Our BayouLife

I always have people ask me how I juggle having two little ones and a business. I have to say that it’s not easy and sometimes either of the two gets neglected – generally it’s my business. Thankfully I have an amazing staff that picks up the pieces when I have to be at home.

Owning a magazine has always been a dream of mine. That dream was realized when I was around 22-years-old. I started working as an intern for Maré Brennan at DeltaStyle Magazine in the very office that our business now resides. I worked with LaRone  and Kristin Richardson, Elizabeth Hoskins and Debbie Pope. Later, Kourtney Takeda, Toni Navarro and Melanie Moffett joined the team. I cannot tell you the laughs that we had in this office, it was a dream job and right away I knew that I loved the magazine business – as well as my boss. I worked every two weeks for Maré during our production and the other two weeks I lived in Austin, TX. In 2005 I was married and decided I might need to be in the same town that my husband was living. I said goodbye to my friends and got a job as an advertising salesperson for the daily newspaper in Austin.

In 2008, Maré asked me if I would be interested in moving back to LA and taking over the publisher position at DeltaStyle. She sold the magazine to Gannett Newspapers shortly after I left and wanted to be a stay-at-home-mom to her three girls. We found out around this time that my father-in-law was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and decided this was the perfect time for us to move back home.

In 2011, we lost my father-in-law and mother-in-law within four months and also found out we were pregnant with our first baby girl. Call it crazy hormones – or just plain crazy – but I decided it was time for me to venture out on my own and start “my” dream. I knew I couldn’t do it on my own and looked to my best friends and family for help. Today, with the support of my family and help from my staff, we have a thriving publication that we are all proud of. It’s definitely a team effort. I couldn’t imagine this publication’s success without Melanie Moffett, Toni Navarro and Maré Brennan, as well as my mom and dad and my amazing husband, Trent. I have a group of talented writers and to my seasoned staff we’ve added Scarlett Holland, Tess Wilks and Rheagan Sutton.

I always dreamed of being the kind of person that my mentor, Maré Brennan, was to me. I hope that our magazine can bring awareness to local non-profit organizations, smiles to our readers’ faces, a little knowledge about our region and most of all – a feeling of hope for our future. Hope that our community can overcome this attitude of poverty, hope that we can contribute to the success of our children and grandchildren and the hope that in twenty years we can look back on our lives now and see that we did make a difference. This is our love, this is our home, this is our “bayou life.”

       – Cassie