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 2009. Adi shares with Dean HBR’s updated approach to helping owners and managers create healthier, better-run, more successful companies.

Next week, Dean speaks with Fast Company's Stephanie Mehta about her career and her magazine’s focus on innovation in technology, leadership, and design.

In the final episode of the series, Rotbart holds court with Randall Lane, editor and chief content officer at Forbes, which focuses on business, investing, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, and lifestyle.

You won’t earn an MBA after listening to these three influential journalists, but you’ll feel as if you have.

Photo: Adi Ignatius, Harvard Business Review
Posted: October 26, 2020
Monday Morning Run Time: 1 Hour, Three Minutes and 30 Seconds

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 Collaboration — owners and managers can become results-driven leaders who not only inspire their colleagues but also get much greater satisfaction from their work.

“Let’s just end the debate; leaders are not born, they’re made,” Jill tells host and award-winning journalist Dean Rotbart. Hear her proven formula for success exclusively on this week’s Monday Morning Radio.

Purchase your own copy of Leadership Through Trust & Collaboration here.

Photo: Jill Ratliff, Jill Ratliff Leadership
Posted: October 19, 2020
Monday Morning Run Time: 49:36

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 is perfect timing for authors Jonathan Littman and Susana Camp, whose recently released book, The Entrepreneur’s Faces, relies on real-life profiles of small business founders to help owners find their individual innovation style and edge.

The good news, Littman and Camp tell host and award-winning journalist Dean Rotbart, is that people from all backgrounds and walks of life can master the challenges of entrepreneurship.

Purchase your own copy of The Entrepreneur’s Faces here.

Photo: Susanna Camp and Jonathan Littman, The Entrepreneur’s Faces
Posted: October 12, 2020
Monday Morning Run Time: 54:19

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 in real life (it does), what lessons might you discover about competing, recruiting, and marketing your team that also apply to small businesses?

Bill Rogan, the 2019 rookie manager of the Tucson Saguaros, joins host Dean Rotbart this week to share the thrills of victory and the agonies of defeat managing a team far from the big city.

Pick up your own copy of Bill Rogan’s “Life Ain’t the Same in the Pecos League” here.

To add your name to the list of those who would like more information about joining Bill and Dean at a Pecos League game next season, email dean@MondayMorningRadio.com and be sure to include your name and phone number.

Photo: Bill Rogan, Manager, Santa Fe Fuego
Posted: October 5, 2020
Monday Morning Run Time: 51:42

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 challenge was not merely how to manage for a couple of weeks or even months. That’s hard enough.

He soon realized his new family responsibilities would be with him for years, even decades to come. Indeed, it’s now nearly 25 years later, and Dave remains Charlene’s primary caregiver.

Dave turned his family’s misfortune into a business, CaregiverDave.com, that instructs other caregivers — especially entrepreneurs — how to handle unexpected caregiving duties.

Dave is the author of “It’s My Life Too: Thrive and Stay Alive as a Caregiver.” He is also a much-in-demand public speaker, a radio host, and a frequent media guest.

Dave’s insights, says host and award-winning journalist Dean Rotbart, are especially valuable as we continue to struggle with COVID-19, which has spawned more first-time caregivers over the past six months than in any era since the scourge of polio.

“Even if such a crisis never comes knocking at your door, there are some valuable lessons that we can all learn from how Dave was dealt a truly awful hand, and yet, using ingenuity, dedication, determination, and persistence converted his experience into an invaluable service for others,” Dean notes.

Photo: David Nassaney, CaregiverDave.com
Posted: September 28, 2020
Monday Morning Run Time: 36:30

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 other women level the playing field when it comes to technology, accounting, and business in general.

For those who have XY chromosomes (i.e., Men), host and award-winning journalist Dean Rotbart says Madeline is a great model for creating a business concept with a mission and targeted audience. Her entrepreneurial insights, he adds, are universal.

[Note: Did you know that Monday Morning Radio is now available to stream or download from Amazon Music Podcasts? Also, subscribe for free at Apple Podcasts.]

Photo: Madeline Pratt, Fearless in Training
Posted: September 21, 2020
Monday Morning Run Time: 39 minutes

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 balloon, but as Sandi tells host and award-winning journalist Dean Rotbart, her method is more likely to help you grow your business, practice, or sales than it is to land you a megabucks book advance. The good news, Sandi says, is that if you start today, your “business authority” book will be available from Amazon.com before the year is out.

Book It! by Sandi Masori is available now from Amazon.com. 

Are you already a self-published author or do you plan to be? You can sell your book at GutenbergsStore.com, and receive a better cut of sales than Amazon offers. Contact host Dean Rotbart at 303-296-1200 for details.

Photo: Sandi Masori, ExpertBook4U.com
Posted: September 14, 2020
Monday Morning Run Time: 53:05

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 Enterprise often practice what they preach, simultaneously reporting for the publication and running their own outside entrepreneurial ventures.

This week, host and award-winning journalist Dean Rotbart speaks with one of the magazine’s longest-serving top editors, Alfred Edmond, Jr., about his successful business, A2Z Personal Growth Enterprises, aka GrownZone.com. GrownZone delivers “relationship education” to business owners who often don’t recognize the strong correlation between the success of their love life and the profitability of their companies.

Alfred’s book, Loving in the Grown Zone, co-authored with his wife and business partner, Zara Green, is a no-nonsense guide to making healthy decisions in the quest for loving, romantic relationships of honor, esteem, and respect.

The book will be of particular interest and help to anyone who has messed up when it comes to their romantic relationships.

Loving in the Grown Zone makes a wonderful graduation gift for high school or college students, allowing them to avoid the mistakes that so many couples make. You can purchase copies of the book here.

Photo: Alfred Edmond, Jr., GrownZone.com
Posted: September 7, 2020
Monday Morning Run Time: 56:43

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 tells host and award-winning journalist Dean Rotbart, today’s cannabis marketplace is teaming with the type of potential - as well as risk - not seen in the U.S. since prohibition ended in December 1933. Listen in as Mike spells out the unique challenges and opportunities that today’s dispensary owners face.

Photo: Mike Weinberger, Unity Rd.
Posted: August 31, 2020
Monday Morning Run Time: 47:51

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-author of “Building Brand Communities: How Organizations Succeed by Creating Belonging.” As important as who successful brand communities seek to attract, she tells host Dean Rotbart, are who they consciously choose to alienate. 

Pick up your own copy of Carrie’s book here.

Photo: Carrie Melissa Jones, Gather Community Consulting
Posted: August 24, 2020
Monday Morning Run Time: 49:22