BrandBuilders

If you love weddings — and cry every time — but the thought of planning something for 200 people with a dress and a church and flowers and a sit-down dinner, while working full-time and everything else ALSO makes you want to cry — this next guest on the BrandBuilders Podcast is someone you want to meet.

Charity Parrish specializes in “micro-weddings” — tiny but beautiful weddings in gorgeous venues for only a handful of your closest family and friends. And they are really catching on! Welcome Charity Parrish from The Elopement Co.

We can absolutely guarantee we have never had a guest like our next one on the BrandBuilders Podcast. She specializes in body parts. Yes, you heard that right. Jamie Decker offers specimen kits of organs and other body parts that are portable, dry, odorless, and non-toxic — and real. In fact, if you ever went to the Body Worlds exhibit at Discovery Place the two times it was in Charlotte, you know what we’re talking about: plastinated human tissues and organs. It’s fascinating and a little creepy — but also a valuable tool for teaching biological sciences.

As our metropolitan areas grow, they gobble up the farmland that used to feed them. Our next guests are trying to keep the food you eat local, by supporting the agriculture that can keep farmers growing when cities expand. Zack Wyatt and Tia Wackerhagen work with Carolina Farm Trust, whose goal is to help small, local farmers stay in the business of bringing food to your table.

We all know teaching technology is essential to the future but there is still a tendency for men to way outnumber women in tech careers. How do we change that? Our next guest on the BrandBuilders podcast not only helps implement technology curriculum in our local schools, but created a foundation for girls to learn tech careers. Welcome Dr. Sharon Jones of The Dot Consulting and the Dottie Rose Foundation.

As a new year rolls around, and we think about getting in shape and all of our new year’s resolutions, our next guest is working on ways to make personal betterment a global process. Michael DeVaul is a Senior Vice President at YMCA of Greater Charlotte, but also its Chief Social Responsibility Officer.