MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
JAY GRISHAM OWNER OF WEED WARRIORS
If
you get a chance to sit down and talk shop with Jay Grisham, MTA member and owner of Weed Warriors, it won’t take long for his gratitude, humble nature and enthusiasm to take center stage. What’s unique about Jay and Weed Warriors is the focus on training and preparing his staff for not only the challenges of the job, but also for the struggles of life. Jay’s faith is at the forefront of his personal and professional life, and he brings that perspective to all aspects of his work and relationships. We talked to Jay about how his company was founded, how it’s grown and his principles for leading and encouraging his staff and those around him.
How did you choose the turfgrass industry as a career path? I started off in college in sports turf management because I loved sports, that’s what I did growing up in Decatur, Alabama. Originally it was a steppingstone to get me to the next step, which was going overseas to do missions. I went to Mississippi State, worked on a golf course one semester, athletic fields another semester. Then I realized I wanted to be more well-equipped to do things overseas, so I changed my emphasis from turf to integrated crop management, so it was still an agronomy degree, but the concentration changed. I got to do classes in vegetable and row crop production, a wide variety. It feels more like a general agriculture degree. In college I realized I wasn’t ready for the mission field like I thought I was, so I decided to go into the workforce first. A guy from church hired me to work for him – he had a lawn spraying business and he knew I had an agriculture degree.
“When you’re trying to take care of people’s plants, to do that you have to take care of the people who take care of peoples plants.” How did your company, Weed Warriors get started? After a year of working for the guy at church, he was like, “Are you going to start your own business?” I said “WHAT?” He told me he was trying to help me start my own business because he knew I wanted to have a big family and I needed a job where I could provide for them. On one hand I want to encourage people that anyone can do this. On the other hand, I share that it’s really what the lord wants. There are people way more qualified than me who haven’t been able to succeed in it, and then I’m your perfect example of I’m the last person on earth that should have started a company!
12 • MISSISSIPPI TURFGRASS • SPRING 2022
