Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Started my career as an IT executive who would BBQ for friends and family on the weekends. BBQ turned into a passion for me and as a result, started competing with the Dizzy Pig BBQ team. From there, I started a BBQ blog and grew my social media presence teaching people all around the world how to BBQ. Earlier this year my first book was published “The Four Fundamentals of Smoking” from Page Street Publishing with a second book set to be released May 2022. I now do this full-time (retiring from my IT career in 2018) and am sponsored by Big Green Egg, Snake River Farms, Fogo Charcoal, and Dizzy Pig BBQ. I’ve been featured on both local and national news outlets across the country. Having just relocated to Gulfport, FL I am looking to do local pop-ups at breweries, etc.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Competition is always the biggest struggle. There are so many people on social media doing BBQ, so finding ways to differentiate myself is a constant challenge. In addition, new platforms such as TikTok take eyes and attention away from channels I took years building. But the biggest challenge was walking away from a 25-year career in IT two years ago to pursue my dreams only to deal with the pandemic and its impact on the world the following year.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I create 1-minute videos on Instagram teaching people how to cook on their Big Green Egg or other live-fire grills. My ability to teach concepts and break them down for any audience is what sets me apart… that and the Buddha Bite which is my signature move at the end of every video.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Empathy… I have the ability to put myself in someone else’s shoes and see the experience from their perspective. By doing that, it always keeps me humble and allows me to communicate in the most effective way to the audience.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://thebbqbuddha.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/the_bbq_buddha/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theBBQBuddha
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheBBQBuddha
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/thebbqbuddha
