Bill-E Stitt is Still Makin’ Bacon. Lots of it. And Shipping It Worldwide.
Posted On November 28, 2022
Fairhope, Alabama has lots to brag about. The biggest is that it’s the home of Bill-E’s Bacon. It’s the best bacon in the world. Bill-E Stitt and I sit down to check in on how his business is growing since I first met him a while back. He’s now shipping bacon all over the country and the country’s top chefs are using his bacon in their masterpiece dishes. His is a story of fantastic growth with new opportunities arriving every day. Show Sponsors: Alabama Center for Real Estate (ACRE) – Show Sponsor E3 Termite & Pest Control Allison Horner –… Read More
Categories: Libsyn
Retaining Alabama: The effort to retain talent in a growing economy
Posted On November 27, 2022
Alabama’s colleges and universities attract a lot of students from out of state. Nearly 60 percent of the University of Alabama’s more than 38,000 students in 2021 came from other states or countries. At Auburn, out-of-state enrollment was just under half of its more than 31,000 students last year. More than three-quarters of those students leave Alabama when they graduate, however. What’s more, about a quarter of in-state students who go to college in Alabama also leave the state to start their careers. Overall, only about half the state’s college graduates are still working in Alabama five years after they… Read More
Categories: Blog, Podcast, Recruiting, What's Working with Cam MarstonI Jinxed ‘Em
Posted On November 26, 2022
I think by talking too much about my superstitions, I ended up jinxing the team. ————————- Well, I think I jinxed them. My sons’ football team fought hard all season and last Friday night they were bested by a very fast and athletic opponent. The boys were gloomy for just a little while. They quickly realized they had overachieved and then they held their heads high. I’m very proud of them. I guess a jinx and a superstition are two different sides of the same coin. Superstitions are proactive and meant to bring hoped-for results. I once carried a tiny… Read More
Categories: Libsyn2Keeping Our Best and Brightest – Dr Jim Purcell Works to Retain Alabama’s Talent and to Coax Others Back to Our State
Posted On November 21, 2022
Dr Jim Purcell is Alabama’s Commissioner on Higher Education. Each year the state’s colleges and universities send students into the workplace and too many of them find work outside the state. Dr Purcell is trying to get them to stay. Alabama has the jobs available and needs the talent. Additionally, Dr Purcell is working to lure those with roots in the state back to Alabama through targeted campaigns. He fights historic deep-south stereotypes as well as the reputation of low pay. Listen as he explains the challenge, highlights the opportunities, and discusses his strategy. This broadcast in collaboration with Business… Read More
Categories: Libsyn
Lane Zirlott of Murder Point Oysters is sharing the Butter Love
Posted On November 21, 2022
Business is competitive. You have to compete to survive. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t celebrate others’ success at the same time. Our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” is a testament to that idea. It was three or four years ago that we first met Lane Zirlott of Murder Point Oysters, a south Mobile County company known around the Southeast. At that time, he was raising about 6 million oysters a year. Now the company has grown to the point that he’s raising five times that number annually. While Lane has worked tirelessly… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Podcast, What's Working with Cam MarstonTrying to Control the Magic
Posted On November 18, 2022
I don’t believe in superstitions unless they work. ————– When I told my wife the topic of today’s commentary, she warned that people are going to get tired of hearing me talk about this. However, I feel I’m kind of obligated to discuss it. Let me explain. I think it was Dr. Gerald May – who’s an author, psychiatrist, and theologian – who wrote in one of his books that superstition is best defined as “trying to control the magic.” And I like that definition. And I like that a guy who is both a medical doctor and theologian acknowledges… Read More
Categories: Libsyn2Lane Zirlott and Murder Point Oysters – Extraordinary Growth Continues
Posted On November 14, 2022
When I first interviewed Lane several years ago he had about 600,000 oysters growing at his oyster farm in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. Today it’s about 30 million. His distribution is now far and wide but he’s still going through the back doors of restaurants, shucking his oysters for the chefs, and taking their orders when they’re surprised to learn these tasty delights orginate in the Gulf. Lane’s kindness, generosity and optimism stands out each time I speak to him and I learn that it springs from a wound that, Lane says, he hopes never heals. Check out the Oyster… Read More
Categories: Libsyn
Auburn is at the forefront of RFID, a technology that’s changed how we live and work
Posted On November 13, 2022
Do you ever think about the technology behind hotel room key cards, or vehicle key fobs, or the wristbands you use to get into Disney World? Probably not. You use them, they work, and you go on about your day. Our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” thinks about it a lot. Justin Patton is the Director of the RFID Lab at the Harbert College of Business at Auburn University. For the last 17 years, he’s been at the forefront of research and developing applications for Radio Frequency Identification, which is the technology behind so… Read More
Categories: Blog, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston, WorkplaceSurvive and Advance
Posted On November 12, 2022
My sons won their football game last Friday night in an upset giving parents like me one more game and…it’s a home game. ——– If you heard last week’s commentary, you might like to know that my sons’ football team won their playoff game in an upset in Montgomery Friday night. My favorite oldest son – a wide receiver – made a nice catch on a screen play and was tackled from behind by a savage mountain of a full-grown man. My son said it was a clean hit and was all good but…I can’t bring myself to like that… Read More
Categories: Libsyn2RFID is a Ubiquitous Technology that We Never See – Justin Patton Leads the Research
Posted On November 7, 2022
Justin Patton leads Auburn’s RFID team and has participated in most of the seminal business case research for RFID in the United States for retailers. His client list is full of national retail brands and major manufactorers. The technology is everywhere, from embedded in the tag the airline puts on your luggage to the wristband you wear at a theme park. This tech is changing the way companies interact with their customers – from spending hours and hours counting inventory and finding things to letting the tech do it (better) and return to serving the customer. Show Sponsors: Alabama Center for… Read More
Categories: Libsyn