Growing better grass to raise better beef
Posted On October 10, 2023
Joey Mason made his living in erosion control, growing special grasses that naturally protect the soil in which they’re rooted. Growing grass is also an important facet of another industry, however – the beef industry – and Mason has found a way to use his expertise to enter and learn a new business. Mason, our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” owns and operates Mason Hills Farm, a cattle ranch in Grand Bay, Alabama, that produces high-end, premium beef. He says he had no idea what he was doing when he bought the 200-acre farm,… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, What's Working with Cam Marston
Learning how to craft a business on the fly
Posted On October 4, 2023
When Hastings Read and his wife decided to open a custom woodworking shop in the middle of a recession, they realized that they didn’t know much about the woodworking business. And, aside from kitchen projects, they didn’t really know much about woodworking, either. But that was OK, Read said. “It’s fine not to know anything, as long as you know you don’t know anything,” he said. “So we embarked on a journey of learning.” Read, our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” has used lessons learned in his background as a banker and consultant to… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, What's Working with Cam Marston
Cold-calling for sales isn’t dead — if it’s done right
Posted On September 26, 2023
Cold-calling for sales is dead, people will tell you. Brian Tanner says that’s hogwash. Tanner, our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” is the Managing Principal at the Birmingham, Alabama, office of EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants, a commercial insurer that is the 15th largest in the nation. And he says cold-calling, when done right, is the best way to drum up new business. How do you do cold-calling right? Tanner has three tips: Always stand up. “If you’re sitting down, they can hear it,” he said. “They know you’re flat. You don’t play sports… Read More
Categories: Blog, What's Working with Cam Marston
Maintaining a workforce in a revolving-door industry
Posted On September 19, 2023
Panini Pete and Cheryl Blohme, the brother and sister team who run a collection of restaurants as the PP Hospitality Group, say that the restaurant industry is a bit like a pet dog. You love it and it loves you unconditionally, but occasionally it’s going to chew up your sneakers. You do what you can to minimize the chaos it creates – such as keeping your sneakers off the floor, but you understand that a certain bit is to be expected. “You shouldn’t freak out,” Pete says, “about a dog being a dog.” So it is with hiring and retaining… Read More
Categories: Blog, Recruiting, What's Working with Cam Marston, Workplace
Hiring the workforce of the future in today’s tight labor market
Posted On September 12, 2023
Hiring employees is difficult enough these days. If you’re looking to hire a workforce that’s forward-looking toward the future, you’re probably going to have to handle some of their training yourself. So says our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston.” Elizabeth Crofoot is a senior economist with Lightcast, a labor market analytics firm, and she sees three primary types of skills that employers are looking for as they prepare their workplaces for the challenges ahead. Digital skills – familiarity and expertise with new technologies and their applications. Transition -driven skills – soft skills and specific… Read More
Categories: Blog, Recruiting, What's Working with Cam Marston, Workplace
Get the most out of your marketing by working inside-out
Posted On August 29, 2023
We all know digital marketing is important for your business. But have you thought about how you’re marketing yourself? Where do you start? Our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” maintains that it’s best to use what he calls an inside-out approach. Gayle Rogers is the founder and self-described Chief Happiness Officer at The Atomic Agency, a Birmingham-based digital marketing firm. He describes the concept of inside-marketing like this: “We’re big advocates of starting with the things that are closest to you, that you have the most control over, and fixing those first, and then… Read More
Categories: Advertising, Blog, What's Working with Cam Marston
Sports tourism can give communities an economic boost
Posted On August 25, 2023
Sports are fun, an entertaining way to spend our weekends. But they can also provide an economic boost to a community through sports tourism. Take Huntsville, for instance. The thriving north Alabama city hosted 59 sporting events last year, bringing in more than $32 million in economic impact and generating more than 52,000 hotel room nights. Our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” is the man whose job it is to attract those events — Joel Lamp, convention sales and sports manager for the Huntsville/Madison County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Lamp, who was featured in… Read More
Categories: Blog, What's Working with Cam Marston
Fear of failure is a powerful motivator in business
Posted On August 22, 2023
DSI Security Services was started over 50 years ago when the construction company building a nuclear power plant near Dothan, Alabama, turned to the local sheriff for help in securing the job site. Alan Clark, the son of that sheriff, is now chairman of the board of DSI and has helped the company grow into one of the biggest privately-held security companies in the nation, with over 5,400 employees in 33 states. Most of that growth has been organic, says Clark, our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston.” Clients like BMW ask DSI to expand… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, What's Working with Cam Marston
How do you attract and manage multi-million-dollar clients? Start by listening to them
Posted On August 13, 2023
What are most important things to know and do when your job is to attract and manage multi-million-dollar clients for one of the largest hotel chains in the world? Our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” can tell us. Jason Cohen is Executive Director of Global Corporate Meetings & Events at Accor Hotels. While Paris-based Accor may not be as well-known to Americans as some of the major U.S.-based chains, it’s the fourth-largest hotel company in the world, with over 5,500 hotels in 130 countries and over 40 brands in North America. Cohen came up… Read More
Categories: Blog, Travel, What's Working with Cam Marston
Riding wave of prosperity, Poarch Band of Creek Indians CEO believes in giving back
Posted On August 9, 2023
Stephanie Bryan grew up in poverty as a member of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians community, before it obtained federal recognition in 1984. Today, as its first female chairperson and CEO, she is leading it to unprecedented prosperity. Bryan, our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” now oversees a business portfolio that includes 42 separate businesses, ranging from government contractors to software companies to Wind Creek Resorts and the popular OWA amusement park and waterpark. A community that once received 100 percent of its funding through grant money is now 90 percent funded through… Read More
Categories: Blog, What's Working with Cam Marston, Women