When was the last time you started a new job? Do you remember what the onboarding was like? The paperwork, the benefits forms, the direct deposit setup, the login credentials that didn’t work yet?

Today there’s a whole industry built around making that whole process way less painful — and my first guest today runs one of those companies, right here in Baton Rouge.

Craig Broome is a Baton Rouge native who thought he was going to law school. He got interested in employment law at LSU and ended up in human resources instead — landing an HR role at a chemical plant during his senior year. That turned into a career, which eventually led him to a Baton Rouge HR and payroll company called ESS. And then in 2016, he partnered with the Sternberg family to launch Highflyer HR.

Along the way Craig served in the Marine Corps Reserve from 1994 to 2001 as a heavy machine gunner — which is not a detail you expect from someone who runs a payroll company, but there it is.

Highflyer processes payroll for roughly 25,000 employees a week. It serves about 500 clients across 40 states, and has grown from Craig working alone to a 25-person team. The company works with businesses from five employees to over 5,000 — their range includes everything from restaurants and retailers to fire departments and industrial operations. Craig says the goal was never to just sell payroll software. It was to figure out where a business’s people systems were breaking down and fix theme.

Another way people connect and gather is over their love of sports. I'm thinking of pickleball. If you haven’t played it yet, you probably know someone who can’t stop talking about it.

Xander Triay is the Founder of Baton Rouge’s only pickleball facility - it’s called Electric Pickle.

Electric Pickle opened in late 2025 with six outdoor pickleball courts. Open play sessions regularly draw 30 to 40 people. The venue welcomes about a thousand visitors a month. The restaurant and bar menu is built around a few signature items, including a roast beef po-boy based on a family recipe and, yes, house-made pickles.

Xander grew up on the Northshore, near Fontainebleau State Park, and spent almost ten years with Chick-fil-A — in leadership roles, working on corporate initiatives, traveling the country to help open new locations. His plan was to eventually run his own store. But that path required a lot of travel, and Xander wanted to stay closer to family.

His sister is in Baton Rouge, and when developer Dyke Nelson reached out about a new concept coming to Electric Depot in Mid City, Xander was in.

Xander will tell you he’s not really a pickleball person — he’s an operations person. But he’s pretty clear about what Electric Pickle is actually for: it’s a neighborhood place that happens to have courts, not a sports facility that happens to have a bar.

Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.com.

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