(intro music) - [Presenter] This is Carolina Business Review.

Major support provided by Colonial Life, providing benefits to employees to help them protect their families, their finances and their futures.

High Point University, the Premier Life Skills University focused on preparing students for the world as it is going to be.

Sonoco, a global manufacturer of consumer and industrial packaging products and services, with more than 300 operations in 35 countries.

- It feels a little bit like we're pretty close to a tipping point now when it comes to our personal household spending.

More and more anecdotal stories about consumers pushing back or just not showing up at restaurants, grocery stores, other entertainment.

Hello and thanks again, welcome to the most widely watched and longest running program on Carolina business policy and public affairs seen across the Carolinas.

Every week, there is disparate feeling between the start of a summer vacation season of goodness and concerns like tougher budget choices for individuals in organizations.

Is it harder now and to overuse this term, "Did the post-COVID time make it different?"

and/or "Is this just the end of a long expansionary economic cycle?"

In a moment, we will attempt to unpack those ideas and ask those questions, and later on we're welcomed by and we welcome rather, Jeff Plotner, the CEO, co-founder of a unique, artisan handmade manufacturer, Brackish from Charleston, stay with us.

- [Presenter] Major funding also by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, an independent licensee of the BlueCross and BlueShield Association.

And Martin Marietta, a leading provider of natural resource-based building materials, providing the foundation on which our communities improve and grow.

On this edition of Carolina Business Review, Dr. Monique Perry-Graves of Teach for America, North Carolina.

Dr. Nicholas J. Hill of Claflin University and special guest Jeff Plotner, co-founder and CEO of Brackish.

(dramatic music) - Welcome again to our program, Nicholas, good to see you, Monique, thank you.

I mean, we've been trying to get you on the program two or three or maybe more times and you've been very patient, we appreciate that.

- Thank you so much, glad to be here.

- Dr. Hill, let's ask you a broad economic question.

So, here we are.

Is this late stage economy or is there something else going on?

What's your sense of where we are?

Is it recessionary, is it unknown?

How would you rate this?

- Chris, thank you once again for having me.

I would say it is unknown, but for certain, one of the things that we are always dealing with is the inflation question.

I think the Federal Reserve has just come out and said that they are holding steady with trying to ensure that inflation does not rise, does not creep up, and that the economy is in a place where they feel comfortable with it and then they're gonna start to look at lowering the rates.

- You know, Dr. Hill, this is not meant to be a leading question, but did you ever buy the fact that the Fed was ever going to cut rates given the amount of money and the inflation that was in the system?

- No, they've always hinted at the fact that they weren't.

So one thing I can say, they've been kind of transparent with what they're going to do and it's interesting to see that people are trying to hedge their bets on what they're gonna do, but they've told you straight up what they're end up going to do is that's hold steady to what they're doing.

- Dr. Perry-Graves, so when we talk about the economy and you have a foot in both broadly what's going on on a state level, certainly in education, and you hear about economic times, how do you balance that, especially with teacher pay being under stress- -[Monique] Hmm hmm.

- Is probably an easy way to say that.

-Sure.

- So are we going to see teacher pay raises in what's going on with this economy?

- Yeah, I think we have to.

I know that our state has made some progress on that and we're gonna see beginning teacher pay tick up here in several months but we've gotta keep that momentum going as we have states across the nation that are competing for some of the best talent, just like we are, if we want talented educators in front of our kids, we have to make sure that we're keeping up with that, just like we do in the workforce.

I always say education is workforce.

Some of your biggest employers in your counties all across North and South Carolina are your school districts.

And so that's really important.

- If South Carolina, and I'm not singling you out there but if South Carolina, beginning of July 1 is going to be paying their teachers about $47,000, which is well above many states surrounding, including North Carolina, do you think that is going to force North Carolina's hand?

- I think we're already moving in the right direction as I'm reading and hearing about our upcoming short session and really both sides of the aisle, I believe, feel strongly that we have to continue in that direction in teacher pay.

So I am remaining hopeful that because that is something that there seems to be alignment on, that we will get there and perhaps surpass.

- Yeah, okay.

Let's zoom out and let's look at the broader education continuum here and let's go to higher ed.

And I know you work for obviously a higher ed school in South Carolina, that's well known.

Given what's going on with Palestine and Israel, that's just one cog in some of the challenges for higher education.

When we talk about protests, Dr. Hill do you think there is now more scrutiny on higher ed, not just around the politics, but around the cost of education, around many of the things that have created a tough environment for higher ed?

And what do you think the end game is for a higher ed?

Is it going to be a challenge to their nonprofit status?

Will it be harder with endowments to raise money?

Is it gonna be harder to manage such a broad, complex organization?

- So first I'm gonna start with the cost and it's well known that the cost of education has constantly been increasing over time.

And a lot of students, especially those now are considering whether or not it's affordable, whether or not there is a cost benefit associated with attending college, versus not.

I'll say this, the data's always shown that those who have a college degree interestingly enough, have higher wages.

So we kinda know that going to college does benefit long term.

With regards to current conflicts, protests, and politics that are going on, universities and colleges have always been epicenters of protests throughout time and conflicts that are going on there.

I think the biggest challenge to education now from a political spectrum is some of the narrative around diversity, equity, inclusion, offices that are on campus, whether or not to close them, how do they start to be inclusive for everyone who wants to attend these universities?

- [Chris] Is is there some secular shift going on in higher Ed?

- I think higher Ed has always been under scrutiny.

I was talking to Dr. Hill earlier because I started my career in Higher Ed prior to TFA and I think we've always been talking about the cost.

I think that's more elevated now in some of the economic times that we're talking about.

And because of the level of skilling and the progression of new careers that were not on the radar years ago and other careers, we've got to keep up with that.

So I think there's always that intersection at play.

I just think it's a lot more exacerbated now.

- Do you think, and I wasn't planning on asking you this and going this deep but there does seem to be a question.

Dr. Tim Hardy from the South Carolina Technical College system was on, you both know, and he talked more about how their vision is expanding beyond technical colleges.

In fact, Greenville in the upstate of South Carolina has a four-year bachelor program.

-Yeah.

- So are the lines becoming blurred between technical community colleges and higher ed?

- I think it's about access.

That's, you know, and I worked at one of the technical colleges and Dr. Hardy was our assistant president.

And I think there are some pockets where if you think about certain programs, so a lot of times when people hear that, it's not like we're offering the whole plethora of degrees like Claflin would offer.

- [Chris] Right.

- Usually it's a workforce-oriented, a lot of times it might be in the healthcare industry where we cannot get enough individuals through the pipeline or areas that in partnership with the local universities that were trying to get a large volume of people out into the workforce.

So I don't think the lines are blurred as long as there's collaboration and cooperation there.

But we can't get enough people into schools and technically trained and ready for the workforce and ready to contribute back to the economy.

We talk about inflation and other issues, but we want people to be able to thrive, not just have a living wage.

We want them to be able to thrive as citizens and for their families.

- How does it, and I don't wanna put you on the spot, being an employee of a major school in South Carolina But does it become harder and harder for people to attain a four-year degree at what is becoming, and I'm not saying this about Claflin or South Carolina State or USC or any of schools in the Carolinas, but is it becoming more of an exclusive club to go to a university and be able to afford to go to a university?

- So one of the things that I think we are seeing a trend of is that enrollment challenges are down.

Meaning that they are the barriers to enroll.

Schools are now starting to say, " Hey, come to the university and colleges that they haven't been before," because the question that we just previously talked about, whether or not school and colleges are affordable, whether or not it's the best choice for me.

So now universities are banding together, coming together collectively trying to create space for what you would like to do.

We can help train you on what you'd like to do.

So that's where you come with a lot of students in the business world coming up with ideas for entrepreneurship, coming with these new "gig economy" type work opportunity.

So we see a lot of that transpiring over there.

But once again, the data is showing, getting a college degree, you'll earn more across your lifetime versus not having that college degree.

- That'll be the last word, but thank you Dr. Hill for wrapping that up.

We're going to meet our guest in just a moment.

Coming up on this program, Sean Suggs is the president of Toyota Battery of North Carolina.

Why is that important?

Well, a lot of reasons.

EV has become quite the industry in both North and South Carolina and also nationally but globally.

But Toyota Battery has made a very big play, $14 billion roughly, 5,000 jobs right in the heart of North Carolina.

We're gonna unpack that with Sean Suggs.

And then also, we always like to take a look at tourism, one of the single largest industries and dynamics in the States here.

We are gonna have the tourism boss, Wit Tuttle, from North Carolina Commerce, and of course Duane Parrish, from South Carolina PRT.

What began as a home-spun, homemade feather bow tie as a gift, has taken flight into quite the Lowcountry southern cultural phenomenon.

If you are paying attention to style and culture, you most likely have heard of the Brackish line of unique wearable products.

They show up mostly around weddings, receptions, parties.

Joining us now from Charleston is the recipient of one of the very first feathered bow ties and of course, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Brackish, Jeff Plotner.

Jeff, welcome to the program.

Thanks for joining us from Charleston.

Good to see you.

- Thanks for having me, Chris.

- We have to start at the beginning, Jeff.

So, many people may have heard of it but what's the unique story of Brackish that the bow tie business has now exploded?

- Yeah, the story behind any brand is so important and ours is no different.

And it really started with a gift for family and friends and it started with my business partner and one of my best friends, Ben Ross.

We both went to Wofford College together in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

And a few years after that, he was getting married.

I was fortunate enough to be one of his groomsmen in his wedding and he was trying to come up with a special gift that really symbolized how special his relationships were with his family and his friends.

And unbeknownst to anybody else, he came up with a Turkey feather bow tie design, something that nobody had ever seen before.

And he presented them to us to wear in the wedding, they were a huge hit.

A few years later, I really thought he had something that more people needed to see.

And we launched the brand in 2012.

- So, there's so many things unpack here, Jeff, but so the idea of a novelty gift, did you see beyond the novelty aspect of this and think you could scale this?

- I think I really saw the remarkability of it.

And when I say remarkability, I mean I was going to weddings for family and friends after Ben's wedding and I would wear this Turkey feather bow tie that Ben would give to me and I would have six to seven random strangers come up to me at every wedding and ask me about this thing.

And I wasn't used to that.

That was something new for me.

And I said," Wow, I think Ben is onto something here."

- We're gonna open this up.

Dr. Hill, question?

- Yeah, so, thank you once again.

And I wanted to know, what are some of the challenges that you are facing now?

'cause we are talking about the supply logistics and some of the other supplying issues with a lot of other firms.

What are some of the challenges that you may be facing?

- Yeah, I'd say the challenges we have aren't a lot different than many other small businesses.

We've gone through different supply and logistics challenges.

But one of the positives of us making everything right here in South Carolina is that we can kind of control some of that.

I mean, obviously we have vendors and we have other people that we rely on outside of Charleston, but when you make the main product right here in Charleston and you're able to control that supply chain a little bit more than some others, I think that gives us an advantage.

- [Chris] Monique?

- I would love to hear, if you think about your entrepreneurship story, you talked about how it was born out of your relationship with your friend.

How do you think that we can spark some of that in our young kids and students?

- That's a great question.

I try think about that all the time because entrepreneurship is something that is so near and dear to my heart and it's very special and there's such a unique array of skills that you learn through entrepreneurship.

And if there's a way to mentor younger children in different schools through different programs, I know I've done a little bit of this through college classes, through elementary school classes to a lot of others, just to impart your wisdom and your experience and try to help some others that are younger to kind of go down that road and really enforce that journey, I think it would be a great thing to do.

- [Chris] Jeff, how do you- I guess as Dr. Perry-Graves just talked about with education and the coming workforce in that way, but why would you be in Charleston?

Does Charleston have a strong, innovative culture and is it important to co-locate around that culture?

And is it big enough that gives you some wind at your back?

- Yes, I think Charleston has had a unique impact on our business.

Just given the nature of what we do, you know, a feather bow tie in Charleston, which is also a big tourist hub, but also a huge wedding hub, right?

And our story started with a wedding, and so we can really relate to that, I think that helps.

But I do think having that unique culture in a city or a town really helps attract unique talent.

What we do is unique and we want unique people.

We want artists who are understanding of what it really requires to have this intricate detail on all of these pieces because all of our products are pieces, they're pieces of art.

And so it's really important we have the right people here to be able to make those for us.

- Dr. Hill?

- [Nicholas] So one thing I'm curious about is that a lot of your products go along with events and coming outta COVID, what were some of the challenges associated with the COVID era and how did you kind of navigate those?

- I would say COVID was a huge challenge for us because of what you just said, Dr. Hill.

What we were making had everything to do with attracting crowds of people together.

And that was the exact opposite of what COVID was about, right?

And so we were fortunate enough, when we speak of innovation, to have designed and released our women's line in October of 2019.

So we obviously had no idea what was coming around in March of 2020, but because we were innovating and we were really focusing on that, we were able to expand our line a bit to where we weren't as specialized in that group as we were before.

So that helped us.

I'm not saying it was easy because there were a lot of challenges, but I'm very proud that we were able to get through it and come back out on the other side.

- [Chris] Dr. Perry Harris?

- I would love to hear, if you think about the growth of your company and being in business, I think close to a decade or over a decade, I know there might be technical skills to the actual product, but when you think about education and some of the things that we are embedding in curriculum, what are some of the, sometimes we refer to them as "soft skills", sometimes we refer to them as "adaptive skills" that you look for in the talent and that you would like to see a continued focus on or renewed focus on in education?

- Yeah, I think "soft skills" is a great word for it.

When you're thinking about skills that you're looking for to come in here to work with us, it really depends on the type of job that you're looking for.

But we all want hard workers, right?

We want somebody that's committed.

We also want people that are curious.

We want people that want to learn.

And you don't find that everywhere, I've learned.

But when you have that and you have a solutions-based mentality, it's really, really important that we feel like we can teach anybody anything if they have those soft skills.

And so when you're thinking about education and how do you impart that to your students, I think entrepreneurship in a way has something to do with that.

And hopefully when you're looking at art and you're looking at all the other skills that we look for, we can kind of find those diamonds in the rough, if you will and hopefully there are more of them out there.

- [Chris] Yeah, let me expand on that a little bit and take it a little bit further, Jeff and the idea that you're looking for workers with not just a transferrable talent, but a specific talent.

These are, you call them "artisans".

How do you find, how do you "pigeonhole" probably isn't the right way to say it, but how do you find that particular worker that has all of these attributes, but oh yeah, by the way, is an artisan on top of it, which is hard to define as it is.

- Yeah, Chris, it's been quite a journey.

I remember the first time when we were trying to figure out how to find people to make these, and you're trying to explain to somebody that you're asking them to come in and make Turkey feather bow ties for us.

And this is 12 years ago.

(others laugh) And you could just hear the confusion in their voice when you're talking to them on the phone.

And it's a lot of explanation, a lot of visual and it's obviously changed a bit over the years, but it's still, there's not this big pool of people that has feather artisan experience out there.

And so what we look for is artists.

We look at different art schools around the Carolinas, and we really look for those people who have a passion for art.

And at the same time, they have that hardworking quality that allows them to maintain consistent, intricate detail.

'cause that's one thing that's a little underrated about what we do is because it is all handcrafted, we have our designs and we have to meet strict design criteria when we make one and then we make 30 of them, we want them to be consistent.

And so those artisans need to be able to understand that.

And we're so proud of what we do here and the people that we have, we're very proud of that.

- [Chris] We have about five minutes, Nicholas?

- I'm just curious about the future.

You talked about expansion and to different lines, what's next?

- Oh, we have so many ideas.

We have a full development and design crew, design director, head of design.

You know, Ben really works hard on a lot of new ideas and we have so many that I think the biggest challenge is just trying to filter those ideas and try to figure out what are the ones you really want to go after and what are the ones that are gonna maintain and elevate your brand and make sure that it's gonna be something that's profitable as well.

So, you know, we've talked about a lot of other upscale accessories 'cause that's kind of where our pocket is, right?

Is elevated accessories.

And so, when you think about that, you know, we started with the bow tie, we also had cummerbunds in the beginning, we had plum thicket pins to go on your lapel.

And you can see I have a pocket square on right now, this is a feather pocket square.

And then we moved over to the women's.

So we have a lot of different silhouettes in our earrings, we have cuffs, we have necklaces.

You know, we like to say the sky's the limit.

We have so many ideas for new things coming out soon.

- [Chris] And Turkeys thought they were only under a cent one time a year.

Not anymore.

We have about three minutes.

- Yeah, I would love to ask you, this is the conclusion of Teacher Appreciation Week across the nation, so I would love to ask you, who was your favorite teacher in K-12 and why?

- When I think about my favorite teacher in K-12, I think about my AP English teacher.

This is such a good question, I hadn't thought about this in years and years.

It was my senior year in high school, her name was Miss Cason, and I went to Glen Academy in Brunswick, Georgia.

And I learned so much patience from her and so much empathy.

And there was just an understanding, but also a passion that really translated to all of her students as well as myself.

And I really developed a passion for reading and English and literature, unlike anything that I had before.

And I was, you know, I was more in into sports at that time.

And when Ms. Cason came along into my life, it really made a big difference for me.

And I love being able to speak about how important teachers are.

My mother has been a teacher for 50 years in the Georgia public school system, and she's imparted so many interesting and unique qualities to me.

And it's so important moving forward that you really understand and appreciate all of your teachers.

- [Chris] Absolutely.

It's a good question, Dr. Perry-Graves.

I wanna stay with the human interest part.

We've got about a minute and a half left, Jeff, and this is not meant to be funny or flippant, but you started it with your best friend.

Number one, are you still best friends?

(Monique laughs) And number two, how have you figured out how to balance a friendship and be in business together and be successful?

- Yeah, I think this is something I could probably write a book about.

I mean, it's such a good question and I'm proud to say this, that Ben and I are closer now than we were when we started the business.

And that's, you know, through a lot of trial and error.

That's through a lot of agreements.

That's through a significant amount of disagreements as well.

And I think there's just a lot of give and take there.

You have to have, I mean, I refer to Ben as obviously one of my best friends, but it's so important that we communicate as much as we can.

And as that communication continues, to answer your question, you understand people's strengths and weaknesses, right?

And I do that every day with our team and understanding that Ben is really this, he is a genuine, unbelievable person who really can focus in on that design and the new ideas.

I always say, "There's no way in the world I could have ever thought of a Turkey feather bow tie off the top of my head and made it."

I mean, it's so important that he was able to do that.

And so I'm just trying to try to fill in the gaps and let him be himself.

- Yeah, that's a good way to end it.

And we appreciate you truly, Jeff.

We appreciate you taking the time and wonderful, wonderful product, very successful.

Wish you all the best, hope you'll come back, please.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- Thanks so much.

Dr. Perry-Graves, nice to see you, please come back.

- Thank you - Dr. Hill, always nice to see you.

- Thank you.

-Thank you.

- Until next week, I'm Chris Wood and we hope all your business and your weekend's good.

Goodnight.

(playful music) - [Presenter] Gratefully acknowledging support by Martin Marietta, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Sonoco, High Point University, Colonial Life, and by viewers like you, thank you.

For more information, visit CarolinaBusinessReview.org.

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