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Jason Cottingham - Trauma Hogs BBQ | BBQ Medicine · BBQ Therapy

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  One more portion of that is we had a young customer when we had
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  our food trailer and she was going through chemotherapy over
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  at Le Bonheur and Saint Jude over Memphis.
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  And my mother in Oh, every time she showed up I
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  was like, had it ready. Just here.
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  The valuable things of that in life was way more valuable than
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  a gram. I'm just telling and I don't
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  want to get choked up about it, but it is the truth.
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  I was living in people's lives and it was amazing.
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  Waggle Ham BBQ Waggle Ham BBQ Waggle Ham BBQ Waggle Ham BBQ.
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  Ever notice how the sound of sizzling meat and the smell of
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  smoke can silence the noise of the world?
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  Now that's BBQ therapy. If the fire moves you like,
• 1:03
  subscribe, share and help spread the message because growth, like
• 1:07
  good BBQ, takes time and patience.
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  Welcome to your therapy session. Welcome to the BBQ therapy
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  podcast. My name is Tavis Bryant and
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  today I'm joined by Jason Cottingham and miss Tiffany in
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  her absence from Trauma Hogs BBQ, a name that carries weight
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  for a reason. They've lived through the high
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  pressure world of trauma medicine and brought that same
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  resilience, intensity and discipline to the world of BBQ.
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  From food trucks and catering to award-winning barbecue and
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  product lines, they build a brand that's bold, as is their
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  name. This is about more than food.
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  It's about healing, sacrifice, and building something that
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  lasts. Let's dig in.
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  Welcome to the show. I got one rule.
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  Make yourself at home and speak freely, man.
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  I don't know how I can respond to that intro.
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  That's an amazing intro, Thank you.
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  No problem. You never know how much you do
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  until somebody tell you I. Know you did your homework man,
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  I love it. You, when I hear you speaking, I
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  know that just by listening that you're expert in what you do as
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  far as catering and food trucks and stuff like that.
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  So that's why I was like, I got to have you on.
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  So you can educate some people that may need to have tips and
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  show where you started to where you're at now and stuff like
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  that and let them know that they are on the fence about starting
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  something. Just jump out there and try.
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  You never know what happened. Yeah, so that we, I'll go back
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  and tell our story real quick. But nurses for a long time, both
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  me and Tiffany, both COVID happen.
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  And it's funny what happens in life, especially during that
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  COVID time. I was already doing some
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  competition stuff, already got a place at the shed.
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  I think I got 6th and ribs right before that.
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  And then COVID hit boom to shut everything down.
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  I'm a nurse. You are a nurse.
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  That's where the trauma hogs comes from trauma nurse.
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  And we had to go back and punt just a little bit.
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  This is pre before our BBQ business.
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  So we we traveled and we both worked in California during that
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  time. Met amazing friends out there
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  and man, I come back and I bought a Southern Dimensions
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  trailer and went to work and man, it was just so nervous.
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  That leap of going from nursing and having that safety cushion
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  of a regular income and opening up a food trailer and hope
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  somebody shows up. They did show up.
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  Let me tell you, they did show up.
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  But let's take it back a little bit.
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  So how did y'all get into trauma medicine?
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  What made you get into trauma medicine?
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  Well, I have a history of medicine, man.
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  I've worked as an EMT. I was a volunteer fireman going
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  back lots and lots of years. I was also a sheriff's deputy
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  and a SWAT medic for a while, and I already had a background
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  of medicine and went to nursing school, and that's where we
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  ended up. Tiffany was one of the managers
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  in the where we worked at and we met there and never looked back,
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  man. Flirting on the job?
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  You're. Flirting on the job?
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  She was my trainer, let's just get real about it.
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  So she trained me and then she become my work life and now she
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  went from my real life all. Right.
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  So how did the transition go from so you just up and just
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  decided to stop the trauma medicine and just jump into the
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  food truck. How did that transition did?
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  So I was already doing competition stuff.
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  I had a huge amount of friends that was doing competition
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  stuff. So we're really, my hometown is
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  in Jonesboro, AR which is really close to Memphis.
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  Memphis and May is a big deal there.
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  I already knew about it, been to it.
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  I never competed in it but did smaller KCBS events SC as were
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  big during the time and yeah, got into doing the competition
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  and all it takes is 1 little place.
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  You get a place at a competition, man, and you get
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  the bug and went back and this is literally how the business
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  started. I was doing competitions and
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  leftover stuff I would bring into the hospital where I worked
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  at and I would feed everyone at night because I worked weekends.
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  And man, I just, everyone would tell me their best.
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  I would say here's free food. Just really honestly, tell me
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  what you think about it. Don't even though it's free,
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  don't just tell me what I want to hear.
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  Actually, tell me, what if you like it or don't, or what could
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  I do to make better? So I honed in on that, got to
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  determining what people liked, what flavor profiles were
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  popular in our area. And then like I said, COVID
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  happened and refined some more stuff.
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  I was already before, a little bit before COVID, I was cooking
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  stuff for friends and family. I was bringing so much to the
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  hospital. They were like, hey, can you do
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  my brother's wedding or hey, can you do this or do that?
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  And there's always something and COVID happened, made that money
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  came back and bought that food trailer and I never looked back.
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  And so glad we got a southern Southern dimensions trailer.
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  It was a turnkey and man, immediately I want to give them
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  a plug because they might get an amazing trailer.
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  I'm not sponsored by them or anything, but they make the best
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  food trailer out there in my opinion.
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  And the reason why I say that is because they that trailer was
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  built from the ground up. It was never an enclosed
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  trailer. It was built A-frame.
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  They laid out all the restaurant equipment on the inside of it by
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  our CAD design. And I took that CAD design and
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  took it to the health department.
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  They immediately okayed it. They were like, there's only two
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  of these trailers instead of Arkansas immediately okayed it
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  and then went right to work. So there's value in that.
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  Yes, it costs a little more than a normal food trailer, but you
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  can literally say I can pull it in somewhere and go right to
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  work. So there was value in that.
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  And it was a gorgeous trailer. Jet Black.
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  They drew a crowd because of what it was and I really truly
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  believe of what it was. It brought customers to us.
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  We had great food and great customer service, but the look
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  of it also brought customers also.
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  Last couple of competitions you want.
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  To talk about the food truck industry, we can, I can fill you
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  in on that that's. Good.
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  All right. Let's talk a little bit about
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  the competition and then jump into that.
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  So where smokers were you cooking on at a time?
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  I've had so many men, like during the time of the
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  competitions, the gateway drums, that was the thing.
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  That's the thing. It's always been a thing and
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  it's because they're so portable.
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  Very in the very beginning, everyone I was running around
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  with was using the bigger stuff that I'm going to go like way
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  back, but we were like using Old Hickories, 4 pellet grills.
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  Those were hard to lug around. You had to have an enclosed
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  trailer to lug around. Then immediately everyone caught
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  on to the gateways because you could throw them in the back of
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  your truck, have a pop up tent, show up at the morning of the
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  event and guess what? You're cooking and knocked out
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  and done and out of there and I think that's one of the and it
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  makes it really good BBQ. I know I've mentioned this every
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  episode but he don't realize what he came up with what he
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  invented that drum he made so many people career and made so
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  many people life easier but it drunk.
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  There's no telling how many grand champions, there's not
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  telling how many reserves and how many places.
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  It's just something about that live fire and the circulation of
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  the drippings hitting the charcoal just brings that flavor
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  right back to that protein and they just judges love it and
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  customers love it. I never did cook their
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  commercial stuff on a drum because of the volume.
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  But on competition wise, I will tell you I did use at the
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  American Royal on our poultry turn insurance like Turkey and
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  stuff like that. I did use a pellet grill Smoking
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  Brothers Pellet grill Premiere 30 and I think a lot of people
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  would do chicken on pellet grills but drum was the way to
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  go because I was literally just show up with a tent in my truck.
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  And what drew you into the competition world?
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  Was it trophies, The money? The guard?
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  Just the community. Friends.
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  I had some friends that did it and it was the camaraderie.
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  Actually went to a competition downtown Jonesboro.
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  Me and my friend went and checked it out.
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  I'm like man, this is this could actually be fun.
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  We could come hang out, cook some barbecue and see how it
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  turns out. That snowballed into a lot of
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  stuff, man. Just the camaraderie of hanging
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  out with friends. It wasn't even the draw of even
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  winning. It was more I want something.
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  I want a hobby where I can hang out and cook some BBQ.
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  And was your wife with you and and during competing?
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  Yeah, she's done competitions with me.
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  She's just as good as a cook as I am, probably better, and she
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  always went with me. That's what I'm saying.
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  That's the best person to have in the truck is your spouse
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  because they know you the best and you know when you're
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  frustrated, aggravated, they know how to get you back in the
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  game. And so he's definitely the best
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  person to have. Had a really good friend that
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  helped to start the business. He was into it too, and he was
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  an amazing cook and I drew into it because of him too.
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  And when y'all came up with the name Trauma hoes, did y'all have
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  any hesitation due? To that man, I didn't.
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  I can remember setting at the hospital I worked in.
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  I worked in a specialty area and I remember at night I was come
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  up with names of teens and it just that sounded right.
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  But then I was like, I think you don't have a weird vibe about
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  that because they're going to. And I've had so many people say
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  stuff of like weird stuff. It really it's because we were
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  trauma nurses. And yes, you're right.
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  I was worried about it but after a while I was like, that's the
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  name for it so. Actually, like the BBQ team is
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  kind of, I don't know if you ever watch wrestling, but it's
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  like wrestling team. This is our wrestling personas
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  that you come up with and that's who we are.
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  That's who you are when you could beat and.
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  I won't be honest with you, if you go to a competition like the
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  American Royal or Memphis of May and they start running down the
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  places and award ceremonies, some of those names are not very
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  kid friendly. Yeah, I will be at the road this
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  year, so I'm gonna walk around. Come.
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  On you bother me too bad because I heard some of them other names
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  I was like oh we're fine just. I like it, it's catchy and
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  that's what y'all did we. Were nurses.
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  If you look at the logo behind me, it's got a bandage on its
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  head. I love it.
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  It's so. It's catchy.
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  I like the whole logo all right. No, I was just going to tell
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  you, even coming up with the logo, this was pre AI anything.
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  A graphic designer that I knew drew that.
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  That's like a pre that logos hand drawn so.
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  Yeah, that's how it is. The ones behind my head, I had
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  sketched it on a paper a long time ago.
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  My wife had saw it when I was moving and she was like, what is
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  this? I was like, that was my logo to
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  barbecue. She was like, what are you doing
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  with it? I was like nothing.
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  Right now we're thinking about starting a BBQ business or
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  computer. It's too late.
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  What is it going to hurt? So I was like, you're right.
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  So I went on Fiver and got somebody to computerize it and
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  yeah, here we go. I will say I want to tell you
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  one short story. Go ahead, it's your show.
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  You know, I see that logo right there on that hat.
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  I don't know if you've met Ryan Kane yet.
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  He's an amazing cook. I'm talking amazing cook.
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  He has a damn fine beef and swine out of Kansas City.
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  He reserved the royal, not last year's award.
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  And he came, he's a graphic designer also.
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  He came up with that logo for us are on our hats.
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  And the running joke is everyone asked me what that logo is and a
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  woman come up to me and she goes, does that say Dick?
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  No Funny, funny story I've told Ron a million times.
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  All right, and when did travel halls go from a passion project
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  to a brand that you knew you had to take seriously?
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  Coming back from working in California, we made this rub
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  let's talk about this. This is kind of part of the
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  thing too. But I was making rub at the
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  house hand making selling at the hospital where I worked at and I
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  knew because the volume was high on it I couldn't keep up with
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  the volume of selling it. So I had to eventually get a Co
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  packed, but out in California people was demanding our rub.
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  They was demanding me to do catering still when I came back
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  to Arkansas and finally just made a choice, hey, I'm going to
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  try to order this food trailer and see how it goes.
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  And then just took off from there.
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  Man. The catering business was its
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  own business too, which we can talk about later, but this was
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  probably part of it. We actually have a BBQ rub too.
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  This is the main seller. It's shameless plug, but it's
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  won tons of awards and all kind of stuff.
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  It's just, you think it's just a simple SPG, but I think we sold
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  like 42 cases in Kansas City last weekend.
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  So that's. Excellent.
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  Yeah. And early on, what were some of
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  the hardest sacrifices that you had to make to build a brand
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  with the time many family would. Absolutely mean that's probably
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  the the common denominator of all the small businesses is a
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  fine line between building your brand awareness, building your
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  business and time with your family.
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  And I'm guilty of it and I this is the honest truth, man.
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  It took a lot of hours. It took my friends hours, it
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  took a lot of family hours because they worked with us.
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  Also, I can remember at one point we were working 16 hours a
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  day, 17 hours a day, seven days a week just to keep up with
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  volume. And it's I've got the perfect
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  analogy. I asked Brad Loniger with
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  getting based at one time. He came to Jonesboro and we were
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  talking restaurant business. There's a fine line between
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  quality, really good quality, and family time.
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  You kind of have to meet it in the middle, but to bring that
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  quality down where you can get more family time and just find a
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  middle space. I think that was probably the
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  most perfect analogy because I was right, like up here, high
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  quality and low down here family time, because I've never seen my
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  family, never seen my boys or Ashland.
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  And looking back should have adjusted this a different way.
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  But yeah, it took a lot. Took a personal sacrifice of
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  myself, my wife, my family and it took a lot.
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  Yeah, that's why I'm doing this podcast because I was like at
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  the beginning of the day I'm a father so I got an 18 month old
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  and BBQ would still be there when it's time.
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  So I'll wait until she gets up in age and then get out there
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  and in the meantime, I just do this podcast and get my BBQ
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  fixed. This way I was like, I'm not
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  going to miss out and next thing you know she's 18 and then
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  missed everything. You're right.
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  And part of Ashlyn's thing is most of the time that her I got
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  two older sons and the only time they would see me and Tiffany is
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  if they were at the restaurant. Yes, they ended up working there
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  with us, but it's about the only time we spend time together and
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  couldn't do stuff with it outside of that.
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  And that's where you need to get home in on that, so.
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  And you run a food truck and you cater to Vince.
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  What's the best part of serving people that way?
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  Oh man. So this is another analogy, but
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  the food service is like a gamble.
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  Catering is not so much. Matter of fact, catering is
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  pretty profitable. So we separated our business
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  where we had catering in our regularly effort.
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  We call everyday sales and the everyday sales were like a
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  gamble. Everyday it was depending on
• 18:07
  weather is depending on what's going on in town, it's depending
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  on school's out, Christmas break, summer break.
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  So it's just a, it's really a roll of the dice every day.
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  Yes, you can run analytics in which we did and I could tell
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  you what seasonality things were happening.
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  But man, looking back, our catering business was strong and
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  the deal with the catering business is not the gamble
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  because you're going to get paid on it.
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  It's just a matter of volume. But it's one of the whole
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  restaurant business is a high risk, high rewards gain.
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  And I learned a lesson on it. And I was never a restaurateur,
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  I was just a nurse. So I learned a lot of hard
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  lessons. Just trial and error.
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  A lot of trial and error. All right, people see long lines
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  and great food, but they don't have they don't actually see the
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  grind behind it. What's something about running a
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  food truck or a restaurant that most people would never believe
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  until they lived it? They probably wouldn't believe
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  of getting up at 12:00 at night. They probably wouldn't believe
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  getting DMS at 2:00 in the morning.
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  Hey, can you do a 200 person wedding tomorrow?
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  They probably wouldn't believe up our hours in the day and
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  night and but there's a lot of positives in there too.
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  They probably wouldn't believe that I cater to Arrowhead for a
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  bunch of VIP customers for the chiefs.
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  They probably wouldn't believe that me and Tiffany was NASCAR.
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  We did an All Star race in North Wilkesboro on the interior of
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  the racetrack. And I've done a lot of things
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  that's crazy in the BBQ industry and I never would have done that
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  in the nursing industry, which I do love.
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  I still love the nursing and medical and all that stuff, but
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  a lot of late nights and I at one point I was like, I've got
• 19:59
  to shut off the DMS and the messenger because they just,
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  it's a constant inflow. Just all hours, day and night.
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  If you don't rest, your body will force you to rest.
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  And that was the world's worst of picking.
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  And the people that worked with us will tell you I was the
• 20:15
  world's worst. I took almost everything that I
• 20:17
  could take. If something came in and it was
• 20:20
  last minute, man, I tried to accommodate every customer that
• 20:24
  we had. The body paid the price, man.
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  All right, and when you're chasing a passion for BBQ, it's
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  easy to burn out. How do you balance the love of
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  cooking for people with the mental and physical toll that
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  comes from the day-to-day running your own operation?
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  That's a tough one. That's a good question.
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  It's a battle every day, man. I would when you're working
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  seven days a week, 18 hours a day, you find time to.
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  I would find time. I just have to walk out and get
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  a breather. I'd go out to our smokehouse.
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  Actually, our smokehouse was the breather and my dad ran our hits
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  for a while and I go out there and talk to him and it takes a
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  toll, brother, I'm telling you. Because you didn't.
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  You had the restaurant and the food truck at the same time.
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  Yeah, I actually had two. We had the food trailer, we had
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  a restaurant, we had a hybrid which was in another town with a
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  commissary kitchen, an office and a warehouse.
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  It actually handled our catering, but it also had daily
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  stuff too. So technically it was full
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  restaurant, hybrid restaurant. And I had our catering business
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  and of course our rub business. And then it got to the point
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  where we were handling wholesale stuff for other BBQ brands.
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  I was handling their logistics handling like their storage
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  stuff in our warehouse. Yeah, I was dabbling in all
• 21:44
  different areas. Not just being in a restaurant
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  would probably burn you out. But we was doing 10 different
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  things, 10 different revenue streams, so we really got burned
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  out. Yeah, Lee, that's crazy, all
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  right. And every pitmaster has a moment
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  where they wonder, is it worth it?
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  What were some of the toughest moments in the business that
• 22:06
  almost made you walk away? I can remember we got a phone
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  call from one of the hospitality groups.
• 22:12
  I was telling you about that NASCAR race and it was short
• 22:15
  notice. It was probably like two or
• 22:18
  three days notice. And when a deal like that comes,
• 22:21
  you got to kind of just try to figure it out.
• 22:24
  And we did. And I can remember, I mean, Tiff
• 22:27
  drove, I think we're in Knoxville, TN because we was
• 22:30
  driving to North Carolina. We got to a hotel.
• 22:34
  It was like 2 or 3:00 in the morning and the hotel wouldn't
• 22:36
  take us and we had reservations. I looked at her, I'm like, we're
• 22:40
  wore out. We've already drove 12 hours and
• 22:43
  now we got to drive another 6. And I can remember sleeping in
• 22:49
  our, we had a Transit van accompanying Transit van.
• 22:53
  I'm like, what are we doing here?
• 22:54
  We're sleeping in the parking lot.
• 22:59
  But I'm telling you, when I got there, I got a boost of energy
• 23:02
  because I've seen everything that was going on.
• 23:04
  And there's a lot of, lot of pre-orders in there that so
• 23:09
  during the Christmas seasons and Thanksgiving seasons, we'd have
• 23:12
  pre-orders, we'd have massive lists of everything that we've
• 23:16
  been putting out. And there's a lot of times I
• 23:19
  question why are we doing this? That's crazy.
• 23:23
  And you know the people working with us Crazy, I'm sure so.
• 23:26
  Yeah, I definitely understand that.
• 23:28
  I can remember every time doing a pre-order Thanksgiving or
• 23:31
  Christmas everyone was like please don't do that again and
• 23:35
  of course what do we do because the emails and messaging would
• 23:38
  come in. Are y'all doing a pre-order?
• 23:41
  Sure, that was the yes man that got me in trouble.
• 23:46
  Definitely. And those NASCAR events, I
• 23:49
  didn't know. I knew that a lot of people will
• 23:52
  go, but I didn't know that many people be at those events
• 23:55
  because I what when Tim Shear came out to Atlanta, asked them
• 24:00
  to come and just experience what they do.
• 24:03
  So they were handing out the BBQ sauce as well as cooking samples
• 24:08
  of sausage and stuff. So people can try the sauce and
• 24:12
  man out non-stop from 11:00 to 6:30, just handing out stuff and
• 24:20
  talking to people. I was like.
• 24:22
  I got a great story man, but he was in the interior of that and
• 24:25
  I was, I work for an amazing stuff and I still work for this
• 24:28
  company called Tail Greeter. They're a company out of
• 24:31
  Chicago. They do tailgate events and
• 24:35
  large scale VIP events and almost every ball game you can
• 24:39
  think of they do tailgates for that and they're the ones that
• 24:42
  brought us out and we was in line and it was a really good
• 24:46
  line. So if you've had a serving line
• 24:48
  before, you can have them super packed in there.
• 24:51
  You're trying to get through, trying to get through and move
• 24:53
  through. And this line was perfect.
• 24:55
  It was like 10 people would come if you get to talk to them and
• 25:00
  then 10 more. It was just perfect.
• 25:02
  Anyway, the gentleman came up and I was trying to make
• 25:04
  conversation with everyone in there.
• 25:06
  And just to be honest with you, I don't know a whole lot of
• 25:09
  folks in that industry. I know the big names, but I
• 25:13
  didn't know everyone there. And I leaned over and I asked
• 25:16
  this gentleman, I'm like, where are you from?
• 25:18
  And he told me somewhere in North Carolina.
• 25:20
  And the line was moving on and his wife stopped.
• 25:22
  And she goes, she whispered at me.
• 25:25
  She goes, this is Dale Junior's brother, and it's Carrie
• 25:29
  Earnhardt. So it was.
• 25:30
  Anyway, we fed him, fed all kinds of people I'm probably
• 25:36
  don't even know. And he got done eating.
• 25:39
  I gave him a thumbs up, kind of. Was that good?
• 25:42
  And he was like, yeah, he came over and I was like, hey, can I
• 25:45
  get a picture with heels, man? I was going to ask you if I get
• 25:48
  a picture for with you. So it really made me feel good.
• 25:52
  And Earnhardt asked for a picture of me.
• 25:55
  I'm just a BBQ. Yeah.
• 25:57
  Exactly. He's like, yeah, I took your
• 25:59
  banana pudding, which was very popular, over to.
• 26:04
  It was an amazing experience. If I was, when I met Tim, I had
• 26:08
  my barbecue therapy T-shirt, I'd haven't started the podcast.
• 26:12
  He's like, oh, you got a podcast?
• 26:13
  Can I be on your podcast? I went home immediately and
• 26:16
  that's when I started the podcast.
• 26:18
  Got it together. Malcolm, Malcolm his from the
• 26:24
  area that we're from and the same in a competition.
• 26:26
  One time I said, hey, man, talk to you a minute and he was
• 26:29
  talking about that and what is I knew what his mom did and man,
• 26:34
  just that short conversation LED into a relationship with those
• 26:38
  guys and how to barbecue, right guys, swine life guys, which led
• 26:42
  into still friends with Heath and all the players.
• 26:46
  But I got a good story about that too.
• 26:48
  But as soon as this rub was made, it went to the Co Packer
• 26:53
  and I was just so happy, man. My first rub, I can't, cannot
• 26:58
  wait to show someone. Malcolm's office is right around
• 27:01
  the corner from where our Co Packer is.
• 27:04
  And I went over there and I had a whole truckload.
• 27:06
  There was a pile load in the back of my truck.
• 27:08
  I carried a case in and I was talking to Mark and Jamie
• 27:11
  Williams to swine life and he heard I was up there and he
• 27:14
  goes, oh, Jason, let's look at this bottle.
• 27:17
  So he was looking at this bottle and he's man, that label looks
• 27:21
  so good. That's a popping label right
• 27:23
  there that's going to pop out on the shelves.
• 27:25
  But man that Co Packer had this SPG label and our BBQ rub in it
• 27:30
  and I was just like my heart just let me have that bottle
• 27:36
  back. I was heart broke because this
• 27:39
  was the first thing a whole pallet load of this was ran with
• 27:44
  the BBQ rub and the SPG label. No one Malcolm, he got on the
• 27:48
  phone and called over because he uses the same place and man I
• 27:52
  brought the heat. I took that pallet over in about
• 27:55
  three days later they got fixed, which they're good folks anyway
• 27:58
  too. And I'll I'll never forget that
• 28:01
  first person to even see that bottle.
• 28:03
  And then it was Malcolm Rude so. Oh wow, that's good.
• 28:07
  That's good. He wanted the big dogs in the
• 28:10
  game, so endorsement from him, it means a lot.
• 28:15
  It is. As well as Mark, we and Lee
• 28:18
  right there too. Yeah.
• 28:20
  So it's definitely good that people are seeing your product
• 28:23
  and know that it's good. Yeah.
• 28:26
  All right. And if you can go back and tell
• 28:28
  yourself one lesson about the restaurant and food truck and
• 28:31
  catering business, what would it be if you're going to wind back?
• 28:34
  Down. Oh my goodness, that's a multi.
• 28:38
  It's a multi pronged thing there.
• 28:41
  I would probably say to separate myself from the business.
• 28:45
  That sounds dumb, but I was the person that was always in the
• 28:49
  trenches too. I wanted a person that was
• 28:52
  working for us feel like that. I wasn't too good to do anything
• 28:56
  either. And I just wanted to come across
• 28:59
  that way because I really, truly felt that way.
• 29:03
  And probably one of the problems with our issue or our business
• 29:07
  was pulling away from that. And if I could have just pulled
• 29:10
  away from that just a little bit and focus more on what was going
• 29:14
  on and running in our business, it would have really took off
• 29:17
  even further. There's a lot of times Tiff
• 29:20
  would be like, hey, she would call me and I would be working.
• 29:23
  I'll be chopping brisket and making sandwiches, all kind of
• 29:25
  stuff. And she'd be, she'll call me and
• 29:28
  say, hey, I need you to come down to our other store.
• 29:30
  And when I get down there, it was just because she wanted me
• 29:33
  to take a break and actually do business stuff.
• 29:39
  There's a business side of it. I always wanted to be in the
• 29:41
  middle of it and I wanted great customer service and I loved
• 29:47
  every one of our customers, man. And you could tell because
• 29:50
  sometimes when I wasn't there at one of the restaurants that you
• 29:54
  would dip down just a little bit, like sales for the day or
• 29:56
  something. Even though the folks that
• 29:58
  worked there were amazing. It's just they wanted to see me,
• 30:01
  man. And it's probably one of the
• 30:03
  downfalls that and being not being able to pull away.
• 30:06
  And that was my own fault. That was my own blame because I
• 30:08
  wanted to be right in the middle of it.
• 30:10
  I love cooking. Risky.
• 30:12
  I love cooking all the things. I want to be in the middle of
• 30:14
  cooking it, want to be in the middle of serving it, and to
• 30:17
  making people happy. That's what makes me happy in
• 30:20
  life. Our grandma, I learned to cook
• 30:22
  from her. That's the way she was and I got
• 30:24
  it from her. OK, that's BBQ therapy.
• 30:27
  That's right. I am.
• 30:28
  You got a Good Wife because my wife do the same thing.
• 30:30
  You all right? You got to take a break.
• 30:32
  You can't save the world all the way week.
• 30:36
  Yeah. So I listen to her and sometimes
• 30:39
  I it'd be hard headed, but this is what I love.
• 30:44
  This is my release from every day.
• 30:48
  It's worth it to me because like when I do during the week, I do
• 30:52
  this from 8:30 to 9:30 because that's when the kids settle
• 30:56
  down. I get them to sleep, but also I
• 30:58
  have to get up the next morning at 3:45 and go to work.
• 31:01
  But I love BBQ that much, and then I love getting people's
• 31:05
  story out and pushing the BBQ nation to everybody because I
• 31:11
  love the BBQ community because they was so nice to me and
• 31:14
  welcoming that I have any good competition.
• 31:17
  Yeah, I went to classes and I walked around, but I met so many
• 31:21
  people that like, this is awesome.
• 31:25
  It isn't. You you will find later on and
• 31:28
  I'm sure you already know that. So many people will help you
• 31:31
  man. I can make a phone call if I had
• 31:34
  an issue with anything of any other BBQ persons and anyone
• 31:38
  would answer a question. I can't remember going to
• 31:41
  competitions a lot. One of the best things to do too
• 31:45
  is go to in the National BBQ Association.
• 31:47
  I'm going next. Year, yes, I think Bill said the
• 31:50
  other day the next one's going to be in Nashville.
• 31:53
  I recommend it. We actually went to the one in
• 31:55
  Fort Worth. We had our trailer there and we
• 31:57
  served BBQ to everyone there. That was really weird too,
• 32:00
  serving BBQ to Brad and Brooke and MO case on and all these
• 32:04
  other folks. And this is no lie.
• 32:07
  MO came back and got BBQ. You would think these people
• 32:11
  burn out a bit. That's crazy.
• 32:13
  But what was getting at is Brad and Brooke and anyone there,
• 32:16
  they're like, hey, here's my personal number.
• 32:18
  If you got issues, please reach out to us.
• 32:21
  And I have, and that's what I really love about the BBQ
• 32:25
  industry and the camaraderie of folks.
• 32:28
  And I have done. It's all teamwork.
• 32:32
  It's even to now, I've still partnered up with other BBQ
• 32:36
  brands, including this one. Shameless plug.
• 32:39
  If you don't know Josh DeWitt, you have to learn that guy and
• 32:43
  me and him are the best of friends and I promote his stuff
• 32:46
  just like he promotes mine. Yeah, I look forward.
• 32:51
  This whole business so. Connections and one connection
• 32:56
  will lead to two more connections and then two more
• 32:58
  connections and there you go. I'll tell you I got full
• 33:04
  stories, dude. You got the right person on this
• 33:06
  podcast. I.
• 33:07
  Go for. It we got a a friend of ours
• 33:10
  that was a really good cook. He's really good BBQ comp cook
• 33:14
  and he was friends with Josh DeWitt and he messaged me and
• 33:19
  he's like, hey, I'm from Chicago and I want to come to y'all's
• 33:23
  restaurant and learn how y'all operate like restaurant stuff.
• 33:26
  He's already doing great stuff in the competition world.
• 33:29
  I started in backyard and all that stuff and that's Brian
• 33:32
  Calhoun with Wheezes. He's an amazing cook, man.
• 33:36
  But as the years have progressed, man, his BBQ game is
• 33:42
  next level. I'm good friends with him.
• 33:45
  We talk all the time and I just want to give him a big shout
• 33:49
  out. He just got first and ribs at
• 33:50
  the Royal Oak Invitational. That's a big deal.
• 33:53
  If you know who was there, there's some major players.
• 33:57
  And I was driving back from Kansas City and he called me and
• 34:00
  before answered, I told Tiffany I was like, man, I hope he won.
• 34:05
  And the first words was, did you look at that picture I sent you?
• 34:09
  Oh, man, he sent me a picture of that first place ribs at the
• 34:12
  Royal Oak Invitational. Oh my goodness, he was so
• 34:15
  excited. And it's well deserved.
• 34:18
  He's an amazing guy, an amazing cook.
• 34:21
  He's going to go amazing places. He's going to be at the American
• 34:24
  Roll and he's in fine company because he'll be with DeWitt and
• 34:29
  Ryan Crane and Joel with me, Rushmore and all those guys.
• 34:33
  Yeah, because coincidences. I reached out to him for a show,
• 34:37
  but he said he was busy because of the Royal Oak and stuff like
• 34:40
  that. And I told him I was going to be
• 34:42
  at the American Royal and he said come visit him because he
• 34:44
  was cooking with Josh DeWitt and stuff like that and told me what
• 34:48
  number that he was going to be at, which is crazy.
• 34:52
  You should. That's a good group of guys.
• 34:54
  I've cooked with a bunch of them before.
• 34:56
  And you should they're they're going to, they're going to play
• 35:00
  something. I just know it because their
• 35:02
  food is exceptional and they have the perfect flavor profiles
• 35:07
  and their presentation is the best I've seen.
• 35:10
  There's a lot of amazing teams there.
• 35:12
  Matter of fact, I don't know if have you been to the Royal
• 35:14
  before. No, this will be my first time.
• 35:17
  It's an amazing experience because there's so many teams
• 35:19
  there, especially as a podcast guy.
• 35:22
  You'll get tons of content there.
• 35:24
  You could probably do you could run a podcast there.
• 35:26
  They do and you'll get so many connections, business
• 35:30
  connections, friendships, and I recommend going.
• 35:35
  One of the finest concert is that Memphis and mine.
• 35:38
  Yeah, Memphis May is good. I drag my wife up there and we
• 35:41
  meet a lot of people. But Oh yeah, the crazy thing
• 35:44
  about the American Royals, I by the time this year, everybody I
• 35:48
  know, but I interviewed Artie Davis.
• 35:51
  Yeah, later on that night. Yeah.
• 35:53
  He emailed me. Would you like to be my guest
• 35:56
  for the Hall of Fame reception and ceremony?
• 35:58
  I'm looking like that's what. Absolutely I want to.
• 36:05
  You got to read twice. I'm on my schedule.
• 36:08
  I'm there. Another individual that you need
• 36:11
  to meet. He's an amazing guy's.
• 36:14
  Craig Rahagi, a BBQ ninja. That guy's amazing and we love
• 36:20
  him. Is that the Royal Oak guy?
• 36:22
  Yeah, he's done a lot for us. He's done a lot for the BBQ
• 36:25
  industry. He's friends with Leslie, with U
• 36:27
  Bonds, and he's a great guy. Him and Bill Purvis too.
• 36:31
  I'm friends with Bill and man I'm be honest with you I'm
• 36:37
  scared to even drop a name on here because someones going to
• 36:40
  be like well you didn't mention me on this posture.
• 36:43
  You could drop, drop the e-mail address, drop the e-mail address
• 36:50
  in my e-mail. I wanted many people to have
• 36:55
  stories to come on and tell their stories from the how they
• 36:58
  started. And because I remember before
• 37:00
  Bill was famous, I used to see him on YouTube videos cooking
• 37:03
  with somebody else, the guy from aiming, claiming smokers.
• 37:07
  I used to see him go in the truck with him and next thing
• 37:11
  you know, he was winning everything.
• 37:13
  But yeah, definitely if you got some of the emails, definitely
• 37:17
  shoot them to me. And.
• 37:19
  Dude, star of a blazing star, all those West Coast guys.
• 37:23
  Yeah, I met him at Memphis and May.
• 37:26
  Mike Starr got a picture with him.
• 37:28
  I'll tell you another amazing individuals, Megan Day.
• 37:30
  We love Megan and I'm going to stop there because dude, I've
• 37:34
  got something. Definitely.
• 37:37
  That's what I tell people. I.
• 37:38
  You, Todd. For me, I like to be prepared.
• 37:43
  I do my homework, so when I meet people, I know everything about
• 37:47
  them and know them and they'll be surprised.
• 37:49
  Like, man, you know a lot about me and that's what get their
• 37:52
  attention to and impress them because you do your homework.
• 37:55
  That's why I tell everybody be prepared for because you never
• 37:59
  know what situation you'll end up in.
• 38:01
  And if you don't have your stuff together just like a catering or
• 38:05
  something like that, and you say how much for 200 people and
• 38:07
  you'd be like, I got to get back with you instead of saying, OK,
• 38:10
  this is how much, you always got to be prepared.
• 38:13
  Yeah, I have quoted out so many caterings, dude.
• 38:17
  I can tell you, I can run quick math on it just to we see even
• 38:21
  still calls me even though I don't know why he's done so many
• 38:24
  caterings. But that's the camaraderie and
• 38:27
  that's the friendships that you build in this business because
• 38:30
  we bounce stuff off each other all the time.
• 38:33
  And just like DeWitt, I owe him a lot, man.
• 38:36
  He's got this rub in our business in so many places.
• 38:40
  And him and Jeremy both Jeremy Williams, he's an amazing
• 38:43
  person. I got to stop.
• 38:45
  Ask me another. Question.
• 38:48
  All right, I'm going to read this stuff out that I seen on
• 38:51
  your Instagram. 2022 Best of NEA Catering Food Truck, 2023 Best
• 38:58
  of NEA BBQ Catering and food Truck, and 2023 JBR Premier Best
• 39:04
  Barbecue and Catering. And how did it feel to get those
• 39:08
  honors? Me and Weiss just talking about
• 39:10
  that a while back and I feel, and Bill too, it feels really
• 39:13
  good to get those trophies. Feels amazing to get those
• 39:16
  grains and reserves and all the other stuff, which personally I
• 39:19
  haven't. I went down a different route,
• 39:21
  went down the restaurant route, but to get out accolades from a
• 39:26
  community that you're invested in, that's pretty powerful too.
• 39:31
  And I used to tell all my friends, I'm like, it's getting
• 39:34
  that type stuff is like getting big awards on the competition
• 39:39
  side. And I do even the small things
• 39:43
  that we'd have customers that I still got it on my phone, man.
• 39:47
  Their son painted a thing at school and had trauma hogs all
• 39:52
  over it. And it's just that that I think
• 39:56
  that's more valuable to me. The first person that was in our
• 40:00
  restaurant was a good friend of mine and he waited till we
• 40:03
  opened the restaurant. So you had a birthday party
• 40:05
  there. That level stuff, man, you
• 40:07
  can't, that's life stuff. You can't even you can't even
• 40:10
  make that stuff up. One more portion of that is we
• 40:14
  had a young customer when we had our food trailer.
• 40:16
  And she was going through chemotherapy over at La Bonner
• 40:19
  and Saint Jude over Memphis. And my mother in law's banana
• 40:23
  pudding was about the only thing that she would eat because she
• 40:26
  was having a hard time with her chemo.
• 40:28
  And man, she would come every other day because her mom told
• 40:33
  me this was the only thing that was she eat.
• 40:36
  Oh, every time she showed up, I was like, had it ready just
• 40:40
  here. The valuable things of that in
• 40:45
  life was way more valuable than a grand.
• 40:50
  I'm just telling and I don't want to get choked up about it,
• 40:52
  but it is the truth. I was living in people's lives
• 40:56
  and it was amazing. Yeah, the reason why we do it
• 41:01
  for people is it's a labor of love, and just to see people's
• 41:07
  reaction to something you did means a lot just with and.
• 41:11
  And I could tell you so many stories, man, like that.
• 41:14
  The hospitals where we're from, dude, his daughter come up
• 41:18
  there. Hey, this is what he wanted.
• 41:20
  He's in Hospice. Oh my gosh, They would tell me
• 41:24
  that stuff and I would be. And it was true.
• 41:26
  And it was just an amazing feeling to be in someone's life
• 41:31
  like that. And I'm proud that we did what
• 41:34
  we did. And I'm still continuing it down
• 41:37
  here in Florida. So I love it down here.
• 41:40
  Yeah, it means a lot because sometimes, like when we do
• 41:43
  stuff, I was telling somebody, you get frustrated sometimes.
• 41:47
  And just when you get frustrated, you open up a
• 41:51
  Instagram or something like that and you'll see a message from
• 41:54
  somebody when they'll be like, hey, I love the show, great job,
• 41:57
  you're doing good, keep it up and you'll be like, I'm like 5
• 42:01
  seconds away from clearing this desk off.
• 42:05
  I would be working at 2:00 in the morning, everybody else
• 42:08
  sleep and I'd be in our pit room dealing with whatever I was
• 42:13
  doing. And but man, if one of those
• 42:16
  stories I just told you just washed all that away, just took
• 42:20
  it all away. I can remember and I told
• 42:22
  Tiffany during the time, I'm like, man, what?
• 42:25
  That was totally worth it. And that made a difference in
• 42:28
  someone's life. Trophies are nice but making a
• 42:32
  difference and people laughed. I mean it it does something on
• 42:35
  the inside to you that. I've got another one man.
• 42:40
  I was on the north side of town in Jonesboro, and I've never
• 42:44
  told the story. Besides my wife knows it and I
• 42:47
  never told anyone because I didn't want me to come across a
• 42:51
  bad kind of way. This is the truth.
• 42:53
  Someone came up to the trailer. I was the only one there.
• 42:56
  Sometimes I would just run the trailer by myself and a car
• 42:59
  pulled up. A child got out and looked at
• 43:02
  our menu and he walked back and I was like, they didn't have the
• 43:07
  money for it. And I called the child back.
• 43:11
  I'm like, what do you want? And he was like, he was
• 43:16
  confused. He didn't know I was going to
• 43:17
  give it to him. Man.
• 43:18
  I just loaded him up like family packs and everything.
• 43:21
  I'm just shoveling out the window.
• 43:26
  I just turned my back and the mom looked at me in the car and
• 43:31
  she was just like, thank you. Can't make that stuff up.
• 43:36
  I'm never told anyone that story.
• 43:39
  You got the first on that dude. I just, I didn't want people to
• 43:42
  think bad about me. Like I'm trying to get a sob
• 43:45
  story, but it's the truth. People need help and I wanted to
• 43:49
  help people. You need to tell stuff like this
• 43:53
  because that's what other people should be doing is you got it.
• 43:56
  It's not going to kill you. It's not going to break you to
• 43:59
  share with somebody, especially if they need it and stuff like
• 44:01
  that. Yeah, and it's.
• 44:04
  You'll get rewarded in the end and that's why you're successful
• 44:08
  now, because what you sowed in the other people's lives, it's
• 44:13
  coming full circle and. I put that seed in your ground.
• 44:18
  You need to tell that story and tell it.
• 44:20
  I mean, people going to hear it now because it was a nice
• 44:23
  gesture. And ain't no telling what you
• 44:27
  might have did for that little boy when you think about that,
• 44:30
  because he's going to play it forward when he get older.
• 44:33
  I remember the guy that gave me the barbecue and stuff, and it
• 44:36
  changed my life because we didn't have.
• 44:38
  Yeah, little kudos to you. Yeah, the mom wanted to get out
• 44:43
  and say something. I'm like, don't, you don't have
• 44:45
  to. And she went on her way and.
• 44:51
  And I love, that's what I like. I love helping people and giving
• 44:54
  people information because it was so hard for me to get during
• 44:58
  the time I was trying to learn. I was like, let me find an
• 45:00
  easier way to give it to them and motivate them and hear other
• 45:04
  people's stories and knowing that they started somewhere and
• 45:08
  then work their way up. And I want people to think, hey,
• 45:14
  I can do it too and get out there and at least try it.
• 45:17
  You may fail, but get back up. Try it again.
• 45:20
  Exactly. You may fail 50 times, but 51
• 45:24
  might be the time that you might hit it.
• 45:27
  So exactly All right, let's sell some product when?
• 45:31
  You created your. When you created your rubs, was
• 45:35
  it much of personal taste or were you filling the gap at that
• 45:38
  time when you created your rubs? Filling a gap with salt, pepper,
• 45:41
  garlic, Everybody got that. Yeah, I made it because I was
• 45:44
  doing competition stuff for myself.
• 45:47
  And this is no, this is literally how the SVG, it's got
• 45:50
  some, it's got some other stuff in it other than salt, pepper,
• 45:52
  garlic. Everybody knows it because the
• 45:54
  onion and all green onion in it and there's some other stuff.
• 45:57
  But when I was in California, I was in a real fancy eclectic
• 46:01
  area of chefs and all that stuff.
• 46:04
  I was in Northern California and I worked there during COVID and
• 46:09
  I met tons of chefs and I met 11 time as hey, have you ever
• 46:12
  thought about adding this? I was like, no, I don't even
• 46:17
  know about that and called our Co Packer back.
• 46:21
  I'm like, hey, put that in there in this increment, send it back.
• 46:25
  And dude, it changed it. It just changed the flavor
• 46:28
  profile of it. And yes, it says SPG on it, but
• 46:34
  I'm telling you it's completely different.
• 46:36
  And all the comp teams in Kansas City run it.
• 46:40
  I can't tell you who all runs it.
• 46:42
  I can tell you it's just one, a bunch of stuff.
• 46:44
  Matter of fact, I was telling in our demo in Kansas City this
• 46:49
  weekend because you want it. If you're selling a product, you
• 46:51
  want to say, oh, it's won tons of rewards, done this, done
• 46:54
  that. But on a product like this, I
• 46:57
  can't tell because a lot of people don't want people to know
• 47:00
  they're using it. I'm just telling you there's
• 47:04
  some notable people in the BBQ industry that.
• 47:07
  It may be simple SPG, but all SPGS ain't the same.
• 47:13
  That's the number one product. We have a BBQ rub, which we
• 47:15
  completely remount. I'll just tell you we have I've
• 47:18
  announced it and we have a jalapeno SPG coming out.
• 47:22
  The label is about finished up on it.
• 47:24
  Probably be out the first year. Our sauce is probably next in
• 47:28
  line. People have dude, Brad called me
• 47:33
  one time, Brad Orson with the shed because they own the
• 47:36
  saucery down there too. They do Co packing on sauces and
• 47:40
  he's man, let me make that a trauma sauce.
• 47:44
  And at the time I didn't have the resources to do it, but now
• 47:48
  I do. And they're probably going to be
• 47:50
  getting with him shortly on them making that.
• 47:52
  And then we have our BBQ. I have a lot of stuff coming in
• 47:56
  now that I can spend more time on our rub game and visit folks
• 47:59
  and go do stuff and actually go do a competition.
• 48:02
  I couldn't do that. And I'm excited to to what
• 48:06
  Trauma Hogs has come in probably in the next year or so because
• 48:10
  we out hustling too matter of fact that Tiffany showed me the
• 48:13
  calendar we're going to be so we live in the Florida Panhandle.
• 48:16
  I live in Pensacola actually, Perdido Key if you've ever been
• 48:20
  to Orange Beach, AL, it's super close to that.
• 48:23
  And I looked at the calendar today and it looks like every
• 48:26
  weekend we're at a farmer's market somewhere.
• 48:29
  That's good Tiffany. We're at a festival every
• 48:32
  weekend. Yeah, holiday markets.
• 48:35
  So we have a thing, a new product that's completely
• 48:38
  different from, I'm going to be honest with you, I was at
• 48:41
  American Fire in Kansas City BBQ store.
• 48:45
  I love those guys and I tried a lot of products there because
• 48:49
  they have a wall full of stuff and we have a new thing that's
• 48:53
  nobody has on the market. I've researched and looked and I
• 48:56
  can't wait to share with you. Is it safe to say we're going to
• 49:00
  run it in the holiday markets? Yes, I was told to tell you that
• 49:06
  we're going to run it in the holiday markets only just to do
• 49:08
  like a small base test on it. It's going to take off dude.
• 49:12
  It's totally different than anything else and I can't wait
• 49:15
  to share with you. Maybe I can get back with you
• 49:17
  next year and we'll, we'll. Blast that out of water, but
• 49:20
  definitely, definitely. Have our catering game down in
• 49:23
  Florida. Moved our LLC down to Florida on
• 49:26
  our we're just doing catering in our Rd. game.
• 49:28
  We've already booked a bowl game.
• 49:30
  We're going to cater for IT mobile and then someone called
• 49:34
  me the other day about doing another one, so I don't know
• 49:37
  about that yet. Oh really?
• 49:39
  I ain't mad at you. I love doing those.
• 49:45
  And if I handed your season to someone who doesn't do BBQ,
• 49:48
  what's the surprising food that they can use it on?
• 49:52
  Pizza. That's how it started.
• 49:56
  My youngest son, he loves Jack's pizza.
• 49:59
  I put it on Traeger. He'd go.
• 50:01
  Dad, put that dust on there. You might.
• 50:04
  And it's such a high garlic content.
• 50:07
  It's amazing on Italian stuff. It's great Italian dishes.
• 50:11
  I put it on a bagel. It's great on fresh tomatoes,
• 50:15
  vegetables and burgers. Oh, wow.
• 50:19
  The surprising thing would be a Jacks or a frozen pizza.
• 50:24
  I like the little. I guess they like hot.
• 50:27
  The jacks like little Hot Pocket.
• 50:29
  Look at things. Dad put dust on there.
• 50:33
  I'll never forget it. It's good to have stuff that's
• 50:38
  versatile because majority of the people are backyard people
• 50:41
  and that's what you're trying to sell for.
• 50:43
  Competition is nice, but that only make up a small percentage
• 50:46
  of people. That's barbecuing and also
• 50:49
  something that's versatility in the kitchen because that's the
• 50:51
  main part where everybody cooks it so.
• 50:54
  Yeah, we were at one point selling 20 fives, 25 pounders to
• 50:58
  other entities. We'd already entertained selling
• 51:00
  it to Cisco, and I think we're at one point where Ben and Keith
• 51:05
  was supposed to do something with it.
• 51:07
  But anyway, we have 20 fives of that too, and there's a huge
• 51:13
  demand for. It and if you can give a few
• 51:15
  tips for someone wanting to start a food truck and a few
• 51:18
  tips that for somebody wanting to cater, what would those tips
• 51:21
  be? Get in there and go meet
• 51:24
  businesses. The number one tip would be it's
• 51:28
  not a take take game, it's a give and take.
• 51:32
  I gave tons and tons of food away, which I in turn reaped the
• 51:37
  rewards of it, of sowing that seed and then reaping the
• 51:40
  rewards of it because people knew our flavor profiles, what
• 51:44
  our food tasted like. When you're new to the food
• 51:47
  scene, people don't know what your food tastes like.
• 51:49
  And it's a hard sell sometimes because unless you give it to
• 51:53
  them for free, and you have to be very mindful of that.
• 51:57
  And yes, it can be costly, but that would probably be the
• 52:00
  number one tip you're going to have to give some freebies out
• 52:03
  there. And especially with the rub,
• 52:06
  too. I gave a ton of freebies away
• 52:08
  and I just took off from there. It's just on a seat.
• 52:12
  Yeah, I mean it's an investment because one person goes, hey,
• 52:15
  have you tried this and then the next, where can I get it from
• 52:18
  and then next person. Word of mouth, man.
• 52:22
  People told me I was a firm believer of doubling down on
• 52:25
  social media and I did and got returned from it and conversions
• 52:30
  from it. But word of mouth in a community
• 52:33
  with a food trailer and catering and anything food service is
• 52:38
  going to get you way further than social media.
• 52:42
  Even those social medias is where it's at.
• 52:46
  But the repeat customer will come back because of the word of
• 52:49
  mouth. Yeah, definitely ain't a lot of
• 52:51
  social media. People are a little lazy
• 52:53
  sometimes. That's.
• 52:55
  A hustle. That's a hustle and probably all
• 52:58
  my BBQ friends that do a post today because man, it's tough.
• 53:02
  I'm sure you're doing what you do and getting content put out
• 53:06
  what you do. It's tough sometimes man,
• 53:08
  because there's a lot of production involved in that and
• 53:13
  but man, it gets you into a different spot.
• 53:16
  I. Definitely will.
• 53:17
  You just got to stick with it and go for it and just say don't
• 53:20
  look at the numbers, don't look at anything.
• 53:22
  Just keep grinding and keep grinding and eventually it'll
• 53:26
  pay off because the right people will be looking at it and the
• 53:30
  people that's meant for you is might not be meant for
• 53:33
  everybody, but everybody has their own lane and as long as
• 53:36
  you drive in your lane, you'll get to your destination.
• 53:39
  So. Maybe you start a podcast on how
• 53:42
  to start a food trailer, because I'll just tell you, I have a
• 53:46
  friend that has another podcast and the top one for years was
• 53:51
  when I was on there starting a food trailer that people are
• 53:54
  highly interested in it. Rusty.
• 53:57
  I'm talking about Rusty. Yeah, I listened to that.
• 54:01
  Dude, you would message me and be like, hey man, you're still
• 54:05
  number one. Hey, a year would go by.
• 54:07
  Hey, your podcast still number one.
• 54:10
  Hey man, that might be something both me we need to do.
• 54:14
  Start a podcast on how to start a BBQ trailer.
• 54:18
  That's what I would go ask. Can I ask you back in a couple
• 54:22
  months and I wanted to do a hospitality master class.
• 54:26
  I can tell you all about it, as a matter of fact, I can tell you
• 54:30
  about the movement of it, the flow of it.
• 54:32
  And what I mean by that is what to cook, how to cook?
• 54:35
  Well, not how to cook. Everyone knows if it's in the
• 54:38
  BBQ game, knows how to cook, but like the flow of it, what's
• 54:41
  going on in your community during that day?
• 54:43
  What's going on in the weather? Weather was a major killer for
• 54:47
  us, especially on a food truck. If it rains, ain't nobody
• 54:50
  showing up or going to storm, especially in Arkansas.
• 54:53
  And there's a lot of flow to that.
• 54:56
  A lot of being at partners, like with factories and partnering up
• 55:01
  with different places. I can tell you we ran analytics.
• 55:06
  I would show up at one place, run the numbers on it and I knew
• 55:12
  exactly where to go, man. And we headed down to science
• 55:16
  and that we got, that's one of the things that got us really
• 55:18
  popular. It spread out our product on a
• 55:21
  big wide area is what it did. And people got to come by and
• 55:25
  try it. And it's all about building
• 55:29
  those business relationships. And I had a connection within
• 55:33
  the medical industry like drug reps and device reps, and
• 55:37
  that's. Hey, we can definitely do that.
• 55:39
  You know, don't do this. I've done it, so don't do that.
• 55:43
  Just kidding. But that's a very interesting
• 55:47
  topic still with people. They want to know how to start a
• 55:50
  food trailer and how to build that repeat business and how to
• 55:54
  get those conversions. And it's all about, if you look
• 55:59
  at the marketing, basic marketing funnel that's all
• 56:02
  about brand awareness and getting, I keep saying
• 56:05
  conversions, but that's where you get someone to buy
• 56:07
  something, learning how to obtain that in the food
• 56:11
  industry. So OK.
• 56:17
  When I heard the part, 'cause I was like, OK, this guy, he knows
• 56:20
  his stuff. Like 5 years ago, six years ago,
• 56:24
  I didn't have a clue what I was doing.
• 56:25
  I knew how to cook barbecue and I knew about customer service,
• 56:28
  'cause as a nurse, there's a lot of customer service there.
• 56:31
  And I just put the two and two together and I can remember
• 56:35
  saying, man, I just want to be like the Chick-fil-A or BBQ.
• 56:38
  I just want to have that amazing customer service that people
• 56:40
  would come back because of who we were and have amazing food.
• 56:45
  And that was the only the core things that I honed in on.
• 56:48
  And it worked so and. Another person that know this
• 56:52
  stuff that I had just recently talked to is Paul Boo off a
• 56:56
  smoking ghost when it comes to rugs.
• 56:58
  He knew his stuff, the ends, the outs of the business of rugs.
• 57:02
  And I was like, OK, this man know what you're talking about.
• 57:06
  Yes, I actually did a catering with Paul, him.
• 57:09
  We catered the NFL Hall of Fame game in Canton, OH, I think it
• 57:13
  was last year and we did a Bears thing.
• 57:16
  We got to meet Jim McMahon and some other stuff.
• 57:18
  But Paul has an amazing product line and he knows how to cook.
• 57:25
  I will be hitting you up in a few months so we can get this
• 57:28
  together. I'm definitely serious about if
• 57:31
  you willing to do it. I want to break it down.
• 57:33
  Because if you look at, let's get real, if you look at trends,
• 57:38
  Google Trends, that's a marketing thing.
• 57:40
  I've been working on my marketing degree while I've been
• 57:42
  here and you can pull up Google Trends and see what people's
• 57:46
  looking for in search engines and how to start BBQ each
• 57:49
  other's way on up there. Because a lot of people are
• 57:51
  doing it now, they can be mobile and do a different things.
• 57:56
  Would do a freedom instead of just being in the building.
• 58:00
  For yourself, it has its benefits and it has its
• 58:03
  downfalls. Always thought working for
• 58:05
  myself, man, I'm going to be my boss.
• 58:08
  But in reality, the customer's a boss and you always have to be
• 58:13
  mindful of that. One of my favorite shows is the
• 58:16
  Great Food Truck Race. I watch it every season comes
• 58:18
  out because it's so exciting. Not going to lie, please don't
• 58:23
  take this the wrong way, but every time I watch it I was like
• 58:26
  man I need on that show but telling you and it's all about
• 58:31
  knowing where to go and knowing not where to go.
• 58:34
  And here a problem in Georgia is sometimes the gas stations be
• 58:40
  the way I see it is you doing each other a favor, but they be
• 58:43
  trying to gouge the food trucks and charge these outrageous
• 58:47
  prices. The park in the parking lot, but
• 58:50
  I'm like, the food truck is bringing traffic to your gas
• 58:53
  station. So why are you trying to gouge
• 58:56
  them like that? It's a.
• 58:57
  Little bit different situation. Yes, we did pay to beat certain
• 59:00
  places, but I was mostly like, hey, if you let me sit there for
• 59:04
  a day just to trial it out, I'll feed you family, come by, get
• 59:09
  whatever you want. And man, if I did that, Oh my
• 59:11
  goodness, I could set that trailer anywhere.
• 59:14
  And a lot of factories, like the factories begged for us to come
• 59:18
  out there at the tail end. We were, there's a major steel
• 59:21
  mill where we live at or we're in Arkansas where we did live
• 59:24
  at. And man, they begged us to be
• 59:27
  out there every day. As a matter of fact, they asked
• 59:30
  us to take over their commissary kitchen.
• 59:32
  I was like, they it's just you got to pick and choose, man.
• 59:37
  But very thankful to I'll just give them a shout out.
• 59:41
  But Nucor, Yamato Steel and they were very nice to us.
• 59:46
  So Nest, we fed the whole factory and much positivity.
• 59:52
  1500 people. That's a lot of folks.
• 59:56
  We did a catering for 2500. There's some big players in
• 59:59
  there, man, that's a lot of food and that's a lot of ribs, by the
• 1:00:02
  way. I think on that big one it was
• 1:00:04
  like 150 racks, just ribs. It was other crap too.
• 1:00:08
  And Oh my goodness, it was a lot.
• 1:00:12
  Oh yeah, we did Thanksgiving meal for Nestle and there was
• 1:00:14
  literally like 900 or was it 1500?
• 1:00:20
  Oh, we did 3 shifts. I was there three different
• 1:00:22
  shifts. It was a great partnership with
• 1:00:24
  them. See, that's and that's how you
• 1:00:27
  tell your stuff. When you're able to feed that
• 1:00:30
  amount of people, you got to know your stuff.
• 1:00:35
  Hey, we got into doing all kind of stuff.
• 1:00:37
  I'd cook Turkey on the smoker and use it for the protein
• 1:00:40
  portion of the Thanksgiving. And man, we were cooking,
• 1:00:44
  dressing, all kind of conventional classic
• 1:00:47
  Thanksgiving items. Man, they destroyed it.
• 1:00:51
  They I'm telling you it was I had, we had a Transit van at the
• 1:00:54
  time of the ranch. That's excellent.
• 1:00:57
  All right. That's all the questions I have
• 1:00:59
  just for today, but we will when I get you back, we will.
• 1:01:05
  All right, I'm going to play these two games and get you out
• 1:01:07
  of here. And like I told you, I got a 16,
• 1:01:10
  I got tournament bracket with 16 meats that you cook on the
• 1:01:13
  grill. Just let me know which one you
• 1:01:15
  prefer to eat and we'll see which one is the winner and then
• 1:01:18
  we'll go to the next game. All right, first matchup is beef
• 1:01:21
  ribs versus lamb. Beef ribs, OK.
• 1:01:26
  Next matchup smoked ham versus smoked Turkey.
• 1:01:30
  Smoked Turkey. All right.
• 1:01:33
  Next matchup is burn in's versus hot dog.
• 1:01:35
  Alright, pork ribs versus steak. Dude, I don't have to go rears.
• 1:01:44
  OK, next matchup. Smoked baloney versus brisket.
• 1:01:51
  Everyone laughed behind me. I'm gonna have to do brisket,
• 1:01:55
  man. That's a staple where I'm from.
• 1:01:58
  Smoked baloney. Oh my goodness.
• 1:02:01
  Yeah, baloney. One a few times, maybe.
• 1:02:04
  Spreads. All right.
• 1:02:06
  BBQ shrimp versus sausage. Sausage all.
• 1:02:11
  Right Pork chop versus smoked chicken.
• 1:02:16
  Want to be pork chopped all. Right pork belly versus
• 1:02:21
  hamburger. Pork belly.
• 1:02:28
  You can tell I come from a pork area.
• 1:02:31
  Different areas different, but pork was heavy there.
• 1:02:33
  Go ahead. Yeah, pork is king in the
• 1:02:37
  Georgia. All right.
• 1:02:38
  Beef rib versus Turkey. Turkey.
• 1:02:43
  Burn is versus pork ribs. Cool, I'm gonna do burn ends.
• 1:02:51
  OK. Brisket versus sausage brisket,
• 1:02:58
  pork chop versus pork belly. Pork belly.
• 1:03:03
  Right. Final four, Turkey versus
• 1:03:05
  burnings. Do you?
• 1:03:08
  And brisket versus pork belly. Brisket and then brisket, I love
• 1:03:14
  it, man. Even being in a pork area, I
• 1:03:17
  love brisket and people loved it there.
• 1:03:21
  Yeah, brisket is good if it's cooked right.
• 1:03:25
  I'll be telling people now, you ever had brisket until you had
• 1:03:29
  competition brisket? It's a whole different ball
• 1:03:32
  game. Or competition chicken.
• 1:03:36
  Oh yeah, I. Tasted Luke Darnell's chicken
• 1:03:39
  because I went to the class. I was like, that was the best
• 1:03:41
  chicken I ever tasted in the world.
• 1:03:45
  Took a class of Richard Fergalicious and Smitty dude I
• 1:03:50
  couldn't hardly pick and they did it two different ways.
• 1:03:55
  I don't know, I don't even want to say they were both really
• 1:03:58
  good, though I can see why they've won a ton of stuff.
• 1:04:01
  Yeah, yeah, exactly. And he's just the king of
• 1:04:04
  classes everywhere, teaching classes.
• 1:04:07
  You know, Richard was a teacher and he's got the skill of, of
• 1:04:13
  teaching the class and he knows how to put on an amazing class.
• 1:04:17
  Yeah. Didn't he used to be a wrestling
• 1:04:19
  coach? He was all right.
• 1:04:22
  Can. I say I'm sorry I got so many
• 1:04:25
  short stories. I.
• 1:04:26
  Don't. Care I rather before it was him
• 1:04:29
  at the time he worked for Kansas City Grill.
• 1:04:32
  Yeah, yeah, he's out there teaching folks.
• 1:04:34
  And I love that he's out there showing people, giving people an
• 1:04:39
  opportunity to learn, going to different areas and stuff like
• 1:04:42
  that. And it's it's giving people a
• 1:04:46
  chance to get out in the backyard.
• 1:04:48
  They might have been scared to go out there and, yeah, BBQ.
• 1:04:52
  So it's it's a good thing that he's doing.
• 1:04:55
  Yeah. All right.
• 1:04:57
  The next tournament I got is top Kansas City Chief players.
• 1:05:03
  I got them in a bracket on. This one all right, all.
• 1:05:07
  Right. You might have heard a few of
• 1:05:09
  them. All right.
• 1:05:09
  Derek Thomas versus Alex Smith. Alex Smith.
• 1:05:15
  All right, Kristen Nakoye versus Marcus Allen.
• 1:05:20
  Corey Yeah, man. I see you got a cheat guy in the
• 1:05:24
  background. Wheel Shields and Travis Kelsey.
• 1:05:30
  Dude, I don't have to, Kelsey man, All right?
• 1:05:34
  He's so popular. He's good.
• 1:05:38
  Jamal Charles versus Eric Berry. Eric Berry all.
• 1:05:43
  Right, Tony Gonzalez, Dante Hall.
• 1:05:48
  I don't know dude, I might have to do Tony.
• 1:05:54
  OK, Priest Holmes, Tyreek Hill. Yeah, Patrick Mahomes and Joe
• 1:06:03
  Montana is brief, 2 years there. I'm pat man.
• 1:06:08
  I'm a Holmes fan all. Right and Tomba Holly versus
• 1:06:13
  Derrick Johnson, both linebackers.
• 1:06:16
  Derrick Johnson. All right.
• 1:06:19
  Next round, Alex Smith versus Christian McCoy.
• 1:06:22
  McCoy. OK, Kelsey versus Eric Berry,
• 1:06:29
  Travis Tony Gonzalez versus Tyreek Hill.
• 1:06:34
  Tyree. Patrick Mahomes versus Derrick
• 1:06:38
  Johnson. Pat.
• 1:06:41
  All right, Okoye versus Kelsey. Christian McCoy versus Kelsey.
• 1:06:46
  OH, Travis. All right, Tyree Keel versus
• 1:06:52
  Patrick Mahomes. Art, we're already writing it
• 1:06:56
  down. And all right, Kelsey versus
• 1:06:58
  Mahomes. All right, all right, Patrick
• 1:07:04
  Mahomes is your winner. All right, Jason, your therapist
• 1:07:10
  session is over. You can give your shout outs and
• 1:07:13
  your websites and social medias and everything like that.
• 1:07:17
  I can't thank you enough, man. Thank you so much.
• 1:07:20
  I want to give a shout out because you've been hustling
• 1:07:22
  too, and it pays off and you have a great reputation and I
• 1:07:27
  just appreciate you reaching out to me, man.
• 1:07:30
  No problem, no problem. I appreciate you coming on and
• 1:07:33
  sharing your story and I see all you're doing.
• 1:07:36
  That's why I reached out and I would like he can help somebody
• 1:07:39
  so. And I want, I want to, I hope
• 1:07:42
  someone start the food trailer after listening to this and
• 1:07:45
  knowing that you can do it and starting a rub line and do
• 1:07:49
  catering. It's easily done, man.
• 1:07:51
  Telling me if I can do it, anyone can do it.
• 1:07:54
  And you just got to put in the hustle, man.
• 1:07:56
  Definitely. And I definitely will be
• 1:07:59
  reaching out to see when you have free time because I
• 1:08:01
  definitely want to get with you and do something real thorough
• 1:08:06
  for people to just have so they can always come back to.
• 1:08:09
  And all right, we got this section here, We got this
• 1:08:12
  section here. And they can go right to
• 1:08:14
  whatever episode you want to go to and find out what they need
• 1:08:17
  to know. You could do it in every section
• 1:08:19
  and even down to the regulatory part of it, like dealing with
• 1:08:23
  health departments, because that's the number one.
• 1:08:25
  That's one of the top questions of how to manage dealing with
• 1:08:29
  the regulatory stuff. And it's pretty easy.
• 1:08:32
  It was difficult at the time because I didn't know what I was
• 1:08:35
  doing, but I can tell you on the backside.
• 1:08:39
  If you can, I can, I'm going to e-mail you, but you can give me
• 1:08:42
  your number. We can reach out and to each
• 1:08:44
  other and I can get with you and we can come up with the
• 1:08:48
  different categories and stuff like that for each one.
• 1:08:51
  And I'll get it together and you have a series of your own and
• 1:08:57
  I'll put it out. I got nothing.
• 1:08:59
  There I work at a hospital as an administrator full time now and
• 1:09:04
  I got enough going on with our rub and catering and stuff.
• 1:09:07
  So that's our website, traumahogs.com.
• 1:09:11
  So we shortened it up. Used to be trauma
• 1:09:13
  hogsbarbecue.com but sometimes it's easier to when you revamp a
• 1:09:18
  website to just create a whole new domain.
• 1:09:21
  I still own the other one, but everyone always called us trauma
• 1:09:26
  hogs anyway, so traumahogs.com SP GS on there and shout out to
• 1:09:31
  every store that carries our product, especially the guys.
• 1:09:35
  I don't want to shout out this one because dude, there's so
• 1:09:37
  many. But thank you if you carry our
• 1:09:40
  product and check out our website traumahogs.com.
• 1:09:45
  So you're a trauma nurse. If you're a nurse, you should
• 1:09:50
  buy our SPG. No, I'm just kidding.
• 1:09:54
  Everybody I know everybody out there.
• 1:09:58
  I say that I work all the time. We're a level 1 trauma center
• 1:10:01
  where I work. Trust me, I pick on everyone
• 1:10:04
  there. So.
• 1:10:05
  Yeah, I see you on TikTok a lot. So it's it's out there because I
• 1:10:09
  flipped through. I can see you on there and stuff
• 1:10:12
  like that. So it's you are circulating in
• 1:10:16
  the scrolls. So this.
• 1:10:18
  Weekend. Hey, we've seen you back on
• 1:10:20
  Instagram. Yeah, I am.
• 1:10:23
  That's what I saw, the Kansas City chief said.
• 1:10:25
  I was like, I ready for today. And then when I saw the cookie I
• 1:10:29
  was like OK. I specifically went by Hyvee.
• 1:10:34
  That's a major brand supermarket there.
• 1:10:37
  Dude, you walk in a Hyvee in Kansas City, you're going to get
• 1:10:41
  bombarded with their stuff. Matter of fact, there's banners
• 1:10:45
  hanging from the ceilings. Chiefs, Chiefs, I love it.
• 1:10:48
  We was in heaven there. Wasn't linked here.
• 1:10:49
  I don't know if you've ever been in one.
• 1:10:51
  So no, we don't have any job here, just have Kroger's and
• 1:10:57
  Publix and. Yeah, we.
• 1:10:59
  Food deals. Yeah, so it's good, but I
• 1:11:06
  definitely appreciate you coming on.
• 1:11:07
  And I guess we'll see everybody next episode.
• 1:11:11
  We just wrapped up another session of BBQ therapy.
• 1:11:14
  Remember, stay patient, stay passionate and keep that fire
• 1:11:18
  burning hit. Subscribe, share the good smoke
• 1:11:21
  and pay the secretary on your way out.
• 1:11:23
  Have a blessed day.