Volume I, Issue 3 by Quick Wick Magazine

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August/September Volume I, Issue 3

The Lifestyle Magazine For Young Professionals

BUDDY ROEMER slay the dragon

GREEN ENERGY solutions

MERIWETHER business of a band

BRICKS-N-BOMBS the icon story

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Publisher Colby Moore Editor Amy W. Graphic Design Lara Lauter Mitchell Reed Cobb Contributing Photographers Sarah Mattix Mitchell Reed Cobb Colby Moore Contributing Writers Amber Carew Kait Spong Nakia Thomas Food & Drink Recipes Ninoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Italian Darren Betts Legal Diana Beard Moore Special Thanks IME SeNSE Rukus Board Sports Cult Energy Drink Heavy Water Vodka Sam Claitor Kenny Nguyen

quick

|kwik| adjective 1 (of a person) prompt to understand, think, or learn; intelligent

wick

|wik| verb 1 absorb or draw off

quick-wick

|kwik-wik| quick = wick = alive -The Gentlemanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Magazine, 1867

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Published By Quick Wick Magazine, LLC 4607 Bluebonnet Blvd, Suite B Baton Rouge, LA 70809 All submitted materials become property of Quick Wick Magazine, LLC Copyright @ 2011 Quick Wick Magazine All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used for solicitation or copied by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Su p p or t : To be actively interested in or concerned for the success of [insert anything]

Our goal at Quick Wick is to provide a publication that supports local businesses and young entrepreneurs. We are constantly looking for interesting, new businesses in and around the Baton Rouge area. In addition to offering quality advertisements at an affordable price, Quick Wick offers young entrepreneurs in our community a unique opportunity to share the story behind their business with our readers. With each new issue of Quick Wick, more and more Baton Rouge businesses being run by innovative entrepreneurs are being featured in the pages of the magazine. The power of word of mouth and networking can never be underestimated in the Baton Rouge area, as many of you may know. I cannot tell you how many people have come up to me after reading the June/July issue to tell me how glad they were to learn about Rukus. You know you have seen those stickers on the windows of cars all around town, but now, our readers have had the chance to meet Ronnie Saurage. In this issue, we reveal the story behind another Baton Rouge “Icon” with the feature on local artist Brad Jensen. Also, Quick Wick had a chance to get a real behind-the-scenes look

at a popular local band, Meriwether. I got a bird’s eye view of the support showered upon Meriwether by the few hundred adoring fans at their show at the Varsity Theatre last month. It sure was a great time taking those pictures! Another highlight of this issue is the cover story on former Governor and current Presidential candidate, Buddy Roemer. I personally had the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Roemer for an interview. Actually, it was more of a good conversation than an interview. Mr. Roemer is a very personable man who readily shared his experiences in both business and politics. He was even recently featured on the Colbert Report on Comedy Central. Much like many of our featured businesses, Quick Wick Magazine is constantly trying to perfect our impact on the community. We are excited to announce that we will be launching our iPhone and iPad apps soon. In addition to digital copies of each issue being available on our website, we are experimenting with placing video clips of interviews on our website, as well. Each improvement that we make with Quick Wick helps us to better support the Baton Rouge community. In turn, I would like to thank everyone who has given us the support and trust to help this publication succeed.

[Colby Moore]

things t h a t k e e p m o t i v a t e d

m e

What to Watch, What to Read, What to Listen to and Who to Follow For Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (Charlie Day), the only thing that would make the daily grind more tolerable would be to grind their intolerable bosses (Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, Jennifer Aniston) into dust. Quitting is not an option, so, with the benefit of a few-toomany drinks and some dubious advice from a hustling ex-con (Jamie Foxx), the three friends devise a convoluted and seemingly foolproof plan to rid themselves of their respective employers... permanently. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only one problem: even the best laid plans are only as foolproof as the brains behind them. -- (C) Warner Bros

WHO TO FOLLOW: Tony Hsieh CEO of Zappos.com, Inc. Author of: Delivering Happiness

WHAT TO READ: Delivering Happiness DeliveringHappines.com

Too alarming now to talk about Take your pictures down and shake it out Truth or consequence, say it aloud use that evidence, race it around There goes my hero watch him as he goes There goes my hero, he’s ordinary Don’t the best of them bleed it out while the rest of them peter out Truth or consequence, say it aloud Use that evidence, race it around There goes my hero watch him as he goes There goes my hero, he’s ordinary

Song: My Hero Artist: The Foo Fighters Album: The Colour and the Shape

Kudos my hero leaving all the best You know my hero, the one that’s on There goes my hero watch him as he goes There goes my hero, he’s ordinary

s n o s s e l for the STARTUP ENTREPRENUER Entrepreneurship. To some, that word inspires creativity, passion, and stubbornness. To others, it describes crazy schedules, hectic lifestyles, and sleepless nights. Whatever the case is, if you find yourself to be an aspiring entrepreneur you are going to face challenges. My startup is no exception. Besides balancing college life and running a business, I’ve had my fair share of startup lessons learned. Fortunately, I’ve been surrounded by a great support system that helps me get back up each time. Today, I have the privilege to share with you 5 lessons I’ve learned from the startup’s school of hard knocks: Lesson One: Hire talent that is smarter than you. Despite running a presentation design firm, I am very proud that my team is much more knowledgeable than me when it comes to actual design. You can’t possibly expect to do everything yourself and have your business exponentially grow. By hiring good talent when it’s needed, that not only can increase profits, but also save you time of training. Our staff comprises of very talented individuals that all play a certain role in making the company greater. With that mutual sense of respect, we all understand that companies grow together, not individually. Lesson Two: Focus on what’s important. By focusing on too many things at once, you can severely drop the quality of what’s important. Keep in mind that opportunity comes knocking all the time; it’s how we respond to it that matters. I’ve recently been offered a very awesome position for a role in a nationwide entrepreneur movement. After hearing I would have to frequently travel, I turned it down. Why? I realized my first priority is the growth of my company. Sure I regretted it the moment I turned it down, but would I sleep better at night? Sure will. Lesson Three: Set Office Hours We all get a sense of pride when we complete a huge 15-hour project while fueled on energy drinks. But what’s the price you have to pay? Besides being tired and decreasing time spent on other priorities, you set unrealistic expectations for your clients. I mean let’s be honest. How many times can you work a week for 15 straight hours without crashing? We had this problem and fixed it by assigning typical 9-5 office hours. This resulted in more balance with our busy time schedules and created realistic expectations of when work is going to be done. Lesson Four: Set Goals that are Realistic. In order to succeed as an entrepreneur, you need to set goals that are realistic. At our office, we always have a goal list that ranges from weekly, monthly, and annually. The key we find with goal setting is to set deadlines and to be specific. Rather than saying, “I want to make $10,000,” say,” it might be more realistic to say, “I want to make $10,000 by signing on four accounts by the end of June.” By setting realistic milestones, you are more likely to be pleased than disappointed.

Lesson Five: Network! Network! Network! Having a strong network matters. Networking with people that can help grow your business is very important in the startup stage. By joining local networking organizations, you can practice your networking skills and find likeminded people that face similar challenges in their business. What’s equally important is to keep in mind that while people might help you, it’s EQUALLY important that you help them. Networking is mutual.

Kenny Nguyen is CEO/Partner of Big Fish Presentations a high-octane design firm specializing in the art of the presentation. From customized presentation design, presentation delivery consultation, and AV rentals, Big Fish Presentations turns its clients’ presentations into experiences for audiences. Work has been published in Under30CEO and EO Overdrive. Along with Big Fish Presentations, Kenny is co-founder of the LSU Student Entrepreneur Organization I am Entrepreneur and Vice-Chairman of SeNSE, Baton Rouge’s Citywide entrepreneur organization. He is also assisting in social media for the 2012 Roemer Presidential Exploratory Committee. You can contact Kenny at: Kenny@futuregenioussolutions.com

ARTICLE

AFTER WALKING THROUGH THE DOORS OF BRICKS & BOMBS, WE UNCOVER PURPOSE, STYLE AND BACKGROUND BEHIND THE CLOTHING COMPANY ICON AND THE ART DISPLAY SHOWROOM. FOLLOW QUICK WICK INTO THE LIFE OF GRAPHIC DESIGNER/STREET ARTIST BRAD JENSEN AND SEE WHAT IT REALLY TAKES TO CREATE YOUR OWN PERSONAL STYLE AND FEEL FOR A PIECE OF ART. PHOTOS & STORY BY: MITCHELL REED COBB

CREATEDESTROY Quick Wick: Icon/Bricks & Bombs is a staple in the Baton Rouge scene of street art. State your name and purpose of what you do? My name is Brad Jensen; I’m a graphic designer, poster maker, clothing designer, shop owner… a little bit of everything. (Ha-ha) Quick Wick: Where did everything begin for you? Growing up were you always into art naturally or did you find it later in life? Well, Icon started out strictly as a T-‐ Shirt brand. I started it when I was 18 years old. As a kid I naturally gravitated towards drawing; I always had that natural ability. I wouldn’t say I was that super weird artsy kid who would rather sit inside drawing all day instead of being outside. I definitely wanted to be out in the woods or riding my bike, but on those rainy days or at night when I didn’t have anything else to do I would draw, ya know? Later on it got to the point where I had to do something that you are going to enjoy or do something where I was doing math all day. (Ha-ha)

Quick Wick: What are your ideas/differences on street art and regular gallery art? Well the obvious reason is where people see the art. Really the only difference is when you put it on the street as an artist, you have to be ok with what happens to it. Inevitably you’re starting a conversation when you put something out there, and somebody more times than not will respond to it. That doesn’t really happen so much in a gallery. You put something on the wall, nobody is going to come in and rip it down or paint over it, but when you put it out in the streets, somebody will do something to it. Quick Wick: So basically, when creating the street art/posters, do you come up with an art design and print out tons of copies to get them pasted in the street? It depends. For some of my smaller posters (18in x 24in and 24in x 36in) those are mainly screen-‐ printed. So when I do that, screen-‐ printing is a good process for doing a lot at one time, however many you want to spend time doing. Bigger stuff is usually a one-of-a-kind thing that sometimes incorporates hand painting so it takes a little longer, but you can cover more area at one time.

“I’ll just make people see MY LOGO enough they will think it’s cool. Repetition works, ya know?”

“In the beginning I was designing t-shirts and logos. They didn’t have much to do with anything; it was a made up name that I though sounded cool, it sounded right.”

Quick Wick: Icon/Bricks & Bombs is a staple in the Baton Rouge scene of street art. State your name and purpose of what you do? Clothing definitely came first. In the beginning I was designing t-shirts and logos. They didn’t have much to do with anything; it was a made up name that I though sounded cool, it sounded right. There wasn’t anything it stood for, or anything like that. When I worked at Buckle in the mall, I always saw the clothes with designs and logos. I really enjoyed all ARTWORK from the skateboard and lifestyle brands. I never really knew why I liked them, I just did. Quick Wick: What is “Bricks & Bombs”? Explain the background on how it came about. Well I’ve had the shop open now for a year and a half. There is a little more meaning behind Bricks & Bombs. Mistakenly, I overheard some Clash lyrics --because I haven’t been able to find the song since -- but I was listening to The Clash one day while I was working and I heard the phrase “Bricks & Bombs” kind of popped out at me. I thought WOW that is really cool. The meaning started coming to me. Create and Destroy to me is building a community (Bricks) and breaking down barriers as well (Bombs).

Quick Wick: Where do you see Icon, Bricks & Bombs and yourself in the future? Where and how do you want the company and scene to grow? What are your goals? Well, Icon, I definitely branded myself with a type of art and style that is associated with it and I’ll continue to do that. I’ll have a couple of other things that I like to do, too, that people would not necessarily associate with Icon. Bricks & Bombs, I’m hoping I’ll be able to continue to have more art shows here. Give people an opportunity, that normally don’t have one, to show their art and bridge the gap between different people and artists. Quick Wick: Have you ever encountered any law enforcement while creating any street art? Yeah, I have. It’s been pretty minor. I’m usually pretty smart about what I am doing, also pretty respectful. I’m not out there trying to destroy a lot of people’s private property, small businesses etc., but I definitely have though. Some of them where pretty humorous; some of them were less humorous. (Ha-ha) Quick Wick: any last words?

Quick Wick: Have you done any art collaborations with any other artist, local or foreign? I have been invited to some art shows or installations of something where I’ll put some posters up and somebody comes along and paints over it. I have not done a lot of collaborations and stuff. We did do a mural here at the shop about six months ago and I had about 15 artists come in and draw on it, so we all got our hands on something. It turned out to be a big collaborative thing. I think anytime you put something on the street and somebody comes and paints on it, it’s an instant collaboration.

I encourage people to come and check out Bricks & Bombs. I try to do a show here once a month. I am constantly looking for artists to come in and show their work. Bricks & Bombs is an opportunity for anybody who hasn’t had the opportunity to do so. I have clean walls, working bathroom and good lights. In about two months there will be a bar across the street, so I am hoping that will bring some more people over here to check out the gallery. I am glad to be a part of Mid-City and I am just trying to do my part to impact this community.

BRICKS & BOMBS 449 Hearthstone Dr. Baton Rouge, LA 70806 www.bricksandbombs.com www.iconvisuals.com

Diana Beard Moore Attorney At Law 4607 Bluebonnet Blvd. Suite B Baton Rouge, LA 70809 Telephone 225.295.8288 Facsimile 225.295.9495 diana@moorelawbr.com

ONE ON ONE with Buddy

o, do you want to know how to slay a dragon? I bet that Buddy Roemer can give you a few pointers. After all, he does have over 20 years of dragon slaying experience under his belt. I recently got the chance to sit down with Buddy, and here is what he had to say: Roemer got his start slaying the dragons of Louisiana politics in 1988 when he left the House of Representatives to run for Louisiana state governor against the sitting democratic governor, Edwin Edwards. During a debate, Roemer and his challengers were asked if they would consider endorsing Edwards in the general election if they didn’t make it to the runoff. The last candidate to respond to the query was Roemer. He changed the course of the election when he stated: “No, we’ve got to slay the dragon. I would endorse anyone but Edwards.” On election night, his campaign promise to “Slay the Dragon” helped him to capture 33 percent of the vote compared with Edwards’ 28 percent. Edwards resigned his post, giving reign to Roemer before he was even inaugurated in January of 1989. When reminiscing about his dragon slaying days, Roemer is quick to say that the same principle applies in business as much as it applies in politics. Now, all of this talk of dragons conjures up images of an armored knight saving the village from the dragon that has terrorized the people for so long. Well, that is not far from the truth. The dragon can manifest itself as the multinational corporation, or as the career politician, or as the PAC. To “slay the dragon” is not necessarily an effort to overcome the “bad” guy, but it is more about outwitting the big guy. Frankly, this “David and Goliath” principle should be a mantra for any entrepreneur. Detecting the weaknesses of its competition and responding with innovative solutions is the path to success for many small businesses. Roemer said that at first, the sleeping dragon (a.k.a. “Big Business”) laughs at the ideas of the new kid on the block, its much smaller competitor. Then, after the little guy achieves some success, the dragon awakens to try to beat its competition. However, the dragon’s attempts are often too little too late ultimately leading to collapse. Roemer, who has been involved in the banking industry for more than two decades, reflects upon a perceived weakness in the industry. The larger banks simply did not bother to know or respect its customers. This weakness allowed smaller banks to come along and offer a different approach to banking. Innovative ideas lead to the creation of banks that focus exclusively on serving its clientele of small businesses. The banker at a niche bank makes it a point to know his customer’s name and to become familiar with his customer’s business. Meanwhile, the big bank proceeds with business as usual.

Through his experiences in politics, business and life, Roemer has seen that when young entrepreneurs take the time to develop relationships with other entrepreneurs in their community, good things follow. People who work together can accomplish so much more than any individual alone. In fact, as citizens, we each have an obligation to become involved in our communities, including in the political process. Thomas Jefferson once stated, “[I]f a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” If Americans want to remain free, we cannot be ignorant about our country’s problems or its politics. Information and participation protect the freedoms that allow us to seek the American dream by starting a business, owning a home, or completing an education, to name a few. A good place to start participating is on the state level. Louisiana is in a growth phase when compared to other states. What this state needs, according to Roemer, are more young entrepreneurs running for elected office. It is time to make changes in the way our government is run. The injection of the entrepreneurial spirit into the legislative and executive branches of government would lead to fresh ideas, vitality and new perspectives. In many ways, Louisiana is fast becoming the new California. The young business leaders of our state should participate in that evolution. Roemer, like many others, sees that post-Katrina Louisiana has brighter prospects than prior to 2005. In the face of adversity, many small businesses throughout the state are thriving. The true measure of greatness is what you do when the bad things happen. Many great Louisianans have taken the lemons delivered by Katrina and have made some long-lasting lemonade. In life, as in business, good things happen and bad things happen. We, as entrepreneurs, as citizens, as individuals, and as dragon slayers, must be prepared to learn from our mistakes and rise above them. On March 7th 2011, Roemer announced his return as a dragon slayer when he announced his candidacy for the president of the United States in 2012. Presently, he is the only presidential hopeful that will not take lobbyist or PAC money for his presidential bid. He believes that PAC money is the ultimate corruption of politics and the cause of the overspending in congress today. Politicians are busy paying off their campaign debts on special pet projects that help the PACs and lobbyists in Washington. Although Roemer is running at 2% in the Republican Primary, he said that he is “one good speech away” from taking the lead. The spirit of the dragon slayer continues. Written by: Colby Moore

“They always laugh at first.”

hat kind of became my passion in a broader sense nd so from there I ended up, well the name of the ompany rabbit hole was the concept of chasing the abbit hole and diving into the unknown and so for e it was about chasing my dreams and seeing where t was going to take me. I came to college to tudyArticle audio engineering and entrepreneurship, and By: Kait Spong bout sophomore year I actually started trying to We are all familiar with the Disney throughout the United States and Canada. But Alice in Wonderland. Alice’s predicit all began at Belmont University in Nasho a Classic live business with where like live audio ament begins recording when she follows the distraught ville, Tennessee Jorgovan studied audio engineering and enterpreneurship. Around white rabbit down a rabbit hole, falling ecause I was anand audio and year, I was doing that his sophomore he started an audio into unfamiliar territory finding her guy place of enlightenment. Jake Jorgovan, corecording business and offered his services of the production company Rabbit to bands, for recordingbands. their live sets. Even- then ust founder like recording live sets And Hole Creative, took inspiration from this tually, he decided to make concert DVDs as This to is how do he met concert his business part-DVDs particular scene naming his company.to well. decided I while was going try ner, Kevin Fulda. He fully credits Fulda for Possibly seeing Alice’s journey parallel to own. “The name of the company Rabbit enhancing his brain child, bringing the vidoo. his That’s when I met my current business partner Hole was the concept of chasing the rabbit eo aspect to their evolving business idea. and diving into the unknown. And so for me After realizing videos were a more profitnd he brought the whole side to it was basically about chasing my dreams and seeing able industry, the two video dove into developing where it was going to take me.” a full fledged video production and motion t and we basically realized that Fortunately, Jorgovan’s dreams are graphics company. video And over the was past twoa andmuch half years, it’s been expanding taking him many places including the Paramore Honda Civic tour, which hit 31 venues more successfully. profitable industry.

think we knew this would be big when last summer we got Paramore’s Honda Civic tour. A lot of what we do is tour design so whenever a whole band carries their screens on tour we Gay’s jobvideo entails designing the position of However, the process wasn’t on stage and creating easy. Jovorgan openly admits there were many design all of the content that LED isproducts for that and so that’s kind hurdles. The company was conceived in their aesthetics to please an audience so they aren’t only livecompetition music but dorm room, which provided a because very constrictof been interesting there’s notlistening a lottoof in witness a full-on experience. However, Gay ing work space. Fulda’s bed was placed on thatcinder market but it’s a cameras hard market you prohave to neededto helpenter designingbecause the content being blocks in order to store jected. He met Fulda and Jovorgan at a mixer underneath it. Their room was also crowded understand the live side of it and as was well as the video production with other various equipment, two desks, and responsible for booking their first jobs. “He saw that we were young guys. We of it. a server-- in Jovorgan’s words, “barely a side were smart, understood the new technology, room.” The two shared this work environment So for us nine we months. both Finally, came the from so when we and could do somebackground stuff that older companies for a full duo a live-event couldn’t because they were using old fashbegan earning steady cash flow by recording did senior Paramore that wasmusic kind of one of those moments when we were ioned equipment or older software.” recitals at Belmont’s school. Rabbit Hole Creative was and responsible Jovorgan and Fulda took out a legitimate likeAfterwards, hey were working with act here this is a loans to buy the legitimate equipment needed for videographing Cee-Lo Green’s entire tour big deal. as well as his recent performance on NBC’s for their company and began working for Saturday Night Live. They are also working clients in the music industry. Basically connected withhas a guy heredu in Nashville named Ken with Cirque Soleil on a huge publicity In theIpast six months, Jovogan at this year’s San Diego Comic Con and began to witness his become reality. astunt Day??? Gay?? He dreams is basically creative tour designer so his “I think we knew this would be big when last designing Dolly Parton’s tour. Their biggest project aside from design is projection summer we got Honda Civic whole job isParamore’s basically he tour.” designs tours andtour gets video products mapping. This technique takes real world Jovorgan adds, “It was one of those moments out when there tours, the them stage and how all surfaces out and combines with projected we wereon like,the hey, we’re workinghe withfigures images in order to create legitimate actare here, and this isto a bigbe on the adeal.” screens going the stage and3D effects. comes “Basiup with cally, you can take a building and make the The team was connected to the Paradark. Then you project the more project by Ken to Gay, aposition creative tour allimage creative ways ofcompletely the LED products. And so building back onto itself. You can make it designer, who became a mentor of sorts. that’s kind of what his role is solikehethe designs the whole building is crumbling, fallingstage e but needs someone to design the look down, or transforming into something else,” content. I ended up meeting him Jorgovan explains. Apparently, projection e at a mixer and he kind of mentored mappingus is increasingly popular among ma- helped along the way and jor advertising agencies as a way to enhance first brands. jobs we were doing just e us out and got us a lot of thesetheir The company is still playing it safe because he saw that we were young guys and were smart and in terms of operating costs. Rabbit Hole r understood the new technology Creative only has one and could dofull-time someemployee stuff that besides the two founders. Dillon Bock, also e other older companies that havea been around forisyears recent college graduate, a camera couldn’t operator, editor, and supervisor. Other fashioned equipment or older o do because they were using oldfreelance employees fill in on specific projects. At this point, the software, team is focusetc. d ing on building their creative resume and Yeah and we were basically hired because young-we had working diligently we with were their clients in orto build trust. They are still based in onever even done content before der they picked Nashville, Tennessee. us too because we Jovorgan stresses that it’s important hung out with them a little o were the same age as the band. forWeentrepreneurs to have a strong mentor anavigate bunch creative and them of through the politicsideas of any t bit on tour and got to go overto business, entertainment or otherwise, much they were great work they were able to find in to Ken Gay. “At with. n We did Saturday Night Live withlike thisCee-Lo age, you’reGreen young, naive, don’t andandwe just did know what this industry has in store so it’s walk youWe through hismentors events. arecru-doing a s his whole tour, we do a good bitgoodofto have cial decisions. You have to realize you’ll stunt next week at something Comicon and a lot of sacrifices to make r Circ de Soleil a huge publicitymake successful, at the end of the day basically it so were spending next week in San Diegobutout there and all pays off.” Rabbit Hole Creative is still o what were doing is the Circ de Soleil a youthful Kasha????? company, but it’s Basically successes are they beginning to stock-pile, making the recent h turn this wall purple and have college people battling on wenches and graduates dreams of pursuing their passions an actual possibility. battle from birds eye view but . it looks like you’re watching alife’s all those people are really hanging from ropes and jumping up and down and fighting so were projecting this on the side 31 of a

Having kept alive their name for nearly a decade, Baton Rouge-based rock band Meriwether has certainly paid their dues and undeniably earned their spot as a hometown staple. However, they did not let the city limits restrain them. Drew Reilley (singer/songwriter/guitarist) of Meriwether sat down with Quick Wick to discuss the aspects of the music industry concerning band compatibility, self booking versus hiring a manager, the importance of social networking in today’s world, and the risks of committing to a label. Meriwether was the brainchild of Drew Reilley, who started the band in late 2004 after he admittedly broke ties with his previous project and began writing his own music. “I was looking for something new”, he quickly admitted. Josh Barbier joined the group on bass along with Brett Schexnayder on drums. Reilley confessed that his first two additions “fit really well because Brett and Josh had been playing together for a while already”.

Meriwether powered on as a compatible three piece before eventually adding an additional guitarist, Steve Bergeron, to the mix. A long journey began and from the start, Reilley knew he “wanted to do everything right this time”, learning from his past experiences with other bands. As a three piece, Meriwether recorded a four song demo right away and made about 2,000 copies to hand out immediately. Diving in headfirst proved to be a successful start for the group, and frontman Reilley agreed, “The best way to promote your band is to always have a product to distribute”. In addition to self-promotion, Meriwether started off by accepting any opportunity to play, ranging from “a three song spot in between sets to a chili cook-off.” As their demo gained attention, he and band mate Josh Barbier began to book their own shows. After running into problems with communication and double booking, they decided to hire a manager so that all they’d have to focus on was writing and playing music. “That’s definitely a plus”, Reilley added, as he strongly stated the upmost importance of constant creation.

Unsurprisingly, it did not take long for the subject of social media to arise. Meriwether has created a Twitter account (@Meriwether1), but don’t peg them as Twitter-crazed musicians who solely use social media as a replacement for physical promotion. “You gotta think,” said Reilley, “What were bands doing before there was social networking? Do that first”. Handbills, posters, and flyers seem to be phasing out in a sense, but from a business aspect, a new band cannot depend on a fan base to be given to them. It is something that must be earned. “We used to go slide them in everybody’s mailboxes”, Reilley admitted, “… and every possible way you can get more people to your show to hear your music is what you need to be doing as far as promotion.” Most importantly, he stressed the importance of continual writing and persistent composition. Overpromoting the same material can easily be a band’s crutch, “which is why you must write until your fingers bleed

because you’re gonna write a bunch of [expletive], but its about the one out of ten songs that really matter.” As a band, Meriwether always took more into the studio than the amount they would be able to record. Their debut full length Make Your Move was a culmination of the first two and a half years of the band’s existence, and luckily, the members were able to pick and choose from a large bank of material they had worked so hard on. After signing to Suretone Records in 2006, the band continued to record their sophomore effort Sons of Our Fathers with Grammy-nominated producer Howard Benson. After various problems with the release date of the album, it was announced that Meriwether was no longer with Suretone. Consequently, the album has never been officially released, but Reilley has successfully released 22 tracks on Bandcamp including all the B-side recordings and demos from that record. His fight to rise above the label proved worthy because he felt “that everybody should be able to hear it”, even if Suretone wasn’t on board. And even through this fiasco, Meriwether continued to stay honest and true to themselves as they wrote and recorded Plug in the Snakes. Looking back to that time, Reilley remembered, “There was a lot of anger, aggression, and emotion built up inside all of us and that’s why it’s a very fast and heavy record.” After apparent accusations of changing their sound, he responded, “It’s my music. It’s not that we didn’t write that record for our fans but we had to get that out of us so that we could keep moving forward.” And move forward, they did.

After a couple of old members moved on to other things, Reilley found compatible replacements for the band, including his brother Bob on drums. They have talked about putting together a new record but are currently just trying to figure out the next step. Almost as a jolting reminder to himself, he stressed “I’ve put too much of myself into this to just give it all up now.” Advice was plentiful from the mouth of this practiced musician as he told me, “The key to success, especially now-a-days in this struggling industry, is that you can not rely on anybody but yourself.” A band can produce a beautifully constructed record, but without the hard work in promotion, they cannot expect everybody to be at their shows. “You have to put the effort in to promote yourself in every way possible”, said Reilley as he confessed to me that he never sees a handbill on his car anymore and has noticed the lack of fliers around town. And like any art, production is most important. Writing, rewriting, and never settling seems to be the way of persistence Meriwether chose, rather than attempting to sell their band with popular gimmicks. “Find what works and run with it,” Reilley asserted, “because in the end, you can’t argue with a well-written song no matter what style or genre it is”.

Article By: Amber Carew

Drew Reilly on stage at the Varsity Theatre

7248 Perkins Road, Suite F Baton Rouge, LA 70808

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Mitchell Naquin is one of the owners of Monochrome Contemporary Furniture, a local design and lifestyle shop that specializes in custom design and installation. In this interview, he tells us how the store was born, gives pointers for young entrepreneurs, and explains his role in the growing company.

QUICK WICK: How did you get where you are now? Summarize your journey. MITCHELL: Since I was a little kid, my mom has wanted to do a modern furniture store in Baton Rouge. I went to study Industrial Design at California College of the Arts and had been working for contemporary lighting designer Peter Staffis for a year in San Francisco. He is awesome. Everything we touched has an award on it, all due to him, and I learned more working with him for eight months than I did in school. That experience taught me how this industry ran and worked. Then my mother (co-owner Carol LaCour) called me after seeing the work we did and seeing I was interested in furniture and houses, and she asked if I would be interested in coming back and opening a modern furniture store with her. She said I could get on custom design as the store grew and just go in there and take a hold of that and I was like absolutely. I like furniture, I like doing the houses, and if I get to do custom design stuff then that’s awesome. QUICK WICK: Where does most of your business come from? MITCHELL: Most of our business so far isn’t walk-ins. It usually comes from previous clients, and we do a lot of houses. My mom’s been doing them from conception to completion for 20 years in Baton

Rouge, so our general role is going in with them and draw the plans up, doing all the design, picking the color, picking the furniture and doing the entire thing. We work directly with the contractors and builders and we’re on site throughout the whole thing making sure its how we want it. QUICK WICK: What are the benefits of working with Carol and Dwayne at the shop and being able to do custom design in Louisiana? MITCHELL: I definitely get more leeway to do what I want. It’s also interesting though because out there everything we designed was plastic, metal, big box stuff. It was in China being manufactured so we didn’t really have many limitations, and here we have hand woodworkers and you know, no big molding machines or hyper factories to make stuff. It’s kind of like relearning how to design stuff and relearning what we’re working with here. QUICK WICK: Do you guys focus on being “environmentallyfriendly?” MITCHELL: The designing is more “green” here because we’re not using plastics, we’re using local woods and contractors so not much

shipping unless it’s stuff we stock. Getting on the “green” talk, Baton Rouge and the South is always kind of behind on that, and coming from the San Francisco school I attended that was shoved down our throats. Not necessarily the word “green,” but the idea of sustainability and making sure you make the best and most out of what you use. Coming back and opening this store, we’re obviously fresh open and we haven’t had too much emphasis on that yet, but that’s a big thing that I want to start pushing and I know partners are equally into it. We want to use as many local woods as we can and use people in Baton Rouge and eliminate shipping, use solar panels on houses, use waste water for plant watering, etc. Just as much as we can to get people thinking in that notion. It’s a trend in marketing because a lot of random products say “we’re green” as a way to market. It has been going on for forever but now were being told we need it. QUICK WICK: Was your college education a large asset considering what you learned and the work you’re now doing? MITCHELL: I think it depends on the person. I think for me, school was essential. Maybe not for houses and furniture because it was always my passion, but school taught me two things: program knowledge and discipline. My education incorporated a lot of program knowledge for Industrial Design and now we’re doing a lot more program-based design and sending off files to be printed, etc. Now as far as discipline goes, if I’ve got a deadline next Wednesday and its Friday, I’m not doing anything Friday night or Saturday night, I’m working 20 hours a day until Wednesday to turn it in, so really strict discipline is what school taught me, too. QUICK WICK: In your opinion, how does the importance of education compare to the importance of experience, especially in terms of obtaining a solid job? MITCHELL: I think I learned a lot more about actual design and how we work with manufacturers and how the industry works in general through actually working in the field. I don’t think school is absolutely necessary in a lot of design industries. Industrial is a lot different than Interior or Home Design because Industrial Design is more like if you have a good portfolio, you’ve got the job. Different places look at it differently, and some places just look at the degree first. But as far as picking up the talent, you don’t really need school. If you have the will to learn it you can pick up the books yourself and set up the meetings and learn what you need to learn that way. QUICK WICK: Going back to starting up, how did the business begin and how heavily did you consider where the location of the shop would be? MITCHELL: I moved back from California in August of 2009 and we opened in November of 2010. I remember conversations at Furniture Market… we’d be sitting there discussing where we wanted to open, and one of the biggest things we wanted was to be in the Perkins Road area in between College and the Overpass. Somewhere in this little area we are now because it really is a design area, and there are incentives for design companies, and its kind of a movement in this area with art galleries and architects. It just feels like an area of town

that’s about to erupt. It’s a cultural hotspot, and it’s cool and fun and there’s energy here and it feels like it’s about to develop. Other than that we had no clue what we were doing. We looked on Government Street, we looked everywhere, and when we found this place it just seemed perfect. It was next door to one of our partner’s offices, a good friend who has an art gallery, and it is kind of right where we wanted it to be. QUICK WICK: Have you always known you wanted the style of your creations to be contemporary? MITCHELL: I remember being at Market and we were thinking about doing a modern store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which is not known to really have modern furniture. It’s more older, traditional houses, and we wanted to bring something different. So you go to New York or Dallas or Miami and you see the edgy modern stuff really pushing the envelope, and I remember wondering about how far we could push it in Baton Rouge without scaring people off or not getting business. That was a big hurdle too, trying to come up with a “look” and how modern we could go without going too far. We wanted to get people who wouldn’t normally think they like the modern style, but have them walk in here and realize it’s beautiful. But we got it and we did it and opened it up and it’s been great. QUICK WICK: How did you all figure out where to get your furniture from and all of the basic stuff? MITCHELL: For those things we were lucky enough to have my mom. She’s been in this industry for so long, about 25 years, and she’s been going to Market as a designer for 10-15 years so it kind of grew from what she was doing and became this. This is really the end result of her 25 years of hustling, and I don’t really know anyone else who does what she does as far as housing plans to walking through the whole construction to the end to putting furniture in and art on the walls. Literally everything from conception to final piece. I think what has helped a lot of the houses she’s done is that she gets to think it through from beginning to end. QUICK WICK: Do you have any specific strategies or goals when meeting with potential clients in your field? MITCHELL: In general, a lot of designers take a project and make it their project and leave their client out. Our strategy is to meet the clients and ask them questions about how they like to live, how they use their space, and try to develop a feel for whether they are going to be spending a lot of time as a family in the kitchen, or in a more formal setting like the dining room. We really try to feel people out. That is one of our biggest goals in my opinion. QUICK WICK: Do you have any specific strategies or goals when meeting with potential clients in your field?

“it just feels like an area of town that’s about to erupt. it’s a cultural hotspot, and it's cool and fun and there’s energy here and it feels like it's about to develop.”

MITCHELL: In general, a lot of designers take a project and make it their project and leave their client out. Our strategy is to meet the clients and ask them questions about how they like to live, how they use their space, and try to develop a feel for whether they are going to be spending a lot of time as a family in the kitchen, or in a more formal setting like the dining room. We really try to feel people out. That is one of our biggest goals in my opinion. QUICK WICK: Anything else you’d like to say about the shop or any pieces in particular? MITCHELL: A lot of people hear “modern furniture” and say “oh, we don’t like that!” But I think we do a great job of having really modern pieces mixed with warmer pieces, as well. If people don’t think they’re going to like it, I ask them to question that and take a walk through. It’s worth the time because there’s always something in here they’ll like even if they don’t necessarily want it for their house. People will appreciate the shop and be comfortable in here. QUICK WICK: For young professionals looking into starting a business or doing something similar, what kind of advice would you give them?

MITCHELL: It is definitely awesome for young people to go out and start businesses, but one thing that has been an extremely big help to me is having partners and having help. Doing everything on your own is frightening and overwhelming, as you know, so having partners has helped me out immensely. Having true passion for the industry you’re in is a necessity. I mean there are days when I don’t feel like being here, but I really do like what I’m doing. I’m not a salesman at all, but I can sell this stuff because I like it and I believe in it. It’s not like I’m trying to get one over on someone. If you’re going to be doing something in sales it has to be something you believe in and you stand by. Other than that, just be ready to put your time into it because it’s your baby and it becomes part of your life, it’s not a nine-to-five job. That’s one thing to do… decide if you want to have a nine-to-five job. If you want to be able to leave at five and not think about your work, don’t open a business. It becomes part of your life, but it is very rewarding. You put in a lot of work and you get a lot out of it. Seeing people happy and seeing houses that you’ve done brings so much gratification. Since the business has opened I’ve been busier, more stressed, but much happier because I get all of these results and it’s very rewarding.

Connect. Innovate. Inspire.

FIDNA

Company Profile Type: Retail Location: 3757 Perkins Rd. Suite C Members: Kyle Cox (28) & Ben Boone (26)

Story: Started planning to open a skate shop in Baton Rouge a year and a half ago. They wanted to have a career that they could actually believe in and want to show up for everyday. Skateboarding has been such a major factor in their lives that they couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t imagine doing anything outside of that. Both had a taste of what working in the skateboarding industry was like by designing and building (with a few helping hands from fellow skateboarders) Revolution Skate Park a few years ago.

SKATE BO 45

The goal was to cater more directly to skateboarders and the different cultures that derive from or add to a skateboarderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life. Skateboarding, Clothing, and Art being some of the main things directly connected to being a skateboarder. Music has also been a huge part of that, but they categorize that within â&#x20AC;&#x153;artâ&#x20AC;?. They try to support local artists and local skateboarding companies foremost, but also carry almost all major skateboarding brands, both new and old.

OARDIN G 46

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“Our mission is to provide high quality products that focus on helping homeowners bring down their cost of living by reducing electric bills, increasing energy efficiency and allowing homeowners and their families to live more comfortably.”

– Stephen and Jamie Ethridge

QUICK WICK: Briefly describe your business and what you offer to customers. GREEN ENERGY: We’re energy efficiency specialists. For home and business owners, we start the process by offering a free energy analysis of their place. We go in and try to figure out how much energy they are consuming and why they’re consuming so much of it. We give them some tips to get their bills pointed in the right direction and show them some costeffective things that Green Energy Solutions does to get considerably lower their bills and make their places more comfortable to live in.

QUICK WICK: What actual types of “solutions” do you guys have? GREEN ENERGY: We offer all types of installation, windows, window film, solar water heaters, solar panels, a little bit of everything. If we don’t have it in stock we try to get it and make it happen. Our mission is to basically help homes and businesses consume less energy and save money. QUICK WICK: How did you get started? What is your background like? GREEN ENERGY: I graduated from LSU in 2005 in Construction Management. I worked for KB Home in Daytona Beach and in New Orleans after Katrina, then came to work construction for my brother for 3 years. I always wanted to open my own business, my brother and my dad have both done that, too, and I wanted to do the same. I was always interested in the energy-efficiency part of construction. So one day we just decided to go for it.

So we pulled the bar out and started transforming it into an office. In the beginning I was doing energy audits, sales, installing, accounting, marketing… what else is there? I mean everything, I did it all by myself. Quickly I learned to let go of some things and hired guys to help. Jamie was a nursing home administrator and ran nursing homes for a company. Once she saw the business growing and realized that I needed the help, she decided to come on board with me. Now we have this husband-wife team and it works pretty well. QUICK WICK: Do you think it’s beneficial being married and working together? GREEN ENERGY: You have to have a strong relationship to do that. But we’ve been together since we were 13 years old and we know each other very well, know each others work ethics and wont have to guess with each other. I didn’t have to guess hiring her. I knew I was getting a good employee. It does test you at times but it works as long as you remember your focus is to grow the business, and that business is business and work is work and our regular life is our regular life.

QUICK WICK: As a young professional starting a business, what did you find to be challenging? GREEN ENERGY: We used to work out of a bar when we were in college, just me and a laptop and a printer and a few barstools. Finally, one day my dad came in town and we were talking about how ridiculous it was and how bad my back was hurting from working on a bar stool all day… plus we were trying to grow the business and not work from a bar that smells like stale beer.

QUICK WICK: Were there any specific events that happened to hinder your company? GREEN ENERGY: Well, we had a baby. We have a 21 month old little girl, and she was two months old when I started the business, so that was a pretty large hurdle. Jamie took on the role of appointment setting, but you usually have to do that after 5:00 PM because that’s when people are home. So at 5:00 PM our sitter leaves and then you’ve got this live person that cant feed themselves or anything so that takes out of family time a little bit. Now we’ve got a full time appointment setter that does that, though, so we can spend time focusing on the family and keeping it balanced too. Dealing with all of the responsibilities of starting a new business/being a business owner, having a baby at the same time, and just getting organized and getting a focus on what we wanted was the biggest hurdle.

QUICK WICK: What type of things do you do to promote your business? GREEN ENERGY: Jamie takes care of our marketing and setting up events. We do lots of local events like the Farmer’s Market once a month. We set up in Sam’s Club once a quarter, and any type of festivals we can find. We like to do local things to give back to the community like volunteer work, just anywhere that people can see our business giving back out in the public. We try to open up to people so it’s a business that’s personable. We want people to know who is behind it. Also, a lot of business owners and home owners don’t know about some government funding that is out there for a lot of the products and services that we offer, so we wanted to start educating everyone on what we have to offer and what the government could help with. We give everyone all the paperwork they need and if they have any problems we help them out. We make it a no brainer.

A example of insulation from Green Energy Solutions

QUICK WICK: Did you experience a moment when you knew it was developing well and was really going to work? GREEN ENERGY: When construction companies started calling us to do multifamily projects with like 30 homes at a time, we’re starting to get into that. We also started to get a lot of incoming calls and referrals, which excited us. Word-of-mouth has been working great for us and is our biggest help. We’re very concerned with our quality and that helps bring other people to us. If the customer isn’t happy, we make them happy and deal with it until they are. QUICK WICK: Any last thoughts to share with readers? GREEN ENERGY: Don’t wait until it’s too late! Not to scare people, but you need to start doing your part. The US makes up 5% of the world’s population, using 26% of the world’s energy. We need to lower our consumption and be more efficient. If you cut your costs now instead of five years from now when you absolutely have to, it would help you out a lot. Solar panels and things like that are expensive but pay for themselves in the end. It’s helping the environment and cutting the consumption as far as the country goes, and lets face it, energy bills aren’t going down! We’re going to see huge energy spikes in the next few years, so if we don’t do something about it now, we’re going to get stuck. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

“We try to open up to people so it’s a business that’s personable. We want people to know who is behind it.”

This location is approximately 25,000 square feet, open Monday-Friday 4:30 AM - 10:00 PM, Saturday 8:00 AM 6:00 PM, and Sunday 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM. It houses nearly 100 pieces of equipment, a pool, and racquetball court, among other ammenities. There are classes and personal trainers available. Xtreme Nutrition Xpress offers smoothies and supplements. Pro: Larger facility with multiple ammenities Con: Crowded at times with limited privacy

This location is approximately 3,000 square feet, open 24 hours a day, every day. It houses nearly 35 pieces of equipment, a tanning bed, and a pilates machine. There are personal trainers and nutritional seminars available.

Pro: Open 24 hours a day with maximum privacy Con: Smaller facility with less equipment

ARISTOCRACY apparel for the people

Towne Center

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HEATING THINGS UP with Nino’s Italian

Chef and co-owner Elton Hyndman preparing one of Nino’s popular appetizers.

Darren Betts is currently the head bartender at the City Club in Downtown Baton Rouge, where the native has been employed for the past 22 years. He is the most recent of four head bartenders the City Club has had, keeping it in the family, as his grandfather was one of the previous. His signature drink is the Bloody Mary, which is his grandfather’s secret recipe. He describes his experience working at a private club as very unique and enjoyable. His secret to longevity, he tells us, is to “know all, see all, tell nothing, give good advice, and be sure to make a damn good drink!”

MIXING IT UP with DARREN BETTS City Clubâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legendary bartender

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claim your journey â&#x20AC;&#x153;You have to set up milestones for yourself and every one of them you reach is momentum going towards the next.â&#x20AC;?

www.claimyourjourney.com for more info on Brandon Williams and his site: a digital guide for running in Louisiana.

ways par ting any ly a b is a f f d Af ter a lothing comp ed to ou nee k c es all y ut from wor id m ti e m with his Brandon dec y.com. So one o t z a h to ” , w t urne “Dope momen bsessions of rn the YourJo al im la o C tu e re ext, create and th at ʼs my he h t done n e playlist, t e s e u g ing-,” “Beca has to favorit ss find – runn n n your e io o tr s s s d en you f a o h o p iP w e z d e n bre ve to ke a , “a added sion], you ha ndon feel the ring… and ta snʼt as a ea s.” Bra that [p disapp be running h u, but n. appen h t o y happe a y a h s r g w M o f ! in e n h g e t u s t r r xin more g grea his rela y choice af te is seein ite gives you been t h lt r a o f e front bs an ah His we expect. The rather, imply the me t what u d in a u rs than yo been create erent work o look good, b l if f as cia to page h e style with d tors, tr ying uld add a so What c ? in o e n z c ir u a r d u r e mag if yo to you oup like rac areas, r e , c g s n e g r ie r in tu fea expe a runn er tain ferjoined y networking ers in c tores and dif e n n u r if you t hting s nds that com uld enjo work a spotlig and co oing actual ra e e h t ning b ple,” h td all ent run . “For exam e into withou t if you had m wn t ʼs ha into to “Saucony ca ial all? W of wha ing s te a d s ec n p p in n u s u t la r s a p ex late did your ith e w in w u g d o y n in them.” n to town a happe w with y to ought ie r ? v b e r s y te u it s o n video in e this are ea the commu click of the m k li le Things h ever yone in he a simp t it h 20 it w , s share w ommunity on pecial , liam e il c n s W c ie e n r g runnin On top of th Brando running expe as h . f d e d n his websit years o his hear t an ndon a ing a r f B o , s d ld e r ork featur followe running wo se been w g section. o h e t v e a to h h t r team given the blo answe ya na the ntly on n is basicall e ia is ig u il o d L o ti im h c it n e la un er gs ns w m. C f one r he blo o T questio rJourney.co y n a o w ti the giving enta ou repres r y city in L A theyʼre ClaimY rney displays nning u ve ru what from e Your Jo ld approach lls us, tor y of dding s ir u e te o h h t e a you you s life; h ʼs , even task in urney and it ing for bout what ʼs in a tr or any jo ays a ation a ir area. oing to inform “it ʼs alw hat youʼre g Claim he t on in t .” going nothing in just a day ast just p r s of a conque rney reaches r ves as the eye h it w u g se ndon Lookin Your Jo website, but an, Bra t of view of g in m in s n s le n e p u in r s bu a sim a e for his poin reful al guid can easily be ressed p s ca x e a digit u “It take how you . Yo ld of , a r g n o in ia w n is n g ru h is l Lou itin g, whic ccessfu the exc tch plannin ork to be su set up par t of ear you, wa ut new w to sn abo have to ss. You have runner e , read s W o “ e . and e d id lf e v in busin s for yourse recent nd get involv ing e momen n n a n ach is e milesto r events, er y active ru ” u t o ne y v e nex a, ever yo g towards th et up have a y in Louisian Claim it S d in n n tum go continued, “ ess commu explains, “a nd a d e e n H u m r b sin or one.” Brando rney was for or you f s e es f e h n t u o ileston ilesto come m m e n Your J p g b u in t to n you ca u se ped t run like yo For instance, keep develo to broadcas ady g. m lre y but runnin platfor youʼre not a world, one da can do 5 s e il f I g m go 4 here.” in the runnin eed is d you n g it, an d u e in o h lv y s o u ll v p a in time.” “ ” e next n says t ones! or 6 th Brando es; the righ sho tennis

He was determined at the beginning of 2011 to tackle a running series that pushed his running milestones further, not knowing that this would lead to something greater; the creation of ClaimYourJourney.com. Brandon shined light on his heart, his team, and the running community of Louisiana with a closing statement for readers, “Running is more than just our lifestyle; itʼs our passion.” Claim your journey and get involved. Article by: Nakia Thomas

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