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This week I talk to Jeremy Tebby of the Canadian BBQ Mafia.
What started as a simple logo on a hat to kill some time during quarantine quickly turned into a following across the Canadian barbecue scene. Now Jeremy want's to harness that following to help give back to those in need.
We talk about building an online community, giving back to others, and how he hopes the Canadian BBQ Mafia will changes lives for the better.
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
014| Jeremy of CDN BarBQ Mafia
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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.
[00:00:30] Jordan: Thank you for the introduction Clint from Texas, you always do such a great job. Welcome back to another week of influential barbecue. February has officially left the chat. They are blocked. They can no longer come back in and marches. Now the leading sign to summer being on the horizon, I'm looking forward to some warmer days, some more sunshine and a beer outside will be great if my mud pit of a yard ever succeeds at growing grass.
[00:00:56] Jordan: But. This week, I'm talking to Jeremy of the Canadian barbecue mafia. It sounds threatening, but I promise it's quite the opposite. This episode will be a little bit different. You know, typically I discuss how my guests use social media to drive their followings or create content or generate income to move
their
[00:01:14] Jordan: own business forward.
[00:01:16] Jordan: But today we're going to chat about how social media can be used to build more of a community around comradery, charity, and helping those in need rather than chasing their own dollars. Jeremy and the Canadian barbecue mafia do just that. So let's get into my chat with Jeremy.
[00:01:46] Jordan: all right. Welcome back to another week of influential barbecue. This week. I am staying local to talk with a really cool initiative that has been beginning to take off really well here in Canada. If you haven't heard of. The Canadian barbecue mafia is indeed a thing. And it's beginning to gain quite a bit of traction up here.
[00:02:04] Jordan: It's not exactly a group of Canadians in tuxedos, leaving bovine heads in people's beds or anything like that. It's more so a collective creative to bring members of the barbecue community together, especially in Canada to help raise awareness and funds for charitable organizations and just kind of spread the love of Canadian barbecue throughout the country.
[00:02:22] Jordan: With that being said, I'm here today with Jair, one of the founders of the Canadian barbecue mafia. Jared, thanks so much for joining me today.
[00:02:29] Jeremy: Thanks for having me on the show, Jordan. It's great to be here with you.
[00:02:32] Jordan: So before we get into anything, can you just kind of tell the listeners about yourself, who you are, what your story is and what you're all about?
[00:02:40] Jeremy: Sure. So I'm a, I'm a banker by day barbecuer by night and by weekends. So I am on the barbecue side of things. Uh, I've had several barbecue. For the last 15 years, predominantly a big green egg. So big green egg has been my go-to queue for about, yeah, about the last 15 years I got my first egg and it just sort of a steamroll from there as you, as you know you, and I'm sure you can appreciate it.
[00:03:07] Jeremy: And the listers can appreciate, you know, it's kind of like tattoos. Once you get one, you just have to get more and more. And, uh, and that's, what's happened with me in barbecue. So I've got about, I'm not like Ted reader. I don't have a, you know, 40 in my backyard, but I'm, I'm getting, uh, an extensive collection.
[00:03:23] Jeremy: I've got, uh, a few eggs. I've got a kettle grill, a kettle pizza oven, a flat top, a couple of flat top grillers. So, yeah, we're starting to starting to build quite the collection, but it's, uh, you know, I often say that, uh, barbecues are like golf clubs, right? Different clubs, different holes, so different, different barbecues and different things to cook.
[00:03:43] Jeremy: So each one of them has their own uniqueness and, you know, you kind of tailor your barbecue to whatever you're cooking that day.
[00:03:50] Jordan: And I've never played a hole of golf in my life, but I'm sure what you're saying is accurate.
[00:03:56] Jeremy: Yeah. I'm not a big golfer either. I just, I don't have the patience for it. It's funny.
[00:03:59] Jeremy: I, uh, you know, I'll cook a brisket for 18 hours and watch it and, you know, keep an eye on it, but to go out and do 18 rounds of, or 18 holes of golf drives me nuts. My ADHD kicks in. And, uh, you know, I just want to, as long as the beer cart there, and there's a few beers along the way, it makes it a little bit better, but it is, it's funny just staying on that theme, like barbecue.
[00:04:21] Jeremy: And that's an analogy I use, right. Is golf is, is, it's kinda like what I really enjoy about barbecue is you want to. Do better. Right. You're always looking at that next cook and it's kind of like your next golf game, right? How do I improve my game? How do I improve my, my cooking abilities? And, you know, and you have to be prepared to, uh, to have a few bad holes or bad steaks along the way.
[00:04:43] Jeremy: And, uh, it, it, but the main thing is you got to have fun while you're doing it. And that's the main thing for me about barbecuing and, and more recently with COVID as a lot of us have been stuck at our homes, not being able to do too much over the last couple of years, you know, I've barbecued more in the last two years.
[00:05:02] Jeremy: And I probably haven't though. 10, um, because it's just, what else is there to do. Right. And it's how do you stay interested in barbecue and how do you, how do you keep it interesting and keeping it fun? So, yeah,
[00:05:13] Jordan: I find I've found that issue with myself too, because you know, being locked at home for two years, especially in Ontario, cause it's still going on here.
[00:05:20] Jordan: Like you can only cook barbecue. So many days a week at the beginning, it was great. It's like, I'm going to cook every single day of the week. This is amazing. And now it's like, I don't want to cook right now. I should do a cook, just so I keep cooking. But how do I keep it interesting. Cause you know, I don't have the energy I've been locked inside all day and then like, but with the, the weather's going to come around soon and we'll all us Canadians will get back
[00:05:41] Jeremy: into the swing.
[00:05:42] Jeremy: For sure. Totally. Yeah. I'm a, yeah, I'm a bit of a diehard too, right? I'm a year. It was funny. I was talking to somebody at work and they're like, oh, you know, the nice weather's come, we'll be able to barbecue again. And I'm like, when did we stop? Like, it was like, you know, outside of like maybe a hail storm or a snow storm, you know, I'll treads out there and my slippers and fire up the barbecue.
[00:06:03] Jeremy: And uh, I'm pretty lucky where I am now in my. Um, I've part of my barbecues are sheltered in the winter, so it's at least I've got a roof over top of me. I'm still out there in a bit in the elements, but, uh, it's a little bit more enjoyable than being stuck out in the middle of a snow storm doing it. But yeah.
[00:06:21] Jeremy: Yeah, no, it's true. Like even barbecuing, like in the beginning of COVID I was like every day. And to your point. It's almost like, okay. I never used it. So the best thing I bought before COVID was a vacuum sealer. Uh, second best thing I bought was a standup freezer because like that thing sat empty for years and then COVID hits and it's like, oh, ribs are on sale for 2 99, a pound.
[00:06:45] Jeremy: I better smoke eight racks. So the next thing you know, you're smoking eight racks of ribs and it's just my wife and I, and so, you know, we can only eat so many ribs, so outcomes, the vacuum sealer outcomes, put it in the freezer. And so like within a month, the freezers full, because it's, you know, and even in the beginning of the pandemic, it was like so much uncertainty.
[00:07:05] Jeremy: It's like, oh, if we're stuck at home, I always, I always felt comfortable knowing, well, at least we could eat meat for 30 days, right. We might not have vegetables or fruit, but at least we'll have it, you know, enough ribs and brisket and chicken that we can survive on, but you know, those fears went away.
[00:07:20] Jeremy: But then the other thing I started doing was just cooking for friends and cooking for. Focused a lot on, I've got a few friends that are first responders. So my next door neighbor, Adam, he's a great guy. He's a first responder he's with opp. Uh, another really good friend of mine is on the fire department.
[00:07:37] Jeremy: So then I've started cooking for those guys and saying, Hey, you know, so I, I would drop a brisket off at the fire hall or, you know, call up Adam next door and say, Hey buddy, I'm, I'm grill, I'm smoking six racks of ribs. You want to take three racks into work with you tomorrow. And you know, it was just sort of my way of saying thanks.
[00:07:54] Jeremy: Right? It's like these guys had it tough and they, you know, friends of ours and nursing and stuff like that. It was like, I basically threw it out there on social media is, you know, any first responder that wants barbecue, time labor, none of that. Well, don't worry about any of that. You buy the meat, I'll grill it for you.
[00:08:12] Jeremy: And quite a few people took me up on it and it made, you know, it was good. It, it, it filled two voids. One. I wanted to keep barbecue and I was running out of space. So it was gave me the opportunity to, to share it and, and to. Both my wife and I felt good about being able to give a little bit back to those that were, were really working on the frontline, especially during the, the, you know, the beginning stages of COVID when there was so much uncertainty out there.
[00:08:35] Jeremy: Yeah.
[00:08:35] Jordan: Uncertainty, and, you know, you just keep, you couldn't have people over to cook for. So it was nice to say thank you to all these people and also to just to cook for someone, because I guarantee you got texts later that night being like Jared, that was so good. Thank you so much for you that,
[00:08:49] Jeremy: yeah, it's a joke with my neighbor, Adam, like we've become really good friends.
[00:08:54] Jeremy: He moved in about a year and a half ago, almost two years ago, but now it's a text message saying, Hey Adam, uh, I like on the weekend, I pulled out a bunch of smoked prime rib and I was going to do a huge, I did do a huge pot of like smoked stew. And it was just a quick message saying, Hey, do you want some stew?
[00:09:10] Jeremy: And I don't think he's ever said no. And even if I'm out there buying something like I bought, I bought a bunch of ribs about a month ago, they were on sale. And the only answer I get back a shirt, just let me know what I owe you. Right. It's like, and so yeah, you know, you people appreciate it and, uh, you know, it allows you the opportunity to define tune your craft too.
[00:09:32] Jeremy: Right? Like even brisket, like brisket. Isn't something that we cook on a regular basis, but I've cooked more briskets in the last year and a half, two years than I have done in awhile. So it's, it allows you to, um, To do those types of cooks too, that you, you know, with just a couple of us living here, it's, you know, it's, it's hard to justify, you know, cooking a big, huge brisket for two people.
[00:09:53] Jeremy: Thankfully I've married somebody who enjoys barbecue as much as I do. I have a few friends in the game that whose wives or our partners are either, uh, you know, vegetarians or vegans or don't like barbecue, which is cool. Uh, but I just can't imagine just cooking for one. So I'm, I'm fortunate that way that both my wife and I are our foodies, uh, so to speak and we both enjoy enjoy
[00:10:16] Jordan: barbecue.
[00:10:17] Jordan: Yeah. My partner is not, she likes barbecue, but she doesn't eat nearly as much as I do. So it's a lot of me outside cooking myself lunch most of the time, then we'll do something
else
[00:10:27] Jeremy: for dinner. Yeah. If you're cooking the steaks, you know that your partner gets a little petite filet and you get the big, you know, eight, 10 ounce porterhouse or something.
[00:10:35] Jeremy: Yeah, exactly. That's the way ours is. It's there's always two stakes and it's easy to tell who's is who's. So
[00:10:41] Jordan: you've been cooking for years. You've been doing like you, you started cooking for all these first responders and everything. What, how did you first get on to social media? Did you have like a dedicated I'm cooking now account or did it just kind of started to grow as you barbecued more?
[00:10:56] Jordan: Like, did you create something specifically for
[00:10:59] Jeremy: barbecue? No. And that's a good question. I didn't, and I know some do, and I've thought about converting my ins, particularly my Instagram. So I have a Facebook that I use a little bit, but my, my main platform for social media over the last few years has been Instagram.
[00:11:16] Jeremy: You know, the way I look at it is it's my life, right? So I've got my Instagram consists of, of what I'm passionate about. You know, family, particularly my dog, there's a lot of posts on there about my dog. I'm also pretty heavily involved with a couple of fraternities. So the Shriners, so like tonight, I just did a post where I was at a Shriner's meeting last night.
[00:11:37] Jeremy: And my sponsor from 15 years ago was there. And we, we actually gave him an, uh, an award of like a life membership was a pretty big deal. So I thought, pardon? Pardon me. Thought, okay. I am predominantly barbecue now on the Instagram, but I still think it's important. And I think part of it is connecting with people.
[00:11:55] Jeremy: Right. And I liked, I sort of look at my Instagram on how I view others. And I have a mad respect for people that are dedicated to just barbecue or just food and, and their pitchers. Like, I would love to be able to take the same quality of pictures as, as some of my friends on there. But I do know that people take pictures and the food gets cold.
[00:12:14] Jeremy: So I I'm a foodie, but I love to eat too. So I sometimes I'll start eating and go, oh shoot. I forgot to take a picture of that steak or I forgot to take, but to me, the food is the most important thing, but my point being. I like to look at people's Instagram, that that seemed to be genuine and real. And that's really what I try to portray through my social media.
[00:12:33] Jeremy: So you're going to get the real deal, you know, I love my family. Love my dog, love the Shriners, everything we're about, and I love barbecue. So it's a mix of it. So, you know, I may lose a few followers along the way that, Hey, you know, this guy isn't barbecue and all the time, I don't want to look at his, you know, his, his pictures of his dog or whatever.
[00:12:50] Jeremy: That's cool. Hey, you don't, you don't need to. And, uh, it's all choice, but I have predominantly since launching the Canadian barbecue mafia, uh, pretty much a year ago, I have focused more on the food side of things and more. Promoting the mafia as, as a community. And I think that's important too. I don't want to lose the focus of that because I think that's really, what's really drawn a lot of individuals into them.
[00:13:15] Jeremy: You know, the community of the mafia is, is the Instagram piece of it. So I think, you know, as we continue to evolve, we've got, uh, you know, we just launched, uh, a website a couple of weeks ago and it's doing really, really well. So we're going to put a lot of this stuff on, on the website for access, uh, but keep the, keep the Instagram live for sure.
[00:13:35] Jordan: That's awesome. And I want to get into the mafia here in a second, but sure. I love, I love that you're keeping it all, you know, personal. I know I've got two separate accounts. I've got my personal slash music and audio account, and I've got my barbecue account just because those are two very different worlds for me.
[00:13:51] Jordan: But your world is just all of these things together and that's just what you're doing. So you don't need to separate it as a side tangent, can you touch on the Shriners more? I've never heard of Shriners. What, what is that all about? Cause I see the post all the time and it always stops me while I'm scrolling.
[00:14:07] Jordan: So enlighten me on that.
[00:14:09] Jeremy: So I'll give you the, uh, I'll give you the Coles notes version on a fraternity. That's been around for like 300 years, but so I, so how I got involved, this is going back, like I said, about 15 years ago now I wanted to my wife, it was just my wife and I, we, we don't have kids. We have, we have dogs.
[00:14:26] Jeremy: I wanted, I was looking for something to give back to the community. So I've always, I've heard about the Shriners and the Shriners hospitals and how they help children and things. So I actually proactively reached out to the local shrine I'm in Oshawa. So I reached out to the local shrine club and said, Hey, I want to become a Shriner.
[00:14:43] Jeremy: And I got ahold of a guy that. You know, the, I think he was the secretary or something at the time. And he said, well, you know, are you a Mason? I go, what's a Mason. Like I was really naive. And he's like, well, in order to be a Shriner, you have to be a Mason or a free Mason or joined the Masonic lodge. So he goes, you know, come in, let's sit down, let's talk about it, make sure it's something that you'd be really interested in and, and we'll take it from there.
[00:15:07] Jeremy: So that's what I did. And without any regrets whatsoever, I've been on this journey. So you have to join a Masonic lodge. So you're, you're voted on and you join a Masonic lodge and then you go through, you know, different degrees and become a certain level within the Masonic lodge. And then, then you can be sponsored into the Shriners.
[00:15:28] Jeremy: And so that's what I did. I've been a Shriner for 12 or 13 years now. I was pretty quick to join the Masonic lodge and then get into the Shriners. You have to become a master Mason, but if anybody's listening to this and they want to know more information, I'm probably not doing it full justice. Reach out to me, DM me on Instagram.
[00:15:45] Jeremy: And I'd be happy to talk about it. Cause I'm equally as passionate about the Shriners and the lodge Masonic lodge. But for the last four years, I've also been part of the executives at the Shriners locally here in Toronto and GTA, which has been really good for me. And it's a great organization. So there's 22 hospitals around the world.
[00:16:04] Jeremy: We have one in Canada in Montreal and the foundation of it all is, is we raise money. A lot of it's internally raised, um, you know, we're not selling tickets for Harley's at the mall. We're doing self-funding those types of things. People will leave money through their estates net. So, uh, we run 22 hospitals around the world on our own dime, uh, which is a huge, huge undertaking.
[00:16:29] Jeremy: Like it's literally, I think it's the number I've often heard is like a million. I might be wrong, but it's about a million dollars a day to run these 22 hospitals. Um, and, and the cool thing is particularly in the U S. And in other countries where healthcare is a premium, um, you know, for example, we have a hospital in say, for example, in, in Erie, Pennsylvania, there's a hospital.
[00:16:51] Jeremy: So if you have a child in that area who has scoliosis, a burn victim, you know, all these different child elements, you can, you can reach out to the Shriner's hospital and they'll connect you with either within their own organization or hospital network or another hospital that we work closely with and that care.
[00:17:10] Jeremy: And if it's an operation or those types of things, It's completely free. Like there's no billing department in a Shriner's hospital. And that's huge in the states where sometimes these operations are tens of thousands of dollars or, or sometimes these children are in the hospitals for an extensive period of time.
[00:17:27] Jeremy: Um, you know, depending on what their ailments are. So it's, it's really, really, it's a proud organization and we have a lot of fun. So like the Shriners, the Masonic lodge is more. Uh, fraternity, you know, those types of things, but with the Shriners, you know, you're still a Mason and his fear Shriner, every, every Shriner is a Mason.
[00:17:47] Jeremy: Um, but it's more of, we call it the playground of masonry. So we're doing a lot of really good work on the charity side of it, but we have a lot of fun too. And a lot of parties, you know, before COVID after COVID and you know, I'm 47 years old and I'm the kid there. So it, it's kinda neat too, because it's, it's, you know, it's good and bad.
[00:18:05] Jeremy: Like it's the F as a fraternity, it's, it's, it's an aging fraternity. So, you know, back in the fifties and sixties, you know, there was millions of, of masons and tens of thousands of Shriners and, you know, through age and those types of things, you know, membership has declined, but we are attracting newer, younger members, which is great to keep it alive.
[00:18:27] Jeremy: But again, I'm, I'm one of the youngest members that I know. And, but it's great. I, you know, my wife said that to me when I joined she's like, why do you want to hang out with a bunch of old guys? And like, All guys are cool. Uh, you know, there's lots of stories and, and share their knowledge. And I gotta be honest.
[00:18:43] Jeremy: I like to party, I'll be the last guy up, but some of I, you know, I was saying to a friend a while ago, like some of these Shriners, they can party just you. I've been at a lot of parties where there's a lot of 78 year olds that are still up when I'm going to bed. So, um, we like, we, we work hard and we play hard, but it's a great organization.
[00:19:00] Jeremy: I can't say enough about it. And, uh, I'm a big supporter of it. And I think that's why, you know, I, I definitely dedicate some of my time on Instagram just to showcase some of the things that's not bragging. It's not touting it's, it's more around awareness and education. So fellows like you, who may be. So aware of it gives them an opportunity to ask questions or find out a little bit more about it.
[00:19:21] Jordan: Yeah. That's incredible. Thanks for the work you're doing. I did not know that existed at all, and I'm sure you've, you've probably changed millions of lives by doing that, which is an amazing thing that you can do. So thanks for doing that and help keeping that goal. Well, it's,
[00:19:35] Jeremy: it's amazing. It's an amazing organization.
[00:19:37] Jeremy: Like I've been in like, we'll do these conferences and things like that, where, you know, we'll get a couple of hundred guys together. And often what they'll do is they'll bring in a patient from the hospital. So I remember a couple years ago just before COVID we were up in Berry, we were having a big ceremonial up in Berrien.
[00:19:53] Jeremy: They brought a little girl in from, I think she was from Sudbury and she'd been a patient at the Montreal hospital and she had, I believe it was scoliosis. So curvature of the spine and through treatment and through operations, you know, she ran into there and, but she got up at the podium. She was about 10.
[00:20:11] Jeremy: And she told her story of how her and her mom went to the Shriner's hospital and how she had this care and how they, they made her feel better. And I'll tell you, there was like a hundred burly guys in that room and there wasn't a dry eye in the place. So that makes it all worth it. So, you know, the time and energy and everything that goes into it, when you, when you hear a story of like that, it's like, yep, check mark.
[00:20:33] Jeremy: I'm doing the right thing. Yeah,
[00:20:34] Jordan: incredible. That you can make such a difference to somebody's life, you know, by raising some money and also having some fun with some other lads at the same. So that's great. So thanks for doing that. I feel like the stuff with the Shriners also ties into your mentality around the Canadian barbecue mafia.
[00:20:51] Jordan: So can you go ahead and tell me and the listeners more about the mafia and what the barbecue mafia is all about?
[00:20:58] Jeremy: Absolutely. So it started out as a logo. It really did, like, so a few years ago, a few of us were doing a barbecue show at Dixon's barbecue in Toronto, and we wanted to come up with a name. We wanted something cool.
[00:21:10] Jeremy: So, you know, develop the Canadian barbecue mafia. My wife's a graphic designer, so I'm fortunate that way. So she came up with our logo and we had some fun with the event. And, and then on an Instagram perspective, I've, I've had the handle of a big green chair for a number of years because of my affiliation with big green Canada being a brand ambassador for.
[00:21:32] Jeremy: And then, uh, last year I was thinking about, you know, community and, and barbecue and being stuck at home and, and talking to a number of my friends that I've met through barbecue. And, you know, I was having a conversation with a few of my friends and my wife, and I said, you know, I've always loved. The mafia sort of like slogan and I love the, I love the, uh, the branding behind it.
[00:21:57] Jeremy: So I thought, okay, I'm going to go online. I'm going to order like a dozen baseball caps. I'm going to get them done. I'm just going to give them out to my buddies, you know, Ted and Mel out west and few of my buddies. And then, so I went online and I was going to order these baseball caps and, you know, it's, it's, you know, your order, the more you order, the cheaper it gets.
[00:22:13] Jeremy: Right. So I ordered, wow. Maybe what the hell orders like 30 hats? I think, I, I think my first order was 30 or 36 hats and, you know, I had them embroidered. I found a really good and border. And I threw it up on Instagram. And in the meantime I had changed my handle on Instagram. So we were Canadian barbecue mafia on Instagram.
[00:22:30] Jeremy: So I threw the hat up there and honestly, within two hours, the 30 hats were smoking for, and I wasn't using it as a moneymaker. I really wasn't like, you know, the hats were costing me 20, $25. And people were spending like, I might've been making a couple of bucks. And, but what I realized is what the, the desire, I guess, the need of people wanting to sort of create like this community event or community group.
[00:22:55] Jeremy: And so it kind of just honestly it steamed roll from there. So then it was like, oh, then I had people DM-ing me saying, Hey, I want a hat. How do I join? How do I join? And because what was happening was when guys were, people were getting their hats in the mail, they were taking really cool pictures beside their grill.
[00:23:11] Jeremy: And then I would do a post saying, Hey, welcome to the mafia. You know, dark side of the grill is joined the mafia. Let's welcome them on. And those types of things. So people were, were really attracted to that type of. Recognition, so to speak. And again, so the DM started, Hey, how do I join? What's this all about?
[00:23:27] Jeremy: So then I really had to sit back and think it was like, what do we really want to achieve here? You know? Yeah. We're a bunch of really passionate people about barbecue, but it's, we're trying to, you know, we're building more of that. We're building more of a community. So how do we, how do we tap into each other's knowledge?
[00:23:43] Jeremy: How do we tap into, you know, the knowledge base, right? So like so many times, you know, if you're cooking something, you're not sure of, like, we, we've got a lot of members who are from all different walks of life now. So we've got executive chefs or people who've been barbecuing for 50 years and we've got members who literally just got our first Weber kettle at Christmas, and they're wanting to wanting to cook their first brisket or their first, you know, pork butt on the kettle.
[00:24:10] Jeremy: So they're reaching out to guys in the mafia and people in the mafia saying, Hey, I've got this. How do I do it? And next thing you know, there's like 15 text messages going back and forth. Okay, try this, do this, you know, use this method. And it's, it's extremely satisfying that way. And it just find that, you know, we've done a few events, we've done a couple events at Ted reader's restaurant where people show up and we're getting groups of pictures with guys with their hats on.
[00:24:33] Jeremy: And it's just, it's creating a lot of momentum and passion. I think that's the one thing that I've really recognized is when people get behind something that they really believe in, they become passionate. So like our website, for example, one of our members, Chris Graham, uh, duke on the grill, he took it upon himself to say, Hey, Jerry, you know, let's build a website.
[00:24:54] Jeremy: Let's, let's start putting this, some of this stuff on the web. Go for it. And so we're tapping into different people's talents within the, within the group. So Chris has been working on, you know, in partnership with me building out this website and having a members only section and having, you know, recipes, onlines and members' profiles.
[00:25:14] Jeremy: And so we're just sort of an application process because now we want to kind of funnel people through the website to say, Hey, if you want to become part of the mafia, tell us a little bit about yourself and join the movement. And so we launched the website two weeks ago and within 48 hours, we had over 90 people send in applications for membership, you know, from all of this, what we've really tried to do is like, what, what do we want to achieve here?
[00:25:42] Jeremy: And so part of it is, is the charity piece. And I think to your point that. Where it ties into my personal life is how do we now give back to the community and how so right now we're actively discussing and looking at a number of different food type charities, you know, like different, you know, if it's it's a men's shelter or if it's, um, you know, we, we've got, you know, a few chats with some different church groups and stuff like that, where we can say, okay, you know what, there's going to be 10 of us.
[00:26:09] Jeremy: We're going to show up on a Saturday, we're going to bring our grills and we're going to bring the food. And we're going to do a charity barbecue for you, or we're going to do, you know, let's, let's cook for all the residents in your home or, or however it is, or, you know, let's partner with some big barbecue companies where we can get our hands on a few grills that we can turn around and donate those to families in need.
[00:26:29] Jeremy: So that's the part of the group that we're really trying to explore now and, and create some momentum behind it. But there's so much passion within the group. Like every day I'm getting calls from guys and Pete and girls in the group saying, Hey, what about this? Have we thought about this? Uh, you know, I've got a friend that works for this company, so I'm going to reach out to them and see if we can get a few free t-shirts or something like that.
[00:26:53] Jeremy: Right. So it's, and I'm not going to stop any. Passion and momentum. So it's, it's really taken off that
[00:27:00] Jordan: way. Awesome. Because I remember the first time you posted the hat and I, I saw it, I was like, damn, that's a nice looking hat. And I had messaged you. You're like, sorry, they're all gone. I was like, son of a bitch.
[00:27:11] Jordan: And then the second round came out, you know, like, sorry, they're all gone. Come on.
[00:27:16] Jeremy: It was, it was like fast. It goes like, and I'm not, I'm, I've become a little bit more organized, but my wife is the one that she's really organized. Right. So she's like, I hope you're keeping track of people's names. I'm hoping you're taking track of their money, you know?
[00:27:29] Jeremy: So I'm like, yeah. Yeah, don't worry. Don't worry. Um, so I'm, I'm sure I've given a few out free along the way or forgotten to click the money, but it's, um, It's a cool logo. People really like it. And, and I wanted to get something that's a comfortable hat. So like I wear baseball caps all the time, uh, when I'm not working.
[00:27:47] Jeremy: So I, I researched hats. I wanted to find a comfortable hat. And of course, you know, with supply chain management issues out there, um, you know, these hats were crazy. Like the people I was ordering the hats from basically from October till about, you know, we're February now. So probably from October to about, you know, beginning of January, there was just no hats out there.
[00:28:09] Jeremy: And every day I was checking websites and checking in and prices were going up. So I was trying to keep the prices down. So eventually, you know, a bunch of hats became available and I just put in one big order. Okay, I'm going to bite the bullet. Let me order like a hundred hats. I know people want to join in the hat is part of it, right.
[00:28:27] Jeremy: They want to be recognized by wearing the hat. Um, so I I'm sure they're all going to go. Or if not, I'll, if I'm sitting on 20 baseball caps, I don't care. I'll wear them, but, uh, yeah, they're, they're comfortable hats and we want to get the message out there and it there's nothing better. Like I said, we did an event at Ted's last summer and I didn't realize this, but a lot of the guys that folks that were coming were members and we were able to get a group picture of about 20 of us altogether.
[00:28:52] Jeremy: And it was so cool to be able to post that and say, yep, the mafia was there. It seems
[00:28:57] Jordan: like it's really a built for the community by the community. And you just kind of got the ball rolling down the hill, right? Like you you've made a hat and you're like, I love this hat. I'm going to sell it to somebody.
[00:29:08] Jordan: Just to pay for shipping. And now all these people have taken it upon themselves to create this massive community with you that you, I don't know. Did you intend for it to grow into such a big community or were you just bored with COVID and wanted to put some hats out that looked like. Yeah,
[00:29:24] Jeremy: I think it was a bit of mix of a mix of both like my wife, like she was pushing me going, okay, like, what's your plan, Jeremy?
[00:29:31] Jeremy: Like what, what's the end game here? And I'm like, I just want to have, like, I want, let me get hats out. Let me get them out to somebody. I'm always like, yeah, but you got to have more of a plan. You got to, again, she's the organizer. Right. God bless her. But it's like let's and now she sits back and goes like, wow, did you plan this?
[00:29:48] Jeremy: I'm like, yeah, of course I did. I knew this is exactly what, this is what I had planned from day one. She's like, yeah. Right. BS. No, it's got legs. And, and I'm so fortunate to have so many. Cool members like, and a lot of the guys that, you know, like Ted reader has been a huge supporter. I've been friends with Ted for years and he got behind it from day one.
[00:30:07] Jeremy: And he's like, Tabby, I want a hat. I want this. I want, how do I promote it? And guys like Mel out and Edmonton dark side of the grill, who's got a big social media following he's he's always pushing the, you know, the mafia and, and a lot of other guys that have been in the mix too. Right. So like, guys, it's funny.
[00:30:26] Jeremy: Cause the problem I have now is when I do a post it's like you can only tag so many people on Instagram. I think it only allows you to tag up to 20 people and people are getting mad at me now if I don't tag them. So, you know, for example, like we'll bring in a new member and one of the cool things is we like to showcase who our new members are.
[00:30:44] Jeremy: So, you know, You know, Bob on the grill has joined the Canadian barbecue mafia. Everybody welcome Bob and Bubba. And next thing you know, guys are folks are timing in. Welcome. Welcome, welcome. So automatically someone's there feeling part of the community, but I can only tag so many members, so I try to switch it up.
[00:31:01] Jeremy: So I'm not always tagging the same people. It's, it's a first-world problem, but people do get upset if you, some people don't like to be tagged. So that's cause like, Hey, I will tell you no worries, but I've got a lot of other friends that are like, Hey, uh, you didn't tag me in the last two posts. Are we cool?
[00:31:18] Jeremy: Is there something, did I piss you off? I'm like, no, dude. It's like, I've got a list of names. I'm just trying to tag people. So I don't miss anybody. So definitely not intentional. But the drama of the drama of social media sometimes. Right. It's
[00:31:31] Jordan: exhausting. Sometimes it's hard to keep
[00:31:33] Jeremy: up with the other thing too, is like, we want to make sure that people feel that we're open to everybody.
[00:31:39] Jeremy: Right? So like predominantly the first batch of people that joined the mafia were close friends of mines, guys that, you know, folks that I had on Instagram, but then a couple of people said, well, what about females? I'm like, absolutely. Like if there is a female griller out there that wants to join the mafia and wants to be part of it, go to our website.
[00:31:57] Jeremy: Send us your details. And, you know, I took tomorrow off work. So just so I can get back to a lot of these people, because they've been sitting there for a couple of weeks. So I said to my wife, I said, I'm booking Friday off my day job. And I'm just gonna, you know, email a bunch of people out because what we're moving towards is because we want to do the charity piece of it.
[00:32:16] Jeremy: And we want to be self-funded. We want we've created like a lifetime membership. So you'll, we've designed a lifetime membership card, you know, of course you get the hat and some other things that come along with it. And then we're saying, Hey, if you want to be a lifetime member of the mafia, it's going to cost you this.
[00:32:33] Jeremy: And we're trying to keep the costs down, but 20, at least 25% of those funds are going to go to a dedicated charity. So I think that will be appealing for people because. Again, I haven't turned this into a moneymaker. There is opportunity to make some money at this. I'm not saying that's not where we're going to go with it and, and be able to raise some money, but certainly in the initial stages, any money that we get from it outside of covering the initial costs of shipping is the other thing, right?
[00:33:02] Jeremy: Shipping within Canada is brutal. Like I felt bad when I started selling hats because I had a lot of people from out west and a lot out east, like we've got like 10 members. Eastern Ontario, at least, or more. And you know, the hats I was selling the hats, I think for $25. And I would go onto Canada post, I set up a small business account with Canada post and I was looking like to ship a hat from here to new Brunswick is like 20 or $23.
[00:33:27] Jeremy: So I'd message, message the person and say, Hey, I'm really sorry, but if you want a hat, like it's costs, it's the cost of the hat. And everything is like 25 bucks, but it's going to cost you $20 to get it. And I'm not making any money. I'll show you. I'll send you a screenshot of exactly what it's costing me and people were okay with it.
[00:33:45] Jeremy: Like I felt bad. I think it was more internally saying, wow know, I feel bad charging somebody $40 for a baseball cap, but people were paying it. So that's why we thought, okay, let's move to, you know, let's create like a lifetime membership and add in some perks. So on the website, we're going to have a members only section and we're going to have.
[00:34:04] Jeremy: Specifically for members. So you can go in and say your example, you love hot sauce. So we'll have a hot sauce company on there at one we're working on. So this is a real example. So we're going to have a really, really cool hot sauce company on there that are going to offer us a 15% discount for members only.
[00:34:18] Jeremy: So I'm hoping through some of those discounts that people will also see the value and say, okay, say the membership's a hundred dollars one a one-time deal. But you know, if I'm buying a hundred dollars worth of hot sauce, well, there's $15. I'm going to get a hat. I'm going to, you know, $25 is going to charity and you're going to belong to a really cool community.
[00:34:37] Jeremy: And that's the big thing, but I don't want to feel, I don't want anybody to feel obligated and doing it either. Right. So if, if somebody isn't comfortable with doing. I'm totally cool with it too. So, you know, we want people to want to be part of it. And at the same time, if we can build up a little bit of a nest egg, so, you know, we can go to some of these charities and say, Hey, you know, we, we've got a thousand dollars.
[00:34:57] Jeremy: And so we're going to come out and we're going to cook for, you know, a hundred people and it's not going to cost anything. And you know, we've got some other sponsors who are willing to provide, you know, charcoal and firewood and stuff like that. So it's through COVID. I think people have become more.
[00:35:14] Jeremy: Compassionate. And I've noticed that in certainly in the barbecue community is there's a lot more, you know, empathy and compassion, which is great. So people want to help one another, like it's, it's, it's a, been a tough couple of years. Uh, you know, a lot of people physically being stuck at home or, or physically being put through, you know, who maybe have contracted COVID or a family member, or even just the mental side of things.
[00:35:38] Jeremy: Right. Like people being stuck in their house for months and months and going stir crazy, you know, a lot of divorces have happened over the last couple of years. Right. So it's like, Hey, you know, you know, thankfully my wife and I we've gotten along great during COVID knock on wood and we've got a really strong relationship, but it it's been a trying time.
[00:35:55] Jeremy: And I think through all of that, uh, not to sound too cheesy is it's, it's created a level of compassion that's and tapping into people's compassion. And how do we take that? And couple that with the passion of barbecue, I think they go hand in hand.
[00:36:08] Jordan: Absolutely. I think they do. And like, you're right. It's been a tough couple of years and the amount of people that have also just gotten into barbecue in the last couple of years.
[00:36:16] Jordan: Like I was one of those people, I, I smoked a little bit prior to COVID, but then once I got shut down with work, I was like, I lost my job and went and bought a pit boss. I was like, if I'm going to be. I'm going to buy a big old barrel smoker, like, and I think a lot of people are getting into it and they've discovered the, like the real sense of fulfillment and passion you get when you cook for a group of people, like even myself through the first round of lockdowns, I would, you know, I'd put a call out to a bunch of people and then they'd say yes, and I would, I cooked big, pulled pork sandwiches with sides and Mac and cheese.
[00:36:49] Jordan: And I drove from Hamilton to Gwelf to Toronto, to Bradford and just delivered people, all of these different meals and like, they'd come out and they just they'd light right up. They'd be so happy to see AAC, other humans and be, they've got this like warm barbecue meal there for no cost at all. Like some people would, you know, give a couple cans of beer to year 20 bucks.
[00:37:11] Jordan: And some people was nothing and it was fine. It was like, I just, I want to cook for people and I want to help and give some stuff back. And I think that's like this kind of, you're doing that in an organized way now. Like you're having people sign up to say, I want to help communities. Right. I want to help feed other people.
[00:37:29] Jordan: And I want to just be part of this group of amazing folks that are cooking all the time and are just being friendly and helping back. And you seem to have accidentally created this big community of people that want to do that, which I
[00:37:40] Jeremy: think is right. Yeah. It has been cool. I'm, I'm extremely fortunate.
[00:37:45] Jeremy: Um, you know, and you know, hopefully good people attract good people and you know, there's, there's not a lot of drama in our group. Uh, you know, there's the egos, of course there's egos, wherever you go. Right. Everybody's like, oh, I cook the best brisk and I cooked the best steak and it's like, okay, sure.
[00:38:01] Jeremy: Whatever. And sometimes they do. Um, but you're right. I think that's the thing is like I've sort of stumbled upon. This opportunity for so to speak, right? And it's like, how do I, how do we put some guard rails around it and, and have fun with it? I think that's the other part is, is once we, you know, hopefully brighter days ahead and we're able to exit out of this pandemic and it's, it's looking, you know, knock on wood as long as there's no variants that come along.
[00:38:26] Jeremy: Hopefully we're, we're, uh, you know, we're, we're kind of at the light at the end of the tunnel. And, you know, there's nothing more than, than we want is to be able to say, Hey guys, we're going to do an event and show up and, and let's have some fun and let's have, you know, if you, if you, if you like beer, we'll have a few beers.
[00:38:43] Jeremy: And if you, if you don't, that's cool. And, but you're right. You're you just want to, I think there's that need and, and people, we, you know, we're, we're a social creatures and we haven't had a lot of opportunity to have those social interactions over the last couple of years. So there's definitely a desire.
[00:39:00] Jeremy: In a large part. Um, and if we can feed that and turn it into something positive, I'm all for it.
[00:39:06] Jordan: Yeah, absolutely. And why wouldn't you like it's, it just, it feels so good to feed people. So you've kind of just, you've created this community thing now you're leveraging talents within the community, like with the website and all that kind of stuff.
[00:39:20] Jordan: Like, are you putting any calls out to the members for specific things or are they just offering the talents that they have to try and help? Like how are you finding these talented people? Is it just pure luck and through social media that they've come your way and can do a bunch of other
[00:39:35] Jeremy: things. I think it's a mix of both.
[00:39:38] Jeremy: I think a lot of it is, is self-driven through them. Like, so I don't know. It's funny it's I do a lot with charity, but it's always a little awkward for me to ask for help. Right? Like it's oh, I love to give and trust me, I love, I love presence, but sometimes it's better to give than to receive, but a lot of it is just.
[00:39:55] Jeremy: People being so passionate about it. Like we, I had a couple of the guys over Friday night just to talk about some strategy and okay. What's the next six months. What's the next year look like, you know, let's think about all these people that want on come on board. How do we make them feel like they're part of the community?
[00:40:09] Jeremy: So we did a little bit of strategy session over some barbecue and beers, of course. And, but it's like, people are like getting excited. Like one of the fellows, God bless him. He's like, I'm thinking about wrapping my vehicle, the Canadian barbecue mafia. I be like, whoa, like that just blew my mind to think that there's somebody out there that wants the wrap, their vehicle and my logo.
[00:40:28] Jeremy: I'm like, I go, Hey, I'm totally cool with that, dude. As long as you don't want me to pay for it, you can go to town and wrap your truck. But I think that's, that's part of it is people and, and all the time members are reaching out to me saying, Hey, I know this person that can, you know, rent us a bus, dirt cheap.
[00:40:44] Jeremy: So how do we, you know, is there anything we could do with, you know, do you want. Boston goes somewhere. I'm like, well, I didn't really think about a road trip, but maybe four, or we've got, we're going to do a barbecue party at Ted readers. Um, if you're available on the 25th of June, it's his 59th birthday at the barbecue joint.
[00:41:02] Jeremy: So we're going to be a big part of that, the mafia. So one of the members, uh, his daughter manages a local hotel deal and he got us like a killer radon rooms. So it's, it's, it's cool that people are able to, and I think that's part of, you know, we, we attract people from all different walks of life. As I mentioned earlier, we've got, you know, people that are executive chefs.
[00:41:24] Jeremy: We've got people that are welders, we've got first responders, we've got a number of first responders that are members and it's just, how do we pull in those talents? And a lot of it is people are just offering them up like Chris with his website skills. It's like, you know, in order if I wanted to build a.
[00:41:39] Jeremy: First of all, it would be expensive. And second of all, I don't have the knowledge base to do it, but here's somebody who's caught a bit of extra time. Who's willing to do it. And that's great. So, you know, and I think that's part of it is we want to continue to identify those strengths within the group and, you know, it's, it's self-serving, but it's also beneficial to the group as well.
[00:41:58] Jeremy: You know, my wife's a graphic designer. She works full time. Now people are like, Hey, can your wife design a logo for me? And that class, not really what she does, but okay. So, you know, you got to kind of give and take a little bit, but, uh, yeah, no, it's, it's fun. Like it's it, that's what I think sort of that next level is looking like too is like, okay, we've got all of these really talented individuals within the food community and outside of it, um, you know, how do we, how do we kind of tap into that and exploited for the lack of a better word?
[00:42:28] Jordan: And that's what you have to do, you know, The a rising tide lifts all boats, and you got to, you need everyone to lift each other up in order to really get yourself somewhere. And it just, it works so much better when it's towards a community and not towards yourself. People love to help people when they have the capacity to do so.
[00:42:46] Jordan: Like people don't like to help when they're being forced, because sometimes, you know, sometimes you can't, you're either not mentally prepared or you can't do it financially or anything, but if you're able to help and willing, it's a great feeling to be able to do. And I think what you're doing here is getting people together to do those kinds of things.
[00:43:03] Jordan: And they're seeing an opportunity now where they don't have to go and seek out specific places to try and help that or specific things to do your kind of collected. The people and saying, here's what we can do. We can help this organization. We can cook for these people. We can donate to this charity and we can help all these people do the things.
[00:43:23] Jordan: And then everyone's on board going like, yeah, I love the plan. Let's do it. And it's totally scalable too. You can, all of a sudden you have Mel running the mafia and Edmonton, and you've got an Edmonton base and a Ontario base and you're like, oh shit. Now I got two places to go here. This is crazy. Like, what the
[00:43:40] Jeremy: hell we, and we, and we've talked a lot about that.
[00:43:43] Jeremy: Like the group, like we've got sort of a core group of twentieths that started sort of started this crazy train together. Uh, me, me being the conductor and, and those are the conversations we're having now. It's like, you know, we've got a lot of guys out east, so we've got like Vito and Cory and Ubuntu and mark and all the guys out east, and they're going, Hey, maybe we could do it like an east coast chapter.
[00:44:04] Jeremy: And like, can I be the capital of the east coast chapter? Pit boss or pit boys, I guess boys, where they have all these different chapters and, and who knows, like it's, it's got legs and it's got momentum. So I don't want to hold anything back. And, and people want to like, do like little mini events in their area.
[00:44:22] Jeremy: I'm all for it. And if I can travel to be there to help support it and be part of it, all the power, but you're right. And I think the other part of it that I've recognized too, is helping. Externally, but internally as well as a group. So, you know, there's been a few examples lately where just the outpouring of support internally has been really, you know, I'm not a soft mushy guy, but it's, it's really warm feeling when, you know, an example is one of the fellows that's been a member for since day one, a couple of weeks lost his dog.
[00:44:54] Jeremy: Right. And that's as a pet owner, that's devastating, right? It's part of your family. And, you know, just the outpouring of support that I saw for this individual and his family for those few days where they were dealing with that as. There are stresses were up there. You know, the dog was, you know, had to, unfortunately it was, was put to sleep in that, but like just the outpouring of support of, from the barbecue community in the, in the mafia, just the notes of, Hey, I'm here.
[00:45:19] Jeremy: If you need to talk and, and you know, we've got a group of conversations going and we get into some pretty heavy conversations and it's not just all about, Hey, brisket's on sale at Sobey's this week. Let's go out and read the freezers. It's like, Hey boys, I'm having a bad mental health day helped me through this.
[00:45:36] Jeremy: And you know, I'm thinking this, or, and guys are just like pouring their souls there. And I'm like, wow. Like people are really, uh, we've we've created. And I don't want to take all the credit for it. Cause I can't, but we've, we've created a group of individuals who, if you're comfortable. You're going to get support.
[00:45:54] Jeremy: It's almost like that support network, right? Like we're not, we're not AA by any means, but we're, you know, we're, we're there to support one another, which is really, I'm really proud of that as well. Like, just like, that's, that's kind of a small example of, of a lot of these types of situations that I've seen over the last year is like, you know, all it takes is just a note to one another saying, Hey, I need help here.
[00:46:15] Jeremy: Or I need need support here. I just need somebody to talk to. And, you know, the phone is always available. So that's, that's really been cool to, to see that sort of come to life through this group.
[00:46:26] Jordan: Yeah. And I think that's so important. I'd say, especially for the males in the community, you know, not saying that females always have the support system for mental stuff, but for, for guys, it, it is incredibly hard to kind of come forward with any mental challenges because you know, we're supposed to be tough all the time, you know, hardest rock, no emotions, but I've noticed in the last year, That it's, it's a lot more common.
[00:46:54] Jordan: Now that guys are coming forward and saying, Hey, I'm having a hard time and I need help. And it's, it's so good to see that they're not just going to a doctor in private and hiding it. They're talking with their buddies, they're talking with their friends and groups on Instagram. They're posting about it saying, Hey, I'm having a hard time.
[00:47:11] Jordan: And if you're having a hard time, it's okay. And the fact that you've created this community of people that. Can help other people in that same situation is probably more important than you even realize, because now they've got an outlet when all their other outlets fail, that they can still talk to someone and say, Hey, I need help right now someone call me and someone will, you know, and I think,
[00:47:34] Jeremy: oh yeah, a hundred percent.
[00:47:36] Jeremy: Like it's like, there was, there was a few days there where I'm sitting there and it's like, and these guys don't sleep. So these conversations will go from like four in the morning to like midnight. And I'm like, we're like seven 11. We're always here. Right. It's like Kaiser paying each other back and forth.
[00:47:52] Jeremy: And my wife's like, who are you talking like a lot of times and don't get me wrong. A lot of times we're busting balls to, Hey, you know? And I think that's a big part of it too, but, but just knowing that people are there to support one another and I see it and it's like, you know, we get into these heavy conversations and it's not all drama in that, but it's like, people are, people are really sharing personal.
[00:48:13] Jeremy: Hey, I grew up in this type of situation and maybe. Best childhood. And this is what I've done along the way. And this is what, this is what barbecue means to me. And even through this quasi application process on the website, there's a section where people can fill out what you know about barbecue and things like that.
[00:48:30] Jeremy: And, and I was re I was viewing them the other day, reviewing some of the. I think people were writing like paragraphs of what barbecue means to them. And, and to your point, it's like, you know, during COVID, you know, it was an outlet for me and I was able to, you know, do something other than just sitting around twiddling my thumbs.
[00:48:50] Jeremy: And so people, you know, what I think he made a really valid point Jordan earlier is like, people have. Who maybe not have barbecued in the past have found that as, as an, an outlet for them. And it's like, Hey, you know, maybe they've had a grill in their backyard for a long time and they've just decided to fire it up.
[00:49:06] Jeremy: Or, you know, I think there's, there's something that's created that, you know, community and people. You know, and then it becomes like that addiction, right? It's like, Hey, I want to do this. I want to cook this. Like I had a friend of mine who's part of the mafia and he's like, he'd never, he'd never did a Tomahawk steak before.
[00:49:22] Jeremy: Right. So it was like, it was almost like he was nervous, like, okay, I got go out and spend, you know, I'm going to be spending 60, $70 on this Tomahawk. My wife's already not happy that I've studied that much money on one steak. And I really don't want to screw it up. So walk me through the process and, you know, and that's the thing with barbecue.
[00:49:40] Jeremy: It's, you know, you're going to have a few screw ups along the way. We've, you know, I'm a steak eater. I love eating steak. I could eat steak every day, but, um, you know, I've had a few bad steaks throughout the years, but it's, it's been a creative outlet for some people. It's been a mental health house for some people, uh, just getting outside, doing it and then, and being able to talk to other people about it, right?
[00:50:00] Jeremy: Like I've cooked stuff like last summer, I cooked for the first time, a whole hog. That was always my bucket list. I wanted to do a whole hog and I got one. I got one ordered through my Busher and I didn't know the first thing about a hog and me while I'd spent $200 on this 55 pound hog, I was like, I better not screw this one up.
[00:50:18] Jeremy: Cause I'll never hear the end of it. But again, it's, it's a quick call to a few of the guys that have done them and say, Hey guys, okay, what do I do? Okay, Friday night you do this. Boom, boom, boom, boom. You get up Saturday morning, you do this. And God, and that's what I found about barbecues too. Right? It's it's competitive, but often people are competing against themselves, right?
[00:50:37] Jeremy: Unless you get into like barbecue competitions where it's okay. Now that I'm really trying to win that trophy. What I often find with barbecue is, is people are competing against themselves. So like, okay, I want to bet. I want to up my game. I want to make a better steak. I want to do a better brisket. I want to, I wanna really, I wonder.
[00:50:53] Jeremy: And you made the point earlier, Jordan. There's no. Better than cooking something really good for somebody and or a group of people and them sitting going, wow, that's the best barbecue I've ever had. It's like, oh really? Holy, geez. Okay. Like these are the best ribs I've ever eaten was like really? Okay.
[00:51:09] Jeremy: Thanks. I don't think so, but thank you. But it motivates you. Yeah, it's awesome. And so I think part of that is people are willing to share their experiences and share their learnings. Right. So it's like, Hey, I did this and I screwed it up. So don't follow my don't, don't follow my lead and do it this way, do it this way, the right way.
[00:51:28] Jeremy: So, you know, Ted is great for that. Like Ted I've mentioned Ted a couple of times on here, but he's a great resource. And his, his thing is, you know, don't eat, right. So it's like, uh, I'll leave out the F word, but it's like, don't F it up, but you know, and that's the fun part of it too. Right. But yeah, you, you got to, I don't know.
[00:51:46] Jeremy: I've said it time and time again, but you know, to me, you got to enjoy what you're doing. Life work. Everything's so stressful. If you can find something that helps alleviate that stress. That's great. And that's what barbecue does for me. It's a stress reliever. So it's like, okay, what am I going to cook?
[00:52:02] Jeremy: This? What kind of it's, you know, I like, as I mentioned, I love to eat, but it's also, I love to cook too. So it's like, what do I want to cook this weekend? That's the conversation my wife and I have is like, okay, what do, what do we want to cook this weekend? What do we want to cook tonight for dinner? What are we it's, it's keeping it interesting for sure.
[00:52:18] Jordan: And you have to keep it interesting. I mean, he can't cook a brisket every day. A no one can afford that. And a B you get pretty tired of rich beef, but we're, we're running at a time here. But just because this is a podcast about, you know, using social media to get you where you need to go with the barbecue journey, whether it's, you know, quitting your day job and making thousands of dollars posting content, or just supplementing bills or meeting new people or starting a network.
[00:52:47] Jordan: And it's, it's obvious that social media is. And like an integral role in the barbecue mafia, even if it was by accident at first. And I think it's going to probably be the driving force going forward obviously, but where, I don't know if you have the answer yet, because this all kind of happened so fast, but what is your ultimate goal for the Canadian barbecue mafia?
[00:53:08] Jordan: Where do you want this to go in one year, three years, five years. What do you want
[00:53:12] Jeremy: this to be doing? And that's where I'm spending a lot of time. Cause we kind of you're right. And in a way we kind of stumbled. I, you know, I stumbled upon this opportunity and, and need, right? So we're filling this need. I feel like we're filling a kind of a need that's out there and that's why people are so behind it.
[00:53:29] Jeremy: Um, but I have been spending, you know, a few of us and my wife and, you know, she's always great to bounce ideas off of and friends and lots of friends in the barbecue community. But that's what we've been spending a lot of time on now is like, what does the next 12 months, what does the next five years look like?
[00:53:45] Jeremy: And, you know, I just see this, you know, the momentum that we've been able to build in a year, even from a social media, like I started out a year ago, I probably had, you know, 1500 followers. Right. And now I'm up to almost 3,500 followers. So it very organically too. Like, I, I don't follow unfollow. I'm just all about, Hey, if you want to follow me, follow me.
[00:54:07] Jeremy: If you've got really cool content, I'm going to follow you back. And to your point, I think the social media platform, like, you know, we haven't, we haven't ventured into Tik TOK yet, or some of the other channels. I think we can definitely go into that part. I'd love to start doing more videos. I think there's a, you know, there's an opportunity for that podcasting.
[00:54:25] Jeremy: I could see us doing, like, there's been a big push. A few of the guys are like, Mel does a weekly show. Brad, a Canadian drum smoker. He's another really good friend of mine member of it. He does a weekly show. Is there, I think there's a, a need or a desire for, for the mafia to be part of that process too, because people love to talk like I'm a talker.
[00:54:45] Jeremy: You can tell we've been here almost an hour and I haven't shut up yet, but it's, it's creating that forum for people to not everybody likes being on camera. Right. So is it an audio thing? But I think there's, I would say longterm medium to long-term is I love the idea of. Chapters. I love to say, Hey, we've got, you know, 50 people out west that are running the Canadian barbecue Moffitt.
[00:55:08] Jeremy: And even in the states, like I've got a number of individuals, a few, few people from California, Florida. We've got some members, so who knows we might even go sows. But, uh, I think there's a big opportunity for us to really expand, but I think I'm still very cognizant of wanting to connect and continue to build that community and making feel people feel like they're part of something.
[00:55:32] Jeremy: And it's more, it's more. And I say this jokingly now it's more than just a baseball cap. It started out as a baseball cap, but it's more than that now. And. Continue to build it in a way that we've built thus far, but, you know, long-term, I'd love to be able to do more catering events, charity events. I think there's a community aspect that we could definitely be tap into.
[00:55:53] Jeremy: I think from a corporate perspective, if we can get a few big, uh, you know, barbecue or food or corporate customer corporations behind us, um, there's definitely an opportunity there. So yeah, I think there's definitely some momentum. Um, I don't think I'm ever gonna, you know, I say this now, but I'm asked, you know, are you going to quit your day job and do this?
[00:56:14] Jeremy: Full-time I'm like, no, no, I need to pay a mortgage. I need to pay the bills. It's still a sort of, somewhat of a side hustle for me. But yeah, I'm excited. Like if, if we look at even just the last 12 months and what we've been able to do in 12 months, and if we can push that out over the next 12 to 36 months or longer, I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
[00:56:35] Jordan: Absolutely. And you're building the platform now. People can reach out and become a member easier. Now it used to be, you know, messaging you and like you, your first membership road was 35 hats. Cause you kept one for yourself. So, but now
[00:56:50] Jeremy: any totally. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So now it's like, okay, I want, I want people to be involved.
[00:56:55] Jeremy: I want people to feel that they can join and be part of it. And absolutely. And when people bring ideas, like it's, that's the other thing, right? It's like, There's no such a, you know, it sounds sort of cliche, but there's really no such thing as a bad idea, let's throw it out there. And guys, folks are doing that all the time in the membership and saying, Hey, what about this?
[00:57:15] Jeremy: Have we thought about this? Or, and you know, we, we don't always agree on everything. You know, I want to protect the brand. It's now it's becoming a brand. Right. And that's the other thing is like, how do we build this brand with integrity behind it? So that's the other thing that I'm very conscious of is making sure that we protect the brand of the Canadian BBQ mafia.
[00:57:34] Jordan: Yeah. You've had like, especially with the traction you have now, you need to be sure you don't grow too fast because then the wheels fall off and you kind of lose track of it. And you've got a bunch of different people doing whatever they want with your brand attached, but it seems like you've got the rails on there.
[00:57:50] Jordan: Good. You've got solid wheels underneath you and you're, you're rolling along pretty well by the looks of it. And when I'm really excited to see where
[00:57:56] Jeremy: this goes, Yeah, that's awesome. And, and opportunities like this to talk to tell you Jordan, and get the word out there. Like I jokingly say, you know what, the gospel of the Canadian barbecue mafia, we're not, you know, in your intro, you talked about, we're not a bunch of guys that are going to show up in suits and that we're just, we're, we're folks that love to grill and, uh, and have fun with it.
[00:58:15] Jeremy: So if you think this is something for you, by all means, reach out and we'd love to chat with you.
[00:58:20] Jordan: Absolutely. Where can everybody reach you and reach out and get in touch if that's something that
[00:58:26] Jeremy: they want to do. So all of our social media is Canadian. So CDN B a R BQ mafia.com. That's the website or Instagram, you know, CDN BBQ, mafia hit.
[00:58:38] Jeremy: We love to talk and, uh, we'll connect you for
[00:58:41] Jordan: sure. And I'll link all that stuff in the show notes on influential, barbecue.com. If anyone needs to go there and grab that, Jeremy, thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me. Thanks for building this community and getting these people involved in charities and barbecue and comradery, and, you know, building even just a small little mental health ring of people that can chat and like air their grievances and just kind of hang out and be themselves with each other because we really need.
[00:59:08] Jordan: These days. So thanks for, thanks for building this. Even if it was by accident.
[00:59:12] Jeremy: No, well said, well said thanks, Jordan. And you hit the nail on the head. I couldn't have said it better myself. So thank you. And
[00:59:18] Jordan: we'll talk to you soon and I can't wait to see you on the Canadian barbecue mafia tour across
[00:59:23] Jeremy: Canada someday.
[00:59:24] Jeremy: Coming to a city near you. All right. Take care, man. Take care.
[00:59:35] Jordan: All right. That will do it for my discussion with Jeremy of the Canadian barbecue mafia. As you can tell Jerry, isn't creating this as some sort. Get rich scheme, you can hear it in his voice. He truly enjoys bringing people together and absolutely loves helping out those in need, whether it's by cooking meals for them raising money or awareness for causes, or simply by lending an ear to someone who just needs to talk and helping them in the community is something I think we all need to intentionally carve out a little bit more time for it's so easy to get wrapped up in our own lives and only focus on that.
[01:00:11] Jordan: But the smallest gesture like cooking the quick meal or donating leftovers can go such a long way to help those. That might be in a bit of a tough spot right now. One thing I like to do in the summers is keep a case of bottled water in the front seat, near the AC. You know, if I come to a stoplight and someone's asking for help, I can hand them a couple of bottles of water.
[01:00:30] Jordan: It's not much, but it'll go a long way for them and help them kind of stay healthy, stay hydrated, and hopefully get things turned around. So while you're chasing down your own dreams and trying to build businesses and followings and drive your success forward, just remember to take a few minutes every now and then, and think about what you can do to help give back to those in need in your community and your country and your family.
[01:00:50] Jordan: Everybody needs a little bit of help sometimes. And so that will do it for this episode of influential barbecue. Thank you so much for tuning in this week. You can find links to everything we talked about today on the show notesPage@influentialbarbecue.com. I'm always looking for feedback on this show.
[01:01:07] Jordan: I'm just reporting by myself most of the time or with my guests. So any feedback you'd 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 to the M two influential barbecue on Instagram. Also, if you or your business is looking to start a podcast, please let me know.
[01:01:27] Jordan: I recently started the podcast.com in order to help businesses launch the podcast that they've been thinking about launching, but just haven't been able to yet, let me help you go from nothing to a fully produced podcast so that you can help cultivate brand loyalty brand authority and get new customers by launching your podcast and reaching.
[01:01:45] Jordan: Across a new medium I'm Jordan Moore. You can follow my barbecue or interest on Instagram at the backyard. Brisket. Thank you so much for listening. We'll see you next week. Keep on
grilling. .