Smokin Joe's Pit BBQ Is Officially Closed For Good...Or Is It??

Happy to have your aboard here for the really big barbecue show. Boy. We cook because we have to and we grill because we want to. Me. Fine. I just want. You have a great shot over can. Boy So what what what seems to be the problem here This man looks like you dead and we in the in the crackle. Sean succulent finished what? Piece for wheeler. So is Liberty beef. Down shit likes dog shit peach leaves. We have all and working on it right now. Welcome to the second hour of the show.

It's the Barbecue Central show where we talk about an important barbecue and grilling items that you didn't even know were important. I meant to do this in the first hour. Boing. I deal with that. Hit me Standby. There it is. Yep. Hello? Could remember where I put that. Wanna thank Medic correspondent from Tennessee, Matt Os for this birthday gift. Don't know if you're familiar with this particular rub or not, but it's called mommy. And there's is a picture of, I guess, she... That a witch?

I don't know. All purpose all flavor. And then as we turn it around on the back, made with only the freshest Florida grown, shit take mushrooms. Umami rub is a bold and savory, flavor explosion that will amplify any meal from scramble eggs, to competition barbecue, sure to fire up the taste buds. Oh mommy. Can be used as a stand alone seasoning as a finish when your food needs that extra punch or layered with other fine seasonings. I put it on eggs this morning, and I can tell you delicious.

I'm not sure exactly where you get this, but the Instagram is Umami Rub, all 1 word. Double 0HMAMIRUB, or mommy Rub. So thank you to Matt. For doing that med also pitched in on some premium hand rolled cigars. I certainly appreciate, but then came all by his lone on the Obama. So I have that 1 that I'm showing you on unopened and then there's 1 upstairs that I have been using over the top of things that I think might need an umami kick. Still come in the show. This evening. Our pal, Joe Martinez

from Smoking and Joe's pit barbecue. We say good evening to those of you watching tonight through 1 of our video streaming platforms. You can go to Facebook dot com slash bb central show or twitter dot com slash bbq q central show. You can also watch via the Youtube, which is Youtube dot com slash at Bbq Central show, update on the Youtube

poll question of the week this week. The grid market will remain a hot 1 for consumers for the balance of 20 24 and currently 76 percent of you are saying yes, you believe it is. We'll check that through the rest of the show here. This evening. We'll get smoking and Joe's pit barbecue insights on that in just a few short moments coming up. The best moments of Barbecue Central show and 10 minutes or less is coming Friday. We take you back to June 20 ninth of 20 10.

This week, we feature what was supposed to be a segment with Derek Riches, but instead, we got a colon from barbecue legend barbecue hall of Fame Melissa Cooks. I don't know why Derek missed the show. That was a long time ago, 15 years ago, more than 15 years ago now. But Bliss was listening to the show that evening. She lives a call to the show to fill the gap, but not only that. We talk about everyone's favorite live fire host, a guy who I nicknamed Dude Douche.

Kevin Roberts was talked about after his disastrous today show appearance where he talked about par boiling ribs. I know it's crazy, but he actually did it. And he did it very staunch, very convicted. Almost ind, and it was days away before I think what ended up being season 2. So this would have been the first year that Barbecue pit masters went from the reality show of following teams around to the games show that it morph into and remained as. So here he is on the today show.

Mustard is a binder, blah bye, and then talking about par boiling ribs. It blew up the Internet. Everybody's like. Who's this? Well, it blew up the barbecue Internet. How can this guy be the host? He's talking about power boiling ribs, No self respecting barbecue order. You're boiling out the flavor and this and that. No doubt. I asked John Mark is how could you possibly have a host that's talking such a nonsense man. He took issue Kevin Robert took issue.

Started blasting back, and that's when he earned the nickname Do Douche, which she now wears. To this day, I'm the show whether he knows it or not. Probably doesn't even remember being a guest on the show. Now, to his credit, he came on the show, I immediately asked him about it, really pinned them down. And he said, yeah. I was still. But I I said that. I shouldn't have said. You know, I looked back on the show, and after hearing this particular segment because I preview everything.

That John put together. I'm here to tell you. It was a different show back then. In many ways, in many respects, different sound, different hosting ability, We had live phone calls. Way more attentive to covering competition barbecue. It was different than. I'm not saying it was better than. Not saying it was bad then. I'm just saying it was different. The show has evolved and it's hearing shows like that. Where I'm like, man, we should reinstall the phone line just in case, and then I

think better that. You can subscribe to the show by visiting the barbecue central show dot com slash subscribe. And if you wanna hear a guest or segment on the show that has been lost in the archives email John and let them know what you would like to hear. In fact, email, John and tell him you would like to have him find the do douche segment. Really put him the task. See if he can possibly bring something up.

The famous Days All star Barbecue series rolled into Hermit attached, Tennessee this past weekend, and winning the event. Texas moons sw good for you. And coming in reserve grand champion, little team, maybe heard of them, red bone barbecue. Hey everybody can't trouble you for. Good job, Red bone.

Both Texas moons whine and red bone barbecue have now qualified for the 20 24 world food championships in the barbecue division that will take place in November, and that will take place in the greatest city aside from Cleveland known as Indianapolis, Indiana, The next famous day All star Barbecue series event is this coming Saturday, July twentieth and 1 of my favorite dust the nations across the nation Louisville, Kentucky, and as of this past Sunday night, and I didn't check it today.

You might wanna check me here. But as of this past Sunday night, the event opened up one's spot for availability if you can believe it, if you're gonna be around the greater louisville area and you wanna take part in this famous Dave's, all star Barbecue series challenge, there might be a spot left. By the way, the Columbia Maryland event on August 20 fourth still showing is having 1 spot left, but that other 1 in El Paso has

filled up. So right now, 1 left for this coming weekend and 1 left at the end of the whole series on August 20 fourth. You can find past results in the remaining schedule of future events by visiting world food championships dot com slash all stars. And now we're all caught up. What do we love about ceramic cooker do fools? We love that their fuel fish We love that you can achieve low and slow temperatures for traditional barbecue meat.

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I can cook very well on the p In fact, I enjoyed a lot in. I'm gonna be cooking a number of slabs of ribs on the P this coming Saturday. Also gonna be potentially mixing in a trader. I know shocking for me to say. But the p is gonna be handling the brunt of the work might mix in a little fire board drive with that as well just for s and giggles. And when it's all said done, I'm gonna be able to close the top vent and close the bottom event. I guarantee.

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You go to pit barrel cook dot com and tell them the barbecue Central show sent you and who knows what can happen from there? Joining me in the second hour is the guy who was our pa subject back in 20 23, we followed him. As he launched his food truck in El paso, Texas garnered Rave reviews from customers. Got some pub from Texas monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn, then in March, he closed. But then he opened again a few weeks later and then 4 months later, he's closed for good.

Confused as I am, of course. So let's t through the past handful of months and see what has brought us to the stage as we Welcome back our pal and the, I guess, former owner of smoking and Joe's pit barbecue. Joe Martinez, Joe before we jump into the Shenanigans and Tom Fu

of what's going on with you. We have a most important Youtube poll question of the week that we're asking everybody, which is this, you think the grid market will remain a hot 1 for consumers, the balance of 20 24, yes or no. Part of the 27 percent, I'm gonna say no. No Yeah. 27 percent saying no, 73 percent saying yes. And we'll see how that plays out here through the rest of the evening. Alright, Joe. So here we are. June sixteenth of 20 24, and it seems

like only a year ago. We were talking about what the next handful of months was like a smoking Joe's pit barbecue was probably really hitting its stride at this point. For the folks who don't recall, you had been launched out. Before we started in January, you had been doing, it was it for, like, 4 or 5 or 6 months or something like that. So it wasn't a true track of real time, but we were able to get everything kinda caught up within those first couple interviews to be able to end more

in real time reporting. So, let's look back before we talk, never mind that. We'll do that here in a second. Joe, what happened? You made a post, closed for good. A, are we really closed for good? And if so, why are we really closed for good this time around? Yeah. So the first part of your question, yeah, I'm I'm closed for good. There's no going back. You know, I I reopen it, try to, you know, revamp it see if it gets some energy and traction and it just never happened.

So definitely not not gonna open up. And, again, you know, even though it it hurts me, you know, to to say that, It's just it's the best thing for my business. You know, it just wasn't generating the revenue that I need you know, to to survive and and, you know, weigh my options and and where I was at before. It's just better to to close it down and and move on and, you know, learn from from your mistakes if you will. Allow me to be Johnny critical man as I interview you.

It would seem to me... And nobody who knows this better than you. You were a, sales guy for many, many years at O'reilly in the management, of course. Could I tell you Joe, you wanna make more revenue, open more days out of the week? I think you were open. Like, a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, maybe? I think it was Friday, Saturday. Also, why not go to 5 days a week and see if you can make a run at? Yeah. That's a great question. I think that's a question that a lot of folks have.

You know, the the thing that that a lot of people don't understand. Yes. I'm in Texas. Okay? But I'm in far West Texas. So when you think about Texas and and Barbecue, I mean, you about Texas, Barbecue is the second thing you think about. It is popular, but not here in El Paso. Mh. And, you know, part of me opening up was to change that. You know, we're not Austin. We're not Dallas. We're not Houston. We're not any of those big cities. We're a big city. El, paso is a really big city.

But when it comes to to Barbecue, it's just not something that that people are accustomed to... And and not everybody, you know, I do wanna say that that, you know, I had we had our loyal customers. You know, our customers that didn't care about the price of barbecue. You know, they've come over 2, 3 pounds at a time and and not say anything about the price, you know.

But El paso is is you know, it's good Mexican food is not text Me food, like you find down in San Antonio and the rest of Texas, you know, we have really good Mexican food, and that's what people out here are accustomed to. You know, just good, solid Mexican food. And and, again, we tried we tried twice to make this thing work and it just wasn't working. When I look at your postings, and maybe this is my fo. When I look at social media.

To me, the outsider looking in, Joe Martinez killing it it was a cash cow sold out again. Everybody reviewing it saying best thing ever. I mean, hell, you got Daniel Vaughan to poke 12 hours away from Dallas to come out and see and El Paso and he puts you on the the shooting stars list last

year. So there appeared to be everything going right to end up leading into really, very I don't know outrageous success, But at least something that you could hang your hat on and continue to grow, stay at if you wanted to, but wasn't gonna be, like, oh, I think I'm really gonna have to close down. You could work it for the next 10:15 years and ago, okay. I'm just done working. Maybe I'll sell it. Mh. Is this the the fo that a lot of people fall

into when we're following you? We think it's just cash hand fist, and it's really not? Yeah. I think I think that's that's, you know, accurate statement. So When we first opened up, you know, I went, you know, full blown barbecue. Full blown Texas barbecue. I mean, I had every meat that you could pass... We think of when you think Barbecue, burnt ends, park belly burnt ends, you know, 7 different sides, you know, homemade cornbread bread, I had it all. I had everything.

Banana pudding everything. Mh. And things were going really good. We're making money. You know, I was excited to open up, and and, you know, we had you know, the first day, we cooked a bunch of brisket that we opened anyway, bunch of brisket, bunch of pork butts and we sold out and probably 3 hours and that. That was like, wow. That's... This is this is really gonna hit. And after that, you know, we stayed pretty busy.

But then, you know, as I mentioned in the last podcast that I was on, you know, business slowed, and that's what led to me closing down the first time. It slowed down, then we had, you know, some personal stuff happened with an inter our in our family that we talked about. So that was a easy decision for me to shut it down then. You know, we weren't making as much money. We had some personal stuff happen with our family. And so I just shut it down. Now, I'll take you guys back a little bit.

When we reopen the second time, on March first, you know, I had a a much smaller menu. Mh. And things were going great you know, that's when we had the, I think it's a second interview that we had or third of you. I don't remember exactly how many. But things were going really good. You know, we were selling out every day. The new menu, I thought was working, you know, because we were selling out, and and we were a lot more profitable. We had less waste at the end of the day.

Things were going great. And then I don't know. It it just, you know, customers would show up, Greg, and they'd say, hey, can I get some smoke mac and cheese? Oh, we don't have smoke mac and cheese anymore Because, you know, I I can... I reduced the menu down And so I didn't have... I think the only side I had was beans, but because beans was something that went in our loaded potato and and our loaded fries. So we were selling beans as a, you know, they're Texas cowboy beans.

So we were selling that. But people would show up and say, hey, can I get ribs? Well, we weren't doing ribs every day either. You know, we were doing ribs only on Fridays, And we were selling out, You know, we were selling out of ribs, and I thought it was working. But, you know, when we cook 10 racks of ribs, it got to the point where we're cooking 10 racks of ribs, And at closing time, we'd still have 4 in the smoker and I'm, like, holy cow. What's going down? What's going on here?

You know, brisket, we were smoking a lot of brisket here towards the end, Greg, we were we were probably cooking 3 brisket a day, and that's just not gonna generate the revenue. Yeah. It's not gonna generate the revenue that we need to survive. And and, yes, you know, we can blame all sorts of things. I'm not a guy that's know, gonna make excuses about things. But, you know, that this was a a big learning curve for me. And if if I had to do it,

all over we're gonna be way different. But, you know, if it's to the point where we cook 3 biscuits a day and and we'd still have you know, sometimes we'd have a brisket left over a half a biscuit left over. It's like, man, what's going on here? You know? But so let's roll all the way back. And play post mortem, second guess, 20 20, Arm share quarterback, whatever you wanna call. When you look at the initial stages of opening. And when we talked about it, you appeared to have

a lot of things well thought out. You gotten the right buy in from your wife. You had made all the right financial decisions. We talked in up about all of that. You weren't going in, leveraged with a whole bunch of debt or anything like that. You would use the money that you had made save bubble blah really fund this thing and get it off the

ground. Within that first 6 months of opening, Is there anything in that span of time where you would go back and say, I would change this and this would put us in a different spot either now or would have set us up to be in a better position moving forward. So there is, but at the same at the same time, you know, because... And I'll talk about what the changes that I'd make, the the the change that I would make. Let me around that just for us I

Joke. Because I I think this is important people to listen to because if you're thinking about doing something like this. My goal in asking Joe the hard questions is for him to give us the answers and really the straight information on what he has went through to help The next person make sure they're seeing all the different sides of this potential. Because I think it's very sexy.

People think they can do it. People think they're great cooks and then there's a lot more things that are involved in what actually makes you a success or does it make you a success. So start I'd to interrupt, but, go ahead from there. Yeah. So the the thing that I would change is not have so many proteins. You know, there was there was meats that I had that I could have done without. And then the number of sides that I

had, I could have done... If I would've have just done half of the meats and half of the sides I think that we would have been okay. But on the same... In the same conversation, Greg, because of all the sides and because of all the meats that I had,

people were coming. You know, Daniel Vaughan showed up because he would see my, the pictures of my platter on Instagram or Facebook or you know, wherever he was seeing these, and we made some beautiful platter, you know, we were really proud of everything that we're were making, we had, 2 different flavor sausages. You know, we had ribs every day. We had beef ribs every day, pork belly burnt ends. We had turkey. We had half chickens,

So, yeah. So because of that, Greg, because of the platter pictures that I was posting. You know, that got the attention of a lot of people, not just Daniel Von, Daniel Wan obviously an important part of Texas barbecue. But there's a lot of barbecue people that will travel for good barbecue. So people were coming from Canada, you know, and and we

became good friends, people from California. All over the all over the the the country they were coming in to try my barbecue because I had finally opened up a barbecue place. You know, they were watching my Youtube videos and saying, man, I wish I wish you would sell your food. I wish I could order sausages from you. Etcetera. Well, once once I opened up, you

know, there will... They'd be there'd be truck drivers that we're driving through that aren't from Texas, they would message me and say, hey, Can I get some of your sausages? I'll just pull in the parking lot, and I just, you know, get 12 or whatever. Yeah. I'll I'll have them ready for you. So, you know, things were going really good.

If it wasn't for the the size of my menu, I don't think that I would have gotten as much attention as I as I did, But at the same token, you know, it was it was it was a double edged sword that hurt me in the long run because of the waste, You know, the waste that we started having in in the beginning, we had very little ways we were selling out. But when things start slowing down, and and there's a lot of factors of a why business will slow down. You know, whether being number 1 we're

in the food truck park. And I think that's important for people to know. We're in a food truck park. I'm in a food truck, 8 and half by 20 food truck, had it been in a a brick and mortar. I think things would be different. And and that's 1 of the things if I had to do this all over again. I don't think I would start in the food truck. It's it's a lot of work, very demanding. Barbecue by itself is a lot of work. Imagine doing it, in a portable kitchen. It just... It... It's difficult. You know?

So those are just some of the changes that I make now. There there have been a few people that have reached out You know, I did some, consulting for a few people that opened up barbecue places that opened up food trucks. They would come and spend 3 days with me, and I still do that for for people. You know, I'd tell them, you know, especially now that I close

a second time for good. A lot of people are reaching out, saying, hey, Joe, what happened and tell me walk me through so that I don't make these same mistakes, you know, help me out here. And and I'm honest with them. You know, because I don't want them to fail. I don't want anybody out there that's listening to this podcast that's thinking about opening up a food truck. To hear this and say, okay, I'm not gonna open up a food truck. I'm just not gonna do it.

You know, reach out to me and I'll help you to, you know, and I'm I'm Greg's is asking all the questions here and and I'm I'm hoping that we answer all of them. But in a lot of things I'm gonna share with you because I don't want you to fail. I want everybody's succeed, and everybody's situation is different. I think in my area because Barbecue isn't as popular as the rest of Texas. That may have hurt me being in a

food truck park hurt me. And, you know, there's things that I can't control the weather and stuff like that that that will slow the business down. But, again, I'm not making excuses on on the any of that stuff because there's things that I could have done to change things right out of the out of gate. When we look at those next 6 months or even up to a year past.

Were there any other things that you did that you would change that you think could have saved the business or help you stretch out a little long? Yeah. I think that what I should have done, So when I when I opened up again, the second time, you know, I Had mentioned that I reduced my menu. I think I reduced it to the point where it hurt my business because people would... As I mentioned earlier, would would walk up and say, hey, let me get some Let me get half a rack of ribs. Let me get

a pound of turkey. Let me get some mac and cheese, and I didn't have any of those. Are they just ordering? Like, Are they just coming up and telling you hoping you have it? Like, isn't there a menu posted somewhere that they can read? There's a menu right next to the window and it's like, oh, you know, we'd have to remind them or our menus right there

Are updated menus right there. And And, you know, the the most, Greg was when people would walk up and say that, and we didn't have any of it, and they'd turn around a walk away. And and that was, like, wow, man. That that hurts, You know, because that's what they went for. They they were loyal customers and you know, they're back again, and they're wanting that same same food, same sides that they were getting before, cornbread.

I have any of that, and we don't have it and and we had several customers walk away. So. You know, 1 thing that I started doing, Greg was I brought back the mac and cheese. I brought it back, you know, against my better judgment, I brought it back, and it started to sell. People... You know, I posted it, hey, our Mac and cheese is back. And, you know, people were coming back for that,

we brought back our our banana pudding. So I think that by removing or taking all the sides off pretty much that kinda hurt our business, so a lot of the loyal customers that were coming because of the sides. And again, everything was made from scratch. Okay? We weren't using Val vid and our cheese. Everything was made from scratch our cheese sauces made from scratch everything. So it's good food.

But because of that, I think that I hurt myself doing that, and and we lost a lot of customers that, you know, that really loved our sides and really love the beef ribs in Turkey, but we didn't have anymore. Joe, and I push you on hold here for a second. We'll pick it up here in a couple minutes? Absolutely. Lawrence. Standby stand by, Joe martinez is talking with us about Finally, calling it a food truck career. Ask some more questions here after we get back before we do that.

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Alright. We're back with Mow with more smoke and Joe's pit barbecue right after this stick around. Be Listening to that barbecue hughes Central show. Whole packers Full rash. Legs and thighs, injecting butts. You've never heard this before. You might think you found the best Triple x show ever. Let's get back to the most home or erotic host out there today. Craig wimp mp. The portion in the shell. Being brought to by jr r e, tobacco, makers of Ali, came room, Reserve, and Puma, No.

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always a conversation. I love to have with folks when they're getting ready to open or they have just open as we get to learn the nuts and bolts of them, getting from start to open. Right? And the refrain is always. Your ego says make everything because you need to show off to people that you are the pit master. But the business says, really keep it tight and focus on a few things and do them spectacularly. Easy for me to say or easier to fall into the... I wanna show everybody what I can do.

Well, I I think that, you know, both of the both of the... Your statements, you know, play a factor in in any business. You know, you wanna you wanna start a business, but, like you said, Greg, it... It's better to to just do a few things, a handful of things and be great at them, You know, and you can get a lot of people's attention, and then maybe down the road when you open if and when you open up a brick and

mortar. I mean, and then spread your wings and and and bring in, all these extra proteins and sides, etcetera. But I think both of your statements. I mean, they they pay they play a factor, you in in any business, you know, you wanna open up and and, you know, put your best foot forward and hey, look at me. This is what I can do. And and, again, I I don't have any regrets of it anything that happened. I mean,

I accomplished a lot. I wasn't expecting to be on Texas Monthly top 25 barbecue joints, and that's something that we accomplished. And I'm very proud of that. You know, I have not... I haven't lost my passion for Barbecue. And, you know, earlier, you made a statement that, hey, on the outside looking in, everything looked great. Mh. And as an owner of a business, Greg, I don't wanna be that guy that I want people to feel sorry

for me because I'm slow, etcetera. You know, I could have put... I could have put out a sympathy post. You know, And I'm and I'm sure it would have rejuvenate the business for a little while. But I I just didn't want that. You know, I didn't want to be that that business that is out there crying for for

help and it... You know, I just wanted it to come naturally But again, you know, things happen for a reason, and and if if I had to do it all over again, you know, obviously, things would be different, But I don't plan on doing this again, you know, and and I know I mentioned earlier that I wouldn't start in the food truck. But you take a look at you know, some of your top barbecue places in Texas, you know That recently shut down. You know, they started in the food truck.

Every mae barbecue in Lu, Texas, they started in a food truck, franklin barbecue, you know, started in the food truck. A trailer I could probably fit Franklin's original trailer, 2 of them inside my current trailer. And... But I don't think he was doing all the sides and all the meats that I was doing. Yeah, met he did what you mentioned earlier, just, you know, go in there with a handful of items and be good at it.

When you if you moved, smoking and Joe's pit barbecue not even moved it, but if you lived and 1 of the more well known barbecue cities. Do you think that you are just as successful as you were in El Paso, but you would have had consistency at being successful? Yes. Then then I would have been able to open up more days, Greg, You know, we tried opening more days tried opening up Sundays, you know, try to do Barb on Sunday, Small Bar, which are beef cheeks for those of you guys that don't know.

You know, it's a very popular food El paso. You know, Barb is something that you eat on Sundays here in Paso. It's not smoked. The way we would make it, but, you know, I wanted to bring that into Paso And and again, it it was okay, but not great. Mh. You know, and and you know, not everybody. I didn't wanna, again, have people, you know, feel sorry for me, but there were people that were noticing that they could tell it that I was struggling.

And 1 1 friend that, you know, he's just a social media friend, like, a lot of our friends are these days. Right? He's a millionaire runs a successful trucking company. He reached out to me and send me a message joe. He's like, hey, man. If you wanna talk, I'll I'll know, I'd love to talk to you and help you out as much as I possibly can. So we got the talk and and, you know, we talked for a good hour and he says, Joe, you know, talk to me about your financials,

were you at, you know, what we... You know, how was your financials before you started were you at now? He's like, Joe, why did you open up your food truck? He he flat out told me why did you open up your food truck if you're were doing so well? You know, just doing Youtube alone. And I don't mind sharing numbers with anybody, Greg. I I think that I'm pretty open an open book with you. You know, I was I was making upwards of 15000 dollars a month on Youtube alone.

Just Youtube. Okay? And and I had a corporate job So... But it got to the point where I was making more money on Youtube than I was at my corporate job. So I left my corporate job to do Youtube. But I also left it to open up a food truck. And because the food truck was taking so much of my time, you know, Youtube kinda took the back burner a little bit. And, you know, still making money on Youtube By I still am making money today. It's just not like it was before.

So, you know, when when this gentleman that that was helping me out. Told me that I really got... You know, I really got to think thinking and he's, like, why? Am I doing? Why am I killing myself? You know, all, these long hours of cooking and barbecue? Why am I doing this? You know, Am And I think I'm just passionate about it. You know, that's why I wanted to do it. That's the answer. I was just passionate about it. Or let's dig into that answer a little bit more. I'm no doctor Phil.

Are you saying you're passionate about it and you were busting your ass because you really didn't wanna fail or in reality, did you not wanna tell people you are going to fail? No. I didn't... At failure was not an option for me going in. I was really passionate and I wanted to make it work. You know, it's it's the analogy, Greg, that I I think that can best described this is when you have a 15 year old dog at home. And he's limp, he can barely walk. He's not eating. You know, he's

barely drinking any water. You know that it's time. You know that it's time to, hey, man. We gotta take a trip to the old vet and say, say our goodbye. But you love that dog so much that it hurts you to even think about that. Right? But then it's... It it it comes to the time point in time where it's like, hey man, we're going to the vet getting the car. It... It's done. We're done it. It's time to say goodbye. And and it hurts, man. It hurts so bad. People don't understand.

But it's the best thing that you could possibly do for for your animal and in my case for my business. Let's talk about the Youtube first a Second since you brought it up. You mentioned... At the height, you're doing 15 k on Youtube a month. Of no mathematician, but that's, like, 50000000000 dollars a year. Is 15 k, what you're clearing off or I know there's, like, a percentages that Youtube takes and stuff like that. So for the folks, that always hear the term Youtube money, but have no

idea what Youtube money really is. What are the real figures that make up Youtube money? No. That's take home money. That's that's being deposited to your account every month. It's tax free. So you have to be careful and and set aside 35 percent. Don't know that. Not tag free Sam. It's like, you have to pay tax on that. Not tax Not free. Thanks. Yeah. That doesn't include they... They're not taking out taxes. Let me rephrase that. So...

You know, you do have to set aside 35 percent of that that you're gonna pay in taxes. You know. So you find a way not not to cheat the sis them, but, you know, you've gotta spend money so that you don't have to pay so much back. You know? So, you know, I start buying really nice lighting, really nice cameras. You know, mike's, etcetera, you know, to help offset that because, you know, they'll they'll get you on taxes. So was the real... Is the... What we call top line revenue

number on that? Is it 30 grand a month, and they're taking half? For what what kind of a percentage does Youtube take from a creator these days? Oh, yeah. It's it's it's it's close to that if not even more than that. You know, the way the way youtubers get paid is through running ads on your videos, You know, we get to select where we want the ads you know, I'll I'll usually put 4 ads in my videos, 1 in the beginning 1 at the end

and 2 in the middle somewhere. And those companies that are advertising, you know, the Barbecue Central Show to wanna an add on Youtube. Well, you know, you're paying a certain amount while I get a certain percentage of that. It's a small percentage, but it adds up when wants And that's why it's important to

to have a good following. You know, I'm I'm almost at 280000, I think subscribers on Youtube, and and it's important because once you build that that fan base, you know, and you put out a video, you know, it can really pay off for you, you know, pretty good. Is it likes? Is it views? What's what's getting into the money? It's views. It's views. Yeah. Subscribers either not subscribers. No. Because you can have a ton of subscribers, and, you know, before I

let... Before I stepped away from Youtube, to run my my food truck, you know, I was getting views like crazy. And now, you know, I release AAA video and I'll get 15000 views, and I've got 280000 of subscribers. I'm not getting 288000 views. Yeah. And sometimes, you know, those videos will go viral and you'll you'll get a million views, but that hasn't happened in a while and know, now that, obviously, I've got a lot more time in my hand. That's what I'm

gonna do is revamp my Youtube channel. If you're going back to Youtube full time. You Yep. That. And, you know, I've got

my hands and other things too. You know, I'm I'm I'm an ambassador for a few companies, and I'm also manufacture rep for a pellet brand that's out there, pretty neat to the market, but we're pretty excited about it and and you know, the owner of the company believes in me, and and we've done a pretty good job of selling pellets to in large quantities to online companies or if you own a barbecue store, you know, that's that's my customer, you, you know that I'm gonna

go after. So that's what I'm gonna be doing that in the Youtube and, you know, little fishing here and there too. Why not keep the corporate jo. Never have opened the food truck. Keep the corporate job, get that money and do the Youtube and continue to blow that out. I understand that you were making more on Youtube than your corporate job, but big deal. Were you all though was it cutting into your corporate job life as well? Yeah. It it was, you know, my corporate

job was pretty demanding. You know, we we traveled a lot. I traveled a lot. You know, Was that a town, pretty much the whole week, You know, come back in a town and you know, obviously they wanna spend time with my family, but I also have to film some youtube videos. So it makes it a little bit more difficult.

And at that point, you know, when I left my corporate job if if I didn't open up the food truck, I think I would have been okay, You know, because I would... I probably would have doubled the subscribers I have right now because the more you feed Youtube and the algorithm, the more your channel's gonna grow, just like anything. But had I not opened food truck. I

think that I'd in better position. But, again, I don't regret not opening up the food truck It was an experience and something that I would, you know, I could, you know, put on my resume 1 day, you know? Could you have somehow leverage shooting content via the... Barbecue truck and put it on Youtube and continued to foster both.

That was the plan. I was doing I I did several videos from my food truck, you know, a day in the life of a food truck, you know, the ins and outs of what happens and, you know, how we prep and And, you know, how we make our sausages to supply the food truck, etcetera. You know, so Got a few of those videos on my Youtube channel. And, you know, the plan was to do that, but because it got so slow towards the end, it was just my brother and myself running the food truck. We didn't

have any more employees. It was just us too. And I couldn't hire anybody because the business just wasn't there. You know, so I was cashier and and doing a lot of the prep and and my brother was pretty much the meat slice, and he'd cook anything that went on the grill, he'd cook it, but he also had to learn the register.

You know, so it it made us, you know, a lot more universal because we had to do more things, but, you know, that's what we had to do in order to, you know, keep the food truck open. You gonna cater for people that call and say, hey, Joe. Could you do a a little cater for me? Because you got that big ass pit? Yeah. I had 2 pits Greg. I had got 2000 gallon. Right. So Any going up for sale? 1 of them, I just sold it off to a gentleman up and up in

he's up in Washington. Heartache. Yeah. So I had opened up, I had ordered another pit, you know, with the anticipation of having a brick and mortar. But since I ordered it, you know, these pits take months to to build. Well, you know, the pitch ready and it's like, okay, I'm not gonna open up the restaurant after all, but it still shows up while, I gotta pay the guy. Right? I ordered it. So I put it up for sale, and, you know, I sold it for exactly what I paid for it.

And they're come... They're gonna come pick it up. The other pit that I have so this is kind of a news flash. You're the first to hear this. Oh, yeah. I have not released it. Yep. A barbecue central show. Exclusive news update. Greg record reporters from the breaking news stuff here in Cleveland, Ohio, the city that breaks the most live breaking news across the country They, the globe, and we go to El Paso, Texas where Joe Martinez files this report.

Yeah. So hopefully here within the next couple of weeks, if we can get the point of sale up and everything. Mh, my brother will be opening up the food truck and he'll be running the exact same menu that I was running before. He's gonna give it... Yep. He's gonna use seconds. Yep. Wait a second. So you're not shutting down after all. Oh my choices. You give me 50 minutes to tell me your back open again? No, No. I... Gonna do with it. I smell something is a foot here. You

think you can hug me, Joe. This is outlandish. Can't wait until the amount correspondence get on next month. This is the lead question. Unbelievable. No. It's 100 percent on him, different name, you know, he might change the menu up a little bit, but he's gonna run some of the same recipes that I was running. It's gonna be sensitive way. That's the name of it. Is the doing this at failed. You've proven it out, M paso. Does want barbecue. What is the doing?

I wish he's he's he's full of Piss vinegar right now, so he's gonna run with it and see what he can. Piston Vinegar and no brains. Did he watch you? Are you gonna are you gonna are you gonna be his pit boss now instead of him being your pit boss? No. Oh my gosh this is mind blowing. I can't believe you should have never said this. I can't... This is this is yeah. This is taken the show into a whole different turn. Does he know that he show still right?

Yep. Yep. Yeah. You'll have him on hold told him. Yeah. So my brother is 48. Yeah. How you. So I'm 51. Alright? So few years younger, you know? So he's he's you know, he was my pit master greg, and and, you know, he he knows how to trim brisket. He knows how to cook them from start to finish ribs, everything. He knows how to do it all by himself. So I I think... And I don't think that he needs the revenue that I needed to survive. So... He's gotta sell more than 2 brisket, Joe.

Yeah. He's he's going to. He's got to. So, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna help him along the way you'll see. You'll see some of my post. Trying to help him out, but Yep. That's the plan. That's when he wants to... Did you say, hey. Go. What's his name? Martin. You say, hey, Martin. Did you watch your older brother already go through this? And, you know, what are we doing here? Wow. This is unbelievable. I can't believe this.

Yep. Yeah. You you've may... You better make sure you get Martin my contact them info because we gotta half it out before. When when is he supposed to open? As soon as the point of sale system is up, you know, we're we're on the phone with toast, and we have an an appointment with them tomorrow, and everything hopefully gets set up by tomorrow and maybe in a week or so. Good news. I have an open segment next week. We're gonna have Martin on Martin Martinez. I mean, how of crazy is that,

maybe We gotta have him on. We gotta talk him out of this. This is this man. This is like does he marry? Does he have kids? What none of them. Single guy He's single guy. No you know, side piece somewhere he's gotta contend with or anything like this. Illegitimate running around that are gonna show up. Nothing like that? Nope. None of that. Wow. So... Wow. Well, I mean, I thought I got a good breaking new story from Rash Phillips a couple weeks ago, but this 1 takes the kick.

Anything else, Joe, before I cut you loose tonight? No. You know, I just wanna to, you know, take the opportunity to thank my customers that supported me for for those 2 years that we were open, and, again, no regrets here, and And again, if anybody has any questions on, you know, things to do and not to do, obviously, when it comes to to a barbecue food truck get a hold of me. You know, I'll definitely help you out. I certainly appreciate all the inside, all

the can, all the honesty. You've never held back figures or points of thought or anything like that. So from a host perspective, I certainly appreciate it, wish it would be ending in a different way, certainly didn't wanna see this. I don't know if I expected it or not, but I... I'm certainly sad to see it. But if this makes the best sense for you then it makes the best sense

for me, and I fully support it. So we'll be looking for the revamped to Youtube and make sure you get me Martin's number, As p, so we can divert it as, avert a disaster, as it might be coming down the pike, in blazing fashion. Joe, always appreciate the time. Thanks so much for doing it. Thank you, Greg. Appreciate it. You got it? Joe Martinez right there. And hopefully, Martin Martinez is next week. Martin you gotta listen to me. Pull the rip card, pull it. Wow. I can't believe it.

Let's get back. Okay. Look, I mean, let's get back. Alright. Pal. I'm so worked up. I'm gonna lat over here. You know, we almost made it through the show. Without any type of con controversy. And then Joe Martinez the grenade throw shows up There's not enough business. El paso H, Texas barbecue. I'm selling 2 brisket today. I had to quit. Not viable, weather sucks, food truck sucks. By the way, my brother's is gonna take over the business. Martin stop now.

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Wow. Lance, I gotta tell you the last f 7 minutes of the show. If you're just tuning in right now or gonna blow your mind. I say I never say this. F when the second hour of this show post, jump immediately to like, 45 minutes in. To the part where you think we're ending the interview and then I play the breaking news. Because remember, Smoking and Joe's Pit barbecue was closed.

Now get to the breaking news part and watch the Hindenburg reign night in a re enactment of a We're back to wrap up whatever's is left of this. Think around will be right back. Let's get back to a guy who has more experience giving you his opinion than he actually has cooking. Once again, here's your host, Greg rent. We welcome you back. We thank Joe Martinez for joining us last segment.

Last 2 segments actually talking about the Unfortunate closing of smoke and Joe's pit barbecue But as they say, when 1 smoking and Joe's pit barbecue closes, another 1 opens, Hey, everybody. Can't Trouble you for? Yeah. That's sound drop is the best. Wow. I don't even know where to go. So I guess we're gonna call it an evening. I could just sit here and silence for the next hour and just think. I could, but I'm not. I'll let you go. All the way back in the first hour,

Ted Conrad was on the show. We talked about the new fire pulse, which is our new wireless thermometer offering into the marketplace. You might see it available for sale in August. Remember this is an invitation old the event at start. So if you are a longtime time fire board customer, sure to check your emails regularly and your family regularly because it's invite only to start as I just mentioned. Fire more dot com slash pulse for more info. Then we talked with West wright from Cook

out news dot com. Got his take on wireless thermometer ring. Also talked about green mountain grill. Continued reliance and allegiance with building out brick and mortar, dealer group, Zac hour Joe Martinez. How about that? Joe Mark peanut. Smoke Joe's pig barbecue closed in El paso, Texas? Or is it? Big show plan for you next week. Deck an hour the embedded correspondence, but as I told Joe as we were closing.

You damn well might be Martin Martinez for the first time ever on the show sitting exactly where Joe Martinez sits. For all I know, they could be oh, they're not twins. But they could look exactly alike to the point where you couldn't even tell the difference. There's just nobody by think. Alright. Stay on test. And any event is gonna be a great show. So how do I always leave? 09/11/2001, I will never forget. At until next Tuesday at 9PM Eastern.

Your program host to proud you us American greg Rem saying, Hey. What's up? This is J host of the celebrity Grill podcast on itunes, and you're listening to the Barbecue Central radio network. This all barbecue and grilling, all the time.