Â鶹ÊÓƵ

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Podcast: S8 Ep. 13
Date: May 07, 2025
Title: Christopher Harpe gets creative at Â鶹ÊÓƵ
Host: John Rollins

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JOHN ROLLINS: Welcome to the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Moment, where we showcase all of the great things happening with Â鶹ÊÓƵ, faculty, staff, students and alumni. I'm John Rollins, associate director of community relations and public affairs here at Â鶹ÊÓƵ, and I want to welcome you all to this week's show. My guest today was a business marketing student at Â鶹ÊÓƵ between 2014 and 2016, and he continues to stay involved with our campus and the Beaumont community. Joining me today on the podcast is Christopher Harpe. Christopher, thanks for taking the time to chat with me today on the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Moment. 

CHRISTOPHER HARPE: This is exciting. Thank you so much for having me, for real. 

JOHN: Very glad to have you. It’s interesting how this all kind of worked out. We had a celebration yesterday on campus for our cheer team, who just placed third in a national competition. And then I believe they got fourth place last year. So that just keeps on getting better every year. Saw you there with Azadeh, one of our employees who is highly involved on campus, and we started chatting and found out your involvement with Lamar. And thought, “Why not?” 

CHRISTOPHER: That's cool. I wasn't expecting this, if I'm being honest. I was just expecting to shake hands and kiss babies yesterday. But when you asked me to come, I was like, it would mean a lot to me to do it. So, it's cool. 

JOHN: Well, I'm glad you shook my hand. So, let's go ahead and talk about this. Last fall, I believe it was September of 2024, you helped bring to life an event at Spindletop Boomtown Museum. This was called the Spindletop Live Experience. I know you partnered with Pepsi. It was really, really fun. I was out there for it. That's a really great time. Would you like to share about that? How did it come about? What was your involvement? You know, all the details.

CHRISTOPHER: Yeah, for sure. I mean, the Spindletop Live Experience was more so to kind of raise the awareness of what was going on at Spindletop. They had done some remodeling. They had added the Tiny House BBQ down there. So, they had reached out to me in order to kind of bring an event together and do some marketing that can kind of raise the awareness. So, when our team came in, we went to the museum and captured like live content. Brought in some older vehicles. We kind of did like a Western theme, but tried to just bring people there and encourage them to want to come and be a part of it. We ended up featuring four different artists. It was just a good time. It was kind of my welcome back to Beaumont. Welcome back to Â鶹ÊÓƵ. Kind of just include people in what we had going on. So, yeah, I had such a great time. It was so good to see some of the old people that I was on campus with. Azadeh has been very helpful in connecting me and connecting the dots. When I was here the first time, I don't think I've truly appreciated the value that was here. So, as I'm coming back now post, I'm just really appreciating everything now, like the people, the students, the faculty, etc. Everybody's been so kind and so nice to me. It  feels good to be back. 

JOHN: Yeah, well, you just brought up a really interesting point. Because, you know, I've had a lot of alumni on this podcast. I've had a lot of past students who do come back on campus, and not only do they talk about the new buildings and infrastructure around campus, but just this kind of revitalized sense of community or just, renewal, that is happening at Lamar. You know, in 2023 we celebrated 100 years of Â鶹ÊÓƵ, huge year, and I feel like Spindletop was a huge part of that. So, I love that you took the time to kind of help them out with their promotional efforts. 

CHRISTOPHER: For sure, I love the university. I'm glad they reached out to me, because they could have really picked anyone else, but to have the opportunity to have the vision and the perspective that I had as once a student and then as a worker, just helped me tell the story better. 

JOHN: Yeah, for sure. And you know that event in particular, like I said, I attended, okay, tell me there was an artist there who was on The Voice? 

CHRISTOPHER: Yes. Malik Heard. Yes. Malik Heard was on The Voice maybe two or three seasons ago, and he made it to the final 20. Cool thing about Malik is that we worked together at Pappadeauxs. He was a server at one point, and as a server, he would just be walking through the kitchen, singing and stuff like that. And I couldn't really tell if he could sing really good, but I was like, “Did you sing?” And he was like, “I was on The Voice.” And I was like, “Ah, that makes sense. Because you sound really good. Yeah, I knew it was something.”

JOHN: Well, that event was great. And you know, I don't know how much you know about our current leadership on campus, but we have a very engaged president and very engaged executive leadership, who is really, really placing an emphasis on student engagement. We have a new Dean of Students, and then our workers in the Setzer Student Center do an amazing job as well, and they're really promoting on-campus activities to where our students can have that amazing college life experience right here on the campus. 

CHRISTOPHER: That's big time. I just met the president for the first time when we had done the Spindletop event, but he followed me on Facebook, and he's liking all of my posts and stuff like that. So when you say he's super engaged, you need that. You need to know that the person that's leading you is not only leading you ahead of you, but can be amongst you and help you and help you do what you need to do as well. So just seeing him, and even him liking my I kind of was fanned out a little bit. When he liked the post, I was like, he liked it. He liked it. It means a lot to me. 

JOHN: Yeah, absolutely. We love Dr Taylor. He’s a pretty fantastic president. So let me ask you this. I know you do. Do you own the company? Is it a creative services agency called Open on Sunday? 

CHRISTOPHER: Yeah, I'm the founder and owner. I created the agency back in 2020 and it kind of just started off as I've always had a passion when I went to school, I was doing marketing. I was doing content creation for Chick-fil-A. That's kind of where I first got my step into, like, the corporate realm, but for Chick-fil-A, I was doing just creative marketing as well as just daily and weekly marketing, just deals and stuff that we had come on. So I found that I had a passion there, and I kind of did other kind of side projects to realize what it was that I really wanted to do. But yeah, we created Open on Sunday to be a platform that can showcase other creatives in the community. I feel like everybody has gifts, and once you figure out what those gifts are, you figure out how to use them the right way. It can open up resources and opportunities and stuff for you. So not only are your creative agency, I'm trying to also teach creatives how to step into that lane and create for themselves. So it's been about three years, and we just continue to try to grow and try to figure out how we can add on to what we're doing. But it's been really cool. I got a chance to partner with one of my good friends, Jordan with Good Word Agency, and we kind of came together to bring just the Christian, the Open on Sunday, just kind of to give it that Christian thought process, or think peace background, because I grew up in the church, and I kind of use different things that influence me to also influence the brand. So there's some stuff, like Sunday school, where you can come and learn from other creatives, and it's like Sunday experiences, where it's like, it's not the church, but you get to come and have some of those same experiences that you had when you used to go to church and stuff growing up. So it's been cool, because the heart of it is just to love on people, like, I feel like God would do but you get to do it in a creative way and get to show people. So it's been cool. It's been a fun ride so far. 

JOHN: Yeah, well, I mean, what a what a fun opportunity for you to kind of grow your skills and give back to community and all the things that you clearly love to do. So let me ask you this, I know you mentioned the Chick-fil-A in your younger years and things like that, but where did this interest in like marketing and storytelling come from? Where did all of that start? 

CHRISTOPHER: I think it just kind of started. I went to school here for marketing, and you kind of just start to see ways that marketing can influence and affect businesses. And I'm a consumer first, so I'm consuming a lot of content. And it just started off one day where I was like, I was consuming something, I thought it was good, but I was like, this would be better if I personally knew more about the story, or the story behind all the products, or story of how this became and it was like there was a lack of it. So, I just feel like there was a need for it. So I tried to fill in that space to be like, let me go back and tell the backstory. Let me go back and tell how they got to this point, or the people that's been working for companies for 15, 20 years. Like, that's really what makes people want to buy what you have. And Chick-fil-A kind of solidified that for me, because they said when you go that second mile, you just got to go that extra mile to make sure everybody's good. That's what storytelling was about, and creating these raving fans, people who just go crazy about your brand because they know more about your story. So three years ago, when that shift happened, I just started just trying to reach out to people and just try to put my name out there. Like hey, this is what I'm doing. It's a little bit different, but I feel like the results will be greater. So a couple people gave me a chance in the very beginning to kind of let me tell my story and tell their story via marketing. And once we got up and rolling, it just became our brand. It became our identity of who we are. And we're working now to try to come to Â鶹ÊÓƵ, to try to put together a project where we're just telling the stories of the people who really make the university, to try to just encourage other students to come. There's people in Beaumont that are right here that may be looking to go other places when Lamar is right here, and they offer so many great things. So I think the better that we tell that story, the better that we can connect with our audience, and the better engagement we get. 

JOHN: You know, I couldn't agree more. So I started here almost two years ago, and when I got the job, I found out I was going to be the podcast host for the campus, and I was extremely nervous. This is so outside of my wheelhouse. I've done the news and radio, you know, over the years, but not like a host like this, but I will say it's been my favorite part of the job, bringing in students especially, getting to hear their stories. And like you said, you kind of bring out this different side of them. A lot of them, they walk into this radio station and they're like, “Whoa, this is so cool being in the studio,” and you're just sharing what they're working on, and it's giving them an extra platform. So, I totally get what you mean about the storytelling aspect. It just brings something out of people. 

CHRISTOPHER: Can I pause and say this? I know you said that you were new to this with a lot of fear, but you’re doing a great job so far. I just want to say that loud, yeah, for sure, you're making me feel very comfortable. 

JOHN: Oh, awesome. Thank you! Well, you've been a great guest. You’ve got this down. This is not your first rodeo, I can tell. So you did tell me in the past, you worked for Lamar through Chartwells, and you had a really huge role, from what you've told me. So could you explain a little bit more about that?

CHRISTOPHER: Yes, I was just telling Azadeh earlier. It was back in 2017 they had brought me in as a retail director. They didn't have the position filled at the time, and the director was to come in and specifically see the creation and advancement of five new retail locations on campus, Chick-fil-A, Jason's Deli, Panda Express, C stores, which are just like market stores, and just different pizza and stuff like that. So we had to come in, and I trained for about six or seven months to prepare for all the locations. We were able to sit down with the builders weekly and see the progression of it, and kind of get behind the scenes. The whole time, we ended up having to hire 40 plus new employees that were going to come and fill those new roles and those new spaces. They all had to be trained. So, we built a team, but I led the way with it. There was my job and my responsibility to make sure that all those were taken care of and built and coming back on campus now and seeing some of them are still there, and seeing how they thrive, it means so much. It's just like we helped lay the foundation then for students to be able to come now and be able to enjoy themselves. So it just meant so much to be able to come back and see it. I was honored and blessed to be able to, like, have the role of retail director. It was my first time kind of stepping into something so big that needed so much of my time and attention, but it's still my baby. So when I come back and see the Setzer Center, I get excited. I'm like, tell people, “No, no, no. I saw the back of this. I helped build this. I know it's good all here.” 

JOHN: You get to see the fruits of your labor, and now it's fully staffed. You get to see the students utilizing these spaces. 

CHRISTOPHER: Yes, even the conversations about where they're trying to take it, and, you know, trying to eat at the Chick-fil-A, they're trying to expand or extend the machine so that you can put your order in sooner, to kind of get rid of a lot of that bottleneck that's happening down there, and that's some of the stuff that we struggled with back then. So it's still even cool to see they're trying to work through some of those things. 

JOHN: So, tell me this. Any favorite memories from your time at Â鶹ÊÓƵ or even working with Chartwells? 

CHRISTOPHER: Yeah, before we did the recruiting for trying to hire the people, we did something called 40 and 40. I think we called it 30 and 30. And we had 30 days to hire 30 employees, so we ended up creating a marketing visual of me, kind of walking the campus, showing the students what was getting ready to come. Then we ended up posting that on the Chartwells website and Lamar ended up sharing it. And that was one of the biggest things that helped us get a lot of traction. We got over 300 people who saw that post. They ended up coming to apply and were coming up here for the job. So like to see your work bring in work was such a cool moment. Yeah, I enjoyed going to school here too. I went to school with some of the people who played sports. That was cool. But it's hard to beat the feeling of building something and seeing something being built and seeing people come in and feel it. I just, I remember that the rest of my life. Yeah? Well, like you said, you helped lay the foundation, yeah, now it's thriving. Yeah, it's the best feeling. Honestly, kudos. Yeah. Thank you. 

JOHN: So what are some other ways you stay connected, either to Lamar or to the Beaumont community? 

CHRISTOPHER: My family and stuff. I ended up getting married at a young age, so a lot of my family and stuff that I married into are out here in the area. For me, it's always content creation. So that's where I spend a lot of my time in interviews, kind of figuring out, “Hey, I went to Lamar. I had a great time. I helped build something that was big. Now, how can I build something that will get other students to be able to appreciate and other people coming in appreciate what all is going on here?” So, my involvement of just trying to see how we can tell those stories, connect those dots and be a part of that. 

JOHN: Well, we appreciate that, absolutely. So I do want to share this. You shared this with me through email, and I would like to share it with the listeners. So here it goes: “We were all created with different gifts that were given to us to make a positive impact in our community. The more we understand them, the more impact we can have.” I wholeheartedly agree with this. But would you like to elaborate on what you meant by that? 

CHRISTOPHER: I just feel like, long story short, there was a story in the Bible about the people who had the different gifts. There was one who had five gifts, there was one who had three gifts, and there was one who had one gift. The person who had five gifts, he doubled and made it 10. The person who had three doubled and made it six, the person who had one they went and they buried their gift. And I feel like the reason that they buried their gift is because they didn't know what to do with it. They didn't know how to like use it, and how to, you know, be resourceful with it. So it wasn't like they wasn't appreciative of it. They was more so, like, almost embarrassed that I couldn't figure out how to do it. And I feel like once you know yourself and you understand your gifts, you're able to like multiply or bring in resources, the five to 10 and three to six. So it's like, instead of burying it out of fear or burying it out of embarrassment or burying it out of failure, keep fighting for the things that you really get today, that you're really passionate about, because if you stay at it, one day, it'll open up opportunities. It'll open up rooms, it'll open up so many cool things, if we just do it. And I have kids, so I want my kids to know there's gifts, there's things that are inside of you that no one else has, and if you figure out how to tap into it and nurture it and grow it, it can change your life forever. So I'm just passionate about gifts and passionate about people knowing what they are, and it took me a while to figure it out. So now that I'm figuring out, I just want everyone to know, like, man, God has given you a gift on the inside, and if you can tap into it, can change your life. 

JOHN: Yeah, you're shouting it from the rooftops. Anytime I speak to students, I tell them, “Find your superpower, and that's the thing that's going to carry you through life.”

CHRISTOPHER: That's good. So that's pretty much exactly what it is, in like a few different words. I like that. 

JOHN: So what's next for you? You know, how can folks keep up with you, or Open on Sunday, or are we going to see you at Spindletop soon?

CHRISTOPHER: We’ve got a couple of things that we're working on. No paperwork has been signed yet, so I won't release any information, but the plan is to be on campus this summer, in the fall, helping create content and helping just transition some of the things that's going on. There's so many cool things going on on campus, like new buildings, new restaurants and stuff like that. So, plenty of stories to be told. I'm hoping I can be here in the middle of it to capture it all.

JOHN: Well, we'll look forward to seeing you. Thanks again for joining me, sharing your story with our listeners. It's been a great chat. 

CHRISTOPHER: Thank you so much for having me. 

JOHN: Yes, of course. Alright, folks, as we wrap up another episode, please make sure to search Â鶹ÊÓƵ Moment wherever you get your podcast to keep up with the events, activities, programs and people right here at Â鶹ÊÓƵ. This is John Rollins your host, thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time you.