ORANGE BEACH, AL -- Big ideas are nothing new to Mac McAleer.

Sometimes they emerge like a bright light coming on, particularly one that says “Hot Now” at Krispy Kreme stores. Yep, that one is his.

Another will emerge this weekend in the waters near Bird Island in Orange Beach.

“It’s a floating, magical, mystical music machine,” McAleer says. “It’s fun and at this time in my life I like doing things like this.”

It’s the third annual Gumbo Key floating concert, one of McAleer’s latest brainchilds. He’ll have a barge brought out by Walter Marine, park it about noon, have live music on it til about 5 p.m. and the magical, mystical Gumbo Key goes away for another year.

Floating concerts have been a central theme for McAleer. When LuLu’s moved from Week’s Bay to its iconic spot in Homeport Marina, the move was done with much fanfare. And a band on a barge.

When the LuLu was sank in 2013, courtesy of a $250,000 donation from McAleer, Wet Willie played live music at the site as she went to the bottom.

He’s one of the marketing geniuses, along with Lucy Buffett, that has driven LuLu’s to dizzying heights as a eating and entertainment destination for visitors. And now Lucy has expanded to a Destin location.

“This is her place, she’s doing a really good job and I’m so proud of her,” McAleer said. “I’m just the landlord.”

But perhaps his most famous and widespread idea he wears on his head almost daily. A ball cap that says “Hot Now.”

“I first did that in 1977 and now they are in 20 countries in the world, 1,000 units in 20 countries and all they talk about is the hot light,” McAleer said.

The hot light was born out of McAleer’s drive and necessity to change the direction of Krispy Kreme in a changing market in the 1980s.

His father first bought a Krispy Kreme franchise in 1953 in Prichard.

“I’ve been doing this a long time,” McAleer said. “I walked in my first Krispy Kreme when I was 3 years old.”

McAleer worked in that family business for 15 years before a change in ownership led him to the lead role in the company.

“In ’82 the franchisees bought the corporation,” McAleer said. “My father was the largest franchisee at the time and along with a couple of other guys they went up there and bought the whole thing as a co-op. With the offices in Winston-Salem, N.C. They wanted my dad to be the president and we went up there for a long time.”

His dad’s health began to fail and the company turned to Mac to take the lead

“The board called me and asked me if I would move to North Carolina,” he said. “In 1986 I worked there for a year and was named president of the corporation. I was never groomed for that, but I was running donut stores since I was a teenager. But I knew how to run the store, make the donuts, the mix and all the rest. And wash ‘em and all of that.”

A fundamental change was occurring to Krispy Kreme’s base business at that time. The driving force of the business wasn’t donuts out the front door but donuts out the back door.

“When I went there 85 to 90 percent was wholesale business,” McAleer said. “The retail consisted of the coffee bars in front of these little factories. That was all that was there. It had like 12 barstools.

“When Winn Dixie decided they really didn’t need donuts anymore – that’s who we were selling to all over the place, them Delchamps and all these places – they were going to put their own bakeries in.”

McAleer said he fell back on the other two staples of Krispy Kreme’s business. One was fundraising donut sales for churches, schools, athletic programs or other needs.

The other was retail sales. McAleer kept remembering the ‘hot now’ concept.

“I heard people saying they got a hot donut in the middle of the night when they were making them,” he said. “That was before we had the hot donut concept.

“They would tell me all about that donut they got at 2 o’clock in the morning after they had been out too late at a Mardi Gras ball or something.”

When he was running the Montgomery store in the 1970s most of the calls coming in were “are the donuts hot now?”

So he put up a sign outside that store in 1977 with two red light bars above and below it. The sign said “hot donuts when flashing.”

When the grocery stores turned away from Krispy Kreme, McAleer turned the company’s energy into developing more retail business.

“I’m going to make ‘em hot, I’m going to show ‘em how we do it,” he said. “I put a big glass up just like the one in Foley. I first did that in 1989 and now they are in 20 countries in the world, 1,000 units.”

McAleer guided the company to dizzying heights behind the retail explosion driven partly by his ‘hot now’ concept. After 15 years and the company on the verge of going public, he decided it was time to step down.

He had 15 years in the family, business and 15 years of running Krispy Kreme’s corporation.

He still has a hand in the donut business owning franchises in Foley, Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Mobile. He also operates Homeport Marina, the home of LuLu’s. Most any day you’re likely find him sitting off in corner sipping coffee or tea and enjoying lunch or dinner at LuLu’s. Likely in a LuLu’s T-shirt, shorts and flip flops.

And wearing a cap with the iconic “hot now” logo.