Identifying the trends shaping today’s workplace, workforce, and marketplace. Guests bring insight into their business or their business expertise that allows listeners to get a little bit better at whatever it is they do.
What’s Working is currently broadcast weekly in Mobile, Montgomery, Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Gadsden, and Huntsville.
Have feedback for Cam? Have a show suggestion?
Email him directly – Cam@CamMarston.com
Click here to fill out the online form
Angelo DePaola keeps up with the second home market via his real estate company in Orange Beach, Alabama. Interest rates have changed but there is still a big demand. Home owners are turning over, too. The Boomers who bought vacation homes to bring the kids while they grew up are getting weary of taking care of those homes since the kids and grandkids are visiting less and less. Angelo is a savvy business man who has been very proactive in spreading his name and serving his clients. He’s not the cheapest realtor in Orange Beach but his clients seldom go anywhere else once they’ve used his services.
Show Sponsors:
The sophistication of check fraud is something I knew nothing about until chatting with my old friend Rusty Pickering and then, only days later, hearing from two colleagues who had it happen to them. Rusty is President and COO of payment processing company Ingo Money in Alpharetta, Georgia. He and I chat about how check fraud happens, who’s at risk, who is at fault, and how to avoid having to constantly replace your credit card or debit card. Special bonus podcast version with extra content at the end – an off-script chat with Rusty and me.
Show Sponsors:
Allison Horner – State Farm Agent
Trey Langus – Transworld Business Advisors
Richard Jolly believes that the only true differentiator between competitive businesses in the future will be their culture. Every other competitive advantage can be copied. And what is culture? It’s the way things get done. It’s the “smell of the place.” And so much more. We talk “hurry sickness”, “reciprocity”, manager’s new roles, why culture has become so important post-pandemic, etc. This one’s jam packed with content.
Show Sponsers:
Allison Horner – State Farm Agent
Trey Langus – Transworld Business Advisors
Angelo DePaola – The Coastal Connection Realty
Live Oak Bank is a completely virtual bank. Megan Owens serves as one of the bank’s M&A experts and her expertise allows her to serve the bank anywhere in the nation where M&A expertise is needed. Need banking expertise for your veteranarian clinic, for example? Your Live Oak expert may as likely be local as from anywhere in the US but they will have deep, deep expertise in the veteranarian business. And that’s one example from the 30+ verticles where Live Oak aims to expertly serve clients. It’s a brilliant model.
Show Sponsors:
Allison Horner – State Farm Agent
Angelo DePaola – The Coastal Connection Realty
Ben Strout thought “there has to be a better way.” As a home remodeling contractor, the frantic rush between roof removal and building the new one often leads to hurried work and – worse – rain ruining the house interior. He’s designed a patent-pending system that allows the new roof to go up first, then frame the interior of the addition, and the final step it to remove the old roof and add stairs from underneath. It’s a game changer. (This episode is a monthly collaboration with Business Alabama Magazine.)
Show Sponsors:
Allison Horner – State Farm Agent
Angelo DePaola – The Coastal Connection Realty
Be Visionary is Marty Strong‘s new book. In his consulting he found challenges with CEOs who worked to optimize their organizations but did it at the cost of being strategic. Marty says our society’s drive towards short term goals often cause busiensses to suffer long term since little effort is put into building a vision and a strategy to achieve it. Marty is a great interview and his background as a Navy SEAL plays into our conversation.
Show Sponsors:
Allison Horner – State Farm Agent
Trey Langus – Transworld Business Advisors
Patrick Werrlein said his company could not have won this award six years ago. The company culture needed a big overhaul. He’s president and owner of a Swagelok sales and service center in Birmingham, Alabama. Once he got the right team together and became clear about “who we are and what we do,” he went to work on the culture. The strategy? Simple, says Patrick – empathy, care, concern, spontaneity and some fun. Patrick offers a list of tactics that any business leader can apply.
Sponsors:
Allison Horner – State Farm Agent
Trey Langus – Transworld Business Advisors
Mel Washington is Regional Director of the Small Business Development Center at the University of South Alabama. He coaches and consults and guides small businesses as they work to become stable, viable businesses. He and I discuss what it takes to get started and where many errors are made by small business owners. If you’re thinking of becoming and entrepreneur, this episode offers simple recipees that will mitigate your failure risk. If you’re trying to grow to the next level, this episode offers thoughts for how to target the next level and how to pursue it.
Show Sponsors:
Allison Horner – State Farm Agent
Angelo DePaola – The Coastal Connection Realty
Buddy Persons has never seen as much property damage from a hurricane than what he saw in south Florida after Hurrican Ian. He was there representing the disaster recovery division of Persons Services Corp, of the several divisions of his company. Buddy’s background includes such work in Haiti, Albania and Hondurus to name but a few. The company began years ago with his father’s plumbing business and Buddy has grown it tremendously. Hear his remarkable story and meet this humble entrepreneur.
Show Sponsors:
Allison Horner – State Farm Agent
Trey Langus – Transworld Business Advisors
Angelo DePaola – The Coastal Connection Realty
It’s a fun experience being on the other side of the mic early Saturday morning for Tony Truitt’s News Radio show out of Birmingham. It was a quick chat in which he asked me to tell a bit of the story of my show.