Latest / BBQ Therapy / Aim'em and Claim'em Smokers (James Pavia) - Makin' a List and Checkin' it twice

Transcript

Aim'em and Claim'em Smokers (James Pavia) - Makin' a List and Checkin' it twice · BBQ Therapy

• 0:00
  If it's something that you want to do, you just have to jump in
• 0:04
  and do it. You know, don't, don't just kind
• 0:07
  of dip your toe in it. Jump in, go all in.
• 0:13
  I think you'd be really surprised to see how many people
• 0:18
  would support you. And, and I know some folks
• 0:22
  aren't comfortable with being in front of a camera.
• 0:26
  I I I'm OK with that personally but maybe do a voice over or or
• 0:32
  something like that. Mango ham, BBQ ham, BBQ ham BBQ
• 0:38
  ham BBQ barbecue on. Get your barbecue on.
• 0:43
  Welcome to the BBQ Therapy Podcast.
• 0:45
  My name is Tavis Bryant of Yago Ham BBQ.
• 0:49
  Have you ever stood around a smoker or a grill?
• 0:51
  Felt the world fade away? Now that's BBQ Therapy all
• 0:59
  right. Joining us for a therapy session
• 1:01
  today is none other than James Pavia Amon Claiming Smokers.
• 1:06
  Today on BBQ Therapy, we're joined by a guy who put some
• 1:09
  serious time behind the pit and in front of the camera.
• 1:12
  James Pavia, the creator behind Amon and claim on Smokers.
• 1:16
  With over 543 videos on YouTube, James has became a go to source
• 1:22
  for honest, down to earth BBQ content.
• 1:25
  Whether you're a backyard rookie, a comp circuit dreamer,
• 1:28
  or just someone who just wants to up their game.
• 1:30
  From detailed cooks to gear reviews to a signature
• 1:34
  storyteller style, James brings the kind of consistency,
• 1:37
  passion, and realness that makes BBQ feel both approachable and
• 1:42
  exciting. Today we're talking YouTube
• 1:45
  hustle pit life, content creation and how he built a BBQ
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  community one video at a time. All right, And brother James,
• 1:54
  as. Yeah, I do.
• 1:56
  I feel like part of the Drew. Welcome to the show.
• 1:59
  I got one rule. Make yourself at home.
• 2:01
  Speak freely. There's no corporate.
• 2:03
  So you say whatever you have on your mind.
• 2:06
  Also, I appreciate you having me pleasure to be here.
• 2:10
  And for those who don't know, this is what I call the ME
• 2:13
  episode. Reason I asked him on the show
• 2:17
  was he's one of the ones that influenced me during COVID and
• 2:21
  all the way up to now watching his videos, just walking around
• 2:25
  the couch showing us the atmosphere, the cooks, the turn
• 2:29
  is and awards that put you in the area where he was to make
• 2:35
  you feel like you were part of the competition.
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  He put you in that atmosphere to make you feel part of that
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  community until you were able to get out into that community.
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  So I wanted to thank him in person in front of everybody for
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  what he did for me. So definitely thank you for the
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  bottom of my heart for fueling my passion for BBQ.
• 2:59
  Absolutely. This is all mine truly is.
• 3:04
  So let's kick it off with the basics.
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  How did you first get into BBQ? Well, maybe then being from
• 3:11
  Texas, you know, we've always barbecued growing up.
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  It's just, it's, it's in our DNA as I got a little older in the
• 3:19
  high school and just shortly out of high school, my buddies and I
• 3:24
  will get together. And that was one, one thing we
• 3:27
  always did. We, we always barbecued.
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  So it's, you know, it's something that just kind of
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  reminds me of, of one growing up and two, you know, my best
• 3:37
  friend had passed away and, you know, around 2000 and he was, he
• 3:42
  was the one that kind of kept us all together.
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  The the guys, the friends, he would leave the barbecue that
• 3:52
  weekend. So it, you know, was a way also
• 3:56
  for me to just kind of remember those moments.
• 4:01
  But man, you being from Texas, it's just what do you do?
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  You know, you, most people are lighting a fire before they're
• 4:10
  doing, learning anything else down here in Texas, You know, no
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  matter where you're from, north-south, east or West Texas,
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  that's, that's something that that we're known for.
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  So it's just something and, and I remember, you know, family on
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  the weekends I was getting together, my, my Theos, uncles
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  and, and cousins would come over and you know, it was just a big
• 4:32
  old gather. And and so to remember those
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  those times, you know, it was part of the reason why I
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  continue to to do it, started to do it on my own and then
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  continue to do it now. And what was that point where
• 4:50
  you got to? OK, I'm, I'm pretty good at
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  this. I think I want to try my hand at
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  competing. So 20, maybe the end of 2013.
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  Beginning of 2014, I had a buddy who started competing and would
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  always invite us out to go hang out at this competitions and I
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  would go and I was like, man, you know, this is just pretty
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  fun. And so I remember telling them
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  one day, hey man, let me tag along just to kind of get my
• 5:26
  feet wet and you'll see if I how, how this goes, if I really
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  like it. And last minute, literally last
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  minute is like, no, you're on your own.
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  And I'm like, I didn't even know how to put meat in a box, right?
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  I knew absolutely nothing and but I remember walking that
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  first box up to turn in and dude, it was like a drug that
• 5:55
  adrenaline hit and I was hooked. So I spent the whole year of
• 6:02
  2014 kind of practicing, figuring out my pits, different
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  recipes, our, our flavor profiles and thought, man, you
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  know, this is, it's pretty good. And you know, and family would
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  say the same thing. And of course, when you're
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  feeding people for free, it's always going to be good.
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  But I was like, you know, this, this, this is pretty good.
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  And so January of 2015 did my first competition and just hit
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  the ground running and thought, man, this, this is, this is
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  something I think I can be really good at.
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  Started to build a passion for it and you know, once you, once
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  you have a passion for something or you find your call and you're
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  going to go out and, and try to be the best at it.
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  At least I did when, when, when it came to the BBQ game.
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  So, you know, probably that, like I said, early 2015 when
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  when I realized I think I, I got something good going here, you
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  know, so I think that's when I knew that that this was
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  something I can do and eventually have some success
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  with. Did you cook on a race?
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  Crew drones back then us. No so I actually cooked on Weber
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  smoking mountains thanks to two of my BBQ idols. 1 was the Harry
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  Sue from Slap Your Daddy and the other one is MO Caisson.
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  The reason why and this was their early days also when they
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  were on on BBQ pit masters, you know, Harry proved that you
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  didn't need a $20,000 jambo 3040 thousand dollar rig to be able
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  to compete at the highest level. He was cooking out of a van
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  under a tent with where we're smoking mountain.
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  We're smoking mountains. And I thought that's if if he
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  can do it, then I can do it. So that's what I started on.
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  And it's funny because you know, at that time Amazon had
• 8:18
  cancelled my account because I bought like 4 wherever smoking
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  mountains at once. I guess they thought that it was
• 8:25
  a hack or something, right? Because like I want one for each
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  of me, but that's what I started cooking on wherever Smokey
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  mountains and the kettles. So those were the original OG
• 8:39
  pits for me once I started to get into it.
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  Talk to me about those early cooks when you first started
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  what were the summer biggest the biggest lessons learned when you
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  started up so we're. We're talking just backyard.
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  Well, I guess it would apply to both.
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  The biggest thing I learned was know your pit, learn your pit.
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  I remember it was 4th of July weekend and I never smoked a
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  brisket in my life. Well, growing up, but as I got
• 9:17
  older, you know, I, I hadn't owned a, a, a pad to to smoke 1.
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  So I went to Lowe's and bought a, a little barrel style pit and
• 9:31
  the gauge. So I went and bought another
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  gauge and you know, it's cooking and I'm like, man, this is a
• 9:38
  rating really low. So I kept up in the fire trying
• 9:43
  to get it to the two 5275 range and little did I know that that
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  thermometer was off. Now when I looked at the top of
• 9:53
  the brisket, it looked beautiful.
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  When I try to take it off the grill, that thing was so burnt
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  on to the to the Gray. You know it.
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  I had my in laws over, you know, where the people here, they're
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  waiting for me to finish this brisket.
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  Yeah, I. Absolutely ruined it.
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  But because I didn't know my pit, I didn't know that pit that
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  I was cooking on. So you know, understand your
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  pit, whether it's a Weber kettle, a drum stick, burner,
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  whatever. Learning, learning my pit and
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  how it operates and how to keep a consistent heat was was
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  probably the, the biggest thing that that I learned.
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  If you could keep a consistent heat, you could cook absolutely
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  anything from ribs to brisket to giraffe.
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  I mean, you name it, you cook anything as long as you keep a a
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  consistent heat and have it come out good.
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  So that's probably one of the lessons that that that I
• 11:03
  learned, you know, early on. OK.
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  And. Did you come up with the name
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  Aim Them claiming smokers? Oh man, so at that time, I've
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  been going through a lot in my personal life, just not making
• 11:23
  the best decisions. And it just ended up in a really
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  bad place and, and, and felt like I was in this ditch that I
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  couldn't get out of and, you know, battling the pressure and
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  then the few other things I just couldn't, couldn't see myself
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  getting out of there. And I remember someone saying,
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  listen, set a small go and just aim for that go, even if it's
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  just waking up in the morning to brush your teeth, something
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  small. So I did and, you know, my
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  confidence started building. And that's when I, you know,
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  2014 came along and I thought, well, then let's see 2014 house
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  price in January 2015 when I had to come up with the name when I
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  entered the the comp game, you know, I was thinking about it
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  and I'm, and I thought, you know, I don't know how I'm going
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  to do in these comps, but I'm a set a goal and I'm going to go
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  out and claim it, right. So you set a goal, you aim for
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  that goal. Whatever it is in life.
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  And you go out and get it, do what you have to, to achieve it.
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  But it's it's twofold. Because also had a competition
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  when I would go, I would look for who The Who were the best
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  cooks there and I would aim for them.
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  Now I know I'm not going to beat them because I'm I'm a rookie.
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  And these guys are established. And they're going to kick my
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  hand, kick my butt, but I'm going to aim for them and I'm
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  going to go out and try to claim this, this, this prize money,
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  this trophy, whatever. But make mainly just just coming
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  from life and and, you know, sudden goals in life and going
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  out and, and doing what it takes to achieve them.
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  So you aim for something and you go out and get it right, You go
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  out and claim it. So that's where the aim and
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  claim them came from makes. Sense I thought in my head I
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  would like maybe you got it from a western or something like
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  that. You know, my early, early
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  designs, people kind of kind of think that it has to do with
• 13:39
  shooting because I, they think it's a bullseye in my logo, but
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  it's actually a cross. You know, so people would see my
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  original logo and think that it was like a target that you're
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  aiming at. But it was it was a cross and
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  not a not a bullseye or, you know, it's a scope kind of deal.
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  OK, Yeah, that's what I. Thought it was.
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  No. So you got 543 plus videos on
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  YouTube. What made you start filming your
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  cooks in the first place? So.
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  I enjoyed cooking, but what I absolutely hated was every time
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  I looked up a recipe, they called for 567 ingredients and
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  most of those were ingredients I'm only going to use once only
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  for that recipe. And I wanted to, well, I
• 14:42
  thought, man, there's, there's got to be a better way.
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  So I wanted to show people that you can make really good food
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  with really simple ingredients. Keep it simple.
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  You don't have to go out and you know, buy 10 different
• 14:58
  ingredients to make something really good.
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  I think some of my, listen, I make a great enchilada, right?
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  And I will put that up against anybody and my ingredients,
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  there's only like 3 ingredients. So you can do something that's
• 15:14
  really, really good and keep it minimal, not have to out season
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  yourself, just keep it simple. So I wanted to to prove that
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  that can be done. And that's that's when I decided
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  if I can't find the videos, I might as well make them.
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  So that's how I got started doing that.
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  And how was that first video like and has your style evolved
• 15:43
  since? Then oh man, I wish.
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  I don't know how many times I've thought about deleting it,
• 15:49
  taking it down because it is horrible.
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  Absolutely. I think it's, I think it was a
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  steak video. It's pretty hard to mess up a
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  steak man. But I, if anybody can do what I
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  did early on. But that since then, you know,
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  when I was watching videos, I, I hear people with these catchy
• 16:15
  phrases or talk a certain way. And I had someone tell me just
• 16:21
  be you don't try to be him or her.
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  Just be you do what you do. If people don't like you, they
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  there is millions of videos on YouTube that they could go and
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  watch. So it changed from feeling like,
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  OK, I need a word it this way. I need to try to show this angle
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  to me. Just saying, dude, this is me
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  and I, I get a lot. I I got it just a few days ago.
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  You talk too much. Hey, you know, like these
• 17:02
  comments and I like that's OK, That's, that's me.
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  You want some what? And The funny thing is I hate
• 17:09
  watching videos with people who talk too much, but that's me.
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  But like this, this is just going to be me.
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  This is going to be what I do. And, you know, if, if, if you
• 17:18
  like it, you stick around. If not, you know, I'm not
• 17:23
  everybody's cup of tea, I reckon.
• 17:25
  But, you know, there's, there's, there's other people you go and
• 17:28
  and watch. Yeah, it's that isn't going to
• 17:32
  hurt me. So I just went from like,
• 17:34
  feeling like I needed to do things a certain way scripted to
• 17:39
  just flying off the seat of my pants.
• 17:42
  When I shoot most of my videos, I have no clue what I'm doing.
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  Well, not what I'm doing. I have no clue what I'm going to
• 17:51
  say. Like I, I don't, I don't script
• 17:53
  it out. I just, I just talk.
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  And what I have noticed is people can pick up on your
• 18:07
  sincerity. When, when, when you're
• 18:10
  authentic, people can pick that up.
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  They and they can relate to that.
• 18:17
  Oh, that guy is just like me, you know, And, and I think
• 18:21
  that's what what make, what has made me so relatable to a lot of
• 18:25
  people. Yeah.
• 18:27
  And what has helped, you know, I built the following of folks who
• 18:33
  really trust what I say. In other words, if I push a rub,
• 18:39
  a product or something like that, they know that I'm not
• 18:43
  doing it to make money. It's something that I enjoy, I
• 18:50
  use, and I stand behind. In fact, over 540 videos you
• 18:56
  said I didn't even know how many I had.
• 18:58
  I have never made one single penny from a company for talking
• 19:05
  about a product, talking about a rub or anything.
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  Of course YouTube pays you right, but not one single penny
• 19:13
  and people swear there's some like they haven't made products
• 19:16
  that I absolutely love. It's incredible hands.
• 19:20
  It's incredible season in from heaven made products.
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  Hands down my absolute favorite season in of anything I've ever
• 19:27
  owned and tried. And and and some people like, Oh
• 19:32
  well, you just sound like 'cause I pay you.
• 19:33
  No, I, I, it's sitting on my account right now.
• 19:36
  That's my song ever. I'd literally use that for
• 19:39
  everything, beef, chicken, pork, you name it.
• 19:43
  But people trust that if I, if I, if I say something that, that
• 19:49
  I mean it. And I'm not just trying to sell
• 19:55
  a product, you know, or, or, or push something that I don't
• 20:00
  stand behind. I take it back.
• 20:03
  There were There was one company who?
• 20:06
  Did pay me to make a couple of videos, but I still use that
• 20:08
  product today. Hell, you get Taco that's,
• 20:12
  that's one of my main ingredients in my hot sauce.
• 20:14
  So and I haven't dealt with them in a couple of years probably.
• 20:18
  And and I was I still use a product to push their product,
• 20:22
  but I think there's maybe 2 videos, you know, so just to be
• 20:25
  transparent there. But I think I worked really good
• 20:29
  to to build a reputation that people can trust what I say, you
• 20:33
  know? What's your secret to staying
• 20:36
  consistent and motivated? You know, it's hard to.
• 20:38
  Do. Man there there is a.
• 20:40
  Lot of. People who came before me that I
• 20:46
  had followed that aren't doing it anymore.
• 20:48
  I, I think the, the key though, it would be to, to just make
• 20:52
  sure you're, you're doing what you love to do.
• 20:55
  I love to barbecue. So I'm not going to start a
• 20:57
  channel cooking Italian food, you know, I mean, that's just, I
• 21:02
  love Italian food, but that that's not my warehouse BBQ, I'm
• 21:07
  actually passionate about and love doing.
• 21:11
  So, you know, find something that that you love doing, maybe
• 21:16
  it's RVRC cars, remote patrol cars, whatever it is, you know,
• 21:23
  find your passion. And that makes it a whole lot
• 21:27
  easier to to stay consistent with with what you're doing,
• 21:32
  interacting with your viewers. I always try to make sure,
• 21:38
  especially earlier throughout, early on and throughout my
• 21:42
  video, making that if someone left a comment that I answered
• 21:46
  every single person back, sure, I'd missed them, but I always
• 21:51
  made that a go because I just appreciate it.
• 21:56
  If you're going to take your time out of your day to watch
• 21:58
  one of my videos, I want you to feel like you're part of the
• 22:03
  crew and you know you're you're I'm, I'm a regular Joe like like
• 22:09
  everybody else. And if I have a friendship with
• 22:12
  you, if I can build, which I've been able to do with tons of
• 22:15
  people in this community through YouTube, if I'm able to build a
• 22:19
  friendship with you with all of my viewers or as many as
• 22:24
  possible, it makes it easier. It helps make it easier to, to
• 22:29
  stay consistent because I know Joe over there is going to be
• 22:34
  looking for a video or Sally's going to be, you know, she's,
• 22:39
  she's waiting on my video to draw.
• 22:42
  So, you know, be passionate about what you're doing and be
• 22:45
  involved with the community. Yeah.
• 22:53
  You interact with people, feel welcome.
• 22:57
  Yeah, absolutely you. Think you're better than
• 22:59
  everybody else? Yeah, yeah, you'll you'll get
• 23:03
  that. I've gotten, I've gotten a lot
• 23:06
  of that. But I tell you what, it's who
• 23:08
  you won't find one person that says otherwise.
• 23:14
  I've had people contact me who even though the last cooking
• 23:20
  partner will contact me and say, hey, we're doing this cook off.
• 23:25
  I know you don't know us, but we'd love to have you join us.
• 23:29
  You know what? Pay for your hotel room or
• 23:31
  whatever will bring you down. And I'm like, you know what?
• 23:35
  I'm there and I'm going to pay my own way because I'm not, I'm
• 23:40
  not going to, because I get a free hotel room or, or something
• 23:44
  like that. I, I want, it's important to me
• 23:48
  that people know that I'm, I'm just ordinary Joe man.
• 23:53
  And if I can help you out in any way, then I'm going to do it.
• 23:58
  I've got I've got a story. But yeah, I don't want to get
• 24:01
  too into it just from just about trusting people, opening up and
• 24:07
  trusting people and who aren't who they say they are.
• 24:10
  And but that's, that's just me, man.
• 24:13
  I want to here's here's my phone number.
• 24:16
  Call me anytime, you know, I mean that that's just what I do.
• 24:23
  And it truly helped help build these these relationships.
• 24:28
  Again, you want to find one person that that will tell you,
• 24:31
  oh, well, what you see on video isn't what you see in person
• 24:35
  because it's like the exact same, dude, come hang out in my
• 24:37
  trailer, pull up a chair, have a drink, have some some food,
• 24:43
  whatever. You know, you're always welcome,
• 24:45
  man. Yeah.
• 24:47
  And and that, that that always went for anybody.
• 24:52
  And is there a video that it unexpectedly blew up or one that
• 24:56
  you thought it would hit big and didn't?
• 24:59
  Yeah, there's. One that blew up probably.
• 25:02
  I mean, I haven't looked at the numbers lately, but the last I
• 25:04
  looked and it's not even BBQ. It was like a stuffed chicken.
• 25:12
  I think I stuffed it with some a stuffed chicken breast I stuffed
• 25:17
  with some kind of cheese and I, I think some bell Peppers.
• 25:21
  And I was, it's probably still my top video.
• 25:26
  And that was years ago. So, you know, there hasn't been
• 25:32
  one that I thought, OK, this is just going to blow up.
• 25:34
  And it didn't because I don't view it that way.
• 25:39
  But I can say, wow, I had no idea this was going to be this
• 25:43
  popular. Yeah.
• 25:46
  When you competed, were you a stick to the plan person or
• 25:50
  let's try something to see what happens?
• 25:54
  So first it was. Let's just try something to see
• 25:57
  what happens as I started competing more.
• 26:01
  Listen, these these things aren't cheap.
• 26:04
  From your entrance fees to your meats to having to reorder
• 26:10
  seasonings, things like that. It can get pretty pricey, you
• 26:16
  know, and it's free to run from 150 bucks to 1000 bucks if, if
• 26:23
  if not more so. And that's just the entrance
• 26:26
  fee. So I got tired of just throwing
• 26:33
  away my hoodie plus flying by the seat of my pants.
• 26:37
  I like, I got to plan this stuff out, you know, plan your work
• 26:43
  and work your plan. Sometimes I see people come in
• 26:47
  and I'm like, thank you for the donation because I already know
• 26:53
  they're, they're wasted. You know, they're, they're just,
• 26:56
  they, they don't know what they're doing as far as like not
• 26:59
  having a plan. You look at all these guys that
• 27:01
  are very popular right now and having a lot of success, like
• 27:05
  Bill Purvis, Fred Robles, I mean, you, you name them all
• 27:10
  these guys have a, a plan that they stick to.
• 27:16
  Consistency is going to help you be successful.
• 27:20
  If you trimmer ribs this way the whole time, try to stick with
• 27:26
  that. If, if this is your wrapping
• 27:27
  process and you're, you're having success, stick with this.
• 27:31
  So that we just becomes second nature muscle memory.
• 27:36
  So now it's, it's more of a planet and not so much, you
• 27:40
  know, so I, I've got to cook off and I invite all my friends and
• 27:44
  family and there'd be 20 people there.
• 27:48
  I don't invite. I don't even bite my damn Mama
• 27:52
  to come out, you know, because I'm trying to win.
• 27:57
  I'm trying to aim for a certain goal and go out and get it
• 28:00
  right. So definitely more of a plan
• 28:04
  type of person. Now when it comes to competition
• 28:08
  at home, this I'm cooking at home.
• 28:11
  So it doesn't really matter. You know, if the meet is late,
• 28:15
  it takes longer what it looks like I'll go to the grocery
• 28:19
  store and just walk around and be like, OK, what can I smoke
• 28:23
  today? What can I cook today?
• 28:25
  And then come home and sometimes shoot a video.
• 28:28
  So I just, you know, depends on the if we're if we're talking
• 28:33
  comp world or or the backyard cook.
• 28:39
  How has the BBQ YouTube community impacted your journey?
• 28:45
  Oh man, I can't think of a better group of people.
• 28:52
  You know, I talked about being able to meet idols and and MO
• 28:56
  and Harry. The opportunity has given me the
• 28:59
  travel, the company has given the company's it's given me the
• 29:05
  opportunity to work with like Dow Strong Z Grills, Magna Chef,
• 29:13
  the friendships that are going to last a lifetime.
• 29:18
  I go to a cook off and, and, you know, we're all just hanging out
• 29:23
  and, and having a good time and, and, and families involved,
• 29:28
  people's kids are involved. Seeing them compete to just
• 29:33
  spending time together outside of BBQ like it's, it's really
• 29:41
  has opened the doors to some amazing friendships that I would
• 29:50
  have never happened had I not entered this world.
• 29:54
  So it's, it's, it's, it's been great, man.
• 29:57
  And you know, I look forward to to continue to build on the
• 30:01
  current friendships, make new ones, help anybody that that
• 30:07
  comes behind me because there are people before me that that
• 30:11
  helped me. You know, I'm always just a
• 30:14
  phone call or message away. It's, it's some of my best
• 30:20
  friends are, are from this world.
• 30:25
  And you know, when I, when I see him have success and do well,
• 30:28
  man, I am. And it's not just me.
• 30:31
  But that's another great thing about this community is super,
• 30:36
  super excited for the truly happy for them to see them do
• 30:41
  well. We talked about Bill Purvis
• 30:43
  earlier to see what he's doing now, see where he came from to
• 30:48
  have been there from the very beginning to see the the the
• 30:54
  dude kills it all over the country men.
• 30:57
  I couldn't be happier for the dude 'cause he is genuinely an
• 31:01
  amazing dude. And that's a lot of people in
• 31:04
  this to mean it or. Was that 1000%?
• 31:09
  Which one piece of advice you like to give someone trying to
• 31:12
  start their own BBQ channel or blog?
• 31:14
  Start your own bar BBQ channel. Well, I think I kind of said it
• 31:19
  earlier. Just just be you don't, don't
• 31:23
  try to do something that you're not used to doing.
• 31:30
  You don't have to go out. And yeah, I shoot all my videos
• 31:35
  on my iPhone, so you don't have to go out and spend thousands of
• 31:39
  dollars on like she's on some of these people with these fancy
• 31:42
  cameras. If, if it's something that you
• 31:45
  want to do, you just have to jump in and do it.
• 31:50
  You know, don't, don't just kind of dip your toe in it.
• 31:54
  Jump in, go all in. I think you'd be really
• 31:58
  surprised to see how many people would support you.
• 32:04
  And, and I know some folks aren't comfortable with being in
• 32:08
  front of a camera. I, I, I'm OK with that
• 32:11
  personally, but maybe do a voice over or, or something like that,
• 32:17
  But be consistent with it, especially early on.
• 32:22
  So that way you can, you can build your foundation.
• 32:26
  If you decide you're going to release videos on Tuesdays, then
• 32:32
  make sure you, you know, do it every Tuesday because now your
• 32:37
  followers are going to know, OK, I'm going to come back to
• 32:39
  Tavis's channel on Tuesday because that's the day that he
• 32:43
  releases his videos. Or I'm going to come back to so
• 32:46
  and So's channel, you know, on certain days because that's when
• 32:50
  they release their videos. So just be you, be consistent
• 32:55
  with it, build, build your foundation, but be authentic.
• 33:01
  People will will pick up on that and it just makes you more
• 33:06
  relatable and I think that's that's something that helps that
• 33:10
  Channel grow. That was when it came to this
• 33:14
  podcast. I was like, I want to start a
• 33:16
  podcast. I don't know if anybody going to
• 33:18
  sign up. So then I went to Memphis and
• 33:22
  May with my wife and a lot of love out there and a lot of
• 33:28
  fellowship with a lot of people out there.
• 33:30
  And I was like, man, I got to get started.
• 33:33
  So when I came home, that's when I jumped into ourselves either
• 33:36
  now or never. And that's what I.
• 33:38
  Keep in. Gear and everybody's been
• 33:42
  welcome and so I like. I Yeah.
• 33:47
  And you know, if it doesn't pan out then and not, not, not just
• 33:52
  you, but in general, if it doesn't pan out, then at least
• 33:57
  you tried it. And you know, OK, maybe this is
• 34:02
  what I thought I, I wanted, but you're not going to know if you
• 34:06
  don't just dive right in, you know, So those, those are, you
• 34:13
  know, things that I would, I would tell someone who, who has
• 34:15
  just started out, be yourself, be consistent and, you know,
• 34:22
  just just do whatever it is you, you love doing.
• 34:29
  What were your kind of your favorite videos to shoot?
• 34:31
  Was it the recipes? Was it the current video?
• 34:34
  The product reviews? Which ones were did you enjoy as
• 34:37
  well? So early on it was cooking
• 34:41
  videos, and probably as much as I love barbecuing, I mean, I do
• 34:46
  cook other other things. Those are probably some of my
• 34:51
  favorite videos because I didn't have to go outside and light the
• 34:54
  fire and deal with outside noises or anything.
• 34:59
  But now it's it's my comp videos.
• 35:03
  I found that people really enjoy them and living kind of
• 35:07
  vicariously through me. You get a lot of people who want
• 35:11
  enter the cop world but are afraid to.
• 35:14
  So this kind of lets them get their feet wet a little bit by
• 35:17
  just seeing what what goes on and then to I mean, if you're
• 35:22
  lucky enough to to walk, to be able to film that people love
• 35:27
  seeing that. And when, when they're
• 35:29
  complimenting you, you feel good.
• 35:31
  So now it's it's mainly caught videos.
• 35:37
  We touched on it a little bit, but sometimes it can get pretty
• 35:42
  busy. And so I'll start a video and
• 35:45
  then, you know, I'm running behind or something and don't
• 35:49
  have time to finish shooting, shooting it or getting the video
• 35:57
  footage that I think people would would like to see.
• 36:01
  But I, I still tried every cook off.
• 36:03
  We got one this weekend that I'll be filming and those, those
• 36:07
  just seem, seem to come off better.
• 36:11
  And there's, there's some of my, my favorite because I can kind
• 36:16
  of knock out two birds with one stone and that I'm putting up a
• 36:23
  video and it's a BBQ video. So, you know, I don't have to
• 36:29
  figure out, OK, what, what meat go to the grocery store.
• 36:32
  What meat am I going to cook today in me?
• 36:36
  They're all there already. So it it it it does make it a
• 36:40
  little little easier. All right, this is a hard one
• 36:45
  here. If someone can only watch one of
• 36:48
  your videos, which one would you point up to?
• 36:51
  One thing I hate are really long videos.
• 36:57
  However, I produce really long videos and that probably the one
• 37:04
  that I would point to the most. I think it's roughly like 30
• 37:09
  minutes and it's how to trim a brisket from start to finish.
• 37:14
  Brisket not only I think in Texas, but anywhere is king and
• 37:19
  everyone wants everyone wants to learn how to how to cook a
• 37:22
  brisket. So this video takes you from
• 37:27
  start to finish on how I do it for the backyard because most of
• 37:33
  my followers are are backyard cooks.
• 37:39
  But every time someone leaves a comment, they're it's always the
• 37:44
  same comment. Man, I've seen, you know, dozens
• 37:49
  of how to trim a brisket video and this is the best one that
• 37:54
  I've found. I'm very thorough in that video
• 37:58
  explaining why I do things a certain way.
• 38:02
  If I was watching the video or I ran across the video, I probably
• 38:06
  wouldn't watch it because it's so long.
• 38:10
  But my my father's just seems to love these longer videos for
• 38:14
  some reason. But it would it would it would
• 38:16
  be that one because it explains everything.
• 38:19
  And you know, I'll go on again and into detail, make it really
• 38:23
  simple layman terms. It doesn't have to be difficult.
• 38:29
  It's not right to sign. So that since I am mainly a BBQ
• 38:37
  channel, would probably be the one video that I I point people
• 38:43
  to. Yeah, me personally, I like the
• 38:47
  longer videos because if I can't watch the whole thing, if you
• 38:50
  give me anticipation to when I go back, I got something else to
• 38:54
  watch. I prefer longer videos because
• 38:56
  they give me more to watch and when I run out of stuff I'm
• 38:59
  like. I, I, I probably say, I know, I
• 39:04
  said I don't like longer videos. I, I guess what I, I, I should
• 39:07
  say is I don't like long videos where someone is just talking
• 39:13
  because I watched a lot of videos that have nothing to do
• 39:15
  with talking and it's just someone on the screen talking.
• 39:20
  But I'm one of those people. Don't just tell me what to do.
• 39:26
  Like physically show me. Do it.
• 39:29
  Let me see you. When you say round the edges on
• 39:33
  your brisket, what exactly are you?
• 39:36
  Excuse me, what exactly are you referring to?
• 39:38
  Like do it on video. So I don't necessarily mind the
• 39:42
  longer videos. I just don't like long videos
• 39:44
  where half of it is just a person in front of the camera
• 39:48
  talking about whatever 32nd clip they're going to show.
• 39:55
  So I'm kind of the same way. Like I need to, I need to
• 39:59
  physically see you do it, you know?
• 40:03
  So yeah, I guess I shouldn't say I don't like the longer videos.
• 40:07
  It's just the ones with tons of talking and not actually showing
• 40:13
  showing stuff. Pop up with the finished product
• 40:16
  and they'll show you how they did it.
• 40:18
  Yeah. All right, we're going to switch
• 40:21
  over to something that I do with all the guests.
• 40:24
  You know, I in college basketball, they have the
• 40:26
  tournament bracket. So what I did, I made the
• 40:28
  tournament bracket of 16 meats that you cook on the grill and
• 40:33
  all you do is pick which one that you prefer eating and we're
• 40:36
  going to see which one is the final winner.
• 40:39
  All right. First matchup is beef reals
• 40:41
  versus lamb. Oh, beef ribs all.
• 40:45
  Right next matchup, smoked ham versus Turkey.
• 40:50
  Turkey easily. All right.
• 40:54
  Burnt insurance versus hot dog. Burnt insurance a lot.
• 41:01
  Do love me a good hot dog all? Right pork ribs versus steak.
• 41:07
  Oh, already right off the bat a 16 is going to take down the
• 41:13
  number one huh? Damn, two.
• 41:17
  I thought those would probably be the five O 4 I just ran.
• 41:23
  All right, so if we if we had to pick one, man, we're beef
• 41:27
  country. But I absolutely love pork and
• 41:32
  I'm probably going to lose my Texas cards for this, but I'm
• 41:35
  going to say pork ribs, man, coming out swinging.
• 41:43
  All right, smoked Bologna versus brisket.
• 41:47
  Oh, brisket. All right, BBQ shrimp versus
• 41:51
  sausage. Oh, shrimp.
• 41:55
  OK. Pork chop versus smoked chicken.
• 41:59
  Smoked chicken pork chop is probably the one thing I can't
• 42:03
  cook to save my Dang life. I.
• 42:06
  Love pork chop I. Love it too, I just can't cook
• 42:10
  it. Pork belly versus hamburger.
• 42:16
  Pork belly. Next round is beef ribs versus
• 42:23
  Turkey. I'm going to have to go Turkey.
• 42:26
  Oh wow, burnt insurance versus pork ribs.
• 42:33
  You're over cooking my grits coach.
• 42:38
  Pork ribs or you said burnt insurance.
• 42:41
  Oh man, I'm going to cheese. I'm have to stick with the ribs.
• 42:47
  That's that's that's the one thing I cooked the most all.
• 42:52
  Right, you got brisket versus shrimp.
• 42:55
  Brisket, all right. Smoked chicken versus pork
• 43:01
  belly. Smoked chicken.
• 43:05
  All right, final. 4 You got Turkey versus pork.
• 43:11
  Ribs, man, I'm going to have to stick with my ribs there.
• 43:18
  All right. Brisket versus chicken.
• 43:21
  A brisket all. Right, you got pork ribs versus
• 43:26
  brisket in the final to keep. My Texas card I got to go
• 43:33
  brisket. All right, Brisket is the
• 43:36
  winner. All right, brother James, your
• 43:38
  therapy session is over. You got anything to promote or
• 43:42
  give out your website? Anything that you want to say?
• 43:46
  Well, First off, I appreciate you have me, man.
• 43:49
  I truly, truly do. It's it's a pleasure meeting you
• 43:54
  and chopping it up. People can find me under amum
• 43:58
  AIM apostrophe EM and claim CLAIM apostrophe EM smokers on
• 44:10
  YouTube and Instagram. Outside of that, I do want to
• 44:15
  thank my #1 sponsor, Tito's Handmade Vodka.
• 44:20
  I always got to give them a shout out.
• 44:22
  They've been amazing to work with.
• 44:25
  Outside of that, you know, probably not a whole lot.
• 44:31
  I would say support your local pitmaster, right?
• 44:35
  Wherever you're at, whether it's the restaurant or your neighbor,
• 44:41
  you know, support those those folks and that's, that's
• 44:46
  probably it. All right, well, well, I
• 44:49
  appreciate you coming on because you wanted the people I wanted
• 44:52
  to speak to the the most. Like I told you, you and Alonzo
• 44:55
  from Gulf Coast, MO, Harry Sue, all those that made videos that
• 45:00
  helped me along the way when I needed something to watch and
• 45:04
  feel that BBQ void. So I definitely appreciate you
• 45:06
  for coming on. Yeah.
• 45:07
  And I do want to say if there's anybody out there who, you know,
• 45:11
  they were thinking about entering the comp world and,
• 45:13
  and, and just kind of need some, some guidance or want, want some
• 45:17
  help or has questions or like has questions or anything like
• 45:22
  that. Man, you can always reach out to
• 45:24
  me usually through Instagram is probably the the fastest way.
• 45:29
  There were people before me who came before me who helped me
• 45:32
  out. So I feel I have an obligation
• 45:35
  to help somebody else out. If I could come to wherever
• 45:40
  you're at and you know, maybe do a cook with you, help you out a
• 45:45
  competition or whatever, man, I, those, those are the things that
• 45:49
  I really enjoy doing that that I'm grateful for from this
• 45:55
  community. So you guys can always reach out
• 45:58
  to me through Instagram and you know if if I can be in the of
• 46:02
  help, if I can offer any assistance in any way, shape or
• 46:06
  form, do not hesitate to to reach out man, the pleasure will
• 46:11
  be all mine. All right, we definitely
• 46:15
  appreciate that and definitely check out his videos because
• 46:17
  they are very helpful and they'll put you in the
• 46:20
  atmosphere of the competition. 1000%.
• 46:23
  I'm a witness. I've watched 95% of his videos
• 46:27
  as far as I can scroll back. I've watched all his videos.
• 46:31
  I got realized going across all of them from what I watch.
• 46:34
  So definitely check out his videos and I appreciate you
• 46:38
  coming on and we'll see y'all next episode.
• 46:41
  Thank you for joining us on another episode of the BBQ
• 46:44
  Therapy Podcast. My name is Tavis Bryant.
• 46:47
  Please tune in to YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Amazon, in any
• 46:52
  streaming platform near you. Please pay the secretary on your
• 46:56
  way out and we'll see you next episode.