Episode 164: Jason Sargent, CTEM

Welcome to the Reel Turf Techs Podcast, Episode 164.

Today we’re talking with Jason Sergeant, Equipment Manager at Abenaqui Country Club in Rye Beach, New Hampshire. Abenaqui is a private 18-hole course, and Jason runs a primarily Toro fleet with a small crew — four helpers in the winter and one part-time in season.

Jason shares how he made his way into the turf industry, starting with shop programs, metallurgy, and automotive/heavy equipment work at a ski resort before an opportunity opened up at his summer job on the golf course side. 

They talk about the day-to-day realities of the shop, including Jason’s dislike of paperwork and how he’s leaned into tools like ASB taskTracker, barcode scanning, and QR codes to make work orders more efficient. He also shares some favorite tools, including a multimeter and an induction heat gun that’s a game changer for rusted fasteners.

The conversation gets into bigger challenges too, like sourcing obsolete parts and getting creative — including rebuilding a Vanguard engine using aftermarket and cross-referenced components. They also cover mentoring, training opportunities through distributors and Foley, and the value of networking through GCSAA.

Jason talks about staying calm under pressure, the importance of operator training, and his approach to preventative maintenance like annual reel bearing overhauls. He also shares where he’s headed next with his CTEM journey and his interest in volunteering at a PGA event.

It’s a practical, honest look at running a small shop, solving problems on the fly, and continuing to grow in the industry.

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Transcript

Trent Manning 0:56

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

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:16

Welcome to the Real Turf Text Podcast, episode 1 64. Today we're talking to Jason Sergeant, equipment Manager at ABER AKI Country Club in Rye Beach, New Hampshire. Aber AKI is a private 18 hole course. Jason has four helpers during the winter months and one part-time during the season. He has primarily Toro equipment. Let's talk to Jason. Hey Jason. Thanks for coming on.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 1:45

How's it going, Trent?

Trent Manning, CTEM 1:47

Pretty good. I can't complain. As we say down here, nobody will listen if we complain, right? That's what they say. Tell us how you got into the turf industry.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 2:00

so obviously like a lot of people I. Kind of came into it later in my professional career. I started off in school. I kind of excelled in our shop programs. We were lucky enough to have automotive shop class CAD and electricals, things like that, and I really enjoyed doing that stuff. Growing up. I would always take lawnmowers apart and. Pull motors off stuff and take'em apart and figure out, you know, how they ran and worked. I, my senior year of high school, I went to a day college. It was part of a program that was offered through the school and did a CNC lathe milling program. And my father and his father were both metallurgists. They worked for Pratt and Whitney in Connecticut. So I figured maybe that would be something I would like to do. Turned out I didn't really like the, you know, being in that type of atmosphere. So I went back into the automotive side graduated high school and I got a job at a ski resort up in New Hampshire. And I was working on, you know, snowmobiles, construction equipment, snow groomers you know, small equipment that they had there. Trucks, buses, you name it, you know, they had it kind of, you know, got sick of dealing with the heavy equipment and worked my way into the automotive field. And I did that for quite a while. And during that time I had worked at Bernanki during the summer, kind of a part-time job to make some extra money. Just started off raking bunkers and. Worked up to mowing tees and doing some other odd jobs. And one day the superintendent called me up and said, Hey, my mechanic is having some health issues. Are you interested in, you know, stepping into a different career path? And I thought about it and I was ready to, for a change. I wasn't really liking the automotive field. I was doing a lot of diesel work. Everything was, you know, getting more and more complex and. I figured it was something that I might like doing. I like being outside and that type of thing. So I said, sure. And that's roundabout way how I ended up in the surf industry.

Trent Manning, CTEM 4:25

No, that is cool. That is super cool. Yeah. What kind of turned you off with metallurgy? Is it more like inside, like laptop stuff? I don't know anything about metallurgy other than I've heard the name.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 4:37

Yep. So. It was metallurgy mixed with the C Cing. It was a lot of blueprint reading and you didn't really have the, for like an entry level person, I wasn't gonna have the ability to, you know, write those files. It would be more interpret the file loaded to the machine and then pretty much once those files are loaded into a CNC machine, you're just a babysitter. You know, you're making sure that the right tooling's in the equipment and. The right stock is on it and those machines just crank out whatever it's, you know, got for a program to, to run. The CNC part of it was kind of boring for me. The milling and lathing part was, you know, interesting.'cause you have, you know, more control over those machines.

Trent Manning, CTEM 5:26

I could see Yeah, what you're saying there with, I mean, I've seen people do that. Yeah. You was like, okay, you take the raw material, you put it in the machine, you turn it on, you hit go, and then you take it out, you clean it off and you know, rinse and repeat just over and over again. Yeah, I could see that not being very fun. What kind of heavy equipment were you working on?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 5:51

so the ski resort, they had, you know, the big snow groomers

Trent Manning, CTEM 5:54

Ah, okay.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 5:55

and they also had a lot of, excavators, front end loaders out trucks school buses. Did a lot of work on school buses, so

Trent Manning, CTEM 6:05

Not that don't sound like fun.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 6:06

no, it wasn't great. I mean, the heavy equipment stuff was fun for a while, but it is what it

Trent Manning, CTEM 6:12

Yeah. Yeah. after you've done it for a while, let's, yeah, everything's just big and nasty and yeah. Not a lot of fun. What's your least favorite part of the job?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 6:25

I would've to say probably the paperwork. I know it's a necessary evil, but it's time consuming. Keeps me off the shop floor doing, you know, what I love to do. we just implemented task using task tracker, so that's kind of helping me streamline that process a little bit. Okay. But before that I was using, you know, spreadsheets and kind of a crude way of keeping track of everything, and it was just rarely time consuming. So

Trent Manning, CTEM 6:52

Mm-hmm.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 6:53

the task tracker seems to be really helping me speed up that process and move things along so I can spend more time in the shop,

Trent Manning, CTEM 7:01

Yeah. No, that's great. How long have you been using the program?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 7:04

Since probably January of this year. So

Trent Manning, CTEM 7:07

Okay. All right. Yeah, pretty fresh then. There's definitely, you know, I do think a learning curve to, you know, just learning how the software works and the easiest ways to navigate things. I bought a scanner so I can scan barcodes.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 7:25

You know.

Trent Manning, CTEM 7:26

straight in there instead of typing'em, which that's kind of nice. And if I wanted to add a part to the work order, I can just scan it with the same scanner and it's not, I'm, I don't know, I got the scanner off Amazon for whatever, a hundred bucks or something, you know? I mean, it's nothing crazy. And then I really like the QR codes. So get those printed off, get them on the equipment, and then that way it'll allow an operator to scan the QR code and send you a note saying, you know, this is wrong or that's wrong, or, you did a great job today. That's one note that you'll never get not the golf cart, but we can joke about it anyway. And I think probably a lot of people struggle. Maybe struggle is not the right word. But like you're saying, most of us took the job because we like fixing and repairing stuff, not because we like to do data entry.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 8:26

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 8:27

And back in the day, I tried Toro, my turf. This was like early two thousands and I felt like I was a secretary and nothing against secretaries, but. I didn't sign up to do office work all day long. I wanted to be in the shop and figuring things out. So I definitely think a lot of people can relate to that. What is your favorite tool?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 8:52

I would've to probably say right now, multimeter and heat induction gun is another one.

Trent Manning, CTEM 8:59

Ah, okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 9:00

I use pretty frequently, but I would've to say the multimeter probably gets used the most.

Trent Manning, CTEM 9:05

Okay. So, yeah. What's your favorite function of the multimeter?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 9:10

checking, you know, oms resistance, voltage I mean, pretty much anything that you need those things to do, they're. You know, have come a long way since the old needle indicator ones now,

Trent Manning, CTEM 9:22

Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 9:24

pretty much anything you need to figure out they're more than capable of doing now, just turning that switch that dial.

Trent Manning, CTEM 9:32

Yeah, I read a, an article just a week or two ago about that or, you know, on the same lines where, and the guy writing the article was saying, I kind of agreed with him. I, you know, electrical problems is, you know, one, everybody, if you asked any. Technician for the most part, what their weakest point is, they usually say electrical, and what this article was saying is technicians or mechanics were really quick to try to buy another piece of equipment to help us troubleshoot electrical problems.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 10:14

No.

Trent Manning, CTEM 10:15

And what the article was saying, it's like you can figure out a whole lot with a multimeter,

Jason Sargent, CTEM 10:21

Right.

Trent Manning, CTEM 10:22

you know, and that's not knocking on a power probe or test lights or scanners or you know, all the other things out there. Okay? But if you get really good and comfortable with a multimeter, you can solve a lot of issues

Jason Sargent, CTEM 10:39

Yeah, I think that was something that I picked up a lot of in the automotive field. I mean, cars are so complex, electrical wise, and that was the majority of problems that. You know, you see on a day-to-day basis there's electrical problems and once you learn how to figure out, you know, your powers, grounds, you know that stuff is simple. But then you start working into like canned bus issues and that's when it gets a little more complex. And, but again, if you know how to work multimeter they can get you in the right direction without all the other extra fancy tools usually.

Trent Manning, CTEM 11:14

Yeah, I agree. And I think, yeah, anybody listening, you know, find yourself a decent multimeter. And it don't have to be the most expensive one you can buy, but get a decent one and learn each function on it.'cause I don't know how many times, you know, guys coming through the shop and, you know, they don't know what where to turn the knob. Like, you know, is this AC voltage, DC voltage amps? You know, what are you trying to do here? so I think, you know, just learning the meter, and I say that too because I've been using the same flute meter for, I don't know, 25 years.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 11:56

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 11:57

And I know it like the back of my hand, right? So I don't ever have to think about where I'm dialing it, you know, which setting'em on, all those things. If I pick up somebody else's meter, I'm like, all right, which, where'd I go with this thing? You know?'cause they're all a little different. Most of the symbols are the same and you can translate the two. But what do you do? Actually, before we go to the next question, I want to hear more about the inductive heat source.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 12:28

so I started using that again in automotive. Did a lot of exhaust, man of cold work. Being in New England, rust,

Trent Manning, CTEM 12:37

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 12:39

you can't always get a torch in there to heat up the studs to hold those manifolds to the block and or you know, you don't want to catch other things on fire wiring harness or burn up an AC line or something. So we started using those and that coil, you just get the right size and you get it to fit over the nut or stud or whatever it is you're trying to get heat on. And. Turns that thing cherry red and you let it cool down and it just breaks free and it's saved a lot of time, a lot of headaches, and you do a lot less damage with it.

Trent Manning, CTEM 13:12

I don't, yeah, I'm gonna have to try one of these out, I mean, it's not as bad, you know where I'm at in Georgia Rust and stuff. But I mean, we obviously still get things that rust and seize up and I've. a lot of problems with the cutting torch. So I would I would love to try one of these out. And Toby at the country club in Boston, that was his favorite tool, was the induction heater. So I, I even wrote it down on my little notepad here. but I, my

Jason Sargent, CTEM 13:42

expensive, but they've come, you can get a cheaper one on Amazon now for a couple hundred bucks. You know, they used to be eight, 800 to a thousand dollars

Trent Manning, CTEM 13:51

Oh wow. No, that's cool. Super cool. What do you do to relax or find your balance?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 13:59

I've got two younger kids and spend a lot of time with them throwing baseball or anything like that. For me, I like being outside. I do a lot of hunting, fishing, and they're getting to the age now where they're coming hunting with me, and I've always taken'em fishing since they were little. You know, now they've got the real hooks on the

Trent Manning, CTEM 14:19

Mm-hmm.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 14:20

doing their own thing, and so that's been fun.

Trent Manning, CTEM 14:24

I love it. Good stuff. Yeah. Enjoy it. Enjoy it. Mine are 18 and 21. It's like a blink of an eye that yeah, they grew up. Like where does the time go? yeah. So definitely enjoy it while you can. What has been one of your biggest challenges?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 14:45

for a while right around COVID, I mean, it was the delayed delivery of new equipment and we didn't really see a huge supply chain issue with parts. Luckily our Toro distributor had a really good inventory and kind of kept up with that. as years went on, I mean, just recently last year, I have a 2011 Workman HDX Workman in our fleet, and it has a vanguard DSU engine in it. And they don't make'em anymore, can't get parts for'em, nothing. And unfortunately the engine started to run a little funky. They brought it back to the shop and. Did a compression test. Compression was fine. I threw a leak down test on it, and two of the cylinders were bad, so I pulled the motor. Yeah. And what's that?

Trent Manning, CTEM 15:41

The rings.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 15:42

Yeah, so, so somehow at some point it looked like a bunch of sand had ended up going through something and got into the motor somehow. And the top of the pistons were all chewed up and. A couple of the valves had a little damage in the valve seats and couldn't find any parts for it. And I took a couple of weeks of digging around up between eBay and taking measurements and using some aftermarket piston companies and was able to scrounge up enough stuff to get the thing back together.

Trent Manning, CTEM 16:16

Oh wow. That's cool.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 16:17

so. it worked out. Unfortunately, it's not, you know, I don't know how long it's gonna last. some, there's some Arctic Cat four wheeler parts on there. The map sensor was the same on those motors on a Arctic cat. I think it was a Bear Claw or something. A four

Trent Manning, CTEM 16:32

Mm-hmm.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 16:33

So that worked out with that.

Trent Manning, CTEM 16:36

Yeah, it's amazing what you can find out there on aftermarket parts and that kind of stuff.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 16:42

A lot of cross-referencing and measuring and stuff, but it all came back together and it's running great for now. So

Trent Manning, CTEM 16:49

That's awesome. That's so cool. Was that a wintertime project?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 16:53

Unfortunately that happened early summer, so probably end of May, beginning of June, and we do a lot of in-house construction projects. They redo bunkers and. We do a lot of in-house projects, so we have a fleet of nine workmen's and they need every one of'em usually. So

Trent Manning, CTEM 17:13

Oh yeah. Yeah.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 17:14

it was one of those things that had to get fixed

Trent Manning, CTEM 17:17

Uhhuh. Dang.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 17:18

hard to tell your greens committee that one of the newer ones, you know, is un unfixable, so to say, you know, and so

Trent Manning, CTEM 17:28

Yeah.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 17:29

luckily we got it fixed and it moves on to another day.

Trent Manning, CTEM 17:33

That's what we do. Right. That's one of the really rewarding things about this job is being able to fix stuff like that

Jason Sargent, CTEM 17:41

Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM 17:42

instead of just, you know,'cause we are somewhat in a throw it away society nowadays. Yeah.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 17:49

Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM 17:50

That's really nice to still be able to fix stuff.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 17:53

Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM 17:53

What's one of the strangest things you've seen at the golf course?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 17:57

so obviously we, I've seen, you know, all the mowers and ponds and places where they shouldn't be and stuff like that. A few years ago we had a good majority of our course at Borders Road. It has Stonewall built around it. It's kind of an old New England thing. And a kid had come around a tight corner and went right through Stonewall and ended up on one of the tee boxes, and him and his girlfriend decided that was a great place to, to sleep for the night. And the cops were there the next morning and there was rocks everywhere. And so that was probably one of the more bizarre things, you know, outside of, you know, guys putting mowers and ponds and

Trent Manning, CTEM 18:39

Right. Right.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 18:40

Whackers around trees going where they shouldn't be going. And

Trent Manning, CTEM 18:43

Mm-hmm.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 18:45

obviously all that stuff happens, but That was a little bizarre to see.

Trent Manning, CTEM 18:50

Yeah. I'm sure. So, yeah. Did they end up going to jail, I guess,

Jason Sargent, CTEM 18:55

they were both underage and I don't, I'm not quite sure what happened. I know there was some alcohol involved from what I overheard from when the police came to get a statement from. From the crew, but I don't know, whatever ended up happening, I know the father called a bunch of times'cause he was trying to figure out where his son was and,

Trent Manning, CTEM 19:17

Oh, dang. Yeah,

Jason Sargent, CTEM 19:18

Yep. So don't know what happened with him, but Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM 19:23

it's a scary feeling not knowing where your kids are. Yeah. Do you have a mentor in the industry?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 19:31

I would've to say probably the superintendent that was at the course when I first started he got me in the door essentially and I had a really good, you know, idea of what I was getting myself into. Shy of grinding reels and bed knives. Had obviously never done anything like that before, but, he, you know, was patient and guided me in the right direction. Said, Hey, if you have any questions, you know, this is our Toro distributor. Reach out to them. They've got class training classes. And he set me up with'em. And I enrolled in a couple of their training classes that they put on throughout the early winter. And I took a Foley training class that they put on. So. That was all helpful and really just, you know, I learned by getting into it and figuring out how it works. So it just kind of clicked and everything came together quickly for me and made it work.

Trent Manning, CTEM 20:32

Yeah I do think that's, you know, one of the better ways to learn sometimes because you can have someone show you how to do stuff or, and teach you how to do things. But I know for me personally, until I get in there and do it myself, I don't really learn it. And I definitely think, you know, a lot of other people in our industry are the same way.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 20:55

Absolutely.

Trent Manning, CTEM 20:56

So on the tour distributor, having training with this would be several different types of training throughout the winter.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 21:06

Yeah, so they do like a real geometry class. They had a sprayer set up in for their multi pros Ben Track seminars that they put on. Just a lot of different classes for all their different equipment types and different things, and they've got a big facility down in Connecticut that they'll put those classes on at, or they'll reach out to any of the courses that they service and see if they'll be willing to, you know, host a event if they have that piece of equipment or whatever it is that they're trying to put the class on about.

Trent Manning, CTEM 21:44

Yeah, no, that's super cool.'cause down here our Toro distributor, they have a training, but it's just a one day thing. And I mean, not taking anything away from'em and they change it up and. It's good education, but it's one day out of the year. You know, and I've heard of others. I think MTI, they're kind of north Midwest, so Wisconsin and Minnesota, that area, I think they have several classes throughout the winter, kind of like what you're talking about. Focus, you know, maybe they have a hydraulics class, electrical class sprayers, real grinding. That kind of stuff, and I think that's super cool. I wish that more people in the southern states would do that.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 22:33

Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM 22:34

cause, and even like our John Deere distributor down here, they sponsor our local education, but again, that's just a one day deal.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 22:45

Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM 22:45

So I don't, that would be cool and good and bad. I guess. I do see a lot more. Younger people in the crowds showing up to these things. So I'm definitely glad they're coming, but I think there's probably a bigger need for more education with so many young people getting in the industry

Jason Sargent, CTEM 23:06

Oh, there absolutely is. Yeah, I agree with that.

Trent Manning, CTEM 23:09

And yeah, and I mean, honestly, I don't care how old you are. If you're too old to learn, you probably need to find another job. You know? I don't,

Jason Sargent, CTEM 23:16

Stuff's changing all the time. It's you don't, you can't know everything. So

Trent Manning, CTEM 23:20

no.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 23:21

the more you know the better. And yeah,

Trent Manning, CTEM 23:24

Yep, for sure. I'm definitely a lifetime learner.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 23:28

I,

Trent Manning, CTEM 23:29

What would be your dream job or opportunity?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 23:32

as far as dream job goes, I mean, working in the turf industry, I've really. I enjoyed doing that and I can see myself retiring from this profession at some point. As far as an opportunity, I'd really like to volunteer like a PGA event. Do something like that, help set up the equipment for big tournament,

Trent Manning, CTEM 23:53

Oh yeah.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 23:54

do something along those lines. That would be pretty cool to do.

Trent Manning, CTEM 23:57

I just happened to have Bob Mart's phone number he's at TPC River Highlands, so that's probably not too far from you.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 24:08

No, that's a couple hours away.

Trent Manning, CTEM 24:10

It's I volunteered two different years with him and it was awesome. We had a really, I mean, he's an awesome guy. He is, got a really good playlist of music in the shop going, You know, that keeps it interesting. But yeah, super chill guy, laid back. I say laid back, he's kind of high energy, but he doesn't get worked up, you know, about stuff. So anyway it was a fun time. And I got to catch up with him in New England when I was up there. He I don't, I can't believe it, but he drove all the way from his course or where he lives, not too far from the course to Rhode Island to have dinner. And then drove back home. It was like two hours. So I really appreciated him coming over just to have dinner with us. But it was a good time. He's a good guy and yeah, I would, anybody listening to, if you're looking for a tournament there's plenty of'em out there that you can volunteer and if you can't find one, give me a call or, you know, somebody else in the industry, there's plenty of tournaments to volunteer for and. With that being said, you usually have to kind of get ahead of it probably three months or so in advance. They start looking for volunteers, and from my experience, it's usually on you to get yourself to the tournament, but they'll usually give you a hotel and then there's a ton of swag, you know, all the shirts and goodie bags and that kind of stuff that go along with it. And it's a lot of work, but a lot of fun.

Trent Manning 25:50

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Trent Manning, CTEM 26:23

Do you have a technician you'd like to work with for a day?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 26:26

I mean, honestly, I work with anybody I work with you or JP or anybody like that. I mean, honestly, like I said earlier, you know, you can't know everything and. Working with anybody, you're gonna learn something. Whether it's something that you already knew, but they had a better way of doing it, or something entirely different that, hey, you know, I've never seen it done that way. You know, that's a lot more efficient, or whatever the case. So I love working with other people because you watch how they do something, you learn from'em. You know, they might have, you know, knowledge that you don't. That's what it's all about. Figuring out how to do things easier or better way of doing things. And that's, you know, real beneficial in this industry is sharing what you know and getting people to come into the industry and not feel like it's something that they have to tiptoe around and there's not enough technicians. So

Trent Manning, CTEM 27:28

Right. Right.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 27:29

you want to share that knowledge. And same notes here, I would, you know, be more than happy to. And have anyone come by and you know, if they want to tour the shop or talk or whatever. So

Trent Manning, CTEM 27:42

Mm-hmm.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 27:44

it's,

Trent Manning, CTEM 27:45

Yeah, and I mean, I, everybody I meet, I can't think of a single person that I've met in this industry that doesn't have an open door policy. You know, they don't, I mean, technicians, mechanics, equipment managers, whatever you want to call us it's all open door and I mean, maybe there's one a hole out there somewhere, but I hadn't met him yet. You know, the, everybody, yeah. Come on over or you call'em up on the phone. I'm having a problem with this. They do anything they can to try to help you out. And I think that definitely. Fits into our personality. We just like to help people. We like to fix things. We like to help people,

Jason Sargent, CTEM 28:27

Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM 28:27

you know. And that's definitely one of the things that I love the most about the industry is how helpful everybody is. And with all that being said, if you don't have a network of other technicians around you, start building one today. Don't wait. Find out who the guy is or gal down the road, get their phone number and call'em up and just, you know, have a conversation with'em.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 28:58

Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM 28:59

And I do think, so currently I'm leaving my position and the guy that worked for me at the midtown course, he's coming up and his son's going down to take over. It's really good opportunities for both of those guys. But I've been harping on'em the last couple weeks. Like, you gotta start growing your network, start growing your network, you know, and I'll, I mean, I'll answer the phone anytime for either one of those guys and help'em out the best I can. But you need more than just one person in your network. So start building that network now,

Jason Sargent, CTEM 29:35

Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM 29:36

if you're listening

Jason Sargent, CTEM 29:38

I

Trent Manning, CTEM 29:38

and that's, go ahead.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 29:39

was the first year that I went to the G-C-S-A-A show and that was amazing. If you can, you know, get your club to let you go to that, you know, that's a great way to meet people and build your network that way too. And then you're getting outside of your state and. Local area and really just broadening that work.

Trent Manning, CTEM 29:57

Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a great advice. And you know, if it's not in the cards for you to go to something like that, go to your local stuff and you're gonna meet people there. The one we have in Georgia, I know, I mean, a lot of. Guys from that, that I have their number. And not that we talk all the time, but you, the more you grow your network you get to find the people in your network that's really good at X or Y. You know, just like a, he's become a pretty good friend and if I have a two stroke problem, I'm calling him, you know, he's like my two stroke guy. And not that, I mean, he's a good mechanic and works on all kind of stuff, but I think of him as the two-stroke guy because he's got more two stroke experience than anybody else I know. And just like I mentioned Bob Martik, he was a small engine guy for years and years before he went to the golf course. So if you got a small engine question, it might be worth picking the phone up and calling Bob. I remember several years ago I posted something on Twitter. I was having a trouble with a Southco roller and he said, are they leaving it running? When they're transporting green to green? I'm like, yeah, I think so. And he said, I think it's backfiring and blowing the butterfly, the choke butterfly outta the carburetor. And I'm like, is that what's doing it? And I really think that's what was doing it.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 31:31

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 31:32

Because the machine was relatively new and I think I put three carburetors on it

Jason Sargent, CTEM 31:40

Really.

Trent Manning, CTEM 31:40

and it's got a plastic shaft, right, that for the choke shaft and with a metal butterfly. And every time it just blew it off. You know, it was broken. So, and I really think that's what it was. So anyway, not to get in the weeds on that, but. What do you know now you wish you'd known on day one?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 32:03

I'd have to say probably. I learned to keep calm and just deal with the problem as it happens. It doesn't help to be that guy that's reacting in a

Trent Manning, CTEM 32:17

Mm-hmm.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 32:18

bad way. We'll call it. It's, you know, it is what it is. You just gotta get ahead of it, get it taken care of, figure out what happened, why it happened, and get it fixed. And. There's always gonna be something that happens that you're not planning on happening. And there's always gonna be those cases where you know you're doing something and now something happened and you have to change your day up to address whatever, because that was more important than what you were doing and it's always gonna happen. So I guess just, you gotta be willing to. Okay. Just do what has to be done without throwing a big,

Trent Manning, CTEM 33:05

Mm-hmm.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 33:07

being that guy that is reactive to the problem, I guess we'll call it.

Trent Manning, CTEM 33:12

Yeah, and I definitely think that guy that's reactive. And I would be lying if I said, I've never been that guy. I have I'm not, those were not proud moments, but it was in the heat of the moment.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 33:27

Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM 33:28

But those guys are the ones that give a lot of the technicians a bad rap, right? The angry wrench thrower. And I mean, I can empathize with the angry wrench thrower because I've been there. It's really frustrating when you've got all this work to do and they're bringing you more work. But I truly believe most people, when they show up to work. They're not intentionally trying to create more work for you. I do think some of'em have more skill at creating more work for you sometimes. But I don't think they're doing it intentionally And yeah, yelling and screaming at people ain't gonna help, you know, get anybody to do a better job or bring you the problems. That's a lot of times I think, how. Stuff ends up in the corner broken and nobody said anything about it'cause they don't want to get yelled at.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 34:23

Yep. And that's something I try and do where we have a lot of seasonal help. Obviously we don't mow 24, you know, all year long. So when all the seasonal help starts to come back in, I try and make a point. At morning meeting or whatever to say, Hey, you know, listen, mistakes happen, accidents happen. I'd rather you just come and tell me about it and don't stick it back on the shelf for the next guy to find out it's broken or wash it off and put it back down, you know, in storage and not say anything. Just bring it in, you know, tell me what happened and whatever it is, what

Trent Manning, CTEM 35:00

Yeah.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 35:00

You know, if it keeps happening, we'll talk about it a little bit more, but if it's, you know. Accidents happen. So I'd rather'em just bring it to me and get it addressed instead of having to find out about it when it really is needed. And all of a sudden now there's a big problem where that piece of equipment used to be out on the course and it's sitting in the shop'cause someone broke it and didn't say anything.

Trent Manning, CTEM 35:26

Right, right, right. Yep. Well, that kind of leads us into how do you deal with that person?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 35:32

Training, you know, you try and get'em trained up on whatever they're gonna be using and make sure they have the tools to know how to use the equipment and give'em all the knowledge you can give'em as far as safety. And, you know, hey, this mower, you know, is you hit a rock and bounce it off the car path or something and you gonna knock a real out of adjustment or break a bed knife or something. So I think just spending the time to teach people safety aspect and how to operate the equipment that they're gonna be using is beneficial for you as a technician because you could end up saving yourself in the long run. Not having that person come back saying a I, you know, crashed into offense post, or, you know, hit a rock or something along those lines. Like I said, you know, earlier accidents happen, but if you're seeing that same person coming back to the shop frequently with the same problems, maybe you need to do a little bit more training or figure out what the problem is. Are they on their phone driving around on the course, paying attention to that instead of what they're doing or something along those lines. But I think getting the right training in people, you can really eliminate a lot of the problem and. Get ahead of it, so to say.

Trent Manning, CTEM 36:59

Yeah, I agree with you a hundred percent. And it reminds me of a story I heard, and the story I heard was from Greg Womble. He's a technician in North Carolina. Awesome guy, but it was him and another, there was like a North Carolina technician group together. so there's like four or five guys golf course mechanics talking about operators and how bad the operators are and all this negative stuff about operators and how they're tearing all this stuff up. And one of the guys, and I don't remember what his name was, said, That operator that you're talking about who trained that operator and everybody just like stopped and they're like, you know, they're thinking like, well who did train this guy? You know? I mean, it just, you know, made'em stop and think, and that's why I agree with you. I think we can do a lot as technicians or if you're a superintendent or you know, whatever. If you're just a crew guy you can help your fellow person out. By giving a little coaching and training on how to do the job.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 38:08

No.

Trent Manning, CTEM 38:09

And I do think there's a lot of superintendents and assistants that just, they look at the list and it's daunting, right? Of all the things they gotta get accomplished on the golf course. And they say, we don't have time for training. We gotta get this done, we gotta get this done. And I understand the sense of urgency, but if you have an employee. That is trained, they're usually way more efficient than somebody that has no idea what they're doing. Right? So, you know, let's just start training people better, spend a little bit of time training them. It will go a long way and it'll show up on the course down the road.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 38:52

yep. We had a older gentleman, retired guy that would come and mow fairways for us, and he was having a hard time every time he would. Pull the fairway mower back into the barn. He would pull in too close to another fairway mower and he would run over the hydraulic mower motor on the reel. And he was snapping tabs on, you know, the lockdown tabs on'em left and right. You know, those motors are three, 400 bucks a piece. And I was replacing one I felt like every couple of weeks. And finally, I. I talked to him and he was having issues, you know, with his depth perception or whatever the case, and he couldn't see properly or whatever it was, you know, poorly lit. So we said, you know what, just leave it outside. Someone else will get it in the shop for you. And that took care of the problem. Sometimes it's something as simple as just having a conversation with somebody instead of going after'em and saying, yeah, you're costing us, you know,

Trent Manning, CTEM 39:52

Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 39:53

you just, sometimes you just gotta talk to'em, figure out what's going on, and. It was

Trent Manning, CTEM 39:57

Mm-hmm.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 39:57

just he couldn't see in that type of light or whatever, and he figured out a way to make it work.

Trent Manning, CTEM 40:04

Yeah, that's, you know, that's really good stuff.

Trent Manning 40:08

Get ready for tips and tricks

Trent Manning, CTEM 40:11

What kinda tips and tricks you got, you wanna share with us?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 40:14

as far as like tips, I would say just I stay calm, just,

Trent Manning, CTEM 40:19

There you go. That's a good one.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 40:21

deal with things as they come and. You know, everything's fixable, so to say. You just gotta figure it out and it all comes together at the end. And

Trent Manning, CTEM 40:32

Mm-hmm.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 40:32

there's always a way to fix something no matter how broken it is or what, whatever the case. Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 40:39

Yeah. No, that's good. Any kind of tricks or anything?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 40:42

For replacing bearings and rollers. We've got, you know, bearing tamer that has really helped us save a lot of time and aggravation

Trent Manning, CTEM 40:51

Mm-hmm.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 40:51

that side of things. We're in the habit of during the winter we do full overhauls on all the reels. So bearing rollers all, everything. It gets changed out on the rollers and the reels. Everything gets new bearing seals. So that's really cut down on the aggravation side of things come winter time when we're pulling stuff apart

Trent Manning, CTEM 41:15

Mm-hmm. So do y'all do that every year? All the barons and the reels

Jason Sargent, CTEM 41:20

Whether it needs it or not, they're all getting swapped out changed and it's just, it's a cheap insurance almost that, you know, nothing bad is gonna happen hopefully. On that side of things it's can be a little costly, but we've seen a lot of benefit on the side of almost zero breakdown on bearing issues over the course of cutting months that we've got. And so it's been good for that aspect.

Trent Manning, CTEM 41:49

Yeah. No, that's good. That's awesome. You got anything else you want to talk about?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 41:56

not that I can think of.

Trent Manning, CTEM 41:58

Well, tell me about getting C temp. What was that experience like?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 42:05

CE for me was something that I kind of pushed on myself. Wasn't something that anyone at the course was, Hey, you know, we want you to. You go and do this automotive have a SE certifications, and I saw the EMCP training courses and all of the certifications that you had to do for that. And I started doing those, I think it was 2019. I started maybe it was 2021 or the other. And I had only been at the course for a year. And I don't think C 10 was even out at that point.

Trent Manning, CTEM 42:39

Yeah, I don't remember. Yeah, I don't

Jason Sargent, CTEM 42:41

think it was in the works, but they hadn't released it yet. So I went through and, you know, studied, took the test and passed one at a time and worked my way through'em and made it through the first set of exams and started it on the second set. And, you know. Passed everything and learned a lot, figured out a lot of things, and started to put that into the facility in the sense of making. The facility that we've got is was just built in 2005, so it's not an old facility by any means. But getting it up to, you know, OSHA approved everything, getting si the right signage up in areas and getting spill containment under oil drums, and. I just making sure everything was at that level of standard for everything. And so worked through that and c Tem came out and I didn't think anything of it at the time when it first came out and I was just, had my head, you know, nose to the grindstone and was just working. And,

Trent Manning, CTEM 43:55

Mm-hmm.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 43:56

last year I decided. You know, hey, I already put in all the work to pass all those exams. Why not go for the last step, get,

Trent Manning, CTEM 44:08

Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 44:09

certification and make it, you know, worth the while of doing all that preliminary exams. And I got an email from Diana Kern and she had said, Hey, you know, you still haven't gone for your seat time yet. You've met all the other requirements. If I. Do anything to help let me know. So I said, you know what? It was kind of perfect timing.

Trent Manning, CTEM 44:32

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome that she reached out to you. She's great too.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 44:35

yeah, she is.

Trent Manning, CTEM 44:37

And she's, yeah, really passionate too about, you know, helping all of us out trying on our CTM journey.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 44:44

Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM 44:45

So yeah. Super cool that she reached out to you.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 44:48

Yeah. So I went through the a testing process, Kayla and Jerry down in Florida. They did my

Trent Manning, CTEM 44:54

Okay. Yeah.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 44:55

and, yeah, it was a good experience Overall, I would suggest anyone to do it, obviously. If you're in the position and get through all the requirements and go for it, you know, it's not, they don't make it to the point where. If your facility doesn't have a lot of money, it's not about that. It's about having the knowledge of if you had the money to do it the right way, what would you do in that instance to make it right? You know? And I think a couple people have said it before, you don't need the store bought signage. You can have it written on a piece of cardboard as long as it's legible and.

Trent Manning, CTEM 45:37

Yeah.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 45:37

People can see it, that it's more about just having that stuff up and there for people to see. And obviously they do have the showstoppers that you do have to have the

Trent Manning, CTEM 45:50

Mm-hmm. Right.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 45:52

equipment in place. But I'd say for anyone that's thinking about going for it to absolutely go for it and it's, it can only be beneficial for you, for your facility and. I'm trying to go through the, a tester training now to

Trent Manning, CTEM 46:12

Okay. Yeah.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 46:13

to help the program kind of move forward and keep moving forward with it. A couple of things came up in the fall after I got my CE certification. I had got with Diana and I went and watched the videos that you have to watch and I was. Gonna do an attest observe and a testing, and that kind of fell through last minute for me. But I'm hoping to get that done this spring and be able to help kind of promote that program a little bit more.

Trent Manning, CTEM 46:44

Yeah. Yeah. And you know, being in a tester is awesome too.'cause you get to see other people's shops and, you know, that kind of stuff gives you other ideas. I've definitely seen some things in shops that I've took ideas away from doing the testing. And I mean I've, that's how I've lined up some podcast guests too, is through that program. I got to set in on Jason Fontana's, see Tim at testing when he was at Desert Mountain.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 47:16

Okay.

Trent Manning, CTEM 47:17

And after seeing that facility, I've reached out to him immediately. I was like, we gotta talk, man. That is awesome.'cause I mean, it's next level down there. they got all the fun toys.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 47:27

that?

Trent Manning, CTEM 47:28

yeah, no, it is super cool. Well, yeah, and I just had TJ Walmart, actually his episode dropped today and he's at Desert Mountain now. Jason, he left and took the job at Medina, outside of Chicago.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 47:43

Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM 47:43

so anyway, TJ's down there now and I think he has 14 technicians working under him.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 47:49

Wow.

Trent Manning, CTEM 47:50

Yeah, I mean, it's the next level operation down there. Super, super cool. Great for both of those guys.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 47:56

Yeah, absolutely.

Trent Manning, CTEM 47:58

But yeah, congratulations on CT A. It's awesome. And yeah, the amount of stuff you learn going through the process, and even if you didn't for some reason want to get CTAM, print the rubric out, go through it and start updating your shop, you know, it's just gonna make it a better facility to work in. And much safer for you and anybody else that's in there.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 48:25

Yep. And it can be a little intimidating when you first print it off and

Trent Manning, CTEM 48:29

Oh yeah. For

Jason Sargent, CTEM 48:30

long, but it's definitely, it was beneficial to see that and you look and say, wow, okay, you know, this, could use a little help right here. So it's definitely beneficial.

Trent Manning, CTEM 48:42

When, yeah, we've talked about it or I've talked to Diana, me and Tony. Down at Trinity Forest. The last, the testing we'd done, we were talking to Diana about maybe updating the rubric because there is a bunch of redundant stuff. Like every section it has lighting on it and you know, it's like, okay, we're, if the lights are good here, more than likely they're okay and the other places too. So yeah. Anyway, I do think, it could be updated a little bit, so don't get too overwhelmed when you're going through the rubric on all that stuff,

Jason Sargent, CTEM 49:19

No.

Trent Manning, CTEM 49:24

You ready to do some rapid fire?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 49:26

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM 49:27

What's your favorite movie?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 49:28

blood diamond,

Trent Manning, CTEM 49:30

Yeah, I'm not familiar with that. What is that about?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 49:33

it's about the. Diamond conflict in Northern Africa. It's Leonard, our DiCaprios in it. A couple other guys. It's a good movie.

Trent Manning, CTEM 49:43

I'll have to check that out. What will be your last meal?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 49:46

I love venison steak. So steak and potatoes, some sort of go with it.

Trent Manning, CTEM 49:52

Yeah. All right. I love it. What are you most proud of besides your family?

Jason Sargent, CTEM 49:57

probably just where I've come from. You know, started at the bottom and worked my way up to where I'm at now, and just proud of everything I've accomplished and kind of kept that trajectory and hoping for some more stuff come in the future with that.

Trent Manning, CTEM 50:13

Awesome man. That's good. I love it. Well, thank you so much Jason for being on. I've really enjoyed this. It's fun. Yes, sir. Fun as always, and we'll talk to you soon.

Jason Sargent, CTEM 50:29

Sounds good.

Trent Manning 50:36

thank you so much for listening to the Reel 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 Reel turf techs.