This week we’re talking with Orlando Acevedo, Equipment Manager at Grey Oaks Country Club in Naples, Florida. With three 18-hole courses and a grounds crew staff of 95, Orlando has his plate full. Join us as we discuss the ins and outs of managing a large fleet of equipment and staff, fabricating racks for small equipment, and how changing jobs can further your career. Orlando reminds us that during these times of parts delays and shortages, it’s more important than ever to know your fellow tech down the road, so get out there and get to networking.
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 40. Today, we’re talking to Orlando also veto. Equipment manager at gray Oaks country club. In Naples, Florida. Grey ox offers three 18 hole courses. With 54 holes golf. And has the clubhouses with their own practice facilities. Orlando manages two shops with a total of four systems. And an equipment manager working with him. He has mostly Toro equipment. With a little John Deere sprinkled in. Let’s hear from orlando Orlando to the real turf tech podcast. How you doing today?
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Good. How are you doing?
Trent Manning:
Don’t get right. There’s going to be a lot of fun. I appreciate you coming on and we’ll jump right in. Tell us your story on how you got into the turf.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
About 18 years ago finished high school, needed a job and was going to school to be an automotive technician. And I applied at the local Cadillac dealership. My stepfather at the time was working at the book or a twin resort. Told me, they needed an assistant mechanic. So I went applied, interviewed, and they offered me 50 cents more an hour. Here I am today.
Trent Manning:
That’s amazing. All for 50 cents. You got 18 years then.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah, pretty much.
Trent Manning:
Great. So what was main county, your childhood growing up, you rent and all that stuff. And.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Not really. I moved down to south Florida when I was seven years old. Had my first child when I was 14. So when I finished school, I needed to do something and all my buddies were into cars. So I just started going to school for that. And I ended up in the turf industry.
Trent Manning:
Awesome. Well, the school where you going to for automotive.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Atlantic technical institution
Trent Manning:
Okay.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, anybody, I believe, I believe they went under now. They were around.
Trent Manning:
I hear you. Walk us through your daily shot routine.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
So when I get there in the morning, just to make sure everybody gets out, usually take a spin around. One of the courses were 54 old, so we have three 18 hole golf courses. whichever course is getting maintenance done that day is typically the one that I’ll spend more time on any given day. make sure that. Everything’s working properly and everybody’s using the equipment and not abusing it. Then we’ll go back to the shop and you know what to do.
Trent Manning:
I got ya. You said the course, they’re doing the maintenance on that day. How does that work with that?
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
so we’re 54 holes. There’s roughly 95 of us total in our department. Yeah, it’s organized chaos.
Trent Manning:
I’m sure.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
So whatever they were doing maintenance on one course we’ll have, I don’t know, anywhere from 50 to 60 guys on that course.
Trent Manning:
Okay.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
And we’ll set up the other two courses, obviously for the members to play. And we’ll typically do one course on Monday, another course on Tuesday and the third course on way.
Trent Manning:
So the course that you’re working on, is it closed to members? No.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Typically we’ll have a two times, and then we do what we call a maintenance gap. So they’ll stop play around 11 o’clock. When we break for lunch, you come back from lunch at 1145 and they won’t stand out tee times again until about one.
Trent Manning:
Right. And I got ya.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
So we’ll go around the golf course twice in one day and do whatever it is we’re going to do.
Trent Manning:
We run a gap too during the summertime, not, we definitely, we have a winter up here, not much of
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. So we, we do gap in the wintertime to the summertime. We always have at least one. golf course clothes for verification. So yeah, in the summertime we won’t run the gap, but in the winter time we do.
Trent Manning:
Interesting. Do you relieve ground?
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
we do release breath. I want to do little more than, than what we typically get around to, but if we can get all the seven inch reels done or the bigger reels, the smaller reels we have. I stopped counting at 180 reels.
Trent Manning:
He brought
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
we have, we have a lot of real stuff as long as long as we can get fair and roar frills, I’ll be happy.
Trent Manning:
Do you do any backlash or anything like that?
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
No it’s against my religion.
Trent Manning:
I guess the religion I got you, we all have different religions, I think in this industry.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. I think my boss is allergic to it too. So I just try to keep away from it.
Trent Manning:
Well, right now I understand that too. I mean, a lot of times the superintendent or the. Director of agronomy or whoever might be totally against back laughing and think it’s evil.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. And, and, and there’s a, there’s a place for it. It works not knocking it But frequently go might as well. Just start from scratch and get it all back to factory specs.
Trent Manning:
I got ya. Tell us something you’ve fabricated lately.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Oh man. I’m not much of a fabricator takes times. But the one thing I do find myself always fabricating is racks for my small equipment. I just I’m real picky and I can never find a rack that I really want, it’s going to fit And work for us. So I always ended up fabricating racks for my blowers, my weed eaters and the hedge trimmers. And that way I can organize it where I like it.
Trent Manning:
And are you talking about. As far as it going on the equipment or the way you store it in the
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Just the store to store. Usually we don’t have a lot of space. You got to get creative with your organization in small equipment room.
Trent Manning:
Gotcha.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. It’s just tight
Trent Manning:
Rad, rad, rad. What’s your favorite tool and why?
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
grinders effectuated with simple expanders. I can’t do my job without them. think they’re the most accurate grinder on the. And I just, I got to have,
Trent Manning:
when did you start using SLP?
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Oh, man. I’ve purchased nine sets in my career.
Trent Manning:
Wow. Okay.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
We’re talking about 12 years ago.
Trent Manning:
Okay.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. It’s been 2007, eight. I think I started using.
Trent Manning:
How many says the grounders, do you have?
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Right now we have? two real grinders and
Trent Manning:
Okay.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
it’s plenty enough to keep up with our grimy.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. And that’s a lot of grounded that many gun units.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah, we were grinding everyday.
Trent Manning:
Not gonna send you anything for saying that that’s your favorite till SFP grinder.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Hopefully I’ll get a note, but you
Trent Manning:
Okay.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
know, that’s, that’s my brand and I love using it. I got to have them.
Trent Manning:
No, I’m just giving you a hard time. Hopefully when Mike listens to this, he’ll get a laugh out of it too.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. Dewayne my, I don’t know about Mike.
Trent Manning:
Yep. Well, what do you like best about your job
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Ah, man, that’s a trick question.
Trent Manning:
or do you even like your job?
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
oh no, I love it, man. I love what we do. It’s you get to meet a lot of people, the networking, you get a lot of freedom, not too many jobs where you can get it turning wrenches and you get the freedom that we’ll get,
Trent Manning:
Right.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
you know, and just to be able to set something up and see the end product out in the field. You’re not going to see that in our motive industry, when the customer drives off, that’s pretty much it.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. Yeah. Yup. Never see that again.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. Hopefully.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. If you did it right. What is the strangest thing you’ve seen at work?
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Oh man. The strangest, I would have to say, I saw a member drive into the lake once and this little lady, she happened to jump off the cart right before we went into. So she didn’t get wet until she jumped back into the lake to get her cigarettes.
Trent Manning:
Oh God.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. I don’t know. It didn’t make sense, but she had to get her cigarettes that were wet.
Trent Manning:
Yeah, yeah. Right. Because we all know cigarette smoke is really well when it’s wet.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. So, Yeah. That had to be destroyed. I mean, I’ve seen a lot of things, but that had to top it off.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. That tops the cake for sure. And she wasn’t worried about her golf clubs or anything
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
No, no, no, no. She wanted her cigarettes. She didn’t care about The cart. She just wanted her cigarettes.
Trent Manning:
Yep.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
It was amazing
Trent Manning:
Who was one of your pet peeves around the shop?
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
to try to be clean. And you know, when you finish the job, clean up after yourself and get ready for the next one, man. You know, just, you know, not just the mechanics, but the operators as well. You know, they’re quick to just want to drop a piece of equipment off and get back to work, clean it up, fuel it up, put it away, reiterated for the next day.
Trent Manning:
I’m Brad.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
just the right thing to do.
Trent Manning:
How many guys do you have working for you?
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
So we have two shops and there are six of us total, including myself. And I have three assistants three, three assistants on the one side, the one on the other side and an equipment manager and myself. So there’s six of us total.
Trent Manning:
So how does that work with the, you said you had two real grinders and one bed, not crown or so you’re running bed nice back and forth.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
So we do all the grinding on one, one. Since the other shop is just one assistant by himself. So he just, he does check the reels after we more keeps them tidy and does all the maintenance on all the equipment, if there’s any big repairs and all the rebranding, we bring it back to our shop.
Trent Manning:
Okay. Like sense?
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yep.
Trent Manning:
Probably a pretty good set up.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Not bad. We’ve gotten along so far.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. Yeah. What would be your dream job or opportunity or your, are you already.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Oh man. It’s nice. I can’t complain. This is a pretty good gig. I got, well, I worked with a bunch of great guys. We have 10 assistant superintendents. Yeah.
Trent Manning:
Oh, wow.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
So there’s, there’s a lot of guys running around and you know, you get, you get to hang out with all the guys and when I’m at work, I’m having fun. It’s my second home.
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah, I just, I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s awesome.
Trent Manning:
Well, the amount of hours that we have to put in,
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Oh
Trent Manning:
you gotta, you gotta get along with the people you work with. Cause like you said, it is a second family,
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
yeah, definitely. I might spend more time with them than I do with my wife.
Trent Manning:
right? Yeah, exactly. What do you know now that you wish you’d known on day one?
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Whoa, man. What’s going on now? That you do have a life after work. You can’t forget about your home either. You know, we’re always trying to do the best we can and do as much as we can. And I wish I knew that a little earlier in my career and spend some more time at home. It’s a tough, tough industry. And you do miss sometimes with the family, with the kids growing up.
Trent Manning:
How many kids you got.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
three have three kids. 2023. My oldest is 23, which he works with me in the shop. I have my daughter, which is 17. She’ll be 18 going to college here next year. And my little guy is 15.
Trent Manning:
All right. Let me be about to get him
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
So no more babies. Yeah. And my grandson have a two year old grandson. That’s my new baby.
Trent Manning:
Oh, that’s awesome. That’s really good. So your son, he just grew up on the golf course and said, I can probably do this too.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Pretty much, you know, you said that could do it so anybody can do it.
Trent Manning:
That’s. Those was really good.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. So he likes it. He loves the. We get to spend a little time to get to the now.
Trent Manning:
No, yeah. That’s awesome. I know. I could not work with my dad.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah.
Trent Manning:
Yeah,
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
He’ll probably tell you the same thing.
Trent Manning:
Yeah, it might, but I don’t know. That’s a whole different thing between me and my dad and I love it. And then we get along pretty good. But when it comes to working on a project or then
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
yeah. I guess.
Trent Manning:
we’ve got heads a little bit.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
It’s definitely a different relationship at home than it is at work.
Trent Manning:
Right, right. What’s the latest tips and tricks you’ve seen, or any temperature Eric, you want to share with us?
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
I was mentioning earlier, man, just keep organized. I think that’s the most important thing, especially for your superintendents. They walk in the shop when they see a miss, they think you don’t know what you’re doing. Get some tables with some cabinets and doors and hide your mess. And they’ll never know the difference. You know, as long as the shop was cleaned, you think you’re the best?
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Just keep organized, more organized. We are the better, more efficient we’re going to be more work we get done. And in the long run, it means more time for ourselves.
Trent Manning:
What kind of storage situation do you log in in the shop? You got tables. That’s got cabinets underneath or.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. we got a, actually we have like six tables with a big drawer or big cabinet and three drawers. So it was still the guys. Whenever you take anything apart, put your stuff away. Don’t leave a mess on the table. The way it looks, it looks clean. Tidy. If anybody having a loved by, we have a lot of members drive by our shop. This is a little shortcut to the driving range. So we do get a lot of member traffic coming through and you don’t want them seeing them. So I always tell the guys to keep, you know, try to keep as clean as possible.
Trent Manning:
Right. And that’s one thing I’ve tried to be in the practice of, if I do, you know, I have to take something apart and it is laying on the table. I try to lay it out, you know, in a neat order. So, you know, it looks professional if you will, instead of just, you know, a pile of junk laying there.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Especially nowadays, you can’t just get harder and harder to get parts. You never know how long it’s going to be taken apart for.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. I mean, it’s crazy. I’ve been getting bids on new utility vehicles and they’re telling me June, July, August, if I commit now
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah.
Trent Manning:
and November, it’s going to be that far out. It’s crazy.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
So we’re, we’re working, I’m in the process of working on the package at least package. And they’re telling me that they’re about a year out.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. It’s not.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
anything that are ordered today, I’ll get next year
Trent Manning:
Yeah, that’s crazy.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
in a year. So, yeah, it’s insane.
Trent Manning:
Yep.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
I guess just the new normal for now.
Trent Manning:
That’s the world we got to live in. So we’re going to deal with it.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
We’ll figure it. out.
Trent Manning:
What else do you want to talk about?
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
This is the young guys, man. I know we’re always saying there’s just not enough mechanics in the industry, but you got to teach the young guys that, that are coming in. That, like I said earlier, you know, there’s, there’s a fine line between working too much and not spending time at home. no realization is just crucial to the operation, especially. Get to an operation as big as the one I’m working at now,
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
I probably spend more time behind the desk and I do wrenching nowadays, but it’s all, you’ve got budgets and capital budgets, operating expenses are going in and out every day, you got to stay organized, keep track of your spending and figure out ways to make it without spending more money.
Trent Manning:
Yeah, doing more, more with less.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yes, the key man. It’s the name of the game. It’s unfortunate, but it is. And just gotta cause they organize, man. It’s so imperative nowadays.
Trent Manning:
So, how do you think we get more younger techs in the industry?
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Well, we promote the industry. I think the better the pay will be or we’ll increase. I think the pain I industry? for equipment managers has gone up a lot in the last 10 years. It’s a big difference from when I started at least,
Trent Manning:
Oh, yeah, for sure.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
You know, the, the whole promoting the GCSE certifications and getting certified she’ll show the industry that we’re not grease monkeys to say, and we are, we are professionally. Just keep promoting it little by little. We’ll get there.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. We definitely have came a long way, but we still got a long way. And I think one of the biggest things is getting the pay where it needs to be, because if we would have been an automotive, we, I know I could be making more than what I’m making now about putting the same amount of time, you know, in that industry.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. No. And you’re an automotive tech. You just, you got your basic knowledge. I mean, we have to, we have to know how to fix small equipment, you know, from a weed eater, tobacco fabricate. Yeah. we’ve got to manage, manage our budgets. We gotta manage people right there. Like I said, there’s about 95 of us in our group, of different, a lot of different attitudes, different, different ethnicities. This guy likes to do things that way. That guy likes to do this things this way. No women, we have, I don’t know about 20 women are not true. So that’s something you didn’t see 20 years ago.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
You got to deal with that and get it all together and make it work and come up with the best product you can come up with. I mean, it’s, it all starts from being organized.
Trent Manning:
what are you using to track maintenance on your equivalent? Okay.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
It’s makes you feel like a secretary,
Trent Manning:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
any program with 400 plus pieces of equipment, it takes time to keep track of everything.
Trent Manning:
Do you, do you print out the work orders and give them to the technicians and then close the work orders? How’s that work?
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. So we have the, my turf and we have our wireless, our meters on 99% of our equipment. So it’ll automatically populate whatever work order we need and I’ll print them up and hand them to the guys individually, whoever I want to do whatever job it might be. And we do it that way.
Trent Manning:
Gotcha. I know I ran my turf. I don’t for about a year, I guess. And. All I’ve done pretty much was data entry. And I decided that it wasn’t really worth it.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
it is, it is a lot. It’s come a long way itself. I, like I said, I have, I don’t know if I mentioned it, but 99% of my equipment is Toro. So it kind of makes it a little easier from that perspective. All there, all the manuals are there. Service manuals, operators, manuals, parts manuals. So from that perspective, it’s a little easier. As far as putting in that, it, like you said, it does take a little bit violent time consuming, but how else am I going to track $5 million worth of fleet?
Trent Manning:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And the stakeholders, you know,
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. Yeah.
Trent Manning:
want to know what was happening with their,
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. You track, you know,
Trent Manning:
their investment.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
money on that. Small equipment is a big line item for me. We spent a lot of money on small equipment. We use a lot of it, so it, it starts to add up. And where are you spending all this money? Well, if you look here, I can print you up a report on 75% of my budget might be for small equipment fly Moore’s. We spent. I think I have one guy that’s been 60% of his time off the lawnmowers,
Trent Manning:
Oh, wow.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
25, we have 25 fly mowers
Trent Manning:
Wow. That’s a nightmare.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
and we use them. We use them all. So it is a lot of work and it’s, you know, but if you can keep track of it and show what you’re doing, that’s how you’re going to get that more money. Get the budget. Right.
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
You don’t want to waste money. That’s the number one.
Trent Manning:
What’s your preferred brand on small equipment on backpack blowers, weed eaters.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Ah, I don’t really matter. The guys seem to like steal stuff. I really don’t have a preference as long as I can. Good parts to fix it, then I’m happy. Don’t don’t bring me up a Ryobi and oh man, I need this tomorrow and I can’t find parts for it. So as long as I can get parts yeah.
Trent Manning:
those are the one thing that I run into with the red mask. I was running red mags for several years. And then I got where to get apart. I’m waiting a week or two weeks or three weeks. And I don’t know, I just can’t do that.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
No, I can’t afford it. I don’t have time for that.
Trent Manning:
Right.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Now. Like I said, when we run maintenance caps, we’ll have 55 guys on the golf course that could be anywhere between twenty-five 30 weed eaters, you know, edgers. What I tend to do. I just bought a fleet of still the Fs when he live in, I believe it’s the model about all 40 weed eaters. And then I just bought a bunch of extra heads for the edgers as your heads and about a bunch of extra heads. So I can put the task tremors on there so we can, it just sprinkler heads. So, so any given time I might have. 20 weed eaters or 28th trimmers or 20 edgers or
Trent Manning:
Yeah,
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
whatever they might need.
Trent Manning:
that’s crazy.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
I can’t, I can’t afford to have them broken for a long period of time. And that helps my inventory as well, because they’re all the same engine, So
Trent Manning:
yeah. Yeah. Yep. That’s a big plus to
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
yeah.
Trent Manning:
batch and all that stuff. do you kind of have one of the technicians dedicated to small equipment?
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
For the most part. Yeah. We’re good with saying that the fly more guy he’s pretty much does all small equipment. He does help set up check, you know, check all the rules after we Mo make sure everything gets checked, pins put away before it goes out again. So depending on who’s sick and you know, it’s been tough trying to keep it full staff nowadays, but we’ll all pitch in. Oh, Yeah. we all pitch in. If we have to, it’d be nice to have a dedicated guy for each job,
Trent Manning:
Well rat, rat, rat rat.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
doesn’t always work out that way.
Trent Manning:
No, no, no. I don’t know. It seems like ever summer when we have a slew of small equipment coming in and I’m thinking. I would really like to have a small equivalent guy
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah.
Trent Manning:
just cause I dunno,
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
It’s just so time
Trent Manning:
I guess I’ll yeah,
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
all these small little parts. They never get taken care of properly. So they’re always on the back burner. And when it does break down, it’s just a hassle.
Trent Manning:
it would probably benefit me if I put some. Racks on a utility card. So they don’t been tremor shafts because I’ve been going through quite a few of those here lately.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. And as well.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
out of nowhere.
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
It wasn’t there yesterday.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. There’s a lot of trees jumping out on golf courses around the world.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. and it’s direct, help. They get expensive. And if you’re going to make your own, it’s very time consuming. You know, we don’t really have a down season over here in south Florida. We work 365 days out of the year, somebody at the golf course. So.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yep. Well, in Georgia, we’re, we’re there, but we definitely slow down in the winter.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah, it does slow down, but we’re still more, you know, we’re still mold. Luckily we only moved twice a week. So that helps as far as a big equipment, but that’s, that means they just have a lot more time and play with that smaller equipment and beat that up.
Trent Manning:
Oh, yeah. Yeah, there is one or the other. Someone’s going to get beat up.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Oh yeah. So it’s.
Trent Manning:
There might be better if they were running the big mowers three days a week.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. They’re a little hardier.
Trent Manning:
Yeah, we get anything else.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
No, man, just the guys have been doing it for a while. Keep promoting the industry, keep promoting our positions and the young guys, man, just, there is a light at the end of the tunnel just to work hard
Trent Manning:
Yep. Put your head down, work hard. And there’s.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
get there.
Trent Manning:
Good people in the industry that wants to train and teach the younger generation.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah, it’s amazing. I mean, any chance to get, to do any type of networking? Don’t skip it. Push for it. I know a lot of superintendents don’t like, let mechanically the shop, but it’s a better use of a lot of guys I’ve had, I don’t know, 10, 12 different jobs on the golf courses in my career. Oh, what are you? It’s I’ve done it to better myself. Everything you learn, you keep. And if you’re working somewhere where they’re helping you back, I suggest you find a better spot for yourself. Every chance you can get to learn any it’s worth it.
Trent Manning:
Right. I agree with you a hundred percent.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
even if you just get to meet some new people, just to have them in your pocket whenever you need them.
Trent Manning:
Oh, yeah, for
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
priceless.
Trent Manning:
I mean, that was the whole reason I came down to the as P open house, just to network to meet some people, put some faces with Twitter handles and stuff like that.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
It’s it’s, it’s priceless. It’s invaluable information. You do everything you got to do to make yourself better. And the better you are as an individual, the better you be for your club
Trent Manning:
That’s a wrap.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Scott to keep going forward. There’s no looking back,
Trent Manning:
the listeners how they can get ahold of you.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
On Twitter. I don’t even know what my handle is now. I’m sure if you. look up sip, you’ll find my name there somewhere.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. Yep. Yep. We’ll we’ll, we’ll tag you on, on Twitter or I’m in, when the podcast comes out, we’ll
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yep. I’m
Trent Manning:
that you have.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
If anybody needs anything, I’ll be more than happy to help. I always help the guys out in the neighborhood with parts. If they can’t find something, I have. it. I’m more than happy to help anybody out.
Trent Manning:
Well, I mean, that’s the other good thing about getting to know your neighbor? I don’t know how many times I’ve done that. Been in a bind and say, I really need this part. And I know, you know, my buddy down the road, it’s running the same equipment. He’s probably got the. I’ll run over there, get the part order a new part to replace is. And I think most people are open to that.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Definitely. I hope most people are. I’ll do it 10 out of 10 times.
Trent Manning:
Right, right, right.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
And I dunno if anybody’s familiar with neighbors, but you know, I can hit a pitching wedge to 17 different golf courses. It’s
Trent Manning:
Yeah. Yeah.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
so it’s, it’s nice to be able to network with, especially around the neighborhood and get to know your local, you know, I don’t know if there’s any too many local chapters anymore with all the COVID that’s been going on, but definitely promote guys to get a local chapter, going, get some training within each other. It’s such an invaluable, all the networking.
Trent Manning:
Yeah. Even if you’re just, you know, if there’s not a formal training and you’re just getting together to have a beer. Hamburger or whatever, and get to know the people in your area a little bit better.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah, definitely.
Trent Manning:
And then that way you’re a lot more comfortable to call and say, Hey Orlando, can I, you know, get a benefit from your, you know, whatever it is,
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
I mean, yeah. Any, anything or
Trent Manning:
Yeah.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
electrical issue, man, I’ve been stopping me
Trent Manning:
Yeah. Yup.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
most, most people will be more than happy to go.
Trent Manning:
Right.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
And that’s that’s priceless.
Trent Manning:
And that’s one thing that makes us industry so great is all the people in it that are so willing to help
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. It’s amazing. Everybody’s friendly. Nobody. I’ve never had anybody say no.
Trent Manning:
right? Yeah, Yeah,
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
yeah, It’s, it’s, it’s a wonderful thing. It’s a small industry, so everybody knows everybody. yeah.
Trent Manning:
Yup.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Everybody’s willing to help. So the more you get out there, more people you get to meet
Trent Manning:
Hmm.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
endless avenues for you, man. Well,
Trent Manning:
Well, that’s the thing, the one person that you meet might lead to a job opportunity, you know, a year down the road, boy, whenever.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Yeah. You never know. You know, I I’m hiring guys all the time. I’m sure I’m not the only one,
Trent Manning:
I don’t know. We’re we’re all hired people all the time.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
you know? So it’s that working is very important, man. I encourage everybody to do as much of it as they can.
Trent Manning:
As a fact. Well, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it. I’ve been dealing with this and it’s always good to get to know people a little bit better. And that’s what we’re doing here.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
Just trying.
Trent Manning:
Yep.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
No, it’s good to have it be here and appreciate it.
Trent Manning:
Yes, sir.
audio_only_16778242_orlando_acevedo:
needs anything, just reach out to me on Twitter and I’ll be more than happy to help.
Trent Manning:
Thank you. I hope you enjoyed hearing from Orlando. That was a lot of fun. Super nice and humble guy. Uh, do anything for an body. And obviously he likes as. and there’s nothing wrong with that. But I think he made a really good point. Staying organized. And that’s not just. The cleanliness in your shop, but organization, you know, in your. Computer files. Just keeping everything organized, the whole operation. There’s a lot to be said for an organized operation. And we have to get more texts and then industry. And I think it starts at the grassroots level. That’s where we’re at. So we’re going to have to start recruiting. We’re going to have to go to Jiffy lube and pull somebody off the little change in line. And get them in our industry. 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.