Curtis Mohler with Crew Logistics

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. Beyond the uniform series. Y’all know I love to highlight leaders who bring their military discipline into the business world, and today’s guest is a perfect example of that. Curtis Mohler is a US Navy veteran and the director of strategic operations and integration at Crew Logistics. With nearly 40 years of experience across university, military, defense and commercial sectors, he leads strategy, operations and business development in federal, state and DoD markets and is an expert in government contracting, capture management and international National business development. Curtis, I have more just Wait, including securing large scale contracts with senior military officials across the European European Theater, known as a force multiplier. Curtis has helped generate billions of dollars and captured opportunities, and is so passionate about empowering entrepreneurs and executives to grow, excel, and succeed. Curtis. Wow. Welcome to the show.

Curtis Mohler: Thank you so much for the opportunity to be with you. Houston radio and you and forgive me, a platform to share about crude logistics and a little bit about my background and how we can help other businesses and how crude logistics helps oil, gas and energy, uh, both on the commercial, federal and international side. But what we’re involved in to help the community to as well.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. I’m so excited to have you on. Uh, you guys may be familiar with crew logistics because we had Andrea Zacharakis on with us. Listen to me. Still say her name, right? I’m getting really good at it. And, um, now Curtis is here and actually, Curtis is the one that introduced me to, uh, Andrea. And you guys do such great work. So, Curtis, tell us a little bit more about you and then let’s dive into what Crew Logistics is doing.

Curtis Mohler: Well, thank you so much for the introduction. It was real good. You probably pretty much covered everything. Um, I’ve been really blessed in my career. Um, spent 20 years in the military. And then from there, when I got out, I, uh, took a position with the Performance Military group, which supports Navistar Defense, where I was the regional marketing manager and eventually account manager for the Western United States, where we, uh, rolled out the saber dimer program. So, uh, very familiar with, uh, business development capture management. From there, I had the opportunity to, um, go to UTSA and work under the SBA and SBDC as, uh, the Veterans Assistance Service program there. We helped, uh, small businesses and returning veterans from the war and wounded warriors start, expand and, um, trained their businesses all the way through. And then I created a process of seven phase process for business to help them. That was a real joy for me. Then I transitioned to the Chase Business Development Program, which was another veteran program that focused on government contracting. From there, I worked for the UTSA and on the SBDC and the TAC for eight years. Being a counselor probably done about 6 to 8000 hours of one on one advising for owners, starting expanding their business under the DLA contract.

Curtis Mohler: And then I became eventually program manager of the TAC, as well as the Apex transition, that program and of course securing billions of dollars. The greatest thing about that is working with our veterans. Um, as a veteran myself, um, when you’re meeting the veterans, not only do they have a passion for their business, but, um, they have the skill set and experience needed to be successful. And just giving those keys and support units and also the training they flourished and just seeing them take it from one stage all the way through. And now many of them are multi-millionaires and and starting their own businesses. That was a great joy for me. That led me to eventually to crew logistics. Uh, Andrea used to be a client of mine, and then we circled back and she reached out to me and said, uh, can we help with logistics? And, uh, it was a wonderful opportunity for me to use my gifts and talents and experience in leadership, as you mentioned, to help now, crew logistics, supporting the oil, gas, energy, as well as our federal partners.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And you have such a vast background from a business perspective, but also even just the little bit that you’ve shared so far, you’re such a giver. We’re going to talk about that in a few minutes as well, because I know crew logistics is giving back. But let’s dive a little deeper into crew logistics. For those who didn’t catch Andrea’s episode, let’s talk about what Crew Logistics does and how they’re supporting oil, gas and energy specific to Houston.

Curtis Mohler: Yeah, matter of fact, I was just out in West Texas and Midland Odessa hit about 45 oil rigs. Um, Crude Logistics is a nationwide program and a company that provides group lodging and the roster management support. When the crews have to go out for any reason, that routine business, routine project hitches, emergency reasons, emergency reasons or projects. Uh, we basically support the people and the leadership, and we find them a place to stay. Uh, because, you know, if they don’t have a good place to stay and they don’t feel comfortable with the job, and the mission is not going to get done, your people are the most important asset. So we make sure the oil, gas, energy, uh, disaster resource companies have a great place to stay. But we also take care of the invoicing and accounting and roster management through our crew fax, uh, reservation system, which makes the invoicing and the accounting process seamless. And we can also, uh, in most cases, save them 10% or more of their, uh, current monthly travel spend, which could be hundreds of thousands of dollars. That enables them to put the money back into the company and employees are either reinvest it or give it back to them. So we think we have a valuable resource and a lot of products and services in our platform, and we can pretty much adjust anything. We can build out man camps, camp Modulars, camp solutions, laundry and the international side. We can even help with the military, um, doing several things building out camps, uh, providing uh products and resources through our platforms. But our goal is mainly housing and doing logistics and moving the troops and the oil and gas and energy energy personnel to where they need to be so they can fulfill their mission.

Trisha Stetzel: Um, and then no one else has to worry about it, because that’s exactly what you guys are doing, right, is making sure that everyone from a human resource perspective is taken care of. So let’s talk specifically about Houston. What kind of work are you doing down here in oil and gas?

Curtis Mohler: Yeah, we’re working with a lot of oil and gas companies down here. Of course, a lot of them are headquartered, whether in spring, Texas or Houston or Louisiana. Um, most of our area covers, um, eastern New Mexico, um, in the shell areas there, West Texas and Houston, of course, in Corpus Christi, south toward towards Laredo, as well as Oklahoma and parts of Kansas. So that’s really our sweet spot. Of course, we do it throughout the nation. But really, uh, the region down here in your listening area, uh, have, uh, companies that we can support if you’re not connected to crew logistics, of course, connect with us. And then we can help your companies. But we’re helping a lot of oil and gas companies that are affiliates. And they have subunits down in West Texas and Odessa, which I just visited. So, uh, a lot, uh, going on with crew logistics and, uh, there’s great ways that we can serve them.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s beautiful. So you’ve got some really deep experience from your time at UTSA, Apex Accelerator and even and tech. So what are some of the biggest lessons you have learned, uh, about helping small and large businesses start, expand and even be successful in government contracting?

Curtis Mohler: Yeah, I was really fortunate because I came in 2011. Um, the late Terry Williams, uh, was able to hire me and she said, look, I know you can do the job. I read your resume. And, um, and so she gave me the opportunity to do that. And then working with UTSA for the last 12 years and then eventually taking over the tech and the apex. It was a critical time, too, because, uh, they shifted from the tech to the apex. So I was able to not only, um, uh, restart or reengage the tech and kind of restructure the program and, and, but also bring the apex accelerator online, uh, including all aspects of it, whether it’s the personnel grant and the mission itself, the goal there at the Apex accelerator and the tech was to help small and large businesses, whether it be defense industrial base or the government industrial base, that’s that’s key because it fits into what we do at Cru logistics. Uh, of course, uh, a lot of our partners, um, are doing, uh, government industrial base, which would be the contracting side of it on the commercial as well as the the federal side. Uh, my work at the TAC and the experience that I learned, uh, counseling and advising companies and owners was really a platform I was able to use with Crew Logistics because I was able to go into, uh, the companies very quickly and assess what they needed and then build a strategic plan for them and, uh, leverage that through our platform and resources, through crew logistics. So, um, the biggest lesson that I learned from that, um, on the apex and the TAC is no matter if it’s federal university, private sector or government, at the end of the day, the client and the company just wants to be served. They want you to provide solutions for them and any solutions that you can provide them through your research and your hard work, that’s really going to help them propel them most. In most cases, they have the, uh, internal, uh, personnel to do it. They have the talent. They just need a little coaching and help.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Uh. So you managed to veteran programs both, uh, in, uh, Vasp and chase business development. I know that you all are also supporting the troops, and you mentioned that a few minutes ago, uh, in the in the international space, Andrea, and you are both very passionate about supporting veterans. So talk about how crew logistics is supporting that space, um, internally and externally.

Curtis Mohler: Absolutely. Uh, well, one of the things you want to do is when we expand and we have projects, we have an opportunity to hire. And so our first place is going to be the veterans. Um, recently I was able to, uh, Andrew and I were out in Germany and we were able to build relationships with the International Tap Program or the Transition Assistance program. I just had a webinar with two weeks ago. Why that’s important is a lot of our veterans are looking to transition. They’re looking to take the viable skill, um, and then transition that to a, a skill that they can use on the civilian side with crew logistics. Our service platforms fit very well in the Army logistics as well as the other platforms such as IT, hospitality, uh, crew management, field logistics. So I was able to have the opportunity to speak to the international Germany tap audience out there and provide how we help them transition. And we’re one of the avenues or companies that could actually transition to. We also have been helping out, um, building out the relationships with the international community in Germany as well as, uh, the, um, corporate and also the internal structures of the, uh, different units out there and see how we can best support their units through crew logistics platform, but also be a conduit, um, to hire them to as well.

Trisha Stetzel: Um, it’s such a beautiful thing. You you have this amazing background, but you’ve always had this mission, I feel like. And it it’s I see it through the the business part of you, the coaching part of you, as well as the personal part of you. Uh, in that mission. So if people are already and I know they are Curtis, uh, excited and want to reach out to you. They want to learn more about you or connect with you, or even learn more about crew logistics and how they can get involved. What is the best way to connect with you?

Curtis Mohler: Absolutely. Um, uh, my email is Curtis at Crew Logistics. Com that’s Curtis at Crew Logistics comm and my phone number. I’m going to put a public I mean you can contact me directly 21082233145. We’d love to talk to the owners of the oil and gas industry and energy industry and, uh, just provide what we call a crew saver, uh, presentation. It’s a 15 minute presentation. It’s virtual. It’s zero risk to you. It’s basically a program where we look at your last 60 days travel spend, and then we provide you, um, with analysis, uh, within a week or two of that, and then how we can save you money. But what we do is we build a customized travel plan just for you. But it’s not just where to stay, but how best you could could have saved money. And then how can you can save money in the future with us using our platform. So it’s a great benefit for any size of an oil gas energy company. Give us an opportunity to it to do it. And it’s again zero risk through the Crusaders program. 15 minutes. It’s worth your time.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. That’s fantastic. What a great program you have. So for all my oil and gas leader friends who are listening or those who have oil and gas friends, please spread the word about this program that Curtis just talked about. All right. Circling back around to, um, business leadership, what advice would you give to business leaders who want to grow in competitive markets while staying true to their mission?

Curtis Mohler: Absolutely. Um, you know, having a master’s degree in organizational leadership, I have a passion for projects and leadership, And I just love mentoring people. You know, as leaders, you will never stop getting opportunities to mentor people. And you want to do that. Um, there’s two options. You could either hold information to yourself and all your gifts and talents and never share them. Or you could take the verse that I always have is never withhold something good when it’s in your power and hand to do it. And so in Proverbs 327 and that that’s a good leadership. Um, modem. I’ve lived a model for, uh, many years, and you’ll never go wrong by sharing and supporting and then training and investing in people because it always comes back to you. But at the end of the day, you’re mentoring somebody in the future generation, and it’s helping all of us. So never be weary and never be tired of investing in others because it’s always going to come back to you. But it’s helping them and they’ll never forget those things.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Share the wealth. Right. Share your knowledge. Share your expertise I love that. Uh, so in keeping with this mission, I know that there’s something that you and crew logistics have been leading in the, um, getting information out about human trafficking. And I’d love for you to talk about how you guys are engaged in that and what you’re doing.

Curtis Mohler: Yeah, I can summarize it real quick. Uh, for $25 investment, I went down to the oil and gas network. I want to encourage everybody to go to Oggun. It’s the last Thursday of each month. I think it’s starting in September. Mark LaCour and his staff, um, uh, page and and everybody down there has just been wonderful. Uh, I went down there and, uh, attended their mixers, which is outstanding for the oil and gas. You need to do that down at the ranch office during that. Um, what they do is they, uh, provide an opportunity for companies to, um, basically sponsor and, uh, read em. Read em is an organization headed by David Reed and his wife, as well as Jason Duff and several others that fight, uh, human and sex trafficking, which is just a horrible thing. Um, I shared that with Andrea and and the team, and, uh, we are now not only sponsoring for consecutive months to the end of the year, which is January, so 5 to 6 consecutive months. But we also want to put a challenge out to all the oil and gas industry that to match that and to go to the OGC and connect to read em and Jason Duff and uh, David read and get involved in that.

Curtis Mohler: It’s a very important, um, organization. Uh, we can collectively as the oil, gas and energy industry, all of us, whether we’re on LinkedIn or military, I want to encourage all the partners, clients, resource partners, stakeholders to get involved in that not only give, but give of your time. Andrea had a great opportunity, along with Matt Hogan, uh, to be part of a roundtable on the 31st of July and, uh, and really support read em. And of course, if you go to our LinkedIn, uh, Curtis Moeller, you can connect with me and Andrea Tsakanikas, um, as well, um, you’re going to see that we’ve made a lot of posts to read in, but we are heavily involved in what we call project Red or Red card. Of course we know red card means stop. It’s not good behavior. Everybody’s familiar with that. So that’s where the red card came from. The project Red card, which Crew Logistics has been heavily involved in that. But we want to encourage our partners to not only give, but that’s how we got involved. And we sponsor each month along with other companies, and we want to put out the challenge to do the same.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. So you guys are going to put the links in the show notes as I always do. All you have to do is point and click and be a part of the challenge or take the challenge. I think that’s fantastic. Curtis, why is it important for businesses to engage in missions like this, where we’re giving back or helping provide opportunities, or helping a particular event, or getting information out there like red in, why is that important?

Curtis Mohler: Absolutely, because we’ve been putting in positions of trust And we’ve been given platforms that other people don’t have access to. Let’s use those platforms in a positive way. One of the things that my wife and I do, we’re involved in Compassion Ministries. We support three young ladies, um, monthly through support, financial support, but also for their families and mentorship. Connecting to a local community and ongoing health support. So there’s ways you can get involved in that. But getting back to the read em. Uh, that’s important because, um, you know, we have access to decision makers that other people don’t have. And by us using the platform and connecting others, we can really make a financial impact through donations. But we can also volunteer and be part of it. So it’s an ongoing thing. Lots of platforms connect to read em, which is oil and gas network. Marc McClure, as well as David Reed and Jason Duff, they’re just doing a tremendous job, and we’re just following their lead and the leadership of their team as they lead us to make awareness to the plight of the the most vulnerable.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. You have very diverse background. I know I’ve said that multiple times today, but I’m really wondering what what it is about crew logistics that lights you up as you look back on your entire career and all of the things that you’ve done. What is it about crew logistics that really energizes you?

Curtis Mohler: Well, it’s our owner, President Andrea. Um, she’s a light bulb. She’s very smart. She’s one of the brightest owners there is. And I can tell you that, um, over the last 11, 12 years, she’s built this company from the ground up. So we’re the fruits of her labor. So it’s easy to root for her. But, uh, we have products and services that focus on people. You know, when I go out to West Texas and Odessa, the first thing I tell them is we’re not here to sell equipment. We’re here to take care of the leadership and people because we know if the people are taking care of the mission gets done. We often forget the people side of it. It’s hard work out there in the oil and gas industry, energy industry and the military. We try to make it a little easier through crew logistics. So that’s why I got a passion for that is because we help people and not only do we house them, we save them money and we give them a platform. And we do also the invoice accounting and roster management, taking that logistical load, it allows them to concentrate on the job.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. And that’s so important right. They need to do what they’re good at being in the right place at the right time, doing the right things, and let you guys take care of the rest. I love that. That’s fantastic. Um, do you have a favorite story, whether it’s your story or clients story surrounding crew logistics?

Curtis Mohler: Um, yeah. I mean, one of the best things that, um, I think that I’ve had the opportunity to do is, um, I had an opportunity to go to Germany in June, uh, with Andrea and support the international team out there. Um, but, uh, during that time, I was able to stay in, uh, a in a castle grounds for a couple, a couple of weeks, but I’d never done that before, and I didn’t know that the word graph, which my first cousins are graph, meant count. So I learned that in German, but I other than that, I know no German. My Spanish wasn’t much help for me out there, but I learned that how beautiful Germany was, how beautiful the people are. But just connecting to the units out there, uh, you know, I’ve been building out the infrastructure for over a year, but then going out there and then meeting them one on one at the units and putting a face to the name. Uh, that was special for me because of course, I have a passion for the troops. So knowing. Oh, wow. You know, at 2 or 3 in the morning when we were building out that infrastructure because of course it was plus seven there on the time zone, uh, meeting them and then working with them and supporting them even now and building out the infrastructure and then supporting was really great.

Trisha Stetzel: Amazing. Can we roll the tape back a little further? I’d love to talk about your military experience. What did you do in the Navy? And, um, how was that experience for you?

Curtis Mohler: Oh, I loved the Navy. Um, matter of fact, I grew up in Waterloo, Cedar Falls, Iowa, which is about 100,000, but it’s out in the middle of nowhere. And of course, the first thing I want to do is travel. And I love Iowa, but I was looking forward to traveling. Boy, did I, I think I went through, uh, probably traveled to 20 to 23 countries, lived in 4 or 5 states, of course. I’m married, have three kids. Of course I have grandkids now too, as well. And so just having that experience of traveling and then I think, you know, you talked about UTSA and all the things I’ve been able to do with crew logistics. One of the things that helped me at UTSA, and I think even now, is because the Navy allows you to be in different platforms. That enabled me to be a good advisor and a leader when I was helping companies, because I knew I had a little bit of knowledge about everything, because the Navy’s going to give you a myriad experience. I started off at, uh, on aboard the USS midway, working for the Naval Investigative Service. Believe it or not, as their region afloat. I guess you could say I was a paralegal. Did all kinds of important investigations. Counterintelligence, counter-espionage, um, even defense cases did that for four years. And then from there, I went to Guam, and, uh, it was middle of the the Gulf War. So I went from being a administrative person to processing message traffic for the war at NTC. Uh navcams, Guam, as well as Sumay Cove. Did that for two years. Then I transitioned to two uh, aviation squadrons and Whidbey Island. Beautiful area. Uh, the VA 128 and VAQ 132. So I got to experience the aviation side of it.

Curtis Mohler: I loved it very much. I mean, I just beautiful area, but I learned so much from the squadrons. And then and then about leadership as I started to grow. You know, the Navy will teach you leadership, you know, also teach you to, uh, be able to figure out things on the fly. That’s what I loved about the Navy. I think it creates great leaders. The next I was able to recruit for three years, um, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as well as be the DEP coordinator, delayed entry program coordinator for the zone five. According to all the new recruits, as they get in preparing them for, uh, the military. And then also from there I went to um, uh, the Seabees following that. And I spent three years in Seabees in Port Hueneme. That was totally different. If you’re not familiar with the Seabees. They went out with the Marines and, and, uh, it’s a totally different side of it. It was. We get the Seabee combat warfare pin. Really engage myself in there and be part of that. Uh, totally different communities. Um, I think if you talk to most Seabees, they’ll call themselves Marines. I think they’re the most akin to the Marines. And then from there, I finished out here at Medina, um, uh, base here over at Lackland Air Force Base, um, helping with the Grtc program, as with commander Hale, which is a great experience. So that was my 20 years. It went very fast. Anybody tells you it doesn’t go fast, it goes very fast. And I loved it. And if I could do it again, I wouldn’t change anything. I love the Navy. It was just a tremendous experience. And I am, a product of the leadership and the people that invested in me in the Navy.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. So what’s one what’s one leadership lesson that really sticks out for you that you learned in the Navy that you still use today?

Curtis Mohler: Yeah. Um, one of the things that, uh, I learned from the from different places I’ve been and the leaders that mentored me is that, um, no matter, um, if you have direct knowledge about something or you have total knowledge about something, the Navy way is can do. And that’s always said or can do meaning you find a way to get it done. And one of the things that a lot of leaders told me over that time was, you know, Curtis, you may not know every facet of everything. I tend to be a little bit analytical and want to know everything. But a lot of leaders like Curtis don’t sweat that. You don’t know everything about it. Just go forward with the project or whatever you’re going to do in the leadership, and you will learn over time, not only from others, but you’ll start growing in that knowledge, but throw yourself into it and know that that knowledge will come. But take that first step first and just do it.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely can do. We don’t let things fail. That’s just part of it. And the thing about the veteran community, when we find each other, we speak the same language. It may sound weird and foreign to everyone else, but we do. We speak the same language. Wow. Curtis, one more time. Tell us how to connect with you. Tell us who you want to connect with and give us your contact information.

Curtis Mohler: Yeah, we’re our primary market is the commercial oil and gas energy as well as emergency resources, utilities. We can really help you. It’s called the Crusaders program. We’ll save you 10%. Let us sit down with you for 15 minutes. Virtually. It’s zero risk to you. Um, my phone number is (210) 823-3145. Curtis Mohler from Cru logistics. Or you can email me Curtis at Cru logistics.com. That’s Curtis at Cru logistics comm. Let us help you. Um we can provide solutions and customized support for you and save you lots of money. Um, I know that you’ll enjoy doing that saving money.

Trisha Stetzel: And you will not be disappointed in a conversation with Curtis. You guys are doing amazing work. Thank you so much for being with me. This has been a fantastic conversation. I look forward to our next one.

Curtis Mohler: Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation, share it with a fellow entrepreneur, a veteran, or even a Houston leader ready to grow. Be sure to follow, rate and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours and your business. Your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.