Turf Talk Ep. 3 | Walker Mower Family Reunion Recap: transcript
This automated transcript accompanies the original Turf Talk recording. Names, figures, and speaker identification may contain errors; check important details against the audio. Timestamps refer to the episode, not advertisements.
0:00Speaker A From the fields that feed America to the landscapes that keep it all growing, welcome to Turf Talk.
0:05Speaker B I'm Jennifer the Turfette Jones.
0:06Speaker A And I'm Eric the turf teacher Jones.
0:08Speaker A Together, we
0:09Speaker B we are the Green Industry
0:10Speaker A are couple. the green industry couple.
0:11Speaker B Bringing you real conversations, practical education, and first-hand experience.
0:15Speaker A And from the farm and the job site to the classroom and the biggest trade shows in the country,
0:20Speaker B So settle in
0:22Speaker B let's talk turf.
0:23Speaker A Welcome to Turf Talk. Let's get today's conversation. Let's get started. Hey, everybody. Welcome to Turf Talk. I am Eric Jones, better known as the Turf Teacher, and I'm here with my better half, the lovely, lovely Turfette, Jennifer Jones. What's going on, sweetheart?
0:36Speaker B What's up everybody?
0:39Speaker A We are just having a blast. We are really just rested up. from Walker Moe, our family reunion this past Friday.
0:48Speaker B Well, I say we are, but then we're not. Because I notice the last two nights I go to sleep a lot quicker.
0:54Speaker A We do, but we still stay up late, late, late.
0:57Speaker A But I love it. That's just us.
0:58Speaker A We're never going to go to bed before midnight.
1:00Speaker B we tend to be more productive in the afternoon, evening hours than we are in the morning. Well, I speak more for myself in that aspect. I can't speak for you.
1:10Speaker B You are definitely a morning producer. You, sir, I am not. I'm
1:13Speaker B an afternoon person. I do my best work in the afternoon and evening. My brain is more awake and alive, which causes me to have issues to go to sleep because my brain is still moving 100,000 miles an hour when
1:27Speaker A down and I'm like bunkered out like because i get up every morning so early and then work through the day and then we do our turf teacher and we do our stuff classes you know the college is always in the afternoon but uh we'll we'll we'll get rested up from this past weekend but tell us tell us our listeners about walker family reunion
1:48Speaker B We had the greatest time this weekend. We were given such an amazing opportunity. opportunity to go to Fort Collins, Colorado to visit the manufacturing facility but also the home it's the home of walker mowers
2:05Speaker B it's where walker mowers started
2:07Speaker A the house is still there like like the home is on the property
2:11Speaker B it's it's crazy that and i didn't double check to see if they still live on the property but it is definitely home base has always been home base and it is it is quite the What's the best word? The craftsmanship that you and I got to witness with our own eyes, our very own eyeballs.
2:33Speaker A Yeah, as we toured the
2:35Speaker B amazing. It is amazing.
2:37Speaker B Yes, is it a smaller company than John Deere? Yes, it is. But I think the craftsmanship far exceeds.
2:46Speaker A 100%, 100%. It is the. Even our pastor tonight called it, it is the most. particular most beautiful mowing that you can
2:59Speaker A in your yard i mean pastor will has a walker
3:01Speaker B mower Yeah.
3:01Speaker A exactly exactly
3:02Speaker B The striping effect from that mower is the best you will ever see hands down in the green.
3:10Speaker A you and that's that's one of the first things that we noticed when we when we pulled
3:14Speaker A to the facilities was the turf grass i mean just absolutely gorgeous
3:18Speaker B You know what I wanted to do? I wanted to take my shoes off. off and just walk barefoot
3:23Speaker B in that grass it was it's literally a pillow grass
3:27Speaker B effect it was just I just wanted to lay in it and just just immerse myself in yeah the beautiful
3:33Speaker B greenery and the stripe effect I mean it was plush there
3:38Speaker B there's not a plush carpet out there that looks as good as the grass at Walker Mower it
3:43Speaker A even i mean a gravel parking lot that we parked in and then they had it roped off and then you get on the turf grass immediately and it was just just amazing
3:51Speaker B was it they they have done an amazing job it I cannot give you enough adjectives, proper
3:59Speaker A To describe it.
3:59Speaker B adjectives to describe Walker Mower facilities, but it's very clean, very well maintained. The craftsmanship of their product is far beyond anything you could ever imagine. The employees there are the most kindest people and
4:18Speaker B approachable.
4:19Speaker B Yes. And we're going to talk about the happy employees later on in this podcast but everyone there including the Walker family themselves the original inventors the owners the business owners the most approachable people you'll ever meet in a business industry
4:37Speaker A Yeah. A hundred
4:39Speaker B down. I don't care what industry you're in.
4:42Speaker B There's very few people like them.
4:44Speaker A Yes, I agree 100%. But our trip started Friday or Thursday. Thursday, we left. We left the house here about 1 o'clock. We got to the Charlotte Airport, 3 o'clock. Our flight took off, what, 5,
4:56Speaker B .30 from Charlotte.
4:57Speaker A 5.30 Eastern Standard Time. It was a four-hour flight almost to... through Denver, Colorado. And so we landed there in Denver or 730 Mountain Time
5:09Speaker A hopped in a Jeep that we rented and drove an hour to the hotel, which we were, what, about 15 minutes
5:16Speaker A from Walker. We stayed at, what was the hotel?
5:19Speaker B It was Embassy Suites.
5:20Speaker A Embassy Suites, super, super nice hotel. Jennifer gets there and immediately has to do a a quiz for plant propagation in our horticulture studies
5:32Speaker B because we were two hours behind where we were and it was it was approaching 11 o'clock and my quiz was due at 1159 p.m. and I was like, I don't have time to stop and do unpack anything. I've
5:45Speaker B to sit down and do this quiz immediately.
5:49Speaker A no so i went ahead and got that squared away but we facetimed summer at the ag institute farmhouse so that was cool talking to her and her buddies but you know we we get there we we had a few hours of sleep maybe um i was in a panic you know i was like babe we got to get there it starts at 8 30 in the morning but
6:09Speaker B but actually the gates opened at eight.
6:12Speaker B was from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. It's a. It's a 12-hour event and you're probably sitting there like who can put on a 12-hour event it was the family what they what walker mowers calls the family reunion picnic and
6:24Speaker A Yeah, coming
6:25Speaker B it was a very special picnic this year because it was in honor of their 200,000th commemorative lawnmower yeah
6:33Speaker A across that factory floor. Yeah,
6:35Speaker B and we'll get into more into that here in a few but it was it how you could fill the space of 12 hours you and i questioned how we're gonna How are we going to fill that? We literally filled it because we were there at 830.
6:48Speaker A Yeah, and we got to eat good meals. We had a great lunch. We had a great dinner there. They fed us dinner with the food trucks, and then they did the night race and everything like that. But you and I had to cut out a little bit early because we had to catch a flight back home, but we were there, what, 10 hours, 10 and a half hours?
7:08Speaker B I think we... I think we left at about 7, 7.30.
7:12Speaker A Yeah, so we didn't really get to see much of the night race other than, you know, walk them over social media. But again, had an absolute blast, toured the facility. I think my favorite part, other than seeing Bob Walker himself drive the 200,000th machine out of the factory, was actually seeing the prototypes that they had had since the 70s. And to see where that machine was in 1977, 1978, and then to see the first Walker that my dad purchased in 82, just the difference in those five years was
7:47Speaker B I do believe that the first prototype was 1976. It
7:54Speaker B it was 1976 was the very first one.
7:56Speaker A That they had developed.
7:58Speaker B And I think the second one came out 78 or 79.
8:01Speaker A was it red it was red wasn't was red
8:05Speaker B have it all in footage.
8:07Speaker B We've got camera footage of everything there on the property, and we are editing that right now, working on piecemealing that together to really give you a really great video
8:17Speaker B snapshot of what we got to see and experience. So it will all be on the video coming soon to our website.
8:24Speaker A yep and what is our website again again
8:26Speaker B Our website is turftalkpodcast.com.
8:29Speaker A yes and we are just i mean hours away from having the app 100 ready to go
8:37Speaker B Oh, yeah, our tech guy who happens to be my oldest son, and I'm going to get.
8:44Speaker A Give him a lot of credit. Jared has really stepped up and stepped in for us in developing our new media for our podcast.
8:54Speaker A And so he has done an amazing job on our website, and he also has developed an app for all app stores.
9:04Speaker A I thought it was pretty cool, you know, with him being able to be a developer for Apple to be able to do that. So. So he
9:12Speaker C got to tidy
9:12Speaker C up the Google because we never use.
9:18Speaker A think it's, Android. well, it's usually Google Play is for Android devices. So he's finishing up the last little minute details to get everything ready because we want it to be sharp
9:31Speaker A So, yeah, he has had a blast. I think it's been a fun thing
9:39Speaker A it's been his brainchild and
9:41Speaker A he's, yeah.
9:42Speaker C It has. But to catch all the episodes, just go to turf. turftalkpodcast.com or you can download it on Apple, iTunes, Spotify, we're on all of those platforms. But again, back to our trip to Fort Collins, we did not sleep. Once we woke up that
10:04Speaker C morning, Friday morning, we didn't sleep until Saturday the next day, but
10:10Speaker A Yeah. We tried to sleep a little bit on the plane, but I,
10:14Speaker C it was impossible.
10:14Speaker A yeah, I think I might've got 30 minutes on each flight because there was no way I was going to be able to sleep. Um, so we went from, we got up at 6 AM that Friday morning. We didn't get into Charlotte till. 10 a.m on Saturday so we literally went what 30 hours without sleep and I was crashing by the time we got home and and I told you I said I'm going to take a shower I'm going to wash my hair we thought we had a wedding to go to and this is a whole story but
10:45Speaker C This is crazy, y'all. This is crazy.
10:47Speaker A because okay so let me let me tell the story some good friends of ours that I serve on the worship team at at our church um was getting married this weekend we this has been a big deal you know
11:01Speaker C the church, yeah.
11:01Speaker A has been like I want to make sure you're there what are you wearing like she's been all about us being there and so is Andrew and we're tickled to death to see them move forward in this next next season of their life so I thought the wedding was on Saturday because typically most weddings happen
11:17Speaker A on a Saturday
11:17Speaker A and I had their wedding invitation hanging on a refrigerator. I had their website on my phone. I mean, I just had it and I was like, okay, you know, we're good to go. When I booked our tickets, I for some reason, I don't know why, but for some reason I thought that Saturday was the day they were having their wedding at four o'clock. So when I booked the tickets. Like we. And unfortunately, we're going to have to take a red eye because I can't get us a direct flight first thing Saturday morning to get us home in time to get showered and be at the wedding.
11:48Speaker A And so there was no way and there wasn't a direct flight Friday night after the event to get home. I said the only way we're going to be able to do this is we're going to have to take a connected flight that's going to be an overnight flight. So we left Denver, Colorado at 1158 p.m.
12:05Speaker A Friday night
12:07Speaker A time which would was
12:07Speaker C have been almost
12:08Speaker A to almost 2 2 a a.m
12:09Speaker C 'clock yeah
12:10Speaker A here at home we left at 11 58 p.m which would have been 158 p.m for us at home flew to Miami got into Miami about 5 a.m or 5 30 a.m which is eastern standard time and then we had to sit there at the airport for two hours because the next flight didn't leave till eight so Eric and I got smart and thought you know So we're going to make this as comfortable as possible. So every airline has a lounge that you can go to, but you have to be certain mileage to go for free or you could buy a day pass. So we bought a day pass that would cover both flights while
12:45Speaker A we were there. we got to be able to, you know, put our feet up and sit back and relax a
12:52Speaker A little bit and brush
12:53Speaker A teeth. You could even take a shower if you want to because it had showers. So anyway, I booked this flight that was going to get us in at 10 o'clock on Saturday to give us time to drive home. You know, if we needed a 30 minute, an hour nap, we'd have time to nap and then get a shower and then hit the road and get to their wedding. So I had everything. everything laid out this is how bing bang bing bang boom this is what's gonna happen we get to Charlotte and
13:19Speaker A you asked me you was like where's the venue I said well let me look on their website because I knew it was a barn but I couldn't remember where yeah
13:25Speaker F just wanted to make sure we had plenty of time. I was looking to stop and get something to eat and stuff like that before we got home and showered and immediately had to go to a wedding.
13:33Speaker A yeah so I pull up the website and got to keep in mind Saturday was the 19th their website comes up and I see the wedding day it says September 21st and I was like what when is that wait a minute so I pull my phone out and I pull up the camera I was like babe this is their wedding is on Monday it's not today and Eric is like you need to text Andrew and find out for sure because I thought maybe
13:59Speaker A you know might
14:00Speaker F was a have typo.
14:00Speaker A a glitch or typo so So I texted Andrew. I said, Andrew, I need to know, is your wedding today or is it Monday? He said, he said, it's Monday.
14:09Speaker F then like,
14:09Speaker A was like okay so immediately apologized to Eric I said I'm sorry that I put us through all of this thinking that the wedding was today and it's not it's on Monday but the good news was we got home and it gave us the opportunity to go to bed early and rest because my worship team I had to be mic'd and on stage ready to go for rehearsal at 7 30 a.m which means I got to get up at 5 30 pretty
14:33Speaker A so thankfully we were able to get a good night's rest I know my husband's margin you know moving because I'm bad about using my hands when I talk so if you hear banging around it's me banging
14:45Speaker B it's those fingernails.
14:45Speaker A my fingers so we got good rest had a long day Sunday because I had three different services I had to sing on Sunday and then today's Monday we planted half of the 45,000 strawberry
14:59Speaker C strawberries
14:59Speaker A and they had to be ready and be at the wedding by four so it has been a whirlwind weekend but
15:06Speaker A the red eye flight is because I thought a wedding was happening on Saturday when indeed it was happening on a Monday it
15:13Speaker C and you you just don't hear of a wedding on a on a monday even our pastor was like as many weddings i've been to he said this is the first one that's been
15:22Speaker A the first first wedding on a Monday I've ever been to
15:25Speaker C heard of Friday night weddings you know Saturday I've even heard of Sunday weddings but you know a Monday but I don't know that's Monday's the best day of week anyway so
15:32Speaker C maybe that's
15:33Speaker C why that's
15:33Speaker A day it's a great day but um yeah so we uh we had quite a night I want it was quite a ride like that's the most technical
15:41Speaker C it was fun
15:42Speaker A term to use that we had quite a ride but it was great it ended up really being a great time for me and you to spend together together because that was our first time getting on an airplane together as husband and wife we you and I've never flown together
15:55Speaker C that's true. That's true. And that was fun flying with
15:58Speaker A fun I was proud of us because we were so well coordinated in our packing and our time frames you know getting there like traveling with you was easy it
16:11Speaker C Yeah, yeah.
16:13Speaker C Yeah, a backpack and a small little.
16:15Speaker A we had a carry-on I mean it's just we didn't we didn't check nothing so we didn't have to worry about luggage getting you know delayed or lost so we it was again my favorite term right now on this podcast is going to be bing bang boom um but yeah that's that's how it went this weekend and it was it was truly a blast we had a great time tired
16:38Speaker C But well worth Yeah. it, well worth it to spend all day Friday with the Walker family and the dealers, the distributors, the end users. So it was such a mix. And the one thing that that really impressed me. Not only about Walker, but it was the families that were there.
16:58Speaker C Even so many young people coming into this industry, you know, they brought their spouses, they brought their children, so many, how many baby?
17:07Speaker C uh strollers
17:09Speaker A use to count because there were so many there.
17:12Speaker A They even had a whole section that was playground for the kids. They had swings and they had the blow-up castles and the inflatables, had all that up
17:24Speaker A for the kids.
17:25Speaker C you know plays for moms and dads to change
17:28Speaker A change diapers and stuff so it was really neat but again what a fun day at Walker Moore's we like I said we got there 8 30 ish got there toured the factory we went to all the stations I think my favorite was Walker Ware because
17:45Speaker A we spent quite a few dollars there in Walker Ware but you know to get a chance to talk to Mr. Bob Walker and you know our last episode was the interview that we did at Equip Expo last year and Equip Expo is just right around the corner and and to actually talk to to Ryan you
18:08Speaker A know the president of Walker Mowers now which is Bob's nephew you know he came and talked to us and had a good conversation with him but how many employees did we talk to of
18:19Speaker C talk, I bet we probably talked to 30 employees. personally
18:23Speaker C you and I were able to have conversations with all of them we've got some some slots set up for them to do it some of them to do interviews with us particularly Ryan Walker is going to do an interview here on our podcast so stay tuned for that But just getting to have an inside view behind the scenes to see not just the business aspect of it, you know, the functionality of the business and what they're producing, but they're able to do what they do because it's the people they have working for them.
19:03Speaker C And it's not just because of the people that have working for them. It's because the walkers take care of the people that
19:10Speaker C work for them.
19:11Speaker A Yes. And it's a faith-based company.
19:14Speaker C I love that. I absolutely that that I already respected the Walker family and I respected that business just based on the craftsmanship itself. But being there on the property and seeing faith in action by the family and by the employees just. just gave me deeper respect yeah
19:38Speaker C I have I have a lot more respect for the Walker family and their company now now that we've been behind the scenes and seen how deep their faith goes and it doesn't just end with the Walker family it is their culture at their company it's the company culture and I that's priceless and I told Ryan that I was like you know the fact that you guys are are open about your faith and the fact that you're not just open but you practice it and you live it is
20:07Speaker C amazing i mean we were going through one of the areas there in the factory and one of the guys had on a christian radio station um
20:16Speaker A gospel music.
20:16Speaker C playing charity gail you know i speak the name of jesus and i was like i and he you know what he said to me he said
20:23Speaker A He said it's more peaceful over here, ain't it? I said, anytime you speak the name of Jesus, there's
20:28Speaker A peace that gets brought in. I think it's time, you know, that Christians. stand up and and be bold about their faith
20:39Speaker C Be proud of it.
20:39Speaker A yeah be proud of because it's what our company are not our company but it's what our country was founded on yeah
20:45Speaker C Yes, it's what our country needs again.
20:47Speaker A we we need to get back to the basics and get back to faith and and be true not just faith talkers but fake livers and live it you know live what you talk live what you preach and That's difficult to do sometimes. You know, life gets in the way,
21:05Speaker A I really appreciated. that aspect of the walkers and their company and even the culture they have created that culture we walked into their break room and they had bookshelves at the back of the break room that had all sorts of self-help books that were all Christian-based and I looked at you and I was like yeah
21:26Speaker C I got that one.
21:26Speaker A I got that one I got that one I got that one I had I had a bunch of the books that was displayed there and it's a library for their employees To take the books home and read and bring back for somebody else. But that really says a lot. I was impressed with that. It gave me a deeper sense of respect for sure.
21:45Speaker C Yeah. And you could feel. the peacefulness the love
21:50Speaker C yes everybody there was was happy and and again you will keep thinking of the the guy that was playing the Christian music he was just on top of the world Oh, and
22:01Speaker C and and loved to tell his story you know
22:05Speaker A and we're going to have him on the podcast, but he gave Eric and I his brief testimony. He was deep into alcohol. Hall. He was an alcoholic and
22:16Speaker A really struggled with that. And he started working for the walkers and they really push Christianity and faith. They don't push it. Let me back up. They don't push it. They live it.
22:28Speaker A And when you live it, people see that joy and they want what
22:33Speaker C want it. They
22:34Speaker A because this man was surrounded by, you know, happy people truly living their faith. he got into church and got got got his life turned around and stood right there and told me and Eric right there at the fabrication lane like yeah my life has been turned around I've quit drinking you know my marriage is happier than it's ever been because God put this job in my life and it brought me to the Lord and that that's an amazing testimony to have
23:02Speaker C Yeah, 100%. I love hearing those stories. And just so many people talking about, you know, they go into work at what, like 6.30 and they're off by 3.30 so they can be home with their kids.
23:11Speaker A Yeah, yeah. We asked one of the guys that were standing in line with us at one of the food trucks and I asked him. So what are your hours like? He said, 630 to 330 every day because they want us home with our families.
23:25Speaker A That's impressive.
23:27Speaker A That's impressive.
23:28Speaker A I will say I worked for a company doing insurance and I really appreciated them adhering to trying to give everybody a work life balance. And that's hard to do. And you can only accomplish that if your company makes that a priority. set a priority and it's obviously a huge priority at Walker Motors because the guy looked and said yeah they want us home with our families you
23:51Speaker C Yeah. They said
23:52Speaker C the kids get off the bus around 3.30. We want you guys home.
23:55Speaker C So that is just awesome. And that way, you know, moms and dads can take kids to ball practice. They can actually pick them up from school if they wanted to. They just really worked with that. But I'm wondering. wonder what the walker's work-life balance was because they were talking about working late nights in the factory and developing stuff and going outside to test it and then bring it back inside and refabricate this so i'm sure they've spent many a late nights there in the factory and and they have to have Awesome spouses and wives to support them to do that.
24:33Speaker A Yes, and you and I know as being business owners ourselves that sometimes the workload can be heavy and
24:41Speaker A the responsibility can be very daunting and truly requiring a lot of your mental space and time. One of the employees did tell us it was a number one priority that nobody worked at Walker Mowers on a Sunday.
24:59Speaker A It was shut down. Nobody's in the office. Nobody's in the factory. Didn't care if they were behind in orders. They did not do overtime on Sunday. They'll allow you to come in on Saturday, but they did never have allowed overtime on Sunday.
25:13Speaker C Because they're going to be in church.
25:14Speaker A Yeah, and I think that's respectable. so going back to your question and wonder how the family's done it well you know they're building a business and they're building a product so it was gonna a lot of time there's a lot more investment sacrifice in the beginning and then once the operations are laid out and the product is manufactured and you've got a good system running things can get a little smoother at that point not saying that hiccups won't happen along the way they will but But
25:42Speaker A Mowers has it down to a science.
25:44Speaker A But one of the boys, Ryan's brother, for some reason his name is eluding me right now. I hate when that happens. But they were talking about Friday at the picnic that many, many times they would be testing something on the mower and they would have to take it out in the yard right there at the factory and test it. And if it's not working to their, yeah,
26:05Speaker C their liking.
26:06Speaker A to the degree that they want it to work. If they turn it right back around, take it back in there, and keep doing it until they get it right.
26:11Speaker C Yeah, and that's that.
26:12Speaker A That's dedication.
26:13Speaker B That is dedication.
26:14Speaker A And so there's the owners spending late nights in the factory, in the office, but still giving their employees a work-life balance. And that's why so many people love working for them. The happiness, the joy, and employees bringing their families up to us to introduce us after we'd already talked to them in the factory.
26:34Speaker B Yeah, yeah.
26:34Speaker A And then we'd see them at the picnic and they're like, hey, y'all come here. I want to introduce you to my wife and kids. it's and so
26:39Speaker C That was such a pleasure because that's the next generation that you and I are getting to tap into that, you know, the husbands and wives and their kids, you know, those kids are the next generation. I think the cutest one I met was Tyler's daughter, the youngest one.
26:56Speaker A oh yeah they had the little
26:57Speaker A the little pink
26:57Speaker C Oh my gosh. She was such a doll baby and she, she,
27:00Speaker A what was she talking about pink or what yeah
27:02Speaker C She liked my pink purse. Yeah.
27:04Speaker C She loved my pink. person I I love getting to talk to the next generation and being a part of the smiles on their face and it was just so much fun and I enjoyed seeing these families be there together and Tyler and his family had six kids yeah
27:20Speaker A yeah and one on the way or was it five five there and one on the way or
27:25Speaker C so I think it was five there and one on the way and they're from they're distributors out of Texas yeah And they drove 14 hours to come to this with five kids. And he's like, hey, we started them out young. They know what's going to happen.
27:38Speaker C I'm like, oh, yeah, kids are very adaptable. When you train them to travel at a young age, it's nothing to them.
27:44Speaker A And he is a distributor for Walker.
27:47Speaker A So Walker has their own distributorships as some other individuals have their distributorship outside of the family and they purchase the mowers. large to sell to the dealers but his little girl what did she say about baseball
28:02Speaker C I don't remember what she was saying about. I think she plays baseball. Like she plays t-ball.
28:06Speaker A yeah but she kept saying something like they asked her what her favorite something was and she said baseball well
28:12Speaker C Her favorite sport.
28:13Speaker A okay so they did say sports
28:15Speaker A so she really knows what baseball is
28:18Speaker C Well, her dad was like, yeah, he was tickled to death that she wants to play baseball.
28:22Speaker C Yeah. I thought that was sweet. But no, that's this is why you and I go to these events. getting to know the people that make the green industry run and
28:33Speaker C and you've got to have everybody in every facet and every area that there's available in this industry to make this industry productive and profitable and you know worth working in you've got to make it happen and I really appreciated how well coordinated the walker mower facility was how organized they were um attention to detail is very important there and
29:00Speaker A Yeah, yeah
29:01Speaker C it's that is very noticeable from the from the as soon as you pull into the
29:07Speaker A party lot and
29:08Speaker B To have all been started by Bob and Dean's father, Max, like,
29:13Speaker A a garage it's
29:15Speaker A kind of like the apple story it all started in a garage yeah
29:18Speaker B and the best businesses do. So, but again, we were very thankful that we were able to go and look forward to going again next year. I think though, hopefully there's no wedding that weekend or a wedding that we think. Think it's going to happen?
29:35Speaker A Any of our friends that are younger than us that are getting married, because people our ages aren't really getting married, they're having grandbabies or their kids are getting married.
29:45Speaker A But if anybody's getting married this time next year, please make sure I have the right date.
29:53Speaker B Oh, but again, like I said, the coolest thing I saw there was the different prototypes and then the tent that they had the 25,000th machine, the 50,000th, 75, 100, and it was at every 25 years
30:09Speaker A it was every 25 produced.
30:10Speaker B and then now they pulled off the 200,000th mower, and then they had 200 commemorative mowers that were sold. sold everything was pre pre-sold they sold out nick donahue we saw him i'm a good friend up from uh connecticut a retired paramedic who runs walkers saw him there towards the end of the day and it looked like it was about to rain and i looked over and i saw nick just sitting there smiling at us and so went over and got to talk to him and meet his wife and had a good conversation with him he's an uh when you say advocate advocate listener that
30:50Speaker B you know avid avid listener that listens to us and in our former days in our last platform but you know got the information about turf talk so i loved it yeah
31:02Speaker A And we ran out of stickers and business cards, which I absolutely loved the fact that everybody wanted them.
31:09Speaker B yes yeah and
31:10Speaker A Everybody did.
31:11Speaker B we had more in the jeep but every sticker that was on my body and I was like, man, there's no way they're
31:17Speaker B going to take all
31:18Speaker B of these stickers,
31:18Speaker A and but then we
31:19Speaker B it ran was boom,
31:19Speaker B boom, boom,
31:20Speaker A was a good feeling to be able to get rid of everything because people are asking for them um another thing i noticed is in the factory bob opened the door for their um what do you got their third party distributors that distribute certain parts and functionality
31:39Speaker A of the mower they brought those companies in so it was it was kind of set up a little bit like a trade show for them
31:46Speaker A we got to walk through and talk to the different distributors that have a part in some aspect of the lawnmower that walker themselves are not producing so they outsource it um you But it just also showed that. Really, Walker Mowers doesn't outsource very much.
32:05Speaker B No, because it was very few companies,
32:07Speaker B but the ones that were there were super nice. We got to talk to all of them, you know, from the guys making the seats that made the gear boxes that,
32:16Speaker B and what was the family that was the mother, the father, the son and his wife, they, they made that gearbox too,
32:23Speaker B a drive shaft.
32:24Speaker A point or something point.
32:26Speaker B got remember. his card.
32:27Speaker B in the in there and he's like yeah we'll see you at quip expo and they kind of told us where their booth was going to be so um they wanted to jump on the on the show so that's uh that's going to be cool
32:37Speaker A He's got a pretty unique story that we want our listeners to hear.
32:41Speaker B yeah but uh again they they were able to just pull their materials right because they were like in the areas of where you The Walker employees were using those parts.
32:53Speaker B So they had a little table with a black tablecloth and they had their parts sitting on there and talked to everybody that went by. So the factory tour was
33:02Speaker B just awesome.
33:02Speaker A was. It was. They had it very well laid out for you to like follow the path through the factory.
33:09Speaker A I love the welding section because that was pretty cool to see them welding the parts that they were welding. It was just really unique to see everything from start to finish,
33:20Speaker A to see, you know, every little piece, every functionality that goes with certain parts of the mower. There were even machines, there was a couple of machines that were being ran that you could watch it manufacture certain parts of the lawnmower. But I just, I really, I love behind the scenes tours.
33:39Speaker A I always have. I like. like i my my brain set is i want to know how things work like
33:46Speaker A why why did it get how did it get to this and why did this become this i want to know all the whys behind everything um i'm not really a you know just a um what do you call it And my language barrier tonight is a little off, but
34:04Speaker B still tired.
34:05Speaker A know, I know I haven't quite caught up from the trip, but I don't take anything at face value. That's what I was trying to say. I don't. There are some things I'll take at face value, but more often than not, I'm going to ask the deeper question to find the why's behind everything. So being able to see things being made and. and you know i love the tv show um how it's made that's one of my favorite shows to watch just because that's my my way of thinking yeah
34:34Speaker B And, you know, their factory, Walker's factory was the first factory that I've ever toured.
34:39Speaker A i it was well technically it's my second factory i've toured i've been to the bmw factory in south carolina and that was pretty freaking cool to watch i'd love to take you there to see that just to see a car being manufactured but But, yeah, to see a lawnmower and something as. As perfect as a walker mower is in the body shape and the functionality of
35:04Speaker B ergonomic style,
35:04Speaker A Yes, everything,
35:05Speaker B everything.
35:06Speaker A just seeing it from start to finish, that was pretty cool. Yeah.
35:11Speaker B Yeah. But, you know, again, back to the prototypes and seeing where they had started and how they'd built that in a. like to a garage in
35:24Speaker B a garage to now a billion dollar factory you
35:28Speaker B to produce those and it took a good while to walk through that
35:32Speaker B the tour um and you know when we first walked in i was like okay so i could see like the sheet metal stuff but then like said as you progress through then you start getting to the assembly if
35:44Speaker B i worked for walker i would want to put the machine together i would want I would want to be an assembler because
35:48Speaker B there you're seeing that finished product.
35:53Speaker A It was a neat experience. It also gives you a new appreciation for the product.
35:59Speaker A You and I have a lot ahead of us with different companies that we're going to be, you know, visiting and touring and doing that kind of stuff. So it's definitely giving me a new appreciation for the companies that produce the. It's the equipment that we use every day.
36:16Speaker B Now, we walked through the factory. We got these little pieces at each station we went to and we got to build a little walker mower at the end that you've got sitting on your desk. There's one sitting behind you now. It was a cool little thing. But we were in there, in the room, pop riveting these pieces together, and we met an employee that had been there how many years?
36:42Speaker A He's the longest tenured employee to date at Walker. He was there 45 years.
36:49Speaker B 45 years. Do you happen to remember his name?
36:52Speaker A Yes, it was Mr. Hoffman.
36:54Speaker B Mr. Hoffman. Linda was his wife, and so I'm trying to think of his first name. well it's left our minds but i know mr hoffman and i remember linda hoffman because you tried finding her on facebook um but wow 45 years with the company
37:11Speaker A 45 years and his two boys still work for walker
37:14Speaker B still work for it the company yeah
37:15Speaker A became a family event and linda his wife was telling me that she she was a stay-at-home mom and
37:21Speaker B that that they paid their employees enough money that you know she could stay home and raise her boys and
37:27Speaker A now her boys are working for walker Or lower.
37:29Speaker B That's awesome.
37:30Speaker A I know it's pretty cool. That was something that I was truly impressed and we said we would talk more about the happy employees. The employees are happy there because one it's the culture.
37:43Speaker A It's the culture that's there. That culture drives joy, peace, happiness. And you see it on. the employees but not just the culture because you can create a culture but you have to maintain it Yeah, and they are maintaining that type of culture with their employees and you can see that through the tenure of these employees these employees are staying long long years um
38:10Speaker A the average person that mr hoffman told us right now is about nine years and up is what what the average tenure was when he came 45 years ago.
38:20Speaker A So these employees come and they come to stay. And the reason why they're able to come to stay is because the walkers pay them well to do their jobs. Think Colorado is a very high living expense area. And so in order to afford a family to to be able for a mom to stay home like Linda did is an amazing feat to happen in the first place
38:45Speaker A so these these employees are well taken care of and without getting into all the details of their employment practices but these employees they they are they're they're good the walkers take excellent care of them
39:00Speaker D And, you know, we were standing in line for dinner at the food trucks. and we were talking to two young boys i mean they were young men that were working for what one been there like one year
39:11Speaker A one was coming up on his first year anniversary and the other was there six years.
39:15Speaker D and they were talking about mr bob walker still walking around on a friday passing out pay stubs you know he wanted to personally walk around and give everybody their their pay stubs just just to say hey to them and say thank you sir That, that says a lot.
39:33Speaker A Well, that in and of itself, the fact that he doesn't just walk around handing out paychecks because these guys, they're all getting direct deposits.
39:40Speaker A So everything's electronic now, he said, but it's important to Mr. Walker to walk up to you, hand you your copy of your pay stub and shake your hand and tell you thank you.
39:50Speaker A That what what what CEO president owner of a company, founder of a company does that?
39:58Speaker A very many,
39:59Speaker A not very many. So I think that's a lot that could be said of any business that will take the time to. And I know some companies can't because they're so large, but I do think that's important.
40:12Speaker D Yeah. So anyway, Walker Moore recap. It was a great opportunity for us. We look forward to going back again. The one thing that I do want to remind you guys, go back and listen to episode two, which was the interview that we got to do at Equip Expo with Mr. Bob Walker. And we look forward to having Ryan here on the show. But what do we got coming up this coming weekend?
40:42Speaker A Well, I'm excited. for everything that we do because y'all are going to hear me say How excited I am about a lot of things, but this is going to be a fun event. We got invited to come to a drag race in Rockingham, North Carolina.
40:56Speaker A And HRA is hosting a drag race on Saturday, September the 26th, I believe.
41:02Speaker B That is. Yep.
41:03Speaker A Yep. And we are going to be hosted by Skag.
41:07Speaker B Yeah. So we get to hang out with the president of Skag
41:10Speaker B and their hospitality booth. who's
41:11Speaker A one of the sales reps that's newly, a newly sales manager, sales rep distributor, I guess he's more of regional.
41:21Speaker B james bottoms
41:22Speaker A Bottoms. He was our dealer at Riddle Tractor and we're happy to see that he has got an amazing opportunity with Skag. So
41:31Speaker B and he just had a major anniversary with his wife
41:33Speaker B 28 years with it close somewhere Um, but, uh, it was, it was, it's always good seeing happy people.
41:41Speaker A I love to see people thrive.
41:43Speaker A I love to see people doing well. I'm not a jealous person
41:48Speaker A no means, because instead of me being jealous, that gives me hope.
41:53Speaker A When I see someone else succeed in life, I think, okay, if they can do it, there's no reason why I can't. And I am, I'm always going to be that person to uplift you and encourage. encourage you and I'm also going to be that person to congratulate you
42:07Speaker A because I want people to be happy I want to see happiness for everybody not just for myself
42:12Speaker B yeah, and I've never understood why people Do not want to see that.
42:18Speaker B my friends succeed. I want to see people at church succeed. I want to see everybody succeed. And you know what? When one of our friends starts a business, we're going to buy from our friends. We're not going to ask for the free stuff to market for them. No, we're going to buy their stuff and then still market it for them.
42:38Speaker A I'm going to do a shameless plug here, okay? When you have a business... your friends should support your business just like any other customer and
42:49Speaker A if you want to give something to your friends at a discount or if you want to do a favor that is your call to make but I want to caution anyone who goes to a friend and expects a handout just because they have a business because what if it was your business are you going to give all your friends handouts because no you need to treat people the same same way you want people to treat you and
43:13Speaker A that's always been a pet peeve of mine I did hair for 15 years and I can't tell you how many people would come up to me oh well because you know me can I get a discount can I get a free service well can you can you use me for a training can you do use my hair for an example I'm like no
43:28Speaker B I think hair is probably one of the most. businesses that get asked that hey you
43:36Speaker B know you you just got your cosmetology license come give me a free haircut and i'll tell everybody that you
43:41Speaker B use me for training I'm like do you know how much money I put into hair school and
43:46Speaker A need any into more training.
43:47Speaker B my tools you know people think that oh it's just somebody standing there cutting hair no there's a whole science chemistry behind that I had to learn physiology and anatomy yeah
43:57Speaker A It's the same thing with turf grass, babe.
43:59Speaker B it's I I'm a lot of times I'm still shocked at people thinking just because I did hair that you know it should have been a freebie and I'm like like no my education costs
44:09Speaker A Yeah, two years
44:10Speaker B a lot I got a two-year degree I didn't just get a cosmetology certificate I got a degree in small business and cosmetology I worked my tail off and I have spent hours upon hours upon hours keeping my licensure and staying up to date on all the the new things that happen and it's the same way in the green industry you guys have to keep your credits up you've got to keep your license up today and you got to You got to stay up to date on all the new
44:36Speaker B fangled things that are happening and all the new things that are coming up and you just got to stay you got to stay current and relative
44:44Speaker B and people think you know I think jobber has a quote that I've always appreciated you know you're not paying for my time you're paying for my experience and for my ability to do what I do and if it takes me 25 minutes hey that's That's because I'm really
45:00Speaker B experienced.
45:00Speaker A because I've got 10 years of experience learning how to do this job in
45:04Speaker A minutes. Yeah.
45:05Speaker B So I think, you know, that's my little shameless PR plug there for businesses out there who feel a little If taken advantage
45:13Speaker A you want Jennifer to give you a free haircut, just call her.
45:15Speaker B No, no, Jennifer's out of the hair business now. I'm in
45:18Speaker A cut her husband's hair.
45:20Speaker A We won't let her.
45:21Speaker B no, no, he won't let me cut his hair.
45:23Speaker A So, but anyway, thanks to Eric Allen, our barber, takes
45:27Speaker A and the boys.
45:28Speaker A Yep. But anyway, guys, thanks for listening tomorrow. You know, you will hear this podcast. It'll be released on the 22nd, which is our oldest girl's birthday.
45:37Speaker A So happy birthday,
45:38Speaker B birthday to Sierra she's the oldest of the five
45:41Speaker A Yeah, and I think it's cool that her boyfriend has the exact same birthday.
45:44Speaker B they do so we've got to make sure we wish Luke happy
45:47Speaker A Happy birthday as well. NC State graduate. graduate Yeah, so but
45:51Speaker A uh they are they're going to have dinner together tomorrow night i think that's super sweet so but anyway guys look for us on the uh episode tomorrow that we're releasing and then also on thursday and we will have fun and check us out on all the social media uh jennifer's at the turf vet on all the social media sites i'm a turf teacher and then of course check out turf talk now for all the information about this This podcast so anything else you want to say to our listeners babe before we call it a night
46:20Speaker B I just want to tell each and every one of you, thank you for supporting Eric and I in this venture of our new podcasting platform. Please support us by listening. You can also support us by following us on all of our social media.
46:37Speaker B download download the podcast things on your phone if you don't have Spotify if you don't have Apple podcasting make sure you follow us on those platforms and listen and that's the way you could show your appreciation because we really truly appreciate your time and effort in supporting what we're doing and that is reaching this industry giving real education
47:02Speaker C Real experience.
47:04Speaker D It's real talk,
47:05Speaker D real everything.
47:07Speaker B find us at TurfTalkPodcast.com on all the social media is Turf Talk Now is the right. plug that you can use to find any of us. You can follow us on all social media platforms. So please support us. We would truly, truly appreciate that.
47:21Speaker D That's right, guys. And my name is Eric Jones, better known as the turf teacher. I will see you in the next lecture.
47:26Speaker B And I'm Jennifer Jones known as the Turfette. and I will see you at the next event.
47:31Speaker D See you guys.
47:32Speaker B Thanks for joining us today on Turf
47:35Speaker D hope today's conversation gave you something useful and worth sharing.
47:38Speaker B Follow, subscribe, or visit us at turftalkpodcast.com for more episodes and updates. I'm Jennifer the Turfette Jones.
47:46Speaker D And I'm Eric the Turf Teacher Jones.
47:50Speaker B the Green Green Industry
47:51Speaker B Until next time,
47:52Speaker D Keep learning and keep growing and keep... Keep talking turf.
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