One of Ray Bard’s favorite quotes in Fired Up! Selling, his compilation of great quotes out today (Monday, August 7th), comes from comedian Steve Martin: “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”

Which, says host and reputation coach Dean Rotbart, is an apt description of every book that Ray and his Bard Press publishing house produce, including bestsellers The ONE Thing; The Little Book of Selling; and, of course, The Wizard of Ads Trilogy, by Roy H. Williams.

In asking more than 1,200 quotes judges to help him select the 324 quotes used in Fired Up! Selling, Ray’s intention was to inspire, energize, and help salespeople succeed. But as Rotbart and Ray demonstrate on this week’s special edition of Monday Morning Radio, Fired Up! Selling is overflowing with wise words to motivate us all.

To order your copy of Fired Up! Selling right now, visit www.TinyUrl.com/RayBard.

Photo: Ray Bard, Fired Up! Selling 
Posted: August 7, 2017
Monday Morning Run Time: 42 minutes 42 seconds 

Corey Poirier is a big talker.

In fact, by his reckoning, he has given more than 2,000 speeches before a total of more than 200,000 attendees during his career as an award-winning keynote speaker, author, radio host, and speech coach.

Corey specializes in helping business owners and entrepreneurs leverage speeches to grow their companies, brands, and income.   

 This week Corey takes Monday Morning Radio listeners behind the podium to reveal his tricks of the trade.

Corey and host Dean Rotbart will cover Corey’s formula for securing and delivering a world-class TEDx talk; Corey’s storytelling strategy designed specifically for entrepreneurs and business owners; and how even those leaders who aren’t natural-born speakers can learn to hone the craft and wow their audiences.

Corey tells Dean that one of the secrets of being a great speaker is to be a great listener. Well, this week’s podcast is your opportunity to begin testing out your listening skills.

Photo: Corey Poirier 
Posted: July 31, 2017
Monday Morning Run Time: 39 minutes 36 seconds 

Forty-five years ago, comedian George Carlin immortalized seven words too profane for the broadcast airways. When you heard them, you knew exactly why the government banned them.

By contrast, the eleven words that are the focus of The Woman’s Book of Dirty Words, by businesswoman Mary Fran Bontempo, seem perfectly innocuous on the surface, including: vacation, dinner, holidays, adventure, and change.

Yet Mary Fran’s premise is that some everyday words, such as these, carry a powerful emotional load – especially for middle-age women like her – that marketers, journalists, and middle-age women themselves seldom recognize as being explosive – but most definitely are.

Host and reputation coach Dean Rotbart says not everyone will agree with Mary Fran’s list of dirty words – but her book is an important reminder of the care that all wordsmiths must take in realizing that what they write and speak may be skewed by the prisms of age, gender, race, nationality, and life experience.

Photo: Mary Fran Bontempo, The Woman's Book of Dirty Words 
Posted: July 24, 2017
Monday Morning Run Time: 40 minutes 46 seconds 

Last night – Sunday, July 16th – was the Season 7 premiere of HBO’s smash hit, Game of Thrones, which consistently averages more than 23 million viewers per episode.

One byproduct of the show’s huge popularity is that it has ignited global demand for genuine Viking and medieval collectibles.

This week, on a special double-header edition, host and reputation coach Dean Rotbart showcases two businesses that have ridden the Game of Thrones coattails to phenomenal success.

First, Dean interviews Bob Dodge, co-founder of Artemis Gallery, a leading U.S. auction house selling Viking artifacts and jewelry; and then Dean sets sail on an entrepreneurial voyage of discovery with http://www.artemisgallery.com/, a senior executive with LiveAuctioneers.com, which runs live auctions in 47 countries worldwide and has hard data on just how “hot” the Viking collectibles market is right now.

This week, on a special holiday-weekend edition of Monday Morning Radio, host Dean Rotbart interviews Richard G. “Rick” Ross, founder and owner of GALERIE Candy & Gifts. GALERIE is known the world over for creating highly original, trendy novelties and gifts around candies, including collector’s items, interactive toys, plush characters, and the like.

Rick’s company also produces and distributes branded treats for Hershey, Disney, Warner Brothers, Marvel – and tons of popular movies, including Star Wars, Despicable Me, Minions, and Trolls.

The interview is a reunion of sorts for Dean and Rick, who first met back in 1981 – when Rick was a 19-year-old jelly bean entrepreneur and Dean, then 24, was a cub reporter working for The Wall Street Journal in its Cleveland bureau. 

That year, Dean actually profiled Rick on the front page of the Journal, a distinction that few small business owners will ever be lucky or successful enough to merit.

Rick, now 56, is in the Candy Hall of Fame. 

This week, Rick not only catches up with Dean, he shares his storybook journey from teen tycoon to candy industry senior statesman, and talks about the pluses and minuses of achieving success and recognition at such an early age.

Fittingly, Rick’s mother, Helen, makes a cameo on the podcast, as it was Rick’s mother who really launched him on his path to success.

Photo: Richard G. "Rick" Ross, GALERIE 
Posted: July 3, 2017
Monday Morning Run Time: 38 minutes 40 seconds 

Renee Lopez spent 14 years coaching college soccer, turning around losing teams, recruiting all-conference talent, and being named by her peers in the NCAA, Coach of the Year. 

These days, Renee is coaching teams of business owners, entrepreneurs, and their employees on the art of winning, leadership development, and recruiting all-American workplace talent.

Renee, head of Renee Lopez Coaching, says that the competitive fields of college athletics and Corporate America have more in common than most people realize. 

This week on Monday Morning Radio, Renee shares her insights with host and reputation coach Dean Rotbart on ways to properly set business goals and score them.

[One difference between soccer and business that Dean is quick to point out – and Renee readily concedes, is that in business you don’t get to kick your rivals in the shins, as satisfying as that can be.]

Photo: Renee Lopez, RL Academy 
Posted: June 26, 2017
Monday Morning Run Time: 36 minutes 17 seconds 

This week’s guest, Dr. Cristal Glangchai, is a successful entrepreneur and educator, who runs the Austin-based nonprofit, VentureLab. Beginning at the tender age of five, VentureLab teaches students to think like entrepreneurs – by anticipating needs, innovating, creating, and taking calculated risks.

VentureLab, which Dr. Glangchai founded and heads, enjoys a nationwide reputation, in particular, for helping students – especially girls – fuel their passion for STEM subjects - science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

By putting VentureLab’s courses online for free, Dr. Glangchai is on track to have three out of every four high school students in America complete at least one of her classes before they graduate.

Dr. Glangchai tells host Dean Rotbart, her “graduates” will be well positioned to be the innovators and builders of our future.

Photo: Dr. Cristal Glangchai, VentureLab 
Posted: June 19, 2017
Monday Morning Run Time: 38 minutes 53 seconds 

Daniel DiPiazza is a successful, 29-year-old entrepreneur, who has built a massive, cult-like social networking following by advising other 20 and 30-somethings how to escape average jobs and become self-directed entrepreneurs.

Daniel’s website and freshly minted book are titled Rich20Something.

But this week, in a surprising interview with host and reputation coach Dean Rotbart, Daniel reveals that his advice actually is not aimed exclusively at those born after 1977.

Instead, Daniel sees all of us who own or operate businesses in 2017 as being part of the millennial generation – because, he contends, it is the tools, ideas, and philosophies of the millennial generation that are currently disrupting the business world.

[Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) is 33; Evan Spiegel (Snap) is 27; Kevin Systrom (Instagram) is 33; and Brian Chesky (Airbnb) is 35.]

“Millennial,” Daniel says, is a frame of mind, not a birthdate. How old is your thinking?

Photo: Daniel DiPiazza, Rich20Something.com 
Posted: June 12, 2017
Monday Morning Run Time: 34 minutes 54 seconds 

Do you own a business or a job? Perhaps, all you really own is an expensive hobby.

David C. Barnett, an expert on business valuations and how to buy or sell small businesses, meets with many small business owners who are disappointed to learn that their companies have zero market value without them.

To own a genuine business, David tells host and reputation coach Dean Rotbart, you must have systems, procedures, and processes in place that aren’t reliant on any single individual. 

[Visit David's website at www.HowToSellMyOwnBusiness.com]

If one day you plan to sell your business, or you would like to transform your business from one wholly reliant on you to one that will attract serious buyers, you’ll want to hear what David has to say on this week’s Monday Morning Radio.

Photo: David C. Barnett, www.HowToSellMyOwnBusiness.com
Posted: June 5, 2017
Monday Morning Run Time: 41 minutes 52 seconds 

One of the best untold stories in Silicon Valley has been how Mark Zuckerberg and his talented team of associates, built Facebook from the successful started up depicted in the book – Accidental Billionaire – and its movie version – The Social Network, into the globally dominant corporation that Facebook is today, with more than 2 billion users.

That coming of age story, following Facebook from its IPO to becoming a $300 billion-plus powerhouse, is chronicled in Becoming Facebook, a riveting new book by this week’s guest, Mike Hoefflinger.

From 2008 to 2015, Mike worked in the upper-most echelons of Facebook, not only with Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, but with other legendary Facebook visionaries including: Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer, and People Vice President Lori Goler.

Becoming Facebook, Mike’s first book, does much more than give readers a seat at the table inside of Facebook.

Subtitled, The 10 Challenges That Defined the Company That’s Disrupting the World, the book takes a big step back to ask – and answer – the question: What it is that has made Facebook such a huge success – and what lessons can everyone in business draw from the Facebook formula.

Mike Hoefflinger now services as entrepreneur-in-residence at XSeed Capital, a Silicon Valley seed stage venture capital fund. His job now, in part, is to try and spot the next Facebook, and the ones after that.

Beyond sharing with host and reputation coach Dean Rotbart his Facebook experience, Mike reveals where he’s looking for the next big breakout company and technology. 

Photo: Mike Hoefflinger, Becoming Facebook
Posted: May 29, 2017
Monday Morning Run Time: 37 minutes 32 seconds