The wisdom of investing in a future workforce
Posted On May 23, 2019
What can small businesses learn from large corporations about attracting and training employees? Surely, the hiring process at a major international company like Airbus has nothing in common with that of, say, a Mom-and-Pop pizzeria. But is there anything they can learn from each other? Our guests in the latest episode of “What’s Working With Cam Marston” are intimately involved in Airbus’ hiring and workforce development efforts in Mobile. Michelle Hurdle is Director of Economic and Community Development at Airbus Americas, and Kristi Tucker is its Director of Communications. Airbus opened the final assembly line for its A320 line of… Read More
Categories: What's Working with Cam Marston, Workplace
How ink-and-paper printing can survive in a digital world
Posted On May 10, 2019
When your industry is disrupted by technological advances, how do you survive? You adapt, or else. Our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working With Cam Marston” is a valuable case study in this theorem. While digital communications tools threaten to make many printed publications obsolete, Gwin’s Printing continues to thrive after being in business for more than 100 years. Mike Payne, whose family has owned and run the Mobile-based printing company since 1989, says he’s seen a lot of competitors fall by the wayside in that time, and his business has benefitted as a result. How did Gwin’s… Read More
Categories: What's Working with Cam Marston
Back in the groove: Why vinyl records are making a comeback
Posted On May 6, 2019
Did you know that vinyl albums are still being produced today? It’s not just reissues, but new releases by current artists. And people are buying them. The introduction of the compact disc three decades ago ended the mass production of vinyl albums as a primary medium for musical recordings. And after record stores traded their bins of vinyl for racks of CDs, the advent of the internet and music sharing platforms such as Spotify and Pandora sent most of them out of business. But albums didn’t go away completely. Now, there’s a growing demand for vinyl, both by collectors and… Read More
Categories: Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston
What’s lacking in most of our culture’s rites of passage and why it matters
Posted On May 6, 2019
High school and college graduations, getting a driver’s license, registering to vote – they are all, in a sense, rites of passage in our culture. What we seem to have lost over the years, however, is the idea of difficult, rigorous rites of passage that require sacrifice – the kind of sacrifice that builds character and camaraderie in those who go through it. These types of rites of passage exist today in few places in our society. Military boot camps are one, particularly for elite forces like the Marines and the Navy SEALS. Another is the missions of the Church… Read More
Categories: What's Working with Cam Marston
Separating fact from fad in the fitness industry
Posted On May 2, 2019
Garrett Williamson doesn’t believe in age as an excuse for poor fitness. “There’s no such thing as age as we believe it,” he says. “What I mean by that is the fact that we decline because of time passing on a calendar is absolutely untrue, it’s an absolute lie. … Time is not a measurement of fitness.” The biggest obstacle to fitness, Williamson says, isn’t age but motivation. Williamson, our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working With Cam Marston,” is the owner of Personal Edge Fitness, a Mobile fitness facility that employs a staff of degreed professional trainers… Read More
Categories: What's Working with Cam MarstonHow a New Orleans music icon is still keeping it funky after five decades in the business
Posted On April 10, 2019
George Porter, Jr., has been playing music for five decades, starting out as the bassist with legendary New Orleans funk band The Meters and continuing with a number of different bands and sit-in performances with artists as diverse as Paul McCartney, David Byrne, Jimmy Buffett, Tori Amos and Patti Labelle. Now 71 years old, he’s still going strong, which begs the question: How does he keep doing it? “For me, it’s afternoon naps,” says Porter, our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working With Cam Marston.” While finding creative ways to catch some extra shut-eye is important, it’s not… Read More
Categories: Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston, Work
Blind faith: When the business plan is answering a call from God
Posted On April 9, 2019
Marquis Forge is the CEO of Eleven86 Water, but he says that’s just a title. It’s God, he says, who runs the company, and God who started it in the first place. Forge, our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working With Cam Marston,” is a former walk-on football player at the University Alabama who had worked in the automotive industry for two decades. But he’d made a promise to always remember where he came from, the small town of Autaugaville just northwest of Montgomery. And God, he says, showed him the way to keep that promise. He didn’t… Read More
Categories: church, Entrepreneurship, What's Working with Cam Marston
Education in the 21st century: Technology is a means, not the ends
Posted On March 28, 2019
Many of the jobs in today’s workplace wouldn’t have been fathomable a decade ago. How are our schools preparing today’s students for them? Our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working With Cam Marston” is on the front lines of that battle. Blair Fisher, head of school at St. Paul’s Episcopal School in Mobile, says that incorporating technology into the classroom, while important, is only part of the solution. “There are definite ways where technology, if thoughtfully deployed, can help learning, but I far too often see it where the technology becomes and end in itself, and it’s whatever… Read More
Categories: Education, Podcast, What's Working with Cam MarstonAre we correctly educating kids today for the jobs of tomorrow?
Posted On March 25, 2019
Blair Fisher’s resume clearly shows that he’s tracking the learning trends shaping today’s students as well as tracking the workplace’s needs of the future. Blair is communicating both these trends to the St Paul’s faculty to help them amend their teaching methods to best serve the students. But teachers are notoriously change averse, so Blair, like anyone in his position, must emphasize the urgency to change to his faculty regularly. Blair is also keenly aware of social media’s impact on the self esteem and confidence of today’s students and has helpful insight into the plight of boys – why they’re… Read More
Categories: Libsyn, What's Working with Cam Marston
Why “coaching is coaching” is a myth
Posted On March 20, 2019
You don’t need me to tell you that women are a force in today’s workplace – just look around. Women are established at all levels of management, from corporate boardrooms to main street entrepreneurs, even in industries that were once completely male-dominated. But are they motivated in the same ways as men? Should managers coach or mentor them in the same ways? Or are there mentoring approaches that work with men that might not be as effective with women, and vice versa? In the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” I asked these questions to two women who… Read More
Categories: Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston, Women, Workplace