[piano intro] - Hello, I'm Nido Qubein.

Welcome to "Side By Side."

My guest today learned about leadership early in life.

As a teenager, she earned the Gold Award in Girl Scouts.

She's now one of High Point's most influential young leaders.

She's helping transform her hometown in more ways than one.

Today we'll meet Megan Oglesby, the founder of the Carolina Core Professional Soccer Team.

- [Announcer] Funding for "Side By Side" with Nido Qubein is made possible by... - [Narrator] Coca-Cola Consolidated is honored to make and serve 300 brands and flavors locally, thanks to our teammates.

We are Coca-Cola Consolidated, your local bottler.

- [Announcer] For 60 years, the Budd Group has been a company of excellence, providing facility services to customers, opportunities for employees, and support to our communities.

The Budd Group, great people, smart service.

- [Announcer] Truist, we're here to help people, communities, and businesses thrive in North Carolina and beyond.

The commitment of our teammates makes the difference every day.

Truist, leaders in banking, unwavering in care.

[bright music] - Megan, welcome to "Side by Side."

You majored in communication, I believe, in college, but now you're the principal investor and founder of the Carolina Core Soccer Team.

Explain to me how you go from a communication major to a Major League sports ownership.

- What I'll tell you is in the trajectory of my life, the things that have guided my decision-making, and the things that I have decided to do, have always led with my values and what I feel like I can bring to the table.

- How does that have to do anything with soccer?

- It's a good question and actually one of the first questions I often get when I tell people I'm the Carolina Core FC Founder or Principal Investor, and they say, "You must really love soccer."

And I do, I mean, soccer was part of my life growing up.

I played it along with doing Girl Scouts.

But one of the things that made me decide to become the investor of Carolina Core FC, it was a couple of things.

One, it was the work we were doing in our community.

You were a big part of that.

Revitalizing our downtown with a multi-sport, multi-use stadium.

We have a great baseball team there and I was brought to the table to help bring soccer.

So, one, that was really important is to help fulfill that promise to our community and to bring something to our downtown that's exciting, and vibrant, and very inclusive.

And then the other piece is the league we're in, we're in MLS Next Pro.

So, we're a part- - And what does that mean?

- So MLS is Major League Soccer.

It's one of the major soccer clubs in the US, and they came up with a secondary league.

It's kind of like the AAA of baseball, so it's the development league, still professional, called MLS Next Pro.

And so they developed this back in 2022, and actually back in 2021, and in 2022, we decided to go after an expansion.

And the reason I decided to jump on board wasn't, again, because I love soccer.

I love the opportunities it was providing because it's a development league, it's access to opportunity.

- And soccer is very, very popular now, as you see all these young kids love soccer and buy all these clothing and T-shirts, and stuff of all these famous soccer players.

When did soccer become so hot in America?

- It was interesting, in North Carolina, we've had soccer for a long time, you know, our university system- - But it was a fail.

I remember one time there was a soccer team in the Triad region and, am I right, it failed, it didn't work, it fizzled out?

- Well, it depends on how you define failure, but, you know, one of the things about the US is that, you know, soccer has become popular because it's the international sport, it's played all over the world and so it's one of those things where we've got the youth sports, and soccer, whether it's at the YMCA or Piedmont Triad Football Club, which is now CCFC Youth, NC Fusion.

And then throughout the university system, High Point University has a wonderful soccer program, both men's and women's.

Soccer's one of those sports that it's very accessible to a point.

It gets very expensive.

- So, what does it take to start a soccer, what do I call it, franchise?

What do I call it?

- Yeah, you can call it, we call it club.

- Club, okay.

- So, again- - Well, what does it take to redo it?

Because it's the sport, we know about soccer.

What is the business side of doing all that?

Try to take us into a journey of understanding what does it really take, what qualifications you had to have.

Obviously finance is one of them, but there must be others.

Somebody must have done a pro forma to say, "This region can support a professional soccer team."

So what's that all about?

- You have to start with a vision.

You have to know where you're going.

And then you have to have a plan.

And obviously the financials play into it, and you have to have the people that have the expertise to get it off the ground, especially a startup.

We as Carolina Core FC, we're an independent club, a part of MLS Next Pro, so that means we're not affiliated with the first club.

So there's Crown Legacy FC, which is a part of Charlotte FC.

So they're the next pro team that moves players up to Charlotte FC.

We are independent, which means that we can move our players anywhere.

We're not affiliated with the first club, and so one of the things that- - Why would you move your players?

I mean, in Major Leagues, there's money involved, right?

They bid on these guys.

In this case, why would you move players?

How would you move your players?

- Well, we wanna move our players.

We want them to come to us and develop and then move on to- - Oh, you want 'em to go to a higher level, I see.

- Yes, so kind of like with AAA baseball, those players come- - Yes, I see.

- They get the time they need.

They develop their skills and then they move on.

- And the more they move on, the more others wanna come into your club.

- Not everybody makes it, right?

It's was hard to go through and become a professional in any industry, especially in sports, because there are things outside of your control.

You get injured.

That can happen on a dime.

- And competition galore.

- Mm-hmm.

- So you have a vision, you have a plan, and you had to do what then?

Did you hire the coach first?

Did you get players first?

Did you get the city on board first?

Did you find the location first?

I'm just intrigued by the ABCs of it all.

- So, the answer to all of that is yes.

- [Nido] Yes.

- It all sort of had to happen at the same time.

Everything kind of had to fall in line.

But what the first thing we did, besides the vision and the plan, was to make sure we had the right people on board.

That is from the entire investor group, so I'm not the only owner.

We have some other minority owners within our group.

And the reason why we have other owners is because everybody brings some expertise and perspective to the table that's super valuable for our club.

So, when I'm making big decisions, I lean on our other owners because they have expertise that I don't have and that's really valuable.

And then of course we have our staff that has their expertise as well.

- I read somewhere where there's only one other female in the country who's a part owner of a soccer club.

- Yes, it's part of MLS, it's part of Major League Soccer.

There is a majority female owner in St. Louis, Carolyn, who is wonderful.

And I actually didn't know that going in as far as I would be the second only female owner in Major League Soccer.

It's interesting, I guess.

- Well, that's intriguing to say the very least.

What are some of the challenges that you've encountered in getting this enterprise going in a successful way?

You must have had some challenges along the way.

- Yeah, I mean, you know, there's challenges in anything that you're trying to aspire to do that's worth doing.

There's obstacles, there's challenges, but the best way to overcome them is to work with a group of really talented experts or people that have strong opinions and are willing to stand by their values.

As we're coming over, as we come across challenges, we think about what are we trying to accomplish?

What is the long-term picture?

And as we're overcoming those challenges, we make sure we do what's right, even when it's hard.

- And what is that long-term picture?

- The long-term picture is that this club outlives all of us.

And when we define success, the definition of success is different, obviously, in each department, but for me, the definition of success is when I see not just players, but staff move on to something better.

We're a small enterprise and we're a great place to learn, and if people wanna stay with us for forever, I hope they do, but we wanna see people move up and be able to take their time with us, learn as much as they can, and use it to have a better opportunity.

- Where are the other clubs in North Carolina?

You mentioned Charlotte.

Anywhere else?

- So as a part of MLS Next Pro, just the two of us in the Carolinas.

- Okay, so there isn't one in Raleigh or Wilmington.

I wonder why.

- Yeah, we'll see what happens.

- Yeah.

So, and you call it Carolina Core.

Why did you call it Carolina Core?

- If I'm being honest, if we were gonna call it Triad United, that sounds like an airline, so that's not a very exciting name.

But we got the inspiration for the name, Carolina Core FC, from the work that Piedmont Triad Partners are doing in our region through the work of NC Carolina Core.

They're working together with business leaders, I know yourself included, to bring additional jobs to our region and that's really what Carolina Core FFC is all about as well.

The vehicle is soccer, but the purpose is creating jobs and creating access to opportunity.

And so when we think about attracting businesses to our region, whether it's a small mom and pop, or a huge company like Toyota Battery, the first thing they're looking at is, is there a skilled labor force there that I can hire?

Number two is quality of life.

What is there to do?

What are the school systems?

All of that.

And so Carolina Core FFC is a small part of that.

And one of the things I love about our region, and I am a North Carolina native.

I love the state, I love this region, I love our town, and we have something to offer for everybody, no matter your age, no matter your background, our region is one of the best and I'll just admit my bias because I am highly biased about how great a state we have.

- And North Carolina in general has been a very attractive state.

The state has grown measurably because we have four seasons, we have the mountains and the ocean.

We have great place to raise a family and great opportunities for work and all the rest.

Now speaking of work, of course, you come from a family that really began a business in the trucking industry.

Your grandfather was the Chairman, CEO, your uncle is the Executive Chairman of Old Dominion Freight Line.

Your dad was the Chief Operating Officer of Old Dominion.

You yourself worked at Old Dominion, so part of your endeavor, part of your responsibility now is that you're the Executive Director of the Congdon Family Foundation, named for your grandfather and your grandmother and you're doing amazing work in the community.

Educate us how a foundation makes decisions about allocating funds.

The foundation is not involved in Carolina Core, is that correct?

- That is completely separate.

- That's just you and a couple of cousins and some other people.

But you've got these two buckets that you invest your time in, not to mention family and children and other interests that you have.

So, how does the foundation work?

What does the foundation look at when it allocates funding to say nonprofits or any initiatives that it studies?

- Yeah, so I work for the Earl and Kathryn Congdon Family Foundation, so it is a private family foundation and the board members are Earl and Kitty, who are in their 90s, and their three grown children, who are in their 60s and 70s.

I'm the Executive Director and one of the things that we look at is how do we, and so our mission statement is we invest in nonprofit organizations that improve quality of life by reducing barriers to opportunity.

And what that means is that we are looking for ways to meet people where they are through these nonprofit organizations and the work they do to help people enrich their lives.

And so we have three areas of focus.

One is education, so improving quality of and access to education, so helping with our school systems, all of that.

Our second one is critical community needs.

Critical community needs, so that means homelessness, food insecurity, all of that.

We are big supporters of our hospital.

You have to have a strong hospital to have a strong community.

And then the third one, which is where I became personally passionate, is economic development for revitalization and stabilization, because if you can't have a stable job, it's really hard to do anything else.

And so that's sort of where my passion for creating jobs turned over into my work with Carolina Core FC.

And so when we're deciding who we're gonna give funds to, because we don't have an unlimited amount, I wish we did, what we look at is, there's a couple of things.

One, what is our role as a foundation?

Because there are things that the government can't do, legally cannot do and shouldn't do, and there's things that the private sector won't do.

So, that's where nonprofits, and especially private foundations have an opportunity to serve in a role that can help fill that gap.

And so one of the things that we look at is, and we truly call it an investment because we believe in the work that these nonprofits are doing, because most of them know exactly how their dollars are being used, what the return on the investment is, how it's making impact.

I mean, the data around a lot of these nonprofits has become pretty sophisticated.

And so when we're looking at how can we address needs, we ask our nonprofits to tell us, "What do you need?

What are the problems you're trying to solve, and how can we help?"

- First of all, you're doing great work and I am quite familiar with many other projects the foundation has invested in and has had enormous impact in this this region of North Carolina, and by extension, across the state and beyond 'cause when you invest in the life of a person organization, you just don't know what the tentacles are gonna be.

It can be all over the place in terms of leadership and commitment and so on.

So, is it just the foundation works principally in the greater High Point area?

- We do a little bit outside of High Point, but we focus mainly within the greater High Point area.

And part of that reason is because Old Dominion, as a company, moved its headquarters to High Point in the '60s and they decided, the family members decided in 2015 when they founded the foundation with their own private dollars that they wanted to give back to the community that supported them through the hard years.

- Yes, which is a noble endeavor in and of itself.

Megan, you speak with such clarity and with conviction, and yet in your life you've had a challenge that you've had to deal with.

It has to do with your hearing, and one would never guess that, one would never know that, but I've known you a long time and I know how you have managed that challenge with elegance and with great responsibility.

To the extent that you're comfortable, tell us about that because someone watching may be helped by your example.

- Well, thank you.

So, I was born with a hearing loss.

I have about a 75% loss in both ears, so pretty significant.

And at the time, the hospital didn't test babies when they were born for hearing loss, so my parents didn't find out about my hearing loss until a little bit later so I was delayed in my speech.

And so as soon as my parents found out that I had a significant hearing loss, I had speech therapy every day.

I got hearing aids, and you know, back in the '80s, the technology is not what it is today.

But one of the things that I've thought about a lot as I reflect back on my life and this thing that I was born with, or lack of the thing that I was born with, is that one, my parents did not give it power.

They didn't say, "Oh, Megan, you have a hearing loss.

You wear hearing aids, you can't swim on the swim team.

Or you can't go play on that soccer team 'cause you've already lost your hearing aid out on the soccer field for the third time."

They didn't give it power.

They wanted me to go and do what I wanted to do and just figure out how to work with it, so I thank my parents for that, really, I mean, that has shaped who I am.

You know, when you talk about overcoming challenges and adversity, it's really, do you give it power and do you allow it to hold you back?

- [Nido] Yes, yes.

- And then the other thing I just, I mean, I thank God that I was born at a time with the technology.

- Yes.

- Because I think about, you know, when I don't wear my hearing aids, which they're not waterproof, so if I'm at the pool or the beach and I have to take them out, I miss out on the majority of what's being said.

And had I not had hearing aids growing up, I wouldn't have learned language.

I probably would've been considered disabled and so I feel really grateful that was born at the time I was born and the technology gets better.

- Are you just hearing me?

You're not reading my lips, right?

- I am a little bit.

- You're reading my lips and hearing me.

- Yeah.

- The reason I ask 'cause I know I'm actually friends with a lady called Heather Whitestone.

Heather Whitestone was Miss Alabama and Miss American in 1995.

I think the correct term is hearing impaired.

That's the term she uses.

She was hearing impaired, and in her acceptance speech in Miss America, she would listen to what the person asked her and then she would repeat the question to ensure that she understood it.

But she spoke with a recognizable accent, you would call it, or pattern of speech, which you don't have at all.

And then the miracle, one day she told me, she had a baby and there's some miracle you would know.

I don't know what it is, some discovery in hearing technology and sciences.

And now she could hear her baby and that was such an emotional experience for all of us hearing her talk about that.

And so what did you learn about hearing that you would share with others, 'cause it's a remarkable story.

Your parents didn't give it power.

That's a lovely way to say it, by the way.

And you went on and achieved more things and no one ever knows that that has been a challenge for you.

What is it about hearing today that you would, let's say you're talking to another young person who has that challenge.

What would you say to them besides don't give it power?

- Oh gosh, that's a good question.

- I see people, for example, who have some object stuck to their head and that's part of their hearing.

I see a lot of people, of course, who have hearing aids and I'm sure I'm losing some hearing capacity as one grows older.

I see a lot of my friends have hearing aids and so on.

But your situation was much deeper.

You said 75% hearing loss, which is remarkable.

So, anything that you would say to someone that, here's technology or here's what you need to do or?

- Well, so there's different types of hearing loss, whether you had it originally and you lost it, so due to damage or just age, mine, I was born with a certain type of loss.

- Yes.

- So, the first thing I would say is just find a really great doctor because treat it like you would any other type of situation.

You need to find a doctor that is an expert in the field that aligns with your values and they can provide you with resources of what's the best fit for you.

So for example, I went with an older gentleman to the same doctor that I go to because he wanted me to accompany him and so I made the mistake of explaining to him my situation and my hearing aids and mine are in the ear, and so when we got there, he did the test and the doctor said, "Okay, here's what we recommend for you."

Well, it was very different from mine.

It was behind the ear and it was open and he was unhappy about that.

And I learned a lot from that meeting because, or that appointment, because he had a very different hearing loss than me and there's different tools to address that.

And so I made the mistake of projecting what I thought was appropriate based on my experience- - I see, I see.

- And my loss, and it wasn't his, so my biggest piece of advice is just find the doctors and the experts that know what your loss is and provide the resources, and if you're unhappy with what they give you, get a second opinion.

- So, for different people it's different things.

- [Megan] Yeah.

- Well, I honor you and congratulate you for the way you've handled that and the way you've made it really a non-issue.

You gave it no power, I love that statement.

They gave it no power.

So Megan, we've talked about sports and it's new, Carolina Core is new.

It is just had its first season.

- Yes, we're in 2024 is its first season.

- The main challenge that you encounter is what?

Is it getting crowds out there?

Is it attracting players?

Is it having the resources to get it done?

What is the major challenge?

- Oh my gosh, I wouldn't say there's any major challenges.

I mean, we've had a really great first year.

We've got a great foundation.

Probably the biggest challenge is just keeping everything aligned and moving forward, making sure that everybody who works for you has the same values 'cause I think gone are the days where you, I know for me personally, I don't wanna work for a company that my values don't align.

So, being clear.

I mean, you're really great about saying, "These are our values here at High Point University.

This is what we stand for," and being unapologetic for it, because you're convicted in that, you believe so strongly, and so I need to be better about saying, "These are our values, come on board with us."

And of course, listening to people and making sure that what we believe is the right thing.

- And testing and inspecting what you do.

If I came to Carolina Core game, would I see, I assume I see all ages, but the predominant profile would be what, a young family with young children who are crazy about soccer?

- So, one of the things that I love the most about our stadium in downtown High Point is that it is a mixed-used multi-sport stadium, and so when you're there for soccer, it feels like soccer.

And one of the things that we thought was gonna be one of our biggest challenges ended up being one of our greatest assets, which is the outfield of the baseball diamond because we don't use that during the soccer game 'cause we've got soccer as rectangular.

- [Nido] Rectangular, yes.

- And so somebody brilliant on our team, I wish I could say it was my idea, but it wasn't, said, "How about we allow everybody with a ticket to be able to go down on the pitch in the outfield and we just make it a party.

We have game down there for the kids.

We will put concession stands down there."

- You mean before the game.

- The whole time, before and during the game.

- It's not disruptive to the team?

- Well, we had to make a few adjustments, all the flying balls the first game were a little disruptive, so we scaled back some of the games.

But what we found is we thought that was gonna be one of our greatest challenges is to make it feel like you're playing in a soccer stadium when you're there for soccer and that outfield has been the best thing.

The families love it because the little kids get to run around and the parents can watch the game or finish a conversation without being interrupted every two seconds by their kid.

So when you look around the stadium, you see families with little kids.

We even have people carrying their newborn babies.

- [Nido] Wow.

- We have the die hard soccer fans, the supporters.

We have older clients that come and watch the game and it's really been one of those things that has felt like such a unifier for our community.

And I had a mother come up to me after one of our home games the next day.

I saw her out in the community and she said, "Megan, I have to thank you so much.

I've got four kids, one is in elementary school, a couple are in middle school, and then I've got a high schooler."

She was like, "This is the one thing we can do as a family where everybody has a great time.

For our little kids, they love going out on the pitch after the game and interacting with the players and getting their signatures on their jerseys."

So, for us, growing up, for me as a kid, an '80s kid, I grew up going to the mall.

That was our safe space that we could go and socialize with our friends.

- Things have changed.

- Yep.

- You've done an exceptional job.

I honor you for that and I wish you great success as Carolina Core grows and as you see your players move on and other people move up the ladder of success.

Thank you for being with me today on "Side By Side."

[bright music] - [Announcer] Funding for "Side By Side" with Nido Qubein is made possible by... - [Announcer] Coca-Cola Consolidated is honored to make and serve 300 brands and flavors locally, thanks to our teammates.

We are Coca-Cola Consolidated, your local bottler.

- [Announcer] For 60 years, the Budd Group has been a company of excellence, providing facility services to customers, opportunities for employees, and support to our communities.

The Budd Group, great people, smart Service.

- [Announcer] Truist.

We're here to help people, communities, and businesses thrive in North Carolina and beyond.

The commitment of our teammates makes the difference every day.

Truist, leaders in banking, unwavering in care.