Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Josh Kiracofe. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Josh, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s something crazy on unexpected that’s happened to you or your business

So when I re-launched Grilling Geek Spices back in the summer of 2020, right in the height of the COVID Pandemic, I wasn’t sure how things were going to go. People were afraid to go out, no one was traveling, people were in fear. However, my wife told me that I should start selling my products at the local farmer’s market near my house. Of course, I was also hoping to get lots of sales online, and prove that I didn’t need to be out, because who in their right mind was out shopping at markets at that time, right? So, like a good husband, I, RELUCTANTLY, went to the market, while still trying to build my online presence.

So I had gone through some different packaging to make it easier to carry my spices around the market, and eventually I settled on a mailer box with my log all over it. The sales took off from there. Well, one day this couple comes racing over to my booth, and told me they were there just for me. I couldn’t understand why, had no clue who they were, or how they had found me. So apparently they were looking around the Houston area at markets, had seen the company name, Grilling Geek Spices, pop up in relation to the market I was at, and so they looked into the company.

After seeing that I was a small business, focused on providing all natural, clean, spices and seasonings, they knew they had to dig further. Then they found that we are committed to only using only local people for all of our production, Everything from graphic design, to actually producing our products, is done within 50 miles of our headquarters in Conroe. So they knew they needed to come meet me, and pick up some of the seasonings.

When they stopped by, they made me feel like a Rockstar!! They asked for my autograph, wanted pictures, hugs, fist bumps, and just hung out with me for a few minutes after making their purchase. 3 years later, and that story holds a special spot in my heart, as does the couple!! It’s why when I’m at a market, I try to give my 100% focus on each, individual person that is there, and make them feel like they’re a Rockstar just for stopping in and saying hi.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

So how did I get in to the business of making spices and seasonings?!?! Well, for that, we would have to go back to the 1990’s, when I was much younger. I had always been fascinated with cooking, especially cooking outside. I can remember watching Steven Raichlen, Bobby Flay, Ming Tsai, Jamie Oliver, just to name a few. So I would tear it up, quite literally, in the kitchen making all sorts of things, burning food to the pans, but never letting that desire to learn how to cook good food die.

In the late 90’s, I took a Home Economics class in school where I learned how to cook all sorts of things, and LOVED every minute of it, especially when I got to cook a full Thanksgiving meal for my classmates and teachers including oven-roasted turkey, giblet gravy, mashed potatoes, and more. Then one summer, my dad asked me to watch the grill while he went inside to do stuff. Now remember, I had been watching Bobby Flay and Steven Raichlen cook on the grill, and so I was starting to notice signs of how my dad would turn hamburgers in to hockey pucks. So looking at the grill, I saw it was on high, and that all the burners were on. So I turned off two of the burners, turned the other two down, and flipped the burgers. When they were done, my mom was skeptical about my cooking ability (remember back to all the burnt pans and such from my earlier days of cooking), but her fears turned to delight when she took her first bite of the burger, and the juice dripped down her arms. While yes, the burger was cooked well-done, it was still juicy and full of flavor. So I continued to cook for them.

Then in 2012 my mom told me that she had been battling cancer for a while, and was on a strict diet. Knowing that she wasn’t going to be able to eat conventional, store bought, seasonings, spice mixes, and marinades, I made it my mission to cook in accordance to her dietary restrictions, and she LOVED it, the rest of the family loved it, and even my parents friends loved when I would cook.

Sadly, in 2014 my mom passed away, but before she did, I made her a promise that I would bring the tastes of my grill that she loved to anyone’s home that was watching the way they ate. That simple promise drives everything we do to stay with clean, low-sodium, all natural ingredients in every product we make.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

So I keep in touch with my customers through several means. One of those is that I have social media like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. However, I also have an exclusive group that I call my Repeat Offenders. These are customers, like the couple in the story, who purchase regularly from me. They get a discount, special notice on events that I might be at (here’s looking at the Hops and Hot Sauce Festival hosted by NicNat Promotions), and more. I some customers have my personal cell number so they can message me when they run out, and need more. I run email and text campaigns occasionally, especially when we drop a new product.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I do sell on my website. For me, the biggest con is that I’m not getting a lot of traffic to the website. The pro is that people can stay updated on what products are in stock, and can order no matter what the weather is.

I’ve tried Etsy, with no luck, and I’ve also tried to get on Amazon as well, with no luck. You would think that someone with 20 years working on computers would know how to do this stuff.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.grillinggeekspices.com
• Instagram: @grillinggeekspices
• Facebook: facebook.com/grillinggeekspices
• Other: tiktok: GrillingGeek