Who is the hero of your business? Too often, it's you. It SHOULD be the customer. Stephanie Greenwood is a StoryBrand consultant and explains it all so simply to me. She's with IMMIX Strategic and walks me through the process. The customer is the hero. You - the business - are a guide that helps the hero overcome their problem. You bring them to solutions and help them avoid disaster. It's so simple. And yet we botch it again and again. 

Show Sponsors:

• E3 Termite & Pest Control
• Roy Lewis Construction
• Allison Horner - State Farm Agent
• Angelo DePaola - The Coastal Connection Realty
• Persons Services Corp
• Seth Cherniak - Jeffrey Matthews Financial
• Bill-E's Bacon
• Roosters Restaurant in Downtown Mobile, Alabama
• Bay Business News
• CR Mitigation

Find Cam Marston's book - What Works: The Ten Best Ideas from the First Two-Hundred Episodes on Amazon.com. 

To get the Cam's "Here's What's Cool" list each week and a Free Chapter of What Works, sign up here. 

Leadership consultant and author Brandon Smith has written a book that I've had referenced to me too many times in the past weeks to simply ignore. Called Author vs Editor Dilemma, the book is a management and leadership guide with simple plans for turning your employees into a more highly productive team. It's a simple concept - as the leader, too often you're an author, telling people what to do. You need to edit - guide their behavior and leave them to take initiative. On with Brandon and me is Wills Moore. Wills is an executive coach and uses the book in his client interfaces. Wills shares stories of the book has changed his client's efficacy. 

Brandon Smith - "The Workplace Therapist" or "The Worksmiths"

Wills Moore - Agilitas Human Resource Consulting, 404.863.6511

Show Sponsors:

• E3 Termite & Pest Control
• Roy Lewis Construction
• Allison Horner - State Farm Agent
• Angelo DePaola - The Coastal Connection Realty
• Persons Services Corp
• Seth Cherniak - Jeffrey Matthews Financial
• Bill-E's Bacon
• Roosters Restaurant in Downtown Mobile, Alabama
• Bay Business News

Find Cam Marston's book - What Works: The Ten Best Ideas from the First Two-Hundred Episodes on Amazon.com. 

To get the Top 3 Tips of the show each week and a Free Chapter of What Works, sign up here. 

Cline Jones spent time as a boy watching the locks and dams near his home take and receive tow-boats on the river. The attraction of the work was deep and he signed up to be a part of that industry. Today he's the Executive Director of the Tennessee River Valley Association and the Tennessee-Cumberland Waterways Council. He knows the numbers: the 12,000 miles of waterways transport 1/3 of the nation's GDP; 541,000 jobs come from the inland waterways; 15 barges equals 1000+ 18 wheelers or 216 train cars. There are 219 locks operating today.  And it's the locks and dams that worry him the most. Many are well over their 50 year life-cycle for which they were designed.  We discuss the waterways, their infrastructure, and their threats. 

Show Sponsors:

• E3 Termite & Pest Control
• Roy Lewis Construction
• Allison Horner - State Farm Agent
• Angelo DePaola - The Coastal Connection Realty
• Persons Services Corp
• Seth Cherniak - Jeffrey Matthews Financial
• Bill-E's Bacon
• Roosters Restaurant in Downtown Mobile, Alabama
• Bay Business News

Find Cam Marston's book - What Works: The Ten Best Ideas from the First Two-Hundred Episodes on Amazon.com. 

To get the Top 3 Tips of the show each week and a Free Chapter of What Works, sign up here. 

Economist Connor Lokar says it's goign to get worse before it gets better. Then it's going to get much worse. Connor is with ITR Economics. He and his firm work with businesses to help them prepare for economic change. Avowedly apolitical, Connor and his team only say the November election is unlikely to change our economy in any meaningful way, regardless of who wins the presidential election. To get a good read on the economy you need to know government spending, demographics, imports and exports, and a dozen other numbers. Connor knows his stuff, and you'll want to hear what our future holds. 

Show Sponsors:

• E3 Termite & Pest Control
• Roy Lewis Construction
• Allison Horner - State Farm Agent
• Angelo DePaola - The Coastal Connection Realty
• Persons Services Corp
• Seth Cherniak - Jeffrey Matthews Financial
• Bill-E's Bacon
• Roosters Restaurant in Downtown Mobile, Alabama
• Bay Business News

Find Cam Marston's book - What Works: The Ten Best Ideas from the First Two-Hundred Episodes on Amazon.com. 

To get the Top 3 Tips of the show each week and a Free Chapter of What Works, sign up here. 

Lots of changes coming to workplace rules ranging from the legality of non-compete agreements to changes to the salary of exempt employees. Windy Bitzer of the Hand Arendall law firm explains the changes and what they mean for you and me. 

Show Sponsors:

• E3 Termite & Pest Control
• Roy Lewis Construction
• Allison Horner - State Farm Agent
• Angelo DePaola - The Coastal Connection Realty
• Persons Services Corp
• Seth Cherniak - Jeffrey Matthews Financial
• Bill-E's Bacon
• Roosters Restaurant in Downtown Mobile, Alabama
• Bay Business News

Find Cam Marston's book - What Works: The Ten Best Ideas from the First Two-Hundred Episodes on Amazon.com. 

To get the Top 3 Tips of the show each week and a Free Chapter of What Works, sign up here. 

Lots of chatter out there about AI. Lots. Every day some some sort of news about how it will make our world unbelievably better and another about how it will be the end of humanity. I reached out to Kai Gray to ask him to answer some questions - what can AI really do? Aside from being the best source tech help I've ever found, what can it do for me? Today? Right now? It wrote me a sonnet to read to my wife on Valetines Day (which my wife thought was the most romantic thing I've ever done until she learned the truth) but what practical application does it have for me, right here, today. Well, listen to find out. 

Show Sponsors:

• E3 Termite & Pest Control
• Roy Lewis Construction
• Allison Horner - State Farm Agent
• Angelo DePaola - The Coastal Connection Realty
• Persons Services Corp
• Seth Cherniak - Jeffrey Matthews Financial
• Bill-E's Bacon
• Roosters Restaurant in Downtown Mobile, Alabama
• Bay Business News

Find Cam Marston's book - What Works: The Ten Best Ideas from the First Two-Hundred Episodes on Amazon.com. 

To get the Top 3 Tips of the show each week and a Free Chapter of What Works, sign up here. 

Tenaska has created a method for capturing the greenhouse gasses emited from industrial sites and pushing it through pipelines to a hub where it is injected 10,000 feet under ground. The diposal site must have a top layer of impermeable rock and the CO2 ultimately turns into an inert stone. The process requires a significant investment and Tenaska (the biggest privately held company you've never heard of) has what it takes. Tenaska rep Brett Estep leads me through how it works.

Show Sponsors:

• E3 Termite & Pest Control
• Roy Lewis Construction
• Allison Horner - State Farm Agent
• Angelo DePaola - The Coastal Connection Realty
• Persons Services Corp
• Seth Cherniak - Jeffrey Matthews Financial
• Bill-E's Bacon
• Roosters Restaurant in Downtown Mobile, Alabama
• Bay Business News

Find Cam Marston's book - What Works: The Ten Best Ideas from the First Two-Hundred Episodes on Amazon.com. 

To get the Top 3 Tips of the show each week and a Free Chapter of What Works, sign up here. 

For years Scott McKain has led audiences and his consulting clients how to become distinct and different in a crowded marketplace. His approach is simple yet most companies won't do it - what are the extra things you can do to remain memorable to customers and how can you incorporate them into your business? Most people will claim their expertise is all they need to secure business, not the small, additional customer service items. That's where they're wrong. In a crowded and competitive marketplace, standing out requires more. 

Show Sponsors:

• E3 Termite & Pest Control
• Roy Lewis Construction
• Allison Horner - State Farm Agent
• Angelo DePaola - The Coastal Connection Realty
• Persons Services Corp
• Seth Cherniak - Jeffrey Matthews Financial
• Bill-E's Bacon
• Roosters Restaurant in Downtown Mobile, Alabama
• Bay Business News

Find Cam Marston's book - What Works: The Ten Best Ideas from the First Two-Hundred Episodes on Amazon.com. 

To get the Top 3 Tips of the show each week and a Free Chapter of What Works, sign up here. 

Burnie Juneau can walk into a business and tell if it is franchisable. He's gained a sense of how easy it will be based on his years of experience. His approach to the owner is "are you interested in growing quickly." The company he works for, Franchise Marketing Systems, does all the paperwork, files the trademark documents, and readies the business owner for growth. FMS then goes on to help sell the franchises, too, marketing the opportunity and finding the right customers. 

If you like what Burnie has to say, he offers his phone number: 225.733.4680.

Show Sponsors:

• Mason Hills Farms - True Farm to Table Meats
• E3 Termite & Pest Control
• Roy Lewis Construction
• Allison Horner - State Farm Agent
• Angelo DePaola - The Coastal Connection Realty
• Persons Services Corp
• Seth Cherniak - Jeffrey Matthews Financial
• Bill-E's Bacon
• Harris Vacation Rentals
• Roosters Restaurant in Downtown Mobile, Alabama
• Bay Business News

Find Cam Marston's book - What Works: The Ten Best Ideas from the First Two-Hundred Episodes on Amazon.com. 

To get the Top 3 Tips of the show each week and a Free Chapter of What Works, sign up here. 

Col. John Kilpatrick saves veteran lives. He offers a system for doing it, with key roles filled by other veterans. "Unless you're a veteran," he told me, "you'll never know what we've gone through and no one will listen to you." His agency, Vets Recover, is the first of its type he knows about in the country. From vets in despair on the edge of suicide to ones struggling with years of addiction to ones suffering from the traumas that only vets can understand, John has built a system to care for them. He's on a mission, not unlike the missions he undertook as a part of his active military service, and won't stop until the mission is complete.

John offers this phone number for Vets in need: 251.405.3677. John promises a Vet will answer.

Show Sponsors:

• Mason Hills Farms - True Farm to Table Meats
• E3 Termite & Pest Control
• Roy Lewis Construction
• Allison Horner - State Farm Agent
• Angelo DePaola - The Coastal Connection Realty
• Persons Services Corp
• Seth Cherniak - Jeffrey Matthews Financial
• Bill-E's Bacon
• Harris Vacation Rentals
• Roosters Restaurant in Downtown Mobile, Alabama
• Bay Business News

Find Cam Marston's book - What Works: The Ten Best Ideas from the First Two-Hundred Episodes on Amazon.com. 

To get the Top 3 Tips of the show each week and a Free Chapter of What Works, sign up here.