13
Jan

Good Reads

#17ST Words of Wisdom
A new year holds tremendous promise and we’re planning and plotting the best year ever at the 1-7. Our dance card is full with one or two stupendous events each month. We have an extensive to-do list, a bunch of big ideas, and a book to finish. None of this would be possible without the friendship and support from so many people from all over the world. So thank you for joining us on this crazy barbecue journey!

Here are some things I found interesting and inspiring in the past few weeks:

I love examining photographs and seeing what books people have in their homes. So revealing, don’t you think? This story shows some beautiful books and includes suggestions for fashion, design, and gardening titles.

Guidelines for when it’s okay to use other people’s words in your designs. Especially applicable to barbecuers who print t-shirts and other materials. Not being credited for quotations is a pet peeve of mine.

If you’re leading others, this advice from Suzy and Jack Welch will help you soar.

What are your predictions for 2014 restaurant trends? Do any of these resonate with you?

If organization is one of your New Year’s resolutions, here are good ideas for decluttering your life.

Running toward goals requires blinders; playing in fields doesn’t. Best takeaway from this post on Design for Mankind.

Understanding WHY companies support various events may help you land a sponsor. Via Seth Godin.

Best way to achieve all of your goals is to outlearn and outthink who you were last year. Lots of good motivation in this article by Robin Sharma.

Do you have any big plans for 2014? We’d love to hear about them! 

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter.
See lots of entertaining and barbecue ideas on our Pinterest boards.
And we post fun things on Facebook, too!

31
Dec

Thanks for the memories!

17ST-Dream-is-Free

We’ve been  reflecting on a pretty monumental 2013. Here are just a few of the highlights:

Over 150 barbecue entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals traveled to Murphysboro and Cape Girardeau, MO to listen to our OnCue seminars where we shared thoughts, ideas, cooking procedures, and business wisdom. You can read about some of those classes here and here and here.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch covered our Whole Hog event and wrote this great article.

We traveled to Florida, Michigan, and New York City to work onsite with OnCue clients.

We supported Operation Barbecue Relief and helped raise over $21,000 for their relief efforts.

Mike and Pat Burke got the band back together and we cooked at Memphis in May and The Jack and King of the Smoker {more about that experience in a future post}.

We were blessed with lots of great press … a favorite write up was this Food + Wine post naming our wings among the best in the U.S.

We celebrated all that is good about barbecue at the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party. Read about that here and here and here.

Trips to Foodways Texas Symposium in Austin, NBBQA convention in Mobile, and Southern Foodways Symposium in Oxford were highly educational and tons of fun.

Praise the Lard was bigger and better than ever. We’re already planning 2014’s event.

Our Smoked Amber beer became available in bottles.

New York City was a frequent destination … one of the trips was for the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que opening in Brooklyn.

Cheers to 2013 … and thanks for the memories!