Zero To Ten

This week you'll get to hear from Gerard Littlejohn, easily one of the coolest guys we know. Gerard is insanely kind and compassionate and is basically helping to change the Charlotte community in a million different ways. He does this mostly through his role at the Steve Smith Foundation. In this particular episode, we wanted to hear more from him on education in Charlotte because that's been on a lot of our minds for the past few months as schools have grappled with inviting kids back in person or doing virtual learning. Listen to learn how Gerard is working to provide better education for disenfranchised children here in Charlotte.

It's voter registration deadline week! This Friday is the deadline to register to vote in NC, so expect a ton of info coming at you this week about how to register and why. In addition to talking about the importance of voting, Kamaria and Angel also break down what we can expect on the ballot this year, including some early voting, absentee voting and poll voting tips and tricks. 

Meet Brent LeVasseur, VP of Propellant Media here in Charlotte. There’s one thing you should know about Brent: he has a lot of random thoughts. And this week’s episode of Zero to Ten is full of them. Like his idea for a new YouTube show: purchasing the entire discount cart you see at Food Lion’s and taste-testing each of the questionable alcohol placed inside. We also learn that one of Brent's 2020 goals was actually to stay up later (weirdo).

Even if you've never heard of or met Brian Mister, you've probably heard of the Around the Crown 10k, the monumental race that happened for the first time last September and shut down I-277. Just a few months away from their second race, we sat down with him on Zero to Ten to learn a bit more about him, and boy, did Mary Johnson deliver. On this episode we learned that Brian and his wife, Chelsea, have a goal to run a marathon in all 50 states. They've already knocked out 16, which if you ask us, is pretty damn good. They even make up their own marathons in some states, like Utah, where they charted out their own 13.1 mile run in the middle of the Arches National Park. Talk about running goals 🏃 want to learn more about one of Charlotte's most avid runners? Listen now.

"I think 2020 has a lot of bright, shiny things potential in the horizon but also has an incredible amount of work ahead of it for myself," he told host Mary Johnson. We recorded this episode a few weeks ago on Garrett's birthday, so we got to hear a lot of his outlook on the new year and on him turning 36. It's a damn good episode - and we're not just saying that because he's the one who pays the bills. 

This week on Zero to Ten, we're catching up with hygge's director of marketing, Alyssa Pressler. If you've never met her, Alyssa is The Person (a title she got in this very podcast episode) at hygge west charlotte, and she's also the person you've probably interacted with on any hygge social media. (She's also the one writing this caption about herself, which yes, is very, very awkward).

On this podcast episode, host Mary Johnson asks Alyssa about her openness with her mental health struggles, her tattoos (including 2 that she's tattooed on herself), and why in the heck she's sniffing the microphones in the podcast studio (it's one of those 'you've gotta listen' things). It's a pretty fun episode (and I'm not just saying this because it's me, Alyssa, awkwardly writing this caption).

"If you keep happiness in the front of everything, or kindness, love, whatever it is that keeps you happy, that shifts your perspective."

This is just one of the incredible tidbits from this week's Zero to Ten episode with Megan Pastor, hygge's phenomenal Director of Membership Experience. If you've checked out hygge since March, chances are you already know Megan. She's our human confetti cannon on staff, spreading sunshine and rainbows and laughs and hugs like no one's business. But how well do you really *know* Megan? Like, do you know that she used to write cute notes for her grandpa for his lunch every day? Or that she was offered her job at hygge without even realizing she had been interviewing for it? On the latest podcast episode, we get to learn more about about Megan, how she stays so positive and where she got her incredible baking skills from (if you're ever the lucky recipient of a Megan Pastor baked good, be grateful). You can listen to the whole dang thing below.

This week, we're getting a bit of a deeper dive in the life of Tyler Ford, aka the guy who single-handedly started the coworking trend here in Charlotte with Industry Coworking in 2009. Tyler's history is a really cool one: after school he started out working for Tommy Hilfiger in various positions for 15 years (yes, he knows Tommy, he's kinda awkward; and no, he did not pay for clothes, which was a culture shock after he left). During that time Tyler and his wife moved to Charlotte, where, after leaving retail, Tyler started working from home on graphic and web design. You see where this is going, right? He did the work from home thing for about 6 months before he started going a little stir crazy. He and some other friends bounced around the idea of splitting an office space together... and from there, the idea for Industry Coworking grew. Then in 2018 he decided to join the #hyggefam.

"Most of us meet our friends at our workplace, our spouse at our workplace. When you don't have that at all, it makes it easier to be out there on an island."

You can hear more about Tyler's super interesting journey, along with some other tidbits (like he and his daughter's personal challenge to see 25 concerts together in 5 years and how he steals the bacon off of sandwiches) by listening below.