Finding Production for New Products & Manufacturing with Domestic Sources, with Catherine Armstrong, Carolina Textile District

[00:00:02] What you want when you want it, where you want it. This is the MESH. Visit meko-rx.com or call 855-562-5679. Make O-RX, help care simplified. Welcome to the Entrepreneur Exchange on the MESH podcast network. You have monthly podcasts for

[00:01:00] conversation about startups and small business, where here with ideas and information to help you grow and operate your business more effectively. On today's show, your business is starting to grow and you need to hire the best people.

[00:01:16] It's time to break out of that old interview rut. We'll share some ideas to help you better evaluate your next hire. Our guest today is Catherine Armstrong with the Caroline of Textile District. The Caroline Textile District has worked within the textile industry to create a reliable

[00:01:32] domestic supply chain for entrepreneurs to connect to manufacturers and make quality products here in the United States. We'll talk about their business model and how it works. Plus, while our lightning round and we'll highlight some interesting small businesses that you should

[00:01:46] be checking out on our small businesses of the month feature. My name is Jeff Neuvel. I'm your co-host and director of the Manufacturing Solutions Center at Talk Valley Community College. I'm joined by my co-host Gary Mueller, who is Executive Dean of the Economic Development

[00:02:02] and Continuing Education at Talk Valley Community College. Gary did I get that right? Very close. What's your title this month? Economic Development Corporate Education. I'll get it at some point in time. You're doing okay? I'm doing great. How's your new title?

[00:02:19] And the responsibilities we're... I'm enjoying it getting to work with a lot of interesting and fun people and I'm in addition to me. In addition to you and it's all going good. So good. Well, we know you're going to do a fabulous job there, seriously.

[00:02:37] I'm doing my best. I ran across an interesting article about interviewing people and like we're probably not doing it right. Thank you. And at one point Gary, you hired me so you probably need help with the interview process.

[00:02:53] That's one of my proudest moments. Okay. Well, Adam Bryant in this article was writing about different ways to make the process better at evaluating people trying to get out of the ruts and assessing the candidate's curiosity by just getting out of the meeting room and walking

[00:03:13] through the facility or the office and avoiding standard interview questions. And he has some ideas for some good interview questions that I wanted to try on you. Well, that would be great. And before you hit me with those questions, we...

[00:03:24] As you know, with many of our academies, we put them through a soft skills training sessions. And we just finished stars with our hospitality academy. And it's been a real home run that Tammy Mueller started and everybody's been supporting over the last few years.

[00:03:40] And it's really critical. And it's interesting. We start that process and they go, we don't need interviewing skills. So we don't need a resume or the sur that. But over that four or five weeks that we're working with, I remember what Tammy and her teams

[00:03:53] working with them. They come up and say this was an amazing experience. And so it is critical to for the interview, we folks looking for a job. But it is also just as critical for us

[00:04:04] looking for a good talent that we make sure we do have the right question. So we cut down on the number of folks that may have slipped through the cracks. We didn't ask the right questions. Well, and sometimes we always ask the same questions. We might ask,

[00:04:19] what do you want to do in five years or different things? So there's some different questions that Mr. Bryant suggested that we think about. So one question is, what is your natural strength?

[00:04:32] And he said, really, what's your ninja skill? What are you going to bring to our organization that's really your best strength? So how would you answer that question, Gary? My passion. Your passion for whatever project or whatever job I'm in, it has to be

[00:04:48] enthusiastic if I'm going to be successful. Okay, that's a good answer. Next question, what kind of animal would you be and why? My gosh. After thinking about it. I'd be a louder door. I'll have a door and why? Because they have a very good personality.

[00:05:10] Get along with people there. Carrying and very handsome like you. And very handsome, not like me, but yes. And they are very, and I start say a medium, but they follow directions well.

[00:05:28] We love laboratories in our house. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah, if you said goldfish, I think people would look at you funny. I think that's true. And rightly so. All right, last question, what is the biggest misconception that people have about you and why? That's a great question.

[00:05:48] That's what I gave it to. You really have to be introspective a little bit to talk about that. Well, again, I, it's funny. You'd say that. I asked that question because I was talking

[00:05:57] somebody yesterday and, crocheting, I'm a pretty friendly person and I like to talk to people and I'd like to talk period and get to know them. And because of that, sometimes people say,

[00:06:08] well, you're not as tough or strict as you need to be. I said, well, now I think the fact that I try to develop a relationship with them doesn't mean it has to be, you know, friend to friend,

[00:06:19] you know how it is. We're good friends. But I think having a relationship makes it easier when you have to have those difficult conversations that you have a relationship. I think difficult

[00:06:28] conversations are much harder. If you haven't talked to the person much or don't know much about them and then you gotta talk to them about a problem. And so, so you would say that your the biggest

[00:06:39] misconception is that you're not able to have difficult conversations because you're too friendly. Yes. And you and I've talked about that earlier in my career, we had the company I was with. I used to

[00:06:53] buy and sell the companies or make the evaluations and one of the toughest parts of that job. Was after we bought them and we brought them into our company. I had to make the decision

[00:07:03] along with our top management who was going to stay and who wasn't. And so I learned again, really through that process to develop positive relationships with people even in an acquisition

[00:07:14] so that when you're having that conversation, at least it's a little bit more personal than it would be otherwise. Okay. We'll see. Anyway, there's a bit of a perspective. I would have that.

[00:07:24] I know how you answer these questions. I mean, I'm not sure how I would answer the question. So how we animal I would be? Turn that. How would you answer the answer all three questions real quick? I'm

[00:07:37] the host here. Okay. I'm not going to read that. Answer the last one. My the biggest misconception that people have. I don't know. I think people think I'm pretty quiet because I tend to listen a lot.

[00:07:51] So I'm quite in certain situations. Yeah, I don't think you're quiet. I host a podcast. Exactly. I understand why they might say that. Anyway, we will put a link to this article in our

[00:08:09] show note so you guys can check it out after some good information and other interview questions out there also with some other ideas to help assess your hires because if you're in new business,

[00:08:19] hiring the right people is such a critical piece of it and building a good team is so important. So I can't go on with that knowing what animal you are. I'm going to say gorilla.

[00:08:34] Yeah, I just because I like my lab or door in your game. I like gorilla. I like gorilla. Silver, silver back gorilla. Okay. That's what I'd like to be. I don't know. Yeah. So yeah.

[00:08:48] They can be quiet but they take care of their families and do what's necessary to be done. You'd have really thought that one through. Good for you. I was thinking about it.

[00:08:59] I guess I did. I'm not sure the best way to answer that one. That's a tough one. I think that I think that the easy answer is, oh well, I'm a lion. Go on my time. You know, and that's

[00:09:09] I may as well. So I think for our podcast we should have a picture on there. We have a gorilla holding hands with a laboratory coming down. We'll put our graphics team on that.

[00:09:22] I don't want to blow all over a budget on that. Okay. Anyway, let's welcome our guest. If she's still with us, hope she is because we're excited from hearing from her. Sorry about that. Captain, I'm not. I had to pull myself on mute because I was laughing.

[00:09:38] This is serious stuff, Captain. Anyway, let's welcome Katherine Armstrong. Katherine is the production and outreach manager with a group called the Carolina TechSol District, which is centered in Oregon to North Carolina. Katherine, how are you doing today?

[00:09:52] I'm doing well. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast today. I'm glad you're with us. It is our pleasure. We have a crack research team that spends at least five minutes on LinkedIn before we have any guests join us. And through

[00:10:08] that crack research, I can say that Katherine graduated from the University of North Carolina Willamuten, Simba Cum Laude with a focus on supply chain management, entrepreneur and business development and Spanish. She was the Cameron School of Business as 2020 outstanding graduate

[00:10:26] of entrepreneurship and business development. You, Katherine, would seem to have a pretty well-worn passport because you have studied a broad and Argentina. You have traveled to Iceland with a college honor seminar dedicated to global citizenship. You have represented the

[00:10:46] Cameron School of Business in Russia at an international undergraduate conference. You probably can't go back to Russia anytime too soon. Glad you got that one under your belt. And you volunteered

[00:10:57] in a lot of myocity to help single mothers and children and some of the poorest regions of the city. You've been doing a lot of stuff. My goodness gracious. That's amazing. By the way, I do

[00:11:07] want to talk to you about supply chain management because we're looking at starting a program at CVCC with it. Do you have my information? Gary has been to Winston Salem. Yes. You've been even further than that. Anyway, we appreciate you joining us. And

[00:11:24] please tell our listeners a little bit about the Carolina Textile District how did it get started and what does it do? Absolutely. So the first fall, thank you for that great kind introduction.

[00:11:36] I have to say what's funny about me is that I grew up in rural North Carolina and I'd never been on a flight before I went to college. I think the part of this had been was like Maryland. So

[00:11:46] to encourage all the listeners out there, that there are so many opportunities out there to learn and expand your horizons if you just talk to people and yeah. So that's one purpose. All those things. So about the Carolina Textile District, so we are a producers network of about 30

[00:12:06] supply chain partners focused in the Carolinas and our goal is to use our heritage industry which is the textile industry to usher in this new way of economic development in our states and to create

[00:12:22] really good ethical jobs that put the worker first and usher in this new way of sustainable practices that are so important for our environment and creating really great products as especially this there's a new generation coming along who is really looking for these things. So

[00:12:41] how can we be ahead of this curve and make the Carolinas the place to be to get things made? So that's kind of the heart around what we're doing and how we started. So it was a joint effort

[00:12:55] between several organizations in our region. So the first being opportunity threads which is a worker owned cotton so factory-based and working to North Carolina that was started by Molly Hemp Street who I will talk about a little bit later. The second organization was Burke

[00:13:11] Development Incorporated and that is an economic development initiative that's trying to develop Burke County. And then the third key piece to this equation was the Manufacturing Solutions Center which Jeff knows quite well and how it started is these three entities were receiving

[00:13:35] countless phone calls every week from entrepreneurs who were looking to get things made in the Carolinas and they realized that we needed some type of central intake system for these entrepreneurs to be able to do this most effectively. So the Carolina Tech Solid District was born

[00:13:53] from that conversation and it since evolved into this entity that's really trying to revitalize industry and solve problems that our producers see in the industry so that we can do it most effectively. Yeah, it's a little bit about us. That sounds good and now what is

[00:14:13] tell us a little bit about what your role is with the Carolina Tech Solid District? Absolutely so my role is I focus on our production runs for collection which is the brand of the Carolina Tech Solid District partners. So I work on getting

[00:14:30] products made here in Western North Carolina and then ships to other parts of the country and I also work in some marketing and branding and I work on marketing and branding initiatives for material return which is an enterprise within the Industrial Commons and the Carolina Tech

[00:14:47] Solid District and then I also handle membership for the Carolina Tech Solid District. And how many members does the Carolina Tech Solid District have? So we currently have around 30 members and then we have a referral network of upwards of 300 partners.

[00:15:06] And every I probably should know these things Katherine but is it all these North Carolina South Carolina companies what's the geographic footprint? The main geographic footprint is actually within 75 miles which is exciting. Now there are a couple outliers we have one firm

[00:15:22] in Pennsylvania as a part of the district but I mainly in the Carolinas for work centralize. We're about some Pennsylvania just. That is a good question. I'll chop my head. I don't want to

[00:15:35] give you the wrong answer so I may not answer the question. I grew up in Pennsylvania and that was just my question. So tell us a little bit about what services the Carolina Tech Solid District offers.

[00:15:50] Is it a soup to not stop thing and what services are out there? Sure so there's kind of two answers to this question so there's the Archbeneur side of our operation and then there's the producer side. So from the Archbeneur's perspective they can come to us

[00:16:08] and felt this little form on our website and they will be connected to our client and tech manager who will help them get connected with a the education and training that they need in order

[00:16:19] to be successful because that was one key problem that our founding team saw was that Archbeneur's were coming here with their excitement and their wonderful ideas and the problem that they saw on the industry that they wanted to solve but they didn't necessarily have the experience to be

[00:16:35] able to make it in the most efficient way possible and so we created a whole three-day workshop called Zone Goods 101 that takes Archbeneur's through every step of the process from materials procurement to pattern making, defining your supply chain to tags and what you legally have to

[00:16:55] have on tags, the sell products, the United States and packaging and everything in between so if an entrepreneur comes to us and this is their first time undertaking a project like this we

[00:17:08] direct them to syndicates and then they get educated on everything they need to know and then once they have all of these core pieces to producing things we will then connect them to our sourcing

[00:17:21] database so we have a database of thousands and thousands of materials that they can be connected with and those organizations that produce those things and then we also have our core group of supply

[00:17:32] chain partners that we can connect them with and then we also have this referral network of 300 people that we can also connect them with to get their products made so the short answer for entrepreneurs

[00:17:43] is education, sourcing assistance and helping them connect with their and build their local supply chain here in the Carolinas. We also have this whole resource and program work for our producers so

[00:18:03] twice a year our members get together and we talk about problems that we see in the industry and one of those big problems was a lack of skilled labor because we have told

[00:18:13] our main we have told people not to get into manufacturing for 30 years and so we're entering this phase where we don't have people who are skilled in selling and so we may have these amazing

[00:18:25] contracts coming in but just not the labor force to be able to tackle this thing so we started an industrial selling training program where we it's a 96 hour course in collaboration with Western P-Mot Community College so you leave with you leave this course with a certificate of

[00:18:44] completion and this list that you can bring to a manufacturing center on all of the things that you know how to do this checklist and a lot of the majority of these classes end up being a direct

[00:18:58] pipeline to a job with some of our partners which is so exciting so labor force a problem that we're addressing something else is that contracts so actually getting work and maintaining your lines we have all these entrepreneurs coming in and we have this place where we connect

[00:19:19] our producers with these entrepreneurs for small contracts to help them pick up work if they need it and then we also figured out how to facilitate really large shared contracts so

[00:19:31] as you know if you are familiar with textile manufacturing kind of how you survive is through high volume and oftentimes small family operations aren't able to pick up those large contracts so a key example of this is during the pandemic when everybody else's lines were shutting down

[00:19:51] we've secured the current textile district secured a contract for the C to move Carolina to produce masks for every daycare in the state of North Carolina and we ended up figuring out how to coordinate 60 manufacturing partners to produce 700,000 masking gowns and ended up paying over $4 million

[00:20:13] in our community during the pandemic when everything else was shutting down so shared contracts and that's kind of a good example of our motto which is being big by being small together and then kind of the third piece of what we're doing is the sustainability piece so

[00:20:33] our partners at one of the gatherings they were discussing on how there's this huge amount of textile waste that's produced from all of their factories whether it's cutting waste where

[00:20:46] you know if it's like loom waste all kinds of things and so we worked in conjunction with North Carolina State University to map out our four counties in our region and we found that there were over 200

[00:20:58] facilities that were producing textile waste and from that map we had a meeting of the mines and everybody got together and figured out what the missing piece was to be able to recycle textile waste

[00:21:13] and then material return one of our enterprises was born from that conversation and so they offer recycling services for cutting-save factories but also for brands and to be able

[00:21:25] to make new yarn from their waste streams so we do a lot of things and we're trying to address a lot of a lot of big issues in the industry but as I mentioned before kind of our goal is to

[00:21:38] revitalize the industry and support the industry so that it can come back and be super sustainable how many people are working with you to pull this all together in coordinate that's a lot of stuff

[00:21:49] as you said. It's a lot of stuff so we are part of the industrial common so which I can speak more but in total there's about 26 of us across enterprises and we work really closely together to make

[00:22:03] all of these things happen so we don't have an in-house accounting for or in-house accounting but we coordinate with good books which is our woman owned by a language book keeping service that's part of industrial common and maybe it'll be helpful if I could also give some framing

[00:22:20] information about what the industrial common says that's important. Well and and want to talk a little bit about the industrial common and sort of you know because it's very interwoven with

[00:22:32] what you what you do there you see what I did there within a woven you get that got it. That's that's why you're a charge. That was a professional podcast. Yeah exactly. He is the

[00:22:45] Johnny Carson of podcast. This is a big box. She's young she may not even know who Johnny Carson is. Probably not here. So I talked a little bit about the industrial common and how that works with

[00:23:00] Carolina Tech-Saube district and other ventures that you and your organization are really building something there. Yeah so the industrial common is a non-profit organization that is solely focused on developing rural North Carolina and specifically starting with Bert County and one thing that I really

[00:23:25] really appreciate about the industrial common and kind of the philosophy of all the work that we do is that we start with a problem that we see in our community and then we assess the full landscape

[00:23:38] of who was already out there attacking that problem and then we find the missing piece so we figure out where we can fit in. So the industrial common is working on economic development and

[00:23:50] focusing again on our heritage industry which is manufacturing and they offer a whole host of resources for businesses to be able to sustain themselves. So some of those things are workplace development and business conversion so some workplace development trainings include

[00:24:12] managerial training so one problem that we saw is that you know you may be incredible at operating a sock knitting machine and so you're promoted because of that but you may not necessarily have

[00:24:23] managerial skills to be a great manager and so we figured out a whole course in workshop for teaching people how to be managers. Another workplace development program that we offer is the great game of business

[00:24:37] which is an open-books financial management training so to help with really the entire organization from the frontline workers to the managerial staff to understand what it takes to run the business and giving people ownership of the financial lines that they actually contribute to so that they

[00:25:00] understand their why the understand why decisions are made the way they are and so they have ownership over their part of the business. We also work in business conversion so when people are

[00:25:12] looking to establish their exit strategy whether it's retirement or whatever that may be we help with actually creating the structure around selling your business to your employees said that you can continue they can continue the work in that way. We have skilled centralized trainings for actual

[00:25:34] technical training so we have an upholstery class that is helping to train people who are getting to the furniture manufacturing we have our skills selling training that I mentioned before we have a whole host of work around connecting youth with opportunities in Bert County because

[00:25:52] Bert County has one of the highest percentages of opportunity youth in this state which is a statistic that represents kids who don't make transition into any type of education after your high school with either community college or before your institution or don't even make

[00:26:12] the transition into full-time employment so we're helping bridge that gap with internship programs and all kinds of things where we connect businesses in the area with this potential workforce and then we also have an art program where we're reaching kids better in the elementary

[00:26:31] to middle school range where we're teaching them about really interesting topics through art and then we have an incubation space for incubating businesses one of them being material return we have good books which is our bilingual bookkeeping service that I mentioned

[00:26:49] the current a textile district is housed there and just throw a lot of information out to you and I think you have plans for more more buildings I mean you're really looking at it as a campus

[00:27:02] and there are a lot of exciting things going on there. Yeah so we do have an innovation campus that's in the works we are in the fundraising phase of that but we have an amazing plan for it

[00:27:15] and the location already secured and yes we're really excited about that as well. So yeah if we have any philanthropist listening they should be checking out the industrial commons as well there and then trying to get involved with that. Absolutely absolutely.

[00:27:30] When we were talking earlier about how to engage with the Carolina textile district you said if entrepreneurs there's an intake form that they can fill out at your website and we went before you go we definitely want to know where to find that

[00:27:48] if there are manufacturers that want to get involved with the Carolina textile district what how do they engage with the Carolina textile district if it's like hey it sounds interesting it sounds like you're connecting me to potential business on being interested in that what

[00:28:03] how should they how should they be getting involved and what and what do you look for when when you're looking at various manufacturers and getting involved with the Carolina textile district? Absolutely so our website is about to change and probably the next month and a half but

[00:28:17] they're easiest way for them to get in contact with us. There will be an intake form on the website that we're building out for that but this is the shoot me an email at Katherine C8THER

[00:28:27] I and E at Carolina textile district.com and I will give all the resources that they need to to become a part of the Carolina textile district so as far as what we're looking for. So

[00:28:40] as I mentioned going back to our core values we are looking to support really good jobs for people really ethical jobs and also really sustainable practices so we have a whole list of standards that our partners actually got together in established themselves because we're hoping

[00:29:01] the sentiment is to really raise the bar for everyone so that you know more work comes here so that we have a low turnover rates within our factories that we have you know great sustainable environmental practices to support the region so

[00:29:19] those are our core values and so those are what we're the things we're looking for in new partners and we know that you know some people may not have everything on the list but we have

[00:29:32] a core you know some core things that are must and then we have items where we work with you to kind of develop a plan on how you can get this other items and what would an example of

[00:29:45] one of those core items be I assume that it's making sure that people are earning a living wage or or some sort of threshold there. Yeah so living wage is a must yeah absolutely a must

[00:30:00] some other things so our core so let me let me back up we have a few key areas of things that we look where so employee voice and agency of kind of where does that show up how can an employee

[00:30:16] come to management with a problem is there something like is there a pathway for that things of that nature obviously living wage that is a must environmental stewardship there's a lot of things surrounding your facility and and easy entry points into environmental sustainability

[00:30:36] diversity equity inclusion so how your workplace is a safe space for all people we think about forgetting I'm forgetting one but there's we have about there's four different buckets and there's there are quite a few item lines on all of those buckets that involve a lot of

[00:30:56] easier entry points for people to make these things and then some bigger items that we love people to work towards and the whole idea is to baseline you know ethical and sustainable practices and then seeing how we can achieve more than this things or are there any any

[00:31:16] Carolina textile district success stories that you can share with our listeners? Oh absolutely and I think that's that's why I love my job so much. We can tell. I really do so one really fun project that came from the districts so material return I mentioned them before

[00:31:39] they are our enterprise secondary textile waste and then create a great new yarn from those waste streams and they secured a contract with smart wool to see if it was possible for their customers send back their socks and could they make a new product from those

[00:32:04] old socks? Smart wool is a pretty significant outdoor sock brand that I guess you guys are working with. Yep and they are wonderful they're a great partner of ours and so during the

[00:32:19] the height of the pandemic that came to us with this idea and they wanted to see if we could test a program to see if what people actually return their socks and be with this be a good

[00:32:30] working relationship could be figure out how to work together and so the concept for this pilot program was for consumers to send back their socks and for us to pick up some industrial

[00:32:44] waste from their partners who were in the Carolina's and create dog beds where the filling was the sock waste which material return processed the fabric for these dog beds was woven at Valdez weevers which is a partner of ours and look at it in Valdez so Morgan's in

[00:33:05] Valdez are very close together so I love I love how small our supply chain is it just I think it's really I'm when you study supply chain management the fact that ours is within 75 miles

[00:33:17] very exciting to me so body sweepers web the fabric diamond ring gear out in flexure they sewed the fabric together to make the bag and this pilot test was a success we got it all done within

[00:33:30] six months to launch on smartwals website they launched around 800 bags of sorry not bags 800 dog beds and this ended up using about 8000 pounds of smartwal waste and yeah it was a really incredible project to kind of show that a the district is very resilient even during an

[00:33:53] an actual pandemic and the fact that we were able to pull this off in such a short period of time and be proven the concept that people are interested in you know returning their waste especially smartwals customers are so incredible and very mindful of their purchases already so

[00:34:07] that was a really an awesome test for us and then the fact that material return you know this is one of the first projects that they processed waste for and seeing how that would interact with the

[00:34:20] market so yeah that's a fun story like she has a good one oh that's good well as we sort of wind down here I think in your role you're seeing entrepreneurs you're seeing manufacturers you know

[00:34:35] where we're always focused on people that are starting businesses and the challenges that they face I mean any any advice that that you're seeing in your work with the Caroline text on district or your other adventures that might be useful for folks that are starting their own business

[00:34:56] or or any pitfalls that you see out there absolutely it's a great question I think one piece of advice that really stuck out to me from a conversation I had with Trevor Bain who is the director

[00:35:15] of tech stars impact in Austin which is an accelerator for specifically tech firms that are focused on social impact. His advice was not to chase the startup world but to find a problem and make

[00:35:30] a really great product that's going to solve that problem and along that same kind of line of thought I think my education at UNW surrounding entrepreneurship I learned so much from so many people

[00:35:44] but one key thing that I think has always been the back of my mind with every decision that I make regarding business and these different entrepreneurial endeavors is like there's the

[00:35:55] Leon started with approach and I know many you I'm sure you guys are familiar with it of you know you have this problem that you found you have this solution that you think is going to work really

[00:36:04] well for it but always to test those assumptions because that product that you make may not actually be for that market that you're trying to fit it may actually be for a different market

[00:36:15] that would use it in a whole different way but it would be an even better opportunity and I think that mindset is kind of is really reflective of the work material return to with smart will during

[00:36:26] the pandemic of hey we want to recycle sock waste but we're not quite sure the best path or even if people will return it so let's start with this small pilot program so kind of that thought process

[00:36:37] I think is really really valuable for people who are starting out before they go really capital heavy and invest in a kind of inventory or a kind of kind of stuff to really prove that a the

[00:36:49] market exists will be that the concept works as well as they think it will so I think those are two big pieces of advice that help prevent a lot of pitfalls and then I think the last

[00:37:00] piece I would add to this as someone who is really passionate about the social impact sphere and how you can use business as a vehicle for sustainable good in your community is to really listen

[00:37:17] to the community you're trying to help in any capacity especially if you are not a part of that community yourself to go in and to not not solve the problem yourself to work with them to come

[00:37:33] up with it the answers from them don't yeah so I think that's a really big thing I want to head on and I think that's what the industrial promise does to well is that they see the problem

[00:37:44] and then they work with the community to find a sustainable solution to it. You're engaging them you're not you know telling not that's sticking in their face saying this is the way you solve the

[00:37:56] problem so they're more they're more engaged or they've got more involvement in it so I think that's that's will help you be very successful it's good so Katherine we really appreciate you joining us

[00:38:10] we're going to do our lightning round with you but before we get started with that we're going to thank our sponsor make of RX in the tight labor is the tight labor market frustrating use of

[00:38:21] business owner I think we're talking about that today do you have employees leaving for one or two dollars extra power make of RX complete care is a quality healthcare solution that is allowed

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[00:39:07] so we're going to do a quick lightning round with you Katherine this is quick questions quick answers don't overthink it okay okay first off first question what is your biggest pet peeve a biggest pet peeve is when someone's trying to talk and then someone interrupts them it like

[00:39:28] trying to talk over that my hate that I'm like just let the person talk let the person talk and leave their sentence she's looking at me and matter bad about that Gary so you need to work on that

[00:39:39] all right next question favorite vacation spot or get away that is a great question um I I love the beach um yeah a little bit beach just generic beach or a specific beach um I don't I think just generically the beach that's a good answer

[00:40:04] all right we'll accept that all right what will your Halloween costume be this year that is a great question um honestly I haven't thought about it but I have a four-year-old niece

[00:40:16] and I'm hoping to have a matching costume with her so we will see we will see what we'll report back to us that is what was what was your Halloween costume last year last year I think

[00:40:28] I don't know if I was a skeleton my niece was a unicorn so I was basically just in all blacks about she like it was just the cutest picture oh what is your favorite comfort food oh my gosh um

[00:40:43] what is it honestly I love food what come to have a something here come on probably fried chicken um yeah yeah that's good who is your favorite singer or musical group my favorite singer um well I love Bonnie Vera he's great I love music that has really great

[00:41:05] instrumentals um yeah Bonnie who we want to check it out be out in space IVR like some people say Bonnie Vera some say Bonnie Vera I always said Bonnie I'm sorry I know you I know you're talking about gotcha I'm gonna I'm writing that down

[00:41:24] last question if you had a superpower what would it be I think I would love to fly I think all of you are really great yeah I think that would be cool it's a good one alright well thank you very

[00:41:38] much for playing the lighting around you give us give us your contact information again and if people want to find out more about the Carolina Tech's Auditric where should they be looking

[00:41:48] so my contact information is Katherine C A T H E R I N E at Carolina Tech's dial district's dot com best the best of eight of reach me and then as far as if you want to learn more about the

[00:42:02] Carolina Tech's dial district good or website there's a lot of really good resources on that site and if you're an entrepreneur that's where you will find our intake form which is I think at the top

[00:42:14] right it's a little button you should see it there and that's just that Carolina Tech's dial district dot com yep that's correct okay well super well thank you so much for joining us we really appreciate

[00:42:25] this you're doing great work and and Carolina Tech's dial district my previous life is small business center director at Ktov I community college I had the opportunity to work with them and when I came across entrepreneurs looking to develop products would also often send them in that

[00:42:41] direction if they're trying to create products so it's great partner great organization so thank you for being with us today we always like to share small businesses that we've come across Katherine anything that you want to give anybody you want to give a shout out to today

[00:42:59] absolutely I've mentioned them before actually several times with this podcast but material return I am so excited about the work that they're doing it's a great group of guys and they I think are

[00:43:11] really going to change the industry and especially this region and make it a hub for sustainability so yeah and especially in thinking about supply chains as we've seen supply chains break down internationally

[00:43:24] you know if you can secure your material supply chain from your waste streams I mean that's like revolutionary so I think that's I think you're going to be hearing a lot more about them on a

[00:43:35] actual scale definitely within the next few years so check them out now while they're small great choice all right got it here you got a small business to give a shout out to today

[00:43:47] I did Jeff my small business the month is Carolina Gamers which I learned about from my grandson Lemmy going to a birthday party Carolina Gamers is the greater Charles since newest and most exciting mobile entertainment provider something that you and I may not do but our children or

[00:44:09] maybe Catherine even it's pretty excited they offer high tech luxurious video game truck that's second to none with eight screens inside outside gaming virtual reality gaming and even online gaming

[00:44:22] this is all on a truck it's an a truck yes bring it to you yes okay it's a fear on wheels that provides the wow factor for parties in summerville South Carolina Mount Pleasant and Northern

[00:44:34] Charleston of course my daughter in son and law in Lemmy live in summerville South Carolina right outside Charleston they have laser tag they have a game coach referee that goes along with the truck to

[00:44:47] make sure everybody gets things going well they have Carolina battle ball equipment a bubble soccer ball that you get inside and yeah exactly yes yes in Carolina battle archery this is for you I

[00:45:03] thought about when I was doing it you know with a hatchet I better in hatchet throwing then the archery okay well I think you could hurt each other with either of them you want to put an apple in your head I'll

[00:45:13] give it a shot now I think so maybe Catherine would like volunteer for that yeah me makes more but pretty cool I mean you know you think about that and that's really you know I think it's a

[00:45:26] rather expensive birthday party so I was glad Lemmy was going to as opposed to them offering them come on grandpa you can have a look at the design really cool so I'm excited about it I don't

[00:45:39] care a lot of gamers care a lot of gamers in summerville and Northern Charleston South Carolina very good well I was I was actually my small business of the month I was visiting some friends that in greenville

[00:45:52] South Carolina and my friend has a certain place that he gets his haircut when it goes every time he drag me with him Frank's gentleman salon in Greenville South Carolina which was founded in 2012

[00:46:08] it is just a classic mens barbershop it's a space dedicated for men's detailed haircuts razor shaves they do brow waxing they do manicures pedicures facials beard facials neck and shoulder massages scalp massages shoe shines they do it all they have a man cave they serve beverages you want

[00:46:32] you're waiting you can have a beer you can have a little bit of bourbon my buddy who is getting his haircut was sipping on bourbon at nine in the morning not well early for me but it was it was a

[00:46:44] Saturday uh did you have to help him outside I think I of course I know now he can take plenty of bourbon anyway uh started in Greenville they now have locations in Greenville Columbia South Carolina

[00:46:58] Charles in South Carolina in Denver Colorado and as Joe Bob would say check it out at www.franx salon.com sort of the interesting very well-cranchized growing and and uh I had a nice time when I visited

[00:47:14] and we get if you have a suggestion for our entrepreneur exchange small business of the month you can email them to us at exchangeatthemesh.tv and if we use yours on the show we'll send you a prize back

[00:47:28] Catherine we want to thank you for joining us today we really enjoyed the top opportunity to chat with you so thank you so much for the fortie talking to you in the future. That's one great

[00:47:38] we want to thank our our hosts and friends at the mesh podcast network they're doing a lot of fun podcasts that you can check out at the mesh.tv and we of course want to thank MacoRX for supporting

[00:47:50] our podcast and check them out at www.maco-rx.com we'll we look forward to seeing everybody again next month as we get into the fall so take care and we'll talk to you soon take care

[00:48:08] you've been listening to the mesh and online media network of shows and programs ranging from business to arts sports to entertainment music to community. I'll programs are available on the website as well as through iTunes and YouTube check us out online at themesh.tv

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