Support for Carolina Impact comes from our viewers and Wells Fargo (VO) Wells Fargo, has donated 390 million dollars... (Mom) Honey like I said, you get your own room.

(VO) to support housing affordability solutions across America.

Doing gets it done.

Wells Fargo, the bank of doing.

- [Announcer] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

(inspiring music) - Just ahead on "Carolina Impact"... - Can TikTok help solve Charlotte's worker shortage?

I'm Jeff Sonier with details, coming up, on how employers are connecting with job seekers on social media.

- [Amy] Plus we'll learn about a local business bringing in clients from around the world.

And we'll meet a local world-renowned author.

"Carolina Impact" starts right now.

(joyous music) - [Announcer] "Carolina Impact," covering the issues, people, and places that impact you.

This is "Carolina Impact."

- Good evening.

Thanks so much for joining us.

I'm Amy Burkett.

Here in Charlotte, there's no shortage of growth, no shortage of new projects on the rise, and no shortage of new jobs for those looking.

But the shortage of workers to fill those new jobs is real.

"Carolina Impact's" Jeff Sonier and Videographer Doug Stacker have more on how employers are going online, using social media to find the workers they need.

- Yeah, in the construction industry, for instance, you can't build new apartments or new homes from a home office or from a computer on your kitchen table.

You have to be out here on the job site, and that's a problem.

A survey of 30 North Carolina construction companies by the Associated General Contractors of America shows that 96% of those Carolina construction companies have jobs to offer, but 100% of those companies are having a hard time filling those jobs.

♪ Workin' for a livin' ♪ Workin' - You can come in, start off.

We have labor positions, masonry positions, heavy equipment operator.

♪ Takin' what they're givin' 'cause I'm workin' for a livin' ♪ ♪ Yeah - The last year, we just need help.

- [Jeff] Kale Hallman oversees workforce development for McGee Brothers Construction, which used to have three times more applicants than they had jobs for.

♪ Workin' for a livin' ♪ Workin' - [Jeff] Now it's just the opposite, their company competing with other construction companies for fewer and fewer willing workers.

♪ Takin' what they're givin' 'cause I'm workin' for a livin' ♪ - [Jeff] You had three potential workers competing for one job.

Now you've got three potential companies competing for one worker.

- Yes, exactly.

- [Jeff] And that's where the salaries and the costs go up.

- Benefits, salaries, everything goes up, 'cause then you see it with the price of homes.

That's the reason everyone's paying about 100, 200% more for a house.

A $200,000 house five years ago is suddenly $450,000 because labor, skilled labor is incredibly missed.

- [Jeff] And Charlotte's skilled labor shortage isn't only in the construction business either.

(upbeat blues-rock music) - So we're at Wilkinson Boulevard, the CMS bus garage.

♪ Workin' - And we're doing a hiring event to hire bus drivers and maintenance techs.

Like I said, it's a great company to work for, great benefits.

♪ Takin' what they're givin' 'cause I'm workin' for a livin' ♪ - We definitely need drivers and maintenance techs.

We can't get kids to and from school unless we have drivers.

And then if the buses break down, we don't have anybody to fix them if we're short staffed.

- [Jeff] But CMS Director of Operations Marybeth Kubinski says these school system job fairs simply don't fill the jobs anymore like they used to.

- [Marybeth] Okay, there you go.

(laughing) - [Jeff] On this weekday morning, while we were here at the CMS bus garage hiring event for two hours, only two applicants showed up and signed up for all those CMS open positions.

- You know, a couple years ago, we were always full.

But you know, since COVID, we've really had to be creative about how we hire people and the different things that we do to hire, just because I think some people are, like, still unsure a little bit about where they should go or where to work.

Everybody's hiring, so I could go get a job almost anywhere today, right?

That's why we are very creative.

We're always recruiting.

(funky pop music) - [Jeff] And these days, creative recruiting, reaching potential workers in their homes and on their phones, means using TikTok.

♪ No, I don't wait for tomorrow ♪ ♪ No, I won't give it a break - We've seen that.

We've seen where people love working from home.

They're in their home environment.

They don't really have to get dressed.

And so we've had to be really creative with the media and with our communications department about how to get the word out.

And then also, social media, I mean, TikTok and Facebook are, like, our two biggest hits.

And so, like, sometimes it's silly to make a TikTok about a hiring event, but guess what.

It gets people's attention.

♪ I'm flawless by design ♪ Can't change my mind ♪ Got too much on the line ♪ Won't waste my time ♪ You better recognize - I was shocked.

I wasn't even sure what TikTok was.

But when I started going into high schools, everybody said, "Oh, we've seen this on TikTok."

♪ Da, da, dadada - [Jeff] Yep, turns out it's the same story in the construction trades.

- [Videographer] (speaking quietly) Okay, go on.

(trowel clanging) Ah, ladies and gentlemen.

- [Jeff] Hallman's company didn't post these brick laying TikTok videos known as "BrickTok."

- [Narrator] Fastest 17-year-old brick layer in Australia.

- [Jeff] They were actually created by a masonry company 10,000 miles away in Australia.

But teens here in the Carolinas are watching too.

♪ Dada, da - [Kale] Apparently, brick masonry is incredibly popular on TikTok.

It's satisfying.

They love to see the guys use the trowel, spread the mortar.

And they say, "I saw this on TikTok.

I wanna do it" ♪ Da, da, dadadada - Now we're spending way more time on the 16, 17, 18-year-olds.

We're even working with middle schools as well, showing them, and they're so excited.

You go to a middle school with some mortar and a hammer and have a nail driving contest or lay some brick, the kids go crazy, and they're just, "You mean I can do this for a living?"

For sure.

Sure, you can do it for a living.

(drill whirring) (gentle rock music) (worker blowing) - Our young people are accessing jobs in a very different way.

And so yes, social media plays a huge role in that.

- [Jeff] Danielle Frazier is president and CEO of Charlotte Works, the nonprofit that connects Charlotte-area job seekers and job providers.

- We're realizing we've gotta be more creative and innovative in how we're attracting talent, how we're engaging talent, but then also working with our businesses to do the same.

- [Jeff] But for businesses, learning how to use social media isn't the only challenge.

There's also that new tug-of-war between those traditional in-person jobs that are still out there and workers who'd rather not be out there, opting for stay-at-home work instead.

- Yeah, and I think it depends, right?

I think it depends on the companies.

I think there's so many more opportunities now for folks to work jobs that create flexibility.

(vehicle horn honking) - [Jeff] One hiring success story here in the Carolinas is still Amazon, which says that during the holidays, they added 5,500 employees in North Carolina, including 3,000 here in Charlotte, by offering competitive wages, great benefits, and prepaid college tuition for hourly employees.

- What we're focused on is, we know there's a workforce out there, right?

We know there's talent out there.

We know it's tight on both ends with available talent and the jobs.

But people are working, and they're making money, but they're doing it in a way that is, again, meeting their needs and it's flexible for them.

- We've found some people that really want to work.

They don't wanna work from home.

We're also offering a $3,000 bonus, hiring bonus for our techs and then a $1,000 bonus for our drivers.

- If you take time to pay people and then show them that you care about 'em, they'll come, and they are coming.

- Hallman hopes that, long term, better training for those young people interested in construction jobs and trades will help provide more workers to fill those jobs.

But in the short term, well, that same survey of 30 North Carolina construction companies says that the hardest jobs to fill, project managers and mechanics, cement masons and carpenters, roofers and plumbers, well, those are the workers they need the most out here on the job site.

Amy?

- Thank you so much, Jeff.

On our website, pbscharlotte.org, you can dig deeper on the job shortage affecting so many employers, including that entire survey by the Associated General Contractors of North Carolina construction companies, with details on which jobs right now are the hardest to fill.

When you think of mystery thrill writers, who comes to mind?

Do you think of Agatha Christie, Stephen King, or John Grisham?

Would you be surprised if I told you one of the bestselling mystery writers, who also happens to have a television series based on her books, actually calls Charlotte home?

Bea Thompson shows us mysteries that have captured the attention of the world actually got their humble beginnings right here in the Queen City.

(transition whooshing) (suspenseful music) - [Bea] What goes into becoming a bestselling author, one who writes thrillers that consistently land on the bestsellers list?

In the case of Kathy Reichs, it all began because of a specific love.

- I love a mystery.

I love reading mysteries, and that's probably why I ended up writing mysteries.

- [Bea] Meet Charlotte's own world-renowned mystery writer, Kathy Reichs.

You may have seen the name before on one of her many books- (thrilling electronic music) Or possibly even seen the television show "Bones," which was inspired by her series of novels.

(suspenseful music) But this demure, petite woman is an expert in a field that many may find cringeworthy, that of forensic science, more specifically, biological anthropology.

- The anthropology, the biological anthropology, the bones are physical evidence that I could measure or weigh or photograph.

Working in a crime lab or working for a medical examiner, it has to do with looking at physical evidence, and in my case as an anthropologist, looking at bones in cases that might potentially end up in court.

- [Bea] In the early '90s, she was a newly minted professor at UNC Charlotte, where her academic background and expertise brought her to the attention of law enforcement and other agencies.

- Cops started bringing me cases because I was the bones lady up at the university.

So then I diverted, and I was doing academia and research and teaching and forensic work.

So I like the idea of taking those bones or that charred corpse or whatever it happens to be and extracting from it any information I can about who that person was in life and then what happened to them at the end of their life.

- [Bea] And certain cases, she remembers, like her first one in Charlotte.

- Oh, for me, the worst cases were always the child homicides.

Yeah.

And one of the first cases I worked here in Charlotte was a case of a little girl.

I think she was five years old.

(mysterious, funky music) - [Bea] She expanded her work, doing forensic specialties for the United Nations and in Quebec, Canada, because North Carolina medical examiners at the time didn't recognize the value or the expertise of a forensic specialist.

Meanwhile, for the woman who as a girl loved a mystery, well, the call to write was growing stronger.

- I didn't tell anybody I was writing the book, because if you write a novel in an English department, you're a hero.

If you write a novel in a science, you know, you're a little suspect.

- [Bea] It marked the beginning of her writing odyssey, books that began many times from cases she was involved with.

- I take a core idea from a case, just a nugget of an idea, and I ask myself, "Okay, we've got this dismembered body.

There are unusual..." "Deja Dead," for example, the very first book is based on a case I worked on, a serial murder case in Montreal in which the victim had been dismembered.

- [Bea] That first thriller novel has now been followed by 20 others over the past two decades or so.

- I decided to write fiction.

I had never done fiction before.

- [Bea] The acclaimed author has done the highly popular TED Talks.

(audience clapping) And her fans fill auditoriums to hear her speak about the how and the whys of writing mysteries.

- [Kathy] I think that's part of the author's job, at least in the genre, in writing thrillers or mysteries, is to do that with the reader as you take them up a certain pathway.

And then you throw in that twist so that they do go, "Whoa, I didn't see that coming."

- [Bea] But finding a name for these novels, not such an easy task, yet you may know her work because of a series of forensic science that helped her with all future titles.

You would know it by its television name, "Bones," with her lead character, Temperance Brennan.

- They coined the phrase for us a crimedy 'cause it combined crime and comedy.

We wanted it to be a character-based show.

We wanted to develop these characters that people would care about and want to follow.

And apparently, that worked 'cause they followed us for 12 seasons, and we wanted to put humor into the show because I do that with the books.

(gentle, upbeat music) - [Bea] She's also written a series of books called "Virals" with her son, because as she puts it... - Kids are interested in solving mysteries, and they're interested in forensics.

So we thought that would be a great idea and created the "Virals," which features Temperance Brennan's 14-year-old great niece and her friends, so those are very popular in schools.

- [Bea] And just where are those intriguing stories set?

Well, many times, in this author's mind, she goes to the Carolinas.

- [Kathy] I use Charlotte in many of my books.

I've set some up in the mountains.

I've set some down at the beach.

But I've set some, quite a few, right here in Charlotte.

I've used real restaurants, and you know, real places in Charlotte in a lot of my books.

I've been told part of the fun of reading those books by Charlotteans is that they recognize the places in my books.

- [Bea] Now finishing up her 22nd book, she contemplates the next adventure.

With six grands, she now has time to spend with them.

And for this "New York Times" bestseller, that may be the best developing story of all.

For "Carolina Impact," I'm Bea Thompson.

- Thank you, Bea.

Kathy's books have been translated into 30 languages.

Congratulations on all your success, Kathy.

For all the negativity the Internet and social media receive these days, it has accomplished one major thing: connecting our world.

Instead of searching the Yellow Pages, as most of us did for years, any business locally, nationally, or even globally can be found with just a couple clicks of the mouse.

"Carolina Impact's" Jason Terzis introduces us to one local business that has a global clientele because of it.

(transition whooshing) (tires roaring) (upbeat rock music) - [Jason] There's no sign out front, no way of knowing it's even here.

But tucked behind Bryan Dwight's Lancaster home, in his garage, sits his art studio.

(tool whirring) In here, though, Bryan doesn't work on your traditional canvases.

- It always helps if you don't cut your fingernails day or two before you do this.

- [Jason] He owns and operates BD's Cycles, a unique business that rarely sees its customers face to face but has served people in 47 states and multiple countries.

- Although we don't always meet our customers, you know, we feel like we know a lot of them, and we think they sorta feel like they know us.

- [Jason] Over the last two decades, Bryan has perfected the art of restoring and painting old motorcycles, gas tanks, fenders, and side panels.

- So it's mostly complete paint restorations on vintage equipment.

(dramatic marching music) - [Jason] Serving in the Coast Guard in the 1990s, Bryan's Type-A personality served him well in the military's follow-the-rules-and-directions environment.

Those traits then merged with a budding hobby.

- And I've always liked tinkering on things, messing with cars and motorcycles.

And so to learn how to paint was sort of something that, you know, interested me.

- Well, he started with me.

I was painting bikes in my garage in TDK.

And Bryan kinda saw what I was doing.

He came over.

He started looking at stuff.

That was right when he just kinda picked it up and started rolling with it.

- So I had a buddy at a dealership who reached out to me and said, "Hey, we've got a job that we need done, an insurance job.

Would you be interested?"

which I did.

And then a lady I've known for years came along and said, "Hey, can you do flames?"

And I said, "Well, I can try."

(chuckles) So you could do it like that.

- [Jason] Bryan learned how to do those flames and picked up all the other skills on Internet chat rooms and message boards.

- It was definitely a struggle in those early stages.

Nowadays, the Internet makes it pretty easy for someone to go online, and there's a wealth of knowledge and information there.

This is off of a 1960s Ducati, as I recall.

- [Jason] We recently spent a day with Bryan as he took us through the tedious step-by-step process of painting a gas tank on a vintage Yamaha.

- We're not gonna be repainting the white.

We're going to be masking it off using a mask like this to preserve the white that's underneath and spraying the blue and black around it once we get the alignment all correct.

- [Jason] After making sure it's all clean, the first step is to tape an outline of the soon to be painted logo, using super thin tape.

- You'll see me doing this a lot, picking it up and pulling it, pulling it up, putting it back down.

So I'm just gonna follow along that line.

So now we'll take this pattern to the other side and get the alignment correct and repeat the procedure.

- [Jason] Using a custom-built stand on wheels, Bryan can easily spin whatever he's working on back and forth.

- The green tape is protecting the white, which is gonna be the white around the perimeter.

Everything in here will get blue on both ends.

So what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna trim about 1/4 inch across the bottom of the Yamaha, which will help me get the alignment correct across there.

So that's not technically a sticker because that's coming off, but it's gonna protect the white that's underneath it, so that when we spray this black and these blue and we peel that back, you have the white 175 underneath it.

- [Jason] It's all the prep work that takes up the most time.

- Good news is, is the hard part is done, really.

Now we just need to replicate that on this side, which'll only take a few minutes.

- [Jason] He uses paints that you can't get at the local box store.

Bryan buys from a dozen different manufacturers, many times mixing his own custom paints, because way back when, they didn't use paint codes.

(paint whooshing) Constantly checking to make sure it's being applied evenly, the painting is the easy part.

But it's not until all that paper and tape gets pulled off that the results become clear.

(tape and paper crackling) It took a good chunk of the day just to complete the gas tank, and that's just one piece.

So it's no wonder Bryan has a backroom filled with projects and a six to nine-month waiting list for his services.

- And it typically takes five weeks to do a job once we get started.

- [Jason] He does have some part-time help, but it's hard for him to give up control of certain aspects of the process because he wants everything done just right.

- I actually went down there in person, and he showed me the process and showed me the work he was doing.

And I could tell from the way he was approaching it that he knew what he was doing, and I would be comfortable with him.

- There's no one better out there that I can tell.

It's beautiful stuff.

- [Jason] Price-wise, a typical job runs anywhere from about $1,500 up to several thousand.

And for the most part, these are hardcore bike enthusiasts.

- Almost every one of my customers, if I were to wager a guess, I would say they average five or six bikes.

And I can rattle off a dozen names of people who have 30 or 40 or 50 motorcycles in their collection.

- [Jason] Earning his reputation in the early days through bike shows and trade magazines, and more recently, social media, Bryan has developed quite a following.

Not too bad for a guy who doesn't even have a sign out front.

For "Carolina Impact," I'm Jason Terzis reporting.

- Thank you, Jason.

Another reason BD's Cycles is so popular with customers is because Bryan offers a lifetime warranty on all of his work, giving a lot of potential customers peace of mind.

When I was a kid, my big sisters used to love seeing me get scared at those flying monkeys in "The Wizard of Oz," yet I loved watching it every single year.

It's one of the most popular movies of all time.

Did you know you can actually stroll down that iconic Yellow Brick Road and meet Dorothy?

It's available just a few weeks each year at Beech Mountain.

Jason Terzis and producer John Branscum have the details.

(transition whooshing) (cheerful orchestral music) - [Jason] On a cool September morning, folks line up early for a quick bus ride, their final destination, well, let's just say you're not in North Carolina anymore.

No, you're now in the Land of Oz- ♪ Over the rainbow And the annual Autumn at Oz event.

- Autumn at Oz is an immersive theatrical festival, essentially.

It's similar to a Renaissance festival but with "Wizard of Oz."

- [Jason] For some of the smaller guests, it might be a little too immersive.

- But I don't like it.

- [Visitor] Terrified.

(laughing) - I don't like the mean witch.

- You don't like that mean ol' witch?

(laughing) - [Graylin] No, I don't like it.

- [Jason] To three-year-old Graylin's credit, the Wicked Witch doesn't discriminate, as our producer found out.

- Feel about them.

Now get that thing out of my face.

(producer laughing) (Wicked Witch screaming and cackling) - [Jason] But don't worry.

It's all part of the Autumn at Oz experience.

Over three weekends in September, over 20,000 visitors from all over make their way to Beech Mountain to visit.

- It's like being in the movie, walking through a live play.

It's really, really magical.

- We have the full Kansas farm that is still there.

So you go through Dorothy's house, and it's neat and tidy.

And then you go through the tornado cellar.

And you come out the other side, and it's crooked.

We have all of the characters along the Yellow Brick Road.

And you see live performances.

You get photo ops.

We have craft vendors and food vendors, and we sell "Wizard of Oz" memorabilia.

- [Jason] Throughout the 1970s, thousands of people visited the Land of Oz to walk down the Yellow Brick Road, fly high in the iconic balloon ride, and meet the beloved characters from the "Wizard of Oz" movie.

After closing in 1980, the park was left to decay as the owners debated what would happen next.

It was a dark time for the classic tourist destination, but there was talk of demolishing the entire park to build homes.

But by the early '90s, the Leidy family, who owned the land, decided to try something new.

- They decided to open the park for one day in July.

And that grew into multiple events throughout the years.

And now we run Autumn at Oz for three weekends every September.

- [Glinda] Well, Dorothy, I think, is along the Yellow Brick Road.

- [Jason] The fairy tale stories and movies we enjoy as children often bring feelings of nostalgia as adults.

- It was awesome.

I remember coming here as a seven or eight-year-old and just going through the forest, getting down to the witch's cave.

It was a neat experience as a kid, a lot of fond memories.

- [Jason] Ann Zaitz even got the t-shirt her first time to Oz.

- I went with my parents back then, and now I wanna bring my son who's 20 now.

(chuckles) - [Jason] Meet cousins Sarah Luttrell and Martha Brame.

- I live in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada.

- And I live in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

- [Jason] This duo has some fond memories of the Land of Oz and a personal connection.

- My father and her mother are first cousins to Harry Robbins, who was one of the creators and owners of this, so we came every summer growing up, and it was just magical.

Contacted her, and I said, "Are you up for it?

Because I wanna come."

- It's been really neat, and to think, "Oh look, it's the same."

We remember things- - Yeah, it is the same.

- From years and years ago.

- [Sarah] The Yellow Brick Road, obviously, was just- - The best.

- I teared up.

It's just history for us.

(playful orchestral music) ♪ I'd be tender, I'd be gentle and awful sentimental ♪ ♪ Regarding love and art - [Jason] Visitors taking the journey along the Yellow Brick Road interact with their favorite characters, characters such as the Mayor of Munchkinland, the Scarecrow, Tin Man, or the Cowardly Lion, all portrayed by actors with an equal obsession for the Land of Oz.

Say hello to Actress Steph Twomey.

- Growing up, like, "The Wizard of Oz" was everything to me.

It was every birthday party.

It was every Halloween.

"The Wizard of Oz" itself, it had such a magical story.

♪ With the thoughts you'd be thinkin' ♪ ♪ You could be another Lincoln ♪ If you only had a brain.

- [Scarecrow] I could!

- I'm incredibly lucky and incredibly thankful that I get to have that experience and get to be a part of that.

(bell rings) (door hinge squeaks) - [Mayor] Who rang that bell?

- [Jason] At the end of the Yellow Brick Road, visitors must knock on a large gate to enter the Emerald City.

On this day, we met Tiffany Christian.

- One, two, three Dorothys?

Oh my, you're everywhere!

I feel like a superstar.

Like, I get to be in everybody's photo albums and their videos.

I'm a part of people's family histories.

I am a part of a magical day.

- [Jason] Besides her role in the Emerald City, she also plays a key role back in Kansas.

- I'm also Aunt Em.

And I am the first black Aunt Em that they've had.

And so just tales of the other cast members when they see children's faces light up when they see somebody that looks like them as part of this experience, and so we've grown to a point where our imaginations expand to include all kinds of people.

And to be part of that is very important for me.

- [Jason] The book, movie, and this iconic theme park in the North Carolina Mountains continue to impact the lives of their fans.

Remember Little Graylin?

- It's wonderful to watch the magic 'cause she thinks she's really in "The Wizard of Oz."

- [Jason] And so the Land of Oz, through more than five decades, still stands as one of the North Carolina Mountains' iconic tourist destinations, hopefully welcoming visitors for years and generations to come.

♪ Oh, we're off to see the Wizard ♪ ♪ The wonderful Wizard of Oz - [Lion] Oh, bye, Dorothy!

- [Jason] For "Carolina Impact," I'm Jason Terzis reporting.

- Oh my goodness, that video so takes me back.

I hope that I'll be able to see it in person next year.

The full production takes over 60 actors and 40 staff to put on Autumn at Oz, which sells out quickly every single year.

Well, that's all the time we have this evening.

Thanks so much for joining us.

We always appreciate your time and look forward to seeing you back here again next time on "Carolina Impact."

Goodnight, my friends.

(joyous music) - [Announcer] A production of PBS Charlotte.

(inspiring music) Support for Carolina Impact comes from our viewers and Wells Fargo (VO) Wells Fargo, has donated 390 million dollars... (Mom) Honey like I said, you get your own room.

(VO) to support housing affordability solutions across America.

Doing gets it done.

Wells Fargo, the bank of doing.