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Episode #65 - I Talk with Mike Steel of the BBQ Champs Academy Online BBQ Competition Classes

• darrin s wilson • Season 2 • Episode 65

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I talk to Mike Steele, Barbecue competitor and owner of "BBQ Champs Academy", that offers online classes from some of the TOP Barbecue and Steak Cookoff World Champions all in one spot! Learn both back yard bbq and competition cooking to bring your skills up to World Class Standards! Check out BBQ Champs Academy HERE https://bbqchamps.com/ and follow them on Facebook HERE https://www.facebook.com/bbqchampsacademy/ . 

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Darrin Wilson :

Hey all Welcome back to the fire and water cooking podcast. I'm Darren, I'm your host and today we got a great guest, Mr. Mike Steele, the barbecue champs Academy. He's going to talk about what they are doing that they're offering and some of the great exciting classes that they offer. I'll be right back like steel smoking. Hey y'all, it's Darrin and today I want to talk about the ink bird Wi Fi rain proof. For pro barbecued thermometer that's brand new. The IBV q 40. has a rechargeable battery that can last up to 26 hours once it's fully charged. And you can monitor from pretty much anywhere with the 2.4 gigahertz Wi Fi that comes with the brand new ink bird pro app, you can monitor your meat in the temperature of the grill from pretty much anywhere from your house anywhere in the house, from your office from the store driving down the street. Inkbird makes some really awesome barbecue products and this one is no exception. Check it out below with the link to Amazon you can use the code that's listed for $30 off making it only $70 check out eat bird and all their products. Now back to the fire and water cooking podcast. Welcome back to the fire and water cooking podcast. I'm Darren I'm your host and today I've got a real special guest, Mr. Mike Steele. He is the owner of barbecue champs Academy, which is an online barbecue competition, cooking class Academy pretty much and they also have some backyard cooking classes as well. Mike, welcome to the podcast. Why don't you explain who you are where you came from.

mike steel :

Thank you Darrin I appreciate it. Appreciate you. Fire and water for inviting me own and yeah, we started at barbecue champs Academy June the 28th last year, and it's it's been a lot of fun. I am a competition cooker. So they've been doing it for a few years. My big background was drag racing. I absolutely loved racing. I was in it for many years, used to do a lot of racing when I was a younger guy on the streets and they started getting some of the racing and stuff where it was more sanctioned for the fastest street cars in the country to go to tracks across the United States and compete. And it was the national muscle car Association and one of the big ones that we used to do was down in Orlando, Florida at the world street nationals and that was the one that really started kicking this stuff off. It got massive because they would bring cars in from Sweden to compete against the fastest cars in the United States. And that was a huge event. I mean, it was It was a packed house with spectators and cars some of the fastest rate cars across the United States would all go to this one track and we went to it in 1993 I think the first year was 92. We missed it didn't know about it, but 93 we found out about it went down there and get our feet wet in it and did pretty good. The second year we went back in 9495 started doing better. And then in 96, we was the only one running a small block Chevy 96 I built a new engine and went down there and we want it and right after that race at the super Chevy show, Super Street shootout. In Baytown, Texas, we said our first world record and that was a 1996 so I was always very competitive and very much of an innovator I always built my own engines and and tune the chassis and stuff like that setting the clutch and making changes to get the car these cars were really quick and in 1997 I developed a nitrus nozzle. I didn't like the design of what I saw that had been out for 26 years. So we was going to revolutionize the nitrus industry with a new nozzle that would have the fuel come out in a different format than just a round hole. Because trying to get fuel through a round hole. All it does is this is a stream and it's hard to optimize fuel when it's pissing the stream. So we put a slit in the end of it, and it looked like a carwash one, so when you'd hit it, it would just miss out. And so this is going to be pretty good. One of the only running six pounds of fuel pressure on these nitrile systems. So I put a EFI fuel pump on it, cranked it up to 60 pounds. And I was like man that came out of that nozzle. It was optimized and I was like, No, that's a mess. That's the way we can burn a lot of fuel, the more fuel you put an engine and burn more horsepower you make. So first race we debuted it, it was back at the world street nationals, which we had one in 96 we went back and 97 had the nitrus system It set the world record, again at that race was number one qualifier just in from that. It just I mean, we was one of the fastest nitrus cars in the country. And I didn't sell it to anybody. I mean, it was one of these deals. I made it for myself. And I guess it was about four years later, we got a phone call from Edelbrock big aftermarket company makes aftermarket parts and stuff out and we know you got a nitric nozzle. You got any interest in wanting to sell it, and I was like, yep, everything's got a price. So I went out, met with them met with Vic Edelbrock was struck up a deal, a licensee agreed to Edel bra and got it off the ground and they're still selling them today. And we competed pretty regular up to about 2004.

Darrin Wilson :

All right, we're back with Mike. We had a little technical difficulty with his internet but we're back recording again. So you were talking about you had some sold your technology for a new nitrus nozzle to Edelbrock. Ryan, let's talk about the racing there for a second because, you know, I don't know if a lot of people are familiar with that, that type of racing because they you know, they they understand Indy car and NASCAR in that. So you might not people might not know what you're talking about as far as the streetcar stuff goes,

mike steel :

right. It's drag racing. We did a quarter mile drag racing. And so it was it was a lot of fun.

Darrin Wilson :

Now what was that like just a hobby for you? Or was that something you actually made money on?

mike steel :

We made money on it. We they big payouts. I mean, you go to these competitions and competitions, you go to these races. And like Orlando, you go down there it was $10,000 purse, so they had pretty good payouts. And you know, we had all the contingencies that you got when all the decals that use the headlights You know, Holley carburetors are very grant fuel pumps or this or that they were sponsors of those race so if you want to race you'd get 300 bucks for every decal that you had on it and I think if you finish you know if you run it up you know went to the finals and lost you get runner up then you'd get like 100 bucks so you could go easily make anywhere between six to 8000 $10,000 on a race depending on which one you went to. And so we did pretty good it paid for our expensive these cars was not cheap to run these these cars were very, very fast cars. This the 97 Pro street Firebird that we had was actually Ricky Smith Oh pro car and we converted it but headlights taillights, turn signals, mufflers, I mean, these were fully street legal cars. And at that race in Orlando, you actually had to drive the car 12 miles around the facility and if it broke and you couldn't get it done in 30 minutes, then you get the boot news off the off the qualifying ladder and they replaced With the next one up in line, so you had to show that they were true street illegal cars. And this car at the end by the time we retired, I mean it ran 660 at 213 miles an hour and a quarter mile. It was very fast. Zero to 63 miles an hour in one second. zero to zero to 170 miles an hour and 4.3 seconds that was at the eighth mile. So well, they were very, very fast cars. And it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of work. But it was a lot of fun doing all the racing.

Darrin Wilson :

So you sold your nitrus nozzle to Edelbrock. And then where'd you go from there?

mike steel :

Yeah, you know, we once I did I was in 2004 when I was I think that's right about when I lost you. I'd been at the pool business still and for 32 years and I got an opportunity to open up a retail store that was about three miles from my house. had been there for four or five years and jumped in I was like, Man, this would be a perfect place to start building that business up. And man that was that was a big mistake because it took all my time and all the time that we had free to go to the races all of a sudden I was stuck at the store so I just literally did not get to race as much as is what I used to. And finally in 2008 it just got to where we couldn't hardly race anymore. We would only go to two or three races and and that was it and then from 2008 to 2012 we just didn't hardly get a chance to run. Finally in 2012 a hung up the helmet and said okay, enough's enough. We sold the car, and I don't know just the competitive nature in me I wanted to compete and do something. And I told my wife I was like, you know, I said I've I just want to compete and do something you know that's that's all I've done my entire life. And she said, Well, you know all these BBQ pitmasters shows your own. Why not? Why don't we get into barbecue love to barbecue and you cook some really good ribs? And I was like, you know, maybe that's not a bad idea. So I got on Craigslist and I was looking around for a grill I'd always wanted a rotisserie. Found one guy had already sold it. And he said, What do you want to do as a man? I'm thinking about doing some some obviously a competition or some barbecue competitions. He's a lot. I competed in the IBC, a international barbecue cooker Association. And he said, Are you far from Dallas? And I said, Nah. I said, I live in Shreveport. I said three hour trip. He said, Man, we've got a competition over in Dallas. It's in September. And if you can keep my number, call me the week before you can come hang out with us. And I was like, really? And he said, yeah. So I kept his number. I called him like a week before he said, Man, I didn't get my new grill. Done. He said, just go to the competition. And guess they pull people right off the street to judge and go talk to them and just tell them you want to judge. So we went up and talk to her and she said, Oh yeah, if you're wanting to compete You need to judge you can see what it's all about. We sit there and talk to a bunch of the cookers they were so nice and friendly and just you know like a really good family of just good old boys having fun. And so we judged all the food got to eat all three meats, brisket, ribs and chicken and steak from the awards and then we came back and on the way back my wife was like, Well look, she said how thick your stuff was just as good as anything that I've ate. She said, Why don't you get into let's go in and start doing some competitions. So I said that's good. Sounds good to me. I ordered a new cooker. It took them nine months to build it. I had a rotisserie cooker made and ordered it in October get it in right before the Fourth of July that following year. And I had not cooked a whole lot of briskets I had probably only cook one or two briskets my life but I had really some good ribs i thought was a pretty good rehab. So I started cooking some briskets i'd cook like four at a time just to see you know, flavor profiles. get them done right in first four weren't real good time to tough kind of drives did another batch of them okay there were a lot better and started learning about the tenderness own home and by the time I cooked another batch of four, I thought I had a pretty good brisk as like this brisket tastes pretty dang good. I said, Look, that same competition that we went to is coming up in two weeks. Let's make that our first one. So we took off and loaded up everything made that our first competition we got there. And you know, it was funny. I mean, we got everything set up. And it was just amazing to me. Like how many guys remembered that we were there the previous year? Yeah, he was here last year. He was thinking about cooking. I said, I don't know how you remember that. But yeah, that's That's right. That's us. And this is our first cook off. We wanted to make this our first one. And we, we went out and I got everything set up. You know, Uncle Tony came up to me and he said, Son, you just make sure that you just get them timelines right. And get the bait the box. That's all you got to do. 777 slices brisket seven slices ribs and and and chicken half and he said you'll be good just make your attorney at times have fun that's it okay okay. And so we ended up we didn't hit nothing in chicken we had an 11th place where we have one out of the top 10 and my wife just said I you're pretty much well done now because they went to briskets and they started calling out briskets and I'd be dead gum if we didn't have first place brisket at our first competition we went to wow 50 teams at IBC A state championship cook off I made $712 and 50 cents and needless to say, I was hooked so so that was in 2013. We only did that one competition 2014 was kind of our first full year and we we went to about 10 competitions that year. I think we walked in like six out of 10 and brisket. Allah said when I thought ribs were my strong point. brisket turned out to be my strong point. We did very well and brisket still very well at brisket today and we We got through our first year we had about three top 10 calls and ribs six and brisket out of the 10 competitions. And the chicken was the Nemesis you know like what do they want for a half chicken you know and a couple of guys that just get it off the rotisserie cooker put it on a grill and I think we finally got our first top 10 finished when I did that. And that was in 2014 2015 continue to steal trying to fill everything out and and brisket was still doing pretty good ribs were kind of all over the place. I just was trying so much stuff and you know you try to make them like what you see on TV but that that does it when you know we started finding out real quick we're cooking for backyard judges, and you know you need to cook good backyard barbecue.

Darrin Wilson :

So I started that's one thing I want to talk about is you are cooking in the backyard. There's different divisions and you

mike steel :

know, I was in IBC a in IBC a no there's no background doesn't it's

Darrin Wilson :

not like in the kcbs like, oh yeah vision. Yeah. backyard division. No

mike steel :

and obviously Yeah, it's not obviously Yeah, you go cook against every heavy hitter there and you better hope you You better hope you're gonna be able to do good. They don't have two divisions where y'all cooking one, but just the flavor profile, you got to get back to more of a simplistic right good barbecue without overthinking it, and I was overthinking it a little bit too much of my ribs. And if I had kind of stuck back what I originally did when I had an 11th place rib, I would probably done a lot better. I started trying to change flavor profiles. And they didn't like the flavor profile was just getting too much. It wasn't what they were used to eating. And

Darrin Wilson :

trying to do like more of a Johnny Triggs rib where you're

mike steel :

Yeah, you really shot Yeah, you try to get too much and that doesn't win very much and IBC a competition you could bring a little bit but you got to bring it balance because that's

Darrin Wilson :

one of the things I always when I watched like you know, the BBQ pitmasters and I've seen them do that to some of them. The meat it to me it muddles all the flavors it does and I know that they're only shooting for that one bite trying to make it pop. But like when I see you know put the parquet in the honey and the Gabi and five different kinds of rubs and right I can't understand how that doesn't just muddle all together and not taste anything like meat.

mike steel :

Yeah, it by the time it gets done it is over done. And you know people and we're going to talk about that when we start talking about all these World Champion pitmasters that we brought in but, but that's how we got started. That's that was kind of the basics and we continued to do good 2017 I really started kind of get an understanding of some consistent stuff. 2018 was probably one of our best years we had 13 competitions we went to, we had 12 out of 13 Top 10 finishes and brisket, ribs and chicken that year. All three of them were very, very strong. And we got an invitation to go to the American royal cook the invitation I had never cooked a kcbs conference In my entire life and I didn't even want to go practice one I just told my wife we're gonna go there we're gonna have fun and I'll see what happens.

Darrin Wilson :

No obligations. Yeah

mike steel :

yeah you know just we just wanted to see the experience there's no way that you would have told me four years ago after we first started I'd be cooking with American oil. And we did we went up there cook the invitation, and I'll be dead gum if I didn't have a seventh place port but in the invitation had a 179 56 score. I think we had a 177 and some change on a rib but 175 or 177 on brisket had a 175 on ribs and had a 170 something don't chicken and we finish 19th overall at 125 teams at the invitation and had a 24th place brisket and cook the open the next day and had a 27th place brisket out of 500 teams. So you know it was a fun experience. And we just had a blast doing it and rolled into 2019 and I had I had a Kindle manufactured company that I had just sold. And I was wanting to really get into involved with something for barbecue. And you know, I kept thinking that what can I do? What can I do you know, the rubs and salsa stuff had been just it's so much competition in that so many people's doing it and I just felt like the profit margins being starting out this biggest what I want to try to do something was just going to be tough to do so we kept looking around and I was just like, you know, I'm seeing this sport dying off. I'm seeing guys that were cooking four or five years ago, three or four years ago that just weren't cooking as much people wanting to get out of it. The barbecue stuff not growing the SCA stuff was growing like crazy for the steak cookers. And I was just like, you know, there's got to be something What can we do and you know, everybody's wanting to quit and you know, competition, man, I'm telling you, it's tough guy. Tough. I mean, these guys are amazingly good cooks and you know if you're behind a little bit It makes it hard to get back in and do well. And I was like, you know what if we were to film world champion pitmasters doing their tell competition barbecue cooking classes, and I was like not that would be something that you know, we could see that would help grow the sport, not only in barbecue but SCA because not only do we have BBQ pitmasters we hit steak grill masters. So I wanted world champions. I didn't just I'm not even good enough to be on my own show. Guys joking me all the time. Like, are you serious? And I was like, I don't have a world champion behind my name. So I'm not good enough. So, but a buddy of mine, Joey Smith had just won the 2019 Houston livestock show and rodeo him and Mark Lambert are partners. And I call Joe inessa. Joey. I said, Man, there's if there was ever a time that you capitalize on you being a world champion, it's now and I said I've got something that I'm wanting to do. And I said I'm wanting to film world champion pitmasters tell barbecue classic They put it on the internet. We're gonna call it barbecue champs Academy. I said, Are you in on this? And he said, oh my goodness gracious. Yes. He said, our sport needs something like this to help this thing grow. And I was like, awesome. Don't tell nobody I gotta make into the phone call. So my next phone call was Robbie royal with rescue smokers. I figured why not have somebody that won, you know, not necessarily World Champion, but obviously a very well known name in the barbecue industry or because of BBQ pitmasters and have won in that. And he's won to Georgia State champions. I mean, the guy's just a phenomenal cook. I had talked to Robbie, a couple years prior and Matter of fact, I want to go to one of his classes one time it was just so stinking far away from Shreveport to Georgia. And I said, Man, I don't really need help with anything but ribs and he just kind of gave me some pointers what to do with some ribs and I did it and I'd be damned if we didn't have a fifth place read right off the gate. And so I kind of talked to him, told him what I was wanting to do. And I told him I said, Robbie, I said, I'm wanting to do a tell all class and in film all these World Champion pitmasters I said, I would love to have you aboard on this. And he said, You know, I've, I do a cooking school a couple times a year. I've wanted to do something like this. But he said that there's just it's just too hard to set all this up. He said, Man, I am all in on this. He said, Yes, count me in. So I right off the get go. I'll call two people. I've got two amazing cooks. I've got a buddy of mine that does barbecue. He was real big into the state competitions. Alan Newton. I called Alan up and Alan was like, you know, what do you want to do? And I told him and he said, Mike, I'd be honored to be part of that. So I had my first date cooker. I had another girl that was here in Shreveport in my own backyard, Shawna repol Oh, she was a two time female cooker of the year and SCA I think that was in 2016 and 17. And one run it up world champ to the World Championship the first year she could and I didn't Never heard of her. But my, my lady at the bank knows her. So I called I said, Shannon, I need you to get me hooked up with Shauna repose. She said, What are you doing? I said, I can't tell you, but I'll tell her when you're here because I needed to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Because I don't want anybody getting let never run out what we're doing. And she said, Okay, I'll arrange something for you. So she, she said, Well, why don't you meet me at the bank, you know, Wednesday at 830 in the morning, and she'll be here and I said, Okay, so she came in, I introduced myself to her. I said, Shawn, I got something really big, I think fixing to revolutionize the barbecue, and the state cooking and I said, I know, you know, Joey Smith and Joey Smith is involved. And I said, I'd like to tell you about it before I do. I gotta have you sign this non disclosure agreement. And she was like, that's fine. I'll do it. What's going on? So I told her and she said, I want to film not only BBQ pitmasters, but steak grill masters and I said, I'd love to have you on board and she said, Oh my gosh, I am so in. So For phone calls for people and and that was the start of me doing all the filming and getting this thing going

Darrin Wilson :

and it let me know let me stop you right there yeah uh huh those your first four and a half Did you have any that said no that they didn't want to do no

mike steel :

no okay for so from their job Smith about two weeks later was at a competition with Cory Mike's and well Cory Mike's his two time world champion he's one of the American oil is dead Danny Mike's is probably one more barbecue competitions and we could shake a stick it and I called and he Joey went up to Cory said, Hey, Cory, do you know Mike Steele? He said yeah, I think I'm friends with him on Facebook. I see a post and you know, and he said, Man, he's fixing do something. revolute revolutionized the barbecue industry. It's like, well, what is it? He said, I can't tell you. He said What do you mean, you can't tell me? He said, I'm under a nondisclosure agreement. He said, What Tell me what the heck it is. He said, just call him I can't tell you what it is. And he said I will give him my phone number. So I called him talk him, you know, we had something pretty big going on. And I'd like for him to be part of it. And I said, if you are interested, I'll send you a nondisclosure agreement. He said, we'll send it to me send one of my dad to get us both on the phone. So I sent one out to both of them. They signed it. I got them on the phone. And Cory was like, Oh my god, I'm so in on this. This is amazing. So that was that was the start. We had Cory. And you know it. And that was enough for me to start filming. So when we literally launched this class, we had Robbie, we had Joey, we had Cory, we had three barbecue people. We had Alan Newton. And we had shot a repo for our states. And we launched it on June the 28th 2019. A little over a year ago. And, you know, I wanted to make the classes very informative. I'm right there, boom. I want to engage them. I'm wanting to ask them questions. I'm wanting to dig as much information out of these guys is possible. Can these are not some boring class that he's sitting up there in front of a camera just talking and caring? I wanted interaction between myself and the pitmaster I come across it I don't know anything about barbecue I know Okay, this that because I'm trying to ask questions that if somebody doesn't know if this is the backyard cooker, and you they're talking about intramuscular fat and this and that like, okay, let's talk about this. What is it? We're looking for the fat in the meat. Why don't we want fat in that brisket? Well, that's marbling that marbling is flavor that marble and keeps it juicy. That marbling makes it tender. So we break all this stuff down in every one of the proteins. Why are you doing this? What are you doing that for? What's the purpose of this? And it's basically to educate them because they're talking to as if people already know what they're doing. I came across to them like guys, I'm wanting to reach out to the backyard cooker. We need to educate the backyard cooker to cook the most amazing barbecue ever. And so when I'm in these classes, they're broke down. It's not one long nine hour video, every video is broken down by me. So if we take brisket, well how to select and trim or brisket, you know which ribs to use and how to apply, you know, we and that's a video every one of them is separate videos broken down into full detail with three camera angles. We have a camera that we talked to, we have a camera that's literally two foot in front of the food. And that allows us to go in and just have that nice close up like you see on the Food Network. We have an overhead camera that shoot straight down on it. So you have three different camera angles and we're constantly moving these camera angles around to keep you engaged, keep the conversation going. And they they just they went on when I was sitting here watching them after my film crew edited and sent all that stuff to me. I was like amazed. I was like man, these are so entertaining and they're so good and they're so powerful and knowledge. You can't help But learn from what these guys are doing. So when we launched this deal on June the 28th, it was a matter of I mean, it went across Facebook, it was just viral. We launched it all the barbecue gas started sharing it, this thing went across Facebook like crazy. And we immediately started selling classes. And I mean, it was like crazy at the amount of classes that we were selling just right off the get go. And I think the biggest thing was, was literally probably within a week and a half. I had people that were buying classes that were coming back and buy in more classes and buy in more classes and I knew then that we had something that was very successful. And soon as we got it launched, Joey said we need to get Mark Lambert involved. So Mark Lambert is a six time world champion. And talk to Mark Mark said Oh yeah, I am so into On this so we got mark and you just pass to them and then you know scroll them down a little bit then after we got mark you know Cory Mike's new Sterling, talk to Sterling and said Sterling you know we need to get you talked to him he said man I am so in on this. We had Lee hickel Lee hickel with just won the IBC a cooker the year. It was his first year of cooking that guy's an amazing up and coming cooker. He just finished the second year, this year last week. And he finished number two in the points championship. And that's pretty amazing. If when it's the one the first year his second year he finished second. And I'm telling you I think he would have ended up winning number one again if COVID hadn't hit because there was a lot of teams IBC a change the rules this year that they only took your top 12 cooks you can cook 40 competitions you only taking your top 12 lot of guys cook 3040 competitions, Lee only got 19 competitions and because of COVID and he was only a couple hundred points. Behind it one grand champion would have put him back in first place. And so he it is an amazing cooker. And then after that we got Craig Sherry with Texas pepper jelly. And we released his classes in January. And then, about three weeks ago David Bosco with butcher barbecue, I contacted him. He came on board so, and then the steak cookers just continued to roll and we had Shawna after Shauna, we got Tom Machado. And then that was our three that we had for last year. And then in February, we brought in john Lindsay and Terry Rome. And we we launch both of their classes. We launched Johnson February, we won't launch Terry's think it was in April. Two amazing cookers that have done so much for the sport of SCA competition. We've got two new cooks that we're in talks with as of right now. So we're going to just continue to grow this. This Academy of World Champion Pittman masters and state grill masters and, you know neron One of the things that I picked up really, really quick was the ability that these guys cook the way that they go about cooking. I started noticing it's it's not this necessarily one by barbecue. It was it something out of bounds. It wasn't something so sweet that she couldn't eat it. It was just dead gum, good barbecue. And I and after about the fourth one, I think it was Mark and I had here I was like Mark. I was like, I've had all your barbecue. And I said everything is like balanced barbecue and he said, keep it simple, stupid. He said where you are trying to cook to where it's a little heat. A little sweet, a little savory. And he said that's we're trying to stay in that box. And he said when we can cook barbecue like that. We win world champions. And I started noticing they were all like that. And I think that's what people sometimes they think the competition barbecue is something that you can eat for the backyard. But I'll beg to differ. When I've hate these guys food, I mean it. There's not a single one of them that you could give me four or five slices of their brisket and four or five bones to eat on for their ribs and some chicken because it is just so good. It's like just the most flavorful, nothing out of bounds. Nothing so sweet that you can eat it that hurts your teeth or anything like that. It's just good barbecue. And I think they picked up on it when they go to start one of these world champions. You know, you the judge is usually no more than it obviously as people right off the street. I mean, there's nothing gets you better cook backyard barbecue kcbs. I mean, yeah, that judge may be trained for a certain way and the taste and texture But they're still they're still a backyard. They're still like backyard barbecue, it still has to be good. Yeah, that's right. And it doesn't need to be out of bounds. And that's what we're kind of noticing with these guys. So we, we really broke the classes down. So when I said we are going to reach the backyard barbecue just as much as the competition. So when we trim our brisket, we trim it. Okay, here is a backyard trim on this brisket. If you're cooking kcbs competition or rvca. Now you can go to the next level. And we'll tell them if you don't if you don't want to cook that you paid for the video. If you want to watch the full tram, watch it, you're going to learn some amazing stuff that they say. Here's the tram for the backyard. Here's the trim on ribs for the backyard. Here's the trim for a pork butt in the backyard. Now let's take it to full blown so we we progress through the class. When you're watching the trim. Here's the trim for the brisket on the backyard. Now let's go to competition brisket, pork butt rib, all of us the same so we're taking And along the way and I think that's what has made it such a success because we joke a lot about there's a lot of stuff on YouTube I had a guy post all I could get all this stuff for free on face on YouTube. I was like, Yeah, no, you can't. You're not gonna get what these guys dude, these guys have got so many dead GM tips and tricks and secrets up there dead GM Slee there's things that you have never even thought of that these guys do. And it's never been revealed on Facebook or made on YouTube. And you know, I look at it like this and I joke with them. If the guys on YouTube were so good at what they did, they'd be out at competitions making money because the guys that are good, they make money doing this

Darrin Wilson :

right and they're not they're not spreading it out on the videos either. And it's like even I've had Harry Sue on the show before and talked to him and you know, a lot of the stuff that he does, if he likes to share it now and he does he can still go compete, but watching a Harry suit video and then being Harry Sue is totally different yeah no because you know he knows the little little things that well yeah better you know he it's hard for him to really show you that and the nuances after being in so many competitions but you know he can show you the basics but Brian right you're right about having the the backyard trim and the competition trim cuz I used to watch a lot of those videos and go you just threw out 10 pounds of brisket Yeah,

mike steel :

yeah. Yeah, we laugh at like, don't freak out. Don't freak out. He's fixing to trim this thing and it's gonna go for this today you know make it smaller. But he'll tell you look save this. If you're a competition save this. You can grind this up makes excellent hamburgers this that you put in all kinds of so we don't they don't waste the food. They tell you how to go about utilizing it. But you know it's it's amazing at what you can learn and we've had so many backyard cookers that have taken the classes that have are cooking some of the most amazing food that they've ever ever cooked in their life. They said I thought I was good, but I am nowhere near what these guys were. And then when I learned the techniques and the flavor profiles and how to put all that stuff together, I became an incredibly good cook and they're cooking some amazing, amazing barbecue. I'll tell you this. This is a funny comparison between barbecue champs Academy and YouTube. Like I said, I started barbecue champs Academy because I wanted to see this sport grow. I really did. I wanted to see barbecue grow. I want to see the state classes grow. About four days after we launch barbecue champs Academy, I had a guy that's over in East Texas about 60 miles from me both Cory Mike's all access class. And I saw that he had purchased it. And three days later, four days later, it was coming up Fourth of July weekend. We met over the competition in Russ, Texas. It was a state championship cook off he was there Craig cherry was there. I don't remember how many teams pretty good. Bit of teams and I went up to him and said hey how you doing? He said doing good i don't i if you don't want to if you want to remain anonymous with barbecue champs fine you can we got a lot of people though that have shared how well that they have done. And so I said well I hope you do good. He said man I really liked the videos I said good. And we were saying this, he was just a trailer. Nobody heard it. I didn't want to say anything. So he could he ended up having like a war time came he had an eighth place chicken man I was so happy for him because this is a guy that he did not have a lot of top 10 finishes. He had been cooking about a year and a half. had not had a lot of top 10 finishes. So came Riyadh's. He had a second place re I think that was the highest call he had ever had in a year and a half cooking ribs. I think he finished third or fourth overall, he made $600 he paid 599 for the class. I was so excited for him, you guys money way out. And I was like having to hold back because I just I didn't want to say anything and I went Over there to him after everything was over and all our guys were all hanging out and congratulate everybody blah, blah, blah and, and and I looked at it, congratulations. And he said, Oh man, you don't have to be quiet about it. everybody already knows that. I took Cory Mike's class I was like, Are you kidding me? I was like, man, I said, I'm so excited. I've been over here about to bust at the seams. I was so excited for him and everybody was like, are these classes really that good? I said, What the heck you asking me? Here's a guy that just got through taking the class four days ago and he kicked our butt. And I said you're wondering how good the classes are. I said these classes are frickin amazing. So he goes he didn't even have time to get the stuff to cook the brisket. So he goes to his next competition. He had a fifth place brisket or ninth place rib. They had a 14th place chicken he said that it was my fault. I cook the chicken is like 205 degrees. I blew that half chicken apart and still had a 14th place chicken. He goes to his next competition. And I don't remember it was all for meats for IBC a which is rare they cook pork but he had a first place First place a second place a fourth or fifth place and got his first Grand Champion. And he's already up 1900 dollars at this point goes to his next competition drops off all three tickets. And here not too long ago right before COVID started that was kind of coming to the end of the season. Right for COVID started he got his second grand champion. So and then here two weeks ago we cooked at a competition how to first place brisket. So I mean, and he's probably done made over $4,000 in a year competing at these competitions. And he told me, he said, You know, he said I had watched every YouTube video out there for brisket, ribs, chicken, you name it. And he we got him on tape. We went to a competition. He was there and we had our film crew there and he literally spilled it out. It's actually on our Facebook page. We got a little interview with him. But he said I had taken every or I had watched every YouTube channel. It didn't matter which ones The best of the best all these guys. I never did good. I don't think I had but I think he only had one or two top 10 finishes in a year and a half and he's taken our stuff to Grand champions, multiple top 10 finishes and he said there is no comparison of what's on YouTube compared to this and I was like man, you are not poster child. Thank you. Thank you, thank you for sharing that kind of information. But we have had a lot of backyard cookers that has jumped over into this and have just absolutely killed it.

Darrin Wilson :

So and that's one thing I want to talk about because if you're an up and coming or you want to be competitor cook those classes are great but you also have you know class just our people that want to do it in their backyard. Yeah, so we asked started doing some of those those videos, and I I'm very impressed by my what's in them as well. And like I said that, that to me, I don't barbecue I like attending competitions. I just don't want to go and, and participate because it's usually a long weekend and it's long a lot of you know the equipment and move around Arby's and I'm just not into it. There's a lot of people that are but Oh, yeah, but it's but I love cooking in my backyard and so right, right able to get the backyard class and you know, which is, you know, something more along for me. So it's, it's great.