Alumnus Reggie Anthony finds fulfillment at his family’s business.

Harding alumnus Reggie Anthony (2018) grew up in the grind of a family barbecue business in Memphis, Tennessee. Anthony’s grandfather, Andrew Pollard, and his family started A&R Bar-B-Que in 1983 in a tiny building on Elvis Presley Blvd.

“It was a real small business to start out with, but there was a big write up about us in the Commercial Appeal, which is the biggest newspaper that we have here in Memphis, and it went out, and people started coming from everywhere. We outgrew that little place we were in and bought a larger building around the corner in ‘92,” Pollard said.

Since then, the business has grown in popularity, establishing itself as a well to-do barbecue joint in the Memphis area. Even with the status and success of the store, Anthony never thought he’d come back to work in his family’s business.

“The crazy thing about it is, I didn’t want to do this,” Anthony said.

“I went to Dallas for a while and got a corporate job, which was a great experience. Then I was about to come back here to accept a different job, and my aunt Lashun basically told me that if I came back to help her manage this store, it would be mine one day.”

Coming back was a humbling experience for Anthony. Everything he was looking for in the corporate world was waiting for him back home.

“It opened my eyes, because I was thinking “I need to go chase this and chase that,” instead of realizing we already have something successful in the family,” he said.

When Director of the Waldron Center Jon Wood mentored Anthony while he was at Harding, he already predicted his homecoming.

“When he was here, Reggie and I spoke often about his career opportunities, and I kept encouraging him to consider going home to work in the family business because I knew what a great business Mr. Pollard had created,” Wood said.

Anthony remembers calling Wood before moving from his corporate job in Dallas to his new role as manager at A&R.

“He asked me what I was doing and I told him “man, I’m back at home, working in the business.” He was like “I told you what you were meant for,” Anthony said.

At Harding, Anthony developed transferable leadership skills as the captain of the basketball team and an Entrepreneurship and Management student in the college of business. When he returned home, Anthony brought his experience into his new job as manager.

“When I came into this store, I told them that I was going to be the hardest worker, I was going to lead from the front, and also I wanted to speak from a place of power built off genuine relationships rather than just authority,” Anthony said.

The employees at A&R Bar-B-Que carry on the Anthony family legacy by cultivating those relationships daily. Everyone is considered family, even if they’re not blood, and Anthony enjoys working in an uplifting and close-knit environment.

“We’ve got a great crew. A lot of them have been here since the beginning. We’ve struggled. Low is low, and there have been times where the crew has helped each other in ways that you can’t even imagine,” Anthony said.

Managers and cooks alike are constantly learning from each other. A&R Bar-B-Que prep cook Quinton Hamilton reflected on how the store has pushed him to grow as a leader.

“They want me to take the lead more, and that’s actually the biggest challenge for me is just actually taking the lead and having people follow,” Hamilton said.

Like Hamilton, manager Andrea Janes has personally benefited from the culture and community at A&R. She recently graduated with a BSA in accounting, and combines her number-crunching skills with interpersonal communication skills to serve customers.

“A lot of it is dealing with money, but a big part of my job is making sure customers are satisfied. I tell every customer that I want to make sure they’re satisfied before they walk out of the door,” Janes said.

Janes emphasized the importance of money in the barbecue business, but she and Anthony also acknowledged that sometimes a sale doesn’t have to be made for the store to care for its community.

“Especially with the homeless, with how their rates have been growing, they basically know that they can come in here and get food if they need it. That’s 80 percent of it, just taking care of people, cause they take care of us,” Anthony said.

Thanks to veterans and fresh faces alike, the future of A&R Bar-B-Que looks bright. The Waldron Center is very proud of Reggie Anthony, and Harding students and faculty alike could learn a thing or two from the employees of A&R Bar-B-Que.

The next time you’re in Memphis, be sure to give the employees of A&R Bar-B-Que a shout. To learn more about the business, follow their blog at aandrBar-B-Que.com

Associate professor of Bible Mac Sandlin partners with the Waldron Center to connect students with his hot sauce business.

Associate professor of Bible Dr. Mac Sandlin is known for many things, including his southern drawl, flowing locks, and passion for teaching in the College of Bible and Ministry. But people may not know about his entrepreneurial side, which manifests itself in his homemade, locally sourced hot sauce. Sandlin began his hot sauce journey when he gifted a batch to his brother-in-law, who loves spicy food.

“I like to cook, and I like to be creative in my cooking, so I thought “I’m going to make some hot sauce for my brother in law,’” he said.
Sandlin’s first attempt at the sauce was, in his own eyes, a failure, but it only set his sights for greatness.

“It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good; that made me angry, because I had failed to make good hot sauce,” Dr. Sandlin said.

Determined to make a better product, Dr. Sandlin began to research the craft.

“I started reading about it and trying a whole lot of different hot sauces and reading about peppers and capsaicin levels, and I really got into it,” he said.

Eventually, he settled with a chipotle sauce, which favors a smokey taste. His base sauce is called “2 Dollar Pistol,” and it utilizes several unique ingredients in addition to peppers, such as orange juice, garlic and vinegar.

“When you go buy hot sauce at the store, it’s going to be made of chili powder, water, vinegar and salt, but I wanted mine to be more complex,” Dr. Sandlin said.

But what is a hot sauce without peppers? Sandlin sources his most important ingredient from his dad, Mr. Don Sandlin, who grows them in his home garden in Beebe, Arkansas.

“We usually plant jalapenos, habaneros, ghost peppers and cayenne, and Mac makes different flavors of sauce out of the different peppers,” Mr. Sandlin said.

The Sandlin sauce lineup includes Baby Dragon, 2 Dollar Pistol and Arkansas in August, each one increasing in spice level.

“Baby Dragon is made from cayenne, 2 Dollar Pistol is made from jalapeno, and the hotter ones like Arkansas in August are made from habanero and ghost peppers,” Mr. Sandlin said.

Once the recipes and supply of ingredients were established, Sandlin began the process of selling the sauce. He was initially thwarted by Arkansas’s Cottage Food Act, which required a license for selling hot sauce. For the time being, Sandlin decided to give his concoction away to close friends and family, chalking it up to a low-key side gig. He soon gained a cult following.

“So it’s right before Thanksgiving break, and I put a Facebook post out and was like “Hey, if you’re looking for a stocking stuffer, I’ll sell you a bottle of hot sauce for $10.” And then my phone started blowing up.” Sandlin said.

Sandlin sold 80 orders that day, giving his hobby potential to become a venture.

“I was like shoot, this is a business now,” he said.

He continued to market his blooming business under the radar on Facebook, polling his followers for branding ideas.

“I didn’t have a name for my base sauce, so I went on Facebook and said “whoever comes up with the best name for my business gets a free bottle,” and my friend from high school referenced the old George Jones song lyric “she was hotter than a two dollar pistol.”’

The lyric references how a cheap pistol gets hot in your hand.
“I was like, that’s it, that’s the name,” Dr. Sandlin said.

In addition to his social media following, Dr. Sandlin got his students involved with the sauce. He hired one of his students, Cade Williams, to design the logo.

Eventually the Cottage Act law changed, adding hot sauce to the list of non-licensed foods. Soon after, Sandlin obtained access to a commercial kitchen and began to wholesale his sauces at the Good Measure Market.

On November 11, 2022, Sandlin partnered with the Waldron Center to broaden his reach to the younger population. He cooked a large batch of 2 Dollar Pistol flavored chili to be served to students, and sold his sauce for a student discount.

Students left impressed with the unique flavor of the sauce, which excellently complimented the chili.

“Mac delivered with his chili and 2 Dollar Pistol hot sauce combo. It was some of the best chili I have ever eaten in my life,” senior Steve Butterfield said.

Some students liked the product enough to buy multiple bottles. Freshman Priscilla Grace, whose family uses 2 Dollar Pistol at home, came home with ten bottles of Sandlin’s sauce.

“I like the medium one the best, but they all taste better than the other hot sauces I’ve had before,” said Huff.

Sandlin’s product is another perfect example of how entrepreneurs from the Bible department have connected with the community in the business department. Senior Courtney Eby, owner and creator of the bakery start-up The Brek Boss, has seen the fruits of interdepartmental collaboration.

“It has been so enriching to see a community blossom between The Brek Boss and the business department. It seems as though every person in the department is rooting for us as we embark on these endeavors,” Eby said.

The Waldron Center learned a lot from this saucy collaboration. As it turns out, Bible scholars make great entrepreneurs, and Sandlin’s sauce really is hotter than a two dollar pistol.

In Sterling, Kansas, there is a space where coffee intersects with an enthusiasm for the works C.S. Lewis. That space is Clive’s Staples, a college-town coffee shop that was built from the ground up on the foundation of good coffee and a shared passion for everything C.S. Lewis.

Wedding catering origin story.

The coffee shop and bakery was started by Harding alumnus Caleb Tremiane ’16 and his two childhood friends Ethan Hershberger and Josiah Wagler. Tremaine said that by the time he returned to Sterling from Harding, the other two had “already started a coffee catering business, where they would set up espresso bars at weddings,” so when he approached them about the idea of starting a brick and mortar shop, they were all for it. In 2017, the trio officially began their less-than-typical coffee shop journey when they purchased what used to be an old pharmacy from their local historical preservation society.

Out with the old, in with the new.

The building was a five and dime drug store with a soda fountain back in the 1920s and 1930s, but Tremaine said that “it was turned into a typical pharmacy building in the 60s-70s, and they installed drop-ceiling and carpet to cover up some of the cool stuff from the 20s.”

To bring the space to life, the three friends pooled their skills. Tremaine’s mechanical engineering knowledge combined with Wagler’s work as an electrician and Hershberger’s experience as an h-vac specialist allowed them to build the shop without contracting out very much of the work, so over the span of a year-and-a-half, the three men worked on late nights and weekends stripping out the material from the 60s and 70s and keeping the valuable pieces from the 20s and 30s. A personal favorite artifact of Tremaine’s is the pastry case, which is an old marble display case from the drug store. To see more pictures of the store, visit their website at https://clivesstaples.com/.

A love letter to Lewis fans everywhere.

Today, Clive’s Staples reaps the benefits of the hard work and sweat of its creators. It boasts a made-from-scratch bakery, premiere coffee from two regional roasters, and, as a recent addition, a plant shop, each of which make their home among the detailed C.S. Lewis decor. Tremaine said that the Narnia easter eggs include “a wardrobe in the corner, a painting of the Dawn Treader that opens up into a door to the kitchen, and the names of some of our drinks such as “The Snow Queen.”’ For the hardcore fans in the house, users can log onto the wifi using the password “ScrewtapeEmails,” and careful observers can pinpoint the store’s logo as the light post from “Lion Witch and the Wardrobe.”

An entrepreneur needs a creative outlet.

Thanks to this mere coffee shop, Tremaine scratches his entrepreneurial itch in ways his day job can’t. As a design engineer for agricultural equipment, the designs he works on are “very utilitarian, all about function and cost, and it doesn’t really matter what it looks like.” With Clive’s being more of a creative outlet, it has allowed the co-owner to “shove every little bucket list thing of projects that I’ve wanted to do into it,” and come up with something truly unique.

The buddy system works in business, too.

In Tremaine’s journey as a risk taker and business owner, there is one lesson that stands out above the rest, and that is to avoid going it alone. He emphasized finding “someone to do it with you that you have a lot of history with and that you trust, because it’s a lot to do by yourself. It could be with your spouse or with a friend, but having a partner makes it a lot more doable.”

If you’re ever in Sterling, Kansas, go give this cozy coffee shop a visit, and be sure to give it a follow on Instagram at @clives_staples or visit their website at https://clivesstaples.com/

The heartbeat of Harding University is the community. Recently, a duo of hard-working entrepreneurs has married their love for baking with their love for bringing that community together. The result is a breakfast bakery start-up called The Brek Boss.

Co-owners Abbigale Reece and Courtney Eby met as Bible majors their freshman year, both passionate about spreading the gospel. As time passed, they realized they could minister to people in a unique, less traditional way.

Reece said, “after I did a ministry internship, I realized that I wasn’t interested in being involved with ministry inside of a church building. Courtney came to me with an opportunity to start a baking shop after that internship, and it all made sense to me that this was the direction that I needed to go in.”

The two entrepreneurs eventually convened at Midnight Oil coffee shop to discuss their dreams and goals for the future, each bringing their unique skill sets to the table. Eby remembered sitting at MO for hours as the pair “researched and developed name ideas and vision and looked at many menus of restaurants and businesses.”

Reece had already switched majors to marketing, so the skills she was developing in her education, combined with her interest in making coffee, were perfect for starting the small venture. “I designed the primary and secondary logo, which was super fun because I got to include my love for coffee and Courtney’s love for baking to make a combined aesthetic,” said Reece. With her on the marketing side of things, Eby had the creative space to draw people in with a product. A talented baker can do it all, and Eby played to her strengths in the kitchen to make the business thrive.

On Tuesday, September 13, 2022, the duo officially set up shop for the first time in the Waldron Center. Eby brought three massive pans full of three different flavored cinnamon rolls: classic, maple bacon and pumpkin spice.

Students came in droves to try the appropriately named Boss Rolls, making the small office space come alive with conversation. Senior finance major Johnny Galloway said that “it was really convenient to go to the Waldron Center after chapel and try out a fellow student’s product, so there were a lot of people fellowshipping there before class.”

After the success of their partnership with the Waldron Center, the co-owners look to a bright future. “Right now we’re doing small scale launches on Tuesdays, but we hope to eventually be able to open up weekend preorders, give out samples after chapel, and do booths in the Stu,” Eby said.

Reece and Eby’s long term plan is a food truck on campus, and then eventually to go brick and mortar. Once a food truck is secured, the menu-scope will expand to include coffee, breakfast sandwiches, cinnamon rolls and authentic Belgian waffles. Eby said, “we want to make picnic tables and a fire pit by the truck and make it its own environment, and we hope to use that outdoor space to host events and live performances.”

With lofty goals on the horizon, it can be easy for a small business to fall victim to obsession over success and growth, but The Brek Boss consistently referred back to a focus on community to center their vision. “Courtney and I just want to make something that is unique and that serves the community,” Reece said. “My goal would be to use what skill I’ve already developed to attract people, whether they are our age or not, to our business.”

Eby and Reece declared that The Brek Boss’s “why” isn’t for “money, fame or fortune.” Instead, it stands for a deeper desire to empower the people they feed through service and kindness. The Brek Boss is about two women who want to bring people to come as they are to the table, a table that just happens to be filled with warm, gooey cinnamon rolls.

You can follow The Brek Boss on Instagram at @thebrekboss for news and updates about future pop-up offerings.

The Waldron Center is interested in telling your start-up story. Know someone we need to write about? We’d love to hear from you. Email huwaldroncenter@harding.edu.

Sam Chester is the inaugural recipient of the Entrepreneurship and Family Business Scholarship. Sam is a senior Business Management major, with a concentration in Entrepreneurship, from Memphis, Tennessee. Sam is the president of Knights Social Club, Vice President of the Harding Chapter of Sigma Nu Tau Entrepreneurship Honor Society, and on the Waldron Center Student Advisory Board as well as the COBA Student Advisory Board.

 Sam Chester plans to return to his family business, Property Solutions Group, in Memphis. Sam exemplifies the Christian business ideals that the Waldron Center espouses and that I aspire to teach. I am confident that Sam will bless others through his business and most importantly he will glorify God and show God to others through his family business.

The scholarship is funded by the Bennett and Margie Wood endowed scholarship and will be given every year to a student that exemplifies the entrepreneurial and/or family business characteristics of blessing others through business. The scholarship award is $2000. For more information or to donate to the scholarship please contact Emily Gentry at huwaldroncenter@harding.edu

If you are interested in applying for the scholarship, click the link to fill out the application. https://forms.gle/bcJzGQ8MhnhtnnBN6

Adria Abella graduated with his Mechanical Engineering Degree from Harding University in May of 2019. Adria’s passion for tennis sparked the idea for the hDrop device. He has been a tennis player for more than 14 years. Tennis can be a high endurance sport because sometimes the matches are three to four hours long. Adria wanted to develop a wearable device that can track hydration status in real-time. He knew this could be helpful for many athletes and individuals. 

While Adria was in his senior year, he started developing the hDrop device. The hDrop is a wearable device that tracks hydration status electrolytes and core temperature in real-time. This stands out from other products because it offers real-time feedback. Unlike some water logging apps, it does not require you to log your water intake. Listed below are some commonly asked questions about the product: 

Q: Why do I need a device to track my hydration, if I already have my thirst sense? 

A: Whenever you feel thirsty you are already 10% dehydrated. Thirstiness is an alert that your body sends to your brain so that you can survive. Drinking when you are thirsty is enough to survive, but not enough to perform at your best.

Q: How do you use it? 

A: The user turns on the device, places hDrop on the upper arm, and turns on the App. After that, the hydration status, body temperature, and hDrop battery are recorded and shown on your phone or watch App. 

Q: I do not like to carry my phone with me, what are the options? 

A: hDrop App is going to be available for Android smartphones, Apple smartphones, Apple watches, Android watches, and other smartwatches. If you don’t want to carry your phone, you can use your daily workout smartwatch to connect it. 

Q: How long does the battery last? 

A: hDrop is a low consumption device. The battery lasts up to 30 days when left turned on. Turning it on and off during your workouts will extend the battery life. It works with a coin cell battery that is easy to replace. 

You can Pre-Order hDrop right now and have it delivered in November 2021 on the website below: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hdrop/hdrop-real-time-hydration-wearable-device-monitor/posts

Jon Wood interviews Tony Slate, a 1996 graduate of Harding University. Tony is an ASL teacher and world language department chair at Fort Bend Christian Academy in Houston, Texas. Recognizing the limitations cloth masks have on the deaf and hard of hearing who rely on the facial expressions used in ASL, Tony began a campaign to make clear masks available. You can purchase your clear mask at https://www.clearmasksusa.com/#/