Jim Lenzen

Jim Lenzen is the owner of Jimmy L's in Sidney, Nebraska. In this episode, we chat about the different style of BBQ and some amazing stories from Sturgis Bike Week 2024. You can find Jimmy L's on their  website jimmyls.com.

Transcript

Intro Music

Rob Valincius: You know, I always start the podcast saying Happy Thirsty Thursday, because that's typically when I record and it's when I release my episodes. But, uh, not today because I have a bunch of shit this week for my actual job and, um, couldn't record on Thursday. So it's Thirsty Tuesday and this is the Drink O'Clock Podcast.

I'm your host, Rob Valencius. And I have the pleasure of having with me Jim Lenzen. Uh, now Jim, you're the owner of Jimmy L's in Sydney, Nebraska, man. Welcome to the podcast.

Jim Lenzen: Thank you. Happy to be part of it.

Rob Valincius: Now, I don't know if you're drinking, uh, cause it sounds like you gotta, you got moves to make, you're an entrepreneur, but I worked all day, so I'm, I'm definitely drinking today.

Jim Lenzen: Nice. What are you drinking?

Rob Valincius: Just an old fashioned, man. Just an old fashioned. Uh, I tell the wifey that it's, it's only, uh, one, but it's actually three and one. Um, that's, that's our little secret though, Jim. I can't, she doesn't listen to my fucking podcast, so, and if she does, honey, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for lying. It's a secret. But it's not really I mean, you know, she's

Jim Lenzen: Hey, I've been married 25 years. I'm with you.

Rob Valincius: It's a little white lie, you know, it's it's fine it's fine You know, I I want to kind of talk to you About the early years of Who Jimmy Lenson is because I think that learning a little bit about someone's backstory tends to put a nice spin on on kind Of what we're gonna talk about today.

So I'm Talk a little bit about growing up. Um, you know, I've never been to Nebraska now. I work I work for an insurance company and uh been to many states because of that i've had the pleasure Cleverage privilege of doing that and uh, nebraska is a state that I have not visited, but I would like to it's on It's on the list.

So tell me a little bit about the early years and what it was like growing up in uh, corn husk, nebraska Yeah

Jim Lenzen: used to be good. Now we're not, but we're hoping for a comeback

Rob Valincius: You'll get there man

Jim Lenzen: Like the last 12 years we've been hoping for a comeback, but no, growing up in Nebraska, we're in Western Nebraska, farthest West you can go. So it's a little different than, you know, out here, it's not just corn fields and like you always see in the pictures out here, it's more wheat fields and pasture ground and cows.

Rob Valincius: Okay.

Jim Lenzen: and we do have some corn,

Rob Valincius: Well, you gotta have a little bit, right? There's gotta be a little bit of corn.

Jim Lenzen: yeah, no, my, uh, Actually, the brand on my shirt here, that is an original homestead brand that's still in my family and we use it for our brand. I grew up in a town that had, well, I grew up between two towns. We were a couple of miles right between them on the. On our home place and our bigger town had 300 people and our small town had 200 people.

So, you know, we're just

Rob Valincius: I graduated with 2, 000 people.

Jim Lenzen: Well, I graduated with one of the bigger classes at that time I think we graduated like 16 or 19 so

Rob Valincius: Holy shit. You know, it gives everybody a chance to be valedictorian if they want, right? I mean, there's a fair shot there.

Jim Lenzen: Nope. Not this guy. I was not close to that Actually, I think my mom was glad that I made it so

Rob Valincius: Hey, you know what? As long as you get the diploma, man, that's really all that matters at the end of the day, right?

Jim Lenzen: Well, I used to teach, um, for 10 years, I taught college and I told my kids, I said, I ran an industrial, um, an industrial electrician program. And I told my kids, I said, you guys are going to do something. I've, I never did. I said, you're going to graduate college. I said, I've been to four colleges and they've all kicked me out, but you guys are going to finish one.

So.

Rob Valincius: Yeah, look, man, I gotta tell you, my college years I've always been a pretty reserved person, so Um, you know, my college years were kind of Well, one, I went to community college, so I didn't get to do the craziness of regular college. But I also decided to grow up early and I've been working since I was 14.

So, uh, I was working a full time job as a manager. So I also had to make, you know, I gave myself off Tuesday, Thursdays, and I went to school full time. So I was working 50, 60 hours a week, going to school 20 hours a week. And I just didn't have time to exist. But then eventually I, uh, and I was also engaged at the time.

And then, uh, you know, that kind of didn't pan out. I met. Uh, a girl in my class, we started, uh, hanging out and I got to tell you, man, she, uh, she definitely opened my eyes to the, you know, thirsty Thursdays. And we had a lot of fucking crazy ass times in the early twenties. Um, so much so that I'm sure my liver is, uh, not

Jim Lenzen: Still recovering.

Rob Valincius: in my late thirties.

Um, but I think everyone has to go through that, that, that phase. that fun, you know, whether it's even community college, man, it's the same thing. You meet new people, you know, you go through that college experience, you know, you go through the ups and downs of, uh, you know, making friends, making enemies, enjoying the class, hate the class, failing the class.

I mean, just being a kid, you know, I consider anyone under 28 to be a kid now. I think that's,

Jim Lenzen: See, I go with 30. So my rule was I used to tell my students because our college was a community college, but it's in it's in sterling colorado. And it's amongst all these little tiny towns. So we get kids from all over. And then we had build a nationally recognized program. So we had folks from all over.

Well, we had dorms. So they got, our guys got the full community or the full college experience. But I used to tell my kids, I was like, you can't go drinking with me until you're an adult and you're not an adult until you're 30. And so,

Rob Valincius: I've said that on the podcast, too. I said that on the podcast, too, that 30, but I never know if that's going to piss people off. Like, well, I'm 29 and I make more money than you and blah, blah, blah. But, uh, I, I have personally found in my life, look, everybody's fucking different. But I found that 30 is when you really find out who you are as a human.

Jim Lenzen: And that's what.

Rob Valincius: it's

Jim Lenzen: You know, I have, I have a bunch of 20 year olds that run my business, three of them that are just absolutely killing it. And I tell them I love working with 20 year olds because you guys are so ambitious and your experience, you value your life experiences. The few you have so far, you just think.

Everything pivots off that. But you know, as you get older, those experiences, you look back and go, man, I don't know if that was the best way to do that, but I did it survived, you know, so I go with 30,

Rob Valincius: I think that's fair, and, and, you know, if you're listening to this and you're like, well, fuck you, you know, I don't give a shit. Because, until you have all of those life experiences, and look, sometimes people grow up super early. I've interviewed people with some crazy fucking stories of early, you know, early childhood and mid twenties and whatever.

But, I will say, I think, from a life experience standpoint, you know, it's like, High school. College, after college, and then that really first start to, to being an adult human doesn't really happen until, until you get there. And that's

Jim Lenzen: you know, and

Rob Valincius: you know, your, your weaknesses, your, your real strengths, the things you really enjoy, and then you don't give a fuck about other people and what they think.

That's when you pursue things.

Jim Lenzen: yeah, but that doesn't happen until you're around 30, maybe even 35. You know, when I was young, it was money, make money, make money, make money. Well, when you get to just chasing money, when you're young, you lose, in my opinion, I think you lose. Sight of some of the experience, the value of some of the experiences you've had. So,

Rob Valincius: I, I, I do kick myself. I really do wish that I didn't, and, and, you know, shout out to my, one of my old bosses. What the fuck was her name? Sharon, I forget what the hell her name is. She was awesome. She was this, she, I worked at CVS. She was, uh, the general manager. She was a hard, she was a hardcore lesbian.

But she was one of the coolest bosses I've ever had in my life. And sometimes, she lived down the street from me in this fuckin nice ass house. And she, she always would tell me, you know, Don't get, uh, stuck with things that revolve around money. And, I gotta tell ya, I didn't listen to her. I didn't. I, the first thing I did is I, I went out, I, I did, I, I bought a car with, with money I earned to that, that took me a long time.

Um, and that was a cool experience, but. I, I think I jumped into getting credit cards and student loans and, and doing all those things that I really kind of should have waited on because I think I would have, I wouldn't have done that. I wouldn't have worked 50 hours a week. I really wouldn't. I, I would have enjoyed the early twenties a lot more if I just would have, you know, I think went out and did shit, but I still did.

I still did a ton of stuff, but. I didn't, I don't think I appreciated it as much because I had so much responsibility, you know,

Jim Lenzen: yep, no, I agree with that a hundred percent.

Rob Valincius: That's one of my one of my regrets a little bit, but then you know, hey look Everyone's got some regrets and you got to live with them. And I mean this is where I am today So and you know, i'm happy, you know, I can't come.

I

Jim Lenzen: Hey, as I told my, as I told my kids, when I, the last year I was leaving, they asked me like, Jim, what's some of the regrets and what's some things you had changed? And I said, if I changed one thing. I regretted one of my decisions. I wouldn't be in the position I'm in, you know, so you got to roll

Rob Valincius: learn something you learn man, um,

Jim Lenzen: only comes with age, in my opinion.

Rob Valincius: Yeah, and that's the fickle bitch of time, right? You know, you want to grow up when you're young, and you want to get young when you're old. And, uh, you know, certain things you want to delete, you can't, and you gotta live with it. And certain things you could go back and redo.

So, um, shit just doesn't, it's just how it is. You know, uh, and people, you'll learn it. Some people learn it earlier, some people learn it a lot later. I mean, I'll be honest with you. Yeah, I'm still Figuring shit out. I'm 38. So I mean Everyone's got their own thing. So, uh, all right, so you're from nebraska, man Uh, you grew up in a small ass fucking town in school.

What what uh, what got you to you you taught what got you into cooking? Oh, was there like some experience that hit you while you were you're uh teaching and shit

Jim Lenzen: well, so my world revolves around food always has I've been cooking. This will blow your mind. I've been cooking for my family since I was 10 years old, like full blown for the most part, full blown dinners and stuff. You know, my mom can't cook. Don't tell her that, but my mom cannot cook every once in a while.

She could do she could knock it out of the park, but then there's there's more times that that she strikes out. But so I just kind of, I don't know. It just I jumped in it. I always cooked. I always stayed cooking. And then when I got into climbing wind turbines. I was just really getting into like cooking for groups because every Friday we barbecued our old manager.

He loved to have a barbecue. Well, they would ruin God make me so mad. They'd ruin like 500 worth of these 2 inch cut rib eyes. Just some phone would ring. Somebody get on a conference call and then bam. Here we're eating shoe leather ribeyes. So finally I got pissed off and I told him, I was like, nobody touches the grill without my permission.

And I took over the cooking and that went well. I did that for like three years, every Friday cooking for a group, like a true large group. And then. One thing led to another, my, uh, buddy's son's graduating. He's like, Hey, I need, I need you to cook dinner for like a hundred people. Like, okay. So me and my buddy, we went to, and this is when I was drinking a lot. Me and my buddy went to, we're going to cook all night, drink all day. That was the whole plan. Well, it turned out we started cooking and drinking, never really stopped cooking and drinking. And his party developed into this huge party. The food went over as a huge success. And then my other buddy I worked with, he's like, Hey, you need to be in, you need to be in this fair.

So he literally made a phone call, put me in one of the biggest fairs we're in still to this day. And we didn't have anything we didn't have. A refrigerator, a trailer, nothing. And he's like, well, you're in, you'll never get in without me. So figure it out and don't screw it up. So, and the rest, you know, the rest is, I guess, water under the bridge.

And then when I started, when I started teaching. You know, I always cooked for my guys. It'd be between somewhere 15 to 35, just depending on the years. And, you know, we always threw them big Thanksgiving dinners. My wife and I did, and we're just, our first fair led to a wedding. Our one wedding led to two, two weddings led to 10.

And now we're, now we're nonstop nonstop.

Rob Valincius: that is, that is a beautiful thing, right? Because at the end of the day, you're doing something you really enjoy. Um, it's yours. And have you always had the like, entrepreneurial spirit? Because I feel like that's something that, I don't know if it grows into people, but I do feel like it's, it's part of it's always there.

Because I feel like I've always had it too. Like I've always

Jim Lenzen: I think,

Rob Valincius: Do my own thing.

Jim Lenzen: yeah, I, I never really wanted to do my own thing. I always. I always looked at things and thought, you know, I can make that better. I can make that more successful. I can remember doing that as a little kid. I do a ton of research and, you know, always trying to develop new and more efficient systems.

And so, yeah, I would say it's always been there.

Rob Valincius: Yeah, it's, it's weird. It's weird, right? Like it's, it's just a feeling you get. You're just like, Oh, you know what? This would be a really good idea. I wonder how I can like flush that out. And then you flush it out. You're like, Oh shit. Wow. Okay. That was easier than I thought.

Jim Lenzen: Well, when I hired Tamiya last winter, I told her, I was like, okay, because I've known her since she's been little and I've known her mom, we've known her parents for her mom and her grandma for a long, long time, and her mom works with us and so does her grandma. And I told Tamiya, I said. Your job is to make sure I stay on path.

And she's like, what do you mean? I was like, you got to keep me lined out under control and don't let me veer off. she comes to work the first day. And she's like, my mom told me exactly what you told me. I got to keep you on path and going in the same direction. Cause you have all these big ideas and you just want to, like, I love to pivot.

Like new idea, just drop everything, go with that one. And yeah, it doesn't work real well in business.

Rob Valincius: I do that too, man. It is, uh, it's a blessing and a curse sometimes. Um, like, like I've talked about this plenty of times on this podcast, but you know, the original version of this podcast was interviewing streamers, video game streamers, because I was really, I was streaming video games at the time, and people kept saying I should do a podcast, and I was trying to do both, and I said fuck it, I don't want to do, like, playing video games was cool, I made a, you know, a couple hundred bucks a month, literally just playing video games, which was great, but it's, the entertainment side, like, I don't know, like, I get, like, when people talk about, Uh, burnout and shit.

Like, I don't know, you know, if you, if you've ever watched a Twitch channel, or, or, even, you know, with your kids, you've seen them watch someone play video games, you gotta be on, like, the whole time, man. And sometimes it's really difficult, especially when you're an adult, to, like, turn on the smile when you just got berated at work all day, or, fuckin hang out, and, for me, video games have always been a stress reliever.

You know, it's always been, I come home, I can play a little bit, and And then hang out with the family. And I, I relieve stress a lot through that. Uh, it's kind of like, you know, what I would do to not be irritated. And, and, you know, I always tell my, my fiance, I'm like, look, I'm not mad at you. I, you know, I'm not trying to bring anything home, you know, it's just a shitty day.

I'm in a mood, you know? Um, but what came out of that was my podcast because I quit streaming, started doing the podcast and honestly. I haven't really, I haven't made any money. It's been, you know, I've been in the red for a while, but I gotta tell you I've had it's it's a great hobby. I've made so many fucking friends doing this, uh that I don't give a fuck You know, it's just it's well one is it's an excuse to drink on a tuesday night uh, but Uh, it's it's really led me into a bunch of different avenues and directions with things that I never thought I'd do or People I never would have met, you know if I would have done this

Jim Lenzen: So I was listening to like your last four episodes. I listened to them cause I've made, Oh man, I've, I think I've put like 10, 000 miles on last two weeks in my vehicle. So I've

Rob Valincius: Jesus

Jim Lenzen: I've podcast like, you are, that's why I really like you. You don't just say, okay, I'm going right with this, this Avenue and I'm staying here and you know, the chick that was talking about the aliens, I, that one, that one,

Rob Valincius: It was, uh, look, man, I met some really interesting people and

Jim Lenzen: I imagine you have, I imagine you have,

Rob Valincius: she's, she's definitely not, uh, not the strangest, but, um, definitely fun to talk to, man. I could have talked to her for another two hours. I probably

Jim Lenzen: I listened and she was. She was in it. She was, it was cool.

Rob Valincius: Yeah. And, uh, you know, it's funny. I've, I've had a couple of people like that and, uh, and that's the other thing too. I've gotten to talk to, I appreciate your comments, but I've got to talk to. People all over the world dude, and I just love that different aspect of life And and I say this all the time. I think our generation is a dying Generation, it's a dying breed right because we got to experience a lot of this Up and coming stuff right the internet.

We've seen a bunch of fucked up shit between 9 11 the fucking financial crisis in 2009. Oh Ever up to now right all the crazy shit that has happened in our lives And for me, it's, it's not about, look, yeah, it'd be great if this was like a Joe Rogan thing, and I made tons of money and I could quit my job.

Yeah, of course. That'd be great. But, or I could be like fucking the Kelsey's who just signed a three year, a hundred million dollar contract with Amazon today. Uh, shout out to them. Good job. Uh, their pockets is actually hilarious. And I'm a big fan of Jason Kelsey, obviously, cause I'm from Philly, but, um, you know, I never would have got a chance to talk to people from Japan, Australia, the UK.

Uh, people that are into conspiracy theories that have different spins on things. So, you know, um, sometimes life just kind of takes you in whatever direction. Like if, I feel like it's like a wave, right? If you just go with the flow, you'll get there, man. You know, don't stress. Uh, everyone has bad days. But one thing I've learned is don't give up and, and don't stop, right?

I'm sure, I'm sure you've had your ups and downs, you know, in, in your, your business. I mean, the food business is Probably one of the most competitive things on the planet because there's a food place, you know Well, I don't know how it is in Nebraska,

Jim Lenzen: Oh, it's the same

Rob Valincius: Yeah, there's a food place everywhere

Jim Lenzen: Yeah. No, it's everywhere. I saw Cody Sanchez said if you were to go and eat at every single restaurant in New York City, it'd take you like 22 and a half years. That's, that's crazy. But whether that's true or not, I don't know but

Rob Valincius: That's

Jim Lenzen: there is. I mean, food's passion, man. Food's, food's passion.

You talk to these chefs that do this for a living and, I mean, they care about one thing and one thing only is just the quality of food they put out, you know, for us, I guess I'm very much the same way. I want every meal that I serve to be the very best has to be just, you only get one of the shitty part about food.

You only get one shot at it. You have crappy meal. You don't go back. You might eat there 10 times in a row, but you have a crappy meal. You don't go back. Now, That is unfair to all the people that are not a franchise or not a name brand because you give McDonald's over and over chances because you know, it's supposed to be crappy. Right. It's mediocre at best, but you know what you're getting, but you know, these restaurants and stuff that are not name brands, they get one crack at it. So yeah, food's pure passion and the people that make money in it, they're, they're driven to do so.

Rob Valincius: I Gotta tell you we watch a shit ton and this is probably within the alright So I switched from Comcast to Verizon Um, because Comcast is a bunch of fucking thieves and, uh, I, I very much dislike them. Uh, but they were stealing a lot of money from me, so I moved to Verizon and I signed up for YouTube TV, which I thought was gonna be like a huge change for me because I had every channel.

And I gotta tell ya, uh, it hasn't been. I, I don't even know what I missed because I had so many channels I never watched, uh, 95 percent of them. Um, but since we got YouTube TV, the Food Network, we watch a lot of. Like, a ridiculous amount. Um, and I don't know if you have time to ever watch the Food Network, because I know you're a fucking busy dude, but, uh, we love all those different shows, because it's given us, like, it's given me kind of a passion to, to, one, cook better.

And I'm, I'm a pretty decent cook, like, when I actually make food from scratch. Uh, but it gives me ideas. For new dinners that I've never would have thought of and they're like, yeah, If you just do this this and this you can make your own hollandaise, you know or if you do this this and this you can make your own spicy barbecue sauce if you add this and you're just like Fuck, I didn't know I could do that.

I could just fucking make my own shit at home. I don't have to go buy a you know, uh heavy preservative Fucking barbecue sauce from from the store shelves. I could just make my own shit at home and I'm a spicy guy, dude. I love spice in everything.

Jim Lenzen: yeah, food's a lost art, you know, so out here, especially. You know, it was custom to help cook dinner, you know, whether your mom could cook or not. It was custom to help cook dinner

Rob Valincius: We're not calling any moms out here. Jim, we're not calling out any moms here.

Jim Lenzen: Yeah. No, but it was custom to cook with your grandparents and stuff. And. You know, we're just trying to work a deal with our local high school, because some of my high school girls that help us that are a part of our team, I don't know if they can boil water. You know, I mean, it's just, it's a lost, I think it's one of the dying and lost trades that, you know, really needs to be addressed. And, you know, so I try to do as much as I can to help those youngsters cook and,

Rob Valincius: Well, you're used to Uber Eats and, you know, DoorDash and you just, you just order it and the food shows up. You don't even have to barely move off the couch to

Jim Lenzen: So DoorDash blows my mind, right? So. We run a three headed monster. We cater, we run three food trucks, and then in the winter we run for the first Friday in January to the first Friday in May, we open a restaurant. Just like a, it's not really even a restaurant. You come in, you get two different meat options.

You sit down, you get what we cook. End of story. There's no, you know, we cook you dinner, literally. So you're going to sit here for a. you know, it's not a 15 minute in and out deal. You're waiting on somebody to actually cook you dinner. Well, my buddy's like, dude, get on Uber eats or no, not Uber. God, what's the other one?

DoorDash, DoorDash. And I was like, why? He's like, so I don't have to get out of my house and I can get good food. And I'm like, I was like, what do you pay for that? He's like, I don't know. Like a cheeseburger is like 18 or something ridiculous. I was like, So you're paying double because you don't want to get out and go get something to eat. He's like, yeah. I'm like, no, I'm not doing that. You got to come to me.

Rob Valincius: I,

Jim Lenzen: still old school in that mentality, I guess.

Rob Valincius: if I showed you my bank statement of the amount of money I've spent on Uber Eats in DoorDash, you would come over, you would fly to Philadelphia and punch me in the face. And I got to tell you, it's a sickness. And I'm sure other people have the same thing. Um, I've gotten so, I don't know how to break it because I've deleted the app.

I've stopped doing the subscriptions. And then before I know it, I'm doing it again. And it's because, like, you know, it's hard to explain, it'll be a Friday night, we've had a couple drinks, I can't drive, like, I won't drive, right, and I want, you know, Chick fil A, I want Chipotle, or whatever, right, and I'm like, well, I have my phone, I can literally make a couple clicks, and order the food, and here's the problem with those companies, right, They're not transparent with how much you're really spending Because you're literally spending double like when I order from chipotle for two people My average spend is 45 to 50 bucks

Jim Lenzen: for two people.

Rob Valincius: For two people if I had gone and this is on I get a burrito bowl my wife You'll probably get a burrito bowl And like a side of queso and we'll get like two or three bags of chips because their chips are good, right?

Jim Lenzen: Rob, for 10 more dollars. I'll serve you a prime rib dinner that you'll die for, for 10 extra dollars

Rob Valincius: exactly like we're spending and look, but if you were to go to Chipotle and buy that, what, what I just mentioned, it would be 24 bucks, maybe.

Jim Lenzen: that's crazy.

Rob Valincius: um, I think that there's a, there's a positive for every negative, right? Yes. It's like double the price. Uh, but for businesses, it gives you another revenue source.

I don't know from that side of things how fucked up it is Uh with all their agreements how much they're gonna charge you How much they're gonna charge you if someone doesn't like it or says they didn't get what they didn't get. There's a lot of Rolling the dice

Jim Lenzen: Oh, it's expensive. Like for the business, I've looked into it just a little bit. It's expensive for the business to even use it. Like I think they take a percentage of your sale off of it too. They're making a fortune off of it. Yeah. We're so old school. Yeah. We're so old school. I don't even have a TV in my building. Seriously.

Rob Valincius: it. I love that

Jim Lenzen: Yeah. We sit. What do we sit? 50 people. I think very small, very cozy, very nice place with not, without a TV. And you know what happens? This is the craziest thing of what I've noticed in the last two years. I've done this because there's no TV. People do not immediately turn to their cell phones.

Conversation takes place because there's, uh, You know, I think there's not that initial distraction. And then you go back to, you know, you saw something on the TV and then you glance down to basically fact check it. And you know, it's kind of cool. So,

Rob Valincius: It's fucked up man. I look I'll be the first person to tell you because I'm a huge tech guy I love my phone. I love the internet. I love games.

Jim Lenzen: oh, I do too.

Rob Valincius: I love PCs. I love TVs, but it is ruined Society Right, it's it's ruined and and this goes back to us being that lost Generation where we grew up with outsmart TVs.

We grew up without cell phones We grew up in a time where You were either inside and, you know, playing board games or maybe like an old school Nintendo. Or you were outside running around with your friends. Yeah, you know, we would have like super soaker fucking battles, you know, or you were playing football or basketball.

You were outside. That just doesn't happen anymore. And

Jim Lenzen: still tell the ones I have today. You guys have the power of the internet at your fingertips. Use it. Use it as much as you can, but don't abuse it. Don't get addicted to it. Put it down and look up. Look at what's around you. And you know, it's, that's probably the coolest thing about being in just, I just got back from Sturgis.

You know, we were in the Glencoe campground, awesome place, super great experience. But that's one of the things I actually noticed there is because it's such a party and it's so wild. People were just not on their cell phones nonstop. Like they are everywhere else. We go. That's the one place I've really noticed that

Rob Valincius: I mean, well one, the reception in South Dakota is I'm sure not the best. Uh

Jim Lenzen: terrible.

Rob Valincius: It's, it's, it's, uh, it's an interesting, cause I know, uh, you know, my fiance, she, she modeled for a very long time and she's done Sturgis a couple of times. I think, you know, you and I kind of went, went back and forth and we're talking about this and she would tell me some of the crazy shit, like the one time.

So she would do, obviously it's a biker convention basically, right? For motorcycles. And that's where everyone from all over the fucking country just comes up and, uh, it's a wild place cause it's fucking South Dakota. But it gets, it gets crazy. And, uh, you know, she, she told me they would have to have, you know, kind of like bodyguards around them that work for the company and things like that.

But, uh, the one time she would, uh, sell Harleys for, uh, I think ride on was one of the companies and she said the one time and, you know, she's attractive, so she would, she would. She didn't know what the fuck she was selling, but she would sell a lot of bikes, because it was, you know, it's easy when you're an attractive female selling a bike to someone that's buying their second or third bike.

But the one time she was sitting on the bike and the guy comes up and he goes, I want to buy this bike. And she's like, okay, so she gets off and he goes, but I don't want anyone to wipe that off. If, if you have, if you have butt sweat on that bike, I will pay 5,

Jim Lenzen: Oh my God.

Rob Valincius: bought the fucking bike.

For five grand more than asking because it had her ass sweat on it. Uh, which was hilarious by the way. Um, but talk about your experience up there. Cause I know it's, it's explain to people what Sturgis is. Uh, and, uh, kind of what, what decision, how did decision for you as a, uh, barbecue guy to, to go up there and say, fuck it, let's, let's go up there.

How, how far is that from you, by the way?

Jim Lenzen: four hours, four hours straight North. So, you know, or here, if you're coming up from Texas or. You know, you go right through, you take three 85 all the way north. And so growing up, you know, there's always, you just, you knew when bike week was, cause you just can hear the rumble for like 10 straight days, you know, so it was always cool.

And everybody talked about it. So four years ago, my buddy's like, you have to go up there. He's like, your stuff's good. They're in this campground. You gotta go. He's like, you just gotta go. So I reached out and campground owner reached back to me. And so here we go, not knowing shit. And my other buddy from another small town in Nebraska went up to help me.

And he's like, I looked at him and I said, Patrick, I don't know if two, two, uh, Western Nebraska small town farm boys are supposed to be here, but we really liked it. You know, it

Rob Valincius: gets fucking crazy out there,

Jim Lenzen: it gets. So wild I tell everybody I was like well in the Glencoe, have you ever heard of the Glencoe campground?

Rob Valincius: I've heard of it. Yeah.

Jim Lenzen: Okay, so they have what they call Titty Alley. They refer to it on YouTube as the alley It is Titty Alley and it is a whole bunch of people that just want to have a good time You

Rob Valincius: So there's titties everywhere.

Jim Lenzen: at times, you know, there's, it's, it's a, it's the only place in Sturgis that is free flowing. And so you meet some of the coolest, some of the most awesome people. It just. It is truly a group of people that just want to go and have a good time. And let me tell you, they do not, you know, some of the wild things you see, I didn't even know where to start. I don't even, I don't even know where to start. So we're up in the vendor Island. And it's right above the alley

Rob Valincius: Yep.

Jim Lenzen: up comes somebody built a goddamn pirate ship full blown animal house type float parade float fully equipped with lights stripper poles and girls. And here they come cruising up out of the alley and we're like, what in the hell is this? And then right behind them, there is a golf cart pulling a. Picnic table on a trailer with a conduit stripper pole on it. And some chick hanging on the back of this pole dancing and the she's about to fall off. And you just, you just shake your head.

But the people, Rob, it's, it's about the people. Cause the nudity and the free flowing, you really just kind of lose sight of that to where you start looking at these people and getting to talk to these people. And you're like, These people are amazing. You know, it's, it's about the people for us. And then, you know, you just, it's wild

Rob Valincius: And they're from

Jim Lenzen: want to have a good time.

And

Rob Valincius: from fucking all over the country, right?

Jim Lenzen: we figured it out. There was four States that we know, in fact, that we did not feed somebody. Connecticut. Let's see. What were they? Connecticut, Rhode Island. They were all, they were some of those little tiny northeast states up there. That was it.

Rob Valincius: The bougie states. Fuck those guys.

Jim Lenzen: I don't know. I know. I've only been to New York once though. No, it was just, it was wild. One of the craziest things. This isn't a wild story. I met a guy, his name was Toby. He was from South Carolina and he was probably mid 60s. Just got diagnosed last March with Parkinson's. So this guy, you know, looking at him, I don't think he probably had much, but he saved all his money, packed up his motorcycle in his tent, rode out with friends to come to Sturgis.

And you know what he told me? He said, it's the first time in my life I've ever been passed to the west of the Mississippi. He said, it is so amazing. The people out here are so amazing. He said, the only regret I have going back to our regret conversation a little bit ago was he said, I didn't do it 20 years earlier, you know, and

Rob Valincius: Oh

Jim Lenzen: to that dude every day, you know, I hope he, I hope he gets, gets battles and has a long, good life ahead of him.

But, you know, that was so cool just to hear him talk about getting diagnosed with Parkinson's. But he's sitting there talking about his experience being out in Sturgis out in South Dakota, how beautiful it is. And it was hotter and shit that day.

Rob Valincius: yeah.

Jim Lenzen: he was just, he loved it. He loved everything about it.

You had no idea that he had any element that was wrong. And that's, that's the beauty of being out there and going to Sturgis is people just, Forget and kind of live life the way they wanted to, you know,

Rob Valincius: Yeah, I mean look, when it comes to Like, I work with the elderly a lot. And I say this all the time. A lot of the ailments that hit people are It's because we get so bogged down with not leaving the house. You know, a lot of the ailments that, um, seniors get, it's because they, they're not taking walks outside.

They're not doing things that they used to do. And you know, look, sometimes it gets like, we get into, especially like as you get older, you get into a routine, right? I mean, I'm guilty of it. And I used to be outside. All the fucking time. I used to never be inside. Um, and you just get into this routine and, and I think that's, uh, something that really hurts us as we get older because you're not getting the nutrients that you need, especially from the sun, vitamin D, and it has a detrimental impact and that shit happens.

And, uh, you know, shout out to your, your customer there because, um, that takes balls. To fucking, you know, go out and you're like fuck it, you know I'm I got diagnosed with something but I'm not gonna sit inside and be like, you know, that's it. My life's over He went out and enjoyed it. And you know, I think we can all take a life lesson from that and just as a human that we need those those experiences in our life because there's gonna come a time where You can't have that experience And you never know when it's going to happen.

You could be 70, you could be 80, you could be 30. So,

Jim Lenzen: you only get 75 summers. Really? He's like, you lose your first 10 because you're not old enough to realize him. He's like, you probably lose your last five. And he's like, if you're not enjoying your summer every single year, he's like, there's something wrong with you.

And that was kind of, you know, I listened to that very carefully and I was like, wow. You know, like I said, the Glencoe campground and Sturgis. It is wild. It is crazy, but it is genuine. And that's the thing. That's the thing I love about being up there. And the whole rally is genuine, you know, but especially, you know, being in a campground and serving those guys and getting to talk to them.

It's just, you really realize how cool and how genuine people truly are or can be, you know, can be, it's the word there

Rob Valincius: can be, can be. Um, and what you said there is, is, uh, interesting because I think, uh, I forget who it was. It might have been Bert Kreischer. I don't know if you've ever listened to Two Bears, One Cave. Um, but that's him and, uh, what the fuck's his name? Uh, I don't know, that's going to drive me nuts. Tom Segur, him and Tom Segur's podcast.

Um, he was talking about how a, a buddy of his was like, or somebody was talking about life, and they had like a, I don't know if it was a piece of paper or it was a piece of toilet paper. And he's like, okay, so here's your life, you know, 0 to 40, and then 0 to 50, and then here's where you are now or whatever.

And like, he's, it's just this little piece of paper left, or toilet paper, or whatever it was. And he's like, That's why you have to, like, I think, I'm a visual person, so sometimes I don't think of things, um, like that, but sometimes, man, life, life catches up with you quick, and, uh, but sometimes by the time you realize it, I don't want to say it's too late, but sometimes it's, it's almost to a point where you're not able to do the things that you want to do, so I do have a lot of young listeners, so I always try to tell people, uh, I'm a proponent of do what you believe in, Take chances.

Uh, I didn't take enough chances in life. I still have time, right? Uh, but I didn't take some of those chances and it mainly it's cause I'm a pussy. Sometimes I just, uh, you know, it is what it is. Uh, but I always tell people you gotta take chances in life, especially if you're, if you have the entrepreneur spirit like you do, right, Jim?

Like sometimes you have to take that chance because you never know what's going to happen. If you fail, you fail, right? What's Michael Scott say? You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take? I know it's Gretzky, but, you know, I'll pen Michael Scott here. Um, and, uh, do you feel that way? Like, if you didn't take this shot with your food business, what would your life be like?

What would you have done if you didn't take this shot with your food business?

Jim Lenzen: uh, you know, so for, that's, that's a good question.

Rob Valincius: We ask fucked up questions here on the Drink O'Clock

Jim Lenzen: No, that's a good one. You know, for, so I taught for 10 years, climbed wind turbines for five, went, rolled in, took over their wind program, build it into the industrial program. Set it on the national stage. That's really the first true business. I actually build at the same time I was doing that I was cooking for the Jimmy L side of it.

And you know, could have walked away five, six years sooner, but I always came back cause I always have just this love to work with young people. I do. I just, they're the coolest, the smartest, And the dumbest people all at the same time. And, but they're so naive and they're so intriguing and they just see the world so much differently than we do. And, you know, I always felt, I always gave up my, I completely stopped my Jimmy L's business during school. It just, it wasn't, I never took any vacation days. I never took any time off. I had 160 day contract. I was there for the 160 days. Worked 12 to 18 hours a day with those guys. They, I was on speed dial for until I told him, I was like, please don't call me until like midnight was my cutoff. So, but then I would come home and I'd cook, you know, I, Like I would go to school and work till seven, go seven to seven, had an hour drive both ways, get home, cook till two, three in the morning, get up and do that nonstop every weekend. I was busy, but you know, those guys kept me coming back and I wouldn't change it for anything.

My last year though, the kids were like, you have to go do this. I had the perfect group of students. Like I knew I could cut away with them returning for that second year and they would take care of themselves no matter how the program went. And they're like, you have to go do this. And if it wasn't for them saying I had to go do this, I'll probably still be there one day.

I, my, my retirement job, I will return to teaching, but you know, those guys are the ones that kept saying, go, go, go. And then I jumped full, everything I do, I do a hundred percent. So then I jumped right into this and it like blows up. And I'm going, Jesus, where did this come from?

Rob Valincius: the fuck did I

Jim Lenzen: telling my friends, I was like, I tell my friends, I was like, my God, I never saw this coming.

Like, Oh, we did. We all knew this was going to happen. So they have more faith in me, I guess, than I did. Now I'm like, get out of my way. Cause here we come. So, you know, and it was just, it's been such a crazy ride, but you know, taking the chances, you know, in business, if you don't take a chance, you can't lose, but if you take a chance, you run the risk of losing, but you can't win.

You have to take the chance in order to win, because if you don't take the chance, you cannot lose. But you're going to stay the same.

Rob Valincius: It's

Jim Lenzen: Does that make sense? But you got to take, yeah, you got to, for me, I got to take the chances, but I got to take calculated chances as our company grows. Now I have people that depend on me, so I can't just run this thing in the ground because I want to do something totally different, you know, and that's where to my end, Sophia and.

Isaac and all these guys come in my team of youngsters. They're like, Hey, let's do this. Let's not do this. You know, Tamiya is like, wait a minute. Let's let's back up here. Isaac and Sophia are like, go, go, go, you know? So,

Rob Valincius: shout out to the youngins of, uh, Jimmy yells you, you keep him

Jim Lenzen: oh, they're awesome. I've got two high school girls that are, they're going to be super successful young girls.

They've, they get it like they understand what it takes to win. You know, and that to me is what business is at first. When I started my business, I used to chase money. Then I started looking at it as winning and losing. Once I started looking at it, like I was losing and just worked 10 times harder, man, my business really, when I, when I look at it, like we're constantly losing and we just keep going and grinding, that's when our business really took off.

Rob Valincius: Yeah. And, and you know when, when you're working with the young kids too, they have a lot of like fresh little ideas too.

Jim Lenzen: oh, they have amazing ideas.

Rob Valincius: They hit you and you're like, oh shit, I never would have thought of that.

Jim Lenzen: Yeah, no, they have amazing ideas. They see it so differently. Like they see it, they see it as black and white where I see it as shades, right? I see it, I see black, I see white, I see gray, I see, you know, I see the shades and the different steps because I know it takes steps to get there.

They just want to go from start to finish and go, you know, and I love that. That keeps me. That keeps me coming back.

Rob Valincius: Oh, to be young again. Oh, to be young again. Um, let's talk a little bit about, uh, barbecue. Alright,

Jim Lenzen: All right.

Rob Valincius: what Can you talk a little bit about the different styles of barbecue? And, um, what style of barbecue does Jimmy Ells do?

Jim Lenzen: That's a great question because you have Memphis, which is dry rubs. You have Kansas city, which is heavy sauce. You have Texas barbecue, which is just, they think it's better than everybody's, you know, they have. You know, there's tons of different styles we cook. So our ribs are very Kansas city style with a really nice dry rub on them.

Our brisket is probably a little more Texas style, you know, except for we trim the fat off, which the Texans are always like, it's not fatty enough. Well, it is what it is. I don't like fatty brisket. So I trim it and I eat brisket the only way I like it, you know? So there's tons Barbecue is so crazy and it's a hard, it's probably one of the most challenging ones to make money in because the cost of meat is so expensive.

Rob Valincius: Absurd now.

Jim Lenzen: yeah, the other thing about barbecue is when the Traeger came out, everybody was a barbecue expert, you know, so, you know, we just keep grinding along and going, but you know, we're very well known for our brisket. We hear all the time how good our brisket is. You know, I'll never say our brisket's better, the best, ever.

But you can all you want, know, so

Rob Valincius: I had brisket today. So I've had Kansas City barbecue. I've had Texas barbecue. Um, I've kind of had a little bit of, of everything. Um, I don't know what barbecue that I like the best. I actually kind of liked all of them. Um, I don't know if I'm more, I'm more of a sauce guy than a dry rub. I do like the sauce more, and I do like, I'm more of a spicy.

So I like a spicy barbecue. Uh, more than I like your standard stuff. Um, I don't know what it is man, I've always, I didn't like, I've always been a barbecue over a buffalo guy my whole life. Um, Woo! That was

Jim Lenzen: bless you.

Rob Valincius: a crazy sneeze. Um, I've never been a huge buffalo guy. I've always been a barbecue guy. But, probably, I want to say 10 years ago, I had a younger guy, younger Asian dude, shout out. Uh, he was one of my, kind of younger guys that worked for me. And, he got me into Sriracha. Which really got me into spicy foods.

I was, I hated spicy foods. And for some reason, Sriracha just, it wasn't for me. crazy of a spice, but it was just a great flavor. And I, I, I still, to this day, I put sriracha on like fucking everything. I love it. Uh, and then I got into honey hot, uh, but I'm a personal fan of spicy barbecue. Um, so for me, I think I'm more into that saucy style than the dry rub, but there's nothing wrong with some dry rub.

I actually just made, uh, myself, there was a hot honey dry rub I bought from the and, uh, I was making some, uh, filets. On the grill two days ago, and it was fucking delicious. Um, you know, there's filets are great because they're just so they're juicy. They're easy to cook Um, and there's just something about cooking on the grill Old

Jim Lenzen: Well, and see

Rob Valincius: know

Jim Lenzen: when the Traeger came out. So you can buy all these pellets. You can get all these flavors and, you know, and interject all these different flavors into your meat. For me, I want my brisket to taste. I want that nice, rich beef flavored brisket. We only cook Nebraska beef. You know, so we cook all greater Omaha's I want and they're Hereford's.

I want, I want my brisket to taste like brisket. I want a ribeye to taste like a ribeye. You know what I'm getting at? So,

Rob Valincius: Yeah

Jim Lenzen: you know, everybody that's injecting and, you know, there's some amazing people that build sauces and spices. I'm not one of them, but I'll use them. But, I still, I find myself kind of going softer on the spice side of it because I want to taste the beef flavor or the pork or chicken or whatever.

You

Rob Valincius: Oh, I get it

Jim Lenzen: flavor of it.

Rob Valincius: I gotta tell you one thing that blew my fucking mind and I started in Kansas City because uh, We were at a convention And, uh, one of the guys that lives in Kansas City was like, you gotta have this. Burn ends. Holy shit. If you've never had a fucking burn end, and especially if you're in the Northeast, you probably haven't.

It is, it's game changing. It just changes your life when you have a burn end. Because it's just this meat that just fucking melts in your mouth. Needs no sauce. Needs no spice. It just, it just melts in your mouth. And there's, I can't explain it. There's nothing like that burn end. Burn end. That I've ever had in my entire life.

Jim Lenzen: Yeah. We call them meat candy.

Rob Valincius: 100 percent that's exactly what it

Jim Lenzen: So when I do them, that's the one time I do go a little heavy on the sauce. I go sauce and black pepper. And they, some people think my burnt ends are too spicy. Others think they're absolutely to die for. And you know, I cook, that's what makes me different.

I don't cook for you. I cook for what I like and then, you know, if you like it, then, then we're moving in the right direction and we've got more of that like than don't. So

Rob Valincius: Do you so so let's uh, let's talk a little bit About I want to bring up two things real quick before we end one. I gotta know. Do you have a Favorite chef or a chef that has maybe inspired any of what you do?

Jim Lenzen: not, well, yeah, one, my, uh, old neighbor, Jason Morrow, he moved Oklahoma. We lived,

Rob Valincius: out jason

Jim Lenzen: Yep, we lived next to each other for 10 years. He's the one that taught me how to cook, not like how to smoke stuff and, you know, he helped jumpstart Jimmy Ells and really helped go and, you know, he's the one that really inspired me to, to take this and then my other good buddy, Tony, he's like, Tony and tell me all the time.

He's like, don't be a pussy. Do it all the time. I knew he would. That was, that was his life advice is don't be a pussy and do it. And you

Rob Valincius: Great advice

Jim Lenzen: and now he cooks a bunch and he's always sending me pictures and I'm like, man, he's really. I've inspired him to learn how to cook. So yeah, those two guys, I mean, Tony's not much of a chef.

He's turning into a really good one, but it's cool to see that I inspired him enough to where he's really grabbed it. And like, he sends me all these. Fancy pictures out in California with his palm trees and sunsets of ribs laid out on his deck. I'm like, thanks. It's snowing. Yeah. But no, Jason was the guy that got this all started.

You know, he, he just cooks and he'd travel all over the world. And so he knew, he knew how to do it and he should, he, I was fortunate enough to, he didn't drink much. So I, I had to pick up the slack when we were cooking and I did. And

Rob Valincius: wrong with that. Nothing wrong with

Jim Lenzen: probably, uh, he'd just sit there and he'd put up with me and asking a million dumb questions and I still call him today.

And if there's a, if there's a food emergency, man, I call him right now. And I was like. Hey, what's up? I need advice. He's like, yeah, what have you, what have you screwed up? Yeah, how can you fix whatever it is? So yeah, no what

Rob Valincius: It's good to know you have, you have that in your corner, for sure. Um, so let's end with this. What's the future of Jimmy Ells, man? Do you got any, um, future aspirations? Do you have anything going on you think, uh, would benefit everyone knowing?

Jim Lenzen: well, not yet. Well, we do, but we can't we can't unveil it. But no, the future of Jimmy Ells is, you know, to do continue to do a good job with the folks we serve. That's the future of Jimmy Ells. You know, we're in a small community in western Nebraska. We're extremely busy. We travel all over with three food trailers, cater weddings, So, You know, right now my team's catering a banquet, you know, down the street while I'm talking to you.

And, you know, we just got to keep doing a good job and I got to keep doing a good job to the people that are making this happen because without my people, this can't happen. And you know, I think Jimmy Ells in a couple of years, I think you're gonna be like, holy shit, I interviewed that guy. I think that's what Jimmy Ells is going to become.

Rob Valincius: You got to stay true to yourself, man. Um, you know, there's so much outside pressure to change and, uh, I think out of this whole interview, what I got from you is that, um, you do things your way and, uh, that's what's built your brand and you're going to continue to do that. You'll innovate where you need to, but you do what you feel is the appropriate way to cook your food because that's what you'd want and Too many people bow to pressures to just change, to be something different that they're not.

And that's what a lot of brands fail, man, is, is

Jim Lenzen: Well, not just, uh, not just for the food side of it, I have a, I have to be true to me, right? And then, once you add people, You have to be true to those people and then you don't work like I'm not the boss here. I couldn't do, I mean, I couldn't even turn the, the sound on, on Tamiya's computer. You know, I just, I just provide a little bit of direction, do the cooking and get out of these guys away because they're the ones that are taking this to success.

You know, Tamiya, Sophia, Isaac, all these guys, my young, my three young ones that I'm, I keep mentioning. Those guys are the one that are driving this thing. I just, I just provide a little bit of guidance and say, Hey, don't you think we should do that? Maybe a little differently. And they come back and say, no, we're doing it this way.

And I said, okay, let's roll with it. You know, that's, you have to be true to yourself. You have to be true to your people. And I think people value that about us. I think they know that we're here for the right reasons. You know, our food's good. And

Rob Valincius: you listen to, you listen to your people, you know, there's not too many owners that listen to their people. They go with what they think is right, and I think that makes you, uh, special. Because sometimes people just, they won't listen to the young people, because they don't think they know shit.

And I think that's a ill advised view, because sometimes people will say shit that will blow your mind. You're like, why did I never think of that? Or

Jim Lenzen: Well, and,

Rob Valincius: that? Heh.

Jim Lenzen: you know, so three weeks ago we were in the heart of the season, right? We have all three trailers run in all these events. My wife's catering weddings do baking. I am cooking 24 7 running 5 cookers, you know, turning briskets for weeks, just 24 hours turning briskets and, you know, Yeah, we were all very irritated with each other.

Mostly I was irritated with myself for being irritated with, you know, it's just, so much time with people that you don't realize. And I, you know, that's a nice thing about being, being able to drive as much as I do, you get to look back and go, God damn, cut these guys some slack because they care as much about your business.

As you do. And if you get in their way, they're going to get out of the way completely. And then you're going to be high and dry without these guys. I said, the three, the three young people that I've got, and I've got a whole team of people, not just saying these three are the best Rob, two out of those three.

You couldn't tell who owned the business. If you ask them, they'd say, I owned I'm Jimmy L. You know, they believe in it that much. And the third, she's coming around strong. You know, she's already throwing out plans. We're doing this different, this different next year. You know, these guys are, these guys are the ones rocking Jimmy Ells.

I'm just, they're just taking me along for the ride and the ride's been amazing.

Rob Valincius: That's awesome, man. That's awesome. Uh, look, I appreciate you hopping on the show today. Um, can you tell everybody where they can find your shit? Where they can find your, your food and, um, you know, what's going on?

Jim Lenzen: Jimmy Ls, Sydney, Nebraska, um, jimmy ls.com. Jimmy L's, I think it's under Jimmy L's barbecue on Facebook and Instagram 'cause that's the way I set it up many, many moons ago. But yeah, go to jimmy ls.com, it has our link tree links you to everything Jimmy Ls. And like I said, Jimmy Ls is gonna be a company you're gonna hear about and you're gonna be like, wow, I interviewed that dude a couple years ago, so

Rob Valincius: hey, you let me know when you start, when you're able to send shit out, man. I'd love to, love to, to try some of your barbecue.

Jim Lenzen: send me your address.

Rob Valincius: Yeah, I'm, I'm all about some, some burnt ends, man.

Jim Lenzen: All right. I'll get you some burn ins next week.

Rob Valincius: I love it. Uh, look, my podcast is Drink O'Clock Pod on all socials, Drink O'Clock Podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Um, we'll get this episode up ASAP and look, man, it was a pleasure having you on, I appreciate it. Uh, barring all of our tech issues, we're fucking good, man. We're golden.

Jim Lenzen: are, you do a great job, Rob. I appreciate it.

Rob Valincius: Thanks, Jimmy. You, you have a great night, man, and thanks for hanging out.

Jim Lenzen: You too, sir. Thank you.

Rob Valincius: Thank you.

Jim Lenzen: Bye. 

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