Content Creation in the Age of Coronavirus|The BBQ Central Show (DH 027) - a podcast by Shawn Walchef

Sometimes when we’re young, we hear words of wisdom that instantly move us and inspire us for a lifetime. For Greg Rempe, host of The BBQ Central Show, it was Howard Stern who spoke to him through his father’s car radio as a child with words that would forever change his life.

“He said, ‘People are turds,’” Greg Rempe recalled on this episode of Digital Hospitality. “I was way young. Fast forward all the way to ’92 when I graduated high school and I had to commute to community college, I re-found him on a local station here in Cleveland and and I have listened to him every day since.”Appealing to both Greg Rempe’s sense of hearing and sense of humor, that quote from Stern would stick with him as a child and revisit him as a young adult studying sales in school. To and from class, Greg would listen to Howard Stern actively while passively paving the way for his future in what would prove the future of radio.

Following those drives to community college scored by Stern, Greg would soon enroll at Ohio University where his longtime love of laughter would be joined by his burning love of grilling. The flame lit by his pops would quickly jump from the grill to the pit as Greg would become BBQ obsessed during his days in academia.Not long after, that passion for the smoke and sauce would see him wrangling and connecting with others just like him during the advent of the internet.

“I started a BBQ message board and it began to grow,” reflects Greg on his introduction to the BBQ business and digital world. “I wanted to separate my forum from other forums, and I had heard of podcasting.”In 2006, Greg’s growing forum would be boosted by podcasting and its audio storytelling seasoning to add a new layer of connectivity to his community that was biting at their chops for all things BBQ.

“I would talk to my members, we would talk about how to cook stuff, I would give stats about my forum and how many members I had,” reflects Greg Rempe about his early web presence. “It all seemed like such a great idea all those years ago, but it was something that was going to be another value-add to The BBQ Central Forum. That was really the introduction, it was only to set apart my forum from everybody else.”As they say, what makes you different makes you great. By getting into the podcast space back in 2006 and adding a live show in February of 2008, Greg was creating the ESPN of BBQ where the major players in the pit and around the industry could converse, share ideas and even answer tough questions.

“I bring people on to give them a voice,” says Greg Rempe of his expert guests. “Why not come on and talk to a fervent bunch of listeners that are in your demo?”And come on they have. Over his 14 years as a digital content producer, Greg has spoken to many an industry great, chopping it up with raw delivery and even catching the ear of his early influence, Howard Stern who mentioned his show on the air.

While convo and attention are all nice, what’s a business if it doesn’t make any money? Like his podcast, Greg is not shy to get right to the point when it comes to speaking to sponsors.“If you can’t ask somebody for their signature or their money at the end of a presentation, who gives a fuck?” Yup, getting paid is that simple, but for some that awkward.

Fortunately for Greg, he’s built for this.“At heart, I like to sell,” says Greg Rempe, the son of salesman and the Major Account Sales Manager at Ohio Peterbilt by day. “I build relationships, I do proposals, I close sales. To me a good sales guy loves to make cold calls whether you’re brand-new or 30 years in the game.”

With well over a decade in sales of both big-time trucks and smaller scale ad buys, Greg has been able to finesse the social and mathematical skills of his day job to keep his passion project podcast going strong by night.“If you’re going to ask people for their money, be professional about it,” says Greg Rempe. Throughout the years,

Further episodes of Digital Hospitality: A Cali BBQ Media Podcast

Further podcasts by Shawn Walchef

Website of Shawn Walchef