What's Working with Cam Marston

Christina Woerner McInnis is running for Alabama Agriculture Commissioner, and the job turns out to be far bigger — and far stranger — than most of us realize. Once she and I started talking, the scope unfurled like a county fair map: everything from how many gallons come through the gasoline pump to whether the grocery-store salad bar scale is honest, all the way to steering timber policy across th...

Bradley Byrne served in Washington for Alabama's First Distrct from 2014 to 2021. Today, he says, he couldn't get elected as a Republican. He's not Republican enough. The party has moved further right and any act of working with Democrats to find solutions to national issues or creating local opportunities would put a target on his back, almost literally. He, like the other poiticians I've interviewed recently, has received credibl...

Governor Frank Keating was elected as a Republican in a state full of Democrats. He figured out how to work across the aisle to achieve some major accomplisments. He was reelected due to his success. Today Washington is in a standstill with a government shutdown. Gov Keating discusses what worked for him and what may work today. He insists that it is the responsibility of the citizens to give back to their cities, states, or countr...

James Ballentine has lived and worked in DC for thirty plus years, lobbying and working for both sides of the aisle and serving in leadership positions for various members of congress. He's widely admired for his integrity and knowledge of how things work inside the beltline and, suffice it to say, Mr Ballentine has never seen anything like DC in its current state. He knows I think that a third party is sorely needed today to provi...

Kyle Sweetser is as sick of politics and politicians as the rest of us. His big beef, though, is that the people elected to represent Alabama in Washington, DC have forsaken their state and, instead, are puppets of the White House. They back the tarrifs that are harming Alabama citizens and businesses. Furhermore, they won't do their jobs as a branch of the federal government and instead are doing whatever the Trump admin tells the...

Tony McCarron is Mobile's Public Safety Recruiting Coordinator. He and I first met three years ago and he came on What's Working, when the microphones were off he told me that the Mobile Police Department was 120 officers short of what they were budgeted for. That's a lot of law enforecement vacancies and the criminally minded, had they known that, may have taken advantage of it. Today they're fully staffed and it's because Tony fo...

What's Working has been quiet for a while. It's time to get back with a conversation with mayoral candidate Spiro Chieriogotis. His vision for the City of Mobile is what compelled me to reach out to him for this podcast. Too many mayoral candidates are running on their pasts or, in my opinion, grievances with something or someone. That makes for good fiction or TV movies but not good governance or leadership. Spiro is the only one ...

Well, holy crap. I was pointed to an AI that will take content and turn it into a dialogue between two AI voices. This is the introduction to my book called What Works. I've turned it into an interview between two AI voices and... it's pretty doggone good. Take a listen - do you like this? Is it worth doing all ten chapters? 

It's amazing. How to best use this? 

Let me know what you...

I've never met a soul who dislikes Frankie Little. I've never met anyone who doesn't like the food at Roosters. I've never met a successful entrepreneur who doesn't advocate creating multiple streams of income. Frankie's got it going on. His story is of a guy who says "why not try?" He's got initiative and drive and a dream of something bigger than himself. There's seldom a time I'm with him that I don't leave inspired and ready to...

The cathedral in San Antonio, Texas displays a remarkable light show every night. People gather to watch it and they have for years. Tourists and locals alike are drawn to the spectacle of the history of San Antonio done in rich, overlapping moving images and the music that accompanies it. Xavier De Richemont created it and wants to bring one of this light shows to Mobile to display it on the Mobile History Museum as a fixed insta...

We rushed this episode to the front due to its timiliness. Connor Lokar was on with me this fall and he and I agreed to check back in after the election. Oddly, we felt if SHE were elected President it would lead to uncertainty. Instead, HE was elected and we've gotten degrees of uncertainty that no one had predicted.

Connor and his collegues at ITR say growth is coming this year, UNLESS....too many factors to list. Connor and his ...

Devon Harris is a female tech leader for OberaConnect based in Fairhope, Alabama. It's a company she started with her father and now includes her sister. Their growth has been intense, fueled by the rise in demand for tech services by small businesses and regional and local governement clients and Devon and her team's remarkable commitment to client relationships. All companies claim relationships are key to business - I've heard i...

Many cities need more urban housing with Mobile, Alabama certainly being one of them. It's hard to find, though, and where you do find neighborhoods and houses many of them are blighted and unsuited for living. Porchlight is changing that. By carefully identifying properties, doing the often cumbersome work of locating property owners and then building homes that match the design and spirit of the neighborhood, Porchlight is return...

Mark Colson has oversight of the Alabama Trucking Association and has insight into the 131,000 people the industry represents in the state. That's 1 out of every 13 jobs. They're good people, Mark says, who get a bad rap. It's an expensive business to run - the rigs cost a good but, the drivers and diesel mechanics earn a nice salary and wage, but its the insurance that hurts these small businesses the most. The cost of insurance, ...

The "modern elder." It's a strange term. Chip Conley describes it this way: As curious as you are wise. I heard Chip at a conference in San Francisco, wrangled a meeting with him, and booked this podcast. I was moved by his content. If modern medicine has its way, we're going to live a long time and need a place to apply ourselves during and after middle-age. Chip went through this transformation and teaches his lessons at his Mode...

Entrepreneur Operating System. It's building momentum amongst small to medium sized businesses in the area. Sid Sexton and Forrest Derr are advocates of it. Both have seen the results on their own work. 

Sid runs Sexton Lawn and Landscape and says EOS has changed his company. Forrest was part of the transformation. The biggest place where you can see the results? Meetings. They're efficient, decision making gatherings, not rambling...

Judge Roy Bean Spirits began when David Gibson sold his advertising and marketing agency and decided to try his hand at whiskey and tossed a new brand into the marketplace. His product has a distinct pecan wood finish, making it unique. The regulatory body in the state of Alabama offered him a trail in markets south of I-10 and his product quickly caught on. Today the product is avaiable across the state and David is now working to...

The What's Working radio show has come to a close. The podcast remains. This is the first of the new podcast-only, non-radio versions of What's Working. No forced breaks for commercials, no time limit per episode. Much easier to edit. More fun for me. No obligations and no deadlines for new weekly content. If you're a fan of the show, please give this new format a chance.

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My part of town has experienced a surge in owl attacks...

Monte Criswell is a songwriter. A big time, bad-a$$ songwriter. 200 of his songs have been recorded by Nashville artists and he's had several number 1 hits and a few Grammy nominations. His passion from a young age was to be in music. From the University of Alabama (and St Paul's Episcopal School in Mobile, Alabame before that) he declined a law school enrollment at Syracuse and went to Nashville where he hustled and slept in his c...