Matt Grems grew up around the roar of machines, perched at the controls of bulldozer from age 12 on, working at his father’s rock quarry.
“My dad put me on a machine when I was really, really young, so I’ve run heavy equipment my whole life,” Grems said. “You can’t hear anything on there anyway, so you really kind of have use sign language and body language. It worked well for me over the years.”
Because it put him on even footing with everyone else.
Grems was born with profound hearing loss in both ears and briefly attended a school for the deaf as a youngster in Fort Dodge. Eventually, armed with some lip-reading skill and better versions of the hearing aids he’s worn since age 2, Grems would take his experience at the family business and turn it into a 32-year career digging sewer lines for a plumbing company.
Then, one day a friend brought a large meat smoker to a family event. Grems fell in love with the set-up and ended up spending a tax return on his own trailer-sized smoker. Little by little, his barbecuing got better.
“For the last 10 years, my friends have been telling me that I really need to sell my food and get into business with it,” he said.
So earlier this year, Grems started working closely with counselors Jean Knoll and Yvette Clausen from the Iowa Self-Employment (ISE) program in the Rehabilitation Services division of Iowa Workforce Development. ISE helps Iowans with disabilities, many of whom might find it difficult to conform with the structure of a traditional 9-to-5 job, find rewarding work that they can control themselves. The program offers hands-on business expertise to advise would-be entrepreneurs and provides up to $7,000 to help them find specific technical expertise.
In Grems’ case, the self-employment program helped find the people he needed to create a logo and launch a website.
“Grems’ Pit Happens BBQ” launched in DeSoto at the end of April 2025. In the first three months, the traveling business served food at two weddings, a youth rodeo, and two benefit events, as well as operating on many weekends from the parking lot of his wife’s childcare business on Highway 169.
“I’m doing OK,” Grems said, praising the support of his wife, Amanda. “I think next year, we’re going to try to step it up and go full time.”
Grems also praised the help he received from Knoll and Clausen, saying “I don’t think I could have or would have gotten into this without Jean and Yvette directing me as to where I need to go and what I need to do. No matter what, they were on it. They were very, very helpful.”
“He just kept moving forward,” Knoll said of Grems. “He does everything he intends to do. Every bit of advice he got he has taken and used to his advantage.”
Grems, who once helped his mother sell hamburgers and pork sandwiches to customers waiting in line for the scale at the quarry, now has dreams of opening his own restaurant one day.
“I’ve always been working for a paycheck,” he said. “Now, I want to work for something that’s mine.”
For more information, visit the Grems Pit Happens BBQ website.