From farm kid to cart boy to equipment manager, Michael Shelton knows his way around the golf course maintenance industry. Michael is a Horry-Georgetown Technical College graduate with an associate’s degree in turfgrass management and worked as an assistant superintendent before moving into equipment management. Like many of us, Michael enjoys the variety of his career whether he’s building two functioning creeks from scratch or hopping on a ‘dozer. With his background and education in agronomy, Michael is a true believer in the importance of understanding – and being able to explain – the why behind agronomic and cultural practices. Michael reminds us to be confident in our abilities and step outside our comfort zones in order to grow. In the episode summary, a few words about mental health and the importance of asking for help.
Transcript
Trent Manning:
welcome to the reel turf techs podcast for the technician that wants to get reel follow along. As we talk to industry professionals and address hot topics that we all face along the way we’ll learn tips and tricks. I’m your host, Trent. Manny let’s have some Welcome to the real turf techs podcast, episode 25. Today, we’re talking to Michael Shelton. He’s the head mechanic at forest lakes country club in Columbia, South Carolina. Forest lakes is a private 18 hole course. Michael has one technician working with him in the shop. Just a heads up this episode includes mention of mental health crisis. And I will be saying a few more words after the interview. So please stick around. Let’s hear from Michael. Welcome Michael, to the real turf techs podcast. How are you doing today? I’m doing good, man. I’m doing good. Tell us how you got into the turf.
Michael Shelton:
I started as a carpool and then, being a car. I just always saw the guys over in the fairways and the greens and whatnot, and always thought that it was the coolest thing too. Watch the guy on, on what I thought was just a big lawnmower at a time, just putting these crazy look and lines into the fairways. So my goal was to be able to do that one day, I got the opportunity and I got on the maintenance crew and started out raking, bunkers, mow and grains. And then I graduated to the fairway man.
Trent Manning:
Yep.
Michael Shelton:
got, I got to actually mow the stripes on the, on the fairways. And then I got really bored of it real quick.
Trent Manning:
Hmm.
Michael Shelton:
So I worked on that golf course for nine years. And then the super at the time said, you can’t go any further than you are right now, unless you go to school. I said, okay. So I looked into school and there was either extension or this little. Two year school down at the beach or Georgetown.
Trent Manning:
Okay.
Michael Shelton:
So I said, yeah, well, two years sounds a lot better than four. So I went to Georgetown for the turf grass degree associate’s degree there, fresh management. So I finished school, got my degree. And then. Wound up at forest lake club being a second assistant under Chris Bennett and Tim Flanigan worked there as an assistant for two years, and then our mechanics retired. So he retired and then it looked at me and said, you want to take over the shop? And I was like, yeah, I’m pretty handy. I can turn some wrenches and I might not mess up too much. That was five years ago. So I’ve been in the shop for five years and the internet riches ever since.
Trent Manning:
That’s awesome. That was a good story, nothing wrong with that. And I think a lot of guys can relate because a lot of us started the same way. I mean, I know I started out on the crew who just kept counting Morgan my way up until I got to where I’m at now, kind of walk us through your daily shot routine.
Michael Shelton:
Oh, well, I do have an assistant, so he normally does kind of little odds and ends stuff. First thing in the morning, checking mowers I’ll help on the car and go ride around and check out whatever mowers are out that day. Drains my works, fairway mowers, rough mowers. Just kind of get an idea of how everything’s cutting. And then I’ll come back into the shop and me and him will tackle whatever we need or flowers. If we have to grind anything, I’ll help him grind till, you know, he’ll break them down, I’ll brown them or I’ll break them down and he ground them. And then we just kind of, double-team a lot of this stuff. And then every day is different. So there’s always something and I’m always pulled in four or five different directions. like a little morning happens, it’s a crap shoot on what happens the rest of the day.
Trent Manning:
Right, right. Right. Well, actually your boss. So we’ll tell the listeners this story a little bit the superintendent that Michael works for Chris. I’ve worked with Chris Bennett for, I don’t know how many years, a lot of years off and on. And not just at a golf course, but building golf courses, building sports fields. So we kind of jumped around a little bit, but I remember Chris telling me, and this was my second tour at Angelee, which he also had two tours at Ansley. But a second to her. I remember him saying one day that 90% of my day comes to me and that’s always kind of stuck with me. And I think a lot of guys can relate to that because you can plan out your day, but let’s see what happens in the first 30 days.
Michael Shelton:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. And especially with him, he’s always, he’s wide open, you know, that there’s always something cooking in the back of his mind and he’s coming back there and talking to me about it and trying to get me to be a part of it or just help me do it or something. I mean, he throws a lot of mine.
Trent Manning:
Hmm. Do you relieve ground?
Michael Shelton:
Well, I just got two brand new Foley grounders. I had an older Foley grinder. I attempted to re the release ground one time and it scared me because I ended up smacking the expire. So I haven’t really found yet. I do plan on really frowned in some this fall, this winter, just to kind of play with it, I guess.
Trent Manning:
yeah, yeah. What model followed you? Yeah.
Michael Shelton:
The 6 72, then I found her and then was 6 53.
Trent Manning:
Yep. I think you’ll be very, very happy with those. I got both of those machines or actually I think I got the 6 73 bed enough grounder. But it’s really assigning. But at the 6 53, I went from a six 50, which was like a 97 model to the 6 53, 2 years ago. And I mean, it’s a lot of the same stuff, but it’s also night and day difference on how much faster it. is to set your cutting unit up and get a grind and then do the relief and all that stuff. Just technology is getting a little ice.
Michael Shelton:
And when we got the new one, we had both the old one still. And I looked at my sister and I was like, all right, let’s time ourselves. Let’s see just how fast we can be with this new one versus the old one. And I was just, I was knocking them out. I was
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
Michael Shelton:
five reels to his, like three and they’re back together, back on the unit and just out the door. And I’m just sitting in office like, all right, man, let’s go.
Trent Manning:
tell us something you’ve fabricated lately.
Michael Shelton:
At work, nothing really. I just bought a house, so I’ve been built and fences and gates for the yard. The last thing I did fabricate for work was, oh, wow. I’m a big w. everything that I found was out of wood and I built some chills out of pallets for the club grounds. So they can have like their display outside with like liquor bottles and put like some whites on it. So it like blows at night. And that was the last thing I think I fabricated.
Trent Manning:
Okay. Cool. What’s your favorite tool and why?
Michael Shelton:
Everybody’s already covered, like the impact and your cell phone. And so I got to thinking this, like what, what do I use every day that it’s not safe? And I honestly, I think it’s perhaps here resident enriched.
Trent Manning:
Okay. Yep.
Michael Shelton:
I have a toolbox full of wrenches, just regular standard ringers. And I always go for a ratchet and ranch and I have one particular screwdriver. I don’t know why it’s my favorite screwdriver, but it is my favorite screwdriver always navigate towards that one.
Trent Manning:
Yup. Yup.
Michael Shelton:
Grassy and Richard is probably just because it speeds up things, you know, like you get like those little type spaces that you can’t really get a ratchet to or
Trent Manning:
Mm.
Michael Shelton:
else. And it just takes so long with a regular box and ranch. That little ratchet ranch just gets in there and turns it loose back on.
Trent Manning:
Yup. A friend of mine, Eric Duncanson pine needles turned me on to, I think they call it the crossbeam or something it’s made by gear ranch and as a ratcheting ranch. But the opened in is 90 degrees to the box. So you got a larger surface to get your hands on. So when you’re breaking stuff loose and they’re a little bit longer, so I use those on a lateral cutting use, you know, for adjusting hot and that kind of stuff. They’re just really handy for that.
Michael Shelton:
Okay. You don’t wanna have to look into those.
Trent Manning:
Does that mean I’m might have to check out you have any side projects out, huh?
Michael Shelton:
So that was the house. No, I used to help out on course, down the road. coming in after work every day and just kind of checking units and stuff like that. But right now, no, not much
Trent Manning:
Yep. What do you like best about your job?
Michael Shelton:
time. Yeah. I think I’m in a consensus with everybody. It’s the variety, you know? I mean, you never see the same thing twice and if you do, it’s an easy fix because you’ve already seen it or Just the day-to-day stuff. I mean, somebody is in a pissy mood and they break something that’s completely odd. Like my sock, my soundscape roller for whatever reason, they got Jack old jagged all up one day. And I don’t know why. And that was interesting because now I had to figure out exactly what I had to fix on that. So it actually took a little bit. Brainstorming and, you know, just it’s the variety. And you know, of course with them, it is projects and construction stuff. So it’s building a new green or ripping a tee up and, you know, resurface in a T or completely built in from scratch two creeks, fully functioning and Creech with piping and
Trent Manning:
Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Very cool. Tell me a crazy story. You’ve seen.
Michael Shelton:
I’ve been on the golf course for a long time. I think the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. And I got to talking about it with some of the guys at work, just trying to pick their brain on what’s the craziest thing they’ve seen. And I honestly, it’s, it’s super crazy and it’s kinda sad at the same time, but we had a fruit mint completely have a meltdown, a complete mental breakdown. And he ended up down in his birthday suit in the middle of the parking lot, sitting on the asphalt like this Brandon and Raven and. Talking all kinds of crazy. And it was in the middle of a women’s tournament. So there were probably 80 women out on the force and we were trying to get him to not leave the parking lot, because that could have been bad in a lot of ways. And it. And I say that it’s sad because I mean, you have to know your members, you know, you have to know the guys that you work with and we didn’t see it coming like at all. It was just completely out of the blue and that was a crazy day. Other than that, I’ve seen two guys come stripped down to the underwear box in each other in the middle of the fairway.
Trent Manning:
Nice.
Michael Shelton:
This was back when I was a cart boy. I was like, why, why are, why are they fighting? And I get their card in and washed it up at the end of the day. And there’s just a handle of Jack that is completely empty in the back of it.
Trent Manning:
Nah. Yeah. Yep. I can do it the little too much to drink. Sometimes.
Michael Shelton:
Oh yeah.
Trent Manning:
Lisa wasn’t tequila. He knows what they’d be doing out there.
Michael Shelton:
During a tenant where they, yeah. Oh yeah.
Trent Manning:
Tell me a pet peeve you have around the shop.
Michael Shelton:
I have one guy that will start and stop a mower on full throttle
Trent Manning:
Hmm.
Michael Shelton:
every time. It doesn’t matter if it’s freshly in the first thing in the morning, like he’s fresh from his cup of coffee, he’ll go up there and crank fraud all the way up and just stomp it and start it up. Other pet is a big one. Really? Yeah. The assistance and other guys just coming into the shop and like taking something out of the toolbox
Trent Manning:
Hmm.
Michael Shelton:
and it’s like, what, where do you, what do you need help with? Like, why are you digging through the toolbox? Like, because I’ll never see whatever you’re going to get back. And then I have to go track it down and put it back in there. That that, and the full throttle mowers and stuff. I think those are my two biggest pet peeves, everything else. I’m pretty lax and cool with, I guess.
Trent Manning:
I don’t remember anybody else bringing it up about tagging tools out of it. What I think that’s a huge one for a lot of guys and gals and a lot of courses too,
Michael Shelton:
Yeah.
Trent Manning:
you know, I think, I think we all struggle with that a lot because you’re out once it kind of goes out of that toolbox, it don’t make its way back. Even if you tell them, okay, I know you got my nine-sixteenths ranch, it better and up in here by the end of the day. And you check at the end of the day and it’s not there. And then you get it to them and they say, oh yeah, I forgot.
Michael Shelton:
There’s a, I have a big, massive pair of channel locks and those were like my number one, things that disappear. And it I’ll find it in odd places all over the shop. I mean, I found it on the courts one time and bounced off the back of your car and it’s like, I’ll go buy you your own channel walks, like tell me to go to Louise and I can get some.
Trent Manning:
right, right.
Michael Shelton:
And other than that, it, that, and I’m the type of guy that I kind of was like, what are you doing? Like, why do you need what tool that you’re one, you know, there’s, there might be a better way to do what you’re thinking about doing, and I might have it, or I might help you come up with it or you’re messing with something that you’re not supposed to be messing with because you haven’t told me.
Trent Manning:
Hmm.
Michael Shelton:
And that’s why I was asking this are, where did you mess with that way? I can walk out there and see what you’re messing with and that way I don’t have to fix whatever they attempt to mess with later on down the road.
Trent Manning:
Right, right, right. Yep. That’s some pre-planning right there. Good. On your part, what would be your dream job or opportunity?
Michael Shelton:
I don’t think it’s gotten here yet. There’s always a few things out on horizon. That’s kind of have your eye on there’s always stuff in the works. For the most part. I got a, I got a buddy that always tells me
Trent Manning:
Okay.
Michael Shelton:
should always be treading water wherever you’re at, because if you’re not treading water, then you get complacent and then you get comfortable and then you don’t better yourself. So I’m kind of looking at. Not hard looking, but I’m kind of looking for like that next step. That’s going to make me really tread water so I can push my abilities and push my knowledge and get me to a place to where I can just be a better, all better person, a better mechanic, a better turf guy and just warm. I mean, you always have to learn.
Trent Manning:
Right, right, right. I was telling my assistant today. I mean, I’ve been doing this for quite a while and I still learn something every day. And I mean, that’s one of the things I love about the job. We’re just constantly learning. And I think guys at my level, we end up a lot of locked. At that point. So it was really rewarding to, to be given back, especially to the younger generation and building them up, making them more successful. Only advice I would have for you is just challenge yourself, Right. where you’re at. you know, a lot, a lot of times you can. I don’t know. I mean, I’ve been there before where I’ve got complacent and I’m like, Okay. it’s kind of getting boring, same thing all the time. But, and so give you a little more detail about my second Stan at Ansley. I’m still working for the same superintendent that I was the first stent. And number one, he questioned the number one question he had for me. When I interviewed for the second time, was, are you going to be able to stay busy? And I knew exactly what he meant by that. It wouldn’t, you know, stay busy in the shop and get stuff fixed because they knew I was competent in all those areas, but he didn’t want me getting bored. And so he’s done a really good job this go around and I think, you know, part of that’s on me too. I find other things that I’m interested in, that I can still do the golf course. It still brings value to my position. I enter the course and to the membership, just for instance, the CNC machine and making these signs that I’ve been making here lately. the members love them, the course needs them. And it was a challenge for me to learn the software, learn the machine and all that kind of thing. So point of the story is you can find stuff the, you know, to fill your plate up, to keep you motivated.
Michael Shelton:
there’s not always something better like to bring it. You had the green grass on that side of might not be as green as what I got it, but I’m still young enough to, or I can make a couple mistakes and figure out that they were or weren’t mistakes at the end of the day.
Trent Manning:
Yeah, well, I’m not, I wasn’t trying to to hold you back or, you know, I was just throwing some my 2 cents.
Michael Shelton:
Yes, sir.
Trent Manning:
Cause I’ve been there before, too. What kind of tips or tricks do you want to share with us?
Michael Shelton:
This was a hard one to think about. Cause all the tips and tricks that I know was taught to me by older guys. So they’ve probably already been circulated and everybody probably knows. as simple as is I’ll always use a C clamp for, recalls whenever like a weed eater or a lot more push mower or something like that. I always use seed plant. cause I can just walk and wind it up by hand and just get that perfect tension and then put that seed clamp on, run the string through it and then kind of turn that seed plant loose and just. Retract yourself back and you get that perfect amount of string every time.
Trent Manning:
Okay. Gotcha. I don’t know that I’ve heard that one. I’ve been doing this long time. I don’t know that I’ve used a C clamp.
Michael Shelton:
It’s like, it’s it’s one of the seats, the C shape, vice grip fires. What? The little four-inch ones.
Trent Manning:
Hm.
Michael Shelton:
yeah, that’s the only reason I ever I use on Bolton is I don’t use them for anything else, but a refill. yeah, and it’s just like, whoa, vice grips. And you just clamp it on there and holds it. And you, ain’t got to worry about the spring jumping up and smacking yet, or it turned it loose. I mean, you could get it to that right. Little attention and just clamp. It flooded around.
Trent Manning:
Okay. Cool.
Michael Shelton:
Well, not really a tip, but kind of advice, I guess, is just be, be confident in your abilities, I guess. My assistant, for example, he’s getting really good at two strokes. And he always comes to me. I mean, he’ll put the car back together, clean it perfectly, and he’ll come back and they’ll pull it full of bullet and start it. And you know, it’s like, man, you, you, you have to be confident that you did your job, right. You just have to pay a little more tension because you didn’t put like the fuel onto the car, you know? So when you put it the bubble, you’re not getting any fuel, you’re just get air. So just pay a little bit more attention and just be confident that you did something right. Don’t second guess yourself on something that you still confident about doing?
Trent Manning:
Let’s go to bass for sure. do you have anything else you want to talk about?
Michael Shelton:
With my turf degree and stuff like that, I got a pretty good grasp on, you know, the stuff that goes on outside of the shop. So if other guys want to look into some of that stuff, like the GCs assistance test and stuff like that, try and take roads, ask, ask the assistance and ask the supers that where they’re at to teach them. Or show them why we’re doing stuff to whatever we’re doing. I think that’s what really helped me coming into the shop because I understood that the grant, you know, I understand the, the grants aspect of it and the scratch has to be cut this way and that way, and this fertilizer needs to go on. And that helped me in the shop because if I didn’t set a mower up quite white and. I saw like a different Africa appearance and stuff. That’s like, okay, I need to go back and I need to recheck this reel or this mower. And maybe sometimes there’s not even a machine related thing. It might be turf related. And I get the blame for most of the stuff that I’m applies. You know, the mower is not set. Right. Well, it’s set. Right. It’s cut and finest. The grass is doing its own little thing right now. And you’re seeing the grass. You’re not seeing the machine that’s doing it.
Trent Manning:
Hm.
Michael Shelton:
Just learn, try and learn some of the, the agricultural practices. Yeah, we set up verdict cutters, but why do we verdict? You know, we set up, I mean, we’re all, we all get this when they go and top us, cause we gotta get a ground, a new reels and set this up in that. But.
Trent Manning:
Hm.
Michael Shelton:
You know, understand like why that frustration is there for us because the grass needs it. You know, by Friday it’s faded up and the greens are beautiful. They roll and smooth and you know, everybody’s handled and I don’t, I don’t get upset anymore because we have to talk for us because I understand why we have top for us because Tom Friday and Saturday and Sunday, I mean, they’re, they’re perfect. I’m getting praised by Sunday because the mowers are just shooting on by and everything’s perfect.
Trent Manning:
Hm.
Michael Shelton:
And that, that kind of helped me with my assistant too. He came from the automotive side of things and I would take him out and show him, you know, this mower is doing this or the air fire of doing this. So it kind of helped me. Put it in a different perspective for him. I taught him how to move green and that, and while we mowed greens, as often as we do and all of that, you know, because of my turf degree and because I was on that side of things for so long that it helped me help him because now it’s all right. You, you have to sit in this real to 1 0 5 and with this sentence or that sentence, And he doesn’t know why he’s doing that. So it gives him a little bit more of, I don’t want to say pleasure, but a little more validation of what he’s doing everyday. You know what I mean? He said we just had a big tournament this weekend. I mean, we were just turning wrenches left and right. And Nolan and all that. And it’s like, why do I have to stay up till five 30? To set this real again, that I just said six hours ago, first thing in the morning. Well, you know, you have to set it because it’s, we have to, because you know, we have to go to, you know, we have to start again after noon and afternoon cut is a lot different and a morning coat because there’s new on the ground and all that. So I’d say just the guys that are interested in that side of things, just look into it a little bit more. I love that I have that background. Even now our class B assistant or class B superintendent has left. So now then it has asked me to reprise some of my assistant superintendent duties.
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
Michael Shelton:
And so like over the past five years, I haven’t lost that ability to go out there and manage the Browns and the grass and the crew and all that stuff. So. So now that I’m part assistant superintendent and then still the head mechanic, you know, I got a lot more stuff on my plate, but I can manage that stress a little bit more because now I understand both sides of what we do. yeah. I, I just encourage other guys to just go and look into that side of things.
Trent Manning:
I agree, a hundred percent
Michael Shelton:
yeah, I mean, it’s gratefully automotive guys. I mean,
Trent Manning:
Even if you’re not that interested in the ground army side of things, I do think as an equivalent manager, you need a certain level of agronomy and there’s like your science. So you just understand the cultural practices that you’re doing and why you’re doing the things you’re doing. I think that is a huge thing. And like you said, GCSA with the assistance program. There’s more information there.
Michael Shelton:
okay.
Trent Manning:
That’s really good advice. And I appreciate it.
Michael Shelton:
Oh yeah. I mean, we being the equipment managers and stuff now, I mean, yeah, we’re getting a little bit more recognition to you for what you’re doing with this podcast. And you know, all the videos that are on this GCSA for us. We’re getting a lot more recognition. So when we do hit that point to where. You know our names on the bottom of the scorecards too, you know, we were going to eventually get that recognition. I mean, we’re going to eventually get to that level to where, you know, we’re going to be a big, big part. Publicly about what happens in the course. I mean, right now we’re just a grease boys. That’s in the back of the shop that nobody ever sees and talks to. But you know, essentially, you know, we’re, we’re going to make it to the board meetings and those grants, committee maintenance and budget meetings and stuff like that. And having a well-rounded knowledge of what’s going on. I think there’s going to be a big thing down the road, too.
Trent Manning:
Right, right, right.
Michael Shelton:
I have the knowledge that I have, I’m real appreciative of it. And I had that chance to go from being an assistant superintendent to being a mechanic. And I think the transition wouldn’t have been that easy if I wouldn’t have been the system beforehand. I mean, just throwing me into the shop. I mean, it was, it, it was not day difference. I mean, now. I’m not as claustrophobic as I used to be. You know, I do miss being out on the course a lot, you know, but of course working for Bennett, I actually get outside and, and be a part of projects. And, you know, I’m a really good equipment operator, heavy equipment operator. So you really leans on me and stuff like that.
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
Michael Shelton:
But, you know, be first be, be that guy that you, that of course can’t lose,
Trent Manning:
Well, I might be totally wrong about this, but I have a feeling that most equipment managers or golf course mechanics, or whatever you want to call us,
Michael Shelton:
Okay.
Trent Manning:
tend to be really good operators.
Michael Shelton:
Yeah,
Trent Manning:
I just got that feeling.
Michael Shelton:
we were the ones with the talker toys in the yard early on.
Trent Manning:
right. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.
Michael Shelton:
Yeah. I grew up on farm and I have friends and buddies that own massive, clear and grading businesses. And I was on, I didn’t learn how to drive a truck until later on. I mean, I was driving a tractor by myself at four years old. Yeah. I mean, I just grew up on equipment and every time my uncle worked on a piece of equipment, I always got driver out the door. Whether it be, you know, In equipment, big, massive trackers that I was not allowed to be in, but I got in anyway, but yeah, and I think that’s what Bennett really likes about me too. It’s just 80. Count on me to go out here and take this big old dozer and just do what I need to do and not mess up anything else.
Trent Manning:
Right. No, that’s awesome. And well, I remember Eric Dickerson figure one and VT. And I don’t remember if it was, that was last year, the year before, but and he’s been a guest here too, but on his write up that the superinten. Done. That was one of the things that he put on there that he would jump on a mower. He had jumped on a dozer you know, fix everything in the shop. You know, he’s just well-rounded guy. And I think a lot of us that title suits us as being real, real well. Right.
Michael Shelton:
Oh, yeah. I mean, other than that yeah, again, thank you for this podcast. I’ve been listening to some of the pulling weeds pond task, and you know, those guys talked to superintendent. And, you know, a couple of my buddies were on there and they talk and stuff and I bet even back then, I was like, you know, it’d be super cool if they had a podcast just for us. Yeah. Cause we’re like the unsung heroes of everything that makes them look good after time,
Trent Manning:
Right, right, right.
Michael Shelton:
you know? And here you go, getting on here and making this a podcast.
Trent Manning:
Well, that’s, I mean, that’s, that’s the only reason I started it is to kind of give back to the industry and to highlight this career. How’s it, man.
Michael Shelton:
Yeah. And you’re killing that man.
Trent Manning:
Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I really, really appreciate that. Any success that this podcast has is all because of the listeners that I, because this redneck from Georgia with his country accent as any thanks. Yeah.
Michael Shelton:
Oh, man. We’re all special.
Trent Manning:
Tell the listeners how they can get a.
Michael Shelton:
Oh, well, I’m trying to be a little more active on Twitter. Twitter is at C M Shelton. I’m really active on Facebook. I’m a part of the Facebook generation. I’m always posting in the comment and stuff on, you know, the groups and stuff there. Yeah. Other than Facebook, Twitter, I said, I’m trying to be a little more active on Twitter. I, I’m a really introverted person. So I don’t, I I’m trying to get out of that. And that’s why I reactivated my Twitter a little bit. So I asked to kind of converse with y’all more and other people more. And it’s that, that’s kinda why I wanted to jump on here and do that. It’s like do something that you’re completely uncomfortable doing. I mean, Ellen, do you know how long we’ve been talking? But honestly, I mean, this right has gotten me out of my comfort zone a little bit, you know, I mean, do something that’s out of your counselor, Jane,
Trent Manning:
That is. I think that’s some really good advice is do something out of your comfort zone. Because I remember the first year that I taught a class, a GIS, I thought I was gonna pass out. I was so nervous and so uncomfortable. And I mean, it was, it was a terrible experience at the time, but after it was over, I was so glad I’d done that. And I mean, it, it just changed. So getting out of your comfort zone is a really good thing. thank you so much. Oh one more thing. Tell me about the WhatsApp group. Do you enjoy being a part of it?
Michael Shelton:
yes, yes. And that all goes back to me. Get out of my comfort zone. And being less introverted. I’m really good with the texts that are in my area. We talk all the time and this, the WhatsApp group is awesome. Like, thanks for the invite to that, because now, now I’m a part of a bigger area, you know? I mean, we got guys in there from Canada and but rain, I
Trent Manning:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Michael Shelton:
would have never talked to a guy in Lorain. A day in my wife’s like I w I, I literally had to go look at it on a map, figuring out what it was, you know, but like the WhatsApp is also, and there’s a, yeah, got a part of this podcast. And then the WhatsApp group, I mean, everybody needs to be a part of the WhatsApp group.
Trent Manning:
Thank you. I really appreciate you saying that. And if the listener is interested, send me an email. Shoot me a DM. I had a guy DME today on Twitter. I want to be in the WhatsApp group. I’ll be happy to add you and. We just have a good time in there. I mean, we talk shop we voice our frustrations that we might have with broken equipment or whatever, and is just a good time. And I’m really proud of the community that w real turf techs pass has been great. And thank you, Michael, for being on, I’ve enjoyed this today
Michael Shelton:
Thank you.
Trent Manning:
and we’ll talk to you. next time.
Michael Shelton:
Yes, sir.
Trent Manning:
Hope you enjoyed hearing from Michael. Michael brought up an important subject. The mental health of ourselves and our coworkers. And this is no joke. If you’re struggling, please reach out to a loved one. There is a better day ahead and people will help you. And you can find support. And your friends and your family. And maybe even your coworkers. If you or someone, you know, is in crisis. The national suicide prevention hotline is one 800. 2 7 3 8 2 5 5. If you’d like your facility to be prepared to deal with a mental health or substance abuse crisis and the workplace. Check out mental health, first aid. They’re a national group that may have a training near you, similar to CPR training. But for dealing with mental health challenges. We truly care about this community and each of our listeners and their families. Do as a favor and tell a friend about the podcast. And let them know about the WhatsApp group. This community keeps getting better with every tech we meet. We’ll talk to you next week. thank you so much for listening to the real turf techs podcast. I hope you learned something today. Don’t forget to subscribe. If you have any topics you’d like to discuss, or you’d like to be a guest, find us on Twitter at real turf techs.