The Modern House: Answering the call to help the homeless through coffee
Posted On January 2, 2023
Why would someone open a coffee shop when they don’t even drink coffee? For Troy Whetstone, it’s a means to an end – and what he was called to do. Whetstone, our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” is CEO of The Modern House Coffee Shop in Birmingham. With the help of a pastor and other members of his community, Whetstone opened the shop in 2016 as a way to help the homeless. An exercise in social entrepreneurship, The Modern House Coffee Shop hires homeless people and trains them with the job skills and social… Read More
Categories: Blog, Charity, church, Entrepreneurship, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston, Work
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
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
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
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
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
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
Bello Nock walks the tightrope of show business
Posted On July 4, 2022
They call the entertainment industry “show business” for a very good reason. As one great showman I met recently told me: “If you have no show, you have no business. If you have no business, you have no show.” That showman is Bello Nock, a seventh-generation entertainer, circus performer and daredevil who performs around the country. You might have seen him on America’s Got Talent a few years ago, You might remember him from his years with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. You might have seen him in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest unsupported… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, What's Working with Cam Marston
The comfort and challenges of running a family-owned business
Posted On March 6, 2020
There’s something special about a family-owned business. And in many of them, no one knows that better than the employees. “I think when you have a family-owned business, I think you get very close to employees, especially employees that have been around a really long time,” said Brent Barkin, president and CEO of Shoe Station, and our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston.” “Because of the longevity of being a family-owned business, you kind of grow up around these people. I wouldn’t say it’s trite that you starting thinking of them as family,” says Barkin,… Read More
Categories: Entrepreneurship, What's Working with Cam Marston