It's Acadiana: Out to Lunch

ItsAcadiana.com
  • 5.0 (8)
  • BUSINESS
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

OUT TO LUNCH Business over lunch. Each week Christiaan invites guests from Acadiana's business community to join him for sushi at Tsunami in downtown Lafayette. Beyond the foundations of the Acadiana economy - oil, cuisine, music - there is a vast network of entrepreneurs, small businesses, and even some of the country's largest companies who call Acadiana home. Out to Lunch is the cafeteria of the wider Acadiana business community. You can also hear the show on KRVS 88.7FM.

  1. Laying Down The AI Law

    1D AGO

    Laying Down The AI Law

    The advent of AI is either exhilarating or terrifying, depending on the day and maybe your last interaction with Siri. That’s because the stakes of the technology, at least as it’s promoted by its developers, is really really high. If what they say about it is true, it could upend human work as we know it. No wonder, then, that a crisis of trust has accompanied its rapid rise.  What happens when you take AI into rooms where the stakes are high and the tolerance for error is low? Rooms like courtrooms. Or patrol cars. My guests on this edition of Out to Lunch Acadiana are both building AI products for exactly those environments. And what they've each discovered is that the technology is almost never the hardest part. The hardest part is trust. Grant Schexnailder grew up in Lafayette — out near Milton — and comes from a family of entrepreneurs. His mom runs Cheers Cheerleading Academy. Both of his grandfathers ran their own businesses. Grant went to LSU for finance, then to Southern University for law school — a calculated decision, he'll tell you, more than a calling.  By day, Grant defends municipalities and government agencies against litigation. Which means he knows courtrooms. He knows juries. And he knows how much rides on who ends up in that box. When ChatGPT arrived, Grant saw something. Jury selection — one of the most consequential and least scientific parts of a trial — was a problem AI could help solve. In 2024, he co-founded Empath Legal with software engineer Shane Zhang. Empath is an AI-powered jury insight platform that aggregates public records and social media data to give litigators objective information about prospective jurors. Sarah Brasseaux is developing AI tools a little further up the criminal justice chain. She's Co-Founder of Blue Partner, an AI platform for law enforcement agencies.  Sarah graduated from UL with a degree in General Studies, and she'll be the first to tell you she has no law enforcement background whatsoever. Her co-founder Ryan Bourque does, however. He's the IT Director for the district court in St. Martin Parish. Over the years he read enough police reports to see a pattern. When AI started becoming practical, he thought it could change how officers work in the field. Together, they founded Blue Partner in 2023, with mentorship from Lafayette's Opportunity Machine. Blue Partner provides cloud-based AI tools for law enforcement agencies — a hands-free chat that gives officers real-time information on a call, a voice-controlled mapping feature, and a reporting tool that helps officers write in their own words while keeping their reports court-admissible. They're currently working with the St. Martinville and Duson police departments.  Sarah grew up in Wisconsin, moved to Texas at twelve, worked as a teacher, before relocating to Lafayette where she lives today.  Out to Lunch Acadiana was recorded live over lunch at Tsunami Sushi in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this show by Astor Morgan at itsacadiana.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    29 min
  2. Keep It Simple Stupid

    APR 11

    Keep It Simple Stupid

    Here's something most of us won't admit: we have too much stuff.  It’s human nature in the consumer age. You can’t throw a rock in Lafayette without hitting a storage unit. And that’s the stuff that doesn’t fit in our homes. Clutter is the order of the day. In the business world, that translates into noise. We pile on messaging, saying too much when getting straight to the point is the best way to make your case in the market. Less is more, in other words. And my guests today are both in the business of less.  Heather Borges is a Lafayette native and registered nurse who spent sixteen years in healthcare.  The pandemic brought burnout. Burnout brought reflection. And reflection eventually led her somewhere she didn't expect — professional organizing. In March of 2025, she purchased the Lafayette franchise of Bee Organized, a national company with 40 locations across the US.  Heather now helps families and businesses declutter their spaces, navigate major life transitions, and find out what their home actually looks like when you can see it.  And her concierge services extend beyond organizing into errand running, seasonal home management, photo organization, and decorating. Every client starts with a consultation, during which Heather's team conducts a personality assessment to understand how the client thinks about their space and what needs to go.  Jaci Russo of Brand Russo wants you to cut out the BS and get the message sharp. She’s so serious about it, she trademarked her proprietary approach to marketing: Razor Branding.  Jaci grew up in Lafayette and nearly went to law school. She ended up in Los Angeles working with major ad agencies and building brands for clients like Ticketmaster and the Home Shopping Network. Family brought her home, and in 2001 she and her husband Michael co-founded Brand Russo, a strategic branding agency serving clients with multi-million dollar budgets. Ninety percent of those clients are outside Louisiana. Jaci is a Certified Professional Marketer, a co-author, and the host of two podcasts. Out to Lunch Acadiana was recorded live over lunch at Tsunami Sushi in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this show by Astor Morgan at itsacadiana.com.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    30 min
  3. Tell It Like It Is

    APR 5

    Tell It Like It Is

    Maybe when you're in trouble, you have someone to call. A family member. A friend. Someone who knows the system, or knows someone who does. But a lot of people don't have that. They're navigating institutions — legal, civic, governmental — that weren't really built with them in mind. And when no one's paying attention, things get lost. They need an advocate. Someone to speak for them.  Corrie Gallien grew up in Opelousas. She studied criminal justice at UL, then went to law school at LSU — not because she always dreamed of being a lawyer, but because she wanted to help people, and the law turned out to be the sharpest tool for that. She spent over thirteen years in the legal field. In 2024 she launched Gallien Law, a firm focused on personal injury and appellate work — including juvenile public defense and appeals for children in state care. Kids, in other words, who have no one else in their corner. Corrie is also deaf, and a survivor of domestic abuse. Those experiences don't sit in the background — they're the engine. In 2025 she founded the Corrie Gallien Collective, a platform for advocacy, public speaking, writing, and consulting. She's a published author, a Top Twenty Under Forty honoree, and a member of Leadership Lafayette. Advocacy can amplify voices or it can provide a voice to the voice-less. Like a building or neighborhood or sense of place.  Lafayette has been building itself for decades — new subdivisions, new roads, new commercial strips. And in the rush to build new, it's easy to lose what was already there. Once a building is gone, the story it carried goes with it. Denise Lanclos has spent years making sure that doesn't happen without a fight. Denise is a Lafayette native who spent her career in banking and finance, eventually serving as Director of Finance at the Cathedral of St. John. She became president of the Preservation Alliance of Lafayette in 2021 — a volunteer-run nonprofit founded in 1990 to advocate for the history and culture of this city. The Alliance was born out of a fight. In 1986, residents organized to stop the demolition of the historic St. Mary's Orphanage. They won — and that victory led the city to adopt its first historic preservation ordinance.  Today, Lafayette has 140 properties on the historic registry, and the Preservation Alliance is the organization making sure they're not quietly erased. Out to Lunch Acadiana was recorded live over lunch at Tsunami Sushi in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this show by Astor Morgan at itsacadiana.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    30 min
  4. Selfless Help

    MAR 21

    Selfless Help

    There's a kind of person you've probably met before. Someone who, no matter what their job title says, is really just taking care of people.  That's what they do. That's what they've always done. That’s who they are. The title just took a while to catch up. Susan Titus is a Lafayette-area entertainer, nonprofit founder, and — by her own description — a woman whose life has had more than a few unexpected turns. She grew up in Franklin, Louisiana, earned a theater degree and at one point had designs on medical school. Instead, she spent fifteen years in retail management and corporate America before walking away in 2015 to become a full-time face painter and balloon artist. Under the name Susie Q, Susan performs at roughly a hundred events a year — from birthday parties to corporate fairs to weddings — across Louisiana and as far east as Florida. But Susan's second act may be her most important one. Growing up in Franklin, she watched too many girls become mothers at too young an age. Her family even took in a pregnant teenager who had been kicked out of her house. That never left her. So in 2022 she founded The Confidence Campaign, a nonprofit that delivers hands-on hygiene education and self-advocacy workshops to young women. In 2025 alone, more than fifteen hundred girls attended a Confidence Campaign workshop. Frankie Dabney's career started in health and led her to a different kind of care. Frankie is originally from Georgia, and she trained as a nurse. But once she got into the work, she found the clinical side wasn't the right fit. A friend told her she had a gift for marketing. She listened. That pivot eventually led her to a niche: marketing for senior living communities. It turned out to be a perfect match. Frankie had watched her own mother suffer a stroke and saw firsthand how hard it is for families to navigate care.  Frankie spent years traveling the country and internationally for a marketing firm based in England that served senior living communities. Then a project brought her to the Vincent Senior Living in Lafayette — just for a month, to create a brochure. She fell in love with the city and the Vincent. So when the Vincent’s executive director offered her a job, she didn't hesitate. Today, as Community Relations Director, Frankie oversees all marketing and advertising for the Vincent — a resort-style senior living campus on twenty acres right here in Lafayette. Out to Lunch Acadiana was recorded live over lunch at Tsunami Sushi in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this show by Astor Morgan at itsacadiana.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    29 min
  5. Social Scout

    MAR 14

    Social Scout

    Here's a question every small business owner loses sleep over: how do people find out you exist? Word of mouth still works. Always will. But today you need more than that. The challenge is that most small business owners are already doing three jobs at once. Marketing is the thing that slides. The thing you mean to get to.  You need a presence — online, in print, somewhere people are actually looking. Figuring out where to start is daunting. What’s worth the investment? How do I know it’ll work? What’s the best media to buy for my business? Two decades into the social media era, getting noticed on platforms can still be a mystery.  Ashlynn Gary has built a business around solving exactly that problem. Ashlynn grew up in Lake Charles and came to Lafayette for college, graduating from UL in 2020 with a degree in arts and humanities. She's always been creative — painting, choir, theatre — and she still acts with the local theatre community today. In 2020 she started a t-shirt company called Leading Color, mostly to scratch an entrepreneurial itch. What she discovered was that she loved the marketing and branding side of it more than the shirts themselves. So she pivoted. In 2021 Ashlynn founded Ash Creative Collective, a social media management company that handles content planning, content creation, scheduling, and customer engagement — so her clients don't have to.  She also serves as media manager for Leadership Lafayette.  Don’t listen to haters. Print isn’t dead. With apologies to Mark Twain, rumors of its demise have been, well, somewhat exaggerated. In Lafayette, hundreds of businesses still rely on good old fashioned print products to sell their brands.  And they're not limited to flyers and newspapers. As Jennifer Brewer found out on a visit to Baton Rouge.  Jennifer was born in Lafayette, raised in Baton Rouge, and returned to Acadiana about ten years ago after marrying a local. She’s a real estate broker by day. But a few years ago, she and her friend and business partner, Krysten Ledet, spotted something on a visit to Baton Rouge — a beautifully produced print publication called The Scout Guide, displayed in a local shop.  Krysten and Jennifer were immediately drawn to it. When they looked into it and found the Lafayette market was still open, they bought in. The Scout Guide is a 100% woman-founded franchise now operating in over a hundred cities across the country. It launched in 2010 in Charlottesville, Virginia, and has grown to support more than three thousand small businesses nationwide. Each edition is a premium print guide — and a community in its own right. Jennifer and Krysten launched the Lafayette Scout Guide in 2023. This year, they printed 20,000.  Out to Lunch Acadiana was recorded live over lunch at Tsunami Sushi in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this show by Astor Morgan at itsacadiana.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    29 min
  6. Dive Bars & Barbecue

    MAR 7

    Dive Bars & Barbecue

    Hi, it's Christiaan Mader, host of Out to Lunch Acadiana. I love a dive bar.  And I know I’m not alone. They attract a certain cult-like following among people looking for an unpretentious place to share a reasonably priced drink with an old friend or a new one. The appeal is fundamentally American.  The drinks are cold, the music is loud, the bathrooms might be suspect — but you can be you and everyone's welcome.  In Acadiana, a great dive bar can be a cultural center of gravity. Especially if it’s got a stage and a spunky PA.  However adored, dive bars carry a janky reputation. And the people who love them, love them because of that jank. It’s hard to precisely define a great dive bar. But my guest Justin Bennet saw one in the making when he moved to Lafayette and bought Artmosphere, the Downtown Lafayette bar and music venue.  Justin Bennett grew up in New York and was literally raised in dive bars, sitting on a barstool drinking cherry cokes from the age of five while his musician father played gigs. He went on to earn a bachelor's in journalism from the University of Washington, spent five years with New York City's Department of Management rising from Press Assistant to Public Information Officer, and later served as Press Secretary for the Louisiana Workforce Commission. But it was Lafayette, Louisiana — a city he and his wife Marcela kept passing through on the way to Lake Charles — that eventually called them back. In February of 2025, Justin purchased Artmosphere, a bar and music venue on Johnston Street that's been a Lafayette landmark for years. He didn't just buy a bar. He bought a vibe, a history, and a whole lot of deferred maintenance. Now he's fixing the bathrooms, booking the bands, and making his grandmother's meatballs. Barbecue There’s maybe no better example of something great out of something humble than American BBQ. We’re not necessarily known for BBQ here in Acadiana, but Shane Wiggins is doing his part to change that.  Shane was born and raised in Flynn, Texas. He came up through electronics repair school, then spent years in the oilfield — onshore, offshore, and eventually running a business with his father in Pennsylvania. When that chapter closed, he ended up back in the Lafayette area. Shane had been making brisket for years. His Texas Twister BBQ sauce became so popular with friends and family that by 2020 he was bottling it commercially. He and his wife Allyson had long talked about a food truck. He told her: if that spot on East Main in Broussard ever comes available, that's the sign. It did. He had to keep his word. In early 2022, Deuces Taste of the South opened as a part-time venture — a Texas-style BBQ joint with Cajun influences, built around a forty-two-foot custom trailer that Shane built himself. It didn't stay part-time for long.Out to Lunch Acadiana was recorded live over lunch at Tsunami Sushi in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this show by Astor Morgan at itsacadiana.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    30 min
  7. Sound Scents

    FEB 21

    Sound Scents

    Some businesses don’t just sell a product — they sell a feeling. They create an experience you can’t fully describe on a website, because the magic is sensory. It’s atmosphere. It’s memory. It’s the thing that makes you walk into a space and instantly feel like you belong there — or like you’ve been there before. From a business standpoint, that’s a tricky thing to build. You can’t ship “vibe” in a box. But you can design it — intentionally — through the details: the ingredients, the storytelling, the setting, the community you build around it. Johanna Divine sits in for Christiaan Mader on this edition of Out to Lunch and hosts two guests who make their living creating experiences that are hard to explain, but easy to feel. Rochelle Campbell is the founder of Pure Intentions Candle Company, a small candle business based in Youngsville specializing in clean-burning candles — and candle-making experiences that are part product, part party, part community event. Yvette Landry is a musician, educator, author and interpreter, who – between playing shows, teaching and writing books – has also built a successful business hosting Cajun music and history tours in the Atchafalaya Basin. Candles and music are two very different products, but both Rochelle and Yvette are  in the business of creating a feeling people want to come back to. Rochelle is building a product line around clean ingredients, seasonal storytelling, and in-person experiences that connect people to her brand. Yvette is proving that culture can be both art and enterprise — through live performance, books, teaching, and tours that translate Acadiana to the world. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Tsunami Sushi in downtown Lafayette.You can find photos from this show by Alisha Zachery Lazard at itsacadiana.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    31 min
  8. Guitar Two-Step

    FEB 14

    Guitar Two-Step

    There’s an old saying you’ve probably heard before: Those who can’t do, teach. Well, that’s total BS. If you’ve ever tried to teach someone anything — how to play a guitar chord, how to dance a two-step, how to do just about anything — you know that saying has it exactly backwards. Teaching is hard. Being good at something and being able to teach it are two completely different skills. When it comes to traditional crafts, teaching is maybe the more vital skillset. If we’re going to preserve what we do for generations to come, we need folks skilled at passing it on.  Sometimes, when there’s no one around to turn to, you need to be an autodidact, like Garret Rosen, owner of Rosen Guitars. Garret is a Lafayette native whose path to guitar building and teaching took a few interesting turns — including degrees in English literature, music theory, and a master’s from Oxford University in philosophy, politics and economics.  After years teaching history, Garret opened Rosen Guitars in 2025 — a shop where every instrument is handmade by him. The business combines custom guitar building, original inventory, and lessons for players from beginners to professionals. His goal isn’t to be a big-box music store. It’s something much more personal — the person who builds the instrument is the one who teaches you how to play it. Harold Bernard is the owner of Glide Dance Studios in downtown Lafayette. Harold has been teaching dance since 1985, but his relationship with dance goes back even further: his mother was dancing the jitterbug while pregnant with him. He grew up in the golden era of Cajun dance halls, later touring across the U.S. and Canada teaching dance alongside bands like Balfa Toujours and Steve Riley. Today, at Glide Studios, Harold teaches Cajun, Zydeco, jitterbug, waltz — and even wedding choreography. He teaches almost every night of the week, often working with couples or small groups, and relies almost entirely on word of mouth. Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Tsunami Sushi in downtown Lafayette.You can find photos from this show by Alisha Zachery Lazard at itsacadiana.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    31 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

OUT TO LUNCH Business over lunch. Each week Christiaan invites guests from Acadiana's business community to join him for sushi at Tsunami in downtown Lafayette. Beyond the foundations of the Acadiana economy - oil, cuisine, music - there is a vast network of entrepreneurs, small businesses, and even some of the country's largest companies who call Acadiana home. Out to Lunch is the cafeteria of the wider Acadiana business community. You can also hear the show on KRVS 88.7FM.

Information

  • Creator
    ItsAcadiana.com
  • Years Active
    2015 - 2026
  • Episodes
    377
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 ItsAcadiana.com
  • Show Website
    It's Acadiana: Out to Lunch