The Exchanges

Q What was the name of the company, and what was it, what did it do?

A My company was US Emerald Energy, and it's still around. US Emerald Energy is an oil and gas exploration company, but We really bring investors together with the best deals we can possibly find. I did go through a phase where for seven years I had a operating company, which was an extreme headache. You know, I had a staff of about 40 people, geologists, geophysicists, land people. Very difficult to work with people to get their leases and to keep them happy, but that was a headache. I raised about four million dollars to do that, and it About seven years later, I had four million dollars, so I just shut that back down. But Emerald is a company I've had for over 23 years now, and that's still good.

AI assessment note: “My company was US Emerald Energy... US Emerald Energy is an oil and gas exploration company”

Q And on average, for average, one of these wells, how much would you raise from all the investors going in and then what would it actually cost you to drill the well?

A Oh, we would raise anywhere from, um, a few 100,000 to a million dollars, and we never had a hundred percent of a well. We'd only have a piece of the well, and, uh, that would pay for all the drilling, and we turnkeyed to completion, so we assumed all the risk and the overrun stuff, but, um, you know, we'd make about 20% there, but then where we really made our money is off the pieces of the wells that we owned ourself or put our money into those. Every time we had a joint venture, we also bought a piece of the well for our own account and were on along for the ride with our own money.

AI assessment note: “we would raise anywhere from, um, a few 100,000 to a million dollars”

Q Now you've done really well in oil. You, people can do the math, you know, seven dollar margin on Amazon, 14 dollar margin, right? Yeah. You're not making a living off the book. So, so you wrote it, you wrote it obviously for other reasons. Help us understand some of the other ways you're making money from your book. Are you speaking things like that?

A Well, honestly, you know, the, the book, when I first wrote the book, I told everybody, if I don't make a dime, it's fine. Cause I'm trying to get a message out. And, um, the book's always been a side project for me. It's sort of morphing slightly because, uh, you know, I'm getting lots of offers to come talk. I'm not getting any paid offers yet, but everybody wants to hear the story. Everybody loves the story. The local universities made me an adjunct professor because they love my book so much. They want to include it in the curriculum. Um, So I see this really, if this is ever going to be something to make me any money, it's probably going to be a slow process for me. It may take me a couple of years for this to make, you know, I'm thinking it may make me a few 100,000 or so in a couple of years. And, uh, the fact that I have no financial needs really, you know, that's great because it just, it's, you know, it's a little money that I can play with or whatever.

AI assessment note: “I'm getting lots of offers to come talk. I'm not getting any paid offers yet”

Q Yeah, interesting. Okay, cool, very good. So you made your first million, and you decide to write the book. Why not just keep making a bunch of money on oil? Why, why pause to write a book?

A Well, I've done very well. I mean, I have everything I need, everything I want, you know, and, um, I guess about two and a half years ago, I really wanted to get back, and the long version of this is I started writing a book about goal setting and all the stuff everybody knows, and it just, it wasn't unique, it wasn't special, I just couldn't find the right focus. My son, who's brilliant, uh, he looked at it, and he said, it's not very good, you need stories. He was, he really was a little more blunt, but he loves me dearly. And, um, so I went out looking for a story, and the first story I found was Frank Nunez. Frank Nunez came here when he was 16 years old. He, uh, came across the river. He was illegal. Uh, he never did anything but yard work. He was 35 years old. Uh, after only making minimum wage his entire life, English as a second language, no education. I mean, you couldn't have more things stacked against you.

AI assessment note: “I have everything I need, everything I want, you know, and, um, I guess”

Q Oh, you did. Okay. Yeah. And, and how is that doing?

A You know, audio books are, I don't know about everybody. My experience is the audio books go very slow. Um, you know, I just haven't sold hardly any audio books. And, uh, if you ask me later about my favorite book, I'm going to tell you it's accidental genius with Mark Levy. And Mark shared with me that, um, he thinks he sold maybe three audio books, which I'm sure is exaggerating. But it's a whole different thing. And the audio books, you don't make hardly any money because they will not let you set your price. They set the price for you. And it's pretty much not on how good your book is. It's just how long it is. It's just, you know, it's a horrible way to decide value on the book. So an audio book, I probably make four or 50 to five dollars on, and I don't know where the money goes.

AI assessment note: “My experience is the audio books go very slow. Um, you know, I just haven't sold hardly any”

Q 220 pages. Interesting. Okay, so you're, I mean, again, walk me through, like, yesterday. Most of your day, are you spending it on, like, trying to find paid speaking keys for the book? Are you spending on managing the oil company? Are you spending on investing? What are you spending most of your time on?

A Uh, you know, I shut, I'm, I'm in the process selling my oil company because my wife has Parkinson's and her condition takes a lot of time. So quite frankly, I spend most of my time taking care of my wife. And then when I have time, you know, I'll spend a little, I don't spend any time on the oil company anymore. It's on automatic mostly, and it's, I'm getting ready to probably sell it. So I don't spend any time on my oil company. So most of my time, uh, right now is, uh, my wife and I, when I have some time, I'm working on my next book. When I have an hour or two, I'll make a few phone calls out to look for a speaking engagement. Uh, it's, some of it's coming to me. This interview came to me. Uh, I just got off another interview that somebody called me and said they'd heard my interview and sounded good. Would I do one for them? So things are sort of coming to me. I'm not really busting, uh, my, how did we, how did we get connected again?

AI assessment note: “quite frankly, I spend most of my time taking care of my wife.”