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On this episode I chat with The Meat Teacher! Matt Groark runs Groark Boys BBQ and has blown up on TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms for the past couple years. He even gets down with some hard number for the creator funds of various different platforms!
In this episode you'll learn:
- Why you should trust your gut
- That being one of the first in on a new venture can be incredibly rewarding
- Matt's incredible story of resilience and how he got to where he is today
A weekly podcast focused on talking to influencers in the barbecue industry, uncovering how they’ve cultivated huge followings, unique income sources, and sponsorship possibilities from a love of cooking over fire. Hosted by Jordan Moore of @thebackyardbrisket
010 | Groark Boys BBQ
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[00:00:00] Voiceover: You're listening to influential barbecue, the podcast where we talk to influencers in the barbecue industry to uncover how they've cultivated, huge following unique income sources and sponsorship possibilities from a love of cooking outdoors. If you want to turn your passion for food and fire into a world of opportunities, you're in the right place.
And now your host, Jordan Moore.
[00:00:29] Jordan: Well, hello there. And welcome back to another episode of influential
barbecue.
It is officially the second month of 2022. And here in Canada, we have by definition, been buried in snow. So this week I am podcasting to you from a snow Fort in my backyard, in the spirit of getting inside and getting warmed up as soon as possible.
Let's get right into this week's episode. My guest is someone who absolutely blew up on a little social media platform called tick tock. Well, not recently, he's been blowing up for a while now, and he's been taking off for the last few years and growing at an immense pace. If you join tick-tock in the lockdown stages of the pandemic, then you absolutely know this guy.
His name is Matt Groarke and he is the man behind Kirk boys. Barbecue. And I'm going to just get right into this interview so that he can tell you all about himself and his story.
hello, and welcome back to another episode of influential barbecue. Today. I am joined by none other than the meat teacher, Matt Groarke of GORUCK boys. Barbecue. Matt, thanks so much for joining me.
[00:01:45] Matt: Thanks, Jordan, my pleasure
[00:01:46] Jordan: to kick things off for anyone that doesn't know. Could you tell me and the listeners just a bit about yourself, what you do and
[00:01:53] Matt: yeah, for sure.
Yeah. Obviously I wouldn't be on here if I didn't cook barbecue. So we, we can start there that a obsession and call it an obsession because that's exactly what it was. You know, I think all, all of us can relate to that, you know, started about, I don't know, like seven years ago or so honestly, and it all happened very fast and I got very obsessed about it and it started like for most of us in my back.
You know, it's just kind of my, my stepfather in law brought me home, a grill one day, a smoker, actually, um, little master bill, 32 inch Masterbuilt propane smoker. And, uh, he had had it in his, in his garage for like a year and never used it. And he brought it home one day to my wife and I's house. And, uh, it was like here, take it.
I've had it for so long. I never use. So, you know, he gave it to me as a gift for dog sitting for them. They went away for a weekend. And when he came to pick the dogs up, he had it in his trunk. I'm like, all right. You know, and it kind of went from there, man, that morning, uh, that, that next morning at like 4:00 AM, I woke up, I, I like went out to the store that night.
I got chicken, I got a pork butt. I got ribs. I got everything you could possibly think of smoking. Every protein. You could imagine that you could get it like your local ShopRite or whatever. And, uh, I got wood chips and I was soaking them in water. I was like, this is what you gotta do. You gotta soak your woodchips, you know?
And I had them sitting on the counter and I woke up that next morning. Man Jordan, I made my coffee. It was 4:00 AM and I just freaking sat out there and it hit me, man. It hit me really quick. Like just that piece, you know, and I'm not a morning person at all. It's crazy because I've picked probably two of the most, you know, mourning professions as someone who's into barbecue and has a business now.
And then someone who's a teacher, you know, high school, no less, uh, that's my full-time job. And, uh, you know, I got to get up at 5 45 for that every morning. So, you know, I'm not a morning person, but I become one, you know, more so over the last seven years. Cause there's nothing, that'll make me jump out of bed and you know, a pork butter, a slab of ribs.
I love that
[00:04:04] Jordan: because I pretty sure I had the exact same upright propane smoker and the same thing, a plastic bowl on the counter with wood chips soaking. Cause you gotta soak the wood chips or else they'll just burn. They won't smoke. And you know, the first cook you do is. Every piece of meat that you can find, not like one meal's worth, but a week you do a
[00:04:23] Matt: women.
It made no sense whatsoever. Like
[00:04:27] Jordan: I've, I've used this for three days, I'm going to go buy it $200. Brisket. Let's go is
[00:04:31] Matt: terrible.
[00:04:33] Jordan: And then you're, you're lost in the Reddit threads of how to cook barbecue poorly. And everyone else is just shitting on each other and it's like, oh, okay. So I don't know if I'm stupid or if I'm good or I'm smarter than these guys now, for sure.
But that's, I love that though. We started with the same smoker and it's you're right. It's just, when you get out there in the morning with a cup of coffee and you smell the smokes, like the wood catches, you smell the smoke, you take a sip of coffee and like you just see the sun coming up over the horizon.
You're like, wow, this is fun. This is nice. It's quiet. There's no one around the buses. Aren't running nothing. It's just kind of peaceful and you're waiting 12 hours to eat dinner and that's just.
[00:05:13] Matt: You can't be an it man. And that's, that's what that's, what did it for me was just, I think initially. You know, being up, feeling productive, first thing in the morning and playing with fire, like who doesn't, you know, is a guy, love, love that.
And, uh, I just kinda fell in love with that, man. And it was something I think at the time I was struggling with teaching as well. You know, I've been teaching for almost 20 years now and the landscape of education has changed a lot. In those 20 years. I've seen colleagues come and go and. You know, it's a, a, lot's just change and it's, it's changing even more now, but to find something that, you know, I've always had other hobbies and passions, you know, played basketball my whole life.
And, you know, most, almost all of my teaching career, I spent coaching and, you know, uh, God, seven years ago, my son came into my life and you know, my wife and I were building our family and working on that. And, uh, you know, this whole barbecue thing came at a time for me, not only where I was kind of feeling that every day, just repetitive, you know, career type thing.
I love high school. I love my, I love the kids I teach, but you, God, you do anything over and over every day it's like, you know, you get into the monotony of it. You know, in addition to building my family and my wife and I, we had some struggles growing our family. So at the time I found barbecue, man, Jordan, it was as much of an outlet and a, and a really a stress reliever and a way of coping and, and things like that from an emotional standpoint is as anything can get, it was, uh, it was as much as people, you know, running, going to the gym.
Whatever they use to get through tough times or to let out stress and anger and whatever it is they're dealing with on a day-to-day basis. Barbecue brought that for me, man. And you know, I'll preach from, from the mountain top about that all day.
[00:07:15] Jordan: That's incredible. And it's hard to even find words for a response for something like that, because you know, no one's going to know what you were going through and how barbecue might've helped you.
Everyone has their own battles and finds their own way. But when you find your own thing, that just is so obvious to you. Once you do it, that it's, it's your therapy now, essentially in your, especially something like barbecue, because it's. An outlet, but you're also providing for other people, like you can share that outlet with those you love.
And those you hang out with, you can cook meals for so many people and just share that whole outlet, which makes it even that much more therapeutic in a way I think,
[00:07:55] Matt: yeah, you hit that on the head and that's, you know, to be able to, there's nothing better than, than cooking your food. And, uh, you know, it's, there's really no, no way to really explain it unless you do it.
You know, especially with barbecue to spend the amount of time and effort and time that it takes to, to make your final product. It's like when you get people, when people start asking you to cook for them, Hey, I'm having my, and I think we're all in this same position too. We all started at the point where your buddy down the street was like, I'm having my little girl's fifth birthday party.
Do you think you can make some pulled pork for me? Like, I can't even imagine if we had a hundred barbecue guys that we all know from social media and stuff. I guarantee we all have that friend that could name the person that first asked us like, Hey, could you cook for my, this family party or this birthday party or whatever it is.
We all have that story, man. Cause it's so. Organic the way it happens, you know? And you can't hide the fact that you're cooking barbecue in your backyard. I love that. Like, we're all our neighbors, best friends, you know, like you can't hide it like, oh, Matt, Matt cook. And again, you know, and I get a text what's on the what's on the smoker, you know?
So that, that's what it comes down to with everything, man. It's, it's a way to deal with things. It's, it's a, it's an outlet. And then it brings people around, man. It it's community, it's family. It's, you know, that's what food does. And you know, I think as you, as we segue into the discussion about social media and stuff, I think that's what social media has done, you know?
And, um, I'm one of the first people to preach about how positive social media has been for me in a place, in a position and job that I have as a teacher, where is all I hear every day is how terrible social media. You know, like all day, every day, that's all I hear from teachers from the news, from, you know, parents from is, all I hear is how bad it negative social media is.
And here I am, and it has literally changed my life. It is changed my family's life. It has changed. It has been, you know, are there hard times? Are there times there's drama and stuff like that? Of course. But, you know, I think I was barbecue. People find that more fun than, than annoying, but, but in all seriousness it's, it's changed my life.
So, you know, anytime I can tell the story and share, and maybe help people figure out their thing and find their thing, I'm going to do it because it doesn't always have to be negative. Social media has. Such such an opportunity to, especially in the world we live in now to just take your passion and run with it.
And I'm, I'm living proof, man. I was a teacher just teaching teaching every day, leaving my house at 7:00 AM coach until whenever coming home, have my, you know, my wife at home and that's it, man. That's just what I always did. And uh, then this whole thing happened and really, really just changed that.
[00:11:04] Jordan: Well, thanks for doing my segue job for me perfectly.
That saves me trying to find the words for that, because I feel like most of the people that are listening to this right now, probably know you from Tik TOK, they discovered you on Tik TOK. I discovered you on Tik TOK. And before we talk about how much tic talk and social media changed your life for you and your family, can you tell me about before you created a Tik TOK account, what were you doing?
Did you have a social media presence where you just teaching and barbecuing for fun a little bit? Like what made you decide to fire up this Tik TOK account that eventually turned into something life-changing
[00:11:44] Matt: for you? Yeah, so, um, so I mean, I always liked like anybody, I had a Facebook page, I had an Instagram page forever.
Like, I can't even remember how long that dates back, but forever I'm 44. So, I mean, uh, I've been on social media for awhile and. All I ever posted on my Instagram or Facebook was pictures of my kids and my family and, oh, Hey, we're bowling. It's Tuesday night. Like whatever, you know, random stuff like everybody does.
I never posted food. Um, I worked in restaurants, my whole life growing up. I was always surrounded by food. I wasn't a cook. I served the way to tables. I was, you know, I wanted to be a, to get into culinary at some point, but never did you know, but if we go back to that moment that my father-in-law brought that smoker over my house.
That's the first time I really started doing barbecue and started cooking in my backyard that went, you know, started turning into like almost an everyday thing. Um, cooking, steaks, smoking, and doing all that kind of stuff. And then, um, you know, during all that time, my wife and I were trying to grow our family and we wanted to have kids.
We had lost some pregnancies along the way. Um, we lost three pregnancies early on with, you know, uh, during that time. And then a fourth pregnancy was my, uh, we started getting on a cocktail of, you know, my wife was on a cocktail of things started. I was giving her shots, all that kind of stuff. And we had my son age, Rick who's seven now.
And he, um, he was born with a cleft lip and palette. So he had some medical issues early on surgeries and still has some that we're looking at in the near future. But he's awesome now. And then we had. We had Nash right after that, a little earlier than we expected and his, his pregnancy went great. We wanted a third.
I always wanted a little girl. So we tried for three, went for three and lost one. So that was our fourth loss. And then, um, went in, went to in vitro route and we did two rounds of in vitro. Second round, we got pregnant with another little boy. His name was Canaan. We got far enough to find the sex out of room hold nine, 17 weeks.
And, uh, went to an ultrasound, no heartbeat. We lost our fifth. And at that time I was on social media. I was cooking barbecue. I was posting pictures. I would, the videos weren't even. No one was doing videos at that point, you know, certainly not like voiceover style stuff, but, um, as I got into it, you know, that's where I go back to the cathartic coping kindness part of it, you know, for me, that's what, that's one thing that helped me get through was being able to be in my backyard with my thoughts, you know, and getting through that stuff, you know, that's, that was a big thing for me.
You know food, but my motto on my logo is food fund family. And, uh, you know, those through those three things, through all the stuff, all the, all the pain and all the hurt, you gotta, you gotta those three things you gotta eat and you gotta find, you gotta find ways to laugh and you got in smile and you got to be around family.
And, you know, that's, uh, those are the three things that really helped get me through it, you know? Um, but I started posting pictures and stuff, all my social media. Um, I started a new account on my sword. On my Instagram. I did an Instagram called Matt Rourke barbecue. And, uh, I have to shout out my buddy Kurt, Kurt halls is the first person that ever reached out to me.
Um, and was like, man, you, you have some, some skill. You have some talent. Like, I like what you do. I like your personality. Like you, like, you need to get rid of that other page. Like don't. Start another page he called me and was like, dude, just build it into your, your page. People want to see your family.
They want to know who you are, you know, and that was probably the best advice I ever got. And Kurt is, um, I'm not sure if you know Kurt, but he's the owner of Caribbean, Q, which is, uh, an incredible spice and incredible barbecue seasonings rubs lifestyle seasonings. I mean, Kurt is just listen. If there's one person that I could, uh, that I could thank for, for where I'm at right now in the social media world and the knowledge I had and things I've gained and lessons I've learned, it would be Kurt.
He's like, he's like the godfather of barbecue to me, man. Um, and I still talk to him and we still have a friendship. And, but he, that changed everything, man, because even to this day, it's like, I'm just unapologetically. You know, you see my kids, you see my wife, as much as I joke on her, we have fun with it.
And you hear my dogs barking in the background. Like there's nothing, there's no highly produced videos, you know? And that all comes from Kurt that one day just saying, man, you gotta be you. And that's sure enough, that's what I did. So when all that stuff went down with my, with my wife and I, and you know, my students at the high school knew that we were expecting and I got back into school and they surprise me with a gift and a card and got me Sixers tickets.
And they put that on social media and a conduct caught some wind and got a little viral, what they did for me because I went back to school and sat down and talk to them about, and I'm a health and phys ed teacher. So talking about pregnancy and health and stress. Coping and see, you know, sadness and all that stuff.
Kinda like I don't sugar coat, any of that. So we sat and talked about it. We cried and, uh, you know, they bought me a gift and told me to go out with my wife and try to have a good night out and, um, thanked me for talking to them about it and teaching them to. Get up when you're knocked down and all that stuff.
And I got on social media and at the time I think I was starting to gain a little bit on Instagram, but I was surrounded by so many good people, man, on social media, like Kurt and a lot of others that were doing it long before me. Um, a girl named Tara who is, um, she's up north in north Jersey, her name's, aldente diva, she's a home cook mother, wife, and she's just an incredible person.
But, um, her and Kurt were probably two of the, my first real friends in terms of social media. And, you know, as I was doing that, the whole, you know, thing with my students went kind of viral and it was on the news and it made it out to California. And, uh, I had a butcher calling me and wanted me to throw a barbecue for my kids.
And I ended up doing a whole school thing. That's what started the barbecue business for me as a fundraiser for some foundations and charities, fetal loss, cleft lip, and palate, Ms. Different stuff, veterans. And that was the that's what kick-started the business. And along with that came the social media stuff as well, because the best way to.
You know, giving and charity was through social media. And, uh, I caught a lot of, uh, I got a lot, I found a lot of success with that to be able to get things I needed in order to run the fundraisers and raise the money for foundations and causes that were dear to me. So, um, that's the path I took and the business started well and, uh, social media followed.
So in terms of tech talk, Tara, actually out Dante diva hit me up one day and she was like, Hey, there's this app. And they're paying creators to come on and make videos. Um, they were a new app at the time. It was music. And then musically was bought by another company and it was called something else, not Tik TOK.
It was called something else before tech talk. I don't remember. But, um, after musically, whatever company it was that Tara was like, Hey, they're going to, they will pay you 600 bucks a month to make 30 videos, which is essentially one video a day. So I was like, holy shit. Like what? I was like, okay, sign me up.
She was like, all right, I'll give them your name. She turned off. They reached out. And that's when I started doing it. While that company then became Tik TOK. So it's crazy because through Tara, Tara and I were probably two of the first paid creators on the Tech-Talk app, like it's nuts. People think that, you know, I think people see a number like 3 million, 4 million, 5 million on it on an app.
And I could name, I could name creators on. That grew like that. You know, Matt Broussard, incredible chef, a cook named Matt. Nick did Giovanni. Right. We all know him. Incredible young chef. Awesome. Like so many that just grew and skyrocketed so fast. And those are also trained chefs as well. You know, not Nick, but Nick's, Nick was never, you know, culinary school, I don't think.
But, um, so an incredible chef, like just amazing, but they skyrocketed really fast. I've been on this since like 2018, man. Like I'm a big grind him like every day. Uh, dude, it's crazy. Yeah. It's crazy. December. I think December 18th, 2018 or December, 2018 was my first, my first tick-tock post and it's nuts, but.
It, it was a, it was a steady climb. You know, there were a couple of times that I hit, you know, kind of a skyrocket and went up fast, but, um, that's how it started. It started with Tara hooking me up and get me to be part of a program that eventually turned into Tik TOK. And I was in early, I was in really early and there were guys that I was tight with.
There were guys that I was real tight with on Instagram that I brought in and tower brought in that were with, with us. It was like four of us while the other two dropped out because the, the company like drop the pay. One month and they got pissed off about it and stopped. And I'm like, dude, we got to keep doing it.
Like keep doing it. This could be something. And here we are here we are. It's just crazy. But I was preaching it on Instagram for a long time and nobody, you know, I was being made fun of by my, my own friends, not even talking about social media, but like my own friends, like real life friends, um, in person, like, what are you doing on Tik TOK?
You're a teacher. That's weird. Like, you know, and, but I believed in it, man. I knew what I was doing and I knew what I wanted to happen. And, uh, it's, it's just nuts, man. I kept going. And finally at one point. People on Instagram started realizing it. And then there was this like mass influx of like creators food creators that, that w that switched from Instagram and started posting on Tik TOK.
And I'm like, I just sat back and I was like, ah, come on. Let's go. And it's like, it was, it was awesome, man, to see everybody buy in and now see what, what people are doing on it now is just incredible every day. I'm per second, 2018, I think. Yeah, it's crazy. December. I think December 18th, 2018 or December, 2018 was my first, my first tech talk post and it's nuts, but.
It, it, it was a, it was a steady climb. You know, there were a couple of times that I hit, you know, kind of a skyrocket and went up fast, but, um, that's how it started. It started with Tara hooking me up and get me to be part of a program that eventually turned into TechTalk. And I was in early, I was in really early and there were guys that I was tight with.
There were guys that I was real tight with on Instagram that I brought in and tower brought in that were with, with us. It was like four of us while the other two dropped out because the, the, the company like dropped the pay. One month and they got pissed off about it and stopped. And I'm like, dude, we gotta keep doing it.
Like keep doing it. This could be something. And here we are here we are. It's just crazy. But I was preaching it on Instagram for a long time and nobody, you know, I was being made fun of by my, my own friends, not even talking about social media, but like my own friends, like real life friends, um, in person, like, what are you doing on Tik TOK?
You're a teacher. That's weird. Like, but I believed in it, man. I knew what I was doing and I knew what I wanted to happen. And uh, it's, it's just nuts, man. I kept going. And finally at one point. People on Instagram started realizing it. And then there was this like mass influx of like creators food creators that, that w that switched from Instagram and started posting on Tik TOK.
And I'm like, I just sat back and I was like, ah, come on. Let's go. And it's like, it was, it was awesome, man, to see everybody buy in and now to see what, what people are doing on it now is just incredible. Yeah. I
[00:25:27] Jordan: assume that mass migration was about April or May, 2020. I'd have to say,
[00:25:33] Matt: but it was.
[00:25:37] Jordan: Um, but that's, that's interesting that you, you knew enough within yourself that you saw potential in this app that had almost nobody because it was brand new and it was, I think bite dance acquired it for awhile and then it was Tik TOK or something like that.
But you had the foresight to see that, Hey, this is a cool idea for an app and I'm going to stick with it. Even though they've dropped the ball a few times, there's not. Of people on this app quite yet. What kind of sign did you see that kind of led you to believe that you should stick with it? Because I think all of us, we all had the same thought when we went over to Tik, TOK was this is for teens that just like to dance, this is a stupid app.
I'm going to delete it and we all read, downloaded it. Anyway, I think that there has to be a way that you have to kind of train yourself, to look at the potential for something behind the scenes, rather than just face value, which is what you did with tick talk. And which is why you're so big on Tik TOK now.
And it's brought you to where you are today. Like what, what did you see on the app that made you believe that.
[00:26:39] Matt: I mean, I think you saw apps. Like, I mean, I can't even call it an app, like a, the frigging monopoly of everything, but like YouTube and the content that people were creating on YouTube. But you know, when YouTube is like, I don't know, these videos were like 10, 12, 14 minutes long, right?
Like some of the huge YouTube pages that are out there. Uh, one of my favorite, like Guga foods, you know, Guga, his videos are all like 12, 13 minutes and. You know, I, I just knew that with this new app with tick-tock and the way that it was being marketed, that something was going to happen with this short form video, like to be able to have, you know, that quick video, less than a minute and get all that information in a, in a small, short time period.
I was just like, as a teacher who every day had to deal with getting kids to listen for even 10 seconds at a time, you know, I just knew in the back of my mind that it was going to be something that was gonna explode. And if it wasn't this app, it was going to be another one. Fortunately, I guess we got pretty lucky with Tik TOK ended up being what it was, but, or what it is, but, um, you know, then you see all the other ones follow suit.
And now YouTube is at a point now where if you don't have. Uh, following already, bill, if you don't have a reputation or a brand that that makes long form content right now, it's not even worth making long form content on YouTube like that. The time the juice isn't worth the squeeze by, I have people ask me to make long form content on YouTube all the time, but it's just not worth it right now.
It will be again at some point, but YouTube is pushing shorts so hard. That is all you should be doing right now is taking those tick talks you make, or those reels you create and saving them without the watermark and post them on shorts. Like if you're not creating one piece of content and posting it on shorts TechTalk and reels every day, you're missing the boat right there.
Done. And, and, and, and that's just saying one a day that you, you should be posting three a day, especially on YouTube shorts. I
[00:29:11] Jordan: haven't even heard of YouTube shorts until
[00:29:13] Matt: just right now. Now YouTube shorts is, and that's what YouTube is pushing. So, I mean, I've grown from, I've grown from 80,000. I think I was at like 80,000 subs on YouTube about two months ago.
Um, creeping up on 300,000 now. And that's, I've been posting three, three shorts a day every day for like two, three months. And that's some days I don't get to three, but consistently, and, and that's, you know, you ask new creators or people that are kind of in this space trying to figure out like, that's my best advice is just consistency and, and, and Quan.
You know, like yeah, the quality has to be good, but there's something to be said for holding your phone and giving people that, that direct communication that you don't get when you're, when you're here on a video, you know, and you're all set up with production and all that stuff. There's something to be said when you're just holding your phone and, you know, connect them with people in that way.
And that's what I do. So it's worked for me and, uh, you know, that's, that's the best advice I could give is just, you know, one be yourself and to like quantity, quantity, quantity, create, create, create.
[00:30:35] Jordan: I know people will be wondering if they're going to be driving to work or driving somewhere, listening to this show.
And they're going to be thinking to themselves, how the hell am I supposed to create? And post three types of content a day on three social platforms, that's nine posts, minimum. How, how do you balance that shit while teaching and raising a family? How do you do
[00:30:58] Matt: that? Yeah, that's, that's probably the biggest question I get is like out of like, keep up with it all, you know, it's definitely, there's a schedule, you know, there's definitely things that I have in my mind that I know when to do what I need to do, you know, on YouTube, by when I'm, when I'm in a groove on YouTube.
And like right now, I'm not like for the last 10 days I haven't been, I haven't posted much. I think I'm posting maybe once a day on YouTube, but, um, you know, it's not new content. It's all old stuff. I mean, Jordan, I could scroll back and all of us probably can. And people probably don't do it enough. You could scroll back a year ago on your phone and find videos that you can recreate.
Re-edit do a new voiceover, it'll take you three minutes and post it on YouTube shorts. And, and, and, you know, I have just from three months ago I have 250,000 new followers. They don't know that that's old content, it's new to them, you know? So kind of re reusing content recreating. Old content, you know, is huge, but you know, I kind of have a schedule for you to buy post, like 10:00 AM, 10:00 AM for 2:00 PM and like six to 8:00 PM.
Usually when I'm doing three on YouTube, Tik TOK, I usually only do one or two a day, Instagram one a day, if that, you know, but you prioritize to, you know, whatever one is most beneficial for you right now. Snapchat's the most beneficial for me right now. If you could imagine that, it's crazy to ask you about that too.
Yeah. Snapchat. It's nuts, man.
Can
[00:32:45] Jordan: you explain. Okay. So I, I have Snapchat, but I have two, two group chats of friends. That's all I have. And it's just us sending stupid shit to each other. And then my 11 year old nephew sent me a Snapchat story or a feature the other day and I opened it up and it was your fucking face.
I had just, I had just booked this interview with you. I was like, cool. I'll see you Wednesday over my phone. And it's you shoving a steak in my face on Snapchat. So I went to look like this is, I think this is a huge place that everyone in the barbecue community is missing because I didn't know you could be featured or push content on Snapchat at all.
So can you explain that to me? Like I'm.
[00:33:29] Matt: Yeah. So in order to start, like your first thing to do in terms of Snapchat and starting to grow is to start creating now. It's, it's funny because like, it's, I'm not reinventing the wheel here. Like I'm not creating five new pieces of content for five different apps.
You know, like I'm taking one piece of content and I'm posting it on five different apps. Like that's all it is. And people are more committed to one app than the other, as viewers, right? There's people that are diehard Snapchat, the kids I teach 11, 12, 13, 14 year old kids or Snapchat kids. Like that's what they watch.
The 90% of my viewers on Snapchat are probably in that 12 to 18 year old age group. Which tells you when some of the stuff I post on Snapchat goes viral. It's pretty obvious why it goes viral. Like if I cook, I posted a Dirito steak and it was, you know, I cooked it with just Doritos. Like I didn't use charcoal, I didn't use wood.
I lit Doritos on fire to cook the steak. And like that went crazy viral because it's a bunch of kids watching it, but Snapchat has a spotlight feature. So when you post a Snapchat, you have to post it as a spotlight entry. So your video, maybe it's a 32nd, eight second, 52nd, whatever video you have an option to hit spotlight.
When you post it, you can post it to just your friends. You can make it public to people, but you have to hit that spotlight because when you, when you submit it as a spotlight and post it Snapchat, see. And they watch it and then they decide what videos get put out on their feature, like on their version of their, for you page.
So, so spotlight is what you want to focus on with Snapchat is that spotlight feature. And then there's a verification process. You can become a snap star, they call that there, there's this called a snap star and you get a little star next to your name, you know? And I managed to get that like, uh, you know, about a year ago or so, but I ignored Snapchat for a long time.
Um, I had like 30,000 followers on there for a long time and I didn't do anything with it. And, uh, you know, as of, as of late, like I'd say in the last month, month and a half, I started, started really posting on it again because a friend of mine. I said exactly what I'm saying to you, you know, is that you're missing the boat if you're not posting and taking advantage of it because there's money to be made.
And sure enough, it took me a few weeks of posting on there until I saw the results and they have a creator program just like they just like Tik TOK. Does they have a fund that they're paying creators out with and it's silly, silly money that they're paying out compared to other apps,
[00:36:37] Jordan: like silly, bad, or silly.
Good,
[00:36:39] Matt: silly, good. Okay. Like I say, and a lot of people, like, I don't know if a lot of creators talk about this stuff, right. Like I don't, I don't know if creators want to talk about how much money they make off of. Right. I'll talk to you. I'll talk to anybody about how much I make off the apps. I'm not going to sit here and go over how much I make off brand deals and from my agent and different stuff like that.
Cause that's, you know, private info, but you know, in terms of what we're all doing with the apps, I mean, it's, it's public, it's public knowledge, man. Most people should know it. And if you want to get good at it and get in that position, like, so you should be doing, I'm telling you Matt Broussard, Nick did Giovanni.
They're probably making six figures a month just, just on, just on their social media, like just on their monetization. So
[00:37:35] Jordan: enlighten me then, because I I've got a small following and you know, I've never had a sponsor deal or brand thing. I haven't tried to do it. And I'm now just now learning about, you know, just creator fees.
You're getting from these apps. So with whatever you're comfortable with disclosing, are you able to kind of talk to me and the listeners? Like, how are you making, like, how does it work? Do you have to do certain amount of content on the platform per month or certain amount of followers? Like, and what is the kind of percentage of payout for that kind of thing?
Cause I, I really don't think anybody, like very few people know about this option. Everyone thinks it's gotta be sponsorships or partnerships or selling your content. But I don't think anyone knows about this route at all, because I didn't until you just told me 30
[00:38:25] Matt: seconds ago, I mean, eh, maybe I'll get blacklisted, but you know, I don't, I don't really, I don't really give a shit, but, but it's, for me, it's, it's never been, you know, from a real early point, I knew that this was going to be more than social media.
Like I'm in a position now where I'm growing my brand on a national level where, you know, this is just going to like social media is going to be, I'm always going to have fun with it. I'm always going to enjoy it. I hope that it's always a stream of, of potential money, but at the same time, I know we all know it could disappear next month, Tik TOK and be like gone like no more payouts.
Um, so yeah, every, every app has a creator fund type of thing. YouTube pays Tik TOK pays Snapchat, pays Instagram has bonuses. Now that you can get invited to a lot of these apps they have to do with your followers. Your follower, count your engagement, uh, whether you're verified or not possibly. Um, so all those things happen, but typically they will contact you to invite you into one of these programs.
So with YouTube, you have to have a certain amount of certain amount of hours watched and followers in order to be in there, create their fi creator fund. But then YouTube shorts just started one, a separate creator fund for just YouTube shorts. So, you know, I've never done really great with the regular YouTube monetization because I don't make a bunch of long form content and, you know, I'm fairly new to it.
But, um, you know, I'm making on YouTube anywhere from 1200 to 2000 a month, you know, on, on that, on just that app. Um, I think everybody's probably most familiar with Tik TOK and Tik TOK has their creator program and. The monetization error. Isn't very good. Like it's a combination of views and follows and all that stuff.
However, they figure that out. But someone like me at 3 million followers, that gets pretty good views. I'm making, I don't know, about a thousand a month on, on tech talk. Um, you know, which is solid. You know, Instagram just came out with bonuses. So I've been on that for a few months and they start date.
They pay based on your views for reals. It's like a real bonus. So you could submit a reel and have it pay. And, um, anywhere between 800 and I don't know, 1500, depending on what kind of month I have in terms of videos and how many items. So, yeah. And then there's Snapchat, which is a complete like outlier type type of thing where you could have a crazy video go viral on Snapchat.
And you know, back in 2020, early 2020 Snapchat was paying a million dollars a day to their creators. And a lot of young kids got really, really rich, really, really fast. I'm talking like millionaires in a matter of a month or two, and that's written like you could Google it and look it up, like everything I'm saying.
So that happened for like half of 2020. And then, and then Snapchat pulled back and stopped paying what they were typically paying. So these kids, and you could think of the mindset, right? Like these younger kids, like, man, you're paying me all this money and then you take it away. You don't take it all away.
You just lower it. You stop paying me as much. Right. So they got mad and they left in, in like droves left. Snapchat went, went to Instagram, went to YouTube, went to TechTalk and left Snapchat because they weren't getting paid enough. So then I find out, you know, month or so a couple of months ago through some friends that like, they're still paying, they're just not paying as much.
They're paying now. 10 million a month instead of a million a day. They're still paying millions of dollars every month or just 10
[00:42:43] Jordan: million a
[00:42:44] Matt: month. Damn. Yes. So my buddy Clint, who, uh, he has a great page on Tik TOK. He's a star trickle his name's a poor man's comfort food. He really grew his following by going to the dollar store and making meals for his family from the dollar store is awesome.
So though he hit me up about a month ago and was like, Matt, we were talking and he was like, yeah, this Snapchat came back with their paid creator program and you had to get invited into it. I went back and found an email that I never even looked at. I just threw in my trash cause I wasn't paying attention to Snapchat at all.
And I found it and I was invited into it. So I, I own boarded to that. And I instantly started posting videos and he was like, they're, they're doing challenges now on Snapchat. So you can go to Snapchat and they have like hashtag challenges. So when. The one was hashtag tailgate was the challenge. So I had a video of me like cooking.
So I'm like, all right, done. I submitted to that and I won it. I won first place. I won 1500 bucks. So I'm like, that's pretty frigging cool. I'm like telling Clint, I'm like, dude, this is crazy. And he's like, well, just keep posting. So I did. And then sure enough, I had to get, you know, Snapchat has crystals, they pay and crystals, whereas Tik, TOK pays and diamonds, right?
Like they all have these crystals convert to, to, to dollars. Yeah. It's bonkers how this shit works, Jordan. So it's like a
[00:44:17] Jordan: scam.
[00:44:18] Matt: It's amazing dude, on instant and my wife still doesn't believe it to this day on Tik TOK, you can get, you can go live on Tik TOK and get gifts, right? When people send you gifts for going live.
Those gifts, turn into diamonds on Tech-Talk. Well, you might need a thousand diamonds to equal one penny, you know, or whatever. I don't know. I was lied to the other night on Tik TOK and I got like 8,000. I got like 8,000 diamonds for alive. I did, and I never get paid on lives, but I was doing this challenge thing and 8,000, like 9,000 diamonds equaled like $26.
So it's a very small, like conversion. Snapchat is different Snapchat. Every crystal is worth like 10 cents. So I was posting these videos. And during that first month, like the end of November, I, uh, I had like five or six videos go really viral on Snapchat. And I got the money for that challenge that I did.
But then one night I was out and I started getting notifications. And I'm like, what did from Snapchat? I'm like, all right. So I opened my Snapchat and I had my account, had all these crystals. I had like 300,000 crystals in my account. I'm like, so I call Clinton, I call Clinton. And I'm like, bro, what are all these crystals?
Why did I get these? He was like, did you have videos go viral this week? Like in the last week? Or so I'm like, yeah, dude, I had one hit, 5 million, one hit a million, one hit like 800,000, another one, 500,000. He was like, dude, they're paying you for those, for those videos. I'm like, yeah, they're paying me. But like what like three, like what 300,000 crystals?
10 cents per crystal, like that's re it's. Uh, it was like this isn't is this real? It's crazy. It's crazy Jordan. So like
[00:46:23] Jordan: that's an easy 30 grand and you, all you had to do was use old content.
[00:46:27] Matt: It was old content. That's incredible. It was old content Jordan. You've probably seen the video of me making my Mac and cheese with my two boys next to me.
And they like dropped the salt, that video, that video, that video got 6 million views on Snapchat, that video alone, that one video got me 280,000 crystals. And that was one way
[00:46:55] Jordan: to do an education fund.
[00:46:56] Matt: Right. It's insane. Yeah. For real it's nuts, man. I just don't think people, I still don't think people fully understand the gravity of.
The world we live in right now from a social media. I really don't think they do. And if I can be, you know, I I've listened to so many podcasts like barbecue guys and food people. And listen, if I'm the first person that's sitting here talking about the money I make, then good. You know what I mean?
Because. It's no secret. Everybody knows content, creators, food, creators, fitness, creators, whatever it is. If you have a big following on social media, people know you're making money, like why not talk about it? I don't like there's, you know, I have no problem talking about it.
[00:47:50] Jordan: Yeah. And that's why I, again, that's why I wanted to start this because I've had nine conversations so far, and they've all been incredible conversations.
And they've been around kind of the, either starting a business side of it or using partnerships and companies as a way to supplement income. But yeah, which
[00:48:10] Matt: I've done.
[00:48:11] Jordan: I truly think no one knows. Like this. So, I mean, you're also the first person with 3 million followers that I've spoken to about this, but, and maybe, maybe there's a threshold you reached before you kind of unlock this in your knowledge realm.
But I didn't, I had no idea Snapchat could take content. I knew there was like crystals and gifts on Tik TOK. I didn't know. They, I thought it was just a way for kids to spend money that they didn't have, and like legitimately blowing my mind right now.
[00:48:40] Matt: It's it's real. Like it's, it's crazy. I've, I've started a business through social media.
I have a barbecue business. I have a 30 foot rig that has just a frigging tank. That is amazing catering events, a whole nine. I'm still teaching full-time. I've done brand deals with Chevy, with Lowe's home improvement, with ShopRite, with, you know, Quis and art with, I mean, you name it. I've done brand deals.
I've done it all. I've done all that like it, and I still do, like, I'm still doing all of it, but ultimately my goal is my brand. My goal is to, is to get you my food. You're in Canada. I want you to be able to order my food and get it to you. And I'm telling you that's going to happen and it's going to happen because I, because I believed in what I was doing, I believed in social media, when my wife yelled at me to get off my phone, I looked at her two years ago and said, babe, this is going to pay the bills one day.
And here we are. That's that's the reality of this. I spent two years telling my wife that this is going to pay the bills every time she yelled at me to get off my phone. And, and that's the reality of it. And I know I'm not the only one, you know, my boy Ms. Say, grilling with that you had on, right? Like, like Mack and I were were, were early on man.
I've known max since he was 8,000 followers on Instagram. Like he, he could say all these same things I'm saying, and he came over to tech talk and he found success on Tik TOK. You know, like he's, he has a huge Facebook. Like his Facebook is huge. He, he unlocked the key to Facebook. I, I can't, I haven't figured it out.
Like I, I, but I don't spend any time on it cause I don't need to. His Facebook might be my Snapchat, right? Like you gauge what you want to put your time and heart into, but ultimately, man, it's about a brand. It's about building a brand. It's about, you know, believing in it. And that's like, this is all Gary V shit, Jordan like Gary V telling you 10 years ago that that Facebook was going to be what it is or Instagram was growing or this, like, whatever he talks about.
It's where we are, man. This is where we're at. This is, um, like all Heights. Now
[00:51:18] Jordan: I'm loving this, I'm loving this conversation because you are blowing mine and I'm going to guarantee so many other people's minds with this information, because it sounds so easy and obvious, like just post stuff and companies have a budget to pay creators.
It's like, duh, but like, it never seems to happen for you kind of thing. Right. And then I talked to you and it's like, yeah, no, you just gotta put the time in like beat the shit out of it, do it all the time. And like, it will come and it's available. You just need to know what's available to
[00:51:51] Matt: be. Yeah. And I'll tell you another thing that like my boy, Kurt, Kurt Hall's said to me that is at the end of the day, is what it's all about.
And it's listen, people run their social media and they do this. However they want to do it. Right. Whatever works for them. And I support it. Like whatever, everybody, not everybody does it the same. Right. But my buddy Kurt said to me a long time ago when I started growing and starting has started having companies reach out like, Hey, can we send you a knife?
And maybe you can use it in a video. I was like, holy shit. Yes. I mean a nice, that'd be awesome. Free knife, you know? Or can we send you this grill? And you know, maybe you promote it. Awesome grill. Let's go free grill. I don't want to pay for it. Let's go. That's awesome. And Kurt used to say to me, he'd go grills.
Don't pay bills. You could have nine grills in your backyard and not be able to pay your mortgage. Like, what are those free grills doing for you? And when I started growing, ultimately it was, I've spent a lot of time saying no to companies because they don't know my value or they don't want to pay for my value or your value, or miss say X value or max, the meat guys value or chef CUSOs value or whoever it is, all my buddies, I can name if a brand, a brands have money and they have money budgeted for this stuff.
And if they're just offering you a grill and you have a following that has value and you make content that has value, don't sell yourself short. Don't sell yourself short because you're, you're, you're working. To them and they will pay you because it's going to take you hours and hours and hours of work to make a 52nd video for them.
And that's what it's about at the end of the day. And once I started really believe in that and seeing it, that changed the whole game, man, and then it's, you know, it changed it. I'll take free stuff. Now I'll still take some free stuff every once in a while. But if I'm taking free stuff, it's usually a smaller company and I'm not charging them because I don't care.
Like they're a small company and I was a small business. I am a small business, like, like I, I, I root for you and me and all of us. Like if a small company reaches out to me, I have a brand that just reached out to me today and I'm going to message him back. He messaged me on tech talk and said, Hey, um, we're veteran owned.
We have, uh, a meat injector. You know, do you think you could check it out for us if we send it to you? He's a veteran. I don't, I, I support vets. I I've done a lot of charity work for vets. I partner with some vet foundations, my dad and brother vets, somebody emailed a guy back and he'll send me one and I'll make a video for them and hopefully sell them some products, like, cause I want them to win.
I want everybody to win and you know, I'm not going to charge a small business or some somebody that's, you know, as just on a, you get the point. It's not, Lowe's like Lowe's home improvement can pay.
[00:55:12] Jordan: Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think a lot of people too, that they just haven't seen. Money from this before.
So they feel uncomfortable asking for money. And it's a comfort thing. Once you do it a couple times, like you're, you're used to it and you're not taking stuff for pennies
[00:55:27] Matt: anymore, or you get an agent and you let them do it all exactly.
[00:55:33] Jordan: I mean, we're, we're running out of time here a little bit and you know, it's getting late where you are.
I want to let you go and hang out with the wife, but do you think you'd be able to just kind of. Tell us about your business. Cause you know, you're a teacher full time. You've been cooking as a hobby and then you started the social media stuff and that allowed you to start a business. So can you tell us all about what that business is and what you're doing and where you want
[00:55:56] Matt: it to go?
Yeah. So I've been, uh, I've been running Grove, boys, barbecue, uh, which is catering. I've been doing a ton of grad parties over the years, since I'm a teacher kind of is a great fit. I've done breweries, wineries, food, truck festivals, all that kind of stuff. I started out on a tenant. Landscape and trailer and wield my smoker on it with a 10 by 10 tent.
You know, I did that for a year and a half, and then I upgraded to a, something a little bigger. And as of this past year, a few months ago, now I've had, I was able to order a custom brand new 30 foot, 16 foot kitchen, 14 foot porch with a 500 gallon reverse flow smoker on it. It's getting wrapped hopefully in the next month.
And, uh, yeah, I'm up and running man. And it's been a blessing and it's incredible. I'm still teaching. My wife is also an education. She's a principal at an elementary school. And as of December 23rd, she's. Her job. And she is now at home, uh, with our kids being the mom that she's wanted to be since they were born and wasn't able to, and that's in large part because of the barbecue business and social media.
And, you know, what's really, it's, they're the same thing, you know, I try to, it's hard to separate them because they really are the same. So yeah, that's, that's where the business is. That's where it's at now in terms of the catering, the rig. And then, um, I have some other things common this year that are, that are gonna kinda hopefully get to a point where I might.
Hire staff for the rig to kind of run it for me. And, um, you know, that part of the business and my wife is, is able to be home with the kids and handle, you know, some of the stuff that I don't like to do, like, you know, talking about bookings and appointments and catering and stuff like that. She can, she can do all that stuff and, uh, handle the money.
Here you go, honey. And. You know, I don't have to worry about any of that stuff, but yeah. So that's where that's at. I'm looking forward to, you know, I partner with, uh, a company called meats, which is a local to here in south Jersey, but they are national they're country. They're national and national, uh, butcher brand.
Uh, Ray Roselli is known as a America's butcher. They're the largest company on QVC, like a $500 million company. So they're not just a small butcher. So I partnered with them and, uh, you know, I'm in the midst of a licensing deal with them. They're going to license my brand and, uh, hopefully we might, uh, you might be clicking on QVC and CME being able to order some Groarke boys' barbecue sometime down the.
That's the goal there. Yeah. Like shark tank style stuff. That is so cool, man. Yeah. So that's pretty, it's pretty awesome. There's a lot of things happening. I think a lot of these guys that have big followings now have, have been reached out to by production companies and on different shows and stuff like that.
So I have a couple of things like that in the works as well, where, you know, TV could be, could be part of the future, but, um, yeah, just a lot of stuff going on, man. But right now I'm, I'm enjoying cooking. I'm enjoying being behind the smoker. I'm enjoying the, the events and stuff like that, that I get to do.
And more than anything love and to love and you know, being able to see my wife at home with the kids.
[00:59:45] Jordan: Yeah. Oh man. That's incredible. And I hope you're going to buy a very nice glass case for that black propane smell. You can display it in the middle of a really nice kitchen and it's the best coffee table you've ever had because it all started with that.
Masterbuilt
[01:00:04] Matt: well, listen, that Masterbuilt you have one that's at that thing was a tank. Oh man. I
[01:00:09] Jordan: made some damn good food. I made some bad food, but I made mostly damn good food on that
[01:00:13] Matt: thing. It's a great brand. Oh yeah. On sponsored, but don't, I'll always have a soft spot for Masterbuilt man, because that's just your first smoker, you know, you have
[01:00:26] Jordan: it's great.
Listen, man. This has been such a fun discussion. Thank you so much for, you know, disclosing some figures and some of your secrets. I'm really happy that I get about a months leeway so I can implement everything you said before this episode airs to get ahead, to get ahead of that boat too, but I appreciate it so much.
You joining me and talking to me today, man. Just thank you so much. You
[01:00:51] Matt: got a Jordan. I appreciate you, man.
[01:00:53] Jordan: And for anyone out there, make sure you go follow GORUCK boys. Barbecue. If you haven't already, I believe it's the meat teacher on Tik TOK now, because if, if you don't know about it, he's going to tell you, and it's not raw.
It's medium rare. Um, you have yourself a great night. Hopefully, sometime I will get a knock on my door and it's a box of your Barbie.
[01:01:14] Matt: You know what brother is going to happen.
[01:01:17] Jordan: Awesome, man, take care and have a good night.
[01:01:19] Matt: Have a good night brother.
[01:01:24] Jordan: And that's going to do it for my conversation with Matt Goerke of grock boys. Barbecue. I don't know about you, but Matt just opened up a few, whole new worlds for me that I had no idea existed. Maybe I'm living under a rock, but I had never heard of Snapchat, spotlights and YouTube shorts until now they're completely new to me.
And based on what Madison. It's something I would definitely recommend you look into and start getting your content up on these platforms. I remember, like he said in the interview, he's not using new content for each platform. He's recycling old stuff in his camera roll from one or two or three years ago to make sure he's putting constant content up on these new platforms to build a following, build an audience and get to that number that unlocks the creator funds for them.
It takes an extra two minutes to upload the same piece of content to a different platform. So just try working that into your content planning so that you are prepared to do it ahead of time. And it's not something you're thinking of last minute going, oh crap. Now I got to put it on Snapchat and you know what?
I think BBQ needs to take Snapchat over. Well, let's all do a mass migration over there and take over that platform as well. That's going to do it for this episode of influential barbecue. Thank you so much for tuning in this week. You can find everything we talked about today on the show notesPage@influentialbarbecue.com.
I'm always looking for feedback on this show from you. I'm just sitting in my snow, Fort recording in front of nobody. So any feedback you give me will help me improve this show and bring you better episodes in the future. Please shoot me an email@podcastatinfluentialbarbecue.com or send me a DMD influential barbecue on Instagram.
Also, if you or your business is looking to start a podcast, please let me know. I recently started the podcast and.com in order to help businesses launch their own podcasts that they've been thinking about for a while and just haven't had the time to get going. I can help you go from no podcast to a full podcast.
That's going to help you. Cultivate brand loyalty brand authority. Generate new customers, generate new leads, and it's just a really fun time to get on here and talk. My name is Jordan Moore. You could follow my barbecue adventures on Instagram at the backyard. Brisket. Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you next week.
Keep on grilling. .