Advertise on podcast: What's Working with Cam Marston

Episode Summary In this final installment of a multi-episode tradition, Cam sits down with his youngest son, Mack Marston, 19, days before Mack heads off to the University of Alabama. What starts as a father-son farewell turns into a remarkably candid window into how the next generation thinks about work, learning, responsibility, friendship, technology, and what a good life actually looks like. For business leaders, managers, and anyone hiring or leading young people today, this conversation is required listening. About Mack Marston Mack is 19 years old, the youngest of four children, a recent high school graduate, and a former varsity football player. He starts at the University of Alabama in the fall, likely majoring in biology with an eye toward dentistry — or possibly finance and the markets, which he's already dabbling in. He works on a farm this summer, plays guitar, listens to Dire Straits and Pink Floyd, and has approximately 18 close friends from two different schools. He is, by any measure, well ahead of where most 19-year-olds are in self-awareness. What Business Leaders Should Hear 1. He knows exactly how he learns — and it's not from a lecture. Mack articulates clearly that his best academic experiences came from teachers who varied their delivery: reading, writing on the board, hands-on practice, real-world application. When a teacher lectured exclusively, he disengaged — and so did everyone else. His AP Statistics teacher connected math to card games. His history teacher rotated methods daily. Those subjects stuck. The implication for leaders: Training programs, onboarding, and internal communication built around one-way information delivery will lose this generation fast. If you want them to retain it, vary the method. Connect it to something real. 2. Understanding beats memorization every time. Mack got a 95 or above in calculus not because he drilled formulas, but because he understood why the formula worked and what it was for. He explicitly distinguishes between understanding and rote retention — and has little confidence in the latter. The implication for leaders: Don't hand Gen Z a policy manual and expect compliance. Explain the reasoning. When they understand the "why," they perform. When they don't, they disengage or work around it. 3. He's already self-managing and accountable — and he knows it. At his summer job this week, his coworkers unanimously pointed to Mack as the most responsible person on the team. He keeps track of everyone's hours and pay. He made his own lunch, did his own laundry, and cleaned his own room throughout high school. He was given increasing responsibility year by year at home and internalized it. The implication for leaders: This generation isn't allergic to responsibility — they're allergic to being handed responsibility without context or trust. Mack was given ownership gradually, and it built genuine accountability. Micromanagement will kill that. 4. Social intelligence is a core competency for him. Mack has 18 people he considers close friends — from two different high schools, built through introduction, genuine interest in meeting new people, and consistent follow-through. While his peers tend to stay within one group, Mack moves between them. He shakes hands when he walks in a room. He says "please" when he orders. He noticed — unprompted — that these small social signals matter in how people are perceived. The implication for leaders: Don't write off Gen Z as socially awkward or screen-addicted. Some of them — including the ones you want on your team — are building social capital deliberately and skillfully. Look for the ones who know how to enter a room. 5. He thinks AI will make the world dumber — and he's already navigating it. Mack describes classmates who use AI to write their papers, then run them through "humanizers" to fool detection software. He predicts AI will displace accounting and math-heavy roles. He also believes nursing and medicine will become more valuable precisely because patients want human touch, not machines. He's thinking ahead about where the work will be. The implication for leaders: The young people joining your workforce have already formed opinions about AI's role. The sharp ones — like Mack — are thinking about where human judgment and human presence remain irreplaceable. That's a valuable instinct to cultivate. 6. A good life, in his own words, is about comfortable stability and things to work on. When asked to describe a good life — not a successful one, a good one — Mack didn't describe a title, a salary, or a status symbol. He described: a job you don't hate, enough money to live without panic, meals on the table, hobbies that give you something to accomplish, and not worrying too much. He specifically named playing guitar, learning a new song, and doing things around the house as examples of what "working on something" means. The implication for leaders: This generation isn't as driven by prestige or promotions as the generations before them. They want to feel capable and engaged — at work and outside it. If your culture only rewards climbing, you may miss what actually motivates them. Standout Moments Mack's final play of his high school football career: caught a touchdown pass in the end zone with no time left, thrown by a 6'5", 280-pound defensive lineman who was being tackled as he released the ball. Mack describes being immediately punched by his offensive linemen in celebration. "I kind of forget I did that," he says. On his Spotify listening age being calculated at 86 years old: "I just listen to old songs." His musical heroes are Eric Clapton, Dire Straits, and Pink Floyd. Once he started playing guitar, he says, the old music started sounding better. On what this family does that other families don't: "We clean our rooms before the house cleaners come." (He offers this with complete sincerity.) His bold prediction for college: a 3.8 GPA as a biology major. Cam is appropriately skeptical given the fraternity commitments ahead — and says so. Key Takeaways for Managers and Leaders Vary how you communicate and train. One-size delivery doesn't stick. Explain the reasoning, not just the rule. Understanding drives performance. Give responsibility gradually and genuinely. Watch what happens. Don't mistake quietness at home for disengagement everywhere. Mac is more animated with friends than with family — that's healthy, not concerning. Look for young people who shake hands, say please, and know how to enter a room. They exist. The best ones are already thinking about AI and automation more clearly than most adults in the room.

Every year a Marston kid graduates from high school, Cam sits them down and puts them on the record. This time it's Ivey Marston — his youngest daughter, twin, varsity volleyball captain, NHS treasurer, and AP scholar — hours before her baccalaureate ceremony and but a few months before she heads to Auburn University to study aerospace engineering. It's a candid, unscripted conversation with a sharp 18-year-old who's paid close attention to the world around her. The lunch table moment. Ivy walks through the junior-year friendship breakup that rearranged her social life — gradual, then sudden — and what it took to make a very public declaration in a small school cafeteria. Natural talent vs. work ethic. Without prompting, Ivy draws a clean distinction between classmates who skim and ace tests versus those who grind for every grade — and where she honestly places herself on that spectrum. Dreaming past the moon. Her goal isn't just a job — it's NASA, and a project that pushes human exploration beyond anything we've reached so far. She also shares why she thinks intelligent life elsewhere in the universe would still have lunch table problems. What's Working with Cam Marston is a look at the next generation of students and workers — and occasionally, the ones closest to home.

If you've ever chased a prospect for months only to get ghosted, delivered a perfect proposal and heard nothing back, or found yourself unable to walk away from a deal that was going nowhere — this episode is for you. Arthur Gonzales, Managing Director of Cypress Consulting Group and area franchisee for Sandler Training, joins Cam to talk about why most salespeople struggle and what to do about it. Arthur's journey from near-broke billboard salesman working bar doors at night to sales leader and trainer is both entertaining and instructive — and the lessons he learned along the way apply to anyone who has to persuade someone to say yes. Three things Arthur says that will stick with you: "You're not struggling with your close rate. You're qualifying poorly." Most salespeople skip the hard diagnostic work and rush to the proposal — then wonder why nothing closes. "Without pain, there is no sale." If your prospect doesn't have a problem they're emotionally compelled to fix, no amount of charm or information will move them. "Before every appointment, I remind myself I'm independently wealthy and don't need the business." That mindset shift changes your body language, your tone, and your entire approach. Connect with Arthur Gonzales: 📧 [email protected] 📱 803-509-3873 💼 LinkedIn: Search Arthur Gonzales

Kyle Sweetser is back on What's Working for a second conversation with Cam Marston. A former lifelong Republican who described himself as betrayed by a party that abandoned its own values, Kyle is now running as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Tommy Tuberville. In this wide-ranging conversation, Kyle and Cam dig into healthcare, energy policy, executive overreach, the challenge of winning crossover voters, and what it actually takes to run a statewide campaign in Alabama on a shoestring budget. Kyle is candid about where he breaks with his own party, what keeps him grounded, and why he believes 2026 could be a turning point — even in one of the reddest states in the country. The Crossover Voter Strategy — Kyle lays out a frank electoral math: he needs a motivated Democratic base, disengaged Republicans who simply stay home, and a few hundred thousand crossover voters. His pitch to lifelong Republicans isn't ideology — it's issues, and he believes more common ground exists between moderate Democrats and disenchanted Republicans than most people realize. Standing His Ground on Party Pressure — Kyle reveals he pushed back when Democratic insiders pressured him to take more progressive positions on certain social issues. He held firm, saying his job is to represent Alabama — not a national platform — and that credibility with crossover voters depends on that honesty. The Woman in Blount County — Kyle's most powerful story: a now-naturalized U.S. citizen who saw his Facebook post, showed up to a speaking event with her family, and delivered an emotional impromptu speech about her community's fear under current immigration enforcement. She left determined to register every eligible voter she could find. Kyle called it the moment that reminded him exactly why he's doing this.

Matt LeMond and Luke Peavy have done something most restaurateurs only dream about — they've built six thriving concepts in Mobile, Alabama, and kept them running. From the original O'Daly's to Post Downtown, Post on the Hill, Stamped Sandwich Company, Cedar Street Social, and the Insider/Outsider complex, Matt and Luke (along with partner and former MLB pitcher Jake Peavy) have quietly assembled one of the city's most recognized hospitality brands. In this episode, they pull back the curtain on how the partnership formed, how they divide responsibilities, and why their biggest coaching challenge with young managers has nothing to do with P&Ls — it's empathy. They also share what Mobile is missing, why they almost said no to Post on the Hill, and what a trip to Scottsdale taught them about the value of being in the same room. THREE TAKEAWAYS Culture starts with being a good human. Long-tenured staff in a high-turnover industry isn't an accident. Matt and Luke credit treating employees as teammates — being available when a car breaks down, giving them a voice, and coaching empathy over task completion — as the foundation of their retention. Know your role in the partnership. Their three-way partnership works because responsibilities are genuinely divided: Matt runs day-to-day operations, Luke bridges the kitchen and future planning, and Jake provides big-picture vision. They communicate daily and overlap when needed — without stepping on each other. The right deal has to pencil out. Passion for a concept isn't enough. Matt resisted Post on the Hill hard before the numbers made sense. Their discipline around when to say yes — and when to walk — is a big reason they're still standing when so many others aren't.

Retired FBI Special Agent Dan Sigmond returns to What's Working to discuss his 21 years investigating financial crimes, a remarkable story of how a previous episode of this very podcast helped crack a case, and his new private-sector firm, Special Agent Advisory Group. Dan shares how fraud always comes down to the manipulation of trust, offers vivid case stories ranging from a Jamaican lottery scheme to the "Pepper Spray Bandit" bank robber, and closes with a preview of his next topic: cybercrime as financial crime in a hoodie. Fraud is relational, not transactional. Today's scammers build long-term trust with victims — often elderly — before extracting money. The shift from one-time hits to slow, sustained manipulation makes detection far harder and the psychological damage far deeper. Most financial crime goes unreported. When Dan left the Bureau, only 40–50% of crimes were being reported, meaning billions in losses — particularly in business email compromise and cryptocurrency fraud — never make it into official tracking systems like the FBI's IC3. Internal fraud bleeds slowly. The most significant embezzlement cases Dan worked unfolded over years, exploiting trusted employees with access to financial systems or merchandise. Most companies, focused on revenue and optics, don't know what signals to look for until significant damage is done. Criminals aren't masterminds — they're persistent. The biggest misconception people carry is that scams are too sophisticated to fall for. In reality, the tactics are often simple. What's changed is the access to personal data and the ability to personalize attacks at scale.

Mobile, Alabama's development scene is quietly building something significant — and it's being done one catalytic project at a time. Cam sits down with John Ruzic, who helps run day-to-day operations at Porchlight Communities, a small and nimble real estate development firm focused on long-term impact over short-term gains. From affordable housing in Oakdale to the historic Ace Theater on MLK Avenue, John walks through the projects Porchlight is shepherding — and the creative financing, unexpected partnerships, and patient vision required to make them work. The conversation also ventures into Mobile's larger housing challenge: not just a shortage of roofs, but a shortage of the quality and volume needed to compete for the companies and workers the city is trying to attract. Key Takeaways: Housing as an economic tool, not just shelter. Porchlight's philosophy treats new and restored housing as a catalyst for neighborhood vitality — driving school quality, retail, tax base, and the city's ability to recruit businesses and workforce talent to Mobile. The Ace Theater redevelopment is a public-private partnership between Porchlight and the Mobile County Commission, using historic rehabilitation tax credits to create a permanent home for the historic Excelsior Band on MLK Avenue. The Hoffman Furniture Building on Dauphin Street is Porchlight's most ambitious puzzle in progress — possibilities include a hotel, ground-floor retail, and residential units, all anchored by a deep commitment to honoring the building's nearly century-long history with the Hoffman family. Title issues are the hidden obstacle in community revitalization. Clearing title on vacant and tax-delinquent properties — through processes like "quiet title action" — is often more expensive than the properties are worth, and John argues a public-side land bank or redevelopment authority is the missing piece Mobile needs to do this at scale. Porchlight is open for partnerships. If you have a property or project idea and don't know how to move it forward, John is willing to have the conversation. Find them at porchlightcommunities.com — a development partner focused on creative financing, civic relationships, and long-term community impact.

Something genuinely exciting is happening in Mobile — one of the city's most treasured cultural institutions, the 143-year-old Excelsior Band, is on the verge of a remarkable renaissance. Led by Hosea London, this legendary walking jazz band — founded in 1883 by Creole firemen who played instruments between calls — is preparing to establish a permanent home at the historic Ace Theater on Davis Avenue, a beautifully symbolic resurrection of both a band and a neighborhood. Developer John Ruzic and his firm Porch Light are restoring the 1943 segregation-era theater into a jazz performance venue and education studio that will train the next generation of Mobile musicians, feeding young talent directly into the Excelsior Band's living, unwritten, tradition-to-tradition legacy. The vision is breathtaking: a place where Mobile's extraordinary musical heritage — a city that has quietly produced world-class talent for over a century — is finally given the spotlight it deserves. Top Four Points: 143 years of living tradition — The Excelsior Band has no playlist, no rehearsals, and no written music; everything is passed down person to person, making it one of the most authentic oral jazz traditions in America The Ace Theater revival — The historic Davis Avenue theater, built in 1943 to serve Black audiences during segregation, is being restored by Porch Light Development as a permanent home and performance venue for the band A jazz studio for young Mobilians — A new jazz education studio connected to the Ace Theater will expose local youth to professional music careers — not just performing, but composing, engineering, and producing Mobile's musical legacy is staggering — The city has produced nationally and internationally recognized jazz artists for generations, and this project aims to tell that story proudly to a new audience

This episode of What's Working introduces SNASY (Special Needs Assistant Station for You), founded by Dale Jackson after years of struggling to take his severely disabled teenage son to public events with no accessible adult changing facilities. Dale connected with Julian and Olivia Stevens — parents of a wheelchair-bound, ventilator-dependent 14-year-old — after spotting them at an Auburn game, and together they've built an organization that provides not just physical facilities but full itinerary coordination and on-site volunteers. A key insight from the families: SNASY reduces stress on the entire family, including siblings, allowing everyone to actually enjoy the outing. The organization is launching in Mobile with a 24-foot accessible trailer ready for Mardi Gras, and Senator Katie Britt's office has awarded a grant to build three more. Highlights: SNASY provides adult changing stations, accessible bathrooms, and coordinated volunteer support at public events Founded after Dale's son Colin — severely brain-damaged from undetected infant seizures — became too large to change in typical public spaces The Stevens family joined after Dale approached them at an Auburn game; their son Preston uses a wheelchair and ventilator following a childhood drowning accident Press conference at Fort Conde in Mobile on February 5th with Senator Katie Britt to announce the grant for three additional trailers SNASY will be live at the Mobile Mardi Gras parade February 6th — not waiting until fully funded Needs: business sponsors, volunteers (fraternities, civic clubs), and outreach partners — snasy.org

Jo Bonner is president of the University of South Alabama and in that role is building the school in both students and infrastructure. A couple jobs before that he represented Alabama's Distict 1 in Washington, taking over from Sonny Callahan for whom he was chief of staff beginning in 1989. Joe spent a lot of time in Washignton and has insights on what has changed and what has driven the change in Washington. He, like so many of my recent interviews, is disturbed by what he sees. Joe and I discuss what's changed and what may it may take to return to country to decency to one another and loyalty to the constitution.

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 the entire state. Historically, candidates have fit a familiar mold: men in cowboy hats, thick accents, and a kind of mythic farm-boss swagger. Christina is a sharp break from that pattern. She's a woman who grew up on the office side of her family farm — the side where you learn not just how a farm works, but why it works. She'll tell you she can drive a tractor and pull a calf, and she can, but her real power is in understanding how all the pieces of a complex system knit together to create a viable, resilient operation. That's the same lens she brings to the commissioner's office she's aiming for: a deep grasp of how Alabama's many agricultural worlds — fuel, food, timber, regulation, commerce — interlock. She wants to pull those pieces together with intention and clarity, not nostalgia, to strengthen the state's future. Comments: [email protected].

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 credible death threats and he tells me the story. What's the opportunity in Washtington today? What's the temperatue? Why are the sane people retiring and what happened to their desire to serve? Bradley and I discuss these things in a far ranging conversation.    Feedback? [email protected]

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 country in the form of political service of some sort - it's a rare opinion today. But, he says, it's a way to find quality candidates.  Contact What's Working at [email protected].

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 provide a voice for people like me. He and I discuss what it would take for a third party to make a difference. Two things are absolutely necessary, he says - tons of money and an immaculate candidate. Both are very very hard to find.

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 them to do.  Kyle had bought a piece of property in western Mobile County where he was going to hole up with his wife and children and ignore the issue and maybe it would go away. But Kyle is a do-er. He gets things done. He's worked his whole life and has done his best to treat people right throughout his life and in his family business. Kyle couldn't stay idle and couldn't stantd what he was seeing. He couldn't ignore how the people he had voted for had abandoned his state and abandoned the Constitution. So Kyle declared his candidacy for US Senate to replace Tuberville when Tuberville announced his candidacy for governor.  Kyle's and his family have had death threats. He's been told no Dem will ever win in Alabama again. But he's quietely received significant support. And Kyle senses that people like him can be found all over Alabama - people who are ready for significant change. So much change that Alabama could become a Blue State. https://www.kyleforalabama.com