Iain Johnstone is the Equipment Manager at the Donalda Club in Toronto, Ontario and an enthusiastic martial artist and guitarist in his free time. Like our host, Iain started out in the turf industry with his first job on the grounds crew. Following in his dad’s footsteps, Iain became a licensed auto mechanic. After six months back at a golf course he knew there was no going back to the auto shop. Hear from Iain on fabricating a reel transportation stand inspired by Bob’s Shop; talk fishing with Trent; and listen as we discuss the importance of our peers as mentors.
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 Welcome to the real turf text podcast, episode 49. Today we’re talking to Ian Johnstone equipment manager at the now the club and Toronto Ontario. The now the is a 18 hole private facility with 12 clay tennis courts, squash courts, and an outdoor pool and fitness center attached. He had had an assistant. He moved on to work for the local Toro distributor this past spring, and is looking for another during the winter season, Ian has a mixed brand of equipment, primarily Toro cutting units, Yamaha club, car, and John Deere utility vehicles, Kubota tractors, and mini excavators. And some John Deere tractors and skid steers. Let’s talk to Ian. Welcome Ian to the real turf techs podcast. How you doing today?
Iain Johnstone:
I’m doing well, Trenton yourself.
Trent Manning:
I’m doing great. Thank you so much for coming on. It’s going to be fun. Like it always is. Tell us now you into the Turpin.
Iain Johnstone:
So I got into turf when I was 16 years old, actually was my first job. And I ended up working grounds department for both three years. I went to university for a short stint and figured out pretty quickly wasn’t for me. I ended up an automotive apprenticeship afterwards and even throw my automotive apprenticeship. On my days off, I continued working in the grounds department once I became a licensed mechanic, I at that time wasn’t working on the golf course. When my first daughter was born, the assistant superintendent I’d worked for previously at that course, he’d gone on to become a superintendent at a facility nearby. And it worked really well with my family life at the time. And it was conducive to that and the hours worked well and he needed a mechanic. So very fortunately he thought highly enough of me when I was a young man that he ended up hiring me as his technician, to be honest I always anticipated getting back into automotive. And about six months into that first season, I knew there was no going back, man.
Trent Manning:
Had you had any. The experience with the ground and reels or Sutton reels up or any of that kind of stuff.
Iain Johnstone:
Not really. When I walked into that facility, his mechanic unfortunately up and left a mid season and left them high and dry. And so he was breeding express dual manuals and was trying to figure out the whole thing. And very fortunate. He had some contacts in that and sent me up the road to a nearby course, and I learned some tricks. And that first season you can imagine it was pretty.
Trent Manning:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I’m not sure, but sometimes that’s the best. Learn learning under pressure like that and figuring it out as you go. And Megan was spikes.
Iain Johnstone:
It was awesome and I was very fortunate that he was supportive of me and it was a man what a learning experience. coming from you get your automotive license or some accreditation to your name. And I think you feel like you reach a certain level. And then for me, all of a sudden to come into somewhere where I’m not in welding and I’m using torches and then obviously the real grinding and the whole agronomy it just taught me very quickly. You always have so much.
Trent Manning:
Yeah, for sure. They expect us to know a lot of different stuff.
Iain Johnstone:
Yeah.
Trent Manning:
just how to work on a diesel engine or to work on a gas engine, but yeah, you gotta be a welder and a carpenter and a plumber and electrician from time to time, walk us through your daily shop routine and the busy season.
Iain Johnstone:
Yeah. So in a busy season. I’ll get there probably about half an hour before most of our staff and we have a morning set up person who pulls out all of our walk mowers and gets ready Generally the superintendent and I will meet upstairs, discuss for the plan is for the day ongoing throughout the week go downstairs and we’ll address her staff, have the morning meetings. I go through all of our Sino procedures and check sheets with the staff. Just making sure they’re taking care of Once everybody’s out in the course, I lay back for about 20 minutes and follow shortly behind. Usually me, my superintendent and the. Prison gauge and hand check. High-ticket make sure that everything looks good and just see where we’re going touch and go with him there. We usually talk for 15, 20 minutes kind of thing. And then move on. As I go through, I used to do a sweep, any cutting equipment that’s out there. I’m throwing the prism, gauge down tees and fairways. Very fortunately our shop is actually located at the fifth hole in our court. So it’s like a perfect short loop. I investigate the first five holes up back in the shop. And then throughout the day, whether it’s generally on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we’re not cutting fairways. So that’s my fairway mower day. I’m going to throw them up in the hoist and check everything over there the rest of the week. It’s greens Moore’s come in, they’re coming to my shop and usually involve most of my afternoon, just making sure everything’s tidy there and put out fires along the
Trent Manning:
Yep. Plenty of fires come up. Can you tell me a little bit more about the checkout procedure and what all got going on?
Iain Johnstone:
Yeah. So it’s a daily I’m very fortunate when I came to Denalda my predecessor he had a really well set up, so, he had. Signup sheets for every piece of equipment and just the basics, right? Your fluid checks and tire pressures, and any external damage. That’s unusual, obviously a lot of turf you’ve got minor Nixon dings in at all. And so anything like that, the operator generally won’t mark down, but Yeah. So just checking through your basic procedure kind of stuff.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. Yeah. Now I love that. I don’t, we don’t currently do that at my facility, but I saw. I wouldn’t mind seeing go on and I’ve seen it at other operations. Other people I’ve talked to does it. So I think there’s something to it. Do you think it gives the operator a little bit more responsibility or a little bit more ownership?
Iain Johnstone:
I like to believe that I eat it has been touch and go throughout it. And I’ve grappled with the times. If it’s actually. Benefiting me in some respects, I have a few experiences though that things will come back damage and I look at who didn’t fill out the sheet that day. Quite often, that usually seems to be the way that it goes. And lead me to something and kind of figuring out the situation that happened. it definitely does for some operators. What I do find is that anybody who’s new to the facility. They usually pick up on it immediately because that’s all they know. They come it’s usually anybody who has experience at the facility already. They’re a little bit harder to teaching an old dog new right? Yeah. There you go. So a circumstance there, but it’s a, Yeah. It’s something that I’d like to do a little bit more. I do find is the first thing to disappear. Once things get busy.
Trent Manning:
That was pretty funny. Yeah. That’s human nature, and the way it works, do you relieve grant?
Iain Johnstone:
I do now.
Trent Manning:
Okay. You do now. All right.
Iain Johnstone:
So why just this past season got a new set of fully grinders, the 6 73 and the 6 53. We had expressed tools before that, and I’m a big proprietor of relief grinding. So that was a very worthwhile purchase.
Trent Manning:
I love it. I love it. And I got those same models and had online on maybe three years and no complaints.
Iain Johnstone:
What an awesome piece of equipment may.
Trent Manning:
it is. Yeah. It’s just, that’s something else. Tell us something you’ve fabricated.
Iain Johnstone:
Lately. So I did make a real transportation stand just for slipping reels on to just easy movement around the around the shop. What
Trent Manning:
walk me through that. How many you’ve gotten units? Does it help?
Iain Johnstone:
It holds 12
Trent Manning:
Oh, wow. Okay. That’s a pretty big one. Is it a frame style?
Iain Johnstone:
Yes.
Trent Manning:
Okay. Yeah.
Iain Johnstone:
It’s a pretty nifty with some heavy casters in the bottom. They square style. I think it was like Bob shop that I saw make one up, something similar I’ll give him credit for that. I stole that one from him.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. And I really think a lot of us in this industry are thieves. We steal ideas all the time.
Iain Johnstone:
That’s it, as long as we credit people a little bit here and there, it certainly, wasn’t my idea,
Trent Manning:
and I don’t remember, I told somebody a one time because I don’t even remember what it was, what I was doing. And they’re like, that’s not your idea. And I said, you, as you get older, this was a young guy. So as you get older, you will find out that not that many original ideas.
Iain Johnstone:
Absolutely. Not
Trent Manning:
There’s some, but not a lot.
Iain Johnstone:
every good story has been written before, man. I, yeah. Yeah,
Trent Manning:
exactly. For sure. What’s your favorite tool and why?
Iain Johnstone:
So coming from the automotive side into turf, all of a sudden torches were a big thing for me and the versatility of torches and seeing. So my dad was not a mechanic and later became a school teacher, but that guy, the skill he had with a torch, all of a sudden, he came into the shop one day and kind of show me some tricks and. What you can do just with a settling torch as far as welding. And it’s so versatile. It’s got me out of so many situations. I don’t think I’d be able to do without one now.
Trent Manning:
I really like you’re saying that because I think definitely the younger generation doesn’t see the value and a torch and all the different things you can do. Just like you were saying, you can weld with it. You can braise with it. You can eat some up, cut metal with it. It’s just. Versatile tool. I like that one. That’s good. What do you do to relax or find your balance?
Iain Johnstone:
A couple of things. a big martial artist actually. So I usually get out most of the temper involved in hitting other people and being hit by other people. That’s kinda my go-to usually every year. And as long as my wife allows I’m going out participating in that, my more calm side, I’m a guitarist as well not a good one, but I pluck along and enjoy that. So my decompression for the most part and come summertime. I like fishing and sailing as well. have a cottage north where I live and hop on a sailboat and float around for a couple of hours by myself. That’s good decompression in the summertime.
Trent Manning:
I’m sure relaxing. So the lakes up there are they really busy with powerboats and that kind of.
Iain Johnstone:
So the one that we’re on is it’s all boat in access. So it is fairly busy, it’s a smaller lake. There’s a lot around in the area, yeah, my brother actually just bought a new boat. He’s got the cottage next to us. And so I’m looking to spend a little bit of. time up there this summer. Enjoy that with them.
Trent Manning:
Oh, that’s awesome. around here the legs and the summertime, it’s it almost takes the fun out of it. There’s so many people. And if you’re partying and that kind of stuff. That’s one thing I guess, but I love to fish and talking about fishing is not fun to fish during the daytime in the summer.
Iain Johnstone:
What kind of fish do you catch up there? Their legs.
Trent Manning:
So I primarily bass large mouth or spotted bass.
Iain Johnstone:
So same as us.
Trent Manning:
So we don’t have in my area, we don’t have small mouth by. You got to get it a little bit further north to can get to the small mouth. The large mouth and spots is as fun as gives us something to do once a week. What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen at work.
Iain Johnstone:
So this wouldn’t have been in turf. Probably my best one. When I was in an auto shop, we had a Dodge charger come in one spring. It was a summer car only, and it was a No. start. It was a fairly new vehicle. Had fuel turned over, had sparked. Just wouldn’t start no codes being thrown. So my mentor at the time, he’s just it’s got to run. So he’s sitting there, he fired a little bit of ether into it. Nothing just keeps turning it over. And a squirrel eventually in the nest got fired out of the tailpipe and taught me a valuable lesson that things need to breathe in order to run. I unfortunately, for the story of the squirrel that make.
Trent Manning:
No. That’s good though. And yeah, never know. And sometimes it’s just simple things that you don’t even think about.
Iain Johnstone:
Yeah. Even you have to check all these but it was just kinda one of those, like you say, it was just a simple, funny head scratch one. I’ve seen raccoons under hoods. I’m sure you’ve had stories of that kind of thing too, but yeah, it’s always, it’s funny you think back and there’s always these funny incidences throughout the career
Trent Manning:
Yeah. And a lot of times it’s hard to keep tracking, I’ll ask that question and it’s fun to get a good story. But honestly, we could have a podcast just about good turf stories or industry stories, because there’s so many, and sometimes it happens on a daily basis.
Iain Johnstone:
Do you have a good one for us, Trent?
Trent Manning:
That’s a good question.
Iain Johnstone:
Sorry to put you on the
Trent Manning:
No, it’s all good, man. Put me on the spot. I want to I’ll tell one from a good friend of mine, his name’s David and at the time he was the technician at Eastlake and the beverage cart came down and it was a pedal start, beverage car carry all or something. And the lady on the car said, That it continually just turns over and turns over like the pedals down, unless you turn the key switch off. That’s the only way you can get it to stop. You got to turn the key switch off and he’s really busy it’s middle of summertime or whatever. And he said just, you got another car right back at the clubhouse. Just parked that one over there. And when I get a little time I’ll look at it. So she gets a ride. Somebody takes her back to the club. And she brings the other beverage cart back down, immediately. And she said, this car is doing the same thing. So he says, okay. So he walks out and he kicks the cooler off the gas. And said have a nice day. And she was putting her cooler there, the floorboard and had it off the paddle. And yeah, that that was a pretty good one.
Iain Johnstone:
Two in a row. What are the chances that? Yeah.
Trent Manning:
Yeah, He’s okay, get out here. Sums up. Do you have a mentor in the industry? You led on to that, and what’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learned from.
Iain Johnstone:
I can’t say I directly have a mentor within the industry, but a lot of people I look up to, and saying this just because we’re on your podcast in the moment, man. I look at some of the work that you do, and these are the things that constantly, as we discussed before, constantly growing. you’re just, you’re a piece of all these people that you learn from when you see little things. Kevin had. He’s nearby, very close location where I am right now. I remember walking into his shop and thinking, look what I can Look at the improvements I can make. I thought my shop was clean you see that. And you’re like, okay,
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
Iain Johnstone:
you go back. You’ll almost you hang your head. you work towards just improving them every lot of people I look up to in the area. I’ll give a shout out to Jerry Knight Another great guy that I know in the industry and his demeanor and everything I see them and Yeah. They’re mentors in indirect ways,
Trent Manning:
oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And Twitter is a very valuable tool in my opinion, and all the people sharing ideas on there freely and help you any way they can. We just, we have a really great community. think some people would probably take that for advantage. And there’s a lot. This past Monday, we had a technician seminar here in Georgia and we had over a hundred people there. And I went to another technician seminar that I spoke at two weeks ago and there was three technicians and it was for a state association. So in Georgia at one Monday, I was telling everybody, you don’t know how good you have it here, we have this great of a community and a association that will support us and all those kinds of things but it’s growing. I do think we’re getting better and it’s not just me out here talking about it. My Rawlins is doing great things promote turf technician. And the technicians I follow on Twitter Chad brown, like you said, Kevin it’s just amazing the stuff they’re doing. And you’re talking about really nice facilities. I’ve been working on the certified turf equipment manager with GCSA and the supposed to come out this spring of 22. And we’re doing shopper testing. So one of the alpha test was at Brian Bressler shop at Madonna. And this is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. And we’re buddies and I’ve given her a hard time. I was like, do you work in here? Y’all have to do all your work outside you never use the shop. that’s what it looks like. It looks like. It’s just so clean. It looked like. Set up. It was so impressive, but he was telling me when he first got there that it wasn’t a very nice place and they dumped a bunch of money into it, changed everything, two or three years ago. And since then, they’ve just kept it for steam because they know what they got. They know what, where they came from, where they are now. And they said, we’re going to keep this place. So apart.
Iain Johnstone:
That’s funny. I was just having that conversation with somebody recently and just by nature, I do find myself. I’m not a person that comes by being neat naturally. Some people. They’re naturally very neat and very organized any time that I have a clean facility, I know I’ve come by it honestly. And I’ve put in hard work towards that. And that leads what’s your biggest pet peeve kind of thing. I do find now that I’ve become a much more meticulous technician when people don’t put things back in that know how much hard work it takes to keep something nice. And the improvements that you’ve made right. Towards a facility. So definitely have a lot of respect.
Trent Manning:
Oh, for sure. And I can relate to exactly what you’re saying. I know where every tool is in my toolbox and it’s really organized. Outside of that there I do my best trying to keep a pretty organized facility. And that’s definitely something that bugs me when somebody just comes through and lay something on a table. I’m like, okay, where does this need to go? Let’s find a place for it. It’s kinda like taking care of your kids.
Iain Johnstone:
That’s
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
Iain Johnstone:
You got it from somewhere and it wasn’t that table though.
Trent Manning:
Exactly. What would be your dream job or opportunity? Doesn’t have to be something in the industry. This.
Iain Johnstone:
Anything just completely out When I was in, when I was in high school, I really want to be a police officer. I love helping people. It’s funny. I found that even just as a technician having, I did have an assistant prior to This. past season he moved on just helping people and being there and mentoring people. It’s an important thing to me. You learn a lot from it as we discussed you’ve grown from this whole experience and you’re seeing that. So that’d be a dream job for me. I would say.
Trent Manning:
Okay. That’s awesome. And yeah, like we talked before mentoring somebody and just helping people out is so rewarding and you end up getting back way more than what you put in. Honestly, I got a couple of younger guys working in the shop for me. And just asking them different questions, different things how would you do this and getting set eyes. This only been in the business for a year versus a set of eyes has been doing it for 25 and they come out with some good ideas and some creative things that I would have never thought about because we don’t have the same experience.
Iain Johnstone:
Yeah.
Trent Manning:
So that’s been good for sure. What technician would you like to work with for a day? In the industry?
Iain Johnstone:
anyone I know, I’d have to say Kevin.
Trent Manning:
Okay.
Iain Johnstone:
Yeah. I work with Kevin for a day. That’d be awesome. And it’s very possible considering our proximity to one another. I should just run up there and make that one happened.
Trent Manning:
Yes. For sure. You most definitely should do that. Highly encourage it.
Iain Johnstone:
Yes.
Trent Manning:
it’s really, I’m really lucky here. I got good network and my local area and I don’t do that enough. And, we all get busy in our daily lives and all that stuff. A couple of weeks ago, Jerry Cara came up to visit John pat. And spent a couple of days with him. And now that Jerry needs help. Jerry is an excellent technician and he’s got his stuff down, but he wanted to spend a couple of days with John to see how John does his operation. And that was so valuable. So lucky for me, went over there and spent a couple hours just talking to him we didn’t really work on stuff or whatever, but just what you pick up from those conversations. And then David Curie, he’s up in your neck of the woods rat.
Iain Johnstone:
Yes. Yeah. Very close
Trent Manning:
He stopped by, he was going to Tampa driving his mom’s car down. He’s good. He’s going to get son of the year award for that.
Iain Johnstone:
That’s awesome.
Trent Manning:
Yeah really good. So he stopped by the shop and hung out with me for a few hours and just same thing, just talking to different people. It’s amazing what you can learn and pick up.
Iain Johnstone:
And you never come away empty handed for most.
Trent Manning:
For sure. What do you know now? You wish you’d known on day one.
Iain Johnstone:
How operators will respond to things and how to deal with people. That’s something I’ve learned a lot of patients and just the the individual nature of people. That’s really, it’s an important thing, but you just, you deal with so many more people on a day-to-day basis than I did prior to working in the. Industry before it was customers that’s a very rewarding thing in its own. Right. And, you develop good skills and kind of deescalation situations in that, but with staff and that it’s a skill in its own, right. And it can add or detract so much stress. It’s very important thing to have good kind of tack to yourself around people.
Trent Manning:
That’s a great one and something. I don’t think we’ve talked about a whole lot on here. And I remember talking to a superintendent, a younger superintendent and. He’s sitting at a desk and he’s having a rough day and employee issues and stuff like that. So I pat him on the back and I said, when you got into this industry, you thought you were going to grow grass,
Iain Johnstone:
Yeah.
Trent Manning:
And it’s not there’s a lot more to turn and wrenches, like you say, dealing with the people and learning how. Different people react to different situations. And I got one guy from where he’s from Barbados and super nice guy. I gave you the shirt off his back. Great personality. But when he first got there, he was he was kinda my guy on equipment. If you know what I’m mean tearing stuff up and just doing things that you shouldn’t be doing with a mower or a card or whatever. And I would go out, he’d be stuck or whatever, and I’d go out there to tell him out and he’s laughing at the whole thing. And that’s not what I want to see. It’s not funny to me.
Iain Johnstone:
Yeah.
Trent Manning:
It’s his culture or his personality and he wouldn’t do it to be rude, or I think it was more of a nervous thing.
Iain Johnstone:
Yeah.
Trent Manning:
And, but I didn’t know that at the time. So just getting to know people a little bit better than how they react to different situations.
Iain Johnstone:
That was his way of deescalating. And it’s only escalating your anxiety towards situation.
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
Iain Johnstone:
totally. Absolutely.
Trent Manning:
Yeah, for sure. What kind of tips and tricks you want to share with us?
Iain Johnstone:
Oh, what a fun one that I learned pretty quickly. So I was new to welding when I got into the turf side of things. And what you can do with a welder is just awesome. And I remember the first time having to do like a rear roller bearing on we had John Deere 80 hundreds at the time and that rate. Of course it’s stuck in there and you’ve got no way to get a drift onto it. No punch, no anything. And welding that race just to help a contract and pop it out. That was something that was invaluable to me since then, I’ve gone. I bought a set of like internal race polars with a slide hammer attachment. So I don’t get around to using too much anymore, but that was a trick that got me into so many jams. I remember calling our John Deere rep at the time, a service technician in the area. And he said just while to beat. I couldn’t believe how well that worked. So a big shout out to Steve Brezhnev car there. That was one coming full circle. just pieces of puzzle of all the people we’ve learned Yeah, that was a great one.
Trent Manning:
Yeah, it is. One. Favorites probably. And I love especially getting a younger person in the shop and showing that one to them and if they hadn’t asked for help before and they’re trying to use a punch or whatever to, and they can’t get the punch in there. I think it’s more fun if you let them struggle for about 30.
Iain Johnstone:
let him walk.
Trent Manning:
And then walk over there and that let’s try this and run a beat around there and slam it on the table and it fall out. So here you go. I’ll be here all day.
Iain Johnstone:
The look of disbelief that first I’m a top style, right? It’s.
Trent Manning:
You got to make it more dramatic so that really sticks with them. What else do you want to talk?
Iain Johnstone:
That’s a very open-ended question.
Trent Manning:
it is. It’s open, man. We can talk about anything you want to talk about from getting into the industry, how to been something really popular and something on my mind a lot. How do we get more people in the industry wanting to get their hands dirty and do the things we do? Obviously I think this is one of the greatest careers you can have because you have so many different. You’re not doing the exact same thing every day. It’s new problems, everyday new challenges. Every day. If you’re having a rough day, you can get out and ride around on a golf course or it’s nice and quiet and peaceful and nature. You get to see the sun come up every morning.
Iain Johnstone:
The best office in the world. And I absolutely agree with you. And recently, Ontario we’ve been having, there was a shortage of
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
Iain Johnstone:
technicians and there’s just there’s no maybe I’m not accurate with this, but I don’t believe there’s really any kind of education out there. Certainly when I was going to trade school again, I’m with the automotive route, there was never any mention of working at golf courses at the time I was still working, like I mentioned before two days a week at the course. And I remember mentioning it to my teacher and asked about was maintenance like and the rest of it. And. He at the time suggest to me, why don’t you consider doing that as a career? And I never really gave it much of a second thought, but in, in years past, I’ve often thought getting in contact with them and go. Just saying like this is a career path, this is an available option that nobody’s talking about. There’s tons of golf courses that are in need of technicians and formally trained technicians. As we all know now with tier four, coming along with all the electronic capabilities, it’s come so quickly and just in dramatic fashion. And there’s a lot, there’s a subset of technicians who are writing. And then there’s a lot of guys who don’t have formal education a lot of guys who are going to struggle with this next wave of equipment that is inevitably coming in is already here, especially involving in robotics and GPS. So how to get around that and how to talk about. Post-secondary institutions about that. And just to get the word out there is very challenging. I’ve tried to get in touch with other techs and most people ask the same question as everybody does is, oh, do you just fix golf carts or just push mowers? Or what do you do in winter time? Like is the standard questions and it’s just shocking. we know how complicated the whole gig really is.
Trent Manning:
Yeah, for sure. I wish I knew the answer and I know Jr Wilson, he’s working on good things. He’s out on long island and he started a technician. I don’t think it’s an apprentice program or internship or something along those lines. But I really think it’s getting in the high school level and a lot of the high schools, or at least around in my area, they’ve done away with the trade. When I was going to high school, there was a shop class and a construction class and a flawed technology class, but a lot of the high schools in my area there, they’re doing away with those programs. And it’s really sad. And for whatever reason, I don’t know why. I guess it’s money driven, but they want to push a hundred percent of the students into college. And in the U S there’s only 25% of the jobs you need a college education for.
Iain Johnstone:
Absolutely.
Trent Manning:
So why send a hundred percent of the kids out of school into college? I don’t know. than the money.
Iain Johnstone:
I remember sitting in my high school commencement. And at that point I’d signed up for university. I was in university, happened in October and telling the statistics as far as how many students had gone to post-secondary and into trades and the rest. And they said it was something unbelievable. Like 92% of my graduating class had gone to post-second. Education in universities or colleges. And another 5% may be stuck around. And had gone into traits and thinking to myself, it was like 2% and trades. It’s just the focus. We’ve been talking about it Ontario for a long time, the crisis that will inevitably come because there isn’t enough skilled tradesmen out there pursuing it. And there’s a plethora of jobs coming up in a generation of people retiring. So Yeah, I think there needs to be a shift. I think it will come. I think we’ll have just through, unfortunately maybe not volunteer.
Trent Manning:
Yeah, no it’s coming. has to just like you say, there’s a need, the way they’re going to get people in here is the money. lucky for us, we’re all going to get paid more. And I’m okay with that. I’ve never said that you were paying me too much,
Iain Johnstone:
You never shied away from that one? No, I agree.
Trent Manning:
it on. Do you have anything else you want to dive in?
Iain Johnstone:
I think I’m pretty satisfied. I just want to say thank you so much for setting this all up and the opportunity. This whole thing has been, it’s been eye opening when I first, my first year and season working at a golf course, I did feel that there was like a lack obviously I was I was naive ignorant to the fact there was this. Moving along without me out there. And once I caught into it and realized I was very fortunate, a superintendent who you should get on that. Because there’s some guys up there, you should look at Bob shop. He does all
Trent Manning:
Um,
Iain Johnstone:
Once I’ve kind of hopped it was like a world that I never knew existed right before my eyes just beneath the surface. And was very cool to be part of trends. So I thank you so much for putting this together and your continued advocacy within all this.
Trent Manning:
of course, and thank you, for being a part of it, the WhatsApp group. And I think Jerry now. He’s the one that led me into the WhatsApp group. And then I started my own group since most of his was Canadian based, which is fine. I didn’t do that in competition to
Iain Johnstone:
you
Trent Manning:
there.
Iain Johnstone:
and
Trent Manning:
What’s that?
Iain Johnstone:
get, what are you saying here? Does Canadian say.
Trent Manning:
Oh no come on, there’ll be me up too bad. It’s not anything like that. I was just telling this story the other day. Oh, it was actually, I was talking to David Carey when he come down here and he was thanking me for my hospitality. And I said I’m just trying to show you the Southern hospitality. But the hospitality I got when I went to Alberta was unmatched or is right up there with Southern hospitality. And obviously now in the south, especially in the city, There’s not as much hospitality because a lot of those people came from up north, down here and it’s the whole Yankee thing going on there, but I love my Yankees too.
Iain Johnstone:
I hope to make it down there sometime trends because you guys are, yeah, you got the best food going and some of the nicest people around man. So I look forward to it when the time comes.
Trent Manning:
You’re welcome. Anytime you hit me up. And yeah, it’s this open door policy around my shop. And I guess for anybody that is listening, if you want to come by, you just let me know and I’ll make sure I’m there. This is a lot, Mike Rollins. We did our thing on Monday and the class was over and he was staying the night. So he didn’t have anything going on. I said, come on, man, let’s go to the shop. So we got to the shop it was 4 35. O’clock hung out for an hour and a half and grabbed dinner and took him back to his hotel room. But up for stuff like that. Just interacting with other people. And I used to sit in the corner. You know, Growing up and it wasn’t really my thing to be as open or outgoing as I am now. I’ve always considered myself an introvert look what I’m doing now. So I don’t know.
Iain Johnstone:
Will you make a very good extrovert a group.
Trent Manning:
appreciate that. Tell the listeners how they can get home.
Iain Johnstone:
You can follow me at Twitter. I’m not exactly sure. My Twitter handle is, but Ian Johnstone, I think 0 4, 0 6, something along those lines. I am part of the WhatsApp group. I am an OSA member and a GCs AA member. You can contact it through there, through those websites and anytime I’m open to anybody having any kind of question.
Trent Manning:
Before we end this in the WhatsApp group, Didn’t you do some kind of mathematical formula for something?
Iain Johnstone:
I did it caught me late on a Friday night and my wife was she was displeased. I just said, just carry on with them, with whatever she was watching I wanted to do It measuring real speed at the tip a, of a decreasing real. Yeah. So just showing believe velocity decreases as a cylinder gets smaller. Yeah.
Trent Manning:
done that only cats I’m assuming?
Iain Johnstone:
Yes, sir.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. Yeah. On the cats. for the listeners, if you think all us mechanics are just a bunch of dummies, this right here should prove you wrong to sit on the couch and be able to figure out the belay velocity of a re. Depending on the input that’s going on. And I know it’s my app, but a lot of us are not good at math.
Iain Johnstone:
I much appreciate that Try And I
Trent Manning:
was
Iain Johnstone:
math in school. That was a lot of fun. I don’t get to use it much now and being able to pull that out, I’m sure it looked neater than like the first couple of drafts I don’t want to throw up something there with all my mistakes on
Trent Manning:
So anyway, I was impressed and Mike Rollins, we actually come up the other. He said that dude is really smart talking about you. Yeah, that was awesome. And it, isn’t just you there’s Wade. He’s a genius. There’s a lot of smart people in that group. And I don’t know you caught that in the group, but I added it up 42 of the people in the group, there was 803 years of experience. Which is incredible in its own, but the have some true geniuses in the group to I don’t know how many has taken an IQ test, I guarantee you there’s a lot in the group that their Accu is way above mine.
Iain Johnstone:
Oh,
Trent Manning:
we’re so lucky.
Iain Johnstone:
we are. Absolutely. And just to think, like with that cumulative knowledge, hopefully we can solve all the turf worlds from.
Trent Manning:
We’re going to try, we’re going to try thank you again for being. And I’ll see you in the WhatsApp group.
Iain Johnstone:
Thanks so much trendy. You have a great evening.
Trent Manning:
I hope you enjoyed hearing from Ian, how much can we learn from our peers or even people with less experience in the industry? if you stepped back and think about it a little. We can learn from anybody no matter how long they’ve been in the industry or where they came from, because we all have different backgrounds and we all learn different stuff. So approach a situation with an open mind and you can learn a lot more. So here’s a challenge for you. Think of a way that you can get the word out about this great profession, somewhere at the grassroots level, in your own area. We were talking about it today at the shop, trying to, you know, come up with different ideas. How do get people in this industry. And I think we all need to be working on that in our own local area. If you hadn’t filled out our survey on Twitter, make sure you go to our bio on our Twitter page and click the link to the Google. And fill out our survey, let us know how we’re doing, let us know who you want to hear from, and we’ll try to get them on. Let us know what kind of questions you got, because we’re always looking to make this thing better 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.