How do you make better bacon? For Bill-E Stitt, music helps
Posted On December 1, 2022
Make a better product and you can prove a lot of people wrong. People told Bill-E Stitt he wouldn’t be able to sell his small-batch bacon because its packaging didn’t include a window where customers could see the meat. He didn’t listen. Now he’s shipping it all over the world and it’s being used by championship chefs in prestigious cooking competitions like the World Food Championships. The last time we spoke with Stitt on “What’s Working with Cam Marston” a couple years ago, he was selling 1,200 to 1,500 pounds of bacon a week. Now it’s up to 3,000. He’s… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston
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 Marston
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 Marston
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, Workplace
Building better workplaces to compete with working remotely
Posted On November 6, 2022
Much of America’s workforce sent home to either wait it out or work remotely during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of those asked to work from home apparently liked it, since nearly 60 percent of workers who say their jobs can be done from home are still working remotely, according to a Pew Research Center study. What does that mean for traditional workplaces? And for the buildings in which they’re housed? It’s a question faced daily by our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston.” James Lomax is Vice President of Asset Management and… Read More
Categories: Blog, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston, Work, Workplace
Troubleshooting for entrepreneurs: Identifying common problems and solutions
Posted On October 29, 2022
What are the secrets to starting and building a successful business? There are so many variables in entrepreneurship, it may not be possible to have an answer for every possible contingency. Nikki and Buddy Cummings have a lot of them, however, and they have the resumes to prove it. They’ve built and sold several successful businesses in industries ranging from high school sports marketing to renewable energy. Now they’re sharing what they’ve learned with other entrepreneurs through their California-based consulting business, Cummings Camp Programs. Our guests in the latest episode of “What’s Working With Cam Marston,” the Cummingses say entrepreneurs… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston
The Auburn University aviation program is training a new generation of pilots
Posted On October 23, 2022
Want to learn to fly? Auburn University has a program for that. The roots of Auburn’s aviation program stretch all the way back to the Wright brothers, and include pilot training for World War II. These days, they’re preparing students for jobs in an aviation industry in desperate need of replacing a retiring generation of pilots. Our guests in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” were Auburn aviation program coordinator James Birdsong and professor of aviation management Jim Witte, who told us it’s a great time to enter in the industry if you want to learn to… Read More
Categories: Blog, Education, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston
The ‘sandwich generation’ needs help. A geriatric care manager can provide it
Posted On October 16, 2022
Have you ever heard of a geriatric care manager? I hadn’t, until I needed one. And if you have aging parents or loved ones, chances are you might be needing one soon, too. A geriatric care manager is a healthcare professional who helps families that are dealing with an aging or disabled loved one. Many of them are nurses, social workers or other healthcare professionals, and certification is available through the Aging Life Care Association. They can find resources in the community for the client and family; evaluate the home care situation and create a care plan; recommend retirement communities,… Read More
Categories: Blog, Matures, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston
Looking to advertise? Know your audience and know your search engines
Posted On October 9, 2022
If you follow social media trends, you probably already know that Facebook is not the place to reach millennials and Generation Z. But did you know that Google is not the primary search engine for many of them, as well? Our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” was Tim Dozier, CEO of Hummingbird Ideas, a full-service advertising agency in Mobile. Part of his job is getting his clients’ messages in front of the audiences they’re trying to reach. If those audiences are in the younger generations, that’s increasingly in places like TikTok and YouTube. Dozier… Read More
Categories: Advertising, Blog, Generation Y / Millennials, Generations, iGen, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston
Collaboration with Business Alabama magazine
Posted On October 5, 2022
October begins a collaboration between Business Alabama magazine and What’s Working with Cam Marston. Each month I’ll dig deep in one of the magazine’s stories with those interviewed in the story for my radio show and podcast. We’ll begin with a conversation with the two leaders of Auburn University’s Aviation School. They’re teaching students to fly and commercial airlines are offering student jobs upon completion of their flight hours before they graduate. What’s Working looks forward to this collaboration and continuing to spread news of the trends shaping Alabama business.
Categories: What's Working with Cam Marston