Episode 180 Greg Fischer Burn Pit BBQ
This transcript is from episode 180 with guest Greg Fischer.
Scott DeLuzio 00:00:00 Thanks for tuning into the Drive On Podcast where we’re focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty guard, reserve, or family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio, and now let’s get on with the show. Welcome back to the Drive On Podcast. Today, my guest is Greg Fisher. Greg is a Marine combat veteran who currently runs Burn Pit BBQ, which was created to give new grillers and barbecues a resource and place to go to learn the basics about grilling and barbecuing. Welcome to the show, Greg. I’m glad to have you on.
Greg Fischer Thanks, Scott. It’s a pleasure to be here. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. For me, my name is Greg Fisher. I am the co-founder of Burn Pit BBQ.I also spent four years in the Marine Corps, from 2002 to 2006.
Greg Fischer 00:01:11 Once I got out of the Marine Corps, I went to get my degree and worked in the corporate world for about 10 years. Then in August of 2020, I decided that I wanted to pursue my own passions and that’s when we launched a Burn Pit BBQ.
Scott DeLuzio It’s awesome. I love seeing the entrepreneurial spirit coming out of the veterans and all the stuff that they are coming up with, the creativity and everything, and following their passions. But let’s take a step back maybe a little bit and just talk a bit about your time in the Marines. Like what, what did you do in the Marines you deployed, right? You deployed during your time in the mornings where you went to and what all that was like. Yeah.
Greg Fischer I was a senior in high school when September 11th happened and that really kind of solidified my path after high school.
Greg Fischer 00:01:57 I joined the Marine Corps and then shortly after I joined in 2003, we found ourselves in Kuwait getting ready to invade Iraq. I was there for the invasion up through Baghdad. And then I made two more deployments after the Western portions of Iraq and Al came in and bought our province. Both those deployments, especially in such a short period of time.
Scott DeLuzio That’s three deployments. And you said you were in the Marines for four years, that’s a lot of time overseas in that short amount of time. How was that for you?
Greg Fischer That’s kind of what we signed up for. It takes its toll. I was fortunate to be with a really great unit, first battalion seventh Marines where a lot of the time, infantry battalion. We did a lot of training. I had a lot of great leaders that helped lead us through some of those deployments. And ultimately, at my four-year mark, I had made the decision, Hey, maybe my luck’s run out just a little bit and it’s time to move on to something else. Decided at that point, it wasn’t going to kind of press it any further and I decided to come back home to Wisconsin.
Scott DeLuzio I think a lot of people who especially have deployed at least once, if not multiple times like yourself, probably come to that same kind of conclusion. I’m probably pushing my luck here. If I keep rolling these dice or playing the Russian roulette eventually, eventually that gun’s going off.
Greg Fischer 00:03:36 On the horizon, there wasn’t really much else that I felt like I needed to do in the Marine Corps. I knew that there were some other passions outside that I wanted to pursue, so that helped with my decision.
Scott DeLuzio What was your transition out of the Marine Corps? You mentioned you went to college with that. That was after the Marines, correct?
Greg Fischer I decided to get out after my four-year mark and then I found a four-year university here, back home and I enrolled and thankfully they took me in. The transition was pretty immediate. I didn’t take much time to reflect or decompress on my time in the Marine Corps. I really had another mission that I want to accomplish, which was to get my degree. I could say that a big part of my transition and, and some of the success that I had early on was because I had a strong family support system back home, strong support system from my friends that helped get me to kind of reacclimate, back to the civilian world.
Scott DeLuzio 00:04:50 After you started college. What was your first civilian job like, after getting out?
Greg Fischer Well, just like most I went through the tap classes on base before I left and I just went through that book that they gave you. There were a few organizations in there that I was familiar with. When I got back home, I reached out to them. I will say I’ll probably fall into that category of veterans that are underemployed right away when they get out.I was working in a warehouse, maybe making eight bucks an hour. I went through that process too, kind of trying to, again, establish who I was and determine what my value is. That’s a process that I think a lot of people go through.
Greg Fischer 00:05:36 I made some of those early on mistakes of undervaluing my experience in my time. When I speak with other veterans, student veterans, transitioning veterans to bring some of that personal experience, to make sure that they don’t make the same mistake.
Scott DeLuzio And I think a lot of people who are coming out of the military, do undervalue their experience in the military. Especially someone who was in a military job that doesn’t necessarily a hundred percent correlates to a civilian job, like an infantryman or artillery or something like that. It’s like, oh, I was just a dumb grunt. What do I really have to offer to corporate America or whatever? But it’s not true. That inner voice that, that, that they’re telling themselves all, I was just a grunt.
Scott DeLuzio 00:06:35 What am I going to do in the civilian world?
Greg Fischer It’s all about telling your story. It took me a year to be able to actually hone in on what my story was when I was in the Marine Corps.if anybody’s in a leadership position they’re in charge of millions of dollars, worth of assets of equipment and things like that, and being able to articulate that on a resume it takes time, it takes experience. Us veterans now that we’ve been out and we’ve been doing that for a while, we can give back and say, let’s help you tell that story. These employers know the value that you bring to that organization. And while it may not necessarily be a hundred percent relevant to a civilian job, in every case, you may not be in charge of millions of dollars of assets, but still your on the civilian side anyways, but still it’s showing that you have that ability and you’ve been responsible for that kind of stuff.
Scott DeLuzio 00:07:34 And not only the dollar amount of the assets, but the human lives that you are in charge of as a leader in the Marines, or Army, Navy, whatever you’re in charge of people in, in most cases, you have somebody that you’re going to be in charge of, unless you’re just fresh out of boot camp and you’re basically responsible for yourself. But, even still, fresh out of boot camp, you’re still responsible for your equipment and your own personal accountability and stuff. There is some level of responsibility that just some kid out of high school who has never worked a day in his life is going to have on top of you’re going to have on top of those people.
Greg Fischer Leadership is the core of the military. Even when you get out, like at age 23, I had multiple deployments, I was leading squads and teams, ever since I was 19. There’s a level of accountability. There’s a level of leadership development that I’ve had, at a very young age. I understand when you get out and then you start at the bottom again with people that maybe, just went to school and maybe just haven’t really had much experience, the world experience like you have, that can be difficult for some veterans.
Scott DeLuzio And going to college. Whenever I hear about people who go to college after serving in the military, I always think of it like the Billy Madison movie, where you got this old guy sitting in class and it’s like, I’m sure there was some of that feeling going on too. It’s like, oh, I’m a grumpy old vet. Who’s in class with all these young kids.
Greg Fischer Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, you’re, you’re showing up to class 10 minutes early and you got, some kids, just waking up and they got their pajamas on and they’re not prepared for class, it drives you crazy a little bit. but then again, looking back. I give him some leeway. They’re still learning. They’re still growing. I definitely felt some of that, my early years in college, kind of looking around at my classmates and being like, oh man, I feel so out of place.
Scott DeLuzio I know when I went to college, so mine was a little bit backwards from you. I was in college when nine 11 happened and I joined the military after college. We had a few of those veterans who are coming through, and I was one of, those dumb kids who was, was going through and, and I could see the look, there’s this one guy. I could still see the look on his face all these years later. He was always early to class. Like you said, he was always sitting up in the front of the classroom. He was ready. He was prepared. He wanted to learn. And then when one of us dumb-ass kids were screwing around or we weren’t prepared, or whatever, the look on his face was like, he was just looking straight through your soul. It’s just funny that difference in the maturity levels from someone who’s been in the military and it quite frankly, it’s probably better the way you and a lot of other people have gone through it is because you’ve already have that experience where you’ve, you’ve grown up a bit and, and you’re maybe even better off because you’re taking it a little bit more seriously, right?
Greg Fischer 00:11:01 I wasn’t coming out of high school, I wasn’t a stellar student. I graduated when I came back after those four years in the military, they established, they instilled discipline into you. They have a sense of mission and accomplishments. When I got out and I went back to school, I was mission-driven. I had just this vision for me, like, I want him to graduate and I knew what I needed to do to get there school actually ended up being a lot easier after that Marine Corps experience, just because when you’ve been to war and you’ve been overseas, since you are essentially 18, going to class for an hour and getting some homework done, it’s pretty easy.
Scott DeLuzio 00:11:50 Well, yeah, exactly. That’s something I hadn’t even thought of either, but I can remember all the times in college when I was sitting around stressing about an exam or just kind of crunching at the last minute, trying to finish up this homework or an essay or whatever. And, and to me, that was like, the world was crashing down on me. Cause it was like, it was such a hard thing. But when you have that perspective of combat, it’s kind of like, well, I mean, it’s not, it’s really not one of the worlds definitely could be. What advice would you give to other veterans who go to college after serving?
Greg Fischer Yeah, that’s a great question. And I actually got that question. I was talking to some student veterans last week and this would be the advice that I would give myself because I was so driven. I got out of the Marine Corps. I didn’t really take time to decompress and really understand fully what I’d just been through. Four years of almost continual combat or preparing for combat, it takes a toll on your body and your mind. I would just tell myself and other student veterans that I talked to them, slow down a little bit, enjoy the moment that you’re in, because it does get a little bit harder to graduate, take that time to really kind of explore and try new things and meet new people. That’s usually what I tell veterans, student vets and that would be the advice that I give myself because ultimately I graduated with my four-year degree in three and a half years. I was motivated.
Greg Fischer 00:13:16 If I could go back, I’d probably extend that just a little bit, just so I can have some more opportunities to try some different things.
Scott DeLuzio That makes sense too because part of the college experience is getting to know other people, some of your classmates, and your peers there. While you may not be on the peer level, as far as, age range goes, right. Because you’re a little bit older at that point. but I actually, quite frankly, you weren’t that much older than some of some of these people cause you were in the Marines for four years. Maybe a four-year difference with your peers. It’s not a huge, incredible difference, but at least, if you get to know some of these people, that could provide for some networking opportunities and things like that down the line, which just helps out in your career path as you go forward.
Greg Fischer 00:14:09 Yeah. I mean, that’s true. My business partner, we met at college and he is four years younger than me. It’s exactly right. I mean GPA is great, but in my 10 years in the corporate world, my GPA never came up. But it was those connections that I developed in college in my corporate career that I continued to really provide opportunities for me as I continued to progress. It’s your networks that’s really going to pay the most dividends for you and the faster and sooner you can establish those relationships and whether that’s in college or whether that’s in other areas outside of the military, I think the better.
Scott DeLuzio Yeah, for sure. and so after college, you mentioned working in corporate America.
Scott DeLuzio 00:14:59 What were you doing after college?
Greg Fischer Yeah, I found my way into a financial and insurance institution here in Milwaukee. I started building essentially after I graduated college and I went to work for this organization, and that’s where I worked until I quit two years ago. I spent a decade building my career within that organization, moving around a little bit to try different roles. I kind of ran the gamut of being an individual contributor within that corporation to being a people leader and leading teams to ultimately helping develop other leaders as well. I have some unique perspectives on a few different areas within that kind of corporate environment.
Scott DeLuzio Probably a good experience too, because it gave you the sense of how things work in the Marines in the military in general, but also how things work in the civilian world in corporate America and how there’s a definite difference there.
Scott DeLuzio 00:16:03 While there are some correlations and some similarities there are definitely different, but it’s probably a good thing that you were able to have that experience and kind of learn about how the corporate world works.
Greg Fischer I credit a lot of my early leaders, preparing me because again I was still only about four years out of the Marine Corps. I was still highly motivated. The corporate world works a little bit differently. Some places, depending on where you go, maybe it doesn’t move as fast as you would like it to move. It allowed me the opportunity to kind of develop new skills, develop my style of leadership within that setting. Then meet new people and engage with different things. I tried a lot of different things out, met a lot of different people, but yeah, ultimately, for me, I needed to continue to grow and move around.
Greg Fischer 00:16:57 That organization allowed me to do that inside those four walls. That was good.
Scott DeLuzio Yeah. And you’re right. A lot of times in the corporate world, things just don’t move very fast. That is something that you just mentioned there. I noticed that from my own experience, as I started working after my time in the military, that the jobs that I was having, it just seemed like everything was going as slow as molasses. It was such a hard thing for me to just wrap my head around. And it’s like, well, we know what needs to get done. Let’s just do it but it’s like, oh, there’s approval. And we got to get buy-in from these other people and all this stuff. And to me, that was just like a lot of wasted time and effort and it just drove me crazy.
Scott DeLuzio 00:17:46 I think that’s ultimately landed, ended up sending me to the entrepreneur route, getting out of there so I can just move at my own pace.
Greg Fischer And sometimes, you have to kind of ask for forgiveness instead of permission in those situations, which I’ll be honest. I did that a few times. Sometimes you got burned, sometimes it worked out well. I think again for people getting out of the military, we have a sense of not being afraid to take action and make decisions on the fly and kind of sorting it out as we go where you will, or maybe some other types of leaders that come from traditional paths of the corporate environment or school. There’s more of a consensus-building.
Greg Fischer 00:18:33 Veterans aren’t afraid to take risks, so I felt like working with other veterans, we usually get things accomplished fast because we’re all going at the same pace and we all understood, Hey, if this doesn’t work out, we’ll pivot and we’ll make it work. Where sometimes when you work with teams with maybe no other they’re not as willing to take that risk. It might be a little bit slower.
Scott DeLuzio You mentioned earlier you were doing some talking with other student veterans and things like that. Is that something that you’ve been doing like, talking with the veteran community, with different things, throughout your time after the Marine Corps? Is that kind of part of your thing too?
Greg Fischer 00:19:19 Part of my personal mission is to continue to give back to the military and veteran community. I speak at a number of events. I’ve been closely tied with some universities here in Wisconsin to talk to student veterans and then also some other veteran organizations to speak about my experiences overseas. But also our mission at Burn Pit BBQ. As I continue to give back a portion of our sales to local veterans, and military nonprofits and organizations, to continue to build that community here. I’ve gotten out of having done a number of events, but yeah, my passion is to continue to focus on some of those transitioning service members to just share my experiences now that have been through a number of different transitions. post-military to make sure that maybe they don’t make the same mistakes or they accelerate at a faster pace than I did when I was in that position.
Scott DeLuzio 00:20:11 And that’s one thing that I’ve noticed with veterans who’ve been there, done that in terms of their transition or their careers or things like that. Even older veterans who are Vietnam-era, Korea-era veterans, right. They have been through all of the same stuff. They came home. They deployed. Then they came home and they got out of the military. They started a job, started, their family started all that stuff. Right. And I mean, their path wasn’t a whole lot different from post 9/11. We have probably a lot more resources available to us now than they did. But that just means that they were able to figure this stuff out back then without having the benefit of those resources around for them. They are also very much willing to share their knowledge and their experiences with these younger veterans to help them accelerate through their process, that transition or career, whatever at a much faster rate.
Scott DeLuzio 00:21:22 I’ve talked to people too who will think of organizations like the American Legion or the VFW or something like an old man’s drinking club kind of thing. But it’s like those older guys are the ones that you want to listen to. You want to listen to them, they’ve already been there. Let them guide you.
Greg Fischer Most definitely when I first got out and I was getting established at our local VA hospital. I teamed up with our American Legion here. Those legacy organizations played a huge part in my transition. I know they’re still out there like you said, the American Legion, VFW DAV, a lot of those legacy organizations are still doing great things. That’s a Testament to the veterans that came before me, the Vietnam era, the Desert storm era.
Greg Fischer 00:22:18 I mean, like you said, we didn’t have nearly the amount of resources or the support, coming back from those, especially Vietnam veterans coming, coming back from those theaters. I definitely look to them with a lot of respect and admiration for the things that they’ve done for us future veterans. I try to just continue to give back in any way I can to continue on that legacy that they started.
Scott DeLuzio There’s one guy I talked to the Vietnam veteran and I can’t remember his name off the top of my head right now, but he was talking about how when they came back from overseas, they were getting spit on. They were getting called names, all this stuff. He’s been working to help the younger veterans throughout all these years because he didn’t want that for them.
Scott DeLuzio 00:23:08 He didn’t want guys coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan and coming back from all these deployments and being treated like garbage. He wanted to make sure that they’re treated with the respect that they deserve. For people like him and so many others, the tide has definitely turned and we’ve gotten much better with that as a society. I can only imagine what it would have been like to be overseas and fighting for your life, for your friends twice, and then coming home and just getting smacked in the face for it.
Greg Fischer Regardless of politics. We sign up to serve our country and ultimately we don’t make those decisions on where we go to fight. But we just pick up our stuff and go. I think it has gotten a lot better. When we came back from Iraq, the first time, we had a line of cars and people escorting us from the airport to our base. It was kind of crazy that way. I’d say we’ve come a long way. A lot goes to the work that those veterans have done.
Scott DeLuzio I remember coming back from Afghanistan that there were all these supporters in the Atlanta airport, American flags, banners, assigns all welcoming us back home. It was just an incredible difference from the stories that you hear about from Vietnam. It was a good thing.
Scott DeLuzio 00:24:44 I think we had it made in that regard, we definitely were treated well there. You were talking a little bit about your company, Burn Pit BBQ. Tell us more about that. What inspired you to start the business and get out of the corporate world and why barbecue? Why, why did you go to that?
Greg Fischer I guess I’ll start with the barbecue, why barbecue? Part of my transition and part of what helped me with maybe some of the stresses of life and things after war barbecue and grilling. That was my safe space. That was my time to really get away and be with myself and try new things, experiments and maybe be a little artistic and creative. I always kind of gravitated towards that.
Greg Fischer 00:25:33 I was building my corporate career, I was also developing and honing my skills and barbecue and grilling. In August of 2020, we were really in the middle of the pandemic, COVID had been around for a little less than a year, but we were all working from home and I’d be on a computer for hours and hours on end. And I was just like, Hey, there’s gotta be something better than this. I’d always give away some kind of rubs and seasonings for gifts. Like at Christmas and birthdays I would package my own stuff and I would give it away to friends and family and they enjoyed it and it kind of got me thinking, well, maybe there’s a business here. Maybe there’s something I could do.
Greg Fischer 00:26:17 And at that point in August, more people were grilling and barbecuing from home for the first time. Because I couldn’t go to the restaurants, they couldn’t go out to eat and they were buying grills and smokers. I was like, well, maybe there’s an opportunity for me to provide recipes and tips for those first-time grillers and barbecuers. Then shortly after that, we developed a lineup of all-natural rubs and sauces now. That’s kind of where it started. It kind of was me after a, of being in a corporate world saying, Hey, this isn’t for me anymore. It’s time to do my own thing. And then also saw an opportunity to help new grillers and barbecuers, through our website and through some of our products.
Scott DeLuzio I like that transition, right.
Scott DeLuzio 00:27:00 Because I think we all can relate to working from home, not seeing people, not being able to go to restaurants, and all that kind of stuff. That got old quickly. I think for a lot of people and you kind of have to probably for your own sanity probably have to shake things up a bit. While it’s probably not the easiest time to start a business during the middle of the pandemic, I think you picked the right business anyways, because a lot of people were cooking from home for the first time.
Greg Fischer The first year I went great for us, I did have a lot of those conversations with my wife. I have three young kids, so I was a primary breadwinner.
Greg Fischer 00:27:49 That’s a whole nother conversation I could have. Ultimately my mental health and, just my outlook, I needed to make a change. I’d always thought about this business. I know I would never do it full time if I was still in my old business, like in my career. It was almost kind of like that burning of the boat moment, where I had to do it to kind of bet on myself to try it out. If I fail, well I know I can go back and try something different. Ultimately I was kind of betting on myself that I knew I could make this single work. I had a lot of time to reflect and, and sit back and ultimately like there’s still a lot of uncertainty even with my corporate position that actually had more certainty when I quit because I knew the direction I wanted to go and what I could do and what I couldn’t do.
Greg Fischer 00:28:37 As opposed to waiting for somebody to tell me what to do,
Scott DeLuzio I’m asking you for a lot of advice here. What advice would you have for people who are working on a job that but maybe they’re looking for some change? They have an idea of a vision for a business and they want to make that transition to becoming an entrepreneur. What advice would you give to them as they’re deciding to make that transition?
Greg Fischer The first thing is not everybody needs to quit the job and start a business right away. For some people that makes sense for others, it might be more of a gradual transition to, starting something on the side and then, hopefully, it can replace your full-time income.
Greg Fischer 00:29:25 I know a lot of people are successful doing it that way. Just for me mentally, like I couldn’t do that. The number one thing for me, which helped me, was having my financial house in order. On a personal side. Paying down those debts, having a good, emergency fund or nest egg saved up to be able to pursue something like that. I kind of use my emergency fund for myself. I had done a good job of planning and preparing where I had some money saved up for kind of an emergency or rainy day. Well, my emergency was that I was miserable. I took that and invested that into my family and my business. And we used that to kind of seed while I got the business up and running to provide for my personal expenses.
Greg Fischer 00:30:19 That’s number one is make sure you have your financial house in order if you’re thinking of making a move. Then, number two, see what resources are available for startups and small businesses in your area. There’s a lot of different ways to do that. And there’s a lot of great organizations that help small businesses. Like here locally in Wisconsin and Minnesota and Illinois, the veterans business outreach center helped with my business plan to help getting awareness and marketing. There’s a lot of free resources out there for veterans to take advantage of.
Scott DeLuzio That’s just one that I used resources to mention too. And I’ll try to put a link to that in the show notes too. people who are in that area of it can, they can check that out.
Scott DeLuzio 00:31:04 It’s really interesting how you took something that was just a hobby of yours, the barbecuing and grilling and everything, how you were just doing that as your own art form. You were saying, kind of one of those things that, you don’t really think of it as an art form, really the way you think of maybe painting or sculpting or carving, woodworker or that kind of thing. But it really is because the, just the same way that a combination of paints make certain colors and create this portrait or whatever, the combination of spices and the heat and everything that goes into the even down to the cut of the meat that you’re using can really affect the meal that you end up having.
Scott DeLuzio 00:31:58 Being able to pay attention to all that stuff and knowing what works with what and how all that comes together is interesting to me. I personally found artwork in the form of painting to be kind of therapeutic for me. When you think about the almost unlimited number of different quote-unquote art forms that are out there where people are creating things including meals, right. That’s an interesting way to look at it too. You could always be experimenting with that kind of stuff and everyone’s got to eat so what.
Greg Fischer I never gave myself credit for being creative until I sat back and really thought about the journey that we were on. It started with a lot of bad cooks, burnt meals and terrible tasting food, but then you slowly started to understand the cuts of meat. Like you said, you start to understand what spices are mixed together well, and then what you like, how you like your food to taste, and over time that’s developed and you actually get good at it. A good barbecue comes from a lot of bad barbecue. I never really gave myself credit until I started thinking about, yeah, I guess this is a way for me to create an experiment, with different types of things, but more kind of focused on food.
Scott DeLuzio And especially when that’s not your day job, like when you were working in corporate America.
Scott DeLuzio 00:33:37 There was no expectation that you were able to put together a good meal. Being able to do that, that just was, I can imagine that just being your own personal time where you were just you and the spices and just experimenting and trying different things and seeing how, how stuff came out. Iit makes sense that you could go down this route and wind up where you are today, right?
Greg Fischer Me and my business partner, we actually started a podcast this year called grilling to get away where we talk about what we do in the backyard and how we do it. Another kind of organic thing that I established was shot off like this whole passion for barbecue and grilling is. We’d take that time to barbecue and grill to get away from some things whether that’s stress, anxiety it just gave us, it gives us time to kind of enjoy the process of cooking.
Greg Fischer 00:34:37 Sometimes, maybe having a few beers.
Scott DeLuzio I mean, this is probably a big reach on my part, but it was even the aromatherapy that some people do. But I got, imagine the smell of that meat when it hits the grill and the spices and everything. I know sometimes I’m walking through my neighborhood and I hear that burner smell. The neighbors’ grills go in and I’m like, man, I wish I was eating there tonight. Yeah.
Greg Fischer When I get there, pick the kids up from school, come back home and we’ll be smelling the air and be like we’re trying to guess what they’re cooking based on the smell.
Scott DeLuzio There was actually a firehouse right behind where there’s baseball fields in our town, where our kids play baseball and whenever they have a night game or practice or something at night on these baseball fields, we sit there and we just start drooling over the aroma.
Scott DeLuzio 00:35:38 That’s coming from the firehouse. Because they always have something really good cooking over there. I don’t know why they’re doing what they’re doing in the fire department because they can open up a five-star restaurant just based on the smell of it all. I’m sure.
Greg Fischer Yeah. We’ve got a lot of local firemen and firewomen around here that cook pretty well. They know what they’re doing.
Scott DeLuzio Well, that’s one thing. They, they, they know what they’re doing in terms of the fire and rescues and all that stuff, but, but they know how to eat too. I’m sure. for people who maybe are first-time grillers or barbecuers, they’re not sure exactly what kind of equipment they need or what kind of, what they need to do or anything like that, where can they go to, to find some information about, about all that stuff through you guys?
Greg Fischer 00:36:32 You can always visit our website. Burnpitbbq.com. We’re always putting out recipes and tips on our blog there, but also we share short blurbs and tips on our Facebook page, Burn Pit BBQ, and then also our Instagram, which is Burn Pit BBQ guys.. We’re always sharing stuff out there. The biggest tip that I usually give to people who are just starting out is don’t throw a lot of money into it right away. Find yourself a cheap grill or smoker to start, maybe a used one because you can go out to Facebook marketplace and probably a bunch of them that people bought and aren’t using anymore. My first tip is, Hey, if you’re just looking to get started that you don’t know quite yet you have a passion for it just yet don’t spend a lot of money right away.
Greg Fischer 00:37:26 The same thing, like with the types of cuts of meat that you’re going to be using. Start easy, start with cheaper cuts of meat, like the chicken breasts, personal size steaks, some burgers, hot dogs just to get used to the temperature of the grill, and stuff like that. You’re not ruining expensive cuts of meat right away. Those are just some of the few tips that we kind of share a lot of times with people who are just looking to get started.
Scott DeLuzio And I know for myself, when I first started cooking on the grill, it was very basic. I didn’t know, really like what, what spices or what sauces or anything like that. It was usually just throw a piece of meat on the grill and when I think it’s done, I take it off, and then
Scott DeLuzio 00:38:16 Sometimes it was overcooked sometimes under cooking. Wasn’t exactly the best experience, but over time you get to kind of get a feel for the temperature of the grill and how long things take and everything. For me, anyway, it was probably not the best experience to eat the stuff that I was cooking, but over time it got better.
Greg Fischer That’s good. That’s good.
Scott DeLuzio So you also sell the spices and rubs and all that kind of stuff on your website. Is that correct?
Greg Fischer Yeah, we sell on our website. You can also find our rubs and seasonings on Amazon if you’d like to purchase from there. And then we have some, a few hot sauces on our website too. All those hot sauces, we partner with veteran organizations and we give a portion back to those organizations.
Greg Fischer 00:39:09 You can find that logo on those hot sauces too. Just another way that we try to give back and promote other organizations that are doing good things for vets.
Scott DeLuzio No, that’s awesome. And I think that synergy between your company and the other better and organizations it just really is a win-win right. You’re getting the stuff that’s gonna make your food taste good. And you’re also doing good things for the veteran community as you go out and do that. I’ll have links to all of this stuff, your social media, your website, and everything. I’ll have all that stuff in the show notes for the listeners who wants to check out Burn Pit BBQ and get more information if you’re just starting out trying to figure this stuff out or even if you’re along the way, and you just want some great tasting, know, rubs, spices all that kind of stuff that you can add to your, your existing grilling recipes and everything, that you can find all of that stuff, right?
Greg Fischer 00:40:13 Yeah. I’ll say that our stuff is good, whether you’re just doing your first cook or you’ve been doing it for a long time. I think I’ll say that it compares pretty well to some of the best stuff out there on the market.
Scott DeLuzio I’m sure it will probably increase the tastiness of just about any meal. Go out there, not only will you be supporting a veteran-owned business, but you’ll be supporting a lot of veteran-owned or veteran and military non-profits as well from your purchase. It’s a win-win I think. I definitely go check that out, and we’ll be helping people out all along the way and helping our own families to have nice meals as well.
Speaker 0 00:41:01 Well, Greg, it’s been a pleasure speaking with you today. Is there anything else that you wanted to share before we wrap this one up?
Greg Fischer No, I think we touched on a lot of stuff. I appreciate it again. The opportunity to be here, Scott, and talk a little bit about my journey and my business. I appreciate what you’re doing to bring a light to a lot of what other veterans are doing. I enjoyed the conversation and looking forward to seeing the guests that you have coming up soon.
Scott DeLuzio Alright, awesome. Well, thank you very much, Greg, for joining me. I really do appreciate it, and I appreciate all that you’re doing for the military veteran community as well. Thanks for listening to the Drive On Podcast. If you want to check out more episodes or learn more about the show, you can visit our website DriveOnPodcast.com. We’re also on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube at Drive On Podcast.