Whether selling coffee or beer (and whether you’re 20 or 70), sound business principles abide
Posted On October 2, 2022
It’s tough enough to build and run one successful business. But starting over in a new industry at 67? For Hatton Smith, taking on a new challenge has been invigorating. After helping his family’s business, Royal Cup Coffee, become a national leader, Smith became the CEO and largest investor four years ago in Back Forty Beer Company, a Gadsden-based craft brewery. Smith, who had also played an integral role in helping resuscitate UAB’s football program, saw a company led by people who knew how to brew great beer, but needed capital. He was able to bring that capital and… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston
Harnessing the power of an inter-generational workplace
Posted On September 21, 2022
I have long been an advocate of Baby Boomer and Generation X CEOs and managers not only listening to their millennial employees, but learning from them and giving them an active role in the decision-making process. The unique perspectives and skills of millennials are valuable in today’s workplace and can help a business ensure it is reaching the younger segments of the marketplace in the most effective ways. In the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” I spoke with someone who has taken that mindset a step further. Tanya Hart Little met Allison Johnston Frizzo while serving as… Read More
Categories: Baby Boomers, Blog, Entrepreneurship, Generation Y / Millennials, Generations, Podcast, Real Estate, What's Working with Cam Marston, Workplace
Social media and screen time: How will it affect the next generation in the workplace?
Posted On September 17, 2022
For today’s generation of young people, their smartphones are extensions of themselves. That’s how they communicate, how they entertain themselves, how they connect with others. One might even call it an addiction. Screen time predictably climbed noticeably during and after the pandemic, as recent studies show that young people spend an average of almost seven hours daily looking at a screen. How will that reliance manifest itself as this generation of young people enters the workplace? For answers, we turned to Kristi Bush, a licensed social worker, national education consultant and social media safety advocate, who joined us in the… Read More
Categories: Blog, iGen, Parenting, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston, Workplace
A Conversation with Ag Co-ops
Posted On September 15, 2022
Years ago an audience asserted that my content on generational differences in the workplace didn’t apply to rural communities and the people who work in those communities. “It wasn’t applicable,” he said, “because people in farming communities like ours know how to work.” I assured him that if it wasn’t applicable at the time, it was coming. Today in Nashville I presented to about 125 ag co-op workers and leaders at the request of a fertilizer manufacturer. Their struggle? Finding, hiring, and retaining next-gen workers. I followed an economist – nice slot to have. (Thanks Rich Tiller for the booking!)… Read More
Categories: Blog, Workplace
What’s Working is Growing!
Posted On September 11, 2022
My radio show, What’s Working with Cam Marston, continues to grow. Last week we added two new broadcast markets – Tuscaloosa and Gadsden, and a new state-wide advertiser is working to get their ads ready and join the show. I’m thrilled with the growth and am eager for more. Once we get comfortable with the new markets, we’ll start eyeing an additional market or two. Looking for coverage in Sylacauga, Auburn, or Dothan next. The goal is the show is to bring listeners the workplace, workforce, and marketplace trends that are shaping Alabama business. My guests have an expertise or a… Read More
Categories: Entrepreneurship, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston
Forget what you think you know about managing Generation Z in the workplace
Posted On September 10, 2022
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: The young people of today’s generation are only concerned about themselves. They have no loyalty. They are self-entitled and have no work ethic. It was said about Generation Xers. It was said about millennials. Now it’s being said about the latest generation to enter the workforce – Generation Z. And it’s not particularly true of any of them. According to Bruce Tulgan, one of the leading voices in generational workplace research, Gen Z is neither lazy nor self-entitled. They are simply reacting to the times in which they’ve grown up. Tulgan, our guest… Read More
Categories: Blog, Generations, iGen, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston, Work, Workplace
Urban forestry isn’t an oxymoron
Posted On September 8, 2022
The phrase “urban forest” sounds like an oxymoron. But for Beau Brodbeck, it makes perfect sense. One needs only visit city parks in any number of metropolitan areas, or drive down Government Street in my hometown of Mobile, Alabama, to see the value of trees in an urban setting. The canopy formed by Mobile’s live oaks over the city’s main east-west thoroughfare creates a signature effect that leaves an impression. Commercial or residential, trees typically add value to a property — and not just aesthetic value. As an Auburn University Extension Specialist focused on urban forestry, Brodbeck’s job is to… Read More
Categories: Blog, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston
Symbol Health Solutions CEO Mike Molyneux identified a problem and created a solution
Posted On August 28, 2022
Successful entrepreneurs typically see a problem in need of a solution or an unfilled niche in the marketplace. Then they build a business to fill that niche or fix that problem. Mike Molyneux has done just that with Symbol Health Solutions, the company he built and currently serves as president and CEO. Our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” Molyneux shares how he identified a problem in the healthcare marketplace and built a business to fill that need. Molyneux, a physical therapist, had over 1,500 employees in the healthcare company he co-founded and found that… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston
People are listening. More importantly, they’re acting.
Posted On August 21, 2022
This image may not mean a lot to you but it does to me. This is the web traffic on John Shell’s site TheEagleReef.com. He was my guest on last week’s show discussing his Eagle Scout badge pursuit and I mentioned his site a few times on the show to try to send listeners there to support his very worthy project. You can see it worked. The site visits spiked the day the podcast was released and all the accompanying social media posts were sent out to announce the show. He got 15 – 20 new orders during the week… Read More
Categories: Advertising, What's Working with Cam Marston
Eagle Scout candidate John Shell learns the power of word of mouth and ‘luck surface area’
Posted On August 20, 2022
Have you ever wanted to have that big idea that captured people’s imaginations? We all have. John Shell, a high school junior in Mobile, just wanted to become an Eagle Scout and help the environment along the Alabama Gulf Coast. And it appears he’s stumbled across one of those big ideas. A lover of the outdoors, Shell wanted his Eagle Scout project to be something that would help the environment. In researching potential projects, he came across the work of David Wolff, an environmentalist in Florida who developed a unique artificial floating reef system that provides homes for oysters and… Read More
Categories: Blog, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston