What can a beautifully prepared dinner teach about running a successful business?

Quite a lot, according to Ellen Wright, a five-time cookbook author who trained with culinary icons Julia Child and James Beard.

In this week's episode, Ellen shares how the principles that guide her cooking translate seamlessly into leadership, entrepreneurship, and everyday decision-making.

Her approach is refreshingly practical: keep things simple, prepare in advance, and don't panic when something goes wrong. A collapsed dessert can become a new creation. A business misstep can spark innovation. The key is adaptability.

Ellen also highlights something many leaders overlook — success is less about perfection and more about people. Whether hosting a dinner party or managing a team, the goal is to create an environment where others feel comfortable, engaged, and valued.

From disciplined preparation to creative problem-solving, Ellen's insights offer a recipe for success that any business owner can follow.

If you're hungry for fresh ideas — and practical strategies you can apply immediately — this episode is a feast.

Bon appétit.

[Ellen's latest book is Best of The Best: Select Recipes from 4 Cookbooks and 60 Years of Cooking. Order your copy here.]

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

Photo: Ellen Wright
Posted: March 30, 2026
Monday Morning Run Time: 48:20
Episode: 14.39

Fauzia Burke is a veteran marketing strategist and founder of FSB Associates, which specializes in book publicity, author websites, and consulting. Founded by her in 1995, it was one of the first firms specializing in digital publicity.

Not one to rest on her laurels, Fauzia's latest frontier is artificial intelligence — not only enhancing the capabilities of FSB Associates but also teaching other business owners and entrepreneurs how to integrate AI into their operations and reap its benefits.

Among Fauzia's recommendations is using AI as a "thinking partner." Executives and entrepreneurs can brainstorm marketing angles, generate multiple versions of product descriptions or biographies, and test different messaging approaches. The key is not to accept AI's output unquestioningly — human judgment and experience must always refine the results.

Despite the many doomsayers, Fauzia says AI will not replace professionals who are already good at what they do. Instead, AI will empower those who embrace it to outperform those who don't.

[Listen to Fauzia's first appearance on Monday Morning Radio here. Visit Fauzia Burke's Substack here.]

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

Photo: Fauzia Burke, FSB Associates
Posted: March 23, 2026
Monday Morning Run Time: 55:10
Episode: 14.38

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Business success is often portrayed as the product of talent, hard work, and persistence. But what if success could be analyzed — and improved — using the logic of probability?

Kyle Austin Young, a sought-after strategy consultant, maintains that most goals — whether launching a product, raising funds, or publishing a book — can be analyzed and improved by understanding the odds behind them.

Kyle is the author of Success is a Numbers Game: Achieve Bigger Goals by Changing the Odds, a fresh and insightful exploration of goal-setting and goal-achieving.

Drawing from his consulting work with entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and business leaders, Kyle reveals a practical framework he calls "probability hacking." The concept is simple but powerful: break ambitious goals into the individual steps required for success, estimate the likelihood of attaining each progression, and then deliberately improve the odds.

Listeners will also learn why traditional "think positive" advice can sometimes sabotage success. Instead, Kyle advocates "think negative"— objectively identifying risks and obstacles so they can be reduced or eliminated.

The odds are excellent that this episode will change the way you view business opportunity and risk.

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

Photo: Kyle Austin Young
Posted: March 16, 2026
Monday Morning Run Time: 46:26
Episode: 14.37

Coming April 2026:
All You Can Eat Business Wisdom: Second Helpings

Courtney De Ronde is a financial decoder. As the CEO of Forge Financial & Management Consulting in West Des Moines, Iowa, she studies the same financial data that owners and comptrollers review, but she uncovers opportunities and risks within the numbers that most business leaders miss.

Additionally, Courtney is the creator of the Simple Scale-Up System, a framework designed to help established businesses grow in a smarter way — increasing revenue and profitability without adding unnecessary complexity.

As Courtney explains, not all growth is good growth. Many companies expand their revenue but find themselves working harder, managing more people, incurring additional expenses, and somehow ending up with the same — or even less — income.

True scaling, she explains, happens when leaders build systems, processes, and teams that allow their companies to grow efficiently and with fewer headaches.

If you're running a company and want to make smarter financial decisions, improve profitability, and scale your organization without burning yourself out, this is one episode you don't want to miss.

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

Photo: Courtney De Ronde, Forge Financial & Management Consulting
Posted: March 9, 2026
Monday Morning Run Time: 55:15
Episode: 14.36

This week's guest is Doug C. Brown, CEO of CEO Sales Strategies and a leading authority on building predictable, measurable, and scalable sales growth.

After a career as a top salesperson, including serving as president of sales and training for peak performance coach Tony Robbins, Doug is now advising CEOs on how to rethink their approach to sales.

Among the companies Doug and his team have advised are Procter & Gamble, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Embassy Suites.

Doug challenges the belief that charisma, closing tricks, or motivational hype drive sales success. Conversational selling, he explains, builds trust faster than persuasion-based tactics.

Doug has spent three decades finding hidden profits for founder-led companies. Most companies can quickly achieve a 20-30% improvement in operating profits by following his recommendations.

For business owners, CEOs, and entrepreneurs, this episode provides a clear framework for turning sales into a reliable engine for valuation, cash flow, and sustainable growth.

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

Photo: Doug C. Brown, CEO Sales Strategies
Posted: March 2,, 2026
Monday Morning Run Time: One hour and two minutes
Episode: 14.35

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People may not know his name, but regular viewers of cable news instantly recognize Arthur Lih and his ubiquitous commercials for LifeVac — the non-invasive rescue device designed to save choking victims when the Heimlich maneuver and other traditional methods fail.

To date, his invention is credited with saving 5,450-plus lives.

As Arthur shares on this week's edition of Monday Morning Radio, inventing a life-saving device is one challenge. Building a company around it and sustaining that business in a highly regulated, highly competitive environment is exponentially harder.

Arthur's insights are indispensable for entrepreneurs, business owners, and inventors committed to developing products that matter — and companies that endure.

Read Arthur's Book: Sorry, Can't Is a Lie: Life Stories of Decision-Making — Don't Be a Flat Squirrel.

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

Photo: Arthur Lih, LifeVac
Posted: February 23, 2026
Monday Morning Run Time: 45:29
Episode: 14.34

Bestselling author Michael Lewis has spent decades practicing the habits of the sharpest business thinkers: questioning assumptions, navigating past blind spots, and revealing why conventional wisdom so often leads smart people astray.

Lewis is the author of a remarkable run of business bestsellers, including Liar's Poker, Moneyball, Flash Boys, The Big Short, Boomerang, The Undoing Project, and Going Infinite. Both Moneyball and The Big Short were made into Oscar Best Picture-nominated films, as was The Blind Side, another of Lewis's non-fiction classics.

In this exclusive episode of Monday Morning Radio, Lewis reflects on why true success derives from taking the long view rather than aiming for quick results, and how doing the hard, unglamorous work others avoid can create an outsized, enduring advantage.

Lewis's conversation with founding Monday Morning Radio host Dean Rotbart was recorded when the author was honored as a Business News Visionary. While the interview dates back several years, in this abridged version of their talk, the insights Lewis shares are strikingly current — offering inspired ideas that apply to entrepreneurs, executives, and business owners navigating uncertainty, disruption, and change today.

[Michael Lewis will be featured in All You Can Eat Business Wisdom: Second Helpings, coming in April 2026. The anthology is the sequel of co-host Maxwell Rotbart's award winning first edition, All You Can Eat Business Wisdom: A Monday Morning Radio Anthology of Actionable Advice.]

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

Photo Credit: Tabitha Soren
Posted: January 19, 2026
Monday Morning Run Time: 49:22
Episode: 14.33

The Great Writers Series from Roy H. Williams: YouTube Shorts
HemingwayTalks About Pamplona

Many entrepreneurs and business owners know how to make money. Far fewer truly understand how to protect it, manage it wisely, and plan for the long arc of life once the hard work of earning is done.

Jeffrey Panik is a U.S. Army veteran and a certified financial planner with more than 25 years of experience helping individuals, families, and business owners clarify complex financial decisions. He is the founder of Balance Wealth Partners and the author of two practical, plain-spoken books, one with a focus on young adults who are just starting out and the other on those individuals who are approaching retirement.

Your Future Is Now: A Guide to Mastering Your Finances and Independence

Your Future Is Now: Your Blueprint for Solving Your Retirement Puzzle

Rather than offering one-size-fits-all prescriptions, Jeff shares his emphasis on individualized planning, long-term thinking, and the importance of communication — between spouses, across generations, and with trusted advisors. Drawing on both professional experience and personal history, he challenges common assumptions about financial planning and retirement readiness.

Jeff's bottom line can be summarized in six words: clarity today can prevent regret tomorrow.

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

Photo: Jeffrey Panik, Balance Wealth Partners
Posted: January 12, 2026
Monday Morning Run Time: 39:02
Episode: 14.32

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