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Highlights of the Podcast

THE CRUDE TRUTH Ep. 61 Brian Stubbs, CEO of Air Compressor Solutions. Sharing Entrepreneurial Tips

Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.

Rey Treviño [00:00:00] Any entrepreneur will figure out the solutions to a problem to continue to grow. We talked to a sponsor of The Crude Truth to get more on this episode of The Crude Truth.

Rey Treviño [00:00:54] Nape is a proud sponsor of the Crude Truth. Be sure to register for the Nape Expo 2020 for February 7th through the ninth at the George R Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. Hurry and register today. Nape where deals happen.

Rey Treviño [00:01:43] Well good morning. Good evening. Good afternoon. Whatever time of the day or night it is. Thank you, as always, for tuning in to another episode of The Crude Truth. I just want to take a moment to tell everybody that, you know, to please, like, subscribe and send any questions that you may have about any of the episodes or, uh, and we can definitely be sure to fill out, you know, whatever answer and get you questions back to you as I mumble all these words here this morning. Uh, the reason why I’m mumbling, I think, is because I’m just overly excited once again, uh, to have on just such a great guest. And not only are there guests, but as I mentioned in the teaser, there are also a sponsor of The Crude Truth. They have been here, uh, since I first started this show almost two years ago. Now, uh, my guest today is the president and CEO of Air Compressor Solutions, Brian Stubbs. Brian, how Are you ?.

Brian Stubbs [00:02:33] Doing great. Thanks for having me on. Very fun.

Rey Treviño [00:02:35]  Well, thank you. Thank you for making the trip up to Dallas and, uh, coming to the show. And, Brian, you know, I talk to you often, and I always say it, but thank you so much for being a sponsor of the crude Truth and being a mentor. You, uh, you know, I come to you, I talk to you about things, and, uh, so, so thank you so much for all that you’ve been able to do

Brian Stubbs [00:02:55] Entrepreneurship.  All about is helping others, right?

Rey Treviño [00:02:56] That is a whole point to know. It is. And I think we’re we’re slowly getting back to that where people are helping others out. I know, um, in my father’s generation, especially in the oil game, it was, you know, you keep everything close and like, you don’t tell anybody what you’re doing. Don’t tell, uh, you know, now there’s some trade secrets that you don’t want to share all the time. And and I think we had that meeting in the, in the pre-production. I said, hey, because, you know, I you to come on to talk about, um, being an entrepreneur today. Uh, but, you know, and I say, I don’t want you to give away all the secrets, but but, you know, you’ve been able to do some great things. And the greatest thing I think you’ve done is be a sponsor of The Crude Truth. Since the since the inception of the idea.

Brian Stubbs [00:03:34] Thank you. We think so, too.

Rey Treviño [00:03:36] And, you know, uh, I had a chance that we got to me. Uh, well, not me, but, uh, visit there at the Permian Basin International Oil Show. And, uh, so if anybody, you know, for all those out there that listen to that, of course, you know, you said yes before I even finished with the concept. So, uh, are would telling you the concept of the crude truth. So thank you. Thank you so much.

Brian Stubbs [00:03:54] No problem. It’s been a lot of fun, how long has it been? It’s been. Two years

Rey Treviño [00:03:56] Two years. And then I’ve known you now I think for for.

Brian Stubbs [00:03:59] I think that’s what we said.

Rey Treviño [00:04:00] Yes. Yeah. And, uh, I mean. Oh, it’s been a blast. It’s been a blast. And again, you know, I know you. You’ll meet me for a cup of coffee there in Midland, whether it’s 630 in the morning or 10:00 in the morning or even in the evening time, it’s like, hey, let’s get together whenever I’m in town. So I cannot thank you enough. Uh, but to start off, you know, air Compressor solutions, you guys are a one stop shop for.

Brian Stubbs [00:04:23] So we do, uh, pretty much our main business in Odessa, at least, is Ingersoll Rand Air compressors. So, um, honestly, it’s it’s been a great ride just because we’re switching to air compressors to get rid of emissions and releasing natural gas at first, mostly batteries, but also tanks and wells and, uh, through the whole stream now. um, so we provide a lot of air compressors for the oil field in Odessa. Uh, but we also do use on generators and a couple other brands. Um, so any kind of generator that you might need, or portable air compressor or diesel driven, uh, air compressor, we can do um, and some other small equipment like in your screen tools and things like that. So wide product line. Lots of these stuff

Rey Treviño [00:05:00] It’s a huge product line. You know, uh, for guys out there that may have a, like, be like, hey, you know, what is what is one problem that that you’re helping solve out there for these oil and gas companies and like, hey, I’ve got an issue, you know, can you can you give us an example?

Brian Stubbs [00:05:13] Uh, so it’s actually, um, the, the main one that we do is again, um, oil companies trying to be more green and more environmentally friendly. And so were they. One of the big learnings they had was, hey, we release a lot of natural gas into the atmosphere just through our production and then using natural gas to actuate the valves, especially at batteries. Um, again, it it’s a little poof each time, but you have 100 valves in 100 locations. It’s it can add up pretty quickly. So for the best, about 6 or 7 years we’ve been out replacing the use of natural gas as a, um, um, power source at batteries and switching that to clean air. And, uh, it’s actually been a really neat journey because that was the main reason of and now we’re seeing a lot of benefits to using air. It’s cleaner, it’s easier to maintain. You don’t get stuff in your lines. Uh, you don’t, you know, we put dryers on it so you don’t have to worry about water and other things when it gets cold. So it actually has increased uptime at batteries, um, which was kind of a secondary effect. But now that we’re learning and working with some of our customers, we’re really learning. It’s good for the environment, but it’s also really good for uptime, it’s really good for production, and there’s a lot of neat things that those locations.

Rey Treviño [00:06:19] Well, you know, you mentioned, like even when it gets cold, you know, that, you know, if we all remember a few years ago when who um, basically everything froze up. Yeah. So it can help with that as well and keep things running, so to speak. At least on that in.

Brian Stubbs [00:06:31] Yeah. So really, you know, we, we compress the air and then we put it through what’s called a dryer. So it takes all the water out. And then, you know, you pretty much have pure air in your system. So once you get all that water out then you don’t really have to worry about, uh, freezing. I think most of the dew points are set at -40, which I hope we never get in Texas. We’ll see what the weather does this winter. Um, but we’ll see what happens. So. Yeah. So I mean, you’re pretty much water free. Um, and again, you don’t have the kind of the oils and the carryover stuff that you have a natural gas in there. Anyways, I can kind of clock stuff up. So it’s a lot cleaner product, a lot easier to work with. Um, safety issues go way down. You don’t have to worry about breaking the line open in something happening.Um, so it’s it’s a much cleaner, easier system. Um, once we figured it out, and again, a lot of our customers helped us figure that out. And it’s been a great partnership since then,

Rey Treviño [00:07:15] Man. You know, if when you get somebody that when y’all do, you and your team, y’all come out and let’s say y’all are, you know, what is that process that that takes place when you guys are swapping out from a natural gas power to a unit to, to the air compressor. Is it a pretty big project or pretty simple?

Brian Stubbs [00:07:29] Um, actually it’s it’s fairly simple. We have one customer now that that does one location a day, um, retrofits. Um, it’s been a really neat process to learn and watch. So, um, you know, they, they pretty much do the piping up to what we call our skid. So we, uh, now can skid these products. So we put, uh, an air compressor along with a dryer with, uh, with long with a tank, um, and put that all in one skid. So literally, the customer just has to cook up electricity to one side and air on the other, and then they’re ready to go. Yeah, but downstream, you do have to change some of your valves out. Um, they have a different membrane and a different filter on those air valves if they’re natural gas or air. Um, but, you know, those crews are getting faster and better at that every day. They can I think, uh, our customers said they can do about 75 a day. Oh, wow. Swapping out valves so they can set an air compressor or run the electricity, plug it in and then switch over everything into at the battery, um, and do about one a day. And we have 2 or 3 customers doing that right now. And it’s super interesting to watch. And, um, the production group usually doesn’t even skip a beat. So that’s that one important one. The oil business is all about putting product on the pipeline. Right. So, that’s pretty amazing. They might be down for for a 4 to 6 hours and that’s it.

Rey Treviño [00:08:36] Well you know that was actually it being being a producer myself that was going to be my next question was, you know, how are y’all doing with the uh, the production. Like, are y’all stopping it or not? But if y’all actually just continue to move and keep it going, that helps out tremendously.  Uh, because, you know, whether it’s four hours or 24, um. No production doesn’t help.

Brian Stubbs [00:08:56] Yes, if you can’t get that time back. Because what I was talking about, though, I don’t think you can get back to the time you lose when you’re out producing.

Rey Treviño [00:09:02] Yes, exactly. And then, you know, you know, we may consider it money in the bank, but having our oil in the tanks. But hey, we also need to get it sold every day and down the line. Um, you know, with, with what you guys have been up to there to air compressor solutions. I wanted the reason why I asked you to come back on, uh, is that as we’re, you know, getting into 2024 now, what you’ve been able to do there over the last four years is just you’ve expanded, I think, what to three or four times the size that you were for.

Brian Stubbs [00:09:34] In, in our fifth location right Now.

Rey Treviño [00:09:36] Yes.

Brian Stubbs [00:09:36] So, yes.

Rey Treviño [00:09:37] And uh, you were at, I think, one right before Covid and then you started opening places up during Covid. And so you haven’t you haven’t missed a beat.

Brian Stubbs [00:09:49] Um, we we took a stumble. I think we stuttered our step a little bit. But, you know, I think everybody did that in Covid. We definitely had to take a step back and scratch our heads and say, hey, how are we going to tackle this problem? Uh, because this problem nobody had ever seen before, and there definitely wasn’t a book to read or somebody to go, I can call you up and say, hey, Ray, what are you doing?

Rey Treviño [00:10:06] Yeah.

Brian Stubbs [00:10:07] Um, because no one knew. Um, so it was definitely. Yeah. We had to take a step back and pretty much change our business model and change our business plan. Uh, I tell everybody, you know, as a service company in Odessa, Texas, I can’t believe we got everybody able to work outside of the building that we live in.

Rey Treviño [00:10:22] Yeah, right.

Brian Stubbs [00:10:22] So everybody always showed up to our office every morning. Everybody showed up. Uh, we had people to work in remote. We had technicians that were. We are, you know, delivering parts to where they were so they didn’t have to come to the building and interact with more people into, you know, just our entire business plan was turned upside down. But that’s what it took to keep going and keep producing and keep, you know, some customer problems.

Rey Treviño [00:10:44] Well but.

Brian Stubbs [00:10:44] Along the way.

Rey Treviño [00:10:45] But you also opened able to open up another location like in 2020. That was you’re not El Paso.

Brian Stubbs [00:10:51] Yep.

Rey Treviño [00:10:51] El Paso not Amarillo right.

Brian Stubbs [00:10:53]  So Amarillo was first we opened it up in 2018 that time. And then we opened up El Paso in 2020 and Albuquerque in 2021.

Rey Treviño [00:11:00] Right. And I mean, so you were able to continue to do those things. So so first of all, you know, you said the first step was take a step back, obviously, and see what’s going on. And, you know, by taking that step back, you almost it looks like, hey, man, we just we didn’t stop. I was like, hey, we just have to stop, see what’s going on and reassess. So as, as you were opening up Albuquerque in 2021, is that correct?

Brian Stubbs [00:11:26] Yeah, I agree with the third.

Rey Treviño [00:11:27] Yes, yes. What was it that you were doing differently between, um, like, let’s skip El Paso for a second because that was straight up Covid. Yeah. Um, but in 2018, when you open up Amarillo, what was definitely noticeably different and opening up between Amarillo and 18 and opening up the, um, uh, Albuquerque in 2021.

Brian Stubbs [00:11:48] Yeah, it was just a lot more kind of things you had to do. Um, real estate was still a little weird. Uh, we it took us a long time to figure out if we wanted to buy real estate or rent it there in Albuquerque, just because the market was really strange in 2021. Um, interest rates were really low, but there was no inventory. So what do you do? Um, so we ended up renting, um, again, we didn’t know where we wanted to be. Um, if you think back then, that’s when everybody was saying commercial real estate’s dead. Yeah. No, everybody’s going to work from home. So we didn’t want to invest in commercial real estate. Turns out we should have. Um, but, yeah, those are the mistakes you make. Um, but like I said, I remember we spent months trying to find a place to rent. Um, and then again, banks were pretty open at that point. We were telling them, hey, this going to take us six months to get this up and open, you know, middle of 2021, we hope the economy’s back. Well, we’re over this. Um, and we kind of laid out the plan to them, you know, hey, if in six months, awesome. If it’s a year and a half, we can still do it. Um, and it was just a lot of kind of hoops to jump through that you didn’t really have to before. Um, again, interviewing in a future employees, it was kind of still a pain. And, you know, December. Um, yeah. 2020. Um, it was still a pain to get people in and have a face to face interview with them. And, you know, a lot of people said, you know, I like to take, uh, candidates to dinner or lunch and just get to know them and get to know us. Um, and a lot of people said, no, no, I don’t want to go to lunch in public. Oh, okay. Well, I guess we’ll do a zoom interview, which, you know, again, I like to talk to people and shake hands.Um, yeah, but we had a couple candidates say, no, I don’t want to go to lunch. Okay. So, you know, working through that, how do you feel comfortable with a new employee that you’ve never met?  Um, it’s just kind of a weird, um, um, situation where you have to work through these little things that you didn’t ever think were a big deal. And all for them. They’re gigantic deals.

Rey Treviño [00:13:35] Well, you know, you mentioned the banks and, uh, and how they were actually being open, you know, was it a big bank or was it like a small, small bank?

Brian Stubbs [00:13:43] Um, at the time, we were at a local bank. Um, and again, they were they were in, in Midland, um, and they, you know, knew more about the oil field than I did, than I did. Anyways. Um, and. They are starting to see things turn around, starting to see a little bit of traction in the markets. Um, oil prices were starting to come back up by then. Um, and so it literally was, you know, if you went to them with a plan, uh, and I would say especially back then, and I think it’s even still true today, show that history. Hey, we made it through the bad part. We made it through 2020. Uh, we made it through negative oil. We made it through eight months of, you know, no growth. We made it through this. We did that, um, and, and opened a branch, which helped actually a lot. Um, yeah. When we went to the bank, said, hey, we’ve done this. Um, but yeah, it was really interesting to go talk to the banks. And, and they definitely were kind of telling us they’ve got two types of customers, the ones that are still trying to figure it out, the ones that you know they’re not sure about, they don’t have confidence in, and the ones that came to us with a plan, with an idea and then told us what they did the last eight months to get through 2020.

Rey Treviño [00:14:43] So basically you showed them the good and the bad. Even though the bad people shouldn’t be afraid because like, we’re you know, I’m using for my listen for our listeners, I’m using the bad, uh, because everybody, you know, everybody was in the same boat in some form or fashion, but but you just showed up saying, hey, here’s my plan, being a leader and this is what we’re going to do. And the bank was able to at least go, oh, okay, you you’re not afraid here. And this is what you got and this is what you did pre-COVID. And then this is what you did during Covid and oh, I’m still here.

Brian Stubbs [00:15:16] Yes. And it took a lot of kind of kind of weird convincing on our side, I think. And and again, other people that we’re going to the banks, we’re doing it the same time we didn’t do anything special but convincing the banks they should look at your 2020 financials.  It was really hard because they’re like, oh, you know, any other time, hey, we had, you know, a little bit of downturn. We had, you know, 20% dip in revenue. Yeah. We everybody did. Um, our customers were at home like yeah. Um, and so trying to walk them through that process of this is what 2020 really meant. Yes. We took a decrease. We revenue was down, you know, all of this stuff. But it not as bad as people made it look. And especially if you started digging through the numbers and explaining those to the bank, which took a lot because there weren’t a lot of people asking to grow at that point in time.Um, it took a lot to convince them, hey, 2020 is not really who we are as a company. That’s not who we what we do long term.  Um, it is a blip out of our control, but we recovered and we managed through it. That should tell you a whole lot more. Make that a positive.

Rey Treviño [00:16:16] Well, you know, um, knowing what you know, now, I want to switch gears to your 2020 opening of El Paso. You know, would you do that again? Would you open up a branch doing something like who I go with Again,?

Brian Stubbs [00:16:29]  I tell people that was one of the hardest, dumbest things I think I’ve ever done. I don’t I don’t know what we were thinking. We we made a plan. We made a schedule we had done. We pretty much copied what we did in Amarillo. We thought it would be pretty easy just to say, you know, it’s both in Texas. It’s, you know, both this, both that. It’s we can just cookie cutter it too. But, um, El Paso especially was going through times where they were shutting down the city because of Covid was spiking and they were having, you know, more and more cases and deaths and things like that. So it was pretty serious in El Paso, especially compared to Midland Odessa area. Okay. So yeah, they they would shut down the city.

Rey Treviño [00:17:03] Um, so let’s turn to time context because God 2020 something like it was like a long year.

Brian Stubbs [00:17:09] It was a lifetime ago.

Rey Treviño [00:17:09] I know what it was like a lifetime ago. I mean, here it is. Only, you know, three years ago, almost oh, almost four now. But, you know, you figure we shut down, uh, in Midland, uh, and, you know, spring break in 2020. So when did the plan to open? Like, when was like El Paso, like, hey, we’re going to do El Paso. When did that happen? So way before 2020, you know.

Brian Stubbs [00:17:30] Um, it did. So, uh, we’re at a dealer for Ingersoll Rand, you know, so they kind of kind of have territories that we can that we are, you know, solely responsible for taking the customers in that geographical area. So what had happened is they were we are working through moving into all of New Mexico in far west Texas, El Paso area, uh, pretty much at the end of 2019. Um, that kind of got put on hold for about three months. And then all of a sudden it was like, hey, we’re ready to move forward. So we had to react fairly quickly as a company. So we kind of made a business plan. We had to schedule. We kind of put it on the shelf for about three months until they came back and said, hey, we’re ready to move forward. Um, I think we kind of finally decided find all the paperwork and attorneys did all their stuff, um, in June. And then it was kind of off to the races. Hey, let’s go figure this out. We have a plan. Um, but again, it definitely was everything that worked in that old branch in Amarillo three, two years ago. The before just wasn’t working. Um, so, you know, looking at I bring up real estate, it’s just kind of funny. We just could look at buildings. we had a real estate agent there in El Paso, and he was, you know, researching and stuff, but a lot of the owners wouldn’t let us in a building, especially if there was a spike in cases of Covid. Yeah. Like, I’m sorry we’re closed down. Um, and so it was really hard just to see stuff, um, you know, going into a new city. We wanted to meet with the city and, uh, Spanish Chamber of Commerce, and they’ve got a great organization called the Border Plex, which is an economic development group. That does El Paso, Las Cruces and what is, um, we wanted to meet with them, but, you know, you just can’t do face to face conversation. so a lot of zoom calls. That again, just felt weird at the time. And, you know, all these people I’ve known for four years and I haven’t shook their hands yet. And that’s just kind of strange coming from the oil business. We should.

Rey Treviño [00:19:09]  Gainesville. Yeah.

Brian Stubbs [00:19:12] There was a lot of that kind of thing that. How do you do this? Um, I remember we found a building we liked. Um, and it had kind of kind of some problems in trying to find a contractor that would come look at it, and an architect could look at, you know, your normal steps.  And so that Bill kind of died just because we couldn’t get people to do what we needed them to do and, and get into that building. So we found a great location that actually I like our new location better than that one. Right. So it worked out in the end. But just finding those resources and finding people to do what are kind of the mundane part of opening a branch were just really difficult, right?

Rey Treviño [00:19:44] Like you. So basically, uh, you know, it’s like, hey, man, all the stuff that we take for granted. Yeah, it was really hard. And now, you know, here we are. Like I said, going into 2024 and you’re now looking at expanding into Carlsbad.

Brian Stubbs [00:19:55] Yes. Right. Yes.

Rey Treviño [00:19:56] And I mean, so you’re literally taking West Texas and hopefully just take over New Mexico. I mean, I think we need a whole lot more of you probably in New Mexico

Brian Stubbs [00:20:06] Find customers. It all starts with customers.

Rey Treviño [00:20:07] So but what is it that you that you’re finding that it’s like, okay, uh, you did 2020, you did 2021. Now it’s like, what is it that like I feel like I mean, you just basically take out the blueprint now, take it to the bank and go, here you go.

Brian Stubbs [00:20:22] Yep. Um, again, we do kind of kind of weird things at ACS. Um, so we, we actually have switch banks. Um, honestly, we had a great relationship with our bank there in Midland. Uh, but we had to just out grew up to, again, things that you don’t think about when you’re growing, um, especially kind of large growth or, you know, multiple growth, um, you don’t think about outgrowing your bank. Um, but they were we’re kind of getting to the point where, you know, we don’t need to we don’t do that as a company anymore. So found a found a bank out of Houston. Uh, great bank with us. Um, and so once we got all that figured out again, we had to teach them what we do, how we do it. Brought them a plan, brought them, you know, some history and said, hey, we’ve done this three times, four times now. Um, so actually, on the same day we bought a, uh, company or a building in Carlsbad, you bought an office building across the street there in Odessa, and a vacant lot next to that, that we’re all for sale. So, um, I think we had some kind of pent up demand to grow. Um, and again, working with the bank and working with a real estate agent, trying to figure out what that looks like. Um, so the branch in Carlsbad should open up in February. Um, moving into that, um, again, that’s an awesome community to open a business in. I can’t talk highly enough. They really open you with open arms. They’re a new company. Here you go. Um, honestly, as soon as we bought the building, um, everybody just came out and said, hey, you’re here. You’re part of the community now. How can we help you out? And it’s been a just an awesome, um, um, experience getting to know them. Um, so we’re working through that, and it’s just an amazing process now that people are excited to have people move in, excited for growth, um, and excited for new ideas to come into their community.

Rey Treviño [00:21:58] And, you know, uh, I think that’s awesome. And I think a lot of people are looking for that right now. It’s like, you know, uh, are just they’re excited about the new, uh, it’s almost like, you know, way people’s eyes are now being not, not opened or enlightened or anything, you know, but just people’s eyes are open. All of the possibilities, again, of all the great things that they can do and that we can do as a nation. And, and I really hope we can continue to, you know, to do that, especially with us in the oil and gas industry, you know, off air, we were talking about all these big mergers and things like that going on. And it’s like, you know, I’m excited for them. I mean, you know, uh, being a small operator, hey, you know, to be at the side of the Exxon one day, that’s a dream out there that, you know, I would I would say, you know, if you put on a light on a, like on a, on a vision board, just can only imagine, uh, hell, heck, uh, just being like a pioneer. Yep. You don’t want the same thing, you know? Uh, so you’re seeing all this growth out there, and then all this production in the oil and gas industry right now. Uh, you know, where do you think you know, I know we kind of talk about a little bit, you know, what are you hearing on the ground right now about where we think, you know, oil’s headed here as we go into 2024?

Brian Stubbs [00:23:08] Yeah, like I said that, I think it’s kind of weird. I think there’s always a wide band, uh, projections. And depending on who’s on the news that morning or what’s going on in the world, that band kind of moves. And I think what what we’ve seen is I feel like everyone, especially the big operators, have really, um, flattened their growth curve. So they don’t want the booms and busts anymore. And that’s kind of what we talked about all the time. They want, you know, good, steady growth every year. And um, I think a lot of them, again, a lot of due diligence on their part have made it where they can keep producing at a constant level, no matter what gas or gas and oil prices are. Yeah. And that’s pretty amazing, especially just from ten, 15 years ago, that that’s not how the world works. And so once you kind of have that foundation, then it’s those conversations changed very quickly. We want, you know, vendors and partners that can build with us. And, um, so that’s really been our model, uh, the past few three years as build with them. And so through that conversations, you know, they’re talking about I don’t think very many people and I don’t know who they are in Midland, Odessa. They think oil is going to get below Stephanie in the next 12 months. So I think that’s a pretty, um, um, safe number for everybody. I think everybody’s happy at 70. Um, and then it kind of only up from there. And, um, I think we’ve talked about this before, but I have stopped watching national news because it kind of just doesn’t apply to the oil and gas business anymore.

Rey Treviño [00:24:28] It does.

Brian Stubbs [00:24:29] Uh, no talking about recessions and shrinkage and all this kind of stuff, but oil or gas just keep, you know, 10%, 20% growth every year. And it is what it is though.

Rey Treviño [00:24:39] And, you know, you talk about how it doesn’t affect it. It’s crazy. You know, here, uh, another thing we’re talking about off air is that while we’re recording, you know, at the time of recording, you know, Israel is at war. I mean, well, let me say like this, the Middle East is civil war, and prices are still a little below $80 again at the time of recording this. So, you know, everything’s out the window. And, uh, but that $70, you know, I’ve told people for 2 or 3 years now that that 70, 65 to 75 is the perfect number where oil and gas companies make money and the economy can thrive. Yes. So we’ll see where it goes for sure. I know I’ve been on my show and other shows, uh, earlier this year and probably up until even August, saying we were going to average $100. Well, this year. Well, we’ll see if we even hit 100. Yes. You know, by the end of 2023, um, you know, uh, you also mentioned you working with your vendors and you’ve got one of your great vendors do song who’s getting ready to, uh, do some exciting things and let’s talk about new song a little bit and then also all the great things that they’re up to. Yeah.

Brian Stubbs [00:25:38] So this one’s a really interesting company. I tell everybody they’re kind of the General Electric of the, of the East. So they’re a very large company and they do a lot of neat things all around the world. Um, but inside the United States, they’ve actually done a really good job and kind of Americanized their products in their business practices. So most of their work is done either in Fargo, North Dakota, or in, um, um, North Carolina. Okay. So they’re US based. They do a lot of really good stuff. I think they make a really high quality product. Um, we’re we’re, um, involved with them now is they make portable air compressors and portable generators. So, um, in the oil and gas business, they’re great backups is if a location goes down for whatever reason, we can pull a backup air compressor out there for a diesel fuel and they can run, um, also for obviously, construction. You see them at every bridge and construction site out there. So there’s a lot of need for those portable power, uh, and portable air compressors and generators and do something I think makes a really good oil field ready product in there. Not all oil field radio. You know, having a a trailer lift through at least road is is an amazing event sometimes. Yeah. So uh, they do a really good job with that. So but do so and actually owns the bobcat small equipment brand. And they actually have a Doosan large equipment brand and forklifts. And so they’re actually combining all of those, um, equip all that equipment in those market segments into the bobcat brand. So we’re really excited that we we see that as a really big growth opportunity for ASCs. We get to now bring in a new brand to our, our, um, portfolio. We get to brand that, we get to market it. And, uh, that’s going to be a great thing to have kind of a common brand. So

Rey Treviño [00:27:17] That’s awesome. That is very exciting. I mean, uh, you know, everybody knows bobcat and I think, I think called the quality up. I think people that know they know Doosan, you know, like, yeah.

Brian Stubbs [00:27:28] yeah. It’s it’s a, it’s a niche market. But everybody knows who it is.

Rey Treviño [00:27:31] But they know who it is. And it’s like okay. Yeah. Let me go get the dude. I know it’s not like you’re saying about now that they have the field road equipment, but even before that, it was like, I know that’s not going to let me down, you know, like, come on, you know, I don’t want to I’m not going to compare them to any other type of tools or anything, you know, because I don’t know people. I just know that they that’s that’s a great company. Uh, and a good brand. Um, one thing before ball park, before we part ways is like here, we’re going into 2024. Um, for any, any of our listeners or viewers out there that are looking to expand, maybe just into maybe adding one more store, you know, what is some tips, uh, because you mentioned the banking and that you never even thought about that also was like, you know, there’s so many small things that we can’t take for granted or that we can’t overlook anymore. You know, what’s 1 or 2 things that that you would, you know, if somebody said, hey, man, I’m thinking about expanding in 2024. What do you say to.

Brian Stubbs [00:28:26] So I think, uh, one of the things that I wish somebody would have told me when I bought this and started being a real entrepreneur is is entrepreneurship is really about your support system, and you’re only as good as your support system. Um, so banks are a big part of that, especially in the capital intensive industry like oil and gas. You you got to have a good relationship with a bank. Um, but it actually comes you got to have good employees. And, uh, we have a great leadership team now at ACS. Um, they’re doing amazing things every day, uh, probably even today. And I’m not even there. So there’s. They can do without me, too, which is a very big benefit of a great team. But they’re they’re solving hard problems every day and having a good team involved. Um, and I think a lot of operators don’t spend enough time thinking about the team and how you’re going to do it, but getting those right people in place where you don’t have to do that for them or manage them every day or every problem, um, is really how you grow. And that’s, that’s very important. Um, the other one I would say is, um, again, we’re kind of going on this, um, at full speed sometimes this road of growth, um, is the, uh, the leader myself. I’ve learned I need to get out and think about the business a lot more than a lot of entrepreneurs do. Uh, I still go out in the field. I still help customers go to customers meetings. Um, but. But that one day a week, I need to get in the office just to work on the business and really think about what our growth is. What what I see. Um, it’s great talking to customers and people like you to get data and information in, but at some point time, you got to just sit down and start working through what’s that long term plan to your plan for your plan? I mean, really spend time thinking about that. I think a lot of entrepreneurs, we put our head down, we go solve problems, we grow, we we do what we need to do. But really spending time to think about what you want to do in, you know, two, five years, um, is really important.

Rey Treviño [00:30:05] Yes, I like that one. And for anybody out there that is looking for some air compressor solution.  uh, you know, how can they reach you guys?

Brian Stubbs [00:30:13] Um, so we’re super simple. We’ve got locations in, uh, Odessa, Amarillo, Albuquerque, El paso, and soon Carlsbad. Uh, so we’re easy to find on the internet. Our website is, uh, WWW dot ACSIR dot com. Um, but we’re on Facebook and LinkedIn and all that kind of stuff too, and see stuff from us all the time. And you’re always like, I can always go to your stuff. You just click on us cause we’re always on those which we greatly appreciate.

Rey Treviño [00:30:36] Well, I agree, I, I tremendously have enjoyed, uh, uh, you know, this is just, you know, for all the listeners out there, I’m just I just want to say thank you. Thank you for everything and the mentorship that you, you’ve, you brought to the table. And I hope everybody out there has had a great chance to listen to why it is that that, you know, I come to you, I go, hey, band up. You know, here’s what I’m working on. What do you think? And you’re like, well, let me tell you. And, uh, you’re doing it wrong RT, No I’m joking I’m joking.

Brian Stubbs [00:31:00] I don’t know if I’ve ever said those words.

Rey Treviño [00:31:02] Yeah, you have not. But no, Brian, I cannot thank you enough. And, uh, thank you so much for coming to Dallas. Uh, to to studios here. And this is this is what it’s about.

Brian Stubbs [00:31:10] This is awesome.

Rey Treviño [00:31:11] Oh, good. Well, thank you so much. And again, to all the answers out there, please check out Air Compressor Solutions. Uh, one of the great sponsors of the Crude Truth. Uh, please like and subscribe and, uh, please be ready for another episode here as we go into 2024. Thank you as always, and we’ll see you on another episode of The Crude Truth.

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