Ep. #1 - How My Brother Watched My Side Hustle Become My Legacy

A brand like Meat Church doesn’t come from a logo or a marketing plan. It comes from reps, risk, and the kind of family stories that shaped how we work and why we cook. For the very first Meat Church Podcast, I sit down with my brother Josh Pittman to trace the real origin story, from our blue-collar roots in the South to the moment barbecue stopped being “something I do” and became the thing I built my life around.

We talk about where our work ethic comes from, why our grandmothers’ from-scratch cooking still influences everything we make, and what it looked like behind the scenes when I left a stable corporate career with four kids and real responsibilities. Josh shares his honest perspective on watching the business grow, how our personalities clash and complement each other, and why focus and consistency matter when you’re trying to turn a side hustle into a real company.

Then we get into the fun details: early BBQ competitions, the tweet that sparked the name “Meat Church,” the Barbecue Pitmasters tryout that went viral, and the scramble to bottle our first rubs so they could show up on TV. We wrap with a mailbag Q&A packed with practical barbecue talk, including what to cook when you’re short on time, how our charcoal is made, and what’s coming next with pellets and sauce.

If you enjoy barbecue stories, Texas barbecue, entrepreneurship, and real behind-the-scenes lessons, subscribe to the Meat Church Podcast, share this with a friend, and leave us a review with the guest you want us to bring on next.

Transcript

Intro

Matt 0:00

Hey, I'm Matt with Meat Church. Welcome to episode one of the Meat Church Podcast. Today we're talking about the origins of Meat Church, and I'm joined by my brother Josh Pittman. Well, I'm super excited for today. Finally, we are starting the Meat Church podcast. It's been such a long time coming. You guys have been asking for this. We have filmed some stuff in this space. It's been teased where people are like, when's the podcast? Where's the podcast? What's going on? Well, where are we? We are at the Meat Church World Headquarters. And when we created this space, I decided that we would build a world-class podcast studio. So my friend Rob Chickering decided, you know, we worked together to come down and design this beautiful space. It's multi-camera for multiple guests. It's going to be a guest-driven podcast. So most of the time, I should be leveraging my vast network of friends and relationships to bring you all kinds of super interesting stuff. A lot of celebrities, so I've got a lot of athletes, a lot of musicians teed up. I'll kind of keep those to myself for now. I've got a lot of well-known folks in barbecue. So we're going to be talking cooking in a lot of these episodes, like serious cooking. I often tell people like I'm super networked in barbecue. I know everybody and their brother, and they're all really open with sharing with me what they do. And that's how I'm able to really fulfill my passion of teaching. So my YouTube videos that are every Wednesday at 10 a.m. Central, when I'm teaching, that's a passion of mine. And I take the knowledge that I've gained from cooking and all of the network that I have to bring you kind of like how the best of the best do it, particularly in Texas Barbecue. That's definitely our specialty. I cook all sorts of things, but Texas Barbecue is what we're going to be known for. And so I'm happy to be bringing you guys lots of secrets and tips and tricks and things like that. But in the meantime, we're going to start today with what we're calling our origins issue. You know, it was actually a very easy decision as who our first guest would be. My family and the company was like, it's got to be your brother. My brother Josh was my original cook partner when I competed in barbecue. Josh cooked alongside me. He's always supported me. He's the guy that I was like, hey man, we're going to go submit a tryout to be on Barbecue Pitmasters. We got picked to go on the show. He drove 23 hours with me to go compete. He's always been super supportive. You know, everything we do is not always glorious, but we do lots of fun stuff. I can say, hey, we're, you know, we're going to go cook at this football player's house or we're going to go to Nashville and cook for this artist. And he's down for that. But he'll do the dirtiest of jobs. And I think he just has the most unique perspective for my family that knew me at a young age, uh, obviously knew me his whole life, or has known me his whole life, and has watched what I, you know, used to be about growing up and kind of where we've taken that. So there's no better person to give the perspective than my brother because he's in it, is you know, he's seen it from uh since he was born and kind of where it is now. So uh without further ado, we're gonna jump into that. But first things first, a quick word from our sponsor. Holy cow. This Texas style barbecue rub is the true taste of a Lone Star Steak. If you visited any Texas monthly top 50 barbecue joint, then you'll understand exactly what I need. This Robux flavor is perfect for brisket, tri-tip, burgers, and steaks, but feel free to use it on any protein you like. All right, well, I'm excited today uh for our special guest we've got. I've actually known this guy for 47 years. That's a that's a long time. So the guest is uh my little brother, Josh Pittman. And you know, like we've said, today's about the origins of Meat Church, where it came from, and frankly, giving our audience just a little different perspective, a very close yet kind of faraway perspective on how we got started and the phenomenon that is Meat Church today. So I thought I'd leave a little, read a little bio on my brother here. We used to work together uh in our corporate life. So I was at a company called Pence and Financial Services for 13 and a half years. Josh came to work there uh at one point, and um he's actually still there. The company makeup has changed. I believe they were kind of ultimately purchased by a customer at one point, so different company name now, but uh he's a lifer to say the least. So Josh Pittman, vice president of technology operations at Apex FinTech Solutions, where he leads the corporate IT and operational services that power one of the fastest growing platforms in the financial services industry. Josh oversees a comprehensive portfolio spanning service operations, corporate IT, incident and problem management practices, platform resiliency, identity services, asset management, and enterprise architecture, managing a team of 65 plus professionals across the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific. His organization supports 1,500 plus employees and ensures the reliability of a platform that processes billions of trades annually for clients ranging from household names like SoFi and Ally to emerging fintechs to enterprise giants like State Street and Cash App. Wow. That's a mouthful. A life that I used to be involved in, but not nearly that fancy. So without further ado, my little brother, Josh Pittman.

Josh 5:37

Thank you very much. Appreciate that intro. You probably just lost half your audience reading that boring bio.

Matt 5:44

Yeah, I think they all have definitely clicked out. The average view time on the first ever podcast is uh now officially uh 30 seconds.

Josh 5:50

Yeah, I think there's like a drop you could play right there called like boring. Uh I don't think it's near as exciting as uh uh slinging rubs for a life a lifestyle, but uh it's what I do.

Matt 6:03

It is what it is. I gotta pay the bills, you know. I did this for a long time. People, when I left corporate America and uh came over to do this full time, people would say, Did you leave the door open to go back? And I said, Oh yeah, I left it open, but I'm not going back through it. So uh anyway, that just kind of I don't know, scared me reading all that. So more power to you for all of that.

Josh 6:22

I think it probably reaffirmed your decision.

Rapid Fire Questions

Matt 6:25

Definitely. Although I'm working harder now than I ever worked when I was in IT. Well, appreciate you being here. We're gonna have you uh talk about kind of what your take on how we got started and all that. We're gonna we're gonna do that after some questions. Our our team has put together some questions of for you and then some for both of us, which I think are interesting. So kind of get things going before we jump into the nitty-gritty good of what you've seen.

Josh 6:49

So exciting. I don't think the I don't think we've really had a chance to to talk intimately about kind of how things got started, what we went through, the journey. Um do that today. Let's go. I'm excited about it.

Matt 7:01

All right. So there's kind of two sections of uh of questions here today. And uh the first ones are somewhat rapid fire, and then we'll get into some more serious ones about the business. So the first question, which you know, probably my favorite, is uh so you are four years younger than me, and the team wants to know what's the deal with the hair difference?

Josh 7:25

The deal with the hair difference. So I think God kind of looked down and said, you know what, I'm gonna sprinkle a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Um probably over-allocated a little bit of hair to you. Uh, I don't know if my parents at the time thought they were gonna have another one. Maybe you kind of put a little bit more hair in that pot, and then when the second one came around, he's like, Oh, uh, I don't know if we've got enough left. So I uh I lost that uh I got the short end of that stick, unfortunately.

Matt 7:56

Yeah. I mean you got a hat on, so people at home can't really tell what's going on. Um I have the best hair and barbecue, has been said. And I don't know. I remember the old movie Twins where they said uh the little brother got the leftover in the sperm milkshake. So I don't know if that's what was going on with Steve and Jonah back in the day, but anyway. You got the hair, I got the looks. Okay. Next question Who is the better athlete? These are your questions, by the way, not mine.

Josh 8:23

Uh who's the better athlete? That's a tough one. Um I'm gonna say me.

Matt 8:32

Naturally.

Josh 8:33

Yeah, I I'm trying to be unbiased about that, but I I do think it's me. I think uh I don't know that any of us, either one of us played anything like the same thing for a long period of time where we could really compare and contrast. Um, but I'm gonna say me. That's the final answer. Lock it in.

Matt 8:53

You agree? I'll just leave that there so we go on to the next question. Uh okay, so worst or even favorite fight between the both of us. Oh, that's yeah.

Josh 9:07

Worst or favorite fight. Or favorite fight. Just highlight a fight. So I will say my favorite.

Matt 9:16

I got two in mind.

Josh 9:18

Alright, so I'm gonna I'm gonna pay play a little bit of backstory here. So however this got started, you and I were shooting each other. With BB gun. With B well I no, you had a pellet gun, I had a BB gun. True. Um, I ended up being the lucky one to get a shot off and hit you in the neck.

Matt 9:38

Yeah.

Josh 9:39

With a BB gun, mind you.

Matt 9:41

I came up from behind granddaddy's tractor and you caught me square in the neck.

Josh 9:45

Yes. So I think I had the kind of sniper prowess um, kind of played it out, weighted you out, you snuck up, I caught you in the neck, and the the biggest oh shit moment came across me instantly. I'm like, oh no, I'm dead. You took off on a dead sprint. Took off running. Being four years older, that didn't last very long. He caught me.

Matt 10:06

Um I remember unloading on you like Rambo, shot you in the back of the leg, took you down. I can see it in slow motion. Scottsboro, Alabama. I'll never forget it. It was a glorious shot.

Josh 10:16

I do you think kids shoot each other with pellet guns and BB guns these days? You think that's still a fair one?

Matt 10:21

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I'm glad you didn't go into me shooting bottle rockets at you. Um we'll we'll move on to the next question. I think we just we basically just or or the time that uh we got into like a sword fight with poison ivy or leaves that were poison ivy limbs or limbs that had poison ivy on them. There was a lot, but you know, that's what kids do.

Josh 10:40

Yeah, I'd say the BB gun, pellet gun was the favorite, though. That one stands out.

Matt 10:44

I felt like that's where you'd go. Alright, the team wants to know who did better with the ladies. I'm not saying long term, just in general. That's a that's a tough question. Uh I told you these are gonna be easy. That one might not be so easy. Because we both married way up.

Josh 11:02

Yeah, we outkicked our coverage l uh once we started getting a half a brain about the women. I think you did because I think I was more I was more selective. So I I kind of slow played a number of mine. I didn't have I don't know who else, you know. Sorry, T Bird, but uh maybe in a little bit longer roster on your side.

Matt 11:24

Well, we can edit this out. All right, last uh kind of lighthearted is uh everyone wants to know who's the better cook. And so the audience knows, when you came to work at the company I was at, you were actually working at Texas Roadhouse and are a heck of a cook. But uh someone on the uh culinary team wants to know who the better cook is.

Josh 11:48

If we walk out of here and I'm wearing the athlete title, I'm fine with that. I do not need to wear the cooking title. You you for sure have the cooking title. It it's no contest. All right, I got I win something.

Matt 12:00

Yes, you got the out of here with uh mullet and uh the cooking.

Where The Work Ethic Comes From

Josh 12:04

Yeah, you got the mullet. That's fine. All right, 100%. I that one it's a no-brainer. Fair enough, fair enough.

Matt 12:10

All right. Okay, so we're gonna get into something a little bit about what what really shaped Meat Church, and this one I think is is cool. Uh we talked about this for a while. Where do you think that we came up with our work ethics? People have said that I don't know, I never sleep, and certainly you work your ass off. So, where do you think in our family we got our work ethic?

Josh 12:33

So I I think there's one common theme that we probably will agree on, but I think there's a part where I'll diverge a little bit, I'll get into. I think the first part of it is is our our family is rooted in in blue-collar, hard working, just the the culture of which we were raised up in was all about hard work. The discipline, whether it was something like agriculture farm-related from our mom's side, whether it was more industrial from our dad's side, it's it's all we knew from the from when we were born. That was we were immersed into it, we saw it, we were surrounded by it. Um, our parents were hard workers. Our mom at one point had multiple jobs. Um, our dad sacrificed a lot uh in our childhood to make sure that you know we had we had what we could what we uh needed at the time. He traveled a lot for work, worked many hours. Uh our grandfather was up before sun, sun, sun up, didn't come into the house until well after sundown. And uh it I don't think we would have known anything different. Um, I don't think we had an opportunity to to not have that kind of work ethic. Um we were held accountable at an early age to get up, be productive. I think the famous line I remember from probably from an infant was um get up, do something constructive, don't waste, yeah, don't waste the day. Um and so I think that stuck with us from an early age. The one part I think I so old old going back into time, Matt and I, we split up a little bit. He moved to Texas, I say, in Tennessee for a bit.

Matt 14:10

Because our parents divorced.

Josh 14:11

Parents divorced. Um part of mine I think's a little bit different, is I also was motivated a little bit by surroundings and you know the the environment I where I was living in Tennessee, and that also helped motivate me to to work hard and get myself out of a difficult situation that I knew was headed nowhere fast. Yeah. And so um couple that with the fact that you know we were just it was just deep rooted into us to be hard workers and um outwork the person next to you, that it was inevitable that something like Meet Church uh would happen for you and and I would have a a good career in in uh technology. Just it was it's pretty much destined to happen.

Matt 14:51

Yeah, so people don't know that we were born in Tennessee. We had um grandparents in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, who the Pittmans moved from Georgia to Oak Ridge in the forties, worked on the atomic bomb unknowingly for a number of years. Shout out the Manhattan Project. Yep, did a college project on that, and then the Tiptons, mom's side of the family from Northeast Alabama were working in Chattanooga at the time. Our grandfather worked at DuPont forever after he retired, logged, farmed into his mid-90s. Um, but both sets of grandparents, super hard working, church every Sunday. Our parents very hard working. I remember earliest of age, dad commuted two hours one way to work at TVA. Um you know, and like you said, I feel split. Mom always had multiple jobs. Um I you know always joke that mom raised us in a flea market, but she definitely taught me the entrepreneurial side of things. But yeah, hardworking family, we come from absolutely nothing. But yeah, I think you're right. We didn't have any choice. We didn't know anything about hard work. So how to make it work somehow.

Josh 15:51

You uh you reflect kind of how you're raised, and it was it was uh definitely uh something that we were taught at an early age. It and I'm glad like it's it's paid off. Obviously, you know, you've paid dividends for you with Me Church and with me as well.

Matt 16:03

So I just gotta say that the what at my birthday, one of my birthdays, I think it was my 40th birthday, mom said that it just always makes me laugh. She said that uh the three of us, me, you, and her, were in the flea market, and she explained the difference in us that she gave us each ten dollars, and she said, Matthew went and bought three things of that ten dollars, brought it back to my area and resold it to make a profit. Josh took his ten dollars and went and bought his friend's pizza.

Josh 16:30

That that's a I don't think I rem I don't remember that story, but that's that sums it up.

Learning To Cook From Family

Matt 16:35

I don't know if she just meant I'm like a shitty person. I don't know. No, we just offset each other well. Yeah. Okay. Uh sticking in the family quit line of questions. Who in the family taught you slash us to cook? And I'd love to hear your answer. Um I give it all the time on my side, but your perspective on who taught us to cook and why we both love to cook.

Josh 17:00

Well, um this is probably common in our demographic, our generation, where we grew up with uh grandmothers and uh I'll say primarily grandmothers that were um obsessed with making home cooked meals and whether it was um you know something that where we were just visiting them, we were staying with them for long periods of time, we'd go stay with them over the summer. It was every single meal um they were they were preparing from scratch, breakfast, lunch, dinner. Obviously, never went hungry. I'm still paying the price for for basically like clean your plate, get all you want, eat all you get. I think that's still a phobia I've got of not leaving anything on the plate. But I think I think our grandmothers um and how meticulous they were with recipes, how detailed they were, how much time they would take out of their day to teach us, let us be involved with it. We worked in the gardens, we we anything from plowing potatoes to picking green beans and shucking corn uh to then going into the kitchen, taking those ingredients, cooking it. Um it's a like the whole like you know, farm to table kind of thing. Like we experienced that at an early age.

Matt 18:24

It's the only way.

Josh 18:24

Yeah, it was the only way. And so I think same thing as like the work ethic. Like it was just it was natural. Like we probably didn't know any other way. And so I'd say, I would say our grandmother's like mamma, it's what we call our our dad's mom, mamma, and then granny on our mom's side. Uh, I would think, you know, we spent we I think we spent a little bit more time with granny in the kitchen, but to me, those were the two biggest influences.

Leaving Corporate For The Leap

Matt 18:48

Yeah, for sure. I mean, we're always the ones in the kitchen, like wanting to learn why you're doing it, whatever. Um, I was lucky enough to get my mamma's recipes when she passed several years ago, so that's super special to me. And I have a lot of granny's cooking tools, including her kitchen aid mixer and um her primary cast iron skillet, so definitely like super near and dear to my heart. But I always tell people if I didn't do barbecue, I would be southern, you know, home style home style cooking. Like, you know, comfort food. Yeah, it's it's a struggle. People always ask me why are you not 300, 400 pounds? Well, you know, I got a lot to live for and love my kids, and health is important to both of us, but it is a struggle to cook the way that I cook and not eat it all. And my mental strength has to be stronger than when I did that stupid Iron Man that for some reason I did way back way back in the day. Um, okay, so question for you. Uh growing up, did you what did you think I would do as a career? Do you or you may not know? Do you have any idea what you ever thought I would do growing up? Obviously, you did not think I would do this, but what'd you see me doing?

Josh 19:51

I I I probably thought it would be multiple things, but it was it was definitely something like the entrepreneurial ship was there. You brought up the flea market story. Um we used to make bikes out of parts and try to sell bikes. Um you made candy, you made like you would sell candy at the you would go get the ingredients, make candy in the kitchen, sell it at school. So it was a hundred percent you you would you would have your own business in some way, shape, or form.

Matt 20:20

I had a solid bootleg uh candy business, Mineral Wells High School back in the day.

Josh 20:26

Yeah, you're probably on a list still somewhere. Yeah, I don't think I killed anybody or anything, but no, but like I don't think they really support selling candy.

Matt 20:35

But confections were, you know, it was a strong suit. I haven't done it in since like 1989, but I might need to fire that back up.

Josh 20:42

I didn't mind sampling those those uh suckers you would make. Yeah. Um but yeah, I like it. I think it was again, I you entrepreneurialship was it was like it was it was a natural fit. Um you also have your networking ability, bringing people together, something in that sphere. I had no idea what that would turn into. Certainly didn't think you know, me church wasn't a thing. Like I would have never imagined barbecue or yeah, you know, the the rub business, but um I was completely convinced that it would be something, some sort of business, um, something to where you your gift of gab would uh would pay off.

Matt 21:21

You did you did tell me a long time ago that I was selling people before I even started talking. Yeah. So that that's always stuck with me. I do think that this is rubbed off a little bit on my youngest Sam, your nephew Sam, because this kid had me going to Sam's and buying like slime liquors and he was doubling the price and selling them in junior high recently. And I actually told him, I was like, I don't care if you get in trouble because I respect the hustle of doubling the money. But the business did fail ultimately because he ate all of his product. So hopefully he doesn't become a drug dealer, uh I'll have to put him in rehab. But anyway, he definitely has Ava. I don't know, Ava's way too smart. But Sam, he's definitely got the hustle.

Josh 22:01

So But as you know, most businesses fell. It's data. You learn the lesson, right? This is a good lesson for him. It's a journey.

Matt 22:07

He's moved on to other things. I think he wants to be a pro, you know, like the next Bill Dance, maybe. So his sucker selling days are over for the moment.

Josh 22:16

You gotta have a you gotta have a uh diverse portfolio.

Matt 22:18

Maybe he can't. He does have the gift of gab, too, so we'll see, we'll see where that goes. Um okay, last line of questions is similar. What did you think when I said I was gonna leave my corporate job to make the leap to lead Meat Church full-time? And just to level set, four kids at the time. I'm in my 40s, two of them were in college, one's a private school, and we have two little ones, so um they would have been pretty little at the time. So, and I was an officer at my company, had just taken them public, so I would still be able to figure this out at 22 with not a lot of risk. There was a whole lot of risk. Um if you looked at our situation, I guess. But you know, your thoughts on when I decided to leave corporate America.

Josh 23:00

I honestly to me it was like almost a relief. You you're you're generally all over the place. So it was it was it was actually I sound tracy. Yeah, somewhat of a relief to say, like, oh, you're actually gonna focus on one thing, maybe, or at least for for a little bit of time. Let's focus on one thing. Good point. Um so it was I I think a bit of relief that um you were gonna dedicate your time and energy towards it because you'll you'll work around the clock. Um, but I I think it was obvious to you that you needed to to put your energy into to getting this over the over the next hump. And you couldn't do that if you were gonna kind of moonlight as a as an IT professional or an executive at an I at a fintech company uh and try to get Me Church um more of a global presence. So for me, it was like great, take the risk, you'll be fine, you know you'll be fine. Um it's it's the right choice to make. It's a time I think it may not be obvious when you're trying to take that risk, and obviously you were you were very concerned about leaving a corporate good and the stability of that, start your own business.

Matt 24:18

But well, my wife was very concerned. Yeah, yeah.

Josh 24:20

Yeah. But no, it was a little bit of relief because I I think it was yeah, it's it's obvious. It's right in front of your face. It's this is the right thing to do.

Matt 24:29

Well, and you know, it people come along now and they're like, oh, look at the life that these guys have and what they've done. And what people don't understand was when I left, I mean, I've alluded to kind of where we were in life, uh, you know, it was obviously I felt very comfortable because the way I'd structured the business. We never took on partners. Uh my wife forced me to save a finance degree at the core, so never had any financial partners, no one to answer to. And as we onboarded our biggest customers, I bankrolled the uh, you know, the purchase orders. Like I'll never forget the first time Academy Sports and Outdoors sent me a PO, it was six figures. And, you know, we didn't have to go to a bank to get a line of credit because the how you know the light, well, the way that we had put all of our money away and the you know, she'd really taught me like you, you know, dad always said safe a rainy day, but my wife really was like, we're gonna be frugal. And so we had saved everything for years. So, you know, setting that up that helped, but convincing her to let me leave my job, I've often said was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Like she wanted no part of it. And I couldn't, she was, you know, all my vacation time was for meat church events, and you know, I worked uh I drove an hour to my job. Uh in I was in Fort My I when I retired, I was in Fort Worth, Texas. I drove basically an hour there, hour back. I led IT infrastructure always on call. So worked long hours and then meet, like you said, moonlighted doing meat church at night. So it definitely was a huge relief. And I got to a point, you know, that I was like, I didn't think it was risky because I I mentored with a lot of business leaders and felt confident in our data, but it was a huge relief to me. She was super scared, and you know, it's it's definitely worked out. I'm thankful to all our customers for that, but crazy leap. I could not go back now. I mean, I joked about it in the beginning, but I and you know how fast technology changes. I'd be there's no way. I'd have to find something else to do. I'd have to go be a host on a TV show and somewhere I can use my gift to gab, as you say, or maybe I could get into sales or something like that. But you'd be fine. You'd be fine.

Josh 26:20

But no, you made you made the leap. You you you took whether or not you felt like it was a risky change to to make or not, like you made the decision many people can't make, and you you you knew that it was gonna be fine. And I think those of us could see it from the outside knew you'd be good.

Barbecue Competitions And The Name

Matt 26:37

Well, I'm I'm excited you're here today because um you know, I'll tell everyone watching or listening that you know there's no one that's been more supportive. I'm not just saying this because you're here. Uh I'm gonna what as we jump into the bigger story of your perspective of this leap and kind of where we started, which is why we're here today, you know, I'll I'll take a step back and explain to everyone kind of where we started, what we're doing. While I'm doing that, I was thinking, hey, you gotta have shtick on a podcast. Like if you're on Rogan, you're smoking pot or you know, cigars, so we might as well drink bourbon. And I brought a bourbon that you this is a Buffalo Trace that we went to Kentucky together and picked this as single barrel, and uh so I figured we can we can drink that as much as you want. I will not turn that down. That was a super fun trip, by the way.

Josh 27:23

Incredible trip. Like many adventures, um, all the way from the beginning with Meat Church. Uh the memories have been it's always something to talk about with before I jump in this story, you mentioned networking.

Matt 27:38

Cheers, by the way. Cheers.

Josh 27:39

Um Cheers to the first episode. Yeah. Cheers to Matt and Meat Church.

Matt 27:43

It's been decided that you would be this guy for a long time. Like a long time. I the the whole crew was like, we're like, all right, we do the first episode, it was like, oh Josh. So this was this was uh this was decided like a year ago.

Josh 27:54

Yeah, I think it was a no-brainer until I got on here, and everybody's like, oh no.

Matt 27:58

Until a good friend Rob Chickering of Ticket Fame came and built this beautiful studio and we're like, hey, Josh is gonna be the first guest. But um man, that's really good. That's good. This was the one we picked in 2024 with Freddie Johnson. We have a video on that, which was super cool behind the scenes. But uh this shocked me, by the way. You remember we we picked a Weller Antique 107 and this, and I just I someone had told me there were single barrels of Buffalo Trace that are unbelievable, and there were several people when we left there that said the Buffalo Trace was better than the antique 107, and it's freaking good.

Josh 28:31

I think we all slept on this. Yeah. Until we slept on the we're like, oh, okay, okay. No, this is this has been great.

Matt 28:38

And we set up a 501c3 charity this past year, the Pittman Family Foundation, and when we do events, we have these bottles, people know how they can get them when we do these events. Now um we're trying to do we're trying to be able to like leave a legacy and do good for a lot of causes. And the example I give is like the the Hill Country floods last year. We wrote a check, personal donation, you know, for relief of such a horrible thing that happened. And we're hoping, well, we are out now when we have events and we have these bottles, we allow people to purchase them for a donation of the foundation, which we did one a few months ago, and it was awesome. So hopefully more of that coming up. Incredible cause. Yeah. Yep. I wish I could have raised more money, but it was still very helpful.

Josh 29:18

So well, the good news about barbecue and bourbon, there's always more.

Matt 29:22

You sound like Freddie Johnson.

Josh 29:24

Keep it going.

Matt 29:24

I'll sl I'll sling bourbon. So we're gonna I'm gonna back up and tell a little bit of the story, and I'm not gonna go like too deep because you know I could talk the ears off a statue. That way we'll leave time for you to talk. This is meant for you to me to interview you and get your perspective. But you know, I mentioned where we were born, um our when our parents divorced, I was uh I came to Texas about 13, you came down with me, we went back to Tennessee for a bit. Um, I came back, no, we came back down, you went back up, then we ended up being apart through high school. After high school, you came down. Um, so we were you know apart for a while, and then always stayed in the area. I went to UTA on a scholarship, and uh you were living down in like college station. Uh came up to work at Penson with myself and you know, 20 years in corporate IT. And I say the beginning of me cooking was you know, it wasn't like I walked in the parking lot of a Cowboys game, so it's the first time I'm gonna grill, but we definitely grilled a lot as we I got a one season ticket with the Cowboys, you got a ticket, uh, Todd Baker, Chad Hawkins, four of us got tickets to the Cowboys. We just had our two of us just had our 25th year there. And so I say that, you know, my first major grilling experience was Red Parking Lot, Old Texas Stadium, really where we cut our teeth. But it's not like I set off to be on some cooking journey, I'm not gonna lie, but it really shaped a lot of what we do because fried my first turkey in the parking lot, did a shrimp boil. Um, I remember I've got pictures with Alex White being there, all of our fraternity brothers, great memories. Um, and then you know, you you start having kids and getting busy and whatnot. But really where things got going for us, my perspective, just to set the stage, I'm gonna turn it over to you in a second, was you and I well, I I became self-taught at barbecue. So I bought a big green egg, and Tracy, my wife, uh Mrs. Meat Church, bought me an offset smoker, went off welded by a guy in Red Oak, Texas, bought it for Father's Day. Funny. Uh we we lived in a neighborhood neighborhood called Spring Creek Grove in Waxatchie, and you can't have any trailers there, and we had a rod iron fence, like acre and a half type lots. And I remember parking this trailer smoker back there, and I got an email from Chuck, the HOA president, and he said, What's your plans for that smoker? And I said, To make delicious barbecue. Cook for the neighborhood, and he never made me move the trailer. So shout out, Chuck. I know you still live there. My favorite resident on Magnolia.

Josh 31:43

See, that's that's where you differentiate from a lot of people. Many people that turns into a dispute with HOA. You use that opportunity to bring people together.

Matt 31:51

I ain't got time to fight. No, it's great. So you and I, so you know, I'm self-taught. I don't so that's interesting, I think, when I love reminding myself of this. I didn't know anybody. I'd so I hated social media, believe it or not. Most people will probably be really shocked at that. I led IT and absolutely despised Facebook because Facebook was like, you were tagging a picture and you were with a girl you shouldn't have been, or um, you know, I just saw my coworkers complaining about all this Facebook drama. I'm like, I'm not getting on there. And then when I did get Facebook, it was like I'd open it up and it's much like today. I was like, I don't want to hear your political rant. So I hated Facebook.

Josh 32:27

I vividly remember having a conversation with you. I was on, I believe I was on Facebook before you were. I hated it. And I was the like the trying to convince you on Facebook. Yes.

Pitmasters Tryout And First Rubs

Josh’s View Of The Rise

Matt 32:36

And now we're the opposite. Ironically, you are what I call social media leech. You consume, but you never, never give any. I just want to see pictures of my nieces. Put them out there right now. Without us consumers, you wouldn't have a business. True. So, you know, we decided we were gonna start, uh, we were gonna start cooking. So I I had Googled rub recipes. I remember I went to Academy and bought seasoning and cooked ribs in an oven before I had a smoker, didn't know what to do, didn't know any, I didn't know the term influencer, I didn't know who the hell was good at anything. I just knew that I lived in Texas. And so I found a rub recipe on a Texas AM website, self-taught, was all into the culture. Uh, one little nugget I forgot was I always say that when we grew up, if you said barbecue to us in the South, it was pork, it was sweet. Yep. Came here, you know, my head pop moment, well documented at Black's barbecue, took a bite of a beef rib and was like, oh my God. Uh but again, I didn't just go set out to go do it. So back to, you know, I've got small kids, I got all this all this time at home, and I'm just cooking. And I, you know, we decided we had a couple buddies that made barbecue. I had gone on some barbecue competitions with my friend Chip Porter, um, Pete Pruitt, they competed in barbecue, and I thought they were gods because they compete in barbecue, they must know what they're doing. Did a bunch of competitions together, uh, pretty well documented story. But Peter, electrician, known to get in the sauce a little bit, and uh, we were competing in Arlington, and he I'll never forget he had a mason jar of barbecue sauce, and he reached in his worker shirt pocket and pulls out this screwdriver and stirs up his barbecue sauce, goes, Matt, try that. And it was in that moment that I was like, I'm gonna break off and be a little more serious. So started my own team. We won ribs that day, by the way. Shout out, Pete. So you and I decided to start competing in barbecue. We didn't know what the hell we were doing. And I always say we weren't trying to be world beaters, we were just like going to local competitions, they were sanctioned, and our friend family was involved, you know, preparing for this. I was reminded that I have a picture on my wall of Sam, my 13-year-old, eating watermelon upside down. He's at a barbecue competition. You know, I were competing in Midloath in Texas, and there's a picture of Sam eating a slice of watermelon, he's eating it upside down. That idiot's eating the rind. He's not even eating the watermelon, but it's such a good picture. And I remember hairs everywhere, his flowing locks. So I remember that competition. We weren't trying to be world beaters, but we always got a call. We all meat church's name always got called. And we'd placed, I don't know what it was, we placed in something high, and they go, Meat Church, and the whole people looked around like, Meat Church. What is a meat church? What is that? And by the way, the name where does Meat Church come from? Alice Lasade, dear friend, one of the funniest females I've ever met, has a charity called MeatFight, and she tweeted on a Sunday morning a tray of barbecue years ago and said, I don't even remember what the tweet said, but it was something about hashtag Meat Church. I'm about to have my hashtag Meat Church, and I thought it was funny. I asked Alice if I could use that name for a competition team name, and she said sure. And that's why we support MeatFight ever since. But you know, we ran with that name, we we competed with it, and then you know, to to wrap up my version of the story, I love the TV show Barbecue Pitmasters. You were having your second child, my niece Brooklyn, and I went to the hospital to meet Brooklyn, and I looked at you and I said, I need you to come outside or I need to come see you one night this week because we're making a tryout tape for Barbecue Pitmasters. And you looked at me and you said, Of course we are. And you know, it's just one of these hairs. My first example of how you've always supported me, you just agreed to do it. So if you go back and watch this trial video, which I watched it today, it's very hard to watch. At the time, it went viral, which is what got us picked on the show because everyone was tweeting at BBQ Pitmasters. Shout out Daniel Vaughn, our friend Barbecue Snob, he tweeted it, and then the Who's Who Barbecue started retweeting it. So John Marcus, who is the executive producer, his Twitter becomes unusable. He like DMs me like, call off the dogs. What is his personal account, right? Yeah, his personal account was at BBQ Pitmasters. And I'm like, bro, I don't know if you know how Twitter works. I can't control that. So we get picked to go on the show and we have a whopping three weeks' notice. And one of the two seasonings that I make has honey powder in it. So I'm at this small place buying honey powder. I tell the guy that, hey, the producer of the show told me that if I bottle my own rub, that they'll show it on the show. But if not, they'll gaff tape over it. And he's like, Well, I can do that for you. And I said, Well, how much you got to make? And he said, 25 pounds. I'm like, Well, that's a lot of barbecue rub. So I leave, I leave that facility, I'm driving back to work, it's in Fort Worth, 20 minute drive, and I called you and I told you what that guy just told me. And you said to me, Dude, do it. So I called the guy back, and I literally said, All right, make my beef rub and call it Meat Church Holy Cow, and I'll call you tomorrow with a name for the other rub. And then I called him back and I said, Myron Mixon is a judge on that show, and he calls pigs hogs, so call my my all-purpose honey hog. We go on the show and we finish third place. We got on the podium. Our mom was super proud. Um it doesn't matter that they were only three contestants, like that's irrelevant. Could have been a lot of things. It is interesting if you look at all the people in that season, let's do it where they are now, wild. Yep. Uh there's some people that have really blown it up, so a lot of fun. But uh last thing I'll say about this, I always felt bad because I'm the loudmouth of the brothers and you're the quiet one, but it was the first time in the history of Pitmasters that we had this big watch party, and you have no speaking line at all. And normally the partner is a pretty small line, but they say something, and I I still I'm still bothered by this today that you never got to talk. And then we go do local news to promote it, and we go up on stage, and we're about to go live, and they're like, Oh, we don't have a mic for you. Don't talk. Yeah, I'm like, Oh my god. So it's became our bit for a while that I talked, you didn't, but hence the accidental birth of meat church. I had started Instagram, content creation was not a thing, but I started Instagram because I'm visual and I didn't have to look at the BS of Facebook and I could post my food on there and I could tell you how I made it. And I've always been saying, Here's a steak, we meet Church Holy Cow. Back then it was on a big green egg, and here's how I made it. And immediately people are like, dude, thank you for telling you how you made that. Or thank you for telling me how you made that. And so I've always been doing that. That's why today I'm like, man, I'm not a content creator. Yes, I create content, but I'm just trying to teach people to cook and it's worked, and you know, because our customers are amazing. But that's all I want to say. And so I don't have a list of questions for you on this, but I really want to just open it up to you to give your perspective on what you've seen. Thank you for your support. If I call you today and be like, hey, we got a thing this weekend, you're going, and if it's glorious or not, we you're right, we do cool stuff sometimes. So it didn't hurt when I'm like, hey, we're going to Dak Prescott's house. And let me tell you what to do. Oh no, oh no. We're going to cook for Dak, and Dak's amazing. And uh next thing you know, my brother has no shoes on, and he's passing his shoes around, and he's like, You can only autograph this if you're an all-pro. He didn't say that, but I see Dak signing his Jordans and I see Zach Martin signing his Jordans. Amazing. Tyron Smith. Yeah, I'll never forget it. But it was awesome. They don't mind. Great dudes. But you know, I do try to call you for cool stuff, but whether it's cool or I've called you for some BS, you know, you always supported. So I'd love to just hear your perspective on what you've watched. Obviously, my life's changed, but you've still been like super supportive to a degree that people don't know because you've got this awesome technology career, and I'm over here doing this thing, but if I call you, you're there. So thank you for that. But floor is yours.

Josh 40:16

I yeah, I mean, I think it probably goes back to similar to what we were talking about earlier about how we were raised. Like I to me, there's no alternative. Um, it feels very natural. Um, you know, if someone's taking the risks that you have to build something, I think one of the things I think where we're very different personality-wise, is I'm a little bit more literal and a little bit more like structured in the way I think. You're more abstract and you've got you know visions and big picture. And so um a lot of times, while I may not be able to see where you're going, like I know that I can help you make traction. And if it's just showing up to an event, uh if it's helping you cook, move stuff around, pack, load, whatever, like it, it's uh, you know, it it brings it makes me proud, um, makes my whole family proud. Uh it's not me, not just me. Um, but yeah, it's it's it's fun. Uh being a part of this, seeing something from like sometimes being Matt Pittman's co-pilot might be a little bit of a risky ride. Uh might be a bit of a challenge. You don't necessarily know which way the airplane's uh focused at the time, uh which direction you're gonna go, but like that's also kind of the cool side about it.

Matt 41:39

The plane normally lands at a pretty cool destination. Yeah, more times enough. Sometimes land in Midland. Yeah. A lot of times we're in Cabo.

Josh 41:46

You take the scenic route, uh, and that's okay. Uh we've current come to uh appreciate and love that. So it's no, I I uh it it's trust me, it's it's my um yeah, it's my pleasure to be able to do it. Glad I can help. Um certainly wouldn't have it any other way because um not just for you and your family, but like I, you know, like most people in and around that are kind of a meet church adjacent or part of the business, like it's this is something cool. This is something that you know you you've had an idea and a vision of where this thing can go. And um, again, we may not necessarily see it at the time, but like it's a cool journey, it's a cool ride. Like you're getting to kind of not only bring things to um the Pittman family that may not have been an opportunity otherwise, but um you know, you're also bringing something like to society. You talked about you don't really think you're an influencer, but you are, and you've influenced um countless people. Like if I had if I could if I had a nickel for every time I'm in an airport in some random location and I see somebody wearing a meat church hat or wearing a meat church shirt, or if I'm wearing one and then we s we strike up a conversation, to me, any of the hard work and anything I've helped you do, like it, it is shows that it's worth it. Because like the joy they get out of talking about you watching your videos or the time they met you, or you know, came to a festival and got to try your food, you know, like to me that's worth it. Um obviously helping you and the family out's no-brainer for me, but yeah, it's been it's a wild ride. It's been a pleasure to be kind of front and center to seeing it happen.

Matt 43:27

So there's I can't imagine that you would have thought back then when we did the show, uh, which when we lost, by the way, we'd drive 20 something hours home. We got iced in Crestview, Florida. I who knew that you could get iced in the panhandle of Florida, but we did. Got to th lick our wounds for a while and never forget it.

Josh 43:47

You you you lose and then you get stuck in Florida in ice or I mean, yeah. Can't make this up.

Matt 43:52

Not only then or even when I left my job, I don't there's no way that I I would doubt you could have imagined it would be what it is. is no today.

Josh 44:01

No. Like I th I would have bet money that it was gonna be something pretty remarkable. But this, no. No. I don't I don't think you like even as as much of a like you know realist and kind of visionary you are about stuff, I don't I don't think this was anything that you could imagine. I certainly certainly couldn't have. And I think that's a probably where again the contrasting personality styles like going back to some of the competitions and even barbecue Pitmasters, you know, I I'm I'm approaching in a much different way. And I think you know one of the things that I think's been great about our journey is like we see through things through different ways and I'm yeah I'm um I'm a little bit more about like in the moment focus on what we're doing.

Matt 44:45

You're very process driven. I'm just like we're gonna get done exactly like I need to know what's the time and I'm like just follow me. We're good.

BBQ Pitmasters Story

Josh 44:51

Yeah yeah so sometimes that was uh that that's a whole different podcast to go into like some of our butting our heads at times and timing with meats and and seasonings. I'm like wait we just did this and we placed and he's completely changing it the next week kind of unbeknownst to me. Yeah. But that was yeah it's been it's been a hell of a ride that that whole pit masters thing like you want to talk about like the ultimate redo? Could we could we run that back? Can we run that back please?

Matt 45:19

Like we need a redo because no I've never really gone live talking about that we had this like trash piece of meat we you know we showed up you know the whole deal is they don't show you this on TV you've got to turn your food in at noon you can start cooking wherever in the middle of the night and we showed up to the cook site basically in the middle of the night it's pouring down rain the gate's locked the security guard is like Cuban and asleep in his car and we couldn't get in it cost us about an hour. Granted we could have got there earlier we're watching the other teams cook so you know we ran out of time.

Josh 45:47

We knew we ran out of time we couldn't get the meat tender we had this like that's why I hate brisket flats they're trash this I think that was like the ultimate overthinking scenario I think we went in trying to be surgical like I I think similar to what you talk like we're we're constantly kind of reinventing things we're constantly you take meticulous notes you would kind of retro every event you would take notes what worked what didn't work and I think the difference was those teams went in there just to do the thing they cooked they just free flowing they just cooked we went in there with like a meticulous game plan that the minute we ran into something that we didn't plan for or couldn't control we were done we were shot yeah shout out Josh because uh if you want to go back and watch this episode funny moment it really is it's a game show technically I say it's reality TV but it is a game show and you open the cooler you don't know what's going to be in there there were two meets in there one piece was obviously a brisket flat the other thing we were the third team so they started out on the end with JD David's Meyer and you know Myron's like what do you think that is and I don't remember what he said and then it went down to Junior Rias you know great friend of ours to this date and Junior rattles off what he thinks is like no and then it gets to me and I said I mean I look good on TV but it was credit you I said it looks like a Vegas strip steak and there's no way anyone here has ever heard of that and they're like ding ding ding you win and we look like heroes because we knew what it was and I'm sure these guys were like what how the hell does they know that but the night before the only thing they had told us was they gave us some paperwork that had all the cuts of meat that it could be and we're laying in our hotel room and about what 25 20 25 different cutshot of it I actually looked at it today and you and you looked at it and you go Vegas strip steak what is that and I was like I never heard of that and they had told us that there was a new meat purveyor so that was in our head and I was like hmm so I didn't know what it was and it was you know it was a very educated guess but it did make us look good.

Matt 47:49

By the way I brought a little prop I'm going to show you from that show.

Josh 47:53

But I think that's a good example of like we were super analytical we were we were very meticulous about details and that was another aspect of and I think that ended up biting us in the end about how the process went how the cook ended up going. But it did pay off at least we knew what was coming.

Matt 48:07

Myron couldn't let us win but here this is kind of cool this is a shirt that I wore on the show well sorry it's one of I had two and this is autographed by the three judges so Tuffy Moe and Myron full circle you know to be friends with these guys especially you know especially with Tuffy we're we're good buddies I've got a cookbook coming out and Tuffy agreed to write the forward for me so you know I've held on to this ever since but kind of crazy. I'll never forget they told oh look at the old our this is our original logo and the the f the first tagline was on the seventh day the Lord let the meat rest at 250 but we we've I think we're gonna bring this back this year.

Josh 48:46

We're gonna do a little retro shirt so let us know if you dig this.

Creativity Teaching And Relationships

Matt 48:52

We're doing it find a spot to put the OG last question I'm gonna ask you um I think um so we're talking about the past one of the things it I think what I've had this self-realization within myself like when I grew up I thought I'm a businessman I'm analytical finance degree I'm you know the way my brain works I'm like process oriented and but now as you know I have a completely different life after I left corporate America like I've come to this realization that no I actually am creative I mean I was in you know I was a drummer and band and so I I've loved music is you know a big love of mine but outside of that I was like nope I'm this process guy at one point I thought I want to be an attorney but now I look at things and I'm completely different. I'm like I I'm a creator and I'm a cook. I don't know it's hard to describe what I am people always ask are you a cook are you a CEO are you an entrepreneur you know all the above but um I don't know how you felt about me growing up and like we talked about what you thought I would be but I personally feel like I'm way different today that I'm this creator and the I'm the idea man and that's not how I grew up. I grew up thinking I'm the I'm gonna you know it's all hard work but I'm gonna be real process oriented and real structured and now I'm like man I'm I just like to create.

Josh 50:05

I just want to wake up and create and you know whether it be food or it's just everything from seasoning to merch to food um that's why it's so fun for me but I don't know if you ever thought I had this in me growing up Yeah I mean I don't want to go as far as to say like when people moved right you moved left and so you were always able to kind of look at things differently and come up with some sort of niche or some sort of differentiator that wasn't obvious to most people. But I think that you know there's something in that realm that I think helped set you apart and enabled you to come up with ideas or turn something in that just seemed like some innocuous thing that people do similar to like selling candy at store or you know taking random bike parts and turn into a bike where a lot of kids just see that as a junk pile. You saw it as an opportunity and I think your drive and your hunger the work ethic your desire to like bring people together talk with people give people a product give people an opportunity um I think it all just came together and I think you know especially when social media came about even though you were somewhat resistant to Facebook in the beginning like it it quickly turned and you saw that as a platform to to be able to reach more people. So like the ideas and the thoughts that you had I think that was a you quickly saw that as a paved path. It was like oh shit this this could open up. I could take these this kind of passion that's starting to form around cooking and and you know turned into barbecue into something that where you can reach a lot more people. And I think it opened up that gift of gab channel for you. And uh yeah I mean I again didn't necessarily know what it would manifest itself into um but it was it was very obvious from an early age that you would you would find some creative way um to to sell somebody on something. Yeah. Thankfully it was for good.

Matt 52:10

Well I definitely pride myself on being different. I always want to go a different direction like you said and create my own niche and niche and when I came up with this model was like no one was doing this at the time and now it's kind of more popular but um and I think what people don't understand my passion is teaching. Like I'm I I do this because I want to teach people. You know it's it's a pro it's a crowded market in 2026. You know people are like they just think you're making videos to make sales. The perspective a lot of people that don't know us is like well he's making a cooking video to push his holy cow. We're good. I don't have to do that but I'm passionate about teaching and I got a customer based and wants to know how to use products and it's fun. The feedback's amazing when you know when we walk around town I mean particularly when we're in Florida of all places the absolute number one comment ain't even close is like I make your turkey at Thanksgiving which you know our families are very close. We you know cook holiday meals together always and uh we don't miss and um you know that's a big deal for us.

Josh 53:02

So but anyway um you know it's again I'm passionate about teaching which is why I do it so well you you you found a way to take and I you know I'm not gonna get into the how to start a business one on one but as most people say you don't you don't start a business to make money. You find something that you enjoy and that you know well yeah you did it right you you started at the ground floor pounded the pavement went to you know whether it was competitions you entered or like you noted competitions that you were just a part of and just cooked. It wasn't about oh I want to make a million dollars tomorrow right it wasn't I want to start a business tomorrow. It was you wanted to learn something if this isn't obvious about Matt Matt goes 180% into anything he does. There's a reason why he was an Iron Man um hunting doesn't you know go down the list he he immerses himself into it this was the same thing. But like you did it the right way um you learned it you learned the details you learned the in and ins and outs of it you asked a lot of questions um there's a you should tell some stories about shit what shigging is in uh in the competition circles and it was like you similar to like your story about your H your head of HOA where you you're like actually I'm gonna turn this into a good thing instead of it being seen as shigging when you were asking people questions like you connected with people almost immediately and they would share anything with you.

Matt 54:34

Yeah it's the same way today like people you know I've had people call me the Adam Schefter barbecue because I know how the best of the best cook it but they don't see me as a threat. Like I can call my buddy Leonard in Houston Truth Barbecue and I'll be like hey man how you do this and he'll tell me I'm not trying to plaster on the news it's because I'm coming from an educational perspective which that's been neat. It's about relationships. You said there's networking earlier and it can be a grimy word but you know I teach my kids like relationships are the most important thing in life because your next relationship boyfriend girlfriend your next job opportunity will come from within your network and like I just got like the most amazing friends. We try to pay it forward with small businesses and whatnot but um I mean the barbecue community is just a big family so it's it's been good. There's lots of good people lots of good customers lots of good peers so I've been lucky there's a lot of drama too in barbecue which is wild but we won't we'll save that for another time.

Josh 55:22

Yeah I mean you you you've hit the nail on the head I think we've we've probably are trying to instill in our kids I can I can definitely tell you it's something I I try to mentor a lot of late young professionals and that were that were for me and at Apex is like the relationships part's what's going to happen. Yeah. Find out who who you need to get connected with whether it's another executive appear within the business and yeah you translated that uh from corporate America to to barbecue and it it played out pretty well.

Matt 55:48

Well thank you so much for coming uh like I said you've been the pick forever. You were the number one draft pick so I appreciate it which means I got to dial up a cool opportunity for you coming up. I do have some stuff up my sleeve but you're you're you were number one so number one draft pick.

Josh 56:03

I I can't tell you how much the I appreciate you guys considering me the first one. Like I think it was really cool to do the origin story and us have a conversation about this. I'm sure they will start to get a lot more interesting as you get more guests on, but no like my honor um could not be more proud of what you've done here. Appreciate it. It is something that um I don't think I can overstate how how proud I am and how much is it fun this has been.

Matt 56:30

I appreciate I should say in the beginning the lack of hair on your head may be from the stress that I've caused so I apologize if that was look you're I've been telling everybody for years I uh I keep it short by choice.

Josh 56:41

Now you're uh now you're ruining my you're ruining my cover.

Ad Break #2

Mail Bag

Outro

Matt 56:45

All right well thank you for being here appreciate it. Thanks older brother I usually say he's my older brother but I thought I'd be honest in this conversation stay tuned a little word from our sponsor and I'm gonna be back to answer some of your questions. Hail Mary this Southwestern barbecue seasoning will definitely elevate your grilling and barbecue it's our official tailgating seasoning. Bursting with savory flavor Hail Mary is unlike any other seasoning in our arsenal and is a perfect addition to your game day spread. So whether you're at a tailgate or watching football at home or just cooking in the backyard we hope you enjoy this seasoning as much as we do well here's the mailbag section of our podcast. So we thought every time we record one of these we would answer your questions. So since this is new you don't know where to put them what we're doing is we're answering questions that you have left on our various YouTube videos or in the Meet Church congregation, our Facebook group of 500 plus thousand so and by the way if you want to ask me questions you can leave those in those places. So if you're watching this on YouTube you can drop them below. If you are listening to the podcast then you can drop them in our Facebook group and we have folks that watch those and we'll try to answer those when we can. So first question if you only have two to three hours to smoke something what are you making that's a pretty quick time to smoke. I mean you can get things like pork belly burn ins done and things like that um jalapeno poppers you're not getting any big cuts done uh you could make a pork steak which is a really underrated kind of delicious thing to make but usually when I'm short on time I'm doing hot and fast grilling so not to like go around your question but my absolute go-to is I have a Mexican meat market on my street and I go there and I buy their marinated cuts or if just going to grocery store you know I'm buying outside skirt or something like that. My go-to is to do hot and fast fajitas so I'm often grilling either uh sirloin flap I mentioned outside skirt um I grill a lot of vegetables so if I'm making uh you know recently I did a uh salsa verde with fajitas um I like to grill corn to do different things with a lote but firing up uh my mil scale yakatori or any charcoal grill I've got custom one-off stuff uh that I grill on and just doing hot and fast grilling more times than none is my go-to especially for like a weeknight family style meal. So speaking of charcoal we've gotten lots of questions about this so the team thought it made sense to answer this one. Do you make your own charcoal or is it rebranded from an existing brand? Yes we are manufacturing it it is not an existing brand. If we were buying from another brand and simply white labeling or changing the label it would cost our consumers a lot more money. Our charcoal is made in Mexico there was an existing factory that has amazing capabilities they have manufactured for other brands that you would know and we took advantage of that capacity. We went in and we engineered our own unique kind of rustic classic rustic style pillow briquette as far as the briquettes go with a nice M and a C on there. We actually worked on a rectangle for a while and I didn't like the way that it held together and we were kind of afraid of how it would burn. But you know charcoal farmers they burn down wood bring that to charcoal factories and then what happens is they filter out the smaller pieces that is what is made in a briquette so that's why our briquettes are 100% hardwood they're fine to burn in a kamado grill. The bigger pieces are sold as lumps so both the lump and charcoal briquettes again are 100% hardwood we developed these in conjunction with Ace Hardware amazing partner of ours and really the reason we did it is you guys crush Ace. We are the largest provider of seasoning there so it's really serving our customers better to work with that partner. So you can get that at your local Ace or you can get it at Meat Church Barbecue Supply in Scenic downtown Waxahatchie Texas. Are Meat Church pellets in the future well great question we actually have had pellets for a while so we developed a pellet with Traeger years ago it was a limited edition pellet and it sold so well that they wanted to make it a full-time product I actually want to make it a full-time product and they agreed with that and the pellet is really special to me. As you heard in this podcast I was born in what I will call the Deep South so barbecue there was usually smoked with hickory and that's what my grandfather's farm was covered up in. And then here in Texas I cook a central Texas style barbecue which is made with post oak. So my pellets are a mix of oak and hickory it's a meat church blend it's been wildly popular. It's a great all-purpose but great news we're actually coming out with a second flavor we announced in March at the Ace Hardware Show in Louisville Kentucky a second pellet so we're coming out with a pecan slash cherry blend which will be a little lighter smoke actually gives you a great color particularly on pork so I'm super excited about that. You guys're reaction to our pellets is why we had to launch a second also launching a secret barbecue sauce while we're on the topic of things that we're doing something coming out in May, Sislin Salvation going to be super delicious. It's my sweet heat sauce so very excited for you guys to try that. Well we appreciate you guys being here just like we stay on our Wednesday cooking show that we release every Wednesday at 10 a.m thanks for being here if you like this please like and subscribe tell your friends about the new Meat Church podcast we really appreciate you guys watching or listening to episode one we have a lot of killer guests lined up I'm describing this as a guest driven podcast so make sure you turn on your notifications because I've got a lot of celebrities stacked up to bring you guys a lot of barbecue friends are going to be bringing you tips and tricks. We're really excited about this I'll see you guys next time