We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cedric Robinson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cedric below.

Cedric , appreciate you joining us today. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?

If you took all of the very best Mother’s Day cards, the elite ones – you know, the ones that really strum the heartstrings – and hosted a massive single-elimination tournament. Then hard stop at the Sweet 16, take those cards, and cobble that amalgamation into a human – that’s Mama. She continues to instill and distill a vast array of transformatively transferable skills, like: an ethos for delivering work you’re proud of, a pathos of caring for people in a way that they feel cared for, the quenchless and satiating quest of and for cooking, and an unwavering respect for our ancestors. We think it fitting to honor our first love alongside our culture in talking about one of our favorite foods that Mama makes, salmon croquettes.

Allow me to introduce them to you if ya’ll have never met; they’re essentially a dumpling reconfigured inside a buttery-saltine cracker crust that doubles as the best-fried fish you’ve ever had. They deliver a striking balance of sea and savory in each bite. Because of their size (4 oz), it’s easy and recommended to overindulge.

There’d be dozens of salmon croquettes ready to hug family members when they came into town. Boring Sunday afternoons would turn to joyous occasions when those pink cans were placed on the kitchen counter. And birthdays were often hallmarked with salmon croquettes. They have a whimsical way of loving you in a way that motivates you to love wider.

And that’s what Mama taught us. That’s what she got right. Food, rather preparing or consuming, is love.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

The age-old “who are we” question.

You know, my brother and I constantly grapple with this. We’re always looking for the best ways to precipitate our deeply held values and beliefs into action. Today, it sounds like:

The best way I can love you is to serve you.
The best way I can serve you is to love you.

It’s simple in its cyclical complexity. It’s our mission. It’s our guiding star. Our true north. Our brand edict. It’s how we show up, how we choose to create and share space with others, and how we quickly build micro-communities with the time we have with others. Love and service are the tools we leverage to innovate, critically think about, and agitate the status quo. Food just so happens to be the vehicle that drives our results.

From this platform, we tend to move and think in questions: how will we love you in ways that inspire you to love wider? Or, if we were to do this thing – wedding, private dining experience, office luncheon, corporate retreat, etc. – in a way that would radically change our clients, who would we have to be and how would we have to show up? Or, given our current context, what’s the highest and most noble form of service that we could provide these beautiful souls? We think that it’s this line of really asking and really answering these tough questions that sets us apart. We’ve moved away from curating experiences and more effectively towards dynamic submersion into the depths of our brand culture. It’s the difference between looking at a picture and being there in the moment.

You really should let us serve you some love.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

We’re old school, and we get it honest.

Grandpa was old-fashioned. A real look-you-in-the-eye, firm handshake, eat Blue Bell out of a porcelain bowl, war-hero kind of guy. He’s the one who taught us to love serving and serve love. And then he showed us that it means we must shop like we shop for loved ones. That it means we must cook like we’re cooking for loved ones. That it means we’re on time, efficient, and sharp because that’s what service is. That it means we do the extra stuff because that’s (imagine him adding emphasis) what service is.

And this is the secret sauce for how we grow our base. We listen, we hand-write thank you letters, and we check-in. We celebrate with and cry with them, we connect with them because we genuinely want all the good for them. Loving serving and serving love is not just our mission, it’s who we are, what we hold true, and why we cook. And every opportunity we get to serve refreshes our love to do it.

Protip: find ways to infuse this mindset into everything you do from social media to client segmentation and they will come.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

Yeah, great question. We wanted a way to connect with people without getting on their nerves because people are increasingly busy. I have tons of unopened emails and text messages myself. So, we put our heads together and created a love letter – think news letter but purposefully inconsistent, short, and never has an ask. People don’t always want to be sold on something, ya know? This is our way to remind our family that we’re thinking of them in a way that’s super aligned to our mission and very true to what the legacy of lil’boy blue bbq is about.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lilboybluebbq.com
• Instagram: @lilboybluebbq
• Facebook: @lilboybluebbq

Image Credits

JoshUA Jenkins
Shawn Sebesta
Rodney White