Monday Morning Radio

Advertising fails when you lack the right idea, strategy and campaign.  David Biondo learned this the hard way, as he has gone about promoting his wealth management practice, Signal Butte Financial Corp . So David, who is based in Denver and co-hosts Monday Morning Radio , recently retained Wizard of Ads Partner Mike Slover , who is based in Carbondale, Illinois, to help him do it the right way. ...

In the age of ubiquitous cell phone cameras and selfies, Kalvis Jauanarajs and his company, Snapden , have had to rethink and reinvent the low-tech photo booth, which once flourished as a novelty located at F.W. Woolworth and other five-and-dime stores. In fact, the photo booth business is anything but obsolete. Thanks to savvy design improvements and greater mobility, Snapden photo booths are pop...

Just on time for spring, meet Nova Covington , a "mompreneur" whose natural sunscreen products are among the bestselling in the nation.  Nova started her company, Goddess Garden , 10 years ago, when she was searching for a solution to allergies that her newborn daughter had to the chemicals contained in conventional bath and skin care products. Goddess Garden has enjoyed sunny growth almost from d...

Tom Fischer is a Renaissance Man, whose life credentials include being a successful entrepreneur, world-class bourbon connoisseur, Sports Illustrated  swimsuit issue model, butler, Oxford professor and - perhaps most importantly, a proud Wizard Academy graduate. In a wide-ranging interview, Tom, proprietor of BourbonBlog.com , talks about the booming bourbon industry, his eclectic career, and his...

Jeff and Tina Schmitt work on the cutting edge of the apparel industry and are leaders in producing fashions that help women of all shapes and sizes feel comfortable and confident in their clothing. Their "of-the-moment" lifestyle brand is super hot. The Schmitts, a small-business duo, founded their company, Soybu , in 1998, and now sell their women's active wear through major retailers, including...

Have you got an important interview coming up, perhaps for a new job or with an angel investor?  Do you know how to best answer the questions?  Can you turn the tables on your interviewer and actually ask the correct questions? Gail Palubiak has spent more than 30 years studying the art of the interview and her company, Interview Academy , now tutors experienced executives and others in guerilla-l...

  Compared to weighty LinkedIn , with well over 250 million worldwide users, Renee Wilbur 's ReciProty has all the heft of a fleck of dust. But it's ReciProty 's small size, and the tight-knit community that it begets, that makes the Beaverton, Oregon, online resource exchange so valuable to those members who do discover it. Wilbur reports that her small business members regularly go out of their...

Shannon  and  Dino Watt , owners of  The Business of Marriage , teach couples how to run their relationships more like a business, and vice versa.   The Watts, who call themselves " Marriage Mentors ," coach couples throughout the country to create a mission statement, take periodic relationship inventories, and schedule regular Marriage Mastermind meetings.  Just in time for  Valentine's Day , th...

Whether you've always dreamed of running for public office or you're campaigning to win new clients for your business, the skill sets required are Ben Eisenberg 's professional domain.  Ben, president and founder of Smarter Campaigns , has participated in nearly 30 campaigns, ranging from State Representative to President of the United States. On this week's Monday Morning Radio , Ben reveals the...

Turns out that words comprise only 7% of what people communicate, while 93% of person-to-person communication show ups in body language. Think about what you may be missing, if you can't correctly read the body language of employees, customers, salespeople, even your own spouse and children? Kirk and Kim Duncan have built their Salt Lake City-based company, 3 Key Elements , into an Inc 500 (#257)...

Love and money are not oxymorons, although plenty of otherwise bright and successful entrepreneurs behave like blockheads when it comes to nurturing the single most valuable asset in their lives - their relationship with their spouse. Even if you're not a romantic dimwit, world-renowned marriage counselor (and  Wizard Academy director)  Dr. Richard D. "Nick" Grant  offers plenty of great insights...

Ben Kramlich has a beef with the way most meat snack-food products are produced in this country.  So the Oshkosh, Wisconsin-based entrepreneur is traveling a different path, producing his Gourmet Grassfed nutritious snacks in an ecologically and economically responsible fashion:  relying on local farms that raise their animals strictly on grass.  No antibiotics.  No hormones. No artificial nitrate...

In the mold of great motivational speakers, including Zig Ziglar and Les Brown , Jonathan Sprinkles has been wowing nationwide audiences - both large and small - with his wisdom and humor, helping those who attend recommit to excellence and success. At one time a top salesman at Dell Computers , Jonathan was honored for his leadership, customer service and team-building skill, and chosen by Dell f...

Janet Sanders , founder and CEO of Incom Direct , is an entrepreneurial rebel with a cause.   With her last $500 - and working out of the back of her home - Janet set out in 2002 to revolutionize the credit card processing industry.  Her goal was to bring down the price that merchants, such as she, paid for accepting MasterCard and Visa . Today, Janet's Incom Direct clears more than $2 billion ann...

The Guppy Tank is small group of investors who conduct regional competitions around the country among small business owners.  Based loosely on ABC TV's popular program, The Shark Tank , these so-called Guppies allow entrepreneurs to vie for either an equity investment, a cash flow business loan, or some combination of both. This week's guest on Monday Morning Radio is Darrin Ginsberg, founder and...

Zach Randall and his partner Nick Yorchak earn their living advising other entrepreneurs how to build online traffic and revenue strategies. Earlier this year, Zach and Nick decided to take their own advice - launching ShaveMOB.com , a national web retailer that let's men and women purchase premium shaving razors at discounts of as much as 70%. On this week's edition of Monday Morning Radio , Zach...

This past October, nearly 6,000 business executives, most of them mom-and-pop operators, gathered in Austin, Texas to attend a global conference designed to make them more successful at their jobs….  as Funeral Directors . Death remains a huge business in the United States and one of the few major industries that continues to be dominated by individual and family owners.   On Monday Morning Radio...

Are you tough enough for the Wizard Academy and its vigorous creative and intellectual obstacle courses? Well toughen up, because this week's guest on Monday Morning Radio is none other than Academy graduate Mark Divine , who served two decades in the elite U.S. Navy SEALs , retiring as a commander. Mark, author of the new book, The Way of the Seal , reveals how anyone can "think like an elite war...

John Lavenia has hit deeper bottoms than most people ever do.  Down on his luck, broke, a drug addict, from an abusive home, he turned his life around - both personally and professionally - and has become a much in-demand speaker and trainer, who has taught thousands of others how they can write their own "rags-to-riches" life script. Lavenia, who dubbs himself " The Godzilla of Personal Growth ,"...

In a little more than three years, Craftsy.com has added more than 2 million members who gobble up its online classes, free videos and how-to articles. This week on Monday Morning Radio, Craftsy.com founder  John Levisay reveals how he and his team crafted their own entrepreneurial success story, relying heavily on social media. Also appearing on today's show is Wizard Academy alumnus Homer Hudson...

If you're not among that lucky bunch who will hang out with Jeff Sexton and Chris Maddock this week during the  Writing for Radio and the Internet workshop at Wizard Academy , here is some consolation: Jeff Sexton is Dean Rotbart and David Biondo 's guest on this week's edition of Monday Morning Radio . Whether you're writing your own web copy or hiring someone else to do it for you, this intervie...

Having returned to the fanfare of trumpets following his incredibly successful secret mission for the CIA, Dean Rotbart is back on the job this week with another installment of Monday Morning Radio , joined by his son and guest-host, Maxwell . This week, the Rotbarts casts their eyes on newly named Wizard Academy  Vice-Chancellor Daniel Whittington,  who talks about the growth and direction of the...

Since 1986, Dr. TC North has been coaching small and medium-sized businesses to create high-performing organizations that have extraordinary profitability and that people love to work for. Dr. North recently joined Business Unconventional  and Monday Morning Radio hosts David Biondo and Dean Rotbart for a lively discussion of his column, which appeared in Colorado Biz magazine, highlighting nine e...

Anyone who wants to start her own business, but is scared of failure, could take a page from  Lyla Padden ’s book. For Lyla, it was simple: she loved to bake, and she wanted a business. Thus,  Flour Gal  was born. Lyla’s mom, Monica, says that in 2010, “[Lyla] used to watch Cake Boss on TV and she just decided one day that she was going to start her own cupcake business.” The very next day, Lyla h...

The so-called sharing economy is growing rapidly in the United States as consumers and business owners recognize the value of sharing everything from private jets and cars to vacation homes.   Entrepreneur Melissa Kaye Snyder reasoned that such sharing services need not be confined to the rich.  So she launched Nannyshare USA , which pairs families who want in-home daycare with one another and pro...