Ep 116-118, March 2022:

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Today on Wisconsin veterans forward. Hey, it is restaurant and retail month restaurant and retail month. Very exciting month. We love talking about food. We love talking about our, our veteran business owners who have products that they're distributing either locally or online. It's an exciting month and we're, we're kicking off restaurant and retail month with a, a, a guest favorite a favorite guest of ours from last year. It's a, it's a, it's a return guest who has had just a heck of a year, like a crazy good year, scaling a business against all odds, really in the, in the face of a lot of economic uncertainty. And a lot of just like uncertainty across the board, socially, politically, economically, everything is just uncertain. And this guy you'll recognize him. You'll recognize him as the guy who left his corporate career to follow his dream of launching this business.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Can you guess who it is? You can guess who it is throwing in the comments. But, but he followed his dreams and launched this business that started from him like he was deployed and he made a grill out of an ammo canister, maybe that gave it away. And then that down the road turned into a dream of him, you know, having his own company and, and distributing products that were meaningful to him under the brand that was meaningful to him and against all odds during this period of turmoil and uncertainty, like has just been knocking out of the park. This business is red hot. So for anybody that's watching here, not only is it an exceptionally interesting story, but we're gonna talk about, we're gonna get into the nitty and gritty about how he grew and scaled his business and had success.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Had marketing success, had distribution success in the face of all of these challenges. And it's not just like a, you know, an, an economic challenge. You have supply chain issues across the board. He's trying to distribute products. I mean, I can't wait to hear about how he faced those head on, because all of you out there who have entre entrepreneurial ambitions or own your own bus or whatever, these are hurdles that you're gonna face. And this is a guy who, who, who met 'em head on and then just like karate, chopped them into pieces and is just continuing to blast on through it. So if you haven't guessed yet, it's Greg Fisher, co-founder of burn pit barbecue. The, these products they're staple at our house, the, the, of Q sauces, the rubs, the seasoning they're staple at my house. My kids ask for them, for those products, you're making chicken, make sure to use burn pit, that sort of stuff. It's, it's great stuff. I can't, I can't recommend it enough. I mean, it really is fantastic. And so very excited to talk to Greg, learn about what he's been doing and how he's been having so much success over the last year. We're gonna get into it right after this brief bumper. You are listening to Wisconsin veterans forward. Wisconsin's premier audio resource for veterans, military families, veteran owned and veteran-friendly businesses, Wisconsin veterans forward is brought to you by the Wisconsin veterans chamber of commerce at wiveteranschamber.org, Greg, my friend, how are you?

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

I'm doing well, Adam, how are you doing buddy?

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

I am doing all right, man. It it's, you are, you are one of the few people who we have asked back on the show. That's cause the first it iteration was such a hit and such a success. People just want, they, they really resonated with your, with your story about your transition from corporate life, you to what you're doing now, what do you think it is that is so intoxicating about, about your brand and your story? Cuz people just, they can't get enough of it.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Wow. That's I don't know. Sorry. It's probably, yeah, it's it's a lot of hard to be

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Hard to respond to that question with humility.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

No,

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Just let it out. We're all friends here.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

No, you know, I, I'm truly honored to be back and to have been asked back to kinda giving updates and share our journey where we're at right now, you know, it's been, you know, 18 months since that decision to quit my job and go into this thing full time and we continue to, to build and grow. And that's only because of the people that follow and support us. So no, I'm, I'm honored to be back. And, you know, I just hope that you know, maybe some of the stuff that I can share today maybe will inspire somebody or, you know, maybe some tips that I give, you know, as we have this conversation will help somebody in their business, but I still got a long ways to go. So you know, I appreciate just as support and to, to be asked, be back on

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Absolutely man, and you know, for anybody that's interested in, in Greg's background story, the last time he was on the show, we talked extensively about that and he wrote a lovely article, which we have republished on our website@iveteranschamber.org. If you go there that the most recent blog article is our repu of that, where he talks about his journey, like why he left corporate America to become, you know, the co-founder of burn pit. So we won't go too deep in depth. If you wanna learn more, I'm gonna put the link in the show notes to that and the link in the comments here in a minute. So if you wanna learn about his journey, what we're really hoping to do today, and Greg and I were talking about this before we launched here is to talk about just this last year, since we last spoke and, and how, how burn pit is ex exploding and expanding and facing this month to month to month growth. And why people continue to keep coming back and buying this product. So obviously if I were to say, you know, what, can you pinpoint one of your challenges over the last year? It probably would be hard to do, but, but what do you think one of the biggest obstacles has been for you to over overcome over the last year? And have you, have you yet overcome it? Are you still working on it? Yeah.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Yeah. That's a great question. And there's so many challenges that you know, we've faced over the past 12 months. The biggest one that we, you continue to, to not struggle with, but continue to try and overcome is just that brand awareness. We are, you know, still a brand, a brand new brand. There's a lot of competition in the barbecue sauce and spice and rub categories, you know, across, you know, the board locally and across the, the country very low barrier to entry. So we're seeing probably, you know, a dozen new competitors pop up every month. So that's been a challenge for us is to continue to get the word out for who we are what we do and what we provide. And that's what we, that's our focus going into year two here.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Well, how do you achieve growth then? And let me encourage anybody while I'm thinking about it. If you have questions, whether you're watching on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, or Twitter, doesn't matter, throw it out in the comment section, I'll make sure to throw them greats sway, and we will answer your questions live. If you have any, sometimes we have zero questions, sometimes we have 50, so, you know, just all 'em out there, we'll, we'll get 'em all in. But how, how do you, how do you focus on scaling or how do you scale in the face of so much market saturation? Cuz you mentioned there's 12 new competitors every week, there's a low barrier to entry. How do you, how do you kind of nudge your way forward and stay above the fog?

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Yeah, we so when we first started this, we, we set a course where we were very specific on where we wanted our products to be seen. The type of people that use our products and having that in place really helped us focus on where do we, what do we put in our daily actions? You know, what are we doing each day to move our, our mission and our, our business forward. So those things really helped and you know, just for us, we want to dominate this state of Wisconsin. You know, we don't want to get too big, too fast. We know there's gonna be some growing pains going forward year two and beyond. So we really wanna, you know, focus on our, our, our own backyard, Wisconsin before we really focus on the, the nation, you know, we do, we do have some retail partners across the country, but our primary focus has been here in our own backyard in Wisconsin and we continue to do that each day.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Well, and you've also started to distribute new new in this last year, since we last spoke. If I'm not mistaken, you're distributing. Now you have an Amazon distribution deal now, correct?

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Yeah. Yeah. So that's, that's one of the partners. Strategically we knew we needed to continue to reach new audiences. You know, Amazon is the largest player in the world as far as online distribution. So we've been doing that and we've had some good success, you know, our first three years we, or the first three months we started in October of 2021 and we quickly became the number one new selling rub on Amazon. And, and we continued to, yeah, yeah, it was quite ex exciting for us, you know, within the first few weeks of launching our products that we were in the top 10 and we had a number of products in the top 10 in the barbecue Robin seasoning category. And again, that goes back to the support and the, and just awesome following that we have and we've, we've built over the first year of people that support us, like our products and, and share our products. So again, we couldn't do this without those people

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Right on. So, so the Amazon thing was it, was it complicated getting your products into that pipeline? Was it easy? And then once it launched, was it just a boom and then it fizzled, or have you had a steady that, like what have you learned about that Amazon process for people who might wanna get their products in that pipeline?

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Yeah, so it's, it's a, it's a massive owner undertaking. So we we hired some strategic partners to help us with that, that were experts in Amazon fulfill fulfillment. So we have, we have weekly meetings with those and they help us get our brand up on Amazon. And unfortunately, you know, Amazon's a pay to play, so right. You know, running, you know, running sponsored ads to our storefront on Amazon, to our product on Amazon. It started off real fast, real quick, and then it continued to build off of that. So we actually had, again, month, yeah. Month after month growth until, you know, we hit January and February, so we had a big a big spike going into the holiday season. And then we had a little bit of fall off coming into the new year. And I, I think that was to be expected and, you know, we're, we're in this for the long haul, so we know that we're gonna have those peaks in those valleys and just to continue to state, of course not only with our business, but then also with our online distribution on Amazon.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

So is that your full product line? Are you also or is it just the barbecue or just the rubs rather, or is the bar sauce also available? What about the apparel? I still have my burn pit beanie cap that I wear all the time almost every day.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Yeah. So we, we again, we're very strategic in, and we're very thoughtful with how we launch our products, you know, not only on our own website, but also when we, when we partner with other websites like Amazon. So we started off with just our rubs and seasonings. And then we, we we're, we're gonna test our hot sauce. So our garlic ERO hot sauce is out there right now. Nice. before, before we go full into the sauce game, so to speak. And so very much how we launched our products on our own website. We are very strategic in, you know, doing a few products first to see how it goes, learn the process, learn the procedure, and then continue to add products after that. So that's been a challenge, you know, we've had to grow and we've had to learn and adapt with how Amazon does business. And we continue to learn that way

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Now is that so, so looking back on it, are you glad that you added the Amazon aspect that arena to your business? Has there been like a no doubt or ROI on it? Has it been pretty steady? Do you see there being benefit later? Or are you like, Mmm, maybe if I could do it again, I wouldn't do it.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

No. I think for us it was the right decision at the time. And we, you know, we're, you know, we, again, we have a long term vision, you know, we, we see what our competitors are doing on that platform on a month to month basis. And we know we have a, that we can, can match and beat what they have. So we know we, weren't gonna get there overnight, just like our business on our online website. It's not gonna happen overnight. So this is a long term strategic play for us is to continue to build our Amazon brand and continue to add products as we go along. But you know, there's been some bumps in the road just with any, any time you're adding another platform and just your distribution system. But no, I'm glad we did it. And you know, as far as the, the question on ROI, no, I'd say because we do, there was quite a, a lot, a large expense to start up, you know, we're still underwater there. But we do see growth and we see the potential for larger growth in the future. Especially at the end of this year,

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

What were some of the bumps in the road getting, getting to a, a, a larger online, a national distribution platform like Amazon. Like if you could go back in time and be like, dude, I be aware of blank. Yeah. What would you, what would you tell yourself?

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Just the nuances. So when you're shipping products to their, the fulfillment centers, so we don't fulfill Amazon orders in house. We send that to Amazon, but we have to prep and we have to package and we have to send that to Amazon before it's ready. So making sure you understand stand the process of, you know, having a product that's can be legally distributed on Amazon. They have their own rules and regulations and things like that. You know, obviously, and that's why we, we hired somebody to help us with that because, you know, I could spend hours and hours and hours and days trying to research that, but, you know, work that has that knowledge and that experience and a track record. So that's what we did. But then again, those are our products. So we have to make sure that they're packaged the right way, the way that we want people to receive them. And then also that it gets down to Amazon intact in a timely fashion. So, you know, when we start having those orders come in, there's no lag time. And we don't run outta inventory. You know, inventory management is key especially on Amazon, where if you run outta, you know, if you run out of inventory, you're pretty much dead in the water and it takes a long time to get back up and, and running on those platforms.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Right. Cause you don't want people to search for your product or search for similar products, be interested in yours, click on it and see out of stock. They're just gonna, yeah.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

And then

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

You're just gonna go to the next thing. Right.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

And yeah, and, and Amazon other online platforms, you know, they will downgrade you for that kind of stuff. So, you know, you're not gonna come up in their feeds when you, when people search for it, basically there's, you know, millions of brands out there. And you, you're pretty much unknown until you get to those like first three page. So you wanna do everything you can to make sure you stay in those good graces and, and have inventory on hand.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Yeah. It, it is, it is the little things. And that's probably a way that a lot of folks who, who manage to set themselves apart, especially in saturated industries, is by getting those little things, right. Because not everybody is, you know, if you are the, if you are the company who ensures that your product is always in stock versus one who maybe lets it slip here and there you find yourself in a more advantageous position. Right. Is, is that, is that kind accurate?

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Yeah. And I mean, go to your local grocery market right now. And look at the shelves, you know, do you see the products that you usually see? If not, you know, you're probably gonna buy something else. So having inventory on hand is, is key, not only on online markets, but also can relate to, you know, your day to day shopping. And when you go to the, your local markets and you'll see, you'll see the brands that continually put out products and then you'll see the brands that right now are struggling. So yeah, it's, it's just having that piece of mind and also having inventory available will always kinda help you continue to grow.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

So, so when we talked a year ago, you had mentioned, and you didn't give any specifics and I don't need any, but you had mentioned that when you went on this journey, you said you had set X date with XME, you know, that this, this, this experiment, this diving in, you know, feet first head first into going from corporate America into being a business owner. You said, if I don't, if I reach X date and have accomplished blah, blah, blah, then I will continue. And if not, then maybe I'll explore going back. So, and you don't have to tell me what the exact metric is, but, you know, have you reached that, that right or die moment? And if so, where were you at compared to your goal and, and, and what does that look like moving forward then?

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

No, I haven't, we, we haven't reached that, that, that point yet. And again, that's a, that's a moving target too. So as we continue to build the business and, you know, I keep my own personal expenses down and the family's thriving, you know, those things are key as well. So but no we continue to grow and build the business, but, you know, with that comes also additional expenses and things that you don't think about, you know, shipping administrative costs you know, or tax seasons. So we're having somebody do our taxes, you know, that has a, you know, expense to it. So no, I, I, we continue to grow. I'm not at that point yet. And you know, if you ask me this again in the year, I'll, I'll be in the same spot. It's it's a continually moving target.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

We're always assessing it each month, but I just looked at my wife on Fri or on Monday and said, Hey, we met it another month. And she's like, yeah, we did. So continue to have those. We continue to have those conversations and if it ever gets too bad and you know, something happens and something changes, then I'm, I'm more than happy to jump back into you know, getting the, you know, regular nine to five for what I need to do, but you better believe I'll jump back into this as soon as I can.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Yeah, you bet. Wow. It sounds like, sounds like, sounds like you're heading the right direction.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

I hope so.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Let me, let me ask you this. I've seen in the last couple of months personally, I've seen a change from burn pit in your social media strategy. Okay. I'm seeing more video, more short form, video, more personal dialogue kind of more candid things and more frequently too. Has that been a deliberate action or has it just been something that's gradually happened and what impact has that had on your bottom line?

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Yeah, so you're, you're correct. You know, our social media strategy going into this year has changed and shifted to more video content, video related content. And again, yeah, that has a strategic reason behind that. We want to continue to build our organic following, especially on Instagram and TikTok. You know, Facebook, we still put a little bit of effort into, and we do a lot of cross sharing and cross promotion. But we we've, we've found that, you know, from a business standpoint that, you know, really Instagram and TikTok have been very grow they've helped us grow, continue to grow and, and, and reach new audiences and new customers. Right. and the video format, you know, we do research too on, you know, the human psyche and, you know, right now it's people really enjoy short video clips, short audio, and, and that's what, that's what we experiment with too. You know, we're not experts in this, but we we've been seeing some good growth that way. Especially on Instagram we're doing one of those reels a day, along with our traditional posts of, you know, barbecuing, grilling stuff we

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Memes, which I really appreciate.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Yeah. I mean, when we go on social media, we have kind of one of three, you know, reasons we're out there it's it's to educate is to inform or it's to kind of entertain, so right. Memes fall into that entertainment piece.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Absolutely. Well, it's definitely having, having an effect and, and, and boy, you really hit the nail on the head with the short term short form video stuff you know, experts per that over 85% of the content that, that humanity ingests online will be some form of video content over 85% by 2025, which is insane. And our attention spans as, as as human beings gets shorter and shorter and shorter. So having short form video that immediately starts up and says, Hey, here's why you'll find this valuable. And then diving right in is just so much more effective. And to me, it is incredible how often you see big brands and corporations and companies with huge marketing media departments get that wrong. You know, they do, they, where there should be a short to the point video, they got a 30 minute narrative with a five minute introduction and credits and blah, blah. You know, people don't do that. They don't have time for that.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Seven seconds you got, you got seven seconds. If you can't capture their attention in seven seconds, they're gonna move on. So yeah, that's, that's how, how we approach our, our videos and our reels and whatever audio we're doing. Hey, you got seven seconds to capture 'em if you don't, then it's, it's, it's over.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

And I've noticed lately you've been sharing a lot of it seems to me, people who use your products to grill out, like you just shared the other day a a, a rack of ribs that somebody else had put your sauce on or whatever. Yeah. Are you noticed that you're noticing that you're getting a lot of user generated content and how effective has that been for you? And again, has that been a deliberate thing or do you just kind of stumble upon it?

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Yeah, no. I mean, since a, that we've been doing since we started, we always wanted to build a community around our products and our, our brand and, you know, we, there's no better way to showcase, you know, family and friends than getting around the dinner table and, and cooking. So, yeah, we love it when people who use our products, send us their pictures and, you know, their recipes sometimes about how they use our products. And, and when we get those, yeah, we're gonna share 'em, we're gonna share 'em with the world. We're gonna share 'em with our followers. Because, you know, we appreciate that person taking that opportunity and that time to send that to us. So we'll showcase it as well. So no it's been, it's been part of our strategy always is to build that community around our brand. And that's just one way we do it.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

I noticed you've had a lot of growth on Instagram in particular. Is there any reason for that? I know Facebook doesn't really have the same punch that it used to, especially if you're paying for stuff, if you don't have enough, you know, resources or leverage like, like a, yeah. You know, United healthcare does or whatever, to, for automobiles to put behind it, usually there's diminishing return, but Instagram I feel like you guys have grown there more than anywhere else. Is that right? And if so, what, what, what's your secret?

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Well, we, we made an intentional switch, so it's been intentional to grow our following on Instagram. So one reel a day. So one of those reels that you see we committed to doing that each day and, you know, we started the year just over 4,000 followers and we're up to just under 7,000. So we've had about a 58% increase there. Excellent. and I can, I can, again, attribute it to being consistent with those daily actions and then having a, a strategy going into that. Like, it's, it's not what you see us putting out there isn't by accident just when we feel like it it's, you know, there's a strategic mission behind it and that's to continue to build our brand and grow our following there

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Right on. So if you, if you could again, go back in time to a year ago to right after the last time we, we, you chatted. Sure. What sort of advice would you give yourself to maybe get more out of this last year, more optimally or, or perhaps to be more effective or would you pretty much just say like, Hey, you're good, man. Just do exactly what you have planned.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

No, it's, yeah. I'd change a million things if I could go back to this time next last year. But I, I think the biggest thing, and the biggest thing that we've seen is people really love and support local products. So continue to build on that angle continue to reach out to local butcher shops, retailers, restaurants that might be willing to give your product a chance. We did that. We started doing that a little bit more towards the end of 2021, but we've seen in 2022 almost a hundred percent increase in our retail partnerships because we've, again, made that strategic shift to consistently reach out to businesses in Wisconsin that might wanna carry our products. And if I could have started that last year at this time I, who knows where it would be, but we'd be a lot further ahead than we are right now.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

So you're, so what you're saying is, is your advice would be, especially to someone who is in either aspiring to be, or in the business of product distribution that you can't avoid the face to face portion of this bus.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's those, those personal relationships, those conversations are what, you know, how business is still conducted, whether we like to believe it or not, even in this virtual environment you know, a lot of the business deals that I've had done in the past, you know, two months have all been face to face or over the phone. So and, and, and I'm, and I don't mean virtual. I mean, actually going to the business and talk in those individuals. So yeah, if you wanna build a brand, if you want to get out there and get your stuff in the, in the stores, you gotta get out from behind the desk and you gotta go, go out and do it. And you know, if I were to talk to myself last year, I'd say, Hey, go, go do that a lot more. Cuz it'll pay off for you

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

There are a lot of people who have success with entirely online businesses, but I feel like that's fleeting a lot of the time. And the thing that helps it endure is a hybrid approach between the in person, which you absolutely must have and the online, which you absolutely must have the, the personal handshake in synergy with the Amazon distribution deal. Is that right? Is it a 50 50 split or is there a, you know, one way or another that's heavier?

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I can only speak to my business. I know there's a lot of successful people that have just online businesses or just fulfill through Amazon completely and never touch physical product. And then I know there's, there's businesses that have no online presence and just do, you know, brick and mortar. For us it's a hybrid approach. And you know, for our physical product, we need to get out and we need to talk to the butchers, the meat makers all those folks that, you know, would our, our products would compliment. And a lot of those folks, you know, are online all day. So they are busy, they're working behind the counters and we need to go be, get in front of 'em. And the only way to do that is to get in the car and head over to their shops. So we have a hybrid approach that's working for us right now. And we'll continue to do that. Because that's, what's, that's, it's just working for us.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Let's say I'm a aspiring business owner and I want to make a product and I wanna sell it in stores. Let let's say it's a food item. Sure. You know, let's say a sauce or, or a, some, some kind. And I, and I come to you and I say, I want, do I wanna do this? What are your first questions that you ask that person? Or what are the first bits of advice that you say to that person?

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

That's all right. Let's do it. Yeah. Is it's I think a lot of people get too caught up in their head. It's, it's, it's not challenging. It's challenging to get started. You know, you, you have all those ideas, you have those thoughts, you have your recipes. Now it's, it's, it's finding something, that's done it and is doing it and picking their brain and understanding how they started. Most of us, I, I, I would welcome and more competition means just more opportunity to get our products in front of other people too. Mm. But, and, and I've worked with other people that are in the process of, you know, bottling their own stuff. So I, the biggest thing I'd say is just get, started, ask the right questions and decide, you know, am I gonna do this? Am I gonna bottle this in house? Or am I gonna find somebody to help me pack this thing? Because those are two different avenues that go down. And there's a lot of different nuances between both of 'em

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Right, right on. So if, if somebody says I figured out where I'm gonna have it bottled, I got all that situated. I'm gonna make it myself. I'm gonna bottle it here. I'm gonna blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. How do I get started? Where, where do I focus? The majority of my energy? Would you tell them face to face interactions or get that thing on Amazon right away? Or start with your grassroots marketing, give out samples first, or like what's, what's, what's a first step to, to get the word out about your brand and your product.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Yeah. I mean, the biggest thing is it, this, this thing right here, your cell phone start start sharing the process let people in behind the scenes start getting some excitement around what you're doing. That's what we did that, that, you know, I would attribute that to a lot of the success we had early on is I documented pretty much every process that we were going through. I got people's input on sauces and, and rubs, you know, what kind of flavors. And then I had people test it and taste it. So samples good. And then get out to the local farmers markets and start selling it. The more that you can have reviews of your products able, you know, whether that's, you know, on your Google business page or whether that's on your Facebook business page, get people starting to leave reviews. And then, you know, start to build from there. It's not gonna happen overnight. So just take it one day at a time.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

That's great advice. That's great advice. You know, you mentioned reviews and I think last time I checked, you guys were at like 99.8, 5%, five star, like just people love your products and they love your brand. And they, I mean, you have some of the most like ravenous, enthusiastic evangelists for your product out there, which is one of the greatest marketing assets anybody can have. You know, if you take care of people, you make them feel important. You give them a good product that makes them feel good, then they will go ahead and be your best marketing advocate that there is. That's awesome. Have you gotten any feedback that has not been part positive? Cause everybody, this happens all the time. If you have a business, it's not gonna be all sunshine and rainbows, you're going to get feedback that either makes you feel bad or makes you doubt yourself or makes you maybe reevaluate something. Have you gotten any negative feedback and has it been a thing like how have you had to approach that? Cause personally I'm sensitive. It would mess me up. I put my heart and soul into something and I got a bad review. I would be upset. So how, how have you faced that?

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Yeah, we we've, we've had bad, you know, it reviews not necessarily bad, but we've had people that, you know, don't like our products as much as, you know, maybe others. So we take that feedback and stride, we know we're realistic, not everybody's gonna enjoy our products the way that we do. And you know, one of the advantages of being on Amazon is that people all across the country and the world can try our products and give us honest feedback and we can continue to use that feedback to improve on the products and what we offer. But you know, when we first started, there was a lot of you know, in certain, you know, when we started doing a ads on, you know, Facebook, as far as like who we were and what we're doing, you know, we get those people that come outta the woodwork that just try and shoot you down and say, Hey, my 12 year old grandson could barbecue better than you.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Great. Where's his page. Let me follow him so I can learn. Right. So it is, you know, not, it is not, it's not taking yourself too seriously. And just knowing that that's part of the process, you know, if, if you're not getting any challenging feedback, then you're not doing everything right. So I, I think that's the approach that we take and we continue to take knowing that as, as we build and grow our brand, gonna be more in more of those people that are gonna kind try and put you down. But we have a, you know, we have a mission and a pretty, pretty good product that we think, so we're gonna continue with that. And at the end of the day, I'm still gonna go to sleep. I'm still gonna get up and you know, the sun's gonna come up tomorrow. So that's the kind of the way that we approach it.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Well, I can, I can attest to that. You do have a good product. Like I said, it's a staple around our house. Have you ever gotten feedback that you were like, oh, you know what, that's a really, really good idea.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Well, we get, we get awesome ideas all the time. I wish I had time to implement all of 'em, but like, it's just me and one other person right now. And, you know, as we continue to build our team, but no just ideas for, you know, new flavor profiles for rubs and sauces and hot sauces. You know, those are, those are ideas that come at us all the time. Like the other day, somebody popped into our IM and said, Hey, have you guys thought about a bloody Merry mix? And no, but that sounds awesome. Right? So yeah, those are things that we continue to build and we'll continue to grow as, as our brand grow. No, we, we have ideas and thoughts all the time about what we wanna do next. And we have some ideas right now about what we, what, what we might be launching here this year, you know, subscription boxes you know, new apparel, that kind of stuff. So it's, it's always, it's constantly evolving and we're constantly trying out new ideas and thoughts.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

So let's talk about this year, the, you know perfect world, you wave a magic wand and this next year is a perfect year for you and for burn pit. What do, what do things look like this time next year?

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

This time next year we are in at least 35 stores across the, the state of Wisconsin. And we continue to build a brand and we've actually hired more people to help us fulfill orders. So, you know, perfect, you know, perfect world this time. Next year we have a staff and we have people doing some of those things that take, you know, my, myself out of the business and continue to grow and build. And we're still here.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

So you're focusing you wanna hope to transition to working on the business versus in the business sort of thing, right?

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Yeah. And I think that's everybody's goal when they, you know, right. I part part of the learning curve and the process is I need to be in this, I need to do this. You know, I need to learn all this stuff. I can't just outsource everything. So eventually I love to teach somebody the stuff that I'm doing and pay 'em for it. And you know, move on to continue to, to build the brand and scale it as a, as a business owner.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Absolutely good stuff. Well, good for you. You know, we're, we're we're big fans of burn pit barbecue as a chamber and personally big fans of, of you guys. It's been really Aw to see you, like I said, in the, in the, the post for this, you guys are red hot right now, and that's not an exaggeration and it's just, I mean, it's awesome to see cause you're good people doing good stuff.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

I appreciate

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

That. If anybody out there has, you know, has entrepreneurial ambitions in, in the back of, of their head or they're thinking about someday making that plunge or that switch, what would you tell 'em,

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

There's never gonna be a perfect time. So whatever you're thinking, whatever you're, you're planning make small steps and try it out. There's never gonna be a perfect opportunity for you to do that. There would, there would never have been a perfect opportunity for me to leave my job and launch this business. So, so I had to make the decision and actually do it. So the, that, and that's with our scaling this year as well, you know, scaling only happens by choice. You know, it doesn't happen by chance, so whatever you're thinking, whatever you're doing, if you're planning a business, do it, just do it and adjust along the way

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

That is, that is million dollar advice cramed into about 20 right there. That is, yeah. Just go for it. There's never gonna be a great time. At some point, you're going to have to make a calculated risk based on your risk tolerance and, and your predictions. And like, you're gonna have to make some uncomfortable transition. And if that wasn't the case, if it was ease, he, if it was, you know, was a no brainer, like, okay, from here to here and salary just goes up and everything grows, you know, like then everybody would do it.

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Right? Yeah. Yeah. And along with that is, you know, don't be afraid to fail. You know, we, we've fallen on our faces so many times over the past year and continue to pick ourselves back up and that's just gonna, that's part of the process and that's gonna happen. So, you know, don't be afraid to start and don't be afraid to fail.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

And that's an encouraging thing to hear cuz from the outside, looking in, it doesn't look like you've fallen on your faces at all. It looks like you guys have just been killing it. So to, to hear you say that for an aspiring entrepreneur, that's a really encouraging thing, man. So if somebody wants to reach out and connect with you, I see burn pit barbecue.com or burn pit BBQ, the letters.com or scrolling across the bottom here. How else if somebody wants to reach out to you, should they do LinkedIn or what?

Greg Fischer - Burn Pit BBQ:

Yeah, LinkedIn's fine. You know, I'm very active on LinkedIn. I'm very happy to share my story out there so you can go kind of see what we're doing as well. So just Greg Fisher on LinkedIn or, you know, you can follow us on Facebook, you know, burn pit BBQ Instagram burn, pit BBQ guys, and then TikTok burn pit BBQ. But yeah, any one of those avenues, again, like I'm the business man. So it's, if you reached out to any one of those platforms, you're probably getting me at the other end.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

There you go. Good stuff. Well, Greg Fisher, everybody, I'll ask you to hang on the line here for just a second. Awesome. As always love that guy. Love burn pit barbecue, check them out. It's scrolling across the bottom burn pit BBQ. They have some like sampler packs that have like a selection of all their different stuff. Or they have like a mega pack that has a whole bunch of different things in it. They got great apparel. I have a beanie that I really enjoy. I think it looks very fetching. But yeah, big fan. Check them out and check Greg out, connect with him on LinkedIn. Looking forward to featuring a lot more valuable information about restaurant retail, for food distribution, all that stuff throughout the month, we got some exciting guests planned for you. Make sure that you don't miss anything. Follow us across all platforms. We'll see you. Same time, same place right here. Thanks other Adam. I couldn't have said it better myself. Appreciate you guys joining us. We'll see you next time. Thank you for are listening to Wisconsin veterans forward brought to you by the Wisconsin veterans chamber of commerce. Please visit us at wiveteranschamber.org. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast, leave a rating and review in whatever platform you're listening through.