We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ed Landgraf a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ed, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s jump into the story of starting your own firm – what should we know?

I was very conservative and probably should have taken some more risk before starting my own business. But when I started, I had already established that there was a need and basis for what I do. Establishing the need to me, was one of the most important things and help set the direction and goals and achievable milestones of the business. Although part of me as a salesman, I did not want to have to sell my skills. I wanted people to look for my skill set and seek me out. But you have to put yourself out there and let people know that your goods or services that you provide do exist and you’re waiting in the wings for when they are needed. I would encourage folks to look into root cause analysis or root cause failure analysis. There are many different classes on this that help establish what has failed in the past, and that is the basis what you design your business to close those gaps in the future.

Ed, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve always had a drive to protect the environment and to protect the safety of the people that live in communities near oil and gas related assets. The term social responsibility means a lot to me and I get it. It’s almost a licensed to operate if you can tie into your business model. I am not a highly degree person to the contrary I did many physical labor type jobs before becoming a professional consultant. Sometimes being too broad in your business objectives can be a hindrance, but at other times, if you aren’t brought enough, it can act as a detriment I am now 55 years old and much of my path is already set with not enough time to change by the time I want to fully retire. Actually, I don’t think I will ever “retire”. I also started a nonprofit industry organization that has over 25 oil and gas company members 10 Marin construction members and four nonprofits. I often leverage my connections and Bill political capital this has been a huge success. The power of building political capital means others answer your phone call or your email when you send them and they trust what you say Which enables you to influence decisions at a political or a corporate level.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Reputation integrity and honesty is a huge asset, especially if leverage the right way I often speak about building political capital and these are the foundations. When you can mix in volunteerism in a school, a community or a nonprofit, this helps build your reputation and that can be done at a very small cost, and in many cases cost you nothing to be involved with those type of entities. There are many schools that love to have someone with experience or knowledge come in and talk to their students at all levels. This resonates through the community, especially when you’re trying to let them learn about different sectors of our life. You can always use that in your marketing campaign.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

This is an easy one for me. I keep touch with my perspective, clients or contacts by having monthly meetings that are 45 minutes long. I send out an invitation to over 300 people of different stakeholder groups. We talked about different topics related to protecting communities in the environment and in my business it’s in the marine or underwater oil and gas industry. This is huge benefits, leader, and you know your subject matter and they can join a monthly call virtually is when you can showcase your abilities and they will come to you when they need help individually.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.camogroup.org
• Linkedin: Ed Landgraf – CAMO Coastal and Marine operators
• Other: Just Google my name, Ed Landgraf In any browser and add oil and gas, pipelines or add Marine safety. You should see plenty of stuff come up

Image Credits

I have no professional degree. I have political capital in my name and integrity that speaks for itself.