It's Acadiana: Out to Lunch

We’re all looking for that next great business idea. And sometimes it’s hovering right above you. Or maybe sitting in the palm of your hand.  Entrepreneurship isn’t always about inventing a new product or service. Most successful new companies are solving problems or seeing opportunities that should be obvious, but aren’t to most people.  The solution can be a hig...

Just because we’re 1,800 miles away from the other L.A., doesn’t mean you can’t have a career in Hollywood.  State tax incentives have lured productions to Louisiana over the last decade or so. And that’s given a lot of local talent an opportunity to work in the industry without making the leap of faith in Los Angeles.  You’ve probably heard of some big budg...

Acadiana is famous for the wildcatter mentality. It’s a frame of mind inherited from the early days of the region’s oil industry, when lone prospectors went drilling until they struck black gold.  You can see the attitude just about everywhere. Lafayette has a really high level of entrepreneurship. Around 11% of the workforce is made up of business owners, a ratio competitive with...

When you look good, you feel good. More and more men are catching on to that concept. In 2022, the men’s personal care industry was projected to hit $166 billion, according to market analysts. Combine that with growing consumer interest about what goes in the stuff you put on your face or beard, and it’s a prime opportunity for entrepreneurship.  And MacRoyce Williams, i...

The Creole Nutcracker isn't a kitchen implement, it's a Creole version of the classic Christmas kid's ballet, Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. And it comes from right here in Acadiana. To put this diversity-inspired ballet in current context, let's take a step back and look at where we are with inclusion in general. We tend to think of advocacy as something nonprofits and community groups do. But mor...

The 21st Century has spawned an entire new class of entrepreneur: The influencer. No, it’s not just another word for celebrity. Influencers are more like traveling salesmen, except they don’t have to leave home. (Unless they’re selling travel.) It’s kind of an ingenious business idea. Startup costs are low. A ring light, a smartphone and an Instagram account is really all y...

Around 71% of the earth is water. Give it a few more years of sea level rise and we’ll top 80, no problem.  In Louisiana, we’ve lived with water a long time. And for a lot of kids, that begins with swim lessons.  At some point in nearly every child’s life, they get thrown into the deep end. It’s a good idea they know how to swim, so they don’t sink.&nbs...

In 1515, Pope Leo X tried to cancel the bible. Well, Gutenberg’s bible.   It’s hard to imagine now, but back then printed books were considered a threat. Literacy among the wider population could undermine the influence of the Church.  In all, Gutenberg produced 180 copies of his Bible. Today, 280 characters on Twitter is how you change the world. So what room is there f...

Do you always feel like somebody’s watching you? Well, it’s not just a dream — it’s the 21st century.  Information is power, and there’s money to be made from gathering it. Or keeping people from taking it.  Here’s a new buzzword for you: surveillance capitalism: the marketplace for information captured often without your knowledge - or conse...

There’s no doubt that Lafayette is in an economic transition. Changes in energy are driving changes in the world. And Lafayette has, since the 20th century, been an American energy hub.  You don’t have to look far locally to see the changes. The infamous oil bust of the 1980s nearly bankrupted the entire city. Banks closed. Bumper stickers read, “Last one out turn off the li...

Louisiana isn’t just a sportsman’s paradise it’s a birders paradise. Maybe even an animal lover’s paradise. Birdy There are 25 rare bird species tracked by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries: The American Oystercatcher, the Red-cockaded Woodpecker, the swallow-tailed kite, the Crested Caracara. Some good news: the bald eagle, is no longer threatened.&nb...

Try this: Google “Lafayette dance studio.” You'll find 20 listings in Lafayette. For comparison, there are 12 McDonald’s.  Dance is a pretty big industry here. The operators even have political clout. The Heymann Center was shut down briefly during the pandemic until the dance community raised hell. But most of those studios are for young people. And dance, or any type...

All musicians want to be actors and all actors want to be musicians. That’s how you get David Bowie in the Labyrinth and the Bacon Brothers. To be fair, everyone wants to be in the movie business. Over the last couple of decades, changes in technology and tax incentive programs by state and local governments have made that somewhat easier for folks to do, without necessarily moving to Los An...

The 1990s were a fertile but culturally awkward decade — the playground of Gen Xers and grunge and flannel.  It was also the birth of the internet as we know it. Companies like Yahoo and Google came of age during the dotcom boom, and so  did a generation of IT professionals. They were the first wave of workers in the digital economy. Today, that generation is in charge. Inform...

What’s the difference between an artist and an artisan? You might say one makes things for expression and the other for use. But in reality, the line is blurry. It’s a distinction without a difference for the people who are actually making things.  Art and craftsmanship have always been in conversation. Creating for expression was made possible by creating for necessity. Ancient M...

If you were born in or after 1984 you haven’t lived in a world without the Karate Kid. Before that date, Karate wasn’t always a fixture of youth activity in U.S. But, believe it or not, it was in Crowley, Louisiana! Way back in the 1970's, thanks to Acadiana Karate . Today, Stacey Knight Mejia and her husband Pablo run the dojo at a space in Lafayette. Pablo originally took over the bu...

What’s the future of the Louisiana worker? What a loaded question. Sometimes we get so caught up asking about the future that we forget that it’s already here.  Chew on this: in 2020, mining for oil & gas accounted for around 1% of Louisiana’s GDP. That’s down from around 10% a decade ago.  Louisiana has been in a pivot for a long time. And while we often talk...

Imagine Acadiana without festivals. Between 2020 and 2021, we nearly got a taste of that reality. And for the most part it wasn’t pleasant.  Gathering is a big part of the culture here. So when Covid made getting together dangerous, it also threatened a way of life.  Festivals did what they could to keep the tradition alive. Going virtual was a workable substitute in a pinch, but t...

When I work in a coffee shop, I don’t get much done. Honestly, I didn’t go to the coffee shop to work. That’s just a little white lie I tell myself to get out of the house.  Coffee shops might be the easiest place to track down if you travel for work. You know there’s wifi, but the environment can be unpredictable. Is the cappuccino machine too loud? Too bad. Well, wha...

For a couple of years, I’d say the most common investigation request I’d get was "Why doesn’t Lafayette recycle glass?" The natural follow-up, of course, is... "What happens to it?" Well...for most of the glass you use - it ends up in a landfill. Even the stuff you thought you were recycling all those years ago. And here’s a disturbing fact: Glass takes one million years to...

Swamps and the French language put up barriers to globalization in Acadiana for generations. At least that’s the conventional narrative. Even within our own community, we often underestimate just how wide the cultural landscape is in South Louisiana and has always been.  Barriers persist. But there are lots of creative, thoughtful people chiseling away at them and mining for a common he...

E-commerce is about speed. But not just for the customer, for the seller, too. The name of the game is striking while the iron’s hot. Get your product to the top of the search ranking on Google and you can move units, fast. Once a cat meme goes pandemic, it pays to be the seller who can deliver the hype on a mug or a t-shirt.  The hard part is the logistics. Inventory takes investm...

If you don’t know or care much about wine, then the language around it can sound like Greek. Or French, perhaps, is more accurate. "Terroir," "appellation," "cuvee." It can all be overwhelming. Go to a restaurant, order a bottle. Which wine do you like? Red or white? For a lot of us, that’s as far as goes.  Acadiana feels like Michelob Ultra country. People here drink light beers...

Having a green thumb is a good way to earn a living. Agriculture was the first big business. It created the marketplace and civilization itself.  Of course, going green has an entirely new meaning these days. And I’m not talking about the green new deal. I’m talking about cannabis.  The medicinal properties of marijuana have been known for ages. And believe it or not, Louisia...

So much attention in business news is tech, and I don’t just mean Big Tech. The word “innovation” is thrown around a lot when really what we’re talking about are gadgets...not ideas.  But innovation in business is often about what you do, not what you use. Processes, procedures, protocols and work culture — these can all be major innovations in a successful busin...