Every March since 1987, Congress and U.S. Presidents have designated March as Women’s History Month. This year, The Crude Life celebrates and honors their accomplishments and contributions in history with interviews and stories that center around women’s experiences in industry.
The Crude Life believes women are vital in energy. Today more than ever. From a female’s point of view to intuition to specific skill sets, women are vital in energy.
Today’s women in industry are not only modern-day leaders, but truly are defining history as well.
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Bernadette Collins and Alicia Heiskell of GPS International discuss the importance of Women Owned Businesses in industry. The two are members of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) .
WBENC provides the most widely recognized certification for women-owned businesses in the U.S.
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The following is an unedited Artificial Intelligence Transcription of the interview
Bernadette Collins
Bernadette Collins, GPS International,
Alicia Heiskell
Alicia Heiskell, GPS International. ...
Jason Spiess
Thank you very much. The two of you for joining us here today as the crude life continues to honor and celebrate women's history Month. And what better way than a women owned business here. So let's start off by talking about the fact that you've got a women owned business and then I'd like to talk about just the two of you and how, you know, life's going in general and business and if you need some more business and then just kind of maybe some people who have affected you throughout
your life, it could be a teacher, could be your mother, it could be each other, who knows, could be yourself. You could look in the mirror every day and it could be you. Hey, how about that? But let's start off with your business a little bit. Uh Talk about what your company is and how you guys got going about it. And was it a conscious choice to be a women owned business or to just end up that way?
Alicia Heiskell
So, GPS was formed. Um It's actually been in, this company has been in business since 2002, I moved to Houston to run it from my little brother who owns Gate Energy, which is a deep water engineering company. And um, so I came in and ran it, um, took it from $2 million a year all the way up to $25 million a year in 2016, from 09 to 2016. And in 2017, he offered me to buy it. Um, so I bought my little shop of horrors, um and then proceeded to, to get it certified as a woman owned business. And um,
Jason Spiess
can we stop right there for a second? I just wanted to ask you about this is an actual certification and you had to, you know, apply and that sort of thing.
Alicia Heiskell
Yeah. So W B N C is a National certification and you've got to submit your, you know, register your incorporation papers, you've gotta support, you've got to submit financials, you've got to have, you know, all kind of official paperwork and then they come to your place of business and they interview you. So it's not, it's not a fill out the form and pay your fee kind of thing. I mean, they really investigate to make sure and ensure that you're a woman don't
Jason Spiess
business a little bit of a vetting process.
Alicia Heiskell
There's a vetting process for
Jason Spiess
sure. So is there, obviously you get the network that comes with that. Is there, is there any other perks outside of that, I would imagine. You know, it's a lot like having a class ring or something like that. Other women see that and of course they probably gravitate towards that. But anything, anything else that you care to mention?
Alicia Heiskell
Um, no, it's, uh, I mean, to be honest, it's a nice certification. It's a, it's a really awesome recognition, especially when you are talking to other women in the oil and gas industry. We are also a Texas historically underutilized business because we're women don't business in oil and gas. So that makes us like, I don't know, 0.5%. It puts us, um, into that category.
Jason Spiess
So we call that a rare albino elk sighting. Just very rare.
Alicia Heiskell
Exactly.
Jason Spiess
Exactly. With Bigfoot coming down and doing the waltz, you know, that sort of thing. Well, so I could see where, you know, at certain times, you know, that could be an advantage. But I would imagine it's a, it's a difficult, it's a difficult road to hold it and grind. If you will, very male dominated business, the oil and gas business is so as, as, you know, owners of your own destiny and being business owners, it's a lot different than being an
employee. Uh, talk to me a little bit about that risk and just that kind of courage that the two of you have being, you know, business owners in a very male dominated business.
Alicia Heiskell
Well, I've been very, very lucky to, to know Bernadette and now work with Bernadette. She is, uh, she's a Trailblazer herself. She's been working out in, in West Texas and oil and gas for many, many years. So, um, and she's got a stellar reputation because, um, you know, sales, uh, sales for women in all and gas can be very, very brutal and she has risen. She's the cream of the crop, honestly. So I am extremely blessed to know her and, and to work with her, ...
Jason Spiess
anything Bernadette or you just gonna let that kind of meander a little
Bernadette Collins
bit. ... Gosh, I've been in the oil and gas industry for maybe going on 23 years. And uh the majority of my experience is in recruiting, staffing and recruiting. And I think I've had three uh ceo mentors and uh Alicia is one, I hopefully I plan on retiring with her. And uh yeah, I uh my other two bosses in the past, um I'm still friends with from 20 years ago and from 97 back when I started in recruiting and um I don't, you know, I, I still look at them as,
uh you know, driving forces in the industry mentors. I still love to call them and, you know, laugh and joke and it's just, I've been really blessed, been really blessed. ...
Jason Spiess
Do you have any advice for women out there? Maybe just getting in the industry or maybe they're, you know, 10 years in and they're not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, if you will. I mean, you guys have been for 20 years. I didn't, how, have you guys been in it for 20 years? Would you start when you were 10? ...
Bernadette Collins
My dad was carrying me in his backpack to work. They just didn't know it. I know how to build rigs, but I'm not gonna, the
Jason Spiess
child labor laws were very loose back in those days. They were, you know, child labor laws didn't mean nothing back then.
Bernadette Collins
Yeah, there was, there was no compliance back then, you know, just whatever.
Jason Spiess
Well, actually we joke because my, my business, we laugh but I actually have been working in my business since I was 10 years old because I started as a paper boy and back then you could actually get a job when you were 10 years old and we had to, um, but yeah, so, I mean, I was delivering newspaper and really that's logistics, that's distribution at the end of the day. So I started working in the distribution department at age 10, you know, every day.
But, um, growing up around that stuff, you do develop this, like experiential osmosis just growing, you know, just you absorb it in being around it. So, uh, but you guys have any advice out there for, you know, anybody maybe getting into it or they're seeing it still, you know, it's a very male dominated business, still, that sort of thing if they're not seeing the, the opportunities that you're seeing,
Alicia Heiskell
I think. Um, so my mother, my mother and father started their own service company back in the late sixties. And, uh, and when my father was a real Trailblazer innovator in, in his industry, and my mother ran, she ran the business and in the eighties, uh, she saved it, you know, back in the eighties there was almost no Orlean gas industry, but she saved their business. It's still in operation today. And, um, you know, when I was a young mother, she would always say persevere, you've
got to persevere and now when I call her some days to, to lick my wounds and the struggles of just, you know, trying to survive in the last year and then trying to survive in a couple of years before that. Right. Um, she would tell me her horror stories and she would say Alicia, you've just got to persevere, get up every morning, pull up your socks, put on a smile, put a smile on your face and go get it. ...
Jason Spiess
It's so hard though. We live in an instant oatmeal society and I want my crops now. So when I push the farmville button, my crops get built right away. Grown right away. Look at me built.
Alicia Heiskell
Exactly. And in us too. I mean, you know, Bernadette and I were talking about, you know, having instant oatmeal breakfast growing up and cream of wheat and stuff. But, um, you know, what did President Trump say? Anything worth doing isn't easy. So if, if you like and we Bernadette and I love what we do, we love the challenge, we love interacting, we love having people succeed around us and putting people out to work.
Um We celebrate other people's successes as well. And so if you like what you're doing, then get up and persevere and, and you will succeed, it will come, you just have to get up every day and do it.
Jason Spiess
Let's transition to what it is that you guys do and what business could actually help the two of you out. So the thing that I do like to ask people in the oil and gas business is number one, who's your customer because this is such a diverse and, and vast industry is that sometimes it's only one person along the entire supply chain, but there, you know, the they're needed along the way, sometimes it's everybody above and then other times just operators and etcetera.
So make sure you mention, you know, kind of who your customer is and then talk about what it is that, you know, your, your products and services do to enhance and save money in the industry.
Alicia Heiskell
So are our customers are pretty diverse. So we, we also work for production companies. Um And we also work for service companies. Um and we provide either, you know, um project engineers or project uh staffing people um for our service companies. We provide field personnel. What I really and truly believe sets gps apart is our customer service and our safety record.
We have 11 years of incident free. We have a very strong safety program. We've been in the offshore production um world. So and then when you're out there, it is required that you have a very robust safety program and we translate that back into our onshore work as well. Um Bernadette is, is seeing new different customers every week
Bernadette Collins
that we've been years West Texas, uh
Alicia Heiskell
and not just service companies. I mean, we're seeing, you know, water companies and, and not just only asked, we're finding that and then a year ago when COVID hit, uh we pivoted and were able to pick up some very unique chemicals. Um, Bernadette brought in a couple of people that were able to, we were able to sign contracts to represent um, some very, very unique biodegradable um, chemicals in firefighting and, um, and solving
some H two s and L E L problems that will reduce those levels to zero. And, um, you know, just trying to, I guess pivot and diversify so that so that we can survive. How about that?
Jason Spiess
Well, when I tell people, when people ask me how business is going, I say, well, you know, it's doing fine. We're still, we're still moving, we're still growing, but we're having to work four times as hard for half as much money. So it's, it's, you know, we're, we're moving but it's, it's a lot of work and it's, it's hard and sometimes the work is, is very mental and trying to be very nimble in trying to be creative in a marketplace that is, you know, it's, it's very different out there
right now. I was just talking to a few people at the A P I Dickinson deal and they just got back from West Texas and they said it's, you know, they struck out, they came back, they said, you know, he figured there's 200 rigs down there would be easy pickings. But he said there's a lot of competition down there right now and there's a lot of people
that are, you know, waiting and see it and etcetera. So, what are you guys seeing down there? You're down in, uh what are you down in Odessa, Texas? Permian Midland right now?
Bernadette Collins
Yes, we are. And I, I, you know what you said about, you know, people returning uh to North Dakota and such. Um, you know, I think Alicia and I had a conversation today as well about, um, you know, the Pennsylvania area and then the Midland, you know, the shell here, the Permian and the Delaware and you, you really just, you
know, you don't just come here and expect to right off the bat, leave with relationships and with business and purchase orders. It, it's just, that's not the way it works. Um
Alicia Heiskell
No, we have been blessed. I mean, our, our customers have been very, very loyal to us. Um Actually, they seem almost, almost protective and so we're still in business today because of our customers. They have remained loyal to us. And, and I think a lot of it has to do with our testament with Bernadette and, And the ladies at the office were
100% woman run business and the ladies that run our office uh are amazing and, and allow Bernadette and I to get out and visit and um they got our back and we got there's, well,
Jason Spiess
you know, as well as I do, any successful man is only as good as the woman next to him, right? ...
Bernadette Collins
Actually,
Jason Spiess
this is true. So I interviewed Rob Ryan. Rob Ryan actually truly invented the internet. Okay, not Al Gore but Rob Ryan, he's uh he's a billionaire up in Montana, the Roaring Lions ranch. And I was one of three people that year that happened to get an interview with him. It was just, it was just very lucky. He happened to be there and I happened to be there and it was up in Jackson Hole Wyoming.
And back in the nineties, he sold his company for like $23 billion and at the time, it was the largest tech deal ever. So he's considered up there with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and etcetera. He invented what's called the local area network. The L A N. So without it, the internet doesn't work. Right. Anyway, he said that without his wife, he would be nothing that if he didn't have his wife to, to show his vulnerable side to, he would have never been able to get through these big deals
because you can't let anybody in the office see, you're weak and you can't let anybody in a boardroom c you're weak but you can let your wife, if you trust her show you're weak and that sort of thing. I, that was a pretty profound statement coming from a guy who was very successful.
So I don't know if you guys had any comments on that or anything along those lines. But so there is a lot of respect from, you know, some of those Uber ultra rich people that a good woman is a very big part of their success.
Bernadette Collins
You know, Jason, I really, um it's funny that you say that, but I will say that one of the things that I feel very strongly about is um being sensitive to all of the oil field guys that work out here and they have wives and you know, you have to be careful how you text them. It's just, it becomes second nature, you throw a text and then you know, you call or whatever and, but I always, if there's an opportunity which tonight we're going to have a small dinner, a personal dinner.
And uh you know, it's always extend the invitation to the wife. Um, go out of your way. Um, if you're going to, you know, be working with the client, uh, to ask him to bring his wife for dinner. Um, it's a huge deal to not forget about them and me being on the sales side being the woman, you know, you have to, um, you have to play that role, but then you, I think you're really going to get a lot of brownie points by, you know, making sure you don't forget them. ... You're,
Jason Spiess
you're extending your network is really what you're doing. You know, you're extending it into the family life to help understand what makes them tick and what motivates them at the end of the day because that's, uh, that's why a lot of us do work is for our families.
At least an oil and gas industry. A ton of people are, you know, they're small business owners so they can control their time so they can go to their kid's baseball game or at least somebody can be there for that sort of thing. So. Right. Well, go ahead. Sorry. Well,
Alicia Heiskell
and the other thing is, you know, when we do meet, um, the wives of the extended family, um, they become our best advocate because they see the integrity and our work ethic that we're not some fly by night. Um, you know, women just trying to, you know, get a quick, a quick sale or whatever.
Um, our reputation speaks for ourselves and, and, you know, honestly they, those, those ladies understand our hard work and they understand our industry as well because they're supporting their husbands and they really, they almost become part of our team.
Bernadette Collins
They, yeah, instead of not knowing,
Alicia Heiskell
you make sure you calling Bernadette. Not that other, you know, Yahoo from England or something.
Jason Spiess
Yahoo from England. It's Australia where the Yahoos are from. All right. I had to get a little bit cultural there for a second. Okay. So, well, you're, then, then you shouldn't come on the crude life because this is just raw real talk here. You know, it's all, it's all good. But, well, how can people get in touch with you and this women's network again?
Make sure you plug the women's network because there's, there's a lot of women out there listening and they might want to join this. And, um, you know, there's a lot of different networks out there, the women Energy Network and, you know, the commerce ones and the women owned business ones.
Alicia Heiskell
And this is the one that counts when you go to register with your major oil and gas companies. They want to know if you're at W B E N C. Um, you can look that up on the internet, W B E N C and, um, there's local chapters everywhere. They'll come out, they'll vet you and, and, and get you certified. It's important to the big companies like Exxon BP, Chevron Shell. Um, it's not gonna necessarily get you the work, but it may get you looked at over the sea of other
Jason Spiess
people any way to stand out. I took advantage of being from Fargo for a long time now, you know, after season four, nobody cares anymore. But when that movie came out, boy, I was an exotic fruit for years, man. It's that guy from Fargo Anyway. Well, how can people get in touch with you guys
Bernadette Collins
and Jason, you know, I guess I'm pretty visible on linkedin. Alicia is our
Alicia Heiskell
website www dot G P S I N C dot com and, uh, Bernadette's email isby dot columns at Collins at GPS dot com and mine's a dot high school at GPS dot com.
Jason Spiess
We'll make sure we have the links available at the show page as well. So, all right. Well, thank you much for coming on and, uh, it's the Women's history Month. So we're celebrating and honoring women in business and women in history here at the crude life. So, thank you both for coming on today.
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The Crude Life Podcast: Bernadette Collins and Alicia Heiskell, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC)