Latest / The Scott Townsend Show / #254 Burn and Learn w/Tyler Glenn
Transcript
- Scott M Townsend: Welcome to Scott Townsend Show, brought to you by Dizoman Productions. Welcome back to the Scott Townsend Show. Today I have with me good friend Tyler Glenn. Tyler, how's it going? How's it going? Pretty pretty good on this side. Good, good. So I was really interested in hearing about your the business that you're in this ⁓ seasoning and I thought it would be a fun conversation to have. You you've got this rub rub business. ⁓ but before we get started, ⁓ tell us a little bit about yourself. Who who's Tyler Glenn and what were you doing before Red Dirt Rubs? ⁓ Tyler Glenn, that's a question I already asked myself, but I guess you can say scholar, chef, mediocre athlete, ⁓ go-getter, ⁓ entrepreneur, Christian. I mean, there's a lot of things you can use. But ⁓ nothing negative though. ⁓ four, ⁓ honestly, I was just working my butt off. Like I worked at I was just waiting tables a lot and then just doing I'm as many odd jobs as possible because after college I moved back home and just kind of just did what I could, you know. I I didn't really have a plan. But I've always cooked a lot though, so I just kinda it kinda came natural to start making my own seasonings because I always had my own blends anyways. So I mean that's kinda how I got started. Hmm. So did you you know have you been cooking for a long time? I mean, sounds like you've been growing up cooking or something. Quite a while, honestly, because I grew up with my grandmothers. You know, I had I grew up around all women. So I mean they're not the all women only ones that cook, but I grew up around mostly women though. So I I was around a lot of cooking and things like that. So I picked up a lot growing up. Were you always interested in cooking and barbecue, or did that interest develop later? I've always loved food, especially barbecue, so it just came natural. You remember the first time you created a seasoning blend and thought, wow, this might actually be good enough to sell. ⁓ I guess I always thought my food was good. I didn't really consider the seasoning as a as you know, the main part of it. But eventually people did comment on the seasoning. I had got a lot of compliments and like a lot of like, you know, do you have any leftover? Do you have any in the back? So as the request kind of like built up, I kind of figured maybe I had a good blend going. And it used to be, and honestly, the beginning it was it was free. I never really charged anybody. You know, like I said, like I tell people, my mom was the one that told me, you know, you should start selling because you're losing money by handing out stuff for free. You know, I'm out just, you know, you know the takers will take all day long, you know, and the giveaway again, you know, at the end of the day, they're not gonna, you know, force money on you. If it's free, it's free. You know, so so I mean, hey, I'm not I'm I've never I've never gotten something for free and been like, you know what? Maybe I should pay you. He's like, ⁓ no, it's free. I'll take it. It's free. So ⁓ so eventually ⁓ I said I thought about that. And then Paul Hood, you know, Hood and Associates, he got me started, honestly, because he ⁓ I was waiting tables at Sterling's and then ⁓ I went up to his table and we always talked about it. And then he was like, Well, come see me. So I drove to his toss office and then he set me all the way up. And then it's it's been That was that was May 18, 2018. So it's been a it's been all on me since then. Right. So who taught you how to cook? It's not necessarily who taught me a lot of it's just trial and error, just ⁓ burn and burn and learn kind of thing. Because I mean I I looked over my grandma's shoulders a lot growing up, but she didn't barbecue. I mean, like I said, but I mean I I cook really well because of my grandma's and my mom, but none of them taught me how to bar. I taught I taught myself out of barbecue. So barbecue, one thing is you can look at all the videos you want to and you can like watch tutorials and listen to people, but in the day it's you versus the fire. 'Cause I mean, fire is the most unpredictable element in the world. And you can't, yeah, I mean, the no man's I mean, if you can control the fire, then I mean you can control the cook. Cause I mean, in the day, if you have to really babysit barbecues, I don't care if you think you're a pit master, I don't if you think you're a world class chef, you can't master I mean, there's no mastery mastering a fire, but you can you can try to control it the best as you can. I've never heard anybody explain fire quite like that. you control eleven you can't get I mean you can't control water you can't control wind you can't control fire we're not we're not we're not avatars you know we're just you know we're just I mean I mean I feel like barbecue I mean I mean if you have like a pet smoker yeah but I mean that's not necessarily real fire I mean we're talking about like fire like man versus fire like wood and fire right that's that's bad you know From from caveman days until now the highest technology. I mean, fire is a wild element. And I f I feel like I mean the the the one who controls it best is usually the one that has the best food. Right. Yeah. Goes out. I mean, you know, fi fire needs more fuel. I mean, barbecuing is it's a art. It really is an art. Like I said, it's it's more than just seasoning. It's more than just, you know, putting, you know, throwing something on the grill. It's, you know, it's really it's you know there's lot of aspects when it comes to actual like barbecuing it's it's probably one of the five not fires I mean I said five fire cooking is is one of the hardest arts I believe I mean I don't bake I can't say that because like I said I've burnt a lot I've burnt more things baking than I have barbecuing so I I'm not gonna I'm not gonna I'm not gonna take baking out of it I'm just gonna say fire is a hard thing to control but if you if but but the minimal parts that you can control If you can, you're you're a great cook. I mean, but like also baking though, I can burn anything baking like I have to literally I have to open that on I have to open up that oven like a million times and keep checking my biscuits. And those are those are pre made. So I so I so I don't know. Like I said, I I can only talk about the fire and the barbecue. Yeah. So what ⁓ at what point gave what what w what gave you the confidence to go from mixing some seasonings and making a rub? for your friends and family to finally pull the trigger and starting to sell it. Honestly, the ⁓ the response I get from the audience or the not, I'm not gonna say I wanna I won't say customers because my family and friends aren't customers. I mean, they are now, but at the time I'd say the audience or the people I was serving food to, I'm I've I I don't know really what a word it, but I I guess that is the audience. So I mean I guess the audience approval I'll go with, you know, the the ⁓ all over approval of the product. And so once I see, you know, my friends and family like it is like, you know, that's the hardest audience to please. I mean friends and family are the hard because they're or cause they're they're almost over the judgmental of you and you know they're not gonna lie to you because they mean they they want the best for you. You know, so I figure if I can please my friends and family, then you know, a public audience or a s the strangers or the people that don't know me ⁓ I mean has to be even a better audience also to approach. So I mean at that point I was like, you know, just like anything, it's all a leap of faith. Right. Did ⁓ it's believing yourself. It's better, you got it better yourself. And so that's what you're doing through your cooking. Well, I don't well, my cooking isn't any I don't advertise my cooking. I advertise my product. So I mean so so I mean ⁓ I cook really well, but I'm not a sh I'm not a I don't have a store or restaurant. I guess I I do cook for my events, but I'm not I don't consider myself, you know, a restaurant or anything like that. So my I I I put my the cooking I do is to, you know, test out my seasonings, but that's how I know they're good blends. And I I do give it, I do give advice on what to use the seasonings on, but I've never considered myself a restaurant or someone that cooks for people. I mean, but I guess other than when I do like events and things like that. That's when I'll I will, you know, advertise, you know, I will say, hey, try my cooking out, but I'm not ⁓ for sale cook or a restaurant-based guy. I'm just the guy that sells seasoning for the most part. So how did you get the name Red Dirt Rubs? Well, it's ⁓ red dirt comes from the state of Oklahoma, because you know there's red dirt country and there's green country. You know, so the other half of the state are 405 and 580. They're the red dirt country, but Since it's Oklahoma, I've all over. I consider red dirt to be the main name I wanted to use to kind of social because I'm from Oklahoma, born and raised, so is my family. So I wanted to put a part of Oklahoma within my company name. And what flows better than red dirt rubs? I mean, red dirt seasoning sounds kind of weird. And green country rubs sound bad, but it didn't it didn't rough the tongue as as well. Right. So red dirt rubs. That's the one. RDR. so you were a kid. And you're just ⁓ you know, fooling around in the kitchen and seasoning, you were throwing stuff together and testing it out and ⁓ burn how you burn and learn. How old were you when you I've been cooking? Well, I've been cooking for a long time. I actually cooked my fraternity in college. We had sp we had spaghetti nights and different events like that. I ⁓ I've always cooked, even even at my apartment complex on Sundays, I had fried chicken Sundays. All the college kids because in my apartment, and I would just go wild out the door for everybody. It was like almost 200 kids sometimes, and I was just sitting here pulling my college money together. Well, I know, and that that's what it was. I mean, shout out to Bronte Steele, the apartment manager, because because I work for the apartment complex, so I never really got in trouble, but I was I was pumping out chicken, green beans, and cornbread like and mashed potatoes right out of college dorm. So I've been cooking for people for a long time. Not professionally, like I've always just been that guy that can cook. Yeah. Burning, I said, and so I've never I've never considered myself a professional, but I've always been able to cook and I've always enjoyed providing meals for people. How do you develop when you're when you're developing your rubs? How how how do they get how do you develop a a new rub or how do you go about that? Well, I c I kind of I put my blends together and then I go try ⁓ out. Like I I do like a three to four different cooks on different blends to make sure it tastes well. So I've got plenty of friends and family that always give me an honest opinion. I always I always test that on my family. I don't want to call them guinea pigs, but ⁓ they are I th they they do ⁓ they do go through the red dirt test trials. Your test kitchen. Exactly. How many versions of your original rub did you go through before you found the one you liked? First one had to be about nine, because I've had because I'm I'm I'm pretty indecisive ⁓ as well, but for it to be the first one, I was almost overly like overly I overly criticized the first one because it was the first one. I mean, and I mean I I'm we we're our own worst critics. You know, yeah, especially if you're a creator, you're your own worst critic because it's never gonna be good enough. And I of course I wouldn't want to launch something, you know, you're always unsure. You gotta still kind of tiptoeing the water before you jump in the deep end. And so there were like nine different blends. You know, I had you know, a few blends I liked, a few I didn't like. Some were too salty, some are too sugary, some had too much hint of you know, ⁓ this, too much hint of that, you know, some some were too, you know, too spicy. So I kind of I found the one that worked best. What makes a good seasoning rather than over ⁓ just an average? And I'm not a connoisseur of seasoning, so you're gonna have to tell me what's ⁓ what separates the men from the boys? What separates the good seasonings from the average? A good season, I feel like gives you the best notes, the best flavor notes. And I mean, of course, you wanna be able to is this one where you have to go back to it. I mean, because like I've used seasonings where I bought them one time and I was like, Yeah, it was all right. I probably won't go back to that. It's one you wanna, you know, it's one where, like, you know, you let's say you're cooking for the job. Cooking for your family and you have the seasoning and everybody's complimenting your cook. I mean, now, I mean, yeah, you got so many compliments the first time, you're like, Well, let me keep using that seasoning because you know, if you change it up, now they're like, What happened to the last you know meal we had? Last time you made steaks, it tastes a little bit different. So I feel like a good seasoning is when you go back to because you can buy it just. I'm not the only one on the market. I mean, you gotta think about that. There's tons of competitions. It's it's it's a highly saturated market. I mean, so the best one wins. I mean, just like basketball, best player wins. You got tons of best, but there's always the best one. So it's a competition out here. It is. So you want to be the one, the memorable one, the one with the best story and the one with the best flavor notes. Because there might be a lot of seasons out there, but there's way more flavors out there. I think I looked it up well the other day. I think 'Cause I'm a lot of seasons come out of India. So I looked it up. There's like over like 700 blends of seasoning. So I mean, there's countless amounts of blends you can make, but it's, you know, but it's just like a science. It's like, how many of this? How many is that? How much I mean, ⁓ how much do I want to put that in there? What compliments what? What's married with what to make it the best notes? What goes best with pork wheels, best with chicken. There's multiple animals out there, multiple vegetables out there. There's it it really comes down to a science. And at the end of the day, like I said, you have to just have trial and error. with every seasoning. What makes a good seasoning, like I said, is the one that makes people want to come back every time. Mm-hmm. Is there a combination of flavors, seasonings, the ingredients in the seasonings that you thought would be, you know, you were like, man, this is gonna be the one, and it turned out to be a bomb. ⁓ I think well, I'm working on a chicken fry right now. So currently ⁓ I th I I feel like that's the one because the rest of my seasonings I haven't had issue with. The first one was the the was the worst one. I mean, that was the one like I said, I was indecisive. But once I got my confidence together and kind of figured out what notes I wanted to go with, I always kind of just adjust and then cause I'm on number I'm on number five right now. So like I said, I just it I there's not one where I wasn't I'm I've yet to be iffy on one or kind of like or like reluctant on like putting one out. I've always Like like I said, I've always just kind of gone with my taste buds and they haven't shared me wrong yet. ⁓ but ⁓ the the only thing I've like I said, I pulled away from my chicken fry because is chicken fries a hard it's a hard one because like I said, that's that's gonna be the one that kind of like really out my my like I guess my flavors and also like I say it's it's I'm leaving the ⁓ kind of like the realm of like, you know, ba of like, you know, fry I'm not being grilling and like ⁓ sautang. It's more, you know, like I said, frying is a whole different ballpark. And I I haven't really got into the frying. I mean, I I fry really good, but I haven't really gotten into it or had time to get into it. But so far the blend is being worked on right now. So that's the one that's really kind of like got me with all my time figuring out the best chicken fry I want to pull out. Because I because I go along with the seasoning, you don't want to put out a bad chicken fry because you only get one chance of that. But one thing people do love that I did that I did test out a ton is my barbecue sauce, which I mean I had that out for three or four years, but it's just hard to have I don't have room for it right now. I I mean I I had Lotta Burger actually carried my barbecue sauce in their sandwiches for for about two years. They had a red dirt steak sandwich that's sold out every week. ⁓ there's a red dirt steak sandwich, it had sli ⁓ thinly sliced rib by Texas toast, ⁓ sauteed onions. with barbecue sauce and bacon. And that was a really good, it's actually on my post. It's an older post, but they they sold a ton of them to a lot of burger. But I I'm I haven't put sauce back out yet. I mean I get a lot of requests. I get probably over 100 requests for it a year. But I still have the room for it. I'm just a small company. Once I'm larger and I can actually have room to produce more items I will. But currently the best thing for me is just to have the five blends I have and stock 38 stores I stock because I'm in 38 stores currently in Oklahoma. A lot of they're all small stores and like local stores, like in Jinx and like Edmund and Collinsville, and Owasso and Baldwin, of course, and then in Dewey. I'm in a lot of small markets, but I've yet to I mean I've yet to land a big fish so far. How do you maintain consistency from package to package? So it's the same yesterday, today. It's always it's always the same ⁓ the same ingredients, same ingredients. Same amount, you don't change. Whatever you do, don't change. I mean, I mean, I can I mean I make sure every bag is the same. And I mean, every every label, every nutrition label, every color, everything is always the same. I don't change anything. Every every blend is different, but I know every blend. Do you so do you make these from your home or do you ⁓ have some I I I I buy blend them in Tulsa. You blend them in Tulsa. Okay. And so they're the ones in control of exact measures and so I blend them and toss it. No one blends them but me. ⁓ you do? Okay. Every bag is done by me. No machines, nothing. Black gloves and meat. That's it. ⁓ man. What's the hardest part of turning a recipe into a packaged product that could, you know, legally and consistently be sold to customers? What's the what's the hardest part? Hardest part, I'm trying to think. Honestly, it's not a hard process. Isn't that, I mean, well, once you get to like sauces and like like you know, more perishable, like highly perishable foods and things like that, that's a harder process. But dry goods aren't really a hard process. I mean, I mean, there's a pro there's a process, but it's not a hard process. I mean, I like I said, like th things like dried goods aren't hard aren't a hard process, especially in Oklahoma. I mean, I you you you have your you have your bylaws and you have things like that. But if you're if you're if you're making dry good blends or like, you know, I mean if yeah, you know, things, you know, like that, they're not hard. I mean, it's as far as I mean, the hardest thing to do is, you know, you need to have L LLC or have your own, you know, own corp or whatever. You know, you have to have legally, you know, if you're selling your tax IDs, things like that. I mean, you know, your nutritional labels on the back, you know, you need legumity to make sure, you know, if there's peanuts involved or if there's You know, there's wheat, you know, make sure it's gluten free. If it's gluten free, you know, my all my items are gluten free, peanut free, and ⁓ there's a lot of I mean, there's no dyes in my items. I mean there there's no MSG. So I mean I make sure to put that on the back of my packaging. So how do you persuade someone to try your seasonings when they've probably got a cabinet full of different seasonings? I mean, it's not you doing it, it's it's your I guess it's you doing it and and marketing and so yeah, tell me. Well, I let them know. I'm from Baldwin, Oklahoma, born and raised one hundred percent American. I let them know that everything I have, my labels are done in America, my packaging is done in America, my shirts, all my everything about my company's American. I let them know that from the get-go. I'm like, you know, I'm an American company, I'm you know, born and raised here out of Oklahoma. ⁓ all my all my seasonings I do I do order that they're all organic. They're non-dye, non-peanut. I give them that. I let them know they're not too spicy. And then I let them know that the only one that has sugar in it is the barbecue one. And so that's the only one that had contains sugar. And I also let them know they get a lot of bang for their book. I mean, because like my bags are massive for $12. You can't beat that. Well, I let that that's what I also let them know. But then I also direct them to my to my reviews. I have 105 stars. I've never gotten less than five stars. So My big selling point is letting them know I have five, I have 105 reviews on Etsy, and then I'm eight years in business. I mean, to be to make it eight years, you have to literally have a solid product. No, no one just makes eight years not having a solid product. Because like I mean, I think the failure rate's like 95% after the first year. And after you make it five years, you're pretty much in the game. But like about the out. So I mean, my my selling point is letting them know, you know, you're getting a quality American product. That's obviously trusted by ⁓ by hundreds of people. And that I mean, I've had a name for so long. And then I'm also the face of my company. I mean, I'm on I'm literally in eight social medias, just I'm the face of my company. I mean all my news articles, all my newspaper articles, all my interviews. It's I'm the face. There's no, there's no group, there's no investors, there's no this, there's no unpackaging. It's literally me versus the world and my products. And then it's I'm put I put my own labels on, I make my own blends, I do my own. I mean, I literally I put I I hand put my posters up with scotch tape. I literally do it all. I hand out my own business cards, I shake my own hands, I do my own events. You shake your own hand. I mean yeah, I mean I shake my own hands and I feel I'm the only one shaking hands out here. It's just all me. Yeah. Well, Tyler, I really appreciate the time and Kind of giving us an insight into this very niche business. And ⁓ if someone wants to buy your product, where do they go? ⁓ well if you're in Bartlesville, you can go to Moxio and second, Prices Meet, Grayson's Donut Hole, and there's Early Bird Market downtown, and there's Peter's True Value in Dewey or Bartlesville Cycle Sports. Is there online if they're not in Bartlesville? Can someone go online if they're listening out of state here and I shipped all fifty states on my Etsy. So if you go to red dirtrubs dot com and you you can get I can ship the offship literally all fifty states. And then also if you ⁓ during I have Red Dirt Weekend coming up September fourth and fifth. So I'll have plenty of items there as well that they can purchase. So you do this event ⁓ once a year is that it's it's your event, right? Yeah, once a year, it's regular weekend. It's ⁓ once a year, and it's ⁓ two-day event. You know, on that Friday is a dinner at the community center. It's all you can eat barbecue. There's a lot, sorry, it's a live country band, DJ, you get merch. ⁓ it's a great event. And the next day we have food trucks. So just winging it, and there's a Barcelona lemonade truck as well. So I mean there's there's two there's two food trucks so far and free food trucks with the tick as well. And if I if you have if I if there's time I like ⁓ I have a few sponsors that actually sponsor the event. So there's Sutterfield, they're ⁓ they're a big sponsor for the event, Matt Spence State Farm, you got ⁓ Jackson Maintenance, if you you have great I don't know there's so many. There's ⁓ Moxie on second, you know, Bartle Cycle Sports. God dog, I've ⁓ two through three sisters nutrition. You have ⁓ there's so many. ⁓ the I don't want to miss anybody. I'm sorry, I don't miss anybody. You know, yeah. I would any everybody is literally on my page. Go look at my page for all sponsors because I feel like there's so many sponsors that I keep miss these double bonds. You can't forget about them. They're just there's so many sponsors this year. I'm trying to remember everybody. Well, to help you out, we can ⁓ I'll list. All the links that you mentioned, and we'll put a list down below in the show notes of all your sponsors. Hate missing people because there's so many. There's color construction. It's just there's just so many sponsors because the community always sponsors my event. And there's so many, because now it's hard to remember everybody. ⁓ who else? Career career employment services, they're they're a sponsor this year as well. It just It's just it's out of control. But I love everybody though. If I missed you, I'm sorry. I I really am because I know there's so many sponsors and I don't I don't I don't to leave anybody out. Yeah. Well I I understand that and we'll we'll we'll take care of that in the show notes so everybody gets gets ⁓ I just everybody know I try to remember everybody like I said I'm I've never been this age before so I'm trying to I I'm trying to remember as much yeah I try to remember as much as I can at this age. Well, Tyler, I really appreciate it. Thanks for your time. Thanks for doing this again. I know we had some hiccups the first time we tried this. And so the second times, I guess that that's the charm for us. ⁓ I hope we don't mess it up, Scott. All right. Well, for Tyler Glenn and Red Dirt Rubs, this is Scott Townsend. Thanks for watching, listening to the Scott Townsend show. Have a great day. Everything's gonna be all right. And we'll talk to you later. For more episodes, visit the Scott Townsend Show YouTube channel, listen on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.