BrandBuilders

Innovation is the name of the game in business, and while hard data is good, you have to let everyone know what’s happening. American Inno is a digital media company with offices all over the country, including here in Charlotte. Their work tells the stories of local innovators with newsletters, stories, and other media, to connect new ideas to the people who make them happen. Cat Francis is here to give us a better idea of the work American Inno is doing right here in Charlotte.

You may have thought someone had gone mad when you first heard this idea — shut down I-277 for a few hours for a 10k road race. No, not during rush hour, but still – it had never been done! Well, it worked — and the first Around the Crown 10k exceeded expectations. More than 4,500 runners thought it was a great idea to run a loop around uptown with the best view of the skyline you can experience, at a speed you can enjoy because you’re not in a car. It was so successful, in fact, that they’re doing it again this May — also on a Sunday morning when the weather should be perfect. We’ve got the mastermind behind this landmark race with us on BrandBuilders Podcast today, Brian Mister, and a brand new member of the ATC team who will help take the race to the next level, Brittany Yoho.

There are few places in Charlotte that evoke the “Yum” response quite like Amelie’s. We have a lot of great restaurants here, but Amelie’s is a French bakery with so much more — the treats, the ambiance, the open-all-night availability in a part of Charlotte that has exploded in growth in the last 15 years. It is an amazing example of building a brand around PASTRIES.

But there are changes coming — after the brand expanded to 5 other popular locations including uptown and Park Road Shopping Center, word came the original and much-beloved location near NoDa would move. Joannah Long and Mary Jayne Wilson join us today on the BrandBuilders podcast to share with us the secrets of a successful brand — and how they keep the momentum going while growing and changing, too.

For the longest time in North Carolina, as our state tried to get past its textile-and-tobacco economies… we would think of Research Triangle Park as being the hub for technology, and Charlotte as being all about banks. Well, let’s set those ideas on their ear for a moment with “FinTech.” Who’s going to dominate that? And where will you find the people for it? Look out Raleigh, here comes Charlotte.

Forbes, last year, called Charlotte “the best Metro for growth in STEM jobs.” Complia called us “#1 Tech Town.” Red Ventures, Microsoft, AvidX, and even home-grown Lowe’s have tech homes here. So if you want to be That City for young tech workers in banking and manufacturing, you have to know how to find them — and we have an expert here on BrandBuiders Podcast to tell you. Reed Gaskin joins us on the BrandBuilders podcast. He’s President of Red Dynamics, a headhunting firm for technology and manufacturing with a sharp Carolina focus.

We talk a lot of business here on the BrandBuilders Podcast, and we love it –but our next guest is like “going out to play” for us. Jamey Boiter from BOLTGROUP is a specialist in building brands. Yes, like the name of our podcast. BOLT works with clients from Ryobi tools to Chick-fil-A to Coca Cola to Speedo swimsuits. And we are excited to talk shop with him about brand building. Welcome Jamey.