It's Acadiana: Out to Lunch

One of the things we like to do on this show is introduce you to people who have businesses and occupations you might not be aware of. Or that are, shall we say "out of the ordinary." In that regard, we may have outdone ourselves with this edition of Out to Lunch. Rusty Wilson is a vermiculturalist. Also known as a worm farmer. Yes, worms. Down on the Acadiana Worm Farm, Rusty has hundreds of thousands of Red Wigglers, African Nightcrawlers and European Night Crawlers. Like a dairy farmer farms cows for milk, or a sheep farmer farms sheep for wool, Rusty s worms themselves are not the crop. It s the worm castings. Or poop. In horticultural circles, worm poop is a highly regarded fertilizer. And worm farming is, pound for pound, a pretty lucrative business. You might be thinking, "Well that s about as odd as it s going to get. Aileen couldn t find a business wackier than worm farming." How about a business where you don t have to do anything Except show up and be yourself. Much as you d be, say, in your own home. That s what Joseph Vidrine does for a living. Jo is a self described "Freelance Cajun." Jo makes appearances at venues across the country and around the world, doing Cajun stuff. He speaks. Plays music. Cooks. And takes photos which is not strictly Cajun but if a Cajun takes your photo in New England, it s spicier. What happens when two of Acadiana s most self motivated and passion driven entrepreneurs meet for lunch for the first time It s business, Acadiana style. Photos over lunch at Cafe Vermilionville in Lafayette Louisiana.

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We hear a lot these days about how we re all living in our own bubble. As more of us create our own TV channels with Netflix, our own radio stations with Spotify, and get our news from personalized social media feeds, we no longer have the kind of shared experiences we used to have, where we would laugh about last night s Seinfeld or agree how lame Brittney Spears new song was. If you re a TV channel, a radio station, or a record company, you ve found ways to adapt your product now called "content" to the new delivery system. However, changing the way you deliver content is not quite so simple if your medium is print. You can have an online newspaper or online magazine but it s not the same thing. One is made of paper, and one isn t. How to navigate these paper and digital demands, how to hold on to readers, and how stay in business in this environment is the sort of stuff James Flachsenhaar spends his days figuring out. James is Vice President of News for the Gulf Coast for Gannett Louisiana, and Executive Editor of The Daily Advertiser, all of which is a part of the USA Today network. Not all print is created equal. While people seem happy to get their news online instead of in paper form, there is really no digital equivalent of the glossy magazine. The feel, pictorial beauty, and the sense of luxury is hard to replicate online. But instead of that being a negative, it seems that the unique incomparable nature of magazines is keeping them thriving. Sevie Zeller is publisher and editor of local Acadiana 337 Magazine, and the co owner of 337 Media. Photos at Cafe Vermilionville by Lucius Fontenot.

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We launched Out to Lunch Acadiana in July 2015. When we went on the air, KRVS in Lafayette was as it still is a mostly music station. We didn t know if we d have a single listener to a show about Acadiana business. Even knowing that, our very first guests, Matt Stuller from Stuller Inc and Anya Burgess from Sola Violins, were gracious enough to come on the show. In the intervening years, Out to Lunch has gotten pretty popular on KRVS. And podcasting has gone mainstream. Now we have a large radio and podcast audience, with listeners in Acadiana, across the country, and around the world. So, given that there is a pretty good chance, wherever you are, that you didn t hear Anya Burgess or Matt Stuller on our initial broadcast, we re going to rectify that. Though he s too modest to say it himself, Matt Stuller is arguably Acadiana s most successful business person. Here are a few facts to back that up. Stuller Incorporated makes 200,000 pieces of jewelry for over 40,000 jewelry outlets worldwide. It s one of the largest jewelry manufacturing and distributing firms in the United States, with facilities in Bangkok, Barcelona, and 3 plants in North America, including here in Lafayette where there are over one thousand employees. Stuller Inc is a huge and hugely successful company that Matt has grown from its infancy in the early 1970 s. It s an absolute pleasure to welcome Matt back to out to Lunch Acadiana. Anya Burgess is a fiddle player who started out fixing her own and other people s violins, on her dining room table. That eventually turned into a business when Anya opened her storefront, Sola Violins, in downtown Lafayette in 2014. As a musician, Anya has been nominated for a Grammy. Twice. Once each with both of her bands, Bonsoir Catin and The Magnolia Sisters. Anya and Matt are two very different but equally unique contributors to both the culture and economy of Acadiana. Photos at Cafe Vermilionville by Lucius Fontenot.

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As social animals, we humans tend to ask each other two main questions. "How are you " And "What do you do " When we ask "How are you " we re looking a one word answer, something like "Fine," not a full medical report. But the response to "What do you do " tells us a lot of information about someone, besides what they do. For example, the reply, "I m a neuro scientist" or "I m a bass player in a punk band" tells us more than just what each of those people do all day. It tells us this is somebody I would like to talk more to, or this is somebody I can probably walk away from and go get another beer. Then again, once in a while, you meet someone who tells you what they do, and you have no idea what it might mean about them. Because you have no experience with anyone who does a job anything like that. And that s where we are on this edition of Out to Lunch Acadiana. Paul Kieu is a freelance photojournalist. Paul s photos have appeared locally in The Advertiser and The Advocate, in print across the country in publications like USA Today, and online on news sites like NBC news. Kody Chamberlain has one of those dream jobs that every kid who s ever sat in a class room with a piece of paper and pen has wanted from the age of 10. Kody draws comics. Yes, for a living. Kody is the creator of "Sweets A New Orleans Crime Story," "Punks The Comic," and other titles you ve most certainly heard of if you re in the comic world. Kody s a big deal in the world of comics. And he lives in Lafayette. Pictures at Cafe Vermilionville by Lucius Fontenot.

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The expression "the bottom line" comes from business. It refers to the bottom line of a balance sheet which is the total sum of money you ve made or lost. In general conversation we take it to mean the absolute fundamental basis of something. On this edition of Out to Lunch Acadiana, Aileen and guests are talking about the real world bottom line, for all of us. Life and death. And the business bottom line. These financial and existential elements come together in the person of Dr Paul Azar, the third. Paul is the fifth generation of his family to become a doctor. He also graduated cum laude from UL in finance and marketing. Paul s medical and business expertise combine in Lafayette, in his innovative stand alone clinic, Express Med, where you can see a doctor on demand, without an appointment and, if necessary, without insurance. Nicole Johnson is also in the business of saving lives. Though rather saving your life, Nicole teaches you how to save other people s lives. Nicole is the founder of CPRConnect, a company that provides training in CPR cardiopulmonary resuscitation. If a person stops breathing, or their heart stops beating effectively, CPR is a lifesaving technique that restores oxygenated blood flow to vital organs. There are many businesses and organizations that are legally required to have their staff train in CPR. And Nicole s company, CPRConnect, provides that training. Photos from the bar at Cafe Vermilionville by Lucius Fontenot.

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For the last couple of hundred years we ve been making food in Acadiana that tastes totally different from anything you find anywhere else in the world. But, with the notable exception of New Iberia s Tabasco which is a hugely successful international brand it s only been relatively recently that Acadian food manufacturers have tried exporting our tastes beyond the borders of Louisiana. Aileen s lunch guests today have companies that are taking basic tastes from our everyday Acadian menu and selling them successfully across the country. Krispy Krunchy Foods sells fried chicken that Neal Onebane perfected and sold in his local convenience stores in the early 90 s. 17 years into his Acadiana convenience store chicken sales, Neal thought that maybe people in convenience stores in other places in America might also like his fried chicken. It turned out he was right. For the last few years Krispy Krunchy Foods has been one of Acadiana s most successful companies with annual revenues well north of one hundred million dollars. Five or six years ago, Acadiana cousins Collin Cormier and John Petersen launched a line of soft drinks based on a branding idea that was really nothing more than a local pun Drink Swamp Pop. That s only funny in Louisiana because outside of here most people don t know that Swamp Pop is a type of music. And when you think about it as a brand, putting the word "swamp" on a bottle of colored liquid doesn t make the average person in another state necessarily want to drink it. These were all lessons the Swamp Pop entrepreneurs were to learn over their first 5 years in business. Today, John and Collin have more than succeeded in educating non Louisiana drinkers and Swamp Pop is on shelves and tables in all kinds of places across America, including at Cracker Barrel coast to coast. Krispy Krunchy Foods, Swamp Pop, and their founders Acadian style family passion for their companies are success stories we in Acadiana continue to be proud of. Photos over lunch at Cafe vermilionville by Lucius Fontenot.

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It s not unheard of for us to jump into something with two feet and totally commit to it only to discover some time later that things aren t working out exactly as we planned and we need to take some remedial action. On your wedding day, for example, you don t imagine you re going to find yourself a few years later making an appointment for couples therapy. When you drive off the lot in your fabulous new car, you don t imagine that in a year you re going to be cursing the day you got suckered in to buying it. When you start up a business, you can also find yourself some time down the road at a point you could never have imagined on the day you launched. In a bad marriage you have the option of divorce. The car you hate, you can sell. In business, there s also a single word for making radical change. That word is "pivot." "Pivoting" a business is not an admission of failure. It s an acknowledgement of the difference between a business plan and reality. Aileen s lunch guests have recent experiences in pivoting their businesses. Butch Roussel is the founder of a project called Civicside. Civicside lets citizens use crowdsourcing and crowdfunding which are kind of like online versions of a town hall meeting and bake sale to make local community projects happen in the real world. It s a great idea. And Civicside had its moments. Out of it, Butch has come to realize that the principles of Civicside are best implemented when there s a hard and fast time frame around a community project s creation. That s how Butch has come to pivot Civicside into what is now called The 24 Hour Citizen Project. Shane Istre was CEO and head of Business Development for a company called Kheiron Holdings. Kheiron provided Quality, Health, Safety, and Environmental consulting and training for the Oil and Gas, Pipeline, Marine Vessel, and Construction Industries. One of the facets of this training was the use of simulation in safety and operational training for onshore and offshore personnel. Out of this experience, Shane came to realize that the industry was going in an exciting new direction. One that utilizes artificial intelligence and machine learning to create a kind of parallel universe where businesses can in a way time travel into the future and model possible challenges before they show up in the real world. This technology is called Digital Twin. So Shane has pivoted his company to become a new entity, now called Digital Twin Studios. In business, being able to change with changing times, and being able to adapt to changing markets and demands, is the difference between being left behind in the dust and being out front in the lead. Photos at Cafe Vermilionville by Lucius Fontenot.

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Many indigenous populations have a view of their place in the universe that defines them as stewards of the Earth. Australian Aborigines, Native Americans, and others, see themselves as intimately connected to the land. Here in Acadiana we re intimately connected to the land in an agricultural sense, but you wouldn t expect to see Neil deGrasse Tyson delivering a lecture on Cajun Cosmology. If anything, the spiritual aspect of both Cajun and European immigrants here are shared in Catholicism, whose worship is mostly directed upward to the Heavens, not down to Earth. Nevertheless, in recent years we have come to realize we are all stewards of the Earth. Whether you believe in manmade climate change or you think that something other than science is behind it, we know we have to do what we can to preserve green space, and grow and consume crops responsibly. Most of us try and incorporate these philosophies into our everyday lives. But for some of us stewardship of the land is everyday life. As a student, EB Brooks started a campaign to save the green space then known as the UL Horse Farm. The campaign worked. In 2013 EB went to work for Lafayette Central Park, the non profit formed to oversee the design, development, operation and maintenance of what is now called Moncus Park. Today, EB is the organization s Executive Director, and has helped raise over 14,000,000 towards the park s construction. Beth James is the 7th generation steward of her family s land over eleven hundred acres in St Landry Parish. Beth is the co owner of James Farms, and co founder of a new venture a rice mill making a product called Prairie Ronde Long Grain Rice. We re not seeing the current generations of Acadiana residents as you might expect drifting away from the land, but if anything the opposite. Our current stewards, typified by E B Brooks and Beth James, have a greater reverence for the land than ever. Photos taken over lunch at Social Southern Table and Bar by Lucius Fontenot.

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Here in Acadiana, whether you re a recent arrival or your family s been here for generations, there s one thing we all agree on we have a unique culture that we need to preserve. That s a great sentiment. But even though we all have it, wishing doesn t make it happen. For culture to be preserved, somebody has to actually preserve it. Most of us are busy, working and raising families. Despite whatever good cultural intentions we may have, we re more likely able to quote lines from our favorite Netflix shows than lyrics to Cajun songs. Luckily for us, and for future generations, there are people among us who are making it their life s work to preserve, and to grow, our unique culture. One of them is Grammy Award winning musician, Joel Savoy. A member of one of the royal families of Cajun music, Joel plays in a band with his mom and dad Marc and Ann and brother Wilson as well as with many other combinations of Cajun musicians here in Acadiana, across the country, and around the world. Joel is also the co founder and owner of the record label Valcour Records, where you ll find music by Steve Riley, Bonsoir Catin, Cedric Watson, the Balfa Family, and many more. It s one thing to preserve a traditional culture. It s another thing altogether to get people to consume it, in competition for their attention with Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and every other distraction out there. The secret of social media is, not to be solely a consumer of it, but to use it as a marketing tool whether your message is Cajun culture or lawnmower repair. Here in Acadiana we are not typically known for our early adoption of technology. Matt Thibodeaux is something of an exception to that rule. Matt started out crafting social media campaigns for local companies back in the online marketing dark ages, over 8 years ago. Today Matt s Lafayette social media marketing company, The Matthew Aaron Agency, has over 15 employees, and social media marketing has become a key tool for businesses worldwide. Photos taken over lunch at Cafe Vermilionville by Lucius Fontenot.

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For as long as human beings have been on earth, we ve been on the move. If you re a Creationist, Adam and Eve were the first travelers when God told them to pack up their fig leaves and get out of The Garden of Eden. If you re an Evolutionist, geological finds support the theory that early humans wandered far and wide across the continents in search of food. Today, millions of us are on the move. Either for absolutely no reason other than our own amusement, or a desire to hang out with other people who have the same occupation as us. Amusing ourselves through travel or meeting up for business is a multi billion dollar industry. Here in Acadiana, the person charged with making sure we get our share of those billions is Ben Berthelot. Since 2012 Ben has been the President and CEO of the Lafayette Visitors and Convention Commission. If you re a tourist in Acadiana, unless you re coming for a music festival, you re probably not visiting for any specific reason. We don t have a spectacular national park like The Grand Canyon, or a man made attraction, like Disney World. If you re a tourist here you re probably coming to experience the food, music, and ambience or what we call "daily life." One of the daily life attractions in Acadiana are our quaint small towns and the culture within them. Like Eunice and it s famous Liberty Theater. The person responsible for both the theater and the town is the Mayor of Eunice, Scott Fontenot. Ben and Scott s decisions and actions over the next few years are going to affect almost all of us in Lafayette and Eunice. This conversation is an insight into what they re thinking and planning. Photos at Cafe Vermilionville by Lucius Fontenot.

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