Scott Erdmann: Bold Moves in BBQ

About This Episode

A million-dollar prize may grab attention, but Scott Erdmann’s bigger vision is building a global home for competition barbecue. In this episode, Scott shares how he went from sports and entertainment partnerships to founding the Barbecue World Cup and Expo, why the BBQ market is bigger than most people realize, and what it takes to build something bold when there is no blueprint. We talk fundraising, partnerships, pitmaster storytelling, judging, community, and how newcomers can find their way into the world of competitive barbecue.

About Scott Erdmann

Scott Erdmann is a sports and entertainment partnership strategist turned founder, building BBQ World Cup & Expo, an ambitious global platform designed to modernize and elevate the world of barbecue through competition, media, and community. Known for turning big ideas into real-world revenue and experiences, Scott focuses on building ecosystems that create long-term ownership, not just one-off events. He’s passionate about leadership, innovation, and creating momentum by betting on the unconventional and then executing like it’s already inevitable.

Additional Resources

Website: bbqunited.com

Instagram: @bbqworldcup / @scotterdmann

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to the Bold Land Podcast. My name is Lee Burgess, and I will be your host. If you're anything like me, you love hearing inspiring stories of people who have gone on bold journeys and made a positive impact. It's all about those kinds of stories. Every week we'll hear from someone who has taken a lead on extraordinary journey. In addition to hearing their stories, we'll also learn about their bold growth mindset that they used to make things happen. Whether they face challenges or stealth along the way, they persisted and ultimately achieved their goals. These impactful stories will leave you feeling motivated and inspired to pursue your own bold journey. I believe everyone has a bold story waiting to be created. Tune in and get ready to be inspired. Welcome to the Bold Lounge. Today we have Scott Erdman. He is a sports and entertainment partnership strategist, turned founder, and he is building the Barbecue World Cup and Expo. It is an ambitious global platform designed to modernize and elevate the world of barbecue through competition, media, and community. Known for turning big ideas into real-world revenue and experiences, Scott focuses on building ecosystems that create long-term ownership, not just one-off events. He's passionate about leadership, innovation, and creating bold momentum by betting on the unconventional and then executing like it's already inevitable. Welcome to the Bold Lounge, Scott.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Thank you for coming in today and really being ready to talk with us about something that has never happened before and never been created, which is the Barbecue World Cup. Let's just start off with your definition of bold. How do you define it?

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Bold for me, I would say is, you know, as I was growing up, I was always the kid that would question everything.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

And, you know, I think you get conditioned in life to fall in line, right? You know, you get conditioned to not ask questions, not, you know, because again, it becomes, you know, I was very aware of this that it becomes annoying, right? Whether it's a teacher, whether it's, you know, playing in a basketball game or a football game, and you're questioning a ref and you know, the call that they made. So anyway, I would say my definition of bold is it's okay to question things, right? I think it's okay to go against the grain because I think that is where you start to find holes in stories, right? I mean, you know, every company has these points where it's like, ah, it's just kind of the way things have been, right? And for me, that is like nails on a chalkboard, right? It is one of those things that I look at and I'm like, well, it's broken, right? Like, why is nobody fixed it? Right. And becomes a lot of effort and a lot of work, right? To sometimes rip down a house and rebuild it to make it better. You know, so for me, I would say that that's my definition of bold is, you know, going against the grain. When everybody's going left, why is nobody going right? I feel like that's where, you know, I've had a lot of my success.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Yeah. So challenging the status quo, not just jumping into the machine and believing whatever's happening in it, asking questions, asking why, which of course, those are times that we can be misunderstood. People could not like us, people could see us as different because we're just not going with the flow, right? Correct. And so that takes some bravery. It takes some, I think, confidence. It also takes a sense of, I'll figure it out. And when you think about your life, what's a moment that you're thinking, wow, that's truly aligned with that bold definition of asking questions and challenging and seeing what's possible by asking why.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Yeah, I mean, I try to, you know, one of the things I, you know, I got a four-year-old and a three-year-old, so, or five-year-old and tomorrow and three-year-old.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

So, a birthday coming up.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Yeah, right. So, you know, it's interesting because I watch and see how they operate. And I frequently now start to do it a lot more where I try to go back in these moments in life and think, what was the catalyst that started this? What was it? Right. And, you know, I haven't put my finger to it yet of like a moment, but you know, it's just something I literally have always done, right? My nickname was Erky, my last name was Erdman, and my football coach used to say that I irked him, right? Because I would just ask a bunch of questions. Again, for me, I would say that it was just one of those things that I never shied away from of asking questions. Cause like I would also give context of like, for me, that's how I learn, that's how I get better at my job. You know, I wasn't a lawyer, but when I started dealing with contracts, you know, from a sponsorship perspective at an NFL level, I realized that in order to save time, you know, engaging, well, let me send it to our legal and then them take it. It's like, well, maybe I can help reduce this time. So anyway, I say all this is like, you know, by asking questions and learning throughout my journey is not only made me sharper from a business perspective, and also helps make me more well-rounded to understand all the different facets of the business. But again, I think that's just a thing for me is just staying true to still asking questions and not shying away from that. But I'm still searching for those pivotal moments to look back and be like, oh, it was my grandfather, you know, growing up like this and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

So yeah, you don't have to have that. I think that's one of the myths of being bold, is that it has to be loud and everybody has to know about it. But I think your example of actually the coach noting that you ask a lot of questions, and we all either know the person in our family or like me, I'm like machine gun questions because I think out loud, meaning they come really rapid and fast, and it is just something that's gonna happen. And hopefully it's not too annoying. I I think, in the sense of it, I you know where I'm coming from and you know what I'm thinking. It's very clear.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Yeah. So have you always wanted to do this? And what I mean by this is create a competition that is worldwide, that is a million-dollar prize, and it is all about barbecue. Like, where did the vision for something like this come from?

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Yeah, so two parts to that. No, on creating a barbecue competition. Like, you know, has this always been my passion? No.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Do you like to grill?

SPEAKER_01 6:14

I do.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Okay, good. All right.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Yeah. The irony in that would have been if I'm like, oh, I'm a vegan, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Right. I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

No, 100%. Love to grill. I would say definitely during COVID is when smoking and being home and cooking for six, seven, eight, ten, twelve hours, you know, something and and preparing it while you're at home became a lot more convenient, which I think was probably true for a lot of people, right? Peloton and some of these things. Yeah. So I started getting big into it then, but nothing really connected the dots of creating this just yet. But I have always been like, I mean, I probably have 150 business plans and things that, you know, I just I'll go down these rabbit holes and it'll be like, all right, let's look into flipping houses. All right. So then I start to spend two, three months on learning everything about that. And then it's like, okay, well, not that. What about advertising on the sides of 18 wheelers? Right. And it's like, well, there's obviously lots of you know, cars on the road, 18 wheelers, they got basically branded billboards. It's like, how do we create a company to do that? So anyway, I say that is I've always had that mindset of is there a gap? What is that business model? How do they make money? Because that would also help me from a sales perspective, because I was in sponsorship and things like that. So when I would talk to companies, I would understand their business a hundred times faster than maybe somebody else that wasn't familiar with it, but was trying to get them on as a sponsor. So it was kind of a double-edged sword. I didn't do it for that, but it obviously benefited me on that side. So I say all that is like I've always been very curious, right? It's like Ted Lasso when you hear him talk about staying curious and the importance of curiosity, right? Back to questions and being challenging and being curious. So a friend reached out to me, an old sponsor who was a sponsor at the Cowboys, and he puts on this huge RV expo at ATT Stadium. So the company was Funtown RV. They do a three, four-day event where RVs all around the stadium come out 80,000 people over three, four days.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Yeah, and this is the Dallas Cowboys, like totally tricked out, beautiful, huge stadium we're talking about, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Correct. So I was with the Raiders at the time, and you know, again, my friend was like, Hey, you mind helping? Like it'd be a little bit of time here and there. And so anyway, I didn't know the first thing about competition barbecue because he said, I want to put on a barbecue event in conjunction with my RV expo. He's like, Do you know anybody? And I'm like, not really. And then next thing you know, one thing led to another, and I helped him put on one of the largest cook-offs in Texas, mainly from like a prize money standpoint. So I go there on the weekend and I'm literally like backing in trailers, judging, you know, helping do the whole thing. And I start talking to these 85 teams and like, why did you come to this event? And they're like, Oh, it's money. We gave away a $60,000 RV, we gave away a cowboy suite for a game, and we gave away $15,000 in cash. So, anyway, long-winded way to say that as these conversations started progressing, one of the guys that won the event that we put on was a guy by the name of Phil Breed in with LC Barbecue. And he's like, I travel 52 weeks of the year, and I'm like, wait, like, what do you spend? He's like, Oh, $100,000 easy every year. I'm like, Well, what do you make? He's like, I don't know, maybe $120 in prize money. It's like, that's a terrible business model, but he does it to sell his sauces and rubs and things like that. So, anyway, flying back to Vegas, that's when I really started to like, again, being curious, going down a rabbit hole and like really understanding how big is this market? You know, does anything exist? What's out there? What are all the ancillary revenue pieces that you can peel from this and potentially create? So, anyway, I just started working on a business plan. And two years later, here we are. But yeah, uh, last year, right around that time when I left the Raiders, is when I was like, all right, you know, let me go all in on this. Really dove in on my network of investors and private equity groups and celebrities and entertainers and all that. And one of the groups came back and they're like, We're in. So we're raising the money and they agreed to it. And then next thing you know, you know, we're we're creating the easiest way to think about is American Idol for barbecue.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Okay, I like that. All right, I like that. So when you think about where you started with your curiosity and you were, you know, trying things out and going down the rabbit holes, as you say, and doing the things, it's definitely something that you know, you and I talked in the green room briefly about, you know, when I started off my business, I as an entrepreneur, you think you don't know what you're doing. And I decided I would have four different companies I'd first start off with, just thinking about and learning more about and you know, going down the rabbit hole. One of them was bold, brews, and cues. So I want to mention that. I did not go with that one yet, but it was all about we love to be outside, we love connection and community and just you know, meals do that. And there's just something elevated about the being outside and together and the smell of the smoke. I don't know. I've kind of grown up on it, honestly. My dad always grilled, my husband grills. I haven't really tried grilling. I should, you know, I do eat a lot of it, but it's funny you say that.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

It was the same thing for me. Like, I love going to somebody's house who has spent the time and the dedication to cook a brisket for 12 hours.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

Love to eat it. I was just like, when I'm hungry, I don't want to have to be like, all right, let me start cooking the night before.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Get up at 5 a.m. or do coals at 2 a.m. Like, no, I'll pass.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

100%.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

But I I think it was interesting as I talked about creating this company that the actual rubs and marinades would be made from local breweries and cideries here in New England. And I wanted to name, we love music, it's just a big part of our life. Wanted to name in some way the actual sauces and rubs around uh song names or lines and songs. And so that was just something to explore. But I think what I realized when I went down the rabbit hole is like what I didn't know. Totally. Yeah. And so when you realized you were

Betting On The Vision

SPEAKER_00 12:10

ready to start this off, it sounds like you were like click, click, click, you know, I have like 50% of this or 60% of it. How did you know the go, no, go for this vision that you had? What's that inside feeling, or is it a message you get from your gut, or like how do you know?

SPEAKER_01 12:26

That's probably the million dollar question for you know, any founder, any entrepreneur that's going down that road is just being overly obsessed with there's something here, right? Like, I'm not letting this go. Easiest way that I can create an analogy is is like, you know, the the growth of pickleball. It'd be like all of these people play pickleball, but nobody has created this storytelling experience. Nobody has tried to professionalize it, nobody has tried to round up all of the associations and the groups, you know, that are fragmented.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

The total addressable market in barbecue is massive. The top 600 influencers in barbecue have 560 million followers. That's more than every NFL team and MLB team combined.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Wow. Half a billion followers in barbecue.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Yeah. And again, this is back to your point of you again, from a competition perspective, our goal is really Barbecue United, right? Barbecue World Cup will be a subset that lives within Barbecue United. So Barbecue United will basically be the redesign of the website, and that is gonna be the central place for any and all things barbecue. You're in Alabama, put in your zip code. I'm here. Here are the top 10 places vetted by barbecue enthusiasts. So it a little bit of it becomes like a Google Yelp, you know, situation.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

Yeah, where to go, where to find the best. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Recipes is super messy right now. If you've ever looked up a recipe online, right? It's inundated.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Oh, all the ads.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Yeah, can't stand it.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Yeah, it's like you got to read through somebody's life story in 75 ads before you get to know what to put the grill at, the smoker at, or even your oven at.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Yeah. Is there a sense when you're building this that something has to come first, second, third? Like, what do you believe is the foundation of your vision for this?

SPEAKER_01 14:15

Oh man, that is the one thing that AI cannot help you with. It's like you're going, you know, I used the analogy the other day when somebody asked how it was going. I was like, it's interesting, and there's a reason that people don't start from scratch and build, but I was also ready for this moment, right? I'm 42 years old. I'd been wanting to do this and have a business and build and create. So in my mind, I've been conditioned to be ready for all the lumps and the things that you're gonna take. So anyway, I use the analogy of you're on a boat, the boat sinks, you're out there and you're like, all right, somebody's for sure gonna come and save me. Day one goes by, you're like, all right, maybe I just gotta wait another day. Day two goes by, day three goes by, you're like, all right, nobody's coming. I got to figure this out. So I say that in it's very difficult, right? Do you build the website? Do you start to sell? I mean, again, all of these pieces, you know, at this point, I have Shannon Pruitt who joined as a co-founder with me, and she was a global CMO at Stagwell, and we got a handful of other folks that are helping out with the team. You're a lean team, so you're doing everything. So the question changes, honestly, in my mind, every morning. It's like who's shooting at me? I need to address that situation first, right? Yeah. Fires over here, I need to go put that out.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Yeah. Sometimes there's fires, sometimes there isn't, but I think more than not, there are fires. And I think that's actually a part of just getting used to it as an entrepreneur. Like start warming your hand on it every now and then and then keep going. I think that's the no one's coming to save you. Keep going. And the other thing I tell people is keep your vision close. Don't put it out there as it's first getting born and as it's coming out into the world. I think sometimes even when you're thinking about your ideas, you know, like my idea about the the brews and cues, I told that to one person who knew me in my former role, and they're like, What? They're like, You're crazy. Like, did anyone tell you you're crazy?

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

It's a rite of passage, I think, as an entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Yeah, because well, and that's what they say, right? I think I had 300 meetings to walk through this deck. And the good news is that people like when they turned it down, it was just like, hey, this isn't the stage. We don't invest in early stages, we don't invest in pre-seed, we don't see the vision. But at the same time, there's people that you're talking to that can't really connect the dots, or they would ask questions and you're like, hey, it's all good, but you have to walk out of that room and go, I'm not gonna let that thought penetrate my brain because that's where the negative stuff starts to think, right? Yeah. Again, that's why a lot of people fail is because they pitch 10 people, 10 people say, Yeah, it's just not it. If I didn't have that 301st meeting, I wouldn't be sitting here.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

Right. 100%. Yeah, and I think you have to have thick skin and believe in yourself. I think that belief is really, really important for everything we do, but certainly when you're doing something that's never been done before or that's new.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Totally. And that's even the harder part is because there's not really a blueprint to follow. Like if I wanted to put together a fast food burger chain, there's a lot of case studies, there's a lot of things that you can look at, research, like, all right, don't make that mistake, don't do this, right?

Building Barbecue United Ecosystem

SPEAKER_01 17:20

So anyway, yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

Yeah. So tell me about so it's about a year away. So April 2027 is when the large championship competition is going down. What happens as we work up to that? And what can we do as lovers of barbecue? Maybe we're not actually barbecuers, or maybe there's several people listening who want to join the competition. So walk us through what happens over the next year for you.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Yeah, absolutely. So our website is currently in the process of being redesigned.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

It needed to get up faster than probably we wanted because there were events that were starting to take place that needed help. So there's all these regional events that take place. So you have these big majors. So think of it just like your traditional sports is you have the majors of what they call it in barbecue. The season kicks off really in January and then goes all the way basically through December. So the major events will be like San Antonio Rodeo, CBA World Championships, Houston Rodeo, Memphis and May, KCBS, Jack Daniels, American Royal. Those are the big notable ones that anybody who's in competition barbecue is very aware of, right? It's like Masters US Open, etc. Then you have your qualifiers like more regional, and those will be Arizona, Slaborama. You have Lakeland Pig Fest in Florida, the Shields Home and Hardware North Dakota Barbecue Championship, Smoke on the Rail, Cora Cares for Kids up in Maine. So there's all these regional events that take place. And so basically, what we've done with all of these, we've gone out and registered 50 plus qualifiers that will take place. And to be a qualifier, you know, you go and apply on our website, you know, bbqworldcup.com, and you apply there. And again, this year's filled up, but we're gonna start to evaluate applications for next year. Because the goal is how do we lift every single event? Because the majority of these regional events, a lot of them are 501c3, so they're raising money for a great cause, right? So Cora Cares, you know, raises money for kids, you know, and they have a big charity component there. So when we announce this as a qualifier, now you become one of let's just call it 16,000 competitions in the world that the pathway to get to the World Cup has to go through you. So your event raises more awareness. Hopefully, you raise more money.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

You amplify the route, not just the end point of where you're going.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Correct. Now you think of the parallels of the World Series of Poker and what that did. At least for me, World Series of Poker growing up in high school, like you watch this, Chris Moneymaker wins a million dollars. Now, me and my buddies on Saturday night are at the house, you know, put in 20 bucks, we put we start playing poker. When you create these opportunities, right, the whole ecosystem, I think, gets to benefit from it. And it could be pitmasters that teach classes. Now, somebody is like, hey, let me go take a couple classes because I want to go and cook because I want a chance to win a million dollars and be the best pit master in the world. So, anyway, I say all of those just to round out the ecosystem. But yeah, you know, you basically go on our website, we have all the qualifiers there. We do not control those events. Our goal is to help amplify all barbecue events, you know, around the world. Go there, we'll have 50 plus qualifiers. We'll take first place, second place, third place, fourth, fifth from a handful of those. And, you know, that's how we will get to a hundred of the best Pitmasters that would be competing in April of 27. And then to join that, we're gonna start to come out with ticket packages and hotels and big discounts. Because I think one of the challenging things right now is money's tight, right? It's like everything that you go and do from a family perspective is so much money. So, how do we create this Barbecue World Cup and fan fest and expo that is an opportunity for a very inexpensive way for families to come out and enjoy? Now, obviously, we'll create some options to buy food or sample food and things like that. But yeah, April of 27, we're working to lock in the date, ticket packages, and things will, you know, hopefully be ironed out and done and ready for you know end of April, beginning of May. We're gonna start to share a lot of the stories of these pitmasters that have won. We have, I think, 14 that have already qualified for the World Cup. We had our first female, Michelle Martinez with AMP cookers out of Texas that just qualified.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

Yeah, so we have a hundred Pitmasters that we're gonna be competing over the course of this year. All of the events are on our website. Go register at their website to cook at their event. But if you get, you know, first place, second place, third place at their events, you'll qualify for an opportunity to come to Vegas to compete on the world stage.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

And there'll be nine that get selected for that. The final will be nine.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

100.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

100. Oh, so there'll be 100 actually that are up for the million.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

As they progress there. Okay. How do you win a barbecue competition? If for those that don't know, how is it judged? What are the criteria?

SPEAKER_01 22:12

So, you know, this is where you get into, like, as I was explaining the overview of pickleball, because you know, KCBS is the largest sanctioning body. So they have, I don't know, 14,000, 15,000 plus members.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Everything runs through Kansas.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Correct. Yeah, 100%. Well, they've been around for such a long time. So they have loyal judges. Well, there's different standards. You know, you'll have KCBS that's got professional judges, like they have judges that pay a membership fee to KCBS, and then they have annual classes and things that they do learning. And then if you you want to host a contest in up in the Northeast and you're like, hey, I got 30 friends. We want to compete. We want to see who the best is. You would look up, hey, what's a sanctioning body? That's a group that would come in and sanction your event and judge it and create the rules and regulations. Now, there's, I don't know, 15, 20 sanctioning bodies underneath that. And after you get from like the top three, top four, top five, it drops off to like very localized. So you would hire them. KCBS comes up, you'd pay a thousand dollars of making that up to KCBS. You'd pay for the expenses to have a judge come out and sanction your event. They would do their rules. So they have their scoring system. They would bring part of their system, they would bring the judges to your event, and then they would judge your event. And then it would be judged on a KCBS scoring system. Now, let's just, and again, you can go down a rabbit hole on this, but I'll just give you two examples. And then the other opposite is like a CBA Champions Barbecue Alliance out of Texas. They just take the general public, no judging, no training experience. And that was the group that we had utilized at that event in Texas. And what's interesting is the woman who works for CBA who helped run our event, her name was Brenda. And I remember asking Brenda, I'm like, hey, Brenda, on Friday before the event, who do you think wins this? And she said it'll either be Phil or Bill. And they came in first and second with untrained judges, right? So to me, it was one of those things as well, where you start to go, huh? If you cook good barbecue, you cook good barbecue.

SPEAKER_00 24:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Right. So anyway, those are the two you have general public that judges with no judging experience. So you'll sit down and from a scoring system standpoint, you really judge on three things. You'll judge on appearance. Does the box and they all serve a box? So they'll stand over the table, they'll show a box to the six judges at each table, and you'll basically write down or put it in an app on a scale one to ten, one to five. What does that look like? Hey, it looks fantastic, right? Nine. Next, you go and you take a bite and then you test for taste and texture. So, like in Texas, a rib falls off the bone. Everybody loves that in Texas. But if you ask KCBS, it should have a little bit of a tug, right? It should be cooked to a certain because fall-off of bone in their eyes of this world is it didn't take any skill to get to that point. You just overcook it. So in order to get it to this point, you know, you really need to be paying attention to your fire. Anyway, long-winded way, that's probably a whole nother podcast to dive into that.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Yeah, that's probably a whole battle of what barbecue is or isn't too. That would be an interesting conversation.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

This is like, don't bring up politics, religion, and barbecue scoring systems. There we go.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

Don't do it. Yeah, just don't do it. So when you were talking about regional and then being able to move into what you actually might do at the state level and then come to the World Cup, it just to me was like this is a huge community moment. This is a community that already existed, but now has ability to form up more in a way that everyone can learn and know and meet and greet and be connected more. Would you say there is a community thread that pulls through all of this?

SPEAKER_01 25:43

Massively, right? And you know, Shannon talks about her dad. She just, you know, has fond memories of growing up in Oregon and her dad and you know, just cooking on a grill every day. And there's another group, shout out to Operation Barbecue, who helps in hurricanes and these devastating situations where they come in and again, you need fire, you can do it with wood, and you meet. You don't need you know power. So, you know, it creates this opportunity. I mean, again, community is barbecue. You know, I think we love about the situation is when we travel to these events, everybody is super helpful. So if you got teams that are coming in from Australia and Brazil to compete at these events, you know, they're reaching out to local people here that they know hey, can you get me these briskets? Can you get me these ribs? Can you bring a drum? Can you bring an offset? Can you bring a kettle for me to cook on? And all of these people take care of each other. But right, there's a certain aspect of the competition which is awesome. But yeah, from a community perspective, that's that's how we see barbecue united is really uniting the barbecue community.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

Yeah, and you're the first person to do that, truly.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

Yeah, that's the yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

You are out there doing it, and I think people don't also understand. And I've only watched a few competitions, maybe one or two live, and the rest maybe like on Food Network or something like that, or the travel channel. I don't know. There's a there's a weird channel that has all this like back to back. You could binge BBQ competitions connected to RVs and stuff like that. Travel America.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Totally. You know, you bring up a good point because Food Network has done, you know, obviously it's about food and they'll create competitions. But I was thinking about this, like that was one of the important pieces to this whole thing was you know, American Idol started because somebody was like, Well, everybody thinks that they can sing, and there's all these people around the world that deserve a shot to have that stardom. Yeah. In Food Network, you know, they focus on grabbing six, seven, eight, ten, these different series where they take 10 people that are already well known in the barbecue space, and then they literally will elimination style. And you know, again, this is like how do we reach the true world that enjoys this and wants to have

How Barbecue Contests Are Judged

SPEAKER_01 27:50

a shot at this?

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Right. You make it accessible. That's what I love about it. Like, you don't have to be or think you could be on, you know, Food Network. You can really just be, like you said, a really good cook barbecuer. You just have to start and step in to doing it. So, what would you say to someone right now who's out there like, wow, I want to join, but I'm not sure I'm good enough, or I'm not a pro or you know, this is great. These are my people.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

Yeah, totally. It's a great question because I'll give you two answers to that. One from the I would say the the air quotes, the research that we've done, and that's more like on the ground talking to people, asking them, like, how'd you get into this? And we've done this a lot now, and a lot of people have a very similar story. They signed up with a Pitmaster in their area or somebody that they love to follow and took a cooking class with them, a competition cooking class. That Pitmaster walks you through how to cook competition. Now, in one of our hype videos, the funniest part is one of the quotes is Pitmaster is willing to tell you everything that they know and then sit back and laugh and say, Good luck, right? Because they can literally write down the exact recipe, what temperature to do this at, what how to pull this out, what to do, right? Like all the details. And you literally could run that exact same playbook and it come out not even close to what they did. It's also this like interesting chase that it's so subjective with the judging, right? These Pitmasters cook very similar recipes and they have very similar schedules of how they do these things. So they'll go into a contest and it's like they've won three in a row, and then they come into the fourth contest, do the same thing that they've done, and they come in last. It's like, well, maybe you just met judges in Kansas City that didn't like this style or whatever it may be. So, anyway, it's very subjective. But I would say the best part about this is it's a community. At the very least, you're gonna sit back, you're gonna have some beers, and you're gonna be in this like awesome community of people that are willing to help you. And even if it's not a situation where you feel that when you get there, bring 10, 15 family members, hang out, and it's it's like a big tailgate. Yeah, it is, it's huge. At the very least, you're walking away with like, hey, I didn't win anything, but that was that was awesome, right? Like, you got to see how you compared against competition cooks, and it's not like there's a shaming moment, you know. They do a really good job from an award ceremony, so they'll usually do like if you're doing four meats, you'll do one through ten chicken, one through ten ribs, one through ten brisket, one through ten overall. So there's a lot of prize opportunities. Like, you may not place one through ten overall, but you got a 10th place chicken.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

That's what got a lot of those people that we were talking to to come back and get back into it.

SPEAKER_00 30:31

I think one thing people don't see, and again, I would consider me like super novice, even just watching it, but there's a lot of leadership that's happening, you know, whether it's getting ready for it, the mindset when something goes wrong, which inevitably does. There is just something, you know. And I think it's the how do I fix it and how do we move through this? But where have you seen leadership spring up? Uh, whether it's either building this vision and bringing this community into the future, or in some of the competitions that you've been around.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

Yeah. So, you know, a lot of these competitions have teams. Some folks, you know, you'll have a head of ribs, somebody that's focused on the ribs. Like I'll give you an example. Janice from Canada, her daughter was down in San Antonio with her, and she actually cooked the ribs and she actually got a call, which is basically meaning you got a call one through ten on your ribs. But it's really cool to see mother-daughter, and Janice travels around and is very well known on the competition circuit. So it's really cool to see that bonding moment. I think we all search for these things with kids in general, just like especially as they become teenagers, which Janice's daughter was. How do you create these moments where you can spend more time with your family, especially on the weekends and not on a device, not on an iPad, like cooking, competition, community, all of those things, you know, really just lead to in what I noticed, you know, more importantly is from a leadership

Community, Leadership, And Getting Started

SPEAKER_01 31:55

perspective, you're not in this like high pressure. I mean, there's definitely pressure, but I mean, like sometimes you sit in a boardroom and you got to hit these numbers or else the shares are gonna drop, right? And the leaders sometimes there create this massive amount of pressure, right? Like I have a friend in sports who deals with leadership that's just doesn't recognize the effort that his group is putting in. And again, they always say most people leave jobs because leaders and their boss and they don't like who they report to, right? So I say that in a very unique way from a leadership perspective where it comes from like the heart. I don't know. It's it's like a weird thing to explain. It's not coming from a place of pressure, it's coming from a place of community and they truly want to see you do good. So that's what I mean from a leadership perspective. That if you do want to try this for the first time, there's a lot of people, if you're humble enough to, I mean, that's the biggest piece, is you just got to be humble enough to go in and be like, hey, I need help.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

Yeah, you got to be open to not knowing it all. I think that's also an entrepreneurial skill. You have to be humble, you have to be, in a sense, also have your own ego, and I can figure it out, you know, and I'll learn. But there are people that know more than me. And actually, that's always the people I want to be around.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

100%.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

I don't want to be the smartest person in the room. That is, that's not where you want to be all the time.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

And the leaders at these events, when you were that, hey man, I don't know what I'm doing. I got this chicken, I got to this point. I have no idea what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

Yeah, they'll tell you.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

100%. And well, they lean in more, they lean in way more. So that's where I would say that you know that level of community really comes together from a leadership perspective to help.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

So as we close out, there's a lot of people out there who are building their own platform. It may not be the barbecue community platform, the World Cup, it may not be those types of things, but they're building their platform and who they are, what they're about, you know, what they speak about, what they're experts on. How do you think you have built the platform that you would want others to replicate or use maybe as an idea or potentially help them? You know, how can people build their platform the best way and learn from what you've done?

SPEAKER_01 34:01

I mean, you can never beat hard work.

SPEAKER_00 34:04

It's part of the equation.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

Yeah, that's the biggest piece is every day you gotta go down, you gotta lay a brick down every day. If you do that over the course of two years, it's hard work and consistency. Can't work hard one day and then not hard the next five days and then work hard the next day. It's consistency. It's like Kobe Bryant behind, you know, he talks about the love of practice. He loved the journey. He wasn't chasing trophies, he loved the journey, right? It's like you can't beat somebody who loves to run a marathon but doesn't love to finish. Like they just love to run. You can't beat that person, right? The person that is chasing it to get to the finish line to get the medal. The thought is that that person can get beat. That's the one piece I would say is like it is just massive consistency. It is just long, long hours of all this. It's like, you know, I'll have 15, 20 random calls today. Like I'll call a winner of the World Cup. Then I just got off a call with a big barbecue influencer, learned about his story. Then it's like, all right, I got to dive in and you know, go through this legal contract. All right, I gotta dive in now and spend the next hour going through the functionality on the website. Then it's like, all right, I gotta catch up with the co-founder and we got to walk through all this because we don't live together. I mean, we don't live in the same city. Yeah, it's always putting a brick down every single day and just working hard, but then also you know, being a little bit naive to the outside noise.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

Yeah, I was gonna say, what do you block out?

SPEAKER_01 35:27

Yeah, that I mean the negativity, right? I mean, but at the same time, you have to be cognizant if that negativity is accurate, right? You have to be able to filter these comments and things people share through you. Like somebody thinks that you should change something functionally on the website. That's like, love the idea. And then it goes through this year and out the other year because it's it may not be a great idea. Hey, you got something, but or you don't have, I don't see the vision, don't understand it. Hey, all good. Hopefully, in two years we get to connect when this thing is massive, and you're like, man, now I want to be involved in this, right? So yeah, it's challenging, but you also have to be very aware of the feedback that you're getting and is it relevant?

SPEAKER_00 36:05

Yeah, what to listen to, what not to listen to. I had a mentor tell me that early on, you know, during like one of my leadership reviews and you know, had some harsh feedback from my team, and at least I thought it was harsh. And she said to me, she said, you know, you just learn what to listen to and what not to. And I think I've used that because sometimes they do tell you things that oh man, I didn't even think about that. I'll put it in the parking lot, I'm not gonna do it right now. Or, like you said, one ear out the other, or it doesn't even come in because it's just not relevant for your vision.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Totally. And the last piece I would say to just even double down on that is like everybody will tell you it's a great

Platform Lessons: Consistency And Feedback

SPEAKER_01 36:40

idea. This is in sales, this isn't whatever you're doing. People, you know, it's just the psychology of people. People don't want to disappoint people, right? So I always love and I always throw it out there where like I want this question answered of like, what don't you like about this? What don't you like about this idea? What don't you like about this, this structure, the way this is set up, the website? Like, don't tell me it looks good. Tell me what you don't like so I can start to be aware of that. It's funny, I was thinking about this earlier. I'm like, I find myself always trying to challenge myself. Why am I thinking this way? Should I be thinking this way? And then it back to the curiosity. So, anyway, you know, I think that's a major thing, also, too, is like ask for the hard feedback, solicit that to really get what somebody's thinking because most people don't want to hurt your feelings, they don't want to share how they're really feeling and like try to solicit that.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

Yeah, when you want to know it, ask about it because people will tell you. And I think it's just like people don't like to say no, but I'm always thankful when people have the courage to say no to something because, like, thank you, I won't waste my time or follow up or annoy you or give you 10 emails.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

You go to a car dealership and you're walking around and somebody comes up and we we've all been there.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

Hey, can I help you? No, I'm just browsing. So you drove 30 minutes from your house to walk around a parking lot with new cars or used cars just to not get any help. So, you know what I mean? Like it's again just back to the psychology of people and not wanting like they don't want to go through that process of, well, let me get my manager.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

Yeah, that scary thing talking to other people, which I hope we learn how to do more of that as we get older here as well. You know, in the world we're in, I think being human is the thing that is the advantage. And so I'm excited about that actually.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

100%.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

Yeah, thank you so much for being on the Bold Lounge. All the information about the BBQ Championship, the BBQ World Cup, and Expo is below, along with finding your people in the barbecue community. Thank you so much, Scott, for being on the Bold Lounge Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 38:35

Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

Thank you for listening to the Bold Lounge Podcast. Through the continuum of bold stories, vulnerability to taking the leap, you will meet more extraordinary people making a positive impact for others through their unique and important stories. By highlighting these stories, we hope to inspire others and share the journey of those with the bold leaders. We hope you've enjoyed this podcast and look forward to sharing the next bold journey with the next.