Russ: This is The BusinessMakers Show, heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com. I'm very pleased to have with me now Brandy Obvintsev, Founder and CEO of Energy People Connect. Brandy, welcome to The BusinessMakers Show.

Brandy: Thank you so much, Russ. I'm very happy to be here.

Russ: You bet. Well, tell us about Energy People Connect.

Brandy: Well, Energy People Connect quite simply connects people across the global energy industry, and we do that in a myriad of ways because our clients have a lot of different needs in terms of making connections. We have an online social network, and we just launched the first Ad Net work for the global energy industry as well.

Russ: Wow, interesting, very interesting.

Brandy: Yeah.

Russ: And how long has the company been in business?

Brandy: About four years

Russ: Four years.

Brandy: Mm-hmm.

Russ: But the Ad Network is brand-new.

Brandy: It's brand-new, yes.

Russ: Okay. Now, a lot of people don't realize how global the energy industry is. I mean, I know people that work in it, and that's one of the things they enjoy the most -

Brandy: Absolutely.

Russ: - is they get to see these very exotic places and live there, but sort of, describe, do you have people that are part of your network all over the world?

Brandy: We do.

Russ: Okay.

Brandy: We have members from about 60 countries worldwide, and that's one of the biggest benefits to our network because people can go in before they take an assignment to a new country and they can connect with a member from across the world, and they've got that familiarity because of the membership in the network.

Russ: Right, right.

Brandy: They can ask candid questions and get the right answers.

Russ: My goodness.

Brandy: Yeah.

Russ: So, it seems to me like that's got to be a real valuable resource to people, particularly when they're relocating.

Brandy: Absolutely.

Russ: Okay. So, do you have samples of experiences that energy-industry people have had where they've used your network to perhaps make a transition easier?

Brandy: People use our network for transitions around the world, whenever they're negotiating salary packages sometimes, and they also use it when they decide whether or not to move their families to new locations, and the other thing that's really, kind of, neat is they often use our network to talk to people in other sectors in the industry. Unfortunately, the industry is a little bit siloed.

Russ: Okay.

Brandy: So, an engineer that finds himself in the upstream side of the business may make a difficult choice whenever they're going downstream.

Russ: Okay.

Brandy: But they can learn a little bit about it and make those choices.

Russ: Okay, my goodness. So, how many members are there in Energy People Connect today?

Brandy: There are about 3,000.

Russ: Wow, okay.

Brandy: Mm-hmm.

Russ: Well, and there's probably - I mean, the companies themselves probably don't provide this same sort of service, right?

Brandy: Some companies do, and that's something that's really exciting for us. When we started, there weren't a lot of social networks geared towards the industry.

Russ: Okay.

Brandy: Now there are a lot of them which is really great for us because we really believe the most important thing in our business is making sure that people across the global industry have conversations, so the more resources the better for us.

Russ: Okay. Now, it also seems to me like the industry is just really going through a resurgence right now.

Brandy: Mm-hmm.

Russ: I mean, the energy demand, as we all know, the demand is almost at problematic levels.

Brandy: Mm-hmm.

Russ: But it seems like there's so much exploration going on these days. Am I seeing that correctly?

Brandy: No, absolutely.

Russ: Yeah.

Brandy: Exploration is on the rise. There are a lot of challenges in terms of regulatory issues.

Russ: Right.

Brandy: I think that people are learning to engage across the board though, so that's very good for the industry.

Russ: Right.

Brandy: And people are really trying to figure out how to balance things. We've got a lot of exciting new technologies in alternative, but we really believe that the bridge is with hydrocarbon and alternative. We really need everything that we can get.

Russ: Okay. Do you know how many alternative energy people might be part of the network today or . . .

Brandy: Approximately 20 percent -

Russ: Wow.

Brandy: - of our memberships are alternative industries.

Russ: That's really interesting.

Brandy: Yeah, yeah.

Russ: Okay. Okay, now let's move on to this new idea, this Ad Network; describe that for us.

Brandy: Well, we're, sort of, like a clearinghouse.

Russ: Okay.

Brandy: Whenever I was doing advertising, public relations, brand management and that sort of thing for the industry, I was responsible for purchasing advertising and managing that process with a lot of different publishers, and we're really fortunate we have a lot of great publishers in our industry. We also have a lot of very small, niche publishers that are very regional, that you know, are hard to find.

Russ: Right.

Brandy: So, we help advertisers connect with those publishers, reach out to new markets and new frontiers.

Russ: Okay.

Brandy: So, it's, kind of, exciting.

Russ: New markets meaning international markets that -

Brandy: Absolutely.

Russ: - might be in some of these obscure locations.

Brandy: Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

Russ: Wow.

Brandy: Mm-hmm.

Russ: Well, that's really cool. So, the fact that you used to do advertising -

Brandy: Yes.

Russ: - that's what stimulated this idea?

Brandy: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Russ: Okay. So, what if somebody is interested now after they've heard this, how do they find you and connect the dots?

Brandy: They can send me a note.

Russ: Okay.

Brandy: Brandy, with a "Y," @EnergyPeopleConnect.com -

Russ: Okay.

Brandy: - or go online to EnergyPeopleConnect.com and find us there.

Russ: Okay.

Brandy: And we'd absolutely love to have them on board.

Russ: Cool, real cool. Before I let you go -

Brandy: Mm-hmm.

Russ: - let's go back to the very beginning of Energy People Connect. What triggered the idea for you to start this?

Brandy: Well, I was very fortunate in that I have had responsibility for communications on the upstream side of a company and the downstream side of the company, and a lot of the technologies that I saw on the upstream side I thought might be relevant on the downstream side, and when I introduced researchers, they weren't as excited, but when I put them in a social situation, they would make connections and that sort of thing.

Russ: Okay.

Brandy: So, we realized that if it was a very friendly environment, that people in our industry would innovate together with new inspiration across the board. So . . .

Russ: Well, that's good. That's great.

Brandy: Yeah.

Russ: That's a good story.

Brandy: So, yeah.

Russ: All right, Brandy. Well, thank you a whole lot for sharing that with us.

Brandy: Thank you, I appreciate it.

Russ: All right. That's Brandy Obvintsev, Founder and CEO of Energy People Connect. This is The BusinessMakers Show, heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com.