It's Acadiana: Out to Lunch

If you travel around Louisiana, you see enormous differences from north to south. And even more from east to west. It s always been this way, to some extent. But the differences have arguably never been as extreme as they are now. Here in Lafayette, and in Acadiana in general, we re going through some pretty major changes as we adjust to the new reality of the oil business. Meanwhile, just an hour s drive away, around Lake Charles, there is an enormous boom. So enormous that it s by some measures the biggest growth region in the country. On this edition of Out to Lunch, Andrea Moreau sits in for Peter Ricchiuti and takes a look at what exactly is going on at either end of that one hour drive between Lafayette and Lake Charles with Chad Thielen and Debbioe Springer. Chad has his finger on the pulse in Lake Charles, and Debbie is on the front line in Lafayette. Debbie has been in the energy business for 37 years and is founder and President of Lafayette based Audubon Energy. Debbie started out in the oil business as a very rare breed a female Landman. After conquering the good old boy network, Debbie was President of another energy company before founding Audubon Energy in 2012. It would take too long to list everything Chad Thielen can get accomplished in a day, but here s the short list. Chad is President of Lake Charles based land management company, Lacassane Company. He is president of the Morganfield and Belle Savanne developments, which he s developing with the folks who developed River Ranch in Lafayette. And if that s not enough, Chad also manages a handful of oil and gas exploration companies. And there s more, but again, that s the short list. Photos at Cafe Vermilionville by Gwen Aucoin.

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Just 135 miles apart, a 2 hour sprint on the interstate or a scenic ramble on the 90, New Orleans and Lafayette are two of America s most culturally interesting cities. Economically, though, they re different. New Orleans is booming and growing while Lafayette is facing headwinds from a depressed oil economy and the continuing after effects of floods that are combining to limit opportunity. Given this situation, it would seem to be an unlikely time to expand a New Orleans business into Lafayette. But that s what two prominent local companies are doing. The iconic Rock n Bowl and the gourmet hot dog sensation Dat Dog are both opening locations in Lafayette. Johnny Blancher from Rockn n Bowl and Constantine Georges from Dat Dog shed some light on their logic over lunch with Peter Ricchiuti. Lafayette is no stranger to parties but with these two businesses at either end of Jefferson, both with music venues, look for these New Orleans imports to be a big part of the revival of downtown.Photos at Commander s Palace by Alison Moon.

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If you had a dollar for every time someone on radio or TV said, "Here in Acadiana we re known for our food," you probably would have made about a hundred dollars this month already. You wouldn t be as wealthy, though, if you were collecting a dollar on the sentence, "Here in Acadiana there is a sizeable segment of the population open to a medically holistic, nutritious approach to diet with an emphasis on fresh fruit and vegetables." Although you don t hear a lot of people say that, and as unlikely as it sounds, it s true. Dr Marie Pace will attest to that. Dr Pace is the owner of a business on Kaliste Saloom in Lafayette called Optimum Solutions Holistic Health Consultants. Dr Pace is a doctor of Naturopathy, a Holistic Health Practitioner, a Certified Nutritional Counselor, and author of the book Discover Health. Dr Pace believes we would go a long way toward eliminating all diseases if we lived on a more balanced diet of fresh fruit and vegetables. Jimbeaux Guilbeaux will be happy to bring you all the fresh fruit and vegetables you want. Jimbeaux is co founder and Vice President of Sales at Freshko Foodservice. Freshko s 22 employees deliver fresh food, and more, to restaurants, hospitals, hotels, and other food related businesses in Lake Charles, Lafayette, Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Shreveport. Freshko s success story is a classic Acadiana business tale and an inspirational testimony to good old fashioned decency in business. Photos at Social by Gwen Aucoin.

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A few football seasons ago, after years of losing, the Saints suddenly started to become a winning team. People back then would explain the change of fortune with a knowing look and two words "Drew Brees." In Acadiana, people have recently started exchanging that same knowing look when they talk about the impressive number of new businesses starting up around here. Folks look at each other and say, "U.L." What they re referring to is officially known as, "The B. I. Moody III College of Business Administration at The University of Louisiana Lafayette." On this show, and in conversation, so many people talk glowingly about the effect the UL business school is having on the growth and diversification of the Acadiana economy that we thought it was about time we find out what s going on inside those business school buildings. Dr Gwen Fontenot is the interim Dean of the business school, a position she s held since 2015. Dr Fontenot is in her second tour of duty at UL. She first taught at the business school from 1984 to 89. And this tour started out in 1999. Dr. Geoffrey Stewart is the Moody College of Business Administration s Associate Professor of Marketing. Dr Stewart has been teaching at UL since 2003. Andre Moreau sits in for Peter Ricchiuti on this edition of Out to Lunch that goes behind the scenes at Acadiana s academic business engine. Photos at Cafe Vermilionville by Gwen Aucoin.

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There s a great deal of uncertainty in the oil business these days. When times are tough and margins are slim, oil producers find ways to trim costs wherever they can. But, no matter how big or small your company is, there are only so many people you can lay off. There are only so many wells you can close down. Oil producers still need to produce oil. What they want to do is produce it more efficiently. You d think because we ve doing this here in Acadiana and around the world for a long time that by now we would have figured out all the cost cutting methods of getting oil out of the ground. Well, apparently, we haven t. Peter Ricchiuti s three guests on Out to Lunch today have each come up with new oil field innovations. Josh Suttles is AIM Division Manager for Nacher Corporation, the inventor of a piece of equipment called The Flange Cuff. Aaron Broussard is a member of a Lafayette institution, Begnaud Manufacturing. At Begnaud Aaron has developed a product called Power Brush Machines. Calvin Fabre is a Technical Debt Specialist which is working on time, money, and effort spent in the future to pay off poor design decisions of the past and at Envoc he s the developer of an app called Spotter. Josh, Aaron and Calvin describe how oilfield innovation is always in demand, in either a rising or sinking oil economy. Photos at Cafe Vermilionville by Gwen Aucoin.

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If you re a certain age and in business, you might have had a business mid life crisis. It s not about getting a tattoo and a Harley Davidson, it s about being confronted with a massive change in the way business is done, and deciding what to do about it. If you started out before the internet, before apps, before social media, and in some cases before the computer, the relentless onslaught of technology drives you to a point where you either throw up your hands and decide to be a Luddite, or you embrace change. Tim Supple has embraced change. In a big way. For years the multi billion dollar Acadiana oil and gas business depended for its existence on a breed of hydrocarbon cowboys called Landmen. A Landman secures the leases and rights for an oil and gas company to dig wells. That s not nearly as simple as it sounds. It can involve masses of contacts, phone calls, promises, handshakes, lunches, drinks, scraps of paper, maps, blind alleys and frequent and expensive miscalculations. Tim Supple and his partner came up with a way to take all the disparate inputs oil and gas company landmen accumulate, and assemble them in a whole new way online. They created a web based version of the Acadian Hydrocarbon cowboy and called him iLandman. In a tough time for oil exploration, iLandman is giving over fifteen hundred subscribers a much needed edge. Chad Theriot is on the other side of the tech revolution. Although Chad grew up in Breaux Bridge his upbringing sounds more like a kid in Silicon Valley. Chad started working with his father in the family business, CBM Technology, at the age of 12. By 15 he was a computer programmer. Chad went on to create the first automated system that uses voice to produce a transcript for court reporters, and has designed and developed software for a wide range of companies including UPS and The Kellogg Corporation. In 2011 Chad and his business partner bought his dad s company, CBM, and for that reason Chad is living back on the Silicon Bayou. Meet two quietly effective Acadian tech innovators. Change is afoot in the Acadiana economy. From Breaux Bridge to Lake Charles. Photos at Cafe Vermilionville by Gwen Aucoin.

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This is a show about Acadiana business and, as you are probably well aware if you travel around Acadiana, there are no shortage of fascinating businesses to talk about in this part of the world. From oil and gas companies to jewelers and from accordion builders to app builders. From all these choices, we have a couple of guidelines for whom to feature as guests on Out to Lunch. We only book people who have a real business, not just an idea. And we don t have the same people twice. So on this edition of Out to Lunch we re featuring a person who is making a second appearance. And a business that doesn t exist yet. Cherie Hebert was a guest on Out to Lunch last time to talk about her Lafayette ad agency, BBR Creative. Today she s back with a second career as a house builder in Arnaudville. Cherie is probably not going to be swinging a hammer too often but she is planning to build 12 houses in her first year in business. If you add up the square footage of all those houses, you ll get a building about the size of the average family home. Cherie s company is called Tee Tiny houses, because the houses she s building are tiny. At 240 square feet each they are part of the nationwide tiny house fad. Cherie, welcome back to Out to Lunch. The other guideline we use for booking guests on Out to Lunch is that on each show we have guests representing different companies. With that in mind, meet George Marks, Cherie s partner in Tee Tiny Houses. George is the founder of the NuNu Arts and Culture Collective in Arnaudville known far and wide beyond the confines of Acadiana as the NuNu Collective, or just NuNu. The shape of things to come in Acadiana and beyond is rolling out of Arnaudville. Photos at Cafe Vermilionville by Gwen Aucoin.

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Thomas Edison was the 19th Century s Steve Jobs. He invented the motion picture camera, the record player, and the lightbulb. Incidentally, Edison was known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park" which is the same part of Northern California where Steve Jobs lived and worked too. Edison explained his genius as being "one tenth inspiration and nine tenths perspiration." That formula can be applied to success in business too. It s pretty easy to define perspiration. It s working hard. It s a lot more difficult to find inspiration. Not just the great idea that gives rise to a business or a product, but the many ideas that you need to come up with along the way to make adjustments and even radical changes which in today s business jargon are called "pivots." You probably know all about delegating the perspiration side of business hiring, or partnering to share the workload. But you might be less familiar with who to turn to when you need inspiration. Yes, there are people who specialize in having great ideas. Like Jeff Benton and Aileen Bennett. Aileen Bennett describes herself as a Roaming Creative Director, an Idea thinker upper, and a Brand Experience Consultant. With her company, Creating Clever, Aileen has a unique perspective on making a business successful. She says, for example, it s often the little details that determine how customers feel about your business. The look on the receptionist s face. The smell in your hallway. The sign in your bathroom. The attitude of the staff when they are on a break. Jeff Benton is the founder of a company called The Stronger Company. Jeff is one of only 150 people worldwide certified to consult with businesses using EOS the Entrepreneurial Operating System. It s a business model and a set of tools that synchronize all the pieces of a business to optimize its chances of turning great ideas and great people into great companies. Jeff is also a certified Dale Carnegie Leadership Instructor, and co founder of the enormously successful electronics company, Pre Sonus Audio Electronics. With the realignment of the oil and gas business there are a lot of talented, creative people who don t want to leave Acadiana and who are branching out into all kinds of other businesses. Jeff and Aileen s consultancies are among the new Acadian perspective contributing these new ventures. Photos at Cafe Vermilionville by Gwen Aucoin.

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Acadiana is different from pretty much every other place in the world. It s even different from the rest of Louisiana. It s hard to know exactly where on the I 10 the difference begins, but you know it when you see it. Because it doesn t just feel different which it does. And it s not just because people are nicer which they are. But you know it when you see it because Acadiana looks different. On this edition of Out to Lunch Peter talks with two people who are responsible for creating and preserving buildings that give Acadiana a style that is uniquely entwined with our culture and lifestyle. Robert Daigle is the developer of The Village of River Ranch a 320 acre traditional neighborhood development in Lafayette and the managing partner of Sugar Mill Pond Development Company the developer of Sugar Mill Pond, a 500 acre traditional neighborhood development in Youngsville. L J Gielen lives in Crowley, the rice capital of the world. LJ owns a restaurant The Rice Palace. He s a part owner of a construction company L K Breaux and Associates. But what L J is probably best known for in Crowley and in nationwide historic restoration circles is the enormous amount of time, work and capital he has put into restoring The Grand Opera House of The South. In the 39 years it was open, The Grand hosted a list of notables from Enrico Caruso to Babe Ruth and Clark Gable. After being closed for 69 years, LJ has brought The Grand Opera House of the South back to life and today the theater is back in business. At this only in Acadiana business lunch at Social in Lafayette, two of our finest, most charming gentlemen talk about their wives, ghosts, personal fulfillment, and in understated humility their incredibly successful businesses. Photos by Gwen Aucoin.

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If you ve ever bought a house, you quickly come to realize that buying something for hundreds of thousands of dollars is not quite the same as buying groceries or a bicycle. If, like an increasing number of people these days, you decide to leave the safety of a steady paycheck and go into business on your own, you can be overwhelmed by the thousands of decisions that confront you, any one of which seems at the time like it could make or break you. In either instance, starting up your own business or buying property, the difference between disappointment and success can come down to one word advice. If you re starting up a business in Acadiana and you re looking for the kind of seasoned advice you d expect to find on the East or West Coast, you need go no further than Lafayette. That s where you ll find Geoff Daily and his company, Start Stuff Industries. Start Stuff helps you start stuff. Coming from an impressive tech background up North, Geoff Daily fell in love with Lafayette in 2010 and has been helping locals start stuff in Acadiana ever since. Geoff, welcome to Out to Lunch. Buying a piece of property whether it s your home or your business starts with finding the piece of property. On the face of it that would seem pretty simple. But in reality it isn t so easy to find the perfect property. And once you ve found it, things only get more complicated from there, ending weeks or months later with a mountain of papers and a lifetime of debt. As with starting a business, the difference between disappointment and success in buying property can come down to who is advising you. Peggy Grace and her company PAR Realty have been advising real estate clients in Lafayette and Lake Charles for 25 years. In late 2016 Peggy took her company into a partnership with an international real estate company, Engel and Volkers. Having the power and resources of an international player gives Peggy a competitive advantage in Acadiana, and provides an advantage for Acadiana residents looking to move out of state. Photos at Social Southern Table and Bar by Gwen Aucoin.

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