Every March since 1987, Congress and U.S. Presidents have designated March as Women’s History Month. This year, The Crude Life celebrates and honors their accomplishments and contributions in history with interviews and stories that center around women’s experiences in industry.The Crude Life believes woman are vital in energy. Today more than ever. From a female’s point of view to intuition to specific skill sets, woman are vital in energy.
Today’s women in industry are not only modern-day leaders, but truly are defining history as well.
Everyone at The Crude Life is grateful for all your contributions to industry, to your communities and to our planet.
Sarah Phillips sat down with Jennifer McIntyre Morris, RLI Solutions Company, to discuss how Women are EmPowering the World and energizing the industry. The two discuss their daily professional lives working in the energy industry to navigating through the patriarchal culture that still exists in many areas of the workplace. In addition, their conversation consistently searches for answers to their questions by layering in real life examples of the oilfield.
Two of the main themes of the interview are professional accountability and basic human decency. Early in the interview, Jennifer sets the table of context describing her family’s past structure and how that along with her professional pedigree is completely different than her children.
“I had my first job when I was 12, had work release from school,” Jennifer said. “At 13 I was working for Giant Eagle. Even summers both my parents worked when I was 11 and 12 and I cooked, I cleaned. Looking back now when I think of my kids at 12, there’s no way on this earth I would allow them to do that.”
The conversation continues explaining how that was more normal back then and when you are in the moment, it’s hard to realize the history that is behind made.
“My youngest brother was in diapers still,” Jennifer recalled from her youth.
“Were you changing them?” Phillips asked.
“Oh yeah, I was mom all summer long,” Jennifer replied. “And I had my job and I had school. It was just natural for me and us.”
The conversation transitioned into some of the personal challenges and emotional challenges females encounter while working in oil and gas. Several examples are given filled with the traditional male dominated conversations, sexist vibes and patriarchal colloquialism that are extremely antiquated outside the industry.
“Especially for ladies, I think that even if you are a completely clean slate, it can lead to conversations about you you do not want to be had,” McIntyre said.
“Oh yeah, those conversations, especially if you work in the field, and I do not know if this is politically correct (for the industry), but those conversations are inevitable,” Sarah said. “If you are a female out in the field conversations will be had about you. It doesn’t matter if you are a nun.”
The two talk about the trust that eventually is built through thick skin and accepted cultural norms while working in the oilfield.
“I think they end up trusting me and becoming close to me because I wasn’t the fun time girl, I am pretty serious about what I do,” Jennifer said.
The interview jumped across the ocean to Aberdeen, Scotland where she got her start in oil and gas.
“I just started gaining a lot of oil and gas clientele. I’d move guys to Dubai and Australia, help them with their work permit,” Jennifer recalled. “Trying to figure out how we are going to get a work permit for their massive truck with whatever inch tires over to Dubai and does the closest fit 500 pairs of shoes for their wife, how do I enroll my kids in school, stuff like that.”
The two continue to discuss the difference between a job that is intimately involved with other people’s schools, bank accounts, children’s interests and even the family’s unwritten rules. There is a different connection an average worker will never know. There is an empathy and sympathy when life brings their family change. It isn’t as easy as a work transfer or unexpected layoff, there’s layers to relationships in oil and gas.
“A lot of things happen to everybody, whether it is abuse or alcoholism or a death in your family, you can either let that form who you are or you can let it inspire you to be what you want to be,” Jennifer said. “I chose to let it inspire me rather than define who I was.”
The two continue their discussion how Women are Empowering the World through their careers, community engagements and families.
Jennifer and Sarah are both members of the Women’s Energy Network
Jennifer also owns
RLI Solutions Company has operated in the Mid Atlantic region with a focus on safety, environment and quality for over 40 years.
Sarah Phillips works for Knight Energy Services.
If you know any Women EmPowering The World, please let us know! Email studio@thecrudelife.com or contact Sarah Phillips for consideration.
If you know any Women EmPowering The World, please let us know! Email studio@thecrudelife.com for consideration.
Sarah Phillips
Hi, this is Sarah Phillips with Knight Energy Services conducting my first podcast, I am here with The Crude Life Podcast and Jennifer McIntyre. So I have two basic missions why I accepted this role for The Crude Life. Um, the first is, it has a lot to do with women in the industry. So the women’s energy network is by far the most impressive networking group that I’m in and I just wanted to showcase these oftentimes overlooked members of the industry.
So that’s my first goal and my second goal is to reform the oil and gas and the energy’s reputation. So like women, the industry is actually counterintuitively nurturing and life giving. So let me just explain to you how I met jennifer McIntyre. Uh, so when I first started at night energy services a year ago, I had just moved from North Dakota being a field engineer and I was trying to learn how to transition from being a nerdy field engineer to an outspoken uh sales account managers.
So I was told by Matt Hill co worker in Oklahoma to connect with her. So I gave her my number on linkedin and she called me a couple days later and we talked on the phone for like an hour, but little did I know at that time the responsibility she had and how many boards she’s had on. So time passed by and I had a bunch of meetings with clients and literally everybody knew who she was.
So she has the reputation in our region for being one of the most resourceful and connected people in the industry. She’s also been incredibly friendly and helpful to me and I just wanted to share this impressive woman story. So J. Mac introduce yourself and tell us who you’re with. So
Speaker 3
my name is Jennifer McIntyre
Sarah Phillips
Morris.
Speaker 3
Yes. And um I position wise am vice president for a company called Arli Solutions are field entities are L and L. Pipeline accelerated logistics and service and supply. So we do pipeline and civil construction. We have a full logistics company and then we provide mechanical field repair services for heavy equipment. Um I also own my own company. Um It is called N.
M W L L. C. And it is a registered WB. Um national registered W. B. And we specialize in oilfield consulting. So we work with larger companies on a joint venture basis, helping them fulfill their um W. B. Requirements. Um We’re also working on a well plugging program for the state of Ohio and we’re in the final stages of that as well. So
Sarah Phillips
that’s how I started plugging. It was the safety coordinator on plugging wells for coastal drilling. Its umbrella under chapter drillers International. So
Speaker 3
around here, all over the place that plug wells for um range all the time and the next.
Sarah Phillips
Yeah, that’s where I fell in love with the oil field. That’s funny. Um so besides your job, what organizations are you and what positions do you hold?
Speaker 3
So I’ve been involved with the American Association of drilling engineers Appalachian chapter for probably six or seven years now. I actively hold their Director of Marketing and Communications position, the Appalachian pipe liners Association. I’ve been involved with that board for probably about five years. I’m one of the longest standing remaining board members for that organization.
Um and again, I hold this year, I’m Director of Marketing and Communication, previously I looked after membership for them and I also hold the marketing and communications position for Women’s Energy Network Pittsburgh chapter and then I hold a chair position for that same organization for their West virginian chapter as well.
Sarah Phillips
That’s crazy. Yeah, yeah, you were nuts. Like how do you manage your time? So you can balance all your positions and you’re like three
Speaker 3
jobs, I think that I’m super strict with my schedule and my time. Um so if you look at my diary, I literally have set times for every single task that I have to accomplish and you really have to learn that regardless of being finished with that task or not, when your time is up with that task, you’re done until that time comes up again and I’m super strict with that you have, it’s much better to be proactive than reactive, especially in this industry, it’s so easy to, to go off course
because so much stuff is constantly coming at you and of course everything needs done yesterday, everything doesn’t need done yesterday. It’s getting people to slow down enough to tell you what’s a true emergency, what truly needs prioritized and then sticking with that strict schedule you set for yourself or you will go crazy. How
Sarah Phillips
did you learn how to do that? Like make the diary and how do you have the discipline to stick to it?
Speaker 3
Because if you don’t, you will very quickly spiral out of control and you’ll drive yourself crazy
Sarah Phillips
with all the tasks that you have to
Speaker 3
accomplish. Yeah.
Sarah Phillips
So have you always had a pretty heavy workload your whole life?
Speaker 3
Yeah, absolutely. I had my first job when I was 12, I had work release um, from school and at 13 I was working at Giant Eagle. I was the oldest of six kids. So summers even at 11 and 12 years old, my parents both worked and I looked after all the kids I cooked, I cleaned, looking back now. Like when I think of my kids at 12, I’m like, there’s no way in this earth that I would allow them to do that. But it wasn’t, I don’t know, it wasn’t unnatural for me. It was just, it was
Sarah Phillips
just the way that it
Speaker 3
was, Yeah, exactly. My youngest brother was in diapers still
Sarah Phillips
changing them.
Speaker 3
Yeah, I mean I was mom all summer long and then I had my job and I had school and so
Sarah Phillips
it feels natural to you to have a heavy workload.
Speaker 3
Absolutely. I would think something was seriously wrong if I didn’t, like, that’s when I started to question myself
Sarah Phillips
because you’re like, okay.
Speaker 3
Yeah, I mean, yeah, even vacations are hard, you know, because
Sarah Phillips
you’re not relaxing. Exactly because
Speaker 3
it’s also my passion. So it’s not like I’m a workaholic and I don’t enjoy it. I enjoy what I do. So it’s okay. It’s like, I don’t know, it’s my hobby as well as as my job. It’s not painful.
Sarah Phillips
Yeah,
Speaker 3
I don’t know.
Sarah Phillips
Yeah, that makes sense. Um so we kind of touched on this already, but how do you balance your work life with your personal
Speaker 3
life? So it’s hard. I mean, I’ve definitely learned that, let’s put it this way I’ve been married three times,
Sarah Phillips
so
Speaker 3
I think that’s a testament to it. Um The man that I’m married to now has infinite patience. Um he’s also familiar with the industry, which I think definitely helps. Um and and that being said, friendships with individuals who aren’t in the industry have proven very difficult. Um, retaining friendships. I mean, I look at like people that I went to high school with, I went to a really small school and they’re all still friends, they all married each other.
They all do christmas parties together And they used to invite me, but after you cancel like the third or fourth time because something comes up with work. Like those invitations don’t really come anymore. So because they don’t understand, they don’t understand the demands and the priorities of what it is that you do.
Um, so the majority of my friends also work in the industry because they’re the only people that like you can literally call and cancel lunch 15 minutes before you you’re supposed to be there and they understand, right? I
Sarah Phillips
can totally relate to that, especially with the high school friends.
Speaker 3
They don’t, and people don’t understand
Sarah Phillips
houses right? Like you need, if you’re in the, I don’t know, my husband really appreciates that about me and vice versa, that we understand that you have, sometimes there are time sensitive things that you just can’t put off.
Speaker 3
You cannot. I’ve gotten up from dinner tables on christmas day and been like, I really enjoyed cooking this meal for you. It was really great to eat in 15 minutes, but I’ve got to go, you know what I mean? Everybody’s like, okay mom, we’ll see when you get back. I mean it is what it is. Um you have to have, you do end up surrounding yourself with people that understand
Sarah Phillips
because
Speaker 3
it’s difficult to explain to people that don’t work in it.
Sarah Phillips
Yeah. But then it’s fun to be around to surround yourself with people because you always talk about the oil and gas
Speaker 3
industry. Absolutely.
Sarah Phillips
Um, so obviously you’re a high achiever and you’ve developed quite the reputation around here. Uh, so I always tell my step kids you can’t be number one unless you’re a little odd. So what decisions have you made against the grain? I have led you to where you are now.
Speaker 3
Um, I think I’ve actually made decisions against the grain of our actual industry itself. So we’re kind of famous for working hard and playing hard. I definitely do the working hard part and the playing hard part I have definitely not learned to steer clear of, but made the conscious decision to be that designated driver for everybody or to wait until everybody is maybe not going to remember that you’re leaving the room and then go to the bathroom and not come back.
Yeah. And that was a decision both personally for myself, for my reputation. Um, but also for that family that supports me. Um, but I think it’s an uncommon decision … and people comment on it. I mean they’ll be,
Sarah Phillips
Yeah,
Speaker 3
exactly do. Um, but it tends to be when I’m at home with my my husband or my friends or whatever. It’s not in a working environment, especially for ladies. I think that even if you are a completely clean slate, it can lead to conversations about you that you maybe don’t want to be had.
Sarah Phillips
Oh yeah, those conversations, especially if you work in the field, like I don’t know if this is politically correct, but they’re inevitable. You know, if you’re a female in the field, conversations will be had about you
Speaker 3
correct. So
Sarah Phillips
it doesn’t matter if you’re a nun.
Speaker 3
Exactly.
Sarah Phillips
You know, so don’t
Speaker 3
give them any more the reason to have those conversations.
Sarah Phillips
That’s
Speaker 3
definitely been something that I’ve lived by and it’s been appreciated. I mean the majority of people that have guided me in this industry have been a lot of the older guys that have been in the industry for a long time and it may take them a super long time to trust me, but it’s definitely worth waiting for that. And I think that they end up, they end up becoming close to me and trusting me because I am not the fun time girl, I am pretty serious about what I do, they know who I go home to at
night and then I have kids and I have animals that I look after and all these other responsibilities. Um it definitely helps crack their shell a lot quicker. You have that demeanor, right?
Sarah Phillips
And those old time guys, they’re the best. They have the most knowledge I know they’re my
Speaker 3
favorite. They
Sarah Phillips
have so much knowledge, they have so much to share and then once you do develop that trust, they do share,
Speaker 3
you know
Sarah Phillips
like and they’re
Speaker 3
fun.
Sarah Phillips
Um so how did you stumble in the oil and gas industry?
Speaker 3
So I was actually doing corporate relocations for a number of years in Scotland to start and there is a large oil and gas pop population in Aberdeen obviously drilling um in the North sea and I just started gaining a lot of oil and gas clientele. So I’ve moved guys to Dubai? Australia helped them with their work permits. Um trying to figure out how we’re going to get their massive truck with whatever inch tires over to Dubai and does the closet fit 500 pairs of shoes for their wife, all
of that kind of stuff, how I roll my kids in school and I don’t know when you’re intimately dealing with with people’s day to day lives like that, helping them opening bank accounts and everything else. Um, you get to know them really well and when things really picked up here in the South Point area, um we made the decision to move back and I did the same thing here locally.
So I kind of build up knowing individuals in that industry. Um as South Point increased range moved up and Noble moved up and uh, eventually they’re like, you’re wasted doing this, you need to come and work with us out here. And um, nobody actually flew me down to their head office. Yeah, and I, and they wanted me to move down there, which in this industry, it’s nothing to move like that. I was like, yeah, I can’t move my family again.
We already moved from another country here, This is home. I’m not moving again. Um, but yeah, I did eventually move over into the field from that and I still bump into guys out there that I moved to like Australia or Dubai, I’ll walk in a trailer and I’ll be like, what are you doing here? They’re like, what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in Scotland? And I’m like no, we’re supposed to be in Dubai,
Sarah Phillips
yeah, why did you move to Scotland? What brought you there?
Speaker 3
Um so my first husband with Scottish, um I actually met him right out of high school, I lost my mom and in my senior year and it kind of turned my life upside down, I had a full scholarship to Chatham University, which that was my intention, that was an all girls um catholic school and I had
Sarah Phillips
a full ride,
Speaker 3
I was actually going to go for, I wanted to be a political speech writer,
Sarah Phillips
I
Speaker 3
initially wanted to do, I had a scholarship from the daughters of the american revolution and I had the Rachel Carson book award scholarship to go to that college and then my mom passed and um I did spiral a little bit out of control all of a sudden, I was the head female head of the household, I mean I’m kind of done it
Sarah Phillips
before, I
Speaker 3
was, I was, I was the one, uh all these younger brothers and sisters to turn to and quite frankly my dad asked me not to go and he needed me at home and I made the choice to stay and uh I did that for about a year until my dad got on his feet a little bit more. And in that time I met my first soon to be husband who was Scottish.
He was actually his stepdad was a U. S. Naval officer stationed in Annapolis and I fell pregnant and health care is free over there. So I applied to colleges, I packed the same bag that you packed to go on vacation for two weeks and I moved to a new country at 19
Sarah Phillips
with your first husband.
Speaker 3
With my first husband and a two month old baby
Sarah Phillips
in a different country. Yeah
Speaker 3
I didn’t know anybody. So
Sarah Phillips
You were 19 when that happened and your mom passed away when you were
Speaker 3
18. So
Sarah Phillips
all of that happened like that must have been extremely difficult to have that many like life changes.
Speaker 3
Yeah but everything happens for a reason, right?
Sarah Phillips
And that’s why you are, where you are
Speaker 3
now. Yeah. Well I mean that’s one of the reasons I think for sure.
Sarah Phillips
Yeah I
Speaker 3
Mean that marriage fell apart relatively quickly when you’re 19. I came from a Catholic family. I hadn’t intended to necessarily get married but getting married really wasn’t an option. It’s just the way that I was raised obviously. So we did and um but when you’re 19 you have no clue who you are. The person you’re with has no clue who they are and quite quickly I realized it was not for the best and we separated and uh
Sarah Phillips
I
Speaker 3
Can remember. So I was a single mom at 21 in a foreign country with no family and things were really tight. I decided to go back to school and that’s when I went to Glasgow School of Art. So I was a student single mom in a foreign country. And um, I lived in over there. It’s called a room and kitchen. So it’s literally, it’s literally a bed in a kitchen with a small room off of it.
And then internal plumbing that had been put in at a later date because those buildings were sold that the bathroom was in the back courtyard. At a previous point, I had no refrigerator. I used to get my milk and my eggs and my butter on the window sill because it was cold enough that it would stay for at least a day. I had no vacuum. I brushed the carpets on my hands and knees with a stiff bristle brush.
I can remember doing that. I had no washing machine, I washed all of our clothes in the bathtub, like stomping on them. Like you do making wine. And there was one night that I had a can of beans, I’ll never forget it. And I had the two slices at the end of a loaf of bread and one of them was the butt end that’s disgusting. And I’m like, do I split this or do I give this to my son and I gave it to him and I was like, I am not going to be doing this for the rest of my life, like this is not what I was destined
for. Like so I’m gonna do everything in my power to have this not be our situation because I think a lot of things happen to everybody, whether it’s abuse or alcoholism or a death in your family, you can either let that that you can either let that form who you are or you can let it inspire you to be what you want to be
Sarah Phillips
right?
Speaker 3
One of two things when I chose to let it inspire me to do something better than let it let it define who I was because it wasn’t who I was, right.
Sarah Phillips
So that actually leads to another question that I wanted to ask you. Um So most highly successful people have one pivotal failure in their life that skyrockets their success, right? Like one in three U. S. Presidents have had a parent died by the time that they were 18, which is similar to you, I mean you were 18,
Speaker 3
right?
Sarah Phillips
So was your mom’s death? What was the pivotal time in your life where you said no more that you really think skyrocketed your success?
Speaker 3
Um I don’t think it was like a single event. I came from a super hard working family, like that wasn’t a choice. Um It’s just who we were um Like I said had my first job at 12 and then for an actual external employer at 13, I’ve never not had a job a single day in my life, no matter what’s happening in my personal life, no matter when I was going to school and everything else, I’ve always had a job.
Um I think there have been lots of things in my life um that have pushed me further forward in that path to get to where I want to be. But I can’t say that there’s been one single pivotal moment because I think we we all have lots of those moments that kind of shape us and and shift and define that path. Um but my drive has always been super high to kind of do something.
That’s why I wanted to be a political speech writer. So I never wanted to be the politician that everybody looked at. I wanted to be the person that wrote the words that that politician said, that went down in history. Does that make sense?
Sarah Phillips
Yeah, well, that makes sense. Yeah. You would otherwise you’re just kind of a puppet, right? You wanted to be the brain to the puppet?
Speaker 3
I wanted to be the one that actually made the difference,
Sarah Phillips
right? That’s cool.
Speaker 3
You know?
Sarah Phillips
Yeah. Um So what qualities do you admire in people and what are your pet views
Speaker 3
um integrity and honesty,
Sarah Phillips
right? The
Speaker 3
two most important things. The two the two most important things that you can have as human being and the two hardest things to get back when you lose,
Sarah Phillips
right. That’s a good
Speaker 3
point. Um, I say to the field guys that work for me all of the time, I literally do not care what happens ever. Just tell me the truth. Even if you’ve made a mistake, even if you have consciously made the choice to make a mistake, tell me the truth, right? Because if I don’t have, I’ll have your back, but I’m gonna take whatever you tell me is gospel, and I am going to fight for whatever that is.
So you better damn well make sure it’s not a lie. It’s just so important. And if you do it, you’re gonna be gone because I’m never going to trust you again. It’s just, it’s the most important thing. Have
Sarah Phillips
you ever been burned really bad by somebody who has lied to
Speaker 3
you? Oh, I think we all have, particularly in this industry, I think,
Sarah Phillips
Oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3
There’s an there’s an ingrained, there’s an ingrained fear in people or everybody in our industry. Um, … let’s face it, mistakes can be really costly, … mistakes can be really costly in this industry. Um, there’s a lot of high stakes, high stress situations.
So I think everybody’s constantly terrified of making a mistake being the one that causes an injury that causes something to fail that cost the company a great deal of money. So there is a lot of predisposition to not necessarily tell the
Sarah Phillips
truth.
Speaker 3
Um, and it’s a hard thing to break. Um but it’s it’s super important. So integrity and honesty. Those are the things I admire pet peeves would be breaking both.
Sarah Phillips
You
Speaker 3
know what I mean? Definitely? Um I think the majority of the other stuff I’m pretty easy to get on with. Um I don’t know. Yeah. The opposite of those two things.
Sarah Phillips
Yeah. Those are definitely important. And a lot of people do
Speaker 3
fear
Sarah Phillips
the retaliation from telling the truth if they did make a mistake
Speaker 3
and you see it get worse and downturns. Have you noticed
Sarah Phillips
that the
Speaker 3
amount of backstabbing and dishonest behavior that increases during a downturn is unbelievable.
Sarah Phillips
I mean do
Speaker 3
and say things that you’re like, you would never expect that out of them, but it’s like a it’s survival of the fittest and people go into this panic mode that makes them do and say things that they wouldn’t necessarily do normally. It’s kinda strange to see it happen.
Sarah Phillips
Yeah. Because people are afraid for their lives and then they,
Speaker 3
their families, they’re Yeah, they that
Sarah Phillips
is what shows you the character their character right at those times when you struggle when Yeah. Do you keep your integrity whenever you are tested?
Speaker 3
Yeah,
Sarah Phillips
that’s what separates people. But I was just thinking about your last question and how you were talking about how you’ve worked since you were 12 and you’ve always had a job every day of your life and I’m reading this book that it talks about achievement and how achievement is the secret to happiness. So do you believe in that, like a lot of times when people are depressed, they lay low, they don’t do anything, they watch netflix, it’s a downward spinning spiral, you know what I’m
saying? So happiness, could you look at it as instead of doing nothing, you do something every time you do something you get happier and then once you get happier you achieve more and then it’s an upward spinning spiral.
Speaker 3
I would agree, and I think it’s achieving those, you also, there’s definitely an element of adrenaline or serotonin in achieving anything, whether it’s a big goal or a small goal, right? So if you’re constantly setting those goals on a personal level, on a work level, when you’re constantly achieving, then that’s that’s that’s almost, it can become addictive, right? Right? You’re constantly wanting to meet the next whatever you’ve set yourself, you know?
Sarah Phillips
So what do you think the secret is? Like? Obviously, so if achieving is a secret to happiness and laying on the couch makes you feel like crap, then what, what makes you make the decision to achieve rather than just do nothing for you because you’re a high achiever
Speaker 3
Um sitting on the couch has never been an option, I think it’s also partially that I’ve always had somebody, or for as long as I can really remember someone depend on me, I had younger brothers and sisters. My mom was sick from the time I was 12 until she passed. So for a lot of that time she was undergoing treatment and you know what I mean?
There were things to do. We had to pull together as a family to support her during that time. So I’ve always had someone depend on me and then I had my own kids. I started really young and I had people that depended on me and that’s not a bad thing. But it’s certainly,
Sarah Phillips
it
Speaker 3
certainly creates something bigger than just yourself. Right? Sitting on the couch really isn’t an option. Um, when you have somebody else that’s depending on you.
Sarah Phillips
So you’ve really never had that choice.
Speaker 3
No, I haven’t and I don’t regret it either. You know, God has given me those people in my life for a reason and maybe it is because I am who I am and I do want to provide for them. Maybe that’s why he picked me. I don’t know what the reason is. Um, I would never trade those people for anything or those circumstances for anything in the world. But
Sarah Phillips
it is weird how God gives you trials and tests you to push you to be somebody better
Speaker 3
and put people in your life for both good and lesson teaching purposes, right?
Sarah Phillips
None of it’s bad.
Speaker 3
None of it is bad
Sarah Phillips
learning.
Speaker 3
That’s
Sarah Phillips
cool. Yeah, I completely agree with
Speaker 3
them.
Sarah Phillips
Um, so we kind of touched on this, but what are your personal habits, like, do you wake up early? Do you read daily, like what decisions, habits and actions make you different?
Speaker 3
So I definitely wake up early, like extremely early, but I also go to bed really early 3 30 to 4. It just depends because I have a lot of stuff that I need to do at the house before I can leave as well. So I have 10 million animals, Crazy animal lady, I have lots of animals, correct? Yeah, or chase chickens or peacocks or whatever the case may be. Yeah, lots of that.
Um and I don’t know, I definitely start my day early, I make my bed every day. I think that’s super important. It drives me crazy when the kids don’t, there’s nothing worse than coming home to getting into an unmade bed. I think it like, I don’t know your mind is completely scattered. I’m a huge proponent of lists. Um when I start to feel overwhelmed, I’ll go and sit somewhere quiet and literally write a list and it will include the stupidest stuff like buy new toothpaste and it will
include like do the exit interview for so and so that you know, that’s having to leave the company, it will have literally absolutely everything on it because again it’s a sense of accomplishment as you check those things off, you’re getting that adrenaline high of completing a task of doing something and
Sarah Phillips
not only that, that feel feel
Speaker 3
it lifted off. It organizes your brain. So I use a lot of lists for literally everything in my life. Um And I still forget stuff, but you forget a lot less if you’ve got it written down. Do
Sarah Phillips
you have things on your list? Like like honey do things like things like right then is a love note or something like that. Like something to increase your personal relationships.
Speaker 3
So I don’t really have to include that. That comes pretty, I’m very blessed. That comes very naturally. Um He is, he is uh he’s an absolutely wonderful husband. I probably a day does not pass that. He doesn’t send me a text telling me how cherished and how proud and how everything he is with me. He’s definitely better at it than I am. Um But that’s it’s just something that kind of happens naturally.
Sarah Phillips
Yeah.
Speaker 3
Yeah, for sure.
Sarah Phillips
I was singing about making a list for my husband, like writing notes for him. I know that that sounds silly, but anyway, um Your husband is very, very likable.
Speaker 3
He is.
Sarah Phillips
Yeah,
Speaker 3
well he’ll do so that I have that in the morning just as I love you. He went into surgery and left a note for me under his pillow for me and he was going into like an extreme surgery. He’s yeah, he’s a pretty special guy.
Sarah Phillips
Yeah. That’s cool.
Speaker 3
459 customs. That’s our other company, I suppose. I didn’t mention that one either. So I am a partner in that company as well, which is a full service gunsmith, which kind of fits into our industry. There’s one or two guys in our industry and ladies that like guns. So together just one or two. So it does fit in. But I’ll tell you what, it’s pretty funny. The amount of calls that I’m getting now from guys that would never answer my call.
It’s pretty good. So I like that answer the phone. They’ll be like, hey, this is seven. So like I know who it is. Your number saved in my phone. Well I was just calling to see, can your husband fix this digital on my, on my grandpa taps gun? I imagine he probably can. But let’s stop and enjoy the fact that you have had to call me and talk about that. Yeah. Every time
Sarah Phillips
I’m like, shut up,
Speaker 3
I’m just saying I’ve called you six times and now you’re calling me.
Sarah Phillips
That’s awesome.
Speaker 3
Yeah, it definitely helps hand in hand. I
Sarah Phillips
wanted to shoot guns with Dennis while we were doing this. They
Speaker 3
should have, I
Sarah Phillips
know I should have asked you. I’m
Speaker 3
sorry.
Sarah Phillips
Um, so like I said, my second mission is to kind of reform the narrative of the oil and gas industry and we have a nefarious bad reputation with some people? Right? Um, but anyway, there there are literally thousands of items in our everyday lives from Petro products that we can count that we use. Right? So do you think that women have a critical role in redefining the narrative? Like for example, the oil and gas industry is actually nurturing and life giving.
Speaker 3
So I think we all do as an industry. First of all, I think we are absolutely terrible at at at sharing the good message and I think about this a lot. How can we get better at it? Why are we so bad at it? And I actually think one of the reasons we’re so bad at it is that we’re so darn busy. I’m
Sarah Phillips
sorry,
Speaker 3
I think all of us know lots of points and facts of beneficial things and and positive things about our industry, but it’s it’s having the time to actually get that message out there. Um I definitely think that women have a role in in sharing that message and I do think that there is a natural, there’s a natural benefit for those types of things being shared by women because they do appeal to a broader audience.
I think if you have a gentleman that’s sharing that message, you’re not necessarily going to get the buy in of a stay at home mom or a lady who works in real estate or whatever, she’s going to definitely listen to someone who she would consider her peer more than she would a gentleman in the industry we had at one point, I live out in the country in the middle of a lot of activity in our industry.
So I had range resources fracking about 1000 yards off the front of my house, literally in my front yard because we had 13 acres. We sat right at the front of the 13 acres, the back of the 13 acres. They had a rig up to the right hand side of my property. I had consol the coal mine putting a new air vent shaft and fan in and to the left of my property, trinity pipeline was coming through putting a pipeline in.
So I literally had completions drilling pipeline and coal on all four sides of my property. And when that pipeline came in in particular, because they, they’re a little bit more lenient and regulations, as far as taking photographs and things like that, that’s the other thing, were so secretive about our industry were
Sarah Phillips
actually really good
Speaker 3
at what we do and we’re really clean and safe because we make it so secretive that terrifies people. That’s one of my pet peeves. So, anyhow, I talked to the trinity guys and I said, you know what I want, I’m gonna use my side by side, me and my daughter are gonna come in on this project everyday and film what you guys have done. So we did it from clearing to them actually digging up the ground, putting in the pipe, they did the boar.
I filmed the boar and then all of the restoration that they did and I put it on linkedin, I mean it was years ago now and the amount of just normal average people that reached out to me and were like, that was so cool that you did that. I didn’t realize that it would look so good when they were done. It looks better than when they started and they did this and they did that. Yeah, they do. And I had my little girl on the back of the side by or on the back of the quad and we were in the filming it every
day and you know, and that probably lent lent a sense of just normal people to it as well. It was, it was a mom and her daughter going out and looking at the pipeline every day, right? Um that made it a little bit more genuine and a little bit more believable. We just, we need to figure out more ways of doing that kind of stuff and stop being so secretive.
Sarah Phillips
Yeah. I think that we have come a long way with being more transparent, you know, even from like 10 years
Speaker 3
ago, we definitely have, but there’s still
Sarah Phillips
a way to go. There
Speaker 3
definitely is a way to go. Yeah,
Sarah Phillips
I understand what you’re saying. Like people listen to a mom and a child more than like, you know, hi ceo at a company. It’s
Speaker 3
not real to them. They’re not real people. And I think in particular, a woman who works in the industry, they’re gonna be like, she actually even knows what she’s talking about. Not only is she telling, it’s not only is she like me, she works in that industry so she knows what she’s talking about. I just think it, we definitely do have a fiduciary responsibility to become better at spreading the message of how good our industry is, particularly in an area like here.
I mean the amount of job regeneration for an area that was traditionally steel that all of the oil and coal and all of the jobs left like an exodus. Um, it’s just, it’s phenomenal.
Sarah Phillips
Yeah, I don’t know how anybody could complain about it. Like go live in the middle of the woods.
Speaker 3
They don’t want to complain to me when I was doing, when I was doing corporate relocations and at that point I did, I dressed like a girl, not like I do every day today, which I much prefer, but I was with one family and actually remember the guy’s name. James Whalen baker, James Whalen baker and he and his wife came up big jacked up truck and he would faithfully get out of that truck and walk around and open his wife’s door and help her down out of that truck.
Every place we went and looked at, we pulled up outside of a house in Canonsburg actually real close to the neighborhood that you live in and this lady from two houses down literally dropped her hose in her front yard and comes be lining down and she’s getting right up in my face and she’s like, don’t you dare move that oil field ship in this neighborhood?
I’m telling you right now, we don’t want those assholes moving into our neighborhood blah blah blah. And I literally felt the color drain from my face and like the pressure building your ears and I’m like, I’m not gonna lose my temper. I looked at that woman like super close to her face and I said, listen, do you see that new fucking road outside of your house? She’s like, yes, I said that new extension that was built on your school down there.
Do you see that too? Yes. Who do you think’s paying for that? That dude and his wife right there. So you better think twice about what you’re saying. She’s like, I’m calling the police on you. I’m like, go ahead, go ahead, I’m gonna throw down the neighborhood. No, she didn’t call me back and looked at the house ended up. But these poor people,
Sarah Phillips
they hear the whole
Speaker 3
exchange, there’s literally standing right next to me like with total shocked looks on their faces, I’m still friends with them and still talk to them like that time you must throw it down in the front yard because those people didn’t want us here. I’m like, yeah, yeah, but it’s total complete and utter ignorance.
It’s like how can you not see the changes that have overcome this area from that industry growing like it has here, you literally have to be blind, you know, and I’m not sure how we fight against that further education constantly.
Sarah Phillips
It just, it doesn’t make any like even like there there, I don’t know what I’m trying to say, but like the pipeline is being bad for the environment, you know what I’m saying, that doesn’t like if their ultimate goal is to have a better environment than pipelines are the solution, you know,
Speaker 3
I think that there is a place, there’s a place in energy for every type of energy including renewable 100% and we will move more towards that in the future, but we are not. we we do not have the knowledge in those industries to successfully do what is being proposed to do and to actually actually carry them out efficiently. I mean I I would love to take those same people that want to run our industry out here and let them tour what a solar farm actually
Sarah Phillips
looks like.
Speaker 3
I work in remediation and reclamation the soil underneath. First of all. First of all in west Virginia, we are going to clear virgin forests for 700 acres of virgin forest for 700 we’re gonna put a solar solar farm out there or a wind farm out that that makes a lot of sense. Why are we not using the wasteland from strip mining that you can’t build on.
But that not be a more sensible place to put something like that. No we’re gonna we’re gonna displace all that wildlife and we’re gonna put it there then rather than do what you do on the pipeline and actually dispose of everything you’ve removed sensibly. We’re gonna burn it all out there so we’ll just burn it all that good timber will burn it, that’s what we’ll do and then we’ll put all these solar panels so close together that nothing can grow in the soil so that everything
subsides and starts to twist and the soil is completely destroyed so nothing will grow underneath it. And on top of that you’re gonna hook them up to big batteries that leak that don’t have containment under them. And that’s going to be okay. And those batteries also have a life by the way. Where are you
Sarah Phillips
planning on disposing of them? There’s
Speaker 3
not, there’s no they we have not gotten to that point, I actually had a call with some somebody on with Senator Manchin Energy Committee and said to him use us we have been here doing this for a really long time and we’ve worked super super hard to become more efficient, more environmentally friendly. Don’t make the mistakes that we’ve done. Take the people in our industry that have this knowledge and ask them, get them involved with your your planning committees to put these
developments in place. Why why not take advantage of that. That knowledge that’s been here since the 18 hundreds, like, you know, don’t work against us work together. I mean why? I don’t know know. They were like, yeah, that’s a really good idea. That’s a fantastic idea. I’m like, yeah, we’ve been doing this here a long time. We’ve become pretty good at it protecting the environment. So let us help you.
Sarah Phillips
Yeah. People don’t realize is that we are so regulated that we have had to become and it’s a good thing. Yeah,
Speaker 3
constantly, constantly improving
Sarah Phillips
these other industries should also be regulated. Do improve it. Like what you’re saying. Lead by example will lead by example because we’ve been doing it for so long. Absolutely.
Speaker 3
Let us advise you how we can do this properly
Sarah Phillips
containment under your solar
Speaker 3
panels, correct? Your batteries that are …
Sarah Phillips
not
Speaker 3
under the solar panels under the batteries. Oh
Sarah Phillips
my gosh,
Speaker 3
correct. Which are as big as a room. I mean these are big batteries leaking all over the ground or the hydraulic fluid that’s flooding the ground underneath the wind turbines? Have you gone and seen those know it pours out of the bottom? You know, hydraulic fluid? What happens if we still hydraulic fluid on our location? Off containment,
Sarah Phillips
correct?
Speaker 3
There you go. Yeah.
Sarah Phillips
Um okay, so that was the nurturing side. We kind of got off topic there. But also I believe it’s definitely imperative in the field to have a rough in the field to have a rough candid approach to communication in order to like be safe, right? You can’t pause and politically correct answer. Right? So what benefits do you think there are with this machismo culture?
Speaker 3
Um I wouldn’t even say that, it’s that type of culture, I would say that it it is conciseness is definitely a necessity in our
Sarah Phillips
industry.
Speaker 3
Um and the quicker you learn that the better um people are not being mean to you, they are trying to get something done efficiently correctly quickly, right? Um and that can bleed over into like I talked to people all the time and they’re like, they think I hate them. I’m like I don’t hate you, I’m just trying to convey to you what we need to do here in a quick and concise fashion so that we can move on and do what we need to do. So you definitely adopt that permanently. I don’t think it’s a
Sarah Phillips
bad and then you can talk to other
Speaker 3
people because even my kids are like, you know what I mean? Like your drill sergeant? Just mom. Yeah, but
Sarah Phillips
you do kind of have to put your feelings aside it,
Speaker 3
But I’ll tell you what my 24 year old son and I won’t mention the person that we were talking about, but they’re going through a hard time. I don’t really understand why this individual is going through hard time. It’s a peer of his, right? So another young, 20 something year old and I’m like, they need to suck it up. Like I do not understand what the issue is here.
Like they need to just get on with life like and he turned around to me and he said, mom, not everybody is as strong as you, you need to realize that and I’m telling you what he checked me, I stopped and I was like, you probably are right and I’m not being big headed about that, but it just made me take a breath and a break and be like
Sarah Phillips
that other people are
Speaker 3
absolutely, you know what? There are some times that I probably do need to slow down and explain things a little bit better. Be a little bit more understanding because you adopt that and it carries over into your everyday life.
Sarah Phillips
Right? That
Speaker 3
method of communicate. Yes,
Sarah Phillips
it does. And then it is difficult to communicate with other people once you are immersed in that culture, you know, I like it
Speaker 3
that way. Like I like people talk to me, I know exactly where I stand exactly.
Sarah Phillips
You don’t have to guess. You don’t have to know if if they’re saying exactly what they mean, you know?
Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah,
Sarah Phillips
I love it. Um So what advice do you have to women who just entered entered this industry or are thinking about entering it?
Speaker 3
So I’ve mentored a lot of women that have come into the industry. Um I would say that probably a good 75-80% of them don’t last longer than a couple of years, which I think is a real shame.
Sarah Phillips
Do you think it’s because of what we were just talking about? I think that’s
Speaker 3
part of it. Um, I also think that Women in the oil field now are very different than the role that a lot of women played in the oil field 10 years ago, 15 years ago. Um, and a lot of those historic guys have one of two things. Either they want to assume you’re like that woman in the oil field 15 years ago, which is something I’m not interested in or they want nothing to do with you because I assume
Sarah Phillips
that was my biggest challenge when I started sales, I didn’t get that whenever I was engineering supervising the rigs,
Speaker 3
I won’t name the company man.
Sarah Phillips
There’s one in particular,
Speaker 3
there was one in particular that I love and I adore him. Like he’s one of my favorite people now. I went out to his rig six times and over like a two week period and he would not let me on and I had, I had people working on that location, like literally working on that location. I had to talk to him about stuff, There was a reason, I wasn’t just calling for the sake of calling. And finally I called him and I said, I really, I have to come up there and talk to you and I got up to the trailer, walked in
to the section right before like the little half door and he’s like, I’m gonna let you behind here. He said, you’re gonna sit your ass in that seat and you’re gonna wait a minute. I’m like, yes sir, okay. He goes out and he goes and grabs a random roughneck and brings it sits in the seat next to me and he’s like this dude’s gonna sit here for the entirety of your visit here. What do you have to say? Because he’s worried, I mean, how do
Sarah Phillips
you understand it? I totally understand that
Speaker 3
didn’t make me mad at all, but I mean that’s what I’m saying. So you’ve got these two different mentalities and I just felt terrible for that man, like, and it took time, but to this,
Sarah Phillips
I understood why you felt that way because of what used to
Speaker 3
happen. Yes, absolutely correct. But after, you know, time and we did a good job and I was always there and I constantly answered my phone at two o’clock in the morning and whatever tasks and whatever he put in front of me, we’re done. He’s like one of my best friends now, you know, it takes time, but I totally understand why he did and it wasn’t that long ago. So, so you have to convey when a new woman is coming to this industry, you have to convey that history to them … in a way, it isn’t
going to scare them away, but is honest enough that they truly understand what they’re going to come up against out there. Um because otherwise they’re in for a serious shock and it it could be lots of different types of shocks and I think we both know that, do you know what I mean? It could be lots of different things that could happen, but they need to be prepared for that
Sarah Phillips
for more. What are you talking about? Like more women entering the industry? And
Speaker 3
I’m talking about young women who enter the industry need to be prepared
Sarah Phillips
of, about
Speaker 3
The history of what part women played 15, 20 years ago in the industry and it’s not a shock the
Sarah Phillips
guy that you don’t
Speaker 3
Yeah,
Sarah Phillips
it doesn’t bother them.
Speaker 3
Yes, it can’t, it can’t, we’re still, we’re still working against those stereotypes, but there are also benefits to being a definite benefits to being a female, particularly on the account management or sales side of things. So you have those guys that are much more reticent to talk to you, But I guarantee you once you prove your worth to them, they are 20 times more loyal
to you than they are to a male counterpart and that’s a horrible thing to say, but you have worked 20 times harder to prove yourself and they do realize that they eventually
Sarah Phillips
realized and they, you
Speaker 3
they then feel that you are like their granddaughter or their daughter and they would literally lay down and die for you. I mean that if you’re good at your job, those are the type of relationships you eventually get to. And I don’t know if all of our male counterparts get to that point. If I’m honest with
Sarah Phillips
you, people
Speaker 3
ask me, how are you so close to them? Well, I literally slogged my guts out until he was accepted and he saw worth in me. And you didn’t have to do that because he already assumed that you were worth. You were worth something when you walked out here. Oh
Sarah Phillips
yeah, that’s a really good point. Like you do have to preview but
Speaker 3
that’s okay. I’m okay with that. I kind of like it.
Sarah Phillips
Well, not only that, but you know ahead of time when those guys are like that to you, that they will eventually be one of your most closest
Speaker 3
friends.
Sarah Phillips
So Yeah.
Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Sarah Phillips
That’s happened to me. I mean even in my short ear, like I had people where at first I cried because I was I was getting acclimated to the whole, that’s
Speaker 3
why girls give up.
Sarah Phillips
Oh yeah, I cried and then I went home and then I had a fire burn under my ax and I was like, this guy is going to be my friend, you know and
Speaker 3
like I am good at my job. I am justifiable. You’re not
Sarah Phillips
going to stop me. Yeah. Just because I’m a female. Yeah. But I also understand it. Like you said, like to see how much I completely identify with a lot of the things that you’re saying. You
Speaker 3
know?
Sarah Phillips
Um, so we’re about done here. Is there anything else you would like to share?
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Sarah Phillips
I love this. Yeah. It was a really good interview. I think my first one.
Speaker 3
Thank
Sarah Phillips
you. I really
Jennifer Morris McIntyre
enjoyed it. … Send me a heart making me never
…
Jennifer Morris McIntyre
that to be
Speaker 3
You could do …
Jennifer Morris McIntyre
giving me a hard give me now.
Since this interview with The Crude Life, the two women started a promotions company, podcast and radio show. For more information, explore the image below.
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Great American Mining monetizes wasted, stranded and undervalued gas throughout the oil and gas industry by using it as a power generation source for bitcoin mining. We bring the market and our expertise to the molecule. Our solutions make producers more efficient and profitable while helping to reduce flaring and venting throughout the oil and gas value chain.
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