Top Dog 2024 Preview with BBQ Grandmaster Harry Soo | SDR #305

Welcome everybody, to the big show. Today we're going to answer the question on everybody's mind. Christian, what is your favorite type of food?

Barbecue.

What if I told you that today we have one of the best creators of barbecue ever?

And are the, is it still illegal to kidnap someone and put them in your basement, make them cook barbecue for you for the rest of their life? Yes.

What if I told you he was featured on the Food Network, Chopped Grill Masters, Cutthroat Kitchen Smoked recipe Rehab, and winner of TLC's Barbecue Pitmaster Season 1. He was the underdog among the seven teams when he won the season finale in Texas. Cooking ribs against the best rib cookers in the world. Would you start to drool?

I, I, I already am a little bit, actually. It's funny.

Barbecue is my love language.

It is my love language.

Today, everybody, we have an incredible conversation with Harry sue from Slap your daddy Barbecue, who's going to be speaking with our elite group at this year's Top Dog, where we have Will Guera and quite a few other incredible guests. But this conversation is going to be really fun. He shares a lot of knowledge and you kind of get in a couple jokes, kind of.

Yeah, I don't know if he, he might not have caught one was a joke, but it's okay. Sometimes it's, it's good to be sneaky.

That and much, much more coming up on this edition of Service Drive Revolution.

So, Harry, have you coming to speak to our elite group? So the kind of, the way that it works is we have coaching and in our coaching, there's certain benchmarks that the managers can hit which then makes them elite. So it's, it's on their profitability, on their customer satisfaction, and on some software that we have where they compete against other managers. Basically, if they have incredible numbers in all three of those, they become an elite member. And we curate businesses to come in and talk to them, kind of open up their, their business and explain the, the finances and how it works. What I, what I will say is that we have yet to have somebody come to the elite meeting that didn't get as much out of it from the talent that's in the room and, and their ideas that they will have. As we got out of the person we were, we were profiling, which will be you wow. It this year's Top Dog event. So it's going to be fun. You're going to love the group. They're, you know, they're elite, they're the best of the best, and they're very forward thinking. Like they, they have great sensibilities.

So wow, what is how often do you have a grand champion pitmaster come talk to?

Never.

Never.

How many Grandmaster Pit.

I am so privileged to be the first one. And I've never had an opportunity to speak to a bunch of what I call elite performers in your business. But that's always the first time.

But you have the one thing that brings enemies.

Competitors together, which is barbecue.

And to be able to have a process and a mindset and a strategy and a journey that takes you to number one in America is something that is translatable to any industry, to any profession, to any walk of life.

Yeah. Okay, so just a little bit about your background. So you were in the it world.

My origin story is very simple. I used to fly 747s for a living.

You were a pilot?

I was a pilot. I flew for an Asian airline. I lost my job.

I learned my first accounting theory. The accounting theory is last in, first.

Out, also known as LIFO.

LIFO versus FIFO. So I.

Basically started in the airline industry flying 747s around the world and I lost my job. And if you are as old as I am, and I will date myself by saying this is that there was a time in America where you could have to buy gas on even and odd days.

Or your nicer license plate was even an odd. I am a refugee from that era. So I'm like my kids say I'm an old dinosaur. So I lost my job flying airplanes and I realized I had to retrain for a new career. And I ended up in Texas tech studying computers. And that's kind of how I started my journey. Completely fish out of water. And I ended up doing a 30 year plus career in computers and being an ex engineer. Retired recently. And about maybe 15 years ago there was a movie called the Bucket List with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. Oh yeah, it's funny story. One of my project managers came to work and said hey guys, I saw a great movie over the weekend.

I was inspired by the movie. So let's form a bucket list at work. And they looked at me and they say Harry, you are it nerd. You are an introvert. You never want to meet people and you always want to recluse into your shell. Why don't we just put you on a bucket list and write you a couple of stretch goals. And guess what? One of the stretch goals was to take a stand up comedy class.

Was that your idea or though no.

It was their idea. It Was completely their idea. I was just going to do the normal things, you know, like go to Bora Bora or. But they say, no, we'll give you a couple of stretch goals. And I could then write them stretch goals. So let's say, Chris, I knew you always wanted to water ski, but never water ski. I'll put a stretch goal for, hey, Chris, go take a water skiing class or something, right? So it pushed you out of your comfort zone. So they tried to push me out of my comfort zone by saying that I'm introverted, I should take a stand up comedy class and do stand up comedy. That would absolutely terrify me. And then I used to bring barbecue to work because I was from Texas Tech. They said, why don't you enter a barbecue contest like the one you see on TV where, you know, you bring the food to the judges in a white box. And I said, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I forgot about it. A month later on my Outlook calendar, a meeting notice popped up. Status report. I say, whoa, what status report? So I was summoned to the meeting and we were all around the table asked to provide status reports on our various bucket list stretch goals. So I finally got fed up. I say, fine, fine, fine. I'll just go cook one contest to get you off my back. And I signed up for a contest in Palm Springs and I brought in a little application form with the little application information. They said, hey, what did you call your team name? I said, oh, I called it after the movie the bucket list with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. So here. No, no, no, let's have fun with you, Harry. Let's name your team for you. So I said, fine, I don't care. I'm just going to do it one time only. And they decided, my co workers from the South. So when you eat something you like, you want to slap somebody.

So they say, you are a daddy. Why don't you call it slap your daddy? I said, daddy is the stupidest name on earth that I can think of. But to humor you, just for fun, kicks and giggles, I'm just going to do one contest, sponsoring, get my bucket list done. I'm happy. So I wrote down slap yo daddy on my application form, planning to just use it one time. Guess what happens? I go to the contest, I have no idea what I'm doing. I win it just like that. It's the best way to sell the pros. So then I got hooked when I a few months later, I was given an offer to be on a TV show. So I'm in this contest in near Sacramento. And at 12:25, I'm about to prepare my ribs for my rib entry, Then my phone rings. I said, who would call me during my contest time? So I figured it must be one of my competitors trying to prank me to try to get me off my game. So I answered the phone and the guy said, hi, my name is John, I'm a TV producer. So I said, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I hung up, thinking that it would be somebody pranking me. And lo and behold, he was a TV producer and he's the Emmy award TV producer. And he was producing a new TV show featuring barbecue Pitmasters. So I ended up being offered a job, a role without audition to be on Barbecue Pitmasters, just like that, sight unseen. So I went back to my office and scolded my coworkers. Look what you guys did. You guys got me on this crazy bucket list. And guess what? Now this guy wants to put you on tv. I did not know that the TV TV show featured three world champions. So it'll be like me waiting on a reality TV show with LeBron and James and then Steph and everything, right? So I didn't know that was the case. So I said yes. And one of my things that happened that's important for everybody's life lesson to learn is that my co workers say something very important to me. They said, what is the worst thing that can happen to you? You go on national TV and you make a total fool of yourself. And it was at point the light bulb came on and said, you know, I'm a nobody. I should just tame my ego and go out and just have fun and have an experience. Because in life, right, it's not about buying things, it's about buying experiences. And I'm given a free experience. So I said, fine. I've never been on tv, have no idea what to do, but I'm just going to go on tv. So, long story short, if you watch that series Barbecue Pitmaster, there's a seminal episode that started the entire barbecue craze in America and the world. And guess what? In the season finale, I'm up against three world champions up against the world rib champion cooking ribs in Texas. And guess who walks away with the award? I did. So the little engine that could slap your daddy from California so you cannot diss California pitmasters anymore. Then I subsequently went on to win first place KCBS in the Kansas City Barbecue Society, Champion of America and brisket and so on. So I tell their stories because I think that in life we are so used to being comfortable that we limit ourselves. So it's important to be in life to really sometimes be uncomfortable, to take the risk, to lower your ego and to realize that, you know, it doesn't really matter what people think about you, but you should just go and be who you can be.

How many kids do you have?

I have two kids, grown adults. So now it's fighting. My, my kids, my kids follow me now on social media because they are always looking for where I am. So a little brief background. I lost my wife to cancer when my kids were very young. So I'm a single father. So I raised my kids from 3 years old and 5 years old, my son and my daughter. So now that they are grown and left home, dad can now really have fun, go see the world and do crazy things.

So how many days a year are you out competing?

In my heyday, I would do about maybe 30, 40 contests a year. I retired in 2022, so now I'm able to do barbecue full time. And I'm just amazed at the popularity of American barbecue. I've done classes in Panama, you know, I've done classes in Germany, all over America, every city. So people are actually completely.

Smitten by authentic American barbecue. I was in Australia, in Perth, in Sydney, and they just love that whole, I don't know how to say the mystique of the Americana that we cook something over fire for 10, 12 hours at a time. And if you never had American barbecue, it just melts in your mouth. It's so moist and delicious and a very, very unique flavor. I'm so privileged that as a.

Foreign student, international student in Texas Tech, I'm able to cook the only true American food. We stole the hamburger, we stole the hot dog, we stole everything else. But American barbecue is the only true authentic American cuisine. And there's just so many variations of it. It's just wonderful to travel around the country hanging out with all my buddies and cooking food. And most importantly, using the food as a way to spread barbecue love, to teach people a sense of respect, tolerance, diversity. Because we always say everything in barbecue is a three hour argument in Jerry Springer Fist Fight. God bless Jerry Springer. Rest in peace.

So when you end up on that TV show with the other, did you learn anything by watching those other three?

I did my best to shake them. So in barbecue, we call it shigging. Shigging is watching another person covertly to learn their secrets. But I was way out of my league because there were seven professional teams. I was just one of the seven. And these are world champions. This is like me, you know, going on a basketball court with LeBron. I mean, this is like I'm kind of, you know, bowing to them in the shadow. But in the final season finale shot in Texas, they said they will be cooking ribs in the season finale after saying six or seven episodes. And I say, oh, what are we doing? Oh, we're going to go to Dallas and then we're going to cook ribs. And I say, wait, Johnny Trigg is on the show. He's the world three time world rib champion. I'm not going to hold the candle against him, but I'll just show up just to do my bit and shoot my segment and go home, drive back to California. So I showed up that morning at this location where they had set up the whole event, and they put me at the bottom of the hill, looking up on the hill against all these world champion pitmasters with their $50,000 rig. And I cook. My shtick is I cook with a little simple $300 Weber grill.

But the beauty of barbecue is that it comes in a white styrofoam box. So it doesn't matter what you made it on. Am I correct? All you do is you give a white styrofoam box to the judge. You might get a box number, say box number 10, as the officials will put a sticker on 10 and put 40, so that 10 becomes 40 and you don't know. So the box 40 is taken behind a curtain and 24 strangers eat your food. So when I win at a contest, it's really fair because it's double blind. The judges have no clue who gave the food. I have no clue who judged me. So when I win the first place award and collect a $10,000 check, it's a fair game. So I always tell people their stories because in life, right, you don't want to judge yourself. If you are trying to see how good of a product that you have, you want other people to judge you. So, for example, like, I started teaching barbecue classes. I have like 300 Yelp reviews. And Yelp called me and say, hey, no one has five star reviews, 300 a day. You must be gaming the system. What's your secret of gaming our Yelp system? I said, no, these are all honest reviews. People come to my school, they learn from me, they learn barbecue wisdom, they learn.