For Your Approval

#4 of 8 things you don't know about me

The sauces of summer have arrived!

May 13, 2008

For immediate release

VANCOUVER, BC – Barbecue Champion and cookbook author Rockin’ Ronnie Shewchuk and International Award Winning Hot Sauce maker Denzel Sandberg are proud to announce the launch of their “Ronnie & Denzel’s” line of all-natural barbecue sauces.

The newly formed partnership has produced four lip-smackin’ sauces that pay tribute to the unique barbecue regions of the Southern States and the Caribbean. They are:

•    Kansas City Style, a classic tomato-based sauce with a bit of spice and a nice tang;
•    Southwestern Red, a naturally smoky sauce with the flavours of New Mexico Chiles and spices;
•    Honey Mustard, which is loosely based on the sauces of South Carolina; and
•    Habanero Heat, a truly fiery sauce with flavours reminiscent of the Caribbean islands.

“Denzel is a great cook and it’s been a lot of fun collaborating with him to create this line of classic barbecue sauces,” says Ronnie. “They’re true to tradition at the same time as they reflect our unique styles.” The sauces are all natural and are made in small batches with high quality ingredients that are totally free of chemical preservatives.

Ronnie will be sampling the sauces at three launch events in the Lower Mainland:

North Vancouver: Saturday, May 17 from 10.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. at Johnstone’s Barbecues & Parts, 165 Pemberton Ave, North Vancouver, 604-985-0234.

North Vancouver: Saturday, May 31 from 9.00 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. at Westlynn Meats & Seafood, 1199 Lynn Valley Road (in the Lynn Valley Mall), (604) 988-7644.

Langley: Saturday, May 31 from Noon to 3.00 p.m. at Well Seasoned, A Gourmet Food Store, 20771 Langley By-Pass, (604) 530-1518.

Rockin’ Ronnie has authored two cookbooks, Barbecue Secrets and Planking Secrets, and was named one of “America’s greatest grillers” in Food & Wine magazine.  His competition BBQ team the Butt Shredders are two-time Alberta champs and they also won the 2004 Canadian Nationals. Denzel’s hot sauces have won 14 international food awards including the coveted Golden Chile at the 2005 Fiery Foods Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas as well as several 1st place showings in the Scovie Awards held in Albuqueque, New Mexico. To get your fix of Ronnie & Denzel’s new barbecue sauces, visit www.denzelshotsauce.com or see your local grocer.

Contact: Ronnie Shewchuk (604) 351-1999.

It's not the meat, it's the publicity

Sheesh. I was so good about posting at least a couple times a week for the first few months of this blog, and now I've gone nearly a month without writing.

It's the middle of barbecue season and with a new barbecue cookbook out, I'm caught in the whirlwind of a big publicity tour. Since the second week of May it's been incredibly busy, with media interviews, book launch events, cooking classes and workshops and on top of everything I'm gearing up for my big pre-conference session at the IABC international conference here in Vancouver next week. And, of course, I have lots of work to do on the communciations side with my consulting clients. It's all really fun, but I'm feeling a little worn out.

Did you know that the weeks leading up to Father's Day are second only to Christmas for the book industry in terms of sales volume? That's why I'm doing all the book publicity right now -- trying to get some momentum as we move toward June 18. My publisher's got me doing media and public appearances in the biggest market, Toronto, in the week before Father's Day. Excellent strategy...if it doesn't kill me.

There's a profound lesson for employee communicators to be learned from the world of publicity. A rule of thumb in advertising says that it takes at least seven exposures to any new idea or product before the public even starts to pay attention. I talked to one record company publicist who said in this digital age it's more like 20 to 40 exposures to make any kind of an impact in an overcrowded, cluttered information marketplace.

Last week I scored a bit of a coup by appearing on a Vancouver morning TV show five days in a row leading up to the big May long weekend here in Canada. The repeated exposure quadrupled the visits to my Web site and in the days that followed it seemed as if every person I knew had seen at least one segment of the TV appearances. Not surprisingly, the books are moving off the shelves.

How many times do we, as employee communicators, figure our job is done if we get one story out, just one time? Yes, we might publish it in several different vehicles -- a longer version in the print newsletter, a short blurb in the daily e-letter, a story and a few links on the Intranet site. But I think most of us don't think enough like publicists. If we really want to get an idea across to our audience, we should be thinking in terms of how many dozens of times we can get the information out there over a period of time. But for so many of us, myself included, it's on to the next story, the next program, the next deadline, without stopping to think about whether any of what we're doing is sinking in.

What do you do to repeat messages and sustain momentum in your communications? And, if you don't, why not?

Teamwork through barbecue

In my other life, I am Rockin' Ronnie, the Dean of Barbecue Academy. Our Academy motto is "vivamus vitam fumosam" which is Latin for "let us live the barbecue lifestyle."

I leave tomorrow for Calgary, to prepare for an all-day Secrets of Championship Barbecue Workshop on Thursday for a group of corporate managers with a big oil company.

The idea is to split them into teams of four or five and then spend the day training them in the ways of championship barbecue. At the end of the workshop, each team will be judged by a panel of six of their peers using the rules of the Kansas City Barbecue Society. We'll give out prizes to the winning teams and end the day, capping things off with a Southern-style barbecue feast and a live bluegrass band.

The company I'm doing this with is big on safety. In addition to the teambuilding aspect of the event, they're also taking the opportunity to use the workshop as a safety risk evaluation exercise. We'll be discussing the various hazards involved in the workshop (knife handling, live fires, biohazard from raw chicken, sunburn, excessive alcohol consumpion) and how they can be mitigated before the session begins.

I'll start the day with a lecture on knife safety. I will also remind the participants of the high risks involved in not drinking. Sobriety and barbecue don't mix.

For me, barbecue is the ultimate metaphor for life. It's a greasy prism through which we can all see the world in a new, smoke-tinted light.

Metaphors and analogies are one of the most powerful tools in corporate communications, and I think we should use them more often. They make information, well, tastier.

Rockin' Ronnie UNPLUGGED

I was recently interviewed by corporate communicator, magazine writer, blogger, podcaster and charming person Donna Papacosta of Trafalgar Communications.

Her Trafcom News Podcast has been featuring interviews that give her listeners a sneak peek of IABC's 2006 International Conference in Vancouver, B.C. in June of this year.

At the conference I'll be leading a sold-out pre-conference session billed as a "Communication Cookout" called "Everything I Know About Communication, I Learned From My Barbecue." In an 18-minute interview I chat with Donna about why barbecue is a good metaphor for communication. It was a lot of fun. Listen to it here.