BrandBuilders

When you’re getting ready to leave your house in the morning you grab your phone, keys, watch, and wallet. For the sneakerheads and fashion-forward folks among us, your shoe choice is probably also at the forefront of your mind. But have you ever had to think about whether or not you would have shoes to wear? There are millions of people around the world right now that live in that reality. Whole...

Becoming a parent can be the most fulfilling, stressful, heart-warming, and chaotic time in your life. Your whole world, or at least a very big part of it, becomes centered around your kids.  Every parent wants the best for their children, the best food, the best schools, and the best future! But for some families that future is cut terribly short. Our next guest has turned their personal tragedy...

When most people or partners start a business, they’ve usually got an incredible idea, product, or service to bring to the marketplace. What they generally don’t have is all the info or the experience to manage the “business” of owning or starting a business. You know what we mean. The accounting, bookkeeping, taxes and such aren’t the tasks most business owners love to tackle. And it’s precisely...

It was very big news when Food & Wine named Charlotte one of its next great food cities. With new restaurants openings, award-winning chefs, and a world-renowned faculty at Johnson and Wales all getting regular attention… it seems like the options and opportunities are everywhere. With all that, most of our audience – and probably many folks in Charlotte — aren’t worrying about where the...

It would be hard to argue that Charlotte isn’t a bike town. From the world-famous Myers Park Booty Loop, Orr Road, miles of greenways, and successful charity rides, and great bike shops, to boot. And, even if you know cycling, you may not know that one of the sports internationally-known brands is right here in Charlotte. The name Giordana is synonymous with top-of-the line cycling clothing and ac...

Arguably, no one loves coffee like our guest host here. BUT, our guests on this episode are real professionals. Let’s set the stage here: two successful Charlotte coffee shop owners decide they’ll try their hand at a JOINT venture in the local coffee space. Enter: Night Swim Coffee. James Yoder and Todd Huber met up at a coffee convention – how do we get a ticket to THAT show – and hatched this pl...

Most everyone remembers a line or two from that old “Dry Bones” song, right? Or maybe you’re a, “head, shoulders, knees, and toes,” type… Either way, all this stuff we’re made of is connected. And if you’ve ever been on the receiving end of great chiropractic care, you know what we’re talking about. And like any type of service, not all are created or provide care in the same way. On this episode...

We all dream of hitting it big with what we do – so it’s always a pleasure to meet someone who’s living that dream. Canaan Cox is a musician from right here in North Carolina, who grew up in a musical family and hit his stride after a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck. He’s got a fun mix of musical styles and a few singles already called hits – and he’s joining us right now on the BrandBui...

Charlotte once earned the designation of “Tree City USA” – but we have lost a significant part of our canopy to development in the last 10 years. The city is working on saving trees as part of its comprehensive plant, but a local organization has been at it for a while. Trees Charlotte is a public/private nonprofit whose mission it is to grow and diversify the city’s tree canopy through education...

Writing is a gift. It shares what you know, or, even better, what you’ve just made up but sounds really convincing because – you’re a good writer. It’s a form of communication that can either draw you in to stay up late, or put you to sleep. And let’s face it – social media would not have taken off the way it did if not for clever quips to convey thoughts in 280 characters or less, or with just th...

Cancer research is a big deal to us here at The Dunstan Group, because of how cancer has touched our lives personally. Our next guest on the BrandBuilders Podcast has also seen the devastation of cancer – she lost her husband, Chris, to Acute Myeloid Leukemia a little over a year ago in January 2021. Since then, Stephanie Perri has made up her mind to fight back, just like her husband Chris did an...

When we talk about the environment, we talk a lot about our limited resources and how to preserve them: clean water, clean air, and agriculture for our growing populations. All three conversations eventually come around to this: sustainability. How do we give back resources for the ones we use? Our next guest on the BrandBuilders Podcast doesn’t have ALL of the answers – but he has some good ones...

So you have a renovation! Where do you start? Maybe it’s just a kitchen counter for your home or 100 kitchen counters for an apartment complex. You need someone who can do a lot of work or just a little – and we know some folks who can do that. For the last few years, while everyone was in a lockdown renovation frenzy, there was a company already at work making great transformations a reality. But...

We all love a good story, but we also know delivery makes all the difference. It needs a beginning that reels in the audience, just enough content to keep their attention, and an end that gives them a “Wow” moment and a satisfying ending or call to action. Our next guests on the BrandBuilders Podcast learned to tell stories a minute and a half at a time – how’s that for being concise? – and turned...

If you’ve been to the Whitewater Center during the winter the past couple of years, one of your highlights has surely been the Whitewater “Lights” along their wooded trails. The popular exhibits have brought in thousands of visitors to the center during colder months when whitewater rafting is not top-of-the-list outdoor activities. Now the same artist is lighting up a couple of popular public exh...

Let’s be honest – how many of you adopted a pet during the pandemic? It may have been your first pet, and you had a learning curve for how to take care of it. Specifically, what do you feed it? What’s IN what you feed it? Our next guest on the BrandBuilders Podcast wants you to think more deeply about that very topic. Christi Busch is a former insurance risk manager and successful mother of four &...

If you picture your average construction worker, he’s probably a strong, sturdy, male figure. But wait – you wouldn’t be entirely right! Women are making big gains in the construction industry, and our next guest on the BrandBuilders Podcast tells us it’s because there are some things women are traditionally very good at. Think about it – organizing, multitasking, and any detail-oriented managemen...

If you want to meet Super Woman, she’s here with us today on the BrandBuilders Podcast. We know her as fitness influencer Emily Breeze Watson – but to her 4 kids, she’s just Mom. And to her husband Montell, she’s “amazing.” They’re both pretty amazing, actually, and have documented practically their whole marriage and family life where you can see it, while encouraging others to get fit and be hap...

Nothing sticks in your memory like the scent of perfume. It’s right up there with the smell of fresh-cut grass, flowers in spring, or baking cookies. And the perfume business is worth more than $31 Billion dollars globally! Wow! But in a world of fragrances, how do you find just the right scent for you? Our next guest on the BrandBuilders Podcast has the answer: She makes them! Katrina Sellers is...

Unless you’re new in town or hiding under a ROCK, you know real estate is hot right now. So SO hot. The inventory is at historic lows and the prices are through the roof. The median home price is in $400,000 range. We’ve got someone here in the BrandBuilders Studio right now who’s in the business of selling homes to talk us through what this means. Steve Lonnen is a Licensed Realtor with Costello...

If you’re a woman, or married to one, you probably know about purses. There are probably at least a half dozen (or a few dozen!) in your closet or around your house. And don’t say each one isn’t important – their size, style, and color all have different functions for a day at the beach or a night out on the town. But for most of them, you handle them lightly and store them carefully because they’...

Creativity has always been a valuable commodity in business and marketing, but what that looks like has changed over the years. It’s not enough to go from mailers to TV to social media… you have to make your work stand out in whatever channel you’re using. Lee Calderon is a classically-trained artist and architect who knows how to “build” marketing from the inside out – starting with great visuals...

If you’ve been in Charlotte for a few years, you’ve probably heard about the social mobility study that ranked the Queen City 50th out of 50 metropolitan areas for upward mobility. In other words, if you’re born poor in Charlotte, you’re likely to remain poor your whole life if you stay here. It is distressing, to say the least. Our next guest on the BrandBuilders Podcast is part of a collaborativ...

This is a great time to be a builder in Charlotte. But before any structure can be used, it has to be certified as safe and sturdy. We can thank our engineers for that! And making sure you bring the right engineer to the project is an essential part of doing the job right. That’s why we’re glad to have Mike Iosue with us today on the BrandBuilders Podcast – he’s the guy who connects the right engi...

Right now we are all filled with the spirit of the season, or as a lot of people like to say, “The Reason for the Season.” But the reason goes beyond the season, and our next guest on the BrandBuilders Podcast is living that every day with his nonprofit for children with incarcerated parents. Cyril Prabhu started Proverbs 22:6 because he saw that prison was breaking families – not just breaking th...