Normally on Out to Lunch we’re talking about for-profit businesses. But here in Acadiana – maybe more than anywhere else in the country – there are organisations and people dedicated to making a difference rather than a profit. On this edition of Out to Lunch Christiaan Mader is talking with folks who run nonprofit organizations…

If you’re in the music business and you can get a dollar for every time somebody says “The music business is changing,” you’ll probably make more money than however you’re making it now in the music business.  Yes, Acadiana is rich with music, but music makes hardly anybody rich. And getting rich is besides the point….

Maybe you think Boudoir Photography – intimate, seductive portraits taken for romance or personal empowerment – is something that happens in other places. After all, we’re pretty conservative around here. Aren’t we? Well, apparently not. April Courville got a masters in marketing in college and wound up in Minnesota where she fell into boudoir photography….

The term “Silicon Bayou” has been around for some time. It’s the promise of a new economy for Louisiana, sometimes thought of in New Orleans. Beyond the confines of the Crescent City, the Louisiana Silicon Bayou stretches well into Acadiana. When you think about it, this area has always been the frontier when it comes…

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…

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…

There can be a lot of pressure to take on the family business, especially when the family name becomes synonymous with the industry they work in. Imagine what it must be like to be a Hilton or a Disney or a Manning. Everybody copes with it differently. Some embrace it. Some make their own mark…

We’ve always been told that there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes. In 21st Century America you can add one certainty: the ever changing face of healthcare. Apparently, back in the dim distant past, people used to get sick, go to a doctor, get cured, and go home. We’d pay the doctor…

One of the things we’re proudest of in Acadiana is our culture. And our family. We even talk about the family relationships between our cultures as being first cousins: Cajun and Zydeco. There are similarities and notable differences between Cajun music and dance, and Zydeco music and dance. Leaving aside for the moment the intertwined Acadian…

If you’re like most people, you found out very early on, probably in pre-school, that things go a lot better when people like you. Nothing much has changed since you were 4.  From the factory floor, to the boardroom, to the halls of regulatory government, to million-dollar marketing campaigns, being successful in commerce is very…