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.

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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 NashvillePosted: April 24, 2023Monday Morning Run Time: 46:38Episode: 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.

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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

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 ScalePosted: April 10, 2023Monday Morning Run Time: 37:12Episode: 11.34

Dux te ipsum duc is Latin for “Leader, Lead Thyself.”

The concept is at the heart of business growth coach Bradley Hamner’s formula for transforming owners and executives from “slaves” to their companies into masterful architects of growth and success.

Bradley is the founder of Business Growth Curator, a consultancy that coaches owners and executives on how to grow their confidence and leadership, develop an effective team, scale their companies, and make a difference.

Since launching his first business in 2009, with no customers, no leads, and very little cash, Bradley has established or built seven companies, with an eighth on the launchpad.

The secret to inspiring employees to improve their performance and satisfaction, Bradley tells host Dean Rotbart, is to address your own shortcomings first. He did just that and has been generating exceptional value for himself and his clients ever since.

[Note: You can listen to Bradley’s podcast, The Club Capital Leadership Podcast, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and here.]

Photo: Bradley Hamner, Business Growth Curator Posted: April 3, 2023 Monday Morning Run Time: 49:45 Episode: 11.33

When Jennifer Brown sizes up business and organization leaders on how well they address today’s ever-increasing demand for inclusive workplaces, she describes them on a continuum of four stages: unaware, aware, active, and advocate.

Jennifer is an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and founder of Jennifer Brown Consulting, a strategic and diversity advisory firm. She has spent more than two decades helping CEOs and other executives look inward so that they can be more effective in creating a safe and productive work environment for every employee.

Among those companies that have sought Jennifer’s insights are Google, Cisco, Johnson & Johnson, CapitalOne, IBM, Disney, and Coca-Cola.

You needn’t be a FORTUNE 500 CEO to benefit from her insights. All you need to do is join Jennifer and host Dean Rotbart for an insightful, actionable discussion of the steps you can take to become a more inclusive leader.

[Be sure to pick up a copy of Jennifer’s book, How to Be an Inclusive Leader, Second Edition: Your Role in Creating Cultures of Belonging Where Everyone Can Thrive.]

Photo: Jennifer Brown, Jennifer Brown ConsultingPosted: March 27, 2023Monday Morning Run Time: 58:25Episode: 11.32

In the Fall of 2007, Eric Johnson, an entrepreneur and designer of satellite communications systems, was on vacation when he received a panicked call from his financial advisor.

“Need permission to sell.”

“Sell what?”

“Everything.”

Eric did sell, and his swift move saved him from getting walloped by the Great Recession and the ensuing turmoil in the markets.

Eric is a renaissance man: an instrument-rated private pilot, surfer, black belt, astrophotographer, angel investor, and co-founder and former CEO of Tourmaline Networks, a software engineering firm. 

After weathering the Great Recession, Eric determined he never again wanted to feel financially vulnerable. So, in addition to his other personal and professional pursuits, Eric set off on a 15-year odyssey to teach himself everything investors, owners, entrepreneurs, and anyone who wants to protect their wealth needs to know about finance and economics.

In his book, What the Hell is an Economy, Eric has distilled all that he’s learned into an easy-to-understand read that spells out what an economy is and how it works.

If you're wondering what recent bank failures, inflation, debt ceiling, currency fluctuations, and trade deficits mean for your business — where are the risks and where are the opportunities — Eric shares the answers with host and award-winning financial journalist Dean Rotbart exclusively on Monday Morning Radio.

Photo: Eric Johnson, What the Hell is an EconomyPosted: March 20, 2023 Monday Morning Run Time: 39:55 Episode: 11.31

Gene Sticco embraces three of the core tenets that Monday Morning Radio host Dean Rotbart advocates for anyone who wants to break from the pack:

1. Be audacious.

2. Act on your dreams and passions.

3. Let the naysayers laugh, and then do it anyway.

Sticco is an entrepreneur and U.S. Air Force special forces veteran. He is also a newly announced candidate for the Oval Office in 2024.

Rotbart describes Gene as a serious candidate with no serious chance of winning. That said, for the example Gene sets for business owners, entrepreneurs, and creatives, among others, he is already a victor. 

Plato once observed:

“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”

Sticco is taking the Greek philosopher’s words to heart, and they apply equally to those in every industry and profession where individuals settle for following rather than leading.

Although Gene knew nothing about running an Opera company, he has funneled his experience and passion into serving as General Director of the Mystic Side Opera, a newly formed company that showcases some impressive local talents, including Gene’s wife, Natalya, who is a mezzo-soprano.

Whether it's opera, the Air Force, or a run for the White House, Gene Sticco is a bold and decisive role model. You can vote for Gene with your ears right now, exclusively on Monday Morning Radio.

[You’ll find Gene’s campaign website at ForThePromiseofAmerica.com]

Photo: Gene Sticco, Committee to Elect Gene Sticco Posted: March 13, 2023 Monday Morning Run Time: 54:40 Episode: 11.30

Matt Mason, who since 2019 has served as the official state poet of Nebraska, returns to Monday Morning Radio to discuss his latest collection of poems — At The Corner of Fantasy and Main: Disneyland, Midlife and Churros — and to share his ideas for making poetry and profits rhyme.

Matt, a Wizard Academy alumnus, was last a guest on this podcast in March 2019, shortly after publishing his previous poetry collection, The Baby That Ate Cincinnati. On this visit, he continues to explain the relationship between poetry and creativity in business and entrepreneurship.

Matt hopes that the introspections he shares in At the Corner of Fantasy and Main and The Baby That Ate Cincinnati will touch readers and help fuel his ambition to earn a living by writing, performing, and teaching poetry to a corporate audience.

Turning a passion into a profitable business is never easy. This week, Matt shares his game plan for overcoming the obstacles he is certain to encounter — strategies that can help anyone who wants to be gainfully employed doing what they love.

Photo: Matt Mason, At the Corner of Fantasy and MainPosted: March 6, 2023Monday Morning Run Time: 47:19Episode: 11.29

The secret to Michael Kaeding’s success as the CEO of Norhart Inc., a company that designs, builds, and rents apartments, is that he had no idea how to run his family business when his father unexpectedly passed away.

“I had no preconceived notion of the way things were supposed to be done,” Mike recalls. “We just started to naively solve problems, and that was the magic.”

Norhart, headquartered in tiny Forest Lake, Minnesota, is booming. Because Mike has refined a process to save 50% or more over other residential developers, he tells host and award-winning author Dean Rotbart that he plans to expand his business nationwide and take a stab at solving America’s housing shortage and affordability crisis. 

Photo: Michael Kaeding, CEO, Norhart Inc.Posted: February 27, 2023Monday Morning Run Time: 46:02Episode: 11.28

Four sneaky obstacles prevent most business owners and entrepreneurs from becoming peerless communicators, whether in writing, on video, or in front of a live audience.

There is a proven formula to vault over those hurdles, and this week’s guest, Michelle D. Gladieux, reveals how to become the best communicator you can be.

Michelle, president of Gladieux Consulting, headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has taught at the college level for 18 years, starting when she was only 23.

Gladieux Consulting, which serves hundreds of companies and thousands of training participants, focuses on leadership and communication topics, strategic planning facilitation, and building creative tools that yield personal and professional development.  

Michelle’s new book, Communicate with Courage: Taking Risks to Overcome Four HIdden Challenges, provides a step-by-step guide to triumphing over fear to deliver your message more effectively and make a difference in the world.

But host and award-winning author Dean Rotbart tells Michelle that she underestimated the import of her book. As Dean observes, Communicate with Courage is really a guidebook on how to live with courage. “And who couldn’t use an extra dose of self-confidence?” Dean asks.

Photo: Michelle D. Gladieux, Gladieux ConsultingPosted: February 20, 2023Monday Morning Run Time: 51:04Episode: 11.27