As one of the founders of the first equity crowdfunding site for oil and gas, Philip Racusin knows a thing or two about the types of investments that are in the oil and gas market.
He also rivals me in his tech-geekery.
He reads the information technology news site TechCrunch on a daily basis, and is a hustler homie! In this interview, we discuss why he believes he’s about to have some dirt on his shoulder that you might want to brush if off for me.
Full Disclosure: EnergyFunders is a client of Tribe Rocket, LLC.
However, I’ve been fired up about the idea since I first heard the pitch back in January. With the runaway success of the crowdfunding website Kickstarter (my brother started his restaurant business using the site!), it only made sense to me that someone finally thought to do it in oil and gas.
It’s one of those, “Why didn’t I think of that?” ideas. Then again, I’m not 3 entrepreneurs who also happen to be attorneys, and could form like Voltron to successfully maneuver their way through the endless jungle of SEC regulations.
If you’re new to crowdfunding, welcome to the club! It’s cutting edge for any industry, and is dancing on the outer perimeters of the bleeding edge in oil and gas. But, while I’m no expert on oil and gas law or even kickstarting a Kickstarter company, I know one thing; competition is an overwhelmingly good force in the market.
From where I sit, driving up the number of available deals by creating a platform that can fill the gap under $10,000,000 and $25,000 to $50,000 buy-ins can only be a good thing. That’s not a PR message on behalf of a client, that’s just good common sense capitalism.
We explore all types of investments, touch on the great crew change, and wrap with a fascinating conversation on the nature of disrupting a marketplace in light the ruckus EnergyFunders is bound to bring to the market.
Enjoy!
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In other words, find what works for YOU and YOUR audience. Ideate, plan, execute, test, measure, repeat.
I did that with this podcast, and we’ve already got 3 fantastic interviews almost ready to go thanks to the new insights we gained from vigilantly searching for and embracing change. Constant improvement can’t happen any other way.
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#014: Types of Investments: Why Crowdfunding is the Future of Oil and Gas with Philip Racusin of Energy Funders

James Hahn II, Founder of oil and gas digital marketing consultancy Tribe Rocket, interviews leading marketers, entrepreneurs, executives, and thought leaders from throughout the upstream oil and gas industry. Discover the history and significance of the US Shale Revolution as guests share their thoughts on what is happening in the biggest shale oil and gas plays in the country. Find out what leading experts say about the future of the Eagle Ford, Bakken, Barnett, Marcellus, Utica, Niobrara, Mississippi Lime, Tuscaloosa Marine, and Cline Shale plays. See what sets companies like Marathon Oil and EOG Natural Resources apart from average companies in the oilpatch. And get practical tips on how to master blogging, email marketing, rapid email list growth, website optimization, lead generation, keyword optimization, search engine optimization, content marketing, social media marketing, and paid search advertising. Finally, hear from top marketers from small independent oil and gas producer

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And here we see the oil and gas marketing plan of a first mover.
Don’t you hate when you can’t find out how much something costs on a company’s website? Your customers don’t like it either. As you can imagine, this is not a good look for your oil and gas marketing plan.
Let’s discuss.

Oil and Gas Marketing Plan Transcript
Let’s talk about your oil and gas marketing plan and why transparency in pricing is the future.
I saw a fantastic video by Colin McClellan this week on LinkedIn. He talked about how the old-school mentality in oil and gas has to die. I could not agree more!
The old-school mentality he was speaking of was around a video he created talking about how guys can use LinkedIn to make videos, start to build a resume, attract an audience, and get jobs online. He was shocked to find so many people comment negatively on the video saying “Well, that’s just now how it’s done” or “That’s not how I do things”.
I appreciate his frustration in the video because I’ve been fighting this mentality tooth and nail for over six years in this industry. Transparency in pricing is another of these old-school mentality things I would like to see die immediately.
What do I mean?
How Much Does It Cost Already?!
When you go to a company’s website you want to buy from, what’s the most frustrating thing for you? If you’re like most people, the most frustrating thing is trying to figure out how much it costs to work with them.
You’re left wondering, “How much does this cost? Do I have the budget for this? I have no idea … Is this a premium service? Is it an entry-level or commodity service? How much is this going to cost me?”
This leads to embarrassing thoughts like, “I don’t even know if I want to fill out a lead form. Because if I fill out this form and have their salespeople contact me, is it going to create an uncomfortable situation where I have to admit I don’t have the money for it?”
You see how we are only making our problems worse by not having pricing on our websites?
You should know up-front this is some bleeding edge, way far out there, waaaay down the far end of the adoption curve stuff if you come along with me on this journey. Because I only implemented this philosophy last month thanks to — whiteboard — PetroValues.
Transparent Oil and Gas Marketing Plan: PetroValues Steps Up
PetroValues, full disclosure, is a new client of ours. But I’m not making this video because of that. I’m making this video to genuinely thank them. I’ve been waiting for several years for someone to come along and be transparent about their pricing. Because what I’m asking you here about the frustration of not being able to find prices on websites is not a new idea.
I saw Marcus Sheridan, formerly The Sales Lion and now merged with Impact Branding, ask this question in a keynote all the way back in 2014. So I’m really just stealing Marcus’s material, which he thankfully lets me do.
And I have to thank PetroValues because they finally are the first company I’ve seen step up and be 100% transparent about the pricing of their products and services.
By the way, PetroValues does online valuations for your acreage. That’s a whole other game-changing thing, but to me the transparent pricing is the real game ...

Oil and Gas Marketing Plan: Why Transparent Pricing is the Future

No pain, no gain! Am I headed back to health coaching, or are am I gonna learn you some oilfield sales tactics?
When prospects reach out, they don’t tell you the whole story. Let’s look at the oilfield sales tactics you need to uncover their real problems, convert more leads, and close more sales.

Oilfield Sales Tactics Transcription
Let’s talk about oilfield sales tactics and what you can do to incorporate them into your marketing approach to convert more leads and close more sales.
No Pain, No Sale
Anyone who has gotten to know me over the past four years and our approach here at Tribe Rocket knows we are very big fans of Sandler selling and the Sandler Sales approach.
Sandler Rules! No pain, no sale!
What Sandler means by no pain, no sale is that if you don’t discover or uncover the real problem, the personal problem that your prospects are dealing with, you are not going to close a sale.
Even if you’re not in sales, you already understand this intuitively. Because you have more than likely sat down with amateur sellers who listen to you for about 30 seconds and then immediately start selling you. They’re not concerned with solving a problem so much as selling you something and getting you to sign on the line that is dotted.
As important as it is to get your customers to sign on the line that is dotted, you will not get there unless you get to the level of how it personally affects them.
And I keep pointing back here so let’s just walk through the three levels of pain real quick.
The Continuum of Pain
The three levels of pain, or as Mark Lacour would say, problem. I like the way Mark focuses on problem vs. pain because problem makes it a bit more concrete. Pain is a bit, I don’t know, esoteric.
But you have the surface, the business, and the personal.
The surface is very easy to understand because that is what people tell you when they call to look for services.
Back when I worked at Quicken loans they started by asking, “What is the interest rate? I need to know the interest rate.” Thankfully, Quicken taught us how to pivot around that question and dig into the real problem.
But we’re not selling mortgages in the oil field, so let’s take an oilfield sales tactics example from a seismic services company.
Earthshattering Oilfield Sales Tactics
Let’s say you sell seismic services out in the Permian Basin. A geologist gives you call and says, “I need to understand the subsurface rock we are drilling in this acreage we just acquired. There are some raster logs and other things, but I need a much better understanding.” All right, right now we understand, we got to his surface problem.
Even an amateur seller can stumble across the business problem. Some professionals think the business pain is where you stop. But the true professional knows you need to dig deeper. You need to understand how this affects them personally.
Let’s go back to our seismic company example. This geologist called you up and you understood he needed seismic services. Now you know that he has “X” dollars and needs the work done in 30 days.
Let’s Make Things Personal
One layer deeper we get to the personal pain or the personal problem.
How is this impacting this person personally? What are the stakes for him or her? What does he or she stand to gain or lose by not taking action and solving the problem?
That is the true core of personal pain and in uncovering the personal problem.
Going back to our seismic services example. Since we already know that he has “X” budget and needs it done in 30 days, we have to dig one layer deeper. If we do so,

Oilfield Sales Tactics: No Pain, No Sale – No Pain, No Leads

Whiteboards ain’t digital oilfield technology, James!
In tomorrow’s video, I’ll explain why I decided to highjack the keyword “digital oilfield technology”. Today, we use it to look at a rather unexpected and delightful turn of events from last week.
We uploaded the audio for each video to our old podcast feed thinking we’d get a few dozen downloads. Instead, we got a few hundred. Plus a couple hundred more and growing.
Here’s the story…

Digital Oilfield Technology Transcript
Let’s talk about digital oilfield technology.
To be very, blunt I’m hijacking a keyword. Because I’m not going to talk about digital oilfield technology as you think of it. But can you really be mad at me?
Because digital oilfield technology is the “Internet of Things”. Another term that’s come up recently is “Digital Transformation”. So none of these terms are really hard and fast yet. And when it comes to digital transformation and digital oilfield technology, I want to start getting thoughts around digital marketing into that mix.
I have a powerful case study to show you today.
Ever Heard of OGDMP?
Last week we looked at Oil and Gas This Week and how long it took Mark Lacour and me to build that audience. Of course, now Oil and Gas This Week is the number one oil and gas podcast in the world with, I think, over 400,000 listeners at this point.
As I mentioned last week, there’s now the Oil and Gas Industry Leaders Podcast with Paige Wilson and Patrick Pistor with the Oil and Gas HSE Podcast. They’re all on OGGN, the Oil and Gas Global Network. And there’s a reason “oil and gas” is at the front of all those titles, but you probably could guess that by now.
What a lot of people don’t know is that was not my first show. The first show we started when we started the company back in 2014 was the Oil and Gas Digital Marketing Podcast. It was quite a feat producing those shows because we had different segments. I was all fired up and sharing tips, and then interviewed people.
There are some really great interviews back in that feed.
But, we had not published an episode of Oil and Gas Digital Marketing Podcast — OGDMP — since April 21, 2015. When we started this daily video assault last week we said, “Hey, the show’s still in iTunes. Might as well export the video to audio and throw it in the podcast feed. Maybe we’ll get a handful or a dozen downloads.”
We were WAY off!
Over 4,100 Minutes And Counting
By now you know I got whiteboards, and let’s look at this here. So far in May, we’ve had 430 downloads. April, it was 113. And then before November 1, 2017, there almost 30,000 downloads.
Moving over to the downloads per day, the dots here represent one day. On April 30, which is when we published the first episode, boom! We got 100 downloads.
I was so busy with OTC and networking that I failed to publish the audio for the rest of the days, which is where this dip comes from. But then last Thursday night, I said, “Oh my goodness, 100 downloads! I better go publish the rest!

Digital Oilfield Technology: Will Prospects Listen to You Talk for 4,100 Minutes? – OGM6

Marketers need oil and gas sales training too!
If you want to convince your boss to go all-in online, you gotta show ’em the money! But once they’re all fired up, you gotta help them understand buckets of cash don’t happen right away.
Here’s how things unfolded with Oil & Gas This Week. As you’ll see, it was no overnight success story.

Oil and Gas Sales Training Transcript
“Timing, perseverance, and 10 years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.”
That’s a quote from Biz Stone. If you’re not familiar with Biz, he is the co-founder of a small social network you might’ve heard of called Twitter.
Actually, I am 9 years into my 10-year overnight success story. 2019 gonna be lit!
But, let’s talk about oil and gas sales training. Specifically, how to train your salespeople and, most importantly, the people at the top of the organization, the C-Suite.
How to train them on what to expect in playing the long game online. I should say, not only train them but how to sell them on executing and going all-in online so you can play the long game and develop relationships at scale.
Paying Your Dues
I used this metaphor in yesterday’s episode where we talked about how everyone in the industry understands you don’t expect to go to a networking event or expo and meet someone and make a sale on the spot. Or within a week.
Yes, you do run into some hot prospects here and there. But, anybody in the C-Suite in oil and gas worth their salt knows it takes time to cultivate a relationship and start to see returns and value from it. Typically, 6, 12, or 18 months. Here’s the cool thing, it takes about that long to build relationships and scale things online.
But notice the keyword I just said. Scale is the difference. Because online you’re able to you build relationships dozens, hundreds, and then eventually thousands at a time by consistently delivering content and executing properly.
The problem you’re going to have if you’re trying to convince your boss to go all-in online is they’re going to say, “Show me the money!”
And how do you show him the money?
Sales-Driven Marketing for the C-Suite
Well, you can look at yesterday’s video on LinkedIn or Facebook, or go to our website and look for “Oilfield SEO”. First, you have to learn how to do keyword research. This will give you data to show leadership.
You can say, “Okay, if we can go out there and take these keywords and rank at the top, we know we can add 1,000 website visitors a month to the site. That will translate into 200 leads. That will translate to 40 deals, and those 40 deals for us will be worth ‘X’.”
That’s the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and they need to be able to see that. But you have to set expectations that just like any other relationship, it takes time to build an audience and to build relationships at scale.
Relentless Consistency
This oil and gas sales training would not be complete without a realistic example of this. So, here’s my smaller whiteboard. Yes, my whiteboards got whiteboards, ladies and gentlemen!
This is Oil and Gas This Week downloads. Oh my goodness, let’s try to look at this. My lights are always flashing.
Okay, the number of downloads per episode; 1K, 2K, 3K, 4K, 5K, 6K. We started back in 2015, whatever month that was. And if you look at the way things went, our first month we got 10, 25, maybe 30 downloads an episode?

Oil and Gas Sales Training: Oil & Gas This Week Podcast Case Study

“Oh, goodness. I’m stuck like this. Oil events is the keyword… somebody help!”
Do you have any LinkedIn or Facebook “friends” you’ve never met? When you’ve eventually met one or two of them, did you feel like you’d known them for years? When you do it right online, your prospects and customers feel the same way.
Here’s how to scale your oil events networking strategy and connect with old friends you’ve never met.

Scaled Networking at Oil Events Transcript
When you attend oil events, your network is your net worth.
If you listened to any of a first roughly 90 episodes Oil and Gas This Week, you probably heard me say that about 180 times. Because we all know it’s true.
Your network is your net worth. It’s all about who you know!
And you can complain about that. Or you can work with the system and get out there and get to know some people, and help some people get to know you.
So, let’s talk about oil events and how to scale your oil events networking strategy.
Offline Networking at Oil Events
First of all, let’s talk about the standard networking event. Whether it’s American Petroleum Institute, API meeting, or OTC…
Which, happy OTC Thursday, I believe…
Let’s just say you have roughly an hour. And in that hour, you meet five new people. At that point, you have to go back to the office, open your email, and start to set up a call. Or set a lunch meeting or something like that.
And then at that lunch meeting, you are starting from fresh. You don’t know each other from Adam. You don’t know anything about each other. The only thing you know is there might be some sort of fit. Either with your personalities, a good business-friend connection. Or with your businesses, being able to send deals back and forth.
That’s all well and good, there’s nothing wrong with that. Keep on doing it. And scale your relationship building at the same time.
Outbound Networking
Again, I’m gonna sound like a broken record because I say this all the time, but the beauty of the Internet is that you don’t have to physically go somewhere to make a connection. But, that’s not the only good thing about the Internet in this regard.
Not only are you able to make those connections digitally, but also it’s not an outbound activity like you’re doing at oil events. At oil events, you’re going out not only physically, but you’re also reaching out. You’re setting up appointments and it’s that struggle to start a relationship and get to know somebody.
Any time that you go to these places, you know you are not going to close any deals on the spot. As an industry, we know how long it takes to build a relationship.
Here’s the cool thing. You can shortcut all of that with scaled relationship building. With digital content you produce.
Old Friends Who’ve Never Met
Just an example, I mentioned Oil and Gas This Week, those first 90 episodes. When I go to the North American Prospects Expo or OTC, a lot of other time my calendar is full of people reaching out to me because they say they know me. Or they feel like they know me, I should say.
I’m sure you have people like that in your life, your digital life. People who you’re connected with on LinkedIn and Facebook “friends” you’ve never met. These days we all have at least one or two, maybe even a handful of people we think we are very much close with, we see them as good friends of ours, but we’ve never met in person.
That’s the beauty of doing digital content.

#014: Types of Investments: Why Crowdfunding is the Future of Oil and Gas with Philip Racusin of Energy Funders

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