August 16, 2025 • 42 mins
This podcast episode features a compelling discussion with Adam and Brett Walton, the Wall twins, who have garnered significant attention for their innovative cooking and grilling techniques on YouTube. With a focus on their journey into the culinary realm, the twins share how their passion for cooking blossomed, especially during the pandemic, leading them to engage a wider audience through their captivating content. Their approach emphasizes the importance of simplicity in cooking, which resonates with viewers and encourages a more accessible culinary experience. Throughout our conversation, we delve into the nuances of creating engaging content, the evolving landscape of digital media, and the significance of connecting with one's roots in culinary traditions. As we explore their insights, we invite listeners to reflect on their own culinary journeys and the joys of experimentation in the kitchen.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Painter Hills Natural Beef
- paintedhillsnaturalbeef.com
- Heritage Steel
- Hammerstahl
- Oregon Crab Commission
- Amazon
- Walt Twins
Mentioned in this episode:
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This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
It's time for Barbecue Nationwith jt so fire up your grill, light
the charcoal, and get yoursmoker cooking.
Now from the Turn It, Don'tBurn it studios in Portland, here's
jt.
Hey, everybody.
Welcome to the nation.
That's Barbecue Nation.
I'm jt, along with my co hostand hall of fame barbecue Leanne.
(00:33):
Women.
Leanne.
Yeah.
I'm going to go iron my tonguehere in a minute.
We're coming to you from ourrespective Turn It, Don't Burn it
studios, mine in Portland andLeanne's permanent one is in Tampa,
but she may be in Daytona.
I'm in, like, Lauderdale andthen headed to Daytona.
Well, there you go.
We'd like to thank the folksat Painter Hills Natural Beef Beef
(00:54):
the way nature intended.
You can check them outonline@painted hillsnaturalbeef.com.
well, if you're a YouTuber andyou like YouTube, which I happen
to do, there's lots of stuffout there.
There's nothing I don't thinkyou can find on YouTube.
But one of the things thatLeanne brought to my attention a
while back were our guesttoday, Adam and Brett Walton, the
(01:14):
Wall twins, which is quite clever.
Thank you.
Weekend warriors with a hugefollowing on the tube, and they do
some great recipes andbarbecue on there and grilling, and
they kind of COVID it all.
So it's a real pleasure towelcome them to the show today.
Hey, guys.
Hey.
Thanks so much for having us.
We're excited to be here.
(01:35):
No problem.
So the first question, otherthan your parentage, because that's
obvious, okay.
You guys are like looking in amirror, but how did you get into
first, like grilling andcooking and then what.
Then what made you take thestep to putting it on film, so to
speak?
That's a great question.
Brett, you want to start?
You kind of got me going intocooking back when you would do some
(01:56):
grilling.
Yeah, my grilling.
We always love cooking growingup, you know, watch mom dabble and
things like that.
But when I was in the army andgot a grill and just became a thing,
I was married with kids.
So all the single soldierslike to come over and we just throw
meat, throw some groceriesdown and kind of cook whatever.
And that's when I kind ofstarted Lear out.
(02:17):
Just whatever.
You throw, whatever you wantto eat, throw down, season it up,
and you're going to enjoy it.
So that's.
That's pretty much when itstarted on a regular basis.
Yeah.
Sorry, go ahead.
No, I was just going to say,were your folks Big, you know, backyard
cookers or anything.
Funnily enough, not a whole lot.
We grew up actually in Utah,and so we did have a grill out on
(02:38):
our patio, and my dad wouldmake some good burgers, you know,
AKA hockey pucks.
Some make some barbecuechicken from time to time.
But we loved our mom'scooking, probably like most everybody
does.
And oddly enough, we come froma family of seven.
There's seven kids, and we'vegot an older brother and a sister
who are just phenomenal cooks.
Our brother was a chef forseveral years, and our sister is
(02:58):
probably the best cook that we knew.
Anytime we taste her food, wejust, like, pick her brain.
How did you do this?
And so taking on.
Brett and I would just phonecall and start talking and talking
about different cooks, thingswe were doing.
And then one year, I just wantto take on Thanksgiving turkey and
reach out to my mom, and shewould walk me through the process
that became.
Every year I'd call her, andshe walked me through making the
turkey and that I just really,really loved it.
And then it.
(03:20):
After she passed, we werereally, really just talking more
recipes with our sister, andwe just realized we had a passion.
I tell people all the time,like, I went to school for education.
I'm a teacher now.
If I could go back and do itagain, I love my students.
I love teaching, but I'dprobably go to culinary school.
There's just something.
We have a drive for it.
We talk about it.
It is.
Anytime Brett and I aretalking, we're almost always either
talking YouTube, what's goingon there, or just food and recipes
(03:42):
and what we're going to do andwhat we can learn.
So we love it.
You know, Leanne, I think,again, I was just going to say, I
think these guys did somethingreally smart.
They kept talking to their mom.
You know, so many people that we.
That we talk to, whether it'son the show or not, they'll.
They'll be, you know,conversing about food and barbecue
stuff, obviously.
And I know Leanne did this,too, with her dad.
(04:04):
I did what they say.
A lot of people said, gosh, Iwish I, you know, I didn't get that
pecan pie recipe from my momor whatever.
And I think that's reallysmart to get that traditional stuff.
Yeah, it's true.
It laid the foundation and the basis.
And I still do the turkey thesame way.
The same way.
You know, last couple years Italked to her, it was more just the
tradition because she'd walkedme through it, and I'm So, yeah,
(04:25):
that down to our basic gravythat I make is very simple, basic,
but it's the way that mom didit, so.
Still enjoy it?
So you were in Utah, so, Yeah.
I see you're in two differentlocations now.
Are you at least in the same state?
We are.
So I'm in.
I'm actually in Orlando.
I'm just outside Orlando inApopka, and Brett is up there in
Gainesville, right outside theGainesville area.
(04:45):
So we're about two hours away.
So you're able to get togetherto shoot these videos, or do you
kind of try to snip it together?
No, Brett, I know I'm doingall the talking, Brett.
I just want to feel it.
I'm.
I'm doing babysitting dutywith my granddaughter.
My girlfriend's trying to gethere to take over, but three o' clock
starts.
The show must go on, so.
(05:07):
Hi, sweetie.
Why can't you talk?
This is Sienna.
We finished her homework in time.
So she did her reading and her homework.
So she's glad to harass you now.
Yeah, exactly.
Now she's got Mickey Mouse outthere to hopefully hold her over.
But she's.
This more interesting.
(05:27):
Yes, Today's office.
Today, I promise.
Okay, but, yeah, so.
Yeah, but so as far as that goes.
So what we do is.
And we've done this for thepast several years.
When we started YouTube, wedidn't start out as a cooking channel.
It started from a silly faceswap app that we had.
We did face swap with eachother, and because we're identical
twins, we were giggling likecrazy at it because to us, we don't
look the same.
So we.
I saw my face on his body, andhe saw his face on my body, and we
(05:52):
uploaded it, and viral hogreached out to us and said, hey,
we think this is good.
We think this will go viral.
We didn't know anything aboutit, so we signed the rights over
to it, and sure enough, itwent viral.
Went 4 million views overnightor something like that.
We thought, man, people likelooking at freakishly identical twins.
Maybe we've got something here.
So we spent the first aboutfour years doing everything from
carpool karaoke to challenges,to just vlogging in general.
(06:13):
And then we started doing fastfood reviews because I was doing
all the editing.
I'd spent countless hoursresearching YouTube, how to get in
the algorithm and all that.
So we're doing fast food reviews.
It was okay.
And then Covid hit, and therewas no way people were watching dudes
go out and eat burgers.
You know, it's like, youshould be staying home.
Yeah.
And it just so happened that Idecided, you know what?
Let's get a griddle.
And had no idea we werestriking while the iron was hot.
(06:35):
We went live on YouTube and weasked our audience of, I think 12
people, Brett were there onour life, and we said, hey, how many
of you would like to watch us cook?
Because we've been talkingabout doing it for years.
I just thought.
I couldn't imagine how I wasgoing to film it.
That was my whole issue.
But we started.
We started doing it and ittook off, but.
Yeah.
So we get together every threeweeks to.
About.
About three weeks, and we'llmeet on a weekend, and if we can
(06:55):
get a cook at Friday night, great.
But, like, right now, wherethe sun goes down early, lighting's
always an issue.
We like to day cook, so we'llusually do, you know, six or seven
cooks in a Saturday, and thenSunday we'll get up and try to get
three more.
We try to get nine videosdone, so that gets us three weeks
out.
Every once in a while, we'llthrow in solo cook.
So you've been there.
It's a ton.
(07:17):
I like the way you say day cook.
Most of my friends are daydrinkers, and so they're not much
help, you know?
You know, and I'm.
And I'm.
I'm glad we met you guys,because you were talking about swapping
faces.
If you put my face on Leanne,that would not be a hit.
Trust me.
(07:38):
You never know.
You never know, though.
But, you know, barbecue is oneof those safe havens where big guys.
Because I'm a big guy like youare, Leanne.
Yeah, yeah, that.
Not that chief.
Very petite, you know, and.
But I feel very comfortable.
When I was walking around theJack this year, looking at everybody,
I thought, God, I feel small.
Right in, right?
(07:59):
Exactly.
Who's Slim Shady over here?
Yeah.
Right.
So what's the.
Either one of you, Adam orBrett, which.
What do you think is thebiggest thing you've learned so far
about this whole experience?
I'll say trust, trust, trustthe process.
And if you're following arecipe or maybe you think you know
(08:21):
something and you're justgoing through it, just know the end
result is what you're going for.
You might.
And we get comments all thetime of like, oh, we clicked this
too soon, or did that or whatever.
There's always going to behaters that are going to be there,
but trusting the process andespecially the more you do it the
more conf.
Comfortable you get with yourpalate and your skill and ability
to.
(08:42):
To cook, and not just cook,but cook good food that more.
A lot of people want to eat.
And so that's my biggest.
My biggest thing would betrust the process, Adam.
Right?
Yeah.
I mean, that's probably thebiggest thing, but I mean, there's
so many things.
But also for me, and I just,as I had time to kind of think of
that is my biggest thing.
I remember very distinctlyseveral years ago wishing I could
(09:04):
make a good biscuits and gravy recipe.
For whatever reason, I waslike, man, if I could ever nail that.
And so I learned to look forgood recipes and follow good recipes.
And they'll get you to what?
To breast point.
You trust that process, youend up with good food, and then eventually
you can start playing with it,tweaking things that you want.
But I feel like I make a verybasic biscuits and gravy.
That's my favorite because Ifinally learned I could do this.
(09:27):
And we do a lot of Asian cookson the griddle, and those have become
some of our favorites becausethey taste just like they do in the
restaurant.
Just by following the recipe,you have.
The right amount of grease.
That's what I always say about it.
Exactly.
Don't be afraid of it.
Yeah.
No, no, no, no.
Do you think it's importantthat you guys not just do brisket?
(09:50):
You know what I mean?
I mean, it's name of this showis Barbecue Nation.
And, you know, all those people.
We love all those people.
And that's where Leanne hasreally excelled, you know, in that
world.
But I. I like to.
And I know she does, too.
She can speak to this.
But I think it's when youbring other forms and other dishes
(10:11):
to the grill, to the.
You know, it doesn't matterwhat they do.
I like what they do because Ifeel like they're integrating favorite
things, but doing.
Integrating into, like,another recipe where it combines
things, and people love that.
But you're still keeping it simple.
Simple is so important.
It absolutely is.
And that's such a good point.
And we've loved, like, we're.
(10:32):
We still consider ourselvesnew with barbecue, and we are loving
using the smokers and reallylearning the processes.
You know, we feel like we'resmoker lights.
L I T E S because, you know,we didn't.
We didn't do the stick burningand all that.
We got right into pellet smoking.
But it is.
It was.
I remember same thing to thatpoint when I wanted to cook a Big
(10:53):
brisket with the whole intentof taking some of that cut down brisket
and putting it on a smash burger.
So that way we were combiningthis amazing cut of meat and making
one of our favorite burgerseven better.
A little barbecue.
And it was, it still is one ofthe most memorable.
But, yeah, we love combining it.
We've.
We've done a tomahawk, smokingit on the grill and then finishing
it off on the, on the griddle.
(11:14):
And we just love mixing thedifferent cooking process.
But it's not, it's not arocket surgery, as I would say.
You know, a lot of people,really simple, have added those flat
tops to their backyards.
Yeah.
So it works.
It isn't like you can do itbecause they don't have the equipment
and it's affordable, too.
And I think people enjoy thejourney with you all because you
(11:36):
are kind of novices.
I hate to use that wordbecause you're really not.
But in smoking, it makes itmore achievable and people don't
get intimidated and they'remore apt to take the leap and do
it at home, you know?
Yeah, absolutely.
We got to, we got to take abreak for time before David yells
at me.
But we'll be back with Adamand Brett Walton, the wall twins.
(11:57):
You've seen them on YouTubeand Leanne and I.
And stay with us.
We're coming right back, everybody.
It's Jeff here.
I want to tell you aboutsomething really cool.
Heritage steel cookware.
I just got mine.
(12:17):
I do a lot of cooking and it'sgot five ply construction, Stay cool
handles.
It's titanium strengthened.
It's got all the great stuff.
Just go to heritagesteel usand find out more.
You'll love it.
I guarantee it.
(12:41):
Welcome back to Barbecue nation.
I'm JT along with Ms. LeanneWhippen, barbecue champion extraordinaire,
hall of fame member.
And she can make the prettiestvase out of a toilet paper roll that
you've ever seen in your life.
I will explain that later.
(13:02):
But the on the road centerpiece.
The on the road centerpiecewith a bath towel as a tablecloth
and all that.
If you want to follow us, we'dlove that.
You just go to.
Or email us too.
You can go to barbecuenationjt.com There's a link there.
You can send it to us.
And we're on all the platformsX formerly known as Twitter and Facebook
(13:25):
and Insta and not Insta andSankey or whatever they are.
But we're out there.
So give us A listen.
But like I said, we're talkingwith Adam and Brett Walton the Day
of the Wall twins.
Did you think when you startedthat it would turn out like this?
I mean, you're not anywherenear done, but, you know, it's like,
right, what the hell is going on?
(13:46):
You know?
Yeah, it was.
It's been a tremendous journey.
We are blown away that we havesuch a following.
That we do.
And, you know, sometimes it'sthe following, and sometimes people
point out how many.
How many views we have ondifferent platforms, and it blows
our minds.
No, when we first started, wereally did because the one little
viral video went viral, and Ithink Everybody that starts YouTube
kind of has that vision like,oh, I can put this on YouTube.
(14:08):
Everyone's gonna watch it.
And you put a video up andyou're like, okay, this video has
47 views.
And I think I've watched it 37 times.
So, you know, you start torealize people aren't watching, you're
watching.
And was.
It was when we cooked.
And I was so grateful that Ihad spent the time, the years of
learning the algorithm andlearning how a good thumbnail along
(14:29):
with title and description andthose things to help drive the algorithm.
So when we started GriddleCookie, at that time when everybody
was staying home, we had noidea it was going to blow up.
And we got very fortunate.
We went from 1600 subscribersMarch of 2020 to 6000 by June, 13,000
by August.
(14:49):
And then we were.
YouTube reached out to us, andwe've become their YouTube creators
on the rise for a day, meaningwe were featured on their homepage
for 24 hours.
So we were two.
Two video.
Two videos below, Mr.
Beast stuff for a full 24 hours.
And we got, you know, another10,000 subscribers overnight.
And that just really stunned us.
And that got the things going there.
(15:11):
But no, we never expected itto take off the way it did, but it
just.
It.
I think what it helped us isreally hone our skills and realize
we can't fake it anymore.
This isn't like a fake it tillyou make it time deal, because somehow
we made it in this weird, bizarre.
We're not ready for this, andwe better start doing something here.
So, yeah, it took us by surprise.
Do you find sponsors reachingout to you wanting to use their products,
(15:35):
or do you have to reach out tothe sponsors?
We do get a lot of.
A lot of sponsors reaching out.
Of course, when we were firststarting, we're like, holy cow, Brad,
we got this meat grinder for free.
Are you kidding?
This is crazy.
You know, of course this isthe small little one you can get
on Amazon, but we still loveit, you know, but it got to a point
where, like, we got to stopjust taking free stuff, like maybe
(15:57):
get paid for some of this.
But no, we've, we've only evertried to reach out that.
I remember one time and itdidn't really work out, but we were
still early on.
But we've had sponsors reachout to us and we still do and we
appreciate it, you know, withtime, you know, we both have full
time jobs, so we can't.
If we could do this full timeand work on full sponsorships, man,
that would be incredible.
But we're just not at thatlevel, level yet.
(16:18):
And so we're grateful for thepartnerships that we do have.
But yeah, it's, it makes it alot of fun when you realize people
are willing to, you know, useyour likeness and your image.
And we always try to make surewe're, we're, we honor our brand
and our goals and our valuesand anything that we do.
So, you know, we sometimes tryto match up.
Like, we've had brands reach out.
That would be great.
And they've offered us, youknow, paid gigs and things, but it's
(16:39):
just like, it's just, youknow, we're family friendly, so there's
things that we just wouldn'tadd to our, our repertoire for sponsorships
or brands.
Do you find that when you getreally big views, does it surprise
you or did you try, Was thatyour goal on that particular video?
That's interesting because I,I do, I watch the algorithm like
(16:59):
crazy.
And Brett knows, like, it'slike, I can never be satisfied with
where we're at because I'mlike, well, that video is really
good.
As expected.
Sometimes we have videos thatdisappoint because I feel like, hey,
I did this right?
The thumbnail looks great.
They don't.
But yeah, there are some thatreally surprised us and what we're
finding now, it used to belike a video could take off and we'd
have a whole bunch of viewswithin the first 48 hours.
(17:21):
I'm like, wow, this one'sreally taking off.
What I'm finding now isthey'll kind of be middle of the
pack.
Then all of a sudden, two,three weeks, a month later, I'll
look and I'm like, oh, wow,that is a lot more views than I thought.
So it's, they're rolling indifferent now, so I don't know if
it's a YouTube thing, butyeah, there are some that still really
surprise me.
I think I will say probablythe most discouraging.
I say discouraging halfheartedly because it's really not
discouraging.
It's all amazing.
(17:41):
Our most viewed videos,though, have nothing to do with cooking.
It's about how to clean andtake care of the griddle.
Yeah.
Some of our unboxing videos,which are fun, but it's like, did
you not see our new SmashBurger video?
It's crazy.
So I gotta, I gotta ask youthis because.
And Leanne touched on this and you.
And you covered it.
Adam, how many times have yougotten a package in the mail, so
(18:07):
to speak?
And it's spices, rubs,whatever, and I happen to have a
whole closet full of them.
And I, and I, I tend to givethem away.
Not that they're bad products.
And that's not what I'm saying.
It's just too many.
You can't possibly use them inwhat you're doing.
Right.
There are.
I like to go to Brad's house.
He keeps us so nice andorganized on this huge spice rack.
(18:29):
And I just look at them.
They're so amazing.
I'm like, we will never useall these.
And then I remember all that.
I'm looking at his place.
I have just as many at mine.
Yeah, we do get stuff all the time.
Yeah.
So.
So, folks, if you're listeningto this, it doesn't mean we.
We wouldn't like to try your products.
Absolutely.
But.
But that's where we'll kind of.
It's.
And to be fair, I'm sure youlook at the product and how many
(18:52):
followers they have and thatkind of thing, because it's more
promising for you all to use aproduct that has a bigger following.
I mean, that's the goal, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
And I think that's kind of,you know, Leanne, that's a great
point.
I think it's kind of thehidden part of content creation that
a lot of people who don't doit don quite understand.
And it does become discouraging.
(19:14):
You know, people think we sellout because we're using one product
or another.
And it's not.
We're just.
We're really trying to supportourselves and our families.
But also the flip side to thatis, is that we're not going to be
able to use everything or do everything.
But it is so our vision anduse of them.
Obviously, we will neverpromote anything that we don't think
is a great product.
We've never been like, oh,sure, they want us to do, you know,
(19:35):
some weird product or spicethat we would just never use.
So we try to be honest and.
And keep it real, so to speak.
But at the same time, it'slike we do have an audience, and
our end goal is to build our audience.
And, you know, we want to keepbeing able to entertain, but also
share.
But we also realize that ourwhole brand is built in and who we
are.
So if we.
If we have products thatpeople can't trust, then eventually
(19:57):
we lose all credibility, andit's not worth it, so.
Right.
I heard your numbers.
You say you shoot, you know,nine videos on a weekend for the
next three weeks.
So it sounds like yourfrequency is important, too.
So you're doing probably threea week, and that's important.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
We're going to take another break.
We're going to be back withAdam and Brett Walton, the wall twins
(20:17):
and Ms. Whippen and myselfright after this.
You're listening to Barbecue Nation.
Hey, everybody, it's JT And Ihave eaten.
If you've ever looked at me,you know that.
But I have eaten seafood allover the world, and I can tell you
(20:38):
there's no place better thanhere in Oregon and our Dungeness
crab.
If you want to learn moreabout Oregon Dungeness crab, just
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Check it out.
(21:07):
Welcome back to the Nation.
I'm JT along with Leanne, and,whoops, I got my script in the wrong
spot.
How about that?
We'd like to thank the folksat Painted Hills Natural Beef.
Beef the way nature intended.
Excuse me.
They still have.
I talked to them yesterday.
If you go in, if you go totheir online store@painner hillsbeef.com
(21:32):
and you order something fromthe store, if you type in the code
BBQ Nation, you get 15% off.
So you can buy everything froma couple of pieces of jerky to New
York's or whatever you want,so go there.
Also, pig powder, best rub onthe planet award.
Leanne, you want to take itfrom here?
(21:54):
Yeah, it is.
And competition teams use itall the time, and we're looking at
actually getting someambassadors at this point that use
it frequently that have won alot of awards.
So use it on home.
Pork, chicken.
It's great on everything.
It's great on green beans.
It is.
It is.
French fries.
It's great.
And French.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
You know, so here's a dry rub.
(22:16):
It's a seasoning.
Yeah, it is a seasoning.
So here's a question for you.
When you guys are eatingFrench fries, and I've never asked
Leanne this question either.
I, if I put, I like a littlesalt on stuff besides the seasoning,
I put the salt on my ketchup,and then I, I, I do it that way.
(22:38):
Is that weird, or is that okaywith you guys?
I think that's very weird.
We've actually been doing thatfor quite some time.
Yeah.
True story.
My older brother taught methat when we were younger, going
to Wendy's, because Wendy'snotoriously didn't salt their fries.
So he would crack open theirlittle salt, and they have really
(22:58):
fine salt there.
That was really good.
Mix it in that.
So.
Yes, I, I to your I, I.
Okay, okay.
Depends on the.
We're the only people we knowthat knew it, so.
Yeah, well, now you metanother one.
Exactly.
Because I know when I'm eatingwith my wife or we're out or something,
(23:20):
I.
If I get fries or something, I'll.
I'll take a little sauce or something.
Depends on the plate.
And I'll put the ketchup on there.
And I put, I say, you wantsome ketchup?
She's like, no, you put saltin it.
You know, that's a bad thing.
You've never done that, Leanne?
No, I have never.
I guess I have to try it now.
But I don't like ketchup.
(23:42):
Well, if you got.
If you start there.
Yeah.
If you've got secret frysauce, you could do it in your secret
fry sauce too, you know,straight up.
Okay.
Yeah.
She probably drinks herbourbon neat or something.
I don't know.
No.
Yeah, everything less is more,as they say.
Okay, okay.
(24:02):
When.
When you guys really startgetting into the YouTube.
And, and Adam, you talked alittle bit about studying the algorithm
and stuff, and Leanne broughtthis up right at the end of the last
segment.
The frequency.
If you're gonna do this, Ithink you have to be pretty dedicated.
(24:23):
You can't just drop one videoif you're gonna try to make something
out of it.
You know, you can't drop onevideo every six months and then say,
look at me, you know, unlessyou're a Martian or something, and
then that's that.
All bets are off.
But the point is that frequency.
Do you think that is what kindof inhibits some people from really
(24:46):
being successful on.
On social media and especially YouTube?
It does.
Dwayne.
The Rock Johnson can do that.
He could probably drop a videoevery one month or two and you know,
get millions of views.
No, it is there.
And that's the biggest thinglearned and I feel really fortunate
and that that first of all, mywife supported me just doing this
when this was a habit, weweren't making any money doing this
(25:08):
at all.
That she just let me do theresearch because sometimes it was.
I remember being up 1, 2 inthe morning reading, doing some research,
watching YouTubers who teachhow to YouTube, so to speak.
And that's where I learnedabout the algorithm and really getting
the ear of a really goodfriend who we were small channels
at one time and then hestarted doing gaming and then he
blew up and you know, wasgracious enough to meet to, to talk
(25:31):
with a good hour or two and hejust said learn Al.
And he said al is what I callthe algorithm.
And it really came down towhat do I need to do?
And he gave the advice toupload three times a week.
It wasn't like specific, likethis is everybody's number is going
to be different.
There's some people who doevery day, some people twice a week,
works once a week.
If you're dedicated and you'vegot that following for us we find
(25:53):
three is a good number.
Sometimes it's like somepeople say, wow, you know, you guys
are uploading so much I'm notable to catch up up.
So they watch them all.
For some people they can't get enough.
So it was just learning that Iremember dedicating for one year
I was going to just do.
We were going to do threevideos a week and I knew that meant
we were gonna have to film alot more and get together more and
kind of sacrifice.
(26:14):
And it was at the tail end ofthat year that actually I not missed
one upload that the next yearwas, that was 2019 is the year I
dedicated that.
And then the next year was,you know, Covid year and, and fortunately
we started cooking.
So yes, I, I think if you'regoing to do YouTube, learn how to
let YouTube work for you.
They say it's not analgorithm, your algorithm is just
(26:35):
your audience.
But it, you got to startsomewhere and you've got to build
an audience.
You can't build from nothing.
And we have some people whoare very successful on other platforms.
We work with tick tockers whohave 2 million followers but can't
grow on YouTube and they'refrustrated because you can make money
on YouTube, you can't on TikTok.
Right.
And so we feel fortunate thatwe kind of started on there and we're
(26:56):
trying to do TikTok and allthese others, which are now I'm learning
a whole new process of filmingand doing everything changes everything.
But yeah, so it is.
It's a beast.
And it's hard.
So, you know, it doesn'talways translate.
Different audiences preferdifferent platforms.
How often when you're, whenyou're creating your nine or over
the weekend for the next threeweeks like that, how many times do
(27:16):
your recipes fail?
I mean, it just, I mean,Leanne and I have had it.
You know, you're.
You're thinking, this is.
Excuse me, gonna be great.
And at the end, you look at itand go, that number.
Good.
Brad.
I still like them all the time.
Right?
That's.
Not once, not once have wefailed once.
(27:40):
Several times.
Yes, it is.
The griddle.
It seems to be a little moreforgiving than a smoke.
Like if you.
We've destroyed a brisket,which I'm sure we all have.
And, and that's a veryexpensive, frustrating beef jerky
that you just made.
You film it and you get itdone and you go cut into it like,
(28:03):
oh, look, it's dry.
Get the sport model.
We got to sort of something onthere to fall off.
It happens more often than welike to.
Yeah, you open it up and itsays Reebok on the inside.
When you do your YouTubevideos, do you find time is an element
(28:23):
also?
You try not to go over aminute or what do you think that's
important?
That's great.
We find our sweet spot.
And some of that has to dowith advertising.
So YouTube used to be 10minutes and longer.
They'll do a mid roll ad,which, which they like because that
means they're able to showmore ads if you're.
If your audience is stickingaround for it so you can make a little
(28:44):
bit more money.
They went down to eightminutes and longer.
So 10 minutes is still thesweet spot.
But if you're making videosthat people aren't sticking around
for, you don't want them that long.
So for some people, fourminutes is all they do.
We found, for us, a good spotis between 11 and 15 minutes.
Sometimes some of our longercontent does really well.
(29:06):
Sometimes we don't get as muchwatch time, and that's what we look
for is watch time andengagement are two of the, two of
the data points that I look at.
You're the first ones thatwe've had on the show that has said
that length of time it's, it's.
So you must be.
Well, you are very entertaining.
Well, we get, we get a lotthat say, get to the point, just
(29:28):
show me what I need.
And, and that's kind of whatwe, what we look.
And I guess that's probablyhow we look at it too.
But we also haven't toyed withlike, really.
Well, no, I have.
We, we, I mean, this was earlyon, some shorter videos, three, four
minutes.
And we found we literally getthe same amount of watch time.
It's about anywhere from 40 to70% watch time on all the content.
So it's like if it's twominutes, that means people are watching,
(29:50):
you know, a little more than aminute of it.
But if it's 15 minutes andthey're watching seven or eight minutes,
that's gonna, you know, on theYouTube end be way better for us.
So.
But it is, it's part, partbecause we look at it as a cooking
show rather than just a how to.
Here's the step by step hurryand get to this point, which some
people have mentioned, man,just try and get to the point.
But they're like, man, you canscrub past it.
(30:11):
So it is about building ouraudience and working with our audience.
But to that point we arealways willing to look and say, if
we are going to do a straighthow to video, just here's what you
need.
Let's get to the point.
You're going to do this forthis amount of time and get.
And we could do it, do shorteras well, but we found for us and
what YouTube prefers, becausethey want to roll ads.
They want, they want people onthe platform as long as they can,
(30:33):
they want to run ads.
And so if we can help generatethat, you know, for it, then, then
we're here for it.
But yeah, if it helps to doshorter content and then people are
watching the networks as well.
Do you think that is kind ofindicative of watching that, you
know, get to the point quick stuff?
Do you think that's indicativeof like TikTok and Instagram and
(30:54):
stuff, that they've becomekind of anesthetized to that?
I'm not saying that's a bad thing.
I'm just saying that I'venoticed that when, when people do
that, they want you to hurry,you know, because they'll, when we
put these shows up, they'llscroll to the good part, you know
what I mean?
And they'll watch it like that.
But do you think that's one ofthe reasons?
(31:16):
Absolutely.
I think just in general,people's Our attention span is.
There's a major deficit.
In fact, I use the example Ilearned seeing a research on.
There's a children's showcalled Cocomelon.
Very, very popular right now.
And if you watch it, it.
The transitions happen everytwo or three seconds.
(31:37):
And it's stunning because moreof them are two seconds than three.
In old movies, they used tosay if you could, you know, every
nine seconds, you got to makea transition, then it was every seven
seconds.
Then I learned on YouTube, youwant between four and eight seconds.
So I do.
I cut my edits.
So we're either zooming in orout, panning out every, you know,
several seconds to help with attention.
That.
That cocoa melon, thatconstant every two seconds moving.
(32:00):
But, yeah, we have noticedsince TikTok has really taken off
the watch, time has dipped substantially.
We're talking about two.
Between one and two minutesper video overall watch time.
And it's.
It.
You can attribute it right toright when TikTok really took off.
It's crazy.
There you go.
We're.
We're gonna take a break.
We're gonna come back, andwe're gonna ask the burning question,
(32:21):
is Brett really a shock jockon the radio?
We'll be right back.
(32:57):
Hey, everybody, it's J.T.
you know, I talk about paintedhills all the time, and we always
say be beef the way nature intended.
But it's more than that,because each bite of painted hills
will make your taste buds explode.
Put a big, bright smile onyour face, and whoever's at your
dinner table will have a big,bright smile on their face.
And you can thank me for that later.
Just go topaintedhillsbeef.com and find out
(33:20):
more.
You won't regret it.
Hey, everybody, J.T.
here.
I want to tell you about theHammerstahl knives.
Hammerstahl combines Germansteel with beautiful and functioning
designs.
They're part of the Heritagesteel Group group, which also does
their pots and pans.
So go to heritagesteel usCheck out the hammer Stall knives.
If you're really into cooking,I think you're really gonna like
(33:41):
them.
Welcome back to the nationwith Ms. Whippen and myself.
We'd like to thank the folksat the Oregon Crab Commission going
to be doing some.
I've created a couple newrecipes, so we got some new stuff
(34:03):
coming up on the shows that Iwork on TV with the Oregon Crab Commission.
And if you ever get up to theNorthwest, you got to eat some Dungeness
crab.
I'm just telling you, I've.
I have a Convert on the otherend of this line with us today.
I will second that.
Yeah, sure.
I. I'm trying to con them intosending you some, but I got to make
sure you're home to get it it.
(34:25):
Because that's not somethingyou want to leave out in the Florida
sun very long.
No, no, I agree with you.
Yeah, that was staying homefrom now on.
Okay, There you go.
So, Brett, you were a morninghost at a rock station in Gainesville.
That's.
(34:45):
I would.
Gainesville's not my oldstomping grounds, but I started my.
I started my radio career as amorning drive rock jock.
Rock.
Okay.
And we're actually not rock.
We're.
We're a top 40 kind of hot AC,adult contemporary.
We do the pop music.
Play a lot of Taylor Swift.
So all of Taylor Swift.
(35:05):
Oh, God, I knew you were gonnasay that.
You mean you only play Taylor Swift?
It's pretty much Taylor Swift.
Nordo Five Three here in Gainesville.
Yeah, I've been here for 19 years.
Started out driving.
We have a big giant boomboxthat we take to events, live broadcasts.
And then a few months in, Igot to a chance to do the night show
where I go the hottest nightshow in the universe.
(35:29):
I did that for six years, acouple stints on the morning show,
and then finally put me on theback on the morning show.
And I've been there for thelast 13, 14 years, loving it.
Right.
That's a long time for amorning host.
Yeah, it really is.
And the fact that I'm still inthe same station that I started at
is virtually unheard of inthis industry.
(35:50):
Radio is a very revolving doortype industry where people will come
through and use it as astepping stone or a starting point.
I gave a more middle marketmarket, 83 to 86 out of like 200
some odd markets.
So we're on the larger part ofthe middle market.
So it's.
It's been a great place for meto land.
And you know, I got mygranddaughters here and we've got
(36:10):
relatives right here.
So I've been fortunate to beable to stay and be at the same same
place where it's.
Where it all started.
Well, good for you.
How's what you've learned doing?
And I'm not talking about theprocess, the.
The videoing it, the filmingit, but the actual cooking process.
Has that changed what you.
To a restaurant, what you order?
(36:31):
Right.
You can go first.
Yes.
The palette has definitelychanged from a simple cheeseburger
with just ketchup, mustard and mayo.
I, I, I'm not, like, so pickyas far as, like, the way I order
things.
I'll just order.
But I definitely, it'sdefinitely expanded my, my palate
to the point when four yearsago, I hated onions, and now I can't
(36:53):
have a burger without it.
You know, it's simple thingslike that, just things that we found
that we're enjoying, that wenever would have tried eating out
at a restaurant before, andnow we're actually seeking them out
when we go to a restaurant orgoing to a restaurant for that specific
reason.
Yeah, Adam.
Yeah.
And to that point, I appreciate.
(37:15):
My wife says I've ruined Smashburgers for anywhere five guys, anywhere.
Like, why spend the money whenwe can do them just as better, just
as well or better at home?
Which I appreciate.
But the one that I've learned,actually, one odd thing just through
the whole process is,especially with steaks, if I'm gonna
go out and pay for a steak,I've learned to ask the server, how
would the chef or how wouldthe cook eat it?
(37:37):
Like, how would they want it?
It almost comes back medium.
And I used to be a medium welltype person, and then I learned,
you know, what, medium to rareis better.
So if I get a medium rare.
But I always ask the chef'sopinion, because if they're cooking
it, they, you know, I imaginethey're cooking it how they would
want it.
So I've just learned to askmore and be more specific about some
of the.
Yeah, like Brett, the foodpalates changed in what we, what
(37:59):
we used to eat versus whatwe'll eat now.
It's, it's made it a lot of fun.
It's, it's definitely, youknow, piqued our interest in a lot
of new foods, trying new food.
People are creatures of habit,as you know.
So even when they go back to arestaurant and for a second time
and they were happy with thefirst go around, they're going to
order the same darn thing.
It's just that way.
So it's expanding.
(38:20):
So that's good.
We got a little cafe rightdown the road from us, and they,
for what it is, they have avery expansive menu, and it's all
good.
But I either, I order one oftwo things there.
My wife looks at me like I'mfrom Mars, but she does that a lot.
Anyway, I either ordered theirspaghetti because I happen to like
(38:41):
pasta, and I, I really likespaghetti with a meat sauce.
And I mean, I mean, that'struly one of the things I really
like.
Or I ordered a chicken fried steak.
Steak.
And that's.
Yeah, yeah.
And.
And I will do that.
And Shell will look at mebecause she's trying this scampi.
Or she's, you know, doing this.
And it's one of those placestoo that has.
(39:03):
You can order breakfast anytime.
And you were talking aboutbiscuits and gravy, Adam.
I mean, she loves biscuits and gravy.
She just.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
You know, so we'll be sittingthere, you know, six o' clock having
dinner, and she'll orderbiscuits and gravy and I'm ordering
spaghetti.
So it doesn't, you know,there's no cohesion there, I'll tell
you that.
(39:25):
You guys did a cookbook real quick.
We've got just a coupleminutes left, but.
But we'll get to this in afterhours, too.
But you did amazing recipesfor griddles and flat tops back in
22.
How did you decide what to putin the book?
Well, okay.
We actually feel forced.
So we just followed it up withthe second one based on all Smash
Burgers too, which we wereblown away.
(39:46):
Actually came about becausethe, the editor reached out to us.
The, the publishing companyreached out to us.
And he's incredible and wantedto do it and just gave us a lot of
suggestions and really we wentback to our YouTube.
What have we done?
What could we, you know, pulltogether and how do we want to do
it?
And then on his guidance, wedecided how many dinner dishes we
wanted to do, how manyspecific for each area.
(40:08):
And it really helped guide us.
And that was.
That was a painstaking process.
I never thought, you know, Ithought, oh, man, we've got all these
cooks.
It'll be easy.
It's one thing to have the cooks.
It's another when you'rerealizing other people are going
to have to read and look atyour exact.
Follow it right along.
It's gonna make it tough.
Yeah, I see Brett thereshaking his head back there.
(40:31):
Is your second book out yet?
Yeah, it is.
I had a copy here.
I happen to have the first one.
I do have the other one backthere, but that's.
So that's the Epic OutdoorGriddle Cookbook.
This is the first one and Ithought I had the second one right
here.
They're up on a shelf.
It's called Smash you gotright there, dude.
(40:52):
Where can we find it?
Oh, I got it.
There it is.
Amazon.
Anywhere books are sold.
We, we.
Not that we push or promoteAmazon, but with Amazon, the publishing
company, they seem to trackthe numbers the best and give them
the best overall.
They know exactly what they're selling.
House, so.
But it seems to be anywherebooks are sold.
I had a friend at Christmastime last year that took a picture,
(41:13):
sent it to me that our bookwas on the shelf at Barnes and Nobles.
That was an honor.
That was like, oh, that'sreally great.
So that was a lot of fun.
Okay, Adam and Brett, realquick, because we got to get out
of here.
Where can they find yourYouTube channel?
Obviously YouTube, but what dothey look for when they're trying
to find you?
Yeah, so you're just lookingfor Walt Twins.
That's W, a, l, T, W, I, n, s.All one word.
(41:36):
Walt wins.
On YouTube, you can find thesame name.
It's Walt wins on Facebook.
On Instagram, it's Walt wins two.
And same with Twitter if you're.
If you're.
Or X.
Now if it isn't also tick tock.
We're also on there as Walt wins.
But YouTube is our platform,but we try to promote and get everything
else out everywhere else.
Very good.
Great.
Adam and Brett Walton, thewall twins, and Leanne, thank you
(41:58):
all for your contributions tothe show today.
We're gonna get out of here.
The guys are gonna stickaround for after hours, and that
should be a lot of fun today.
So for everybody here, I wantto thank you and remember our motto.
Turn it, don't burn it.
Take care, everybody.
Barbecue Nation is produced byjtsd LLC productions and associates,
association with Salem Media Group.
(42:20):
All rights reserved.
It's time for Barbecue Nationwith jt so fire up your grill, light
the charcoal, and get yoursmoker cooking.
Now from the Turn It, Don'tBurn it studios in Portland, here's
jt.
Hey, everybody.
Welcome to the nation.
That's Barbecue Nation.
I'm jt, along with my co hostand hall of fame barbecue Leanne.
(00:33):
Women.
Leanne.
Yeah.
I'm going to go iron my tonguehere in a minute.
We're coming to you from ourrespective Turn It, Don't Burn it
studios, mine in Portland andLeanne's permanent one is in Tampa,
but she may be in Daytona.
I'm in, like, Lauderdale andthen headed to Daytona.
Well, there you go.
We'd like to thank the folksat Painter Hills Natural Beef Beef
(00:54):
the way nature intended.
You can check them outonline@painted hillsnaturalbeef.com.
well, if you're a YouTuber andyou like YouTube, which I happen
to do, there's lots of stuffout there.
There's nothing I don't thinkyou can find on YouTube.
But one of the things thatLeanne brought to my attention a
while back were our guesttoday, Adam and Brett Walton, the
(01:14):
Wall twins, which is quite clever.
Thank you.
Weekend warriors with a hugefollowing on the tube, and they do
some great recipes andbarbecue on there and grilling, and
they kind of COVID it all.
So it's a real pleasure towelcome them to the show today.
Hey, guys.
Hey.
Thanks so much for having us.
We're excited to be here.
(01:35):
No problem.
So the first question, otherthan your parentage, because that's
obvious, okay.
You guys are like looking in amirror, but how did you get into
first, like grilling andcooking and then what.
Then what made you take thestep to putting it on film, so to
speak?
That's a great question.
Brett, you want to start?
You kind of got me going intocooking back when you would do some
(01:56):
grilling.
Yeah, my grilling.
We always love cooking growingup, you know, watch mom dabble and
things like that.
But when I was in the army andgot a grill and just became a thing,
I was married with kids.
So all the single soldierslike to come over and we just throw
meat, throw some groceriesdown and kind of cook whatever.
And that's when I kind ofstarted Lear out.
(02:17):
Just whatever.
You throw, whatever you wantto eat, throw down, season it up,
and you're going to enjoy it.
So that's.
That's pretty much when itstarted on a regular basis.
Yeah.
Sorry, go ahead.
No, I was just going to say,were your folks Big, you know, backyard
cookers or anything.
Funnily enough, not a whole lot.
We grew up actually in Utah,and so we did have a grill out on
(02:38):
our patio, and my dad wouldmake some good burgers, you know,
AKA hockey pucks.
Some make some barbecuechicken from time to time.
But we loved our mom'scooking, probably like most everybody
does.
And oddly enough, we come froma family of seven.
There's seven kids, and we'vegot an older brother and a sister
who are just phenomenal cooks.
Our brother was a chef forseveral years, and our sister is
(02:58):
probably the best cook that we knew.
Anytime we taste her food, wejust, like, pick her brain.
How did you do this?
And so taking on.
Brett and I would just phonecall and start talking and talking
about different cooks, thingswe were doing.
And then one year, I just wantto take on Thanksgiving turkey and
reach out to my mom, and shewould walk me through the process
that became.
Every year I'd call her, andshe walked me through making the
turkey and that I just really,really loved it.
And then it.
(03:20):
After she passed, we werereally, really just talking more
recipes with our sister, andwe just realized we had a passion.
I tell people all the time,like, I went to school for education.
I'm a teacher now.
If I could go back and do itagain, I love my students.
I love teaching, but I'dprobably go to culinary school.
There's just something.
We have a drive for it.
We talk about it.
It is.
Anytime Brett and I aretalking, we're almost always either
talking YouTube, what's goingon there, or just food and recipes
(03:42):
and what we're going to do andwhat we can learn.
So we love it.
You know, Leanne, I think,again, I was just going to say, I
think these guys did somethingreally smart.
They kept talking to their mom.
You know, so many people that we.
That we talk to, whether it'son the show or not, they'll.
They'll be, you know,conversing about food and barbecue
stuff, obviously.
And I know Leanne did this,too, with her dad.
(04:04):
I did what they say.
A lot of people said, gosh, Iwish I, you know, I didn't get that
pecan pie recipe from my momor whatever.
And I think that's reallysmart to get that traditional stuff.
Yeah, it's true.
It laid the foundation and the basis.
And I still do the turkey thesame way.
The same way.
You know, last couple years Italked to her, it was more just the
tradition because she'd walkedme through it, and I'm So, yeah,
(04:25):
that down to our basic gravythat I make is very simple, basic,
but it's the way that mom didit, so.
Still enjoy it?
So you were in Utah, so, Yeah.
I see you're in two differentlocations now.
Are you at least in the same state?
We are.
So I'm in.
I'm actually in Orlando.
I'm just outside Orlando inApopka, and Brett is up there in
Gainesville, right outside theGainesville area.
(04:45):
So we're about two hours away.
So you're able to get togetherto shoot these videos, or do you
kind of try to snip it together?
No, Brett, I know I'm doingall the talking, Brett.
I just want to feel it.
I'm.
I'm doing babysitting dutywith my granddaughter.
My girlfriend's trying to gethere to take over, but three o' clock
starts.
The show must go on, so.
(05:07):
Hi, sweetie.
Why can't you talk?
This is Sienna.
We finished her homework in time.
So she did her reading and her homework.
So she's glad to harass you now.
Yeah, exactly.
Now she's got Mickey Mouse outthere to hopefully hold her over.
But she's.
This more interesting.
(05:27):
Yes, Today's office.
Today, I promise.
Okay, but, yeah, so.
Yeah, but so as far as that goes.
So what we do is.
And we've done this for thepast several years.
When we started YouTube, wedidn't start out as a cooking channel.
It started from a silly faceswap app that we had.
We did face swap with eachother, and because we're identical
twins, we were giggling likecrazy at it because to us, we don't
look the same.
So we.
I saw my face on his body, andhe saw his face on my body, and we
(05:52):
uploaded it, and viral hogreached out to us and said, hey,
we think this is good.
We think this will go viral.
We didn't know anything aboutit, so we signed the rights over
to it, and sure enough, itwent viral.
Went 4 million views overnightor something like that.
We thought, man, people likelooking at freakishly identical twins.
Maybe we've got something here.
So we spent the first aboutfour years doing everything from
carpool karaoke to challenges,to just vlogging in general.
(06:13):
And then we started doing fastfood reviews because I was doing
all the editing.
I'd spent countless hoursresearching YouTube, how to get in
the algorithm and all that.
So we're doing fast food reviews.
It was okay.
And then Covid hit, and therewas no way people were watching dudes
go out and eat burgers.
You know, it's like, youshould be staying home.
Yeah.
And it just so happened that Idecided, you know what?
Let's get a griddle.
And had no idea we werestriking while the iron was hot.
(06:35):
We went live on YouTube and weasked our audience of, I think 12
people, Brett were there onour life, and we said, hey, how many
of you would like to watch us cook?
Because we've been talkingabout doing it for years.
I just thought.
I couldn't imagine how I wasgoing to film it.
That was my whole issue.
But we started.
We started doing it and ittook off, but.
Yeah.
So we get together every threeweeks to.
About.
About three weeks, and we'llmeet on a weekend, and if we can
(06:55):
get a cook at Friday night, great.
But, like, right now, wherethe sun goes down early, lighting's
always an issue.
We like to day cook, so we'llusually do, you know, six or seven
cooks in a Saturday, and thenSunday we'll get up and try to get
three more.
We try to get nine videosdone, so that gets us three weeks
out.
Every once in a while, we'llthrow in solo cook.
So you've been there.
It's a ton.
(07:17):
I like the way you say day cook.
Most of my friends are daydrinkers, and so they're not much
help, you know?
You know, and I'm.
And I'm.
I'm glad we met you guys,because you were talking about swapping
faces.
If you put my face on Leanne,that would not be a hit.
Trust me.
(07:38):
You never know.
You never know, though.
But, you know, barbecue is oneof those safe havens where big guys.
Because I'm a big guy like youare, Leanne.
Yeah, yeah, that.
Not that chief.
Very petite, you know, and.
But I feel very comfortable.
When I was walking around theJack this year, looking at everybody,
I thought, God, I feel small.
Right in, right?
(07:59):
Exactly.
Who's Slim Shady over here?
Yeah.
Right.
So what's the.
Either one of you, Adam orBrett, which.
What do you think is thebiggest thing you've learned so far
about this whole experience?
I'll say trust, trust, trustthe process.
And if you're following arecipe or maybe you think you know
(08:21):
something and you're justgoing through it, just know the end
result is what you're going for.
You might.
And we get comments all thetime of like, oh, we clicked this
too soon, or did that or whatever.
There's always going to behaters that are going to be there,
but trusting the process andespecially the more you do it the
more conf.
Comfortable you get with yourpalate and your skill and ability
to.
(08:42):
To cook, and not just cook,but cook good food that more.
A lot of people want to eat.
And so that's my biggest.
My biggest thing would betrust the process, Adam.
Right?
Yeah.
I mean, that's probably thebiggest thing, but I mean, there's
so many things.
But also for me, and I just,as I had time to kind of think of
that is my biggest thing.
I remember very distinctlyseveral years ago wishing I could
(09:04):
make a good biscuits and gravy recipe.
For whatever reason, I waslike, man, if I could ever nail that.
And so I learned to look forgood recipes and follow good recipes.
And they'll get you to what?
To breast point.
You trust that process, youend up with good food, and then eventually
you can start playing with it,tweaking things that you want.
But I feel like I make a verybasic biscuits and gravy.
That's my favorite because Ifinally learned I could do this.
(09:27):
And we do a lot of Asian cookson the griddle, and those have become
some of our favorites becausethey taste just like they do in the
restaurant.
Just by following the recipe,you have.
The right amount of grease.
That's what I always say about it.
Exactly.
Don't be afraid of it.
Yeah.
No, no, no, no.
Do you think it's importantthat you guys not just do brisket?
(09:50):
You know what I mean?
I mean, it's name of this showis Barbecue Nation.
And, you know, all those people.
We love all those people.
And that's where Leanne hasreally excelled, you know, in that
world.
But I. I like to.
And I know she does, too.
She can speak to this.
But I think it's when youbring other forms and other dishes
(10:11):
to the grill, to the.
You know, it doesn't matterwhat they do.
I like what they do because Ifeel like they're integrating favorite
things, but doing.
Integrating into, like,another recipe where it combines
things, and people love that.
But you're still keeping it simple.
Simple is so important.
It absolutely is.
And that's such a good point.
And we've loved, like, we're.
(10:32):
We still consider ourselvesnew with barbecue, and we are loving
using the smokers and reallylearning the processes.
You know, we feel like we'resmoker lights.
L I T E S because, you know,we didn't.
We didn't do the stick burningand all that.
We got right into pellet smoking.
But it is.
It was.
I remember same thing to thatpoint when I wanted to cook a Big
(10:53):
brisket with the whole intentof taking some of that cut down brisket
and putting it on a smash burger.
So that way we were combiningthis amazing cut of meat and making
one of our favorite burgerseven better.
A little barbecue.
And it was, it still is one ofthe most memorable.
But, yeah, we love combining it.
We've.
We've done a tomahawk, smokingit on the grill and then finishing
it off on the, on the griddle.
(11:14):
And we just love mixing thedifferent cooking process.
But it's not, it's not arocket surgery, as I would say.
You know, a lot of people,really simple, have added those flat
tops to their backyards.
Yeah.
So it works.
It isn't like you can do itbecause they don't have the equipment
and it's affordable, too.
And I think people enjoy thejourney with you all because you
(11:36):
are kind of novices.
I hate to use that wordbecause you're really not.
But in smoking, it makes itmore achievable and people don't
get intimidated and they'remore apt to take the leap and do
it at home, you know?
Yeah, absolutely.
We got to, we got to take abreak for time before David yells
at me.
But we'll be back with Adamand Brett Walton, the wall twins.
(11:57):
You've seen them on YouTubeand Leanne and I.
And stay with us.
We're coming right back, everybody.
It's Jeff here.
I want to tell you aboutsomething really cool.
Heritage steel cookware.
I just got mine.
(12:17):
I do a lot of cooking and it'sgot five ply construction, Stay cool
handles.
It's titanium strengthened.
It's got all the great stuff.
Just go to heritagesteel usand find out more.
You'll love it.
I guarantee it.
(12:41):
Welcome back to Barbecue nation.
I'm JT along with Ms. LeanneWhippen, barbecue champion extraordinaire,
hall of fame member.
And she can make the prettiestvase out of a toilet paper roll that
you've ever seen in your life.
I will explain that later.
(13:02):
But the on the road centerpiece.
The on the road centerpiecewith a bath towel as a tablecloth
and all that.
If you want to follow us, we'dlove that.
You just go to.
Or email us too.
You can go to barbecuenationjt.com There's a link there.
You can send it to us.
And we're on all the platformsX formerly known as Twitter and Facebook
(13:25):
and Insta and not Insta andSankey or whatever they are.
But we're out there.
So give us A listen.
But like I said, we're talkingwith Adam and Brett Walton the Day
of the Wall twins.
Did you think when you startedthat it would turn out like this?
I mean, you're not anywherenear done, but, you know, it's like,
right, what the hell is going on?
(13:46):
You know?
Yeah, it was.
It's been a tremendous journey.
We are blown away that we havesuch a following.
That we do.
And, you know, sometimes it'sthe following, and sometimes people
point out how many.
How many views we have ondifferent platforms, and it blows
our minds.
No, when we first started, wereally did because the one little
viral video went viral, and Ithink Everybody that starts YouTube
kind of has that vision like,oh, I can put this on YouTube.
(14:08):
Everyone's gonna watch it.
And you put a video up andyou're like, okay, this video has
47 views.
And I think I've watched it 37 times.
So, you know, you start torealize people aren't watching, you're
watching.
And was.
It was when we cooked.
And I was so grateful that Ihad spent the time, the years of
learning the algorithm andlearning how a good thumbnail along
(14:29):
with title and description andthose things to help drive the algorithm.
So when we started GriddleCookie, at that time when everybody
was staying home, we had noidea it was going to blow up.
And we got very fortunate.
We went from 1600 subscribersMarch of 2020 to 6000 by June, 13,000
by August.
(14:49):
And then we were.
YouTube reached out to us, andwe've become their YouTube creators
on the rise for a day, meaningwe were featured on their homepage
for 24 hours.
So we were two.
Two video.
Two videos below, Mr.
Beast stuff for a full 24 hours.
And we got, you know, another10,000 subscribers overnight.
And that just really stunned us.
And that got the things going there.
(15:11):
But no, we never expected itto take off the way it did, but it
just.
It.
I think what it helped us isreally hone our skills and realize
we can't fake it anymore.
This isn't like a fake it tillyou make it time deal, because somehow
we made it in this weird, bizarre.
We're not ready for this, andwe better start doing something here.
So, yeah, it took us by surprise.
Do you find sponsors reachingout to you wanting to use their products,
(15:35):
or do you have to reach out tothe sponsors?
We do get a lot of.
A lot of sponsors reaching out.
Of course, when we were firststarting, we're like, holy cow, Brad,
we got this meat grinder for free.
Are you kidding?
This is crazy.
You know, of course this isthe small little one you can get
on Amazon, but we still loveit, you know, but it got to a point
where, like, we got to stopjust taking free stuff, like maybe
(15:57):
get paid for some of this.
But no, we've, we've only evertried to reach out that.
I remember one time and itdidn't really work out, but we were
still early on.
But we've had sponsors reachout to us and we still do and we
appreciate it, you know, withtime, you know, we both have full
time jobs, so we can't.
If we could do this full timeand work on full sponsorships, man,
that would be incredible.
But we're just not at thatlevel, level yet.
(16:18):
And so we're grateful for thepartnerships that we do have.
But yeah, it's, it makes it alot of fun when you realize people
are willing to, you know, useyour likeness and your image.
And we always try to make surewe're, we're, we honor our brand
and our goals and our valuesand anything that we do.
So, you know, we sometimes tryto match up.
Like, we've had brands reach out.
That would be great.
And they've offered us, youknow, paid gigs and things, but it's
(16:39):
just like, it's just, youknow, we're family friendly, so there's
things that we just wouldn'tadd to our, our repertoire for sponsorships
or brands.
Do you find that when you getreally big views, does it surprise
you or did you try, Was thatyour goal on that particular video?
That's interesting because I,I do, I watch the algorithm like
(16:59):
crazy.
And Brett knows, like, it'slike, I can never be satisfied with
where we're at because I'mlike, well, that video is really
good.
As expected.
Sometimes we have videos thatdisappoint because I feel like, hey,
I did this right?
The thumbnail looks great.
They don't.
But yeah, there are some thatreally surprised us and what we're
finding now, it used to belike a video could take off and we'd
have a whole bunch of viewswithin the first 48 hours.
(17:21):
I'm like, wow, this one'sreally taking off.
What I'm finding now isthey'll kind of be middle of the
pack.
Then all of a sudden, two,three weeks, a month later, I'll
look and I'm like, oh, wow,that is a lot more views than I thought.
So it's, they're rolling indifferent now, so I don't know if
it's a YouTube thing, butyeah, there are some that still really
surprise me.
I think I will say probablythe most discouraging.
I say discouraging halfheartedly because it's really not
discouraging.
It's all amazing.
(17:41):
Our most viewed videos,though, have nothing to do with cooking.
It's about how to clean andtake care of the griddle.
Yeah.
Some of our unboxing videos,which are fun, but it's like, did
you not see our new SmashBurger video?
It's crazy.
So I gotta, I gotta ask youthis because.
And Leanne touched on this and you.
And you covered it.
Adam, how many times have yougotten a package in the mail, so
(18:07):
to speak?
And it's spices, rubs,whatever, and I happen to have a
whole closet full of them.
And I, and I, I tend to givethem away.
Not that they're bad products.
And that's not what I'm saying.
It's just too many.
You can't possibly use them inwhat you're doing.
Right.
There are.
I like to go to Brad's house.
He keeps us so nice andorganized on this huge spice rack.
(18:29):
And I just look at them.
They're so amazing.
I'm like, we will never useall these.
And then I remember all that.
I'm looking at his place.
I have just as many at mine.
Yeah, we do get stuff all the time.
Yeah.
So.
So, folks, if you're listeningto this, it doesn't mean we.
We wouldn't like to try your products.
Absolutely.
But.
But that's where we'll kind of.
It's.
And to be fair, I'm sure youlook at the product and how many
(18:52):
followers they have and thatkind of thing, because it's more
promising for you all to use aproduct that has a bigger following.
I mean, that's the goal, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
And I think that's kind of,you know, Leanne, that's a great
point.
I think it's kind of thehidden part of content creation that
a lot of people who don't doit don quite understand.
And it does become discouraging.
(19:14):
You know, people think we sellout because we're using one product
or another.
And it's not.
We're just.
We're really trying to supportourselves and our families.
But also the flip side to thatis, is that we're not going to be
able to use everything or do everything.
But it is so our vision anduse of them.
Obviously, we will neverpromote anything that we don't think
is a great product.
We've never been like, oh,sure, they want us to do, you know,
(19:35):
some weird product or spicethat we would just never use.
So we try to be honest and.
And keep it real, so to speak.
But at the same time, it'slike we do have an audience, and
our end goal is to build our audience.
And, you know, we want to keepbeing able to entertain, but also
share.
But we also realize that ourwhole brand is built in and who we
are.
So if we.
If we have products thatpeople can't trust, then eventually
(19:57):
we lose all credibility, andit's not worth it, so.
Right.
I heard your numbers.
You say you shoot, you know,nine videos on a weekend for the
next three weeks.
So it sounds like yourfrequency is important, too.
So you're doing probably threea week, and that's important.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
We're going to take another break.
We're going to be back withAdam and Brett Walton, the wall twins
(20:17):
and Ms. Whippen and myselfright after this.
You're listening to Barbecue Nation.
Hey, everybody, it's JT And Ihave eaten.
If you've ever looked at me,you know that.
But I have eaten seafood allover the world, and I can tell you
(20:38):
there's no place better thanhere in Oregon and our Dungeness
crab.
If you want to learn moreabout Oregon Dungeness crab, just
go to oregondungeness.org findout how to cook it, how to catch
it, where to buy it, and thesustainability of what they're doing
there in the Oregon Crab Commission.
Check it out.
(21:07):
Welcome back to the Nation.
I'm JT along with Leanne, and,whoops, I got my script in the wrong
spot.
How about that?
We'd like to thank the folksat Painted Hills Natural Beef.
Beef the way nature intended.
Excuse me.
They still have.
I talked to them yesterday.
If you go in, if you go totheir online store@painner hillsbeef.com
(21:32):
and you order something fromthe store, if you type in the code
BBQ Nation, you get 15% off.
So you can buy everything froma couple of pieces of jerky to New
York's or whatever you want,so go there.
Also, pig powder, best rub onthe planet award.
Leanne, you want to take itfrom here?
(21:54):
Yeah, it is.
And competition teams use itall the time, and we're looking at
actually getting someambassadors at this point that use
it frequently that have won alot of awards.
So use it on home.
Pork, chicken.
It's great on everything.
It's great on green beans.
It is.
It is.
French fries.
It's great.
And French.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
You know, so here's a dry rub.
(22:16):
It's a seasoning.
Yeah, it is a seasoning.
So here's a question for you.
When you guys are eatingFrench fries, and I've never asked
Leanne this question either.
I, if I put, I like a littlesalt on stuff besides the seasoning,
I put the salt on my ketchup,and then I, I, I do it that way.
(22:38):
Is that weird, or is that okaywith you guys?
I think that's very weird.
We've actually been doing thatfor quite some time.
Yeah.
True story.
My older brother taught methat when we were younger, going
to Wendy's, because Wendy'snotoriously didn't salt their fries.
So he would crack open theirlittle salt, and they have really
(22:58):
fine salt there.
That was really good.
Mix it in that.
So.
Yes, I, I to your I, I.
Okay, okay.
Depends on the.
We're the only people we knowthat knew it, so.
Yeah, well, now you metanother one.
Exactly.
Because I know when I'm eatingwith my wife or we're out or something,
(23:20):
I.
If I get fries or something, I'll.
I'll take a little sauce or something.
Depends on the plate.
And I'll put the ketchup on there.
And I put, I say, you wantsome ketchup?
She's like, no, you put saltin it.
You know, that's a bad thing.
You've never done that, Leanne?
No, I have never.
I guess I have to try it now.
But I don't like ketchup.
(23:42):
Well, if you got.
If you start there.
Yeah.
If you've got secret frysauce, you could do it in your secret
fry sauce too, you know,straight up.
Okay.
Yeah.
She probably drinks herbourbon neat or something.
I don't know.
No.
Yeah, everything less is more,as they say.
Okay, okay.
(24:02):
When.
When you guys really startgetting into the YouTube.
And, and Adam, you talked alittle bit about studying the algorithm
and stuff, and Leanne broughtthis up right at the end of the last
segment.
The frequency.
If you're gonna do this, Ithink you have to be pretty dedicated.
(24:23):
You can't just drop one videoif you're gonna try to make something
out of it.
You know, you can't drop onevideo every six months and then say,
look at me, you know, unlessyou're a Martian or something, and
then that's that.
All bets are off.
But the point is that frequency.
Do you think that is what kindof inhibits some people from really
(24:46):
being successful on.
On social media and especially YouTube?
It does.
Dwayne.
The Rock Johnson can do that.
He could probably drop a videoevery one month or two and you know,
get millions of views.
No, it is there.
And that's the biggest thinglearned and I feel really fortunate
and that that first of all, mywife supported me just doing this
when this was a habit, weweren't making any money doing this
(25:08):
at all.
That she just let me do theresearch because sometimes it was.
I remember being up 1, 2 inthe morning reading, doing some research,
watching YouTubers who teachhow to YouTube, so to speak.
And that's where I learnedabout the algorithm and really getting
the ear of a really goodfriend who we were small channels
at one time and then hestarted doing gaming and then he
blew up and you know, wasgracious enough to meet to, to talk
(25:31):
with a good hour or two and hejust said learn Al.
And he said al is what I callthe algorithm.
And it really came down towhat do I need to do?
And he gave the advice toupload three times a week.
It wasn't like specific, likethis is everybody's number is going
to be different.
There's some people who doevery day, some people twice a week,
works once a week.
If you're dedicated and you'vegot that following for us we find
(25:53):
three is a good number.
Sometimes it's like somepeople say, wow, you know, you guys
are uploading so much I'm notable to catch up up.
So they watch them all.
For some people they can't get enough.
So it was just learning that Iremember dedicating for one year
I was going to just do.
We were going to do threevideos a week and I knew that meant
we were gonna have to film alot more and get together more and
kind of sacrifice.
(26:14):
And it was at the tail end ofthat year that actually I not missed
one upload that the next yearwas, that was 2019 is the year I
dedicated that.
And then the next year was,you know, Covid year and, and fortunately
we started cooking.
So yes, I, I think if you'regoing to do YouTube, learn how to
let YouTube work for you.
They say it's not analgorithm, your algorithm is just
(26:35):
your audience.
But it, you got to startsomewhere and you've got to build
an audience.
You can't build from nothing.
And we have some people whoare very successful on other platforms.
We work with tick tockers whohave 2 million followers but can't
grow on YouTube and they'refrustrated because you can make money
on YouTube, you can't on TikTok.
Right.
And so we feel fortunate thatwe kind of started on there and we're
(26:56):
trying to do TikTok and allthese others, which are now I'm learning
a whole new process of filmingand doing everything changes everything.
But yeah, so it is.
It's a beast.
And it's hard.
So, you know, it doesn'talways translate.
Different audiences preferdifferent platforms.
How often when you're, whenyou're creating your nine or over
the weekend for the next threeweeks like that, how many times do
(27:16):
your recipes fail?
I mean, it just, I mean,Leanne and I have had it.
You know, you're.
You're thinking, this is.
Excuse me, gonna be great.
And at the end, you look at itand go, that number.
Good.
Brad.
I still like them all the time.
Right?
That's.
Not once, not once have wefailed once.
(27:40):
Several times.
Yes, it is.
The griddle.
It seems to be a little moreforgiving than a smoke.
Like if you.
We've destroyed a brisket,which I'm sure we all have.
And, and that's a veryexpensive, frustrating beef jerky
that you just made.
You film it and you get itdone and you go cut into it like,
(28:03):
oh, look, it's dry.
Get the sport model.
We got to sort of something onthere to fall off.
It happens more often than welike to.
Yeah, you open it up and itsays Reebok on the inside.
When you do your YouTubevideos, do you find time is an element
(28:23):
also?
You try not to go over aminute or what do you think that's
important?
That's great.
We find our sweet spot.
And some of that has to dowith advertising.
So YouTube used to be 10minutes and longer.
They'll do a mid roll ad,which, which they like because that
means they're able to showmore ads if you're.
If your audience is stickingaround for it so you can make a little
(28:44):
bit more money.
They went down to eightminutes and longer.
So 10 minutes is still thesweet spot.
But if you're making videosthat people aren't sticking around
for, you don't want them that long.
So for some people, fourminutes is all they do.
We found, for us, a good spotis between 11 and 15 minutes.
Sometimes some of our longercontent does really well.
(29:06):
Sometimes we don't get as muchwatch time, and that's what we look
for is watch time andengagement are two of the, two of
the data points that I look at.
You're the first ones thatwe've had on the show that has said
that length of time it's, it's.
So you must be.
Well, you are very entertaining.
Well, we get, we get a lotthat say, get to the point, just
(29:28):
show me what I need.
And, and that's kind of whatwe, what we look.
And I guess that's probablyhow we look at it too.
But we also haven't toyed withlike, really.
Well, no, I have.
We, we, I mean, this was earlyon, some shorter videos, three, four
minutes.
And we found we literally getthe same amount of watch time.
It's about anywhere from 40 to70% watch time on all the content.
So it's like if it's twominutes, that means people are watching,
(29:50):
you know, a little more than aminute of it.
But if it's 15 minutes andthey're watching seven or eight minutes,
that's gonna, you know, on theYouTube end be way better for us.
So.
But it is, it's part, partbecause we look at it as a cooking
show rather than just a how to.
Here's the step by step hurryand get to this point, which some
people have mentioned, man,just try and get to the point.
But they're like, man, you canscrub past it.
(30:11):
So it is about building ouraudience and working with our audience.
But to that point we arealways willing to look and say, if
we are going to do a straighthow to video, just here's what you
need.
Let's get to the point.
You're going to do this forthis amount of time and get.
And we could do it, do shorteras well, but we found for us and
what YouTube prefers, becausethey want to roll ads.
They want, they want people onthe platform as long as they can,
(30:33):
they want to run ads.
And so if we can help generatethat, you know, for it, then, then
we're here for it.
But yeah, if it helps to doshorter content and then people are
watching the networks as well.
Do you think that is kind ofindicative of watching that, you
know, get to the point quick stuff?
Do you think that's indicativeof like TikTok and Instagram and
(30:54):
stuff, that they've becomekind of anesthetized to that?
I'm not saying that's a bad thing.
I'm just saying that I'venoticed that when, when people do
that, they want you to hurry,you know, because they'll, when we
put these shows up, they'llscroll to the good part, you know
what I mean?
And they'll watch it like that.
But do you think that's one ofthe reasons?
(31:16):
Absolutely.
I think just in general,people's Our attention span is.
There's a major deficit.
In fact, I use the example Ilearned seeing a research on.
There's a children's showcalled Cocomelon.
Very, very popular right now.
And if you watch it, it.
The transitions happen everytwo or three seconds.
(31:37):
And it's stunning because moreof them are two seconds than three.
In old movies, they used tosay if you could, you know, every
nine seconds, you got to makea transition, then it was every seven
seconds.
Then I learned on YouTube, youwant between four and eight seconds.
So I do.
I cut my edits.
So we're either zooming in orout, panning out every, you know,
several seconds to help with attention.
That.
That cocoa melon, thatconstant every two seconds moving.
(32:00):
But, yeah, we have noticedsince TikTok has really taken off
the watch, time has dipped substantially.
We're talking about two.
Between one and two minutesper video overall watch time.
And it's.
It.
You can attribute it right toright when TikTok really took off.
It's crazy.
There you go.
We're.
We're gonna take a break.
We're gonna come back, andwe're gonna ask the burning question,
(32:21):
is Brett really a shock jockon the radio?
We'll be right back.
(32:57):
Hey, everybody, it's J.T.
you know, I talk about paintedhills all the time, and we always
say be beef the way nature intended.
But it's more than that,because each bite of painted hills
will make your taste buds explode.
Put a big, bright smile onyour face, and whoever's at your
dinner table will have a big,bright smile on their face.
And you can thank me for that later.
Just go topaintedhillsbeef.com and find out
(33:20):
more.
You won't regret it.
Hey, everybody, J.T.
here.
I want to tell you about theHammerstahl knives.
Hammerstahl combines Germansteel with beautiful and functioning
designs.
They're part of the Heritagesteel Group group, which also does
their pots and pans.
So go to heritagesteel usCheck out the hammer Stall knives.
If you're really into cooking,I think you're really gonna like
(33:41):
them.
Welcome back to the nationwith Ms. Whippen and myself.
We'd like to thank the folksat the Oregon Crab Commission going
to be doing some.
I've created a couple newrecipes, so we got some new stuff
(34:03):
coming up on the shows that Iwork on TV with the Oregon Crab Commission.
And if you ever get up to theNorthwest, you got to eat some Dungeness
crab.
I'm just telling you, I've.
I have a Convert on the otherend of this line with us today.
I will second that.
Yeah, sure.
I. I'm trying to con them intosending you some, but I got to make
sure you're home to get it it.
(34:25):
Because that's not somethingyou want to leave out in the Florida
sun very long.
No, no, I agree with you.
Yeah, that was staying homefrom now on.
Okay, There you go.
So, Brett, you were a morninghost at a rock station in Gainesville.
That's.
(34:45):
I would.
Gainesville's not my oldstomping grounds, but I started my.
I started my radio career as amorning drive rock jock.
Rock.
Okay.
And we're actually not rock.
We're.
We're a top 40 kind of hot AC,adult contemporary.
We do the pop music.
Play a lot of Taylor Swift.
So all of Taylor Swift.
(35:05):
Oh, God, I knew you were gonnasay that.
You mean you only play Taylor Swift?
It's pretty much Taylor Swift.
Nordo Five Three here in Gainesville.
Yeah, I've been here for 19 years.
Started out driving.
We have a big giant boomboxthat we take to events, live broadcasts.
And then a few months in, Igot to a chance to do the night show
where I go the hottest nightshow in the universe.
(35:29):
I did that for six years, acouple stints on the morning show,
and then finally put me on theback on the morning show.
And I've been there for thelast 13, 14 years, loving it.
Right.
That's a long time for amorning host.
Yeah, it really is.
And the fact that I'm still inthe same station that I started at
is virtually unheard of inthis industry.
(35:50):
Radio is a very revolving doortype industry where people will come
through and use it as astepping stone or a starting point.
I gave a more middle marketmarket, 83 to 86 out of like 200
some odd markets.
So we're on the larger part ofthe middle market.
So it's.
It's been a great place for meto land.
And you know, I got mygranddaughters here and we've got
(36:10):
relatives right here.
So I've been fortunate to beable to stay and be at the same same
place where it's.
Where it all started.
Well, good for you.
How's what you've learned doing?
And I'm not talking about theprocess, the.
The videoing it, the filmingit, but the actual cooking process.
Has that changed what you.
To a restaurant, what you order?
(36:31):
Right.
You can go first.
Yes.
The palette has definitelychanged from a simple cheeseburger
with just ketchup, mustard and mayo.
I, I, I'm not, like, so pickyas far as, like, the way I order
things.
I'll just order.
But I definitely, it'sdefinitely expanded my, my palate
to the point when four yearsago, I hated onions, and now I can't
(36:53):
have a burger without it.
You know, it's simple thingslike that, just things that we found
that we're enjoying, that wenever would have tried eating out
at a restaurant before, andnow we're actually seeking them out
when we go to a restaurant orgoing to a restaurant for that specific
reason.
Yeah, Adam.
Yeah.
And to that point, I appreciate.
(37:15):
My wife says I've ruined Smashburgers for anywhere five guys, anywhere.
Like, why spend the money whenwe can do them just as better, just
as well or better at home?
Which I appreciate.
But the one that I've learned,actually, one odd thing just through
the whole process is,especially with steaks, if I'm gonna
go out and pay for a steak,I've learned to ask the server, how
would the chef or how wouldthe cook eat it?
(37:37):
Like, how would they want it?
It almost comes back medium.
And I used to be a medium welltype person, and then I learned,
you know, what, medium to rareis better.
So if I get a medium rare.
But I always ask the chef'sopinion, because if they're cooking
it, they, you know, I imaginethey're cooking it how they would
want it.
So I've just learned to askmore and be more specific about some
of the.
Yeah, like Brett, the foodpalates changed in what we, what
(37:59):
we used to eat versus whatwe'll eat now.
It's, it's made it a lot of fun.
It's, it's definitely, youknow, piqued our interest in a lot
of new foods, trying new food.
People are creatures of habit,as you know.
So even when they go back to arestaurant and for a second time
and they were happy with thefirst go around, they're going to
order the same darn thing.
It's just that way.
So it's expanding.
(38:20):
So that's good.
We got a little cafe rightdown the road from us, and they,
for what it is, they have avery expansive menu, and it's all
good.
But I either, I order one oftwo things there.
My wife looks at me like I'mfrom Mars, but she does that a lot.
Anyway, I either ordered theirspaghetti because I happen to like
(38:41):
pasta, and I, I really likespaghetti with a meat sauce.
And I mean, I mean, that'struly one of the things I really
like.
Or I ordered a chicken fried steak.
Steak.
And that's.
Yeah, yeah.
And.
And I will do that.
And Shell will look at mebecause she's trying this scampi.
Or she's, you know, doing this.
And it's one of those placestoo that has.
(39:03):
You can order breakfast anytime.
And you were talking aboutbiscuits and gravy, Adam.
I mean, she loves biscuits and gravy.
She just.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
You know, so we'll be sittingthere, you know, six o' clock having
dinner, and she'll orderbiscuits and gravy and I'm ordering
spaghetti.
So it doesn't, you know,there's no cohesion there, I'll tell
you that.
(39:25):
You guys did a cookbook real quick.
We've got just a coupleminutes left, but.
But we'll get to this in afterhours, too.
But you did amazing recipesfor griddles and flat tops back in
22.
How did you decide what to putin the book?
Well, okay.
We actually feel forced.
So we just followed it up withthe second one based on all Smash
Burgers too, which we wereblown away.
(39:46):
Actually came about becausethe, the editor reached out to us.
The, the publishing companyreached out to us.
And he's incredible and wantedto do it and just gave us a lot of
suggestions and really we wentback to our YouTube.
What have we done?
What could we, you know, pulltogether and how do we want to do
it?
And then on his guidance, wedecided how many dinner dishes we
wanted to do, how manyspecific for each area.
(40:08):
And it really helped guide us.
And that was.
That was a painstaking process.
I never thought, you know, Ithought, oh, man, we've got all these
cooks.
It'll be easy.
It's one thing to have the cooks.
It's another when you'rerealizing other people are going
to have to read and look atyour exact.
Follow it right along.
It's gonna make it tough.
Yeah, I see Brett thereshaking his head back there.
(40:31):
Is your second book out yet?
Yeah, it is.
I had a copy here.
I happen to have the first one.
I do have the other one backthere, but that's.
So that's the Epic OutdoorGriddle Cookbook.
This is the first one and Ithought I had the second one right
here.
They're up on a shelf.
It's called Smash you gotright there, dude.
(40:52):
Where can we find it?
Oh, I got it.
There it is.
Amazon.
Anywhere books are sold.
We, we.
Not that we push or promoteAmazon, but with Amazon, the publishing
company, they seem to trackthe numbers the best and give them
the best overall.
They know exactly what they're selling.
House, so.
But it seems to be anywherebooks are sold.
I had a friend at Christmastime last year that took a picture,
(41:13):
sent it to me that our bookwas on the shelf at Barnes and Nobles.
That was an honor.
That was like, oh, that'sreally great.
So that was a lot of fun.
Okay, Adam and Brett, realquick, because we got to get out
of here.
Where can they find yourYouTube channel?
Obviously YouTube, but what dothey look for when they're trying
to find you?
Yeah, so you're just lookingfor Walt Twins.
That's W, a, l, T, W, I, n, s.All one word.
(41:36):
Walt wins.
On YouTube, you can find thesame name.
It's Walt wins on Facebook.
On Instagram, it's Walt wins two.
And same with Twitter if you're.
If you're.
Or X.
Now if it isn't also tick tock.
We're also on there as Walt wins.
But YouTube is our platform,but we try to promote and get everything
else out everywhere else.
Very good.
Great.
Adam and Brett Walton, thewall twins, and Leanne, thank you
(41:58):
all for your contributions tothe show today.
We're gonna get out of here.
The guys are gonna stickaround for after hours, and that
should be a lot of fun today.
So for everybody here, I wantto thank you and remember our motto.
Turn it, don't burn it.
Take care, everybody.
Barbecue Nation is produced byjtsd LLC productions and associates,
association with Salem Media Group.
(42:20):
All rights reserved.
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