Come learn about an exciting new show built around the GREAT stuff going on in Oil and Gas industry. To learn more about The Surge click here. And get in touch with MJ its mj@thesurge.com
Mark: Hey, folks let’s learn something new about the oil and gas industry.
All right. Today, we’re in the beautiful Locke Bryan Studios in Houston, Texas that’s why everything looks and sounds so good and we’re sitting here with MJ. Hey, MJ.
MJ: Hey, Mark.
Mark: MJ is doing something very exciting in oil and gas and it’s called?
MJ: The Surge.
Mark: So, The Surge is what, MJ?
MJ: It’s the first live streaming video network around the business of energy and it was geared towards millennials, but everyone will love it.
Mark: And you’re doing something that you don’t often see online, you’re actually telling the truth, the good stuff about oil and gas.
MJ: That’s right. I’ve produced hundreds of hours of national television shows and I’m very proud of that. I’ve also worked on the content marketing side, but I was asked to look into the energy business and I have to tell you I’ve told this a million times to a lot of different people that this is one of the most exciting businesses I have ever encountered because you’ve got, you know, politics, you’ve got geo-politics, you’ve got geology, you’ve got science, you’ve got innovation, you’ve got technology, you’ve got entrepreneurship. I mean there’s so many great narratives and we’re going to take a little more fun and creative license with it and also in the process I hope change the public consciousness around this business in this industry.
Mark: Yeah. How awesome is that, right? Somebody’s going to tell the true narrative about this good stuff about oil and gas; what we do, what we touch, the people that are involved just a great story.
So, you found me, so I’m going to play a part in this folks, so stay tuned. And, but you have actually a pretty exciting casting ensemble, don’t you?
MJ: Right. I mean the cornerstone of the network is going to be a daily live streaming show. A daily show, an hour a day with an ensemble cast of younger people in the industry. You were one of those people, not quite on the youngest side of the scale, but certainly you bring sort of a gravitas the way the news guys on MTV, the old guys the old news guys at MTV news.
So, but the thing that’s important is that we can have an honest conversation. The Pope says, “Hey, climate change is ruining the world, we’re all filthy people.” It’s a place for us to have a form to fight back or to push back or to at least have some other ideas around what people are saying. I think there’s a very narrow idea of what this industry does, the people in it, the science that comes out of it, the technology that comes out of it. So, this ensemble cast will be able to talk about things, but will have live pictures from the world of oil and gas. We’ll have global contributors, they are part of our ensemble cast, we’re going to create a little family.
So, if you see me looking around trying to cast people within the business and please or if you’re interested in being part of that daily show, by all means, mj@thesurge.com, you can contact me. But we’ll also have series that we’re going to have within the show, so we might do an episode of – we have things called Engineering Awesome, Blame Science, we’re going to do an Iron Chef thing on the oil rigs. We have lessons with legends, we have just a variety.
We just shot something called Jilted and it’s got this guy, Alex Epstein which I know a lot of people, you know his book The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels. And he took on one of the young [turks] which is an online network thing, it’s 80 million millenials month and they have a very heated conversation and I think you really walk away with all of you in the industry know the power in The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, well, a lot of people outside the industry do not. So, our goal is to not only use this platform to really celebrate and tell great stories and have fun and kind of put a Hollywood twist to a lot of them, right?
But also, to get that same content because it’s going to be fun and compelling out to other mainstream media. So, hopefully changes people’s minds about – or at least informs them about what this industry is truly about.
Mark: Yeah. That is fun and exciting and great stuff. And MJ, there’s something rather quickly I want to back you up a little bit. So, you’re actually looking for people to help, right? You’re looking for sponsors, you’re looking for oil and gas companies that want to play a part.
MJ: That’s right.
Mark: That want to tell their story.
MJ: That’s right.
Mark: You’re looking for people.
MJ: We’re looking for people show ideas. We have a list of about – a slide of about twenty five programs and then we’ll all be part of the daily – the daily show is the cornerstone of it, but you’ll see series within the daily show.
And so, we’re looking for show ideas, we’re looking for people, we’re looking for narratives. If you’ve got some, you know, we’re going to do something like technology [wild cares] where people are trying to, you know, get funding for their latest piece of technology or to reveal the latest piece of technology or things like that. If you have great stories or companies doing great things and don’t worry about how to make it entertaining, that’s our job. But, if you have, you know, people, ideas, or if you’d like just you said to be a sponsor that’s also a welcome addition too, so.
Mark: Yeah. So, if anybody out there wants to get in touch with you and help with this, where should they go?
MJ: mj@thesurge.com.
Mark: Yeah. And, we’ll put a link up in the show notes folks, so you don’t need to be writing anything down. So, MJ thank you so much for your time today.
MJ: Thank you. I’m delighted. I’m thrilled to be part of this business and get my hands in the meatloaf. I’m learning every single day and so if you see me at a party or at an event or at your company, say hi.
Mark: Yeah. Come up and say hi. So, folks I hope this helped, we will see you next time.