What's Working with Cam Marston

April McClung's sons had a chance to travel abroad as high school students. April needed money to make it happen. A decison was made to use a family member's old pound cake recipe to sell them at farmer's markets. Today those cakes are sold at Sams and have been shipped across the country. Meet April, hear her amazing story, and become inspired by a woman who thought she had it all figured out until this cake recipe became a centra...

ESG is not something "out there" or only discussed in political environments. ESG (environmental, social, governance) is here and is shaping the way businesses interact with each other and with customers. Kai Gray and his parters run Motive ESG. They work with businesses to improve their ESG scores, thereby enabling them to compete for business with some of the nation's defense contractors, major manufactorers, building contractor...

I met Heikki Malinen at a conference in Point Clear, Alabama for his company, Outokumpu. His presentation showed a grasp of world events like none I'd seen before. He travels nearly non-stop, visiting the company's stainless steel plants across the world. The war in Ukraine has impacted his company's ability to get the affordable electricity he needs to power his plants in Europe. Workforce issues are a challenge to his facilities...

I've long been suspcious that social media can do anything for me. For kids today, yes. For me, a middle aged guy? Hardly. Domenick D'Andrea and I met at a conference and he assured me that if I learn how and when to post and what subject matters people want to see, it will generate profitable business leads. I commit to try it, postng primarily to LinkedIn, to see what will happen. And Domenick says it can't exclusively be busines...

Dr Matt Barber loves his work as a orthopedic surgeon. It's a combination of of skills that hits his sweet spot, including the advances in technology which peak his intersts. In the studio with me, Dr Barber has a sample of a knee made from a 3D printer of a patient's scan including the slight imperfections caused by the patient's age and wear and tear. Dr Barber and I discuss how technology continues to shape the profession, how p...

Cigar Aficionado magazine loves EP Carrillo cigars. And they should. The cigars are fantastic. The patriarch of the company is Ernesto Perez-Carrillo. He's third generation in the business after his (thankfully) failed attempt to become a jazz drummer in New York City as a much younger man. Today he leads the company as they develop new product, supervise the growth of a variety of tobaccos in Central America, train rollers, and ma...

Customer service still matters, though we don't hear about it today like we used to. We know customers are increasingly disappointed in the service they receive. They have no problems blowing up social media when they get treated poorly. But customer service training and eduction is woefully lacking. And cheap, online customer service training...stinks. Pam Denham has trained customer service for years. She and I talk about what's ...

Scot Hunsaker was on the show last year talking about how to prepare employees to take over once the CEO decided to leave. He has a recipe for the process which we discussed in a very engaging conversation. Scot and his wife then boarded his boat and began a slow ride up the east coast, around Nova Scotia, and down the St Lawrence river. His boat is now in storage near Chicago. He and his wife then flew to New Zealand and then Aust...

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 pro...

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 ...

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.

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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...

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 chan...

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 conv...

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 l...

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...

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...