Date Published:
August 13, 2026
Listen on:
TLD 065 - 2026 Round Table: Mentorship, Day Rates, and Responsible AI
Guests
Your crews are at capacity, you're turning down work, and the bench behind them is thin. You already know the answer involves bringing new people in, and you also know that handing a trainee a courthouse assignment isn't training.
Brent, Steve, and Brandon walk through what Dudley built this year: roughly 100 checkpoints a landman needs exposure to, about 20 paid mentors, and more than a dozen energy management graduates working a six-month program. They get into why day rates finally started moving, what client backing looks like inside an MSA, and why nobody in land can define responsible AI yet.
If you're growing a team without giving up the quality your clients hired you for, start here.
Key Topics & Timestamps
- 00:59 - Episode Intro
- 01:29 - Summer Recap
- 04:29 - Company Midyear Update
- 07:52 - Mentor Program Pipeline
- 18:33 - Day Rates and Costs
- 23:27 - AI Disruption and Policy
- 32:58 - AI Policy Uncertainty
- 34:05 - Quality Control With AI
- 36:57 - Using Versus Building AI
- 40:42 - Annual Planning Playbook
- 50:02 - College Football
Memorable Quotes
"I've never been in a spot where I've turned down so much work, to be honest." — Steve
"Training someone isn't just hiring them and throwing them out there. It's being responsible." — Brent
"If you don't have young people coming into the industry, what's gonna happen in 10, 15 years?" — Brandon
"There's a difference between using AI and building with AI." — Khalil
Key Takeaways
- Build the training protocol before you recruit. Dudley mapped roughly 100 checkpoints a landman needs exposure to and lined up paid mentors first, then brought trainees in. Recruiting first and sorting out development later is what gave trainees a bad name.
- Pay your mentors. Mentoring pulls real time and attention away from billable work. Compensating mentors is what keeps a program alive past its first enthusiastic month.
- Sell the trainee program as a partnership. Clients fund six months of lower production and come out with ten to twenty landmen dedicated to their projects. Framed that way, Steve hasn't had a client say no.
- Day rates move when you explain the business, not the ask. Insurance, benefits, compliance, and now AI tooling all cost money. Walking clients through that math gets further than twenty years of asking for more.
- Free AI tools are a confidentiality problem. Contractors pasting client data into consumer chatbots are breaking the same agreements they signed. Approved-tool lists and contract language are the fix, and both belong in your MSA conversations now.
- Give every goal an owner. Annual planning holds up when each objective carries a named owner and a monthly progress update that goes out to the whole company, misses included.
Help us improve our podcast! Share your thoughts in our quick survey.
Resources
- Kudu Suite
- American Association of Professional Landmen
- Need Help With A Project? Meet With Dudley
- Need Help with Staffing? Connect with Dudley Staffing
- Streamline Your Title Process with Dudley Select Title
- Watch On YouTube
- Follow Dudley Land Co. On LinkedIn
- Have Questions? Email us
More from Our Hosts
Connect With Us
Ready to protect your land projects with integrated legal and title support? Our Dudley Select Title division works seamlessly with experienced oil and gas counsel to keep your deals on track and defensible. Contact us to learn how our complete energy partnership approach includes the legal expertise that matters when stakes are high.
