Matt Groark

Eric Girouard  0:00  

This is bucket top, a weekly podcast where people who work in the trades and construction that aren't just trying to survive but have the ambition and desire to thrive. The opportunity to trade and construction is absolutely ridiculous right now. So if you're hungry, it's time to eat. We discuss what it takes to rise from the bottom to the top with people who are well on their way and roll up their sleeves every single day.

Jeremy Perkins  0:28  

All right, this episode of bucket talk, we have a chef Chef Matt Groarke. grok boys barbecue Matt, welcome.

Matt Groark  0:36  

Thanks, brother. Happy to be here.

Jeremy Perkins  0:38  

I'm absolutely in awe. This is this is going to be a fun one. Not only do you have a very unique story, an awesome background, but you're you're doing some pretty cool things right now. But before we jump into that, I'd love to get you know where you are, who you are, where you came from, and how Groarke boys barbecue came to be and your passion for cooking. So kick it off, brother.

Matt Groark  1:04  

Yeah, man. Got it. It never gets old talking about it. You know, it's it's a pretty, it's a pretty cool story. And, you know, it helps me to kind of keep myself grounded and remind myself of how it all happened. Because it's crazy. Every time I tell it. I'm like, you know, it's pretty wild. And I'm here to tell him the story, you know, but yeah, I grew up grew up in South Jersey. We're right outside of Philadelphia. So I won't waste any time. You know, teasing you too much. But yes, I'm an Eagles fan and have been my whole life. And it's, you know, the cool thing about it is it's really where the cooking and grilling and barbecue stuff really took off was in the parking lot of eagles games, you know. So that's kind of where it really took its stride. But I've always been in, in the food industry. You know, my first job. You and I were talking a few minutes ago, and you said, you know, you wash dishes in a restaurant before. Funny. I giggled a little a little bit because that was my first job. 15 going on 16

Jeremy Perkins  2:14  

You know, when cut your teeth, man, it's not an easy job.

Matt Groark  2:19  

No, it's not. He was like, but you'll have soft hands. So it helps with all that hot water. Right? Yeah. So my dad was like, you're getting a job. My sister happened to be a waitress at that at that Country Club. And she got me a job and they're washing dishes. So I did that for a little while. And yeah, I mean, I loved it, it started kind of my path and food. You know, I did that for a few months washing dishes. And then before I knew it, it was a it was a banquet hall. Right. So there were a lot of, you know, different senior citizen type events on weekday afternoon, or weekdays after school, I would go there and there'd be some event going on, or, you know, the all state all South Jersey, all conference banquets for kids, you know, throughout South Jersey would be there for their luncheons or, or dinners or whatever award dinners. So there were they were very busy, you know. So I went pretty quick from washing dishes to kind of help and prep. Yeah, pull off, pull me from behind the dishwasher and be like here, cut these, cut these carrots, do whatever, no guidance whatsoever, just here do it. And I started doing that. And I enjoyed it. And then before I knew what I was on the line, kind of helping the chef's set up plates and make salads and stuff like that. So did that for my first couple years. And eventually that turned into you know, when I got out of college or was in college even. You know, my my job was I was waiting tables is honestly the best money you can make as a kid. You know, 1819 20 years old, you're not going to find many jobs and you can walk out with just cash in your pocket. You know, 100 150 bucks a night. Granted, money usually got spent right after the shift was over but at least once I turned 21 But um, man I waited tables Jeremy up until I was 3032. Wow. I started teaching when I was 25. And I always had that side hustle. I always had a side job because as a teacher, you need it. Like teaching salaries even even once I was married, it's hard to make ends meet with, you know, to teaching salaries.

Jeremy Perkins  4:53  

So I just want to cut you off real quick because something that did resonate with me was how quickly You can transition from a dishwasher to a prep cook to, you know, a line cook, then to a sous chef, and I saw it happen, especially with me. I mean, I was, I was barely old enough to work, even if I was old enough to work at the time as a family restaurant. And, you know, as you're prepping for, for the rush, you kind of had a lull as a dishwasher so that, you know, you're out there with the mandolin, doing potato fries and stuff like that. And it was like, you know, if you, if you got proficient at it, you could start, like getting right into into culinary with zeros with zero background, no culinary school, no nothing. And that's kind of what I like to bring up keying on some of these points when people are like, how do I get in? How do I become a chef? Or how do I do this? And, and really, it's just get in bottom level? Prove yourself, and then I mean, it'll work out from there. But

Matt Groark  5:53  

continue. It really is. And, you know, what's, what's wild is going back to that dishwashing job, and that chef I worked with at that country club, I started to, to gain some interest in wanting to go to culinary school. I mean, I was 1617, you know, 18, when I was working there, thinking about what to do for college, and I thought about culinary school after high school. And I actually spoke to the chef about it. And he discouraged me, like, as crazy as that sounds, you know, discouraging people to go into the the profession that you're in? You know,

Jeremy Perkins  6:35  

I don't disagree with him. I mean, well,

Matt Groark  6:38  

I'll tell you what I relate to it even from a culinary standpoint, I guess, professions change over time, right. And one, I'm in one now, as a teacher, that's probably changed more than only a few other professions over the course of the last 10 years, right. I don't know that I can really be in a place to encourage college kids or young high school kids to go to be a teacher. Wow. Just like, I'm sure there's a lot of police officers that might not be encouraging kids to go be a police officer, you know, yeah. I feel like my profession, as well as being a police officer, first responder. So having my family, it's almost something that you really don't ask for advice for very often. You kind of meant to do it. You know, if you grow up wanting to be a cop, you're going to be a cop. Yeah. And I feel that way about teaching too. So. But yeah, he had told me he actually said to chef said, Look, if you want to grow up and you want to get married, and have a family and have kids and spend that time with them, and you know, you might want to rethink the whole chef thing. Because if you grow up to be a chef, if you have your own place, or you're working for someone, you're going to be cooking on holidays for other families, not spending those holidays with your family. And at a is a pretty young kid 1718 That kind of resonated with me. And I was like, Alright, does I'm not going to be a chef, like because I kind of knew I wanted a family, you know. So yeah, that's kind of how that all went. And it just turned into weight and tables. And I was never on the other side of the line. I was always waiting tables. But I was still always around food. And that's what started you know, that passion that love for food, even if your passion is just eating good food, it could transition into so much more, especially nowadays. And but but that's all it was just waiting tables for a lot of years and then fast forward till you know 2003 Roughly. We got season tickets for for the Eagles. My dad and my brothers and I and man we were up every Sunday I was up at least every Sunday at like 5am pack in the cooler getting all the foods set up. My brother handled the beer my dad handled some snacks, but at it took the role of Alright I got I got the menu, I'll get the food. I'll do the grilling, I'll do the cooking and really just took over from there and I'd say that's where the start of the grilling kind of barbecue journey started. was way back. You know 2003 tailgating at Eagles games, and I still do you know and then that transitioned into kind of picking up more barbecue smoking meat at my house, my father in law. One day back in we're probably going back to 2016 Roughly. He brought home a little small electric smoker and he had never used it he had it for like six months it was still in the box and he dropped it off at my house interesting. And was like you know, I think we had Like dogs had for them or something for a weekend. And as a as a payment, he dropped a smoker off in my kitchen. And he knew I tailgate and like, I enjoyed that, but I'd never really smoked me. So he dropped out off and I'm telling you, Jeremy the firt then the next morning, I think I went out to like Sam's club that night, and bought every single protein I could think of. And I was on YouTube videos I was you will, you know, and everybody listening to this knows you're all you want to figure something out you go on YouTube and and that's what I did. And I had chicken and pork and, and Turkey and I think I bought a fish. I'm like all these smoked fish and I'm like it the next morning I was up and I frickin jump hopped out of bed and I'm not a morning person. I popped out of bed and I just had this energy to like, go fire up that smoker and figure it out. And I threw all this food on. And I think I probably ruined the majority of it. But there was something that got me about sitting out there at six in the morning making a fire, trying to control it, sipping on my coffee. That just hooked me like big time.

Jeremy Perkins  11:16  

Dude, you are you are a man after like everything that I wanted to do. I loved grilling. But grilling was too short. It was too short of a time I didn't have that. That intimate. Like you could barely finish a beer by the time we were done growing, right. So I had found same thing, a Komodo smoker on the side of the on the side of the road. Somebody used it as a charcoal. All I did was buy the the plate for the bottom user plate. And same thing. My first brisket was garbage. absolute garbage.

Matt Groark  11:49  

It's fun, man. But it's fun to look back on that. Yeah. You know, that's I mean, God, Jeremy, there were times that I think so. So to keep going, that's how it started. Yeah. And from eon I was just, I was messing shit up. I was making some good stuff, I would mess something up and make something really good. And it was like a golf shot. Right? It's like, it's like an 18 hole. It's like playing 18 holes of golf. Like, I'm not a golfer my dad and my brother are but I'll go with them. Because I'd love to drink and I'll drive the cooler and hang out beautiful weather. I'll hit one or two good balls. And it'll bring me back the next time. Yeah. And that's what barbecue was like, for me. I'll, I'll do a cook. And I would even if it wasn't great, say I make a brisket. Even if it wasn't great, there would be certain things about it that I knew were moving me in the right direction to get it the right way. And that's what would bring me back the next time. I never completely well can't say never, I have completely demolished briskets before. But there there was always some improvement throughout the process of learning how to cook a good brisket or good pork butt or some good chicken or whatever it is. And that's how it was it was like that process. And then before you know it, my neighbors are here and oh, you've been doing a lot of barbecue. You've been smoking stuff. Hey, well, I got a kid's birthday if I can my kids birthday parties coming up, you know, you think you can make me some pulled pork. And before you know what I'm cooking for my neighbors and make them pulled pork and stuff for their birthday parties. And then they're handing me money and I'm like, Oh, wait, you know, okay. I guess just give me 50 bucks because that would it could that's what it cost me to make everything. I wasn't trying to make money off my neighbor's or anything. But then it kind of just kept steamrolling from there, man, it was like a snowball effect. You know, it just kept going. And I kept cooking and being a teacher, I have kind of a community around me where word spreads pretty quick. And, you know, with, with what social media can do. That's kind of what what blew it all up for me was with social media and even before long before, you know, the millions of followers came along, but through school, my my wife said to was a teacher at the time as well. And we're going back to like 2017 Right. So I'd had this smoker for about a year you know, was playing with it for a solid three, four months. My wife who's vegetarian was was and always is my biggest supporter. And I think she really for her to notice that I was really starting to enjoy this. Yeah. She she knew that. I think before I even did that it could be something and she for my 40th birthday. I'm fine. I'm 45 now so this was five years ago. For my 40th birthday. She sent me to a barbecue class for the weekend in Buena Dilla, Georgia, which is town of Myron Mixon, okay, who is the king of barbecue now the most winningest man in barbecue. So I spent a Friday, Saturday and Sunday at his complex with like 50 other like minded people just smoke in me and learning and taking it all in. And even more so gaining this like, friggin just love of doing it and, and figuring out in your head how you can make this a career, you know, or even just a side hustle. That's what it was for me. So, I mean, it's kind of what it still is. But teaching is like my side hustle. Now let

Jeremy Perkins  15:41  

me stop you there with the teaching. So just to clear the record. You're a health and phys ed teacher, correct? Yeah. Not not a not a culinary teacher. Not none of that. Does your does the school that you teach at? Do they still offer culinary program?

Matt Groark  15:59  

Yeah, they do. Yeah, they have culinary they have culinary basic like basic culinary. Then they have like an advanced culinary class for kids that may want to, you know, follow through.

Jeremy Perkins  16:09  

How many times have you substitute taught and that that done a

Matt Groark  16:13  

couple things with them. They've reached out a couple times for me to do like little demo. type things with stuff they do. So last year. I did like a turkey demo. Yep. They all Thanksgiving meal. And I came in and kind of did a demo. Sorry about the dog. No, you're good. You're good. Did a demo on the turkey? Yeah. And the turkey and I wrote mine down in Mayo. And you know, give them just little tips and tricks with that. So it's been cool. And and it's, it's cool, because school is really where the explosion of everything started. My wife and I, at the time 2016. My son is my boys are seven and eight years old. Right now, back in 2017. We were still trying for third. We have two boys. Now we did want three just wasn't in the cards. But at the time we were doing. We had gotten to like the end of the road and had to do in vitro. were given the option to do in vitro not because we couldn't get pregnant, but because we were having trouble holding the pregnancies. So we had lost three pregnancies prior to my oldest ajrakh. Yeah. And then we had Nash also, right, right after a Drik ajrakh was born with a cleft lip and palate. Yeah. So that was, you know, nerve wracking and stressful in and of itself. You know, regardless of the fact that we had lost three priors. So it's like, Alright, what's wrong? Is anything that happened, are we going to lose them, you know, this and that. But we are blessed to have both of them. And they're both great now and healthy, and everything's awesome. And then we lost. We lost another right after Nash. And then that's when we went into the in vitro. We did two rounds of in vitro. The second round, was successful. And Kristin was pregnant, and we were rocking and rolling. We got through the first trimester. And then at about 1617 weeks, we went to the ultrasound, no heartbeat. So we lost that it was our fifth loss out of seven pregnancies. So being in school being a health teacher, we talk about pregnancy and abstinence and, and childbirth and all that stuff. So you know, for me, I had lost I missed. I missed about a week of school. Kristen was out, you know, obviously, but when I went back to school, my kids all knew that we were pregnant knew that Kristen was pregnant knew that we were expecting a third child. It was a boy, it was a third boy. We don't make girls in my family, apparently. But my boys, Adrian Nash had both gone to preschool. Actually daycare at my high school. Yep. And they have a daycare program. So all my students have met my kids like, so they all knew that we were expecting a third. They're like, Oh, what's his name gonna be? Is he gonna come here? We're gonna get to meet on this. So it was all kind of rockin and rollin. Right. And they knew when I came back to school, and I was gone for a week, they knew it wasn't good. Yeah. So, you know, how do I address that with a bunch of, you know, 16 year old kids. And the best way I could think was just to sit down and make it a teachable moment. Right? Like, that's what I do. I'm a teacher, let's talk to him and, you know, pull something out of this. And I told him what happened. I told him what the process was and why we think we lost of pregnancy. And you know how there's really nothing I can control about it other than what I do now, and to pick your head up. And you know, having them there for me is huge to have in my job is a huge part of the ability to, you know, Greve and the kids high school kids make you laugh every day. So you know, to some form or another, so that's always a positive. And a couple of days went by, and my one class came in with a card. And they gave me the card and I opened it. And little did I know that one of them was recording my reaction to opening the card. And at the time, I wasn't like, I didn't have tick tock wasn't even tick tock didn't even exist. Snapchat, all that stuff was just kids. Eyes, all I was doing was posting food on Instagram, just picture because it wasn't even video at that point. So I opened the card, and they all signed it. And they said, you know, thanks for teaching us to keep your head up and get up after you get knocked down and all that kind of stuff, right? And they had Sixers tickets in there. And they said, they know I'm a Philly fan, and they said, Go to go to the game, we hope you enjoy it, take your wife, hopefully, you can take your mind off things. And you know, we love you, blah, blah, blah. And my first thought was, yeah, obviously, I was like crying. And I'm like, you fucking kids. And the one girl asked me if she could post a video on Twitter. And she did. And it kind of went viral. got, you know, 10s of 1000s of interactions and comments. And so at the time is all I could think to do as a teacher was to reward my kids somehow, like, reward them for that little act of kindness, right. And so I posted the story on Facebook real quick, just said what my students had done. I posted on Twitter, and it kind of blew up on there too. And then I reached out to a contact that I had with the Sixers. And I told them the story. And I said I wanted to turn it into a field trip. And I wanted to see if I could bring my whole class with me to the game. So my wife could meet my kids, and my students could meet, you know, my wife, and just all that. So we did and the Sixers hooked us up with like 30 tickets, a suite. All the major news stations picked up the story of what my students did. ABC, NBC, CBS Fox, and then next thing I know I'm on Instagram, and I get a message from somebody telling me it was on in LA. like, Yo, bro, I think I just saw you on on like Fox News in Los Angeles. And I'm like, what? And they're like, Yeah, your students, your high school kids did something for you. And I'm like, Okay, now it's gone national. So then I have a meat company reached out to me called premier meats and L in California. And he told me he wanted you know, to help me out help do something for the kids to say thank you for what they did for me. And he was like, you want to do a barbecue for them? Like Well, I can't do a barbecue for 25 kids like my school would kill me the rest of the kids in the school would kill me. So we turned it into a big school wide fundraiser at our home opening football game in September of 2018. And we sold pulled pork sandwiches with chips and a bottle of water for 10 bucks. Everything went to charity because 100% was all covered by donations and other small businesses and companies helping out to chip in Premier meats gave me all the money to buy all the meat I blew it up on social media and we raised like four grand over the course of the game and in order to do that fundraiser I wanted to be a business I wanted it to be legit like food safety food handling. And at the time I was thinking about doing this part time thing of like selling some barbecue right so work boys barbecue was the name we came up with. I went and turned it into an LLC you know I did all the paperwork and when got my food handlers license and and all that and that was the start our first event. Court boys first event was because of those kids I taught and we made it a fundraiser and raised some money for cleft lip and cleft palate for MS because my mother my stepmom has MS and for from my superintendent his he lost at the time he lost his daughter to epilepsy comp vacations. And we donated money to that as well. So that was, that was his first event ever. And it was a fundraiser. And it's been the lifeline of my brand and business since I started in 2018. So

Jeremy Perkins  25:15  

that's amazing. And I'm glad you brought up that first part, I mean, that, that absolutely resonated with me, myself and my wife were trying to get pregnant early on. And we had a failed pregnancy as well. And it was devastating, absolutely devastating. Because it was our, you know, everything was on track everything like not to derail this podcast and ticket in a different direction. But I feel like this is definitely the time to explain how common it is. And I didn't realize how common it was, until after I went through it. And, you know, people were absolutely sympathetic and whatever. But then people started coming out of the woodwork. Oh, I had to I had three I had. And I'm like, you know, so. And it's, it's hard as a family to get back into the mental state to be able to have children again, or to start trying again. And it took us over a year

for a pregnancy to take after that. Because I mean, we're just so devastated. What was what was interesting was is having those stories, being able to, to relate and being able to talk with other people about it. But prior to that, all those prenatal classes, all the, you know, whatever everything was, like happy, you know, like when we have the child when we do this, and it's like, well, there's this other side that nobody talks about, but a lot of people have gone through it. So it's amazing. It's amazing. I mean, again, it was, it was awful. But that's awesome that you're in a position, you know, health and phys ed to be able to explain it. And I guess if it does happen to others as a little bit of consolation that, you know, there's not really something wrong with you, per se, and that, you know, it's

Matt Groark  27:02  

not, um, yeah, I mean, I think that's, you know, for you even sharing that, you know, thank you. And I think it's, you know, we, we do spend a lot of time and energy, taking care of our wives when this happens, you know, like, I didn't even think about me, I had no thought to myself at all, because everything she went through was just, I mean, I was like, hands down the strongest person I've ever met in my life. And, you know, to go through everything she has, but people don't talk about it. And I think, you know, I do, it's just my personality, the way it helps me to talk about stuff, it just does. I know not everyone is that way. But once you do, even if you give someone a little, you just give them a an olive branch, it's like, it all comes for and out, like, oh my god, there's more people that do it. It's like, it's like, I'm gonna go buy a Jeep Wrangler. And because I never see any Jeep Wranglers on the road, and then you go buy it. And now everyone has a Jeep Wrangler, Iraqi, your notice you're recognizing them now. Yeah, and you just didn't before. And that's what it's like, once you go through it, and you start talking about it, you realize how many people actually go through it. And it's a huge part of our story. And it had a lot to do with where we are now, you know, as a family and everything we've gone through and to be able to persevere through it and help people through it. We are part of a grief group that we go to still, years later. You know, every year we go to an event and meet other families. And it's like it's a, it's a very tight knit group that you never wanted to be part of. Okay. It's like, every time we go, every year when we go, we see new faces and we're like devastated. Yeah. Like I don't want to see you there. But you're you're welcome with open arms and you're hopefully a shoulder to cry on at some point. And they can relate to you. So but yeah, back to the barbecue. There we go.

Jeremy Perkins  29:14  

No, I've never been able to really talk about it on on a larger platform. I've always done it with my tight knit community and just fell right and I think that that's Hell yeah, I mean, wherever this podcast takes us, I guess.

Matt Groark  29:30  

That's all that's what I always do like food. And barbecue gives me an ability to connect with people in a way that most you just don't food and to be able to have a business where I know I can give back and I can make a difference and I can help out families and you know, stuff like that anytime. Something local happens or if a family needs something, you know, what's the best thing you can do? Give them dinner? You know, so they don't have to worry about food, like to be able to just go in my backyard and cook some stuff up and deliver it to a house and say here you're good for a few days.

Jeremy Perkins  30:08  

Yeah, that's like that's it shows up. That's it.

Matt Groark  30:12  

And so, but yeah, that was the start of it, you know, being able to kind of give back and, and create this fundraiser was was the start of it. And that's what started growth boys barbecue and that story kind of went viral. And then here comes 2018 and Tik Tok comes around, and, you know, I start posting silly videos, you know, I was I was on Instagram for a while, posting on there and stuff. And still, I was part of that barbecue community on Instagram, which is insanely supportive and awesome and huge. And one of my friends on there had reached out to me about this opportunity on this new app. At the time, it was called musically. And then it was bought by musically and called or was bought by bite dance, which is, you know, the company that owns Tik Tok. And but they called it something else. There was another name before it was tick tock, but same concept, right? Short, short video platform, right. And they were going to pay me $600 a month to post 30 videos a month. So one video a day, for 600 bucks a month. To me, I was like, they're gonna give me $600 a month just to post a video. And I'm like, That's awesome. Let's do it. I'm making mac and cheese for the kids. And I turned it into a video like, you know, Kraft mac and cheese for the for the kids like, okay, there's my video for the day. And I got to be part of that program, along with a few other people that I know on social. And that's how it started. I was just kind of posting on there. And if you scroll all the way down my tic tock for a while, it'll go all the way back to December of 2018. And you'll see those very first videos that I got paid for, you know, way back when the app was just starting to grow. Yeah. And I caught a lot of shit from from other people in the community thinking that at the time, when it finally did switch over to tick tock is the name. It was known as a little teeny bopper app, you know, where kids are dancing and all that stuff. So here I am, you know, 40 year old teacher on this little tick tock app, and people are like, what are you a friggin creep like that? Yeah, like, posting videos on there. Like it's food. I'm just posting food videos, and I took all that criticism and I ignored it. And I kept doing it along with a few other people that kept grinding through it, some dropped off, you know, and kind of listen to all the outside noise and stop doing it. You know, regrettably, probably now. You know, but here I am three, three and a half million followers later on Tik Tok. Just just grind it out videos and it's helping my business tremendously. Brand deals, you know, working with some of the largest companies in the food business and I mean Weber grills, Kingsford charcoal, you know, all that kind of stuff and you know starting to do some of my own stuff have my own seasoning company working on you know, a couple other little projects that you know, hopefully be able to reveal you know, a little bit down the road but yeah, it's just been a wild ride.

Jeremy Perkins  33:45  

So for for me one of the one of the natural gravitation towards towards you and your content is a the family behind it, but be myself and my kids. So my kids are six and eight, my my eight year old daughter has taken an absolute liking to camp cooking, barbecuing, stuff like that, that it's given us an outlet to be able to work together. We go to the grocery store, we pick some stuff out. We do all this stuff. So much so that we did a weekend last weekend. Actually two weekends ago. It was awesome was our first time went to Army Navy store bought like little mess kits and everything and went up to the lake and cooked over the fire for like two days straight. And it was I mean, it was kielbasa. And yeah, it's awesome. And eggs and stuff like that, but like, you know, just just boiling the water and and you know, making tea and then cleaning all the dishes like there versus like in a dishwasher. It's been it's been on Unreal. And I feel like it gives them another level up on like, hey, I can do things like things aren't So automate it for me, like I could actually, I could cook, I can make something, I could then clean it up, and then I could tend to fire it. There was just so much to it. And it's been it's been amazing. But yeah, continue doing what you're doing. It's, it's, it's touching millions obviously.

Matt Groark  35:20  

Well, they the camping thing was really just new over the last couple of years, you know, so good. Yeah, we, I don't even know, my wife had said something, we have a couple friends that had had campers. And we just started looking into it. It was like such an impulse buy, you know, it was God, it was crazy. But she started talking about it. And we started kind of looking it up. And you start to realize that while a camper or RV might be one of the worst investments you could ever make, because you're never getting, you know, your money's worth for it. In terms of monetarily, yeah, I kind of like, don't care about that. Because the value in memories and experience and all that, that you grow with your family is just like, immeasurable, like, you cannot put any price on that. So I'll take the few 100 bucks a month that costs for the payment. And I'll accept the fact that I'm never going to be able to sell it without losing money, you know, when we do. But it's so worth it. And it's opened up, like you said, a whole nother line of connection with your kids, with your wife with your community. Like it's, you know, some of the brands that I work with, they love it. Yeah, you know, it's a whole different vibe in the video content, and it opens things up for me to be able to create a little bit differently. You know, so yeah, it's just, it's something that I'll keep doing. And I have some, some collabs coming up, hopefully this summer, when I'm done School, where I can get out over and open fire and you know, do a little bit a little bit more cooking, you know, in that way.

Jeremy Perkins  37:22  

Yeah. And it's, it's interesting, too, because, you know, one can say, I guess I'll just put myself in my kid shoes. So you know, growing up ADHD growing up all this stuff, right. And I see myself and kids are in my kids. And obviously, I'm not gonna put a label on it at this point, because I don't want to. But what was interesting was, is watching my very energetic children, become so focused on a task, and do it to perfection. And listen, and understand. I mean, so much so that my daughter burned her finger, right? Just like got so excited. Grab the skillet, instead of grabbing a BA holder to grab the skillet. She burns her finger. And now obviously, for everybody out there all the first day tips were, were done. She's fine. She's recovering. It was a little blister. But it was a teachable moment. And it's, it's amazing because like, I turned to her and I said, Do I need to say anything and she goes, I won't do that again.

And it was, you know, obviously, it's safe and a great environment to work in. But she's eight years old, and she's using knives she's using, you know, we're splitting wood with axes we're

doing, like doing all this stuff, obviously in a controlled environment, but giving her real world adult tasks to in now. They're super focused and super. And, man, it was like the best couple of nights of sleep that they've ever had. They went to bed on time. He was like, there's something to this, you know,

Matt Groark  38:50  

go live on the bush. Yeah.

Jeremy Perkins  38:54  

But fast forward, man. I mean, you got some big stuff going on. Obviously, it took off from like, a little side hustle to something more extravagant. And I'd love for you to dive deep into that.

Matt Groark  39:07  

Yeah, so, you know, teaching once I started the business, you know, it was things were growing, you know, in terms of social media and stuff pretty steadily, nothing crazy, but I mean, I can remember in school, the first time that kid came up to me, and saw me on Tik Tok saw one of my videos and was like, Whoa, Groarke, you have you have 75,000 followers on Tiktok. Like you're famous, like 75,000 Like, it's crazy, like people like barbecue. You know, that was always my answer. And, you know, so kids started talking pretty early on that I was even on tick tock, you know, at that time, but I still it was teaching. I was coaching basketball. I coached basketball for like 18 yours. High School. I was a driver's ed teacher. So I would teach kids how to drive. You know, drive him to six hours for kids to

Jeremy Perkins  40:12  

get there like reason why Philly drivers suck?

Matt Groark  40:14  

Yeah, exactly. Jersey you know, I was Yeah, I was doing six hours behind the wheel lessons with kids. Yeah, I life teaching basketball, Driver's Ed, I was hostel and barbecue a little bit here and there, you know, I was posting on social media every day, video, video photo content, like doing all that stuff. And then it started to really explode. And that's when COVID hit, you know, when COVID hit 2019 2020. And we were home, you know, so much. That's when I really, it was every day posting. And it wasn't just quick videos, it was like, teaching stuff. It was like tutorials, it was like, This is how you do it. And I think that's what really made the big jump, you know, and not only that, but I was doing it at my house. Nobody special. I'm a dad, Teacher, I'm in my backyard, my dogs are barking, my kids are crying. And I'm trying to make a steak and film it. You know. So, like you said, I think part of that connection. And part of part of my following really came from the fact that you know, I wasn't, I wasn't trying to pretty up my videos, I wasn't, you know, you go on you on on tick tock and every platform now and you see these, these creators, these food creators that just have this be these beautiful videos, highly edited, highly produced, beautifully filmed from every angle possible, right, like different shots, ASMR, obviously $1,000 microphones, you know, but I got in long before all that, you know, that didn't exist that type of content when I was growing. And I'm fortunate for that, because that is not me like that content is not me. I don't live in that world. Of these creators, like, you know, Nick did Giovanni and some of these other big food food creators, but mine was very real. I was in my house. And here's my wife, she's vegetarian, she's not getting any of this. And people thought that was funny. I'm the meat guy and I married a vegetarian. So then I kind of caught on to that, that people thought that was funny. So I started using it in my content and like kind of making fun of her whenever I could, or pretending to feed her meat. You know, like, Oh, I'm gonna take some meat and her food. And I did a whole series of videos like where I pretend to trick her into eating meat, you know. And that blew up and people still think it's true, they think I would actually still be married if I did that. It just shows you that most of the people watching my videos are probably like 14 years old and have no clue. But yeah, it really exploded. And that's, you know, once I got over a million on Tik Tok, everything else kind of grew along with it started getting reached out to by companies to make content and videos, you know, for ad campaigns and things like that. Ended up getting myself an agent, because I never wanted to talk about money or deal with contracts and stuff. Nor am I, you know, capable of doing all that without, you know, with making sure I'm protecting myself. So, you know, I have an agent, which is insane to even say, and then

Jeremy Perkins  44:12  

that that is that in itself is a little knots I mean for

Matt Groark  44:15  

EDA agent, you know. Yeah, and I'm still teaching and things are doing great. The barbecue and the social media has now kind of taken over the full time role. And as far as the money it brings in for our family, and my teaching job is kinda like my side. But I need to, you know, I just can't, I can't commit the time that I need to, to the barbecue and the social media stuff because of my full time teaching job. So at some point something's going to give. I don't know when that's going to be but I've been able to work on a lot of things in the meantime. So I At my own rub company rub city with two good buddies of mine that I partnered up with. And it's still an incredibly well, we're working on another big project that we're hoping to launch in July this summer. It's going to be called embers. So, you know on that, but there's going to be more content based stuff on that, where, you know, think of a Master's class type of situation. But for grilling and barbecue and you know, smoking meat, so we have some awesome people involved with that. So hopefully that's coming this summer. You know, I was, I was on a show with Gordon Ramsay. I mean, that was a pretty big deal.

Jeremy Perkins  45:48  

I was just, we were just feeding the horses and my. I said, Dad, this is this is who I'm having a podcast with tonight. He goes no way. My parents, it's, it's it's food shows. And then America's Got Talent. That's it. They love it. And like you got this guy's unbelievable. I'm like,

Matt Groark  46:13  

damn. So what's crazy is that that whole process like I've been, I've been reached out to by casting agents, probably a dozen times. Yeah. asked like, two years maybe. And, you know, Netflix, a Netflix show. Netflix has a couple barbecue cooking shows. I've been reached out to a couple times about that. I've been reached out to other shows. And every time they My first question is always like, when is filming? Yeah. Filming is always during my school year. So I can't just not be in school for a month, you know, feel like I'd get fired. So I never really gave it much consideration until last spring, when I was reached out to by the casting agency for Gordon Ramsay's next level chef. So the first season I watched because a buddy of mine who also does barbecue and Finn content, and he's pretty big. His name's Gary the barbecue chef. He, he was on Season One of next level chefs. So I watched it for him. And then now last spring, here I am, you know, being casted by them, and going through the whole interview process. So I questioned it. I was like, I knew they were filming in September. So I was like, I can't do it. Like I came home. And I told Kristen, and I'm like, I don't think I can do it. Like it's their film in September as the beginning of the school year. Like I can't just miss the first month of school. And, you know, Gordon Ramsay is what she said to me. She was like, she was like, this isn't Netflix. This isn't, you know, some chopped, you know, on Food Network where you're gonna be on one episode. Yeah. Is this is Gordon Ramsay, like the celebrity of all food celebrities like

Jeremy Perkins  48:19  

and he's so much nicer now. He's so much nicer.

Matt Groark  48:23  

It's such a different vibe on next level chef to because it's a mentor. Yeah, type of. So I mean, he tells you if it sucks, like, I think he didn't put it in. But the episode that I got eliminated. I can talk about it now because it's over. And I got eliminated but the episode that I got eliminated when I made the fish. I made the fish and mashed potatoes and some broccoli. He told me he told me in the judging. He said that it looked like it was played by a 12 year old they didn't put it in the show. I didn't they like why did they edit that out? It was such a genius. Because my whole the whole season. Every episode I was in my de even if my food was good, which the majority of the time it was except for Chinese. And the episode I was eliminated. My issue was plating and I always told the judges I said look, I cook barbecue. I don't play like French food. Yeah, I had my I had my friends like cutting boards with me. Like my wife laughs at me because she's like if you come over here to eat, you're not getting utensils. Like you're grabbing ribs off a cutting board. Yeah, eating your fingers.

Jeremy Perkins  49:46  

I watched one with you with you with the port wine and then realize you didn't grab a starch and then you had the plantains but it was bit data cited and then So stressful because it's like, I don't know. Go Go ahead.

Matt Groark  50:05  

I'm telling you 30 seconds is 30 seconds. What do you find? 45 minutes like everybody, like, they probably give you more time. Nope. No, it is as stressful as it looks and chaotic. But Kristen looked at me and she said, you have to do this. Yeah. And I'm like, but I'm not a chef. Like, I just cook me. Like, I just cook me. And she goes, and here's like, the genius of of the wife, right? She goes, she goes, yeah. And any food show you watch. What do people mess up? The most. They mess up either the meat. It's either raw, or it's overcooked. And they mess up like seasoning. More salt more this more that. She goes, your, your strength is those two things. You're very good at seasoning your food. And you're very good at cooking your proteins to the right temperature. And I was like, oh shit, you're kind of right. Like, I'm really good at those two things. But I'm like, good plating. But I don't but I don't know, like French sauces and all that kind of stuff like a port wine. What the frick do I do with a port wine like,

Jeremy Perkins  51:17  

and then make it

Matt Groark  51:21  

so I actually leading up to heading out to film. A couple weeks before I left to film. I had a good buddy of mine come over and stay for the weekend. His name's Noah Sims. And he was on Master Chef season 10. So no is like six foot seven. Where's overalls? You know, grew up in Georgia. He was on the season with Nikki Giovanni who's who is probably the largest food creator in the world right now. And I'm friends with both of them. But no, it came over and spent the weekend. And he showed me all the mother sauces. He showed me some little tricks we went over, you know how to use a knife properly, which I knew but I mean, I have to shut out of most of my food, you know, because it's meat. So yeah, he told me how to, you know frizz a some you know, herbs and stuff like that. I'm like, yeah, so it's, it was cool. But I'm telling you, Jeremy, I after episode, I did really well, episode one. I won, I won best dish for my team. And, and, and by the time we were at episode three, I was like, how am I still here? I'm playing with house money. Best, it's amazing. So you know, it was wild. But if anything, it was just one of those lessons. Like, you got to believe in yourself a little bit every once in a while. And sometimes you just got to take a chance. And if you're not taking chances and you're not risking things, then you're probably not growing. Yeah. You know, and my goal through all this is just to continue to grow. And that doesn't just mean numbers on social media, right? Like I want. I want to grow a brand. I want to grow a media company I want to grow, you know, more relationships and stuff like this, you know, because that's the stuff that really matters. We all know, because we've heard it that tick tock could be gone tomorrow. Yeah. Facebook could be gone tomorrow. like it'd be there. Also, you got to build something bigger than just a number, you know?

Jeremy Perkins  53:33  

Well, it seems it seems. And you know, as as I've gone through the trades, as I've gone through college, as I've gone through everything, it's really and actually to college. I mean, I learned a lot in college, I went later on in life in my 30s. And, and that's when I really I actually grasped a lot of the concepts and really took home a lot of the stuff more so than I would have ever in my teens. But one of the biggest things that stuck out to me was network, right? So I had a group of people that I went through college with 2016 of them 16 People that I went through college with that I could call up, hey, what do you think about this, or whatever? And I feel like that's the same. I mean, any of the I talked to some of the knife makers that were forged in fire. You know, it just just go the list goes on and on. But like, hey, how do I temper steel? Hey, how do I make this sauce? Hey, you know, how can I put a spin on this? And really, it's your network that you're building? That's more so outside the social media platforms? Yes, social platforms help you grow that network. But if they were to be gone, you know, your buddy coming over and helping you learn about sauces and you know, others helping you learning about open fire or whatever the next technique may be, is really the key key to success there.

Matt Groark  54:52  

Yeah, it's huge. I mean, that's it. The relationships, the networking is hands down the biggest part and you You know, somewhat having someone like No, no has taught me a few things, man, not just, you know, prepping me for next level chef so that I didn't make a fool of myself. But the first time no one reached out to me. You know, he came across my page and he liked what he saw. And he was pretty early coming off of next level chef so he can or not a master chef, so he kind of had that. That momentum for Master Chef and I knew who he was because I watched it. And all of a sudden, I get a DM from Noah Sims. And I'm like, Oh, shit. Like I said, dude, from Master Chef, what's he doing? DM me? And you know, you open your DMS 99% of the time, someone writes something, right? Like, Hey, Jeremy, what's up, just love your stuff. Just wanted to connect, stay in touch, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, that kind of thing? Yeah. No, say sends video messages to people. So if he likes you, or he sees something in you, or he likes your stuff, or your content, or he just wants to tell you that you're friggin killing it. And you know, keep doing what you're doing. I'm proud of you. He doesn't do it through a text. That's super personal. He sends you a video. And now you're looking him in the face. And he's saying, Man, Jeremy, I just came across your page. And dude, I love what you're doing. Keep doing it. I'm here for you if you need anything, let's connect. Can't wait to meet you like that. And then he would hang up. And I was like, I remember the first time when I got that first message. I was like, I was like, what? Like, he sent me a video message, saying he loved what I was doing. And like, my food looks great. And it can't wait to cook with me one day. I'm like, holy shit. But like just that personal connection. You know that? That was such a huge lesson for me. Yeah. that I got from Noah. And you know, I try to do it as much as I can.

Jeremy Perkins  57:05  

Yeah, no, that's

Matt Groark  57:08  

I'll get DMS from people just randomly, right? Like asking, Hey, I got I got a rack of ribs. You know, I'm doing it on a Weber kettle. What do you think I should do? You know, any advice. And most people DM start with, well, you'll probably never see this, because they think that I probably never read my DNS. So especially if they write something like that, like, I'll get kids, I'll get kids that will write to me, that are probably teenagers and 14 1516. And they'll write me and that's they're famous for saying you'll probably never see this. But you know, I've watched everything you do. And you've inspired me to cook and grill. And, you know, I really enjoy it. And it's helped my anxiety and it's helped us and that just wanted to say thank you. And normally they don't think you're ever going to see it because a 14 year old kid is looking at someone with a following like me as a celebrity. Yeah, like, you're a modern day celebrity, which is the weirdest thing. But you know, at the very least, I hope that kids are watching me and, you know, being inspired in some way. So whenever I get a message like that from a kid, I'll send a video message back, just because I I like to imagine when they open it, their reaction, like holy shit, because that was my reaction when you know, Noah sent me sent me his first video message.

Jeremy Perkins  58:34  

And it's funny. I don't want to downplay the accomplishment of having 3 million followers on Tiktok. I think that's amazing. But But speaking to your point, I think it's the I've interviewed. We're on like season six. Now I've interviewed, you know, 10s of how hundreds of people at this point. And every single one of them has been down to earth. They haven't been this, this up on this pedestal. And I'm just a regular Joe. And it's and it's funny, because, you know, they've after off off camera, they're like, hey, anything you need, I'll

help you out. Like, whatever you need done like if we need to reshoot it, or whatever. Everybody has been like, they're my neighbor has just been unbelievable reachable people. And maybe I'm just picking it right or maybe I'm seeing a trend here is that that

Matt Groark  59:32  

everybody's friend, brother,

Jeremy Perkins  59:35  

for the most part, everybody's just normal, approachable people. And again, I say this over and over again. I go to makers camp, which is like all the social media makers and their followings vary but like big ones, the little ones everything. And everybody's just there and like titles aside, just normal people. It's like some of the some of the most photogenic people and Awesome on camera are some of the shyest people you'll ever doctor, you're like, how come I can't have a conversation with you? Like, I expected to be able to have a conversation anyway, long story short is is that like if anybody and that's going to lead me into my my last point here but if anybody wants to reach out to you or or talk to you, where can they find you?

Matt Groark  1:00:23  

So if you go to my website Groarke, boys barbecue.com There is a submission form there where you can contact me and you can I have people said to me, you know, catering jobs if there's something you know, I get some grad parties to do in the spring summer because I'm a teacher. So if any of those requests usually come through that website, and I have people just asking me general cooking questions on the website or brands reaching out through my website, stuff like that. So that's a really good spot to do it. Instagram I'm on all the time and my DMs are not completely flooded. Do you know I answer almost everything that I get on Instagram. You know, I answer. So you know, Instagram has developed a pretty good process for weeding out the trash, you know that you get so any of those messages that come in my man my box or, you know, stuff that I know is worth worth a read. So, I'm good at I'm good at getting through my my, my DMs on there. So, but I'm on every platform, I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook. I'm on Tik Tok. I'm on Snapchat, I'm on what else? Am I missing any?

Jeremy Perkins  1:01:55  

Twitter? Face? I'm

Matt Groark  1:01:57  

on Twitter. So I'd Yeah, I'm on Twitter. I just started on Twitter. I've been on Twitter for years. But because of next level chef, we live tweet during the show and stuff. And I still kind of live tweeting during the show, even though I'm not on it. Because all my friends are on it. Yeah, we all got so tight, man. It was such a good group of people. And we're also tight. And we're all still friends. But I'm posting some content on on Twitter too. So stuff that you probably might not see on other platforms. You know, same with Snapchat. So yeah, I mean, you could reach out reach me anywhere. You know, Rob city.com Hey, go, you know, insane Spice Company. I have a couple of my own branded rubs that I curated with my partner's a beef rub and a pork rub. And then we have about seven others that are really awesome. So if anyone wants to support, that's always a good way to do it. And you could pop them in your own video content. But yeah, I've a lot of cool things coming up. And like I mentioned, this embers, embers is going to be something really, really cool this summer and I'm excited and the biggest the biggest thing for me with it and my partners is the communication that connection that embers is going to bring you know outside of just your normal social media stuff. There's going to be a way to really connect with some of your some of your favorite barbecue food grilling people through what we're building. So it's going to be really neat.

Jeremy Perkins  1:03:36  

Hell yeah. Well, I thank you for being on the show we covered a gamut of topics and

Matt Groark  1:03:44  

for another hour

Jeremy Perkins  1:03:46  

but obviously you guys can reach out to him anything culinary anything teaching and then you know any of the other topics that we hit but really was just to bring light to to the fact that culinary is another avenue for any blue collar workers or anybody who wants to, you know, work with your hands. It's definitely definitely a great avenue and very lucrative and you know, you're seeing one of the top top performers in the trade and it was it was awesome to have you on the on the show, man.

Matt Groark  1:04:19  

I appreciate it. Jeremy, listen, if anybody listens to this, and they're in the South Jersey area, and they want to sling some barbecue, I might need to I might need demand my barbecue, right because I just don't have time for it. So I might be hiring people.

Jeremy Perkins  1:04:32  

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, thanks for being on the show.

Matt Groark  1:04:35  

You got a brother take care. We'll talk soon. And as

Speaker 4  1:04:38  

a special thanks to our loyal listeners were giving $10 off your next purchase of $60 or more at brunch workwear.com Use Discount Code bucket talk. That's bucket talk. 10