Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

David and I began building oilfield heat exchangers in a heavy steel fabrication shop in Oklahoma when we were 14 years old. We were universally known as, “them schoolboys.”Steel shops are notoriously noisy, but when we heard “Schooolboy!” ring out above the cacophony of hammers and grinders, we would swivel our heads toward the sound and begin walking toward whomever was looking at us.“Hard, dirty and dangerous” describes the work and the men we worked with.To call them “drunks, deviants, and derelicts” would certainly be less kind, but no less accurate.There were also 8 or 9 solid family men, most of whom were foremen and supervisors.The oil coolers we built were the size of a two-car garage. And several times a day these metal monsters would be lifted 5 or 6 feet off the ground by an overhead crane and go swinging through the air to another part of the shop as far as 300 feet away.Heavy steel flying through the air is entirely unforgiving. One of my responsibilities was to drive injured guys to the hospital. But few of my bloody passengers were injured in accidents. Most of them were injured in fistfights with coworkers.When we were both 16, David and I were joined by a boy named Jay. Dark hair, dark eyes, and skin that was decidedly not English, Irish, Scottish, or German. We liked him immediately.David put a quarter into the machine and yanked a Pepsi from its mechanical jaws. He handed it to Jay and asked, “Are you some kind of Puerto Rikkan or something?”Jay scowled and said, “No, I ain’t no dang Rikkan.”David smiled, clicked his Pepsi bottle against the one that Jay was holding, took a long drink, then said, “It’s good to meet you, Rikkan.”We found out later that Jay was Italian, but his name was Rikkan from that day forward.A few days later, Rikkan began calling David “Cliff” and my name somehow became “Dean.” Rikkan never told us why he chose those names, but he refused to call us anything else, so David and I fell into line. I began calling him Cliff and he began calling me Dean.Jay, David and Roy became Rikkan, Cliff and Dean for the next 3 years. Utterly absurd, but completely true.Devin Wright has a sparkling laugh and I’ve always enjoyed hearing it.So when Devin began working with me 20 years ago, I would walk into his office each afternoon and ask a ridiculous question. Devin would laugh his sparkling laugh and I would walk away smiling.One day I popped my head into his office and looked at him quizzically, as though I was confused. He looked back at me, equally puzzled. With a completely straight face, I asked “Did you get a spray tan?”For once, Devin didn’t laugh. He vigorously denied it, utterly aghast that I would ever think that he was so vain and shallow that he would ever stoop to such a ridiculous…I quit listening after that.So now you know how “Spraytan” was born.Jacob Harrison became “Boxwine” in a similar fashion,Dave Cullen became “Skunkmeat”Howard Wolowitz became “Fruit Loops”George Costanza became “KoKo”and Jeffrey Eisenberg became “Jet.”No, “Jet” is not a reduction of Jeffrey.When we agreed to meet for lunch last week, Jeffrey suggested by text that we meet at 1300 hours.I texted him back, “I never knew that you were in the Air Force. Did you fly fighter jets?”If all of this sounds lowbrow, redneck, hick, uncultured, ill-refined, outmoded, outdated, dinosaur-ish and in poor taste, I agree.But no one can spend 4 impressionable years working with drunks, deviants, and derelicts and walk away without at least one bad habit.Roy H. WilliamsDean Rotbart is taking a short Sabbatical from Monday Morning Radio for the next few weeks to travel across America gathering detailed information for an extremely important new book that he is writing. We have been sworn to secrecy not to tell you what this new book is about, because if it became known, it would make Dean’s research much more difficult to accomplish.In his younger years, our roving reporter Rotbart was a Pulitzer-nominated investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Investigative reporting is his superpower. But Dean has promised us that when his research is complete and his new book has been published, all will be revealed.But jump into the rabbit hole anyway! Indy Beagle has some treats for you.

Before you borrow cash from a friend, decide which one you need most.Never tell a person that their child is ugly. Every child is the trigger on the gun of their parent’s rage.If you say, “I am only speaking the truth,” you can be sure that the child’s parent will just as truthfully amputate you from their life and throw shade at the memory of your name forever.“The Proper Priorities of Government” is a beautiful child that lives in the brain of every citizen. And that child is uniquely their own.Do you remember what I told you about children?AI is the newest baby in every family.I am a writer. My words are my children. If you tell me that your AI can replace me as a writer, I will know you to be a fool and a tragic waste of oxygen and skin.Can AI write better than you? If your words are not bone of your bone, blood of your blood, and flesh of your flesh, then yes, it probably can.When I began production on the “Great Writers Series,” I sent several of my friends a few of the AI-produced performances of the 8,000 grand passages of literature that I have laboriously transcribed from books over the past 50 years.When I sent those music-enhanced performances, I pulled the triggers on the guns that are carried by all of the musicians in my life.Shortly after being riddled with bullets,I received this text from Ryan Deiss on December 26, 2025, at 7:24AM:Paul Graham on why you shouldn’t write with Al:“In preindustrial times most people’s jobs made them strong. Now if you want to be strong, you work out. So there are still strong people, but only those who choose to be. It will be the same with writing. There will still be smart people, but only those who choose to be.”This was my reply to Ryan’s text:“Everyone loves AI to do the things they hate, but they hate AI when it does the things they love. I am no different. I think AI is dangerous and stupid and evil when it replaces writers. But I use it enthusiastically to make musical productions instantly possible. I would otherwise have had to spend many months and hundreds of thousands of dollars to create with musicians what I can create with Suno.com in a day. Musicians are well within their rights to resent me and be disgusted with me when I use AI to replace them.”The Great Writers Series will continue because it is important to me.If you click the image at the top of this page, you will see another clickable image. Below that clickable image is one of the first Youtube shorts – formatted for your phone – that I will be uploading once a day for as long as I am able to do so.If you click that performance and enjoy it, and would like to receive a new one each day, you can click through to Youtube and subscribe.If you do not like the performance, that’s 100% okay as long as you don’t tell me about it.All of my children are beautiful, almost as beautiful as yours.Roy H. Williams

1. EquityI’m not sure how Google would define “equity,” but my definition of equity is “stored value.”As a homeowner, you understand home equity as the stored value that it offers you.Your equity in your home is a product of all the time, energy, and money that you have put into it, plus the value that has been added by the passage of time.Relational equity is accumulated in the same way.“What have we invested in each other? What have we endured? How many years have we traveled through life together?”Relational equity is why we tolerate annoyances and troubles from the people we love. They have added value to our lives, so they have relational equity in us.Likewise, customer-bonding ads create relational equity between today’s businesses and tomorrow’s customers. They do this by highlighting shared perspectives, beliefs, and values.Customer-bonding ads communicate authenticity, and vulnerability. And they are always there, 52 weeks a year. Authenticity, vulnerability, and the passage of time are not easy to fake or accelerate.Keep those things in mind as you read on.2. AIEighty-seven Wizards of Ads who stay in regular touch with nearly 1,000 businesses are a reliable finger on the pulse of what is happening.This is what is happening:Google Search results have been altered in a dramatic and unexpected way. Some companies have benefited greatly from Google’s new methodology while other companies have been devastated by it.You’ll understand what separates the winners from the losers in just a moment.With 6,000 employees, Edelman is the world’s largest PR agency. They help companies worldwide manage their reputations and trust through stories published in mass media.Edelman has been doing what they do since 1952.On October 27, 2025, Christmas decorations were vibrating in anticipation of replacing Halloween decor when Brent Nelson – Chief Strategy Officer at Edelman – was quoted in Ad Age magazine.Explaining why Google dramatically expanded their results-ranking criteria, Nelson said,“What drives visibility isn’t your ad budget or keyword bids; it’s earned media. Analysis shows that 90% of what appears in AI summaries is ‘earned-driven’—pulled from reviews, press, blogs, forums and cultural chatter. Paid now plays a different role, amplifying what’s already there.”“The new shelf space isn’t a store; it’s the AI summary. Brands need to understand their earned footprint across AI-generated answers.”“Who gets cited? Who’s trusted? Who’s missing? That’s the new baseline of visibility.”In other words, Google is now rewarding Relational Equity.3. A PredictionHundreds of new companies are about to leap into the Public Relations business. Their goal will be to get their clients mentioned in online press, blogs, forums and cultural chatter.PR is an easy business to get into. It won’t be long before you are approached by someone who has a PR solution to help you improve your AEO (Ask Engine Optimization).If you remember any of today’s Monday Morning Memo, let it be this:“If you don’t have anything interesting to say, don’t let anyone convince you to pay money to say it.”Company slogans, mush-mouth clichés and traditional ad-speak are not going to move the needle.Every month or two, you are going to need something new, exciting, different, and entirely real to say.4. A SuggestionRadio stations would be smart to start a daily or weekly blog that is fun, quick, entertaining, easy-to-read, and full of valuable things that every consumer would want to know about.If I owned a station in Austin, I would call my blog “Cool Things Austin Needs to Know”If my blog was well written and full of actionable information and enough people got into the habit of scanning it each day, my radio station could become an important contributor to the online press, blogs, forums and cultural chatter that are now so very important.Could a Radio station become a major online player in their community? Absolutely!Remember, radio stations have the power to popularize their online blogs FOR FREE. Announcers could quote interesting tidbits from it each day and build a massive readership. Offline radio excitement would become online blog excitement.Do I expect that radio stations will do this? Nope.But if a few do dare to do it, do I expect them to be successful? Nope.These are the four ways that their bosses will force them to screw it up.1. They will try to make it a source of direct revenue.2. They won’t write about anything or anyone who doesn’t advertise on their station.3. They will allow advertisers to influence what is said about them in the blog.4. It will be badly written, boring, and of no value to anyone.But it would absolutely work if they did it right.5. Closing commentsWe are overwhelmed by a Three Ring Circus of media: online, offline, local, national, audio, video, print, outdoor, broadcast, streaming, digital, analog, physical, old-school, new-school, professional, amateur, full-color and black-and-white.It is never the media that makes the message work.It is always the message that makes the media work.If you don’t have anything interesting to say,don’t let anyone convince you to pay money to say it.Roy H. WilliamsLots of people know how to make money. But far fewer understand how to protect it, manage it, and plan for the long arc of life once the hard work of earning is done. Jeffrey Panik brings clarity to complex financial decisions. Listen and learn as Jeffrey shares with roving reporter Rotbart his emphasis on individualized planning, long-term thinking, and his belief that communication is absolutely essential between spouses, across generations, and with trusted advisors.Drawing stories from his professional experience and from his personal history, Jeffrey will shake your beliefs and challenge your assumptions about financial planning and retirement readiness.Jeffrey’s BIG TRUTH can be summarized in just six words: “Clarity today can prevent regret tomorrow.” We’ll say hello and shake your hand the moment you arrive at MondayMorningRadio.com

In 1958, Paul made 85 cents an hour working in a limestone quarry in Oklahoma.He was a man of character, integrity, and kindness.He was quiet, smiled a lot, and was a wonderful listener.Paul’s humility, kindness, and confidence gave him dignity and authority in the eyes of everyone who knew him.He was happily married and had three little girls. On the day his fourth little girl was born he walked into a storm that could easily have ripped him apart.It was with great heaviness of heart that Doctor Franklin told him that there was a problem with the Rh factor in the little girl’s blood and that she was almost certainly going to die.She was barely, barely, barely hanging on.With tears in his eyes Doctor Franklin told him, “And your wife is also fading fast.” Doctor Franklin dropped his chin to his chest as teardrops splashed on his shoes.An ambulance rushed both mother and daughter to a larger hospital in a larger town.Paul was all alone with eighty-five cents an hour and three little girls.Several hours later, a happy and rejoicing Doc Franklin told Paul that both mother and daughter were going to live!They were going to live.The medical bill was more than a thousand dollars and there was no insurance; just a husband and wife and four little girls and 85 cents an hour.Being a man of integrity, Paul went to see Doc Franklin the next day to set up a payment plan for paying that thousand-dollar medical bill.Doc Franklin said, “What medical bill?”Paul was confused, and it showed on his face.Old Doctor Franklin spoke plainly,“There is no medical bill. You do not owe any money. Just be a good father to those girls.”“Just be a good father to those girls.”I can testify that he was a good father to those girls. I met Paul Compton when I was 14 years old and in love with his daughter, the one who nearly died on the day she was born.Here’s how I met him.One week prior to beginning my freshman year in high school, my mother received an invitation to come to an open house at the school on a Tuesday night where she could meet Coach Jerry Meeks, my home room teacher.He taught Oklahoma History, of course.Attached to that letter was a list of all the other students who would be in my first-hour class.I saw that Pennie Compton was going to be in that class with me. She knew who I was, but we had never actually met. This would be the first time that we would be in class together.Mom couldn’t go that night, which suited me fine. I had a plan of my own.I was the first person to arrive. The parking lot was empty except for the cars of the teachers. I met Coach Meeks, then took a seat at a desk in the back row. About 30 minutes later, a tall man came walking in with his wife and the girl that I knew I was going to marry.After Paul and his wife exchanged pleasantries with Coach Meeks, I walked up to him, introduced myself, then shook his hand as I smiled and said,“My name is Roy Williams and you’re going to be seeing a lot of me.”Last week Princess Pennie and I celebrated our 49th wedding anniversary.Paul never criticized me or gave me advice unless I asked for it. But when I did ask for it, he would tell what he thought, along with some true stories from his own life that explained why he believed what he believed.He always spoke slowly and gave me his full attention. His confidence in me was a great encouragement.In all the decades that I knew Paul Compton, I never saw him raise his head from prayer without having tears on his cheeks. When Paul talked to God, you knew that God was listening.I always looked forward to having him pray for me.He was the best man I ever knew.Roy H. WilliamsMonica Ballard knows why marketing campaigns fail. It’s not for lack of clever slogans, talented spokespeople, or catchy jingles. Monica says ad people fail when they try to project “perfection” rather than authenticity, which requires that you acknowledge the struggles and risks inherent in running a business. Monica is a veteran marketing strategist, storyteller, and one of the elite Wizard of Ads partners.Drawing on her background in theater, radio, and live performance, Monica explains to roving reporter Rotbart and deputy rover Maxwell why empathy and emotional honesty create bonds with customers that no discount or gimmick ever could. “Being real isn’t a liability,” Monica assures us. “It is a decisive competitive advantage.” Get Real with Monica Ballard at MondayMorningRadio.com

Extremis is a Latin word that says you are in extreme circumstances, a desperate situation, a dire predicament, or the edge of death.“There is great tension in the world, tension toward a breaking point, and men are unhappy and confused. At such time it seems natural and good to me to ask myself these questions. What do I believe in? What must I fight for and what must I fight against?”I’ll tell you who said that in just a minute.Here’s another direct quote:“It’s life or death for America, people tell you. Angry debates about taxes, religion and race relations inflame the newspapers. Everyone is talking politics: your spouse, your teenage daughter, your boss, your grocer. Neighbors eye you suspiciously, pressing you to buy local. Angry crowds gather, smelling of booze and threatening violence; their leaders wink, confident that the ends justify the means. The stores have sold out of guns.”*Are you ready to hear the final two sentences?“It’s 1775 in Britain’s American colonies. Whose side are you on?”*That first quote about “great tension in the world” and men being “unhappy and confused” came from John Steinbeck in 1941. I’ll bet you thought it was more recent, didn’t you?There is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.If that sounds familiar to you, it’s because Solomon said it 3,000 years ago in the book of Ecclesiastes.Here’s my point: Yes, the world is in a state of extremis, but we have always been in a state of extremis.So put it behind you. Get over it.Better yet, use your recovery from extremis to unleash joy, passion, a flood of creativity, and a flamelike focus that will take you to places you have never been.When you recover from a state of extremis, you open a trapdoor to the unconscious mind. It is a waterfall that doesn’t fall downward, but gushes upward into the sky.If you want to ride that waterfall, all you have to do is exit your extremis. Put it behind you. Get over it.Quit giving your attention to the news.Do not say to yourself,“But if everyone quit paying attention to the news, there would be no societal outrage, no oversight, no accountability!”Let me make this clear to you. There is zero chance that everyone is going to quit giving their attention to the news. It’s an addiction like any other. In fact, I’m worried that you won’t have the strength, the willpower, or the discipline to turn away from it yourself.If you monitor the news for the rest of your life, what are the chances that doing so will change anything at all, even a tiny bit? Does being aware of things that are beyond your control somehow give you the ability to change those things?Turn away from the dark side, Luke Skywalker. Embrace the light.And have a happy, new, year.Roy H. WilliamsPS – I gathered a few dozen quotes from Dorothy Parker and made two powerful productions from them. The first production is 4 minutes and 24 seconds long and was extracted from writings that Dorothy published in Vanity Fair and The New Yorker in the 1920s.The second production is 5 minutes and 9 seconds and was compiled from the writings of Dorothy’s later years. The character arc between the two performances is sobering. You’ll find both of them on the first page of the rabbit hole. Click the image at the top of the Monday Morning Memo for December 29, 2025, and you’ll be there. – Aroo, Indy Beagle.*Caitlin Fitz, “The Accidental Patriots”, The Atlantic, Dec. 2016Four-time Olympian and bestselling author Ruben Gonzalez joins roving reporter Rotbart today for a conversation about perseverance, belief, and the wisdom of following leaders who have proven themselves to be worthy of your trust. Ruben Gonzalez is unusual among Olympians.He didn’t begin competing at an elite level until his mid-20s, and he never used his lack of natural ability as an excuse for falling short.Ruben’s career in sports and in life has been built upon desire, discipline, and stubbornness. Ruben refuses to quit. His message to you is about how to build your courage through small daily choices, how to manage risk intelligently rather than avoid it, and how to measure your success, not through your bank account, but through the impact you have on others. Meet Ruben Gonzalez and become a happier person at MondayMorningRadio.com.

The best short stories leave out important information but evoke it in such a way as to cause a kind of explosion of associative connections.*These are my secret rules for making that happen:Lead your listener toward a conclusion and then let them arrive at it on their own. If you state a conclusion and then try to support it with evidence, you are robbing your listener of the joy of discovery.Give your listener the new, the surprising, and the different.If you must give them old information, reframe it; give it to them from a new perspective, so that they will see it again for the first time.Leave out the parts that people skip.My Christmas gift to you is The Story of the Universe According to Roy.I call it “Way Back in the Long Ago.” You will find it at TribalGospel.comIt is an auditory opera, a campfire story of God and the Universe told under a starfilled sky by an old man who is accompanied by musicians who sit at the furthest edges of that circle of light.But your seat is closer.You feel the warmth of the fire as it dances the dance of the story, and the stars twinkle their agreement with glittering laughter.This is chapter one.Way back in the long ago, the maker spoke, and light exploded across the darkness. Energy radiated across the nothing.Time and space and order appeared from the nothing of the long ago.Bits of energy shot like shrapnel from a bomb into the grid that was created by the ordering of the nothing. Bits of energy bonded with other bits to become great lumps that went spinning across the grid.Their spinning caused these lumps to become spherical.Some of the spheres were made of gasses; ice giants and dwarfs, gas giants and dwarfs, and suns of every size and temperature were created by the energy within them.Others of those spheres became great rocks.Oxygen bonded to hydrogen so that water splashed in the hollows of those rocks.The maker smiled.Algae and moss and grass and trees emerged, and the maker smiled again.Winged creatures darted through the air and swimming creatures darted through the sea, and the maker smiled again.And then creatures appeared on the rock itself. Creatures appeared on the land.The maker looked at us and decided to make us into little makers with the power to choose whatever we would choose. We have the authority to say “yes,” and the authority to say “no,” as we stare into the eyes of the maker.The maker gave us this watery rock we live upon, and complete authority over it.We have the freedom to be guided by our choices. We are no longer the captives of our instincts.The maker is not held captive by time and space. The maker created time and space from the nothing.It is only we – you and me – who measure time and space.Our history of deciding for ourselves and living with the consequences has not been a good history.Seven billion of us are crammed onto a rock that circles an 11,000-degree fireball as it shoots through the nothing… at 52 times the speed of a rifle bullet.We are passengers on a world spinning out of control.Having wrongly been told that the maker is in control, we blame the maker for every sadness.You can’t have it both ways. You can’t have both free will and a benevolent higher power who protects you from yourself.I hope you will take an hour to enjoy my little campfire opera.Merry Christmas.Roy H. Williams*The same is true of the best jokes and the best ads.This week, roving reporter Rotbart and his deputy, Maxwell, offer their third annual holiday encore of their inspirational Yuletide tale, A Christmas Day Miracle, by Dean and Talya Rotbart. First published in 2021, A Christmas Day Miracle has become a holiday favorite. It is the true story of a man, Riyaz Adat, on death’s doorstep; and his devoted wife, Margaret. The story is a poignant reminder of the wonder and power of life’s unexpected blessings. The telling will begin as soon as you arrive at MondayMorningRadio.com

What? You don’t see the happy times?But they are right there!Right there inside you.Oh, I see. You have something that is keeping you from seeing and feeling and living the sparkling clear and happy times that are struggling to rise up from the depths of your soul.I see that you are worried.That’s the problem.Worry is the cork that keeps the champagne of happiness from spraying a smile on your face and a sparkle in your eye and joy into your heartIf you will allow me, I will try to do for you what Julius Rosenwald and Thomas Jefferson did for me.Julius Rosenwald was an immensely successful businessman who used his money – all of it – to help people rise above their circumstances and experience the wonders of the world in which they lived.This is what Julius Rosenwald wrote to me 100 years ago:“Early in my business career I learned the folly of worrying about anything. I have always worked as hard as I could, but when a thing went wrong and could not be righted, I dismissed it from my mind.”Friend, when a thing goes wrong and cannot be righted, dismiss it from your mind.An army of people surround us whose only job is to make us fearful and afraid. You must not allow these people to capture your attention.Journalists have been shouting deceptive and inflammatory headlines at us since the days of the American Revolution.But the journalists and podcasters of today have discovered new ways of shouting. Emails and websites and Youtube and cable and streaming services promise, pledge and swear to keep us highly informed and deeply unhappy. They feed our worries like stokers feeding firewood into the boilers of steam trains.They want us to ride on their rails of steel so that they can take us where they want us to go.Don’t ride their train. Jump off of it. Thomas Jefferson did.He said,“I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.”He went on to say,“Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper. The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”Thomas Jefferson avoided the news and said he was infinitely the happier for it.You should do it, too.Julius Rosenwald and Thomas Jefferson discovered that Jesus was telling the truth in Matthew chapter six when he said,“Do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”Don’t worry.Be happy.Roy H. WilliamsDavid Ackert is making his list and checking it twice — but he’s no Santa Claus. The gifts David brings are powerful insights for professionals who want to grow. David Ackert challenges the long-held belief that success depends on building a massive network of connections. In his view, quantity is a distraction. The thing to do is cultivate a small, curated list of at least 9 not more than 30 “high-value” relationships with people who have the ability to help you reach your goals.Send everyone else a Christmas card.Rotbart goes roving with David Ackert this week, at MondayMorningRadio.com

“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