At the start of 2010, we began to look for a new way to market our communities.  We strived to find something that was different, something that would make for good discussion, something that would be memorable.

During one of our partner meetings, Todd asked me “What would you like to accomplish this year?”  Without much hesitation I simply said, “I would like to compete on the professional BBQ circuit.”  Within several minutes we had located a pit and come up with a plan to get more information.

The pit was ordered, which took about 5 weeks to build, and during that time we decided there was no better practice than to cook for our communities.  We consulted our graphic designer who knew our company and business well and he came up with our team name of The BBQ Doctor.  During April and May we cooked for open houses, health fairs and family gatherings at many of our communities.  It was obvious that we had hit on a common connection to BBQ.  Many of our residents and family members had stories to tell about family reunions, church barbeques, raising hogs, good bacon, sausage, ribs, hams and, of course, butts.

We cooked ribs, Boston butts, chickens and brats.  People just raved about the pork and many times I could scarcely get my foot in the door before someone would ask if I brought the pit.  When are we going to have ribs again? When are we going to cook again?  If we had the time, we could easily schedule an event a week.

Now that we have had some time and have competed in several events, I can tell that our BBQ is so much better today than what we cooked just a few months ago.  We have not scored “in the money” yet but we have been in the Top 10 or Top 5 of every contest in which we’ve competed.  We have our logo mounted nicely on either side of the pit and people frequently ask us where our restaurant is.  We tell them they can only get our BBQ at a Senior Solutions community.

We have the inside story of The BBQ Doctor on our website and we have had more feedback from that section then we ever expected.  That pig is mighty powerful.  It can make for great conversations, fond memories and satisfy a big hunger.  You can see our products, pit and contest results by entering The BBQ Doctor in the “search” section of FaceBook.