Monday Morning Radio

The first interview that Kanye West granted after his July 4th announcement that he would run for president was to Randall Lane, editor and chief content officer of Forbes . It was no coincidence that Kayne chose Randall and Forbes. Randall's story, posted four days later, quickly attracted more than 3.1 million page views. These days, Forbes.com is an internet juggernaut, attracting a larger dail...

More than 30,000 global makers and innovators registered for the recently concluded Fast Company Innovation Festival , a virtual cornucopia of influential speakers ranging from the CEOs of Verizon and Novartis to celebrities including Robert Downey Jr. and Michelle Pfeiffer. Credit Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Mehta and her team at Fast Company for attracting a young, progressive, business-centric au...

Host Dean Rotbart , an award-winning journalist, has been peeling back the curtain of the nation's most influential business newsrooms for more than two decades. This week he begins a three-part series of oral histories that he's recently conducted with three powerful editors-in-chief. Adi Ignatius His guest this week is Adi Ignatius , who has overseen the influential Harvard Business Review since...

When McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Chick-fil-A, and the Green Bay Packers were searching for ways to turn their managers into leaders who employees would want to follow, they turned to Jill Ratliff , an executive coach with more than 25 years of Fortune 100 human resources management experience. By making surprisingly few and modest changes, as Jill outlines in her new book — Leadership Through Trust and...

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the massive number of people who've lost their jobs, it should come as no surprise that America is in the midst of a small business startup boom. The Wall Street Journal reports that applications for new employer identification numbers — an indicator of new business launches — are up by 18.5% over 2019, and growing at the fastest rate since 2007. Which i...

Imagine a professional baseball league with teams located in Small Town America, such as Garden City, Kansas; Roswell, New Mexico; Trinidad, Colorado; and Tucson, Arizona. Now imagine you're tapped to manage one of these independent league teams — featuring a squad of not-ready-for-prime-time players — and trying to win a national championship.  Finally, ask yourself, if such a challenge existed i...

In 1996, Dave Nassaney 's wife, Charlene, suffered a massive stroke that left her severely speech impaired and paralyzed on her right side.  Dave, a USC graduate, entrepreneur, and service station owner, had no one to turn to and few resources to help him handle the tricky navigation he faced. Like that of thousands of other entrepreneurs who each year find themselves in similar situations, Dave's...

Women entrepreneurs are starting and running businesses in record numbers. Today, the number of women-owned firms in the United States is more than double what it was in 2000. Yet, as Madeline Pratt knows from first-hand experience, women in business face unique obstacles on the path to success. So Madeline, founder of the "female-forward" consultancy, Fearless in Training , specializes in helping...

Sandi Masori is a small business alchemist, turning doctors, real estate agents, insurance salespeople, financial planners, and all variety of entrepreneurs into authors. Sandi, owner of ExpertBook4U.com , has leveraged her experience writing books about decorating with balloons into a lucrative business and a platform for coaching others on how to follow in her footsteps. Not to burst your balloo...

Black Enterprise magazine is marking its 50th Anniversary in 2020, dedicated to educating, inspiring, and uplifting readers. The magazine's founder, Earl G. Graves Sr. , who passed away earlier this year, was already a successful entrepreneur when he began the magazine in 1970, and headed multiple businesses in his lifetime. Unlike most other business magazines, the editorial staff at Black Enterp...

As CEO of Maui Wowi Hawaiian Coffees & Smoothies , Mike Weinberger helped build the chain to 500-plus franchises, and then oversaw the 2015 sale of the brand to a global leader in the quick-service restaurant industry. Mike is back, this time as COO of Unity Rd ., a Denver-based cannabis dispensary franchiser that is a leader in the rapidly expanding $30 billion legal marijuana industry. As Mike t...

Carrie Melissa Jones is a master-builder of so-called "Brand Communities," which go way beyond common social networking and online forums to cement a life-long sense of belonging among core customers, employees, and even vendors. Done right, brand communities can dramatically enrich the success of both for-profit and nonprofit organizations. The devil, of course, is in the details. Carrie is co-au...

You're sitting at an outdoor café and an important client of yours spots you. He comes over and extends his hand in greeting. Do you shake it or do you risk offending him by saying that you're adhering to social distancing rules? Likewise, you've scheduled a video conference with a prospective customer. You're both working from home. What do you wear? Business casual? Business dress? Shorts and a...

TikTok is the seventh most popular social-media app worldwide, with 100 million users in the U.S. alone. TikTok celebrities, such as Chef Vivian Aronson – with 20 million-plus likes on TikTok – have used the short-video platform to become highly successful internet entrepreneurs. But Chinese-owned TikTok is facing political headwinds, with India already banning the service and the United States th...

INTRODUCTION A: On this week's podcast, host and award-winning journalist Dean Rotbart interviews the co-founders of surefoot , a boutique agency offering an experienced, nimble team of strategists, designers, developers, and data analysts obsessed with growing companies like yours. INTRODUCTION B: On this week's podcast, host and award-winning journalist Dean Rotbart and his guests, the co-founde...

"I believe that capitalism is the most significant man-made invention ever." So declares this week's guest Dan Bruder , a respected author, business strategist , and educator. Dan is fully aware that his viewpoint isn't politically correct. Indeed, it conflicts with millions of dissatisfied Americans and protestors who blame the economic and political system that vests our country's trade and indu...

Why be an ordinary entrepreneur when you can become a "Celebrity Entrepreneur" and watch your bottom line grow along with your reputation? Clint Arthur , a Wizard Academy alumnus, trains business owners on his "scientific formula" to land TV interviews, paid speaking engagements, VIP invitations, and book contracts. As their visibility grows, so do their bank balances. Join Clint and host and awar...

When the COVID-19 shutdowns hit, entrepreneur Edwin Dearborn , an author and veteran advisor to small businesses, faced a double whammy: His Las Vegas-based consulting group helped clients grow their brands and sales by relying heavily on live, face-to-face conferences, exhibitions, and speaking engagements, the kind that Vegas is famous for hosting. But since the social distancing quarantines beg...

Former British Prime Minister and global diplomat Tony Blair credits Cheryl Strauss Einhorn , founder of CSE Consulting , with developing "the science of decision-making" and helping him resolve tough choices. Einhorn, a master problem-solver, business consultant, author, and public speaker, is the developer behind the AREA Method, an increasingly popular framework that allows executives, politici...

After scrutinizing Microsoft , Google , Apple , Facebook , and Amazon daily for more than five years, Alex Kantrowitz decoded the single secret they all share: No matter how large these and other successful tech giants grow or how established they become, they still run their companies with the mentality and risk-taking attitudes of a startup. Alex, who earlier this month launched his own independ...

Working from home? Stealing from your employers at home? In the new COVID-19 era, ripping off employers is easier and more common than you might imagine. The coronavirus outbreak has been a boon to employees who are willing to steal from their companies, as fraud and embezzlement are harder to prevent and detect when a company's workforce is able to cheat remotely. In addition, when employees must...

U.S.-China trade relations has been bumped off the front pages of American newspapers lately, as the toll of COVID-19 and race-related protests take center stage. But over the long-term, the U.S.-China trade conflict will have consequences for all American businesses – spreading from the political arena to every nook and cranny of our economy. Two of the most astute observers of this global financ...

Todd Sattersten is an author, literary agent, editor, blogger, and since January 2019, deputy publisher at Bard Press , the boutique house responsible for the success of The Little Red Book of Selling , The Gift of Struggle , The One Thing , and, of course, the incomparable Wizard of Ads Trilogy by Roy H. Williams . Todd makes his living, in part, by trying to forecast where consumer taste in read...

[Monday Morning Radio listeners are eligible to register for "Understanding TikTok and How It Can Turbocharge Your Sales," an invitation-only live video conference on June 18th. Sign up here .] Zero to $1 Billion in a relatively short time is the stuff that entrepreneurial dreams are made of. Yet, a number of recent starts ups have done just that. In his new book, Billion Dollar Brand Club , veter...

When Kevin Vallely isn't working his "day job" as an architect, he can be found on one of many adventures, such as breaking the world record for the fastest unsupported trek to the geographic South Pole. When Amy Posey , a management consultant and former leadership expert with Deloitte, isn't at her desk, she's might be found paragliding, or joining Kevin in crossing Baffin Island in the Canadian...