Woman owned certified and that’s THE CRUDE TRUTH! On this amazing episode we visit with Female Entreprenuer Savanah Rose, who owns and operates Midstream Mats. She gives us her insight to being an entreprenuer with an oil and gas service company. Sit back and enjoy as she shares the Importance of being a HUB and SBA woman owned company and tells us what is important to any entrepreneur.

Highlights of the Podcast

03:53 – Savanna Rose Background
06:29 – Women’s Certifications
07:20 – The woman business enterprise
10:27 – The federal contracting dollars
10:49 – Certified women’s own business
14:18 – The first things learned being an entrepreneur
15:57 – About Savanna Rose Company
18:42 – Midstream Power and Electric
20:41 – The only woman owner out of that Union Hall
24:46 – A piece of advice of being an Entrepreneur
26:52 – Hunting Season this year

Please reach out to Savannah Rose on Linkedin

Check out StatusJet HERE

THE CRUDE TRUTH Ep.68 Savanna Rose, Owner Midstream Mats

Rey Treviño [00:00:00] As we dive into 2024, we continue our quest on highlighting great service companies in the oil and gas industry. And today we bring on another woman entrepreneur that’s kicking butt and taking names in the oil and gas industry. We talked to her next on this episode of The Crude Truth.

Rey Treviño [00:01:03] Nape is a proud sponsor of the Crude Truth. Be sure to register for the Nape Expo 2020 for February 7th through the ninth at the George R Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. Hurry and register today. Nape where deals happen.

Speaker 3 [00:01:19] This episode is brought to you by LFS chemistry. Committed to being good stewards of the environment and providing the tools so you can be too. Nape Expo where deals happen. Air compressor solutions when everything is on the line, Air Compressor Solutions is the dependable choice to keep commercial business powered up. Sandstone Group, Exec Crue. Elevate your network. Elevate your knowledge. Oil and Gas Workers Association, Pecos country operating. Fueling our future.

Rey Treviño [00:01:52] Well good morning. Good afternoon, good evening. Whatever. Whatever the time of the day it is. I cannot thank you, as always, for tuning in, watching, listening to another episode of The Crude Truth as we continue to barrel on into an epic 2024. I am just so excited today to bring on a guest that has been blazing a trail down there in the Beaumont Golden Triangle area, but also reaching out across the nation as far as the industry goes in. Actually a woman entrepreneur that is doing great things on the industrial side and also knows the ins and outs of the certifications that it takes to be a one woman entrepreneur here in the United States of America. My guest today is the one hailing from the Golden Triangle. Savannah rose with midstream mats and real Savanna. How are you?

Savanna Rose [00:02:45] I’m doing so well. Thank you for having me. How are you doing?

Rey Treviño [00:02:49] Oh, I’m doing well, I cannot complain. Trying to just stay warm here. In these winter months of Texas. It gets a little chilly this time of year.

Savanna Rose [00:02:56] Fantastic. It is. It is definitely chilly right now.

Rey Treviño [00:03:01] Well, Savanna, thank you so much for coming on. You know, as I shared with you in our pre meeting yet and when I reached out in Hazleton, I’d love to have you. Come on. I enjoy having, you know, female entrepreneurs on this show, especially in the only gas industry because you ladies, you know, you’re as I would I would say, you know, y’all are rough and tough and and hard to watch. And, you know, you guys are just blazing a trail. But then once I really begin to learn more about you and as you talk to you, you also shared about all the great certifications that you have, but also how you share that knowledge with others to really kind of, you know, you know, here I’m woman hear me roar and share that with others. So, you know, for all my listeners out there and all my viewers, you know, you know, where can they find you as we start this off and tell us a little bit about yourself?

Savanna Rose [00:03:53] Okay, so, I, I’ll start from the beginning. I am initially initially from Baton Rouge. And I had moved to Beaumont about 3 or 4 years ago and, came once in the industrial scene, and I and I had been in, oil field sales for a little bit, doing berms and things like that. The spill containment. So when I, when I had moved over here, I started working in a rental equipment, rental equipment rental place. Yeah. That we were doing, we were doing access matting. And I thought, you know, people complain about this act of matting all the time. It seems like something they do not want to mess with, you know, some of the product, because we were a distributor, not a manufacturer. Some of the products were subpar. They seemed to be discontent with the fact that the equipment breaks all the time. So, I mean, it’s wood. It’s going to break eventually. So with that said, when I left that business, I decided to give it a shot from a distributor standpoint. And that’s how my first business, midstream Max in rentals, came about. Officially opened in 2021. And, I am I have all the woman on certifications from federal state, as well. There’s a national one WBE which, which was given by the WB E and C, so it’s a woman business enterprise. And so that’s the one that the refineries would look at. while Texas itself does have hub which is historically underutilized. So I am also an historically underutilized business. So and they all have separate compliance audit.

Rey Treviño [00:05:49] Wow. Holy cow. That’s a lot in that. So. So you guys, you’re a distributor and a manufacturer then of, products that you rent and sell, is that correct?

Savanna Rose [00:06:00] Yes. We just started manufacturing about six months ago. So we we are not we we don’t run a full sawmill, but we do build our max.

Rey Treviño [00:06:11] Okay. Oh. Very cool. You know, with you being, you know, 2021, that’s technically not that long ago. And sometimes I’m looking at things already at 2025. And here we are barely in 2024, right? You know, let’s, you know, I want to kind of dive into you women’s certifications because I don’t think a lot of people know about those or how to properly get them. And as you mentioned, you know, they’re not utilized as much, are they?

Savanna Rose [00:06:40] No, they’re not utilized. And I think that there’s a lot of misinformation out there about, you know, about the difficulty of, of getting these certifications because they do that, it is difficult to understand when you’re first going through the material that you have to provide. You’re talking about all your financial things from the the way beginning when you first began your business, you know, your operating agreements, things like that. It’s it’s gathering a ton of information and it’s very, very intimidating. And not to mention, depending on what, which way you’re going, whether you’re going federal, state, or you’re doing the woman business enterprise that also dictates, you know, who you’re dealing with because you’ll be assigned somebody to kind of hold up your hold up your files. You’ll need to provide sometimes additional information if there’s things that you don’t have. It’s very intimidating process, I believe, for, the SBA, I think I waited six months to get certified.

Rey Treviño [00:07:45] Wow. Wow.

Savanna Rose [00:07:48] Yes. But it well, it is well worth the wait. There is a 5% set aside for but. Well that’s the goal, 5% set aside for woman on small business. That and that. So that’s federal. And so I am a certified woman owned small business. And you know, they don’t give you a big list of all the information that must be provided, but they really don’t tell you. Okay. So if I don’t have this, what can I do? You know, that’s that’s the learning curve. And that’s why there’s all these companies out there who, will take your money into to do the process for you at an exorbitant cost. But but.

Rey Treviño [00:08:30] Really. Well, you know, what made you want to go and get because you see women owned businesses all the time. And I’m thinking of a few different ones right now and it’s like. There’s a lot of extra work that goes into this, and you said it’s well worth it. What was something about all these certificates that was like, yeah, I’m sure you were like, oh my God. It’s getting like it’s it’s ever going to end. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe not. You were getting frustrated, but what was it that that, you know, light on the other side that really made this, like, wow. So worth it. What is it about it?

Savanna Rose [00:09:05] Well, I think that when you’re woman owned, certified, that you’re, you’re telling your customer, look, I run this business. This is my company. I’m not I have not been put in this position by anybody else. You know, and especially in this case, this business. I’ve started from the ground up. I wasn’t given anything by my family members or whatnot. You know, so I let them know that, you know, this is it. My father, my uncle’s business. This is my business. This is what I do in my livelihood. So I find that they take they take it much more serious eventually, because I have all three certifications so that three separate audits. Now, some of those are in person. They want they want to know that, you were writing checks, that you were, you know, you’re in charge of the, the billing that, you know, they want to they want to make sure that that is that you are, in fact, a woman in the highest position at the company.

Rey Treviño [00:10:07] Okay. All right. And then, do you by chance, so you mentioned that the SBA, knocks on or tries to say 5% for women owned business. Do you know what that’s 5% of of the amount or anything like that?

Savanna Rose [00:10:21] I’m not sure I have some paperwork. I’m not sure when it’s for for the 5% of the federal contracting dollars that they’re, but, so. And that’s another thing, too, because you have to look out federally, like, where the job is going to be if it’s doable for you. Luckily, in Texas, there’s more than enough work to be done here.

Rey Treviño [00:10:45] Yes.

Savanna Rose [00:10:46] So.

Rey Treviño [00:10:48] Well, now, to be a certified women’s own business, I guess you got about, 51% of the business or.

Savanna Rose [00:10:54] Yes, but you have that one, 51% of the business, and you have to hold the, the highest position. So, you know, president, CEO, whatever. And you also not only hold the highest position, but you have to be the final say, okay. So, you know, if there’s, a board, you’re going to have to be the, the primary decision maker.

Rey Treviño [00:11:20] Okay. Wow. Okay. Very nice. Well, let’s, let’s dive back just a little bit here. So, you know, 3 or 4 years ago, you decided to break out on your own. You’re like the quality of these, the mats that I’m selling are not. Well, let me go and be a distributor of these. What was it that made you want to make that jump? Was it just the quality of the maps or. I mean, come on, you’re an entrepreneur. And that’s what I love to have on my show. So let’s let’s dive into the entrepreneur that is Savanna.

Savanna Rose [00:11:50] Okay. So. I started hanging out with other entrepreneurs when I came here because that was that IPO. Everyone in the Golden Triangle that I’ve met in that I’ve become friends with, they’re all in oil and gas. This is a predominantly oil and gas area. Most, most everyone I know who works at a refinery or something of the sort. And so, you know, I think there was kind of there was so much support when I was discussing, like, you know, what I wanted to do at work when I was just managing. And I was like, you know, I could do this better. I wonder how difficult it would be to get the financing and all of this other stuff in place. And it turns out it is difficult, but it is not impossible. So and that’s what I really would like people to know is it’s it’s not that it’s hard, it’s just that you’ve never done it before. So you know, you have to learn. And once you learn, it comes naturally.

Rey Treviño [00:12:55] Well, what I find interesting is that here you were talking about said, hey, when I got here from that other state, and we’ll give Louisiana a shout out there. And, I think you said, I think you said something in the pre meeting about LSU or something like that. And so, so good for you. And but but no, you said you hope you’re not around entrepreneurs. And don’t get me wrong, I have my my friends that, like, I’m, I just, celebrated my 40th, 40th birthday and my closest friends that have been around since grade school and those people that have been with me through my ups and downs, and that’s that’s a circle, however. The circle that I hang out with on a daily basis is not them. It is a group of other successful individuals, and I do believe that you’re the average of the five people you hang out with the most.

Savanna Rose [00:13:47] Absolutely agree.

Rey Treviño [00:13:49] And so that that’s something that I do want to kind of say that, hey, I agree with you on that. Like once you give it a certain circle, you know. You know, you can even go with a cheesy, saying that. It’s like, you know, don’t tell your dreams to people that can’t understand that, that thing, you know, you want to be able to be with a group of like, hey, you can do that. So you got this idea, you now have the support group and now, you know, boom, midstream and Manson Rentals is a thing. You know, what’s what was one of the first things that you learned being an entrepreneur that was like, oh, okay, this isn’t like it’s written in the book or anything like that.

Savanna Rose [00:14:26] Taxes for one. Okay. Yes. Wow. Okay, so that was slightly devastating, but okay. I would say aside from that, because nobody likes to pay taxes, I would say probably getting initially the hardest thing was getting people to take me seriously, because in the very beginning, when I had just started the business, their first question is, well, how long have you been established? Well, this year, you know, so that’s not too reassuring for a lot of people. Luckily I was doing a lot of networking meetings and, leading some oilfield related stuff, and I had people come to my meetings, and this one time with one customer took a chance on me. And I believe it was it was my first month open and he spent $300,000 with me, I believe.

Rey Treviño [00:15:29] Okay.

Savanna Rose [00:15:29] So with that, he really and truly, I’ve always remembered that because he gave me an opportunity when I guess I didn’t necessarily, you know, he didn’t have to. There were other vendors that he’d sort of use, but he gave me an opportunity, and it worked out very well.

Rey Treviño [00:15:46] Well, you know, let’s talk about your company for a minute, you know, what is it that you’re selling? It’s called match rentals. Your website is, can you say for everybody out there that’s listening and watching?

Savanna Rose [00:15:57] Yeah. It’s, www dot midstreammats.com. So basically what we do is we manufacture, access roads. That’s going to be the three ply laminated, ours or solid oak mat. There’s seven inch thick. We are we, we are building these on the yard. So I try to make sure all of our customers have new mat, especially for lengthy jobs. I want everybody to have new equipment. And, you know, as, as a woman, I feel like I am highly detail. And I crack that whip about, you know, I want it represents me. I want it to be a fair representation. So I don’t want to send anything, you know, cruddy out there to a customer.

Rey Treviño [00:16:43] Right? Okay. And, you know, for, for, for everybody out there, you know, what kind of businesses you mentioned refineries earlier. And obviously, you know, what I’m picturing is that if I’ve got a drilling, project and the mine is just to grade or anything like that, I can call you up and and I don’t want to use the word The forklift things. But they kind of remind me of the bottom of the forklift. You know, where you put. I don’t know what they’re called. Anyway, the things that you put stack on stuff, and then the forklift goes into it and lift them up.

Savanna Rose [00:17:17] Okay. Like a pack.

Rey Treviño [00:17:19] What.

Savanna Rose [00:17:20] It like reminds you of a pallet?

Rey Treviño [00:17:22] Yeah. Pallet? Yeah. The pallet. But they’re way better than that. So. But I vision like then I’ve got a drilling, project we’re going to pad side, and I need you to come out and have your team lay out a bunch of those. Is that is that a fair statement?

Savanna Rose [00:17:38] Yes, that is a fair statement. Now, not every every Mac company offers installation. But but we do, you have to have your own equipment, or you would have to rent equipment to the job site to to lay it. You have to have guys, flaggers, that kind of thing. And and it all depends on the job to whether that, it’s going to be on the road. You know, that’s a completely different situation. Like right, for utilities right off the side of the road. And so yeah, we that’s actually a big customer of mine would be the utility companies because for their lawn trucks, they need max to, to access the area to repair the lines.

Rey Treviño [00:18:20] Wow. Okay. Very cool. And you know, what is it also like? Because you also have another company. And I don’t know if you want to do. Would you like to talk about that one?

Savanna Rose [00:18:30] Sure I can I can talk about both of the both other ones as well. Okay.

Rey Treviño [00:18:33] All right. Erica. So I’d like to talk about your other company, which is midstream power and electric. What are you guys doing over there?

Savanna Rose [00:18:42] Okay, so midstream power and electric. We had established this year, we are a union line company out of, 22, 86. So we are going we’re we’re doing maintenance. We do substation distribution. Yeah. Storm breezes. Hurricane. Damn. So that’s that’s where the direction that we are. Pretty much everything. They’re high voltage.

Rey Treviño [00:19:13] Okay. Yeah. So you’re, you mentioned storm. So basically with that company, then if the power lines go down, you are, getting out there to help put them back up and things like that. Or. What do you.

Savanna Rose [00:19:25] Right

Rey Treviño [00:19:25] Be. Okay.

Savanna Rose [00:19:26] Right.

Rey Treviño [00:19:27] What made you want to dive into that this year?

Savanna Rose [00:19:29] So that is a whole different story that, I’ll say when I moved here, I’m married into a family, lineman and, well. So my husband is not a lineman but his brother’s lineman. But he also he he’s builds rental businesses. So he did kind of help me with with Midstream Mats. And it was his it was his idea to, you know, kind of push me. He’s like, you can do this. You know, you’re you’re good at it. You’re good at sales. It’ll work out well. So his brother and I had kind of discussed, you know, what if because there’s so much set aside out there, what if we utilized the already established company with the safety record and did a DBA for the, high voltage work? So I went down and joined the union, and I have a picture, which is hilarious because I know that they are all thinking, what are you doing right now? But they was so welcoming and and super cool. So I believe I might be the only woman owner out of that union hall.

Rey Treviño [00:20:46] Holy cow. Well, you know, I do know that unions helped build America. There’s no and this or buts about that.

Savanna Rose [00:20:52] Right?

Rey Treviño [00:20:53] You know, what is it about being a part of a union that you find? You know, that’s pretty interesting, though. There any, stigmas that aren’t true about being part of a union that you can share?

Savanna Rose [00:21:04] So I would like to point out that the union does have a seven step training process. So you you, your journeyman lineman, you will they will usually be out of school from 2 to 2 and a half years. And so it is better training. But also, you know, with I feel with better training, better wages, better, benefits that you, you get a better worker also because the there’s a standard that the union holds there. There are people too. And, and plus, you know, the, the companies around here that are using union are looking for a skilled worker. And, and so I just that I was like, you know what? That sounds great. I would love because I can’t be on site every day. I need people that I can trust.

Rey Treviño [00:21:59] Oh, yeah. No. Having the right people. I mean, you know me and you know, we’re a family owned company here at Pecos and, you know, having the right people, you know, obviously, you know, us. We’re a pretty good, tight knit family. And we definitely trust each other. And and sometimes it’s almost like if one of us isn’t on the site, it’s like, you know what’s going on? Is everything right? But once you’ve been able to hire and and train and work with people and build that trust, you know, you do have other people that can do the job. And, you know, again, I mentioned, you know, unions help build America. My, my, my grandfather was part of a union down in San Antonio. And, my, my dad always says that that’s what put him through college, you know, put him through school was was a union. And so.

Savanna Rose [00:22:44] Right

Rey Treviño [00:22:44] Always, he always thinks the unions and I think he still donates to the union schools again. You know, there’s so many of them here in America. And, that Beaumont area is also, you know, you mentioned it about skilled labor. You know, I’ll say this, I think we give the Golden Triangle a hard time every now and then. But but the quality of individuals in the workers that come out of there are, are some of the best there is out there, you know, building, you know, that whole area, it’s just got so many great people that, that, that work hard and do great work. You know, I know, my father used to even do work down there at the shipyards many years ago. You were talking about taxes. That’s, actually how we got our break in. The oil and gas industry was writing accounting software for oil and gas companies. So, so I guess, you know, I guess one thing we can say here is pay your taxes. Is that right, Savannah?

Savanna Rose [00:23:37] Oh, 100%.

Rey Treviño [00:23:38] I mean, you know, I was talking to one of the sponsors of the show this morning. LFS chemistry Jim Holmes. And that, you know, kids are not taught anything about accounting. Our taxes are really real life stuff anymore in school. And it’s just such a hard place to do things. So, you know again you know learning how to do that stuff is very important. Right?

Savanna Rose [00:24:01] Right. And I and I definitely would like to, to add that it is very important to have a bookkeeper, even if it’s freelance, even if you just pay as you go, however you want to work at it, you must have a bookkeeper and you must have an accountant. This is not something that I would pursue without utilizing those, because there is a lot of money funneled in through oil and gas.

Rey Treviño [00:24:29] Yes. Yeah, we we can’t complain. There is a lot in the industry and it’s a good place to be. And so my next question from me, I was going to ask you, being an entrepreneur, what’s one piece of advice you could give not only other female entrepreneurs, but even the men out there, you know, a piece of advice, being an entrepreneur. Savannah.

Savanna Rose [00:24:52] I would say. I think that. Okay. So. So think this out appropriately. I would say that it’s a lot of advice. Then roll up into one ball and that is that. Have a good plan. But don’t be afraid to veer off because I am not. This is not 100% initially what I plan to do. We have had demand. We’ve had plan BS along the way. You know, see the you know. So I do think that you have to be resilient in that you have. So you cannot be afraid of you know, if I, if I was affected every time that I heard the word no, I would never leave the house. But, yeah, I think that sometimes being scared, prevents you from making a decision that could be life changing and beneficial to you. It’s. There are aspects that are difficult. As in, like I said, the funding, the taxes. But if I can do it struck me. Anybody can do it.

Rey Treviño [00:25:58] Well, I think that’s part of the stigma is that and this is I’m not going to say conspiracy theorist, ideas, but that people really just want you to go work for somebody else and be a worker bee and that you can’t do these things. And so I’m glad for you to at least say, hey, you can do it too, you know? So I think that’s one thing to be an entrepreneur with. And I always tell people is, hey, go out there and give it a shot. Try. And if you fail, that doesn’t mean you’re a failure. That means you just learned, you know, what is it Thomas Edison say? He goes, I learned a thousand ways not to make a light bulb or or something like that. I mean, that’s important to know, too, on how not to make something.

Savanna Rose [00:26:36] Absolutely.

Rey Treviño [00:26:37] So I cannot thank you enough. Savanna, you know, as we roll into 2024, you know, we’ve already, you know, hunting season’s over, and I see you’ve got a great spread there of, of zebra, and you got some pictures in the back. How’s hunting season this year for you?

Savanna Rose [00:26:52] Hunting season this year with, with my best hunting season by far. Okay. I did tag out in Duval County, so that can be South Texas. Between Freer and Hebbronville area.

Rey Treviño [00:27:06] Yeah.

Savanna Rose [00:27:07] And so I, I got two bucks this year. They’re both ten points, at the third. But the first one, I believe, went 138. Oh, okay. And the second one, which is the biggest deer I’ve killed yet? It was. Well, it was a ten going with, with the 11 foot kicker, but it was broken off. They had seen them on camera and just so happened nobody had seen them in person. Yeah. And so I was actually hunting with my stepdaughter, and we weren’t we were not hunting for me. We were hunting for her. Okay. Because I was on trophy duty. This is my first year hunting a trophy. But, they had they had moved me up on the roster because at that point there, they were aware that I’m not just going out to the stand in in pictures and hanging out that, you know, I do take this seriously. I do love hunting. I grew up hunting with my dad, which was more squirrel related than whitetail. But man, once you get on the whitetail.

Rey Treviño [00:28:13] You know.

Savanna Rose [00:28:15] There’s nothing like it. So, my stepdaughter actually ended up shooting a, 14 point and. Yes, but, well, it was it was a ten point, I mean, frying pan with three kickers. And then, it had the four kicker broken off. But so that was new at the time. But it was it was great because she got to shoot a deer and then the very next day. So after the hunt, she shot her deer. Nailed it. She’s a perch 13. Perfect shot. Yeah. And then so we were like, you know, what? Do you want to finish this hunt? And she’s super cool. So she was like, yeah, let’s finish the hunt so you can get one. Well, this big buck walks out and that was the deer that, I actually let pass that day because I couldn’t get a super clear shot. Okay. So I also was not at, at the distance 100% sure on the age. So I can only imagine me shooting someone’s three year old feature trophy buck. You know, they were great. So. So, I went, I took pictures to the best of my ability, and I went back and my brother in law was like, oh, no, that’s a shooter. He’s been on camera. And you better get back to the blind and go, you know, go get him. So I don’t normally do morning hunts, but the next morning, I woke up and went to the stand, and I did not leave. So, like, 930 in the morning, not ten maybe. And at the the last ten minutes, this deer walked out, smoked in. 45 yards. Probably. Oh, run! Yeah. And he scored 155. Beautiful deer. Very exciting. So.

Rey Treviño [00:30:04] Well, so would that be in the office? There’s not going to be a house. Now that you’re going to do so, I.

Savanna Rose [00:30:11] Think I’m doing, a pedestal mount, but it’s like a double pedestal mount with both deer. Yeah. And I was like, wow, that would be pretty amazing, right? Like, I on a bit of teakwood or something.

Rey Treviño [00:30:25] Yeah, that would be pretty cool. That would be really, really cool. Well, Savanna, I cannot thank you enough for coming on the crude truth and really sharing with us about women owned businesses and how those certifications can truly help out individuals, in the long term. And also sharing with us your entrepreneurial background and experience. You know, again, for our listeners and viewers out there, how can they find, you know, midstream mats and rentals and midstream power and electric.

Savanna Rose [00:30:56] You can, go to my website. Like I said, it was midstreammats.com. I’m also pretty active on LinkedIn, so you can reach me there or, our Facebook page. Yeah. And then, of course, there’s always, you know, my personal number. If there is anything needed around this area, everybody has it. Okay. So. Yeah.

Rey Treviño [00:31:25] Oh, man. Well, Savannah, again, I cannot thank you so much for coming on. And, we’ll see everybody here again on another episode of The Crude Truth.

Savanna Rose [00:31:34] Thank you.