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This week I sit down with Susie Bulloch of HeyGrilHey!
Susie has over 500 recipes on her website, and she's not stopping there. With amazing rubs, sauces and accessories for sale, walkthrough videos and classes available, and a genuine passion for teaching and barbecue, Susie and the HeyGrillHey team will no doubt be able to help you take your backyard barbecue game to the next level!
In this episode you'll learn:
- Why you shouldn't wait for the "perfect" time to get started
- How important it is to listen to your audience
- Why you need to provide your customers/audience with an experience, rather than just quick entertainment
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
011 | Susie Bulloch of HeyGrillHey
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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.
[00:00:23] Voiceover: And now your host Jordan Moore.
[00:00:29] Jordan: Day. Hello. Hi. Bosure so glad to have you back for another episode of influential. I hope everyone is making it through the winter as best they can. And I'm not talking to you folks down in Florida, complaining that you had to put on a long sleeve shirt for the first time in two months, I'm talking about the ones up here with frozen eyebrows after going for a quick walk to check the mail.
[00:00:50] Jordan: Okay. I know that I am very much looking forward to some nicer weather because where I am, it's pretty hard to get myself outside to barbecue, you know, down a flight of stairs into the backyard. You gotta shovel the snow out of the way. So I'm definitely missing sitting out there at five in the morning with a cup of coffee and shorts and a t-shirt and firing up the smokers.
[00:01:07] Jordan: But you're not here to listen to me, reminiscing about warmer weather and better cooks. You're here to hopefully learn something new to help you take your barbecue business to the next level. So let's get to do in that. This week's guest is Susie Bullock of Hey grill. Hey, you've more than likely read some of Susie's work.
[00:01:22] Jordan: If you've ever Googled any sort of barbecue or grilling recipe, she's done a good job of building an amazing arsenal of recipes, tips, tricks, seasonings, and sauces. And you're doing yourself a disservice if you have not heard of her before. So let's get into this week's episode or. With Susie bullet
[00:01:50] Jordan: All right. Welcome back to another episode of influential barbecue. This week, I'm joined by someone who has indirectly taught me so much. Cooking and barbecue in Iowa. A huge thank you to her and her team for that. If there's a meal idea that you've ever Googled, chances are one of the first recipe results that came up was from my guest today.
[00:02:08] Jordan: Susie Bullock also known as, Hey girl. Hey Susie. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me
[00:02:13] Susie: today. Of course I love talking about barbecue. So
[00:02:16] Jordan: before we get too far into it, could you introduce yourself to anyone? Who's not sure who you are and tell us a little bit about yourself.
[00:02:23] Susie: Absolutely. So my name is Susie.
[00:02:26] Susie: Uh, I have a food blog. Hey grill. hey.com. I started it nearly seven years ago. I've been creating content professionally for well over a decade in the barbecue space specifically for, uh, about 10 years now. And. I have three awesome kids. I'm married to my husband, Todd. He is officially taste, test Todd to anybody that follows us on social media or watches our YouTube videos.
[00:02:53] Susie: He is my full-time business partner and he helps me manage the product side of our business. And I kind of handle everything in terms of, you know, content creation and editorial management stuff. And we live in beautiful Southern Utah, just a few hours away from a lot of the national parks in the area.
[00:03:11] Susie: And we love being outside and cooking outside and eating outside. All those good
[00:03:15] Jordan: things. That sounds like a combination of things that are all great together, cooking outside, being outside. And you got a family business going now. So anyone that's ever looked up a recipe has, especially in the barbecue world has probably come across your recipes.
[00:03:31] Jordan: How did Hey grill? Hey, get started. What gave you the idea to kind of fire up a blog and post recipes before it took off into this giant thing?
[00:03:39] Susie: So, like I said, I started in. Blogging about 12 years ago, I had a friend who was writing coupon match-ups for grocery stores and online shopping was really taking a foothold at that time.
[00:03:54] Susie: And so she was posting deals of where to buy the best deals online and, you know, That was something that was really appealing to me at the time I had a really young family, our budget was tight. I was a stay at home mom with no additional income. So I started working for her on the content side, helping her create content for her website, using coupons in the grocery store.
[00:04:14] Susie: And that was really where I got my first introduction to blogging as a business, as a way to generate revenue. She'd generated a majority of her revenue through affiliate sales, by recommending deals that people then went on to purchase. Uh, You know, I kind of was familiar with the landscape in terms of generating content.
[00:04:34] Susie: And then I managed to land a job with a smoker company that wanted to launch their own blog because prior to that point, recipes online. Especially in the barbecue space were sparse. It was not an overly populated section of the internet. I would say you were pretty limited to, you know, kind of the all recipes or food network or, you know, these bigger conglomerates that were posting recipes online and barbecue really wasn't in there.
[00:05:05] Susie: I would say their view as to what types of recipes to be publishing. So it was pretty, uh, you know, cutting edge to digitize all of these recipes that have been created for this smoker and to develop new recipes. And so I used my blog skills and my content creation skills and combined. The love that I had for cooking for my family and, you know, developing recipes professionally, and the barbecue space was born.
[00:05:30] Susie: I had a few other jobs working for a race company. I managed their social media and, uh, help with customer service and emails. So I kind of had all of these little snippets of skills from all of these little jobs that I had taken on while. You know, being a stay at home parent and working, creating content from home.
[00:05:51] Susie: So that's, that's how barbecue found me. And that's how blogging found me. And when I found myself without any side job, I took the leap and said, you know, maybe, maybe it's time to start my own thing instead of working for other people. I really had fallen in love with the barbecue community. I'd fallen in love with developing recipes.
[00:06:10] Susie: I felt like it was something that I was good at, like naturally good. I just loved it. It came easily to me. Uh, it was really exciting to do. And you know, then the blogging piece came in and the social media piece came in and I put them all together and Googled. Can you make money, food blogging? Cause I knew that you could, in other ways, but I didn't know a food blogging would be lucrative at all.
[00:06:32] Susie: So I started researching, you know, can this be a business? Can this be a way for me to support my family as well as doing something that I really love and I'm excited about, and that's how Hey, grill hay was born. And, uh, like I said, it's been almost seven years now that I've been running. Hey girl, Hey, full time.
[00:06:47] Susie: And. I just love it. And luckily, you know, luckily the Google gods have shown down on us and we've had some really great search results. So hopefully you've seen our stuff. If you've been looking up recipes,
[00:07:00] Jordan: that's such a great story because it starts with just a bit of a hobby and it, you could, as you were telling that story, I could tell it slowly, grew into a passion for you, as you were realizing what it was you were doing and how much you enjoyed it.
[00:07:12] Jordan: Was there. Any point in your mind where you said, you know what, I think I can make this work, I'm going to do it. Full-time because I think I can, I can turn this into a lucrative income or did you just decide you wanted to try it and we're going to do everything you could to make it work.
[00:07:28] Susie: I mean, the first two years were really up and down.
[00:07:31] Susie: I think that second summer that I was running the site, I just quit completely for the whole summer because. Taking off and it wasn't lucrative and I'd been pouring a lot of time and, you know, hope and attention and effort into it. And, uh, at that point we kind of called it. My jobby like it was this hobby, this thing that I love doing, and I love developing recipes and sharing them online and putting them out there, but it wasn't generating significant enough revenue that anyone would call it a full-time job.
[00:07:58] Susie: A may be part-time, but truly. My kids were really little. My youngest was one year old when I started the website. Uh, so parenting really was my full-time job. And the, the website was my job. He was my hobbies slash part-time job that I did because I loved it. And sometimes we got, you know, a little bit of revenue here and a little bit of revenue there and enough to justify keep going, but certainly not enough to say, oh yes, this is my job.
[00:08:26] Susie: Uh, it took and tell we had a viral video. Um, explode. It was a Dr. Pepper, jalapeno beef jerky recipe, and it took off on Facebook and it just drove a ton of people to the website. And at that point, Changed things in my mind to say like, oh, this is a possibility. It kind of gave us that first taste of what it would look like to do this as a business full-time and what kind of revenue potential was there.
[00:08:56] Susie: And it shifted our entire business strategy to more video. It shifted everything to more social so that we could continue to kind of build our audience and bring people back to the website and. Uh, after that first video, it took a couple months, but my husband, I was like, I think, like, I think this could be a real thing, but I either need to hire help or you have to quit your job and come help me because it's, it's grown beyond the capacity that I'm able to manage on my own.
[00:09:25] Susie: Uh, so that's when we kind of had some. Conversations about risk and reward and all of those scary things. And, uh, he called me the next day from work after lunch and said, I just quit my job. And I almost died. Like I almost, my jaw hit the floor because, you know, he's, he, he comes from an accounting background.
[00:09:47] Susie: So I would say of the two of us he's the more conservative. Uh, but he decided at that point to put all of his. In what I was capable of and what we could build together. And so luckily his job was awesome. He, he gave them a six month notice. So he said, you know, I'll be here to train the replacement. I know I can't just walk away.
[00:10:06] Susie: Uh, and that gave us a really good six month ramp up period to just stash everything into savings and to, and to make a really good plan for him to leave. But it wasn't, uh, it wasn't something that I jumped in immediately knowing we were going to be successful. It was something that. Was a lot of ups and downs still continually, always ups and downs in the world of digital media and content creation and this crazy business that we're in.
[00:10:33] Susie: But you know, he's with me a hundred percent and that's made a really big differences because I think when he said, you know, he called me and said he quit. It was basically that like, he believed in me before, but to show up in that way was a real shift in my overall. Perspective about what was possible.
[00:10:51] Susie: And it gave me a real fire under my feet to move forward and to make it into something that could support our family.
[00:10:58] Jordan: Yeah. A hundred percent. Because if like having Todd walk away from an accounting job where he is set and, you know, he's, he knows his schedule, he knows his income. And for him to walk away from that, that also sets you up to be able to.
[00:11:11] Jordan: Put more confidence in yourself because now you have the confidence of two people to kind of go after this thing. And I want to go back to earlier in that segment there, when you mentioned, you know, it was ups and downs, you took a whole summer off, you were getting like little bits of revenue here and there.
[00:11:26] Jordan: And I'm at, I'm thinking of all the people who are trying to start their own recipe, blog or food blog or anything. Where did that little bit of income come from? Was it ads from the website? Sponsorships or affiliates, like when you got these little bumps enough to just kind of keep you going, what was generating that sort of income?
[00:11:47] Jordan: My gosh,
[00:11:47] Susie: I took, I took money anywhere. I could find it in the early days because I didn't know what was possible and what would be the best way to generate revenue and, you know, ads on websites like mine that were smaller. Really. Uh, source of revenue at that point, like it was still pretty early in the stages of independent websites being able to generate ad revenue.
[00:12:10] Susie: So I was looking at every potential avenue. So I was generating revenue from affiliates, recommending products to people that I loved. I was putting together gift guides. I was sharing when there was a sale on a particular. That I used, um, you know, through my social media and my email list. So affiliate revenue was like little trickles here and there.
[00:12:28] Susie: Um, I was able to lock down a few, you know, sponsored posts with companies early on. Uh, and that was. Straight hustle. I literally emailed every news network, like local news outlet in Utah personally, and pitched them stories. And, you know, through that kind of public exposure, I was able to generate a couple of sponsored deals.
[00:12:53] Susie: You know, I was able to link up with companies early on and my social media was not big enough to justify like pay deals on social media by. But by, you know, soliciting them for giveaways and starting to build these foundational relationships. Then later on, as things started to grow, it was already there.
[00:13:11] Susie: And I was able to kind of, you know, Hey, maybe there is a way for us to start a relationship and to work together. And I just think being really involved in the community, you know, interacting with people, interacting with brands, establishing myself as an expert in the field. Uh, naturally drew certain companies to me.
[00:13:30] Susie: Just by virtue of us running in the same circles and their social media people are seeing my social media and vice versa. And so that really helped, you know, kind of form some bonds early on when, you know, my social media following may not have been the biggest, but my content was really good. I mean, I don't say really good cause I look back now and I'm like, yikes, I posted that.
[00:13:51] Susie: But I mean, at the time where there were so few people doing it, the bar was lower. And so I just kept putting myself out there and kept hustling. And it was a little bit at a time. It was, you know, a couple hundred dollars for a sponsored post. It was 10 to $30 a month from affiliate revenue. And all of these things just went immediately back into the business.
[00:14:15] Susie: It was to buy a new camera lens so I could take better pictures. It was a new plugin for the website so that it could run faster and cleaner and load more quickly for people. It was a better email program so that I could send emails to people and stay in contact that way. Like everything that I made, went back into the business to make the business better so that it was a better experience for people.
[00:14:39] Susie: Every time they came to my website or my social media, um, you know, I CA I wanted to treat it like a brick and mortar. Like somebody was walking into my store and we were having a conversation. I wanted them to leave saying, man, that was a great experience. I'm going to bookmark that and come back. And so it was, it was very sparse and touching go in here and there, but yeah, affiliates.
[00:15:03] Susie: I even, uh, I made a couple of eBooks that I pitched that I put for sale and that generated a little bit of revenue. Like I explored every potential avenue for sending money back into this business from day one, because I knew that I wanted it to be a business. It wasn't something I called it my job because I did love it.
[00:15:23] Susie: And it was like a hobby for me, but it was a job also. And I always intended. To be a business from the very beginning. So that's something I was always looking for. Right.
[00:15:33] Jordan: So, I mean, a key point there is that you went into it with the notion that you were going to make it a business. So anything that you earned from it, especially early on, which I think is something a lot of people forget about when they start something new is that if you only make a couple hundred bucks in a month, if you're in the right position to, you need to put it back into the business right away, because you can improve things by such a large percent.
[00:15:57] Jordan: So much fewer dollars in the beginning. Then when you know, you're 10 years down the road, $300, isn't going to improve anything for you marginally at all.
[00:16:06] Susie: I mean, for example, I built my first website, myself off of a free WordPress theme. I bought the URL and a year of hosting for $36 and just said, let's go and, and figured it out on the way.
[00:16:20] Susie: We just did a full site redesign this last summer. It was. In the tens of thousands of dollars. So it you're right early on. I think you can do a lot more with less, uh, the more you grow, the more things cost to maintain and to expand, and the more you have to put into it and the higher your expenses grow.
[00:16:44] Susie: And so I think in those early days, being willing to reinvest, being willing to, you know, Skip by on our own and be scrappy like Todd learned how to edit videos and how to edit a, you know, an ebook for me, we didn't have those skillsets, but we also didn't have the cash to pay somebody to do it. So we figured it out and, you know, a $30 subscription to lynda.com, teaching us how to edit videos was way cheaper than hiring a video editor.
[00:17:11] Susie: And so those are things that now we have been able to hire out, but. Uh, in those early days, man, we were just really, really, really scrappy.
[00:17:21] Jordan: Yeah. And it gives you an appreciation for all those people. You can hire to do those things. Now you're not going to try and low ball those people because you know, how much work went into all that stuff.
[00:17:31] Susie: Yes. And the added bonus too, is I know everything about it. I know the insides and outsides because I did it first. And so I was kind of able to build my own path for how I wanted things to run and then say, Hey, do you want. Do you want to jump on board with us? And through the years we've been able to hire out a couple different things here and there.
[00:17:50] Susie: And now we've built a team that, you know, supports everything that we're doing and shares our vision, and really enables me to do what I do best and Todd to do what he does best. And, uh, it's. Been a really great like learning experience for us. It's sometimes we always joke. It feels like we're, we're building the ship while we're out on the ocean.
[00:18:13] Susie: Like we started with this dinghy that could float and you know, we're working into building it into something really substantial, but we're already out on the water. Um, we're not, you know, working on it on land and then hoping to launch one day, like we're out here. And uh, doing our best to keep things afloat.
[00:18:30] Susie: So it's fun. Yeah. You're just
[00:18:31] Jordan: out there picking up driftwood and hammering it on and make sure to keep floating, which is, and that's how you have to do it because if you know, I put out a solo episode just after new year's and it was about, you know, you just, you need to start something in order for it to get going.
[00:18:46] Jordan: You can't. For years and years and never launch it and hope that it does something. So, you know, you're on this boat, you got to start floating and then just build it as you go. That's the only way that you can do it. Yep. So you mentioned that you've got a team now. I was scrolling around on the website.
[00:18:59] Jordan: The redesign looks amazing by the way, it's like super smooth. Everything just went to the right places. So money well spent there, I think for a lot of people working towards. Business like this, like a lot of the time it feels like things are too much and you need to hire some people on like you were describing, but there's a point in time where it's not realistic to do that in your experience.
[00:19:22] Jordan: How did, how do you like know when the time is to stop trying to do it all yourself and add a team member to your business? And when is it time to keep doing it yourself? When I
[00:19:31] Susie: want to burn it all down. It's probably time to hire somebody. You know, I think, I think for a lot of solo entrepreneurs, it is tempting to never hire because you look at the paycheck that you're going to be giving somebody and you're like, oh gosh, I could just keep that though.
[00:19:52] Susie: Like I could, I could actually just keep that and make money. I really find a lot of value in longevity and longevity to me means being able to do this for as long as I want to be able to do this. And I cannot stay in the game for a long time, if I'm burned out and angry and exhausted. And so, um, you know, once I started getting to that point, I knew it was time to hire.
[00:20:17] Susie: Um, I mean, I think my threshold is low for being burned out cause I'm whiny. I don't know, but I was hiring people. I hired my sister to help me manage my Facebook comments before I was even paying myself. Like I was paying somebody else and not paying myself because I wanted the business to continue to grow.
[00:20:37] Susie: And I knew. That the time would come where I would take my share, but right now my, my time was best spent on creating content and developing new recipes and improving my photography and shooting videos. And I needed help. Uh, you know, I needed help managing other aspects of the business. And so I wrote down an entire list of everything that I did over the course of a week, everything.
[00:21:01] Susie: And then I went through on a whiteboard and I divided it into two columns. The stuff that I. Loved to do. And that I felt moved the needle the most for the business by having me do it. And my undo list, the stuff that either I didn't like to do, or I felt was valuable, but took so much time that I could be using that time in other ways to produce more value.
[00:21:23] Susie: And that's how I found my first hire was, this is what, this is what I need to have. So that I can focus my time where we'll see the biggest gains and the biggest returns. So that's, that's kind of always how, uh, we've added somebody new to the space is because I get to the point where I'm like, all right, so I either quit.
[00:21:42] Susie: Or die or light it on fire or I get help. Um, and you know, my goal is to my goal is to hire before I get to that point. But usually like, I think most people it's like, we can handle it, we can do it. We can take it on. We're fine. We're fine. We're fine. Until I was. Have I even opened a social media and four days, like you just don't even want to look at it anymore.
[00:22:08] Susie: Or, you know, that's, that's usually a good indicator that it's time to bring somebody in or, you know, I know a lot of people. That just bootstrap it by themselves for a long time, because their goal isn't necessarily a business. Their goal is to keep it a jobby. It's something that they love that generates a little bit of revenue and, you know, supports the hobby and keeps it fun and exciting.
[00:22:34] Susie: Every single person has to build an empire. Uh, just depends on, you know, your goals and your comfort level and what you're, what's exciting to you. And I've always just tried to chase what's exciting. And you know, the goal really was just to support my family. Uh, that was, that was the original goal. And the target has moved a million times since then to a million different places.
[00:22:56] Susie: But every single time it's been in pursuit. Uh, things that I love to do, and I wouldn't grow this into a business. If I didn't love to do it, uh, it would just be. Full of resentment and anger and exhaustion. Uh, so for, for a lot of people that are creating online, like they see the revenue, but it's not appealing, you know, like they'd rather be able to support their hobby and still love it.
[00:23:22] Susie: I've heard one, you know, a lot of people say a really great way to kill your passion is to turn it into your job. For me, I get I'm lucky because I feel like I have multiple passions, like. I'm very passionate about barbecue, but I'm also very passionate about business and, you know, the business and being an entrepreneur in this lifestyle and the stuff that I'm building.
[00:23:43] Susie: And so I get to do both without burning out one or the other, which is really great. Cause you know, the barbecue gets to still stay barbecue for me. And it still gets to have all the passion and all the love and all of the excitement and then the business gets to be the business. And uh, so that's been a really good way for me to balance it.
[00:24:01] Susie: But. I know that's not the case for everybody. And I know some people really have come to, you know, get angry at what they once loved because they tried to turn it into a business. So it's just, I think it's very individual. To you know, what you want to do and what you want to pursue. I
[00:24:18] Jordan: th it's so true too, because you know, the first time you make a little bit of money doing a hobby, you think, well, that was easy.
[00:24:24] Jordan: I could do this and scale it up 8000%. No problem. I'll still love it. But then not only are you working for yourself, which usually means no days off, you now have to work all day for yourself doing the thing that you wanted to love. And like now you have to look at it in such a. And in such a way that you're dissecting it to make sure that you can maximize it.
[00:24:45] Jordan: And now it's no longer just going out and cooking to have fun. You have to do all these things because you, you know, if you're a content creator, you can't just go make dinner. You have to like set cameras up and you have to do all this stuff. And it slowly starts to blur the lines between passion and work and family and home and all that stuff.
[00:25:03] Jordan: And you just have to be really careful of that when you're doing this kind of thing.
[00:25:06] Susie: I don't have any lines at our house between what is work and. Business and family and home, because it is all is everything. Um, and it certainly is, it feels like a lifestyle choice more than like a career pursuit. Uh, you know, this is, this is how we chose to live our lives.
[00:25:25] Susie: And there are a lot of positives. Um, and there are some negatives too, you know, there is no such thing as like a day all the way off. There's no way to turn it off completely. And you know, that is certainly a part of. But there are some really amazing parts to is. Especially with our kids growing up in this environment, they get to see what, you know, building a business looks like they, they really are like front row witnesses to kind of the American dream and to have my husband and I working together is really cool.
[00:25:54] Susie: I think that's a great, uh, you know, perspective for them to have growing up and they know. They know what we do for work. They know what we're excited about and we talked to them about it. And so, you know, those kind of experiences, I feel like have been really priceless for our family specifically. And it's a really great fit.
[00:26:14] Susie: So for us, we don't necessarily want to blur the lines. You know, we want them to see every bit of it. Cause I feel like it gives them a more holistic view of what. But we do try to be healthy about it in a way that it's like, no, honey, I can't read you your story. Mommy's got to take a photo of the brisket.
[00:26:30] Susie: Like, you know, we, we set our own boundaries in a way that it's not, um, negatively impacting our family. I don't feel like, uh, we really try to mitigate that so that they see, they see everything, but not in a way that would hopefully make them resentful of the business or how we built it.
[00:26:49] Jordan: Yeah. And it's about setting the appropriate boundaries for how you want it to be.
[00:26:54] Jordan: You know, there's no specific set of boundaries that works for everybody, but you have to find the ones that work for you and set those ones and try to adhere to them as best you can. Like it's not going to work every time, some days you're going to have to do a little more, some days you'll probably do a little less, but as long as you have an idea and you know, Hey, this, I shouldn't be doing this right now.
[00:27:11] Jordan: I just gotta do it this one time. And that's it. That's
[00:27:14] Susie: okay. Yep. And I think, yeah, I think boundaries and open communication are a really big deal and that's something, you know, when Todd first quit his job, that was weird. That was a weird six months where we were trying to completely reestablish. Our home life roles and responsibilities, our parental roles and responsibilities, our business roles and responsibilities.
[00:27:36] Susie: Uh, it was a really monumental shift in our lifestyle and in our family structure. And, you know, in our relationship dynamic to go from being, you know, husband and wife, to being business partners and pair co-parents. And, you know, he kind of took on a lot of the parenting responsibilities so that I could focus more on work things and it was.
[00:27:56] Susie: The only way that we made it through was just that constant communication. And so we've kind of brought that into our house with our kids too. Like if we do have a big deadline coming up, our kids know about it. They're not sitting there wondering why we're working so hard this week. We tell them the project, we tell them the end goal and we bring them along for the journey and.
[00:28:17] Susie: I think it's been something that's very educational for them and they don't see all of it this year. They're in school, but last year they did. Cause last year we homeschooled because of COVID and you know, a lot of things were unsure. And so we just were like, well, we'll homeschool. And I feel like half of their school was just watching.
[00:28:36] Susie: Work and interact and, you know, work on our business together. And they're hearing the conference calls and they're listening to the phone calls from the other room and the meetings that we're taking and, you know, podcasts, interviews that we're doing. Like they, they're a part of all of it. And so I think just that communication has always been really, really valuable.
[00:28:55] Susie: To Todd and I, and so we're trying to just keep doing that with the kids and here's hoping, I mean, I don't think we're going to know if we messed them up for another decade or so, so they'll let
[00:29:04] Jordan: us know.
[00:29:06] Susie: I'm sure.
[00:29:06] Jordan: They'll let us know. Well, he gave him a crash course in business 1 0 1. So you're setting them up for success there, which is good.
[00:29:14] Susie: My ten-year-olds favorite show right now is shark tank. So I'm like, well, if he doesn't learn it from me, he'll figure it out from the TV.
[00:29:21] Jordan: Yeah. Was he sitting there going, I'd take that
[00:29:22] Susie: deal. Oh yes. And he's like, he, he walked in, I walked in last night and he was watching an episode. He was like, mom, I don't even know why these people are here.
[00:29:32] Susie: They already have a great savings to build their next round of inventory. And I was like, okay, great. This is, I mean, would you like to run the business? Are you ready to take over? No, it's something that I think is really fun. It's something that they, you know, we call it a family business because they're aware of what's going on.
[00:29:52] Susie: None of them like technically work for us. And to be honest with you, none of them care, uh, that, you know, mom taught Shaq how to cook a Turkey or, you know, had her name on a Guinness record for grilling or like they don't care. They're like, oh, that's nice. Whatever, um, none of them want what's for dinner, right?
[00:30:13] Susie: Like you do make good steak tacos. Uh, but beyond that, like none of them are. To be involved in our business and my, and Todd and I are like, that's great. That's totally fine. Like, we want them to have the opportunity to, to pursue their own things that they're excited about and, you know, build their own dreams and whatever that's gonna look like in the future, but we just want them to enter.
[00:30:35] Susie: Adulthood with the idea that it's possible. And that's really all we want to give them is is that whatever lifestyle you want to pursue is possible. And that's really powerful. Just that belief that you can, um, I think is something that's really impactful.
[00:30:53] Jordan: Absolutely. And a lot of people grow up thinking.
[00:30:56] Jordan: They can't because they haven't seen it or they haven't been around it or, you know, they've tried one thing and it's failed because they didn't have the resources available to them. And now you can have, you have resources for literally everything at your fingertips. So like, you can do it. You just, it's probably a lot harder than it looks like on Tik TOK.
[00:31:14] Jordan: Yes.
[00:31:15] Susie: And you know, it's interesting. Cause I've you, I think it's a question that's asked a lot, uh, you know, did you see yourself doing this when you were a kid? Like. This didn't make sense. No, this was not a thing. And it's been so funny because we've actually gone and lectured at colleges, uh, where the professor is teaching about digital media marketing and online businesses.
[00:31:38] Susie: And so we have friends that are professors of that teach and then have invited us to come guest lecture. And it's always really hilarious to me. I swear to you, the kids in this classroom know far more than I do about what I'm trying to teach them about because they grew up where this is a business. I mean, I wasn't taking college classes on how to build a digital media business or digital media marketing or online advertising.
[00:32:06] Susie: Like none of those things, none of those things, influencer relations. Like these are all classes that you can take. From people that teach them. Like now I graduated from the university of Google and from a crew of other food bloggers where we're all sitting around at a conference going, have you tried this?
[00:32:24] Susie: Have you maybe has this worked for you? I mean, what if we tried it this way? Uh, and that's, that's how it went. I remember sitting in a, in a hotel room. I didn't, I was a blog conference. I didn't even bring my laptop. This was in the job, the phase of my business, when I was like, oh, this is fun. I will go to a conference about blogging.
[00:32:43] Susie: And one of the food bloggers locked down a $15,000. Sponsored deal and I about puked as I'm sitting there and they're all like working. I don't even have my laptop. I'm like I have snacks
[00:32:57] Jordan: sitting there with
a
[00:32:57] Susie: flip phone, with my flip phone and some, and some chips they're locking down $15,000 deals. I mean, the whole room celebrated her and it was a group of women who would be considered competitors.
[00:33:11] Susie: Right? These are competitors. These guys were chasing similar keywords, taking similar photos, creating similar recipes, uh, and every single person in that room cheered her on and was so excited for her success because blogging and I think, uh, you know, I see this a lot on Instagram with social media. Also, it's a scrappy.
[00:33:31] Susie: We all know, we're just hacking our way through the jungle. And so whatever happens to one person that is positive means that it's possible for any of us to achieve something positive. And so it's, it's definitely a rising tide lifts, all boats, like the influencer and blogging and Instagram communities were built on other.
[00:33:55] Susie: Cheering each other on sharing each other's stuff, promoting each other's accounts and, uh, sharing information because otherwise there is no influencer marketing community. It's just one person trying to do it themselves. And so, um, to see that really shifted my perspective into. Like, wow. We are all in this together.
[00:34:20] Susie: We all are figuring this out as we go. This is the wild wild west, and there are no rules. So we just are trying to, to get by in whatever way we can and find little successes wherever we can and share that information with people so that it can benefit them. And so I think this podcast is awesome. It fits very much in line with what I believe about, you know, the community of people, especially in the barbecue world.
[00:34:45] Susie: You know, we do cheer each other on, we do share each other's stuff. We do comment on each other's posts because we know what's good for barbecue is good for all of us. And so the more people that we can get excited, get interested, get inspired by barbecue, by outdoor cooking by this lifestyle that we all love.
[00:35:05] Susie: Truly love. Um, the better it is for every single one of us, the more potential we have, the more opportunities open up for us. So, and I've loved that about the barbecue community from the beginning, it's always been an incredibly supportive place. It's always been a place. And, you know, a majority of people want to see you succeed.
[00:35:25] Susie: There's always jerks everywhere, disregard, but vast majority is people who want to see you grow and want to see you establish yourself and build something. And it's a community of, of, you know, people full of like hope and excitement and passion. And what's not contagious about that.
[00:35:43] Jordan: Absolutely. You can spend an entire day.
[00:35:46] Jordan: And not leave the couch and just talk positive conversations with people in the barbecue world about anything. You can ask them for my new details on something they've done, and they will tell you everything that they can to help you improve yourself so that you can match with them. Like there's not competition, there's friendly competition, but there's not competition in the way where like, If I talk to this person, you're going to take all of my business opportunities.
[00:36:10] Jordan: It just doesn't really exist in barbecue. And there's a few people that do it and they just kind of get blocked and like radically lose followers. Once one person's like this, guy's a snake. Don't find it
[00:36:20] Susie: well. And I think social media really has helped change that to. Barbecued did use to be a little bit elusive.
[00:36:28] Susie: Uh, it, it was behind a paywall or it was behind a geographical barrier. I grew up in Utah. I didn't grow up with barbecue as a part of my food culture and my food history, a barbecue to us. Hamburgers and hotdogs. I mean, I know that's not the case now. I know there's a difference, but growing up it was same,
[00:36:52] Jordan: same Ontario guy here, a hundred percent,
[00:36:54] Susie: you know, there wasn't this level of exposure.
[00:36:58] Susie: For a lot of us that grew up outside of that geographical area where barbecue was commonplace. And so there was no way for us to learn about barbecue. There really was no way for us to be exposed to this type of cooking. And I think food television really kind of opened those gates a little bit, you know?
[00:37:18] Susie: Uh, people traveling and saying, this is where I ate. This is what they did. This is how they cooked it. This is what it looked like. That opened the doors a little bit. And then, uh, you know, the advent of backyard smokers becoming more and more and more accessible and approachable to a majority of home cooks really opened the door even further.
[00:37:38] Susie: And then we have this advent of social media where this information does flow freely. You don't have to know somebody who's grand Pappy cooked in a steel drum in the backyard for 50 years and taught them everything to at least be able to try. And I think there is value in the history of barbecue. I think there is massive impact in how barbecue came to America and.
[00:38:05] Susie: That story progressed, but I just think that there is so much rapidly occurring change. That's altered how barbecue is made and consumed and it's happening in our backyards. It's not happening on the competition circuit. It's not, I mean, it still is. It's still happening in competitions in restaurants, but.
[00:38:24] Susie: You know, our food culture is shaped at home and the backyard barbecue hero, as I like to call them, you know, that's, my mission is to help make everybody a backyard. Barbecue hero is really revolutionizing how we cook and how we feed people and how we have conversations around the dinner table. And a lot of that comes from social media and the internet and people who are willing to explore and test.
[00:38:48] Jordan: Yeah, absolutely. And the fact that we don't need to go and like baby, a fire with actual sticks of wood all the time. Now, like you can fire up a pellet grill. Now, if you really want to. And like, it just, it's so much more accessible now to everyone that wants to learn about it and dive into it. It's not being gate kept by, you know, stick burners and whole-hog and all that kind of stuff anymore, which is
[00:39:12] Susie: great.
[00:39:12] Susie: Exactly. The barrier of entry is so low, so much lower. And I mean, that probably means that there's a lot of bad barbecue being cooked as people figure it out, but like great. I cooked a lot of bad barbecue before I cook. Good barbecue. I think that's kind of a Rite of passage.
[00:39:28] Jordan: I've had bad burgers and hotdogs on a propane grill before it happened.
[00:39:32] Jordan: That's how you learn. Absolutely. I want to go back to your business a little bit here because I was going, I was clicking around on the website and it feels like you've intentionally built a bit of a, Hey grill. Hey ecosystem with your website. Yeah. You know, you've got recipes, you've got the eBooks. You have merchandise, uh, sauce.
[00:39:55] Jordan: Rubs videos. You even got a membership plan and you've launched an app. Can you kind of explain the ecosystem of the website because everything you do obviously directs people to the website and how do you plan all those different limbs of the ecosystem to go back to the one for your central goal, which is come to
[00:40:15] Susie: the website?
[00:40:16] Susie: I mean, I think from the beginning, Tried to do was pick one vertical, uh, go up and then build out. So first and foremost was, you know, recipe development. So I worked really hard. Uh, I read a lot of books about flavor profiles. I cooked a lot of bad barbecue. Uh, and my goal was figuring out how to make the best barbecue that I could.
[00:40:41] Susie: And once I felt like, okay, I'm pretty proficient at barbecue. I think there's, there's no. Uh, stop to learning when it comes to barbecue, by the way. Um, but once I felt like I could confidently share recipes and share a good picture, then that's when we started publishing. And then I figured out, okay, well, website is going to be my home base because when I started seven years ago, food blogs were basically the only avenue.
[00:41:07] Susie: I mean, you could start an Instagram account, but there were a lot of people sharing barbecue stuff on, on social media. At that time, there were several, but not like there is now. And so. No, I'll just get the social media handles for this also so that they all kind of, you know, talk nice to each other and we have the names for everything and it makes sense.
[00:41:25] Susie: And so, you know, we had them, it didn't do a lot with them other than just, I posted a recipe on the website. You guys should check it out. And so that's kind of how it started was with everything feeding back to the website first. And because I built it as a web. As my original intent, like it just made sense to have everything feeding back to the website itself.
[00:41:45] Susie: So we started collecting emails on the website. So you can put in your email and every Friday I will send you the barbecue beat and it has a fantastic newsletter with product recommendations. We have retailers. Recipes really heavy on the recipes, everything that we've posted that week, or if there's a holiday coming up, we've got our Superbowl email coming out soon, uh, that will give you all the best wing recipes on the website.
[00:42:08] Susie: And so it just kind of was this natural progression where we felt like, okay, I've got a system for producing. Now I have a little bit more time. What can we do? Or I hired somebody to help me with this. I have a little bit more time. What else can we do to point people back to the website? And that's kind of how everything grew and you know, oh, they're here on the website.
[00:42:30] Susie: Well, how do we make money once they're here? Uh, we turn ads on. And so, you know, as you scroll through there several ads, we have ads pretty limited on our website, but that is a way for us to generate revenue. If we recommend a product that you want to buy, and it's an affiliate link, we can generate revenue.
[00:42:47] Susie: And so we kind of just started incorporating these little revenue generators onto the website because that's where our people were. We were getting them to come to, Hey, grill, hey.com. And so while they were there, we should use. You know their attention and give them a really great experience. So if I do recommend a product it's because I think it will make your cook better.
[00:43:09] Susie: Uh, and this is the one that I use. And this is the one that I love if I'm selling you a membership to the grill squad. It's because I think there's a lot of value in the community that I've built there. I think that there's a lot of value in. The 30 minute long brisket masterclass that I recorded and the workbook that accompanies it, that will help you not make as much bad barbecue, you know, start off on the right foot and have something turn out fantastic the first time and know why, uh, no, why that it works and be able to make those adjustments on the fly.
[00:43:41] Susie: And, you know, if there's a recipe it's cause I feel like it's the best version of that recipe that I can make. And so everything that we put in. Is like generating revenue is great. And I love that we have a business that can do that, but our first and foremost priority is always making sure that the person has the best experience.
[00:43:59] Susie: They can have like a brick and mortar. We want people to come back. I mean, sure. I can lure you in with a viral video and a really great recipe for jerky that you've never seen before. But if there's nothing of substance there, you're going to click, you're going to print. And you're not going to remember anything.
[00:44:14] Susie: So I always want, you know, the person visiting the site to have a really great experience to click through three things and be like, oh my gosh, that looks great. Oh, that looks great. Oh, I want to try that next. Oh my gosh. She has 500 recipes on her site. There is an. I literally could do this all day. And, uh, you know, I've heard from users and from people that visit the site, they're like, listen, I just sat on your website and bookmark like 14 things last night.
[00:44:41] Susie: And I know I'm going to be cooking them over the next month. I already have my meal plan. Like my family is so excited because they're all coming over on Sunday and I'm doing your pot roast and we're doing this and this. All of these things are testaments to me that, you know, we're, we're doing the best that we can, and we may still be building the boat while we're on the water, but we're building enough solid materials.
[00:45:01] Susie: And, you know, I truly do believe that the value is there. And when it came to our product line, uh, that's something we rolled out a few years ago with our rubs and our sauces, you know, Todd was like, no, he was an auditor. It's like the last thing that I want to get into is an inventory based business.
[00:45:17] Susie: They're nightmares. Like you're doing. You're doing fine with the website. We're doing fine with ads and affiliates and sponsorships. Like we're good. We don't need to sell product. And often daily, daily, I was getting messages from people. Can you please bottle your sweet rub? Can you please bottle your sauces?
[00:45:36] Susie: Like I'm making them a gallon at a time and it would be really convenient for me. To just be able to buy them. And I'm showing Todd these messages, like this is what the people want. And so, and because that's always been, what's driven our businesses, you know, what's working. What do people want to see?
[00:45:52] Susie: What are people excited about? Uh, he kind of had to relent a little bit, so we did a little test run of like 300 bottles each of our seasonings. And they sold out in 24 hours, like gone. So he was like, oh, I guess we have to do a product business. Um, and that's kind of where the line of seasonings and sauces was born from.
[00:46:10] Susie: And so. Every thing that we have added on has been at the request of people that were visiting our site and told us this is what we want to see. And so we've just done our best in every circumstance. I feel like to, to serve people that are honoring us with their time and their attention, we want you, we want you to just have the best experience possible.
[00:46:33] Susie: We want you to be excited. We want you to be entertained. We want you to be inspired. We want you to learn something and we want you to cook really, really delicious.
[00:46:41] Jordan: That's awesome. And that's such a good point. You know, something everyone needs to keep in mind if they're trying to, you know, if you're just doing this for yourself and for fun, then that's fine.
[00:46:50] Jordan: Whatever. But if you're trying to build this into something where you're going to be serving other people, whether it's content or knowledge or education, you need to listen to what they want. They're the people that are going to make you successful. You can't just put out whatever you decide to put out in any way you need to like listen to what your audience and what your fans are requesting because you're almost guaranteed sales and revenue in that way, because they already want it.
[00:47:16] Jordan: The demand is there. You need to just give the supply,
[00:47:21] Susie: you know, constantly asking ourselves, like, does this suck, does this thing that I made. Like, we want to believe that everything we make is great and it might be, it might be delicious and it might be awesome, but if nobody wants it and nobody cares about it, like in terms of content, it might just suck.
[00:47:36] Susie: And I kind of learned this principle again from my food blog friends and I kind of dance in these two worlds in food, blogging and barbecue. Cause there just isn't a lot of crossover between the two. There are a few people, but you know, I had a friend that was developing. She just made the most delicious.
[00:47:52] Susie: Like cast iron skillet shrimp and this like Cajun shrimp fettuccine. And I was like, man, this stuff looks amazing. And she's like, oh, thanks. You know, my family liked it. And I was like, did you not like it? And she's like, oh, I don't eat shrimp. I'm allergic. But she was like churning out some of the most delicious looking shrimp recipes I've ever seen.
[00:48:12] Susie: Well, how are you posting shrimp recipes? If you don't eat shrimp? She's like, because my readers love shrimp. And I had another friend who was convinced that her Indonesian curried green beam recipe should be visited a million times because it was the most delicious thing that she'd ever had. But like, guess who doesn't look up recipes for Indonesia, curried, green beans, most people, you know, and so.
[00:48:36] Susie: You all, I'm always reevaluating, like, yes, there's stuff that I want to make and that I'm excited about and that I love and that never makes it onto the website, you know, because it's like this thing that we just grew up eating or w you know, but like, people don't care, people don't want, they don't want that.
[00:48:55] Susie: They don't want that thing that I want to make, even though I think it's the best thing ever. And. You know, even with my rubs in my sauce, even with product that we put out, not everyone is going to be a winner, but by listening to your audience and seeing what they respond well to, and seeing what they love the most, really does direct the path that I take.
[00:49:14] Susie: Because if I'm in this business to serve people, It doesn't do any good to just serve myself by posting recipes that only I like or care about. I need to post recipes that, that my audience cares about. And then my audience is excited about, and a lot of things end up on the cutting room floor because.
[00:49:32] Susie: They're not great and they're not, they're not going to cut it and they're not going to serve people where they're at. It's maybe just me serving my ego, I guess, by putting stuff out there that only I love. But that's something that we consider a lot is, you know, our business is based on serving other people and helping other people.
[00:49:49] Susie: And so. I need to give them what they're looking for. And that doesn't mean being inauthentic and just posting crap that I don't even like, but it just means being really picky about what I do post and what I do share so that it's having the most. Yeah.
[00:50:04] Jordan: And if, if you're picky about what you're going to share, then when they see there's a new post from, Hey girl, Hey, it's all that more meaningful to them.
[00:50:12] Jordan: They're more compelled to look at it because they know given the track history, it's going to be a good recipe. That probably is going to be a home run. It's not like, oh, the last three were kind of just lazy and she needed content. So she put it out. Like you've got the record that you're putting stuff out because you like it.
[00:50:28] Jordan: And it's good. And it's. Yes.
[00:50:31] Susie: Before you release it, it's been tested by I've cooked it. My family's eating it. Like it doesn't make it onto the website unless like we get the taste test taught thumbs up except for clams because he doesn't like clams and that one went up anyway. But that's his problem.
[00:50:47] Jordan: It was probably a lot less clam episodes though.
[00:50:50] Susie: Not as many clam recipes because Todd doesn't eat him. Uh, but yeah, and, and so that's something that we just think about a lot is, you know, what do people want and how can we best serve them and give them what they're looking for? And that doesn't mean I don't get to have fun. And I, I, you know, I post things that are a little bit samey and, and a little bit creative just cause I like it.
[00:51:08] Susie: But a majority of stuff is really based on, you know, trying to help people as best we can early on. I was not picking enough. My posts. And there definitely was that element of like, she's just putting stuff up there. Cause she had like, you know, something in her freezer she needed to use. Like that was a real thing.
[00:51:24] Susie: But like I said, you know, we're building the boat while we're on the water, these things you learn what works and what doesn't work and not, everything's going to be a winner and you learn to be, you know, better critic and a better editor as you, as you practice. And as you continue to move forward and look at your data and make decisions.
[00:51:42] Jordan: Absolutely. You always have to be looking at what's worked what hasn't and then adjusting as you go. Yep. So we're just about, at a time here. So one last question for you and that's simply, where do you want to see? Hey girl. Hey, go from here. What's what's your plan on how you're going to build a bigger.
[00:51:59] Susie: Um, I want, Hey grill, Hey, to be synonymous with backyard barbecue. I want people, when they think about cooking something in their backyard, they think, you know what? We should look at Haight grill hair, but she has a recipe for this, or, oh my gosh. Hey girl. Hey, just came out with a new sauce. I can't wait to try it.
[00:52:15] Susie: Oh, and she posted three recipes that I can cook with it. Those look amazing. I really want. You know, a lot of stuff is competition, barbecue based or it's grocery store. Uh, you know, in grocery store products are really high fructose corn syrup, a lot of preservatives, liquid smoke, all these things that you don't want to put on the barbecue, you just spent 12 hours smoking.
[00:52:35] Susie: So we really want to create. Products and provide recipes that will elevate your backyard barbecue experience. And, you know, I mean, I don't, I don't know exactly where we want to go, but hopefully to a lot more backyards and hopefully a lot more happy stomachs and a lot more happy cooks and, uh, you know, Moving the wheel in terms of continuing to grow the impact of the family dinner and bringing your friends around the table and sitting down and sharing a meal meal with people that you really care about, that you put a lot of love into.
[00:53:11] Susie: And I think that's very much barbecue. And that's the thing that, that makes me the most excited is thinking about people taking one of my recipes and. Making it with love for people that they care about and sharing that memory and that experience together. That's very, very, um, rewarding and fulfilling to me when I get those messages that people had that experience with one of my recipes or one of my products.
[00:53:34] Susie: Um, so I just want to be able to continue to expand that, you know, reach so that more people can have experiences that have been really transformational for me and for my.
[00:53:46] Jordan: That's very well put because you're taking the, the feeling of gathering friends around and cooking them a big meal and having a big hangout around the pit outside.
[00:53:57] Jordan: You're taking that feeling and you're just, now you're just sharing it with every single person that can cook outside. So you're just amplifying the feeling of. You know, creating meals and creating experiences for people and you're helping them all do it a little bit more stress free, which I think is amazing.
[00:54:12] Susie: Yep. If I can make it easier for you, if I can lower that barrier of entry for you in any way, if I can make it. Holy cow, if she can cook that I can cook that. Then that's, that's really valuable to me because at the end of the day, I'm a mom and a wife and I have three kids and I love to cook for my family.
[00:54:31] Susie: And I love that experience of feeding them great food and really. There's not anything that makes me particularly special when it comes to barbecue. Other than just, I did it a lot and I loved it so much that I wanted to keep doing it forever. But beyond that, I didn't grow up in a barbecue family. I didn't grow up in the barbecue community.
[00:54:49] Susie: Like if I can make this leap to cooking this kind of food. So can you, so can anyone and that's, that's really, the message is I'm just here to help you along on your path to becoming a backyard. Barbecue.
[00:55:02] Jordan: That's awesome. Susie, thank you so much for taking the time to hang out with me today and chat about this.
[00:55:06] Jordan: This has been a lot of fun, really enlightening, and just so full of great information for anyone, anyone in barbecue in general, or that wants to kind of dabble in this route of, you know, recipes and blogs and stuff like that. So thank you for all the information. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's fun. No problem.
[00:55:23] Jordan: Have a great day and we'll talk
[00:55:24] Susie: to you later
[00:55:29] Jordan: and that'll do it for my chat with Susie of Hey grill. Hey, please make sure you go and check her out. There are so many great recipes for anything that you could come up with or think of cooking. She's got something out there for you to look at. Follow her on socials at Hey grill. Hey, and make sure you visit her website.
[00:55:44] Jordan: www.pay grill. hey.com. And remember you need to create a pleasant overall experience for your target audience and ideal customers. Make sure you're listening to what they want and what they're looking for and making it an all around good transaction for them. It's not just about getting the sale or getting the follow it's about giving them a reason to keep coming back after that.
[00:56:05] Jordan: And so that will do it for this episode of influential barbecue. Thank you so much for tuning in again, this week, you can find links to everything we talked about today on the
show
[00:56:13] Jordan: notesPage@influentialbarbecue.com. Again, I'm always looking for feedback on this show. I'm sitting in my studio, recording in front of nobody.
[00:56:22] Jordan: So any feedback you can give me will help improve the show and bring you better episodes in the future. Please shoot me an email. Podcast@influentialbarbecue.com or send a DM to influential barbecue on Instagram. Also, if you or your business is looking to start a podcast, please let me know and reach out.
[00:56:39] Jordan: I recently started the pod cabin.com in order to help businesses launch the podcast that they've been thinking about launching forever. I can help you go from nothing to a full podcast so that you can cultivate better brand loyalty, more authority in your marketplace and reach new customers by connecting with them on a different medium, such as a pocket.
[00:56:57] Jordan: 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 grilling. .