Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - KOSMO - CEO and Founder of Kosmo's Q

Episode Date: August 16, 2022

Welcome back to The Radcast! This weeks guest is the founder and CEO of Kosmo's Q! Kosmo shares his inspiring David and Goliath story, and shares some BBQ secrets.To get your hands on some of Kosmo's BBQ check out his website https://kosmosq.com/Check out Kosmo's youtube channel, and follow him on social media!Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/KosmosQTwitter: https://twitter.com/KosmosQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5EauthorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/kosmosq/?hl=en If you enjoyed this episode of The Radcast, let us know by visiting our website www.theradcast.com. Check out www.theradicalformula.com. Like, Share and Subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/RadicalHomeofTheRadcast or leave us a review on Apple Podcast. Be sure to keep up with all that’s radical from @ryanalford @radicalresults @the.rad.cast @nick_weaver If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You know, God gave me a couple paths. Preach, protect, and provide. I was all, I couldn't preach. I couldn't protect, but I couldn't provide. And I was like, I will never in my life experience that feeling again. And that's when it all started. But I'm telling you, everything you see in a grocery store for the most part, I would say 97 to 98% of the things you see in the grocery store are only there. because of the price and that's it.

Well, and you sit there, if you think about it from the customer journey, yeah. There's only a couple reasons somebody quits buying from you, you know? You piss them off or you quit selling them. You're listening to the Radcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, what's up?

Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast. I'm Ryan offered your host. Today, we're bringing the heat. We're bringing all the heat. We're bringing all that barbecue heat with my friend Cosmo from Cosmo's Q. What's up, Cosmo? What's going on, Ryan, man? Thanks for having me, brother.

Yeah, man, my pleasure. You know, your people hit my people who hit me. I'm like, I'm going to talk to Cosmo. Cosmo blowing up, got all the YouTube videos going, has got everything I love, which is damn steaks, and I'm a meat guy. I'm like carnivore city over here. I'm like, damn, I'm, I got to get me some Cosmo on the podcast. Speaking of my soul, right?

Yes, it is. South Carolina boy, you know. We got that, I don't know, the North Carolina, South Carolina thing. They always say, I'm a vinegar-based barbecue guy. I don't know if that was North Carolina, South Carolina, or somewhere in between, but I guess my mom was from Fayetteville, North Carolina. So maybe that's where I got it from. Yeah. Yeah. I'll tell you what, I made that in my house probably 15 years ago. Street vinegar base. I made it test bags. And I've never been able to make it in my house again.

My wife will not allow that. I don't know what it is. You either love it or you hate it, I guess. You know, the tame. I don't know what it is. But, man, that stuff sets in the walls and it's hard to get out. The smell. See, I like that. If you like it, you like that smell. Like it brings, you know, I'm like my mouth watering, thinking about a barbecue.

But I think I've probably found somewhere in the middle because now they've got the, it's vinegar base, but it's got, you know, like half sauce, half vinegar. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Somebody put tomato paste in there. We'll ease it up a little bit. Yeah. But I will say, I'm an equal opportunity barbecue eater.

You know, I didn't. I've really met a sauce I didn't like. Have you tried any of ours? No, dude. Oh, man. I'm telling you, I'm going to change your life forever. Oh, well, we'll see. I'm open.

I'm ready. I'm willing to say to something. I know. I've heard nothing but great things. So what's going on in Oklahoma? Man, just a heap right now. Yeah. Well, we're just out here, you know, slinging rub, selling sauce, you know.

Yeah. You got a crazy story. We're talking to Cosmo from CosmosQ.com. Talk to me, Cosmo. Your story's pretty fascinating. I love the, I don't know, rags to riches. You know, I don't ever like when someone says that necessarily about me. But, like, I came from the lower middle class myself.

And I love the, I don't know, maybe the David and Goliath, which is, you know, the way you think it was phrased on your website. But let's talk a little bit about your story, man. Well, my story started way back in 1971 when I was born. And I'll give you the brief version right now. I was burned as a child at 17 months old. And I spent a majority of my adolescence. growing up in the Shriners Burn Institute in Galveston, Texas.

So needless to say, I'm not going to say school wasn't the top of, you know, my list, but school wasn't the top of my list. Like, you know, I woke up usually every day in some sort of pain from this, that, a surgery, or whatever. So I wasn't that good at school. and as I started getting older and I just realized that man I'm different

and I was always told sit down, shut up, you're wrong, do this, follow the rules, why can't you follow the rules, go sit in the corner, you're in detention, like, I was always finding myself in trouble and I just never could understand why

because I'd sit there and look at somebody and I think a lot of entrepreneurs probably do this. They sit there and they watch somebody do something And inside the head, they go, well, that's dumb. Yeah. You know, I've spent the whole life doing that. And I would, but unfortunately, you know, I didn't have the ability to just keep that in my head.

It would also exit my mouth, which ended up getting me in a lot of trouble. So I ended up leaving school. I think it was 11th grade. I think I showed up for my 12th grade year and stayed about 45 minutes. and I was like, no, I'm out of here. So I ended up just working, you know, working the factories and, you know, partying and hanging out and having a good time. And then started raising the family. And then I was like, well, all this has got to end.

And I was like, what do old people do? I was probably 32 at the time. Now I'm old people. I'm officially old people now. So I was like, what do old people do? Well, shit. You know, you frigging wake up, you know, you put some meat on the smoker and you mow the yard and you wheat eat and you, you know, trim trees and stuff. So that's what I did.

And I remember I bought my very first smoker and I went down to Walmart and bought a chicken. And I bought a beef chuck for some reason. Like, I don't even know what I think of. Beef chucks and some Eckerd sausage and I put all those stuff in there. and I load the yoh I just fought this thing all day at all

and we sat down and I have dinner my wife and I are three kids and it was absolute garbage like it was

unedible Ryan I'm telling you right now I the only thing I could equate it to was if you drug a piece of tree bark through dog manure

and then put it It was bad. But that's, I'll never forget that. But what really stuck with me is I had to throw it away. And I'll never forget the look in my wife's eyes. Like this is, I said, this is funny, but like this rocked my soul. As she lifted the dumpster open and I was throwing it away. And I just, I just felt like I can't even, like I can't provide for my family.

Right. Like, you know, God gave me a couple paths. Preach, protect, and provide. I was on, I couldn't preach. I couldn't protect, but I couldn't provide. And I was like, I will never in my life experience that feeling again. And that's when it all started. I love it, man.

And provide, you can buy it, but you got a lot of to cook it, you know? It reminded me of my mom trying to cook a burger or something, you know, like it just doesn't work. Yeah, it did not work for me. It did not work for me. But eventually I started getting a little bit better. Yeah, I think so. And then I thought, I thought, man, I saw something on TV and they had these barbecue competitions. It's before the Internet.

There's no YouTube, no Facebook was around, but, you know, that was, you know, in this, you know. Emphasy. Early, yeah, I'd say. YouTube, YouTube wasn't even around. And so there's no place to go and look. There was no place to find this information. So I was watching something when I saw a competition on TV,

and I thought, well, shit, I could do that. So I loaded up the minivan, went down there with, and I'll tell you, two trailer loads in my minivan, two trips, full of everything from garden hoses, to chimineas. That's a funny story. I'll tell you that sometime. And ended up winning ribs. Couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe it. Won ribs. And I was hooked. And I started competing from there and out. And yeah. How did you, I read, you know, watching my videos and like all that, I was reading up. Like, at the time, in your first competitions, you were

mix in maybe blending others things together. Is that right? Even in your first win, is it kind of like Frankenstein, you know, like, you know, in your laboratory, mixing things up from other people? Yep, yep. So in my head, it started a couple,

like I would go to the store and I would buy, you know, like two barbecue sauces. And I would say, what happens if you mix these? And I would try that. And then I would try to mix in some honey with it or some molasses with it or something to sweetening it up. And that's when it hit me. Man, you really don't have that many options in a grocery store. I mean, you think you do.

But I'm telling you, everything you see in a grocery store for the most part, I would say 97 to 98% of the things you see in the grocery store are only there because of the price. And that's it. it has nothing to do with the taste or the quality of it. Is it purely because they could buy it at low enough rate to resell it? Bingo. Yeah. Yeah. Big deal.

And that's when I thought, man, I'll stop making something my own. So I made some rubs and did this, that, the other thing. And then that's what I really found out that, like, man, this is the craziest thing. I remember the first time I told somebody this out loud, I thought, man, they're going to, They're going to think I'm absolutely a psychopath. But I can, in my head, I can taste the flavor in my head before I ever have it on my tongue. When you're making it? I don't even have to be making it.

We may, currently, we have a cherry-habanero barbecue sauce. And I don't know if anybody's ever tried to make a barbecue sauce with sweet fruit. It's hard. it's really, really hard. Try to mix a tomato and a cherry and make it taste good. It's difficult. I told him, I said, man, my buddy, he's a food scientist, and I told him, I said, dude, I have this flavor stuck in my head, and I want you to close your eyes,

and I want you to taste a barbecue sauce, but it tastes like the best cherry pie you've ever had in your life. And he was like, he didn't understand it. But then after, it took us 18 months to make that barbecue sauce, 18 months and three different forms of cherries. Because cherries aren't all the same. There's sweet cherries. There's sour cherries. And there's cherry concentrate.

There's cherry sweetener. You know, it's just. But after we did that, I was like, okay. Like, when I tasted the final version and it matched what I had inside my head, I was like, okay. This is a gift. This is a gift from God. And I'm going to try to use it to the best of my building, which was very little at the time.

What is it? So is most, you know, educate myself and the listeners. If I'm tasting sweet sauces, I mean, and I know ketchup plays a big roll. Is it mainly sugar that just made it sweet? I mean, is it or, you know, like when you say fruit's hard to get, you think of fruit being sweet when you eat. eat it. But

translating that into a sweet sauce, you know, is most of what we taste that sweet in most sauces, just sugar? Yes. Yeah. Most of them are sugar. And I know sugar, sugar is, you know, sugar in moderation isn't bad.

Eating a bottle of sugar, I mean, come on. Like, you know, that's what, you know, you got to tell people. Like, and it's crazy, you know, people say, well, you know, some of your sauces are pretty sweet. And I'm like, yeah, but if you're sitting down and have, you know, four, four to six, you know, mountain doers a day. Believe you, me, I'm the least of your words. Yeah. You know, but you do, you can, you can, you can sweeten it with sugar. That's

what we use. We use all natural sugar. Yep. The fruit also sweetens it. And then there's also other, uh, uh, sweeteners out there, uh, high fructose corn syrup. Um, there's, which we don't use that. Uh, and then there's all the, all the chemical versions that, you know, are supposed to be good for diabetics. Stemia. You had all the, like, supposedly natural, but I don't know that it's not, any of it's natural or not, but no artificial sweeteners, I guess. Artificial sweeteners, all that stuff.

The, uh, so we transition from, uh, from using others to, to making our own. Talk to me about how Cosmos. you, you know, that once we started transition and when did we start making our own? So I started making my own. As I started competing a little bit more, I started

toying around with rubs. Because I just, I realized that the rub, it makes the meat. The sauce is like the whipped cream on top. But the rubs I was giving in the store were just they just weren't good.

And I wouldn't be, like, if If I wanted ribs to taste a little bit sweet, I wanted to add some brown sugar to my rub. I couldn't get that in the store. It was, it was salt, and, you know, that was pretty much all that was in. It was salt. Yep. But then there's, you know, I wanted, like, a smoked paprika with a cumin or something like that. I wanted, you know, so I started making my own, and I started competing, and, and I would win here and there.

and people would ask me, hey man, your brisket really tastes good. Like, what was that rub? I was like, oh, it's this rub I made. And they made. You mind if I get some? I said, well, yeah, I'll sell you a pound or two pounds or five pounds. Sure.

So I would just, you know, just sell them rub and ship it out on PayPal or just have them pay me through PayPal. And the day the company started, though, is there back in the day there was two injection companies that pretty much owned the market

on beef injection for competition and I was using one of them and this person happened to be at a competition I was at and I just couldn't

give it to taste right just didn't taste right to me like to me it just didn't taste right so I walked over to him and I should preface this story

He's actually a friend of mine now, and I don't know. I've never, you know, I even may have heard this story through somebody else, but he's a really good guy. I just probably caught him at a bad time in his day. But nevertheless, this is, you know, this is a story and this what happened. And I walked up to him and I said, hey, man, I'm using your injection here. And, man, it's just not coming out the way. I'm trying to thin it down.

It seems a little strong or this, that, and the other. I said, you've got any advice for me? He said, yeah, and he was standing inside of his trailer at the barbecue competition with the door open with his arm. And he said, yeah, read the directions. And he shut the door in front of me. And, dude, I'm telling you right now, that went, a, I was humiliated and embarrassed. You know, B, I'm a customer. Like, you know, I bought this from you.

you know and this is and and that's what really started the company i said okay well if he won't help me fix this injection i'll i'll make my own and that's what i did i tracked down a company that can help me and they told me absolutely they'd be willing to help me and they would sell me i think it was a hundred pounds at the time and i didn't have no money uh I think at the time I was working a route job, just driving a hazardous wage truck around, you know. So they asked me, they said, okay, you know, what's the name of your company? And I didn't have a name of the company. I had no name.

Like, Cosmo was my nickname. And on the barbecue circuit, you would say that Cosmos queue, you know, for Cosmo's barbecue. you. Some people, the big pizza heads call it Zah, just ZA for pizza. You know, they just call it Zah. So I said, it's Cosmos Q. I didn't have no company. I was praying to God he didn't ask me for anything else because I had nothing. The next thing he asked me was, how am I going to pay? And I was, man, I was just put on the spot. And I said, I'm put it on my credit card. And my wife did not know this at the time. So I put it, I put the $500 order on my credit card and the product came in.

And she goes, what are you doing? I said, well, we're in an injection company. We're in the injection business now. And she said, how did you get this? I said, I put it on the credit card. I said, don't worry. I said, I'm going to sell it. I'm going to sell it.

And whatever I sell will pay for this. And not only will it pay for this, it will buy the next batch. And then the next batch. And then we'll just keep going from there. And that is the one. and only time I ever took a loan from this company and I took it from a credit card. That's fascinating, man. Not many people could say that and the fact that it just took one, you know,

and then it went from there. You did what you said you're going to do. I like more. There was a lot to unpack there. I like more that nothing starts a better business than a scorn customer. Well, and you said that if you think about it from the customer, journey. Yeah. There's only a couple reasons somebody quits buying from you, you know.

You piss them off or you quit selling to them. Yeah. That's right. You know? Man, it was A for you. And then you went ahead and started your own. But it just goes to show you, man. I mean, life's short. Like, I have little patience for anybody that just can't give somebody the time of day or help somebody, especially when they're there. I mean, you know, you're there in front of them. I mean, he can't give you two minutes to tell you how to, you know, cut something down or do something a little different. You know,

it sounds like he's maybe had a bad day or learned from his ways, but at the same time, there's a lesson to be learned there, you know, people will, there's a saying, people will forget what you say, but they'll always remember how you made him feel. Yep. And you're exactly right. you are exactly right and you know I'm sure if he had a take back that day you know

he would take it back but you know would we have started the company I don't know I know I was never thinking you know 50 million in sales I was never thinking that

yeah is that where we're at I was just pissed off and actually is that where we're at now these days um We made it cost 50 million.

Yeah. Yeah, I think we have. What was the official start date of the company? It was 2009. I don't know the exact date when they always asked me that on the, you know, on any kind of form. Like, when you incorporate? I always put January 1st, you know. I don't know.

Yeah. So, yeah, it was in 2009 is when we. Incorporated and that's when I started my website building service that lasted for the next probably six, seven, eight years. And we actually built an e-commerce site, you know, before e-commerce was even a thing. There was no e-commerce site. Yep. And I had a WordPress, I think it was a, not a board, it was just a blog.

Yeah. And then I would just put pictures up there with a little, you know, little, you know, a little description and then I figured out how to put a PayPal button on that. And then I just put that little PayPal button on there and that's how I shipped orders. And we shipped them out of my hallway closet. It was just a little, you know, you got the three drawers and then the cabinets on the top. That's where my whole shipping operation was for, you know, probably two years. Right out of the house.

I mean, that's a lot of these stories, though. That's the game, man, you know, and you start. start slow, low, and you know, you grow from there once you build the customer base. I mean, what's been the marketing and business growth practices? I mean, you know, like I imagine going, it's a very, I don't want to say niche audience, but, you know, going to the shows and winning the awards, imagine that amplifies, you know, within that core audience. And then it kind of, the word of mouth goes from there, I would think.

The crazy thing was, is I did it for years. Years and years, ended up winning a world championship, in and up between myself and the teams we sponsor, we have eight or nine world champions. So, I mean, I've been to the Jack Daniels, American Rule, Memphis and May, Houston, San Antonio. Like, we've been everywhere. But for me, I remember sitting there at a competition,

And this is before this is really before marketing as we know it was marketing as we know it. But Facebook said, we're going to let you run ads. And it was like they told us that week. And then I was setting at a competition that weekend.

And it's back then, it was about $1,000 a weekend to go to a competition after you buy your meat, feel all the things. It's about $1,000. and I was sitting there and I was just, I ain't go a lot of it. I get angry and shit changes in my life. That's one, usually for the worst, but this one for the good.

I sit there and I was like, I'm sitting here by myself. My family's not even with me, so I'm not happy. And I'm paying $1,000 to be unhappy. What would happen if I took that money and I started running ads to my website, just promoting my website? And back in it was like, you know, I'm sure you remember it, right? It's back in it's like, hey, look at me, go here. There was no, there was no funnel.

No, you didn't need a funnel because it was right for the taking. You had organic reach on Facebook. You ran ads and like a bonfire. So that's what I did. I started the next week running ads with absolutely, I don't think anybody knew what they were doing when they were running Facebook ads in the early day. We were just, you know, it was just, when Facebook said, hey, we'll show you to a million people, they wouldn't kidding.

You know? And then I was like, holy crap, man. This actually worked. So I kept that shit secret. I didn't tell nobody. You weren't sharing that secret. You kept that off the barbecue circuit. Yeah, you wouldn't go get me talking about that.

I'll give you. that brown sugar but i'm keeping them facebook ads that's too funny uh it it didn't quite as easy anymore you know no it's facebook yeah the game has changed now there's a hundred different platforms and you know it's all about content which i know you've done you've you've been in the youtube game you know for a while got over 300 000 followers on youtube and doing your you know i'm you know i I see you on the video, doing the video thing, which we encourage clients to do. We have to pull teeth to get clients to, you know, engage with that stuff.

Looks like you've been pretty successful. Yeah, I think back in the day, and once again, like, I'm not sitting here trying to say, like, you know, I do something. I didn't know anything. All I know is I'm going that way, and if something stops me, I'll go under, over, around. through. I don't care. I'm going. And I was, but I was sitting there and I was like, why?

Like, if I was, if I, if I, if putting myself in the customer's shoes, if I could ask the guy that rejected, you know, me when I was asking for advice, what would, what would that person, what would I say to him? Yeah. And, and all I was looking for was just, I wasn't looking for secrets. I was just looking for the next step. Like, can you, can you, can you, can you, you, help me to barbecue better. And it hit me.

I was like, I don't need to, I don't need to push my product on you, because I'm not a pushy guy. I hate car salesmen when they're, you know, oh, is this your first time visiting? You know, I hate that, man. I'm like, hey, let's have a conversation.

Get people to know like and trust you. And I'm sure every marketer has heard that for years now. But like that, that was inside my head, you know, years ago. And I was like, why don't we just have a conversation? This is, this is how I do barbecue. So I, I went and bought a camera and I was, I was hell bent.

And if you've ever watched any of my old videos, oh my gosh, they are bad, bad, bad. But, but it started the conversation. Yeah. You know, and I just wanted to show, I just wanted to, what I, I have, I want to give it to you freely. Take it, don't take it, but just know that if you want to know how to cook a steak that won me $10,000, here's the recipe. Yeah. You learned early what a lot of people struggle to learn, which is it's not about pushing the product.

It's about helping people and educate or entertain. And the business comes with it, you know? Yeah. Like it follows behind. It may not be as immediate as the cash register ringing, but it builds that relationship with thousands, if not millions of people that you have never met. They get to know, though I can trust you before they meet you.

And so many people struggle with that. You know, they just, you know, they have, it's the card to their mentality, you know, offer product, product, price. Well, that's an easy thing. Yeah. easy to do. The hardest thing to do is to take on the probably the worst person in your life, and that's your inner self telling you that you can't do it, you shouldn't do it, why would anybody listen to you, you don't know what you're doing, and just so everybody

knows, we all feel that way. I'm a CEO of this company, and I have no clue what I'm doing. all I know is that you know what got me here I just need to keep just keep pushing forward and I'm going to make mistakes and that's okay

yeah you know it's 100% okay our ego is getting the way you know everybody's got ego you know like that's the biggest hurdle it's like I mean it's cliche

but they say you know the biggest hurdle is the mirror you know and we're all like self-conscious or you think this you think that and you know but then the day people want to people want to know people you know

they like your product they're going to use your rub they're going to use you know whatever you're doing but you know they like it didn't have to be perfect well you're right but yeah man so you started youtube and telling people how to cook good steaks and you know i'm sure that just like it looks like the crowd came along yeah Yeah, the crowd came along and, man, it was a, I never thought that, you know, I would own a company. And I remember driving home one day and I was just, I hated my job. The people were not, but I physically hated my job. On Sunday, the Sunday night, I would, like, physically get sick to my stomach because I didn't want to go back.

I had a friend of mine Tell me one time He's in Navy's Hill He said You know what happens When you die I was like No

No how the hell would I know that Like you know He says Most people think That their life Flashes before their eyes But what really flashes Before your eyes

Is all of your regrets And I was driving home And I thought If I If I Laid my head down and had five minutes only with my thoughts, what would I think?

And what, I just imagine, like, I could see it. Like, I visualize myself laying there, taking my last breath with my family around me, and when I pass, I don't, I do not want the thought to be in my head. Why didn't you even try? Yeah, man. It's powerful when you start, like, thinking about it.

and you think about how fast time moves and like you got one shot at this. Yeah, one shot. And you're going to mess up a lot, you know, and that's okay. But I, so that's what, that's when I was like, I quit my job. I'll never forget. I asked my wife, I said, hey, I'm thinking about quitting my job. She's like, it's about time, you know. That surprised you that she said that?

Yes, it did. It did. But once again, we go back. You know, I had a prejudged thought in my head that wasn't, it wasn't factual. It wasn't reality. It wasn't true. Yeah. That was me telling me a story I wanted to hear so I could stay in my comfort zone and not seek discomfort.

And then she said that, and I was like, shit, you know. Now I got to go. now you got to do it. You got to take that first step. So where do we go after the injection stuff? We got rubs. We got, I mean, you know, Cosmos Q's quite the lineup now. Yeah, after the rubs and the sauces, I was sitting around one day.

We used to go to eat wings quite a bit. And I was like, man, these guys like dump. Like absolutely dump way too much sauce on these wings. it's just everywhere, you know. And I thought, oh my gosh, I wish it would be nice. If you had a wing dust that, you know, was flavored that you could just season your wings with. So, you know, if I wanted Nashville hot, I could get Nashville hot. If you wanted salt and vinegar or garlic parmesan, so that was my next thing.

We came up with wing dust. And I think now we have 12 flavors, 12 or 13 or 14 flavors. and yeah it's the it's my new favorite way to eat wings um especially when i'm out like you know at a tailgate or something because i don't got to go to hit the shower you know to get all the sauce off of me yeah i need a bib for my i you know they give me the alcohol wipes i'm like can i get the alcohol beach towel yeah yeah yeah Sauce everywhere. Yeah.

So, yeah, we transitioned over into selling wing dust. We also got years later, we did release a line of, we do have a line of wing sauces that I think accompany the wing sauce or the wing dust well. We have a line of clean eating rubs. I believe there's six of them, five or six of them. that are sugar-free. There's no sugar in them. So if you're keto, paleo, you know, or you're just wanting to, you know, cut sugar out of your diet,

we have those. This, our latest thing is we've been launching our own accessories, grill brushes, gloves, sprayers, grill mats, chicken stands. And that, that are, has really been successful. And based inside of the CosmoCube product family, it just all really goes nice. Yeah. How's, all right, I got a good zinger for you. How you feel about classical, like, wood fire, smoke and doing all that stuff versus like the Triggers?

Yeah. I feel that. That's a great question. And just so you know, I think I have probably the best answer that pisses somebody off or pisses nobody off. All right. Because I'm one of those guys. I have the best stick burner you can buy in the world. Actually, I've got two of them. And I also have a trigger on my back porch or my patio. So here's what, let me, short answer, I don't care.

Like whatever you're going to use to get you out there cooking for your family and enjoying your friends and spend a quality time with the people you love, I don't care. Can you make it taste just as good either way? I have won in competitions on a pellet cooker and I have won on a stick burner. And I know guys in competition that can beat the brakes off of you with a pellet cooker. And I know guys in competition that can beat the brakes off you with a stick burner. All right. Are they different flavors? 100%.

Yeah. 100% they are. But it goes back to what you like. And here's the way I see it. Are you one of those people that, you know, you don't know that much? So the, you know, the learning curve is far lower on a pellet cooking. I wish I'd have one when I got started. You know, I had to learn fire management like at first.

And most people don't know fire management. And then you have those, you know, the people that say, If you're not using a stick burner, that's a microwave. And most of those people don't even know fire management for their stick burner because I baked some of their food too. And it's, you know, it's trash. So if you don't know fire management or you don't want to learn fire management, I would say get you a pellet cooker. Whatever you want. There's a bunch of them out there.

And that's your, if that's your entry point, use it. Learn it. And then if you, because once you move to a stick. burner, it's more hands-on. Now you have to run it. And now you have to understand the difference between lump charcoal, the difference between

barbecue burquettes, the difference in wood. And most people say, well, I, you know, my buddy Timmy chopped down a tree. No, you've got to know what wood you can use. What would you can't use? And even if your buddy Timmy chopped down a tree and you've got all the free pecan you

want, there's another question that 99. 9, 9% of all stick burners out there have no clue about. What's the moisture content of the wood? Yeah. You know, I like to use between, I really don't like to go below 11, but 11 to 14. If I can hang around 12 to 13th, that's, you know, but that's what I like to use. Yeah.

Don't burn too fast, doesn't burn too slow. Doesn't burn too fast, doesn't burn too slow. So in my mind, which is better, I would say, whatever you want to do to get your barbecue going. All right. You heard it here, folks, only on the radcasts. Cook it how you want it. There you go.

I've got a Trager at the lake, so I use it. But it's because of the lake, it's got to be quick and efficient. Yeah. But I grew up around both. The wood-fired way and the Trager way. But, man, it's pretty damn convenient on the Trager. I've got to admit. Well, and here's what they don't get credit for.

They have almost single-handedly exploded the barbecue industry here, America. High tide raises all ships. Yep, exactly. What's your process for development? I mean, I've heard now we've brought the full arsenal out of rubs and sauces and wings and accessories, but so maybe focusing more on the food side of it. You know,

I'm sure you've got it down to a science now, but what's the, what is that journey? And, you know, you just have process for developing new, new ideas. Usually I'm sitting around drinking. What are we drinking?

Jack. All right. There we go. I'm a buddy guy myself. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You should come out. You should come out to.

I call it Club Cosmo. Oh, yeah. When I get to Oklahoma, I'm coming to Cosmo's house. Oh, yeah, for sure. But usually I'm sitting around, I'm sitting there going, like, I have a thought in my head. And then I always try to say it to somebody to see how they react. And if they look at me and go, you know, eh, you know. But if they look at me and they go, how the hell do you think of that?

Then I go, okay, I'm on to something. Because most people don't realize, it's so true in life, you know, humans are, nothing but a animal that you can stop with the shiny thing. And that's in barbecue competition, that's what you want. You want them to take one bite and stop for a second and go, what was that? And the same way in the ad industry,

you want to stop and go, what was that? Well, in the same way when I, when I ask somebody a question, I'm looking for you to stop you and intrigue your mind. You'll, what the heck is that?

That's usually how, I do it. I will say the majority of the time it's products for me. Like, I don't know if you can see this. I can't see it. This is one that is

not on the market. But I'm sitting around and I was like, man, I should would like some hot Cheetos wings. So I made some hot Cheetos wind dust. What goes in hot Cheetos wing dust? besides crumbled up Cheetos?

There's a lot of cheese, a lot of buttermilk, a couple of spices, a little bit of zip, you know? Yeah. A little bit of heat. Okay.

But that's how I do. That's a crazy thing. It's like I'll sit around and go, man, I want hot Cheetos wings. So I'll make it and go cook hot Cheetos wings. But I always sit there and I go, can I fool you? can I fool you in the thinking that this is really made with hot cheetahs?

Right. You know, and I'm just using that as an example. And that's when I know if I can fool you, then I'm sitting there going, okay, what else can I do with hot Cheetos wing dust? Can I put it on barbecue chips? Can I put it on popcorn? You know, can I put it on, you know, on a case that guy. be you. You know, and that's how my mind thinks.

Oh, yeah. Multi-purpose. I like it. I want some hot wing Cheetos. Dust, come on, man. I didn't even hit the market yet, you know. Is it going to hit the market? Yeah, at some point.

I can't not. I mean, obviously, I can't call it, you know, hot cheetos. You know, I can't, you know, because, you know, and I don't want to, I'm a firm, like, I don't want to, you know, step on anybody's toes. But, yeah, spicy, crunchy thing. Yeah, spicy, crunchy thing that looks like a belly club. So, from the brain of Cosmo to your table. It's not far into table, friends.

It's from Cosmo's brain to your table. That's the process. There's a lot of room in my head, too. It baffles around in there for a while. what's um where you want to take all this man i mean you know you cross right at crossing over 50 million total in sales growing new accessories like what's the vision the vision for me is is um i want cosmos queue to be widely sought after by every barbecue fanatic worldwide and and it's not that i need you to buy the product sure i want it's the knowledge behind it like

I want to empower people to make great barbecue. Because, you know, I will say this. Mostly men, it's shocking how many men go, oh, no, I can't do that. I'm like, what the hell? Why can't you? But I don't know how to do that. Well, I didn't either, you know.

But if you could watch a couple videos, you know, and I could show you, would you do it? Well, yeah, but I don't know if I can still do it. Well, this is, so I need to break down that wall. You can do this, you know. Even if it's a hot dog, you know, start there. We're empowering people worldwide to barbecue. That's what I just heard.

Is, what's the accessory road? I mean, you ever going to develop your own grill? I don't, I don't like saying never. I don't have any desire for that. Yeah. Just for the, you know, supply chain and, you know. It gets a little hairy. Right.

And then just the space they make up and, you know, it would have to be, I would have to have a strategic partner that, you know, was using the brand or something. Yeah. I love it, man. Is, uh, you're all in Oklahoma? Yeah. Yeah. Well, we have some remote positions stretched out around the country. Yep. Where can people find all your stuff besides cosmosQ.com?

We are in Ace Hardware. We have some products in Amazon. Shields, Buckees. I don't know if you ever been to Bucky. Oh, yeah. Buckees. Oh, man. That's cool. Buckees is a vibe of itself. And you can obviously find us on CosmosQ.com, K-O-S-M-O-S-Q.com. Did I say Amazon? Yep. You can find us on Amazon.

Search for Cosmos Q. No fun. And if you want to find somebody close to you on our website, up in the top right-hand corner, we have a store finder. So it'll tell you the closest outlet to you. Hey man, I've enjoyed this. Thank you, man. Me too.

I want to stay in touch and I've got to give me some Cosmos Q now. I'm going to send you something. I'm going to give you my email. You shoot me an email and I got you. I'll take care of you. Cool, man. Work here by finding you on social media. Besides just search for Cosmos Q.

Cosmos Q. You can find us. Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram. Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, shit. That's all the ones I don't know. You got them all covered. That's cool, ma'am. I've really enjoyed it. Hey, guys, you know where to find us. We're at the radcast.com.

You can search for Cosmo, K-O-S-M-O. You'll find all the highlight clips from today, even that Cheetos dust that's hidden behind the desk that nobody knows about. We'll show you some highlights from that. You know where I'm at at Ryan Offer on verified on the platforms. Go follow me on TikTok. I'm blowing up. We'll see you next time.

We're a podcast.