Cyber Resilience, AI Governance & the Future of Data Centers

[00:00:00] Josh Lowrey: Welcome to the Energy Pipeline Podcast. My name is Josh Lowery. We are coming to you live from the Upright Digital Media studio at Prange and Associates office in Houston, Texas. This is a unique podcast. Um, w- this one is sponsored by Caterpillar Oil & Gas. Um, I am interviewing today Mr. Richard Rodriguez, the founder and CEO of ClearSync Solutions.

[00:00:21] Josh Lowrey: How are you, Mr. Richard Rodriguez?

[00:00:23] Richard Rodriguez: Doing great, Josh. How are you?

[00:00:24] Josh Lowrey: I'm doing great. I'm doing great. Actually, I tell you, it was a pretty rough, uh, last three minutes for me before we turned on this microphone. I was getting, I was getting torn apart by you and, uh, producer Caitlin there.

[00:00:37] Richard Rodriguez: I mean, you ask questions, you're gonna get the truth.

[00:00:40] Josh Lowrey: I would prefer lies, apparently.

[00:00:43] Richard Rodriguez: Yes, you would.

[00:00:44] Josh Lowrey: Uh, well, audience, what they're talking about is I got a new shirt, and I look great. And you... This is a segue into telling you to come watch us on our YouTube channels. You should log into Caterpillar Oil & [00:01:00] Gas and /podcasts. Um, I do give Caterpillar a lot of credit.

[00:01:04] Josh Lowrey: They do a great job indexing all of their podcasts. So, um, have you ever been to their website to check this out?

[00:01:10] Richard Rodriguez: I have, yes.

[00:01:10] Josh Lowrey: They... Listen, Caterpillar doesn't mess around.

[00:01:13] Richard Rodriguez: I mean, you know, we've known them for a long time. Yep. Done, uh, events with them. We have a lot of friends who work there, and just the level of professionalism-

[00:01:22] Josh Lowrey: Yeah

[00:01:23] Richard Rodriguez: uh, just from top to bottom. And when you go to anything that they do, but yeah, if you go especially to the podcast index, I mean, number one, the talent and the, the, just the knowledge you can gather from it, but the way that it's structured, the way you can search by things is just second to none.

[00:01:38] Josh Lowrey: Look at that.

[00:01:38] Josh Lowrey: Our boy's a gamer, isn't he, Caitlin? He was, uh... Off air, he's like, "Ah, I'm not ready." I'm like, "Dude, listen. We're gonna be great." Well, so Richard said it correctly. Um, y- you need to check out their website. Uh, the way they do index anything from drilling to technology, uh, what we're gonna talk about today, different types of technology, and I think Richard does a good job of, of really clarifying what [00:02:00] does Oil & Gas consider technology versus what does, you know, I guess what you, you guys used to call telecom consider technology.

[00:02:07] Josh Lowrey: So, but I say all that to say I look great, and I asked Caitlin and Richard, "Caitlin, do you like my new shirt?" And she said, "Your pants blend in with the wall." And I said, "Well, number one, I didn't ask about my pants." I said, "I asked about this great shirt." By the way, we're in, we're in summer. We're in early summer here, and- It's

[00:02:28] Richard Rodriguez: already 100 degrees.

[00:02:29] Josh Lowrey: Oh, it's just ridiculous. Oh, and I'm wearing fall colors she said off air. Oh my God. I'm not trying to dress like it's summer, Caitlin. I'm just saying I'm in shape for summer. This... We need... By the way, audience, we need a new producer immediately, 'cause Caitlin is not pumping me up, and now I'm wearing fall colors in early summer.

[00:02:51] Josh Lowrey: This shirt was on sale. That could be why. That could be why I digress.

[00:02:58] Richard Rodriguez: Yeah, blame Christie.

[00:02:59] Josh Lowrey: [00:03:00] Well, no, I bought this

[00:03:01] Richard Rodriguez: one. Well, well, there you go. That's-

[00:03:02] Josh Lowrey: No, man, we're moving on. So if Richard and I sound like we are friends and we're very comfortable with each other, and that was a pretty, um, lackluster introduction, it's not because I don't have a ton of respect for Richard, and it's not that I don't want to give he and ClearSync the respect and, and intro they need.

[00:03:20] Josh Lowrey: Um, I have known Richard- really coming up, what are we? 2026, close to 20 years now.

[00:03:28] Richard Rodriguez: Yep.

[00:03:29] Josh Lowrey: I've known you a long time, and I knew you in a world way before what you're doing today, and it's gonna be a really fun conversation to talk about how you've evolved from where we were 20 years ago. I think our oil and gas audience is gonna be like, "Why am I listening to an IT guy, e- or a tech guy?"

[00:03:48] Josh Lowrey: I want you to be able to, to tell them what you are- Sure ... here in a minute. Um, why should I care? He doesn't know what oil and gas is, and I think they're gonna be really surprised about who you are here in a second. So we've known each other 20 years. Um, [00:04:00] I used to be act- I sold to you as a- Yes ... I was a steel salesman.

[00:04:03] Josh Lowrey: Correct. I used to love steel. Now I can't do it anymore 'cause I'm not any good at it. Um, and you were a buyer, planner, pro- Am I screwing that up?

[00:04:11] Richard Rodriguez: Yeah. Wow. You completely messed it up.

[00:04:13] Josh Lowrey: You worked at-

[00:04:14] Richard Rodriguez: So I worked at NOV, and I ran, uh, all the manufacturing, uh, supply chain to start off for the downhole devi- was downhole division at that time.

[00:04:24] Richard Rodriguez: Um, so yes, I was, I was in charge of all the facilities. Uh, that's where we got to know each other- Yep ... uh, through a great buyer and planner, Jerry Flores.

[00:04:33] Josh Lowrey: Jerry scared the crap out of me. He-

[00:04:35] Richard Rodriguez: He

[00:04:35] Josh Lowrey: really did ... yes, he, to a lot of people. He was very intimidating.

[00:04:38] Richard Rodriguez: But, uh, but he was a- Great guy ... great guy.

[00:04:39] Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

[00:04:40] Richard Rodriguez: And, uh, that's how we first got to know each other.

[00:04:43] Richard Rodriguez: Uh, so yeah, I did that for a number of years, eight and a half years. Liv- you know, lived all around the world, got to do so many great things at such a young age that I don't think anybody would ever have that opportunity in this day and age to do some of those things. I was really blessed with great mentors and, and [00:05:00] people who took a chance on me.

[00:05:01] Richard Rodriguez: Uh, but yeah, I mean, I think at the, at my height, I had 17 facilities around the world I was responsible for, and then 2009 hit, and I had to take 17 down to nine. Um, I always tell people I was like that George Clooney character in Up in the Air. Mm.

[00:05:18] Josh Lowrey: You know- On the plane all the time.

[00:05:19] Richard Rodriguez: On the plane all the time, but then people would hate to see me walk in- How

[00:05:21] Richard Rodriguez: their facility 'cause they knew it was bad news.

[00:05:23] Josh Lowrey: You know, but before you g- move past the bad, to the bad part, 'cause look, oil and gas- Sure ... up, down, all around. Yeah. You, talk about good mentors, you were part of a really special time at, at NOV. Oh, yeah. There was, that was the Pete Miller let's build, grow, and expand, no other vendor type mentality.

[00:05:41] Josh Lowrey: Um, there were the Jeremy Thigpens. Yes. The, r- uh, I almost said Ron Washington. Um, give me, give me s- uh, Santhosh. Santhosh

[00:05:50] Richard Rodriguez: was there. Um, Workman. Uh, Clint Robinson, who's now running, uh, you know, uh, DNOW, um, you know, Workman. We've got, uh-

[00:05:59] Josh Lowrey: Keith

[00:05:59] Richard Rodriguez: [00:06:00] Jamietzky ... Keith Jamietzky. Um-

[00:06:01] Josh Lowrey: There was something like 40 presidents of companies that came out of that little group of studs In that five or seven-year period.

[00:06:11] Richard Rodriguez: Yes.

[00:06:12] Josh Lowrey: And, you know, I go back to why Jerry Flores was intimidating and why, uh, Richard Rodriguez was intimidating and these guys... You know, when you didn't know what was going on at NOV in the early 2000s, which I was selling to NOV, and I was just a vendor. I was selling steel, and I was a young guy. Every time I would leave a meeting at NOV, I was like, "Oh my God, these guys are...

[00:06:33] Josh Lowrey: I'm so dumb Everybody in that room is the smartest person I've ever met. They're moving 100 miles an hour, they're thinking 10 l- steps ahead, and I'm just trying e- everything I could do to hang on. And, and then all of a sudden you realize, oh, no, that's what you guys were doing. Like, it was a active strategy to find the best talent, give them 17 plants around the world, make them hang on-

[00:06:58] Richard Rodriguez: Yes

[00:06:59] Josh Lowrey: make you run as hard- Oh ... as [00:07:00] you possibly could- Yes ... 'cause you were young. And but that wasn't really necessarily being shared to the outside world, it was just a, one of the most intimidating companies to try to work with back in the day, the, the early 2000s of NOV. So I, we, we should do an entire set of podcasts about you guys and that whole world of early NOV.

[00:07:19] Richard Rodriguez: That'd be a really cool thing, 'cause it would be a great series. 'Cause, I mean, you can gather everybody up now- Yeah ... and hear everybody's different perspective. That would be pretty interesting, actually.

[00:07:27] Josh Lowrey: I love when you guys all kinda get together and, you know, you'll just be like, "Hey, man, what are you doing here?"

[00:07:30] Josh Lowrey: It's, those are great stories. All right, so then you go from the NOV world. You, you have another, um... Actually, this had to be 2012, '13. Yes. Yeah.

[00:07:40] Richard Rodriguez: Yeah, so I left NOV in, in 2012. I started my first consulting company at that point for River Private Equity Company. So I was, I would go in, consult on manufacturing supply, well, a bit before that.

[00:07:54] Richard Rodriguez: So as we were doing all of these acquisitions, you know, especially our d- our division with Downhole, I [00:08:00] mean, we were built by acquisition. Mm-hmm. Um, so I was inheriting all these plants, so I was getting all the things. So this was very, this was the infancy of technology. You really only had basic networks and you had ERP systems.

[00:08:13] Richard Rodriguez: But as we were buying all these companies and I was inheriting all these plants, you know, Pete Miller had a great strategy. He was kind of the anti-Schlumberger. Mm-hmm. Um, he was like, "I bought you, you're making money, keep making money," right?

[00:08:25] Josh Lowrey: What, what he means by that- Yeah ... audience, if you're not listening, is, 'cause Schlum has a great program as well.

[00:08:29] Josh Lowrey: Sure. But Schlum wanted everybody under the blue SLB, or now it's SLB moniker, whereas NOV said, "Hey, we're gonna buy you. Keep your logo, keep your business, just keep making money and send to the, the hierarchy." Sure. That's, that's what he means.

[00:08:40] Richard Rodriguez: E- exactly. So I mean, there's, there's pluses and minuses to both.

[00:08:44] Richard Rodriguez: Right. They've both obviously been very successful. Um, you know, but part of that on the, on the, you know, there's a, there wasn't a lot of centralization when it came to things like that. So, you know, you could have, you know, 21 different ERP systems within one division, and we gotta bring this [00:09:00] together. You had networks all over the world, and at that point it was, again, in its infancy.

[00:09:04] Richard Rodriguez: So trying to pull all that together, I basically went to my boss and said, "Look, you know, this is making everything else inefficient in what I'm supposed to be responsible for. Give me the IT side of it, like, and I, I will make this work."

[00:09:18] Josh Lowrey: That's crazy. Just said, "F- I'll figure it

[00:09:19] Richard Rodriguez: out." I'll figure it out. Okay.

[00:09:20] Richard Rodriguez: And, and they gave it to me, so that's how I started first getting into the technology side of the business. Again, as it keep, kept on growing and things start to come in and you start- Technology itself starts evolving. So I had a foot in both worlds. Uh, 2012 I left, started my first consulting company, started doing stuff with private equity, consulting on those three things, manufacturing, supply chain, IT systems.

[00:09:45] Richard Rodriguez: Um, got a com- couple of companies close to sale. I moved to Fort Worth for a few years, uh, was with a company called Probe. Um, you know, we were about to kinda get them to sell, and this was 2014. You can kinda see where the market [00:10:00] was going. And then at that point I got together, four partners and I got together.

[00:10:05] Richard Rodriguez: We had a story to tell. We got, we got funding. Um, and in 2015 we launched Rubicon Oilfield.

[00:10:12] Josh Lowrey: I was hoping you were gonna say it. Um, for those that remember Rubicon, they didn't get some funding together . They got a massive amount of funding together, and there was some really smart people involved in that, some, some friends of ours that we're still friends with today, uh, some of our favorite people today- Yes

[00:10:31] Josh Lowrey: that are, that have moved on to some pretty big things as well. And Rubicon was the belle of the ball for a few years. Oh, yeah. And if you were in the downhole tool world at all for, what is it, maybe, what, what years? '14 through '

[00:10:46] Richard Rodriguez: 17? Yeah, we started in '15. Yeah, I would say, yeah, '14 to '18 was really- '14 to '

[00:10:49] Josh Lowrey: 18

[00:10:50] Josh Lowrey: yeah You could not exist without working... So we, that's another, we went by Jerry Forest, it's back over there again. Um, you know, you had to, you had to [00:11:00] sell to Rubicon, again, tools, steel, et cetera. And that is one of those companies that just was growth trajectory was massive.

[00:11:11] Richard Rodriguez: Yeah, it was a rocket ship. Uh, but as everything with oil and gas, as all us veterans know- Timing

[00:11:18] Richard Rodriguez: timing has so much to do with it. Um, and when you look back on it, you know, there were market conditions, market changes, COVID happened. I mean, just all the, all these things that stalled it out. Um, so anyways, uh- So Rubicon is winding down, and, you know, I had gotten very much at that point into technology.

[00:11:39] Richard Rodriguez: It was very... One of the very early adopters into when everybody was moving on-prem to cloud. Um, so my, you know, my responsibilities there shifted. I had some great manufacturing leaders that I had brought in so I could, I could oversee that from a distance. Right. But really everything really moved into technology.

[00:11:57] Richard Rodriguez: The f- the oil field itself really [00:12:00] finally started embracing some technologies. It's always fa- Yeah, this is a good point ... I always say that, you know, technology is viewed in two different worlds. In oil and gas, traditionally, technology is viewed as the product, the product you're building, the product you're designing, the product to create more efficiency in the field.

[00:12:17] Richard Rodriguez: The rest of every vertical that's out there thinks of technology in terms of the rest of the world, networks, cloud, cybersecurity-

[00:12:25] Josh Lowrey: Mobile ...

[00:12:26] Richard Rodriguez: mobile, uh, communications, c- customer experience platforms, things like that. That's technology in the rest of the world. Um, so you finally started to get people that were, that were starting to embrace more technology.

[00:12:40] Richard Rodriguez: You started getting into connected oil fields. S- You started having-

[00:12:43] Josh Lowrey: Let me, let me jump on that rope just for timeframe real quick. So we had a guy on a couple days ago, and he said that we're towards the end of the great crew change right now. And what... This is 2026. What you're describing is the, the beginning of the great crew change.

[00:12:57] Josh Lowrey: The beginning of it,

[00:12:58] Richard Rodriguez: yes.

[00:12:58] Josh Lowrey: And it's interesting to [00:13:00] hear that... 'Cause I'm gonna... I just wanna get from where you're saying, "I was there at the beginning, watching guys go from what is this, how do I work this," to now a lot of this stuff is second nature- Yes ... in many ways. The, the, quote-unquote, "technology" that you're describing, if you don't have that, then why are you even participating?

[00:13:17] Josh Lowrey: And now towards the end of the great crew change, there's all new technology. So you basically said, "Look, this is gonna be here. I actually don't want to be... I want to be on-" kind of the forward side of this from a more, more than a consultant, more than an interior guy. I wanna do this full-time. So then you move on to ClearSync Solutions in, what year was that?

[00:13:39] Richard Rodriguez: That was early '21.

[00:13:41] Josh Lowrey: Okay. So tw- so after COVID?

[00:13:43] Richard Rodriguez: After COVID.

[00:13:43] Josh Lowrey: Okay. Great timing.

[00:13:45] Richard Rodriguez: Well, you know, it, it, again, you split the two worlds, right? Like, for the, the traditional technology world, COVID created this huge boom in business- Ah ... because everybody- Zoom or whatever ... had to work for h- everybody had to work from home.

[00:13:59] Richard Rodriguez: Okay. [00:14:00] So that brought in, that brought in a big rush into communication platforms- Facts ... like Zoom. It brought in connectivity. It brought in connectivity all over the world. That brought in, that's really around the time that you started really seriously hearing about cybersecurity. How do we secure everybody working from their house to the office to the Starbucks to things like that, right?

[00:14:21] Richard Rodriguez: Because before, everybody was always in an office together, so people had to go through, a lot of companies had to go through this huge change to be able to have people work together that weren't together in an office in a traditional setting.

[00:14:35] Josh Lowrey: You know, it's really funny. You reminded me of something right here.

[00:14:38] Josh Lowrey: Um, the way we reconnected, 'cause once the steel stopped in, like, 18, y- three, four years happens like that overnight, and all of a sudden we were, we were, uh, hacked- Yes ... at one of our companies, and it was the end of the year and I couldn't get into my system. I couldn't shut the year down. I couldn't pay bonuses.

[00:14:55] Josh Lowrey: I was completely locked out. Google was no help whatsoever, [00:15:00] and I was dead meat. And all of a sudden you did a video on LinkedIn And you said something about cybersecurity, and I'm like, "I know Richard. I'll call Richard." And I said, "Hey, Richard. It's Josh Lowery. I'm st- I'm stuck." And I kind of explained my problem in 35, 40 seconds, and you said, "Hey, I'm on a plane.

[00:15:18] Josh Lowrey: Send me your problem in an email, and I'll call you when I land." By the time you'd landed when, however many hours later, you said, "This guy's about to call you. I'm sure we can have it he-..." Within three hours of the initial phone call to the end, we were almost back online. I was so... And I'd been working with Google for a week or so at that point.

[00:15:37] Josh Lowrey: By the time we were back on and, I mean, Google wanted me to start an all new email.

[00:15:42] Richard Rodriguez: Right, yeah.

[00:15:43] Josh Lowrey: It- Google was like, "Shut down your enterprise." And, and I said, "Google, I, I'm, I've got a 10-year-old company here, 10-year-old tax- I- ... 10-year-old..." I go, "What are you talking about start over?" I go, "Get me into my..." They said, "We can't do it."

[00:15:54] Josh Lowrey: And you had me back on in three hours. And I remember saying, "Richard, [00:16:00] what do you want from me?" "I will give you anything I could give you to thank you for saving my year," my 2021 I guess that might've been, right? Yeah. And you were like, "No, man, we've known each other." I said, "No, there's gotta be something. I just, please..."

[00:16:15] Josh Lowrey: And so we, we've since made up by then, but the really, that's how we reconnected- Mm-hmm ... was you bailed me out of a, of a pretty tough jam. And, you know, so then I, I always thought, "All right, Richard does cybersecurity." And you, you know, you, I saw you quite often, and you would always say... People would ask, "Well, what, what is Richard doing now?"

[00:16:35] Josh Lowrey: I was like, "Cybersecurity." For a year I was like, "Cybersecurity." And finally you were like, "Josh, please stop telling people we only do cybersecurity." You know? I was like, "Well, that's what you do." He's like... You're like, "That's, that's what we did for you." Like- Right ... "We do, we do 20 other things." So do me a favor, just 'cause I wanna, I, there's some things I wanna get to- Sure

[00:16:53] Josh Lowrey: that are really prevalent or relevant to the audience right now. But what are the five, six things that the audience needs to know that ClearSync [00:17:00] does today?

[00:17:00] Richard Rodriguez: You know, the easiest way to say it, especially because the whole reason of starting ClearSync was because I saw this gap where, you know, oil and gas and technology were coming together, but they were still talking past each other.

[00:17:13] Richard Rodriguez: And still to this day, a lot of times they do talk past each other, and it's gotten even more prevalent with the things that we're gonna talk about here soon. The entire reason that I even created ClearSync was 'cause I wanted to help my friends. We have friends that run billion-dollar companies, but they don't understand technologies that are wholly new and- And they're gonna get crushed

[00:17:31] Richard Rodriguez: backed, and they're gonna g- And I don't want them to get crushed. I agree. I want them to be like Wolfpack and be able to sell. I want them to keep growing like Caterpillar. I want them to, you know, I want our friends like Keith Chamaleski th- you know, that are operating companies halfway around the world to be successful.

[00:17:46] Richard Rodriguez: I wanna be able to enable that from a technology side, and to be able to explain things and help them and give them the tools that they need. One thing that I will say that comes up a lot of times is people ask, like, "What does ClearSync do? It seems like you do a thousand things, [00:18:00] and sometimes it seems like you do nothing."

[00:18:02] Richard Rodriguez: Right? And it's, it's, it's a fair, it's a fair s- question. Um, you know, but that's, that's... I think that's why we play such a unique role in it, because we're not just cybersecurity guys. We're not just cloud guys. We're not just Microsoft guys that are gonna sell you licenses and then- There you go. That's important

[00:18:18] Richard Rodriguez: don't talk to you for a year, right? We are- we want to be an embedded part of your business. I wanna be at those tables when you're creating your technology roadmap. Are you thinking of it the right way? Because I do go to all these conferences. I see emerging technologies. I see leading-edge stuff that hasn't even come close to hitting the market that I know in my mind that two years from now, that's really gonna help you.

[00:18:44] Richard Rodriguez: That needs to be in your roadmap. It's not gonna be in your 12-month roadmap, but it needs to be in your 24-month roadmap. I mean, tr- traditionally- What

[00:18:52] Josh Lowrey: are you... Yeah, what's your traditional ClearSync business look like?

[00:18:53] Richard Rodriguez: Our traditional business, again, it doesn't matter what- Or maybe, yeah, what is your traditional business?

[00:18:56] Richard Rodriguez: It, it really doesn't matter what vertical you're in. We have customers [00:19:00] that are in retail. We have customers that are in healthcare, insurance, banking. Um, really what we do and as we go in... So a tr- a traditional conversation in the past is I had a telecom, I had a phone guy, I had a computer guy, I had a cloud guy, I had a security guy.

[00:19:17] Josh Lowrey: Right.

[00:19:17] Richard Rodriguez: And as the world change, all these things are interconnected now, right? And you don't wanna go to six different vendors. Your, your CIOs, your CTOs don't have time to sit through 20 different pitches. There are 40 different vendors, all of them telling you that they can do... 'Cause everybody's gonna tell you they can do everything- Right

[00:19:35] Richard Rodriguez: and they can't. There's pluses and minuses. We have, we have contracts and relationships with 1,200 companies around the world, everybody as big as the Microsofts, the Comcasts of the world to very niche providers.

[00:19:46] Josh Lowrey: Okay.

[00:19:47] Richard Rodriguez: So we can con- we can sit in a meeting, understand your business, not understand your product, understand your entire business, what you're trying to do, and we can put all the pieces together and say, [00:20:00] "This is how you need to move forward to achieve your business goals."

[00:20:04] Josh Lowrey: So Caitlin produ- or Producer Caitlin over here, she builds my notes for me And if my notes are wrong, I'm lost without my- We're gonna go in quick ... I'm lost without my notes. By the way- Nobody's happier to hear that than Caterpillar. They're like, "Can you please keep this guy on track?"

[00:20:27] Josh Lowrey: Uh, by the way, how organized do you think Caterpillar communications team is? A 100-year-old organization with 100,000 employees.

[00:20:35] Richard Rodriguez: We've seen it in action.

[00:20:37] Josh Lowrey: They are so-

[00:20:38] Richard Rodriguez: It is a well-oiled machine ...

[00:20:39] Josh Lowrey: w- exactly. Everything they do is first class.

[00:20:41] Richard Rodriguez: Yes.

[00:20:41] Josh Lowrey: And they have these meetings, and then I come in the room, they're like, "Oh, hi, Josh."

[00:20:48] Josh Lowrey: Um, "There's some things we need to talk about." They're like, "Can you not say X, Y, or Z, please?" I'm like, "Oh, sorry." So I'm only saying that to say that I just wanna make sure that I'm tracking here, 'cause I've got [00:21:00] cybersecurity, cyber resilience, AI adoption governance, data infrastructure, cloud transformation, technology leadership, and digital strategy for energy companies, companies.

[00:21:11] Josh Lowrey: Like, if, if I'm right on those, then everything else I have is correct

[00:21:15] Richard Rodriguez: I would say you're about half right.

[00:21:17] Josh Lowrey: There's

[00:21:17] Richard Rodriguez: more than- That... Oh, there's, there's so much that goes into this, right? There's so many layers that go into, um, you know, when people say cyber security and, you know, it's not like you just buy, you know, back in the days like, "Oh, I got my McAfee and I put it on my computer, I'm safe."

[00:21:35] Richard Rodriguez: You know, those are 25 years ago.

[00:21:36] Josh Lowrey: Time out of it. So Caitlin, producer Caitlin, anticipated that you were gonna say that, and her note says, "But Richard, rather than focusing on technology for technology's sake, he constantly emphasizes how digital systems impact reliability, productivity, risk management, workforce effectiveness, and business performance."

[00:21:55] Josh Lowrey: Is that what you were about to say?

[00:21:56] Richard Rodriguez: It's the difference in selling you, it's the difference in selling you a [00:22:00] widget-

[00:22:00] Josh Lowrey: Look at producer Caitlin ...

[00:22:01] Richard Rodriguez: ver- versus selling you something that's actually gonna help your business, right? Because, you know, what you're, what, what, you know, what Caterpillar needs in, in something that they have is gonna be, on paper, it could be something than what Office Depot needs on their, on their side.

[00:22:18] Richard Rodriguez: But when you look at the actual business of how they're processing payments, how they're serving customers, how they are taking orders, how they are doing all these things, there are many commonalities there, and people don't see that. People think that I'm always different. My business is different. Right.

[00:22:33] Richard Rodriguez: Your business is not different. What you're trying to achieve is the same thing. You're always trying to make a customer happy, you're trying to get paid in the least amount of time, you are trying to be the most efficient you can and have your employees be able to do their job every single day with the least amount of friction.

[00:22:48] Richard Rodriguez: Right. We have to enable you, we enable you to get the best tools possible, that you're not wasting money, you're not looking back at it a year later saying, "I didn't even use this thing that I bought. Why am I [00:23:00] spending all this money?" It's getting you the right tools to enable every part of your business from the time the customer decides they wanna pick up their phone and place an order, whether that's through email, chat, phone, however medium they wanna do it, all the way till it gets delivered and you get paid.

[00:23:17] Richard Rodriguez: We look at every technology that touches your business, and we can advise on every single one of them.

[00:23:22] Josh Lowrey: You know, I have to give it to producer Caitlin on this. She, you know... I, I'm a little pissed about the shirt comment 'cause I, I look great. Um, it's not fall colors. It looks great, just whatever. But that's, we'll argue about that later.

[00:23:40] Josh Lowrey: Um, she has gotten so good with her notes in her show notes for me that if I don't Have you ever dealt with Caterpillar's comms team? I mean- Can you, can you imagine what Caterpillar comms team looks like?

[00:23:57] Richard Rodriguez: It's a well-oiled machine. It is-

[00:23:59] Josh Lowrey: It's [00:24:00] 100-year-old company ...

[00:24:01] Richard Rodriguez: clockwork. Yes

[00:24:01] Josh Lowrey: It's with 100,000 people, and the Caterpillar comms team is, uh...

[00:24:07] Josh Lowrey: They don't really love what I do. They, they're like, "Can you please get your script?" Sure your

[00:24:13] Richard Rodriguez: challenge.

[00:24:14] Josh Lowrey: I- that's a fair way of saying it. They would, they would like me to stay on script, so they're like, "Just make him stay on this sc- you know, not make him, but just give him, you know, whatever." So I say that to say Caitlyn has gotten really good at organizing things for how my brain operates.

[00:24:30] Josh Lowrey: That being said If I, i- I wanna nail something down, 'cause there's a lot of questions I wanna ask.

[00:24:36] Richard Rodriguez: Okay.

[00:24:36] Josh Lowrey: But if I don't have something right here, then it screws up the rest of it for me. Okay. So I wanna make sure that I'm following it. So I have that Richard is a trusted, has become a trusted voice.

[00:24:48] Josh Lowrey: Cybersecurity, cyber resilience, that's how we met. We'll talk about it. That's in already. AI adoption and governance, data infrastructure, cloud transformation, technology leadership, and digital [00:25:00] strategy for energy companies. Now, look, I get that that's broad. Yeah. But specifically, w- what does that mean if I'm your customer?

[00:25:06] Josh Lowrey: Yes. What, what are those things?

[00:25:08] Richard Rodriguez: So cyber resilience is everything that goes into making sure, in a very simple way, it's all the tools and technology that go into making sure that your company can perform no matter what. If you get hacked like you did before- Right ... in '21, you're not down for a week trying to talk to Google.

[00:25:25] Richard Rodriguez: This needs to be up. Your customers need everything now. Your, your employees need to be get, need to get back online now to be able to talk to people. Okay. To be able to keep ending back- That's cyber resilience different than- That's cyber resilience.

[00:25:36] Josh Lowrey: Okay.

[00:25:36] Richard Rodriguez: I say that cybersecurity has morphed into cyber resilience.

[00:25:41] Richard Rodriguez: You need to be resilient, and you need to have the right security tools to en- en- en- ensure that you'll be resilient. Okay. So those kind of combine into one. So-

[00:25:49] Josh Lowrey: What is AI adoption and governance?

[00:25:51] Richard Rodriguez: That's a huge, that's a huge- It's a loaded question ... a lo- it's a load of words. A lot of, a lot of big words in there.

[00:25:56] Richard Rodriguez: Okay. You know, everybody's in a race to get to AI. So if- We're [00:26:00] gonna talk

[00:26:00] Josh Lowrey: about a

[00:26:00] Richard Rodriguez: lot

[00:26:00] Josh Lowrey: of

[00:26:00] Richard Rodriguez: that here ... if you ask, if you ask 10 people what AI is, you're gonna get 10 different answers.

[00:26:03] Josh Lowrey: My favorite answer is all inclusive.

[00:26:05] Richard Rodriguez: There you go. That's one answer. Right. Not the right an- we're not at an all buffet, but whatever.

[00:26:12] Richard Rodriguez: Mm. Um- I'm

[00:26:13] Josh Lowrey: hungry. Keep going. All right, but what- But, but- What's the adoption and governance mean?

[00:26:16] Richard Rodriguez: So the adoption is everybody's in a race to get there. They don't know how to get there. They need to understand everything that goes into it, from your data to your governance, to your security, to your adoption rates for your employees, how it's gonna be used.

[00:26:31] Richard Rodriguez: All of that is into a- How, how do you guys, how are you impacted by it? All, all of that is into a strategy, right?

[00:26:35] Josh Lowrey: But what are you, how do

[00:26:36] Richard Rodriguez: you guys implement that? So we enable, we, we create the strategy. We advise on everything that you need to govern, to assist, to, uh, to get your adoption rate up, and to get your company actually using AI in a great manner that's gonna help your, that's gonna help achieve your outcome, rather than just being able to go in front of your board and say, "Hey, I use AI."

[00:26:55] Josh Lowrey: That's what I wa- when I see governance, I think of boards.

[00:26:58] Richard Rodriguez: Yes.

[00:26:58] Josh Lowrey: So you're working with boards to get [00:27:00] these things- Correct. Really?

[00:27:01] Richard Rodriguez: Yes. '

[00:27:02] Josh Lowrey: Cause you know our friend David DeRoad?

[00:27:04] Richard Rodriguez: Yes.

[00:27:04] Josh Lowrey: I feel like he tells us that he gets these types of calls all the time now, way more than ever before.

[00:27:09] Richard Rodriguez: Yes.

[00:27:10] Josh Lowrey: And you're getting these calls way more than

[00:27:11] Richard Rodriguez: ever before

[00:27:12] Josh Lowrey: too?

[00:27:12] Richard Rodriguez: Because there, because, because the, the, the rules have changed, right? Even back to cyber resilience real quick, SEC laws changed a year and a half ago.

[00:27:18] Josh Lowrey: Right.

[00:27:19] Richard Rodriguez: You know, before the board member who signed off on cybersecurity was the lowest man on the totem pole, and they just needed a signature on it. Now you're signing saying that you understand your resiliency, that you understand- Mm-hmm

[00:27:30] Richard Rodriguez: the policies. You can actually go to jail. You can be prosecuted- If it's, if you don't ... if you don't. So these are real world consequences now that people are now taking it serious. Again, back to the AI, the reason we're getting calls from boards and calls from the C-suite is because everybody's in a race to do it.

[00:27:46] Richard Rodriguez: You have a lot of shadow AI adoption now where people are loading things into their companies or using data, and before you know it- Oh ... you've spent a ton of money on things that are a waste. And the board's sitting there saying, "Why am I gonna write you another [00:28:00] check for this? Why should I even keep you employed for another year when this, this AI thing that you brought in- Just costs

[00:28:04] Josh Lowrey: more money

[00:28:05] Richard Rodriguez: is, has done nothing for us." I

[00:28:06] Josh Lowrey: just had that meeting. All right, so then real quick then, so cloud transformation.

[00:28:10] Richard Rodriguez: Cloud transformation is another huge one. There's a lot that goes into it, but everybody's in the cloud. Well, the cloud has gotten very expensive.

[00:28:17] Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

[00:28:18] Richard Rodriguez: And we... You need to figure out. There, you won't, you will not believe the number of calls I get per week saying, "I am paying so much for my cloud.

[00:28:26] Richard Rodriguez: How do I get this bill down? How did it go from here a year ago, 18 months ago- Yeah ... to now I've double, triple, four, five times as much as what I'm paying. What is going on?" You need a, you need a cloud strategy.

[00:28:38] Josh Lowrey: See, I even see that in my personal stuff.

[00:28:40] Richard Rodriguez: Yes.

[00:28:41] Josh Lowrey: And they're like, "Your pictures cost too much." I'm like, "I don't even want half these pictures."

[00:28:43] Richard Rodriguez: Exactly. There's-

[00:28:45] Josh Lowrey: Is that the same thing?

[00:28:46] Richard Rodriguez: There's ... Because again, in the background, these companies all change, right? We work with Microsoft. Microsoft's a great company. They put out great products. They don't adopt them very well. They leave that to other people to do, but their, their cost model changes throughout the [00:29:00] year.

[00:29:00] Richard Rodriguez: Real quick, when it was everybody was running to the cloud to get out of on-prem, cloud was very cheap. As they've recognized that, as the cloud has matured, you start getting things like egress fees and all these other things that start to come in. Egress. You get usage. You get ... They change your billing cycle.

[00:29:16] Richard Rodriguez: They change all these things. So how does, how does ClearSync

[00:29:18] Josh Lowrey: affect

[00:29:18] Richard Rodriguez: any- So- ... of that

[00:29:19] Josh Lowrey: stuff?

[00:29:19] Richard Rodriguez: Because we can sit there, look at it, and advise to be like, "Maybe you don't need to be with a hyperscaler anymore. Maybe this part of your business works for a hyperscaler, but you need to go to a private cloud for this.

[00:29:30] Richard Rodriguez: We can colo this. We can take your cost down by 30%."

[00:29:33] Josh Lowrey: Colo

[00:29:35] Richard Rodriguez: Colocation.

[00:29:36] Josh Lowrey: Okay. I knew that. I was just seeing if you knew that. All right, so then I, I understand this, and then I've, I've got a little second half note here that says, "It's funny. I mean, Producer Caitlin, great job on..." I'm not kidding. Really great job on these notes.

[00:29:49] Richard Rodriguez: You know, I mean, a lot of people will ask for, do we work with Microsoft, SentinelOne, all the, all the big... Of course we do, and we can, I can name off all the products that we do. Uh, [00:30:00] people ask all the time, you know, "What do you do? It's pretty broad. Can you name me five people you work with that I'm gonna recognize?"

[00:30:06] Richard Rodriguez: Microsoft, Comcast, SentinelOne, CrowdStrike-

[00:30:08] Josh Lowrey: That is a great question- ... Amazon ... right there, by the way. That, that's what I would wanna

[00:30:11] Richard Rodriguez: know. There you go.

[00:30:12] Josh Lowrey: Like, look, I understand ClearSync. I like ClearSync. I like Richard, but I'm like, "What, what are you gonna do for me?" Exactly. I always tell people, like, I'm your...

[00:30:18] Josh Lowrey: I own multiple companies. I sell products. I buy products, and I'm, I'm a busy CEO. I'm your ideal client.

[00:30:28] Richard Rodriguez: Yes.

[00:30:29] Josh Lowrey: What are you gonna really do for me?

[00:30:31] Richard Rodriguez: Do you wanna serve your customers in the most efficient way?

[00:30:33] Josh Lowrey: Yes.

[00:30:34] Richard Rodriguez: Do you wanna save money?

[00:30:35] Josh Lowrey: Yes.

[00:30:36] Richard Rodriguez: Do you wanna achieve all your goals and make your board happy?

[00:30:39] Josh Lowrey: Yes.

[00:30:39] Richard Rodriguez: Come to ClearSync. I'm not gonna tell you all the ingredients to the- And I

[00:30:42] Josh Lowrey: also wanna be left alone and go to Colorado.

[00:30:45] Richard Rodriguez: You wanna go... Like, when you go to the grocery store-

[00:30:47] Josh Lowrey: No, I

[00:30:47] Richard Rodriguez: don't go there ... you love ch- you love chocolate donuts.

[00:30:49] Josh Lowrey: I do.

[00:30:50] Richard Rodriguez: Right? When you go to- My God,

[00:30:51] Josh Lowrey: this guy knows me ...

[00:30:52] Richard Rodriguez: when you, when you go to Shipley's-

[00:30:53] Josh Lowrey: Then I, I don't eat chocolate at Shipley's.

[00:30:56] Richard Rodriguez: I

[00:30:56] Josh Lowrey: eat only- You do eat glaze ... I only eat glaze at Shipley's.

[00:30:58] Richard Rodriguez: But when you go to Shipley's, you [00:31:00] know it's the best donut. You know you're gonna get the best product. You know they're gonna serve you with a smile. You know you're gonna be in and out of there. You're gonna get the best possible product you can get.

[00:31:09] Richard Rodriguez: You don't care about- Price ... which kind of flour- Or ... they're using or which sugar they're using for the gla- you don't care about all that. You care about, am I getting w- am I getting what I need? Am I getting it at the cost that I want? And am I having a good experience?

[00:31:21] Josh Lowrey: Richard, I wish you would've picked a different analogy than donuts.

[00:31:24] Josh Lowrey: Um, but you're correct. Just put the sugar in my face. Yes. So would you like to know what Caitlin's next line is- ... on this, Producer Caitlin's next line? Why he matters right now.

[00:31:41] Josh Lowrey: Oh, man. You're- just because the, the moment here, you, you have a unique moment. Yes. You're, you're delta, or that's the wrong word. Um, what's the word I'm looking for, Richard? This moment of technology meets- Convergence ... convergence. Yeah.

[00:31:57] Richard Rodriguez: Convergence is coming-

[00:31:58] Josh Lowrey: It's now ...

[00:31:58] Richard Rodriguez: for the world is now.

[00:31:59] Josh Lowrey: And [00:32:00] you are one of the guys that has, like, real-world business experience.

[00:32:03] Josh Lowrey: You've manufactured. You're an entrepreneur. You have the technology, both kind of, you know, traditional technology, product te- technology if you will, and, uh, w- can I call it telecom technology? What- We are,

[00:32:15] Richard Rodriguez: we are, we are back to, take it b- real, real quick, take it back again within your business. Your C-suite and your IT people, your salespeople- Right

[00:32:25] Richard Rodriguez: always talk past each other- Yeah ... 'cause they don't know the terms. Now with this AI data center boom- Yep ... you have oil and gas people on one side of the table. You have technology people on this side of the table. They have completely different terminologies. They don't know what they're talking about, and they talk past each other in multi-million, sometimes billion-dollar projects- So-

[00:32:45] Richard Rodriguez: that they have to come together on ...

[00:32:46] Josh Lowrey: this now, this is what I wanted to get to. This is the stuff I, I always joke, and this is real, like nobody wants to talk to me anymore because, or excuse me, have dinner with me anymore because all I talk about is peptides and AI.

[00:32:58] Richard Rodriguez: Right. [00:33:00]

[00:33:00] Josh Lowrey: Caitlin's sh- pretty mu- Pretty much

[00:33:01] Josh Lowrey: your new name is Producer Caitlin full-time. Producer Caitlin is shaking her head. Um, I think both are amazing. I think AI is incredible, and I think peptides are incredible. That's, that's why I look so great in this new shirt. Um, so we'll just stay on the AI right now.

[00:33:19] Richard Rodriguez: Sure.

[00:33:21] Josh Lowrey: Lots of conferences, lots of meetings, lots of readings.

[00:33:24] Josh Lowrey: It's gonna come down to a lot of different things. Mm-hmm. And, you know, we can talk about, and I'm gonna read just my own notes here, and there's, there's nothing that you and I are gonna tell the audience that they can't do their own research on. Sure. But listen, it, the, every initiative is nat gas, infrastructure, data center, cybersecurity, connectivity, power reliability, right?

[00:33:41] Josh Lowrey: Those are the major themes. Land, water, power. That's w- and people. Those are the things you're gonna need for this. So- Why, what is ClearSync gonna do to that?

[00:33:54] Richard Rodriguez: So we created a, from, from ground up, from bare ground [00:34:00] to having an operational data center, because I've sat in so many meetings, I've sat in so many conferences- Okay

[00:34:06] Richard Rodriguez: and you see the sexy headlines every week of, you know-

[00:34:10] Josh Lowrey: Billion dollars this ...

[00:34:11] Richard Rodriguez: billion dollar, you know, billion dollar, you know, infrastructure. This new data center's coming, this new data center's coming, blah, blah, blah, this and that. Do you know that $156 billion of projects were canceled last year? You don't see those headlines.

[00:34:25] Richard Rodriguez: 26 projects were canceled in Q1 alone of this year. When you start to dig into why It's always comes down to two things. It's either power, or if they get the power, if they get the power figured out. Because a lot of times in these projects, it's like, well, what happens after the power, right? What happens after you have the land and the power, and you have to actually start building it, and you have to start looking at what you want and who are you gonna sell to, and what's gonna go beyond that?

[00:34:51] Richard Rodriguez: That's where things start to fall apart, because investors start asking the hard questions. Insurance starts asking the hard questions, and the people behind these projects don't [00:35:00] have the answers because they haven't put it fully together. So as an example of what we did at ClearSync, we said, "Okay, let's look at it completely from bare ground to having an operational data center."

[00:35:10] Richard Rodriguez: There's 14 phases, right? There's 14 phases we came up with. Within those phases, there's 192 blocks that we said you have to be able to do to take it from here to here. Okay. And it's everything from you're f- again, picking the land, zoning, laws, environmental, uh, surveys, all that, all the way through, okay, we're actually breaking ground.

[00:35:32] Richard Rodriguez: And which cooling are we gonna go? Who's ... You know, how are you gonna cool it? There's different ways of doing it. Which servers are you gonna... 'Cause ultimately, at the end of the day, if I've been in rooms where, you know, w- they're building, they have, they have the money to build a $500 million data center.

[00:35:48] Richard Rodriguez: It's like, okay, at the end of it when it's built, what are you, what are you building this for? And they're like, "What do you mean?" I'm like, "Are you building it to sell to a hyperscaler? Are you building it for a colo? Are you building it [00:36:00] for private cloud? Are you building it to sell to a company and it's gonna be their own mini data center?

[00:36:05] Richard Rodriguez: What are you, what are you selling it for? What are you building it for?" "I don't know." If you don't know who you're building it for, who that end customer finally is that's gonna use the structure and what's inside of it, how are you... You can have a shell, you can have all the power. What are you gonna put inside of it?

[00:36:19] Richard Rodriguez: Do you know you're getting the right GPUs, the right CPUs? Do you know you're getting the right cooling? It all depends. Every, every project that I've sat in has been different. Okay. There are some people that have a person like that identified, and they can sit there, and they have their own, they have their own 14-phase thing, and they're somewhat organized, and they're like, okay.

[00:36:36] Richard Rodriguez: They'll call us in and they say, "I don't have a person for this, this, this, and this." Okay, we can help you with this. There are some people that you talk to and you're like, "Do you have a person identified?" "Well, no, we'll figure that out." Ag-

[00:36:46] Josh Lowrey: again, I don't mean to be... I, I just, for my, I'm learning here. Yeah. So when you say there's a per- they say, do you have a person for this, that, what is a, what is a this, this, or this?

[00:36:54] Richard Rodriguez: So for example, uh, we'll take it to they're gonna break [00:37:00] ground. They have a construction company that they've signed. Okay, within your construction company, they need Wi-Fi. They need secure Wi-Fi. They need to be able to... They need, they need security.

[00:37:09] Josh Lowrey: Oh,

[00:37:09] Richard Rodriguez: you're

[00:37:09] Josh Lowrey: taking, you can take this thing all the way back to, like- A greenfield construction site

[00:37:15] Richard Rodriguez: I could take this all the way back to when somebody says, "I picked this piece of land."

[00:37:19] Richard Rodriguez: I can do the fiber survey and see, okay, what's your... Where's your closest fiber and connectivity, and how much is it gonna cost for me to get you internet- So

[00:37:27] Josh Lowrey: when someone's- ... to get

[00:37:27] Richard Rodriguez: you connectivity- ... looking to find

[00:37:28] Josh Lowrey: out- ...

[00:37:29] Richard Rodriguez: to that ...

[00:37:29] Josh Lowrey: where they wanna put their data center, there is the fiber scan. Yes. I know what you're talking about.

[00:37:33] Josh Lowrey: Sure. You can help them on the initial fiber scan.

[00:37:37] Richard Rodriguez: Yes.

[00:37:38] Josh Lowrey: Okay. So now they've... That's just one thing they're doing. That's one thing. Okay. So I get that. All right. Here's where I'm gonna build it. Great. I'm, I'm... Now I've cleared the land. Yep. I... And now I'm starting, and I've... My fence goes up. I've hired Wolfpack to put the fence up and the water tanks.

[00:37:51] Richard Rodriguez: Yep.

[00:37:51] Josh Lowrey: Right? Our friends. By the way, did you see that Wolfpack just sold?

[00:37:53] Richard Rodriguez: They did. Good for our

[00:37:54] Josh Lowrey: friends over there. Good for our friends. I love those guys. Yeah. I texted them yesterday. I was like, "Congratulations, gentlemen." I love when [00:38:00] good people win, by the way. Yes. Isn't it

[00:38:02] Richard Rodriguez: the best?

[00:38:03] Josh Lowrey: I mean, there's nothing better.

[00:38:03] Josh Lowrey: It's... There's nothing better. Nothing

[00:38:04] Richard Rodriguez: better.

[00:38:05] Josh Lowrey: So congratulations to our friends at Wolfpack. So they sell-

[00:38:09] Richard Rodriguez: Yep.

[00:38:10] Josh Lowrey: Excuse me. They, they, they're clearing, they're, they're renting stuff- Yes ... and it gets set up over there. So now they have to... You're saying when they're gonna start protecting the equipment on, on site, you'll even step in on that data center stuff?

[00:38:21] Josh Lowrey: Yes. So-

[00:38:22] Richard Rodriguez: Because, again, they have to have... They need to be able to communicate to, and send emails, and all the basic stuff. Well, I'm

[00:38:27] Josh Lowrey: just talking pure security.

[00:38:28] Richard Rodriguez: For pure security.

[00:38:29] Josh Lowrey: Okay.

[00:38:29] Richard Rodriguez: We can outfit cameras. We can outfit-

[00:38:32] Josh Lowrey: Okay. So now- ... access controls ... now we've cleared it- We can outfit... Yes ... and here comes... Now they're laying cement for the, the pop...

[00:38:38] Josh Lowrey: Well, not. They don't call them popups. What do they call those things? Uh- Tilt walls ... tilt walls. Yep. So the tilt walls start to go up, and then the HVAC people come in, and then they start, you know-

[00:38:46] Richard Rodriguez: We can even start when we help with the cooling. How's it gonna be cooled?

[00:38:49] Josh Lowrey: What does that... What do you mean by cooling?

[00:38:50] Josh Lowrey: Like,

[00:38:50] Richard Rodriguez: we have a company called, that we work with called OptiCool. Right? How is the entire build... Because you have, you have interior cooling for the building itself, but then you have server cooling. [00:39:00] You have, how are, how's the heat gonna escape from the building? How's it gonna get processed? Is it gonna be chilled?

[00:39:05] Richard Rodriguez: Is it gonna be ther- Is it gonna be, uh... Are you gonna store- Geothermal type? ... thermal? Are you gonna, like... How are you gonna go? We can bring all of that. We can bring all of those people in to help advise and engineer it from the beginning. It's not just... And sell you the equipment, and then maintain it.

[00:39:19] Josh Lowrey: Okay.

[00:39:20] Josh Lowrey: So I kind of understand what you're talking about, but just for the sake of moving to the next one. So all right. So now you've, they've... The building infrastructure is complete. Yep. And within that, you've, you've done the Wi-Fi, you've done the cyber, you've run the- I

[00:39:33] Richard Rodriguez: mean, it's, it's all that, right?

[00:39:34] Josh Lowrey: All that.

[00:39:35] Richard Rodriguez: It's cooling, the networks, the switch gear. We can... Again, what are you building for? We can help. We provision the right GPUs and the CPUs to actually put within the building. Why

[00:39:45] Josh Lowrey: am I under the belief that the, the GPU is the hardest thing to get? Is... Am I wrong on that? I thought these GPUs were the thing that nobody could get.

[00:39:52] Richard Rodriguez: Not necessarily. Okay. It's, it's, it's... Again, it's all about being able to know what it is exactly that you need, right? [00:40:00] Okay.

[00:40:03] Richard Rodriguez: Because when you read the headlines, yes, everybody's like, "Oh, I can't get any Nvidia chips."

[00:40:07] Josh Lowrey: Yeah, that's

[00:40:07] Richard Rodriguez: what I'm talking- There are plenty of Nvidia chips out there. There are. There are. And again, a lot of this too is the relationships that we have because as these, you know, people get ahead of themselves, right?

[00:40:18] Richard Rodriguez: Like, everybody says, okay, power. Yes, power for sure right now is still the longest lead item, but as these, but as these projects get stalled, they're sitting on this capital equipment that they can't afford anymore, and so we can help to, you know, broker it goes from this project to this project. It's the same thing with GPUs.

[00:40:38] Richard Rodriguez: Some people get ahead of their skis and they're like, "Oh, I can't find the, the chips. I need to buy them all now." Well, you're buying them, you know- Too early ... 18 months in advance of your project. It's way too early, right? So then they start to realize, like, I mean, as fast as Nvidia changes technology, something 18 months from now is gonna not, it's not gonna serve- I agree with that

[00:40:56] Richard Rodriguez: what you could be potentially- I agree. Nobody wants that ... needing for that data center.

[00:40:59] Josh Lowrey: No.

[00:40:59] Richard Rodriguez: That's [00:41:00] why it's so important to spec every part of it out and understand what you're building for.

[00:41:04] Josh Lowrey: All right, so T- now I'm, I'm, I'm gonna keep moving my, my example along. Yep. So now the building's built. You've built it to spec.

[00:41:09] Josh Lowrey: You've helped them make... You've built everything they want.

[00:41:12] Richard Rodriguez: Everything with the cybersecurity 'cause you-

[00:41:14] Josh Lowrey: No, I, I get that. It's all- All of it ... so the building's done.

[00:41:16] Richard Rodriguez: And that's beyond the building, right? Because now you have customer's data in there. So how do I back everything up? How do I make sure that it's...

[00:41:24] Richard Rodriguez: Again, so the cyber, we'll call it the cyber resilience of the data center-

[00:41:27] Josh Lowrey: Okay ...

[00:41:28] Richard Rodriguez: got all that in there too. Fine.

[00:41:30] Josh Lowrey: So that's the data center boom world. Boom. All right, I have a question for you. Is the, this is my favorite question to ask people. Are, is the data center, is, is it AI the bubble?

[00:41:42] Richard Rodriguez: That's a bit of a loaded question.

[00:41:43] Josh Lowrey: Ah.

[00:41:44] Richard Rodriguez: The, uh, the reason that I say that is, you know, everybody's in a race to build this because you have the four largest companies telling us that there's not gonna be enough compute power to support AI and the world. [00:42:00] I say it's a loaded question because that's not true. I don't believe that that's true.

[00:42:05] Richard Rodriguez: Okay. I think you have a large amount of compute power there already that's not being utilized correctly, number one. Number two, you have something that's called adoption rate. Until they figure out how they're properly gonna price this stuff, I mean, you saw it two weeks ago. Microsoft cut out, kicked out Claude because they surpassed their Claude budget in three months, right?

[00:42:28] Richard Rodriguez: That is not- To

[00:42:29] Josh Lowrey: the tune of like $500 million ...

[00:42:30] Richard Rodriguez: that is not, that is not a, that's not a small, insignificant thing. That is happening on smaller scales throughout, throughout businesses because right now the way that it's being charged, people don't understand tokens. People don't understand usage. People don't understand LLMs.

[00:42:47] Richard Rodriguez: People don't understand that maybe they need small language lo- models for themselves that are not going into the large language models. There's all these things- I- ... that go into AI.

[00:42:55] Josh Lowrey: What executive one, two, and three, they come to Richard. They say, "Richard, here's [00:43:00] $2 million. Make me efficient. What can you do for me today?"

[00:43:05] Richard Rodriguez: Again, a loaded question. Uh, but looking at operations, it is always gonna be... God, that's, that's a hard one to answer because- No, I think it's a great- ... every business- No, I think

[00:43:16] Josh Lowrey: it's a great

[00:43:16] Richard Rodriguez: question ... every business is- All

[00:43:17] Josh Lowrey: right, let me, let

[00:43:17] Richard Rodriguez: me give you this ... every business is different. But-

[00:43:19] Josh Lowrey: Okay ...

[00:43:19] Richard Rodriguez: I will say, you know, the number one thing you always need to look at, especially with AI and, and the, the, at the rate of what criminals can get their hands on using AI- So cyber security

[00:43:32] Richard Rodriguez: cyber resilience is your number one thing.

[00:43:34] Josh Lowrey: So okay, I'll give you, I'll tighten that question up a little bit. I'm a manufacturer of steel and finished product- Okay ... in North America with distribution to Europe, into the Middle East.

[00:43:50] Richard Rodriguez: Okay.

[00:43:51] Josh Lowrey: And I have 1,000 employees worldwide, 750 of which are in the US in 20 states.

[00:43:59] Josh Lowrey: Where should I [00:44:00] put $2 million?

[00:44:01] Richard Rodriguez: How many of those are- How many of those are actual blue collar workers that are working- Fair question ... on the steel- That's a fair question ... versus your white collar workers?

[00:44:10] Josh Lowrey: Uh, there's 500 blue collars, and there's 350, or whatever number I said, that are external. Sales-

[00:44:19] Richard Rodriguez: Okay

[00:44:19] Josh Lowrey: back office, et cetera.

[00:44:21] Richard Rodriguez: Assuming that your cyber resiliency is taken care of-

[00:44:24] Josh Lowrey: Correct ...

[00:44:25] Richard Rodriguez: I would- That was

[00:44:25] Josh Lowrey: my last year project.

[00:44:26] Richard Rodriguez: That was your last year project. I would take it into, I'll call it smart AI within the office and selective groups. And the reason that I would do that... Now- '

[00:44:37] Josh Lowrey: Cause my sales force is aging.

[00:44:39] Josh Lowrey: It's not just- They're not very good at getting questions.

[00:44:40] Richard Rodriguez: It's not, it's not just that, right? So think of, think of right now a traditional oil and gas manufacturing supplier, right? If I'm in the, if I'm in the procurement group, or if I'm a, if I'm a planner, if I... However my... I'm an inside sales person. Yeah.

[00:44:55] Richard Rodriguez: Right? I get a call today. Today is, today's Wednesday, right?

[00:44:59] Josh Lowrey: [00:45:00] Right. Time is irrelevant-

[00:45:01] Richard Rodriguez: Time is- ... on podcasts ... no, in this, in this, today's Wednesday.

[00:45:03] Josh Lowrey: Podcast, there's no time.

[00:45:03] Richard Rodriguez: Today's Wednesday. I get a call today at 4:00. An email comes in. I might see it, I might not. And let's say it's a customer I've done business with for a while.

[00:45:12] Richard Rodriguez: Let's say they've got a $10 million credit line. They always pay on time, blah, blah, blah. But they have an opportunity for a $50 million project. This is huge. Game changer for them. But they're gonna have to change their payment terms, they're gonna have to, we're gonna have to go out on a limb for them. We have to make some decisions, right?

[00:45:28] Richard Rodriguez: I may not see it today, so now I don't see it until tomorrow. Okay. I send it to legal. I send it to finance. They gotta do the review. It's a week before it gets to your desk to make a decision, right? Now, if I have AI agent, if I have a AI agent in legal, if I have a finance agent, if I have an inside sales agent, if I have a manufacturing agent, that email can, uh, can come in at whatever hour of the day.

[00:45:56] Richard Rodriguez: It can look at it and say, "Hey, this customer's great. They've always paid on time, blah, blah, [00:46:00] blah. Yes, we have the raw material. We can supply it." Um, legal, "Hey, we would need these legal terms to ensure that we're blah, blah, blah, blah." You could walk in the next morning, and it could be laid out in a document that's up-

[00:46:14] Josh Lowrey: Okay

[00:46:14] Richard Rodriguez: that's, uh, that's-

[00:46:15] Josh Lowrey: So I'm actually- ... do

[00:46:16] Richard Rodriguez: this or don't do this.

[00:46:17] Josh Lowrey: So now you've got me. So now I'm interested. I actually do know what you're talking about. And- This is where I think this stuff is really cool

[00:46:28] Richard Rodriguez: This used to be the chase the sun model, right? You used to have global companies that would sit there and say, "Hey, when I go home at 4:00 or 5:00 in Houston, somebody in the UK is taking over this- Ah

[00:46:38] Richard Rodriguez: somebody in Dubai is taking over this so that I don't miss this stuff and I can be more responsive to my customer," right? Now you don't need that anymore. You don't need the chase the sun model anymore because you can have agents that do it. I- Now there's sm- now again, all those things have to come into play because there are costs to it, there's governance, there's all those things.

[00:46:59] Richard Rodriguez: But [00:47:00] assuming that you get all this in order, now you have agents that put that stuff into play, and now your 300 blue collar- Right ... white collar workers, unfortunately they may go down to 100. They may go down to 50.

[00:47:11] Josh Lowrey: So, so real quick though, but I, I wanna track this question here. This is something that as a leader I can understand, because that seems really appealing to me, not the, you know, the, the efficiency gain, right?

[00:47:22] Josh Lowrey: Sure. When I hear, okay, important question comes through, Richard's on vacation or Richard's out, whatever it is, um, b- The agent in an audience... Listen, this is, I, I don't mean to talk down to the audience, I'm talking to the audience. If you don't know what an agent is, if you don't know what a, you know, these Claude codes are and the, and the skills that they're calling these days, you need to do a, a five, 10 hours worth of study on YouTube and Claude and ChatGPT and CoWork, et cetera, and, and figure out what we're talking about.

[00:47:57] Josh Lowrey: This is, this is not something you cannot [00:48:00] understand.

[00:48:00] Richard Rodriguez: Correct.

[00:48:01] Josh Lowrey: Like, you've got to know what we're talking about. There's, there's things called OpenClaude. There's just different technologies right now that if you don't know what they are, you're... This is the whole line that AI's not gonna take your job. A person that understands AI is gonna take your job.

[00:48:14] Josh Lowrey: And this is some- This is truly, like, one of these things where if you can start making yourself efficient all the time, you're gonna be ahead of the game. So now I digressed and I'm coming back. Everything you just said, where there's these internal agents through legal, operation, um, uh, engineering, et cetera, and it kinda comes back and, like, this isn't leaving, this is an internal document.

[00:48:35] Josh Lowrey: Yeah. That then comes back as a checklist where I can review it and be like, "All right." Almost like, uh-

[00:48:41] Richard Rodriguez: It's a recommendation. It's almost like-

[00:48:43] Josh Lowrey: Correct ...

[00:48:43] Richard Rodriguez: yes.

[00:48:44] Josh Lowrey: Like intern- uh, not intern, um, producer Caitlyn's notes here. And when I look, this is great. Yeah, okay, actually this is, that's a red flag, but I, that's a green one because it's whatever.

[00:48:55] Josh Lowrey: All of a sudden you're done. You can give a quick answer immediately. I like that [00:49:00] i- idea a lot. And so ClearSync's doing that? Yes. Or can do that?

[00:49:03] Richard Rodriguez: Yes.

[00:49:03] Josh Lowrey: You're doing this or, or through your partners are helping set this up?

[00:49:06] Richard Rodriguez: Both.

[00:49:07] Josh Lowrey: Both. That's pretty cool.

[00:49:09] Richard Rodriguez: Because the, the thing where we always, where, where we always help is, again, you have technology people that are creating and that can run the agents, but they don't understand your business.

[00:49:21] Richard Rodriguez: We are in the middle explaining the business- Yeah ... and making sure that that time is not, and that money is not getting wasted for them to learn your business

[00:49:31] Josh Lowrey: So you've said this many times, that people talk past each other.

[00:49:35] Richard Rodriguez: Yes.

[00:49:37] Josh Lowrey: This goes back to the old Saturday Night Live joke. The, uh, the

[00:49:45] Josh Lowrey: IT guy Rob Schneider, "Move." Yes. You know, when, and really I heard a stat one time that said most IT problems are solved by just turning on and off the computer. I mean, 65% of things are just, you know, on a, on a, just a normal computer, right? Sure. That, that's a reboot issue. [00:50:00] But there is a world of miscommunication between executives, IT, and maybe just the average person in IT.

[00:50:10] Josh Lowrey: Like, how much of your job is just translating maybe difficult or semi-difficult or easy problems into English for the, the, for the layperson?

[00:50:23] Richard Rodriguez: I would say more of it is not, it's not getting the business person to understand the technology, 'cause that's pretty easy. Yeah. I mean, I can, I can explain a very complicated technology at 100,000 foot level that you're gonna understand should I make this investment or not. Right. That is not the hard part.

[00:50:41] Richard Rodriguez: The hard part is usually the technical people and the IT people understanding the business because they're so invested in their tool- Yeah ... and they're so invested in thinking that this is the best thing, and it may be the best thing, but they're not b- it may not be the best thing for this business, right?

[00:50:58] Richard Rodriguez: That's a completely- So you spend a [00:51:00] lot

[00:51:00] Josh Lowrey: of your time then- ... different thing ... back end with, I'm picking Microsoft because- Mm-hmm ... we've used their name. Say Microsoft, they don't need this. You're like, "Oh, the- everyone needs it." Is that what you're saying?

[00:51:11] Richard Rodriguez: Yeah, exactly.

[00:51:12] Josh Lowrey: Okay. I mean, I'm not picking on Microsoft.

[00:51:13] Josh Lowrey: For,

[00:51:13] Richard Rodriguez: for sure.

[00:51:13] Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

[00:51:13] Richard Rodriguez: Uh, but, but it really comes up a lot. It comes up a lot in security. It comes up a lot in this cloud stuff. Comes a lot... It's coming up a lot in the AI automation stuff, right? Because, again, right away everybody wants to go and say, "Okay. Well, I'll create five agents, and I'll put it in there."

[00:51:30] Richard Rodriguez: You don't understand their business. There are still the, you know... Again, this goes back into adoption rates and all these things, right? You can't just flip on an agent and then let it go crazy, right? Because especially if you have multi agents in multi disciplines that are talking to each other, unless you have the right government, unless you have the right training, unless you have all that stuff, you can't let them go wild because they will do things that are just out

[00:51:54] Josh Lowrey: there.

[00:51:54] Josh Lowrey: So again, I wanna be very clear. Right? So you're doing this for them? 'Cause I've, I've watched enough of these videos recently to, to know [00:52:00] exactly what you're talking about. There's... It, it seems fairly difficult.

[00:52:02] Richard Rodriguez: It's, it's very difficult.

[00:52:04] Josh Lowrey: Okay.

[00:52:04] Richard Rodriguez: So am I doing the... No. Because I'm scared to death- I'm not a- ... to click yes or no on these things.

[00:52:08] Richard Rodriguez: So I'm not a, so I'm not a coder that's gonna sit there and code it.

[00:52:11] Josh Lowrey: Right.

[00:52:11] Richard Rodriguez: But what I am gonna sit there and tell the coder is, "I need these parameters because I understand this business, and I know what the, the, what the business is telling me and what their needs are, what their goals are, what their do's and don'ts are.

[00:52:24] Richard Rodriguez: I'm translating that to you so that you write it the proper way."

[00:52:27] Josh Lowrey: So okay, this is actually... I get it. See, I'm customer X.

[00:52:32] Richard Rodriguez: Yep.

[00:52:33] Josh Lowrey: I say, "Richard, I'm dying here." Yep. "I need to, I've gotta make my aging sales force-

[00:52:41] Josh Lowrey: My, these, these operations, engineering- Yes ... finance, and legal- Yeah ... they've gotta talk better.

[00:52:48] Richard Rodriguez: Yes.

[00:52:48] Josh Lowrey: I understand there's agents. I wanna use these- Yes ... because I, the... And I want, I don't wanna get rid of anybody. Right. I want these guys working more eff- I have the best talent in the world internally. They're just slow.

[00:52:57] Richard Rodriguez: Yes.

[00:52:57] Josh Lowrey: And they've gotta be f- we have too much coming at us.

[00:52:59] Richard Rodriguez: Right.

[00:52:59] Josh Lowrey: You're telling [00:53:00] me that you can meet with these people for a week, a day, a month?

[00:53:04] Richard Rodriguez: Depends on the project, but yeah, usually it's, let's call it a week

[00:53:07] Josh Lowrey: engagement. You bring in your team-

[00:53:09] Richard Rodriguez: Yep ...

[00:53:09] Josh Lowrey: listen to them and say, "Here are the problems.

[00:53:14] Josh Lowrey: Understand it." And then when you translate back to the Rob Schneiders of the world-

[00:53:18] Richard Rodriguez: Yes ...

[00:53:19] Josh Lowrey: who think we're all stupid anyway, 'cause I don't know how to turn off a computer. Correct. Control, alt, delete.

[00:53:25] Richard Rodriguez: Right.

[00:53:25] Josh Lowrey: Okay. And then you guys translate this back to... And then it comes back in the agent form that I'm looking for.

[00:53:31] Richard Rodriguez: Yes.

[00:53:34] Josh Lowrey: Now that I would pay for.

[00:53:35] Richard Rodriguez: Right.

[00:53:37] Josh Lowrey: That's what I want

[00:53:38] Richard Rodriguez: There's a lot of assumptions there.

[00:53:39] Josh Lowrey: What does that mean?

[00:53:40] Richard Rodriguez: There's a lot of assumptions- I know what assumption means ... there's a lot of assumptions in the background, right? Um, again, do you have the right governance in place? Is your data, is your data in a- You keep saying governance.

[00:53:50] Josh Lowrey: What do you mean by that?

[00:53:51] Richard Rodriguez: So, I mean, it's very- I know

[00:53:52] Josh Lowrey: what the word... Again, I know what the word means, but what-

[00:53:53] Richard Rodriguez: It's very... It's, I'll give you a perfect example, right? Copilot started rolling out a year and a half [00:54:00] ago, two years ago. People are adopting Copilot, but what they didn't do in the background on the security side of it is say, "Okay, these files are, this is governance.

[00:54:10] Richard Rodriguez: These files should only be accessible to these 20 people." So when Copilot took off, you had a lot of people just, for example, just typing in queries saying like, "Hey, what's Josh's salary?" Well, if that document wasn't locked down for these 20 people in HR, Copilot would go pull up salaries, and if that document was available, it would say, "Oh, Josh Lowery makes $350,000 a year."

[00:54:30] Richard Rodriguez: And I'm like, "W- what? What the hell?"

[00:54:33] Josh Lowrey: Josh Lowery does not make that, audience. Just so we're clear.

[00:54:37] Richard Rodriguez: But it's, it's all those kinds of governance that those are the kinds of rules that you have to have in place. Again, for an agent, I don't want an agent to go rogue and decide to start pulling files that they don't, they shouldn't have access to.

[00:54:50] Richard Rodriguez: If I only want them to be in sales- Okay, so that's governance, you're saying ... yeah, that's governance. You have to have the right governance in place. So the, the assumption is that- You have to have the right structure ...

[00:54:55] Josh Lowrey: the governance is set ...

[00:54:56] Richard Rodriguez: governance, your data is in a usable form, [00:55:00] right? Um, you can't, you can't sit there- So, so these are major projects These are major projects, especially when you think of, you know, it is so much easier now in oil and gas companies because they had data in so many different forms.

[00:55:12] Richard Rodriguez: Right. You had paper drawings, you had PDFs, you had AutoCAD drawings, you had, you had all the, you know, had, um, all these different forms. You can now gather up all that. You can index it. You can create data in a usable form, but it has to get done at some point, right?

[00:55:29] Josh Lowrey: So Richard, I've got lots of producer Caitlin's notes here.

[00:55:33] Josh Lowrey: I feel like I've done a pretty good job at it. Is there anything that I've left out that you need me to make sure the audience knows about you or the ClearSync as a company, or what you... Have I misinterpreted what you do in any way?

[00:55:49] Richard Rodriguez: I don't think you've misinterpreted at all. All right. I think, I think when it comes to, you know, one of the biggest challenges that we had for '21 and '22 [00:56:00] is after you create a 20-plus year in oil and gas-

[00:56:03] Josh Lowrey: Yeah

[00:56:05] Richard Rodriguez: that people still need to understand in oil and gas that at my heart, cut my veins open, I'm still gonna bleed- Yeah ... oil and gas, right? I love it. You never know the way. I'm always, I will always be an oil and gas guy.

[00:56:15] Josh Lowrey: Do you think for the second hour of this podcast we should talk about peptides?

[00:56:19] Richard Rodriguez: I mean, you're on 20 of them.

[00:56:20] Richard Rodriguez: I don't see a difference yet, but- I'm on

[00:56:21] Josh Lowrey: four. Four, Richard.

[00:56:24] Richard Rodriguez: Four?

[00:56:24] Josh Lowrey: Yes.

[00:56:25] Richard Rodriguez: Okay.

[00:56:26] Josh Lowrey: You say

[00:56:26] Richard Rodriguez: so. I

[00:56:27] Josh Lowrey: don't know what they are.

[00:56:28] Richard Rodriguez: Did you get one for hair by chance?

[00:56:30] Josh Lowrey: Nope. I look good though. Yeah. Thank you for rec- recognizing that.

[00:56:32] Richard Rodriguez: Mm. We'll

[00:56:33] Josh Lowrey: be cutting that part out.

[00:56:37] Josh Lowrey: Um, well look, I love what ClearSync's done. I mean, you guys are, you're doing great. The market seems to be reacting well to it. Um, it's amazing. I, I, you speak at different conferences. Um, you know, the notes in here, it says, one of the early notes that I ignored, but it's true, and it says that... Oh, boy. Oh, boy.

[00:56:57] Josh Lowrey: Hang on a minute.

[00:56:57] Richard Rodriguez: You know, it's, while you're finding your note- Yeah. ... [00:57:00] it's, you know, I want you to win, and I want to equip you with all the information that you can to win.

[00:57:05] Josh Lowrey: Right.

[00:57:05] Richard Rodriguez: So when I say yes, 1,200 suppliers, are you... Yes, it sounds mass, it sounds like, okay, you don't do, you don't do anything. We do a lot.

[00:57:13] Josh Lowrey: Yeah.

[00:57:14] Richard Rodriguez: But how we do is we synthesize all that and make it into a usable form for you

[00:57:19] Josh Lowrey: There's nothing I can say that'll top that. That's a phenomenal way to cap off this interview. Richard, thank you for your time. Um, what's your website? It's this... I've looked it up. It's actually a little tricky. What is your website?

[00:57:34] Richard Rodriguez: So it's C-S-Y-N-C-S.com.

[00:57:37] Josh Lowrey: So

[00:57:38] Richard Rodriguez: it's- CSyncs.com ...

[00:57:40] Josh Lowrey: CSyncs.com.

[00:57:41] Richard Rodriguez: Yes.

[00:57:41] Josh Lowrey: Um, and you're on LinkedIn?

[00:57:43] Richard Rodriguez: Yes.

[00:57:44] Josh Lowrey: I'm- And you have a podcast?

[00:57:45] Richard Rodriguez: We have a podcast, The It Crowd Podcast. Um-

[00:57:48] Josh Lowrey: Been around

[00:57:49] Richard Rodriguez: three years or so ... we've been doing it now for three years. Uh, amazing the time flies. You're on

[00:57:52] Josh Lowrey: all the socials, I assume, as well?

[00:57:53] Richard Rodriguez: Yes. Okay.

[00:57:54] Richard Rodriguez: All the socials.

[00:57:55] Josh Lowrey: So just look you up at, uh, ClearSync Solutions.

[00:57:57] Richard Rodriguez: ClearSync Solutions, [00:58:00] CSyncs.com.

[00:58:00] Josh Lowrey: Richard Rodriguez. I'll link us up. LinkedIn,

[00:58:02] Richard Rodriguez: uh, easy places to find me.

[00:58:02] Josh Lowrey: We had one of our friends come on here and he, and he accidentally gave out his, uh, satellite phone number and I'm like, "What are you doing?

[00:58:09] Josh Lowrey: That's like $9 a minute." I go, "We'll, we'll blank that out for you just so nobody calls your sat number, buddy." Um, well, Richard, if there's nothing else, watch out... I- have you ever been on a podcast before with me?

[00:58:23] Richard Rodriguez: Uh, you know-

[00:58:24] Josh Lowrey: Have I ever interviewed you before? Interviewed you before?

[00:58:26] Richard Rodriguez: No, no. You've never been in, interviewed

[00:58:28] Josh Lowrey: me.

[00:58:28] Josh Lowrey: Richard Rodriguez, good luck to you. Thank you for, six years ago, saving my company. I'm not exaggerating. Thank you. Thank you very much. We wish you the best of luck. Yep. And- Thanks to

[00:58:36] Richard Rodriguez: Energy Pipeline. Thanks for having me on.

[00:58:37] Josh Lowrey: Yeah, dude, Caterpillar, they're amazing. Thank you, Energy Pipeline. Speaking of Energy Pipeline, check them out on their website, Energy Pipeline.

[00:58:43] Josh Lowrey: You can find us on all the socials. Upright Digital, Henaro. Producer Caitlin, thank you for your time. Um, look us up on all the socials, LinkedIn. Um, if you have any questions, if you have any positive mail, send it to me. If you have any negative mail, send it to Producer Caitlin. Thank you guys very much.