#27: Transferrable Skills and Changing careers from Oil and Gas to renewables with Omar Morales
Description:
Tina Marie and Omar discuss that people tend to have more transferrable skills than they think, and how they apply to new industries. We also learn what is important in renewables and how to prepare for making a career switch. Omar also shares some of his important tweaks he made to help keep his energy up and de stress as well as talk about importance of adding these to your routine.
Bio:
Omar Morales is the Director of Program Management at Advano, a battery startup, and the founder of The Omar Project — a website dedicated to the art (and science) of project management. Over the last decade, his work has taken him to new cities, new states and even new countries. From the United States to Singapore to Malaysia, Omar has managed projects not just in the millions, but in the billions. When he’s not busy being a project manager, he enjoys hiking, camping and skiing with his wife Phoenix and their son Amias. Omar is currently based in New Orleans, LA.
Links:
Twitter: @theomarproject
Instagram: omarxproject
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/omar-morales1
The Omar Project podcast. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-omar-project/id1525106709
Tina Marie St.Cyr (00:01):
Hello and welcome. This is Dean Ray, and you are on the light, your life podcast. Thank you so much for lending your time and your attention. And as always, we are going to be learning from an amazing soul who has surmounted his own odds. Come through his own challenges, homes that dark night of confusion and landed at a place where he is in total fulfillment and love of his life. We want to tap into his knowing and tap into a story. So hang tight, we're going to have an amazing ride. My guest is Omar. Miralis. Omar is the director of operations and projects at [inaudible] a battery startup located in new Orleans. He's also the founder of the Omar project, a website dedicated to the art and science of project management. Over the last decade. His work has taken him to new cities, new States, and even new countries from the United States to Singapore, to Malaysia.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (00:53):
Omar has managed projects, not just in the millions, but in the billions. When he's not busy being a project manager, he enjoys hiking, camping, and skiing with his wife, Phoenix and their son Elias. And there's a little baby on the way Omar is based in new Orleans. He was originally in Houston. We're going to tell that story of how he moved to new Orleans is just a magical story. You're going to want to pull this into your soul too, and it's going to inspire you. So Omar, thank you for being not only a friend, but definitely our guest today here on light your life.
Omar Morales (01:23):
Thank you Tina, for having me, I'm really excited to be here. I'm excited to be having this conversation with you. I've been waiting to have it for quite a bit and I just would love to share kind of all the things that you know, we've talked about a lot as friends. And now I think I would say now that you know that we've known each other for quite a bit. Yeah,
Tina Marie St.Cyr (01:41):
We can. And we are going to be diving into a couple of takeaways that for our audience members, the transferable skills that you have in your career, in your acumen, whether you're a business owner and an executive or an individual contributor and a professional, they are valuable. And we want you to be able to take inventory of those today. Also, Omar, you're going to be sharing your story about moving out of LNG into renewables. And I know that's a common topic right now. We get a lot of current professionals that come to us saying, Hey, there's a mass Exodus, Exodus out of O and G. Even though that that industry is not dying, it's just a lot of those skills are now transferring into renewables. Like, you know, they need to, and then also we're going to be wrapping it up. Cause I'm going to ask you some personal questions about your own daily habits and what you've learned about yourself to stay prime as an executive at a startup.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (02:30):
So I'd like to start with that version of your life. That was before you, you reached out and said, Hey, I needed to make some shifts in my career. Not that where we find ourselves, because oftentimes where we find ourselves, we need to take inventory and have a, you know, a genuine appreciation for where we are yet. We can also know that there's something more on the horizon. We don't need to make where we are wrong to go to where we need to be. And so you and I met whenever you were at that season of your career and of your life saying, I know that there's something more, I'm not exactly sure where it is or what it is yet. I simply feel that pool. Do you remember that time?
Omar Morales (03:06):
Yeah, I remember it vividly. I think don't want to say it was like a midlife crisis, but it was more of a career crisis. As far as I had always had this deep desire to join a startup or start my own company. Like that was something that was burning inside of me for a long time. And I think it started as a, kind of like a, a small interest, but then it eventually became just something that just wouldn't go away. And where I was at, which was one of the, you know, top three oil and gas firms in the world. Although the, the job was extremely fulfilling, fulfilling, and experience was great. There was that part of me that really wasn't, I wasn't really using it. So it was kind of just atrophying while I was learning all these other things. And part of me was thinking, okay, well, when am I going to do this?
Omar Morales (04:04):
How would I even do this? Isn't even possible. Maybe it's not anymore. And there was just a lot of questions in my mind about, you know, what, what do I do in the next five, 10 years? And what do I want, what do I want my life to be? And how do I want to be as a, as a person? And honestly, when we started, I had just probably had my first, my first, well, I had a minus. So that was definitely my first kid. And I had felt the time of like, okay, things are going to get busier. I need to like really get a handle on where I'm going.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (04:39):
Yeah. And we do come to that place in our lives. Like if I do not make the leap now, if, if, if this seed inside of me of not, is not nourished, I may get passed over. And that dream may never come to fruition because life takes its own course. Right. And were you there?
Omar Morales (04:55):
I was probably, I mean, I was close to being there. I was to a point where I was like, I need to make a decision. I can not keep, I can not keep tinkering and always spending time spending energy on things. If, if that's not ultimately what I'm going to end up doing. There's this saying? A lot of people say it's like, wantrepreneurs are people that sit on the fence for long periods of time. And I was becoming that. And I actually, I was actually, I would say probably doing more than that because I started up a couple of businesses while I was at the company I was working at, but I wanted to do more. I had that itch to do more. And that part of me needed to have some sort of resolution. So, yeah. Right.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (05:39):
Yeah. And you, we put your shingle out, we started to, you know, brand you, and sometimes that's a hard thing whenever we're in an organization and there's that Freire interpretation, I'm going to make a leap. And what do people think? What if they find out, am I going to risk at all? Am I really supposed to do this? Can I just be happy with where I am? And you have this, you have, you know, we have our family backing or we have our support network around us that says, you know, like, why can't you just be happy? You've got it good. And even if we've got a good there's that, like you said, that ache for more, and I know Phoenix, your, your wife was supporting you because she was in your proximity to Haley going, okay, you need to do something here, dude. And so we, we helped Brandy, right?
Omar Morales (06:20):
Yeah. Yeah. And it's also, I mean, it's also understanding too. I think part of it was there's the branding part. And then part of it's realizing that it's okay to do these things. Like it's very natural for people to have these wants and these desires to, to do beyond. And in fact, I would say it's probably the, the rare person that's in a, you know, some of these firms that are some of the best in the world, like they're, they're picking from the top of the top, right? Like when you were in college, you were at the top of your class, when you were in high school, you were at the top of your, these guys, like everyone has these dreams of what they want to do in their life. And it's, it's, it's okay. It's normal. A lot of people have that and expressing that in a way, why you can do your job, be productive, perform, and also do that. I think it's healthy. It's like exploring a part of you that needs to be, to be to, to be used.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (07:14):
Yeah. And as we say here at bonfire above the line is growth, right. We need to have that growth piece of ourselves and give ourselves that permission. And so you left O and G, which, you know, at a time where, you know, you did this right before there was a lot of downside, right? There's, there's a big calling of that industry over the last year. And, and you got out, you know, you didn't have that foresight, but people could say it was good luck. You did it. And then you, you had, I remember this, you had on your list of wants, and we have the system here it's like would be nice. Well, what are the would be nice is, is that you and Phoenix had said, would it be nice to get back to new Orleans because you've lived in new Orleans before? Correct.
Omar Morales (08:00):
Yeah. Well, so we lived in new Orleans for 10 years and yeah, we loved it. I mean, we were there for 10 years there. We'd grown to really call that home for awhile. And from there we had moved to Houston. So yeah, we, we really, we really fell into new Orleans and it's a hard place. It's a city of people have lived there. It's very polarizing. Like you either fall for it really hard, or you really quickly realize you don't want to live there, but we fell for it very hard and you know, we love it.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (08:29):
Yeah. And so in your next leap, in that place where you said, I'm either going to create my own startup, or I'm going to be part of a startup, having that ache inside of your soul and wanting to be part of that creation of something meaningful and impactful. You put that energy out there. It's almost like a tractor beam and all these other ones that were part of that also, including reaching into new Orleans, you got a call and an opportunity that, that landed in your lap.
Omar Morales (09:01):
Yeah, yeah. That was timing really worked out. So the the, the founder, you know, one of the co-founders reached out and was like, Hey, we're about to scale. We need help. We're going to need somebody that knows how to take a company or an organization from producing at a level that's, you know, small scale to then major. And that's, that's honestly, if there's an expertise that I have, one of the, I mean, this is one of my core expertise, which is doing things, growing things and building things at a tremendous scale, because one of the things we'll and gas teaches you really well. And one of the things that I was working on, I got the privilege to work on where do these mega billion dollar projects and in these mega billion dollar projects, when you see the intricacies and the moving parts of 20,000 pieces of equipment, getting to one spot across the world, coming from like 50 different countries being built, when some of the things take over a year to build, you really understand how to, what scaling really means. And yeah, I was excited because it was an opportunity in a new space. It was in batteries. It was in renewables. I actually did feel like we were making a shift away from fossil fuels. And I mean, that, wasn't the only reason I I'd always had that edge, but there was obviously for me it was okay, this is an opportunity that looks like it's growing. And I, and I was like, let me, let me scratch this edge. And I'd be in an opportunity that looks like, Hey, there, it looks like there's something here,
Tina Marie St.Cyr (10:37):
Something meaningful. I know that's been the center of your core values is to be part of something impactful. Can you speak toward that? Cause there's a lot of the people in the world right now that, that have that growing soul need of, we want to be part of something that's going to help move humanity, fold forward culture forward, you know, just awareness and consciousness forward.
Omar Morales (11:02):
Yeah. I think for me I see it as, and this is, you know, after a lot of reflection, it's just, we, we spend so much time at work or wherever we're at putting in a lot of hours, putting a lot of you know, dedication and we expect something in return. And we all say, yeah, well we expect a salary, which, okay, everybody gets a salary and you know, and on some of us are very blessed to have beyond what probably other people do have in the salaries or what the average person might have, but we're always seeking more than that. Like there's more to it than just the money. There's the, the impact side. Like, what are you learning? What are you, where are you growing? Where are you being challenged? And then like Al ultimately too, like, what are you doing to the world?
Omar Morales (11:45):
Like, what's your IM what's what, what footprint are you leaving in the world? And I think for me, the move was part of me just naturally growing and, and trying to continue to challenge myself. Like there were so many risks moving, making this move, whether a moving to a new industry, moving to, to a city a lot of risks that I took on, but the challenge of it to me was very exciting because like on the flip side of it on the upside, it's like, wow, this could, this could be something, you know, incredible for growth. And so far it's been a really, the growing that I've experienced has been tremendous just from a, from a while. Like this is a startup while I'm seeing things that I haven't seen before, and we're moving super fast. So you have to learn and you have to experience all these hard things because there is no, there's no way around it.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (12:43):
You stay in the game. Right. And see where it goes, like you're on the surf board and the waves taken you. Yeah. It's awesome. And so I know that we, we wanted to also share about transferable skills because, you know, whenever we have the skills and the acumen and the experience that we've already gathered, how do we articulate that? Or how do we look upon ourselves with our skill sets and have the faith and the knowing and that confidence that those skills of where we are can translate and transfer into other arenas? Any, any advice there?
Omar Morales (13:16):
Yes. I would say everyone that's listening has skill sets that are extremely transferable. Like we may not, they may not seem obvious because, you know, for somebody like me, I was only in oil and gas for almost 15 years. So all I knew was that one industry, and I knew how they operated, but I didn't see renewables. I didn't see startups. I didn't see all these different aspects of what, you know, anybody could, you know, what, what exists in the world. But when I, when I made the switch, I realized really quickly that all the things that you learn in oil and gas are so critical to so many other industries, especially the, the learnings from, you know, project management from the people skills. That's none of that. Stuff's going away. All that stuff is not only transferable, but it's the same. Like there's no learning curve there.
Omar Morales (14:10):
It's, it's the same exact thing. And to me, one of the great things about sometimes being in these companies or oil and gas is their training programs are phenomenal. Like they put you through the paces of three years of do this, then do this, then learn this little skillset first, and then the second year. So if you're a grad student, which I started as a grad, you really go through the gamut of so much learning that, you know, you ha you are extremely valuable. And I think sometimes people don't realize how valuable they are in those spaces.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (14:45):
[Inaudible] I think that's very true. In fact, you and I had those conversations too, you know, being able to own value. And I love that, you know, earlier on in our interview and our talk here, you've even said, these are, this is something I'm excellent at. This is something I'm really great at it's, it's not easy for us to look in the mirror or to even have a conversation with somebody else and, and really claim our greatness claim, our excellence claim, our genius, and not be boastful just simply own it. Could you speak toward that for others?
Omar Morales (15:15):
Yeah. I think it's extremely important to know that because I'm moving into a new organization or moving into a new role if, if it's hard for you to kind of know where your real strengths are, it's hard for you to, to know what your foundation is going to be. And the reason I say this is because now having kind of the hindsight of, of leaving one industry where I was very comfortable and moving to another one, I could bank my my move or my expertise on hand. Look, I know, I know this thing very well, and I bet that I can pick up how it works in this other industry. And I was right on those beds, but most of us would be if we, if we just said, okay, I know, Hey, look, I'm a great communicator, or, Hey, I'm a great, I'm a great manager.
Omar Morales (16:03):
I know that if I go into this other industry, that's not changing. Like yeah, the, the, the, the fundamentals may change. The, the people may change, but you're still, you're still gonna have that, that gift it's going to translate super well to whatever else you move to. And kind of understanding what that core one that you have that people really recognize you for. That's very important for me, that took a lot of, a lot of self-reflection. It took a lot of asking. It took me doing some three 60 surveys to try and really understand things and learning from people and saying, okay, the, okay, I didn't know I was good at this. I didn't know I was not good at this. That's great. That helps me learn. And I think those things are very important too, to kind of get on that journey. And then that's, that's good data, but then for me to make the switch and then test it to say, okay, look, now I'm getting out of my comfort zone.
Omar Morales (16:55):
Now I'm going to move into something that's very uncomfortable for me. Let's see what happens. I trust in myself. I trust in God, I'm going to just put it out there and let's see what happens. And what will happen is if you're successful, which I believe Mo I think people will be is that you'll learn well, like the strengths. I thought I had our way, they are strengths. They're definitely their strengths. No matter where I go, it doesn't matter where I'm at. I can always count on these things. Kind of lifting me up no matter where I am. That's fine.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (17:26):
Awesome. And, you know, take that leap, right? The leap scarier than we make it. I mean, is it, is it, do we make up our own fear and our own trepidation so much that we just keep ourselves stuck?
Omar Morales (17:40):
Yes. So it's so true because it's so easy to do that. It's so easy to diminish or put down our achievements because we're looking around and this is something I would do is like, look around and you're with all these excellent people. They're all the top of their class. Everybody is excellent and everybody's performing well. And you, and it looks almost like, Hey, I'm just average or, Hey, I'm just, you know, whatever. Like, but what you don't realize is that when you get out of that, when you get out of that zone, like there are things there's reasons. They picked you up. There's reasons you were in that company. You are achieving there. If you've made it this far in oil and gas and you, and your still have a job with the same company that you did two years ago, there is a reason that you're still there. There is a reason, and you need to be fully clear and understand why you add value to that company, because they would have let you go over the last year and a half if they didn't or if you didn't.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (18:40):
Yeah. And so if you're not, if somebody is not an it, how do I put this? If someone's not happy where they are, I just talk about that wherever you are in your life, be it you're running a business because you and I both run businesses, right. You're, you're running a business. Maybe you're in a role you don't like, or you're at a company you don't like, or maybe you're in an industry you don't like, or maybe you're in a city. You don't like, if they're in a place where they're unhappiness, what advice would you give them?
Omar Morales (19:07):
You have to ask to me, it was asking yourself, the question is, what would I regret more? And that was a very powerful question for me is what I regret, not trying more or what I regret trying, and then failing. And for me, the answer was not trying. And that in itself was what kept bothering me. And, and knowing that that was a true answer. That was really what I realized. You know, if I was 80 years old and somebody asked me, you know, what would you regret? I knew I would always regret not trying. And therefore I had to do it. And then it became, once I knew that, then it became, okay, well, how do I overcome the fears to do it? Because then that's, that's another story. How do you overcome the fear of actually jumping or leap or taking?
Tina Marie St.Cyr (19:59):
And so, do you remember some of the strategies that use to contain that fear and tell the truth and, and move through it?
Omar Morales (20:06):
Yeah. There's a lot of lies that come up when you're going to do something, I think, or that's something that's scary or that creates fear. Perceptions is one big, one about, okay, what am I doing? Is it going to mean that my income's going to lose? So I think knowing where the is coming from, like for me, and for, I think most people, it comes from either I'm going to not make money or in common, I'm going to go broke or I'm going to get embarrassed. I'm going to fail in public. And then what are people going to think about me? But it's incredible because when you take the leap or, and you start to actually explore, I would just say, stick your toes in the water. Just explore a little bit, talk to people that have done it. Talk to people that have figured out a way to do it ethically.
Omar Morales (20:50):
And what I mean by that is that the things that we perceive sometimes as being, you know, unwritten rules and corporations or unwritten rules in the world, sometimes aren't really rules. They're just kind of things we think in our head that really haven't been tested. So I would say, test those things and ask the questions like, Hey, if I do this, does this mean this is this bad for me? And, and you will be shocked that a lot of people will be like, you're not the only one that's asked this many people have come and asked this question. We're actually letting like 50 people in the company. Or like hundreds of people are doing this and you have no idea. Not
Tina Marie St.Cyr (21:28):
It. Tell us about it. I remember you did. We did. We went through this cause you wanted to start a podcast and you wa we have the Omar project. So if you guys aren't yet listening to Omar's podcasts, that's awesome. I want you to write this out easy. It's called the Omar project. Go find it. There's a website, the Omar project go find it. And so I remember we were working together and you're like, I want to get this message out there. I want to start a movement around project management and the in true project management skills. Right. And I remember you thinking, what are they going to say inside? You know, the company you're working for.
Omar Morales (21:59):
Yup. Yeah. And yeah. And you know, you got to ask, you ask, and you do it, the legal and that, you know, that you do go through the right channels. And most people are supportive of it. And honestly, like all the fears were, Oh, people aren't gonna, people are gonna think this is like I'm I, you know, like I'm not with it. Or people are, I had so many fears come up and the reality was, people are like, Oh, that's awesome. Great idea. That's cool. Supportive. I was just like blown away, blown away. And, and I think that speaks well for the company, because I get to say like, Hey look, they, they, you know, I thought that was very supportive of them, but it's also speaks well to know that, you know, it's a common thing. People want to do more things. That's just human nature. That's how humans are. Yeah.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (22:46):
And we do want to support each other. I mean, at the end of the day, companies are made of human beings and the human needs that drive me, drive, you drive another human being. We all have the same needs and the highest human need among all of us every single day, every single moment is contribution. When we can contribute to another person and support their greatness, we move out of ourselves into a higher order of being, and it helps all of us collectively. And so that's what I could feel that was happening in the company. In fact, you even had the ability to interview some of the people, the project managers within your firm, because they're like, Hey, interview me. I'd like to be on your podcast.
Omar Morales (23:23):
Yeah. I actually have one coming up in about a month. That's so cool. It's full. It goes full circle. It's awesome.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (23:32):
That is awesome. We are in a collective of positive people moving in positive directions if we only look in that perspective. And so you mentioned perception, right. That perception that we have, it could easily go into fear. And the strategies that you used to overcome fear was just to take action, you know, put your toes in the water. And is there another strategy that you found yourself using whenever that fear, mind, want to take over your thinking and keep you stuck
Omar Morales (24:00):
You to be the taking action was the most effective, but the hardest I have, I have actually started a new strategy that I love, which is taking notes down, or we're not notes. Journaling. Yeah. So when like things happen in my life where I either feel fear, I feel kind of lost, confused. I started, I'm never journaled. I'm not, you know, writing for me. And I do, I have a blog, but I, and I write for that. But other than that, you know, I don't frequently. Right. So, and I never journaled, but what I've noticed is that if I'm able to journal and write down the fears that I have, and then look at them on paper and then go through them, like, I don't know why. I just feel it's like the fear level goes from a 10 to a two after I'm done writing and processing.
Omar Morales (24:52):
Because a lot of times the fear is just this little voice in your head. That's saying you can't do that, or you're going to go broke. Or what about your family or all these things it's coming up in your head. But when you put it down on paper and you actually see the real, like the real impacts of what could happen, you're like, wait yeah, that's not going to happen. No, I have a degree or I have this, I have an advanced degree. Like, it'll be fine. Like I will be okay. And you see it. And all of a sudden it's like your brain can't fight that reality anymore, at least for me. So I think that's been a powerful thing. I think obviously talking to people that can uplift you that can, that can remind you of the greatness that you have is very important.
Omar Morales (25:35):
And that could be your wife. That could be somebody like a coach that could be, you know, a close friend, those types of people that like live that breathe into you, that live into you, that can take and really show your truth when you're going through difficult times. I think that's very helpful. Yeah. There's a, and then one other thing for me, I, and I noticed this just there could be habits that are helpful for people. Like, for me, that was exercising. Exercising became fundamental to, to me fighting off some of those thoughts. And like, just knowing that, Hey, no matter what I do, I'm going to wake up in the morning and work out and I'm going to push myself harder than I think I can. And just by doing that and finishing that I would get some sort of validation that, Hey, you can, you can do hard things. And that would help me throughout the day or, or, you know, throughout the week.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (26:27):
That's awesome. In fact, that's a great segue into what we want to go into is your your morning habits. And yes. Exercise has been proven that whenever we move our body, we move our emotion. We move our minds, then greatness can come in and through us. So take us into Omar. What are your morning routines? What are you hanging your hat on as this is, this is how I start my day.
Omar Morales (26:51):
So my, my morning routine is always going to start. It didn't use to, so let me give some backstory. I used to hate working out in the morning and it was not a thing that I would do, but I would find that I wasn't I would, I would be challenged working out at launch. And then obviously after having a kid, it became almost impossible. So, but I decided I was going to work out and that meant I had to start waking up really early. So my first thing that I do is I get out of bed and I start working out that my routine has slightly shifted because I also do some work in the morning, very early in the morning on the Omar project stuff. But it's always a workout in the morning, very early. Like it will be earlier than work time.
Omar Morales (27:35):
And that helps kind of set my day because that is what gives me, I think, a mindset, a mind shift into positive mind state. It allows me to reflect on the day it allows me. It's almost like time for me to meditate. It feels to me like a meditation. I usually go for a run that, you know, takes about 20 to 30 minutes. But in that time I'm thinking a lot and I'm by myself. And I'm just thinking now, any to me, any type of exercise like that, where you can just get away, whether it's yoga, meditation ex you know, running anything, even group classes, like they're all great because you can, you can reconnect with that body and mind connection. And for me, it's so impactful. It's like, I know the difference between a day that I do it. And I do that.
Omar Morales (28:24):
I don't, it's just very obviously, and yeah, that was big for me. Another big thing for me is well, this is in the morning routine, but more of a change in lifestyle habit, but it impacted my morning as I started, I stopped drinking late in the evenings. And as much as I used to, because I didn't want to have the impact in the morning because I knew it was preventing me from doing a lot of these things. So that's just habits that help my cause. I really wanted to just focus on having a great morning
Tina Marie St.Cyr (28:55):
And having the energy, right? Yeah. Having energy because that's what fuels our mind, which fuels our thinking, which fuels our productivity, which fuels our self-confidence right. And our availability for others. This is awesome. Are there any characteristics in your team, the people that you look for to add to your team since you're, you're the director over operations and projects at Advanta, which is an amazing company. I love all that Advantel is doing. I sort of stalked you guys on your websites is tremendous work that you're doing in the battery industry. Right. And the patents that you guys own is there, are there any characteristics that you look for in your team when you're hiring, that would incite the people that are out there also looking, trying to improve themselves?
Omar Morales (29:44):
Yeah. The, the, the interesting portions, we have a lot of these people in our company, and it's really amazing to see, but w when, when you're asked to do something and most people most people will be asked at some point in their career to do something that's entirely not either within your comfort zone or not, or something that you're not skilled in, or you've never trained for, or you never studied. Right. The people that I've seen really Excel and the people that excite me when, when I'm interviewing people are the ones that can give me such great experiences of that. Like, wow, like I was sitting here, I was in this one organization and all of a sudden I started doing this one thing didn't study before it didn't know anything about it, just train myself, learned it because I was passionate about it.
Omar Morales (30:31):
And because I wanted to help and they don't take the, the, the job description as, you know, this is my bucket of things I want to do. Right. They say like, how can I help? How can I help? Where can I add value, put me to work? And no matter if it's, you know, them helping out with small small tasks or big things, when they need to do big things, those types of people help the organizational culture just, I think, grow. And we definitely look for people like that. And in a startup it's so critical because you don't have the systems in place to say, you're this type of box stay in that box. Right. All you do is do this. No. Like you need to really be able to do everything. You need to be able to come in and say, Hey, we need a little bit of help here. Can you do that? Okay. No, I can't right now, but I'll figure it out by the end of the week. Like, we need people like that, and that's super important.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (31:24):
A mindset, right. Can do, right. They say, it's like the, a team players on the bus, you know, as long as you, you, you have a mission and you know, where you're headed, just fill your boss with a lot of a players. And those a players are just like, what you're saying there, Omar, they're just going to be, can do I trust myself to learn it? Let me see how I can help in throw me in coach,
Omar Morales (31:45):
Right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And you have a big group of those people. It's amazing what you can do.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (31:51):
Awesome. let me see if I've gotten, I want to hit everything that I've asked. I told her listeners, we were gonna hit today. We did want to talk about project management skills and why they're so important. I know that on the Omar project, you teach people about project management skills and why they're important, that's who you were and what you've been, that's the primary use of your industry and how you, or your career and how you grew. And project management is something that facilitates itself through all different roles. Could you touch on project management, the skill sets and, and why we must be mindful towards that?
Omar Morales (32:27):
I think project management is such a fundamental, fundamental skillset that every leader needs to understand very well. Every executive needs to be an expert at, and you cannot have a successful organization without having true disciplined project management. And the reason I think it's so important is because of three things. One is because it is, it is management. There's a reason it's called project management. It's because you are managing people. You may not be their direct supervisor, all points in your career, but you're managing people to do tasks that you may not have direct supervisory for. That's that is a big role in training people, how to get things done and execute and get done on deliverables. The second is the discipline. It takes to actually say, I'm going to do this for this much money, and I'm going to get it done on this date.
Omar Morales (33:18):
And then it becomes, how do you do that? Because it's not always easy. A lot of times you're going to have challenges come through. There'll be things that just don't go the right way, but how do you actually do it and commit to something and stay committed and have an organization that always hits and does what they say they're going to do. That is extremely difficult to get that those parts. Right? And then the third part for me is you're, you're doing something within the organization. That's really truly one of the things where you're taking the capital and you're, you're at you're, you're allowing them to make more revenue. You're you're growing the company. So wherever we put that money into that's where the company is going to grow. That's where we're going to, maybe that's the next the next building or the next infrastructure we put together.
Omar Morales (34:06):
Maybe that's how we build the next factory. So all those things are so critical to the company's success. So that's why it's an exciting field. I, one of the things I love most about it is the leadership part of it. Because when I started, somebody was like, well, project management is kind of like your mini manager. And this was when I started like 12, 15 years ago. And it's true. And you learn those skillsets. So if you're interested in leadership, if you're interested in becoming an executive, this is a track you want to take at some point in your career, because it will have the rewards later. Like you will see all those rewards when you're talking about budgets and you're talking about, okay, why didn't this execute? Why did we fail on a billion dollar project? Can you answer those questions? Can you, you have to have a little bit of experience to understand them
Tina Marie St.Cyr (34:54):
And how to communicate that at an executive level. So they understand the ROI or the risk to that ROI. And what I love about project management as well is that oftentimes we think of it as tasks lining out a project, making sure things are being done on time how to communicate those, how to negotiate you know, the space in between tasks and the linear linearness to those things, the dependencies, right? But, but in so many ways, it's, it's a human project management. You're, you're managing the humans that are getting the tasks done, and we're not just robots. We're not just, you know, some thing that can be programmed and then you execute. And then there's a task done. We have personalities and we have ups and downs and we have different energy and we different influences on our lives. And so as a project manager, can you speak to that? The human aspect and the soft skills that are also developed through that through that, you know, acumen.
Omar Morales (35:48):
Yeah. It's such a, it's such a people, people field because it's all, Hey, can you do this? Hey, how do we execute this? How do we move faster? And from the outside, it does seem like, Hey, we're just getting things done, but you're exactly right. It's all being done through people. It's all people working together. Sometimes having conflicts within teams, sometimes it's resource constraints, sometimes it's it's, it's monetary issues with, you know, contractors you're dealing with you're, you're, you're seeing every asset, every aspect of business from the contractual side to the people side, to the leadership side, to you know, sometimes having to get changing your teams out because you don't have good performers. You see everything in this one field. And that's why I get excited about it. Cause I'm like, Hey, this field is awesome. And for me, when I was getting to see some of the bigger projects it was in itself, those things were, you know, they're no different from leading a department.
Omar Morales (36:52):
They were just a project department. Cause you have so many, you know, so many people on these, these mega projects. And that was exciting. Cause it's like the mile, even the things simple things like recognitions that they would have, how do you recognize a team? So they continue to move forward and then not, not really slow down, like it's simple, simple, simple, but it's, it's really not, there's so much thought and so much work that goes in behind having these things work. And the people side of it is I think where a lot of it goes into.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (37:26):
Yeah. And so that's why I love that you mentioned this because it is priming the executive because if you start out in project management, you're seeing all aspects of the business, all aspects of the people, all personalities, all different dynamics to get to that end goal and win the game. Right. Oh yeah. That's awesome. I love it. I could talk to you all day long, not only as a friend, cause I love everything about you is such a beautiful soul. But thank you for sharing your wisdom today on light your life and congratulations on your leap out of Ong and into renewables and working for advantage. And I can't wait to see how far I'd want to it's you're advancing so fast and in a time where batteries are required, even more so, and the patents that you guys are holding and where it's going to help revolutionize batteries for the marketplace. It's just wonderful to see that you're there and you're part of growing that team.
Omar Morales (38:22):
Well, thank you, Tina. I always love chatting with you. I love the energy that you have and I always have a little bit of it when I talk to you, talk to you and yeah, we have, I love it.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (38:37):
If you want to stay in touch with O'Mara, which I know you do, you can stalk them just like I do@theomarproject.com. You can find them on LinkedIn, Omar Miralis and you can connect with him there. And then also you publish a blog and you publish the podcast. And so they can listen to you and read your insights and the featured guests that you have on your podcast to learn about project management and getting on that executive track through project management,
Omar Morales (39:02):
Right? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, the, the, the website, the Omar project.com definitely check that out for everything around project management, not just the, the, the nuts and bolts of it, but also the leadership aspect. And we've had some great people on there. People from Tesla, from shell, from Walmart director levels and really it's something to check out.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (39:25):
That's awesome. I'm so proud of you and thank you for contributing in this way. And I know it takes time and work and effort and juggling, and it's not easy. People think, Hey, you got a podcast. That's fun. Well, it's, it's work behind the scenes and it takes consistency, right?
Omar Morales (39:40):
Yes. That is a hundred percent. Very true. Yeah.
Tina Marie St.Cyr (39:44):
So these things are, yes, they're from your soul and your heart and their labors of love and dedication. So thank you for being dedicated. And so until next time, when let your life, I'm Tina, Marie St. Sierra, thank you for listening and do share these lights with your world so that other people can gain the wisdom, especially from our guests today. Omar Miralis thank you so much for being our guests.
Omar Morales (40:05):
All right. Thank you, Tina.