Today on our show, you'll hear how an organization called NC Tech Paths is on a mission to turn WNC into a Nationally recognized hub for rural tech workers. Former NC Tech Path's director Zach Barricklow talks about how they are achieving this mission and the origins of this broad-reaching, mission-driven program .
You'll learn how the once sleepy-towns of Wilkesboro, North Wilkesboro, and surrounding towns are now undergoing a massive "renaissance" moment, and how that's effecting the present and future of locals and transplants alike.
You'll walk away with actionable advice on "un-networking," project strategizing, and navigating the tech resources of Western North Carolina.
Connect with Zack Barricklow at: https://nctechpaths.org/
-
Note - Transcripts are created using AI technology and may not read 100% accurately. We apologize for any misspellings or mistakes.
1 (2s):
At its core, an entrepreneur is looking at a need and an opportunity and how to bring something to people, right? Whether it's a product or a service that fills a gap, and it's really easy to come up with ideas, but successful entrepreneurs are willing to kind of really dive into the messiness of figuring out how those ideas come to life and how they get to the people.
2 (43s):
Welcome to Made in the High Country, a podcast that takes you inside the entrepreneurial landscape of Western North Carolina and the people within it. I'm your host, Samantha Wright, and today on our program, you'll hear how an organization called NC Tech Paths is on a mission to turn Western North Carolina into a nationally recognized hub for rural tech workers. You'll be hearing from NC Tech Paths director Zach Barricklow, on not only how they are achieving this mission, and very effectively at that, I might add, but you'll also learn how an organization with so much momentum and success even started in the first place, what pieces are needed to make a broad reaching mission driven program come together and the key ingredients needed to help it grow.
2 (1m 34s):
Director Zach Barricklow was recognized in 2020 as one of business in seat magazines under 40 trailblazers. He was the co-founder and managing partner of Versa Training, which was recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in America and business in c's. Number three, best employer in North Carolina, among small and medium companies. And he's the vice President of Rural Innovation at Wilkes Community College. However, you won't be hearing much about his own achievements from Zach. Instead, you'll meet a man who is deeply invested in utilizing his talent and rallying the resources around him to positively impact the rural community that he loves.
2 (2m 15s):
We start our conversation off with my recap of a recent tour of NC Tech Path's current project, which is the construction of a rural tech outpost and co-working space in downtown north Wilkesboro called The Mast Head. So I recently got to spend the afternoon with Zach Barlow and your colleague Do Tripp. Went down to Wilkesboro and got toured around the soon to open co-working space called the Head, which was this 12,000 square foot modern, beautifully designed coworking heaven, as I like to call it. I felt like I was kind of in like Google headquarters or something like that.
2 (2m 57s):
It just, it felt, it's phenomenal. Yeah, it's absolutely phenomenal. So I just wanted to kind of start there with this painting a picture for people of what's happening down in Wilkesboro right now. It's such an exciting time and to see these projects coming to life with, with the mast head. You know, we even went next door to Tour the Block, which was this amazing family centered kids play place That was a massive, huge and amazing fun, and we've got so much going on with the downtown district there. So, you know, let, let's kinda start there and then back up and get to know you a little bit, but paint a picture for folks of what's happening down there right now.
1 (3m 39s):
Yeah, this is a really exciting time to be in Wilkes County, and particularly in these, the boroughs as they refer to them, the North Wilkesboro town of North Wilkesboro and Wilkesboro, which sit really close to one another. They're only separated by, by the river, by the Yakkin River. They're these beautiful little downtowns. And what we're seeing right now is that there is a, a renewed sort of interest in heartbeat in these downtowns, these historic downtowns. And so that, that's taken a lot of different forms. There's been an injection of, you know, new entrepreneurial spirit and blending with kind of legacy entrepreneurial spirit.
1 (4m 26s):
So, so much of our story here is, is common to kinda rural America over the last 20, 30 years, is that a lot of folks have, have had to leave in order to pursue their career and raise their family. They felt like they had to leave. And so right now we're in this kind of renaissance in, in Wilkes County, where we're talking about how do we leverage our existing beautiful outdoor amenities. We have some of the best mountain biking in the state and in the southeast United States we have national and state parks. We have these beautiful downtowns. And so how do we pair that with, how do we pair that with recreational amenities for, for young, young kids and with families?
1 (5m 12s):
And how do we improve our early childhood and childcare ecosystem, and how do we take advantage of these beautiful rivers that run through our downtowns? And so right now we're in the kind of the, in the midst of a renaissance with that and, and the masthead, our co-working space is, is one piece of that puzzle.
2 (5m 31s):
And with this sort of, like you said, renaissance coming to pass, there's a lot of different factors involved, external and internal. There's different kinds of people and organizations involved mixed with, I assume the pandemic probably had something to do with, with this shift that's happening where maybe people are realizing that, oh, like we can work more remotely. You know, we, maybe we don't have to leave and look at all these job opportunities that occur through that. And that shift of people realizing that their quality of life is really what's most important, you know, over, over career, that's a shift that I feel like a lot of people felt.
2 (6m 12s):
Absolutely. And so those are just a few factors I can think of. But what, what else causes this sort of shift, do you feel like in as far as the people involved, you know, is there an organization, a government that comes in and says, Hey, we wanna make these things a top priority and here's what we're willing to do and invest in to make that happen?
1 (6m 33s):
Yeah, I think the short answer is yes. It takes all of those things and that's what's happening. I think that's why it's working actually, is that it really isn't unilateral. It's not one group, it's not one person, and it's not even one factor or force. It's all of those things coming together. So you have this injection of some new entrepreneurial entrepreneurial energy as well as, as I mentioned earlier, kind of legacy entrepreneurial energy that Wilkes County is historically a hotbed for entrepreneurship. There's so many companies that have started here and been launched here. Lowe's is the classic example.
1 (7m 13s):
Lowe's Hardware started in Wilkes County, you know, back in the early 19th century and is now a Fortune 50 company. And there's several, several other companies that grew to be national leaders in their field from this space. And so you're kind of building on a foundation of that entrepreneurial spirit. So how do we pull our industry and our business leaders together with our educational leaders, together with our elected officials and public managers and figure this out, you know, because we're small relative to, you know, a big metropolitan place, which means that we may have somewhat limited resources, but there's a strength in the smallness in the sense that we know each other and we share a common objective and we can roll up our sleeves and work together.
2 (8m 7s):
In talking with Zach, it became clear that this mentality of small communities rolling up their sleeves and getting to work has been ingrained in him from an early age. He grew up in a small town himself and always admired the camaraderie of tight knit communities.
1 (8m 24s):
The mutual spirit of wanting your neighbor to be well and succeed. I think that's a spirit that flows through rural communities, really in a strong way.
2 (8m 38s):
This experience eventually led Zach to join the Peace Corps, where he spent a lot of time doing community development in Central South America. It was through the Peace Corps that he met his now wife who was originally from Spartan, North Carolina, and as how Zach found his way to the area and working to develop programs for Wilkes Community College.
1 (8m 59s):
So our motivation at the college was increasing student success. That's the, you know, that's the mission of every college, but it, particularly for a community college, which is a place-based institution devoted to these communities, it goes beyond just student success. We really want to impact the community and impact the local economy. And so throughout the last five years as we've been working on improving student success at the college, which, which has been tremendously successful, we've almost doubled the graduation rate in that five year period. Wow.
1 (9m 39s):
With a lot of support in inside and outside of the college to make that happen. But one of the things that we were always aimed at was a thriving community and economic mobility for our students. And so as we looked at different strategies to facilitate that economic mobility, one of the concepts that we dove into was this idea of remote work and telework and looking at opportunities for our students beyond our, you know, local, local industries. Because that's where a lot of those high paying jobs are, is in that digital economy.
1 (10m 21s):
And so we, we started studying the digital economy and looking for opportunities there. And that ultimately led us to, to the decision to start NC Tech PAs with the help of the Liturgy, Hering Family Foundation. We started in Ctec as, as a nonprofit alongside the college to really be focused on helping local folks get access to the training and the job placement to get into technology jobs specifically. So, you know, software engineering, IT support, network management, cybersecurity, those types of fields. We specifically focused in on those types of fields because they pay on average double the median household income of our community.
1 (11m 11s):
They are very remote work friendly, which means that we don't have to export people to Raleigh and Charlotte. We can keep them here and, and they're in really high demand. So companies across the state and across the country are struggling to fill those positions. And we have a workforce that, that is willing and able if they just have the right training and the right connections. So that's what we set up NC Tech has to do, is to support the training and the placement of individuals looking into looking to get into technology jobs.
2 (11m 45s):
And tell me about the timeline of that a little bit, because it seems like these were a series of really smart decisions that were made, implemented very quickly and has just as quickly had tremendous success.
1 (12m 3s):
Yeah, you know, I think, I think to, to some extent, this is similar to, to certain other kind of startup scenarios where the overnight success came years later. It's like an overnight success several years later. We, we started looking at this three and a half years ago, so well before the pandemic, but, but we, we, we started with this, we started where you start e especially in a rural community, which is what do we have, what are we working with? One of the things that we're working with here is really strong fiber optic internet running throughout our three county region.
1 (12m 46s):
Ash County, Allegheny County, Wilkes County. We have some of the best internet in North Carolina and the southeast United States. In fact, the little town of Sparta had gig capable fiber optic connection before Charlotte, before Miami, before Atlanta.
2 (13m 1s):
Wow.
1 (13m 2s):
And it ran through our region. So our, our rural cooperatives, skyline Membership Corporation, Wilkes Communications, they were very proactive in, in the early two thousands and, and 2000 tens applying for federal grants to run that infrastructure through our region. And, and, and by virtue of doing that, gave access to nearly 90% of our very rural sections of the, of the counties here, mountainous areas that, that, that have gig capable fiber. I have a friend who, who works for Red Hat based in, in Raleigh, very successful tech company.
1 (13m 45s):
And she has stronger internet at her cabin in Allegheny than she does in her house downtown Raleigh. Wow. And she has like two creek crossings to get into. Her cabin still has stronger internet gig capable internet to work from. And so we have this, this great asset and that's where the, that was sort of the origin of the whole thing. And I want to give credit where credit is due. Those rural co-ops were really proactive and set us up for this. Blue Ridge Energy is another one I didn't mention. Another rural co-op that was looking ahead. And so we started there, what do we have? We have great internet. Okay, now the next question is how do you leverage that? How do you use that? And so we started looking at other communities around the country and what they were doing and how they were taking advantage of that.
1 (14m 31s):
And so we started to kind of piece together ideas that, that eventually led to this. And so we, we, one of the things that we did was we joined on with NC State University's Institute for Emerging Issues. They had a cohort of communities looking at technological opportunity and how to foster kind technological opportunity. They were a tremendous help to us. We, we were able to access a, an Appalachian Regional Commission sub-grant through Institute for Emerging Issues. We were able to access some other kind of starter grants from our rural co-ops, blue Ridge Energy and Skyline Membership Corporation, as well as the Liturgy Hearing Family Foundation.
1 (15m 13s):
And that gave us some resources to use in, in our r and d that that eventually led to NC Tech PAs Yeah. Being formed.
2 (15m 23s):
So that is exactly what you described. That's overnight success three years later. Right,
1 (15m 28s):
Exactly.
2 (15m 30s):
I love that. And I love how many different organizations and people were involved, sort of like what we were talking about earlier with this sort of renaissance feeling that's happening in Wilkes right now. It's not just one factor or one person causing this. It's this cacophony of all these different moving parts that have come together. But really what is at the heart of moving that forward is the people who care, the people who that's right. Love this community and want to see it thrive. And so keep making those decisions to push forward and make change. Right. These are changes that are happening that would not be possible without the people behind them investing that time, investing that energy into making that happen.
2 (16m 16s):
So
1 (16m 17s):
I love that.
2 (16m 17s):
That's right. That's, well, tell us about NC Tech PAs a little bit more. What exactly are you doing and what are some of the success stories coming out of that?
1 (16m 28s):
NC NC Tech PAs was formally, legally formed, I should say NC Tech BA was legally formed in late 2021. And we launched publicly in late January of 2022. So just about 10 months ago. And one of the things that we did right away with NC Tech as was we brought in a partner to, to pair with Wilkes Community College and provide tech training on an accelerated basis. So PERS SCOs, P E R S C H O L A S per SCOs is a national organization that has historically operated in major metropolitan cities.
1 (17m 19s):
They do accelerated tech training for entry level tech positions. And they agreed to pilot a rural concept with Wilkes Community College. So since January we have run, we're into our third cohort of, of training in software engineering and IT support. We've even done a little bit of cybersecurity with Colas. It all runs through Wilkes Community College. So it's all a big partnership. But since January, so since January since we first launched this, we've, we've, we've put about 24 individuals through training programs and placed them into chops.
1 (18m 2s):
And we've placed, we've placed 95% of our graduates. We did have one graduate that had a baby and wanted to hold off on going into the workforce. And that's the only individual that we haven't placed so far. Wow. So we're really pleased about that really high job placement rate. And one of the things that's most exciting about it is that the individuals who have gone through this program for software engineering, those individuals moved from on average earning $32,000 a year to earning close to 60,000. And within a year, many of those folks will be in the 70,000 range in the IT support space.
1 (18m 42s):
On average, those individuals came into the program earning 27,000 a year and they were, replaced him two jobs, paying 47, 40 8,000 with benefits. And so a pretty tremendous, a little over 70% increase in earnings within, you know, a six month, five, six month period.
2 (19m 3s):
Wow. And who are the students? Are there any that kinda stick out in your mind that you were able to, to work with that made you just really proud of this program?
1 (19m 13s):
Yeah, there's, so every single one of them, honestly yeah. Makes me so proud to be associated with this of just phenomenal people. And so, I mean, a couple, there's, there's one that is near and dear to my heart. A young man who actually dropped out of, of high school and later came back to get his G E D and was really kind of trying to figure out his, his path, his way, what he was interested in and through. This is another great example of the village effect, right? It's not one thing, it's not one program, but through the mentorship from a pastor actually was encouraged to look into technology jobs and actually sponsored him taking one of those short courses online just to kind of test it out.
1 (20m 8s):
He found that he liked it, that pastor connected in him up with me, we got him into the Colas program and that young man is now employed at Lowe's in their IT support function and is on a path to becoming a software engineer for Lowe's. This is a, this is a young guy who's worked really hard over the last year to find what he's passionate about and take the steps to pursue it. And I am so proud of of that, that young man. As, as, as I've gotten a, a, a chance to just be a small part of his journey, another learner and, and really multiple learners that I'm so proud of in this program so far are individuals who really have overcome some pretty significant challenges in life.
1 (21m 5s):
And let me just say that one of the things that I love about working with a community college is that it serves the top 100% of students. That's one of my favorite kind of sayings about the community college. We serve the top 100% and there are a lot of individuals who have tremendous talent and capacity in our community, but maybe have a lot more headwind in their life, a lot more barriers in their life than I do to pursue that capacity. And we've had individuals already in our program, I'm thankful to say, that have overcome pretty significant challenges from homelessness to food insecurity, to, you know, lack of a laptop or digital device to even take this course and pursue this.
1 (22m 7s):
And thankfully we have had support from the college, we've had support from the Her Family Foundation, we've had support from others. NCWorks is another agency that's been tremendous help to us in coming alongside those individuals and helping them navigate their way to the right resources to pair with this tech training and job placement. And it's really been hardening to see them overcome those challenges. And, and, and really they have done the work to put themselves in a completely different position than they were in a year ago.
2 (22m 46s):
So much of the work that you have done and NC Tech Paths has done, has come out of a place of so much connectivity between different people, different organizations, different aspects of the community. A new job title for you I've coined is professional dot connector.
1 (23m 5s):
Love it.
2 (23m 8s):
That seems to be something you're extremely good at. Do you have any advice for people of, of tips for learning how to connect those dots? Cuz that does seem like a massive part of what you do and something that you are extremely good at. Have you always been that way?
1 (23m 24s):
You know, I think the key for me has been forgetting about myself in the process. I hated the, the, the term networking. And I hated the concept of networking when I was in college and when I was, you know, young. I just hated the whole idea of networking for my own ambitious and, and advancement, you know, that just really felt bad and, and was not a good fit. But what I've found as, as my journey has progressed is that if I can just forget about myself and really let the passion for what we're trying to accomplish flow, then I love connecting with people.
1 (24m 6s):
I love connecting people and programs and resources. And that's where the magic happens is when I think we sort of like that creative flow, right? You, you just lose yourself in it and, and get pulled along. And that's been a real key ingredient for me, is just forgetting myself and thinking about all of the ways that the next person I'm interacting with could plug to, to something that my friend or my neighbor or my coworker or a a a partner across the state or across the community what they're doing.
2 (24m 38s):
Yeah. Well this is a moment. I'm gonna shamelessly plug, one of the main things that we do at Startup High Country is our monthly socials, you know, once a month we've always prioritized once a month. We just wanna create an opportunity for folks to get together to connect those dots. And sort of what you were talking about earlier, you always cringe at the, at the term networking. You know, we've always tried to avoid calling those events a networking event. Cuz that just feels intimidating. It feels like you said, like, it's all about what can I get out of this? But, but really what we, why we prioritize doing that every month is so people can just come together and connect those dots, right.
2 (25m 18s):
Rub those shoulders together, like what Jeffrey Scott says, have those happy accidents happen. Yes. Because there is such a magic that occurs when you get people together in the same room just having conversations with one another.
1 (25m 31s):
Absolutely. I 100% agree with that.
2 (25m 36s):
Well, Zach, this has been incredible and before you go, we always love to ask our guests this closing question. And it is, what is the latest high country moment that you experienced?
1 (25m 48s):
Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go with the recency bias here because we're talking on November 1st and Halloween was just last night, is that right? Yeah, Saturday evening, north Wilkesboro, downtown North Wilkesboro, all of the downtown merchants got together and organized an event that drew thousands of folks from across the county, every variation of dinosaur from, you know, from purple to blue to green to fluffy, to giant airfield. Yeah,
2 (26m 18s):
I saw a lot of dinosaurs out last night too.
1 (26m 21s):
You know, all the costumes imaginable, but just the whole community coming out for not just candy, but to connect and, you know, they had hay rides and the, the bakery was giving out donuts and the whole thing was just beautiful. It was just a beautiful show of, of community. And then last night in the little town of Sparta, the same kind of program happened and it was just so cool to walk down the road with somebody who was new to as Sparta, new to that, you know, kind of small town feel. And by the end of the event, they knew a hundred people in Sparta.
1 (27m 5s):
And, and now when they walk into one of those shops or bump into somebody, the chances are they're gonna recognize them. And I love that about small towns. I love that about small towns, just how welcoming and warm they can be and how non-anonymous they can be. I realize anonymity is, is sometimes a, a strength of a big city that people enjoy. I actually, I love the, the opposite, the, the idea of being known. And so when you walk into a coffee shop, you know a lot of the folks sitting there and you know their story and, and everybody's kind of rooting for each other and supporting each other.
1 (27m 47s):
I love that fabric, that kind of community fabric that exists in a small town in the high country. And that was on display this weekend with Halloween.
2 (28m 2s):
Thanks for tuning in with us today. This episode was produced and edited by me, Samantha Wright, community director at Startup High Country. Learn more about our workshops, resources, and events for current or aspiring entrepreneurs in the Western North Carolina area@startuphc.com. If you'd like to get more involved in the work that Zach and NC Tech Paths is up to, whether you are a prospective student interested in one of their programs, an employer looking to set up a student to employee pipeline or philanthropists looking to put your money to good use within the Western North Carolina region, contact Zach Barlow through nc tech paths.org.
2 (28m 44s):
That's NC Tech Paths, p A T H s.org. Startup High Country is supported by NC idea, a private foundation that supports entrepreneurship in North Carolina through grants and innovative programs. Also, thank you to the Watauga Economic Development Center for their support and for helping to build the entrepreneurial landscape of Western North Carolina. I'm Samantha Wright and you've been listening to Made in the High Country.