We were lucky to catch up with James Rudolph recently and have shared our conversation below.

James, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

In 2007, a group of friends decided to compete in Memphis in May World Championship BBQ contest. We had 2 goals, don’t get kicked out and don’t come in last place. We flirted with both of those. Lol.
Over time we perfected our recipes on the competition circuit and won a few trophies.
In 2016 we made finals at Memphis In May and that’s when we knew we needed to bring our rubs to the market.

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

We are Rudolph’s Southern BBQ Co and we sell our line of Barbecue seasonings (called BBQ Rubs). All of are current seasonings have won trophies throughout the various contests we have competed in under our team The Pork University. Our blends are very high quality and don’t contain cheap fillers. We also have a very low sodium level. We aren’t fans of super salty foods, we prefer a balanced approach.
A few things that set our seasonings apart are that they are very versatile, you can put our rubs on everything. You can also use them in your regular everyday cooking, you don’t have to use a grill to enjoy our products.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

We actually had to find a vendor for our manufacturing.
I talked with Jimmy Shotwell, a long time friend and owner of Memphis Barbeque Supply co. He carries all of the major brands representing most of the manufactures in this space. He also has his own line of seasonings and sauces. He gave me a rundown on all of the available options. As a vendor himself, he had personal experience that help me make my decision.
We chose to go with Reed Foods/ Tastemaker. It has been a great relationship. They manufacture for a lot of the major players in the BBQ game, but they are a family owned business that know what it’s like to be one of the little guys.
One lesson that they preach is to not rush to market too soon. They have an interest in you being successful and it shows they care.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Having success at BBQ contests definitely have helped build our reputation. One of our founders has a food truck KB dogs and catering, and both business host events and cater. When we cater, we served competition quality foods. We only use our seasonings and sauces and demonstrate the versatility of our products. We also find some way to advertise ourselves during these events. We are still considered one of the little guys, but we have a large number of repeat customers and the word of mouth really gets around.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Rudysrubs.com
• Instagram: Rudolphssouthernbbqco
• Facebook: Rudolph’s Southern BBQ Co.