It's Acadiana: Out to Lunch

The ocean can be terrifying. The horizon doesn’t end. It’s vast and unknown, like staring into space only it’s lapping at your feet. But in business, the ocean is a both an apt symbol for opportunity — think "the blue ocean strategy" for marketing and innovation — and a great place to make a living.  Louisiana has certainly done that for decades with offshore dri...

What’s not to love about a doughnut? They’re fried, fatty, crispy, doughy and sweet. You can dip them in chocolate, stuff them with Bavarian cream and roll them in sprinkles. They come vegan, gluten free or covered with bacon crumbles. You can slice them half and use them as a hamburger bun. Anything that good has to be sold by the dozen. And it should be easy to do, right? &...

I’m of the opinion that everyone can use an editor. It’s useful to have someone to bounce an idea off of and whittle it down to the sharpest point.  Working with an editor can be kind of intense. It’s like therapy or professional coaching. You work through bad habits and confront flaws you didn’t know you had.  This is starting to sound a bit like therapy. And may...

Acadiana is kind of a hidden treasure. Most folks think of New Orleans when Louisiana comes up, but the nooks and crannies of the state are what make it special.  Hop on a rural byway and you can wind through all kinds of magical places. It’s a state you can stay-cation in and find lots of oddities and specialties. Pockets of cultures and traditions that are unseen even by folks just a...

What’s your shangri-la? Traditionally, in Acadiana, that might be the great outdoors. This is, after all, the sportsman’s paradise.  Finding your piece of heaven usually comes down to the world around you. For a lot of folks, that means where you live — literally. Your home is your private paradise. For others, perhaps, it’s something less tangible. Shangri-la is not w...

Brands can become institutions — legacies that outlast their founders and become fixtures in our lives. In Acadiana, if your brand is food, it can become sacred . That means you don’t mess with it.  Now, imagine you inherit the institution or buy it. Well, on the one hand, you’ve got everything you need to succeed. As the saying goes, if it ain’t broke don’t...

I work from home most of the time. And my desk is a pile of post-it notes, coffee mugs, knick knacks and unopened mail. I look to my left and my wife’s desk has the tranquility of a Buddhist temple. No wonder she gets more done.  Getting organized is a kind of therapy. It also makes satisfying TV. Marie Kondo made the trade famous by teaching people to spark joy in their lives with prec...

In theory, plants are a pretty simple product. The general principle of it is straightforward. You put something in the ground. Add some water, some nutrients. You wait, you harvest, you eat. Or maybe you stuff it in a wicker basket and sell it at the farmer’s market.  But it’s really not that simple if you want to take something homegrown and market it. We run across products all...

Creativity can be like gas in a tank. If you go, go, go, you burn it all up. Work/life balance in creative industries is really important.  Business owners are paying more attention now to the environment they create for their employees. It’s not just about recruitment, either. It makes for a better product for your clients and customers.  Talent needs a place to thrive. And runnin...

Family is a big deal in Acadiana. That can be quite literally true. Family trees are large and deep-rooted, and that grounds a lot of us here. This area is known for having among the highest population retention in the nation. That doesn’t necessarily make being a teenager in Acadiana any easier. Defining who you are and who you want to be can be challenging. All the more so perhaps as the c...

The Romans had a saying: In vino veritas: In wine truth. It’s due for an update. Vodka is much more transparent. The art of distilling vodka is the pursuit of purity. There’s nothing to hide behind.  It makes a pretty good vehicle for a story to tell. And telling a good story is important if you want to get a leg up in the beverage industry. Of 220 million cases of alcohol sold ea...

At some point, it feels like every business will have to compete with Amazon. The stereotyped struggle of the 20th century was mom and pop versus Walmart. And we’ve all seen how that changed the commercial landscape in downtowns across America, and right here in Acadiana. Economies of scale are a powerful thing. The new family business isn’t likely a brick and mortar anymore. E-busines...

There’s a silly proverb: "Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach." It's silly because we all know that some of the best teachers can do and can teach. Skill and the ability to lead by example are immensely valuable especially when you’re teaching a craft or trade or a sport.   Teaching is a good product. And when executed properly it puts students on a lifetime...

You know a concept has become ingrained in the business world when it gets an acronym or shorthand. MVP — minimum viable product. CSR — corporate social responsibility. And now DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion.  Emphasizing diversity is nothing new. Business leaders, especially in corporate America, have embraced the idea that drawing from a wider pool of talent and per...

Researchers estimate that more than 2 million Americans need help with an opioid addiction. And only about 25% will actually get it.  This can all seem so very daunting. But the reality is, we are getting better at treating substance abuse disorders.  For one thing, we have better medicines that are keeping people alive. And providers are changing how they approach treatment of the...

Grocery stores did very well during the pandemic. In 2020, Lafayette grocery stores pulled in just over $300 million, a 10% increase over the previous year. It makes sense. Restaurants shut down. People stayed home. Supplies were key to surviving a stay-home order.  Now, imagine that there wasn’t a grocery store near you. Imagine you lost your job, or you were furloughed. Maybe you don&...

In case you were born after 2000, DJ stands for disc jockey. And true to the name, that’s what DJ’s did. They rode a record till it broke and  became a hit.  Today, being a DJ isn’t so much about introducing people to new music. At least that’s not the case with DJs on mainstream radio. Hits are everywhere. You can stream them any way you want. People tune in with...

Before the folks behind Beausoleil Books built a coffee shop or a bar to go inside their new boutique, they checked with their neighbors — the cafes and bars in Downtown Lafayette. They settled on a wine bar: something new to the fabric of Jefferson Street and something that wouldn’t compete.  That’s the shop local response to behemoth retail. Collaboration. Neighborliness.&...

The great American shopping mall has been on the endangered species list for several years now. But the retail apocalypse has yet to be realized. If malls are doomed, they don’t seem to notice.  It is true, however, that the way we shop is in the middle of a long disruption. When Amazon came along, it heralded the end of the in-person shopping experience and the trimmings that go along...

Maybe you could boil the tourism industry down into two segments: where you’re going and how you get there — the journey and the destination. Between the two of them you have the “why question,” as in, "Why bother leaving your house?"  For Louisiana and Acadiana particular, the allure to travelers is an exotic land within reach. The region is unique. And if you land in...

When you have a business, you usually have some sort of a business plan. Even if you don’t run endless spreadsheets, you have goals, and an idea of how things will look if everything goes right. And, though you might be a bit more reluctant to think about it, you generally have an idea of what things might look like if you hit a lean period. But, no matter how carefully you plan for eve...

If you’re talking to somebody and you’re discussing how far it is from here to your place, you might say “It’s a long way.” The person you’re talking to can say, “How far is it exactly?” You can tell ‘em, “Three miles,” and they can decide if they regard that as a long way or not. Here in Acadiana, it’s equally important to ha...

Louisiana shares the abbreviation “L.A” with the city of Los Angeles. Although that sometimes leads to some confusion on paper and online, in the real world there is very little overlap between the LA lifestyle in the desert west and the LA lifestyle in the humid South. For example, if Aileen Bennett sitting in for Christiaan Mader was to say “burritos” you’d say Los...

Writers are hustlers. When you get paid cents per word, you’ve got to write a lot of words to make ends meet. And that’s getting harder to do in a crowded market. Anyone can blog. We all learn to string a few sentences together in high school. What’s the point in paying a professional?  In journalism, there’s actually a crisis because of that dynamic. There are as many...

In Acadiana, business is a tradition and tradition is a business – often the family business. There’s a long heritage of musical families around here, dynasties of fiddlers and accordion players handing down the tools and tricks of the family trade to generation after generation. Here our Acadiana musical families are household names, every bit as famous and respected for their talent...