Josefth Moreira, equipment manager at Lake Toxaway Country Club in North Carolina, began his wrenching career in honor of his late dad who was a mechanic himself. Starting out as a flat-rate auto mechanic, Joe’s strength in electrical propelled his career quickly when he took the plunge into turf. With the support of the first superintendent he worked with, Joe learned to jump in and trust himself and his skills, and encourages us to do the same. Joe reminds us we are enough just as we are, and to give ourselves some credit for how far we’ve come since we first started. Hear about Joe’s sincere appreciation for the experienced techs out there sharing their knowledge & raising standards for the entire industry. Just like those he’s looked up to, Joe gives back with his service to the Turf Equipment Technicians Association of the Carolinas.
Transcript
Trent Manning:
Let me ask you one more question because I forgot. How do you pronounce your last name? Cause I know I’ll screw
Joe Moreira:
So it’s yeah.
Trent Manning:
more Ray. Yeah. Okay.
Joe Moreira:
Yep. That’s perfect, Maria. Yep.
Trent Manning:
think I can handle that, but, I’m terrible with names 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 tech podcast, episode 33. Today, we’re talking to Joe Maria. He’s the equipment manager like talks away country club and like talks away North Carolina. Like tox away is an 18 hole. Private course. Designed by Chris fence. Joe is the loan ranch and his shop. And just began a new lease with Toro. Let’s hear what joe has to say Welcome Joe, to the real turf tax podcast. How are you doing today, Joe?
Joe Moreira:
Hey, Trent, I’m doing pretty good. How about yourself?
Trent Manning:
Doing great. Thank you for coming on. I really appreciate it.
Joe Moreira:
Thank you for having,
Trent Manning:
Joe is in our WhatsApp, so he’s really good at gifts. Sharing a lot, a lot of funny ones. But we’ll get right to it. Tell us how you got into the turf industry.
Joe Moreira:
I kinda gotta take it back. So my dad was a I guess you would call a shade tree mechanic. Were from Ecuador. He moved to California and worked as a mechanic there, back in I believe it was the seventies. And he kind of just learned from there after. He actually became a cabinet maker. And when I was born in growing up, mechanical was always around. So he kind of showed me some stuff, but growing up in a tough life with for him, he never wanted me to be a mechanic. So he didn’t show me everything. He showed me enough to, just get by and stuff. And he basically just, he wanted me to keep going to school, wanting me to be a lawyer, a doctor, whatever neither me or my brother ended up becoming anything like that. So but basically that’s how it got introduced to me. I was actually working as a warehouse manager and I thought logistics and warehousing was going to be my career choice. This was back about 10, 11 years. And my dad ended up passing away suddenly and to kind of fill that void, I said, you know, I haven’t gone to college. It was a big thing for him. Let me go figure out what I could do. And I ended up just stumbling upon auto mechanics and I got an AAS degree and on an auto automotive technology management in south Florida. And it pretty much started there. I got hired at a Honda dealership first and I learned the hard way of working in a dealership. Shortly after I got hired I was already married. I married young and my wife was pregnant and I was stressing. You know, I started off as a loop tech, I think making $12 an hour and in south Florida, which is expensive. It was tough. And I ended up asking my manager, Hey, I need to move up. I need to make more money. Luckily the best. And this has helped me so much in my career. Even equipment my best subject and the best teacher I had was electrical. I picked it up really quick. And so when my service manager saw that I was good with computers and good with a volt meter and all that stuff he went ahead and promoted me to the line. Now we’re talking about like a six months, I’m still going through college. I’m green as can be. And he just threw me in the line. And I think I was making $16 an hour flat rate it’s man that I learned the hard way of flat rate, man. But luckily I got picked up by my very first golf course about a year after that. It was called crystal lake golf club in Pompano beach, Florida. It’s not there anymore. Unfortunately, it’s a bunch of condos now.
Trent Manning:
So how’d you get picked up.
Joe Moreira:
I ended up going on Craigslist is how I used to find jobs on Craigslist and south Florida. And there was a job posting for auto mechanics in golf course, and the posting was like $16 an hour, 40 hours a week. They said, lunches provided a week paid vacation. It sounded so cool coming out of, you know, still in college and being in the dealerships. And say, well, I guess the same pay, but I get my 40 hours guaranteed. Heck yeah, let’s do. Let’s go. Um, yeah, you know in the dealership I had the, food truck pop up and, and the funny thing about that is it, oh, screwed me in my day because where my day was, was a corner bank and the food truck would pull in on my corner. So during lunch breaks I couldn’t get any work in or out, you know, they would block me. So basically I ended up getting an interview and the superintendent at the time was David Pickens, or Dave Pitkin. Mostly everybody knows him by that name. That’s how I started out. And I do have to say in memory of him he has passed away. I owed him a lot. He hired me, it was me being still in college, not knowing what a rotary mower is, what a real is, not knowing anything, still green coming from a dealership. And the guy who was there interviewing at the same time with me, cause he interviewed all of us at the same time. He was a turf guy. But later on, he ended up telling me when. Personality the way that I can fit with his personality, it was it was good. He had a huge temper, like bad temper. Oh man, the stories I could tell about him, but, he was if you just did your job, right. never yelled at me or anything. But if you mess up, then, you know, hit a real, then drop a real and concrete or something like that. He wouldn’t yell at you. But he ended up picking me and he told me from day one, he’s like, look, this career is huge. He told me from the get-go I can go far if I stick it out, he says, I know this equipment sucks. We had an old, I think it was a Toro 45, 10, something like that. Old rotary had a Jacobson fairway mower that has been in the junk pile and he wanted me to fix it. He kept saying it has to be electrical. It has to be electric. It was back when Jake well, at least this is how I know. I’m not sure if this was like you know, a process they went through or whatever, but the way I saw it was it was when Jake had the dream, it was the ransom colors. I I think it is the green and black. This very was that green and black fairway mower. I ended up learning quickly about how different diesel is from cars, you know, I think my book in college was one chapter long on diesel and it was barely nothing, you know? But I learned and basically that’s how I got into it. That was my first off course. And he told me, he said, one day, you’re going to thank me for working on this old, old equipment. And it’s true. It’s true. Everything I learned from old Toro, 31 hundreds that I was working on to the old Jake G Plex threes with the slide out arm just those old school stuff. Old school for me, it’s not old school for some guys, but for me, it’s old school and, having those old school problems and stuff, it just prepared me so much for what was coming ahead, He was definitely a blessing in my career as a super but then I just kept moving up. He moved from south Florida to central Florida and the ended up taking me with him. So I stayed with him for about three years,
Trent Manning:
a good bit in the golf industry, superintendent moves and he brings a mechanic with him.
Joe Moreira:
Right.
Trent Manning:
got a good relationship with your superintendent or director, whoever you’re working for.
Joe Moreira:
Exactly. Another thing to help me out also about that was, I was in south Florida expensive for what I was making I had my first born. I actually, I was born in south Florida and in Fort Lauderdale, but I grew up in central Florida and Palm bay, Melbourne, not sure if you’re the area, but the space coast is what they I grew up there and went to high school and everything there. So basically he moved me up there and I already had a house, the house that I grew up in. It was just a perfect setup for me. Um, so it was just awesome.
Trent Manning:
Well kind of walk us through your daily shop routine
Joe Moreira:
Basically I’ve kept the same shop routine throughout my whole career. It’s been nine years, in January will be nine years. Either me and the assistants ones to get in. Some of the superintendents that I have worked for. They would be there as well. Some of that’s what the assistance or for an admin, you set up everything and all that stuff ready. Basically get make sure the morning jobs are ready to go. The crew comes in and they go out, I go behind them normally unless I have like a huge list go through and get things going. I would stay in the shop and just wait until somebody calls me. But other than that, I’ll just go out there. I’ll try to walk every green that there’s a machine for the green smallers check the fairways. It sucks having OCD sometimes cause the smallest little thing and I freak out and I’m like, what is that? And How do I fix this? And man, it’s all real. It’s all dirty now. And I got to wash it. But going there checking everything, making sure everybody’s okay. If I remember I’ll take the fuel can just in case sometimes there’s those times that we just put all the equipment up real fast and people forget to fill up their tanks or something coming in. I’ll do that probably for. 30 minutes Then get back to the shop, check my emails, check anything I may have ordered the day if anything has come in then start the routine, you know, just checking out my list of things, prioritize, see what is more important. What’s not, When we do it here and like talks away is at the end of the day, the assistants and superintendents the superintendent comes in and kind of sets up the day the next day. I actually really liked that. I mean, I haven’t really done it any other way, tried and we’re still working on it, but it’s grown a lot since I started there. I tried to get everything electric through computers as much as possible. But we tend to go back to the white board and stuff like that. So it is what it is. So if I were there at the end of the day my super will be there, you know, okay. Tomorrow we’re to three green score, tees, fairways, whatever, whatever, if there’s something you can’t be a forties, you gotta be three, at least for today. I’ve got this one down or whatever.
Trent Manning:
How are you keeping track of your stuff electronically? Just out of curiosity.
Joe Moreira:
so I thought first it started on the GCs website. They have those templates.
Trent Manning:
Okay.
Joe Moreira:
Those templates things. I used to do everything hand and paper same format with pencil and paper. But with the same format that I got from Dave Pipkin, years back as my first superintendent, kept the same format since then. very simple. It’s just, the date, what I’m doing, what it needs and the hours real simple, real simple stuff. And I’ve kept it that way. Well now I’ve used some of the templates, like the budgeting template from GCs a I use a lot, I’ve that for about three years and it works really well for me. But then I heard your podcast with not podcasts, but I think you had a class or something at GCs, a one of the shows or you did the Google. Oh, you did a video or something. I forget what it was, but I got the Google sheets from you. And basically I just grew from that. So now, I’ll have on my computer on my end, you know, you’ll have the Google drive, laptops away, equipment, 2021, and then I organize all that way. And then I share it with my superintendent and he can see whenever he wants. I don’t think he really does, but, at least it’s there, you know? And, and, and
Trent Manning:
he needs to check in or look
Joe Moreira:
yeah, and eventually I’m hoping that we’ll start. It’s definitely going up. We’re not going backwards or anything. We’re definitely going up. So it’s a constant, myself, the super was there one year before I. And some of we have all new assistance now because some of them have moved on, the main guys, the superintendent and the mechanic, we’ve been together around the same time. So we’ve taken the place much higher than where it. was, Organizational way and all that stuff.
Trent Manning:
I have a job board done in Google sheets that we used it for quite a while. And then this past year, we switched to a task tracker, which has been great, that program has. But if you’re interested, I can share that with you
Joe Moreira:
Oh, for sure. For sure.
Trent Manning:
on the, on the
Joe Moreira:
um, yeah, for sure. Um,
Trent Manning:
plugin for me and Brian Bressler will also be teaching at San Diego this year, a Google drive class. And we’re also doing a virtual class so that the people that can attend the live conference for them, we’re actually supposed to record in a couple of weeks.
Joe Moreira:
Nice. Nice. Yeah. yeah, for sure. For sure. love that stuff, man. It made everything so much easier. And not only that, but I’ve got my desktop at work, got my laptop that I’ll take around the shop or whatever. And if I remember something or whatever. I have my cell phone, which, drives right. there and home and I’m still working, you know, it’s uh,
Trent Manning:
Not that that’s always a good thing to be working
Joe Moreira:
No, no, no, no,
Trent Manning:
you can,
Joe Moreira:
exactly, exactly. It helps me during the day, you know, so
Trent Manning:
right, right, right. For sure. I actually, I bought a tablet you know, Samsung, whatever 10 for the shop and we have a little laptop on the toolbox. It kind of stays. But the tablet, you can take it and there’s really nice. Cause I got all the
Joe Moreira:
Yeah.
Trent Manning:
and on Google drive
Joe Moreira:
Yup,
Trent Manning:
a 10 inch tablet, into electrical semantic or whatever that works really well.
Joe Moreira:
My cell phone actually I’m a huge Samsung guy, so it’s a galaxy note is what the bigger, it’s the bigger one with the and all that Sometimes man, that stuff I’ll be stuck in this comedic and, I laugh sometimes because my electrical teacher, he use to take out, those big books with the folded pages. And then you open up like a huge pamphlet thing and you get them a little colored pencil and start tracing. this is how they taught me in that class. awesome. Awesome teaching. But. I basically do that now. And I can highlight the schematics if I get stuck or anything with my phone, because it has stylist and I do the same thing, if I have to sit there right, well, I know this goes, it sucks a little bit that you can’t see the whole picture, like you would in the books, you have to kind of like scroll a little bit, it organizes it a little bit then, you
Trent Manning:
yeah,
Joe Moreira:
same thing with hydraulics. I learned hydraulics because I had such a good understanding with electrical it’s pretty much the same way, it’s the flow and, it’s solenoid switches, valves. It’s pretty much the same thing. talking different language
Trent Manning:
yeah. Yep. That’s right. That’s awesome. you relief ground or not?
Joe Moreira:
A while back, I I had started a fight with between bobbin and Hector, because I had asked the question way back when this was a couple years ago and I actually went to go see Hector in Michigan. I said, man, I’m so sorry if I started that fight or something So I released Browns not because I don’t want to but because I’ve never had the opportunity to and this is kind of on me. The machines I have now are, they’re rebranded and Aries. They’re called frontier Real grinder comes with the release set up, but it’s been broken since I’ve gotten. And because I’ve never had anybody teach me, I kind of just set it aside and I never went through it. Now going through the books and learning and saying, you know what, everyone’s talking about, this release grind and stuff like that. say definitely for it. I believe I can see the difference, now that I got new equipment and it has the release in it versus how it does it, it takes longer to get dull how it stays consistent. And not only that, but then the one thing I learned is the backlog you know a long time ago when I started I would always backlash. I was actually taught, coming up from Florida. It was not a good ride. I mean, I actually left the. For two years, I did my own pressure washing business in Florida. Because it was to get enough people to help me out and stuff. And I kinda got burnt out, but I was taught to just, put the knife on backlash that and grind it every six months or something. That’s how I was taught originally, but then as I learned more and I’m hearing Hector about it and grinding and this and that, I start feeling it out and I start seeing, oh Yeah, That’s the reason it’s there. That’s why the manufacturers do it, you know? And Mike it. liked how, like Ron said, it’s obvious, less heat, less drag on that bed nights and stuff. It’s helping your machine all the way around, so I don’t see why not do it if you, if you’re able to
Trent Manning:
Yeah,
Joe Moreira:
this year I’ll get Mike Rollins out to let talks away and hopefully he can help me out stuff.
Trent Manning:
well, you let me know when he’s gonna stop by and I’ll have to make a little trip up that way.
Joe Moreira:
oh Yeah. for sure. You guys are always welcome.
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
Joe Moreira:
always welcome
Trent Manning:
And for the listeners, if you don’t know, like talks away and where it’s located North Carolina in the mountains is one of the most beautiful places you’ve ever all.
Joe Moreira:
man. When me and my wife went up that mountain. We were just shocked coming from, straight I, 95, the same thing for hours and hours, and then up here and seeing everything I’m afraid of Heights. So I’m seeing over the and stuff I’m Oh, Jesus
Trent Manning:
wow.
Joe Moreira:
but it’s awesome. It’s definitely different. And I don’t think I could ever go back to Florida.
Trent Manning:
Yeah, as beautiful up there and the weather to be in
Joe Moreira:
Oh, you know, I always joke. I’ve never worn pants so much in my life until I moved here. I joke with her, they were gone like, you know, in Florida, I’m always tan. What
Trent Manning:
right.
Joe Moreira:
my legs tell different stories.
Trent Manning:
Uh,
Joe Moreira:
But it’s awesome. The weather stays nice, especially in talks away. if you go up to the cashers, it gets even better. So just that little bit of a difference. It’s huge.
Trent Manning:
Tell us something you’ve fabricated lately.
Joe Moreira:
I’m still learning to weld kind of fabricate stuff. kind of do the whole drill and bolt together things
Trent Manning:
Yup. That works. That’s still fabricating.
Joe Moreira:
Yeah. exactly. I’ve been trying to weld and the newest thing that I’m going to actually be working on is I welded brackets actually made brackets out of bed. Nice. Sorry, not brackets, but like. 400 dumpsters some dumpsters back there that, that trash truck comes and destroys it every time it lists it up. So the door swings out really hard and it just went the rust and It just cracks it. So as I’ve made some hinges that before and then my next thing that my superintendent wants me to work on is walk the radio holders, clip on your radio and put it onto the dash of the cart. He wants me to work on that. So I try to do as much as I can. by myself. So sometimes I gotta wait to winter, and even then now that I’m into all these different don’t even have time in the winter now, you know,
Trent Manning:
Yep. It’s easy to get pulled in a lot of different
Joe Moreira:
Oh, for sure. I’m part of the T tech board the turf equipment technicians of the Carolinas. I’m in the board and COVID hit, so I didn’t get to do anything, but now this year we’re finally going to start again and now, meeting after meeting and Going to see the, all the trainings it just keeps me busy. It keeps me learning, you know, it keeps me fresh.
Trent Manning:
Yeah, it would be nice if, there was more T tax the country, I think, to help bring us technicians together.
Joe Moreira:
I tell you part of the reason why I can never go back to Florida to this is. Up People are just so nice. It’s scared. It’s they make me think I have a problem. I always joke around saying, you know, I wish I could be a wrench thrower. You mess something up. And oh, I gotta say, know, I’ll joke around and yell, but everybody looks at me and they’re like, Yeah. Right. Whatever, you know? I just smile and it does get stressful, but if I were to get mad all the time, I probably wouldn’t be alive. Right. Um, you know, it’s crazy. But, yeah. It’s man, it’s fun.
Trent Manning:
What’s your favorite two.
Joe Moreira:
I have a lot, but my number one go-to has to be my I did it with in the video we did with Yeah, it was the real bad video at the of the thing.
Trent Manning:
you’ve done. Great. a natural.
Joe Moreira:
But yeah, the palette pro man, I like voltmeters and I understand it and everything, but just that power pro is connecting it to the battery and having, I know what I have in my hand. Obviously you have to be smart because fry things with with power group. But I got and, if I have a lift on, like I was showing in that video, something’s not working. And I can check fuses, just touch the fuse. Is there power? There is power over here. Is there a ground over there? Because I don’t have to switch leads, right. It tells me right there, whether something’s ground or something’s you know, something hot or whatever. To me, it seems so much more efficient. And I can get to it a lot quicker you know solenoids switches, anything, and I can just test it really quick, so it has to be my power pro is definitely my favorite that, and probably my cell phone is the next thing.
Trent Manning:
yeah, yeah. Yep. The cell phone is hard to beat that comes in very rarely. What do you like best about your job?
Joe Moreira:
The same thing everybody says, it’s, how everyday it’s just different. I’m not gonna lie. Some days it’s monotonous, it’s aerification great saying, you know, everybody loves it so much, we get grind and hear that grinder gum. That tires me out sometimes, but then you have that one chance where you get it done. And you’re seeing that grass cut and perfect. You check that blade and it’s still sharp. And you’re like, finally, I made it through it. Now let’s go to the next thing. But it’s not like your normal nine to five where you’re stuck in one place and you can’t go If I’m getting frustrated, especially with electrical, I’m getting frustrated with electrical problem. I can’t figure it out. I get on my car, they’ll drive off, look at the scenery, look at what everyone’s refresh. And eventually it’s failed. It’s failed either. I leave the shop and I think of something and I ended up fixing I leave it for the next day, sleep on it and I ended up fixing it the next.
Trent Manning:
Right.
Joe Moreira:
I just call someone, I leave the shop, go calm down. Cause I’m throwing the wrench quote to, you know, in quotations throwing the ranch. And I go call someone and then, oh yeah, So the ability just to do that as awesome I think it’s why I’ve kept in this industry so much. It’s just that ability to do that.
Trent Manning:
Right. No, that was awesome. And I was like, that’s true for.
Joe Moreira:
Yup. Yup.
Trent Manning:
What is the strangest thing you’ve seen at work?
Joe Moreira:
I didn’t know how to answer this until recently the weirdest thing I ever saw, but it’s the damn this thing to a new assistant of ours. I’m sorry if he hears this, but I’m going to say it. And system of ours. I mean, I think he was like a month in, he flipped our spray rig our 1750 strength. When I tell you I get the call, he’s all worried, Joe. it. I flipped this. And I’m like, well, are you okay? Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. I’m fine. And I go out there, Trent, I kid you not, it’s sitting straight up. not dent, one bend of a boom, not one thing wrong with the spray rig. And the guy did a complete 360 over into a bunker. Nothing happened. And I was like, you’ve got go play the lotto dude. this is ridiculous. There’s nothing wrong with it. And to this day, they’re still using it. Haven’t done nothing to it. It was the craziest thing.
Trent Manning:
That is strange have any damage.
Joe Moreira:
No damage.
Trent Manning:
Was the booms down.
Joe Moreira:
No. That’s the crazy up, They were up, he was up on the ledge on which, when we’re looking at what he was doing, we’re like, you had to go that route, you know? So he was trying to use that center, boom, between a green and a bunker. He slid, but the guys that were there, the visa workers, we have, they told me it was completely upside down. And all of them, by the time I got there between all of them that was there and him, they flipped it not one debt.
Trent Manning:
Was. one of your pet peeves around the shop.
Joe Moreira:
My wife would laugh at me, but I, I’m not explained person as in dusting and sweeping all the time, I’m an organized person. My toolbox is I know where everything is. It’s organized. It has to be perfect for me. And one of my pet peeves is definitely someone coming in to my shop and and they’re having an irrigation problem they out, they get all of the tools of the shop tools out, leaves them work bench and then leaves a whole irrigation mess cutting the pipe and all the pipe, Dustin, everything all over the place and just leaves it there. And then I’m like, really? And he gets to a point where I’m like, all right, fine. I’ll clean it, vacuum, then when it’s like, you know, okay again. Okay. And then another time all right, you know what, whatever I’m going to just do me and going to even about it. So two weeks later, and then it’s raining because it rains a lot up here. We have a record of 150 inches, I believe in one in one season. So, eventually there’ll be a rain day and, to get the guys hours and stuff, they’ll come up and clean everything. So I said, clean that mess, clean that mess, clean that. And luckily the assistance that. bit more in the same mindset as I am specifically one of them is for sure. And there it’s just getting better. So
Trent Manning:
That’s good.
Joe Moreira:
yeah. definitely a pet peeve of mine. Like, come on, dude, up your mess. You know, I’m a mechanic. I got everything all over the place. Don’t put your stuff in my place.
Trent Manning:
Right. Yeah. Yeah, no, I have the same struggles with our irrigation tech and then tracking mud through the shop
Joe Moreira:
Yep,
Trent Manning:
so our parts room is also the irrigation parts room.
Joe Moreira:
Oh gosh, no,
Trent Manning:
in there all the time. So on him pretty But I mean, he’s, he’s a good guy and we’ve got a good relationship. So I really pick on him all the time and he loves to pull his car right up, you know, in front of the door.
Joe Moreira:
That that’s another thing, but it doesn’t really bother me. I joke with the guys when I said, really, how am I supposed to get out? You know, and I’m saying this in Spanish and they laughed at me. And you know, because all our visa workers are central Americans work south Americans and our statuses are completely different. So whatever I’m saying, I’m saying something bad to them or whatever. and, and serious? Come on, man. I can’t get out.
Trent Manning:
What would be your dream job or opportunity?
Joe Moreira:
So I wrestled high school out of high school also, I’ve rested for eight years and I coached four years. So I wish I could be. That would definitely be my dream whether it would be pro wrestling or MMA, I guess. But that would definitely be a dream, but I think I’ve kind of reached the limit where I can’t do it anymore. Especially being gone from family. So that’s hard, but an opportunity? that I’ve always And I know I would love to do is Hector kind of did it with the whole like shock renovation thing. But I like to do kind of like I’m sure you’ve seen bar rescue.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Joe Moreira:
So kind do that, but for golf courses of I’ve done here in South Carolina with a Coney country club, they were in need, they were just backslapping bed knives. They had equipment down there. Anything going, and then, you know, I come on there and I’m like, Hey, you know, let me help you out. And I set them up, I put their records in order. I have their own Google drive thing. all their, you know, all their equipment stuff and check that all their oil changes made sure everything has, you know oil do stickers. When do we need oil mix and all that stuff. So traveling luckily well, why isn’t I homeschool our kids or two kids. And traveling is a huge thing for us. We spend more money traveling than anything else. COVID really hurt us that last year we couldn’t do anything. But being able to the ability to, you know, someone calls me and say, Hey, Joe, we can’t find a mechanic. Can you be an interim mechanic, an interim equipment manager for Netherlands, we find someone one of the things that I hated the most, but I liked doing it. It was just that it was hard doing and fixing things at the same time you get hired at a new shop and you have to just go through everything because the last guy didn’t want to do anything so I think it would be so cool to be able to, somewhat cause a Hey we’re about to hire a new equipment manager. I would like to get the shop in order and make sure, they have their, stuff in order. Can you come out and, Yeah. sure. You know, and set them up with the whole, computer or Google drive, their oils are all, you know, this is when you got to do it and have them a blank slate. They don’t have to work. good. It comes. And they just work get the job done, you know?
Trent Manning:
No, that’d be awesome. Lovely. A really cool job.
Joe Moreira:
Yeah, yeah,
Trent Manning:
it on the road. They do it too, or like Hector
Joe Moreira:
yeah,
Trent Manning:
when you were talking about wrestling, I see and Hector in a cage match.
Joe Moreira:
we already talked about it, you know, Hey,
Trent Manning:
That’d be awesome
Joe Moreira:
uh, Hey Hector, we actually talked about it. I think he was two 15. I was 1 71 in high school. That was my weight class. I think we it. I said, all right, next time we see each other, we’re going to have to, you know, little bit. And he said, oh, I got visit him again because he got this new house and everything. And this new shop and stuff. I keep telling him that I got to go up there and see him. So this year, next year,
Trent Manning:
yeah. Awesome. What do you know now that you wish you’d known day one?
Joe Moreira:
I wish knew that it was okay to dive in to just go for it. My dad didn’t show me everything about mechanics, to this day I haven’t, I had to rebuild the complete engine, you know, I’ve done maybe the top end some crankshafts a little bit, not a complete engine. Whether it’s a two struck or four struck, I’ve yet to this day have been able to rebuild one. I haven’t had the need to really, Once you’ve done it enough, everything just kind of connects, you start connecting the dots and the one thing he has to be careful is the technical torque specs, the clearances, stuff like that. You want to know some of that, but just to know that it’s okay to dive in and going to be fine. I guess another way to put it is to trust myself and trust my skills. That’s a huge thing. Again I still struggle with I owe a lot to Hector to that I will walk without his without his stuff. where I would be. Cause his videos is what kept me going. And then of course, Bob, I learned about Bob later on and Steven Tucker learned about him later on. And then you as well, all the stuff that you’re putting out you know, this is just making it easier for me and I’m going to learn and then I just pass it on. passing on of information. It’s awesome.
Trent Manning:
I think that was, that was a really good point. And I think there’s quite a few people that are, they don’t have enough confidence or whatever the case may be to just dive in there. Their depart
Joe Moreira:
Yep.
Trent Manning:
burnt Oak more than likely you’re not going to break it any worse. That’s not Oregon now. I mean from day one, I’ve just always been really lucky when it comes to that, I guess. And I’m probably a little overconfident sometimes to be honest taking
Joe Moreira:
Yeah, yeah.
Trent Manning:
uh, I mean, even as kid, if there was something broke, I was all about let’s rip this thing
Joe Moreira:
Right. Yeah, yeah, you know that, that was your generation. Unfortunately, I grew up with video games and stuff like that, games and I was a huge Lego guy. building things was also was also But yeah. I didn’t grow up tearing things apart.
Trent Manning:
are the latest tips and tricks you’ve seen you on share with us?
Joe Moreira:
This one was a hard one. I was thinking about it. How can I do this? Because again, going back to what we just said, I still struggle sometimes with my skills and my tips. How do you explain like that comfortability to be in front of someone that has way more years than I do and be able to say something and then I guess it’s a fear of no, you’re actually wrong
Trent Manning:
Yeah, no, I know exactly what you’re saying. I think it’s really easy to be. Intimidated. My stuff like that. And one thing that really helped me when I was working for Jerry Pate and I was a road uh, we had to put on service schools for customers and we would do one at Atlanta. We done one in Birmingham. We do want to Savannah. And they forced me that. You know, I didn’t want to do But that really helped me. And I remember I’ll never forget this. I was in Birmingham, Alabama at shell Creek. And, I electrical board and I was talking about voltage drop and how voltage drop work and showing that with a multimeter and all this stuff. this older man walks up and his name is Danny Rowlands. And I think he had just retired from Birmingham country club, like within the. Few months. But anyway, walks up and like, so tell me this again. So I, you know, explain it to him again. He said, huh. You know, and he’s explaining this problem, man, or a pro Gator wouldn’t start. And it ended up being a bad battery cable. And he’s like, if I knew how to do this, I would have been able to diagnose that. And I mean, I say an older guy, he’s in his seventies. He’s probably 80 now,
Joe Moreira:
right.
Trent Manning:
10 years ago or whatever. But he has a little notepad out and he starts taking notes. And I just thought that was so cool that, you know, at the time I was whatever, 30 years old and I’m teaching this guy, that’s almost 80, that’s been doing this his whole life. I taught him a new trick
Joe Moreira:
Yeah,
Trent Manning:
that was one of the best feelings in the world. So I, I think it’s just get out there and do it. And don’t worry about, you know,
Joe Moreira:
Eventually I think I will. I think that’s definitely a path that I will go down. But I feel I need to get through a little bit more things mentally for myself. You know, I love the couple of podcasts that you did with the mental awareness thing. It’s a part of it is that to, I’ll be honest with you. Sometimes when I was in high school, I thought I was, the best thing since sliced bread, was fifth and state of Florida wrestling. you know, I had a hot chick, my side, which now, you know, And then I left wrestling. I said, no one’s ever going to tell me when I can or cannot eat. And I’m weighing myself again.
Trent Manning:
Right
Joe Moreira:
know, I said, I am done with the weights now, but unfortunately through counseling and ventured ships and stuff, now I can say, Yeah. it’s been tough getting out of you know, that good enough, that feeling of not being good enough. And finally, now I can be like, you know what? I’ve done this years now. I experience. It’s time to walk out there and be like, How can And that’s what I’ve done contact a T tech and pushing, you know, Hey, what can I do? I became a board member and I’ve been blessed with like talks away because they provide all that, you know, they provide that, and it allows me to go out there and just give it my all, and represent them because ultimately that’s what I’m doing is pops away and showing that, Hey, you know, that me nine years ago, that person right there say, look at nine years, after that,
Trent Manning:
Right?
Joe Moreira:
You can be here too, you know,
Trent Manning:
And I mean, even if it’s do a five minute fix video and as, as one of those things that might be, you know, normal stuff, everyday stuff for us, but I’ll never forget this either. Hector’s most watched video. a load of Greece,
Joe Moreira:
Yeah. But yes, because still this gray it’s like, it’s like really?
Trent Manning:
right. Yeah.
Joe Moreira:
Nope.
Trent Manning:
That’s, that’s what people don’t know how to do, even though we do it all the time. We think everybody knows that a load, a grease gun,
Joe Moreira:
Yup. Exactly. Exactly. yeah. definitely common. Especially this year in February when we go to the show and I’m part of. going to be representing, we’re going to try to get out there more. For those equipment managers that don’t know about SciTech yet, which I doubt in the Carolinas nobody knows about us because we try to get out there a lot.
Trent Manning:
You got anything else you want
Joe Moreira:
one thing I did want to say it’s just a thank you to those guys that, you Hector Bob stats and Tucker those guys that actually. Care so much about? the industry and thus to take time out of your day to provide this information and make it fun. I repeat it if it Hector Steven Tucker, you, learned about you, you didn’t while I was here talk Swick but if it wasn’t for you guys, I don’t know where I would be, cause I would not want to go back to doing dealership flat rate stuff, you know, who knows where I would feed. So I’ve been truly blessed with the career that I have and I’ve never looked back and for the past nine, 10 years, it’s just literally skyrocketing and I’m going up, up, and up. And I’ll never forget who I need to thank for that. And. you guys. And I can’t I tell my wife all the time, I can’t wait till I get to that level so I can do it for that kid down there, you know, just getting into this and bring it up. Unfortunately, I just went through this. I had a kid in welding school and I said, dude, I have a golf course that is willing to pay you, this much money this is how it works. You’re going to get paid for vacation trainings. You’re going to get to go to shows. I tried to sell much and he was so into it, man. So much that he went to the shop. I was checking reels with him. He was a tinker. Didn’t go to mechanic but he was like through his last semester or something of welding school. And I was showing him everything. He was so good, so happy and So the next day when he was supposed to show up, he like texted me and he’s like, oh, a second thought I won’t be able to come in and able to do this. I’m like, man, and he’s the first one that I’ve dealt with like one-on-one. But I seen it that the generation I guess it is my generation and below it’s just so strange to me how they don’t want to do the trades and they don’t want to come out and get their hands dirty or, I mean, you’re about to finish welding school, which I’m not telling you to stop welding. I’m telling you that you could get a $20 an hour job over here. only 18. I mean, I
Trent Manning:
Right,
Joe Moreira:
for $20 an hour, you know,
Trent Manning:
right. Yeah, Yeah, for sure.
Joe Moreira:
It’s just so crazy the difference of, you know, and I see it in my nephews, I’ve got 10 he has nieces and nephews and, half of them are, just computer geeks, you know? And sorry, cause they’re going to listen to this, but it’s uncle just saying the truth, you need to go out and do something else and learn something else. The other half are willing to go work. My kids like homeschool my daughter, she learned math through nuts off as a car, you know, I’m telling her, you know, you’re going to count every time I take off loving them. And then you’re me how much love. Boom. Boom, boom, Oh, that was fun. Okay. now if there’s and five in the back, how many are in this side? Oh, there’s 10.
Trent Manning:
Yeah, that was awesome.
Joe Moreira:
I guess it also comes down to how you grew up, who you grew up with, Not everybody has, you know, it’s not like everybody has better opportunities or abilities, but I guess that’s where we come in and we can be that open door to let people say, Hey, you want to learn something you want to make good money. Check this. Don’t be the wrench and you know, I into the industry I was thrown into it and the guy that was showing me something, he’s like, oh, you’re going to have to learn it the hard way. And to an I got to thank him too. because he throw me to the wolves and I survived. But at the same time, that’s really not how you want to do things. There’s a better way and a more understanding way for everybody to learn because everybody learns differently.
Trent Manning:
Well true. And I think the people that are entering the industry now, or. Luckier than we were, I mean, I was really lucky and got to work with a fabulous guy that knew everything about mechanic. And, but I know a lot of people are in your situation, you go into a shop, maybe know how to turn a ranch, but you don’t know anything about turf equipment and either kind of own your own and figure it out for yourself. And now I think there’s a lot more people in the industry that are willing to teach somebody. I think the standards for the industry have increased. I mean, just since I’ve been in the industry, they’ve increased I’m at the same course. And we don’t do things near like what we used to do twenty-five years ago.
Joe Moreira:
Right, right.
Trent Manning:
And, the golfers expectations our membership, expect more,
Joe Moreira:
Yup.
Trent Manning:
you know, hot serve, getting lower and have been the whole time. So, I mean, we’re still growing, but I think anybody that to be in this industry a great industry to join.
Joe Moreira:
So right now into now, pretty soon with this whole shortage of texts? Pretty soon we can write our own paychecks and It’s, going to be it’s, it’s going to be an amazing thing. I was actually explaining that to day that, the auto industry, all those old timers and stuff that were card, right. People went to the turf industry while I was coming into the audit industry because with computers. You know, no more carburetors. Well, it’s the same thing it’s going to happen. From the Ottawa. So over here, it’s a turf industry, but what’s happening in the church, EFI tier for all. There’s no more car brainers, there’s that’s going to be outdated and it’s just the same. Thing’s going to happen again, and now we’re going to be in a shortage. And like I said, I’ve been blessed to be in a perfect situation where give me another 10 years, man. I’m scared to know where I’m going to go. Cause it’s, going to be pretty awesome.
Trent Manning:
hopefully you’re be, traveling the road and rescue and chops.
Joe Moreira:
Hopefully, the shock rescue That’s right.
Trent Manning:
rescue. I fully support you. I’ll put the word out for you
Joe Moreira:
There you go.
Trent Manning:
do on this end.
Joe Moreira:
Yeah, that’d be awesome.
Trent Manning:
tell the listeners how they can get ahold of you.
Joe Moreira:
My Twitter handle is at mojo capital N O understand. Capital J O E 91. I’m on that a lot or LinkedIn, my email. I’ll spell it out for everybody. It’s a J O S E F T H M O R E I R a@gmail.com. It’s my first name and my last name. Just that my first name is spelled really weird.
Trent Manning:
That’s all Thank you so much, Joe, for
Joe Moreira:
no,
Trent Manning:
on. I really enjoyed this great talking to you. Thank you for being a part of the WhatsApp group. You bring a lot to that community
Joe Moreira:
yeah, no.
Trent Manning:
that wants to join. Just let us know and we’ll get you in there. sure
Joe Moreira:
Thank you. Thanks you’re doing. for, everybody in the WhatsApp group. Getting texts at one in the morning seeing what’s going on, if there was a brain drain, something like
Trent Manning:
Yep. Matt.
Joe Moreira:
That’s awesome. you met and seeing that we all built through the so thank you again.
Trent Manning:
Good deal. Thank you. We’ll talk to you soon.
Joe Moreira:
Alrighty, man. Thank you.
Trent Manning:
Don’t you love what positive guy Joe is. That was great talking to him today. And just remember. Davi and tear things apart. And give yourself a little credit for how far you’ve come. We all got to start somewhere. And that’s the way we learn the avenue in tearing stuff apart. And I’m really glad Joe mentioned the mental health the we discussed and the real turf tech community on WhatsApp. And we had a lot of people speaking up. And telling their story. So that’s why we’re going to be bringing you some bonus episodes on mental health. And it’s going to come out this Friday. So when you hear this episode, The following Friday. We’ll have our first, mental health episode in the series and there’s going to be four in the series and I’m looking. Really forward. To getting those out and getting y’all’s feedback, you know, let me know what you think. And just remember it’s okay. Not to be okay. Till next time. See you. Bye. 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.