are great questions, because getting back to the reverse engineering, which was the really kind of the beginning of this. That’s what a lot of managers and leaders are doing right now. As they get a task, they go to Google. Maybe there’s one person that goes to Bing, but 97% of the online market is controlled by Google. So they go to Google, they type in how to do XYZ or checklist for XYZ. And then they go, and they you know, it’s the vanilla ice it, they go one or two notes off, but the majority of it is the queen song under pressure. But the final product is a little bit different. And so that’s what’s happening right now. That’s another topic we’re going to talk about.
Did you hire queen or did you hire Vanilla Ice? Because if you hired queen, you get 30 years of a sustainable leader. If you hired Vanilla Ice, you get a one hit wonder that copied somebody that reverse engineered a song, and they’re still living off of it. That’s another thing we’re gonna talk about.
I just saw a headline about Milli Vanilli a couple of days ago. I think there’s I think there’s a tie in there with their their lip singing controversy, some sinking controversy, as well.
So I love Milli Vanilli by the way, and Milli Vanilli had multiple hits, they won a Grammy and they they’re more Andy Kaufman than anything. But anyway, so.
Alright, man, what are we?
All right, well, Jason, it seems like you’ve gone on mute. I don’t know if that’s intentional or unintentional, but, or it’s just a sign that we’ve exhausted our full list of
80s and 90s bands. And I just want to be clear for everybody. We talked about lists a lot throughout this episode. But Jason and I did not have a list of musical artists to talk through. I think the Spice Girls was pretty much the only bullet point that we had discussed prior to this. So this again, is what you get on Jason spaces.
Are you there
Crude life, and I am here it looks like you’re unmuted. So I’m going
I was on safe driving mode. So I apologize. And my radio station is texting me as well too. Because I’m going to be on and apparently three minutes and all kinds of weird stuff, man, but hammering it back here, bringing it back bringing it home, what what we started with is we you know, what do you really, really want? And, yeah, we’re in a time of flux, we’re at a time of transition. And there are a lot of people lost out there right now. So you need to rely on you. Write down your list, Joe, tell him what to do. Because right now is very important for people because I do believe the next two years is good. Gonna define the next 15 for you. I really believe that.
Yeah, well to wrap things up in you know, in terms of what can they do should they do, it’s not just make those lists, but find the best way to take those lists and actually make something of them converge on something of importance widdle those lists down to what really matters so that you can become a sustainable and impactful leader instead of a boring copycat trite and bland leader. So again, you know, if you want to be a bland leader, copy everybody else. But if you want to add a little bit of spice and you want to be a differentiated leader, then always happy to work with folks who, again are looking to set themselves apart and and help make a bigger impact for themselves of course, and their stakeholders and their family and, and everyone else that’s important and help them again, ultimately drive towards their their primary, long term goals.
And if that doesn’t work, the Mega Millions is over a billion. There’s always that so that’s number one in the list, get rich win the lottery.
Surprisingly, though, that is a lot of people’s plan in life. I do find that rather interesting. But Joe Sinnott. How can people listen to your podcast, the energy detox?
Well, theenergydetox.com The energy detox works on any of your favorite podcasting platforms. And certainly you can go to wittingpartners.com or reach out on LinkedIn. And that’ll direct you in whichever direction you want to go as far as content, services, sarcastic messages and anything else that we may have covered today.
