In episode 37 of Everything is Up, Tammera Hollerich interviews Dr. Peter Photos, a PhD in biomolecular engineering. Dr. Photos shares his journey from studying chemical engineering to pursuing a PhD in biomolecular engineering, where he worked on creating artificial red blood cells. He discusses the challenges and rewards of his research and his realization that academic research may not be the right path for him. Tammera and Dr. Photos’ conversation delves into the common experience of pursuing a career path only to discover it's not fulfilling, highlighting the importance of self-discovery and adaptation in the journey of life.
Tune in for an inspiring conversation about navigating the ups and downs of life and career choices.
TIMESTAMPS
[00:01:01] Biomolecular Engineering and Artificial Red Blood Cells.
[00:09:21] Jobs as Marriages.
[00:17:03] Starting an Oil and Gas Service Company.
[00:21:37] Choosing Family Over Career.
[00:26:33] Jobset: A Dating Site for Jobs.
[00:29:14] Military to Civilian Transition
[00:34:38] Bootstrapping a Company.
[00:40:06] Toxicity in Natural Gas.
[00:42:03] Dog Breeding and Genetics.
[00:49:12] Professional Dog Handlers.
In this episode, Tammera Hollerich and Dr. Peter Photos express deep honor and gratitude for the opportunity to fully engage in all aspects of their job. They consider it a blessing to be able to utilize their skills and contribute to their chosen field. They also reflect on their journey to their current position and emphasize the role of the universe in shaping their career path.
Furthermore, Tammera and Dr. Photos believe that interviews should be seen as a two-way street, where both the candidate and the company assess if they are a good match for each other. They emphasize the importance of being true to oneself and not compromising on personal values and aspirations. By being authentic in job interviews, Dr. Photos highlights that individuals will be able to increase their chances of finding a job that aligns with their skills, interests, and overall happiness.
QUOTES
"When people go into a job interview and they're like, please give me this job, do what I'll say, whatever I can to win the job. That is equivalent to you going on a date and saying, please marry me. I'll do anything I can say. You need to be as happy with the company and the job as they are happy with you" - Dr. Peter Photos
“My husband might disagree because he thinks I am a workaholic. But I would always choose him first. And there's really, if you're single, I mean, it's a no brainer. You can work till the cows come home. But when there are loved ones involved, I can see where it would be a challenging decision, but I don't think it would be a hard one.” - Tammera Hollerich
“ Maybe you are good at something that you've never done before.” - Tammera Hollerich
“A team player that knows how to deal with difficult people, maybe you should be in sales. It starts to decompose all the things you've done and then starts to build that up into skills and compares it to available jobs out there, which is also broken down into the skills.” - Dr. Peter Photos
"We all get kicked in the teeth, and what kicks us in the teeth is what makes us who we are." - Dr. Peter Photos
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Tammera Hollerich
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mirus3/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tammerahollerich/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thollerich/
Dr. Peter Photos
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterphotos/
WEBSITES
Everything Is Up: https://everything-is-up.simplecast.com/
Tammera Hollerich: https://tammerahollerich.com/
Intro/Outro00:01 - 00:17
Welcome to everything is up a podcast about the real life stories of people who have created extraordinary levels of success These are conversations with people who are constantly striving to take things to the next level And now here's your host
Tammera Hollerich00:22 - 00:38
Welcome to everything is up with Tammera. I'm Tammera Hollerich, your host today. And joining us this morning is Dr. Peter Photos. Dr. Photos, thank you a ton. I'm really excited for having you on the show today.
Dr. Peter Photos00:38 - 00:40
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Tammera Hollerich00:40 - 00:57
So you have a PhD in molecular bio... Biomolecular engineering. See guys, I knew I was going to butcher that. Okay, so all right, so what does that mean?
Dr. Peter Photos00:57 - 01:52
So biomolecular engineering is kind of an extension of chemical engineering. So I was originally a chemical engineer, my undergraduates in chemical engineering, and then when I did my PhD, I wanted to do something everybody can understand. And so my PhD was working towards making artificial red blood cells, which sounds really cool, but this is a technology that's still 50 years away. But I was injecting things into rats and pushing and pulling on cells and testing the bending modulus of cells. It was a really cool project. And, you know, it was five years of intense lab work where I never left the lab. And, you know, It was it was a tough time because I came to the realization that maybe academic research wasn't for me, but I trudge through it and make sure I got my degree so that I can move on to something else.
Tammera Hollerich01:54 - 02:20
So that right there speaks volumes to welcome to this thing we call life. So many people, they go to school, you think when you're in school, this is your lifelong, this is what I wanna do, I'm gonna go change the world. And then you finish school and you go into that field and you hate it.
Dr. Peter Photos02:21 - 02:46
Yep. In fact, you realize you ate it halfway through or three quarters of the way through. And the question is, is when do you pivot? Right? Do you pivot in the middle of your PhD? Do you pivot towards afterwards? In fact, I was in the MD PhD program and I cut the MD part out of it because I didn't want to go down that direction. And now, you know, I'm going to finish my PhD and then we'll figure out what to do next. And.
Tammera Hollerich02:48 - 03:32
Yeah, I was going to say. And so you and I were talking before we went on air and you had said you have pivoted multiple times in your life. I know when I think of pivoting right now, post COVID, I think about the entire world understanding what pivot now means. Because I don't know that everybody understood it before COVID, but when we talk pivot now, right, that's what I think of. So you've pivoted multiple times. You've just alluded to, you know, you're like, okay, let's finish this PhD and then keep going and we'll figure it out. So what ended up happening?
Dr. Peter Photos03:33 - 04:05
So I was getting to the end of my PhD, and I didn't know what I wanted to do. I got a job offer doing exactly my PhD, injecting things instead of rats into humans to test drugs for a large pharmaceutical company. And I just didn't want to do it. And so I explored and see what other options there were. I came this close to becoming an eighth grade school teacher. Teaching math and science graders.
Tammera Hollerich04:05 - 04:06
Are you crazy?
Dr. Peter Photos04:06 - 05:02
Well, towards the end of my PhD, I, I volunteered to teach at an 8th grade inner city, West Philadelphia. intermediate school. This is, you know, truly disadvantaged children. Wow. And I loved it. It was the most rewarding experience of my life. These kids really did not have any resources, you know, and available to them. And, you know, teaching them math and science was such a great experience. It was so rewarding. I'm like, this is what I want to do. And the job offer I got to teach was at Princeton Day School, which is the polar opposite of a West Philadelphia intermediate school. These kids were super privileged. After one week, they made me do a one week trial and I'm like, I can't do this. This is not rewarding. These kids expect the best, not appreciate what they're getting.
Tammera Hollerich05:02 - 05:05
That word entitlement. Yeah. Yes.
Dr. Peter Photos05:07 - 07:29
So, I was looking for jobs and by sheer luck, and this is a one of these lucky chances in life. I was sitting next to somebody at a job fair. I was a undergrad. I was a postdoc. I was doing a postdoc just to pay the bills back at Princeton. And I go to a job fair and I go to Schlumberger, which is an oil and gas service company. They had this huge buffet at this job fair. I'm getting lunch because I'm a poor postdoc. And the woman comes up to me and she's talking to me and she said, you should come to dinner tonight. Like, that sounds good. I could do dinner. And she said, sit next to Francois. So I sit next to Francois, I go to dinner, and I'm totally relaxed because I'm a bio guy. I do bioengineering. I'm sitting at an oil and gas table. I know nothing of oil and gas. I sit next to Francois. I tell a few jokes. I order whatever I want on the menu. We talk with Francois for about five minutes, and he goes, you know, I like you. You're hired. I laughed. That's impossible. Schlumberger is a 50,000 person company, multinational company. You don't get hired this way. Except when the chief technology officer of Schlumberger is sitting next to you, he can do that. And that's how I got into oil and gas, by ordering the right beer and ordering a steak sitting next to Francois. And I said, you know what, let's do it. And somebody had a program where they take their PhDs, they strip off the PhD, hand them a broom and put them in the field. Wow. And so the next thing I know, I was in Brazil on a rig sweeping the floor, mopping the floor, painting, filing, getting dirty up till two in the morning. And I realized I love this, right? Maybe I wasn't meant to have a PhD, but you know what? This is what I love to do, getting my hands dirty out there in the field. And it was so great. It was a rewarding experience. And I stayed in the field for five years. I'm only supposed to stay for one, and I stayed for four and a half before they finally ushered me back to doing research and development. So that was my first big pivot, moving from biomolecular engineering to oil and gas.
Tammera Hollerich07:29 - 08:01
That's inter interesting because it's happy where you were, obvi like looking to go to oil If people will get out of their own way, and I, I make this comment frequently to my staff. Get out of your own way and things will materialize in front of you. You had no idea we're supposed to be coming. It's like the universe talking to you for the most part. Right? Yeah.
Dr. Peter Photos08:01 - 08:39
I mean, here's an opportunity thrown right in front of me. And literally, I went because I wanted the free food. I did not go because I thought I had any chance of getting a job. But at the same time, because I didn't feel like I had any chance, I was myself. When Francois said, what do you do? I said, I'm a really smart guy. I'm really creative and inventive. I know nothing of oil and gas. You don't say that on a job interview. Why would you say that on a job interview? But I did it because I had no risk. Right. And a little bit, I realized the universe threw in front of me the biggest opportunity of my life.
Tammera Hollerich08:40 - 09:19
Yeah, that's well and the authenticity of being yourself that a lot of people don't do when they're in a job interview that I think sometimes comes back to bite you anyway, because if you aren't yourself, when you are put into those real situations, I mean, if they strip you your PhD and put you with a broom, you want to talk about a humbling experience. And I know why they did it. That makes that it's brilliant. Honestly, it's brilliant that they do it that way. Because most people would be like, I have a PhD, I'm not going to do that. And then those aren't the people that they want anyway, because they want the authenticity.
Dr. Peter Photos09:20 - 10:03
Yep. And, you know, it's so funny because I look at jobs like marriages. When people go into a job interview and they're like, please give me this job, do what I'll say, whatever I can to win the job. That is equivalent to you going to a date and say, please marry me. I'll do anything I can say. You need to be as happy with the company and the job as they are happy with you. Interviews are a two-way street. They are not, I am not going to get the blessing of some hiring manager who's going to give me a reward for getting the job. This is, are you happy here? Do you want to do this? Does this culture fit you? All of these things, because you're going to spend as much time in your job as you will with your spouse.
Tammera Hollerich10:04 - 11:17
or more sometimes. Yeah, sometimes it's more because I, you know, my staff, I tell them, I'm like, guys, we are going to be together more waking hours than you are with your family. Now, you may be with them more hours, but you're going to be sleeping half of that with them. So, you know, I think every CEO and every HR director that is listening right now is going yes, yes, yes. Because I, I know when you're sitting in that interviewer seat, you can almost see the desperation and then you're like, oh, this is, you're gonna be here for a year or until somebody pisses you off. And then you're out the door like a lunatic, screaming and hollering like you're crazy. And that's not the culture any business employer, HR team even wants in their four walls. And so like, I know it was Mark that you were with at the time. And I mean, they're massive. And but that is a brilliant move, a brilliant move, because it does take the entitlement completely out of the game. And, you know, I had a mentor tell me one time when entitlement is present, it's like cancer.
Dr. Peter Photos11:17 - 11:19
and everyone and you'll h your hands.
Tammera Hollerich11:19 - 11:25
And I love t yourself were humble enou and be like, okay, I like cool. I like it. And, an in Brazil, it was a great wonderful spot. I live two
Dr. Peter Photos11:48 - 12:11
And then I got transferred to Venezuela, and then I got transferred to Louisiana, and then I got transferred finally to research and development, back in the lab. So two years there, I had to do my two years there, and then I made the decision to go back into the field. So I got transferred to Equatorial Guinea in West Africa.
Tammera Hollerich12:12 - 12:25
Okay, so how cool is all of that, though, to be able to travel and see some of these places people only. Some people don't even know where that is, quite honestly, right?
Dr. Peter Photos12:25 - 14:21
It's actually, its geographic coordinates are zero, zero, zero degrees north, zero degrees west. It is almost exactly at the meeting of the equator and the prime meridian. And it is a, at the time, it was the North Korea of Africa. So safety wise was very good because the police and the citizens were kept with very little liberties. But the economy was extremely small. So when people think of Africa, They think of living in the jungles, living on dirt roads, and that's not really the case. In Brazil, they thought the same thing. That's not the case. I mean, when I lived in Brazil, I lived across the street from a McDonald's. You know, I took the bus. It's very civilized. Most Americans sometimes don't grasp that much of the world is as civilized as they are. Well, Equatorial Guinea is what you think it is. It is, I lived across the street from the last American embassy on a dirt road. Wow. So I lived on a dirt road across the street from the American Embassy, which was also on a dirt road. And not a lot of infrastructure, maybe five or six restaurants in the entire area where I lived, and not very many resources. So it was tough, right? The supermarket was the size of a large convenience store. So you got, and there was nothing to, you know, no outside resources. So it was a little bit of a tough place to live. And it was an intense job, right? Here I was back in the field. I was the manager for this country for, you know, certain operations. And I had a lot of responsibility and not a lot of free time. So it was just an intense experience. So how long were you there? I was there for about a year and a little bit longer than a year.
Tammera Hollerich14:21 - 14:26
So in the region that you were in, what was roughly the population?
Dr. Peter Photos14:26 - 14:49
So Malabo, which is the capital of Equatorial Guinea, is about 500,000 people. Okay. It's a fairly decent city, but most of the city was kind of separate from where the expats lived, and we lived along one highway between the airport and the city, and that had a population of about 100,000 people total who lived along that strip.
Tammera Hollerich14:49 - 15:00
That's still really small for an entire country. I mean, when you think about, I know you're in San Antonio right now, and what is San Antonio now, roughly a million, million and a half?
Dr. Peter Photos15:01 - 15:02
Uh, maybe a bit more. Yeah.
Tammera Hollerich15:02 - 15:07
So it's for the Metro for San Antonio. Yeah. I mean, that's just crazy. Yeah.
Dr. Peter Photos15:07 - 15:46
Yeah. So it didn't have much. There were only a few restaurants. We didn't get to go out and do anything. There was no social life. And at the same time, I had just met my partner. So he was living in Texas, I'm working in Africa, and I really didn't get a lot of time to go home. And when I did get to fly home, which was a 24-hour flight, I'm on the phone the entire time, and I'm off by 12 hours on the clock. So I'm up at midnight, 2 a.m. making phone calls, and I'm sleeping during the daytime. So it wasn't very conducive for my personal life. And I knew it was time to make the next change.
Tammera Hollerich15:47 - 15:50
Pivot number two? Pivot two.
Dr. Peter Photos15:50 - 16:52
This is the second big pivot. I decided to leave Schlumberger and I made the mistake or lucky chance to leave without a job. I just quit. Now, I have to find something to do. Again, by luck, I go on Upwork, I post my services on Upwork, I'm an engineer. eight years experience, I know oil and gas, and I get invited to help a gentleman from the UK start a company in East Africa, in Uganda. So, we started polygon energy and out of. I moved back to, I moved back to Africa is a great city. It's the Paris of East Africa. It's relatively large. Now we're talking 3, 4Million people, tons of restaurants. thousands, tens of thousands of expats. It's a great city to live in.
Tammera Hollerich16:52 - 16:58
If you're, if you're completely opposite of where you just came from. Yes.
Dr. Peter Photos16:58 - 17:46
Yes. And I can do this. I'm like, okay, I can live here. I talked to Blake and I'm like, maybe we should move here. And he's like, well, why don't you work out this company and see where this goes? So we started an oil and gas service company. Um, and we had two components to it, the oil and gas bid and a training bit teaching. And here we go, teaching again. I love this. This is what I love doing this. This gets me excited. So we started training Ugandan nationals in the oil and gas business. Well, the Ugandan oil and gas business is very, very young. There's not much there. The service company never took off, but the training company did. And we got a contract with the government to train Ugandan nationals. And we started what ended up being one of the largest training companies in East Africa for oil and gas.
Tammera Hollerich17:47 - 18:52
um and i'm like this is great yeah so i was gonna so i have a question so yeah this you know you love teaching right yeah any time and and i know our audience because i've got you know entrepreneurs and want to be entrepreneurs you know when you guys jumped out there to start this company And you coming, how did you know that that was the right fit to just go, okay, let's, I'm going to help start a company. And, you know, having two components, how did that feed into not having that fear, entrepreneurs and people that want to be an entrepreneur. It's that fear of failing, right? So how did you manage that? How did you manage going, okay, I'm going to do this. And I'm going back to Africa. And right. And from the ground up, it's not like you guys bought a company that was already flourishing. You're building it.
Dr. Peter Photos18:52 - 19:52
Yes. And, you know, I went from a 50,000 person multinational company to I was it. And here I am, CTO of a small energy company, which may not exist next week. Right. Yeah. And we've got to make money. So, you know, we have to start doing something. And we're going down this what they call mud lobby business, because it's relatively low capital and something that doesn't require years of experience. And so we started this mud-logging business, and we started to buy equipment. And we're like, we're not winning any contracts. And it's been six months. We haven't done anything. We need to do something. Well, guys, let's train. We could do training, because training is something we don't need a lot of money, resources to do. Let's pivot within the company. And we started this training component and the next thing, you know, I'm sitting, we're sitting with the ministry of education and he's like, you could teach oil and gas. Yes, of course. I've been in oil and gas now 10 years.
Tammera Hollerich19:54 - 20:13
Well, that's a win for them because it pulls in a new infrastructure for them that they did not have or another resource or another revenue stream for their country. That makes perfect sense why they would want you to teach. That makes perfect sense.
Dr. Peter Photos20:13 - 20:51
And the idea is that if you train these nationals, even when the industry isn't quite ready yet, by the time the industry is ready, so now Uganda does have an oil and gas industry, now they have nationals and citizens who can work there. And now it makes more money for the country. So this was a win win for everybody. And again, now I'm teaching again, I'm doing what I love. So this was so exciting. And again, family gets in the way. Right? Because now my partner is like, you need to move back to the United States. I am not going to let you Africa.
Tammera Hollerich20:52 - 21:05
At that point, you guys had been together, what, two years or so? Two and a half. About four. About four. Yeah. Okay, so I kind of was misjudging. Okay, so you were over in Uganda for a while then.
Dr. Peter Photos21:05 - 21:24
I was in Uganda again for about a year. So it was a year and a half, and I guess it was about two and a half. I met Blake about six months before I left for Africa, I was in Equatorial Guinea for a year and a quarter, almost a year and a half. And then back to the United States while I was looking for a job for six months, and then back to Uganda for about a year.
Tammera Hollerich21:24 - 21:32
So about three years in total that you guys were apart. And he was like, we're not doing this. We're not doing this anymore. Yeah, long distance is hard.
Dr. Peter Photos21:32 - 21:37
Do you have to make a decision, family or work, career?
Tammera Hollerich21:37 - 22:17
And I chose family. Yeah. Well, you know, I don't know many people, humans, right, that would choose work over family. My husband might disagree because he thinks I am a workaholic. But I would always choose him first. And there's really, if you're single, I mean, it's a no brainer. You can work till the cows come home. But when there are loved ones involved, I can see where it would be a challenging decision, but I don't think it would be a hard one.
Dr. Peter Photos22:17 - 22:34
Yeah. And you know, there's other jobs out there. And this time I was a little bit more cautious. I learned my mistakes and I got a job before I left Polygon. So I went to Boston to work for a oil and gas training and development company.
Tammera Hollerich22:35 - 22:36
Right up your alley.
Dr. Peter Photos22:36 - 22:39
Right up my alley. This is the perfect match. I found my perfect job.
Tammera Hollerich22:41 - 22:45
For now. For now, right. I was going to say, so pivot number three.
Dr. Peter Photos22:45 - 24:03
Yes. So we moved to Boston, um, do training and development. Um, and this was again, a different experience. I went from a huge company where, you know, huge HR department, everything is systematized. Then I start my own company where everything is me. And now I move from, you know, to a third scenario. Now it's a small family owned company, great company, They're loving, warm, loving people who ran it. But their goal wasn't to be aggressive and we're going to grow, we're going to double. We're just going to have our company and we're going to keep going. It was a pause almost in my life, right? Where now I get to explore and develop myself because we're going to now I can focus on my relationship. I have a good job that's pretty steady. That's not keeping me up at 10 o'clock at night. and kind of a little bit more balance right yes a little more balance a little more balance so i actually worked there for five years so two things happened number one i was getting antsy because i wasn't happy with that quiet tranquil suburban life.
Tammera Hollerich24:03 - 24:07
No, not you, Dr. Photos.
Dr. Peter Photos24:07 - 24:47
I needed to do something else. My entrepreneurial itch was there. I was ready to move on. And by luck, fate, the universe telling me what to do, oil and gas prices went from $60 or $80 a barrel to $30. And what do oil and gas companies cut when oil prices drop? Training and development. training, yeah. So this small company went from small to tiny. I got laid off and it was a blessing, right? I was expecting it. I was kind of looking forward to it because I got a severance package and an opportunity to start again. Yeah.
Tammera Hollerich24:51 - 26:09
Before we go into Pivot Four, I want to say something here. When you and I were talking pre-air, you were talking about how life you know, you've got this 90, hopefully, you know, 90 plus years that you're going to be on this earth. It's not always going to be exactly the way you thought when you were, let's say, 12 and you wanted to be a fireman. Even when you're in college, we were talking, you know, you go to school, you spend years years of your life going, I'm going down this path, and that's not life. Nope. That's not life. It's a bumpy road. It is bumpy, right? You got laid off. You get random things happen to you. If you are sitting there going, my life is upside down, I don't know what I'm going to do next, you will land on your feet. Yeah. Every single time. You have to, you don't have a choice. Right, right, exactly. Okay, so here we've hit number four.
Dr. Peter Photos26:09 - 26:51
I'm on the train home from Boston, going back to my house in Massachusetts, called Blake and said, I got laid off. I call up a friend and said, I have an idea for a company, do you want to do it? And so, and this is the next company I started, Jobset. So job set is an app that helps people find jobs using artificial intelligence and a dating site for jobs. As I said earlier, jobs are like dates or jobs are like marriages. But why don't we use a dating site? Why don't we use eHarmony or Match.com and apply that to jobs?
Tammera Hollerich26:51 - 27:09
That is so that totally warms my heart. But there is a backstory to this too, because you originally there was something very dear to your heart with veterans. Yes, that had you that that that's kind of where this whole thing started.
Dr. Peter Photos27:10 - 27:51
actually it's the other way it was not it was it was applied to everyone and then as we were exploring this technology i really had a heart for veterans i really wanted to help veterans i thought i my biggest regret in life is i never served in the military and i wanted to do this and as I was developing the algorithm, I realized this is perfect, this algorithm works perfectly with veterans. And so this kind of like magic and the universe came together and it was like, you have this idea for a company and the technology that you're developing works perfectly for veterans and you want to help them, let's do it. And within a few weeks of starting this company, it was like, we have a job app for veterans.
Tammera Hollerich27:52 - 28:54
I am like, I'm so glad we got here because I'm a military brat. I grew up my entire life on an Air Force base. My dad served in the Air Force from, I think, 1966, because he went to Vietnam, until the mid to late 80s. So my dad, I mean, 20 plus years, and I was raised on military bases and so when I saw this in my research with you I was like oh we have got to get to this conversation because I need I was like how did you do that because you I read where you said um a lot of times the veterans They're trained in one thing that you can't just really go out and do in the world. Like if you're trained in infantry, you're not going to get out and go kill people. Like that's just not going to be what happens. So they get out and they just are like, I don't know what I'm going to do.
Dr. Peter Photos28:54 - 29:47
It's very similar to the story I have. I don't know what I want to do next. I have these skills. I have a list of things. And I go back to that conversation with Francois. 10 years earlier, 15 years earlier, I don't know anything about oil and gas. This is what I'm good at. This is what I'm not good at. Does this job fit? And that is the principle behind Job Set. You take your military history, you take your MOS codes, MOC codes, and you don't search with that. That is not a search engine. And so many people get to sites like Indeed, and there's a box that looks like Google. What are you going to type in? If you're an anesthesiologist, you know to type in anesthesiologist. If you're an HVAC repairman person, you know to type in HVAC repair. What do you do if you're a business major? You don't know what to enter, but you know what you're good at.
Tammera Hollerich29:49 - 29:54
you are good at something that you've never done before.
Dr. Peter Photos29:54 - 30:42
Professionally. Exactly. So job set takes your military history, your civilian employments, your education, your hobbies, sports things, everything you've done, you enter that into the system. It breaks it down into the components. If you were on a soccer team for five years, you know how to be a team player. If you worked at Starbucks, you know how to deal with people and you know how to deal with difficult people. All right, a team player that knows how to deal with difficult people, maybe you should be in sales. It starts to decompose all the things you've done and then starts to build that up into skills and compares it to available jobs out there, which is also broken down into the skills. You're an 86 percent match to this job or 23 percent match to that job.
Tammera Hollerich30:44 - 32:05
Brilliant! It is brilliant! I was telling my team, I was like, I have got to have Peter Photos on my podcast. I like have to have him like go get him. And so as we were kind of, you know, researching and kind of looking through all of this, I said, he, he, I mean, you are accomplished beyond belief. I mean, you are an author, you have written white papers, you train you like this job set platform that you have I told you before we went on air, I was like, I was just a tad bit intimidated myself until then you came on screen. I was like, oh, I'm going to love this guy. But the. The background here, the thought process of putting something together. I mean, I know how it has developed for the veteran subset, but I mean, it would work for anybody. If you are floundering, which I cannot tell you how many I would venture to say, and you might correct me here, but I would venture to say that more than half of our population is floundering through this life. Correct.
Dr. Peter Photos32:06 - 32:27
But we all flounder because we're not perfect. We watch TV of these perfect people and nobody's perfect. Nobody's a television character. We all have problems. We all have issues. We all have, oh no, this happened to me. We all get kicked in the teeth. And what kicks us in the teeth is what makes us who we are.
Tammera Hollerich32:29 - 34:19
The character that you get from that is just, it's living through and knowing you are going to land on your feet because I, you know, I have an employee right now that, you know, choices and, you know, I know that she's struggling and I know she's going to land on her feet. I know she's going to land on her feet. I hate that they have to, we, because I've done it, I cannot tell you, I've probably done it more than four times. But you know that, you make a decision or you make a choice and maybe it wasn't the way you thought it was going to be and now you have to figure it out right so um you know that whole we are not perfect i mean now dr peter photos is really close to perfect i promise you i'm not yeah i make mistakes every day i make as many mistakes as i do right and that's if you're comfortable with that you know you're making mistakes it's okay Right. As long as you learn from them, I think, I think the people that don't learn from their mistakes, I think, you know, that definition of insanity, keep doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. But I mean, I think most of us fail forward anyway. And right through life, right? We just just pick yourself back up. And that is that one resounding thing that I am getting from you is that you just pick yourself up by your bootstraps. And I know You're in San Antonio, so we can just tell them you pick yourself up by your boots now. I know you've been all over the world, but you are now Texan. So we pick ourselves up by our boots and we keep going. So keep on keeping on. I am so impressed. How do individuals get to Jobset? If they want to get into this platform, where do they go?
Dr. Peter Photos34:19 - 35:17
It's an app on the App Store. So this is where, again, I had to learn this. I knew some programming. I taught myself enough Python and Java to write the code. And then I hired people to write the app, build the app around the code. So I ended up bootstrapping that company. Francois, of all people, back at the beginning of the story, actually came in and angel-funded me. Wow. Together, we funded the rest of the development of the app. It's on the App Store, Job-Set. I have since partially sold that company to someone who is managing it, and it is now working with a company called Reboot, which is a reverse boot camp program for veterans exiting, and they teach classes, and they use my app, or they use Jobset to incorporate, and those two entities have combined.
Tammera Hollerich35:17 - 35:59
That is fabulous. I am. It warms my heart. You know, my dad being a veteran and you know, when my dad retired out of the military, he was not ready to go home and sit in a rocking chair by any means. Right. And I think that, you know, he had been in heavy equipment for a year. I mean, that was his job. And you don't just go, OK, I'm going to go into heavy equipment someplace. I mean, you've got to go into an airport or somewhere like that. And he had done snow removal and we live in Texas. You don't have much snow here. So, I mean, I think he struggled a little bit till he found where he was going to land. And so that I. He still has skills and that's the important thing.
Dr. Peter Photos35:59 - 36:18
It doesn't matter whether it's a snow plow or a backhoe, it's still heavy equipment, right? So there's applicable. These skills you acquire in life are applicable in other aspects, even if it doesn't look like it. I don't push and pull on cells, but the same methodology is what I did in Jobset, which is the same I do at Streamline.
Tammera Hollerich36:18 - 36:23
Yeah, so where are you now and what are you doing today?
Dr. Peter Photos36:23 - 37:51
So now, after Jobset was working through and I was building that app from scratch. By the way, just so you know, when you build an app and you're starting a company, it burns through cash. If you don't have a second job, you are going to start to hit a brick wall. And that's what happened, right? I mean, as we are progressing, we're getting closer and closer. I'm generating a couple of hundred dollars a month in revenue, but that's not enough to pay the bills. So again, I had to put myself out there. And I went back to Upwork and put my resume out there. And again, the fate of the universe, a man named Dave Sisk, Came up to called me up and said, I'm starting a company in San Antonio to treat natural gas with a chemical process. And I'd love for you to be part of the team. Totally random total new event and. I joined Streamline about five and a half years ago. Streamline Chemical at the time, now it's Streamline Innovations. What we do is we take some of the toxic chemicals out of natural gas, so when you turn your stove on, you don't have this toxic chemical coming out in your home. We do this in a way that's greener, more cost-efficient, and cheaper, and better than other technologies.
Tammera Hollerich37:51 - 38:19
That's fabulous. I mean, I can see where it goes back to your oil and gas days, right? I mean, I can see pieces, right, full circle and bits and pieces of everything that you have done, you know, the sales, the, you know, building your own app platform, your oil and gas. I mean, all of it comes to fruition, you know, and and you're now you're and are you happy?
Dr. Peter Photos38:19 - 39:24
I'm thrilled. Look, my job needs oil and gas experience. It needs chemical processing experience. Believe it or not, all the way back to my PhD, those artificial red blood cells were made out of molecules called surfactants. Well, there's a whole surfactant component to this process. That's what got me into Streamline, was he needed a surfactant. I helped design that. So I'm using from my PhD, I'm using from my Schlumberger days, I'm using from my Africa days, I'm using from Jobset because we wrote a whole computer system to manage these units. So I'm doing chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, process engineering, computer science, IT. And now we're big enough that I'm also now cybersecurity officer and now I have to know cybersecurity. So all of these pieces that I've built on my career have now come together to this job where I'm doing a lot of things. And I'm doing, you know, pieces of all of it. And it's amazing. It's such an honor and so blessed to be in this point where I can do that. I can use all of these aspects of my job.
Tammera Hollerich39:24 - 40:03
How rewarding. If you could put it into words, because I don't even know that I could put it into words. if you had to put that into words of how rewarding having just being able to sit back I think sometimes we also are not quiet and as humans we tend to talk too much we don't sit back and just reflect and listen on how that universe pulled all of that together to put you in this place because you are doing what you're supposed to be doing in this universe at this time because 15 years ago, this probably wasn't even a need or an issue.
Dr. Peter Photos40:03 - 40:21
No. You know, at the time they used a toxic chemical and they add it to the natural gas and they create a toxic byproduct and it works great. But that toxic chemical is now you have a waste stream and eventually companies were like, this isn't green. We need a new technology.
Tammera Hollerich40:21 - 41:29
Yeah. Well, and we are a health conscious society, too. I mean, globally, I think we are health conscious. And so to have those toxins and, you know, we see more incidents of cancer and, you know, than what we've ever seen before because of all the toxicity that's in our world. I think our bodies absorb some of that. So it is I am I applaud you and I am just so grateful. Before we cut out today, you and I have got something in common that we were talking about. Now my audience knows I am the crazy chicken lady because I have 40 chickens because I just how I even knew I was going to like birds. I had no idea because I am big time the dog girl. But you are really big into Frenchies, Frenchie dogs. He is a dog person too, guys, so which means I like him a lot. But you actually show at the AKC level these Frenchies.
Dr. Peter Photos41:29 - 43:08
Yes, so Blake and I are the winningest breeders. Now we're the second winningest breeders in AKC history of French Bulldogs. We have bred what broke the record for the winningest French Bulldog in history, a dog named Princeton. We had as many as 30 dogs in our house at one point in time. And we got a little too over a lot of dogs. It turned into a business. But then we scale back and we scale back and we're scaling back some more. So we're down to about 5 dogs right now, but they're all champions. We show them. We breed them and that's been amazing. We've been to Westminster. We've won the breed at Westminster. Princeton won the breed. We've won French Bulldog national specialties. We've won two of those and it's really been a great ride. to kind of marry the art and the science of breeding, of knowing the science behind how to breed and how to create something genetically, understanding the underlying genetics, but also the art and the eye you need to look at a dog and say, this is what marries well with this, and this is how you pair. We love it. We love doing it. We show dogs. We've been to every dog show. We have champions in Italy and France. We just recently got a Swiss champion. Ruby got a Swiss championship. Bahamian championship, Canadian and of course, United States champions.
Tammera Hollerich43:08 - 43:37
Well, it's impressive. French bulldogs are the cutest. They are the cutest little dogs that, you know, I'm like, I'm partial to my little Japanese chins, my little three, four pound Japanese chins. But if one of my employees, her son has just started breeding French bulldogs, and I saw these puppies and I was just like, Oh, Lord, they are so cute.
Dr. Peter Photos43:38 - 44:29
They really are. They're so adorable. And the thing that I learned from dog breeding, the other thing I learned, is that you can have litters, and we've had 50 litters over the past 15 years, and you see personality differences. And you see that even with the same brother and sister, different types, different things that they like and different things that they don't. And that's true with people, too. Just because your environment bred you in this area, Everybody is different. Everybody has things that they like and things that they don't. And it's so fascinating to me to see dogs, which obviously don't have as big of a brain as a human, you see the differences in personality and what they like and what they don't like. And that's so true even with humans. And why do we accept that in dogs, but we don't always accept that in humans as employers and employees?
Tammera Hollerich44:30 - 46:11
Yeah, you know, that's a fair assessment of the reality of humans that we are so judgmental. You know, and I know we shouldn't be judging, but that human characteristic, I think sometimes is hard for, you know, that unconditional love that you get from dogs that if you are not a dog person, I had a guest on here who wasn't a dog person. I said, I love you, but you are not a dog person. And then we laughed a little bit. But, you know, there is something about unconditional love from from dogs that is hard to explain if you are not a dog person. But that is. You know, you have such an impressive life and an impressive background. And then I just had to see when I saw the Frenchies and the champions, I was like, wow. And the fact that you've been to Westminster, so. But like, okay, so I love to do something fun with my guests right before we sign off, which is, are you smarter than a fifth grader? So we are talking about my PhD friend here, Dr. Peter photos. And, but I thought I'd make it fun and we would not do bioengineering Because that is obviously not going to be my fun side. So we're going to do dogs. Is that okay? Okay. So these will be fun questions for you. All right. So what is the term for the practice of evaluating and comparing dogs of the same breed in a competition?
Dr. Peter Photos46:11 - 46:15
Confirmation? Is that right? Is that right? Confirmation of that?
Tammera Hollerich46:15 - 46:34
It is confirmation judging. That's exciting. Okay. So, and this is not a Frenchie, so I'll give you that right off the bat, but which toy breed is known for its long flowy coat and often participates in dog shows?
Dr. Peter Photos46:34 - 46:39
It's a toy breed. It's a toy breed. It's a toy breed. I'm going to guess because I know you, a Japanese Chin.
Tammera Hollerich46:40 - 47:11
It's not, it's actually a Maltese. I wanted it to be a Japanese chin so bad, you know, and some Japanese chins will have that long flowy coat, but it's the Maltese. The Maltese just walks around with the little bows in their hair and they're princey little. They are cute, but they're very prissy. I will say this. Every Maltese I've ever known is really prissy. So what is the purpose of the Best in Show award for a dog show?
Dr. Peter Photos47:11 - 48:10
There's three. I'll do the longer. I'll keep it short. There's three rounds to a dog show. The first round is we pick the best, and I'll use French Bulldogs. We pick the best French Bulldog at the show. So 5,000 dogs show up. 30 of them are French bulldogs, 100. We picked the best French or the best Japanese chick. Okay, now we're down to about 300 dogs. There's about 300 breeds. We have groups. There's the toy group. There's the non-sporting group, sporting dogs, hounds, herding, et cetera, et cetera. So now we go to the second round where we pick the best toy dog. We pick the best herding dog. We pick the best non-sporting dog. We pick the best sporting dog. We pick the best hunting dog. So now we have those categories. That brings us down to seven. Then you got to pick the best of those seven. And that is called best in show. So it's best of breed, best in group, best in show. And that's what one dog wins that.
Tammera Hollerich48:10 - 48:12
And so has Princeton won that?
Dr. Peter Photos48:12 - 48:36
Princeton has won 59 best in shows, which broke the record, a 60 year old record for a French Bulldog going back to 1965. for the most best in shows. And unfortunately, he got passed up about three years later by a dog named Winston, who I did not breed. So Princeton broke the record and then Winston broke Princeton's record.
Tammera Hollerich48:37 - 49:03
Wow. So that's impressive. Okay, so we I just got school because I did not. I mean, I knew there were classes, group, right classes. But I didn't realize you went from the best Frenchie to the best class, like group and then to the best in show. That's okay. Very cool. Um, so what is the role of a professional handler in a dog show?
Dr. Peter Photos49:04 - 50:07
So, depends on how you look at it. So, for example, Princeton had a professional handler. Why? Because he was showing every weekend around the country. Some weekends he was in California, the next week he was in Texas, the next weekend he was in Massachusetts. And so, if you want to show your dog at that level, you either have to be independently wealthy and be able to fly everywhere or you have to hire a professional handler. I will also say that I have shown dogs before, personally in the ring. I'm a little embarrassing. I'm a little awkward. And when Jenny, who was our professional handler for Princeton, showed, she looked like a million dollars and she showed the dog like she knew exactly what she was doing. And that's what a professional handler does. They show the dog and they They make it look as brilliant as possible. And also, this is part of life. Every dog has faults. Every dog has minor issues. They also show the dog in a way to accentuate its features and minimize its faults.
Tammera Hollerich50:09 - 50:51
Yeah, well, and they get to know the dog, too, because they're with it a lot. I know me. I could never be a handler of one of my own dogs because I would either want to discipline it on a regular basis because it can be a little shithead sometimes or or. I just want to pick them up and love them and go, you're so cute. I'm so sorry you didn't win. You poor baby. I would be horrible. I would be clunky and awkward. I totally get that. Last question before we call it here. In which country did the tradition of dog shows originate? I'm going to stump you. Am I going to stump you?
Dr. Peter Photos50:51 - 50:57
That's an awkward. I want to say, the United Kingdom, England.
Tammera Hollerich51:02 - 51:27
That's very tight. Yes, it is the United Kingdom. So that is fabulous. Okay, so Dr. Photos, tell our audience how they can connect with you. I know your story is amazing. And, you know, I like for our audience to be able to connect with people, be able to ask questions, you know, if they, you know, mentors and just really how do they get ahold of you? What's the best way?
Dr. Peter Photos51:27 - 52:00
So two ways, I'm on Twitter, and I'm going to confirm my Twitter account right now. It is PeterJPhotosPhD, at PeterJPhotosPhD. You can hit me up on Twitter. You can also reach me by email. Actually, it's an odd email address, but I managed to get it because my last name is Photos. So it is Pete at PeterJ.Photos. Oh awesome. No.com, no.org, peterj.photos.
Tammera Hollerich52:00 - 52:32
peterj.photos. Go to that website and you can see me. Oh that's fabulous. Oh well thank you so much. I have thoroughly enjoyed our time together. I know our audience I'm sure our audience is just thoroughly enjoyed. We've kind of gone through the map, but reality is we talked about how to pivot and land on your feet. And you're the perfect example of that. And such an honor. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Dr. Peter Photos52:32 - 52:35
I really enjoyed being here, and I really appreciated this.
Tammera Hollerich52:36 - 52:49
Fabulous. Well, I hope you have a great day again, guys. This is everything is up with Tammera. Make sure you like and share and let's grow the podcast. Thank you, Dr. Photos. Thank you. Have a great one.
Intro/Outro52:49 - 53:04
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