Business and brand websites have existed for almost three decades. Yet most companies still don’t know how to design them so that their messaging aligns with and supports their advertising, social media, and point-of-sale communication. 

Moreover, most present-day websites fail to incorporate language that appeals to each of the four major personality types, relying on so-called persuasion architecture.

Vi Wickam, an exceptional digital and ad strategist, optimizes websites to deliver more leads, sales, and happier customers.

A veteran Wizard of Ads partner, Vi not only helps his own clients but also teams with expert marketers worldwide to ensure their clients' websites perform like virtuoso violinists, delivering exceptional and harmonious results.

Even then, Vi notes, there is no resting on your laurels: No website is ever complete.

Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart.

Photo: Vi Wickam, Wizard of Ads Online
Posted: June 24, 2024
Monday Morning Run Time: 46:32
Episode: #600

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For the head of a successful business coaching firm, Toronto-based Launch and Scale, Khierstyn Ross, founder and CEO, has an odd goal.

“We actually want our clients to fire us,” the e-commerce strategist tells host and award-winning journalist Dean Rotbart.

Khierstyn is crazy — crazy like a fox. Her firm’s mission is to help launch and scale online brands until they achieve $3 million in annual sales. She’s done that successfully for dozens of brands.

However, by the time her clients’ sales grow to $10 million in yearly revenues, Khierstyn says her nestlings need to move on. That is, fire her before she fires them.

Whether you’re a startup or long-established, Khierstyn’s growth methodology and operational discipline are sure to impress you.

Photo: Khierstyn Ross, Launch and Scale
Posted: April 10, 2023
Monday Morning Run Time: 37:12
Episode: 11.34

Stephen Semple is a marketing and advertising wizard. Moreover, he is an iconoclast - creating winning campaigns for his grateful clients and his own agency by marching to a different drummer.

Officially, Stephen is the Director of Wizard of Ads Canada and one of the elite Wizard of Ads partners who work in collaboration with other creative geniuses around the globe. He is also the co-host of The Empire Builders Podcast, where each week, he and his co-host reverse engineer the playbook of some of today’s most admired and successful companies, traveling back in time to their early years to study their growth formula.

Host and award-winning author Dean Rotbart speaks with Stephen on this week’s Monday Morning Radio, covering a wide range of topics and dispensing invaluable business wisdom nuggets.

Among the topics, Stephen explains why cutting-edge online titans - including Google, Amazon, eBay, and Airbnb — are shifting their promotional dollars to traditional media, including TV, radio, direct mail, and billboards.

Stephen studies, dissects, and decodes the success secrets of business empires. This week, listeners get to see his decoder ring in operation.

Photo: Stephen Semple, Wizard of Ads Canada
Posted: January 9, 2023
Monday Morning Run Time: 1 hour and 56 seconds

LAST WEEK: Cathy Nesbitt is in a Slimy Business, and Her Customers Adore Her: How the One-Time Executive Secretary Wormed Her Way to Entrepreneurial Success

What can an annual race featuring weiner dogs teach serious entrepreneurs and business owners about correctly predicting the outcome of any marketing campaign before spending a dime on testing the concept? Plenty.

That’s the bottom line of Peter Nevland’s latest book, Wiener Dog Marketing: A Silly Sounding Book for Serious Business Growth. The fast read not only features lessons Peter has gleaned from teaching and attending classes at the Wizard Academy, it also maps the mind of the Wizard himself, Roy H. Williams.

Peter is one of the elite Wizard of Ads partners who helps already successful businesses find their unique path to much greater success, much faster.

Peter was last a guest on Monday Morning Radio a decade ago, when he discussed his evolution from an engineer to a wordsmith and word coach.

This week Peter shares with host and award-winning author Dean Rotbart the secrets of sniffing out a successful marketing strategy, one short-legged, long-bodied canine at a time.

Photo: Peter Nevland, Weiner Dog Marketing
Posted: June 27, 2022
Monday Morning Run Time: 45:10

[Listeners to Monday Morning Radio can now purchase a copy of Dean Rotbart’s new book, September Twelfth: An American Comeback Story. Visit Gutenberg’s Store.]   

Many companies don’t realize they are sitting on a mother lode of extremely valuable assets that they underutilize or don’t use at all.

The assets are customer purchase data and preferences, and unless companies use artificial intelligence — AI —  to effectively mine that data, they are missing out on an undeveloped vein of marketing gold. 

Raj Venkatesan is a professor of business administration at the University of Virginia and one of the nation’s most respected experts on using AI in marketing. Co-author of “The AI Marketing Canvas,” this week Raj shares with host and award-winning journalist Dean Rotbart his five-stage road map that any company can follow to reap AI riches.

Photo: Raj Venkatesan, The AI Marketing Canvas
Posted: August 30, 2021
Monday Morning Run Time: 38:12

There are strategies of when, how, and why to use LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram, and Andrea Stenberg is an expert at helping small business owners and entrepreneurs harness them.

Good content – including the use of self-produced videos –  Andrea explains to host Dean Rotbart, is only part of the equation. More importantly, knowing exactly how to target prospective customers and clients, and how to buy paid messaging, will determine whether even the best content ever gets noticed, much less goes viral.

This week Andrea guides Monday Morning Radio listeners through the shoals of social networking visibility.

[Be sure to visit Andrea’s website, The Baby Boomer Entrepreneur, to get a free copy of “The Low Cost Online Video Toolkit.”]

Photo: Andrea Stenberg, The Baby Boom Entrepreneur
Posted: August 12, 2019
Monday Morning Run Time: 38 Minutes 09 Seconds

Fauzia Burke and her team at FSB Associates specialize in creating online awareness for books and authors. 

Since Fauzia launched her specialty marketing and publicity firm in 1995, FSB has orchestrated more than 2,000 successful book publicity campaigns, including those for award-winning actor Alan Alda; mega-authors Ken Blanchard and Brian Tracy, South Beach Diet guru Dr. Arthur Agaston, entrepreneur and publisher Arianna Huffington; broadcaster Mika Brzesinski; former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, and Jordan Goodman, America’s Money Answers Man.

Fauzia, herself, is the author of “Online Marketing for Busy Authors” - a must-read for any writer who doesn’t want to see his or her book make an express trip to the Bargain Books shelves at Barnes & Noble.

This week, in an extended interview, host and award-winning journalist Dean Rotbart talks with Fauzia about good PR, but more importantly, they detail how authors and publishers can successfully sell their books online.

Refreshingly, as you’ll hear, when Dean asks Fauzia a straight question, she gives him a straight answer. Questions include:

• Can you make money writing books?
• Does celebrity fluff sell better than quality research and writing?
• Do mainstream publishers do a good job promoting their books?
• How often has FSB failed to promote a book successfully?

 Fauzia - a Pakistani immigrant who arrived here in 1981 and was raised by a single mom - is an American success story, an inspiration, and an entrepreneur who has helped hundreds of authors fulfill their own dreams. 

Listen and Profit Now™ as she shares her inspirational journey – both business and personal.

Photo: Fauzia Burke, FSB Associates
Posted: July 22, 2019
Monday Morning Run Time: 1 Hour 11 Minutes

Clorox Bleach is 6% sodium hypochlorite and 94% water, the exact formulation of most generic store brands. Yet Clorox consistently commands 65% of U.S. bleach sales.

Why?

Because, says Lindsay Pedersen, who oversaw the hygienic cleaner for The Clorox Company, Clorox Bleach is an “ironclad” brand, one of many she showcases in her new book, “Forging an Ironclad Brand: A Leader’s Guide.”

Lindsay, whose Ironclad Brand Strategy consulting firm has also helped build ironclad brands for Starbucks, T-Mobile, Zulily, and other large companies, believes that a business’s brand it too important to be left to marketers alone. As she explains to host Dean Rotbart, brand is such a crucial driver of value creation that it needs to be developed and supported by virtually every employee at a company or organization, starting with the CEO.

Good brand, Lindsay notes, really is just good business.

You may think you know enough about branding or that your business or practice doesn’t need to have an ironclad brand to succeed.

You’d be surprised at how many customers and how much profit you likely are missing out on.

Hear for yourself on this week’s edition of Monday Morning Radio.

Photo: Lindsay Pedersen, Ironclad Brand Strategy
Posted: April 22, 2019
Monday Morning Run Time: 45:17

Getting a popular entertainer, athlete, author, blogger, or YouTuber to say nice things about your business or products is a powerful way to generate sales.

Greg Jameson, author of The Influencer Effect, specializes in helping companies identify the influential men and women who can provide them the greatest endorsement leverage, and then negotiating terms with those influencers.

As Greg explains to host and reputation coach Dean Rotbart, an effective influencer needn’t have a household name. Anyone with a loyal following, no matter how small, can often produce over-sized results for the companies and products that they endorse.

Photo: Greg Jameson, The Influencer Effect
Posted: June 4, 2018
Monday Morning Run Time: 35:41

Jean Ginzburg is an expert when it comes to attracting, connecting with, and converting prospects into satisfied customers. She’s been doing it for more than a decade and has refined her approach by testing it on more than 2,000 of her own clients – ranging from Fortune 500 companies to one-person consultancies. 

Jean, herself a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Ginball Digital Marketing, is a huge believer in the ability of quality content to help businesses attract new customers. She is also an evangelist for using digital marketing – first and foremost – to secure those new paying contacts.

In her Amazon bestselling book, WIN New Customers!, Jean promises those who apply her formula that they will see it pay big dividends in only 60 days. But no need to wait even two months, when you can jumpstart your new customer-acquisition program in just 35 minutes by joining Jean and host and reputation coach Dean Rotbart on this week’s edition of Monday Morning Radio.

Photo: Jean Ginzburg, WIN New Customers
Posted: March 4, 2018
Monday Morning Run Time: 32:07 

From his home in Houston, Wizard of Ads Gulf Coast partner, Charlie Moger, witnessed some of the worst – and best – of Hurricane Harvey.

As the rising waters came within two inches of his home, Charlie took to Facebook and Facebook Live to keep friends, family, neighbors, and complete strangers current on the unfolding story.

Charlie’s on-the-scene reports were informative and magnetic, as he spoke from the heart in ways that made Hurricane Harvey more relatable. 

Last week, still unable to drive off his property, Charlie took time out to share his personal story with host and reputation coach Dean Rotbart, and to talk about how businesses – big and small – stepped up AND failed to step up when they were needed most.

Photo: Charlie Moger, MogerMedia.com
Posted: September 11, 2017
Monday Morning Run Time: 49 minutes 45 seconds 

When it comes to putting on dynamic, effective events – whether in the for-profit or non-profit universe – Morty Sibler is the go-to man.

A Wizard of Ads partner, based in Montreal, Canada, Morty consistently shows his clients how to squeeze ten times – sometimes even more – the sales or donations out of once-ho-hum sales presentations and fundraising dinners.  

Morty named his company Mad Strategies, as in crazy or angry. In fact, as he explains to host and reputation coach Dean Rotbart, M.A.D. stands for “Making a Difference,” and Morty spells out exactly how to you, too, can go MAD, this week on Monday Morning Radio.

Photo: Morty Silber, Mad Strategies
Posted: November 7, 2016
Monday Morning Run Time: 36 minutes 39 seconds

Jaymes Sorbel knows how to get the immediate attention of your customers and drive them to action: text message them.

Sorbel, founder of MeTesto Professional, says the 160 characters contained in well-executed text-message campaigns can generate a huge response.  A key reason?

Customers are so viscerally addicted to receiving and sending text messages that 80% of us text while watching TV and 44% of us take our smart phones to bed with us.

Sorbel details the dos and don'ts of effective text-message marketing on this week's Monday Morning Radio.

[Note: At several spots in this week's episode, the audio quality is briefly warped.  The poor audio passes very quickly.]

Sorbel is interviewed by Wizard Academy faculty member Dean Rotbart.  Dean and wealth management expert David Biondo are co-hosts of Business Unconventional. The one-hour radio newsmagazine debuted in October 2011 on News/Talk 710 KNUS AM in Denver.

Be sure to follow B. Unconventional on Twitter: @BUnRadio and subscribe to Roy H. Williams's Monday Morning Memo.  The best things in life really are free!

Photo: Jaymes Sorbel
Posted: August 4, 2014
Monday Morning Run Time:  34 minutes  41 seconds

Want to learn how to generate free publicity and social media "buzz" for your business?  Schedule a one-hour phone consultation with Monday Morning Radio co-host Dean Rotbart: 1-303-296-1200.  Limited slots still available this month.  

It may seem simply a matter of semantics, but after 25 years advising more than 100 companies, Thomas P. McNulty has stopped referring to himself as a consultant and begun describing himself as an activist.

"Today's clients don't want advice," McNulty says. "They want action."

This week on Monday Morning Radio, McNulty explains how his Buffalo, NY healthcare management and marketing firm, Success Stories, has written a new and improved financial chapter for a vast array of large, medium and start up clients who have replaced their consultants with activists.

McNulty is interviewed by Wizard Academy faculty member Dean Rotbart.  Dean and wealth management expert David Biondo are co-hosts of Business Unconventional. The one-hour radio newsmagazine debuted in October 2011 on News/Talk 710 KNUS AM in Denver.

Be sure to follow B. Unconventional on Twitter: @BUnRadio and subscribe to Roy H. Williams's Monday Morning Memo.  The best things in life really are free!

Photo: Thomas McNulty
Posted:  July 7, 2014
Monday Morning Run Time:   31 minutes  07 seconds

Want to learn how to generate free publicity and social media "buzz" for your business?  Schedule a one-hour phone consultation with Monday Morning Radio co-host Dean Rotbart: 1-303-296-1200.  Limited slots still available this month.  

KGBTexas is a 20-year-old marketing and advertising agency based in San Antonio, Texas that is demonstrating how a boutique regional player can successfully compete nationally with much larger rivals. 

On this week's Monday Morning Radio, Chris Day, KGBTexas's general manager, opens his agency's strategic playbook to reveal how a savvy small business can become a forceful player on the national stage.

Chris is interviewed by Wizard Academy faculty member Dean Rotbart and wealth management expert David Biondo.  Dean and David are co-hosts of the weekly Business Unconventional radio news magazine broadcast on 710 KNUS AM in Denver.

Be sure to follow B. Unconventional on Twitter: @BUnRadio and subscribe to Roy H. Williams's Monday Morning Memo.  The best things in life really are free!

Posted:  April 28, 2014
Monday Morning Run Time: 31 mins  42 secs
Photo: Chris Day, General Manager, KGBTexas

Want to learn how to generate free publicity and social media "buzz" for your business?  Schedule a one-hour phone consultation with Monday Morning Radio co-host Dean Rotbart: 1-303-296-1200.  Limited slots still available this month.  

Mark Huffman has spent nearly 30 years working at the world's top advertiser, Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble.  During that time, he has contributed to some of the most successful - and well known - advertising campaigns.  Mark will be teaching the very popular Measurement and the Mind - a two-day Wizard Academy course scheduled for November 15th and 16th in Austin.  Mark offers listeners a preview of the lessons he'll share with those lucky enough to register.

Huffman is interviewed by Wizard Academy faculty member and graduate Dean Rotbart and by David Biondo, a veteran financial planner and successful entrepreneur.  Rotbart and Biondo produce Monday Morning Radio and serve as co-hosts in cooperation with Business Unconventional on 710 KNUS AM in Denver.

Be sure to follow B. Unconventional on Twitter: @BUnRadio and subscribe to Roy H. Williams's Monday Morning Memo.  The best things in life really are free!

Don't blink or you'll miss this marketing gem. Read more about it at www.MondayMorningRadio.com.

On this edition of Monday Morning Radio, two veteran advertising strategists discuss the merits of investing in advertising campaigns, including the many non-tangible benefits that create value.

Rich Carr, a regular Business Unconventional contributor and Wizard Academy graduate, heads Carr Knowledge Interactive Marketing & Advertising, Inc., based in Seattle.  To read a full profile of Rich, click here.

Ric Bender, a top account executive with Salem Radio in Denver, specializes in helping small businesses harness the power of radio advertising and social marketing to give their businesses a competitive edge.  Ric is the liaison between Business Unconventional and its host station, 710 KNUS AM in Denver.

B. sure to follow B. Unconventional on Twitter: @BUnRadio and subscribe to Roy H. Williams's Monday Morning Memo.

Business Unconventional is hosted by David Biondo and Dean Rotbart and airs each Sunday morning at 8 a.m. (MDT).  The program is also streamed over the Internet at www.710KNUS.com. 

Original broadcast date: April 29, 2012
Photo: Ric Bender, Salem Radio