Miss Essie's Story

"Miss Essie’s is about love, comfort, family and bringing a smile to your face"
- Marcus Jones

Miss Essie was born and raised on a farm in Arkansas back when segregation was still practiced. Her father ran the farm, even having a small grocery store on the farm for people to buy produce and other items. That is one of the ways he kept his family from working on other plantations. Maintaining the family business was foremost to Miss Essie’s family.

Upon adulthood, Miss Essie relocated to Arizona due to her husband’s respiratory issues. Her husband passed on at an early age and Miss Essie raised 7 children as a single parent. One of things Miss Essie did well, and often, was cook, especially BBQ. She was privy to an old family recipe that she passed on to her own children, one of those children, Manuel Jones, has since gone on to mass produce the family’s 100-year old recipe of pure authentic southern excellence with his son, Marcus Jones, now the President of Miss Essie’s Southern BBQ Sauce.

Miss Essie’s Southern BBQ, LLC started in June of 2003 after Marcus worked in a local eatery, The Skybox, and realized he could introduce them to a much tastier BBQ sauce than the kind they were serving. Marcus and his father brought the family recipe to life and also began producing smoked meats and other BBQ products for Skybox.

In 2007 Marcus realized after experiencing a few hurdles, that some changes needed to made in order to streamline their processes. Until this point, they had been doing everything by hand, albeit inefficiently and they knew they had to bring in some outside resources to help get them back on track. For the next ten years, Marcus worked diligently to get Miss Essie’s into a position that the business would thrive.

In the fall of 2008, the company made an executive decision to reevaluate their market approach. In this process, a new mission and objective were established and Miss Essie’s BBQ essentially became a start-up again. Manuel and Marcus Jones brought in now partner Deonn Henderson, a childhood friend turned Angel Investor, and together they took Miss Essie’s to the current level of success they are enjoying. From a rebranding to new recipe development, Miss Essie’s is one of the most popular sauces on the market.

Meet The Team:

Marcus Leon Jones

Marcus derives from very humble beginnings. Growing up in Arizona, with three siblings in the poorer areas of West Phoenix, he credits his mother with being the driving force in the family. Every few years, he remembers packing up the house and moving to a new house, a bit bigger, in a better neighborhood. Both his parents taught him the value of working hard and the value of a dollar. Marcus had a few learning issues to overcome as well, dyslexia and a stutter where challenges to his learning. Coming from an athletic family, Marcus learned early that he would have to work hard in the classroom as well as on the field if he was going to have a future in competitive sports.

Marcus found his love of sports in basketball, track and football. During his freshman year of high school, one of his coaches and mentors, Mark Lovett, suggested to Marcus that he focus his efforts more on football.

“He told me we needed to talk, and he told me I couldn’t play basketball anymore,” Marcus said. “When I asked why, he told me that although I was gifted, it was not my sport, it was not my calling. My calling was track and football because I was fast, big and was going to grow into a powerful person. He told me to trust him, and I did, and he was right. After that, I started hanging around with individuals that wanted to see me succeed.”

Marcus started lifting weights and working out, following the advice of people who wanted to help him succeed. He also worked hard on overcoming the stuttering by practicing reading out loud and spoke to the teachers so they understood that he cared about what was happening in the classroom. These mentors taught him the importance of “finishing”.

When Marcus was a senior, letters of intent rolled in, the University of Utah had the best offer. Utah offered him attendance and a scholarship on a Prop 48, this would bring him to the University of Utah and give him time to get a decent ACT score. Upon arrival they needed him to start as a freshman, Marcus hired a tutor and worked hard to get that score up.

“I don’t like to let people down, I learned to always work hard, people who don’t ‘finish’ fail, I hate failure.” Marcus said.

Upon finishing college, Marcus worked at Costco for ten years before launching Miss Essie’s BBQ Sauce in 2003. His daughter Michelle is following in her father’s athletic footsteps. At 16, she is an amazing soccer player and enjoys boxing.

Deonn Henderson

Deonn Henderson

Deonn Henderson and Marcus Jones have been friends since high school. After having moved into the neighborhood, Deonn’s family invited his new friends and teammates over for a ‘meet and greet’. Marcus was one of the kids who showed up, and the duo hit it off. They played football together in high school in Arizona, but then went off to different colleges, with Deonn attending George Mason University and Marcus attending the University of Utah. They maintained their friendship across the distance frequently touching base and catching up through the years. 

Deonn, now the CEO of Miss Essie’s BBQ, entered into this business venture with his friend as an advisor in 2008. Deonn is the founder of Cornerstone Capital Group, ‘a company that helps entrepreneurs and investors in the information technology, commodities, and real estate arena, build wealth through the intelligent use of capital.’

It was the beginning of an even richer relationship.  

In 2011, Miss Essie’s went through a rebranding, Deonn took on more of an investor role at that time, and was instrumental in taking the company into a more sustainable direction. To ensure this position, in 2013, Deonn took on even more of the back-office needs, contracts, cash flow, etc. 

Miss Essie’s continued to expand, but there were a few unforeseen hiccups that led them to make a new game plan in 2016. This change-up led them into currently enjoying expansions into retail markets, wholesale and catering. 

“Marcus has always been my better half, so to speak,” Deonn said. “He was always my voice of reason. Investing in Miss Essie’s has always been the exception to my business practices, but it is an exceptional product, I have complete faith in Marcus, and I knew he just needed some resources and capital, which I could provide.” 

As all companies do, Miss Essie’s has had its share of growing pains, but Deonn is confident that the future of the business is bright, the product is stellar and Marcus is the perfect person to represent this company’s journey. They will continue on their current path of building a great team and expanding both the catering and retail business.  Now that they have a good foundation in place, Miss Essie’s is poised to become a household name with BBQ lovers reciting their tag line, “Bringing the South to Your Mouth”.

Marcus Leon Jones

Marcus derives from very humble beginnings. Growing up in Arizona, with three siblings in the poorer areas of West Phoenix, he credits his mother with being the driving force in the family. Every few years, he remembers packing up the house and moving to a new house, a bit bigger, in a better neighborhood. Both his parents taught him the value of working hard and the value of a dollar. Marcus had a few learning issues to overcome as well, dyslexia and a stutter where challenges to his learning. Coming from an athletic family, Marcus learned early that he would have to work hard in the classroom as well as on the field if he was going to have a future in competitive sports.

Marcus found his love of sports in basketball, track and football. During his freshman year of high school, one of his coaches and mentors, Mark Lovett, suggested to Marcus that he focus his efforts more on football.

“He told me we needed to talk, and he told me I couldn’t play basketball anymore,” Marcus said. “When I asked why, he told me that although I was gifted, it was not my sport, it was not my calling. My calling was track and football because I was fast, big and was going to grow into a powerful person. He told me to trust him, and I did, and he was right. After that, I started hanging around with individuals that wanted to see me succeed.”

Marcus started lifting weights and working out, following the advice of people who wanted to help him succeed. He also worked hard on overcoming the stuttering by practicing reading out loud and spoke to the teachers so they understood that he cared about what was happening in the classroom. These mentors taught him the importance of “finishing”.

When Marcus was a senior, letters of intent rolled in, the University of Utah had the best offer. Utah offered him attendance and a scholarship on a Prop 48, this would bring him to the University of Utah and give him time to get a decent ACT score. Upon arrival they needed him to start as a freshman, Marcus hired a tutor and worked hard to get that score up.

“I don’t like to let people down, I learned to always work hard, people who don’t ‘finish’ fail, I hate failure.” Marcus said.

Upon finishing college, Marcus worked at Costco for ten years before launching Miss Essie’s BBQ Sauce in 2003. His daughter Michelle is following in her father’s athletic footsteps. At 16, she is an amazing soccer player and enjoys boxing.

Delicious? Yes, indeed! Addictive? That’s putting it mildly! Once you try our famous sauce, you’ll know why it’s more than a delicious Mild BBQ Sauce. It’s an Awesome-Tastes-Great-on- Everything-Sauce; slightly sweet, perfectly smoky, with a unique bite that keeps you coming back for more… try it on burgers, cooked meats, sandwiches, quesadillas. Essie’s is the taste you’ll reach for every time.

Deonn Henderson

Deonn Henderson

Deonn Henderson and Marcus Jones have been friends since high school. After having moved into the neighborhood, Deonn’s family invited his new friends and teammates over for a ‘meet and greet’. Marcus was one of the kids who showed up, and the duo hit it off. They played football together in high school in Arizona, but then went off to different colleges, with Deonn attending George Mason University and Marcus attending the University of Utah. They maintained their friendship across the distance frequently touching base and catching up through the years.

Deonn, now the CEO of Miss Essie’s BBQ, entered into this business venture with his friend as an advisor in 2008. Deonn is the founder of Cornerstone Capital Group, ‘a company that helps entrepreneurs and investors in the information technology, commodities, and real estate arena, build wealth through the intelligent use of capital.’

It was the beginning of an even richer relationship.

In 2011, Miss Essie’s went through a rebranding, Deonn took on more of an investor role at that time, and was instrumental in taking the company into a more sustainable direction. To ensure this position, in 2013, Deonn took on even more of the back-office needs, contracts, cash flow, etc.

Miss Essie’s continued to expand, but there were a few unforeseen hiccups that led them to make a new game plan in 2016. This change-up led them into currently enjoying expansions into retail markets, wholesale and catering.

“Marcus has always been my better half, so to speak,” Deonn said. “He was always my voice of reason. Investing in Miss Essie’s has always been the exception to my business practices, but it is an exceptional product, I have complete faith in Marcus, and I knew he just needed some resources and capital, which I could provide.”

As all companies do, Miss Essie’s has had its share of growing pains, but Deonn is confident that the future of the business is bright, the product is stellar and Marcus is the perfect person to represent this company’s journey. They will continue on their current path of building a great team and expanding both the catering and retail business.  Now that they have a good foundation in place, Miss Essie’s is poised to become a household name with BBQ lovers reciting their tag line, “Bringing the South to Your Mouth”.