Michael Bruce
From medical technician
to feed-and-garden guru

At 39, Mike Bruce was sick and tired of dealing with people who were sick and tired. A medical technician for 18 years, Mike saw the impending retirement of his boss as an opportunity for him to exit the medical field and change his course in life.

Searching the classified ads, he came across a feed-and-garden store for sale in Old Town Slidell. He knew the store, and wanted to buy it, but someone had already made an offer. Discouraged, he told his wife, Rosalie, about his idea, but she was incredulous. She, like many of Mike’s friends, thought he was crazy to give up his 9-to-5 job for the demands of business ownership.
“A feed store?” he remembers Rosalie asking.

“Not just a feed store, but a feed-and-garden store,” Mike repeated, emphasizing the part of the business he thought Rosalie would find more appealing. His wife wasn’t impressed, but something told Mike that this was the right move.

Two weeks later, the first offer on the store was rescinded, and Rosalie had begun to realize just how important being in business for himself was to Mike, so she supported his decision. In August 1985, with the blessings of his wife and children, Stephanie and David, Mike Bruce became the proud owner of Community Feed and Garden. And just how have the past 20 years treated him?

For starters, he took no salary for the first two years, returning all the profits back into improving inventory. Mike also left behind any hope of a 9-to-5 job or regular days off. Instead, he works 14-hour days, six days a week—but he couldn’t be happier. A people person, Mike is fueled by the constant stream of customers who frequent his store. Once they walk through the door, Mike considers them friends, carrying heavy purchases to their cars, asking about their families, and taking time to give his professional advice about plants and animals.

In spite of the constant demands on his time, Mike makes a priority of going out with Rosalie every Saturday night. While both his children are married and live in other cities, Mike keeps in touch through visits and phone calls. Sometimes these forms of communication just don’t do the job, however, especially when it comes to his granddaughters, Megan and Madison Rose. If anything can make retiring from business palatable for Mike, it will be the thought of being able to spend more time with them.

Mike offers advice to anyone contemplating starting his or her own business: “You must have a lot of energy and leave lazy behind. You have to want it bad. And don’t forget your friends.”

Ed Chaignaud
From dry cleaning equipment dealer to land developer

Ed Chaignaud’s story involves returning to first-loves: the first love of his work life—building, and the first love of his father’s life—forestry.

When Ed married his wife, Elaine, in 1948, he worked in construction, but had to change jobs because of the poor economy. That’s when he began selling dry cleaning equipment with Prosperity Company. After 10 years, he was quite successful, but the job required too much time on the road away from his family. So, he purchased a dealership from Prosperity and hired salesmen to do much of the traveling for him.

The business took off, and over the next 15 years, Ed enjoyed the financial security and friends it provided. Then his father died, leaving behind a 500-plus-acre tract of timberland in Lacombe, between I-12 and Highway 190. Ed fell in love with the densely wooded area while doing a boundary survey on the property. “To watch the sunrise or the sunset through these pine trees is a beautiful sight,” he says. “Out there in the woods, I just give God my thoughts and appreciation.”

But this ancestral acreage did more than afford Ed inspiration; it filled him with determination to preserve it for generations to come. After consulting with Elaine, Ed decided to liquidate the Prosperity dealership and purchase his family’s shares of the property. Thus was born Brier Lake Estates, Lacombe’s most prestigious real estate development. Combining the elements of forestry, homesteads and a nature preserve, Ed designed a multi-phase plan that allowed for the symbiotic integration of each interest. This venture, which began in 1972, allowed Ed to return to his first line of work, construction. He says that he’s never looked back. Today, he continues to build houses, manage forests and occasionally uses his sales skills to promote Brier Lake’s newest phase of development.

What advice does he offer to anyone contemplating a career change? “Think about it. Pray about it a lot. Make sure you can support your family in your new occupation,” Ed says. “Once you consider these things, if it’s in your heart to do it, by all means do it. Finally, remember that nothing will be 100-percent perfect. Every business will have its ups and downs.”

Sage advice from the talented man who 36 years ago followed his heart to the forests of Lacombe and now nourishes his soul in the woodlands he calls Brier Lake.

Michael Edwards
From carpenter to veterinarian

“I remember exactly when I decided to quit,” says Dr. Michael Edwards. “I was 27 and re-roofing a building with a small work crew. I looked at this old man—he must have been at least 40—taking a break from some roofing work. He could barely move without groaning. I knew if I kept on being a carpenter, I’d end up just like him—old before my time. That’s when I decided to find another way to make a living.”

His search for a different occupation led him to the University of Southwestern Louisiana course catalogue. Flipping through the endless offerings, he paused when he came to the pre-veterinary courses. Memories of days on his grandfather’s Columbia, Mississippi cattle farm played in his mind. It was there that he held his first hammer and cut his first joist—and where he learned to castrate a calf and dress a wound. He figured he was as skilled with animals as he was with a hammer, so he applied for and was accepted into USL’s pre-veterinary program.

Two years later, Michael was checking his mailbox daily, hoping to find his acceptance letter from LSU’s School of Veterinary Medicine. Meanwhile, a friend asked him to go into a contracting business. Growing discouraged with not hearing from LSU, and flirting with the idea of returning to building, Edwards told his friend he’d be his partner if he did not hear from LSU by Friday. On that fateful day, the mailman delivered the letter of acceptance, and Mike told the former love of his life—carpentry—that it was over.

While he’s still working a lot more than 40 hours a week, Michael takes great pride in the profession he’s chosen and the practice he’s built as the owner of Pontchartrain Animal Hospital in Slidell. The animals keep his adrenaline flowing. Recently, when one of his patients coded after a spike in temperature, Michael immediately administered medications and put the lifeless animal into an ice water bath. Exhorting the lethargic canine to keep fighting, he felt the limp body jerking to life. Soon the dog was awake and alert, unaware of the drama that had just unfolded around him.

Giving his patient a comforting scratch behind the ears, Michael headed off to be with another client. As he approached the examination room, he mentally shifted gears, from the resurrection story he’d just witnessed to the healthy little pup awaiting vaccinations. This roller coaster pace is typical of what comes with being a companion animal veterinarian. It’s very different from the build-a-house-and-then-move-on mentality of construction. The beginnings and endings of cases in veterinary medicine are not so clear-cut. But then again, Michael wouldn’t want it any other way.

Frank Jackson
From commercial contractor
to soda shop owner

In the summer of 1986, Frank Jackson, a self-employed successful commercial contractor, was planning some time off with his wife, Carla, and their two young daughters, Christy and Lori. “I was so disconnected from my family, I had to ask Carla what we’d done for vacations so far,” Frank confessed. Carla told him point blank: “Frank, your girls are eight and nine years old, and on our one vacation we went to Disney World. Don’t you remember?”

Once again, the family vacationed in Disney World, but all the while Frank was so restless to return to work that he mistakenly checked out of the hotel one day early. That night he and Carla had a heart-to-heart talk—about Frank’s workaholic attitude, his absence from his family, and his tendency to rank work and hunting above Carla and the girls.

Frank took a long look at Carla, his childhood sweetheart, and realized that his priorities were all wrong. The next day, he went to work and announced that he was shutting down the business. His father and two brothers thought he’d gone crazy, but he knew he’d just left “crazy” behind and was heading for a better life.

Carla was shocked by Frank’s quick decision. “But my buddy was back,” she says with a smile. It took two years for Frank to complete his long-term contracts, but once they were done, he began renovations on his most important job—reconstructing his family life.

Living on proceeds from the liquidation of the business, Frank spent the next year or so doing sporadic backhoe jobs and reconnecting with his daughters. He became so absorbed with his girls that Christie asked if he had any friends. Frank knew he’d reconnected long enough. It was time to move on.

He and Carla set out to find a business they could work in as a family. Seeing a need in Slidell for a place to have children’s birthday parties, they bought the old Giordano-Buckley’s Shoe Store on Cousin Street. Looking at the dilapidated building, Frank envisioned a soda fountain in the corner of the store where kids could hang out before and after birthday parties. That bit of inspiration became the backbone of the business.

On July 14, 1988, after three months of working day and night renovating the building, the Jackson family opened the doors of the Old Town Slidell Soda Shop. Now, instead of clocking 70 hours a week in New Orleans, Frank Jackson works 90-120 hours a week surrounded by Carla and daughter Lori. And he’s never been happier. “We’re working a whole lot more, making a whole lot less,” Frank says. “And having a whole lot better quality of life,” Carla finishes.

Living next door to the shop, they’ve gone from driving 40,000 miles a year to barely 2,000 miles a year. And some of those miles are driven in the shop’s trademark antique fire engine that Frank bought in 1989. A kid at heart, he knew that rides in the fire truck would be the perfect touch for the birthday parties.

Seventeen years and thousands of ice cream sodas later, Frank and Carla are happier and more in love than ever. “Just look at me,” says Frank, as granddaughter Regan wiggles onto his lap, her tyke-sized soda shop apron symbolic of the bond between them. “Where else can a man work in a happy place surrounded by his loving family and have his customers thank him for being here?”
Where else, indeed, but at the Old Town Soda Shop in Slidell, where life is slower, smiles last longer and success is measured in little-girl kisses and granddaddy hugs.

Anna Kern
From dog groomer
to landscape contractor

Anna Kern loves all of her children—not only her 23-year-old son, Allan, but also the hundreds of petunias, roses, ginger plants, exotics, trees and shrubs that prosper under her expert care at Tiller of the Land Nursery in Lacombe. With the muscle and support of Allan, husband Gary and assistants Peggy Childs and Therese Newfield, Anna manages the growing inventory, drawing from it to landscape the yards and businesses of happy customers.

What a far cry from her life 26 years ago! At that time, Anna was a professional dog groomer operating Anna’s Pampered Pet Boutique in Chalmette. She still remembers her slogan: “Bring your pets for a treat at Anna’s Pampered Pet Boutique.” With little more than $500 start-up money, the newly married 19-year-old purchased the tools of her trade and prevailed upon the goodness of her landlord to pay her deposit over time. Soon after opening, Anna became pregnant, but continued grooming dogs, eventually changing locations to an add-on at her home because of her son.

But there was a love of landscaping stirring within her. By 1985, Anna, now divorced and caring for Allan, decided to go into landscaping. She completed a six-month horticulture-based course in New Orleans, then enrolled in an 18-month program offered by Slidell Vo-Tech. Three months short of graduation, Anna’s financial situation forced her to return to work. For a short time, she was employed by a northshore nursery, but she soon realized that she needed to be in business for herself.

With amazing spunk and dedication, Anna began a lawn mowing service to support herself and her son. In the heat of summer she cut grass, edged lawns and trimmed shrubs. Her worn-out equipment was repairman Larry Spiehler’s regular visitor; he was always on the lookout for serviceable used equipment for her. It was at this point that Gary entered Anna’s life.

Both active in the First Baptist Church in Slidell, Anna and Gary met through the singles group there. Gary, a petroleum engineer with Texaco, took a shine to the pretty blonde, showing up after work to help her on evening jobs. He showered her with gifts that made her heart beat faster—thoughtful gifts, such as a brand new self-propelled lawn mower and a heavy-duty trimmer.

In 1994, Gary asked, “Will you?” and Anna said, “Yes.” Putting her lawn care business on hold, Anna moved with Allan and Gary to Texas, but she never lost sight of her dream of being a landscaper. When Texaco downsized, the trio moved back to Louisiana, and Gary did consulting work during the week and sold plants at the Menge flea market with Anna on weekends.

This mushroomed into Tiller of the Land, their well-stocked nursery on Highway 190 in Lacombe, where Anna provides on-site residential and commercial landscaping. She also helps the do-it-yourself gardeners by sketching landscaping suggestions for their yards, with the simple request that they purchase their plants from her nursery.

Anna has traveled a hard road. Now, working among lush greenery and fragrant flowers, she credits her success to God, Gary—and guts!