Monday Morning Radio

Amy Dockser Marcus, a distinguished author and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter with The Wall Street Journal, has dedicated her career to exploring the complex intersections of economics, society, and health within modern medicine.  In her latest meticulously researched book, We The Scientists, she delves into the remarkable accomplishments of "citizen scientists" — ordinary parents and individuals who united to revolutionize the conventional practices employed by established medical researchers and professionals. On its face, says host Dean Rotbart, Amy’s book is an inspiring medical chronicle. But the achievements and lessons learned by motivated amateurs offer far-reaching insights and invaluable lessons applicable to diverse industries and fields.  All crises begin with the blurring of a paradigm and the consequent loosening of the rules for normal research … — Thomas S. Kuhn The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Photo: Amy Dockser Marcus, We The Scientists: How a Daring Team of Parents and Doctors Forg

For half a century, Bob Johansen has been forecasting the future. Clients, including Procter & Gamble, Walmart, and McKinsey, trust his vision. Moreover, he is an instructor at the Army War College. Along with coauthors Joseph Press and Christine Bullen, Bob has recently released “Office Shock: Creating Better Futures for Working and Living” — his 13th book. Ostensibly, Office Shock peers a decade ahead to describe the workplace of the future — the officeverse. Today’s office towers face strong headwinds, as the purpose and function of tomorrow’s office spaces will be rejiggered to prove a more equitable, accessible, purposeful, climate-positive future for knowledge work.  But host and award-winning author Dean Rotbart says Office Shock is about much more than real estate. It’s about looking to the future now to take immediate steps to better prepare for what’s to come.   “It's actually easier to think ten years ahead than it is one or two years ahead,” Bob says, discussing the effectiveness of taking a

Nick Loper is a fountain of money-making ideas and the required methods to implement them. As the founder of Side Hustle Nation and its Chief Side Hustler, Nick has shown tens of thousands of his followers how to bring in  $1,000, $2,000, or even $5,000 a month in extra income. On his podcast, on his website, in books, and speeches, Nick breaks down the vast opportunities to supplement your income in your spare time — as well as how to turn a side hustle into a full-time gig providing greater income and far more satisfaction than most people experience holding down a full-time job. Whether or not any of Nick’s ideas are a perfect fit for you, host and award-winning author Dean Rotbart says they will inspire you to think of other side hustles that will work for you.  BOOKS BY NICK LOPER:  The Side Hustle: How to Turn Your Spare Time into $1000 a Month or More $1,000 100 Ways: How Real People Make Real Money on the Side (and How You Can Too) [DEBUTING THIS WEEK: The Zero to Unicorn podcast, a behind the

Dr. Henry Mintzberg is one of the world’s most highly regarded business theorists, having written more books -- 22-- than the Beatles produced #1 hits. He is an organization and management rock star. In his latest book, Understanding Organizations … Finally, Dr. Mintzberg likens running a company or non-profit to coaching a professional sports team: You wouldn’t use the same tactics in football as you use in hockey or baseball. Yet many CEOs mistakenly take a one-size-fits-all approach to structuring their operations. After observing and advising organizations for more than five decades, Dr. Mintzberg concludes there are seven “species” of companies and philanthropic groups, each requiring a distinctive playbook. As Dr. Mintzberg explains to host and award-winning author Dean Rotbart, correctly identifying which type of company you own or work for is crucial to its sustainability and profitability.  [To listen to Dr. Mintzberg’s January 2019 appearance on Monday Morning Radio, click here.]  Photo: Dr. Henry

When Victoria Pelletier sets her mind to achieving a goal, she won’t let anything or anyone stop her. Nor will she blame anyone but herself when things don’t go the way she planned. Those two personality traits — being unstoppable and making no excuses — have been a recipe for success since she became the chief operating officer of a multinational corporation at age 24. Decades on, after holding senior roles at American Express, IBM, and Accenture, she now advises owners, CEOs, and board members on how to adopt her approach to business and life. Victoria tells host and award-winning author Dean Rotbart that anyone, regardless of their socioeconomic background or the adversity they may have faced, can achieve professional growth and inspire others to do the same.  Photo: Victoria Pelletier, AccenturePosted: May 8, 2023Monday Morning Run Time: 39:02Episode: 11.38 LAST WEEK: This is the 1986 Song Whose Popularity Never Ends: Hear the Fairytale-Esq Story of Dave Combs’ “Rachel’s Song” — and the Business Savvy t

Dave Combs is a disarmingly charming southerner, a former telecommunications executive, and a man of faith. He’s also a hardcore entrepreneur and one of the most successful musicians and music distributors you’ve probably never heard of. Since Dave and his friend, studio pianist Gary Prim, recorded their first instrumental tune  in 1986 — Rachel’s Song — the duo has produced 15 successful instrumental albums which have attracted millions of worldwide fans. Dave displays more than 50,000 fan letters at his home in Winston Salem, North Carolina. The story behind Dave’s serendipitous success is fairytale-esq.  Not a single mainstream music publisher or distributor would touch Rachel’s Song. So Dave turned to a non-conventional route, selling his CDs through gift shops - eventually building a network of more than 1,000 stores. The song proved to be magnetic. Shoppers would hear it playing overhead in a store and just need to buy it. One local shop alone sold thousands of Dave Combs albums. Host and award-winning

Since 2006, serial entrepreneur Clay Stafford has produced an ever-more-popular Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference that brings together authors, agents, exhibitors, and fans of crime and thriller literature. Pulling off a large meeting, workshop, or other live event entails countless steps. In Clay’s instance, planning for the next gathering begins a year in advance. This week, Clay pays a return visit to Monday Morning Radio to share his post-COVID-19 event blueprints with host and award-winning author Dean Rotbart, covering everything from the selection of a venue and keynote speakers to his formula for ensuring that attendees leave feeling that their time and money were well invested. “Given his many talents and occupations, any conversation with Clay would not be complete if we didn’t stray from the central topic,” Dean says. “So this week, he and I will also discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on authors and publishers; the state of the publishing market; the 12 habits of succe

The days of the imperial CEO are bygone. Today’s business and organization leaders empower everyone, regardless of rank, to be heard and contribute to success.  That’s the premise of David C. Tate, a licensed clinical psychologist and lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. David is the co-author of Conscious Accountability: Deepen Connections, Elevate Results. Financial performance still matters. But David teaches that in the modern workplace, the means to success often matter as much as the ends. David and his co-authors, Marianne S. Pantalon and Daryn H. David, embrace a leadership approach they dub “conscious accountability,” and offer a seven-step process — CONNECT — centered on the benefits of social awareness, values, and relationships. C — Creating Clarity O — Opening Up Engagement N — Nailing It N — Noticing E — Exchanging Feedback C — Claiming It T — Trying Again Listen and profit now as David explains to host and award-winning journalist Dean Rotbart how following the CONNECT roadma

For the head of a successful business coaching firm, Toronto-based Launch and Scale, Khierstyn Ross, founder and CEO, has an odd goal. “We actually want our clients to fire us,” the e-commerce strategist tells host and award-winning journalist Dean Rotbart. Khierstyn is crazy — crazy like a fox. Her firm’s mission is to help launch and scale online brands until they achieve $3 million in annual sales. She’s done that successfully for dozens of brands. However, by the time her clients’ sales grow to $10 million in yearly revenues, Khierstyn says her nestlings need to move on. That is, fire her before she fires them. Whether you’re a startup or long-established, Khierstyn’s growth methodology and operational discipline are sure to impress you. Photo: Khierstyn Ross, Launch and ScalePosted: April 10, 2023Monday Morning Run Time: 37:12Episode: 11.34

Dux te ipsum duc is Latin for “Leader, Lead Thyself.” The concept is at the heart of business growth coach Bradley Hamner’s formula for transforming owners and executives from “slaves” to their companies into masterful architects of growth and success. Bradley is the founder of Business Growth Curator, a consultancy that coaches owners and executives on how to grow their confidence and leadership, develop an effective team, scale their companies, and make a difference. Since launching his first business in 2009, with no customers, no leads, and very little cash, Bradley has established or built seven companies, with an eighth on the launchpad. The secret to inspiring employees to improve their performance and satisfaction, Bradley tells host Dean Rotbart, is to address your own shortcomings first. He did just that and has been generating exceptional value for himself and his clients ever since. [Note: You can listen to Bradley’s podcast, The Club Capital Leadership Podcast, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and he

When Jennifer Brown sizes up business and organization leaders on how well they address today’s ever-increasing demand for inclusive workplaces, she describes them on a continuum of four stages: unaware, aware, active, and advocate. Jennifer is an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and founder of Jennifer Brown Consulting, a strategic and diversity advisory firm. She has spent more than two decades helping CEOs and other executives look inward so that they can be more effective in creating a safe and productive work environment for every employee. Among those companies that have sought Jennifer’s insights are Google, Cisco, Johnson & Johnson, CapitalOne, IBM, Disney, and Coca-Cola. You needn’t be a FORTUNE 500 CEO to benefit from her insights. All you need to do is join Jennifer and host Dean Rotbart for an insightful, actionable discussion of the steps you can take to become a more inclusive leader. [Be sure to pick up a copy of Jennifer’s book, How to Be an Inclusive Leader, Second Edition: Your Role

In the Fall of 2007, Eric Johnson, an entrepreneur and designer of satellite communications systems, was on vacation when he received a panicked call from his financial advisor. “Need permission to sell.” “Sell what?” “Everything.” Eric did sell, and his swift move saved him from getting walloped by the Great Recession and the ensuing turmoil in the markets. Eric is a renaissance man: an instrument-rated private pilot, surfer, black belt, astrophotographer, angel investor, and co-founder and former CEO of Tourmaline Networks, a software engineering firm.  After weathering the Great Recession, Eric determined he never again wanted to feel financially vulnerable. So, in addition to his other personal and professional pursuits, Eric set off on a 15-year odyssey to teach himself everything investors, owners, entrepreneurs, and anyone who wants to protect their wealth needs to know about finance and economics. In his book, What the Hell is an Economy, Eric has distilled all that he’s learned into an easy-to-unders

Gene Sticco embraces three of the core tenets that Monday Morning Radio host Dean Rotbart advocates for anyone who wants to break from the pack: Be audacious. Act on your dreams and passions. Let the naysayers laugh, and then do it anyway. Sticco is an entrepreneur and U.S. Air Force special forces veteran. He is also a newly announced candidate for the Oval Office in 2024. Rotbart describes Gene as a serious candidate with no serious chance of winning. That said, for the example Gene sets for business owners, entrepreneurs, and creatives, among others, he is already a victor.  Plato once observed: “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” Sticco is taking the Greek philosopher’s words to heart, and they apply equally to those in every industry and profession where individuals settle for following rather than leading. Although Gene knew nothing about running an Opera company, he has funneled his experience and passion into serv

Matt Mason, who since 2019 has served as the official state poet of Nebraska, returns to Monday Morning Radio to discuss his latest collection of poems — At The Corner of Fantasy and Main: Disneyland, Midlife and Churros — and to share his ideas for making poetry and profits rhyme. Matt, a Wizard Academy alumnus, was last a guest on this podcast in March 2019, shortly after publishing his previous poetry collection, The Baby That Ate Cincinnati. On this visit, he continues to explain the relationship between poetry and creativity in business and entrepreneurship. Matt hopes that the introspections he shares in At the Corner of Fantasy and Main and The Baby That Ate Cincinnati will touch readers and help fuel his ambition to earn a living by writing, performing, and teaching poetry to a corporate audience. Turning a passion into a profitable business is never easy. This week, Matt shares his game plan for overcoming the obstacles he is certain to encounter — strategies that can help anyone who wants to be ga

The secret to Michael Kaeding’s success as the CEO of Norhart Inc., a company that designs, builds, and rents apartments, is that he had no idea how to run his family business when his father unexpectedly passed away. “I had no preconceived notion of the way things were supposed to be done,” Mike recalls. “We just started to naively solve problems, and that was the magic.” Norhart, headquartered in tiny Forest Lake, Minnesota, is booming. Because Mike has refined a process to save 50% or more over other residential developers, he tells host and award-winning author Dean Rotbart that he plans to expand his business nationwide and take a stab at solving America’s housing shortage and affordability crisis.  Photo: Michael Kaeding, CEO, Norhart Inc.Posted: February 27, 2023Monday Morning Run Time: 46:02Episode: 11.28

Four sneaky obstacles prevent most business owners and entrepreneurs from becoming peerless communicators, whether in writing, on video, or in front of a live audience. There is a proven formula to vault over those hurdles, and this week’s guest, Michelle D. Gladieux, reveals how to become the best communicator you can be. Michelle, president of Gladieux Consulting, headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has taught at the college level for 18 years, starting when she was only 23. Gladieux Consulting, which serves hundreds of companies and thousands of training participants, focuses on leadership and communication topics, strategic planning facilitation, and building creative tools that yield personal and professional development.   Michelle’s new book, Communicate with Courage: Taking Risks to Overcome Four HIdden Challenges, provides a step-by-step guide to triumphing over fear to deliver your message more effectively and make a difference in the world. But host and award-winning author Dean Rotbart tells Mi

Although officially, the business spotlighted on this week’s podcast is less than a week old, host Dean Rotbart says that given its lineage and the marketing genius supporting it, RomanticSpotsinAustin.com is a sure bet to be an entrepreneurial role model and a global success story. Two years in development, the online guidebook to amorous Austin, Texas, is the brainchild of Pennie Williams, brought from the drawing board to last week’s rollout with an assist by her son Jake and her husband, none other than Roy H. Williams. Pennie has been nurturing love and romance for decades. She is responsible for launching Chapel Dulcinea — the world’s first free wedding chapel — in 2005. Situated cliffside on the edge of an ancient walking trail overlooking the Texas Hill Country, the chapel hosts 1,100 ceremonies annually. RomanticSpotsinAustin offers searchable, unbiased descriptions of a cornucopia of places and activities — from famous landmarks to little-known hideaways, sweeping natural landscapes to rooftop loun

Among the giants of self-improvement authors and speakers are Dale Carnegie, Earl Nightingale, Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, and Blaine Oelkers. Blaine who? Blaine Oelkers, http://selfluence.com, is not yet as well known as these other inspiring speakers and authors — but he is a modern keeper of their inspirational flame. In fact, Blaine is America’s only Chief Results Officer — an expert on how to get yourself to do those things you know you should do but aren’t. In this week’s episode, Blaine will reveal his method of getting an hour’s worth of work done in only 30 minutes. He’ll show us how to create a durable new habit in only 21 seconds. And he’ll explain his WYTAYBA™ secret to unlocking the full power of your mind. As host and award-winning author Dean Rotbart says, “While Blaine may channel Carnegie, Nightingale, and the others, he is an original — offering unique solutions for our 21st century professional and personal challenges.” Photo: Blaine Oelkers, Selfluence.comPosted: February 6, 2023Monday Morning

When a quality publishing house releases only one book a year, you know it will be a blockbuster. That’s always been the case with award-winning Bard Press, which has brought out 18 business bestsellers over the past 25 years. This year the business boutique imprint has tapped authors Ed O’Malley and Julia Fabris McBride. Their book, When Everyone Leads: The Toughest Challenges Get Seen and Solved, offers a revolutionary model that allows everyone to claim the mantle of “leader,” no matter how high up or low down they are on the organizational chart. In When Everyone Leads, the authors lay out their five core tenets of leadership. Leadership is an activity, not a position Anyone can lead, anytime, anywhere Leadership starts with you and must engage others Leadership is risky Leadership is about your toughest challenges Ed and Julia know the genuine mechanisms of leadership. The two authors honed their insights into leadership at the Kansas Leadership Center, which they launched in 2007. Ed’s background was

Jack and Patti Phillips, a husband and wife Ph.D. duo, lead the ROI Institute, which provides a scalable and systematic approach to program evaluation. Their proprietary ROI Methodology is the most used and implemented such system in the world, adopted by 27 governments and three-fourths of the FORTUNE 500. The Phillipses have a combined five decades of experience evaluating the wisdom of investing in so-called “soft skills,” including employee training, human resources, community outreach, and DEI - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Companies large and small pour hefty sums into these and similar programs, but do they get their money’s worth? The Phillipses know the answer and in their latest book, Show the Value of What You Do, they make ROI Methodology accessible and easy to implement for every business owner and executive, whether assessing an existing program or planning new projects. As host and award-winning journalist Dean Rotbart says, “At last when directors or supervisors demand, ‘Prove to me the