470 Fridays, One Simple Idea
The award-winning BrandBuilders Podcast marks nine years of telling Charlotte’s stories, one conversation at a time.
Nine years ago this month, Scott Dunstan and Brian Young sat down in front of a couple of microphones with one guest and a whole lot of curiosity. The first-ever episode of The BrandBuilders Podcast dropped on August 24, 2017. And every Friday since, not a single missed week.
For a branded merchandise company, a weekly interview show was, at the time, a strange bet. And plenty of people said so.
“I remember in the beginning, they were like, ‘A podcast? Why are you doing a podcast? How are you going to monetize that?'” Dunstan recalls. “We’ve just always kept that perspective of not going that route. It’s never been about monetizing it. It’s just been about giving back and being a part of something bigger than ourselves.”
Nine years in, the show still doesn’t sell ads or accept paid guest appearances.
“We don’t ask anybody for money to be on the podcast. We’ve never charged anybody. We’ve never made money on ads,” Young says. “This was truly our way of giving back to the community.”
Keeping it Real
And just like the very first episodes, the goal remains the same: to have a genuine conversation.
“People always ask me, ‘Oh, send us a script — what are we going to talk about?’ I’m like, I have no idea what we’re going to talk about,” Young says. “I truly want it to be so authentic that it’s like me and our audience and this guest have been thrown into an elevator, and the elevator stops, and we have 30 minutes to have a conversation, and nobody knows anybody. And then we just run with it.”
Dunstan sets the table the same way every single time, with a line he estimates he’s now delivered close to 500 times: it’s all about you.
“You want to set that expectation,” he says. “Look, man — this isn’t our interview. It’s a conversation about you and your brand and what you’ve done. And who wouldn’t like that opportunity?”
What still surprises him most is what happens next.
“One thing that really continues to surprise me is how people open up when you make it about them,” Dunstan says. “I’ve had best friends in here that I actually learned things about in that moment. Things that outside of that situation, we’ve never talked about.”
Something for Everyone
The range of who has sat in those chairs is the show’s real signature. From founders, entrepreneurs and executives, to Olympians, artists, musicians, and nonprofit leaders. Quite literally, it’s a “who’s who” list of folks doing amazing things in the Charlotte area and beyond.
“It doesn’t matter who it is sitting in that chair,” Young says. “I’m excited to learn about them. I’m excited to dive into their story.”
For him, that’s become the point of the whole exercise.
“I don’t really care why you believe in something. I care about the story of how you got there,” he says. “We don’t all have to agree. But every single person has an opinion based on the story and the experiences they’ve gone through in life. And if you understand the story, you realize you’re a lot more similar than not.”
Dunstan adds that it’s not just about the guests and the hosts; it’s about the audience, too.
“This platform is like a master’s degree. If you’re listening, you are learning so much about people, processes, industries, and leadership.”
Nine Years and Counting
The BrandBuilders Podcast has been honored twice with Silver Pyramid Awards from Promotional Products Association International (PPAI), as well as being recognized by Charlotte Magazine as one of the best local podcasts. Somewhere along the way, the podcast became the thing people think of first, rather than branded merchandise or apparel. And they’re fine with that.
“It gives our business and our brand purpose. It gives us something that we’re now known for — that we never did this to be known for,” Young says. “We didn’t do this for us, we did this with everyone else’s story in mind.”
To put it all in perspective, nine years running is quite an accomplishment. A full 90% of shows never make it past three episodes, 99% don’t make it past 20. That puts The BrandBuilders Podcast in rare company, with another major milestone coming up soon: the show will hit episode 500 in the first quarter of 2027.
Until then, a new conversation drops every Friday anywhere you listen to podcasts.
