It's Acadiana: Out to Lunch

For hundreds of years, philosophers puzzled over the mind-body connection: the relationship between our physical body and the feelings, emotions, and mental abilities that define us as human beings. Eventually, philosopher Rene Descartes summed up the mind-body connection as, "I think therefore I am," which seemed like the final word on the subject. Then, as we progressed as a society, the mind-bo...

Many of us aspire to a life in the arts. For evidence of that, you only have to look at the massive popularity of long-running shows like American Idol and The Voice. Apparently, competitive sketching does not make compelling viewing, so we don't see TV shows about visual artists. But there are many people who have dreams of being able to make a living from their painting or drawing. Cayla Zeek is...

The tension between town and country has been around since the Industrial Revolution. It exists in every developed nation where there are cities. The fact is, cities depend on surrounding rural regions to produce food. And rural regions depend on cities to produce manufactured goods, even as basic to their survival as tractors and shovels. But because of economics, politics, and other factors, we...

One of the knocks we frequently hear about being an entertainer in Acadiana, is that if you don't play Cajun or Zydeco music, you're not going to work. If it's true that the exception proves the rule, you're not going to find a bigger exception to that rule than Flip Orley. Flip doesn't play an accordion or fiddle. But he could make you play one. Flip Orley is a comic hypnotist. Flip has been ente...

In 1994, a guy called Jeff Bezos was working in banking when he decided to start up his own business, selling books online. Most people thought that was a stupid idea, for two reasons. One, nobody would want to give a total stranger their credit card number. And, two, if you wanted to buy a book, why wouldn't you just go down to the bookstore? In the face of withering criticism, and years of pheno...

You're probably familiar with the saying, "Nothing personal, it's just business." People use it as a justification for doing something that's going to advantage them, to the detriment of someone else. The underlying assumption is that wise-business-decisions and personal feelings are opposites. There's nothing more personal than taste. So, how wise is it, when launching a business, to base the who...

The difference between men and women is a subject that s been examined from perhaps the beginning of time. Whether you believe the conversation starts with Adam and Eve, or a couple of organisms crawling out of the primordial soup, commentary about what sets genders apart is the province of everyone from archaeologists to comedians. You d be forgiven for wondering what we could contribute to this...

When we talk about a successful business, we usually talk about the idea behind it. We tend to do that because a single moment of inspiration is more exciting to talk about than the years of hard work it takes to build a business. But there s also another quality that s vital in making the leap from inspiration to action courage. You can have the best idea in the world for a business, but if you d...

You re probably familiar with the saying, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." At the same time that saying was coined in England, here in the United States, the sentiment was quite different. In 1790 the Federal Government passed the first Copyright Act, which made imitation illegal. We re still in the process of working out exactly what is imitation and what, legally, isn t. For exampl...

You might remember a guy called Zach Barker. Zach used to be the director of the startup business incubator, Opportunity Machine. Zach had a basic business philosophy which he summed up in three words, "Get stuff done." It sounds simple. But in reality, in business, the difference between success and something less is the ability to execute. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Talk is cheap. To succeed you...

In Acadiana there are a lot of things that differentiate us from the rest of the country. The biggest of all of them is music. You can live in Kansas and learn to make a gumbo. You can live in California and row a pirogue. But there's no way in the wide world that you can convincingly play Jolie Blond on the accordion or Bosco Stomp on the fiddle, unless you're born and raised here. Typically, in...

When we talk about business, we all understand that the basic objective of what we re doing is trying to make money. Implicit in this understanding is an assumption that we re trying to make money for ourselves. Or our company. But there are people who dedicate themselves, and their careers, to making money for others. Other people. Other companies. And even whole communities. Rick Fontova has spe...

Some things about life in Acadiana are unique to this part of the world. And some things we share with the rest of the world. One of those common issues, in business, is making the link between the online world and the real world. These days, over 80 of all retail purchases begin with an online search. And, you know from your own experience, almost everything else you do starts online too from nav...

You ve probably heard the saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." It s meant to be motivational encouraging us to take something bad that s happened to us, and turn it into something good. Aaron Beam is the poster boy for making lemons out of lemonade. Aaron was one of the founders of a company called Health South. Health South was a healthcare provider that, at its height, was a Fort...

If you re in school or think back to when you were in school there are days when you wonder why you re wasting your time getting an education. On those days, when you re thinking of dropping out, some encouraging, older, person invariably tells you, "It s worth hanging in and graduating cause you never know what you might end up doing with your degree." If you need living proof of this advice, you...

If you live in Lafayette, or you spend any time in Lafayette, you ve almost certainly been to the Saturday morning Farmer s Market. There are a few staples there people and products you know are going to be there every week. Among them is Abby Perkins. I can almost guarantee you re thinking, "Abby Perkins.... No, don t know who that is." Well, how about if I said, "The Popcorn Girl." The Popcorn G...

America loves maple syrup. You can find it anywhere in the country from supermarket shelves to fast food restaurants. What America doesn t seem to know is that maple syrup has a cousin. That is better looking, richer, and better tasting. It s called cane syrup. Here in Acadiana, we know about cane syrup because we grow the sugarcane that makes it. We often use the name "Steen s" as a synonym for c...

If you re eleven years old, you ve already lived through a revolution. In July 2008, Apple launched the App Store. An app was a whole new thing. An application that would work on your iPhone to accomplish a specific task. And it was designed and built by a third party. That is, not Apple. Google and its Android operating system weren t far behind, and over the past decade apps have been downloaded...

Back at the turn of the century, in 2000, writer Malcolm Gladwell came up with the concept of what he called "connectors." A connector, Gladwell said, is a person who knows a lot of other people. This connector is the center of a network of friends. These connectors and their networks are how fads and fashions spread. 2000 was 7 years before the invention of the iPhone. Today, Gladwell s connector...

Typically, on Out to Lunch, Aileen invites people who don t know each other to have lunch with her, hopes they ll have something in common, and that they ll get along. She doesn t have to worry about any of that today. Aileen s lunch guests have a lot in common. And they re friends. Charles Fenstermaker is Chief Financial Officer at C.H. Fenstermaker and Associates a consulting firm that specializ...

When we hear about people who are successful in business, we tend to hear different versions of a familiar story. Somebody with a singular vision relentlessly pursues an idea, till, against all odds and after all kinds of hardship, they create Wal Mart or Apple. What you hear less often, are stories about people who have no single minded obsession, but are nonetheless successful and happy, doing s...

Some little girls grow up wanting to be a princess. Some little girls want to be a big star. And other little girls grow up wanting to be executive producer of a major live event where they get to control everything from the music to wardrobe to catering. When little girls actually do grow up, there is one magical day where all these dreams come true. Their wedding day. Of the thousand and one dec...

Things are changing around here. A few years ago, you never heard the words "entrepreneur" and "Acadiana" in the same sentence. Then we started to see what s known an "entrepreneurial ecosystem" grow up here. That s where people start up new businesses based on all kinds of outlandish ideas far removed from our usual oil and gas economy. To help these businesses succeed there are business incubato...

If you re a kid today you hear stories from your parents and grandparents about how they grew up and you only hope that if your parents treated you like that someone would call Child Protective Services on them. Things like, parents making their kids go outside and play. Kids having to walk or bike places not being driven anywhere. No snacks between meals. No TV. And no phone. If you re a parent,...

For most of human history, we ve looked to our political leaders to bring about change. We can go all the way back to Cesar, Napoleon, Churchill, and Lincoln. Since the industrial revolution, we ve been able to add the names of business leaders who have radically changed our world. Henry Ford. Sam Walton. Steve Jobs. Currently, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are changing everything from groceries to spa...