Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

“Please Do Not Touch the Fence. You’ll Get Zapped. And the Goats Will Laugh at You.”That is the advice the banner gives. Standing behind that banner, and a little to the right, are a group of goats who are clearly encouraging you to touch the fence. You can see it in their eyes and in the smirk at the corners of their little goat mouths.All of that was in the photo that arrived with a text from my friend, Dan, along with this note.“We have a new side-venture that uses goats as a land clearing crew for hire, and recently have set up a mobile cam to keep an eye on them while on the job.”Although I do make up things for a living, I promise I am not making this up.Twenty-three minutes later, I received another text from another friend.“I have a problem. Do you know in ‘Peter Pan’ where Peter loses his shadow. I’ve seem to have lost my shadow. I used to be a very creative person. Somewhere over the last 5 years due to life’s circumstances I seem to have misplaced my creativity. I feel almost certain that I began giving out far more than I was taking in. I lost my wonder and my awe for the world. I’m not learning and growing, and it has caught up with me. If you have any insight or direction, it would be truly helpful. Thanks friend.”I responded, “Is this for real?”My friend said, “Yes, for real.”I said, “You need to have a place to escape. A good fiction book can take you into an alternate reality where you don’t have any obligations, or people who need something from you. Buy a copy of ‘Cryptonomicon’ by Neal Stephenson. You’ll meet a guy named Shaftoe. I’ve known him for more than 20 years.”My friend said, “Thank you. I’ll tell him you said hello.”Both of those texts arrived, “Ping… Ping,” shortly after I posted the second restaurant review I have ever written.Heads Up, friends!Real pizza ovens. Real flames. Real char on the bottom of the crazy-good crust. You’ll never be the same. This pizza is SO GOOD that it’s illegal in 7 states and under investigation in 12 more. So good you’ll walk outside and look up at the stars and howl at the moon like a werewolf.I have reviewed very few things during my 67 years because, frankly, there just aren’t that many things out there that are really remarkable. DeSano Pizzeria Napoletana is remarkable. Not the atmosphere. It’s plain, plain, plain. Nothing special. But the food is MAGNIFICO! (On Slaughter just west of Mopac, in front of Alamo Drafthouse.) And the people who work there are definitely part of the magic. They are excited about what they are doing, and their excitement is contagious.We ordered a spinach salad. Best spinach salad I’ve ever had! I mean that. And big enough for two people. I looked at my wife (We’re having our 50th anniversary next year) and I said, “These people are buying ONLY the very best ingredients. They’s spending their money on the food, not the decor.” (We were both smiling so hard for so long that my face aches.)Order the Verdura pizza. Be aware that it does NOT have marinara sauce. You’ll be throwing rocks at marinara sauce after you’ve eaten the Verdura. It’s really simple: perfect crust, extraordinary cheese, fresh spinach, roasted tomatoes, roasted garlic. HEAVEN.Or you can go old school and get a pizza with red sauce: The San Gennaro has tomato sauce, sausage, peppadew peppers, caramelized onions, garlic, and cheese so good that you’ll slap yourself. The peppadew peppers are the magic.No fountain drinks, but they’ve got big coolers full of bottles and cans of everything you want. Get a big bottle of San Pellegrino and you’ll leave this place with an Italian accent.This pizza is NOT greasy. You will feel fabulous after you eat it.This is NOT a slanted review left by someone who has a connection to that company. I have no connection whatsoever to that company or to any of these people and I owe them absolutely nothing except my gratitude for making pizza the way that God intended.Amen.My goal for November 20th was to wake up twice.It obviously worked out, or you wouldn’t be reading this. I had a very weird heart surgery and the doctor who explained the risks of that surgery to me might as well have said, “Make peace with your God.” But rather than answer 80,000 emails from those of you who will ask for more details, how about I just put it in the rabbit hole for you? Click the image of the goats at the top of this page – the Monday Morning Memo for December 8, 2025 – and you’ll be on page one of the rabbit hole.But the most surprising thing was what happened this morning.Daniel Whittington asked me to be a guest on his podcast. He said he wanted to capture the story of how and why Wizard Academy came into being. There was a moment when my throat got tight and I had to say, “Give me a moment.”I’m not sure when that episode will be released.People complain about the high cost of living. The question I’ve always wanted to ask them is, “Compared to what?”Roy H. Williams

I’ve been studying AI audio so that I can complete a couple of personal projects.The first project is an audiobook containing 18 chapters that span 75 fascinating minutes. Your MondayMorningMemo on December 22nd will contain the following invitation:The tribe encircling the campfire is about to listen to a group of old men tell “The Story of the Long Ago.” You can listen, too, if you like.That invitation will be coming your way on December 22nd.The other project that I will be launching in January or February is an ongoing weekly series called “The Great Writer Series.”My goal is simple: I want to reawaken the world to the power of well-told stories. That’s it. I have no other agenda. I just want people to remember what great writing sounds like.Today I’ve got 3 different samples for you. Each is about 2 minutes long. Click the hyperlinks if you want to hear my people read to you.This first one is an obscure poem by Robert Frost called, “The Bearer of Evil Tidings.”I have asked Amir Amani to read it.The bearer of evil tidings,When he was halfway there,Remembered that evil tidingsWere a dangerous thing to bear.So when he came to the partingWhere one road led to the throneAnd one went off to the mountainsAnd into the wild unknown,He took the one to the mountains.He ran through the Vale of Cashmere,He ran through the rhododendronsTill he came to the land of Pamir.And there in a precipice valleyA girl of his age he metTook him home to her bower,Or he might be running yet.She taught him her tribe’s religion:How ages and ages sinceA princess en route to ChinaTo marry a Persian princeHad been found with child; and her armyHad come to a troubled halt.And though a god was the fatherAnd nobody else at fault,It had seemed discreet to remain thereAnd neither go on nor back.So they stayed and declared a villageThere in the land of the Yak.And the child that came of the princessEstablished a royal line,And his mandates were given heed toBecause he was born divine.And that was why there were peopleOn one Himalayan shelf;And the bearer of evil tidingsDecided to stay there himself.At least he had this in commonWith the race he chose to adopt:They had both of them had their reasonsFor stopping where they had stopped.As for evil tidings,Belshazzar’s overthrow,Why hurry to tell BelshazzarWhat soon enough he would know?Amor Towles will be our second example. He has given us literary wonders like “A Gentleman in Moscow” and “The Lincoln Highway.” This excerpt is from page 302 of his novel, “Table for Two.”Big Bob Bigelow will read it to us.Eve could not pinpoint when her dislike for lists began, but it must have been around the time she was twelve. It was in the basement of St. Mary’s, where she and the rest of the sixth graders were charged with memorizing the Ten Commandments.“Thou shalt not this.” 
“Thou shalt not that.” 
“And thou shalt not the other thing.”Then there was the list painted on the sign at the country club pool to remind the children there would be…“No Running.” 
“No Diving.” 
“No Splashing.”But most important was her mother’s ever-expanding list of what a young lady should not do. Like put her elbows on the table, or speak with her mouth full, or slug her little sister, even when she deserved it.Yep. In Indiana, a young girl had good reason to suspect that lists were the foot soldiers of tyranny crafted for the sole purpose of bridling the unbridled. A quashing, squashing, squelching of the human spirit by means of itemization.This third example is controversial. Tom Robbins passed away earlier this year at the age of 92. People either love or hate his novels. I happen to love them. This excerpt is from “Skinny Legs and All.” Tom Robbins was my brand of crazy.Wild Willie Washington reads for us.This sentence is made of lead. (And a sentence of lead gives a reader an entirely different sensation from one made of magnesium).This sentence is made of yak wool.This sentence is made of sunlight and plums.This sentence is made of ice.This sentence is made from the blood of the poet.This sentence was made in Japan.This sentence glows in the dark.This sentence was born with a caul.This sentence has a crush on Norman Mailer.This sentence is a wino and doesn’t care who knows it.Like many italic sentences, this one has Mafia connections.This sentence is a double Cancer with a Pisces rising.This sentence lost its mind searching for the perfect paragraph.This sentence refuses to be diagrammed.This sentence ran off with an adverb clause.This sentence is 100 percent organic: it will not retain a facsimile of freshness like those sentences of Homer, Shakespeare, and Goethe, which are loaded with preservatives.This sentence leaks.This sentence once spit in a book reviewer’s eye.This sentence can do the funky chicken.This sentence has seen too much and forgotten too little.This sentence is called “Speedoo,” but its real name is Mr. Earl.This sentence may be pregnant.This sentence suffered a split infinitive – and survived.If this sentence has been a snake you would have bitten it.This sentence went to jail with Clifford Irving.This sentence went to Woodstock.And this little sentence went wee-wee-wee all the way home.Roy H. WilliamsSteve Wunker believes that business owners and CEOs who harness AI to transform their companies into super-high-performing organizations are like octopuses. They are functioning with nine brains, eight arms, three hearts. They adapt rapidly and possesses exceptional intelligence. Steve advises companies like Microsoft, Meta, Nike, and the World Bank, on innovation strategy. He sees the decentralized decision-making, lightning-fast problem-solving, and hyper-responsive behavior of the octopus as an ideal model for AI-empowered leadership. As Steve explains to roving reporter Rotbart, winning with AI doesn’t mean squeezing new tools into old systems. It requires leaders to rethink — even rewire — how their organizations operate, so they can swim with the intelligence and adaptability of the octopus. MondayMorningRadio.com!

A society grows great when old people plant trees under whose shade they will never sit.Trees that live long do not grow quickly.It requires patience to grow a tree that will endure.The root word of patience is the Latin verb “pati.” It means “to suffer” or “to endure.”The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago.The second-best time is today.A person with a purpose is a person on a mission.A person on a mission is a person with a passion.Passion is another strange word. It does not mean what you think it does.The English word “passion” comes directly from the Latin noun “passio” which means “suffering.” If you have “compassion” for someone, it means that you are “suffering with them.” Every Easter we hear about “The Passion of the Christ.”Patience and passion share the same Latin root. Pati is the noun. Passio is the verb. And they both mean suffering.A person with a passion has a vision of the future for which they are willing to suffer.The builder of a brand is the planter of a tree: a visionary missionary.And their principal tool is storytelling.Stories build personalities.Stories build people.Storytelling is world-building.Stories build cultures.Stories build brands that endure.Be careful what you say.A word of affirmation is a spark that can become a flame that will illuminate a person’s path into the future. A word of discord, disdain, or disharmony can quench that vital spark.We carry the power of light and darkness in our tongues.Be careful what you say.You can build a brand with your stories.You can build people, too.Say the right things and you can build a life.You can speak happiness.You can build happiness.Say the right things and you can live happiness.Speak it. Build it.Say it. Live it.Roy H. WilliamsPS “It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth.”– John SteinbeckEveline Shen is an operating-systems programmer — not for computers, but for people.Eveline helps leaders rewire the limiting patterns that hold them back — including perfectionism, people-pleasing, and self-sacrifice — and replace them with what she calls “courageous” actions. Her clients are primarily organizations advocating for social change, many of whom instinctively view business leaders and entrepreneurs not as partners, but as adversaries. But as Eveline explains to roving reporter Rotbart, everyone wins when they make a more deliberate effort to communicate with, understand, and learn from one another. It’s MondayMorningRadio.comYou can hear Roy read today’s MMMemo by clicking the “listen” link at the top of the page. Or you can hear it wailed by a tribal elder who is teaching the tribe around a campfire. Just click the play bar below. Crazy? Absolutely. – Indy Beagle

It is easy to understand a person who is driven by their passions.Your passions take you to your happy place.I have friends who have a passion for sporting events on television. Others have a passion for gambling, and the paripatetic have a passion for traveling to all the far-flung places on this spinning rock we live upon.People who have a passion for achievement live to make things different.Planning and research puts a candle to the wick of some people. They go without sleep and burn bright throughout the night as they gather, collate, and organize information that will set the future on fire.Your scars are the memories of bitter experiences.The pain is gone, but the benefits of those experiences remain. Your scars help you see danger on the horizon.Your scars are the diplomas of lessons you will never forget.It is good to have scars.But wounds… wounds are different.The pain remains and it triggers you to act in ways that everyone notices but no one understands. Sometimes not even you.I have known men whose only passion was to seduce every woman they encountered. Those men like to believe that they are “in love with falling in love.” But when you have known them long enough you will see a knife wound in their chest that has never healed. Way back in the long ago, they had a wife who began sleeping with another man. And ever since that day, they have been trying to become that man.The pain of a wound is a powerful thing. It shouts, “Never again! Never again! Never again!”I don’t believe that any of those men have ever figured out why they feel driven to become the living embodiment of the imaginary Don Juan, and I have never felt that it was my place to tell them.Every person is formed by their passions, scars, and wounds. Even imaginary people.All of the famous characters in literature were created from their passions, scars, and wounds.Novelists, playwrights, and screenwriters know this. Ad writers do not. This is why most advertising is dull, dead, and untwitching.When an ad writer is guided by the ambitions, demands, and expectations of their clients, you can expect to hear the glorious trumpets of a ringing call to action. “Come! Come now! Give me your money! Hurry! Hurry! I want your money Today! Today! Today! Act now! Don’t delay!”We are not enchanted by these ads.Did it ever occur to you that every successful brand is a character that lives in the mind of the customer?A successful brand is driven by its passions, scars, and wounds.Passion: Why does this brand exist? What is it chasing? What love does it represent?Scars: What does it know? What has it learned? Why can I trust this brand?Wounds: What is this brand trying to erase from the earth?To what does it shout, “Never again! Never again! Never again!”Roy H. Williams

A tribe is a group of people that share an identity marker. Every affinity group, every fan club, every self-selected group of insiders is a tribe.Last week we talked about Business-to-Business advertising (B2B) and Niche Marketing with a long purchase cycle (Niche-L).Today we talk about Niche Marketing with a short purchase cycle (Niche-S) and Business-to-Consumer advertising (B2C).Let’s talk first about (Niche-S):Niche Marketing with a Short purchase cycle will always be targeted to an affinity group. A Niche market is any self-selected group of insiders that has chosen to spend time, attention, and money on something that most people don’t care about.Short-cycle Niche Marketing is mostly consumable products and services that are purchased on a regular basis by a self-selected group. Some examples of this would be bullets, fish hooks, tubes of oil paint, and those little cloth foot coverings worn by medical professionals in hospitals and air conditioning technicians in your home.Niche Marketing with a Short purchase cycle is similar to B2B advertising: Features. Benefits. Price.Now let’s talk about Business-to-Consumer advertising with a Short purchase cycle. (B2C-S)Do you sell a small-ticket consumable product or service that a high percentage of the population will purchase regularly? You are selling Business-to-Consumer with a Short purchase cycle. Food, gasoline, and entertainment compose the majority of this category.If you own a grocery store, a restaurant, a convenience store, a gas station, a hardware store, or an “everything” store that competes with Amazon and Wal-Mart, all you need is a high-visibility location, legendary signage, and a staff that delivers a positive customer experience. That’s it. That’s your advertising.NOTE: If you want to drive immediate traffic, you will need(1.) an irresistible offer(2.) credible urgency(3.) high-frequency repetitionIf your ad doesn’t drive traffic,(1.) your offer was weak(2.) your urgency was not credible, or(3.) you didn’t pound the drums loud enoughNow let’s talk about Business-to-Consumer advertising with a Long purchase cycle. (B2C-L)If you sell a big-ticket product or service that a lot of Americans will buy “someday,” but only a fraction of one percent of the public is looking for it “today,” then you are in a B2C category with a Long purchase cycle.This category requires patience, commitment, and mass media: primarily broadcast radio, broadcast television, or billboards.You can use short-term-impact Transactional ads or long-term brand-building Relational ads.The objective of a Transactional ad is to make the sale. You can measure the Return-On-Ad-Spend (ROAS) of short-term-impact Transactional ads because they offer no long-term benefits.The objective of a long-term Relational ad is to create connection, relationship, and trust in your brand. Relational ads cannot be measured with ROAS because there is no moment when the benefits of relationship strengthening have been exhausted.Business people are instinctively attracted to Transactional ads because Transactional ads are more easily measured. This feels good in the short term, but in the long term it leads to frustration as you ask, “Why aren’t we growing like we should?”Now let’s talk about Business-to-Consumer advertising with a Mixed purchase cycle. (B2C-M)Halfway between Transactional and Relational – is Sales Activation. These ads are what transform this category into a gold mine. Ads that trigger Sales Activation can only exist within a Relational ad campaign.Sales Activation ads are NOT Transactional ads. If you inject Transactional ads into a Relational ad campaign you will create a confusing brand image.Sales Activation ads feel relational, but they contain a soft and friendly call-to-action that includes a specific reason why right now might be a good time to buy. The reason might be seasonal, event-driven, or be an exciting feature item that is temporarily available.To build a powerful brand that becomes a household word, 60 percent of your ads should be Relational (aimed at building a relationship) and 40 percent of your ads should be Sales Activation.Transactional ads will outperform a 60/40 mix of Relational ads with Sales Activation for the first 5 or 6 months. But the longer you run Transactional ads, the less well they perform.The longer you run Relational ads with Sales Activation, the better it performs.The brand that is using a 60/40 combination of Relational ads with Sales Activation will have gained so much momentum by the end of the second year that their Transactional competitors will be watching in wide-eyed wonder and scratching their heads in amazement.Sounds fun, doesn’t it?Roy H. WilliamsAt first glance, a website designed by Vi Wickam may look much like any other e-commerce or business site.But for reasons most visitors can’t quite articulate, they linger longer, engage more deeply, and are far more likely to become and remain customers. Vi — one of the elite Wizard of Ads partners — takes a holistic approach to web design that goes far beyond mere functionality. He blends audience psychology, authentic storytelling, real photography and the strategic placement of pages and visual elements to craft sites that feel genuine and reflect the very DNA of the products and companies they represent. As Vi explains to roving reporter Rotbart and his deputy, Maxwell, authenticity is today’s most powerful digital differentiator. Get differentiated! MondayMorningRadio.com

Today we’re going to do something fun. Are you ready?(Press the PLAY button to hear the audio version of today’s memo.)I will tell you how to advertise if you will tell me the nature of your business.Advertising can be broken into 6 major categories:Business-to-Business (B2B)Niche Marketing (Niche-S) with a short purchase cycleNiche Marketing (Niche-L) with a long purchase cycleShort Purchase Cycle (B2C-Short) Business-to-ConsumerLong Purchase Cycle (B2C-Long) Business-to-ConsumerMixed Purchase Cycle (B2C-Mixed) Business-to-ConsumerBusiness to Business.B2B: If you are in a business that sells to other businesses, tight targeting will be essential to your success, but you can easily identify the customers you need to target.Their addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses are readily available and direct mail, phone calls and emails are cheap. If you have some extra dollars, you can place ads in the appropriate trade magazines and websites to elevate your brand.Features, benefits, pricing, delivery, and payment terms are important elements within your message. How well your B2B ad campaign works will depend entirely on what you say.It will depend on what you say.Focus on saying the right things.Now let’s talk about Niche Marketing with a Long Purchase Cycle.Niche-L: If you sell a specialty product that appeals to an affinity group, social media is a powerful thing. A powerful thing.Danny sells the most rare, weird, exotic, and inexplicable guns the world has ever known. Firearms collectors are an affinity group. Collectible firearms are a Niche Market with a long purchase cycle.Danny will soon be producing a new daily short and posting it on YouTube 365 days a year. Each short video will be Danny showing you a different gun and telling you the story behind it. He is not going to shoot the gun. He is just going to tell you its story.Danny doesn’t need to find gun collectors. Gun collectors will find him. YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine. Danny just needs to produce interesting content.Brian Brushwood taught me that.Would you like to have an invisible garage door like the one that Batman passes through to enter the Bat Cave?Max can do that for you.But invisible garage doors can only be installed in houses that have no masonry. Max needs to locate charming houses with wooden exteriors.He can knock on their doors, leave a door-hanger, or mail them a glorious postcard. Max sells garage doors to a Niche Market with a long purchase cycle.Do you sell an intangible Niche product with a long purchase cycle?Are you a sales trainer, an ad writer, a nutritional expert, a motivational speaker, a psychic healer, an entertainer?Build fame. Ride the tidal wave of fame. Fame leads to word-of-mouth. Be remarkable. Advertising is a tax you pay for not being remarkable.Be remarkable.Next week we’ll talk about Short Purchase Cycle Niche Marketing and B2C.We’ll talk about B2C.You and me.Roy H. WilliamsPS – When you have achieved a little bit of fame, make yourself easy to find by paying Google for the click whenever someone types your name into the search bar. But that’s not advertising. That’s just helping people find you when they are looking for you by name. The people of Jackson, Michigan have loved Gilbert Chocolates for more than 110 years. Brian and Sally Krischbaum had zero experience when they bought the company in 2012, but set out to honor Gilbert’s rich heritage by expanding it into multiple stores and becoming a national distributor. Meet the Krischbaums as they share with deputy rover Maxwell Rotbart the real-world challenges and triumphs of running — and growing — a century-old family brand. They make great chocolate, but we believe you will agree that their story is definitely not sugarcoated. Now let’s get jiggy with it at MondayMorningRadio.com

When you understand how a person thinks, speaks, acts, and sees the world, you feel like you know that person.This is true whether you have spent time with them, or if you have spent time with them through the magic of modern media.Television, radio, and social media can be used to make sure that people know about you, or they can be used to make people feel like they know you.I have written a 4-stanza poem from the perspective of 3 different personalities.The story arc is the same for all 3 poems.The 4-verse, 4 stanza structure is the same.The rhyming conventions are very similar.The only real difference is that these short poems reveal the hearts of 3 different people; their perspectives, their attitudes, their personalities.My partner Gene Naftulyev directed the singers who turned these poems into blues songs.You can read the song lyrics in the text of the Monday Morning Memo, or you can listen to the songs in the audio version of the memo.These are the words to the first poem, and the song that was created from it:The faster I go, the more I fall behind.The map is fading in my mind.Landmarks are not where they were before.And cars don’t stop at red lights anymore.I don’t want to be unkind andMake innocent people feel malignedBut are all the gas pedals nailed to the floor?Why don’t cars stop at red lights anymore?Are these people colorblind?Are their panties in a bind?Are we fighting in a war?Why don’t we stop at red lights anymore?Is there an evil mastermindWho is making us feel that we are falling behind?Perhaps we can dangle him in an intersectionAnd see if he gets a new sense of direction.© Roy H. Williams
Oct. 18, 2025The singer of this song seems to be lamenting the loss of leisure. We perceive that he is troubled by the spiraling tyranny of the merely urgent. He doesn’t want to be unkind. His questions about the red-light runners being “colorblind,” or “having their panties in a bind” reveals a comedic wit. We sympathize with him. We agree with him. We like him.Now let’s tell that same story two more times using exactly the same structure, rhyming scheme, and storytelling devices. The only difference between that first poem and the next two poems will be the differing perspectives of the storytellers.I do not pretend to be a counselor-at-law,Or a judge, or a jury from Arkansas,But my heart does whisper this probing question:“When did people stop stopping at intersections?”We heard the words of Moses and foresawThat we would need to be a nation of Laws.But Moses did not give us “The 10 Suggestions.”So why did people stop stopping at intersections?Do you have a tragic flaw?Do you look good in-the-raw?If you want resurrection,You need to start stopping at intersections.Do you want sex appeal that makes ice thaw?Do you want people to look at you with awe?Do you want to achieve absolute perfection?Just hit your brakes at the next intersection.© Roy H. Williams, Oct 20, 2025That singer has a slightly more antagonistic attitude. His references to Moses and the Law reveal him to be more legalistic than the first singer. His additional comments about “counselor-at-law,” “nation of laws,” “resurrection” and “perfection” reveal the kind of black-and-white clarity that can result from a strict religious upbringing. We cannot be certain of these things, but we suspect them. He also has a little bit of a fixation on sexuality. “Do you look good in-the-raw?” “Sex appeal that makes ice thaw?” “Do people look at you with awe?” This cat is one complicated character!Are you ready for that same story to be told by a third singer whose perspective and personality is distinctly different from the first two?When I look inside my head,the only color I see is red.Behind my eyes I feel an itch.Red means STOP you son-of-a-bitch.It is NOT okay to go ahead.Keep it up and you’ll soon be dead.Green and red, you cannot switch.A red light means STOP, you son-of-a-bitch.Were you recently unwed?Are you sleeping single in a double bed?Did she not care that you are filthy rich?You need to stop being a son-of-a-bitch!Sometimes I think perhaps we oughtaUse your head for a piñata.I’ll sing it one more time with perfect pitch;‘Red means STOP… you son-of-a-bitch.’© Roy H. Williams, Oct 20, 2025Obviously, that guy is angry as hell and is predisposed toward violence. He sees red. “You’ll soon be dead.” This singer doesn’t joke around about “colorblind.” He says “Green and red, you cannot switch.” He doesn’t laugh about “panties in a bind.” This guy suggests that you’re not having sex because your wife left you, even though you are “filthy rich.”Every ad reveals a perspective. Your ads reveal what matters most to you.Your ads let people know how you think, speak, act, and see the world.And you thought ads were just about delivering information and a call-to-action.Roy H. WilliamsPS… As a special treat, this is the final version of the song that I wrote with Gene Naftulyev. You definitely want to hear the audio version of this:Faster and faster, but I’m losing ground.Red light flashing, nobody slowing down.The faster I go, the more I fall behind,The map is fading in my mind.Landmarks are not where they were before.And cars don’t stop at red lights anymore.Wheels spinning wild, world’s gone askew.Why don’t cars stop at red lights anymore?Gas pedals nailed to the floor.Whoa, what a war!Colorblind, panties in a bind,Are we fighting in the street, losing our mind?Red light’s burning, but we race right through.Why don’t we stop? Tell me, what’s the use?I don’t want to be unkind andmake innocent people feel maligned.But are all the gas pedals nailed to the floor?Why don’t cars stop at red lights anymore?Horns blaring, loud chaos in the air…Why don’t cars stop at red lights anymore?Gas pedals nailed to the floor.Whoa, what a war!Colorblind, panties in a bind,Are we fighting in the street, losing our mind?Red light’s burning, but we race right through.Why don’t we stop? It’s killing me and you.Is there an evil mastermindmaking us feel that we’re falling behind?Let’s dangle him out in the intersection,Watch the lights flash, give him a new direction.Hang him high where the red lights glow,See if he learns to just… let… go.Why don’t cars stop at red lights anymore?Gas pedals nailed, crashing through the door.Colorblind, panties in a bind,Are we fighting in the street, losing our mind?Red light! Red light!Why don’t we stop?© Roy H. Williams and Gene Naftulyev, Oct 21, 2025Rodney Dangerfield joked about it.Jackie Robinson said he’d earned it.Aretha Franklin sang about it:R.E.S.P.E.C.T.Respect is a virtue too often sacrificed in public discourse, online exchanges, and everyday interactions. Robert L. Dilenschneider wants to change that. Respect, Bob says, deserves, well … more respect. “Never take another man’s dignity. It’s worth nothing to you and everything to him.” Respect, Bob says, deserves, well … more respect. On this week’s episode of Monday Morning Radio, Dilenschneider shares his brilliant formula for healing the divisions in our country and restoring a culture of respect. Roving reporter Rotbart and deputy rover Maxwell and Bob Dilenschneider himself are waiting for you to arrive at MondayMorningRadio.com

Jeffrey Eisenberg and I were looking though a pair of antique doors at Austin Auction Gallery when I saw a remarkable oil painting on the wall behind them and whispered in wonder, “Ozymandias.”The auction catalog described the painting as, “Arabian horse and handler with Egyptian sphinx, signed lower right Maksymilian Novak-Zemplinski (Polish, b.1974), dated 2000.”But I knew that painting for what it was. I’ve loved “Ozymandias” since the 9th grade.You remember it, don’t you? Bryan Cranston read that famous poem in the final episode of “Breaking Bad.” The title of the episode was “Ozymandias,” and TV Guide picked it as “the best television episode of the 21st century.” It was also the only episode of a TV show ever to achieve a perfect 10-out-of-10 rating on IMDb with over 200,000 votes, putting it at the number one spot for the most highly rated television episode ever:I met a traveller from an antique land,Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,Tell that its sculptor well those passions readWhich yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;And on the pedestal, these words appear:“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal Wreck, boundless and bareThe lone and level sands stretch far away.When I returned home from the auction, I spent a delightful 90 minutes tracking down all the bits and pieces of how that poem came to exist.It was in 1817 that Percy Bysshe Shelley and his poet friend, Horace Smith read the news that the carved head of Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II had been removed from its tomb at Thebes by an Italian adventurer and that it would soon be traveling to Britain.Shelly suggested to Smith that each of them should write a poem about it and title each of their poems “Ozymandias,” the Greek name for Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II.Look at the poem as it appeared in newspaper on that day in 1818, and you will see that Percy Bysshe Shelley signed it, “Glirastes.” He did it as an inside joke intended only for his wife, Mary Shelley, who, incidentally, published her famous novel “Frankenstein” that same year.Mary often signed her letters to Percy as “your affectionate dormouse.” So Percy combined “Gliridae” (Latin for dormouse) with “Erastes” (Greek for lover) to create “Glirastes,” (meaning “lover of dormice.”)So now you know how Google’s second-most-often-searched poem came to be published without anyone in London suspecting that it had been written on a bet with a friend by one of the most famous poets on earth who chose to sign it with a pseudonym as an inside joke to his wife.Did you know that I became an ad writer only because it was impossible to support myself as a poet?Now that you know that, you will not be surprised that Indy Beagle has collected Google’s Top 20 Poems for you to read in the rabbit hole. Indy also found the Horace Smith version of Ozymandias, and added it at the end of the Google’s Top 20 list.To enter the rabbit hole, all you have to do is click the image that appears at the top of today’s Monday Morning Memo. You’ll find this memo archived as “Looking Though Antique Doors,” the Monday Morning Memo for October 20th, 2025.This is the Google Top 20 List:“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost“Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley“Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe“Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas“She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byron“Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson“O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost“Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe“If –” by Rudyard Kipling“Invictus” by William Ernest Henley“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth“Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats“The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson“Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll“The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus“The Song of Hiawatha” by Henry Wadsworth LongfellowCiao for Niao,Roy H. Williams“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.”– Dwight D. EisenhowerKen Blanchard says, “Focus on what’s working — and do more of it.” This is what places him among the most effective executive coaches in history.Martha C. Lawrence has worked closely with Ken Blanchard for more than 20 years.This is what makes her the perfect choice to write a biography of his life. From his boyhood in New Rochelle to his rise as one of the bestselling business authors of all time, Martha shows us a Ken Blanchard we never knew. Between the covers of her book hide the never-before-told backstory that made him the worldchanger that he became. That’s what roving reporter Rotbart has in store for you today at MondayMorningRadio.com

Dwight D. Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas, in 1890. He was the President of the United States when I was born in Dallas, Texas, 68 years later.People called me “Little Roy.” People called him “Ike.”I worry that we have forgotten him.Ike Eisenhower graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1915 when he was 24 years old. His superiors noticed his organizational abilities, and appointed him commander of a tank training center during World War I.In 1933, he became aide to Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur, and in 1935 Ike went with him to the Philippines when MacArthur accepted the post of chief military adviser to that nation’s government.On June 25, 1942, Ike Eisenhower was chosen over 366 senior officers to lead the Armed Forces of the United States in World War II.After proving himself on the battlefields of North Africa and Italy in 1942 and 1943, Ike Eisenhower was appointed supreme commander of Operation Overlord – the Allied invasion of northwestern Europe.Ike was now commanding the Armed Forces of all 49 Allied nations – including Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and China – in the war against Hitler and his minions. He personally planned and supervised two of the most consequential military campaigns of World War II: Operation Torch in the North Africa campaign in 1942–1943 and the invasion of Normandy in 1944.Ike Eisenhower never talked like a tough guy, but only a fool would call him “weak” or “woke.”This past July, Robert Reich – an eloquent and intelligent spokesperson on the left – quoted a passage from an anti-war speech that Ike Eisenhower made at the beginning of his presidency in 1953. Reich ended his quote just prior to Ike’s unsettling reference to the crucifixion of Christ.Eloquent and intelligent people on the right refused to believe that a celebrated warrior had ever made a speech that could be classified as “anti-war.”Curious, I decided to get to the bottom of it.Here is a link to the complete transcript and original recording of the speech that President Dwight D. Eisenhower made before the American Society of Newspaper Editors on April 16, 1953, from the Statler Hotel in Washington, D.C.This is the passage from that speech that got everyone worked up:“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.This world in arms is not spending money alone.It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population.It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals, it is some 50 miles of concrete pavement.We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat.We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking.This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”The title of that speech was originally “Chance for Peace,” but due to the vivid mental image contained in the middle of the speech, it quickly became known as the “Cross of Iron” speech.Words have impact when they contain vivid mental images.I own guns, but I am not a hunter. Neither my family nor my friends have ever seen my guns. But in the unlikely event of a home invasion, I am adequately prepared to protect the people I love.Working in a heavy steel fabrication shop from the age of 14, I spent my formative years surrounded by violent men who were older, larger, and stronger than me, but I was never afraid of them. I occasionally paid a price in blood for my lack of fear, but I never regretted my defiance.General John Tecumseh Sherman was a man familiar with violence. In 1864, when he was ravaging Atlanta during the Civil War, Sherman wrote a letter to a friend saying,“I am sick and tired of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation.”I like Ike.I also like John McCain, who spent five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. Speaking at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1999, McCain said,“Nothing, not the valor with which it is fought nor the nobility of the cause it serves, can glorify war. War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality.”Based upon his speech to the assembled leadership of America’s armed forces, I am not sure that I like our current Secretary of War.It has been my observation that men who have experienced real violence are reluctant to speak of it. They are prepared to take decisive action when they must, but they leave the “tough-guy” talk to lesser men.Roy H. WilliamsTodd Sattersten is a book connoisseur. He reads, writes, reviews, and publishes books. In his newly released book, 100 Best Books for Work and Life: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You, Todd showcases 100 of what he considers to be the best books, including a wide range of topics, including personal growth, creativity, habits, leadership, sales, and communication.Since 2021, Todd has served as publisher of Bard Press, that legendary publishing house of business books that was founded by the incomparable Ray Bard. Todd curated his list of 100 books to include only those that are authoritative, well-written, and brimming with ideas that challenge conventional thinking and inspire fresh solutions. Fittingly, his own book does precisely that. Listen and be fascinated at MondayMorningRadio.com

Packaging is the art of presentation.Exciting packaging improves conversion.There are two important parts of packaging:WHAT IS IN THE PACKAGE?When package “A” and package “B” are the same price and contain the same basics, they are equal. But when package “B” contains something extra that people would love to have, the sale will always go to package “B”.Be the competitor that offers package “B”.The “something extra” that you include in your package has to be something that people actually care about. It doesn’t have to cost you a lot; people just have to want it. This is where most businesses screw up. They create a package by adding something extra that no one really cares about. Those packages always fail, so the business owner foolishly concludes that packaging doesn’t matter.It doesn’t take a lot of money to build an attractive package. But it does take a lot of time, energy, and creativity.And then it takes even more time and energy to source the “something extra” that will go into the package.SUMMARY: When your competitors sell the same things that you sell at similar prices, include a highly desirable “something extra” in your package.HOW IS THE PACKAGE PRESENTED?Two major movie theaters in Austin are showing the movie, “Gabby’s Dollhouse.” Both theaters have extensive menus and good food. Pivot your dining table out of the way. Sit down in your cozy recliner. Swing the table back across your lap. Order delicious things. Your smiling server will deliver whatever you want and keep doing so throughout the movie.When young children go to the movies, adults go with them. This is why both theaters offer an extensive selection of beer, wine, and cocktails.But only one of the theaters is offering a package that includes a map, some stickers, a plastic cup, and some plastic ears like the ones worn by Gabby, the main character in the movie. Every child will receive the movie memorabilia. Adults will not.Pennie and I waited too long to buy tickets for our two youngest grandkids.Are you ready for this? Every seat was sold on every screen for every seating time for “Gabby’s Dollhouse” at the theater offering the memorabilia made of paper and plastic. They even sold all the seats on the front row that are way too close to the screen.We had to take our grandchildren to the newer theater in the better shopping center. That huge theater was completely empty except for the four of us along with two other families. Eleven people in all.SUMMARY: Pennie and I were thankful that our grandkids didn’t know about the movie memorabilia at the other movie theater.2026: The Year When Challengers Overtake Market LeadersI believe that 2026 will be a year when consumer confidence* is in decline.As a result, most businesses will reduce their payroll and their advertising in an attempt to “cut their way to profitability.”They will do this because it makes sense if you don’t think about it.But smart-and-hungry challengers who do think about it will hit the accelerator instead of the brakes. They will do this because they understand that market share is easier to steal from the big boys when consumer confidence is in decline.The painful problem for these smart-and-hungry challengers is that they will be competing for a larger slice of a shrinking pie. So big gains in market share will show up as only small gains in top line revenue.But when consumer confidence returns, “All hail the new market leader.”Hitting the accelerator instead of the brakes is how smart-and-hungry challengers will overtake market leaders in 2026.Are you beginning to understand why I taught you about the importance of packaging?Roy H. WilliamsQUESTION: Are you competing against a market leader that was purchased by a private equity group? Be aware that private equity groups are notorious for trying to “cut their way to higher profitability” even when consumer confidence is high. This makes the companies they own especially vulnerable during times of declining consumer confidence.*Consumer Confidence is a statistical measure of consumers’ feelings about current and future economic conditions, used as an indicator of the overall state of the economy. In a business context, consumer confidence refers to the trust and belief customers have in a specific company’s products, services, or brand.It’s raining, it’s pouring, what are you ignoring?Are you aware of the current state of weather intelligence?A new era of meteorology has dawned. Weather forecasting is now a form of business intelligence. The weather forecasts of yesterday were notoriously inaccurate. They suggested only what we should wear and whether or not we should wait to wash the car.Tom Weber was the executive editor who decided what would be on the cover and which stories would be featured in TIME magazine. Today he is saying that the biggest story in America that everyone is ignoring is the degree to weather forecasting has become stunningly accurate. Even down to the level of micro forecasts confined to small geographic areas.Weather has an impact on every business. Find out how and why and what to do next, as Tom Weber explains it all to roving reporter Rotbart and his deputy rover, Maxwell. It’s going to be a day of thunder and lightning at MondayMorningRadio.com!