Old Grill, New Tricks: Sustainable Thinking for Entrepreneurs

Sustainability means more than recycling—sometimes it's about getting creative and maximizing what you already have, whether it's grilling equipment or business resources.

• The dilemma of repairing versus replacing a Weber kettle with rusted vents
• How spending $126 on repairs proved better than $1,800 on a new gravity smoker
• Preserving valuable accessories, knowledge, and muscle memory when upgrading
• Business owners resist change for similar reasons: comfort with existing processes
• Finding value in teaching children hands-on approaches rather than automation
• Smart, sustainable moves: audit what you have before replacing it
• Upgrade or repair before buying new, especially when already invested in tools
• Resistance from your team might signal a need for training rather than overhaul
• Resourcefulness is something to celebrate and share with customers

Hit me up if you want to trade stories, join MTA, or just chat business or barbecue!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Trading Post Podcast
• 1:35 Weber Kettle Repair vs Replacement
• 4:44 Upgrading vs Starting Over
• 8:11 Business Resistance to Change
• 10:30 Sustainable Business Strategies
• 12:27 Shoutouts and Wrap-Up

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hello and welcome to the Trading Post podcast, where we unlock the secrets of business-to-business trade, dive into powerful networking strategies and share my exciting journey of using a podcast to market my business instead of relying on SEO. I'm your host, trader, stu. Sustainability, smart upgrades and making what you've got work and barbecue and business. So here's what you're going to hear in this episode why sustainability means more than just recycling. Sometimes it's about getting creative and doing more with what you already own. And how a busted vent, a mild Weber kettle, got me thinking about business life and stubbornness and my honest take on upgrading the gear I added and what I wanted to buy and why I hit pause. And those big, shiny purchases what businesses owners or business owners should actually say to me when I pitch them on MTA? You'll definitely recognize yourself or someone you know in these stories Easy wins, my go-to tips for making your business more sustainable and efficient without starting from scratch, and shout outs to some folks who make this journey a lot more fun Before we get started. Thank you to Michigan Renaissance Festival, my sponsor, metro Trading Association, who my, of course, workforce, has a marketing manager for MTA, and I say they sponsor me because guess what? I get to do a lot of the things I do with them. So because of them. And so I say they sponsor me. And then, of course, a big shout out to Susie Q's kids. I do a lot of work with her and go from there All right. So basically, welcome on the Trader Stew from the Trading Post. Today's show is one of those from the backyard to the boardroom kinds of episodes we're talking about making things last, whether it's your favorite grill or go-to business process.

Speaker 1: 1:51

Now, if you know me at all, you know I love good barbecue. I first fell in love with it when I was in basic training in San Antonio, texas, and my parents took me off base for a little R&R. I was at some barbecue joint and I don't remember what it was called. You know, there's a part of me that wants to say it was dickie's barbecue, but I really don't think it was a chain. I just don't think it was. It was so good and I mean not saying that dickie's is bad, but it was. I remember, I remember I thought I remember seeing an offset smoker walking up and we were at the. I think it was on base. So I I'm not sure if Dickies can get on base or not. I'll have to look this up. I'm kind of curious now. But ever since then, it doesn't matter. Texas, the summer of 2000,. I fell in love with barbecue and I've been chasing that dream not dream or the taste, I guess ever since then.

Speaker 1: 2:43

Basically, if you love finding value whether it's a new trade opportunity, a business tool or just a little elbow grease fixing something up trust me, there are lessons everywhere. So why I'm talking about sustainability? Look, it's a buzzword. Sustainability, right, it's recycling, it's refurbishment, it's I don't know, talking about solar or wind or whatever, right, sustainable. So it's on every corporate website. It's a buzzword. For me, sometimes it's as simple as not throwing out a perfectly good grill when I could fix it. I know this is where I go on the weekends. I'm always thinking about business and it just hit me like on what doesn't matter. So we'll dig into how that connects to real business challenges and why the right upgrade is better than a total restart sometimes, right?

Speaker 1: 3:30

So I'm going to share a quick story about a time. Well, I want you to share a quick story about a time you wasted money replacing something you could have fixed. Maybe laugh about it, have a good time and yeah, so all all right, here we go. So here's what happened my old 22 inch Weber the bottom vents rusted out it's very common so completely corroded out. I couldn't use it. I couldn't control the throttle or the air vent for low and so slow smoking, which actually I do more slow and slow on that weber kettle than I ever did with anything else. That's what got me. It was my gateway drug. I guess there's maybe a little sentimental value there too, of course. But it does a great job. It's fuel efficient. You can set it and forget it once you get the vents right and walk away and come back six hours later and you got barbecue. So it's way more efficient and less, way less time consuming than my offset Oklahoma Joe's. But I could have tossed it out and I could have bought something else.

Speaker 1: 4:33

But you know I started scrolling for a gravity smoker. My wife was talking I should get. Basically, I figure a gravity smoker is like an automatic offset you, it just slowly burns the charcoal as it goes down with the gravity assist. Of course you throw woodchucks in there woodchunks, not woodchucks, woodchunks. And you know it does its thing all by itself. But there's just a part of me where I can't not fiddle with fire, the part of the offset that I love. I'm talking about two different things here Weber kettle offset okay, and the offset Because both grills are done. My Oklahoma Joe's has got a warped lid. It's rusting out. I've already put a paint on it, I've already oiled it down and it takes a lot of time, and I have a two year old son and that the story goes on further with that. But I'm gonna give you a second for this one. So I really in in the end.

Speaker 1: 5:30

The reason why I didn't get anything new is I didn't want to learn a new cooking style. I don't want to start all over with accessories, figure out new temperature controls, like you know, no thanks, I like what I know and that's like you know. No thanks, not like what I know. And that's when I decided you know what, let's repair it, let's repair that old Weber. And it wasn't just the cheapest route, it actually felt really rewarding, okay. So my accessories that I bought, I bought a vent and I bought a rack thing and whatever but it was like 126 bucks as opposed to 1800 bucks for a old smoker, or what do you call it? Old country gravity smoker, and I don't even get started on the other offset. I'll get into that later. So the details are you know ahead, I guess. So the gear game, maxing out what you have, okay, so I don't stop there.

Speaker 1: 6:18

So the rib racks I bought, bought about a three rib rack system, okay, instead of one. You can't put much on a off on a Weber when you use it, as I can offset, because you only Put one rack down there because it takes up so much room. He's only of half the grilling area for actually smoking, because the other half is full of wood chips and charcoal. So I bought a rib rack that sits three rib racks on it on their side, and I got a chicken lollipop carousel thing that holds 18 drumsticks and a warming rack. So that way I saw this thing that people are talking about, these country steaks where you take a pork butt and you cut them into steaks. It's supposed to be fantastic and you you have them cook above the coals but you got to get out the warming rack thing to get that elevated so they don't burn, you know, because the fat's going to drip on the coals, blah, blah.

Speaker 1: 7:03

I digress, but basically I bought that too, um, and plus the vents. I didn't buy the brand names, I bought off, you know whatever 10 bucks for these vents, right? So, and it doesn't take longer to swap them out. And the other part is is that I already also had a rotisserie that I got for a wedding gift that goes in the weber and I really didn't want to have to not use that. I don't want to, I don't know, I don't want to give that up. And I have a couple other things too the river later which is like this carousel thing that attaches to the I digress, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1: 7:35

Basically, I got a lot of fun stuff for this weber, right? I don't want to get rid of it. So, and it's other than that, you know, it's not really all that bad in shape, so why start over and lose? It works. That's my grilling legacy at this point man nostalgia. So what accessory or what's the weirdest accessory you ever bought? For something old that just didn't make sense to anybody else but to make it last a little bit longer, it made sense to you. You put money into something that maybe should be scrapped, right? Definitely? Write in for that. I want to hear about that.

Speaker 1: 8:08

So we're all resistant to change at some time. Here's where it all ties together. In business I see this play out every time I talk to owners about joining Metro Trading Association. It's almost like clockwork. They say you know what we're doing already works. Or the classic is my employees will freak out if I make them learn a new way to do payments, or I barely have time to teach them trade. I don't have time for that. Let's not rock the boat boat. Or I got high turnover volume. The employees will never learn it. Or I don't want to deal with the I don't know taxes or the new way of doing things right. There's a list of things, so I get all of it. And there's value in routines. Sometimes anything that keeps the hustle moving changes hard, even when it could mean more opportunity, and by more opportunity in business there's what I just talked about.

Speaker 1: 8:57

Opportunity for me, if I was to upgrade my smoker, is you know my son is going to be starting homeschool here next year and we're going to have friends over. Homeschoolers are a tight-knit community. I'm sure we're going to have barbecues and I'd love to host more than just three racks of ribs. You know the volume. So if I get a smoker that holds more, then more opportunity to have more guests over, more friends, blah, blah, blah, the kids have more fun, et cetera, et cetera. Right, so I'm not saying I'm not ever going to do it, I'm just saying right now I don't want to learn something new. I just don't feel like learning something new and, to be fair, I don't feel like dropping two grand on on that.

Speaker 1: 9:35

And you know the big, the big dream is if I can really do it and if I do get my, I might be starting a barbecue trailer on the weekends or go to events and I want to like a smoker or a good offset. So I dream really big. It's completely unnecessary, but someday I really want that hammer forge beast. It's like eight thousand dollars of pure offset steel magic. Even the gravity smoker is tempting the 1800. But when I step back and look at what I really got you know the upgrades, the muscle memory, all those little touches I realize that squeezing the most out of the current setup for now is my best call. Plus, there's also something very valuable here that my son helped me.

Speaker 1: 10:18

Actually, it literally just happened last night my two-year-old son remembered that I had to add wood to my offset. Now last night I was doing a bunch of chicken on it and I needed the offset as opposed to the Weber last night because I was doing a whole huge rack, a thing of chicken thighs plus the extra chicken pies I might my wife made up and then marinated and then also I think that was it. It was, but it was a ton, it was like pounds of food. It took up the whole Oklahoma Joe's like grill. I could have never fit it all on the Weber without having a huge mess and problems. It's because I you know if it flares up you you're done right.

Speaker 1: 10:54

So anyway, he he's so cute, he brought out mesquite chips for me to throw on the on the smokers. You remember that I had to add wood to it. Of course he didn't realize that the firebox wasn't lit up, but I thought about it. I was like my God, this kid already loves like the hands-on approach of of making food, of eating and preparing food. So I was like you know what? Maybe I'll just go ahead and just erase the whole gravity smoker thing, because basically with that thing, once you set it you just let it roll for eight hours or 12 hours and then you open the door and it's done. I mean, you add charcoal from the top. You never add, you never do anything. There's no tinkering. But my son loved the whole hands-on approach of it, so you know I was like, you know what you talked me into it, so you know he helped me buy a eight thousand dollar rig one day, I guess.

Speaker 1: 11:44

So maybe you're feeling that in your business too. Right, the urge to chase the big, next big thing. But the wisdom to build on what works is just easier. So let's break it down. Start smart, sustainable moves. Okay, auto what you have before you replace it. Upgrade or repair before you buy, especially if you're already invested in tools and know-how. Talk to your team. Sometimes their resistance is a signal that training or a small tweak could go further than a full overhaul. And celebrate your wins, big or small, post about it. Tell your customers People love resourcefulness.

Speaker 1: 12:24

Alright, let's wrap this up. Special thanks and shoutouts. Before I wrap up, I've got to shout out some fantastic folks who helped me do more for the community. Michigan Renaissance Festival always a blast and a great place to gather. Metro Trading Association y'all the reason I work so hard to help businesses find value in every single day. And Quantum Local Media thanks for getting MTA members featured on indoor billboards all over town.

Speaker 1: 12:48

The free advertising is a huge for the community. If you don't know, check it out. If you're a new member, member, we'll bring you in and the application fee also pays for well it gets you. I'll give you the information to get an indoor billboard and then you get a free commercial on your indoor billboard in your location plus five more around town. It's a pretty sweet deal. It's like a $5,000 value, okay. So definitely check out that. Let me know if you're interested in that. If you're high volume area, maybe a lot of customers coming in out. Boom, give me, give me a call. And who's accused? Kids. Your partnership brings joy to the kids who need it most. So that's my story today, from fixing smokers to fixing business problems. Remember, sustainability doesn't always need to be complicated. Sometimes it's about using what you've got, upgrading smart and involving your community. If you want to trade stories or join MTA or just chat business or barbecue, hit me up. Until next time, I'm Trader Stu and, as always, whatever you do, be good or be good at it.