2 years ago, I started posting on LinkedIn in what would become the #hottakeoftheday. The reason was simple. I had written “What the F@&K is Wrong with Everybody Else? (What They Didn’t Teach You in Business School)”  in 2012 and 2013 and, with the closing of the final part of the sale of OneEnergy closing on October 31, 2018, I thought it was time to publish it.  As those who have read it knows, the book only covers from February 1, 2012 to June of 2013, but the journey from the moment I was fired until the last part of OneEnergy closed had all been built on that 18 months of learnings and self reflection.  So I reached out to a publisher to figure out what it would take.

It turns out that there are 4,000 books a day published in the world, or at least I was told, and she asked me “What was my social media following like?”  I said “What’s social media?”  As far as I was concerned, Facebook  was for Grandmas, Twitter was a bird and I never thought much about my 500 connections on LinkedIn.  The writing was on the wall.  “No one will read your book.  You have to build a social media presence.”  And so I started writing again.

In the beginning, the posts were on oil inventory, DUCs, rig counts and random musings.  I suppose I was using it like Twitter, but I didn’t know it at the time, nor did I know “that wasn’t what you did on LinkedIn.”  One day in November of 2018, after seeing a quarterly report and 2019 plan of some company, I got really fired up.  “How could they be growing production and planning to pick up rigs next year… are they stupid??? What the F@&K is WRONG WITH THESE MANAGEMENT TEAMS!!”, I yelled into the void of my office.  Having my little LinkedIn account, I penned a letter.

Dear Concho, EOG and Pioneer,

Excuse me, but do you know NOTHING about supply and demand?  Stop picking up rigs, you growing production is absolutely killing the industry.  Let me give you a little lesson on supply-demand in oil and gas…

Love and Hugs,

DRW

(I wish I still had that post.  All the archives of posts going back to January 1, 2019 exist but those first 45 or so had been archived/deleted before I archived them myself for the website.)

Later that day, someone called my business partner and said “Tell Ramsden-Wood no one gives a F@&K about his “hot take of the day.”  Upon having this story relayed to me, I posted my response the next day.

Dear Unemployed People on LinkedIn,

Please change your title in your profile to “Investor” immediately.  You do the same job, but it puts you on par with half the bankers in New York.  #hottakeoftheday

That post got 942 views in 60 days or so and the hottake was born.  I wrote everyday for 500 consecutive days.

As my musings multiplied, I started to get “2000 views” a day and people at meetings or happy hours would ask me about it.  “How can you say that outloud? I mean, I agree, but aren’t you scared someone will punish you?”  To be honest, that thought had never crossed my mind.  I said the same things to anyone who knew me and so what was the difference if I posted it online?  I stand by the things I say in private and in public. (I admit, this was a naive view, but I have transitioned from not thinking about it to not caring). And it grew.

I was slated to speak at the SPE Entrepreneur workshop in Houston, and Jacob Corley introduced himself to me and asked if I would come on their podcast.  I seemed excitable, said what was on my mind, and said F@&K a lot.  What could go wrong?  Their Oil and Gas Start-ups podcast was the first one I ever did.

As I continued to write and the brand began to grow, I realized I had a challenge.  On the one hand, there was “industry commentator/hottakeoftheday” guy and on the other, there was industry COO.  I wanted to keep them separate, like a stage name, so I changed my LinkedIn profile pic to a selfie that I had taken at the IHOP in Roswell, New Mexico after driving down at 2 am for a 9:30 am breakfast meeting to and leaving to come home at 10:45.  It may seem strange to drive 14 hours for a breakfast but there was 640 acres on the line, and for OneEnergy, that was a huge boost to the acreage position.  The alien had been across the street and I stared at it all breakfast.  I ran across the street before coming home and took the picture.  It always made me smile, and 18 months later, it seemed like the perfect embodiment of my dilemma.  That’s where the alien came from and why it is featured so prominently in the brand imagery.

NAPE in February 2019 came and as I boarded the plane at 5:30 in the morning, I wrote this.  That evening at the Four Seasons bar, it was the fullest I had ever seen it and I must have chatted with 50 people who all wanted to talk about the #hottakeoftheday.  I had totally forgot about publishing the book and my NAPE summary post broke the 20,000 view barrier.

I never meant for the #hottakeoftheday to become a real thing.  I didn’t think I’d have hats or t-shirts with my favorite sayings on them.  And, in those early days, no one did care about my “hot take of the day.”  Companies didn’t shut down their rigs, they didn’t stop growing production, they didn’t pay down their debt, and they didn’t merge.  Had they…. the US would have produced 500 mmbbls less than we did.  That 500 mmbbls would put the world much closer to being in supply-demand balance.  Companies would have merged when their stocks were higher, employees options were worth something, and companies could afford to pay generous severance to their employees.  Service companies could have responded to a more subtle change in demand for their services, and employees would have been able to transition their careers into other industries when the economy was good and unemployment was low.  They could have sold houses and moved where the work was, and they would have been able to better control their destiny.  We know how this is playing out, and will continue to play out which brings me back to the book.

February 1, 2012 was the worst day I ever had.  My career was gutted, I had no idea what I would do, and I was positive I would never get to manage a team again.  But the sun rose, the birds sang.  And I had this little plaque in my office.  I rediscovered what was important.  I joined the PTA.  I started coaching youth hockey.  And eventually, we got funded to start OneEnergy.  We sold OneEnergy and I started the #hottakeoftheday.  I published a book.  And I started a podcast.  Your career is a river.  You never know what twists and turns it will bring you, but I know if you make the most of everyone of them, enjoy the people you are with and live for the moment, it will end up pretty good.  And anyway, all rivers lead to the ocean and I’ll see you there.