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Turf Talk Ep. 7 | Talking Turf with Jason Shanabarger of Toro

Listen here while the transcript, chapters, and approved resources remain available below.

Turf Talk Podcast

Turf Talk Ep. 7 | Talking Turf with Jason Shanabarger of Toro

Turf Talk
Turf Talk PodcastReal conversations for the Green Industry
00:27:24PodcastWaterpalooza 2026 · Toro Precision Irrigation · Unique Lighting Systems · Road life and trade shows · Carolina Irrigation Association · South Carolina Green Industry Association · Horticulture and landscape construction career path · Faith and daily devotional habits · Irrigation technology trends and drought restrictions · Strawberry irrigation and Toro AG

Turf Talk catches up with Jason Shanabarger of Toro at Waterpalooza for a conversation with one of the people behind the green industry. Join us for this on-location interview as we bring the voices and connections of Waterpalooza to our listeners. Whether you work in irrigation, landscaping, or turf management, tune in and get to know Jason and his role at Toro. 🎙️ Real Conversations. Real Education. Real Results. #TurfTalk #TurfTeacher #Toro #Waterpalooza #Irrigation #GreenIndustry

Episode summary

Live from Waterpalooza 2026, Eric and Jennifer Jones talk with Jason Shanabarger of Toro about his role in precision irrigation and unique lighting, life on the road, trade shows, industry involvement, faith, family, and what’s next in irrigation technology.

Explore the available chapters, transcript, and reference notes below. Automated notes can contain errors; the recording is the primary source.

Chapter 01

Introducing Jason Shanabarger

Eric and Jennifer welcome Jason from Toro and set up the live interview at Waterpalooza 2026.

Chapter 02

Road Warrior Sales Life

Jason explains his district sales territory, travel schedule, mileage, and carrying equipment for demonstrations.

Chapter 03

Trade Show Pace and Daily Rhythm

The conversation turns to early mornings, nighttime demos, hotel life, and working long event days.

Chapter 04

Industry Leadership and Events

Jason shares his roles with the Carolina Irrigation Association and South Carolina Green Industry Association, plus upcoming travel to field day and H&A.

Chapter 05

How He Entered Horticulture

Jason расскаles his early start in outdoor classes, vocational horticulture, college at Ohio State, and landscape construction studies.

Chapter 06

Toro Career and Family Travel

He discusses nearly 11 years with Toro, occasional travel with his wife, and a few distributor trips.

Chapter 07

Toro Business and Strawberry Irrigation

Jason explains Toro’s precision irrigation focus, including Toro Ag drip tubing for strawberry and blueberry fields.

Chapter 08

Toro History and Innovation

The group talks about Toro’s age, legacy products, and early irrigation innovations like swing pipe and the first impact sprinkler.

Chapter 09

What Drives Him

Jason says faith, family, and loving his job are his main motivators, and he shares his daily devotional habit.

Chapter 10

Rapid Fire and Personal Favorites

They cover business advice, irrigation trends, drought restrictions, favorites like mountains, Ford, dogs, steak, Maui, music, and his first paying job.

Chapter 11

Bucket List and Favorite Projects

Jason names Australia and the Great Barrier Reef as a bucket-list trip and tells the story of a tiny-house lighting project featured on PBS Garden Smart.

Read the episodeFull transcript

Turf Talk Ep. 7 | Talking Turf with Jason Shanabarger of Toro: 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.

0:01

Speaker A From the fields that feed America to the landscapes that keep it all growing, welcome to Turf Talk.

0:05

Speaker B I'm Jennifer the Turfette Jones.

0:07

Speaker A And I'm Eric the Turf Teacher Jones.

0:08

Speaker B Together we

0:09

Speaker A Together, we

0:10

Speaker B are are the Green

0:10

Speaker A the Green Industry Couple.

0:11

Speaker B Bringing you real conversations, practical education, and firsthand experience.

0:16

Speaker A And from the farm and the job site to the classroom and the biggest trade shows in the country.

0:20

Speaker B So settle in

0:21

Speaker A Turn

0:22

Speaker B and

0:22

Speaker A it up.

0:22

Speaker B let's talk turf.

0:23

Speaker A Welcome to Turf Talk. Get today's conversation started. Hey everyone, my name is Eric Jones, better known as the Turf Teacher. I'm here with my lovely bride, the Turfette Jennifer Jones, and we are live at Waterpalooza 2026, and we are with the Mr. Jason Shanabarger with Toro. Should I say Toro or do you go by unique lighting there,

0:43

Speaker C No,

0:44

Speaker A would it?

0:44

Speaker C we are the Toro company or the Toro Precision Irrigation business.

0:48

Speaker A Okay.

0:49

Speaker C So yeah, Jason Schanberger with the Toro company. I am the district sales manager for... For North Carolina, Tennessee, and North Georgia, selling irrigation of Toro, Aerotrol irrigation, and unique lighting systems products.

1:04

Speaker A So you're on the road quite a bit just

1:06

Speaker C Just a bit.

1:07

Speaker A just a He's bit

1:08

Speaker B what I call a road warrior.

1:10

Speaker C Yeah.

1:10

Speaker B Yeah.

1:11

Speaker C I typically average about 40 to... Well, this year I did 45,000 miles.

1:18

Speaker A Wow.

1:18

Speaker C So, you

1:19

Speaker A On

1:19

Speaker C know,

1:19

Speaker A a company

1:19

Speaker C yes.

1:20

Speaker A vehicle? Wow.

1:20

Speaker C So somewhere between 45,000 and 50,000 miles annually is what I do. So,

1:26

Speaker A But when

1:27

Speaker C oh it's fun.

1:27

Speaker A you're in that truck driving, you need to be listening to Turf Talk Podcast.

1:31

Speaker C yeah, absolutely.

1:33

Speaker B I was going to say, you probably are platinum or diamond in a hotel chain somewhere.

1:38

Speaker C Platinum with Marriott and I was diamond with Hilton. I've lost that because I've spent more times at Marriott,

1:46

Speaker B Yeah,

1:46

Speaker C but

1:46

Speaker B yeah.

1:46

Speaker C yeah.

1:46

Speaker B You kind of pick and choose at that point.

1:48

Speaker C But I'm lifetime platinum with Marriott. So yeah, I've stayed at a few hotels over the years.

1:53

Speaker B So do you. So do you mostly drive or do you drive and fly?

1:56

Speaker C mostly drive yeah

1:57

Speaker B Yeah.

1:57

Speaker C carrying equipment for doing nighttime demonstrations and carrying samples of product I typically have about 800 to 900 pounds of gear in the back of my truck and

2:10

Speaker B Yeah, it's a lot.

2:11

Speaker C it's just so much easier for me to fly or me to drive than to try to fly

2:16

Speaker B Yeah.

2:18

Speaker C Really the only time I fly is if I'm coming in for a short education event Mm or

2:23

Speaker B -hmm.

2:23

Speaker C I can carry my laptop and, you

2:25

Speaker A And then, yeah.

2:26

Speaker C know, do one overnight and call it done. Like last time I went to Memphis, I flew out there.

2:34

Speaker A Oh, that's a drive.

2:35

Speaker C Yeah,

2:35

Speaker A Yeah.

2:35

Speaker C 10

2:36

Speaker A Yeah.

2:36

Speaker C and a half hours from one way from my house.

2:38

Speaker B Yeah.

2:39

Speaker C So, yeah, you

2:40

Speaker B Yeah.

2:40

Speaker C know, flying out there made made sense, but I don't get out to Memphis anymore. It's not part of my territory any longer. So now everything's within Nashville.

2:54

Speaker A That side of Nashville is the farthest that I go now. And that's only six and a half to seven hour drive, so it's

3:00

Speaker B Yeah,

3:00

Speaker A not terrible.

3:00

Speaker B that's not. Well, you mentioned nighttime demonstrations. So does the company give you some time off if you're going to work all day and then do a nighttime demonstration?

3:10

Speaker A Oh, no,

3:11

Speaker B All right.

3:11

Speaker A I'm pretty

3:12

Speaker B You're 24 hours a day?

3:13

Speaker A well, I'm not 24, but yeah,

3:16

Speaker C 18.

3:16

Speaker A I'm usually up, you know, 536 o'clock in the morning. And I'm a morning guy, so I'll get up and get on the computer and I'm usually getting phone calls by 7, 7.15. And then if I go do a nighttime demonstration, you know, sometimes during the summertime, I'm not leaving the house till 10, 10.30 at night, you know, getting to the hotel. Trying to wind down by 11, 11.30, you know, but

3:45

Speaker B It sounds like don't wish.

3:46

Speaker D You know all about

3:47

Speaker A yeah,

3:47

Speaker D that.

3:47

Speaker A you know, but last night I did a demo and, you know, because of daylight savings time, I was back in the hotel by. nine-ish

3:58

Speaker B Okay.

3:58

Speaker A but

3:59

Speaker E It's

3:59

Speaker A which

3:59

Speaker E not bad.

3:59

Speaker A wasn't terrible

4:00

Speaker B Yeah.

4:00

Speaker A but then I was here at 7 15 this morning so

4:03

Speaker E Yeah.

4:03

Speaker A yeah it's just part

4:05

Speaker E It

4:05

Speaker A of it you know is. you go

4:06

Speaker E It's that trade show life.

4:08

Speaker A yeah you go on five hours of sleep and you know you're good

4:10

Speaker E Yeah.

4:10

Speaker A and

4:11

Speaker E Yeah.

4:11

Speaker B then coffee it up.

4:14

Speaker E Coffee

4:14

Speaker A and

4:15

Speaker E and then energy

4:15

Speaker A I don't even drink

4:15

Speaker E drink.

4:15

Speaker A coffee

4:16

Speaker B You

4:16

Speaker A nope

4:16

Speaker B don't drink coffee?

4:16

Speaker E You don't? Wow.

4:17

Speaker B Wow. Wow.

4:18

Speaker E I picked up that bad habit when I was in hair school almost 15 years ago. I had two little boys. boys under the age of six in hair school full-time and I got my associate's degree so I was doing more than just hair school and I started drinking coffee and I haven't put it down since

4:34

Speaker B No, no, no. Anyway, well, tell us your involvement. You're wearing one of the Carolinas Irrigation Association shirts.

4:41

Speaker A Yes. Yep.

4:42

Speaker B So.

4:42

Speaker A So I am current vice president of the Carolina Irrigation Association. Been a part of this organization for the last. Probably five or six years.

4:51

Speaker B Yeah.

4:53

Speaker A Great organization to be a part of, and this is just one of the boards that I sit on, but it's

4:59

Speaker B Well,

4:59

Speaker A a fun tell one.

4:59

Speaker B us the other board.

5:00

Speaker A So I'm current president of South Carolina Green Industry Association, so I'll be leaving Waterpalooza here shortly and driving down to Camden, South Carolina to participate in our fall field day that's at Modern Turf in Dalzell, South Carolina. tomorrow morning and then

5:20

Speaker B Pretty

5:21

Speaker A turn

5:21

Speaker B early.

5:21

Speaker A yeah so I'll be I'll be there at seven o'clock tomorrow morning as well and then turn it and burn and get back to Charlotte and start it all over again next week

5:31

Speaker B Well,

5:31

Speaker A so

5:32

Speaker E Yeah.

5:32

Speaker B are you going anywhere between now and Expo or do you get some time at home?

5:39

Speaker A next week taking a couple days off And then work in the Charlotte market and stay in local and

5:45

Speaker B Okay.

5:46

Speaker A then I'll head up to Louisville. up there and be up there for the week for H&A. It's a very exciting time and

5:54

Speaker B It is.

5:55

Speaker A you know always enjoy being a part of the trade shows and meeting people and you

6:00

Speaker C Mm hmm.

6:01

Speaker A know showing off product is great but networking

6:03

Speaker B It's networking.

6:04

Speaker A and

6:04

Speaker B Yes.

6:05

Speaker A meeting the people is fantastic.

6:06

Speaker C Yeah,

6:07

Speaker B Yeah.

6:07

Speaker C that's the best part, in my opinion.

6:08

Speaker B Yeah.

6:08

Speaker C Yeah.

6:09

Speaker B And the green industry is. I mean, hold some of the best people in the world.

6:12

Speaker A Oh, absolutely.

6:13

Speaker B It's

6:14

Speaker A And I've

6:14

Speaker B just,

6:14

Speaker A grown up in this industry. This is actually my 41st year in the horticulture industry.

6:20

Speaker C Wow.

6:21

Speaker A So started as a young teenager and started taking classes in eighth grade and it was called outdoor adventures and it was just a half year class that was offered. and was a landscape class basically and

6:38

Speaker B Yeah, but they called it outdoor ventures.

6:40

Speaker A they called it outdoor

6:41

Speaker B That's

6:41

Speaker A adventures

6:41

Speaker B cool.

6:41

Speaker A and

6:41

Speaker C That

6:41

Speaker A I was like oh that sounds intriguing and so then my freshman year it was offered as a full year class took it we built a greenhouse onto the classroom this was down in South Carolina so we built a nature trail around the school and then through the marsh area and then we would wood burn signs. for to identify trees

7:04

Speaker D Okay.

7:04

Speaker A and stuff around the school and around the nature trail and so that's really what got me into the business but you know I started pushing a lawnmower at about 12 years old so yeah

7:16

Speaker D Yeah,

7:16

Speaker C you've had an early start.

7:17

Speaker A but you know growing up in this business and and going through vocational horticulture in high school and then on to college and Majored in landscape construction. It's just it's been in my blood and

7:30

Speaker B Okay.

7:30

Speaker A it's been something I've had a passion for

7:33

Speaker B So landscape construction. Was it university?

7:36

Speaker A At the Ohio State University.

7:37

Speaker B Okay. So you went to the Ohio State, which is one of the very few schools that has a bachelor's of landscape construction.

7:46

Speaker A Yes.

7:46

Speaker B I think Mississippi State has one and then Penn State.

7:50

Speaker A Yes.

7:50

Speaker B So that's probably. I mean, that's the only three that I know that has landscape construction as a degree.

7:56

Speaker A Yeah.

7:56

Speaker B That's awesome, man.

7:57

Speaker A Yeah.

7:57

Speaker B That is so cool.

7:57

Speaker A So yeah, so it's been fun and I've been with the Toro company now almost 11 years and been fantastic and I love my company. I love the travel. I love, you know, the products that we sell and so it just makes the job a whole lot easier.

8:16

Speaker B Yeah.

8:17

Speaker C Yeah.

8:17

Speaker B oh that's cool now being on the road like that does your wife get to go with you anytime or yeah

8:22

Speaker A Once in a blue moon, she works full-time too, so she's full-time at Wells Fargo, and

8:28

Speaker B okay

8:28

Speaker A so sometimes our schedules don't always jive where she can travel with me, but once in a while she gets the opportunity

8:36

Speaker B gets

8:36

Speaker A to.

8:36

Speaker B the opportunity to cool

8:38

Speaker C Does Toro ever send you anywhere fun just for fun?

8:45

Speaker A I've been on a couple of fun trips. Obviously, going to Louisville for H&As

8:50

Speaker B Yeah.

8:50

Speaker A is a lot of fun. So. Through one of my distributors a couple years ago, my wife and I had the opportunity to go on a contractor trip with them to Mexico.

9:04

Speaker C Okay.

9:04

Speaker D Nice.

9:04

Speaker A So that was a four day trip to Mexico

9:06

Speaker D Yeah.

9:07

Speaker A and just her and I, that was a fantastic experience. A few years ago with another distributor, we went down to Destin, Florida for a couple days,

9:17

Speaker D That's a pretty area.

9:18

Speaker A sat on the gulf.

9:19

Speaker D Yeah.

9:21

Speaker A So, yeah, we've done a couple of things like that through,

9:23

Speaker E Good,

9:23

Speaker A you

9:24

Speaker E good.

9:24

Speaker A know, various contractor distributor programs.

9:27

Speaker F Yeah.

9:28

Speaker A So, you know, and then Toro, we usually have our annual sales meeting out in California. So I'll fly out there once a year and be with all of our team members and stuff there.

9:38

Speaker G Which is great to be around, you know, your teammates because it encourages you to me when I was always around people that I worked with that I didn't get to see at all the time when they would bring us all in it, whether it was on a call or bring us in for an event, it was very reviving to

9:56

Speaker A Yeah.

9:57

Speaker G be around everybody that.

9:58

Speaker A Oh, absolutely.

9:58

Speaker G Yeah.

9:59

Speaker A Yeah.

9:59

Speaker G Yeah.

10:00

Speaker A And so there's about. 65 of us that come in from all over the country and Canada so when we get together it's a good time and

10:12

Speaker G I bet it is.

10:12

Speaker A because we're the precision irrigation business it's Toro Ag, Toro Irrigation, Unique Lighting, and last year we had Toro Golf in there as well. So we were all together at one time.

10:28

Speaker H So what does Toro AG do? Is that more irrigation or

10:32

Speaker A It's

10:32

Speaker H is that it

10:32

Speaker A irrigation.

10:33

Speaker H is

10:33

Speaker A Yeah.

10:33

Speaker H irrigation?

10:33

Speaker A So drip tubes for like strawberry fields and blueberry fields

10:37

Speaker G we

10:38

Speaker A and

10:38

Speaker G may be utilizing Toro

10:39

Speaker H We did because remember on the back of the Kubota, I was like, look, baby, we're using Toro.

10:43

Speaker G that's right yeah

10:44

Speaker H Yeah.

10:45

Speaker A Awesome.

10:45

Speaker G we did yeah

10:46

Speaker A Awesome.

10:46

Speaker H We use probably miles of it.

10:48

Speaker A Oh yeah. The, the, the blue stripe tubing

10:50

Speaker G that's

10:51

Speaker A is.

10:51

Speaker G it that's

10:51

Speaker A Yeah.

10:52

Speaker G what we got comes on the big white rolls

10:54

Speaker A Yep. We

10:55

Speaker I Yeah.

10:56

Speaker A sell a lot of that,

10:58

Speaker H Yeah.

10:58

Speaker A like millions of feet a year in that product.

11:03

Speaker G How many feet did we use this year? Do you remember?

11:06

Speaker H uh well we could go back and we'll i bet brent brent's got it wrote down in a book where we kept the length of our rows how many rows we had that's underneath the plastic and then the the drip tubing that connects

11:20

Speaker G Yeah,

11:21

Speaker H it

11:21

Speaker G yeah,

11:21

Speaker H to to

11:21

Speaker G yeah.

11:22

Speaker H the to the bigger two inch

11:23

Speaker A Yep.

11:23

Speaker H so yeah there's a lot of toro uh um packaging and stuff that's that's

11:29

Speaker A Oh,

11:30

Speaker H yeah. backed up at the shop now that we

11:31

Speaker A Yeah, well,

11:32

Speaker G Yep. So we, we benefited toward a little bit this year with our strawberry farm.

11:36

Speaker A we certainly appreciate that.

11:37

Speaker G Yeah, of course.

11:39

Speaker A Yeah, we're definitely big in that industry and a lot in Mexico, a lot in Florida, Southern California, but

11:47

Speaker B Big strawberry farm places.

11:48

Speaker A all across the United States and Canada, we do a lot of that.

11:54

Speaker C cool it's um you know ever since we've been studying it we've been in strawberries for i don't know how many close to 20 years now and getting close to it but my facebook feed is nothing but strawberry farms and

12:08

Speaker A Mm-hmm.

12:08

Speaker C so i'm sitting there scrolling through it and i see all this stuff going on south of us like in mexico and they do it a little different but man their their systems look perfect yes

12:19

Speaker D Very efficient.

12:20

Speaker C and they plan them all by hand

12:22

Speaker A Oh,

12:22

Speaker C like

12:22

Speaker D Yeah.

12:22

Speaker A yeah. Yeah.

12:23

Speaker C it's they got the puncher and then there's just guys out there with with bare root root i mean just popping them in and i'm like those dudes go home with the biggest back ache

12:32

Speaker E I'm sure they do.

12:33

Speaker C ever

12:34

Speaker E Yeah.

12:34

Speaker C so i just you know you know what it's like for us with with with the three acres we have and how uh and how how that back hurts at the end of the day

12:45

Speaker A Oh, yeah. Well, when they come ready for harvest,

12:47

Speaker C you

12:48

Speaker A you got to get out got there and pick

12:50

Speaker E to go.

12:50

Speaker A it.

12:50

Speaker C yeah

12:50

Speaker A Yeah. I mean, yeah.

12:51

Speaker E Got to go or it's going to rot. It's one or the other.

12:53

Speaker C yeah

12:53

Speaker E Yeah.

12:53

Speaker C oh my goodness well so there's toro ag there's toro irrigation which is mainly residential and

12:59

Speaker A res camp resident and commercial golf

13:02

Speaker C commercial and then there's uh the toro um

13:06

Speaker A Which is, you know, we're all on the same team,

13:09

Speaker C But

13:09

Speaker A but the

13:09

Speaker C yeah,

13:09

Speaker A golf irrigation business

13:10

Speaker C is okay.

13:11

Speaker A and then, you know, the Toro equipment side is a whole other side.

13:15

Speaker C Yeah.

13:17

Speaker A And then we've got residential sector in that and golf

13:21

Speaker C Yeah.

13:21

Speaker A sector in that, sports fields, you know. So yeah, the Toro company has 13.

13:27

Speaker C How old is the Toro company?

13:30

Speaker A So we have 13 entities, but there's. We're 111 or 112 years old this year.

13:38

Speaker C Okay.

13:38

Speaker E Wow

13:39

Speaker A So we

13:40

Speaker C Now, would it be considered one of the first irrigation companies, producers?

13:43

Speaker A are,

13:43

Speaker C You

13:44

Speaker A yes.

13:44

Speaker C are the oldest irrigation manufacturer that

13:48

Speaker A Yeah,

13:48

Speaker C there is.

13:48

Speaker A there's a lot of products that have come from the Toro company that were first.

13:54

Speaker C Yeah.

13:55

Speaker A Swing pipe, the first impact sprinkler. several things but you know we have a lot of patents on our walls from from

14:06

Speaker E I

14:06

Speaker A those

14:07

Speaker E bet

14:07

Speaker A early

14:07

Speaker E so.

14:07

Speaker A years asia products so

14:09

Speaker C So they

14:09

Speaker A you know and it's funny so some of the competitors came from toro and you know then had to

14:20

Speaker C branched

14:20

Speaker A change things up

14:20

Speaker C off didn't

14:20

Speaker A and

14:21

Speaker C they

14:21

Speaker A yeah so you

14:23

Speaker E Kind of sounds like Dodge. They worked for Ford and then they. Went and created Dodge, which is now Ram,

14:30

Speaker A Yeah.

14:30

Speaker E but

14:31

Speaker C Wow.

14:31

Speaker E yeah, same situation.

14:32

Speaker A Yeah. Yeah.

14:35

Speaker B unreal unreal so you've been in the industry 41 years you said

14:38

Speaker A Yes,

14:38

Speaker B yep

14:39

Speaker A sir.

14:39

Speaker B and how many more you got to go before you think you might retire are you going to be like me and just work till the day good

14:44

Speaker A I love

14:45

Speaker B lord takes you home amen

14:47

Speaker A what I do and I have so much fun with it. that I hope to continue going as long as I possibly can,

14:54

Speaker B Yeah.

14:54

Speaker A you

14:56

Speaker B This industry fuels

14:57

Speaker A know,

14:57

Speaker B you. And I think that's what you probably need to understand with me. It's it's. You ask everybody, what is your energy? It's my work.

15:06

Speaker A Sure.

15:06

Speaker B It's the green industry as a whole that I just cannot get enough of.

15:11

Speaker A Oh, yeah. I mean, I have a distributor down in Pineville that one of the guys on the counter there, he works part time now, but he's 90 years old and

15:20

Speaker B 90.

15:21

Speaker A he's still on the counter three days a week and still get it.

15:24

Speaker B And can you imagine the knowledge between those ears?

15:27

Speaker C Oh, I know.

15:27

Speaker D No.

15:27

Speaker A it's absolutely amazing you

15:29

Speaker B Yeah.

15:29

Speaker A know and um but he said he tried to retire and and he got bored and and he

15:34

Speaker B Come back.

15:35

Speaker A came back to work and you know I think that's the way I would be too is is that I would you know do all my projects do all my honeydew list and and I'd be bored and I need something to do so um you know this is this is in my blood it's what I've done it's what I know and it's where I'll die.

15:54

Speaker B So when you fall and get a boo-boo, do you bleed green or is it still red?

16:00

Speaker A Well, I bleed Toro Red, you know, come on.

16:02

Speaker B That's right. That's right. Well, sweetie, you got some rapid fire questions you want to ask Mr.

16:08

Speaker E yeah so

16:08

Speaker B Jason.

16:08

Speaker E the first question i do want to ask is not necessarily rapid fire but you would ask this question to him or talked about a minute ago Two questions. First one is going to be, what's the one thing that drives you or energizes you? It could be a routine. It could be a song. It could just be something that you do. I mean, what's the one thing that you could think of that drives you?

16:31

Speaker A Well. Um, two years ago I found God again and,

16:35

Speaker B Amen.

16:36

Speaker E That's awesome.

16:37

Speaker A so God drives me, uh, God gets me up every day and, uh, you know, I'm fortunate to be living in his kingdom and, and, uh, being able to celebrate life and, uh, you know, that, that's the main thing, but it's just my family is,

16:57

Speaker E Yeah.

16:57

Speaker A you know. is immediately after that and you know third would be my love for my job so

17:02

Speaker E Yeah, I like it. I like it. What is one thing? It can't be your cell phone. It can't be your laptop. Not necessarily work related, but what's one thing that you don't leave home without?

17:17

Speaker A My daily devotional guide that

17:18

Speaker E I love it.

17:19

Speaker B Yes.

17:20

Speaker E I love it.

17:21

Speaker B Yes.

17:22

Speaker E Good

17:22

Speaker A my,

17:22

Speaker E answers.

17:22

Speaker A that my wife gave me and yeah,

17:25

Speaker E Yeah.

17:25

Speaker A it goes with me everywhere. like that.

17:28

Speaker B Well,

17:29

Speaker A Eric does that. He carries a devotional with him everywhere.

17:32

Speaker B you know, we met you down here last year and we've seen you at Expo, but it was at Water Symposium and I asked you about the bracelets. I think it was on the way home or when we got home, I had to go. I said, sweetie, I want some Jason bracelets. And

17:47

Speaker C That's awesome.

17:47

Speaker B the one broke

17:49

Speaker A He

17:49

Speaker B the other

17:49

Speaker A had

17:49

Speaker B day.

17:49

Speaker A a beaded one similar to yours and it broke

17:51

Speaker C Yeah,

17:51

Speaker A the other

17:52

Speaker C it broke.

17:52

Speaker A night, so we're going to have to get him another one.

17:54

Speaker C Oh,

17:54

Speaker A Yeah, but you inspired that for him,

17:57

Speaker C that's

17:57

Speaker A so yeah.

17:57

Speaker C awesome. Well, my wife got me both of these bracelets and I wear them every day. So, you know, this first one is Morse code of 1 Corinthians 16, 13. Um, and then the one with the cross,

18:12

Speaker A I

18:12

Speaker C uh,

18:13

Speaker A like it.

18:13

Speaker C I wear them every single day and they're, they're a part of my life,

18:16

Speaker B Yeah,

18:16

Speaker C uh,

18:17

Speaker B yeah

18:17

Speaker C you know, and just as a reminder that God's always with me.

18:21

Speaker A I love that. I love that.

18:23

Speaker B So, and do thank you for sharing your faith. Like so many people I think are, they feel restricted or they feel like they can't talk about it. But Jennifer and I have made it a point that God is first and foremost in

18:35

Speaker C Absolutely.

18:36

Speaker B our business, in our life, in everything we do. And we're not ashamed to stand up and scream it.

18:41

Speaker C No.

18:41

Speaker B So, yeah,

18:42

Speaker A no

18:42

Speaker B we love

18:43

Speaker A and

18:43

Speaker B it.

18:43

Speaker A we need more of that today we need to see a lot more of that so here is going to be your rapid fire Our questions.

18:50

Speaker B Okay.

18:50

Speaker A What's the best business advice you've ever received?

18:55

Speaker C Best business advice. Wow. Stay focused. Don't overextend.

19:04

Speaker A That's a good one.

19:05

Speaker B Yeah.

19:05

Speaker A That's a good one. Worst business advice you've ever received.

19:14

Speaker C Let somebody else handle it.

19:18

Speaker B You

19:18

Speaker C That

19:18

Speaker B can't do that

19:18

Speaker C and always

19:18

Speaker B work

19:19

Speaker C work.

19:19

Speaker B that work and

19:19

Speaker A Yeah.

19:20

Speaker C unless you have good people then

19:24

Speaker B that's hit or miss.

19:26

Speaker A What's the next big thing in irrigation?

19:33

Speaker C Wi-Fi controllers is big right now. Eventually I'm sure that there'll probably be some solar stuff. you know coming down the pipe but who knows that

19:46

Speaker A Yeah.

19:46

Speaker C you know the irrigation business is ever evolving for sure as

19:50

Speaker A Yeah.

19:51

Speaker C as most industries are but uh you know there's

19:55

Speaker A Yeah.

19:55

Speaker C there's so much technology that can happen very quickly

20:00

Speaker A So what's the biggest challenge that's facing the irrigation industry that you've seen?

20:08

Speaker C drought restrictions you

20:09

Speaker A Yeah, we've heard a lot of that today.

20:12

Speaker D Yeah.

20:12

Speaker C know

20:12

Speaker A I could see that.

20:13

Speaker C being able to control the landscape you know irrigation when municipalities are

20:23

Speaker A shutting us down okay

20:23

Speaker B yeah that's true yeah I can see that being an issue okay so these are going to be some fun ones okay

20:29

Speaker A early

20:29

Speaker B early bird or night owl

20:31

Speaker A bird by far if

20:33

Speaker B all right I already know the answer to this but I'm asking anyway coffee sweet tea or energy drink

20:40

Speaker A i had to do any of them it's sweet tea but My drink usually in the morning is water or an orange juice.

20:46

Speaker B There you go. There you go. Beach or mountains?

20:49

Speaker A Mountains all the way.

20:51

Speaker B Ford, Chevy, Ram, or Toyota?

20:54

Speaker A I'm a Ford guy.

20:55

Speaker B Are you a Ford guy?

20:56

Speaker A I'm a Ford guy.

20:57

Speaker B Dogs or cats?

20:58

Speaker A Definitely dogs.

20:59

Speaker B Dogs. Steak or seafood?

21:02

Speaker A Definitely a steak.

21:03

Speaker B Got it. Favorite vacation spot?

21:07

Speaker A Oh, wow. Maui, Hawaii.

21:11

Speaker B Oh, you totally hit my favorite place in the world. I love Maui.

21:16

Speaker A Yeah,

21:16

Speaker B I, yeah,

21:17

Speaker A although, I mean, get me a cabin up in the mountains for a week and I'm good to go too,

21:23

Speaker B about equal.

21:23

Speaker A but just

21:24

Speaker B Yeah, about equal.

21:25

Speaker A the scenery. You know, and the terrain of Maui, the fact that you have the tropical rainforest, you have the desert, you have, you know, all the microclimates around that island is just, it's absolutely amazing.

21:42

Speaker B Eric has never been and I told him we are going to go because I've been several times and I want to take him it's just you it's it's like going to the Grand Canyon you could talk about it all day but until you go and see it for yourself elf it

21:54

Speaker A Yeah. You just don't know. Do you?

21:55

Speaker B don't do it justice

21:56

Speaker A Yeah.

21:56

Speaker B favorite

21:56

Speaker A For sure.

21:57

Speaker B music while you're working

22:03

Speaker A Depends on the day, but my wife has put together. a spiritual playmix that's about three and a half hours long

22:16

Speaker B Oh, that's good.

22:16

Speaker A and

22:16

Speaker B Yeah.

22:17

Speaker A so a lot of times I'll listen to that or if it's not that it's classic rock

22:23

Speaker C Okay.

22:23

Speaker B You and Eric got that in common. First job you ever had.

22:34

Speaker A Non-pay or pay?

22:36

Speaker B I would say pay. We'll go with pay.

22:40

Speaker A First paying job was cutting grass and maintaining a estate for

22:50

Speaker D Okay.

22:51

Speaker B There you go.

22:51

Speaker A a homeowner. And so my father and I worked on that estate and clearing trees. uh limbing things up pulling weeds um so yeah cool

23:04

Speaker B Yeah, that was a hard job if

23:05

Speaker A definitely wow

23:06

Speaker B you're not doing this for a living. What would you be doing?

23:13

Speaker A um You've never thought about it until now. i really You haven't. Now, I've always enjoyed the outdoors and always enjoyed the life sciences. And so it would be something in the environmental aspect of some sort.

23:36

Speaker B Yeah.

23:37

Speaker C That's cool. One more. What's the one thing on your bucket list?

23:44

Speaker A Um, no,

23:49

Speaker D Probably install a lighting system somewhere.

23:53

Speaker A I mean, I've done some crazy lighting jobs and have a lot of stories about that. But my wife and I, now that we're getting to be empty nesters, we like to go and explore. different areas Yeah. and I want to do an Australian trip

24:12

Speaker C Oh,

24:13

Speaker A and

24:13

Speaker C that

24:13

Speaker D Yeah,

24:13

Speaker C would be fun.

24:13

Speaker D that would be fun.

24:14

Speaker A snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef

24:15

Speaker C Yeah,

24:16

Speaker A so

24:16

Speaker C that would

24:17

Speaker A that's

24:17

Speaker C be fun.

24:17

Speaker A that's my big bucket list

24:18

Speaker C There you go.

24:19

Speaker D Yeah.

24:19

Speaker A is to go go to Australia and do that so

24:22

Speaker C Well, you work hard enough, so you deserve it for sure.

24:26

Speaker A I appreciate

24:26

Speaker C For sure. At

24:27

Speaker A that

24:27

Speaker C least you won't have to drive that far.

24:29

Speaker D Yeah,

24:29

Speaker A well

24:29

Speaker D you will fly there,

24:30

Speaker C Yeah.

24:31

Speaker D but

24:31

Speaker A yeah but

24:31

Speaker D that'll put

24:32

Speaker A yeah 20

24:33

Speaker D a 20

24:33

Speaker A 20 23 or 24

24:34

Speaker C Yeah.

24:34

Speaker A hour flight

24:35

Speaker C Yeah.

24:35

Speaker A yeah that's uh um but that's been on my bucket list since i was in high school

24:40

Speaker C Oh,

24:40

Speaker A and

24:40

Speaker C wow. Yeah.

24:41

Speaker A something i've i just look forward to doing and haven't been able to do it just yet but

24:47

Speaker C Yeah.

24:47

Speaker A yeah

24:48

Speaker C Good. That's awesome.

24:49

Speaker D Exactly.

24:49

Speaker A yeah

24:50

Speaker D Yeah. Empty nest or kids are going to take the trips.

24:53

Speaker C Yeah.

24:53

Speaker A that's our

24:53

Speaker C We're

24:54

Speaker A plan

24:54

Speaker C not quite there yet. We still we're still kind of waiting. Everybody's.

24:58

Speaker D Hanging

24:58

Speaker C not yeah

24:59

Speaker D on,

24:59

Speaker C they're

24:59

Speaker D are they?

25:00

Speaker C they're hanging on for dear life

25:03

Speaker A Yeah, that happens sometimes.

25:05

Speaker C yeah

25:05

Speaker A But, you know, but no, you know, I love this industry. I love the people. I love, you know, kind of where the industry is headed and technology is definitely helping change things. You know, like I said, I've done some pretty amazing projects on the lighting side and been fortunate to be a part of those.

25:25

Speaker C Mm-hmm.

25:27

Speaker A But one of my favorite projects that I've ever done. I mean, I've done some mega mansions that were 15,000, 20,000 square feet,

25:34

Speaker C Wow.

25:34

Speaker A but one of my favorite projects that I ever did was a couple of years ago, I did a 750 square foot tiny house

25:41

Speaker C Nice.

25:41

Speaker A and lit it up and it was two sisters and one sister had a ranch house and then the other sister built the tiny house in the backyard of the ranch house.

25:54

Speaker D Yeah.

25:54

Speaker A And so. The contractor re-landscaped everything to kind of make it her front yard and her backyard and

26:02

Speaker D Yeah.

26:03

Speaker A all flowed together. And we put 17 lights out in the backyard slash front yard and turned out absolutely amazing. thing

26:13

Speaker B I

26:13

Speaker A and

26:13

Speaker B bet it was cool.

26:14

Speaker A that was one of my favorite projects that I've ever been involved in

26:17

Speaker B Wow.

26:17

Speaker A and you know it was it was featured on PBS TV on the garden smart

26:22

Speaker C Cool.

26:22

Speaker A TV Nice. show so

26:23

Speaker C Yeah.

26:23

Speaker A yeah yeah so

26:24

Speaker B Yeah,

26:25

Speaker A yeah

26:25

Speaker B that's awesome.

26:26

Speaker C Yeah.

26:26

Speaker B That's awesome.

26:27

Speaker A so

26:28

Speaker C It

26:28

Speaker A yeah

26:28

Speaker C was a good

26:28

Speaker A you

26:28

Speaker C deal.

26:28

Speaker A know it's just like I said such a fun industry and so many great people so privilege to be a part of it

26:36

Speaker C Amen.

26:38

Speaker D Well, guys, thank you so much for joining us here at Waterpalooza. This is Jason Shannon Barker with the Toro Company and myself, Eric Jones, the turf teacher, and my lovely bride, Jennifer, the turf vet. And we will see you in the next lecture.

26:51

Speaker E And I'll see you at the next event.

26:53

Speaker D See you guys.

26:53

Speaker A Thank you very much.

26:57

Speaker E Thanks for joining us today on Turf

26:59

Speaker D Talk. We hope today's conversation gave you something useful and worth sharing.

27:03

Speaker E Follow, subscribe, or visit us at turftalkpodcast.com for more episodes and updates. I'm Jennifer the Turfette Jones.

27:10

Speaker D And I'm Eric the Turf Teacher Jones.

27:12

Speaker E Together

27:12

Speaker D Together,

27:13

Speaker E we are

27:14

Speaker D we the are the Green Green Industry Industry

27:15

Speaker E Couple.

27:15

Speaker D Couple.

27:15

Speaker E Until next time,

27:17

Speaker D Keep learning and keep growing and keep talking turf.

Episode reference notesPeople, organizations & resources mentioned

These notes describe references in the recording, not endorsements. Only reviewed website links are clickable; unverified references remain plain text.

Toro Company
Jason identified himself as being with the Toro company and said he has worked there for almost 11 years. Reference awaiting editorial verification.
Toro Precision Irrigation business
Mentioned as the business within Toro that Jason represents. Reference awaiting editorial verification.
Aerotrol irrigation
Jason listed this as one of the irrigation products he sells. Reference awaiting editorial verification.
Unique Lighting Systems
Jason said he sells Unique Lighting Systems products. Reference awaiting editorial verification.
Carolina Irrigation Association
Jason said he is the current vice president of this organization. Reference awaiting editorial verification.
South Carolina Green Industry Association
Jason said he is the current president of this association. Reference awaiting editorial verification.
Modern Turf
Jason said the fall field day he planned to attend was at Modern Turf in Dalzell, South Carolina. Reference awaiting editorial verification.
H&A
Jason said he would head to Louisville for H&A the following week. Reference awaiting editorial verification.
The Ohio State University
Jason said he majored in landscape construction there. Reference awaiting editorial verification.
PBS TV Garden Smart
Jason said one of his favorite lighting projects was featured on PBS TV on Garden Smart. Reference awaiting editorial verification.
Maui, Hawaii
Jason named Maui as his favorite vacation spot. Reference awaiting editorial verification.
Great Barrier Reef
Jason said snorkling in the Great Barrier Reef is on his bucket list. Reference awaiting editorial verification.
Toyota
Mentioned only as part of a rapid-fire vehicle preference question; Jason said he is a Ford guy. Reference awaiting editorial verification.
Ford
Jason identified Ford as his vehicle preference. Reference awaiting editorial verification.
Marriott
Jason said he is lifetime platinum with Marriott. Reference awaiting editorial verification.
Hilton
Jason said he was formerly diamond with Hilton. Reference awaiting editorial verification.
Wells Fargo
Jason said his wife works full-time at Wells Fargo. Reference awaiting editorial verification.
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