On this week’s podcast, Marcus sits down with Rob Holbert and Ashley Trice. From screenwriting school to ghost writing, this duo has paved a hard-working entrepreneurial journey in Mobile, AL. Listen to this week’s episode to hear all about their journey to building the weekly publication, Lagniappe! You can find this episode on , Spotify, or iTunes. Rob: I'm Rob Holbert, with Lagniappe, one of the co-publishers. Ashley: And I'm Ashley Trice with Lagniappe, the other publisher. Marcus: Yay! Well, this is awesome, to have you guys on the podcast, 'cause I know we've been talking about this for a long time. Ashley: We have, since you beat us. Marcus: No, even before that. So what she's talking about, for those of you that aren't aware, we were all along with Harper Technology. We were finalists for the small business of the year award with the Mobile Chamber, because this podcast will live in perpetuity online. But we actually, in Blue Fish, ended up winning that award, much to my surprise. I honestly, I thought you guys were a shoe in. Rob: Well, we all thought you were, and Harper was. We had ourselves kind of put third. So it was one of those things where you lose, but I was completely happy with it. Marcus: [crosstalk 00:00:59] Rob: Yeah, I was completely happy with it. It was just like, great, glad you guys did well. Everybody did well. It was fun. It was really a lot of fun. Marcus: Yeah. But it was also, I really, absolutely enjoyed getting to know you guys through that process. We got to know each other so well, we started dressing alike. So, and the reference there is, if you look at the cover, both Rob and I were wearing the same jacket. We didn't plan that, it was something that just kind of happened. We know what Lagniappe is, we know what you all do. But why don't we go back in time, and why don't you take turns and kind of share with us the story of who you are. Did you grow up here in Mobile? Where did you go to high school? Did you go to college? Did you study english or journalism? Did you start working in the journalism trade, or, you know, give us some background. Ladies first. Ashley: Well, I grew up in the sticks, in Jackson, Alabama, about an hour north of here. I came, made it to Mobile, 'cause I went to South Alabama. I graduated with a degree in communications. And then tried to find a job, which is hard to do when you're right out of college. So I was kind of drifting, decided I would go to screenwriting school. So I went to the University of Texas in Austin, spent a year doing that, and realized that was not what I wanted to do, either. But it proved to be a good move, in the sense that I really, I became a fan of their alternative paper, the Austin Chronicle. Marcus: Nice. I'm familiar. Ashley: And I came back to Mobile. Rob and I had mutual friends. He was teaching at South, and we started talking. Both of us were like, we can't believe there's not a paper like this in Mobile, it's such a big market to not have a paper. And that's sort of where we intersected. Marcus: I hate to ask this, but what year was this? Ashley: 2002. Marcus: Okay, so not too long. Ashley: Well, probably 2001 we started talking about it, so. Marcus: Yeah. Ashley: Our first issue was 2002. Rob: Yeah, we worked on that for probably a good six months before we finally got one out. My background is, I grew up over in the saw grass in Gautier, Mississippi. And shoot over the sticks, I grew up in the marsh grass. I grew up in a small town over in Mississippi, Gautier. I went to school, Spring Hill, for college. Got my masters at Loyola. But I started out working over the Mississippi press in Pascagoula, out of college, and then subsequently, went back after I got my masters, and was there. And I ended up going to Capital Hill and working with Trent Lot who was, then, the senate majority leader. Sort of to get out of Gautier or get out of Pascagoula, I had gotten married, and for some strange reason, my wife didn't like Pascagoula and didn't wanna be there. And I had this idea that I would go there and learn about politics, et cetera, but I had always wanted to jump back into media. I just wanted to do it at a different level. I fell in love with opinion writing at an early age, and for some reason, they let me write a column when I was 22 over there. And I got stuck doing that, and I really loved it, and had this grandiose idea of being a syndicated columnist. And so that was the plan. I got up there and I ended up leaving Capital Hill, was a ghost writer for a while. I wrote for just about every big newspaper in the United States with somebody else's name on it. And then came back down here thinking, I'll come to Mobile, and I'll be hired by the press register, no problem. Surely, they'll want me. And they didn't. And so I kind of washed out of journalism at an early age, and was just stuck. I mean, I didn't have anywhere to go. I ended up working at Tony Roma's, the place for ribs. Marcus: Nice. Rob: And I was doing that for a little while. But I had a masters degree, ended up out at south as the advisor to the student newspaper. And so doing that, the Vanguard, the newspaper at South Alabama. And so I was teaching classes, as well. Ashley was taking one of my classes. We also knew each other through mutual friends, so I think that's kind of where she came in and said, "Will you come write a column for us?" And I said, sure, I'll write a column. Ashley: It was gonna be named the Mobile Mirror at that point, I might add, too. Rob: Yes, that was gonna be our original name, was the Mobile Mirror. And it eventually became pretty clear, we had a group of people that wanted to do stuff with it, and the only two people who were really serious were us. So we eventually said, let's just be partners on this thing. Ashley: And let's rename it something no one can spell or say or know what it means. Rob: Right, let's, yeah. That was a brilliant move as well. Everybody knows what Lagniappe means, right? Ashley: I still have to spell it and say it to people who just call. Marcus: For those that don't know, Lagniappe is ... Rob: A little something extra. It's like when you get a box of donuts, and they give you a thirteenth one. They give you an extra. Marcus: Or a couple of extra donut holes, or something sprinkled on top. Rob: Yeah, yeah. And truth be told, we misspelled it on our mock ups for the first two weeks. Ashley: Yeah. We had the ... it said [inaudible 00:06:19]. Rob: Yeah, we did. We transposed a letter. We did. It was bad. So yeah, that was the, portending things to come on that. Marcus: So in 2001, 2002, I mean, journalism was still going strong. There really wasn't the emphasis on the web, and all that other stuff. I mean, it's ... Ashley: Well, yeah. I was telling this story the other day. When we started all of the trade industry, we had a trade magazine call us. And they were like, why on earth would you be starting a newspaper at this time? Digital was just starting, but the big thing that was happening at that point were classifieds, had gone to Craigslist. So they had lost all of the- Marcus: Which was a money maker for many newspapers. Rob: It was a huge moneymaker. Ashley: It was the second source of revenue, huge source of revenue. So we, well, we don't really have classifieds. So it's not a source of revenue. We don't really have any revenue at all, so. Rob: Can't lose it when you don't have it. Ashley: Exactly. Rob: Did we mention that? Ashley: Yeah, so in a way, it was advantageous, because we didn't have it to lose. We had to start thinking of other ways to make money. And it was in the traditional sense of display advertising. But yeah, so it was definitely a different time. But we were so small, we started out as a five thousand circulation biweekly. And we were really silly at first. We were both a bit younger, I mean, we had a hard hitting issue on Botox was the very first ... Yeah. Rob: Yeah, we didn't really have a lot of news at all. Ashley: Wrestling made it in. Rob: Midget wrestling. I'm sorry, little person wrestling. Ashley: Little person. Marcus: No, back then, it was midget wrestling. Ashley: Back then, it was. But I made this speech- Marcus: We're more enlightened now. Ashley: Yes. I made this speech just recently for a bunch of high school students, and I said midget wrestling, and they all looked at me as if I had just said ... I was like, I'm sorry. Sorry, little person. And they actually called themselves midget wrestlers. It was not trying to ... Marcus: They did. Yes, it was not. It was not- Rob: That's not PC, I guess. But yeah, it was one of those things. It's like, I think Ashley had five thousand dollars. I mean, it was really just- Ashley: And a dream. Rob: That's really what the paper was started with. And it was sort of, our first big purchase was, we went out and bought a boom box, a radio that we could listen to while we put the paper together. And cell phones to call each other. And so that