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Listen to two buddies who are all jacked up on Mountain Dew & Sour Patch Kids as we recap the 2022 GCSAA Conference and Show. We’ll tell you why you should try like hell to attend in Orlando in 2023, encourage you to submit a proposal to teach some EM content, and sell you on the Reel Turf Techs WhatsApp group. Deep discussion on EM – superintendent communication and personality types is also featured. And when you think this episode is over, it’s definitely not!

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. Manning let’s have some How are you real turf techs community. Today, we put together a little bonus episode with me and Mike Rollins talking about the 2022 conference and trade show and beautiful San Diego, California. We had a great time there putting faces with Twitter handle. Meeting new people we’d never met before. Just a really, really good time. So I hope you enjoy this episode. Hi, MOC. What’s up?

Mike Rollins: 
What up? dude?

Trent Manning: 
Not much. Thank you so much for coming on for the listeners. We’re going to talk a little bit about conference and show formerly known as GIS, formerly known as conference and show, but we’ll see what it is next year.

Mike Rollins: 
Yep. Happy to be here, man. Can’t wait.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah, no, this will be fun. So what was your overall impression of conference and show this year?

Mike Rollins: 
I thought it was awesome. I know everybody was talking about, and you can go on Twitter and there are plenty of debates in the comments about How it’s important, why it’s important, why it may not be important or why vendors like it, why vendors don’t like it and superintendents, et cetera, et cetera. But I think for the most part, a lot of people were saying in my personal opinion is quality over quantity. Obviously it’s always great to have the quantity there. And I think Orlando is going to be an absolute blowout next year? I can’t wait For Orlando. But quality was there. A lot of the superintendents I spoke to they loved walking around because they could see vendors. They could actually talk to vendors. They could talk to friends before I guess they’ve said, it’s it’s a real shoot first ask questions later. You barely see people kind of thing. So they said this was a much more efficient type of show. This was my first show out west in San Diego, obviously you and I were in the Carolinas. It was awesome. That was a big, basically a national show was the Carolina show because usually people don’t want to go out west for the most part, but man, it was awesome. I loved it. Obviously as a vendor, as a factory representative, I got to see a ton of people. Even if you put business aside and you put superintendent equipment manager steps aside, just the networking side of it was fantastic to be able to see everybody, to meet people. You and I have been meeting on. I know you can probably speak to that too, of all of these new names and usernames that you see on Twitter. And then all of a sudden, Hey, you’re Terry Hills maintenance and Hey, you’re a turf monkey boy like things like that was really cool for everybody to do. I like to take, I’m gonna take 100% credit for introducing that Thompson, AKA Terrey Hills maintenance and John Riley, AKA turf, Milky boy. Introducing them was a ton of fun and we got to drive around. So to answer your question, 48 minutes later, it was an awesome show. I think it was incredibly productive for everyone I’ve spoken to who was out there. And I think Orlando is going to be a massive, awesome blowout next year.

Trent Manning: 
For sure. I do want to hear more about Terry Hill maintenance and turf you boy, because so a little background, I don’t know what y’all were doing, but you and Brian picked me up,

Mike Rollins: 
Oh yeah. Yeah. Brian, the rent. Yup.

Trent Manning: 
y’all were hanging out with them,

Mike Rollins: 
yep. Yeah, So we were only hanging out with John Riley, but cause I got there Saturday. Brian had been doing his big tour of the California coastline and things like that. Going to golf courses and whatnot. He was I forgot where they were standing, but John and a handful of other superintendents at a place and they had just finished planning like the superintendent tournament or whatever for the GCSA they’re all gonna make fun of me. Cause I don’t know the proper name for it but they were playing that and they were done and John was like, Hey man, come on by if you’re with Brian, come on by, we’ve got rib-eyes and all kinds of stuff. Brian picked me up because there wasn’t a lot of there weren’t a lot of people in town yet. You were there. I think just getting situated. When did we come pick you up Saturday

Trent Manning: 
Yeah, it was Saturday

Mike Rollins: 
Good

Trent Manning: 
first. Diane.

Mike Rollins: 
Me too. And that was a long day too. Brian took us for a tour. We went and saw a couple of courses real quick, drove by and then met with John. That was a ton of fun. Then we came and picked you up and then where did we go from there? Cause that was we went, did we go, oh yeah, we went and scouted out his coin up.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah, yeah, The

Mike Rollins: 
yeah. The spotty had his superintendent network party, a meet and greet. And that was a ton of fun. But Yeah. it was just to see John say, Hey, and then it was, I think The next day I think it was yes. Sunday I was with dad went and grabbed an adult beverage and said, Hey met his brother drew. Who’s also on Twitter. Hopefully he’s listening hydro. And then that’s when I was like, Hey John, where you at? And texted John, he came out to the, the adult beverage location and said, Hey to a fad. And then we hung out rest of the night and had dinner. That was a ton of fun.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. John, he cracks me up.

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. he’s a good guy, man.

Trent Manning: 
He’s you can tell he’s a really, really good guy and I hadn’t spent a lot of time with him, but just the night we had at Carolina sitting at the bar or

Mike Rollins: 
Yep.

Trent Manning: 
whatever the bombs or whatever the

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. Bumps. Yeah. I forgot about that too. That feels like that was a decade ago to,

Trent Manning: 
telling stories and laughing hysterically

Mike Rollins: 
and that’s how it is, man. The next day you were busy on Monday Jr. Wilson put together a big equipment manager tour. I was trying to live, tweet that a little bit as we were doing it. We picked up myself, it was Jr myself, Donnie Owens and then a few other guys that was it when he was going to be there, but he got pulled aside and then John joined us. Either way, there were a few other guys and we went on a tour. And John was just in the back having a blast, jamming out, telling stories. He’s one of the guys like that. They just, they know everybody has been everywhere. You could talk about specific holes from specific bore golf courses and specific superintendents from specific times at that same club. And they just, they know everybody. And they’ve got tons of experience and great stories. And I remember I was sitting up front with Jr and were cracked out on cutting units for a two hour drive up into LA and John’s in the back. I could hear him jamming out on cool stories about all the clubs in California and in the Carolinas and things like that. And it’s just, it’s really cool to surround ourselves, you and I, everybody in the real turf techs community to try and surround ourselves with superintendents like that, I think is a great thing to be doing

Trent Manning: 
Oh, for sure. And like you were talking about, I think the biggest value of conference in show is the networking. Yeah.

Mike Rollins: 
hundred percent.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. You can check out some equipment if you’re interested in that, but it’s the networking, that’s why we get is for the networking and networking is a lot of fun.

Mike Rollins: 
There’s a ton of font, dude. I say it all the time. We get paid to have way too much fun. I’m waiting for mark to, to catch up to what I’m doing and be like, Hey man, no more fun. But the networking is the best part. I think all I did was just did the trade show, things like that. And just after that was the best part. You go have lunch, you go have dinner you have some drinks and you hang out and you talk and you meet people, man. It was so cool. I honestly, this is my personal experience. I felt like I was back in high school where you like, you just, everybody knows everybody like everybody’s friends, it’s just, everybody’s always laughing, having a good time. I felt like I was in my natural state trying to crack jokes and point at people across the street, like sitting there eating lunch, like we’re grown up grown adults, having professional business meetings. And I’m like acting like a 12 year old running around. So it just, it’s so much fun, man. So I all you guys out there listening, go to the shows. If you can get your boss to let you go. I know there are a lot of incentives, a lot of great companies will pay for classes or your tickets your entry, things like that. I know what RNR, Right, Trent, they were a big part of that equipment manager meetup on what night was that? Tuesday night. Monday night.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. And they sponsored that whole deal with drinks. And

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. RNR is one of them. I know the Carolinas does some stuff for their local show, so I’m going to get after it already, like get out there, do your shows try to attend. If you can try to do Orlando. I know it’s a lot easier for people and you get family oriented stuff and we can do Disney and things like that. But I can’t recommend enough. I know you could probably talk to it, right? Do it, if you can do it, if you can get your club to pay for it or just to let you go I’d recommend it a hundred percent.

Trent Manning: 
I would honestly say that the show is why I’m here right now and why I started a podcast, why I started all this, and I’d never been to a show until 2016. And I decided I was going, I didn’t ask for permission. I told my boss I’m going. And I’ve told the story before he was not happy. And I said, I’m paying for it. Don’t worry about it. I got this can I go out there for a week? Can I have a week? And I got a week’s vacation, I’ll take vacation. I’m going that type of thing. And obviously he changed his whole tune. Tell him how great San Diego is. And, but it started out you know, that’s the most expensive show you can go because we’re in Georgia and it was expensive to fly it’s the hotels are expensive and then all that stuff. But honestly it didn’t cost me a ton to go out there. I didn’t stay in the gas lamp district. stay whatever, half mile, three quarters of a mile away. At a nice little place and nothing wrong with it. And that was the first and last time that I flew spirit airline

Mike Rollins: 
frontier.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, that’s why I’m here right now is because of that. And the people I met at that show has this it just keeps growing and growing this snowball effect

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah, snowball down. the mountain, man. It’s so true. And tell the listeners too, right? I hope I’m not confusing. My people here. Cause I spoke to a lot of people at the show talking about this. Weren’t you the one who said Courtney after the fact was like, Hey yeah, tell me about San Diego. And then didn’t they, I hope I’m not wrong. Didn’t he end up picking up the tattoo after that?

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. After we got back it was funny. So I tell him I’m going and he’s pissed. And then the next day he didn’t even talk to me the rest of the day. And the next day he comes in and he’s have you ever been to San Diego? I was like, no, I’ve never been to the west coast. I’ve never been past the Mississippi. I’m a Georgia boy and I’ll stay on the heels of the mountains up here. But so anyway, he’s telling me about how great San Diego is and all this stuff. So we go on the trip, we get back and he asked how was it? And all this stuff. And you know what I’m telling him how great it was and all the people I met all the things I learned and he’s like, how much was your plane ticket? So I’ll tell him, he’s like, how much was your hotel room? I’m telling him, he’s oh, you got pretty good rights. There I’ll cover that. Yeah, it was just awesome.

Mike Rollins: 
Yep. And I think the people listening can learn a lot from that of, Hey, what’s the worst thing that can happen. If you ask your boss, your superintendent, your director, GM whomever, Hey, can I go the worst they can say is no. And then after that you can do a Trent Manning and say well, I’m going to take a week off with my PTO or just, I’m going to take a week off. You don’t have to pay me. I’m going to go because I personally, even if I didn’t get paid, you guys know, I would love to get, if you pay me in a bag of sour patch, kids, I’ll go out for free. Yeah. I’m going to go out because of what I just experienced. I did it in Orlando, but I was only with SAP for four days. And so that doesn’t count had no idea what I was doing. Didn’t know anybody. But this time around being on Twitter, trying to network, trying to meet as many people as possible, getting out there was so awesome. So worth it. If I had to take a week off of work and not get paid to go do it, I’d still be just as stoked as I am now talking about it because it’s so beneficial for you yourself and you to go out and learn network, educate yourself and try to grow that network to continue doing that. And then down the road, you can help others to

Trent Manning: 
Oh for sure. And this log we’re doing now, hopefully we’re helping others. One thing I do want to say, if you’re a member of GCSA you get a one-time free pass to the show

Mike Rollins: 
right,

Trent Manning: 
so you can get into the show for free. Yeah. Just do it and no. Make any excuses, just do it. Just

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. It’s so worth it. I know it sounds cliche for Trenton. I to sit here and say it because we’ve been there and our employers pay for it and things like that, but still, if you can make it happen because the benefits outweigh the costs for sure.

Trent Manning: 
And the other thing is if you don’t want to pay for it, teach something for GCSA. So submit a proposal for a class or seminar and an hour, two hours, four hours, hour long. Am I B do that proposal and they’ll pay you to get you out there and pay for you to attend the show, pay for your hotel. Everything. It’s a no brainer

Mike Rollins: 
Oh yeah. It’s awesome.

Trent Manning: 
GCSA is always looking for equipment manager education for conference and show and they don’t get a whole lot. We’ll have four or five, maybe six proposals to go over each year and granted some of the education they’ll bring back a bit on whale or all that kind of stuff they try to keep it new and fresh too.

Mike Rollins: 
Yup. Yup. And I think that maybe this is, yeah, you get a proposal and I think Corey Phillips was telling me all about that because when he did it they help you out with that Jr. Was talking about it. You and I were talking I’m I was talking to, I think Amanda Miller, I might do one in Orlando. Do the cutline is king. Cause obviously I I don’t talk grinders. I don’t talk mowers. I don’t talk any specific colors, anything like that, just how to find your cut line and stuff like that. So I might do that. I know Jerry was thinking about doing it. The guys were in the WhatsApp group tonight talking about like doing a first aid kind of thing, which I think is a brilliant idea. I think it’s a great idea. To your point, there are just aren’t enough of those presentations and classes and things like that. I think it would be great. And then there was who else was talking about it? There was someone else talking about doing those classes. Oh, is this, where is this a good opportunity for us to talk about. The uh, spitball idea that we had in the Twitter spaces the other night what Trent and I were talking about with a few of the guys in that unplanned Twitter spaces the other night on Sunday was maybe doing a, like a cutting unit 1 0 1 class for superintendents. And then doing an agronomy 1 0 1 class for equipment managers. And a superintendent can do the agronomy, one for EMS and M can do the cutting unit one for superintendents because I was talking to Kevin Sunderman with GCSA and he’s superintendent over here across the bridge from me about 30, 35 minutes away. A few other superintendents who have been kind of forced whether their equipment manager gets sick or retires or moves along and timing just doesn’t work out. They were forced to go in and do cutting units fat. Right. That’s a prime example. He loves it, right? Like he’s a superintendent who loves doing the cutting and it’s Kevin said, honestly, the same thing. He’s yeah, it was tough at first because I had to relearn everything. I hadn’t touched the cutting unit and you know, I think he said 10 or 15 years and he’s back on grinders and trying to get everything squared up. I think it’s incredibly beneficial. I’ve talked about this a bunch and incredibly beneficial for the superintendent to know what the equipment manager has to do in the shop and vice versa. I think also what I’ve learned in the past few weeks, even maybe month or two, that’s really been hitting me harder and harder is equipment managers. The majority of the guys I’ve met on my travels would benefit from knowing. What the agronomy side of things is doing for them. And especially if they understand what the superintendent is saying to them. I think there are a lot of agronomy practices or agronomic practices that help us, or help you guys as equipment managers in the shop. And a lot of guys don’t see it that way. So. if we can help educate each other Em’s and soups, I think it would be incredibly beneficial for the entire industry as a whole.

Trent Manning: 
Oh, yeah, for sure. And the late Sam, he was going to do a presentation and I think he might’ve even done one about why you shouldn’t fear top dress and or why top dressing is not a bad word or I don’t remember your exact title of it. And the top dressing really helps us as equipment managers.

Mike Rollins: 
A hundred percent.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. It creates more workforce, but it helps the cut

Mike Rollins: 
It’s a, it’s definitely something that’s beneficial. And I think, like I said, you and I have talked about it and we talked to a few other guys during the, trade show and things like that. I think it would be great to have these classes. I didn’t know Sam had that lined up and was doing that. I think that’s a great idea. Top what is it? Top dressing. Isn’t a bad word. And

Trent Manning: 
Yeah, I don’t remember. It was something along those lines.

Mike Rollins: 
that’s awesome.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. It’s not a four-letter word, top dressing.

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
I don’t remember the exact tagline. It was.

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. So any of you guys out there listening, if you have, have had that kind of itching at you, poking at you get with Tran or get with anybody at the GCSA and like trans saying you sign up for a class to present, right? They help you cover stuff. I think that would be really great for some guys. If they’ve been wanting to get out there and talk about it put something together, send it into the GCSA. Right. Trent. They go through an approval process, things like that.

Trent Manning: 
Yes. So you submit it to GCSA on the website. Actually, I seen the email the day asked him for proposals and is open to the end of March. And the other thing, if you’re not really comfortable with PowerPoint or some of that stuff, they’ll help you out. If you have questions about how to put together a presentation, that’s what they’re there for. They’ll help you out with that. And it’s a great resource to have. And obviously I’ve been turning wrenches my whole life. I’m not a PowerPoint king. But that’s another skill set that I can put on my resume. Because I started putting one together. I got them to help me with the first one. And I can figure stuff out pretty quick. So now I’m getting together a PowerPoint and for the listeners this year, it just happened. I was able to get a video in PowerPoint. I don’t know if y’all know the struggle of that or not, but for years and years I could not get a video to play in PowerPoint. And I don’t, I guess I changed Microsoft Jane something or something. I don’t know. I didn’t do anything special. I drive drug the video in there and now that place is amazing.

Mike Rollins: 
That’s so good because I’m obviously I’m all apple on stuff and nothing I Microsoft or anything like that. I loved it, grew up on that stuff, but just for editing purposes, I’m all apple. And so they have keynote. And so I remember when I made my cutline as king, I put the daily grind video on like slide three or four and it went way too smooth. It was way too easy. I’m not saying it was just pure accident, total pure luck. And then after the fact, I think I had to go back and change something and I couldn’t remember how I got the video into the slide, do it. And it was a nightmare. And so when you said you finally figured out how to get a video in a PowerPoint, it makes so much sense. It is weird for some reason to get a video into a slide for some reason.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. You’d think it would be something really easy, but it was not for me anyway.

Mike Rollins: 
We were talking about Georgia a little bit. I know, that’s not really the trade show or anything like that, but since we’re talking about presenting and things like that, I was thinking about that. I remember when you were standing up in front of those roughly 95 guys you’re like, Hey, who would be willing to do a presentation? Raise your hands and you put your hand up and stuff. And how many guys raise their hand? Two, three,

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. Maybe, it was a reluctant, oh

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. barely put it up above my shoulder. Hopefully nobody sees me kind of thing. And Which is totally understandable, dude. You said it you say it in your presentations Hey, do I want to be standing up here doing this? Cause I’m scared out of my mind doing this. No, I don’t want to be here. I’d much rather be sitting where you guys are. And I say something very similar. I don’t consider myself a public speaker in any way, shape or form because I say I’m 900 times. But I think if we can get guys to see the benefits of sharing that knowledge, that’s why I felt compelled to say what I said when I was there about, Hey, like you guys don’t need an AMCP level one and two, you guys have to have 75% of them. Don’t need it to prove to themselves that they need it. But it’s not for them really it’s for the next generation of saying, Hey, this has beneficial. We’re going to make this a legitimate position, things like that. So if we can help them see the benefits of that along with. Me presenting isn’t about me. It’s about sharing what I know what I’ve learned from other guys. JP said it in his presentation, I’ve stolen the line, just like I’ve stolen everything and everything else from him. He calls himself a good fif right. I’m a fantastic thief. And I combine all of these ideas that you guys have given me into one thing. I think if we can help equipment managers, anyone in general period, but since we’re done the topic of VMs, if we can help them understand, Hey, what you know is incredibly valuable. Not all of them want to share it and they don’t have to share it, but if they can see the benefits of sharing their wealth of knowledge and experience to the next guy, the next generation, and that maybe they’d be more willing to share that stuff. And hopefully we can start helping these guys realize that

Trent Manning: 
And that’s the other thing, if you’re not comfortable talking to somebody at GCSA talk to Mike, talk to me,

Mike Rollins: 
yeah, a hundred percent.

Trent Manning: 
in the WhatsApp group and we’ll help you get the ball rolling. Anyway,

Mike Rollins: 
For sure more than willing to help what are we at in the WhatsApp group, dude? How many guys are in there now?

Trent Manning: 
I know it’s 80 ish, maybe a little over 80, something like that. And yeah, I did years of experience and is up to like eight 60 or something somewhere. And then that right, this

Mike Rollins: 
That’s so crazy for you guys listening the WhatsApp group is all equipment managers. If you haven’t heard about it already, we talked about all the time it happened today, right? One guy goes, Hey I’m just making this up, but it’s something along the lines of Hey, I need help with this bushing from this model, whatever mower from 1982 or something crazy. And the next thing there were like 47 different text messages with photos and proof and evidence. And Hey, this worked for me that didn’t work for me. And it’s just a massive wealth of knowledge. There’s none of the Facebook comments and bashing people. I have you seen a preface yet? Trent, where people have to preface their question with, Hey, I know this might sound stupid, but I’m learning. It’s my first year. There’s none of that. It’s just, Hey, I’ve got this issue. Can you guys help me? And everybody’s incredibly willing to help. I love the group. And I think it’s incredibly beneficial and I say that all the time, but it is. It’s awesome.

Trent Manning: 
When you can call me what you want, but if somebody is acting that way in that group, they’re no longer in there. But yeah, sorry, I ain’t got, I ain’t got time for that. Life’s too short. If you

Mike Rollins: 
I love it.

Trent Manning: 
criticism, that’s one thing it’s a no DS zone in their

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. I love it.

Trent Manning: 
zone or whatever you want to call it. But it is great. Does, like you said, you asked a question and who knows how many replies you’re going to get. And I don’t, I was talking to a guy the other day and I got to follow up with him and see if it solved his problem. But he’d been messing with this 52, 10 tractor for a long time.

Mike Rollins: 
Yup.

Trent Manning: 
The hydraulics wouldn’t work and I’m 95% sure. I knew where the problem was. So I told him what I thought it was, and I got to follow up and see if that was, if that fixed problem or not, but I’ve seen that problem four or five

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah,

Trent Manning: 
you could have been in the industry for 20 years and never seen that problem for for whatever reason. So that experience 160 years makes a huge difference.

Mike Rollins: 
And dude like, oh, we’ve talked about this too. Imagine I back in the day nobody had internet, right? It would take you forever to read through a manual to try to figure it out. Not only do we have the internet, but now you’ve got this honed in super sharp pencil of a group of guys that know pretty much everything. And if they don’t, they’re going to go to their manual really quick, or they’re going to go to the internet really quick and stuff just gets solved really quickly and it gets solved correctly. And problems are just getting solved, man. It’s awesome to see it. And hopefully we keep that momentum going.

Trent Manning: 
Kudos to Chad Braun because that man is incredible.

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
So for the listeners on Twitter, you see how clean his equipment is and all this that’s

Mike Rollins: 
Immaculate.

Trent Manning: 
That’s great. That’s cool. Chad Braun even keeps his photos organized. This makes me sick. Okay. Yes. Somebody wants to see a photo and I was scrolling through my photos for 30 minutes, trying to find one picture. You asked to add Ron for a pitcher and two seconds later, here it is. I got that in a folder. Does

Mike Rollins: 
And not only not only is it a picture it’s Hey I found this photo from 1981 and it’s of this mower with this motor, with this cutting unit, and this is the bearing inside of it. And I’ve got a photo of it like he’s just like digging, drilling really deep. And he did it in five seconds. So I actually, I do something similar for you guys listening. I’m not that. organized in any way, shape or form. But on my apple iCloud and stuff. I save everything in the iCloud photos. Wise files wise, everything is great for business too. Even as an equipment manager, you can save a ton of stuff and I save everything in there and I take the time to label the photo. And then when I go into my iCloud, I just search really quickly bed knife, or bed bar or PivotTable, and it’s pulling up the hundred photos and then I can keep drilling down. It’s really organized, really easy to get to. So if you guys out there have iCloud account and things like that, use notes, use the iCloud drive. It’s really beneficial for finding your old stuff, your old data, your old information, like trends talking about Chad does. it’s impressive. How Chad, just like that he’s got the photo pulled up. Oh Yeah. This is different 15 years ago I got it right here.

Trent Manning: 
it just cracks me up and I love it. And it’s so great too,

Mike Rollins: 
It’s awesome.

Trent Manning: 
I see it on, I seen him do it on Twitter a lot. I seen him do it in the WhatsApp group, just like today, the guy I in the problem, Shane, I think it was, and he gets a Toro service bulletin on how to address the issue. And I love being able to back it up like Chad does with documentation this is my opinion, this is what somebody else found and they document.

Mike Rollins: 
Factual evidence. This works. This solves your problem.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. Incredible. If you want to join the WhatsApp group, just shoot me a text or a DM or an email or whatever, we’ll get you hooked up. And I believe the gentleman from Barbados joined, but I don’t think posted yet. I has seen his number the other night. Corey sent me an email to reach out to him and I just hadn’t reached out to him yet, but

Mike Rollins: 
I want, I felt bad. I had to leave.

Trent Manning: 
on the

Mike Rollins: 
A hundred percent dude. He was so smart. So well-organized and I was sitting with him at that E M round table during the trade show and had to leave, go back to the trade show floor and stuff was super pissed. I had to leave because I really enjoyed talking to that guy. I don’t have his net. What’s his name? He’s like a Matthew accident out in Bahrain. He’s gotta run his shop totally different from how you guys are doing it here in the states. He’s got to stop. He’s got to stock a ton of stuff. He’s got to keep stuff alive. That was one of the IOM round tables we were talking about was how is it worth rebuilding or replacing. And when he started talking, I just shut my mouth and listened because he had a really good system for rebuilding. Yeah, obviously when you’re rebuilding that your cost of labor can outweigh the cost of the machine pretty quickly. But when you’re in a place like Barbados or in the middle of nowhere by rain like Matt, you’ve got to make ends meet and make things happen to keep you out of trouble. So dude is smart and can’t wait to hear.

Trent Manning: 
Matthew Kane.

Mike Rollins: 
Matthew. Can’t do two Matthews. That’s easy to remember. We got it.

Trent Manning: 
That’s right. Yeah. Matthew and Barbados and a Matthew number. Right. So easy to remember. But Corey was telling me the story about, he had ordered a fuel filter for his Bobcat skid-steer I think, and six months ago and had not gotten. So he took an Uber to Napa while he was in San Diego. And or maybe he took it to the Bobcat dealer wherever, but I know he took an Uber to get a fuel filter, to fly back with him so he can get as much up and running. This is craziness though. We

Mike Rollins: 
It’s nuts.

Trent Manning: 
normally here.

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. It’s the listeners out there. You guys can take that one to heart. Cause Yeah. we take things for granted, like literally just picking up a daggum fuel filter. The guy had to fly to San Diego from Barbados. Barbados is far from Florida, bro. That’s a long trip just to get a dug up fuel filter. Enjoy that and cherish that you guys can literally just hop in the car. He had to hop in Nuber but you could just hop in the car, run a Napa, grab a brass air fit at whatever you need in a heartbeat. We take a lot for granted here in the states.

Trent Manning: 
Oh, for sure. Yeah. We’re getting upset if we can’t get it in a day or two.

Mike Rollins: 
Losing it and let’s go, I’ve got to put them on blast on Twitter.

Trent Manning: 
That’s funny.

Mike Rollins: 
The Twitter space is the other night, man. With fad I want to get John Riley in there. I know it’s a real turf text, Twitter space. But dude having fat in there was so great right. To have that, that different perspective. And like we always talk about having that cohesive 50, 50% relationship between Em’s and soups. I think if we have maybe one Twitter space, where we get some soups in there, we can plan ahead, get some soups. It like John Riley fad, a bunch of other superintendents. Jesse shaver put you on the spot too, bro. If you’re listening, he was in my cutline as king presentation in Michigan. And thank God he was in there. Because he made some great comments at the end when we start getting philosophical about that relationship between AEM and superintendent and going to shows, and he made the comment of, Hey, Yeah. it’s on you guys as equipment managers to want to go to the shows, to want to go to the meetups and do the presentations and listen. But it’s also on us as superintendents. Jesse said this, right? It’s on us as superintendents to send you guys to say, Hey, you have my blessing or yeah, you’re allowed or, Hey, you don’t have to be here on a Saturday, go and network, whatever, go play some golf, go to a meetup, go to a local chapter event. So I’m learning very quickly on the fly here, myself personally, having the soups in here gets you that proper perspective. And it gives everybody context for things. And I think that was a really great experience to have that in there and then fads texts and re afterwards dude, that was awesome. Like to hear what equipment managers are saying, because he’s on the grinder too, so he’s in the shop. He’s a bit of a mechanical superintendent as well. if we can plan a superintendent slash E M Twitter space, we get John and their fat and there a handful of other guys, I think we could start vibing out. And next thing you know, that might have a hundred people in it listening could be cool.

Trent Manning: 
Oh, yeah, for sure. From the get go, I don’t think I ever said, I only want technicians in

Mike Rollins: 
No, yeah. I never side. I mean it, the sound like that. Yeah. Not at

Trent Manning: 
superintendents or, yeah, I don’t want any superintendent less than, I mean more the merrier bring it, man, because just like you were saying, they had the. Level of knowledge that he brought from a different perspective is unmatched. And

Mike Rollins: 
It was cool.

Trent Manning: 
so when we get together technicians, we all have, we’re all looking through the same pair of glasses, but when you get a superintendent or a GM or anybody else in the industry, they’re looking at through a different set of eyes and the city stuff a different way. And that’s one thing that really helps me with my relationship with Courtney. Our director of agronomy is the way he looks at things and the way I look at things. And they’re usually not the same. A lot of times we’re on the same page on the goal, the mission how we want the operation to run. When I asked him a question about something I’m automatically thinking. And he looks at it a whole different way and it really opens my eyes up to say my, yeah, maybe we should think about it this way.

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. And do that such a powerful combo, right? Because then yeah, you’re probably right. He’s probably right. But then you combine those two things together and then you do, you’ve got the best setup possible when that relationship is like that, I tell guys that is rare to have that kind of relationship with your superintendent or with your director of agronomy. And hopefully you know, as we continue to do things like this, we can help guys try to find that, that communication and that relationship with their superintendent or just the agronomist in general is having those two different perspectives. And I think that’s where that idea of Hey, why don’t we do a cutting units one-on-one and a agronomy one-on-one for the opposite guy?

Trent Manning: 
Yeah.

Mike Rollins: 
I think it’s, Yeah. I think it’d be awesome.

Trent Manning: 
And I think superintendents would be really entertained listening to technicians. And I think technicians would be entertained listening to superintendents.

Mike Rollins: 
I

Trent Manning: 
And there’s just those different perspectives.

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
And I would think most times a lot of courses, most of the time, the technicians listened to the superintendent, but I don’t know that the roles are reversed dependent on their set up and their dynamic.

Mike Rollins: 
Yep. I would agree with that. I’ve been places where, and I don’t ever tell golf courses how to run the shop or run equipment or anything like that. All I do is give them. This bad knife is thicker than that bed knife for the cut lines farther for you, et cetera, et cetera, stuff like that. You guys know what I’m talking about. And I’ve heard, I’ll hear a superintendent, not generalizing in any way, shape or form, but I’ve heard a superintendent say, no, we’re just going to do this because X, Y, Z. And he doesn’t listen to the feedback for the equipment manager. And I’ve seen the flip side, right? I’ve seen the other side of that coin where the EDM says, no, I’m doing this because I’ve been doing it this way for 30 years. It’s like, all right, times are changing, right? Trent, you’ve got the best example of using the TV, right? High Def you know, going from black and white to color seven 20 to 10 80 of course it’s 20 years ago were meant today they wouldn’t be considered mint. I’ve definitely seen both sides. And we talked about that at the IOM round table to show is how can you communicate? And I think those are great topics for us to keep carrying on.

Trent Manning: 
When the way we got those topics for the IOM round table there, we probably had 25 topics or whatever, and I sent them out to whatever, seven, eight different people and everybody ranked the topics that they wanted. And I average those out and got the highest ranking topics and we only, whatever we made it through, I don’t remember four or five and two hours. But that was the top five is, and it’s every year when we do this, it’s always communication between superintendent and the M. So it’s something that we constantly have to work on. And I have a really good relationship with Courtney, but I still work on that relationship too, just like yesterday, I was asking him about something going on at the shop and I’m like, am I looking at this? Right. Should this bother me? Is this a big deal? Because a lot of times I can make stuff, a big deal in my head, but to everybody else there, it isn’t a big deal. case in point is a double cut lines on fairway units on rye, grass drove me absolutely insane. I couldn’t stand it and I wanted to fix it. And I really want to try a different roller configured. And I got four fairway mowers. So we’re talking whatever 15

Mike Rollins: 
It’s not going to be cheap. Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
to do this. And he’s nobody cares

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. Don’t care, man. Yup. Yup.

Trent Manning: 
I’m the only one, I guess that cares, but it was bugging me.

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. Which I think that obviously I’m a prime example, right? I’m always in the rabbit hole. I like to say I live in the rabbit hole. Don’t even come out of it. But I enjoy it. I love it. I think it’s beneficial. But there is that time where it’s like, okay, Timeout is this what I’m doing as an equipment manager, I’m allowed to do what I do because it’s my job. But as an equipment manager, sometimes those rabbit holes are not cost-effective right. That return on investment, just isn’t there. And you’re actually costing the club money. A prime example is I’ve heard guys talk about I love keeping stuff alive. And to your point, if you think one thing, everybody else thinks another and he’s I’m doing a great job. I think it’s awesome. I’ve kept this weed eater alive for 15 years. It’s like, all right time out. Let’s break down. How many times he’s had to rebuild. This is literally happened. How many times has he rebuilt the weed eater? And then what’s the cost of that. And it’s he could have purchased 10 different wieners by now. Sure he sees it as he’s saving the club money because he’s kept this one weed-eater alive for 15, 12, 15 years. He’s actually costing the club a lot of money in his labor. So that’s to your point, it’s easy to say, Hey, you get stuck and you got the laser beams on and you’re focused on one thing, but one, is it really necessary? No, I’m probably not. So that’s diagnosing that kind of stuff too.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. And just like the weed-eater example, it’s really hard for technicians. A lot of times to say, let’s just

Mike Rollins: 
it die.

Trent Manning: 
let it

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
Because that’s what we do. We want to fix stuff and I get that. And that’s something I’ve had to overcome over the years, but yeah. Now if I’m putting a hundred dollars on a weed eater or things going in the dumpster and I bought a new one for three 50, you know what I mean? Just make sense. Especially time you pay somebody labor, a hundred dollars in parts and a hundred dollars labor of a, yeah. That makes sense

Mike Rollins: 
Buy a new one. Is this a good segue? You and I have spoken about this. We did it with Brian, the rent, when we were in the car, riding around San Diego, that book, the book you’re reading, or have read the workbook, the interactive workbook. The, I said, or you said this, I heard that, or I said this, you heard that, what’s the title of it.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. I said this, you heard that?

Mike Rollins: 
You want to tell the listeners about that or? No, I think it’s a

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. Yeah. It’s just a, it’s a workbook and it’s a really quick read. It’s got activities that it walks you through and you take a test to figure out what color you are. So they break it down into four different colors

Mike Rollins: 
like personality wise.

Trent Manning: 
personality wise. So red is, I’m a red and I’m outspoken and I’m direct. And to the point and I’m past oriented and then blue is an introvert. They’re really analytical, not outspoken. And they’re task oriented. And then you have yellow, which is they’re outspoken, they’re the life of the party extra extroverted person. And they’re all about people. And then you have green, which is an introvert and there’s still people oriented, but they’re the calm, quiet one in the corner. This is thinking about the whole situation and learning that has helped me a lot on how I try to manage the people that work for me. And I had them take the test. And one of my guys is a green. I would’ve never guessed that. I would’ve said he was a yellow cause he talks all the time but it teaches you how to pick up on certain things to figure out what color are they. And then once you know what color they are, you can manage them better. And then I think letting them know what color I am that yeah. I can be over the top and demanding and all that stuff, but that’s just my color. So don’t hold it against me

Mike Rollins: 
I think, and that’s the point, right? Is the management side of it. That’s why I felt compelled to bring the topic up is I think as equipment managers, I think the book sounds incredibly helpful for you guys to diagnose who you’re working with, even if your superintendent takes. And I think that would be a massive help too, because then it’s titled the way it is for a reason. I said this, you heard that. You might have the best intentions. I might have the best intentions in something I say, but it might be heard differently. And then that person reacts to it differently than I thought they would. And then next thing you know, you’ve got a massive miscommunication and you have an issue in the shop or an issue on the property. So I think just listening to you talk about that when we were with Brian, I was like, dude, we gotta talk about this on a podcast, because you said that. you gave me great examples to when he gave me the tour of your property, you were saying it helped you realize, I think one guy’s Hey, do you want to paint this trailer? And he’s not really, no. So you go ask the other guy, okay Hey, maybe this other guy, I like it. Instead of forcing one guy to do it, you go ask the other guy. And next thing wall off this kid actually wants to paint the on trailer. You know what I mean?

Trent Manning: 
Right. Yeah, for sure. And it’s that, I don’t know. I’m sure that’s in a book too, but managing to people’s strengths. There’s no point in forcing somebody to do what they don’t want to do. Obviously we all have to do that sometime. Do I want to go work on the sewer? No, I don’t, but I’ll be the guy when it happens. Okay. I’ve been there, done that in the summer 95 degrees.

Mike Rollins: 
Just baking it.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. Put on the Tyvek suit or respirator is terrible experience. I never want to do that again. And I did tell Courtney after that was over that I would prefer to subcontract this out next time.

Mike Rollins: 
it’s time. for subs, boss.

Trent Manning: 
I’m awkward doing stuff in house, but I’ll save you some money somewhere.

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
So we, we, can sub this out, but another example, I’ve told the story before, but I had a gentleman from Barbados and he’d been, he’s still with us. He’s been there for probably 10 years now. But when he first got there, he was that guy kind of accident prone, running into trees, getting equipment stuck whatever. But the issue that I really had is when I would go to recover the vehicle that he had stuck, or he high centered a 3,100 next to a bunker where he shouldn’t have been when I would get there, he would be laughing. And obviously, I didn’t think it was funny. That made me angry that he thinks this is funny, but I think it’s just his culture and he was nervous and it was more of a nervous laugh. He wasn’t laughing because it was. He was laughing because he was nervous that he’s going to get in trouble or whatever. But it took me a couple of years, honestly, to figure out what was going on there,

Mike Rollins: 
Oh, yeah.

Trent Manning: 
but stepping back and thinking about the situation. It might not be, as it appears.

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. I agree. And that’s why I think when you were talking about those books, man, and tell me those stories just even for myself, right? And it doesn’t matter what industry it is. I think management is a big thing that a lot of people with on at least from my personal experience, what I’ve seen on the road, you can see them with on that they with on communication. Those are two big things. Jeremiah Lockhart, down at PGA national. I talked to saw him the other day. They’re getting ready for the Honda classic actually tomorrow. Good luck guys. I know this will be posted way after that, but Jeremiah loves listening to Jocko, right? The big dude, like experiene or whatever he is, I’m going to butcher that. But crazy cool podcast. Great books talked about management and Jeremiah’s all, he’s like dude, as director of agronomy management, cause he’s got a hundred and 130 people on staff for 99 holes. That’s a lot of stuff going on. So I’ve learned a lot from him too. And it’s it’s something we can all.

Trent Manning: 
well, everybody can DM me or email me and tell me I’m wrong, but I don’t believe they teach a lot of management stuff to superintendents. And I went to the school of hard knocks. I didn’t learn anything about management. And it, a lot of us get, it could boil down to the Peter principle. You familiar with the Peter principle

Mike Rollins: 
I am not. No,

Trent Manning: 
where you’re a, I don’t remember the guy’s name, his last name is Peter, but it’s Peter principle. And it’s where you’re promoted up to the level of your incompetency, which happens in work a lot. So you’re there long enough, you just keep getting promotions. And then all of a sudden you’re really? Yeah, you’re above your head and you can’t perform the job like it needs to be performed. And I think a lot of that boils down to lack of managerial skills,

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
because a lot of us hadn’t had that kind of training and we need more training,

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
whether it’s a formal training at school or picking a book up and seeing what you learn about yourself,

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. I’ve seen it right. Not in a negative way in a positive way, but I’ve seen it where I can see and understand how it can be a negative thing where you’re an equipment manager, you’re a mechanic and you’re brilliant. You’re great. You can rebuild anything. You’re great with cutting units. You’re awesome. But your whatever color I forgot which colors like super introvert. Sitting in a corner and just like task oriented, next thing you know, you’ve been promoted. Now you’re running four courses. You’re at a, multi-property a multi-course property. And now all of a sudden you’re watching like Clint, right? We’re talking about Clint before a big Cedar, he’s the director of everything. And now they’re hiring equipment managers at each shop at on property. Now you’re managing actual people. Now you’ve got an assistant tech, 2, 3, 4, right trumped around, down in south Florida, they’ve got four guys just grinding cutting units and breaking them down and putting them back together. So now all of a sudden you’ve gone from just being your shade tree mechanic out in the corner, having a good time, kicking it to now, all of a sudden you’re way up at the top and you’re managing four or 5, 6, 10 people. Those skills can be completely whiffed on. And now you’re having issues. Communicating with guys you lose your best guys or you get burned out and frustrated, or now you’re taking a. At your boss or you’re taking the stress home. I think that’s a great point. I don’t know, I can’t speak to the superintendent side, but maybe we have some classes for equipment managers where, Hey, this is how you can manage people. And maybe we I’m spit balling here on the podcast, but maybe we base it off of that book like communicating with different personalities and understanding who you’re talking to and how to talk to them.

Trent Manning: 
Oh, for sure. And so when I interviewed Tyler bloom, I don’t know if you’ve listened to that, but

Mike Rollins: 
I haven’t not yet. It’s on the top of my list.

Trent Manning: 
Awesome dude. And we talked about predictive index, which is another gives you personality trait.

Mike Rollins: 
Oh, sweet.

Trent Manning: 
And there’s a really interesting thing. Luckily, I got to do it. And I think it was Carlos up at Bellreve. He had us all do it before we come up to volunteer. Why Had a baseline on where we were at or whatever. Not that it was a pass or fail they get in and volunteer, but it was a really cool experience. And just, it makes you more self-aware of how you are and just like the book we’re talking about now, me finding out that I’m red. I didn’t know that I really thought I would be blue, honestly.

Mike Rollins: 
I’m ready to go take the test like tonight after we hang up, I’m going to go order the book because I’m dying to know what I am.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah, I really think you’re going to be yellow, honestly.

Mike Rollins: 
Yellow. Okay. I What’s yellow.

Trent Manning: 
It’s a high energy laugh of the party and I’m serious. I’m not blowing smoke and people oriented. I think you’re really people oriented and I’m all task oriented,

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
it’s something that I can work on to be more people oriented. So I find myself trying to be more people oriented and honestly, I don’t care about people, but that’s just the way it sounds mean, but that’s the way that’s the way I’m wired. Just like mark is probably blue. I don’t think he’s a people person,

Mike Rollins: 
I remember when you said, sorry. Marker. If you’re listening, but yeah. I remember when you said blue, I don’t remember exactly what the description is in blue, but I remember as

Trent Manning: 
very analytical

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. I’m like

Trent Manning: 
task oriented.

Mike Rollins: 
engineer. He’s a mechanical engineer. Yeah. A hundred percent,

Trent Manning: 
And so the other interesting thing about this. Out of all the different colors, it’s pretty equal and it doesn’t matter race, religion, gender, any of that stuff. The population is pretty equal LEED about it, between all those colors. So it’s really interesting and definitely worth checking out.

Mike Rollins: 
By the way, we Trent and I get no, money royalties from this book. We just literally talk it about, cause I’m literally in here, I’m like, I’m going to buy the book. What are we hanging up?

Trent Manning: 
It was funny. So out at, in San Diego, Corey said, do you remember that book you talked about? Cause I talked about this at the Georgia event, which was end of January. He’s like, that thing is awesome

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
and it works for you kids too. So if you have, yeah, you can figure out what color your kids are and how to approach them when you’re

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. Yeah. Your wife, your parents, your whole family.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it is funny now after you read the book and take the test that everybody you meet, you’re like, yeah, they’re red, they’re blue or yellow,

Mike Rollins: 
If you say that out loud, soon as you might, what?

Trent Manning: 
right? Yeah.

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. I’m buying a book, man. I think it’s, I’m going to look at it tonight. You said it’s on Amazon, right? I’m

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t matter. It’s 15 bucks, maybe something like that on

Mike Rollins: 
How long did it take to do the.

Trent Manning: 
20 minutes. It’s not, yeah. It’s not not very in depth.

Mike Rollins: 
I have a feeling. So I’ll let you guys know listeners. I’ll let the listeners know if Trent was right. Let’s make a note here. He says I’m going to be a yellow. And then I have a feeling when this actually airs. If he even air says, cause we’re going way down a rabbit hole here. But if everybody hears this, we’re going to have a WhatsApp day where everybody’s got the book and everybody starts talking about what color they ended up being. And we’re going to be talking about red, blue, green, yellow for six hours.

Trent Manning: 
Oh yeah, for sure. And I don’t know, mechanic wise I think again is probably a pretty even split between all the different ones.

Mike Rollins: 
Yup.

Trent Manning: 
And you can probably pick up on that just on all the people you’ve met. Some of them are probably pretty outgoing. Some of them are not I think mechanics tend to not be as outgoing and be more introverted.

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah, I’d say a majority of the guys I’ve met have been introverted. I’d say maybe five, 10% of them are extroverted and like heavily active and energetic and not energetic, but there’s like boisterous and very talkative and yeah, I’d say majority of them are introverted.

Trent Manning: 
And I’ve been introverted my whole life until I read this book, I would have never said I was an extra extrovert,

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
thing that makes me an extrovert, if you asked me a question, I’ll give you an answer. I don’t think about it.

Mike Rollins: 
Interesting.

Trent Manning: 
So inter introverts will always think about the question

Mike Rollins: 
That’s Carl, my brother-in-law. Yeah. Yeah. That’s Carl. for you guys listening, my brother-in-law Carl is RGM and brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. It’s probably the smartest person I know not blowing smoke. And you ask. him a question, Trent knows. Cause. You ask him a question and it’s silent. It’s the worst on the phone? Cause you have no idea. If you’re like, did I lose you? You still have it. What if you’re standing, if you’re standing there in front of him, he will literally just go blank. And it’s like a robot just shut down to recharge. But he’s thinking it through right? Thinking it through, he’s doing all of the scenarios and analyzing and 30 seconds later, he has an answer and he will not change the answer because he’s already thought of all through my loud mouth will you’ll ask me a question and I’ll just blurt out an answer. And then four days later I’ll wake up at 2:00 AM like, oh, I was wrong. I thought a set should have said this. Like just

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. Yeah. Yep, exactly. Yep, exactly. That’s awesome. We’re an hour and a half

Mike Rollins: 
We’re an hour, in. Oh man. All right.

Trent Manning: 
an hour, so we’re good. But honestly, I could do this all night.

Mike Rollins: 
So could I

Trent Manning: 
I made

Mike Rollins: 
if we’re

Trent Manning: 
one more topic and then we got another 20 minutes.

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah, I know exactly. If we’re still recording here, The what the Twitter space was two and a half hours the other night,

Trent Manning: 
Yeah, that was yeah. Crazy. Awesome. Crazy.

Mike Rollins: 
I think I, that was a spur of the moment thing. We don’t have to talk about this around the 20. I know we’re at the hour mark, but if we can keep hammering Twitter spaces, man, I think it’s really cool. You’ve been slammed super busy. I’ve been stupid busy. Still don’t know where I am, but I think it’s really great doing these Twitter spaces. I want to do a more man that got me into. If you’re busy, I’ll fire him up again and we’ll just let them ride and we can share co-host things and whatnot. And if somebody’s got to leave, they can leave. It was funny. I had a guy tell me the other day, cause he called me. He’s Hey, where are you now? I was like, honestly, I don’t know. I had to look around. I was like, oh yeah, I’m in Tampa. He’s you need to do is what they did for rock bands or whatever. Back in the eighties, when they were touring so much, they put a piece of tape by the microphone on the stage. So they don’t walk them to the Reno, the wrong Don’t say Vegas and they’re in Miami or something like that. I was like, it’s not a bad idea.

Trent Manning: 
Good. That’s funny. No, definitely on the Twitter spaces, let’s keep it rolling. And I have, I just been too overwhelmed here lately with everything going on and getting ready to go see Jr. And with Joe and I got a virtual tomorrow, which,

Mike Rollins: 
Nice

Trent Manning: 
and then with GCSA next week, I’m doing a virtual for the Canadian.

Mike Rollins: 
dude. That’s all.

Trent Manning: 
yeah, no, it’s awesome. It’s all good problems. I’m not complaining at all. And I love doing this and love trying to give back to the community and.

Mike Rollins: 
it’s fallen, man. We’ve talked about it. I don’t know if this is going to end up in the podcast or not, but dude it’s weird. I said, somebody asked me the other day I was in an interview. I think it was with GCI with Matt and that like I started the Twitter thing for the company. It’s literally a, started out straight up advertising trying to get the name out there and let people know we exist. And then the next thing you know, I’m meeting you, I’m meeting other guys, I’m meeting Tim Krieger and now it’s transitioned from advertising to just straight up just networking and just like growing as a human being. Yeah. There’s still business involved and things like that, but it’s totally transitioned into something. And that’s what I said to Justin King when he was in the Carolinas, jumped in the van, I’m like, dude, get back on Twitter do it. And that’s when he came and talked to you or it was after he spoke to you. So I think maybe I was confirmation when I was like, Hey, join Twitter. Maybe he was already thinking about it, but join it, man. You guys just don’t know what you’re going to get out of it until you try it. I’ve had a lot of guys say, oh, I’m not doing that crap. Yada. But dude, all I follow are golf or golf people, that’s it. It’s straight up golf, maintenance, turf maintenance, things like that. I don’t follow politics. I don’t follow sports. Even. I don’t even follow football, basketball, baseball, nothing. It’s straight up turf maintenance. And my feet is all turf maintenance. So yeah, I can be in a hotel room at 10:00 PM. I’m still learning. I’m still talking to Matthew accident about rain. I’m talking to people up in Canada, all over the map, California. And it’s just, it’s awesome. It’s always going, always moving, always growing. And. I think that’s something that you don’t know what you have until you try to use it.

Trent Manning: 
Oh, for sure. And I do want to say on Twitter get on Twitter no matter what, and if you want to experiment a little bit, start interacting on Twitter. I really think that’s the difference. There’s one thing to have the Twitter account and be creeping on everybody and seeing there, and you can learn a lot by doing that. Not you know, not even that game, we’ve all been there, but start interacting with people. Just make a small comment on whatever they’re doing or if you don’t want to put it out publicly, send a DM. And I asked him a little bit more, like, why did you do it that way? Or what’s the benefits of that? You know what, whatever it is, just little law conversation and next thing that’s not working and that’s the way it happens. I mean, Yeah, it’s quick. It’s quick. It doesn’t

Mike Rollins: 
I’m a prime example, dude. I think you’re a prime example. We start one thing and the next thing you know, it grows into something even bigger. And I of course look a squirrel I add kicked in, but the reason I brought that up is you and I have spoken about this off podcast. I’m doing all of the stuff that you’re doing, the stuff I’m trying to do, trying to keep up with you guys with the GCSA that feeling of that rewarding feeling of helping somebody maybe this is something we tell equipment managers who are trying to force him to do it a presentation or talk is dude, that feeling it’s a drug bro, like cracking out like Joe Rogan scratching your neck. I need more. It’s it’s something I didn’t expect coming into this, like I said, started out as just advertising. Then next thing you know, you’re networking, then you’re doing stuff it’s a drug to go out, to do presentations, to do classes. And if you get the one guy to come back from your shoot, shit, text, shoot you a DM on Twitter. Like, Hey, I tried this, I tried XYZ and it worked to help. It changed this for me, makes it all worth it. And that feeling right there is do it. I got to do it more, you know? So, you know, that’s, That’s a reason to go out and do some classes and presentations and things like.

Trent Manning: 
you heard my spiel at Georgia. I’d done the same thing as the Carolinas, that same talk about how the, about growing my network, how I grew my network and how, that happened. And I talked about mental health and so I’ve gave that presentation twice and I can’t count on one hand or two, how many people said that really spoke to me that really spoke to me. And if you would asked me a year ago, would you really be connecting with. You know, Anybody can get up there and talk or whatever, what are you really connecting with people? I would have said no way I can get up there and bulldoze my way through things or whatever. But I never thought I would be connecting with people like that. And to your point, that is the greatest feeling ever is I that spoke to me I’ve been thinking about this and whether it be mental health or whatever it is saying I think I might go get help. I’ve been thinking about getting help and hearing your presentation. I think I’m going to go get some help. That’s worth mean you sat in here, that’s worth

Mike Rollins: 
I tell that story all the time, dude, that exact story of, Hey, go listen to the podcast because when you get the one guy, one guy to come in and say something like that, forget everybody else. You know what I mean by that? But like it just, the one guy alone makes it worth, it. And I think it’s true. And it is, it’s a dude, it’s a, for me personally, it’s a drug. I can’t get enough of it. It’s a ton of fun. I never expected it to be a thing. And now I get it a lot of people do all that stuff. And we’re just along for the ride. You and I say it all the time. It’s just, the snowball is still at the top of the mountain. She’s going to get bigger.

Trent Manning: 
and so the real turf Tech’s community, we’re on the boat and we’re all rowing and we w we’re going to keep rolling until we get, get to where we need to be. And We’re, and we’re on our way. And that’s another thing I never dreamed when I started this podcast, not what all would come out of it. I just thought it would be a way to give back to the industry. Hopefully help out a few people in the industry. I never dreamed. What it would turn into what it has turned into and hearing people’s story, how it motivates them or it gives them their second wind at their

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. The second wind I’ve heard

Trent Manning: 
were burned out and I’ll never dreamed. So like you said, it is a drug and I’m cracked out over here.

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. Yeah. Scratching the neck. You get, you guys can’t see us, but we’re in here scratching our next. You need board anymore. Yeah, man, to second, what you’re saying, I’ve heard it a bunch. When I talk about the real turf techs podcast, Hey, get in the WhatsApp group whatever they’re like, dude, this has been a second wind. I’ve heard that a bunch. Even guys my age right in their thirties, they’re like, dude, this has been great. I was starting to get a little burnt out. Just kinda jumping in. I was getting in a rut. I was getting stuck in a groove, things like that. It’s dude, I’ve been getting that feedback a ton with the community that you’ve started, that the WhatsApp group is doing. It’s been awesome.

Trent Manning: 
Right on. I love it, man. And I love what we’re doing. I love where we’re going. And I can’t wait to see where we’re at in a year and five years and 10

Mike Rollins: 
it’s going to be nuts. it’s going to be

Trent Manning: 
to be but honestly, back to the contacts and the network that’s how stuff like that happens. Going to conference and show. You could go there and potentially be talking to your new employer,

Mike Rollins: 
exactly.

Trent Manning: 
Just like that.

Mike Rollins: 
It’s very small and that’s a great point, dude. I think it was pat Jones or somebody else was Brian Lawrence. Somebody was talking about this to me. It could have been, you was saying Hey, be careful on Twitter, right? If you’re going to join. Don’t get political, keep turf, Twitter. Turfy that was pat. Because your next employer might see that. And so same thing with the shirt, the shows the local chapter events, you could be talking to your next employer for all you know, and it’s incredibly important and beneficial to do these things and go out because you could be talking to the next guy, that’s going to pay you a ton of money to go be an awesome equipment manager somewhere.

Trent Manning: 
Oh yeah. Yeah, for sure. that holds true for any social media, in my opinion, You gotta keep it classy. San

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. Keep it classy. San Diego. I can’t tell you how many times I heard That that Saint Diego and all that stuff. It was great.

Trent Manning: 
That was awesome. All right, dude. Thank you so much. This has been a blast as always. And this is what me and Mike do when the MOC is not old. We do this thing.

Mike Rollins: 
Oh, there’s I was going to make the joke surprise Trenton. I’ve been talking for nine hours. We only recorded about an hour and a half of it, but Yeah. we could easily, do that.

Trent Manning: 
Yup. I do appreciate what you’re doing for the industry, your passion for the industry your energy. That’s great.

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah. Again, cracking out, man. Can’t get enough of it. If I’m being selfish, it’s a drug and I’ll keep doing it until I don’t have any more energy in my body.

Trent Manning: 
Awesome man. We’ll talk soon.

Mike Rollins: 
Yeah, man. Thanks Trent.

Trent Manning: 
I hope y’all enjoyed that as much as me and Mike did so much fun as hell. No, I’m a Mike Rollins fan and we just have a fun time when we get together. And when we talk a few things I want to highlight is getting your proposal in for GCs, a conference on show, and it will be in Orlando and 2022. If you have questions, contact DCS, there’ll be more than happy to help you out. If you need content ideas for your proposal, look at the AMCP competencies and any of those would be relative to teach at conference. The other thing I want to say about the proposal. Once you submit that proposal, it goes to the EMT task group. So it was a bunch of equipment managers, this looking at the proposal and they decide if it should be a in-person proposal, a web. So just make sure you get it in, reach out to me or to tomorrow, I’d be happy to help to. Next order of business is talk to your superintendent about going to show, make your plan now for going to show, I can’t explain how important it is to be there to network and not dimension is probably the most fun you’ll have. If you really enjoy your job and what you do. You can’t have much more fun than we do a show and I hope to see you all there until 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.

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