BrandBuilders

This is no typical summer, for sure. Two months of stay-at-home orders make us eager to get out in the sunshine and fresh air, and in summer, that means pools too. But the logistics of pool openings this year are a little more complicated than years past. Luckily, we have an expert with us today on the BrandBuilders Podcast to talk about that. Jeff Gaeckle is well-known in our swimming community as a former SwimMAC coach who ran the UltraSwim swim meet every year in uptown, as it brought in Olympians like Michael Phelps and his international counterparts. He also is the founder and president of Carolina Pool Management, which runs 160 pools in the Charlotte area, including its first owned-and-operated pool at Starclaire Recreation Club, which re-opens with a whole new facility this summer. If there’s anyone who knows about opening pools for summer, it’s Jeff.

We can’t imagine anything worse than having a child so sick that they need to be in the hospital for care. There are so many things running through your mind — what’s going on, what’s the treatment, when will they get better… and if you don’t live close to Charlotte or the hospital your child is in… where can I stay, and how long will I be able to do that? Ronald McDonald Houses relieve some of that burden for parents by giving families a place to stay while their children are in the hospital. Kristin Young from Ronald McDonald House Charlotte joins us to tell us what’s going on there right now.

We know that if you want to start a company, it takes money to make money. Enter venture capitalists like Jeff Brokaw of Tabbris, who is a serial entrepreneur who’s always starting something… and when he’s not starting his own company, he’s giving advice and mentoring others. Jeff is a regular on the Charlotte entrepreneur scene, and his current ventures include a fin-tech firm, a co-working hub for disruptive new companies, and an e-sports team. That’s quite a mix!

You can get anyone from a neighborhood teenager to a giant national franchise to mow your lawn.. but if you want a lawn DESIGN, you need a landscape professional. This can mean a lot of different things – James Ormond of The Ormond Group is a Certified Landscape Professional, or CLP. And he’s going to tell us about all the things we need to be doing right now to really make our yards “another room of our house.”

We know having a mentor is the best way to learn a business, and if you’ve had one, you’re grateful someone would “show you the ropes.” Stacy Cassio is grateful for having many great mentors in her past, and wanted to create a way for women, in particular, to get mentorship. That’s how Pink Mentor Network was born. It’s Charlotte’s first female mentorship community. Stacy joins us on the BrandBuilders Podcast to teach us her vision about mentorship.. and why she’s still learning.