Podcasts about monday morning radio

Direct response ads are written to take the customer from Attention to Interest to Desire to Action in a single encounter.Direct marketers have a product or a service to sell. They don't have a brand to protect.This is why ROAS is the perfect analytical tool for them.ROAS is the acronym for Return On Ad Spend.In other words, it is the Return On Investment of your ad budget.You can:measure lead generation with ROAS.compare the effectiveness of media with ROAS.track sales attribution with ROAS.But you will never build a brand with ROAS.In fact, the measurement of ROAS will always – without exception – lead to the disintegration of your brand.Here's why:To produce an impressive result in a short period of time, your ad must contain a degree of urgency.Urgency is not sustainable, nor is it scalable.The longer you run urgent ads, the less well they work.ROAS always looks great on paper for about a year, sometimes even 18 months.But then the wheels fall off and you can never put those wheels back on again. Your brand will never be more than a shadow of its former self.Consider this:A successful Going Out of Business sale is simply a massive extraction of the stored value in a brand. This “stored value” is the reputation of the company and the trust of its customers.These are variables that determine the success of every Going Out of Business Sale:Has this company routinely advertised a Sale or offered a discount?How highly do people esteem this brand?How credible is the urgency contained in the ad copy?ROAS always leads to short-term thinking because ROAS rewards ads that extract the largest amount of stored value from the brand.Have you built a brand?Do people feel a connection to your brand?The day that you begin using ROAS to determine which ads work best, you will have launched a Going Out of Business Sale whether you intended to or not.Roy H. WilliamsOne in every five American adults is the customer of a family that you have never heard of. Their company generates more than $32 billion in annual revenue. And the $17 trillion in customer accounts and investment funds it manages exceeds the gross domestic products of Germany, Japan, and India combined. Despite the enormous influence of Fidelity Investments, relatively little is known about the singular family behind the Boston-based multinational financial services giant.Justin Baer, the deputy markets editor at The Wall Street Journal, reveals the dramatic three-generation saga of the fiercely private Johnson family in his new book. He also explains how they helped transform American investing.Listen and be amazed as Baer shares with roving reporter Rotbart the behind-the-scenes story of Fidelity's success. You will also gain insights from Fidelity's rise in leadership, their marketing, their innovation, and their succession planning. The story begins the moment you arrive at MondayMorningRadio.com

One in every five American adults is a customer. The company generates more than $32 billion in annual revenue. And the $17 trillion in customer accounts and investment funds it manages exceeds the combined gross domestic products of Germany, Japan, and India. Yet despite Fidelity Investments' enormous influence, relatively little has been known about the singular family behind the Boston-based multinational financial services giant. In his new book, House of Fidelity, Justin Baer, deputy markets editor with The Wall Street Journal, reveals the dramatic three-generation saga of the fiercely private Johnson family and how they helped transform American investing. This week, Baer shares the behind-the-scenes story of Fidelity's success and the universal lessons Fidelity's rise offers in leadership, marketing, innovation, and succession planning. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Justin Baer, The Wall Street Journal Posted: June 1, 2026 Monday Morning Run Time: 1 Hour 3 Minutes Episode: 14.48 RELATED EPISODES: T. Rowe Price's Sébastien Page Shares 18 Groundbreaking Leadership Principles If You Had a Chance to Visit With the Late Charlie Munger, What Would You Ask Him? Your Savings and Investments: A Conversation with 'America's Money Answers Man'  

Jon Erlichman spent 25 years as a television business news anchor, helping viewers make better financial and investing decisions. But it turns out his most remarkable expertise is self-marketing. Since leaving mainstream journalism in October 2024 to launch his own digital brand — Ticker Take — his social media videos have been viewed a whopping 2 billion times. His formula, as he shares on this episode, relies on short-form content, authenticity, storytelling, and plenty of silliness. For business owners and entrepreneurs wondering how to draw massive audiences to their digital content, an investment in this week's Monday Morning Radio episode rates "a strong buy." Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Jon Erlichman, Ticker TakePosted: May 25, 2026 Monday Morning Run Time: 56:25 Episode: 14.47 [Be sure to pick up your copy of All You Can Eat Business Wisdom: Second Helpings, the new Monday Morning Radio anthology featuring 21 world-class thinkers and leaders.]

Effective advertising is not about delivering information; it is about delivering persuasion.Don't tell your audience how to feel.Make them feel.Great ad writers are secret poets.Poetry is not about making words rhyme. Poetry is about leading people to a realization.Poetic ad writers open your eyes and cause you to realize.They lead you to a conclusion, then let you discover it for yourself.Great writers don't tell you. They show you.This poem will do that:What of the watchman on the wall?What says the watchman?“It is 10pm, let the night begin.”What says the watchman?“It is 11 at night, everything is all right.”What says the watchman?“It is midnight, the bell has rung. Every song has been sung.”What says the watchman?“It it is 1am, I am all alone. I am all alone.”What says the watchman?“It is 2am, scrolling on my phone.”What says the watchman?What says the watchman?What says the watchman?What says the watchman?The watchman watched his phone.The enemy arrived.The watchman is gone.Don't just deliver information. Deliver persuasion.Open their eyes. Make them realize.When they see what you see, they will do what you want them to.Win the heart and the mind will follow.The mind will always create logic to justify what the heart has already decided.Roy H. WilliamsCheryl Strauss Einhorn helps executives, entrepreneurs, and leadership teams make smarter, more confident choices and avoid costly mistakes. As a Decision Science strategist, Cheryl developed the widely used AREA Method, a framework designed to help leaders challenge assumptions, reduce cognitive bias, and improve judgment in high-stakes situations.In this week's episode of Monday Morning Radio, Cheryl explains to roving reporter Rotbart that while “gut instinct” plays a valuable role in business, too many leaders rely on it entirely, rather than grounding their decisions in real-world testing, stakeholder input, rigorous analysis, and evidence. Listen and learn at MondayMorningRadio.com

Cheryl Strauss Einhorn has spent years helping executives, entrepreneurs, and leadership teams avoid costly mistakes and make smarter, more confident choices. A former financial journalist turned decision-science strategist, she developed the widely used AREA Method — a structured framework designed to help leaders challenge assumptions, reduce cognitive bias, and improve judgment in high-stakes situations. As Cheryl explains, while "gut instinct" has a legitimate place in business, too many leaders rely on it rather than grounding their choices in evidence, real-world testing, stakeholder input, and rigorous analysis. Her newly published book, The Human Edge: Smarter Decisions in the Age of AI, explores how entrepreneurs and executives can leverage AI as a decision-support tool without surrendering their own judgment to the machine. This conversation offers practical insights for anyone who wants to think more clearly, lead more effectively, and make better decisions in an increasingly AI-driven world.  Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. [Be sure to pick up your copy of All You Can Eat Business Wisdom: Second Helpings, the new Monday Morning Radio anthology featuring 21 world-class thinkers and leaders.] Photo: Cheryl Strauss Einhorn,  Decisive AREA MethodPosted: May 18, 2026 Monday Morning Run Time: 45:00 Episode: 14.46 CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO CHERYL STRAUSS EINHORN'S FIRST APPEARANCE ON MONDAY MORNING RADIO: When the Stakes Are High and the Choices Difficult, Here's a Framework for Deciding What to Do OTHER BOOKS BY CHERYL: Problem Solver: Maximizing Your Strengths to Make Better Decisions Investing in Financial Research: A Decision-Making System for Better Results Problem Solved: A Powerful System for Making Complex Decisions with Confidence and Conviction 

Find out what people already want, then offer them exactly that. Quit trying to convince customers that they should want what you are selling.Speak to everyone, everywhere, about widely felt needs, deeply held beliefs, and personal values. Quit telling yourself that you need to reach “the right people” with your advertising.A: The media doesn't make the message work. The message makes the media work. I've never seen a business fail because they were were reaching the wrong people. But I've seen hundreds fail because they were saying the wrong things.B: Anyone who has a friend, a relative, a co-worker, or a neighbor is an influencer. Is there anyone that you DON'T want to say good things about you?C: Powerful brands like Ferrari, Rolex, and Harley Davidson are known, loved, and admired by hundreds of millions of people who will never own a Ferrari, a Rolex, or a Harley. Do you think those brands would be better off if they were known only to the people that the brands chose to “target” as potential customers?Customers buy from personalities they know, like, and trust.A: People don't bond with corporations, they bond with personalities.B: Brands that have personalities are exactly as real to us as our favorite characters in novels, television shows, cartoons, and movies. Who doesn't love R2D2, C3PO, and Yoda? You realize those characters are purely imaginary, right? But we feel as though we know them.C: Does your brand have a distinctive personality? If not, why not?I will now summarize each of those 3 Steps in exactly 12 words.People want friends, honesty, encouragement, access, and to know that they matter.Buy mass media. Quit fishing with a hook. Use a net instead.Don't be so boring. Find some courage. Be a distinctively memorable personality.Roy H. WilliamsZig Ziglar would have turned 100 this year.This week, Tom Ziglar shares some little-known stories about his father with roving reporter Rotbart and deputy rover, Maxwell, including the fact that despite Zig's worldwide fame, he once carried a stranger's luggage to the guest's hotel room simply because the out-of-towner took one look at Zig's red sports coat and thought he was a bellman.But todays episode is more than a nostalgic look backward, as Tom Ziglar offers a thoughtful meditation on legacy, leadership, and the enduring power of optimism. Things are looking UP at MondayMorningRadio.com.

Had he lived, Zig Ziglar — the legendary motivational speaker who died in 2012 — would have turned 100 later this year.  To honor his father, Tom Ziglar, who now heads the Ziglar organization, is planning a gala event in Franklin, Tennessee, on October 16th. Limited to 1,500 high achievers, the once-in-a-lifetime gathering will feature members of the Ziglar family and well-known inspirational figures, including personal-finance guru Dave Ramsey and UFC champion Michael Chandler. This week, Tom shares little-known stories about his father, including the fact that despite Zig's worldwide fame, he once carried a stranger's luggage to the guest's hotel room simply because the out-of-towner mistook Zig in his red sports coat for a bellman.  More than a nostalgic look backward, this week's episode offers a thoughtful meditation on legacy, leadership, and the enduring power of optimism. [Register for See You At The Top: The Ziglar 100 Transformation Experience. Seats are limited.] Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Zig and Tom Ziglar, Ziglar Inc.Posted: May 11, 2026 Monday Morning Run Time: 47:30 Episode: 14.45 Popular Episodes: An Appetite for Success: The Business Lessons Hidden in a Well-Prepared Meal How an Accidental Inventor Built a Life-Saving Company — And What Business Owners Can Learn From Him Veteran Journalist Thomas E. Weber on Weather Literacy as a Form of Strategic Business Intelligence

Starting over at age 30 with a pregnant wife, no money, and a shattered career dream could have broken Jack Oujo. Instead, it became the unlikely foundation for building one of America's largest tax-focused wealth management firms. Jack, founder of Oujo Wealth Strategies, relied on discipline, preparation, and relentless self-education to reinvent himself. Successful leaders, as he learned from personal experience, need a "Plan B" for when things don't go as planned. He also explains why consistent processes often matter more than lofty goals — and why trust and customer service became the cornerstone of his business philosophy.  Before entering wealth management, Jack spent eight years as a professional baseball umpire. As he notes, however, unlike ballplayers, most people don't get three strikes when it comes to managing their finances. [Be sure to pick up a copy of Jack's book, Too Smart to be an Umpire, here.] Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Jack Oujo, Oujo Wealth StrategiesPosted: May 4, 2026 Monday Morning Run Time: 46:56 Episode: 14.44 Now Available, The Much-Anticipated Sequel to All You Can Eat Business Wisdom Signed, first-edition softcover copies from Gutenberg's Store:  tinyurl.com/GutenbergSigned Unsigned copies from Amazon: tinyurl.com/AYCEBW2-Unsigned

I could be wrong, but I think I see a line of 6,603 standing dominoes with a forefinger poised to flick the first domino.Take a step back, I'll give you some facts, and then we'll return to the dominoes.There are 6,602 FM radio stations in America, 597 FM stations in Canada, and 234 in Australia on which you can air radio ads for local businesses. These radio stations are producing miraculous results for business owners who hire great ad writers to enchant the audience and savvy media buyers to schedule those ads to air with correct repetition 52 weeks a year.Sadly, most business owners do exactly the wrong thing. They run short schedules to “test the waters,” and then announce, “I tried radio and it didn't work.”ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX are producing miraculous results for business owners who hire great ad writers to enchant the audience and savvy media buyers to schedule those ads to air with correct repetition 52 weeks a year.Sadly, most business owners do exactly the wrong thing. They run short schedules to “test the waters,” and then announce, “I tried television and TV didn't work.”Did you notice the similarity that united those two easily proven facts?Anyone who believes that online media has made mass media obsolete is comically delusional. I never waste time attempting to correct these people.We will now return to the dominoes.Nielsen Audio is the media measurement company that allows savvy media buyers to create miraculous radio schedules. Without Nielsen, they are flying blind without instruments and very likely to crash their flying machines.Cumulus owns multiple radio stations in 84 important cities in the U.S. Their current financial difficulties make it impossible for them to pay Nielsen for their measurement services.Nielsen has responded by announcing that Cumulus radio stations will no longer be measured or listed in future ratings reports.The resulting invisibility of those stations will cripple even the savviest media buyers.An emerging measurement system, DTS AutoStage, shows promise but I remain convinced that it will be at least a few more years before it has sufficient breadth of data to replace Nielsen.The finger of Nielsen is flicking the domino that will knock over the other 6,602 dominoes in the chain that will ultimately result in the demise of Nielsen.I have no way of knowing whether or not Nielsen realizes that.Nielsen was purchased by private equity on October 11, 2022, less than 4 years ago.Things are looking good for ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX.Roy H. WilliamsWhen people talk about the Chicago Cubs and their historic 2016 World Series victory — ending a 108-year drought — Joshua Lifrak is a name you rarely hear. But he wears a Cubs World Series ring. Joshua Lifrak's job was to help players perform under extraordinary pressure. Today Joshua works with business leaders to sharpen focus, build mental resilience and perform at their best. Be fascinated as Joshua tells roving reporter Rotbart and deputy rover Maxwell how peak mental conditioning is a “home run” skill that anyone can learn and practice, regardless of what they do for a living. Batter up! at MondayMorningRadio.com

Effective workplace mentoring isn't a 'sometimes' thing. It's a habit. That's a leadership lesson that Kimberly Lee has learned after more than two decades of hands-on experience in human resources, and helping businesses embrace what she dubs "a coaching culture." Kim is the founder and CEO of Lotic Systems and author of Building a Coaching Culture: The Ripple Effect. She is also the creator of RipplelQ, an AI-powered leadership coaching tool. Many workplaces struggle to get the best from their people; however, Kim says a coaching approach can change that. She finds that employees who feel supported and invested in are more likely to take initiative, collaborate effectively, and stay with the organization. For entrepreneurs and business owners, Kim's message is clear: Don't just manage performance — coach it. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Kimberly Lee, Lotic SystemsPosted: April 13, 2026 Monday Morning Run Time: 41:54 Episode: 14.41 RELATED EPISODES: Are Your Customers and Clients Likely To Wear Your 'Team Colors' As They Clap and Stomp for Your Success? How to Create a Business Culture Where Everyone Can Thrive Creating a Culture of Excellence is Game, Set, and Match

With the Artemis II mission underway, this week on Monday Morning Radio, we're joined by Mark L. Fox—former Chief Engineer for NASA's Space Shuttle program and a legendary instructor at Wizard Academy. In a conversation recorded just 24 hours after the Artemis launch, Mark bridges the gap between lunar missions and terrestrial entrepreneurship. He discusses his latest venture, Resona Health, and how he's using PEMF (targeted electromagnetic pulses) to treat pain, depression, mild cognitive impairment, and dozens of other ailments — without pills or invasive procedures. Mark taught the popular Wizard Academy course, DaVinci and the 40 Answers, on creativity and problem-solving for businesses. Among the insights he shares this week: how to think unconventionally, why simplicity often beats complexity, and how to turn setbacks — including near-catastrophic ones — into momentum. These are down-to-earth insights that every entrepreneur and business owner can put into action. The countdown to greater business success begins the moment you arrive at MondayMorningRadio.com. Books by Mark L. Fox DaVinci and the 40 Answers: A Playbook for Creativity and Fresh Ideas Go Find Joy: The Science of Calm: Erasing Anxiety with Energy Therapy What On Earth Are We Doing To Our Health: A Rocket Scientist Investigates Out Of This World Therapies Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Mark Fox, Resona HealthPosted: April 6, 2026 Monday Morning Run Time: 1:02:48 Episode: 14.40

What can a beautifully prepared dinner teach about running a successful business? Quite a lot, according to Ellen Wright, a five-time cookbook author who trained with culinary icons Julia Child and James Beard. In this week's episode, Ellen shares how the principles that guide her cooking translate seamlessly into leadership, entrepreneurship, and everyday decision-making. Her approach is refreshingly practical: keep things simple, prepare in advance, and don't panic when something goes wrong. A collapsed dessert can become a new creation. A business misstep can spark innovation. The key is adaptability. Ellen also highlights something many leaders overlook — success is less about perfection and more about people. Whether hosting a dinner party or managing a team, the goal is to create an environment where others feel comfortable, engaged, and valued. From disciplined preparation to creative problem-solving, Ellen's insights offer a recipe for success that any business owner can follow. If you're hungry for fresh ideas — and practical strategies you can apply immediately — this episode is a feast. Bon appétit. [Ellen's latest book is Best of The Best: Select Recipes from 4 Cookbooks and 60 Years of Cooking. Order your copy here.] Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Ellen Wright Posted: March 30, 2026 Monday Morning Run Time: 48:20 Episode: 14.39

Fauzia Burke is a veteran marketing strategist and founder of FSB Associates, which specializes in book publicity, author websites, and consulting. Founded by her in 1995, it was one of the first firms specializing in digital publicity. Not one to rest on her laurels, Fauzia's latest frontier is artificial intelligence — not only enhancing the capabilities of FSB Associates but also teaching other business owners and entrepreneurs how to integrate AI into their operations and reap its benefits. Among Fauzia's recommendations is using AI as a "thinking partner." Executives and entrepreneurs can brainstorm marketing angles, generate multiple versions of product descriptions or biographies, and test different messaging approaches. The key is not to accept AI's output unquestioningly — human judgment and experience must always refine the results. Despite the many doomsayers, Fauzia says AI will not replace professionals who are already good at what they do. Instead, AI will empower those who embrace it to outperform those who don't. [Listen to Fauzia's first appearance on Monday Morning Radio here. Visit Fauzia Burke's Substack here.] Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Fauzia Burke, FSB AssociatesPosted: March 23, 2026 Monday Morning Run Time: 55:10 Episode: 14.38 RELATED EPISODES: AI Visionary Sol Rashidi Offers Proven AI Strategies for Non-Technical Business Leaders Dr. Michael Lenox Explains Why Keeping Up with AI and Other Technologies is a Matter of Business Survival Raj Venkatesan is One of the Nation's Most Respected Experts on Using AI to Drive Sales

March 16, 2026I am sitting in front of a computer that can deliver love letters to billions of addresses across the twenty-four time zones that encircle this watery rock we live upon.I sit and stare and look with wonder at the glittering ocean called Youtube, deeply aware that I know next-to-nothing about it. This gives me a tremendous advantage.It keeps me from doing what everyone else is doing.Naive ignorance becomes nitroglycerin when it is energized by the spirit of adventure. Handled carefully, you can move mountains with it. But if you are reckless, clumsy, or just plain unlucky, that same TNT can blow you into pieces.I looked at myself in the mirror and said, “Let's go exploring.”Mirror-me thought it sounded like fun, so he passed through the glass to join me on my side of the mirror.Energized by the spirit of adventure, I launched @GreatWritersSeries on Youtube and Mirror-Me launched @TribalGospel.On Feb 12, 2026, GreatWritersSeries had 480 views and a few dozen subscribers.On March 12, 2026, it had accumulated 5,146,423 total views and 44,684 subscribers.TribalGospel had zero views on Feb 12 to but quickly accumulated 8,299,137 total views and 105,707subscribers by March 12.GreatWriters Series received fresh content once a day.TribalGospel received fresh content at a much faster pace, up to 3 times a day.Indy Beagle has posted some Youtube screenshots in the rabbit hole for you, along with a couple of the most successful videos.I will now answer your questions:Q: “Can you teach me how you did this?”A: Yes, but the information will probably not be useful to you. But if you insist on hearing all of the details, be in the tower at Wizard Academy on May 26-27. I will spend one hour of that two-day class answering the questions of whoever is in that room.Q: “Why has TribalGospel outperformed GreatWritersSeries?A: GreatWritersSeries is carrying water to the ocean. TribalGospel is carrying water to the desert.Q: “What do you mean?”A: GreatWritersSeries is published for people who love literature that was written in the English language. This widely diverse but relatively small group is scattered across the United States, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and Ireland, with a few additional outliers flung here and there.GreatWritersSeries wants only to tempt people to become lovers of literature, whereas TribalGospel is published for people in every time zone who are thirsty for encouragement and hope.English is not their first language, but they can understand it if they can read along with what they are hearing.Look at the comments @TribalGospel and these things will immediately become apparent to you.A startling number of TribalGospel subscribers are in Iraq, Ukraine, Egypt, India, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and throughout South America. I knew this would be the case, so I leaned into it.Are you beginning to understand why only a spattering of what I have learned during these past 28 days will be useful to you? TribalGospel wants only to make a difference – to lift people up for a moment – so that channel went to where it could most easily encourage the largest number of people.Traditional wisdom would have said that only an idiot would sing flashes of Bible stories and the message of Jesus to nations that are predominantly non-Christian.But I have always been an idiot.Q: Does everyone consider it to be encouragement?A: Of course not. You will notice that about 10 percent of the Youtube comments are rage posts from people who want to tell me why I am wrong.But I ignore those people because have found more than 100,000 people in just 28 days who have clearly said, “Thank you! And will you please send me more of this?”Q: Do you believe this will be sustainable or is it a flash in the pan?A: I have no way of knowing. My suspicion, though, is that TribalGospel will continue to grow, but GreatWritersSeries will ebb and surge like the tide.Q: Why do you think so?A: The world has billions of forgotten people, overlooked people, and many of those people are carrying smart phones. The message of TribalGospel will be very consistent, mostly just variations of an uplifting theme. This causes me to believe that TribalGospel will gain new subscribers faster than it loses old ones.But I do not make that assumption about GreatWritersSeries.A person who subscribed when they heard a Shakespeare song is going to be angry and confused when they hear the gonzo writing of Tom Robbins. To have a stable subscriber base, GreatWritersSeries would have to choose a narrow niche within the already narrow “Lovers of Literature” niche.The hope of GreatWritersSeries is to expose people to a writer that enchants them enough to read a book by that writer. You can think of GreatWritersSeries as a dealer who is giving away samples in the hope of creating new addicts.I apologize for that metaphor, but I couldn't think of a better one.The adventure continues. Snow-capped mountains loom ahead and winter is coming.Roy H. WilliamsMost people believe that business success is the product of talent, hard work, and persistence. But what if success could be analyzed — and improved — using the laws of probability? Kyle Austin Young maintains that most goals can be analyzed and improved by understanding their underlying odds. This is true of whatever you do. Launching a product, raising funds, publishing a book, whatever. Kyle calls his consulting methodology “probability hacking.” It says that the odds of your success are determined by the odds of each of the necessary things going right, multiplied together. Roving reporter Rotbart predicts that the odds are very high that this episode of MondayMorningRadio will improve your company's top line. The explanation begins the moment you arrive at MondayMorningRadio.com

Business success is often portrayed as the product of talent, hard work, and persistence. But what if success could be analyzed — and improved — using the logic of probability? Kyle Austin Young, a sought-after strategy consultant, maintains that most goals — whether launching a product, raising funds, or publishing a book — can be analyzed and improved by understanding the odds behind them. Kyle is the author of Success is a Numbers Game: Achieve Bigger Goals by Changing the Odds, a fresh and insightful exploration of goal-setting and goal-achieving. Drawing from his consulting work with entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and business leaders, Kyle reveals a practical framework he calls "probability hacking." The concept is simple but powerful: break ambitious goals into the individual steps required for success, estimate the likelihood of attaining each progression, and then deliberately improve the odds. Listeners will also learn why traditional "think positive" advice can sometimes sabotage success. Instead, Kyle advocates "think negative"— objectively identifying risks and obstacles so they can be reduced or eliminated. The odds are excellent that this episode will change the way you view business opportunity and risk. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Kyle Austin YoungPosted: March 16, 2026 Monday Morning Run Time: 46:26  Episode: 14.37 Coming April 2026: All You Can Eat Business Wisdom: Second Helpings

One thing always leads to anotherThat's why big sisters have baby brothersAnd how King George gave away a nationwhen he said “No” to representation.He did not not know how much it meantfor those colonies to have seats in Parliament.Think about it. The cry of the colonies was only this:“No taxation without representation.”What if King George had said…“That is a fantastic plan!Each colony needs to choose a man.”And if the colonies had responded,“We'd like to send two.”And King George had said…“Then two seats it will be!Because you people are important to me.”The difference that would have made in history,Will forever be an unsolved mystery.But I do know this, and I know it for sure:That having an open mind is a powerful curefor avoiding problems that can spiral out of controland haunt you forever, wherever you go.If there is a moral to this story,I guess it would be this:Never shout “No” when there isa workable way to say Yes.Never shout “No” when there isa workable way to say Yes.Never shout “No” when there isa workable way to say Yes.One thing always leads to another.I was speaking with Clara, the wife of Danny, one of my clients.Clara collects silverwork made by the world's great silversmiths.One of Clara's hopes is to someday acquire an exceptionally fine piece of silverwork made by – “The British are coming! The British are coming!” – Paul Revere.Were you aware that Paul Revere was a famous silversmith?The unseen silverwork of that midnight man was floating in a slow circle in the asteroid belt of my mind when the haunting voice of Paul Revere whispered silently in my ear,“What would have happened if King George had said ‘Yes' and given each of his thirteen American colonies two seats in Parliament?”A conversation about what Clara collected quickly became a quirky poem that quietly abandons seven words of subtle sexual humor to move into the story of a stupid king who launched a faraway war he could never win.Creative thought is not sequential; it is relational, a pinball that ricochets off levers and bumpers at unexpected angles, the energy of the unexpected, triggering bells in the brain and flashing lights in the mind.Crazy Jack Kerouac had rules for writing:9. The unspeakable visions of the individual8. Write what you want, bottomless from bottom of the mind7. Blow as deep as you want to blow.My few lines of accidental verse soon became a song sung by imaginary singers who are currently touring the world.You can catch their show in the rabbit hole.Roy H. WilliamsCourtney De Ronde is a financial decoder. She studies the same financial data that business owners and their accountants review, but she uncovers opportunities and risks within those numbers that are almost always overlooked. This is why Courtney De Ronde has evolved as a scaling expert. She helps businesses grow by avoiding the missteps that non-strategic growth always causes.As Courtney shares with roving reporter Rotbart, most business owners will expand their revenues but end up working harder, hiring more people, piling on expenses, and somehow ending up with the same — or even less — profit. Learn what you need to know at MondayMorningRadio.com

Courtney De Ronde is a financial decoder. As the CEO of Forge Financial & Management Consulting in West Des Moines, Iowa, she studies the same financial data that owners and comptrollers review, but she uncovers opportunities and risks within the numbers that most business leaders miss. Additionally, Courtney is the creator of the Simple Scale-Up System, a framework designed to help established businesses grow in a smarter way — increasing revenue and profitability without adding unnecessary complexity. As Courtney explains, not all growth is good growth. Many companies expand their revenue but find themselves working harder, managing more people, incurring additional expenses, and somehow ending up with the same — or even less — income. True scaling, she explains, happens when leaders build systems, processes, and teams that allow their companies to grow efficiently and with fewer headaches. If you're running a company and want to make smarter financial decisions, improve profitability, and scale your organization without burning yourself out, this is one episode you don't want to miss. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Courtney De Ronde, Forge Financial & Management Consulting Posted: March 9, 2026 Monday Morning Run Time: 55:15 Episode: 14.36

February 26, 2026Kronos is chronological time.Kronos appears more than 50 times in the original New Testament.Kairos is a pregnant moment in time, an inflection-point of consequence.Does in surprise you that Kairos appears more than 85 times?Each of us vividly remembers those Kairos moments when we decided to turn the steering wheel of Life and begin traveling in a whole new direction.Jim Burns is a counselor. His voice is heard on more than 800 radio stations each day and he has 3 million books in print. But I didn't know any of that prior to him appearing as a guest speaker at our church last week.I tell you this only because Jim Burns said something that I really needed to hear.“I had to learn to say 'no' to good things, to say ‘yes' to the most important things.”That was a Kairos moment for me because it instantly crystallized something in my mind that had previously been only the foggy awareness that I was speaking with so many people each day that I no longer had time to take a deep breath and calm my thoughts.Then Jim said it again, but differently. “Sometimes we just have to say ‘no' to good things, even to say yes to the most important things. That's how we declutter. That's how we run light.”Two days later, I was surprised by a video on Youtube in which my friend Ryan Deiss mentions me by name. He had posted that video a couple of weeks before Jim Burns spoke at our church.Speaking of himself, Ryan says,“I literally had zero recollection whatsoever of what I did, or what any of my companies did those weeks, either. It's just like they were a complete blur. More than likely, I spent all my time responding to whatever emergency someone else decided was important for me on that particular day.”Wow. Ryan Deiss was speaking exactly what I had been feeling for more than a year.There are now 87 Wizard of Ads partners and many hundreds of clients, so I go to bed most nights exhausted by the long days, the countless conversations, and the constant feeling that I am somehow letting everyone down.But Ryan wasn't finished.“Scale creates chaos. So if you want to get bigger, you have to insist on focus and simplicity. It is a bit of a paradox, but the key to scale is actually to do less, not more. Because when you force yourself to do less, you shift the emphasis from quantity to impact. And at scale, output matters a lot more than activity.”We – not just me, but all of us – need to be on guard that we don't allow the “merely urgent” to displace the truly important.Have you ever noticed that the things that are truly important are rarely urgent, and things that are “exclamation-point URGENT” are rarely of lasting importance?Urgent things are momentary, but constant.Important things are forever, but they can always wait.And then one day, they can't wait any longer.And by then, it's often too late.For those of you who are curious, Indy Beagle has posted in the rabbit hole the Ryan Deiss Youtube video that I mentioned, as well as the Youtube video of Jim Burns speaking at our church.Those two messages, just 48 hours apart, created a Kairos moment for me.If you have been feeling what I was feeling and what Ryan was describing, maybe those videos will do the same for you.You can watch the videos or click past them if you don't have time.Believe me, I completely understand.Roy H. WilliamsAmerica's top CEOs pay Doug C. Brown to teach them how to rethink their approach to sales. Doug has consulted Procter & Gamble, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Embassy Suites. Doug C. Brown is not a lightweight. Doug tells roving reporter Rotbart, “most companies can quickly realize a 20-30% improvement in operating profits” when they follow his straightforward recommendations.Doug says that it is more important “to know the right prospects to approach” than to know how to close the sale. If you think you've heard it all, listen to Doug C. Brown. There is a chance that maybe you haven't heard it all. Doug C. Brown will light you up. The right time to listen is up to you. But the place will always be MondayMorningRadio.com

This week's guest is Doug C. Brown, CEO of CEO Sales Strategies and a leading authority on building predictable, measurable, and scalable sales growth.     After a career as a top salesperson, including serving as president of sales and training for peak performance coach Tony Robbins, Doug is now advising CEOs on how to rethink their approach to sales.   Among the companies Doug and his team have advised are Procter & Gamble, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Embassy Suites. Doug challenges the belief that charisma, closing tricks, or motivational hype drive sales success. Conversational selling, he explains, builds trust faster than persuasion-based tactics. Doug has spent three decades finding hidden profits for founder-led companies. Most companies can quickly achieve a 20-30% improvement in operating profits by following his recommendations. For business owners, CEOs, and entrepreneurs, this episode provides a clear framework for turning sales into a reliable engine for valuation, cash flow, and sustainable growth.   Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Doug C. Brown, CEO Sales Strategies Posted: March 2,, 2026 Monday Morning Run Time: One hour and two minutes Episode: 14.35 RELATED EPISODES: UX is the Most Powerful Differentiator in Today's Highly Competitive Business World Huddle Up. Head Coach Rob Cornilles is About To Share the Secrets of His Sales Playbook Starting Today, You Can Profit by Running Your Business Like It's "Day One"

People may not know his name, but regular viewers of cable news instantly recognize Arthur Lih and his ubiquitous commercials for LifeVac — the non-invasive rescue device designed to save choking victims when the Heimlich maneuver and other traditional methods fail. To date, his invention is credited with saving 5,450-plus lives. As Arthur shares on this week's edition of Monday Morning Radio, inventing a life-saving device is one challenge. Building a company around it and sustaining that business in a highly regulated, highly competitive environment is exponentially harder. Arthur's insights are indispensable for entrepreneurs, business owners, and inventors committed to developing products that matter — and companies that endure. Read Arthur's Book: Sorry, Can't Is a Lie: Life Stories of Decision-Making — Don't Be a Flat Squirrel. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Arthur Lih, LifeVac Posted: February 23, 2026 Monday Morning Run Time: 45:29 Episode: 14.34

David and I began building oilfield heat exchangers in a heavy steel fabrication shop in Oklahoma when we were 14 years old. We were universally known as, “them schoolboys.”Steel shops are notoriously noisy, but when we heard “Schooolboy!” ring out above the cacophony of hammers and grinders, we would swivel our heads toward the sound and begin walking toward whomever was looking at us.“Hard, dirty and dangerous” describes the work and the men we worked with.To call them “drunks, deviants, and derelicts” would certainly be less kind, but no less accurate.There were also 8 or 9 solid family men, most of whom were foremen and supervisors.The oil coolers we built were the size of a two-car garage. And several times a day these metal monsters would be lifted 5 or 6 feet off the ground by an overhead crane and go swinging through the air to another part of the shop as far as 300 feet away.Heavy steel flying through the air is entirely unforgiving. One of my responsibilities was to drive injured guys to the hospital. But few of my bloody passengers were injured in accidents. Most of them were injured in fistfights with coworkers.When we were both 16, David and I were joined by a boy named Jay. Dark hair, dark eyes, and skin that was decidedly not English, Irish, Scottish, or German. We liked him immediately.David put a quarter into the machine and yanked a Pepsi from its mechanical jaws. He handed it to Jay and asked, “Are you some kind of Puerto Rikkan or something?”Jay scowled and said, “No, I ain't no dang Rikkan.”David smiled, clicked his Pepsi bottle against the one that Jay was holding, took a long drink, then said, “It's good to meet you, Rikkan.”We found out later that Jay was Italian, but his name was Rikkan from that day forward.A few days later, Rikkan began calling David “Cliff” and my name somehow became “Dean.” Rikkan never told us why he chose those names, but he refused to call us anything else, so David and I fell into line. I began calling him Cliff and he began calling me Dean.Jay, David and Roy became Rikkan, Cliff and Dean for the next 3 years. Utterly absurd, but completely true.Devin Wright has a sparkling laugh and I've always enjoyed hearing it.So when Devin began working with me 20 years ago, I would walk into his office each afternoon and ask a ridiculous question. Devin would laugh his sparkling laugh and I would walk away smiling.One day I popped my head into his office and looked at him quizzically, as though I was confused. He looked back at me, equally puzzled. With a completely straight face, I asked “Did you get a spray tan?”For once, Devin didn't laugh. He vigorously denied it, utterly aghast that I would ever think that he was so vain and shallow that he would ever stoop to such a ridiculous…I quit listening after that.So now you know how “Spraytan” was born.Jacob Harrison became “Boxwine” in a similar fashion,Dave Cullen became “Skunkmeat”Howard Wolowitz became “Fruit Loops”George Costanza became “KoKo”and Jeffrey Eisenberg became “Jet.”No, “Jet” is not a reduction of Jeffrey.When we agreed to meet for lunch last week, Jeffrey suggested by text that we meet at 1300 hours.I texted him back, “I never knew that you were in the Air Force. Did you fly fighter jets?”If all of this sounds lowbrow, redneck, hick, uncultured, ill-refined, outmoded, outdated, dinosaur-ish and in poor taste, I agree.But no one can spend 4 impressionable years working with drunks, deviants, and derelicts and walk away without at least one bad habit.Roy H. WilliamsDean Rotbart is taking a short Sabbatical from Monday Morning Radio for the next few weeks to travel across America gathering detailed...

Bestselling author Michael Lewis has spent decades practicing the habits of the sharpest business thinkers: questioning assumptions, navigating past blind spots, and revealing why conventional wisdom so often leads smart people astray. Lewis is the author of a remarkable run of business bestsellers, including Liar's Poker, Moneyball, Flash Boys, The Big Short, Boomerang, The Undoing Project, and Going Infinite. Both Moneyball and The Big Short were made into Oscar Best Picture-nominated films, as was The Blind Side, another of Lewis's non-fiction classics.  In this exclusive episode of Monday Morning Radio, Lewis reflects on why true success derives from taking the long view rather than aiming for quick results, and how doing the hard, unglamorous work others avoid can create an outsized, enduring advantage.  Lewis's conversation with founding Monday Morning Radio host Dean Rotbart was recorded when the author was honored as a Business News Visionary. While the interview dates back several years, in this abridged version of their talk, the insights Lewis shares are strikingly current — offering inspired ideas that apply to entrepreneurs, executives, and business owners navigating uncertainty, disruption, and change today. [Michael Lewis will be featured in All You Can Eat Business Wisdom: Second Helpings, coming in April 2026. The anthology is the sequel of co-host Maxwell Rotbart's award winning first edition, All You Can Eat Business Wisdom: A Monday Morning Radio Anthology of Actionable Advice.] Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo Credit: Tabitha Soren Posted: January 19, 2026 Monday Morning Run Time: 49:22 Episode: 14.33 The Great Writers Series from Roy H. Williams: YouTube Shorts HemingwayTalks About Pamplona

Many entrepreneurs and business owners know how to make money. Far fewer truly understand how to protect it, manage it wisely, and plan for the long arc of life once the hard work of earning is done. Jeffrey Panik is a U.S. Army veteran and a certified financial planner with more than 25 years of experience helping individuals, families, and business owners clarify complex financial decisions. He is the founder of Balance Wealth Partners and the author of two practical, plain-spoken books, one with a focus on young adults who are just starting out and the other on those individuals who are approaching retirement. Your Future Is Now: A Guide to Mastering Your Finances and Independence Your Future Is Now: Your Blueprint for Solving Your Retirement Puzzle Rather than offering one-size-fits-all prescriptions, Jeff shares his emphasis on individualized planning, long-term thinking, and the importance of communication — between spouses, across generations, and with trusted advisors. Drawing on both professional experience and personal history, he challenges common assumptions about financial planning and retirement readiness. Jeff's bottom line can be summarized in six words: clarity today can prevent regret tomorrow. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Jeffrey Panik, Balance Wealth PartnersPosted: January 12, 2026 Monday Morning Run Time: 39:02 Episode: 14.32 POPULAR EPISODES: Sweet Success: How Two First-Timers Revitalized a 110-Year-Old Chocolate Brand Discover the Unlimited Power of Mastering Intentions: How You Can Transform Your Professional and Personal Life Stop Your Brain from Sabotaging Your Success and Happiness

Monica Ballard knows why so many marketing campaigns fail. It's not for lack of clever slogans, talented spokespeople, or catchy jingles. Surprisingly, the cause is trying to project "perfection" rather than authenticity, which includes acknowledging the struggles and risks inherent in running a business. Monica is a veteran marketing strategist, storyteller, and one of the elite Wizard of Ads Partners. Drawing on her background in theater, radio, and live performance, Monica explains why empathy and emotional honesty create bonds with customers and prospects that no discount or gimmick ever could. Being real isn't a liability, Monica assures — it's a decisive competitive advantage. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Monica Ballard, Wizard of AdsPosted: January 5, 2026 Monday Morning Run Time: One Hour, Six Minutes Episode: 14.31 Hear From Other Featured Wizard of Ads Partners: How Vi Wickam's Strategic Focus Delivers Extraordinary Results Mick Torbay Will Change the Way You Think About Marketing Forever Johnny Molson, a Marketing Maestro, on the Two Words That Transform Branding Steve Semple: Strategies to Rev Your Advertising and Marketing Campaigns

Ruben Gonzalez, four-time record-holding Olympian, bestselling author, and sought-after keynote speaker, returns to Monday Morning Radio for a wide-ranging, deeply practical conversation about perseverance, belief, and the wisdom of following proven leaders. Ruben's story is anything but conventional. He didn't begin competing at an elite level until his mid-20s, and has never used his lack of natural athleticism as an excuse for falling short. His career — on the luge track and beyond — has been built on desire, discipline, and a stubborn refusal to quit. Now in his 60s, he offers practical strategies for building courage through small daily choices, managing risk intelligently rather than avoiding it, and reframing success not as medals or riches, but as significance — the impact you have on others. As always, this episode draws out insights that go beyond inspiration, focusing on actionable steps every listener can take to compete at their highest level — in sports, business, and life. [More details on Cafe Olympia Coaching are available here.] Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Ruben GonzalezPosted: December 29, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 47:14 Episode: 14.30 RUBEN'S PREVIOUS APPEARANCES: Has Anyone Ever Told You That You're Too Old to Chase Your Dream? "Iron Sharpens Iron" From Benchwarmer to Olympic Record Holder and Business Champion

This week, hosts Dean and Maxwell Rotbart offer their third annual holiday treat for Monday Morning Radio listeners: a reading of the inspirational adult Yuletide tale, A Christmas Day Miracle, by Dean and Talya Rotbart. Since the book was first published in 2021, it has become a perennial holiday favorite. A Christmas Day Miracle tells the true story of one man, Riyaz Adat, on death's doorstep, his devoted wife, Margaret, and Riyaz's miraculous survival and recovery. It's a poignant reminder for people of all faiths of the wonder and power of life's unexpected blessings.  This is a once-a-year exclusive presentation you don't want to miss. A Christmas Day Miracle is available in a keepsake softcover edition on Amazon for only $9.75.  Photo: Riyaz and Margaret Adat Posted: December 22, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes Episode: 14.29 Other books from TJFR Press: But I Said I'm Sorry — A book for children 5-11 years old. Highly recommended by Dr. Laura Schlessinger The Boy Who Answered the Call of Kilimanjaro: The Adventures of Riyaz — Based on the true story of a Tanzanian boy who sets out on an adventure, walking with two schoolmates more than 600 miles from Dar es Salaam to Mt. Kilimanjaro. (Also available from Amazon in Spanish and French) All You Can Eat Business Wisdom: A Monday Morning Radio Anthology of Actionable Advice — Described by Kirkus Reviews as a well-mounted business self-help book that's actually helpful – and a good read, too. Perfectly Ordinary, Yet Extraordinary: Making a Meaningful Difference in the Lives of Others — An inspirational text designed to facilitate the undertaking of homegrown charitable projects. September Twelfth: An American Comeback Story — A thrilling and inspiring tale of journalistic dedication — Kirkus Reviews

What? You don't see the happy times?But they are right there!Right there inside you.Oh, I see. You have something that is keeping you from seeing and feeling and living the sparkling clear and happy times that are struggling to rise up from the depths of your soul.I see that you are worried.That's the problem.Worry is the cork that keeps the champagne of happiness from spraying a smile on your face and a sparkle in your eye and joy into your heartIf you will allow me, I will try to do for you what Julius Rosenwald and Thomas Jefferson did for me.Julius Rosenwald was an immensely successful businessman who used his money – all of it – to help people rise above their circumstances and experience the wonders of the world in which they lived.This is what Julius Rosenwald wrote to me 100 years ago:“Early in my business career I learned the folly of worrying about anything. I have always worked as hard as I could, but when a thing went wrong and could not be righted, I dismissed it from my mind.”Friend, when a thing goes wrong and cannot be righted, dismiss it from your mind.An army of people surround us whose only job is to make us fearful and afraid. You must not allow these people to capture your attention.Journalists have been shouting deceptive and inflammatory headlines at us since the days of the American Revolution.But the journalists and podcasters of today have discovered new ways of shouting. Emails and websites and Youtube and cable and streaming services promise, pledge and swear to keep us highly informed and deeply unhappy. They feed our worries like stokers feeding firewood into the boilers of steam trains.They want us to ride on their rails of steel so that they can take us where they want us to go.Don't ride their train. Jump off of it. Thomas Jefferson did.He said,“I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.”He went on to say,“Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper. The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”Thomas Jefferson avoided the news and said he was infinitely the happier for it.You should do it, too.Julius Rosenwald and Thomas Jefferson discovered that Jesus was telling the truth in Matthew chapter six when he said,“Do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”Don't worry.Be happy.Roy H. WilliamsDavid Ackert is making his list and checking it twice — but he's no Santa Claus. The gifts David brings are powerful insights for professionals who want to grow. David Ackert challenges the long-held belief that success depends on building a massive network of connections. In his view, quantity is a distraction. The thing to do is cultivate a small, curated list of at least 9 not more than 30 “high-value” relationships with people who have the ability to help you reach your goals.Send everyone else a Christmas card.Rotbart goes roving with David Ackert this week, at MondayMorningRadio.com

David Ackert is making a list and checking it twice — but he's no Santa Claus. The gifts he brings are practical, powerful insights for professionals who want to grow their businesses and advance their careers. As co-founder and CEO of Ackert, Inc. and its subsidiary, PipelinePlus, David challenges the long-held belief that success depends on building a massive network of connections. In his view, quantity is a distraction. What truly matters is cultivating a small, carefully curated list of 9 to 30 "high-value" relationships — the people who have the greatest likelihood of helping you reach your goals. Everyone else? Send them a Christmas card. David is the author of The Short List: How to Drive Business Development by Focusing on the People Who Matter Most, an Amazon bestseller and Gold Winner of the 2025 Nonfiction Book Awards. This week on Monday Morning Radio, he explains how to identify and prioritize the relationships that matter most, how to gracefully prune an overgrown network, and how to create meaningful new connections — even with influential strangers. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: David Ackert, PipelinePlus   Posted: December 15, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 46:48 Episode: 14.28 POPULAR EPISODES: Mega-Bestselling Author Andrew Matthews Captures the Simple Secrets of Success and Resilience From Classroom to Boardroom: How Teacher Maria Fraietta Turned a $50 Investment into a $34 Million Juggernaut How Terry Rich Turned Elephant Dung to Gold, and How You Can Also Be a Business Alchemist

Ken Lain's father-in-law, Harold Watters, opened a garden center in semi-arid, mountainous Prescott, Arizona, in 1962. Six decades later, garden centers aren't exactly giving e-commerce companies and Big Box home improvement centers much in the way of competition, and countless brick-and-mortar retailers have gone out of business. Yet Ken, his wife, Lisa, and their daughter, McKenzie, have continued to make their third-generation family business, Waters Garden Center, bloom. Now, the Lains stand at the cusp of an ambitious expansion into new markets. This week father and daughter share the nutrient-rich business strategies that every small enterprise can use to grow its own remarkable success story.  [Ken and McKenzie Lain will be featured in All You Can Eat Business Wisdom: Second Helpings, coming in 2026. The anthology is the sequel of co-host Maxwell Rotbart's award winning first edition, All You Can Eat Business Wisdom: A Monday Morning Radio Anthology of Actionable Advice.]  Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Ken and McKenzie Lain, Watters Garden CenterPosted: December 8, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 58:42 Episode: 14.27 RELATED EPISODES: Cultivating Big Profits in a Small Market It Was True in 1959, It's Still True Today: An Educated Consumer Is the Best Customer Dean Guida Bootstrapped His Way to Building a Multinational Enterprise Software Company

What animal has nine brains, eight arms, three hearts, adapts rapidly, and possesses exceptional intelligence? Yes, the description applies to octopuses. But according to Stephen Wunker, managing director of New Markets Advisors, it is also an apt description of business owners and CEOs who harness artificial intelligence to transform their companies into super-high-performing organizations. Steve and his colleagues advise companies and organizations, including Microsoft, Meta, Nike, and the World Bank, on innovation strategy and capabilities. His latest book, co-authored with futurist Jonathan Brill, is AI and the Octopus Organization: Building the Superintelligent Firm. Steve, who previously was a guest on this podcast in April 2024, sees the cephalopod's decentralized decision-making, lightning-fast problem-solving, and hyper-responsive behavior as an ideal model for AI-empowered leadership. As he explains, winning with AI doesn't mean squeezing new tools into old systems. It requires leaders to rethink — even rewire — how their organizations operate so they can swim with the intelligence and adaptability of an octopus. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Stephen Wunker, New Markets AdvisorsPosted: December 1, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 44:44 Episode: 14.26 RELATED EPISODES: The Inspiring and Frightening Advance of Artificial Intelligence and What It Portends for Your Business Dr. Michael Lenox Explains Why Keeping Up with AI and Other Technologies is a Matter of Business Survival Raj Venkatesan is One of the Nation's Most Respected Experts on Using AI to Drive Sales

A society grows great when old people plant trees under whose shade they will never sit.Trees that live long do not grow quickly.It requires patience to grow a tree that will endure.The root word of patience is the Latin verb “pati.” It means “to suffer” or “to endure.”The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago.The second-best time is today.A person with a purpose is a person on a mission.A person on a mission is a person with a passion.Passion is another strange word. It does not mean what you think it does.The English word “passion” comes directly from the Latin noun “passio” which means “suffering.” If you have “compassion” for someone, it means that you are “suffering with them.” Every Easter we hear about “The Passion of the Christ.”Patience and passion share the same Latin root. Pati is the noun. Passio is the verb. And they both mean suffering.A person with a passion has a vision of the future for which they are willing to suffer.The builder of a brand is the planter of a tree: a visionary missionary.And their principal tool is storytelling.Stories build personalities.Stories build people.Storytelling is world-building.Stories build cultures.Stories build brands that endure.Be careful what you say.A word of affirmation is a spark that can become a flame that will illuminate a person's path into the future. A word of discord, disdain, or disharmony can quench that vital spark.We carry the power of light and darkness in our tongues.Be careful what you say.You can build a brand with your stories.You can build people, too.Say the right things and you can build a life.You can speak happiness.You can build happiness.Say the right things and you can live happiness.Speak it. Build it.Say it. Live it.Roy H. WilliamsPS “It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth.”– John SteinbeckEveline Shen is an operating-systems programmer — not for computers, but for people.Eveline helps leaders rewire the limiting patterns that hold them back — including perfectionism, people-pleasing, and self-sacrifice — and replace them with what she calls “courageous” actions. Her clients are primarily organizations advocating for social change, many of whom instinctively view business leaders and entrepreneurs not as partners, but as adversaries. But as Eveline explains to roving reporter Rotbart, everyone wins when they make a more deliberate effort to communicate with, understand, and learn from one another. It's MondayMorningRadio.comYou can hear Roy read today's MMMemo by clicking the “listen” link at the top of the page. Or you can hear it wailed by a tribal elder who is teaching the tribe around a campfire. Just click the play bar below. Crazy? Absolutely. – Indy Beagle

Eveline Shen, an award-winning leadership and social change strategist, is the principal at Leading Courageously, a for-profit company where she teaches her "Courageous Operating System" to help leaders of color face their challenges with courage, confidence, and strength. Previously, she spent 22 years as the executive director of Forward Together, building it into one of the country's largest multi-issue organizations led by women of color. Eveline, who goes by "Ev," helps leaders rewire the limiting patterns that hold them back — including perfectionism, imposter syndrome, and people-pleasing — and replace them with what she calls "courageous" actions. She is the author of Choosing to Lead Against the Current: The Courageous Operating System for Changemakers. Her target audience — both at Leading Courageously and for her book — is primarily mission-driven individuals and groups advocating for social change, many of whom instinctively view business leaders and entrepreneurs not as partners, but as adversaries. Yet, many of the core elements of Ev's "courageous operating system" apply universally, whether you're in the nonprofit or the for-profit world. Moreover, listeners to this episode will likely discover they have more in common with Ev and her followers than they imagined. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Eveline Shen, Leading CourageouslyPosted: November 24, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 39:50 Episode: 14.25 RELATED EPISODES: Stop Waiting For Someone to Anoint You a Leader, and Just Be One Two Keys to Competing with Corporate Giants: Scalable Training and Empathetic Leadership Bobby Herrera's Meteoric Rise as CEO of Populus Group Is Rooted in Life's Hardships

Sébastien Page is the Chief Investment Officer of T. Rowe Price, overseeing an astounding $500 billion of the firm's $1.79 trillion in assets — a sum on par with the market caps of Exxon Mobil, Mastercard, or Netflix. Widely acknowledged as a global investment expert, Sébastien is also a deeply informed thinker on leadership. Managing a "portfolio" of high-performing analysts, investment managers, and support staff has taught him that the traits behind exceptional investors closely mirror those behind exceptional people managers. Drawing on research across positive psychology, sports psychology, and personality science, Sébastien has written a groundbreaking book, The Psychology of Leadership, that details 18 core principles that consistently produce high-performance leaders. This week, Sébastien shares the practical behaviors, frameworks, and insights that can transform how leaders think, act, and inspire.  Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Sébastien Page, T. Rowe PricePosted: November 17, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 54:28 Episode: 14.24 The Sébastien Page Library The Psychology of Leadership: Timeless principles to improve your management of individuals, teams… and yourself! Beyond Diversification: What Every Investor Needs to Know About Asset Allocation  Factor Investing and Asset Allocation: A Business Cycle Perspective

Visitors to a Vi Wickam-crafted website may not immediately see what sets it apart from an ordinary e-commerce or informational site. But they feel it. They stay longer, engage more deeply, and are far more likely to become — and remain — loyal customers. A master of the digital domain, Vi is among the elite global Wizard of Ads Partners, celebrated for more than two decades of helping business owners achieve remarkable revenue growth. Whether optimizing keywords, managing pay-per-click campaigns, or reimagining a company's web presence, Vi takes a holistic approach that goes far beyond surface-level functionality. His designs and strategies are built on two essential pillars: authenticity and alignment. Authenticity, Vi says, is today's most powerful digital differentiator. Alignment ensures that wherever customers encounter your brand — in-store, through advertising, or online — they instantly recognize its voice and spirit. Every touchpoint reflects the same DNA. Vi's strategic playbook can be distilled into these central priorities: Build trust through authenticity. Infuse all of your digital marketing — and especially your website — with your unique culture and values. Be real. Be kind. And overdeliver.  Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Vi Wickam, Wizard of Ads OnlinePosted: November 10, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 57:10 Episode: 14.23 RELATED EPISODES: Vi Wickam is a Virtuoso at Optimizing Websites to Deliver More Leads, Sales, and Happy Customers Mick Torbay Will Change the Way You Think About Marketing Forever Johnny Molson, a Marketing Maestro, on the Two Words That Transform Branding

When Brian and Sally Krichbaum bought Gilbert Chocolates in 2012, they had zero experience making or selling candy. Brian was a seasoned automotive engineer and consultant, while Sally was a freelance writer and stay-at-home mom. What they shared was a taste for challenge — and for good chocolate. Founded in 1893 and beloved by generations of Jackson, Michigan, residents, Gilbert Chocolates was a hometown treasure in need of fresh energy. The Krichbaums took on the task of modernizing operations and expanding distribution while preserving the small-batch, Belgian-style quality that defined the brand. Their journey wasn't easy. "I thought retail would be simple," Brian admits. "It's not — selling is hard." Sally adds that learning the rhythms of retail, hiring and training staff, and mastering the art of tempering chocolate all came with a steep learning curve. Today, Gilbert Chocolates is thriving, with multiple locations, a booming e-commerce business, and budding national partnerships. For the Krichbaums, success tastes sweet — not just because of the chocolate, but because they've proven that passion, persistence, and purpose can turn even the most unlikely entrepreneurs into hometown heroes. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Brian and Sally Krichbaum, Gilbert ChocolatesPosted: November 3, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 57 minutes Episode: 14.22 Related Episodes: This Candy Man Can: Richard G. Ross Builds a Global Candy & Confections Empire Jack and Patti Phillips Can Teach Anyone to Show the Value of What You Do Carina Ramirez Cahan Worked with Her Husband to Build a Better Bra

Aretha Franklin sang about it. Rodney Dangerfield joked about it. And Jackie Robinson famously said, like him or not, he'd earned it. R.E.S.P.E.C.T. We are living in a period where respect is a neglected virtue — too often sacrificed in public discourse, online exchanges, and everyday interactions. Robert L. “Bob” Dilenschneider aims to change that, even if only one interaction at a time. Bob is the founder of The Dilenschneider Group, which, since October 1991, has provided strategic advice and counsel to Fortune 500 companies, professional organizations, trade associations, educational institutions, and leading families and individuals around the world. Bob's newest book, his 20th, is Respect: How to Change the World One Interaction at a Time. The book is a timely reflection on the urgent need for civility in an era of deep division. Drawing on both his life and professional experience and the wisdom of 13 admired leaders, Respect outlines five practical strategies for restoring civility and rebuilding mutual understanding. “It can feel like the world is broken,” Bob acknowledges in his book. The solution, he believes, does not rest with political leaders or other highly influential individuals but with individuals, regular citizens, who can take steps to restore a culture of respectfulness. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Robert L. “Bob” Dilenschneider, The Dilenschneider GroupPosted: October 27, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 39:28 Episode: 14.21 Popular Books By Robert L. Dilenschneider: The Ultimate Guide to Power and Influence: Everything You Need to Know Character: Life Lessons in Courage, Integrity, and Leadership Decisions: Practical Advice from 23 Men and Women Who Shaped the World Prior Monday Morning Radio Episodes Featuring Robert L. Dilenschneider: March 2025: Lou Gehrig, Winston Churchill, and Julia Child as Professional and Personal Role Models September 2023: A Proven Formula Anyone Can Use to Obtain Power and Wield Influence December 2021: The One Defining Trait Shared Early in Adulthood By 25 of History's Heroes January 2020: PR Strategist Robert L. Dilenschneider Looks to History for Decision-Maker Role Models

Blanchard* trains more than 150,000 people annually in 30 countries. The firm's founder, Ken Blanchard, is one of the all-time outstanding leadership and management experts. His books, including most notably The One Minute Manager, have sold more than 28 million copies. That's what pretty much everyone knows. However, in her new biography, Catch People Doing Things Right: How Ken Blanchard Changed the Way the World Leads, veteran book editor and author Martha C. Lawrence reveals a side of Blanchard that few people outside of his immediate circle know — an exceptionally kind and generous man of deep conviction who had to overcome numerous hardships and setbacks to achieve his global stature. Martha has worked closely with Blanchard for more than two decades, following stints at Simon & Schuster and Harcourt Publishers, where she edited hundreds of books.  Catch People Doing Things Right delivers an inspiring roadmap for anyone seeking to lead with both results and relationships in mind. Blanchard, who is now 86 years old, has been a guest on Monday Morning Radio twice, in 2019 and 2022. *Formerly The Ken Blanchard Companies Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Martha C. Lawrence, Catch People Doing Things RightPosted: October 20, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 48:23 Episode: 14.20 Popular Books By Ken Blanchard: The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do Simple Truths of Leadership: 52 Ways to Be a Servant Leader and Build Trust  The Simple Truths of Service: Inspired by Johnny the Bagger The New One Minute Manager: A Timeless Guide to Effective Leadership, Stress Reduction, and Success in a Rapidly Changing Workplace Martha Lawrence's Mystery Novels Include: Murder in Scorpio The Cold Heart of Capricorn Ashes of Aries

In his new book, 100 Best Books for Work and Life: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You, author and publisher Todd Sattersten distills decades of reading, publishing, and advising authors into a carefully curated list of self-improvement titles. Unlike typical summaries or “listicles,” 100 Best Books for Work and Life dives deeper, offering practical guidance on why each selection matters and how readers can apply its lessons today. Todd's recommendations include well-known volumes and far less-well-known titles. And you might be surprised at which books he decided to leave out.  Divided into 25 chapters, each featuring three to five books, Todd covers topics such as Purpose, Relationships, Teams, Mindfulness, and Influence. One of the most striking aspects of Todd's approach is his belief that professional development cannot be separated from personal growth. A book on building better relationships, for instance, is just as valuable at home as it is in the office.  Todd is the publisher of Bard Press, the boutique publishing house — founded by the incomparable Ray Bard — best known for business classics such as The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan and Jeffrey Gitomer's Little Red Book of Selling.  Since taking the reins in 2021, Todd has continued Bard's tradition of releasing one (sometimes two) carefully chosen books each year. His expertise bridges both the editorial and business sides of publishing, giving him a unique vantage point on what makes a book impactful. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Todd Sattersten, Bard Press Posted: October 13, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 42:20 Episode: 14.19 RECOMMENDED BARD PRESS BOOKS: Give to Grow: Invest in Relationships to Build your Business and Career When Everyone Leads the Toughest Challenges Get Seen and Solved The Gift of Struggle: Life-Changing Lessons About Leading Fired Up! Selling: Great Quotes to Inspire, Energize, Succeed The Wizard of Ads: Turning Words into Magic and Dreamers into Millionaires

It's raining, it's pouring, what vital business intelligence are you ignoring? The next explosive area of business opportunity and risk may well be weather forecasting.  The opportunity will accrue to those owners and entrepreneurs who understand that a new era of meteorology has dawned and view weather forecasting as an inextricable form of business intelligence. The risk is that myopic executives may cling to the mistaken notion that weather forecasts — “notoriously inaccurate” — are only about what to wear, how the morning commute might be impacted, and if they should bring along an umbrella when the go outside. In his new book, Cloud Warriors: Deadly Storms, Climate Chaos―and the Pioneers Creating a Revolution in Weather Forecasting, veteran journalist Thomas E. “Tom” Weber debunks two prevalent myths: 1.) That weather forecasts are frequently way off, and 2.) That the weather doesn't have an impact on almost every company, directly or indirectly. Tom is the former executive editor at TIME who oversaw the magazine's cover stories and feature journalism. Earlier in his career, he served as a technology reporter, columnist, and bureau chief at The Wall Street Journal. Powered by artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the internet of things, weather forecasting — even micro forecasts confined to small geographic areas — has become vastly more accurate. Importantly, better forecasting saves lives by correctly predicting threatening hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, and floods well in advance and preventing catastrophic damage to vital infrastructure. Savvy companies — big and small — are already investing in weather intelligence, and the imperative for those who have yet to get on board will only grow in the years ahead. [Be sure to visit Tom Weber's website here.] Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Thomas E. Weber, Cloud Warriors: Deadly Storms, Climate Chaos―and the Pioneers Creating a Revolution in Weather ForecastingPosted: October 6,, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 1 hour and 3 minutes Episode: 14.18 POPULAR EPISODES: Bulk Up Your Business Muscles with These Proven Retail Strategies Discover the Unlimited Power of Mastering Intentions: How You Can Transform Your Professional and Personal Life Marcy Syms Shares the Legacy and Lessons of Her Family's Pioneering Fashion Chain

Most business owners obsess over driving more traffic to their websites. But as Brian Schmitt, CEO of Surefoot and a returning guest, explains, the fastest and most efficient way to grow profits is by converting more of the website visitors that companies already attract into paying customers. Surefoot is a data-driven conversion rate optimization agency for e-commerce brands and a leading authority on controlled consumer experiments — also known as A/B testing.  By testing version ‘A' of a webpage against version ‘B,' Surefoot pinpoints which design, headline, graphic, or call-to-action wins more customers. Surefoot's signature methodology is what it calls the “Revenue Friction Roadmap,” a structured way to uncover what potential customers are thinking but not saying out loud. While most optimization experts aim for a 20–25% bump, Brian's clients often see nearly double that impact: a 40–44% increase in sales from existing site visitors. Even minor tweaks, Brian explained — backed by hard data — can deliver game-changing results. On this week's episode, Brian shares actionable steps that any business owner can implement to turn more of their website visitors into loyal customers. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Brian Schmitt, Surefoot Posted: September 29, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 52:45 Episode: 14.17 RELATED EPISODES: Nine Out of Ten New Online Retailers Never Make Their First Sale UX is the Most Powerful Differentiator in Today's Highly Competitive Business World Yes, She is Crazy — Crazy Like a Fox, Helping Online Brands Achieve Impressive Results

Mike Kelly, a veteran of senior leadership roles at Michelin and Macy's, now coaches business owners and managers through his advisory, Right Path Enterprises. His mission: to help leaders guide their organizations more effectively by first learning to lead themselves. Unlike many experts, Mike believes that genuine influence begins with leading yourself. Investing in personal growth pays dividends at work, at home, and in the community, he says. Mike is the author of Leaderfluence: Secrets of Leadership Essential to Effectively Leading Yourself and Positively Influencing Others. Among the topics Mike discusses on this week's episode are when to trust the data over your own instinct, how to keep top talent without paying more than you can afford, and why you should encourage your employees to take risks at work. Mike also outlines seven priorities that will enable leaders to look back with confidence, knowing they stayed aligned with what matters most to them. His approach delivers a double benefit: leaders grow as individuals while becoming more effective and inspiring managers. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Mike Kelly,  Right Path EnterprisesPosted: September 15, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 48:378 Episode: 14.15 POPULAR EPISODES: Authors Ken Blanchard and Randy Conley Offer 52 Ways to Bolster Employee Satisfaction and Productivity The Enduring Ability of “The Power of Habit” and “Smarter Faster Better” to Improve Your Life Bestselling Author Joanne Lipman Shares Her Formula for Professional and Personal Reinvention

Mick Torbay has a simple verdict on most advertising campaigns: they don't work. “Most ads are rubbish,” he declares. “They accomplish nothing, they waste people's time, and they waste peoples' money. When the commercial break comes on, people stand up and go to the bathroom or turn the volume down.” It's harsh, but accurate nonetheless. Ads created by Mick, on the other hand, are the kind that inspire listeners and viewers to turn up the volume, talk about the spots with family and friends, and remain lodged in their brains until they morph into paying customers. Mick, a wildly successful maverick marketer and one of the elite Wizard of Ads partners, is the rare expert who knows — and can explain — why some ads succeed spectacularly while most crash and burn. And he knows who most often is to blame. Brace yourself, as Mick shares his bold ideas and imaginative strategies that lead to long-lasting customer loyalty. If you're tired of throwing away money on ads that don't work, this is the episode you can't afford to miss. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Mick Torbay, Wizard of Ads  Posted: September 8, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 52:50 Episode: 14.14 RELATED EPISODES: Johnny Molson, a Marketing Maestro, on the Two Words That Transform Branding ‘Semple' Strategies to Rev Your Advertising and Marketing Campaigns Two Living Legends of Marketing Offer You Actionable Tips for Success

More than 80% of Trevor Bower's customers reorder from him within 30 days. That's an enviable benchmark in any industry. Trevor owns AdvancedSupps, a single brick-and-mortar health supplements store in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with a robust online presence. In his ten years in business, he's earned an international reputation for formulating unique, high-value supplements and providing unmatched customer education and service.  In a brutally competitive retail environment, Trevor has overcome the odds — not with gimmicks or giveaways, but with a strategy that any entrepreneur — in any industry — can replicate. Among the recommendations he makes: Clarify who benefits most from your products or services, and build around them. Educate your customers and prospects. Markets shift, but your values shouldn't. Stay grounded in what works for you. Know that “trust” is your real product. Think of Trevor's insights as the ultimate business supplement: all natural, fast-acting, and formulated to strengthen your bottom line. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Trevor Bower, AdvancedSupps.comPosted: September 1, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 55:24 Episode: 14.13

Overseeing a $10 billion residential and commercial portfolio, Bianca D'Alessio reigns as the  #1 real estate agent in both New York City and New York State. She also stars in HBO Max's Selling the Hamptons. But Bianca's rise wasn't smooth. Early setbacks and bouts of impostor syndrome nearly sidelined her career. Instead, she built a foundation using vulnerability, intentional self-talk, and gratitude to transform herself into one of the most dynamic leaders in real estate. In her new book, Mastering Intentions: 10 Practices to Amplify Your Power and Lead with Lasting Impact, Bianca blends candid personal stories with actionable strategies that any business owner or entrepreneur can apply. Visit this special Monday Morning Radio “Open House” to discover the same practices Bianca uses to master her goals — and how you can apply them to achieve your own business and personal success. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Bianca D'Alessio, Mastering IntentionsPosted: August 25, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 44:04 Episode: 14.12

Gary Engels teaches business owners and entrepreneurs the disciplined sequence of steps that lead to lasting success. His wisdom isn't drawn from an MBA program or corporate leadership seminars — it's forged from decades on the mats. “Sensei Gary” is a serial entrepreneur, app creator, and a 4th-degree black belt in Taekwondo.  Gary's list of ventures and partnerships is long. Among them, he is the founder of Leadership Academy, a martial arts school dedicated to developing leadership skills in students of all ages, and the creator of the Legacy Missions app, which helps users build positive daily habits.  He also serves as CEO of MyGig, which connects businesses with essential services in accounting, marketing, HR, IT, and financial optimization.  Unlike many entrepreneurs who obsess over selling, Gary has built his career on service. His approach begins with a simple question: “How can I help?” Service builds trust, trust builds relationships, and relationships drive revenue. It's a principle that has kept his martial arts school thriving for 20 years — a milestone that very few such schools attain. So, join us this week in the “Monday Morning Radio Dojo.” Remove your shoes, step onto the mat, and begin mastering the “business katas” that will make you a fierce marketplace competitor. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Gary EngelsPosted: August 18, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 50:12 Episode: 14.11 POPULAR EPISODES: Rob Kessler, a Second-Generation Entrepreneur, Marks a Dozen Years of Innovation, Success, and Struggle Butch Meily on Life with Billionaire Reginald Lewis — and the Personal Price of Ambition Veteran Journalist Al Lewis's Substack Lets Readers Learn From the Blunders of Others

Marcy Syms became the youngest female president of a publicly traded New York Stock Exchange company when she was named to the position with her family's business in 1983. At its peak, the Syms chain of off-price, brand-name fashion stores operated 46 outlets across 16 states, generating annual sales approaching $350 million. The chain's slogan — coined by founder Sy Syms, Marcy's father — was iconic: “An educated consumer is our best customer.” While Syms was not the very first off-price fashion retailer when it opened its original store in 1959, Sy and Marcy Syms went on to define the sector and dominate it until — faced with increased competition and a soft economy — Syms filed for bankruptcy and closed its doors in 2011 after more than 50 years. Marcy shares her compelling story and the story of Syms Corporation in a new book, set for release on August 26th. The book is titled Leading with Respect: Adventures of an Off-Price Fashion Pioneer. “Respect,” as she explains on this week's podcast, is the key trait — often misunderstood — of effective leadership. Marcy is a former member of the board at Midlantic Bank and Rite Aid. She is president of the Sy Syms Foundation, which continues her family's philanthropic legacy supporting charitable, educational, and cultural organizations, including the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University. The foundation has awarded over $60 million to worthy organizations. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Marcy Syms, Sy Syms FoundationPosted: August 11, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 49:00 Episode: 14.10 RELATED EPISODES: Hear How Bob Moog's University Games Became the Largest Independent Game Company in the World How Brian Scudamore, a High School Dropout, Disrupted an Industry and Forged a $600 Million Business Dean Guida Bootstrapped His Way to Building a Multinational Enterprise Software Company    

Ken Banta is the founder and CEO of The Vanguard Network, a by-invitation-only community for top-level executives. He and his firm help C-Suite executives and business owners fine-tune their management skills, build valuable new relationships, and elevate the performance of their organizations. One of Ken's surprising recommendations is that companies do away with long-term strategic plans and instead focus primarily on the immediate horizon. “The way things move today is so quick and so unpredictable that having detailed strategies …seems to me to be really antiquated,” he says, akin to trying to predict the location of the next lightning strike. Ken is the author of Seeing Around Corners: C-Suite Wisdom from America's Most Insightful Leaders, a powerful collection of leadership insights from dozens of wise CEOs, general counsels, and boardroom veterans. But Ken's insights aren't only applicable to large companies and for-profit organizations. Any effective leader can take away a great deal of actionable advice from Ken's book and this week's conversation.  Wouldn't it be nice to see around the next corner? Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Ken Banta, The Vanguard Network Posted: July 28, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 43:54 Episode: 14.8 POPULAR EPISODES: Discover Johnny Molson's Proven Method to Win Lifelong Customers and Build Cascading Profitability Why Civics, Good Governance, and Ethics Are Essential for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs Are Your Customers and Clients Likely To Wear Your ‘Team Colors' As They Clap and Stomp for Your Success?  

Melissa Dinwiddie doesn't have an MBA. She's never worked for a consulting giant, such as McKinsey, Boston Consulting, or Bain. She is a ukulele-playing, jazz-singing, Julliard-trained dancer and improv entertainer. Yet when companies, including Meta, Google, Uber, Intuit, and Salesforce, seek fresh thinking on innovation and team creativity, they turn to Melissa for results. Melissa draws parallels between performance troupes, such as her All That Jazz improv jazz group, and business teams. To be successful, she notes, all members must listen closely, support one another, adapt on the fly, and create something from nothing.   Melissa is the founder and CEO of Creative Sandbox Solutions, communication, connection, and creativity experts. Her firm's specialty is helping teams blast through creative roadblocks. She is the author of The Creative Sandbox Way: Your Path to a Full-Color Life, which she wrote to help readers be comfortable with and embrace their own, authentic creativity. As Melissa explains this week, her unconventional background and unorthodox methods —  including having six- and seven-figure salaried executives build with Lego bricks — consistently unlock breakthrough ideas and enhance team performance. Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Melissa Dinwiddie, Creative Sandbox SolutionsPosted: July 21, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 49:42 Episode: 14.7

Mitch Weisburgh is on a crusade to get five million people to change their minds. Literally. A lifelong educator and entrepreneur, he helps teachers and students to mindshift away from reflexive reactions to setbacks, obstacles, and low moods. Rather than give in to them, he shows members of school communities how they can adopt a reasoned mentality that seeks solutions and opportunities, and restores optimism. Mitch's classroom approach works as well, if not better, for business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs facing professional or personal challenges. The next time your computer system goes down, or your shipment is lost in transit, or your flight is canceled, or a competitor poaches your best employee, you can react or you can mindshift and respond productively. Mitch is the author of MindShifting: Stop Your Brain from Sabotaging Your Happiness and Success. It is the first in a planned trilogy of helpful guides focused respectively on resourcefulness, resilience, and collaboration. As Napoleon Hill observed, “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Mitch Weisburgh, MindshiftingPosted: July 14, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 48:23 Episode: 14.6

“Do it before you die.” Those five words sum up Carl Barney's advice to business leaders and other wealthy individuals to find a deeper level of success and satisfaction by “pre-questing” meaningful gifts to individuals and institutions — not in their wills — but while they can still witness the impact of their generosity. Carl, author of the new book The Happiness Experiment: A Revolutionary Way to Increase Happiness, is a philanthropist who grew wealthy as an educational entrepreneur. He is the founder of the Prometheus Foundation, which identifies and supports independent thinkers who have innovative ideas, work smart, follow through, and achieve results. The Foundation is guided by the philosophy of Ayn Rand, with a healthy portion of Aristotle mixed in.  In his book, Carl makes a key distinction between philanthropy and pre-questing. While both are praiseworthy, pre-questing is a more personal way to express gratitude to those who've enriched your life, such as teachers, mentors, colleagues, and friends. Carl has found that making others happy will also make the giver happier. That translates to becoming a better leader, businessperson, family member, and friend. “It's not enough to feel grateful,” Carl says. “You have to express it — in ways that matter to the people who made a difference in your life.” Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Carl Barney Posted: July 7, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 42:31 Episode: 14.5 RELATED EPISODES: “No-Strings-Attached” Giving is a Proven Method of Maximizing Client Relationships The UnBusiness Story Behind Chapel Dulcinea The World Needs More People Like Margaret and Riyaz Adat