My career in the energy industry began when my partner and wife, Katherine (“Katie”) Lyssy Garza, and I started working in the Eagle Ford Shale helping ranchers and farmers lease and negotiate their royalty rights to exploration and production (E&P) companies. I am the co-founder and CEO of Lyssy Energy Enterprises LLC, a privately owned renewable utility scale energy developer located in South Texas in the city of Laredo, which operates in the entire state of Texas and beyond. The business originally began when my father-in-law asked me and my wife for assistance in the negotiations of leases offered to him. The goal was to help him maintain a healthy and clean surface, so as to not interfere with his daily ranching and farming operations. In the last five years, Lyssy has expanded and concentrated its scope of business to the development of utility scale energy. The immediate goal is to help add additional capacity to the grid in Texas and the national grid to help solidify the reliability of cheap electrical power for the consumer.
5:00 a.m. I am an early riser, getting out of bed at 5:00 a.m. each morning. After waking, I head straight to the kitchen for two tall glasses of water, and a simple breakfast, like oatmeal with raisins, and a cup of coffee as I sit in the kitchen, cell phone in hand. I go straight to my email to respond to any late messages received or send any messages I had left in drafts before going to bed. Soon after that, I check the news websites, Twitter and LinkedIn for any industry-related news and the current political stories of the day. Any insightful information I find I tend to share with peers. This has, from time to time, given me an edge for the day.
5:30 a.m. After spending some time on the day’s agenda, I head down the hallway of my house to a room designated as the family gym, working out with some strength training and spending a bit of time on the stationary bike or treadmill, depending on how I feel that day. When I have done about 45 minutes of exercise, I head back to the kitchen for a protein shake, including banana and organic milk. A little after 6:00 a.m., I hit the shower and get ready for the rest of the day.
6:30 a.m. I review my agenda and notes for the day and prepare a list of tasks to undertake. This list is tackled by most important to least important and from quickest to lengthiest. (This list is updated consistently throughout the day.)
7:00 a.m. I begin my first round of phone calls, virtual meetings (Zoom, Teams, Google, etc.) with my contacts across the pond in Europe and on the East Coast. This will continue until 9:00 a.m.. These calls are either new conversations on work synergies or current business being developed.
9:00 a.m. I have my daily company meeting with my management and development team. In this conference, we tackle the current situation of our operations and discuss the next steps going forward. This meeting includes Lyssy’s in-house team and third-party contractors from engineers and environmental experts to equity partners.
Soon after this meeting, I might hit the road around noon to visit one of the renewable energy sites we are developing, making an appearance to oversee the work being accomplished and ensure that the site managers and personnel have everything they need to be successful. This part of my day is the realization of all the hours that have been labored over that no one sees or knows.
Afternoons Driving back to the office, I usually take a call or two. Once I reach the office, I will begin to wrap up any items that are still pending from the morning and begin to assess what tasks need to be addressed early the next morning. During this period of the day, I have strategic meetings with our legal counsel and finance adviser on a strategy to maximize our profits when selling the assets and/or power off these sites.
Evenings My business hours usually end at 6:00 p.m., but I am still available for my contacts on the West Coast. At this time, any work is most likely continued via smartphone and scheduled to accommodate family time.
After dinner, I will sink my teeth into industry newsletters that I received that day, whitepapers and various other energy research, that will affect the market in the following quarters. Once in bed and ready to call it a night, I normally write emails and save them in drafts to send first thing in the morning when I awake.
This time is crucial to my day. At this moment, I shut out the world and contemplate what I accomplished and how to handle tomorrow’s challenges. This moment of silent concentration provides the stillness that my mind requires to formulate and decompress for the night.
Fidel Garza is the co-founder and CEO of Lyssy Energy Enterprises LLC, a privately owned renewable utility scale energy developer located in South Texas in the city of Laredo. Please visit www.lyssyenergy.com.
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