[This edition of Monday Morning Radio begins our 12th year of podcasting in conjunction with the non-profit Wizard Academy and its co-founder, Roy H. Williams. This is our 550th episode.]

When it comes to career moves, bestselling author Joanne Lipman has been very successful and resilient. 

She was the first woman to become a deputy managing editor at The Wall Street Journal. She was the founding editor-in chief-of Condé Nast’s award-winning Portfolio magazine. She served as editor-in-chief of USA Today and chief content officer of its parent company, Gannett.

Currently, Joanne is a regular contributor to CNBC and a lecturer at Yale University.

In her latest book, Next!: The Power of Reinvention in Life and Work, Joanne provides countless examples of people who reinvented themselves - some willingly, others who had no choice. As she tells host Dean Rotbart, anyone following the methods she prescribes can make the successful leap from one career to the next and the next after that. 

[Joanne discussed her bestselling book, That’s What She Said, on our June 17, 2019, podcast.]

Photo: Joanne Lipman, Next!
Posted: June 18, 2023
Monday Morning Run Time: 41:45
Episode: 12.01

RECENT EPISODES:

• What Would Your Business Do Differently Today If You Knew the Future?

• Hear the Fairytale-Esq Story of Dave Combs’ “Rachel’s Song” – and the Business Savvy That Propels It

• In Today’s Business World, the Means to Success Often Matter As Much as the Ends

Dave Albin helps business executives and employees face and overcome their fears. But that’s nothing special. Dave’s methods, however, make him unique among corporate coaches.

Dave is the #1 firewalk instructor in America, having cajoled more than one-half million people to tiptoe, barefoot, over a bed of coals exceeding 1,000 degrees in temperature. 

A disciple of Tony Robbins, Dave ran firewalks for the mega-motivator for almost two decades before striking out on his own to form Firewalk Adventures. 

As Dave tells host and award-winning author Dean Rotbart, firewalking is a 1,000-year-old rite of passage. F.E.A.R., in Dave’s way of thinking, either stands for Forget Everything and Run or Face Everything and Rise. In Dave’s experience, those who muster the courage to firewalk return to their careers and personal lives with much more self-confidence.

In addition to firewalking, Dave and his crew at Firewalk Adventures also offer confidence-building glass walks, board breaks, arrow breaks, and fire eating. Which you choose depends on your needs and tastes. 

Dave says the most challenging part of marching over hot coals or broken glass is the first step. Want to overcome your limiting fears? Your first step is clicking begins by downloading this week’s red hot episode. 

Photo: Dave Albin, Firewalk Adventures
Posted: June 12, 2023
Monday Morning Run Time: 50:03
Episode: 11.43

RECENT EPISODES:

• Planning Your Next Live Business Event in the Post-COVID-19 Era

• The Secret to Becoming an Extraordinary Leader: “Dux te ipsum duc”

• Sometimes, Ignorance is the Perfect Preparation for Running a Successful Business

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 Forged a New Path for Medicine
Posted: June 5, 2023
Monday Morning Run Time: 45:36
Episode: 11.42

 POPULAR RECENT EPISODES:

• Nick Loper Can Show You How to Earn Some Serious Extra Income

• Running a Business is Like Coaching a Sports Franchise: Would You Be a Champion?

• “What the Hell is an Economy” Distills Complex Economics into An Easy-to-Understand Read

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 “futureback” approach to planning.

Bob and his coauthors are associated with the Palo Alto, California-based Institute for the Future, a spinoff from RAND Corporation founded in 1968. IFTF is the world's oldest continuously running futures research and educational organization.  

OTHER BOOKS BY BOB JOHANSEN:

• The New Leadership Literacies: Thriving in a Future of Extreme Disruption and Distributed Everything

• Get There Early: Sensing the Future to Compete in the Present

• Leaders Make the Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World

Photo: Bob Johansen, Institute for the Future
Posted: May 29, 2023
Monday Morning Run Time: 47:59
Episode: 11.41

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• No Matter the Circumstances, Resilience is a Muscle Anyone Can Develop

• The Secret to Becoming an Extraordinary Leader: “Dux te ipsum duc”

• Stop Waiting For Someone to Anoint You a Leader, and Just Be One

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 scenes look at how entrepreneur Mike Kaeding and his parents nurtured their innovative real estate business from nothing to its current trajectory on target to reach the unicorn status of a $1 billion valuation.

To hear Mike’s February 2023 appearance on Monday Morning Radio, click here.]

Photo: Nick Loper, Side Hustle Nation
Posted: May 22, 2023
Monday Morning Run Time: 46:30
Episode: 11.40

RECENT EPISODES:

• Hear the Fairytale-Esq Story of Dave Combs’ “Rachel’s Song” – and the Business Savvy That Propels It

• In Today’s Business World, the Means to Success Often Matter As Much as the Ends

• Meet America’s Only Chief Results Officer

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 Mintzberg, Understanding Organizations … Finally
Posted: May 15, 2023
Monday Morning Run Time: 48:46
Episode: 11.39

RECENT EPISODES:

• Planning Your Next Live Business Event in the Post-COVID-19 Era

• The Secret to Becoming an Extraordinary Leader: “Dux te ipsum duc”

• Sometimes, Ignorance is the Perfect Preparation for Running a Successful Business

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, Accenture
Posted: May 8, 2023
Monday Morning Run Time: 39:02
Episode: 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 that Propels It

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 author Dean Rotbart points out that fueling Dave’s serendipity were some savvy business insights — the kind that can help make anyone’s bottom line sing.

Download and savor your own copy of Rachel’s Song for free from CombsMusic.com.

PIck up a copy of Dave Combs’ inspirational autobiography: Touched by the Music: How the Story and Music of “Rachel’s Song” Can Change Your Life.

The producer for this week’s episode is Blane Nicholas, who has worked the audio mastery behind the scenes for Monday Morning Radio for more than a decade.

Blane is no stranger to working with dynamic music artists. A veteran of iHeartMedia and Apple Music, Blane has produced programs featuring Bruce Springsteen, Alanis Morissette, Kanye West, Jon Bon Jovi, Keith Richards, Sean Lennon, Metallica, Joan Jett, LL Cool J, and dozens of other music icons.

Photo: Dave Combs, Combs Music
Posted: May 1, 2023
Monday Morning Run Time: One Hour and Eleven Minutes
Episode: 11.37

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 successful writers; and the one subject Nobel laureate William Faulkner — author of “The Sound and the Fury” — didn’t want to talk about.

The 18th Annual Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference will be held August 17-20, 2023. For registration information, click here.

Photo: Clay Stafford, Killer Nashville
Posted: April 24, 2023
Monday Morning Run Time: 46:38
Episode: 11.36

[Listen again to Clay Stafford’s first Monday Morning Radio interview here.]

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 roadmap leads to greater job satisfaction, elevated relationships, and better business outcomes. 

Photo: David C. Tate, Conscious Accountality
Posted: April 17, 2023
Monday Morning Run Time: 48:18
Episode: 11.35