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On this episode of Influential Barbecue, I chat with Jess Pryles of Hardcore Carnivore. She’s a live fire cook, author, and TV personality specializing in all things meat.
In this episode you'll learn:
- What is takes to run two successful businesses
- What you need to consider before launching. spice blend brand
- About pacing yourself and building up a good support system
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
012 | Jess Pryles of Hardcore Carnivore
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[00:00:00] Jess: 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: Welcome to another episode of influential barbecue. I am your host, Jordan Moore, as Clint from Texas said in the intro, also known as the backyard brisket. And thank you so much for joining me for another week. Full of priceless information in this ever-growing world of social media, barbecue. It's been cold and grim and snowy here in Ontario, Canada.
So I don't have much to report on in this episode. So instead I won't waste any time and we can get right into it. This week's episode is a lot of fun and I had a great guest, the brains behind hardcore carnivore. It's just profiles.
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of influential barbecue today. Someone who you should definitely be familiar with and if you're not well, you're about. Um, you've likely used one of our products in one way or another, or she's taught you something about meat that you didn't know. You didn't know.
She is a cookbook author, a certified meat scientist, and she runs a little company known as hardcore carnivore. And she's just all around a good bad-ass. I'm here with Jess Briles Jess. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast.
[00:01:50] Jess: Thanks for having me. I quite liked that intro too. I like good, bad ass.
Like, she's nice, but she's also a bad ass.
[00:01:57] Jordan: Exactly. So you're in Australia right now. The weather's a little different from where I am in Canada, but we're going to pretend that we're just sitting in a room together and it's a nice, comfortable temperature for everybody. Does that sound right?
[00:02:10] Jess: Yeah. It's cozy in the cabin.
[00:02:12] Jordan: Yeah. Perfect. I love it. So before we dive into anything here for the small number of folks listening, who might not know who you are, do you think you could tell us a bit about yourself, what you do and what you're all about?
[00:02:22] Jess: Sure. Um, so my name's Jess trials, I'm currently in Australia only because I'm here visiting family.
But, um, and I'm from here originally, but I live in Texas, in Austin, Texas now, and I have a company called hardcore carnival. We make, I like to call it products for serious medium. And basically, um, over a decade ago, I started this sort of accidental journey to becoming a meat expert. So I do all kinds of things.
Live fire, cooking, barbecue, and also have gone back to school to get a, uh, doing graduate program. At Iowa state university and meet science. Cause I got so interested in it and the stuff that I was learning that it took me until I was, you know, 40 years old to want to go back to school. Um, but yeah, I, I have, um, both through hardcore carnival and my own personal accounts.
I sort of teach people how. Cook meat. Like they mean it as my cookbook says, uh, and I do a lot of meat myth-busting as well.
[00:03:21] Jordan: That's cool. So you really just kind of found your passion a little bit later and decided to dive right into it with the meat science, right? Definitely. What goes into. Learning more about meat science.
Can you kind of explain that to me and everyone else a little bit. What is, what is meat science?
[00:03:37] Jess: That's a great question. Because a lot of people, like, what do you mean? I didn't even know it was a thing and I certainly didn't when I went to college way back when, but. Meat science is basically the study for quality and safety of meat.
So we look at things like, um, you know, how to prevent, um, people getting sick in their own homes, best handling practices. That's why they have things like safe cooking temperatures. But we also look at meat quality. So everything from. The genetics before the animal is even conceived all the way through to being cooked in, in someone's home.
There are so many steps that can affect me quality along the way. And we want to look at things like, how do we give the best sort of tenderness and juiciness experience? And what's what, what does fat do to meet? And we look at that from a scientific perspective. And like a lot of people don't even know that the actual there's a, there's a rate at which the pH has to drop at at the time of slaughter that will affect the water holding capacity of me, you know, little nerdy, things like that, that I find so fascinating to getting that best result, which is ironic considering I wasn't interested in chemistry at all in high school.
Yeah. But that's what made science does. And I, and, and I used to be someone who. I didn't really understand the different cuts of steaks. I felt very, un-empowered standing in a meat case. I didn't really know what I was buying. I didn't know the how and why behind it. You know, we're taught things like, oh, smell of cantaloupe to check if it's fresh or, uh, you know, the tomatoes should be nice and red for them to have the most flavor.
But a lot of people just don't know about how to select meat and why. There's a lot of misinformation about it too, you know, why does it change color? What does it really mean when it's brown? And as I started learning more about barbecue, I inadvertently learned a lot about these elements of meat science, um, and you know, and how to cook and why it happens that way.
And wow, look, you can use it, them a pen to determine or the monitor to determine perfect medium Ray. How cool is that? And so. It was picking up little bits and pieces in my journey. And eventually I was like, you know, I, I think I would really like, instead of cobbling this together from the small pops that I've picked up along the way, I would really like a formal education on it.
And so there are lots of colleges, uh, particularly in the United States that do offer specific meat, science, pulses. And, uh, I was state had one online, which works for my lifestyle since I do sort of juggle two businesses. Um, well, you know, obviously felt it was a real smart idea to add school into the mix.
Like I had all this spare time, but here we are.
[00:06:17] Jordan: Why wouldn't you do that? It's too easy. If you're just running two businesses, you have to be learning even more than the normal person on top of that in order to feel like you're accomplishing anything day to day. So what's what started first for you. Was it the barbecue?
And meet science and cooking classes side of the Jess profiles business. Or did you start the hardcore carnivore seasonings business first? Which, which w where did you begin this dual business journey?
[00:06:47] Jess: So in everything started on the, my name. So what it was really in the early days of social media, I just got an alert today on Twitter that it's my 11 year Twitter versary.
So that thank you. Um, how long have you been doing at least that. And what was happening at the time was I was just basically doing what a lot of people do. It was just chronicling my life through social media and my own website. Um, and in particular, my interest in like learning more about barbecue and, you know, visiting Texas, all that kind of stuff.
And as I was sharing the stuff that I was learning, especially when I was unlocking a lot of food secrets. So, oh, this is this steak, and this is how you cook it. That resonated with people. And I started building a following. So I had a small shop with some merchandise, you know, like, t-shirts we still sell this.
T-shirt actually like steak and bourbon. It's a complete meal, you know, cute like that. Then I had this idea for seasoning that used activated charcoal to give the meat. It's basically meat, cosmetics. It doesn't, it doesn't have an odor or a flavor, but it does give an incredibly vivid color. And I thought, look, I'll get a quote on it.
And if it all goes south, everyone gets a Christmas present with my name on it. Um, and that's how the first rug came out. And I never thought that I would put out more than that one product because it wasn't ever strategic like that. It was really coming from a very organic place. Passion and believing in the products.
But eventually I was seeing that, you know, for example, the, the seasoning hypo, carnival black is jet black and color, and it doesn't look that great on something like pork ribs because they look completely cremated. So then we came out with hardcore carnival red, which was like a similar taste profile, but red, and then all of a sudden you turn around and you're like, oh, I have.
I have a brand. Um, and now we have seventies names in the line limited edition. Butcher's paper knives, high-heat gloves, you know, again, just tools for serious meat enthusiasts. So if I like it and I like using it in my kitchen, I add it to the line. So Heiko carnival definitely came off to just piles.
[00:08:58] Jordan: Okay. That's cool to see the evolution of that. Um, I've got black in my pantry and I've got camel in my pantry and every time I post anything. That I've cooked using black, all the comments say, Hey, that's burnt. And I get a chuckle out of it every time, because in person it looks so good, but it's, it's a little trickier.
Portray across to Instagram that no, it it's not burnt. It's just a really good crust on a steak.
[00:09:23] Jess: That's the beauty part. When you get to cut into it, that it just looks totally burnt on the outside. And then you can just reveal this perfectly juicy pink interior. So it's kind of fun.
[00:09:32] Jordan: Yeah, absolutely. So you're running a.
Very popular accessories and seasoning brands, as well as you know, you're creating full form YouTube content. You're attending events, you're teaching, cooking guides either in person or online these days. How do you go about. Well running these two businesses, how are you balancing between the both and making sure that like neither of them has too much attention or not enough attention or begins to kind of sink.
How do you kind of divvy up the tasks between both of these companies?
[00:10:06] Jess: Really? It's a matter of figuring out where I'm most essential. So obviously I can't be replaced on the Jess prize brand. Really nice, uh, standing and go, y'all doing my videos this week. Yoda voiceovers. You're going to be me on camera.
So that is one, that's nearly like a, you know, a lawyer in terms of what's their time worth. And it has to be them with the expertise doing it. How we'll kind of, what I've tried to do is remain involved in the parts of the business, where I'm an essential worker and then make sure that people who have been at suited to other roles.
Than I am, have those jobs. So, you know, I need to be involved in product development because you know, it's not just a vanity thing. It's my taste. I have personally blended all of our seasonings in terms of coming up with the formulas and they taste the way that I want them to taste. Um, the tools that we have in the line aligner tools that I want to use, that I think other people should have in their kitchen.
So getting involved in staying involved in product development is essential, uh, as well as marketing as well, you know, setting the tone for the brand. If I was successful enough to grow both it and my company, that's obviously something that's in my wheelhouse, but. You know, logistics is not something that I ever had a neck full.
So you outsource that to, or you make sure you have people around you who are good at that. Um, and, and it's making sure that you pick a good team around you really
[00:11:37] Jordan: is the case, right? So it, it comes down to playing to your strengths and what you are best at, which is in turn, what started these businesses up in the first place.
So you're not getting rid of that. Right. How big is your team at hardcore carnivore?
[00:11:52] Jess: Uh, we're still pretty small in terms of stuff like we've got a, you know, a under 15 staff. It also, it takes a long because we are in a lot of, um, like big box stores or I shouldn't say big box, like academy HEB, grocery store Bucky's.
Um, and those don't require a lot of, you know, a lot of handling on our end because they're doing most of the work in their store level, you know? Right. So. It's a, it's a big small company.
[00:12:22] Jordan: Right. And it is all online for you. You don't have like a storefront for hardcore carnivore. Right?
[00:12:27] Jess: Uh, we don't have a storefront, but we have warehouses and, you know, and facilities to back, back it up.
But yeah, no storefront for us. Right.
[00:12:35] Jordan: Right. So something like that, keeping it essentially online for lack of a better word helps you kind of keep your team small and concise with a little bit less cost as well when you don't have a brick and mortar store to walk into and have staffed all the time.
Right.
[00:12:49] Jess: And I think like, you know, obviously meat church is a great example of someone who would be commensurate where we are. And I think it's one of those things. If it wouldn't Jack up the staff that much to have a brick and mortar, because. You'd only need one or two people there. It's just a different business model.
Like we're a bigger brand that we will seek from different places rather than a true e-com if that makes sense. So I don't know. It just, it just works a little bit differently. If we had a stole front, it would be more like a flagship store. Looking Yeti is another great example. Like you can get yet he's everywhere and their stores are just sort of a fun thing to visit.
It's not that you have to go to, we get the store to buy Yeti product. I think that's what it would be for us if we ever opened retail. Right.
[00:13:33] Jordan: Yeah. And I think that would be super cool because it's a lot more of an experience to go in and see the whole thing than it is to just go in, grab a seasoning and then head out.
So I think a lot of people listening to this podcast have probably at one point or. In their life thought about starting a dry rub brand or a seasonings brand, and you made it happen. And you know, you say it fast, it sounds simple, toss some spices together, put it in a bottle with a picture and sell it.
But it's obviously not the reality. And there's so much that goes into it before you can even hit the market. So for anyone, that's kind of thinking of monetizing their brand in the way of creating rubs and selling them. Is there anything you can kind of tell them? The lesser known hurdles that you kind of had to clear before you could get your product off the ground and growing, what did you need to really dial in before you could start selling these products to people?
Sure. I
[00:14:27] Jess: mean, I guess I did, you know, I, I D I do over simplify the story just cause it, it sounds better as a soundbite. The reality is that the biggest thing that I think people, especially if this is going to entrepreneurs who are interested in doing the same thing, you really have to know the timing was everything.
And I started my business six years ago at a time when they're not everyone and their dog had a seasoning company associated with them. And that was one of the reasons that we were able to grow. Was because the market wasn't a saturated. If you're thinking about doing it now you have to be aware that you're about to enter a highly saturated market.
I feel like if I were to start it tomorrow, it would be a very different story. It's not that I wouldn't necessarily succeed, but it's a whole different playing field right now. Um, you have to look at things. I think it's the same as people who think that there's nothing to. You know that, oh, I'm going to quit my day job and go and cater barbecue for a living.
Well, I mean, It's a nice dream, but there are so many different elements to it. You know, you don't have to worry about food costs and profit. When you're catering for family and friends, family, and friends, and much nicer than paying public in terms of giving you compliments on your food. Um, you know, we see it.
I saw her parallel. The cupcake world, I would say, you know, a mom makes cupcakes for her kid at kindergarten and all the other moms say, oh my God, these are amazing. You should make these. And then she starts a business and it doesn't go so well. And it's like, oh, were they just being nice? Can I actually make them taste good?
When I have to scale up the batch? So there's a lot of different things like that to consider same with, and that applies to seasoning as well. You have to check your local regulatory things. There is liability involved with selling a food product. You've got to have licenses, you've got to get into GS one.
You've got to have, um, liability insurance. You know, it's not just a mix it up and see how you go. And I would absolutely caution people against. You need to familiarize yourself with food safety and food, labeling laws as well, just because you throw it in a bottle that you bought on Amazon and sell it.
The farmer's market doesn't actually mean that you're making a illegally labeled product. And if that's what you want to do as a passion, because you'd love your seasoning so much, you want to share with people, you can do that for as long as you can get away with it, but that, that is not scalable for your business either.
And I also, I also would say this and I'm saying it it's nearly like tough love, right? Cause I'm sort of imagining someone out there listening to this being like, I've got a really good seasoning and I want to do it. I just feel like I could, and I've got 500 followers on Instagram and I can really make it happen.
And maybe you can and, and the drive and passion is absolutely important to. But it's equally important to sort of be honest with yourself about where you sit in the scheme of things and how many people are thinking the same way as you right now, and are trying to do the same thing. If that makes sense.
So the question I would ask that person is what can you contribute? Why is your product so different to what, uh, what's already out there? That's an important question to ask yourself.
[00:17:41] Jordan: Yeah, for sure. Because everyone tries to put out something that they think is, is the best thing. Cause they added a different type of garlic powder or whatever, but truly you need to find a niche or a niche.
I don't know how you say it, but you need to find a way to stand out from everyone else. That's trying to make a go at seasonings because you can't. Just be the 600th sweet heat pork rub that hits the market and make a million dollars because there's so many of those that there you need something different.
And that's what you have with this activated charcoal in your products, which is something that I've not really seen in anything else. It just adds such a vibrant color to what you're doing at the same time.
[00:18:20] Jess: Yeah. And on that note, you know, we've been copied a million times since then. So there has to be something else to our brand and our product.
That's keeping us alive and keeping us in business, uh, which, which is all part of it too. The other thing to remember, especially with seasonings is, you know, you have to consider scalability, so you could have a rub that you. Fermented black garlic and powdered Worcestershire sauce and all of these interesting things.
And then when you take it to a spice manufacturer, they'll tell you, oh, congratulations. You've just chosen the five most expensive ingredients to include in your rub. Maybe it tastes good, but guess what? Like, you're never going to turn a profit because you're going to have to sell it at 29 99 a bottle.
Yeah. So sometimes what we make in our own kitchens is not scalable commercially too. So that's something to consider as you start on that journey as well. Yeah.
[00:19:13] Jordan: And if you choose those five most expensive ingredients, that's probably why there isn't one on the market yet, because it's just not sustainable to put something on the market like that.
It's more sustainable for you to create a small brand and do videos and recipes about how to create it yourself and sell content that way. Instead of trying to sell this. Massively expensive product to the masses and a word of caution to anyone out there that's currently making their own rubs and selling them locally to friends and family.
That's all fine and good. But if at any point you were to either, you know, make anyone sick or get discovered by our local health unit that could very quickly erode away. Hopes you had of starting a legitimate company. So just keep that in mind while you're doing this and experimenting and selling to people local to you, that it could be, uh, detrimental down the road.
If something does go wrong. So between hardcore carnivore and Jess primals, I think it's safe to say that social media has played a massive part in the growth of both of those brands. Would that be correct? Yeah, absolutely. So we know as influencers, what kind of content seems to work? What kind of content takes off with all the different Instagram updates, you know, cooking videos and slicing videos and all that stuff, but from a.
Business point of view, whether it be for the Jess prize brand or the hardcore carnivore brand, do you find that there's a different style of content that works better from a business side of things rather than from an influencer side of things? If that makes sense.
[00:20:51] Jess: Yeah. I mean, it's a completely loaded question.
Cause even how you opened that up by saying like, we know what works best. Well, we don't because it changes. So what might, what brought me great following initially completely tapered off and is just starting to come up again now because of, because I've changed what I'm doing. Same with Harper carnivores, big growth now plateaued, because we have seen the nature of content change from what I would describe as food port instilled in me.
To moving to video content where you had to do the entire recipe in your video, like grilling with dad made very, very famous and Mac Mac is amazing because what I love about his content is, you know, and this has nothing to do with the algorithm. I just think it's a great thing to aim for that. He's actually providing, creating something useful, that's going on the internet.
Um, and it's. Weeknight meals in addition to fancy barbecue stuff. So it's very approachable. So then we sold that happen and then we saw a tick talks and reels rocks. Or just the steak cutting videos. So all you need to do is cut a steak and show it to camera or sear a side of a steak and show it to camera.
But then those started to be penalized because now I wanted you to make tick talks and reels. So now you're having to do that, but now it's actually not about providing the recipe. It's about. Pure entertainment. So ASM Mar chopping, moving really fast, driving to an Outback steakhouse with a port-a-potty in the back of your truck and, you know, doing something outrageous for entertainment value.
None of these are the same making a 16 stack burger Patty and cutting it in half like food, beast style stuff. Um, doesn't help business. I dunno if you've got 10 million followers because you slapped me. Um, you will make some kind of money, especially through, let's say tick-tock because they've got a creator fund or you may then have brands approach you.
I personally think that from a business point, I don't think there's much ROI in terms of consumers going and buying your product after seeing it on take talk. Cause I think we just log on and detain L selves in between waiting for other things to happen and log off. And it's really hard. It's hard to figure out like from, you know, your, I guess what you're asking me is, you know, is it what's worth advertising on, I don't know, cause it constantly changes and you constantly have to keep your finger on the pulse and you cannot actually ever see a direct correlation to what's working because metrics suck.
And if you ever were to sponsor someone like formally, like if I were to do a paid post with someone where hardcore carnivore paid, you. Promote their product. You would have to then tag it as a paid post, which means it would be shown to even fewer of your followers than normal. Uh, so it's just this horrible.
I said, I'm being so negative here, but it's a really deep, dark terrifying abyss the main thing that I will say to you is this. If you're a brand growing on social media, remember not to build your dream house on rented land. Social media is rented land. If you get locked out of your account, if your account gets banned or violet, you know, you guideline violations and they block it, if it decides to stop that you're not no longer providing interesting content and stops growing your followers, you can do anything about.
So I'm lucky enough to have a following on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, tik tok. And I have my own website because I have to be okay that if one goes down, I've got the others that I think is the true mark of a successful brand. If you only exist on one of those platforms, then all you've done is pull a slot machine when it was ready to pay out it.
And you were just lucky.
[00:24:51] Jordan: Yeah. And I can only imagine how frustrating that must be for a business, trying to figure out ways to advertise and use these platforms, especially when they're changing them every three to four months and making everything that was working obsolete. And then they try to get you to pay for ads, but then they don't show the ads to anybody for whatever reason.
And it's gotta be just so frustrating as a business owner, trying to navigate the way. Grow your brand, create new clients, sell more product and do any of that on this, on this medium. I can't, I can't imagine trying to navigate
[00:25:27] Jess: that. Yeah, it's tough. I mean, it's tough work even as a creative from that side of things, uh, navigating it, figuring out what works, you know, we get people approach us who pay us money to talk about their products.
And, and now you can't even guarantee that a reasonable amount of people will see them. And it's a very volatile. Way to do things, but it's sort of a necessary evil as well. Does
[00:25:54] Jordan: hard-core carnivore have brand ambassadors through influencers?
[00:25:59] Jess: Um, we have relationships with people like Mack at grilling with dad.
But he bought our product and genuinely used it and enjoyed it. And when he, at one point we had a paid relationship and he disclosed it and then we settled into something else where, you know, he, he started a store for himself. So it behooves him to sell, to promote the products that he sells. And he's a great person.
Um, you know, we have a great working relationship and friendship. And so he also, and I mean, same goes for me, there are people who don't pay me to talk about their products, but I talk about the products because I think they're a great small business. And, and there's also something that you have to keep an earnestness in what you're recommending to be real and not just, you know, pay for play.
The main problem is that I don't think that if you have anything less than 10,000 followers, it's hard. To justify sending product out or even engaging in a paid relationship. And then there was a time when. A million people were sending DMS asking to be in a brand ambassador. And there's very little loyalty, which is part of it as well.
Yeah. You know, they never post buy the product before they may have never even used it before people love free shit. So that's, that's an aspect. So what we try and do now, because we also want to keep it real with people. Like I don't have a problem spending money on a marketing budgets. It's not about that, but it's so much more valuable when people would just enjoy.
The product and genuinely used and recommended much more impactful than any of
[00:27:30] Jordan: them. Yeah, absolutely. I've talked about that with a few people on past episodes, too. Like you can tell immediately if someone's just hopping from product to product to get. I get a few bucks to represent something because every month they have different products and different partnerships all the time.
And I talked with Mac as well, and he disclosed to, he said, I, you know, I decided to start my own kind of online retail store. And I work with me church and hardcore carnivores. I kind of sell their products and we worked out a deal and it's just kind of a new revenue stream for me because I can't put all of my eggs in the Instagram basket.
It's just not sustainable at all. So I need to build more ways in order to keep money coming in. That's exactly
[00:28:13] Jess: how it works.
[00:28:15] Jordan: And you had just, you just have to be ready to diversify yourself and change and pivot, and you kind of need to be able to manage multiple things. If you want to try and make a go at this, even as a part-time thing, you can't just focus on one sole thing cause it's not going to work
[00:28:31] Jess: out exactly.
I mean, it's the same and that's the thing with the seasoning, you know, bringing it back to, I've got this great idea for season. It just depends what you want to do with it. If what you want to do is bring out that one seasoning, cause it brings you joy to know that some people will be using it in their own homes and you make, you know, a bottle of you make, I don't know, 10 cases a month and that's all you want to do.
Cause it's about the passion project part of it then. So be it, you know, and that's cool, but be ready. You know, if, if you want it to be able to send a note to your boss, that you're going to retire. You can make it happen if you push really hard, but be ready for a really, you have to be able to work hard.
What, everyone that anyone that you admire online, who has had some success will be a really hard worker, whether it's devoting their time to like really elaborate content, you know, and just sitting like Mack has to feel every day when he has said multiple cameras up, he has to constantly think of things that he's going to film.
You know, I'm here in Australia, visiting family. Well, I've already had four calls this morning and I've got my planner in front of me that I, that I brought with me because there's no time off. So you gotta be ready if you like being able to put up your hands and go I'm on vacation and put the out of office sign up, do not work for yourself.
[00:29:52] Jordan: Yeah. Keep that. You don't really like, cause at least you can step away. Um, what all goes into your Jess primal stuff, because there's, you know, there's tutorials, there's classes, uh, educational content, full form video. Can you talk more just about what Jess prize is as a brand and what you want to do with it?
[00:30:15] Jess: So I, you know, I initially found some success, as I mentioned, just posting about the things that were interesting to me and, and recipes on my website. The things that I was discovering about how to cook meat. Well, because that helps work. You know, everyone is interested in learning how to cook a great steak.
So, um, that's where it started. And then the content naturally did well on social media. And I've had to pivot a lot in the last couple of years because I never used to make, you know, I love doing food styling. That was also a passion of mine. So it was always fun to create these beautiful, still images of these food.
That did really well on Instagram, like three years ago, you know what I mean? Like, and, and, and then the video stuff came over and then I was like, oh, I should make videos. What's really what, only in the recent sort of two month history, it started to do really well for me is that. These meat science videos, like getting on Tik TOK, dispelling meat myths, and the irony of it all is there's no production value on there.
Like with my hair tied up in glasses, cause I'm usually sitting at my computer and I come across someone who sent me a video about some meat myth that needs busting. But the key is that it provides value to people and that's what they like, you know? So that's, that's the value there that they can learn something it's educational.
It's not just my. For no reason.
[00:31:41] Jordan: Yeah. And that's, uh, that's what I've noticed a lot about Tik TOK. It's either completely mindless entertainment because you just want to go to bed and have a laugh or it's really cool, useful content with. The production value of a boiled potato. Exactly. And so with that, you're hoping like, are you hoping to do more and more classes after things open up a bit more and just kind of teach more people about the world of meat science and how to properly cook things better?
Like as a, like a Jess primals cooking education tour, or what are you looking to kind of do with that? I mean,
[00:32:20] Jess: I feel I still really enjoy. Just recipes. It doesn't always have to be from meat science. That's what I'm saying. Like, I think that the small consumable 62nd videos on with a meat science base is great, but maybe someone doesn't want to come to a four hour class about meat science, but we can talk about how to cook some really delicious stuff.
You know? So classes, my definitely B be back up in it. Um, I love being able to interact with people and food is a great connector, so it's always lovely to be able to share eating experiences with people. Yeah. That's a big part of it, too new. So I definitely think that that will start to open up a little bit more.
You're here hopefully in the next couple
[00:32:57] Jordan: months. Awesome. I think a lot of people would look forward to that. I do want to be respectful of your time. I know you're busy and you're far away. Um, just a couple more quick questions and then I'll let you get back to the beginning of your day. Will I start the end of my day?
You have the hardcore carnivore cookbook available. Um, is that something that you, like, you mentioned, you love doing recipes and things like that. Is the cookbook something that you had decided you wanted to create or were you approached to do something for hardcore carnivore?
[00:33:30] Jess: Um, so the cookbook actually proceeded the brand, uh, or there was only one seasoning out when I wrote the cookbook.
Uh, and it was a combination I did get approached by someone who asks. Because I did have a social media following. I was putting recipes on my website and we started talking about potentially doing that for. For a cookbook and that's where that came from.
[00:33:52] Jordan: Okay. What was that process like? Did you have recipes ready to go?
Did you create new recipes for it? Um, like photography wise, was it all you, did you do the production or did you have a big team with you in order to get this on the shelves,
[00:34:06] Jess: the whole team, and that's what you negotiate as part of your cookbook. So the lie to give you an allowance or, or you, you know, you need a good agent as well.
Um, They don't, it'll either be that they'll expect you as part of your book advance to pay for it all yourself. In this case, I had a team, so I had a food styling team. I had a photography team. I had a design team putting the book together, and that's why there's a, you know, publishing is a whole other world as well.
You can also self publish books. And one thing that people kept saying to me, when they got my book was. They were really surprised by the quality of it. I signed with the biggest publisher in Australia, Murdock books. Maybe you've heard of the name Murdoch before. And, you know, it's a beautiful hardcover book with a debossed cover and over 80 full color recipe photos.
And it's a beautiful, substantial book. And I think a lot of people, particularly in the grilling world, we're used to a lot of self-published or hastily published versions. So it's hard to let people know that like, Hey, yes, this is a real book. Um, and you're going to enjoy it. But I think we got there.
[00:35:16] Jordan: That's awesome. It's nice when you get something and it exceeds expectations and it's just really, really well done. It's always a good feeling.
[00:35:24] Jess: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:35:26] Jordan: Uh, do you have anything exciting for 2022 coming up with hardcore carnivore or just profiles that you're allowed to talk about? Anything exciting in the pipeline?
[00:35:35] Jess: Um, we're, you know, we always try to put out new products, so always working on new seasonings and things of that nature. Nothing, nothing. The other thing is, I think when you wear too many hats and you do too many jobs and someone asks you a question like that, your mind goes blank. And then if I had a little angel on my shoulder, it would be say, hang on, but you're doing this and you're doing this.
And also you did this, but sometimes you forget to be your own loudest cheerleader when you have too much stuff going on. So, and I have to, you know, I don't want to reveal things that I'm not
[00:36:09] Jordan: that's fair. I tried to catch you there, but it didn't work
to pair with that. You mentioned, you know, you've got so many hats and you've got so much going on just really quick. How do you deal with not burning out and staying focused with all this stuff? Because like you said, there's no days off you're doing all these things. How do you not just burn out in cold?
[00:36:32] Jess: You have to pace yourself. You have to have a good support system around you. You have to make sure that if you're going to turn your passion into your job, that you have other outlets for hobbies or, or something else to do with your mind. That's when, when the clock stops, you know, you are, you are doing something else.
You know what I mean? Like you've got to keep another interest. Otherwise you're going to burn out because that's what kills you for a lot of people. Anyone who, you know, whether it's, uh, someone doing tapestry or whatever it is. It can get really, it can, it can become a lot. So you need something else to keep your focus for sure.
Or to keep interested in if you're going to, if you're going to do that.
[00:37:16] Jordan: Absolutely. That's definitely something that a lot of people forget because. They do something for fun for so long. And then all of a sudden they're doing the not fun parts of it. So it kind of takes the joy away from them. So you need to be able to step away every now and then.
Exactly. Well, Jess, thanks so much for taking the time out of your day to chat with me, chat with this podcast and enlighten our listeners for anyone looking that doesn't know, where can they find everything about Jess piles and hardcore.
[00:37:44] Jess: Uh, great question. I'm on all the socials is just priceless. J S S P R Y L E S.
And my website just piles.com. Hypo carnival is hardcore countable, Reynolds, socials, and hardcore carnival.com. Usually if you find one, it's not too hard to find the other, but they are separate. They do have separate stuff going on, separate recipes and whatever. So I definitely encourage you guys to check both of them out and I appreciate the time.
[00:38:07] Jordan: Awesome. Thanks so much, Jess. And you have yourself a wonderful day.
[00:38:09] Jess: Thank you. Cheers. Have a good one. Take care.
[00:38:15] Jordan: And that's going to do it for this week's episode of influential barbecue. Hopefully y'all can keep up with the different accents in this episode, just bringing that Australian background of my Canadian grown. Really keeps things interesting. I think, um, I hope this episode has been helpful to you. I know it was for me, there's so many things to consider and keep track of when you're building and running a business, let alone multiple, and just described so many aspects of that perfectly.
Be sure to pick up her barbecue gear. I'm a major fan of the hardcore carnivore cammo and. It's great stuff, especially mixed together. And I'm glad to be able to grab it here in Canada from one of my local butchers, shout out to Ryan at see Elliot's for stocking that follow Jess prize and hardcore carnivore for your daily dose of meat science.
And that'll do it for this episode of influential barbecue. So thank you so much for tuning in again this week, you can find everything we talked about today on the show notesPage@influentialbarbecue.com. I'm looking for feedback on this show from you. I'm sitting here recording by myself in my studio.
So any feedback you can give me will help improve this show and bring you better episodes. Just shoot me an email@podcastatinfluentialbarbecue.com or send a DMD influential barbecue on Instagram. Also, if you or your business is looking to start a podcast, let me know. I recently started the pod cabin.com in order to help some businesses launch their podcasts that they've always been wanting to do.
Let me help you go from nothing to a podcast so you can cultivate brand loyalty market authority and reach new customers through a more personal medium like podcasts. I'm Jordan Moore. You can follow my barbecue adventures on Instagram at the backyard. Brisket. Thank you so much for listening. We'll see you next week and keep on growing. .