Blog

Fearing Social Security insolvency? iGen could be coming to the rescue

Posted On May 24, 2019

We all know about the danger that the sheer size of the retiring Baby Boomer generation poses to many social programs set up to ease their golden years. Forecasting the date of the ultimate demise of Social Security and Medicare is almost a cottage industry. But there may be good news on the horizon. And its name is iGen. According to a recent report from Morgan Stanley Research, the ushering of iGen, or Generation Z as some call it, into the workforce bodes for a brighter economic outlook in the coming decades than previously thought. The iGen generation, born roughly… Read More

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

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

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

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

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

On This Week’s Episode of Keeping It Real: People Are Generally the Same Wherever you Go. Except San Francisco.

Posted On April 19, 2019