Reel Turf Techs Podcast

Episode 123: Haas Mengloi, CTEM

• Trent Manning • Episode 123

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Welcome to Episode 123 of the Reel Turf Techs Podcast! Today we’re talking to Haas Mengloi, CTEM, Equipment Manager at The Bear’s Club in Jupiter, FL. The Bear’s Club, a private 18-hole club, is Jack Nicklaus’s home club when he's in Jupiter.

Young Haas initially planned on being a school teacher, attending the University of Guam before moving to Florida and earning certificates as a marine mechanic. Haas found his new home and a long and successful career at the golf course. When not at work, Haas is an avid hunter and fisherman.

In this episode, Haas shares the value of patience, humor, and letting things go in training technicians, and emphasizes the importance of doing things right the first time. We have a great discussion about how book smarts aren't the only type of intelligence that matters in the world. Haas also stresses the importance of taking care of your hearing from day one.

Haas recounts his story of cold-calling area superintendents to start an equipment technician association in Palm Beach County and highlights the importance of local networking for support systems and salary awareness.

Tune in for an inspiring conversation with Haas on this episode of the Reel Turf Techs Podcast!



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 this episode are real turf techs on golf course industries Superintendent radio network is presented by Foley county a strong supporter of equipment technicians and golf course maintenance departments everywhere Foley county offers a proven solution for above and below the turf for turf professionals To learn more about Foley company's line of real grinders bed knife grinders and the air to G2 family of products or to find a distributor visit www dot Foley C o.com Foley Ready for play Welcome to the real turf text podcast, episode 1 23.. Today, we're talking to Haas mango with. C 10. The equipment manager at the bears club and Jupiter, Florida. The bears club is a private 18 hole facility where the nine hole. Par three. Is Jack Nicholson's home course. When he's in Jupiter, Florida. Awesome has mostly Toro equipment. Let's talk the Haas. Welcome Haas to the RealTurf Techs podcast. Thanks for coming on. How are you doing?

Haas Mengloi:

I'm doing very good. Thank you for having me.

Trent Manning:

Oh, absolutely. Nope. Looking forward to it. Tell us how you got into the turf industry.

Haas Mengloi:

Well, it started back in the 80s. When I got off high school, I knew exactly that I wanted to be a school teacher. So I took primary ed in college, and that lasted about two years. Decided that's not the route that I wanted to go. So I moved to Florida And went to a two year certificate course in South Technical Institute in Boynton Beach, Florida And got certified in marine engines. So I thought I wanted to be a boat mechanic And I did that for Not quite a year and the first six months the guy that owned the it was a mercury marine dealership You He brought me about 20 buckets, 5 gallon buckets of stainless steel bolts, nuts and bolts, and two brand new bins. And my job the first few months was to sort out all those nuts and bolts in a quarter by 20 by three quarter. I mean, they got to the point like if you throw A bolt in the air, I can tell you what size it was before it hit the floor.

Trent Manning:

Good.

Haas Mengloi:

after six months or, he started telling me that they were gonna have to lay me off. And, I didn't like that so I told, I started telling my neighbor at the time. And he told me exactly, he's like, hey man you helped fix my lawnmower. I saw in the newspaper, where they were looking for a lawnmower mechanic at a golf course. I'm like, really? And he said, yeah. So he showed me, you know, this was 89, so we still looked in the newspaper. And I saw the ad, and Went to apply the position was for an assistant technician. The equipment manager asked me what machines I knew how to work on. And I looked around and the first things I saw were those old Toro walk mowers. And I said, oh, you see those machines right there? I can fix them all. He said, well, you're hired. That's the, just so happened to be the guy that they were replacing. Hey, that was his job. So

Trent Manning:

Okay,

Haas Mengloi:

like, yeah,

Trent Manning:

So, did you turn wrenches before that?

Haas Mengloi:

not

Trent Manning:

led you down the mechanic road?

Haas Mengloi:

When I was going to school in, oh, I attended the University of Guam. That's where I'm from. And my brother, my oldest brother wanted me, I always worked on stuff. You know, he was a car mechanic. My dad was a engineer on cargo ships. So we were all mechanics. He wanted me to learn how to fix boats and go back to the Pacific Island and, you know, be the marine guy. When I went through the golf course, I've never seen you know, I've never seen anything that looked like a walk mow, so I didn't know what I was looking at, how to fix it. How did he tell the equipment manager that I knew how to work on it? So when the first Monday that I started, they finished it was two golf courses. That used the walk mowers. So it was course one and course two. They line up the walk mowers and I was supposed to check them. So I put one on the table and I looked at it and finally I called the equipment manager over and I said listen, Avi, I know how to fix this mower, but I know how to fix it my way. But since you're my boss, I want to do it your way, so you tell me how you fix it, and from today forward, I'll fix it exactly how you do it. He got excited, he called the meeting. You see this guy right here? Now, that's the first mechanic that wants to do things my way. So, and he was very thorough, I mean, he put a Walkmore up on the table, and, All right, first thing you do is you grab this hand file and you face the bed knife back then, you know We didn't have die grinders So it was all hand file and adjusting and he went through the whole thing and after that I did the second one and Third one and just kind of as I went,

Trent Manning:

That's awesome, though. That's cool.

Haas Mengloi:

yeah,

Trent Manning:

I mean, what better way to, to learn about that stuff?

Haas Mengloi:

oh yeah. The other technicians were on to me real quick though. It was a 418 hole golf course club and there was probably like nine mechanics including me. And it took them about three, four days. To realize I didn't know anything and they started like kind of giving me a hard time. I was like buying people sodas and

Trent Manning:

Yeah. That's funny. That's good stuff. Well, cool. What's your least favorite part of the job?

Haas Mengloi:

Probably the paperwork part. But other than that not really anything. I love everything I do

Trent Manning:

Do you end up doing a lot of paperwork?

Haas Mengloi:

Not really. I mean, it's more like i'm I recently got the MyTurf Pro, and I started inputting all that information and I said to myself, I hate this part right here.

Trent Manning:

Oh yeah.

Haas Mengloi:

that kind of stuff I don't like, but everything else, I think it's, you know, including the people, you know, there's nothing I don't like about it.

Trent Manning:

No, that's good. And I don't know of anybody that got in the business and said, I want to do paperwork. You know, I mean, most of us like to work with our hands and all those things. So, you know, I don't know. But,

Haas Mengloi:

when I'm sorry, when I first started here, I've been here 24 years. When I first started here, as you, most of you guys do it, equipment managers, they usually go to like management meetings. I went to one and I asked my boss, I'm like, Hey, listen, this meeting really didn't have anything to do with what I'm doing. Do you mind if I skip them? And it's like, Hey, if you don't want to go, you don't have to go. So I got out of that and never went back

Trent Manning:

I don't blame you there. Yeah. A lot of us we like to stay in the shop and kind of behind the scenes and nothing wrong with that at all.

Haas Mengloi:

yep

Trent Manning:

favorite tool?

Haas Mengloi:

I don't think I have a favorite tool other than I really like that xbim that I heard on one of your podcast That thing is like a palm saver that

Trent Manning:

Oh yeah. Yep. Yeah. I seen you post on X or Twitter about that. That's awesome.

Haas Mengloi:

but um probably I would say it's my most sentimental tool You It's a set of Mac tools, sockets, that I bought when I first started. I want to say they cost me 280

Trent Manning:

Oh yeah.

Haas Mengloi:

Inch drive. I have them in my toolbox. Hardly ever use them anymore. But, I look at them every once in a while. Just remember my old boss like, oh, you're investing in yourself. You gotta get them

Trent Manning:

that's awesome. Did y'all have a tool guy that come by the shop back then?

Haas Mengloi:

We had both snap on and Mac tool And I went into that for over a decade Yep

Trent Manning:

a week for the rest of your life. Yeah, it's crazy the way you get they get you and yeah, what stuff you know How expensive everything is but you know, they are coming by the shop if you did break something they'll change it out You know all those things There is some perks there

Haas Mengloi:

Yeah, here at my job now, my current job, I talked with my boss, my superintendent, like, maybe 17 years ago, everybody was borrowing my tools. And I told him, I said, here's the deal, I don't mind you borrowing my tools, I said, but eventually you will lose my tools. I said, you're losing my expensive tools. I said, you use my tools and whatever I feel that I need as a tool, I would purchase it and it goes in my toolbox as my personal tool, but you will pay for it. And it's worked out fine for, you know, the last 20 years.

Trent Manning:

No, that's awesome. Then. Yeah, I don't know that everybody is lucky as you are No, that hasn't been my experience. I mean, luckily at my place, we have a shop box and you know, it has tools that we use to, I have my own set and the guys that helped me in the shop. I let them use my stuff, but nobody on the crew is going to use my stuff just because the way they, you know,

Haas Mengloi:

You've been around, yeah, you've been around long enough. I remember when I first started, you can't even look at somebody's toolbox, or you go close to somebody's toolbox, they look at you like, you know, you're getting

Trent Manning:

Oh yeah. Well, actually the mechanic that mentored me and I kind of trained under as an assistant mechanic, if he saw somebody getting close or, you know, opening a drawer on his toolbox and he was a little busy, I mean, he was a short guy, probably, I don't know, five, eight, And a little wiry guy, though, you know, 140 pounds need to say, that's a good way to get your GED arm broke. I mean, he would say, I mean, all serious to don't mess with his tools. Yeah. And I mean, there's a lot of people that are that way. And I mean, understandably so, you know, I mean,

Haas Mengloi:

felt,

Trent Manning:

it's just like if somebody on the crew went and got in your vehicle, right. And was, you know. Like, you know, yeah it's similar for sure. Do you have a story there? I cut you off. No,

Haas Mengloi:

you know, the assistants I've had over the years, I let them borrow my tools, but I will tell them like, hey, if you borrowed a tool, It's probably something that you ought to buy and I tell them you don't have to buy snap on or mac tool You know, but buy that tool that you need, you know, so

Trent Manning:

that's a really good point. And I had a close friend and he worked with me for a little while, but we've been friends before and after that. And he started out more in the automotive industry. And when he was working under people, when he first got started, He had a mechanic, a master mechanic that was mentoring him and every time he would borrow a tool, the guy would make him write it down what tool he borrowed. And once he borrowed the same tool three times, he had to get his own

Haas Mengloi:

That's

Trent Manning:

and you know, and that's a good way to like build your set. Because, you know, I mean, nobody wants to go out and dump, you know, however much, five grand, 10 grand, 20 grand, you know, on a full set of really nice tools. So, you know, you get it. It's like the old Johnny Cash song, one piece at a time.

Haas Mengloi:

Yeah.

Trent Manning:

get it. One piece at a time.

Haas Mengloi:

That's right.

Trent Manning:

What do you do to relax or find your balance?

Haas Mengloi:

Well, I do a lot of fishing and a lot of hunting and a lot of fishing. I don't necessarily call it relax. I mean, you, I know you do a lot of bass fishing. Got to get up super early. You stay up late tying rigs and all that kind of stuff. When I go on vacation, like I'll go, I usually hunt out of state. When I can't wait, sometimes I can't wait to come back after a two week hunt. And get back to that, it's more relaxing at work to me, You get in your group, it's familiar things and, you know. After work, sometimes people leave and I'm still here. And I'm relaxed, you know, but I do a lot of fishing and I do a lot of hunting.

Trent Manning:

That's awesome. That's all good stuff. Yeah. Where do you hunt? Out of state.

Haas Mengloi:

Um, do archery in the mountains up in Southwest Virginia and do rifle in Kentucky. Sometimes I did a lot of hunting in Georgia also.

Trent Manning:

Okay.

Haas Mengloi:

Um, but now it's mostly like in the mountains of Virginia. I do it all over there archery. Season, rifle season, I do muzzle loader.

Trent Manning:

Okay. You have a land you lease or you hunt on the public land?

Haas Mengloi:

It's a private lands, it's a few private lands. I have a friend of mine that lives there, actually three friends of mine. And I go there and I, there's so many deer, they'll put whatever they put me, I'm harvesting something.

Trent Manning:

Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. No, that's fun. Very cool. What has been your biggest challenge to date?

Haas Mengloi:

Biggest, I wouldn't call it a challenge. Probably like the training part, you know, I've trained over the 24 years I've been here, I have trained five or six equipment managers and it's challenging at times. Every one of them is different, Personalities, different mentality. And probably the biggest challenge is for me to adapt to each new assistant and work with what they have.

Trent Manning:

Yeah. No that's really good. Do you have any tips for us on? Or anything you found that works for you on that? Because I think that's something that we all struggle with.

Haas Mengloi:

I would say patience and don't get mad. You know, don't, you know, I shouldn't say don't get mad. Don't let it, don't stay mad. You know, that's I'm quick to get on somebody, but I'm quick to let them know it's done. I'm. You know, we'll, you know, we'll go for a ride and, you know, we'll crack jokes and go on our lives. You know, it's enough to just let somebody know that's not the way to do this. Or, you know, you can do better, And then let it go. No,

Trent Manning:

a good point because anything that you hold on to, it just makes every day get a little bit worse. I think if you're holding on to something, so yeah, it's definitely better to just air it out, get it in the open and you know, we all mess up, we all make mistakes every day.

Haas Mengloi:

The biggest change that I'm, I've been working on is, Trying to be more positive or give them more positive input. One of my, one of my last assistant, he's, he got an equipment manager's job. And, you know, most, almost all of them, actually, all of them are in private clubs and, you know, after he's got established there, he invited me and my wife to dinner at their house and his wife said, yeah, you know, Rob was always complaining about how you never say anything good.

Trent Manning:

Mhm.

Haas Mengloi:

always point out the bad, but look how well he's doing now. And, you know, we're all laughing and kidding about it. But I went home and I'm like, you know, maybe I should, you know, I need to be more positive and give more positive input, you know.

Trent Manning:

some productive feedback like that, you know, give it to us because sometimes we don't really know if we're doing it right or wrong. And I mean, none of us are, I say, none of us, most of us. Didn't go to school to learn how to be a manager. You know, we just started out as a mechanic and then we were successful. So then we got somebody working under us and then you're trying to manage people. And I think we need, we all need a little help in that area.

Haas Mengloi:

I, I, and I think it's progressed a lot like I remember I've been doing this for 35 years and you've been doing it for a minute as well and you've seen The change in the culture. I mean when I first started it was nothing For a mechanic to throw wrench across the shop or throw wrench at somebody,

Trent Manning:

Oh

Haas Mengloi:

know nowadays you know, it's not acceptable and you'll get in trouble for it and it's not the right way to do it and You know people are just doing things the correct way, you know, we're more educated. Or we have evolved. I've definitely evolved a lot. You know, the way I do reels, the way I deal with people, everything.

Trent Manning:

Oh yeah.

Haas Mengloi:

we learn over the years.

Trent Manning:

Yep. Every day is a learning opportunity. And yeah learn something every day if you can. And you're right. The culture has changed so much. I mean, I remember when I first started, you know, and it was at a private club, but it was go. And I mean the, you know, pretty stressful pressure on, and I find myself over the years. I think I was so comfortable with all that pressure that now nobody else is putting the pressure on me. So I put that pressure on myself and I'm not saying that's healthy. Um, I need to take a step back and say, it's okay. But as you say, we're, you know, I have got better than I was. And you know, some of that, I think comes with age too.

Haas Mengloi:

Yeah, I think

Trent Manning:

That, that helps some. What's the strangest thing you've seen on a golf course?

Haas Mengloi:

Probably on my previous job probably seeing a plane land on number 12, fairway. And taxi all the way to, almost to the green, didn't make it on the green, but it was right there on the approach.

Trent Manning:

Wow. That's crazy. It's a, was it emergency landing?

Haas Mengloi:

Yes, yeah, they, I think they ran out of gas or they immediately like roped it off and. We weren't allowed anywhere near it.

Trent Manning:

I guess FAA has got to do their stuff.

Haas Mengloi:

Yep.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, but fairway, that's a good place to set one down if you have to. Yeah,

Haas Mengloi:

renovations. You can't do it now, but back then it was like wide open fairways on that one particular golf course.

Trent Manning:

We had it was actually a member guest tournament and one of our members was I forget exactly what his title was, but he was basically a used aircraft salesman and anyway, so he had a buddy. That owned a helicopter and flew him and his guest in on a helicopter. They landed in one fairway and, you know, it was a big deal. That was pretty cool though, because the, we have a, an open area that is owned by the golf course. And that's where we keep all our natural debris and stuff like that. But there's a field there, a nice landing zone. So I was out there talking to the pilot for hours, you know, about how the helicopter works. So that was, yeah, super cool experience.

Haas Mengloi:

Okay.

Trent Manning:

Do you have a mentor in the industry?

Haas Mengloi:

He recently passed away. He was the guy that hired me when I first started. His name is Augustin Montes. He was a farm mechanic from Mississippi and they moved to Florida, the whole family moved to Florida and somehow he got on the golf course. The guy could hardly read, but he knew his stuff and I learned everything that I mean, he taught me how to weld, he taught me he taught me just about everything that I learned in those 10 years that I worked for him. And if I was to say the one thing that he taught me that I will never forget is whatever you do it right the first time. Don't let it come back and bite you in the, you know what?

Trent Manning:

Yeah, yep.

Haas Mengloi:

He said that constantly. And I mean, I just, it's something I tell all my assistants, you know, don't let it come back and bite you,

Trent Manning:

No, I mean, that's words of wisdom, words to live by for sure. And I do think it's Interesting, I guess might be a good term, but people that I believe anyway, that a lot of people judge other people that may be illiterate where they can't read, they can't write, and they think automatically they think they're stupid. But those people. I mean, honestly, I think they're smarter than most other people, even though they might not know how to read or write, you know, and I don't know exactly why, but, and I bring this up because my grandfather, he couldn't read or write. He only went to school until he was like eight years old and he couldn't even sign his name. He just put an X on the paper, but. He was a really good mechanic. He was a good brick Mason, you know what I mean? All these things. And he definitely struggled with describing how things work because he had such a small, um, vocabulary and he would say this Hickey moves that Hickey this thing, I'm a jig. Yeah. I mean, he called everything a thing of a jig or a Hickey. Um, but yeah, anyway,

Haas Mengloi:

no, he's, that's how he was. I mean, he would, I remember when it was like in the 90s when John Deere first came out with the 3365 fairway rough mower, the big tractor mower. And none of us knew anything about it. And they said, they gave us a, like a service and parts manual. And every time something broke on it. He would wait until everybody left and he would call me over and we would read that service manual I would read it to him and he'll sit there and think about it and say, okay, I know exactly what's wrong. right. What you need to do. So I'm reading it to him. I'm not comprehending what I'm reading, but he knows exactly what I'm reading and he's telling me like, all right, I know what we have to do. We have to take this apart and we have to do this. And That's, yeah.

Trent Manning:

yeah, it's, that's cool. So I think it's important to, or it's important to me that I grew up that way and I got to experience that. And it makes me appreciate being able to read and write a whole lot more. And I think a lot of us probably just take it for granted because just about everybody knows how to read and write now. But it wasn't that long ago that was not the case. What would be your dream job or opportunity? Guiding hunts?

Haas Mengloi:

Guiding hunts or guiding fishing or,

Trent Manning:

yeah.

Haas Mengloi:

yeah, like some, like a combination outfitter, you know. Probably one or the other. Yeah.

Trent Manning:

That was good. Yeah, I was just

Haas Mengloi:

No, that's exactly

Trent Manning:

I guessed it. All right. Oh, awesome. Very cool. Well, I don't want to, I don't want to steal your thunder there.

Haas Mengloi:

No, that's I mean, If I'm staying in the industry, I probably would want to teach. You know, probably We used to have a school here in Lake City That, that taught you know, we had turf classes and equipment managers classes. And that's probably, that probably would have been my dream job is one day be teaching those classes. But outside of the industry, yeah, I'm definitely fishing guide or hunting guide.

Trent Manning:

I love it. That's good stuff. Yeah, I don't know what we're going to do about the education and schooling and all those kind of things. There's, you know, I don't think there's enough interest because enough people don't know about it. You know, I don't know exactly what the answer

Haas Mengloi:

I mean, I don't know how you guys are doing in your state, but we are experiencing a serious shortage of equipment managers at the at that level, you know, at a higher level. We are experience, experiencing a shortage. And I have a lot of superintendents that call me looking for equipment managers because I usually place people. And two weeks ago, last week, There was a job for 130, 000 and I couldn't play somebody. I struggled. I had two guys Both turned it down. And there's really nobody else there. You know, not at the level that we're at. You know, and that's a problem. And, you know, I don't know how to address it or how we can address it, but, you know, I'm bringing an assistant in. I'm only hiring people that are interested in becoming equipment managers. And I'm taking two years, three years, or four years at the most to train them to be equipment managers and place them in another club. And. You know, can't do it fast enough. The last, my last assistant, I had to call the superintendent and I told him, I'm like, hey, I know you want to hire my guy and his, you know, his cutting units are, you know, pretty good. I said, but we list our equipments on a three year lease. Hasn't had a lot of, you know, wrench turning on machines, you know, on the actual rebuilding engines or anything like that. You're going to, you guys are going to have to give him a little support on that. And they're like, man, we'll take him. We don't care.

Trent Manning:

Yeah.

Haas Mengloi:

They're, I mean, they were desperate.

Trent Manning:

And I think there is, yeah, a lot of clubs. Yeah. And I mean, I think the shortage is nationwide and you know, I don't know about over in Europe and some of these other markets, but definitely in the U S it's short everywhere. And there's a high end club here in Atlanta that's been looking for somebody for probably two months, at least. And I mean, good pay, nice club, great facility, and they hadn't filled it yet. And, you know, everybody around in my area that's would be really good for the job already has a job and, you know, not interested in moving. And, but then what happens is we steal somebody from your state. And then there's another spot to fill. You know, I mean, that's just the way it works. And I mean, there's a bunch of our guys in Georgia going south too, in different directions. So I don't know what the answer is, but I hope we figure something out pretty soon. Do you have a technician you would like to work with

Haas Mengloi:

probably, I wouldn't mind working with one of my assistants you know, just for a day to see how they're doing. But that's probably the politically correct way of answer. The real, my real answer is I want to work with my buddy, Chris Johnson. The senior, his dad,

Trent Manning:

Ah, okay.

Haas Mengloi:

not the Chris Johnson, you know, by his dad, because we like fishing and we like hunting and we like talking about the, how we used to be back in the day, you know, when we first started in the industry and how it's all different now.

Trent Manning:

Okay. So, Chris Johnson Senior. He's an equipment manager too.

Haas Mengloi:

It's an equipment manager at a private club north of me

Trent Manning:

Okay.

Haas Mengloi:

he used to work like close to me and we used to do lunch every Friday.

Trent Manning:

Oh, awesome.

Haas Mengloi:

yeah, he's further away now. So, yeah,

Trent Manning:

Well, very cool. Yeah, I didn't know that. I just knew Junior.

Haas Mengloi:

yes, yeah. Chris Johnson and I we're good friends and we love to talk about fishing and hunting and. You know, all the old equipments we used to have, and the higher heights we used to have, and how it's changed, and

Trent Manning:

oh yeah, it has. It's crazy the change we've seen. And I mean, really, it hasn't been that long. I mean, 20, 25 years and there's a lot of things that's changed in that amount of time

Haas Mengloi:

I mean, how long you been doing this? You've been doing this for quite a while.

Trent Manning:

since 95 when I first started and we were mowing low heights on greens but fairways weren't low heights I mean we were using a Toro 450d with those whatever 30 inch 32 inch cutting units to my fairways,

Haas Mengloi:

I want to say, because I want to say in 95 we were still mowing fairways at three quarters, you know, but our greens, we were more, we still haven't, we didn't transition to Fifth Eagle until like 97, we had like, one of our courses, they didn't. They were still kind of in the experimental stage was the Thief Eagle. So we still had Thief Dwarfs and we were mowing them at I want to say 156 or five, you know, we were mowing them. We were actually mowing them with the fractions, you know, like, Oh yeah. I said that at 530 seconds or, you know, now we're going into season. Let's set them at 964, And now that's where the, I remember when we went to Thief Eagle, And we had to like start lowering our heights But we didn't have the bed knives for them yet I don't know if you remember grinding the belly of the bed knife so you can Get down to 125 or below,

Trent Manning:

Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

Haas Mengloi:

so

Trent Manning:

No. Yeah, it's crazy how much has changed for sure. Yeah, I remember that now. Yeah, 156. That was definitely a popular.

Haas Mengloi:

156 was the standard

Trent Manning:

Yeah, that was a popular how to cut right

Haas Mengloi:

Yeah

Trent Manning:

That's funny.

Haas Mengloi:

then going into the season it was like 964. That's when You know, you had those events and you know, you're like, alright, now we gotta go down to 964, but you know, take your time bringing it down, you know, yeah.

Trent Manning:

That's crazy. What do you know now? You wish you'd known on day one.

Haas Mengloi:

Probably that my hearing is not replaceable. And my knees, oh yeah, and my knees, man, I probably should have taken better care of them, but mainly my hearing.

Trent Manning:

What about your back?

Haas Mengloi:

My back, would have messed it up going offshore on the boats anyway, so. No, but my hearing, mainly my hearing, I think my hearing is, it's a direct I've lost quite a bit of my hearing and it's a direct result of me not listening to those guys in those early years when they were telling me to wear earplugs and earmuffs.

Trent Manning:

Yeah. And I know, I mean, I walk through the shop and one of my guys is doing something loud and I start pointing at his ears and, you know, get it in because I'm the same way. And it's frustrating like talking to my kids or just other people and you can't hear what they're saying and they have to speak up and especially female voices because they're usually softer. It's just hard to hear.

Haas Mengloi:

My wife gets frustrated at me.

Trent Manning:

Yep. Yep. How do you deal with that person? You got any persons like that on your crew? Yeah.

Haas Mengloi:

yes, I do. The easiest way for me to do it is is send them send them to the assistant superintendent. You know, we have, like, we have our superintendent and then we have two assistants. Those two assistants don't want to hear me all the time. So if I say something to them about one of the operators, they're going to correct it because they definitely don't want to hear me again about it. So,

Trent Manning:

Yeah.

Haas Mengloi:

gets solved really quick.

Trent Manning:

That's good. That's a good system to have in place for sure.

Haas Mengloi:

yeah.

Get ready for tips and tricks.

Trent Manning:

Let's do some tips and tricks. What do you got that you want to share with us?

Haas Mengloi:

I really, I mean, I probably have learned more tips and tricks on this podcast. The one thing that I do have that I, I learned like 35 years ago, and I still do it to this day. We're not allowed, especially at my shop, to put any kind of flammable stuff in tires and blow them up. But what I have in my tire mounting compound bucket is I have a long rag that stays in there and I take that rag and I go around the rim on the white side, the, that's opposite of the valve stem And I pack it and push it down and blow the valve stem up where the valve stem is. I'll sit that beam and then I'll flip it back around. Now I can pull it down and then sit the other beam.

Trent Manning:

Okay, so

Haas Mengloi:

yeah,

Trent Manning:

just putting a rag in there to kind of

Haas Mengloi:

rag with the grease, with that mounting compound.

Trent Manning:

Ah, okay. Yeah.

Haas Mengloi:

Yeah. So every once in a while I'll have, I mean, I have a, I'll have an equipment manager from another club. They'll bring their tire over. Hey, man, I can't get this tire to I can't get the beats to see and I'm like, all right, bring it over and they'll bring it over and I'll show them how to do it.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, you need to make a video of that and put it on Twitter or

Haas Mengloi:

It's like a really old it's a really old tip that I learned a long time ago and I just Nobody does it anymore. I think everybody used to Lighter fluid or something.

Trent Manning:

Well, yeah, or the bead seeders.

Haas Mengloi:

the big

Trent Manning:

cheetahs or whatever they're called. Yeah. All right. Awesome. Well, let's talk about networking and what you got going on there in Florida with your local technician group.

Haas Mengloi:

Yeah, so when I first started this job was 24 years ago. I was in a different end of the state Well, not the state but the different side of the county and when I first moved here I didn't know anybody and we used to have we used to have an association like years ago You And I've always heard about the Carolina Turf Equipment Technician. And I decided that I wanted to start one over here in our area, a local one. And basically it was just phone calls. I asked my boss for one of his directory phone books for the superintendents. And I went club by club and I would call the superintendent and introduce myself and say, Hey, I, you know, I'd like to get to know your mechanics. If we're going to do lunch, it was a lot of phone calls, a lot of,

Trent Manning:

Yeah.

Haas Mengloi:

But it happened, you know, that's. Eventually we had a first meeting. I set up a first meeting in after we've had a lot of get togethers, we set up our association in 2005. We had the first meeting official meeting here at my shop. And ever since then, we've always, we've had seminars and, um, you know, we have meetings. We have Friday lunches that will go anywhere from two guys to, um, You know, dirty guys getting Having lunch at a local place.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, no, that's super cool.

Haas Mengloi:

Yeah. So we have, we started, it started out as a county, we called it a Palm Beach County Mechanics Association. And then we went to Southeast because we had a lot of people coming from Miami And South. And about that time, John Patterson was actually next door to me back in those days. And he was starting the ITC, him and Tucker. They were starting that but I tell you what, I the thing with this, you know, I tell everybody that you have to start this networking. A, when I am having a problem with the machine. I know how many people I can call who are either Toro guys, John Deere guys, or Jacobson, or, you know, this guy used to be a car mechanic, or, it doesn't matter what it is, you're networking, you know the people in your area, you're going to have some, you're going to have some help, and sometimes you'll have to be the guy helping, but it's, that's how it works, and also, one of the things that Chris Johnson and I have been doing, Is we're kind of we're kind of bringing like the salary awareness Amongst the other guys that we network with So you don't have this big Difference in salary, you know, we have guys that are you know Making six figures and then you have somebody over here making sixty thousand In a comparable club, that's not right,

Trent Manning:

Right.

Haas Mengloi:

But unless you're networking with other, with your peers and with other guys, you're not going to know that, you know, and that's,

Trent Manning:

Right. Yeah.

Haas Mengloi:

yeah. And that's one of those things where you have to network to get those kinds of knowledge, to get those, you know, to get that kind of awareness. And I think that's how important it is. This networking, I mean, allows me to get to know guys like you and me. You know, guys within the industry, I can name off names of people I've never seen that I respect because I see what they're doing. I'm part of their network, you know

Trent Manning:

Oh yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Haas Mengloi:

Yeah, so

Trent Manning:

I mean, I'm super fortunate and I'll, you know, I owe it to the listeners and everybody that's been a guest too, that I've got to travel around and meet a lot of these people. And that, you know, I mean, that's just icing on the cake. I mean, I love doing the interviews and hearing everybody's story and their background, but getting her go see them at their shop. That's super cool. And if you can do that in your local area,

Haas Mengloi:

We have I mean, it's our local area like when we have one of our seminars We can have anywhere from 50 to 80 people at the seminars, you know So it's we're having quite a few people and now We're having vendors this friday lunches that I do Actually, chris johnson is doing I shouldn't say I You Because about two years or three years ago, I thought Chris Johnson. I'm like, Hey, you're the guy You're going to have to take over our meetings and you're going to take over the Facebook. And, you know, let me relax a little bit. So he's the guy doing it. But when we do this, when we do this launches now, we're having vendors like calling us like either me or Chris and say, Hey, when are you guys doing lunch? We'd like to come and pay for your lunch, you know, because

Trent Manning:

So is this, is that the big three like John Deere or Toro or

Haas Mengloi:

Big three we had our last launch was paid for by one of the fuel and oil vendors

Trent Manning:

no, That's super cool.

Haas Mengloi:

Yeah

Trent Manning:

Yeah, we had Kim search, you know, they sell grease and that

Haas Mengloi:

Yep. Yep.

Trent Manning:

Um, He would buy our lunch from time to time. And then the parts master guy in our area, you know, it's kind of like Lawson's. Um, actually they got absorbed by Lawson's. He would take care of us from time to time. So that opportunities there, you know, cause a lot of times it's the same salesman that's coming by and seeing you and Chris and everybody in that area. And he doesn't mind buying everybody lunch.

Haas Mengloi:

And talking about the salesman I tell these guys like that salesman is part of your network system He is the guy that will tell you and, you know, give you names and give you people that you can network with that are like-minded, I see so many people who are, you know, can get rude with some salesmen. I don't do that. I treat'em like friends. I shake their hands, I say hi to them, and it's been a good relationship. But going back to this networking. It's a lot of work. The reason why every time we have a meeting or we have a lunch, I post it on Twitter or on Facebook. Now it really doesn't do anything, but I just want to try and encourage other clubs and other equipment managers elsewhere that you guys can do it. You know, it just, it takes phone calls. It takes a little bit of, you know, it takes a lot of phone calls. A lot of times that's how you maintain those relationships and, you know, doing those Friday lunches. But you can do it, you know, and nowadays with WhatsApp, you know, Chris got me hooked up in your WhatsApp group, You know, and then he created like a WhatsApp for our area and somebody I think it was Shelby that created the Florida Watch app,

Trent Manning:

Okay.

Haas Mengloi:

it, there's so many, there's so many resources out there as far as this, you know, social media that you can utilize to be a part of a network or to be aware of the people around you and who's where and who's doing what. You know, and who would you like to go and hang out with, or learn from or maybe help,

Trent Manning:

Oh yeah. For sure. And I get people DM me all the time. I had a guy DM me yesterday, which was Sunday and wanted to talk because he was, he's a superintendent and he's getting ready to hire an equipment manager. And he just wanted a little advice, like putting the ad together, you know? And, um, you know, um. I'm sure you get the, a lot of the same thing, but that's, you know, that's the reason I'm on social media is I'm there. And

Haas Mengloi:

yeah.

Trent Manning:

I hadn't hadn't ghosted anybody. If they if they send me a message, I'll get back to them when I can and try to answer their question to the best of my ability or, um, the other thing, I think that's really important. Like you're mentioning with your network. If somebody asks me a question and I don't know the answer, there's a good chance I know a person that will know the answer. You know, and it's just like you were saying with your network, you get to know who the car guy is, who the two stroke guy is, who's really good on sprayers, who's good on hydraulics, whatever it is, and you can send people in their direction.

Haas Mengloi:

I mean, I, you know, listening to your podcast, I get very humbled. I find out there's so many talented people, you know, in our industry. I'm not even, I wouldn't even be in the same room with them, you know. But the fact that I have this network system, I can have a spray rig. Go down at six o'clock and I'm already, I've already made three phone calls and I already, you know, I don't even wait I just, you know, my boss knows like my first priority is to get that machine going. I have no problem calling somebody else and there's, you know, I have a couple of friends around here that I know you know, if I call them, they know the answer. You know and i'll call them, you know, i'll call them immediately. I have phone numbers to the service tax You know, for our, you know, our dealership, but nothing stays broken here for any length of time because of that network system. Not because I'm that smart.

Trent Manning:

Well, yeah, but you are that smart because you have a really good network system.

Haas Mengloi:

Exactly.

Trent Manning:

So you are smart and

Haas Mengloi:

My boss thinks, my boss says, man this is the smartest guy I've ever seen. Yeah.

Trent Manning:

network system and that's the other thing that I don't think we've talked about right now, but if you call somebody in your network system and you need a bed knife or you need a tire or, you know, whatever it is and you know, nothing like that. And especially if you're in a close area and you're 10 minutes down the road or something, you know. No big

Haas Mengloi:

The areas we're at, everybody's within a slingshot. You can go out and throw a stone over the fence and hit another club, you know? So,

Trent Manning:

for sure. Well, let's do some rapid fire.

Haas Mengloi:

all right,

Trent Manning:

You ready? What's your favorite movie?

Haas Mengloi:

Here's the thing. I tell everybody that's my favorite movie and it probably is. But I know all the lines to Dumb and Dumber for some reason.

Trent Manning:

that's really good. What would be your last meal?

Haas Mengloi:

I've talked about this with Chris Jr. actually. I would say probably it's gonna be a grits and eggs over easy

Trent Manning:

Okay.

Haas Mengloi:

probably a venison ham and a nice big, just a whole blueberry pie to finish it off. Yep.

Trent Manning:

Man, that sounds good. Talking about language when you start talking about dessert. I'm all over some sweets. What are you most proud of beside your family?

Haas Mengloi:

Probably my assistants. Like I said, I have I think five or six of them that have moved on to, they're all in high end private clubs doing really well. And I'm very proud of, you know, what they've done.

Trent Manning:

Well, and how proud does that make you feel that you helped them start their career?

Haas Mengloi:

It makes, it gives me a really good sense of accomplishment, you know. I just, I mean, I know what Augie, you know, like I said about my mentor, I know what Augie did for me, Augustine, you know. And I know that I'm just paying it forward, you know, to the assistance I've had.

Trent Manning:

Well, yeah you're paying it forward, but there's nothing like that feeling. I mean, in my opinion, anyway, that's way better than fixing a piece of equipment or anything like that is being instrumental in a young person's life. And I don't think, I know I didn't anyway, I probably didn't realize it until I was close to 40, how impactful we are on young people. And we get a lot of young people at the golf course, you know, teenagers and, you know, high schoolers, college people, that age group. And they're looking up to you, you know, whether you see it or not.

Haas Mengloi:

I hope you get to interview Chris Johnson, the junior. Um, I mean, I helped him get his first equipment manager's job. He started like coming here and talking to me. I think John Patterson was next door he would go and talk to, he was, he had a mission to find out what he needed to do, you know, to be really good at what we do. And he did that, and like I said, I helped him find his first job and probably, you know, his last job, um, but he's at the point now where I call him and ask him a lot of questions and he's there. I mean, I, He's way smarter than I am, way more knowledgeable in a lot of things, you know. And just to know that, you know, he'll probably learn way more from John Patterson than he did from me. But just to know that I have been part of that journey, gives me, that's, those kind of stuff. It still makes me feel good, like, look at this guy, you know, that, you know, he was over here asking me questions. You know, those many years ago. Now I'm asking him questions nowadays, you know, and I have no problem doing it either, you know.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, no that's awesome. Yeah, I had a guy work for me three years and he's at a nicer club than I am now. But, and I'm so happy for him. Like, man, that's awesome.

Haas Mengloi:

oh Yeah,

Trent Manning:

I mean, one, soon as the job come available, I called him up and I said, Hey, you need to be looking at this. And you know how small our industry is. My superintendent knew the superintendent there gives that superintendent a call. So this guy worked with us for three years, really good guy. He squared away and. When Charlie went for the interview, he was like, it wasn't even hardly an interview because the superintendent already had another superintendent that he's been friends with for 30 years. Give him a good word on him, you know? So like you're saying, you gotta don't burn any bridges and now, cause everybody knows everybody around here.

Haas Mengloi:

Yeah, I think most of my assistants have better jobs than I do. Not, better paying jobs than I do. And I'm okay with that. You know, I'm stoked for them. Happy for them. And You know,

Trent Manning:

Yup. No, that's good. We'll tell the listeners how they can get a hold of you. You're on Twitter. You're on Facebook.

Haas Mengloi:

yeah, I'm on Twitter, but I forgot. I was, I meant to write it down. I'm definitely on Facebook as Hasmengloy. And I'm on Twitter. And I want to say. Maybe HMengloy on Twitter,

Trent Manning:

We'll find it. We'll tag you when we drop the episode.

Haas Mengloi:

yeah.

Trent Manning:

thank you.

Haas Mengloi:

yeah, I was going to say, if you guys are in the area, if you're anywhere near South Florida, you or any listeners stop by, say hi to me or Chris Johnson, or, you know, we'll take you guys around, show you guys around and. You know, we'll have lunch or something.

Trent Manning:

Oh yeah for sure and

Haas Mengloi:

That's up

Trent Manning:

I was I was already pre planning on this when the show's back in Orlando. I may come down early. Or stay late one of the two and come down to South Florida

Haas Mengloi:

Absolutely. I know Chris has been talking about maybe having you coming down to one of our doing one of our seminars

Trent Manning:

I would love to. Yeah. Yeah. You just let me know when and what, well, he, the one y'all had last year in September, it was like the same weekend that we were having a member guest tournament or something, but I just, I couldn't make it, but yeah, I would definitely be honored to come down there. Alright, well thank you very much. That's a wrap.

Haas Mengloi:

Thank you very much, man. I appreciate it

Trent Manning:

Yes sir. 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.