Monday Morning Radio

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,...

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 vie...

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 contin...

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. Ste...

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 larges...

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 manag...

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 o...

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...

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 t...

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 Chang...

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 sele...

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 executive...

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 autho...

Karen Elliott House was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for her coverage of the Middle East. Arguably, she knows more about the region, and Saudi Arabia in particular, than any other active journalist or author.  For her latest book,  Why Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Matters to the World , Karen conducted more than half a dozen in-depth interviews with the...

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 divid...

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 i...

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 unmatche...

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 gra...

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 th...

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 ico...

In a world awash with free educational videos and paid programs from platforms such as Udemy and Teachable, Damon Lembi and his team at Learnit are thriving by delivering impressive results. Their secret? Equipping small and mid-sized businesses with the tools to outmaneuver corporate giants, while helping employees build confidence, sharpen skills, and boost job satisfaction. To date, Learnit has...

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 in...

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...

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 rest...

"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...