Lessons from a Green Beret: In the military or in business, building relationships is the key
Posted On October 14, 2018
We often use military metaphors when describing other things. We might call a hard-fought football game a “war,” or refer to a tough sale as a “battle.” But is there anything that the military can teach us about how we do business? Our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” is uniquely qualified to answer that question. Brad Israel is a U.S. Army Green Beret and Afghanistan veteran who is now the Chief Leadership Officer of 68 Ventures, a real estate holding company based in Baldwin County. Israel says there are several lessons he’s taken with… Read More
Categories: Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston, Work, Workplace
Reports of print media’s demise may be greatly exaggerated
Posted On October 4, 2018
Is print media dead? Rumors of its demise abound. Distrust of media in general is high. Readers can find content free on the internet. And Craigslist has killed off the cash cow of classified ads. Many once-thriving dailies have slashed their staffs, reduced their editions and turned their focus to the web. But look beyond the headlines and you’ll find smaller, independent weeklies still serving their communities with the news of the day in good, old-fashioned newsprint, and some are even thriving. One such independent paper here in Mobile, Alabama, is Lagniappe. Joining us for this episode of “What’s Working… Read More
Categories: Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston
Banking in the digital age means doing more with less
Posted On September 26, 2018
During the recession about a decade ago, many banks found themselves saddled with bad debt and forced to freeze their lending. This created an opportunity for new banks to gain a foothold – smaller, more nimble institutions with fewer branches and more flexibility. One such institution was ServisFirst Bank, a Birmingham-based bank that’s now operating in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. Our guests in this episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” are two of the leaders of ServisFirst’s operations in Mobile – Bibb Lamar, who serves as President and CEO for the region, and Alex Arendall, Senior… Read More
Categories: Financial Services, Podcast, Recession Economy, What's Working with Cam Marston
Even today, honesty is still the best policy
Posted On September 20, 2018
In this age of instantaneous and global communication, where a lie or a bad review can travel, as they say, halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on, how does a business control its own message? Our guest in this episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” is Kinnon Phillips, an accredited public relations professional who is experienced with crisis communications and what to do when the weight of the world – and the worldwide web – is crashing down on your business’ reputation. Social media is now our “town square,” Phillips says, and “word of mouth” takes… Read More
Categories: Advertising, Entrepreneurship, Podcast
Want to leave it all behind? Some millennials are.
Posted On September 14, 2018
Ever wanted to just quit your job, leave everything behind and move to an island? Most of us have, at some point, fantasized about it. According to the New York Post, however, many aren’t just daydreaming about it. They’re doing it. The Post interviewed several twenty-somethings who have quit their jobs, some of them quite lucrative, and left it all in search of peace, adventure or fulfillment. Sarah Solomon was a publicist in New York until she quit and moved to Hawaii, where she now does freelance work in between trips to Guatemala, Indonesia and other exotic locales. Gracie Halpern quit… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Travel, Work
Faith in the workplace: Where do you draw the line?
Posted On September 12, 2018
Where is the line between religious freedom and discrimination in the workplace? The recent case of a baker who refused service to a gay couple on religious grounds brought the issue to the forefront nationally. But there are many other less sensational everyday instances where employers might be exposing themselves to potential litigation. What if an employer likes to play religious music or display religious symbols in the office? Or asks about a potential employee’s feelings toward such displays during a job interview? Our guest in this week’s episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” is Bill Wasden of the… Read More
Categories: church, Podcast, Workplace
Rewarding man’s best friend with fur-ternity leave
Posted On September 6, 2018
As the largest generation currently in the workforce, millennials are changing the way the modern office looks and operates. Cubicles and offices are giving way to open floor plans and standing desks. Employers are paying more attention to work-life balance and charitable opportunities for their employees. And at least one company in Minneapolis, they’re allowing employees who have just gotten new pets to work from home. According to Minnesota Public Radio, Minneapolis-based digital marketing firm Nina Hale instituted the “fur-ternity leave” policy earlier this year after a senior accounts manager got a new puppy and wanted to be there while… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Workplace
Forestry and land management are more than a walk in the woods
Posted On September 4, 2018
When you drive up I-65 from Mobile to Montgomery or across I-10 from Mobile to Tallahassee, the acres and acres of pine trees along the roadside make for a rather boring drive. But to someone like Barrett McCall, it is a beautiful sight. McCall, our guest in this week’s episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” is president of Larson & McGowin Forest Managers and Consultants, one of the area’s foremost land management firms. Most of the timberland managed by companies like McCall’s is owned privately by families who hire management firms to handle harvesting schedules, hunting leases and the… Read More
Categories: Entrepreneurship, Podcast
Dilly dilly: How millennials are changing (not killing) the beer industry
Posted On August 22, 2018
What do you see when you step into the beer aisle at the grocery store? Twenty years ago, you probably would have seen a lot of Budweiser, Miller and Coors products, mixed with a few imports like Corona and Foster’s. Walk down a beer aisle in practically any grocery store today and you’ll still see a lot of Bud, Miller and Coors. But you’ll also see scores of other obscure brands – craft and local brewers, many of whom weren’t in existence five years ago, much less 20. The loosening of regulations on the brewing industry has resulted in an… Read More
Categories: Podcast, Work, Workplace
Stop blaming millennials for the internet’s dirty work
Posted On August 20, 2018
So apparently Business Insider isn’t the only outlet obsessed with blaming millennials for the demise of pretty much any product that’s seeing a slip in sales. Quartz published a piece recently blaming millennials for what it termed the death of the classic novel. In making this claim, writer Ajinomoh Ozovehe Caleb compared sales of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye upon its release in 1951 with a newer critically acclaimed work, Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, which sold only half as many copies per year as Salinger’s masterpiece. Caleb further noted that it’s almost unheard of now for… Read More
Categories: Advertising, Downloadable Media, Generation Y / Millennials