QUESTION ONE: “Who were your mentors?”

Mentor is a word I never use. It smells of apprenticeship, that wafting, submissive aroma that arises from a servant who adores his master. By this definition, I have never had a mentor, but I do have many heroes I study from a distance, and I have a lot of friends who have spoken valuable things into my life.

QUESTION TWO: “What is your writing method?”

1. I descend into the depths of the client/character in whose voice I will be writing. This takes awhile.

2. When I have lost contact with my surroundings and found that character and become that character, I write what that character would say. I do this in the middle of the night because there are fewer interruptions.

3. When the character is finished talking, I ascend from the deep waters into the air and sunlight of my surroundings, walk into the kitchen, make a cup of hot tea, and add the juice of a Key Lime. This little ritual helps me find myself. Then I look at the digital clock on the microwave to find out how long I have been away, because time does not exist in that alternate realm.

Sometimes, when Pennie is visiting her sisters, I will awaken in the wintertime post-midnight darkness, work for awhile, rise to make tea, and notice that it is not yet light. But when I finally realize it is the darkness of evening, not morning, and that an entire day has disappeared while I was underwater, I have to reorient my mind.

QUESTION THREE: “Is your health okay?”

“Are you pulling back? Are you stepping away from Wizard Academy and the Wizard of Ads partners? Your recent Monday Morning Memos make me feel like you are preparing to say goodbye.”

I fear you have me confused with Mentor R. Williams.

Mentor Ralph Williams (yes, Mentor was his first name) wrote “Drift Away,” one of the gold record hits of the 70’s. Dobie Gray sang it to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1973.

“Day after day I’m more confused, yet I look for the light through the pouring rain. You know that’s a game that I hate to lose. And I’m feeling the strain. Ain’t it a shame.”

“Beginning to think that I’m wasting time. I don’t understand the things I do. The world outside looks so unkind. And I’m counting on you to carry me through.”

When you read these next words, you will likely hear Dobie Gray’s voice in your mind:

“Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul, I want to get lost in your rock and roll and drift away.”

This is not my day to be Dobie Gray. I am not feeling blue and I am not preparing to die. But I do appreciate your concern. Thank you for caring.

A few weeks ago I wrote, “The important is rarely urgent, and the urgent is rarely important. Do not become a slave to the merely urgent.”

I’m sure I will shift gears at some point and shoot off in a new direction, but right now I am writing about things that are important, rather than merely urgent. I hope to speak valuable things into your life, just as other people have spoken into mine.

But first we need to make a deal, okay?

The agreement I need from you is this: If you promise not to think I am feeling blue, stepping back, or preparing to die, I will share some of the valuable things that people have spoken into my life. I will tell you what they said, when they said it, and how I found value in their words.

Does that sound okay to you? If so, raise your hand.

I saw that hand, even though you raised it only in your mind.

Indy says Aroo, and I do,...

Aim their laughter like a cannon that booms out over the water.

Aim their sorrow like a rainbow that follows a storm.

Aim their anger like a lightning bolt that kills a man standing under a tree.

Be careful not to stand under trees.

People would rather be angry that bored.

This is why we pay attention to politics.

People would rather be frightened than bored.

This is why we watch scary movies.

People would rather be sad than bored.

This is why we read books that break our hearts.

People would rather be laughing than bored.

This is why we have comedians and memes and YouTube and TikTok.

Why is it so profoundly difficult

to simply sit still in silence?

Because whenever we are silent

for more than a few minutes,

all of our shadows and secrets and sins

come to the surface of our consciousness.

Jesus says, “Whenever you pray,

go into the closet and shut the door.”1

Surely, Jesus knows about all the

skeletons we like to hide in our closets.

And Jesus wants prayer to be the place

where we confront those skeletons

and face our fears.

If we do not confront the skeletons in our closets,

then they will control the whole house.

If we do not control our shadows,

then they will run the whole show.

This is why some say

that all of humanity’s problems

stem from our inability to sit quietly

in a room alone. 2

– Daniel DeForest London,

The Cloud of Unknowing, Distilled

Anger, fear, sorrow, and laughter are forms of excitement.

Excite people and you will be the center of attention.

But the happiest thing to do, if you can do it,

is fill people with a sense of wonder.

Wonder is a feeling without skeletons or shadows.

Wonder is a reaction, not an emotion.

Wonder is triggered by realizations that are bigger than our minds can contain.

Roy H. Williams

HOT TIP – Make Yourself Happy. Sign up for Jeffrey’s class Aug. 13-14 at WizardAcademy.org. It will give you more confidence, competence, and consideration. Your teeth will be whiter and you’ll be a better dancer. – Indy Beagle

1 Matthew ch 6, verse 6

2 Blaise Pascal, (1623 – 1662)

“It’s what you choose to believe that makes you the person you are.“

– Karen Marie Moning

Nick-Anthony Zamucen has launched four successful franchises: a pizza chain, a home care business, a crime scene cleaner, and a water and fire damage repair company. According to Nick-Anthony, there is a proven formula for running a successful franchise, whether you buy into someone else’s concept or decide to start a franchise of your own. What should you look for in a franchise? What do you need to launch one? And what should you absolutely avoid? Make some popcorn because the show is about to start as Nick Anthony Zamucen tells all to our own roving reporter Rotbart at MondayMorningRadio.com

Any person who relays messages to you from the boss, is now your new boss.

An excellent messenger might relay exactly what the big boss asked them to tell you, but only after they have reframed it, recharacterized it, and added their own slant.

Every messenger does this. Whether they do it consciously or unconsciously is irrelevant. Whether they do it maliciously or innocently is irrelevant. What matters is that it happens.

When a person speaks for the boss, you work for that person. You must do what they say.

If a messenger gives you a handwritten note from the big boss, your response to that message will be reframed, recharacterized, and delivered as interpreted by the mind of the messenger. The big boss is going to hear their words, not yours.

And God help you if you entrust an innocent question to a messenger. By the time that question enters the ear of the emperor, it will sound like a childish challenge or an anger-inflaming insult. The only thing you can do now is kneel down, put your head between your knees, and kiss your ass goodbye.

Have I put the matter too strongly? If so, let me soften it with this short summary: You are forever at the messenger’s mercy.

Which is perfectly okay if you do not love your job.

Are you putting in your 8 hours then going home to begin living your real life? If so, you are incredibly lucky. Do your 40, collect your check, live your life.

I envy you.

But if you are cursed with ideas, innovations, and experiences you believe have value, you will forever be frustrated by the bleak barrier that separates you from that pristine person who can say “absolutely yes.” Your cheeks will be chapped by silly slaps from interfering intermediaries. Your days will be darkened by dullards. Your mind will be massacred by meetings with morons. (Yes, I am toying with alliteration today.)

You need to get a different job. You need to have direct contact with that one special person who can say absolutely yes without having to clear it with someone else.

I spent my youth writing ads for clients who grew too big and became too busy to speak with me directly. When I became weary of living in the leg-irons and handcuffs imposed by messengers, I cut two tablets of stone from the heart of Mount Moriah. Those tablets contain two sentences:

1. “I cannot work my magic unless I am in direct contact with the person who has unconditional authority to say ‘absolutely yes’ without having to check with someone else.”
2. “If that person is too busy to speak with me personally, I am too busy to write his ads.”

You have felt what I am describing, or you have not.

Again, I envy you if you have not.

If you have felt that frustration:

1. Get a job working with an entrepreneur who will take the time to hear you.
2. Honor that person by giving them your best.
3. If that person’s success causes them to feel the need to insert a messenger between them and you…
4. Take your stonemason’s hammer and your stonecarver’s chisel to the ancient mines of Mount Moriah. Sit down and think for awhile in the shadow of the Almighty. Then carve what you feel.

If Mount Moriah frightens you, then you must learn to live with chapped cheeks, darkened days, and a massacred mind.

I will leave you to make your own decision.

As for me, I’m placing my stone tablets in my front window where everyone can see them.

Roy H. Williams

NOTE FROM INDY BEAGLE: August 13-14: Only 15 people will be allowed to attend an extremely special business class taught by Jeffrey...

There is a time to get started, and there is a time to wait.

1. When you have thought carefully about it, take action. But when you haven’t thought about it, wait.
2. The important is rarely urgent, and the urgent is rarely important. Do not become a slave to the merely urgent.
3. Perception is to see things that not everyone sees. Intuition is to recognize connections, and the patterns that occur because of these connections.
4. Maximum information is available, and maximum contemplation is possible, only at the last possible moment.
5. If you ever feel bad about procrastinating, just remember that Mozart wrote the overture to Don Giovanni the morning it premiered.
6. Procrastination is the soul rebelling against entrapment. But if you procrastinate too long, you will have your choice made for you by circumstance.

Mozart was christened Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. Theophilus, in Greek, means “loved by God”.

In a letter announcing his birth, his father said his name was Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart. Gottlieb, in German, means “loved by God.”

When he was 21, Mozart began calling himself Amadè, which is Hungarian for “loved by God.”

Mozart called himself Amadeus only once, when he signed a letter “Wolfgangus Amadeus Mozartus” as a joke, (sort of like Indiana Beagle calling himself “Indianus Beaglus” in the image at the top of today’s Monday Morning Memo.) Amadeus, in Latin, means “Loved by God.”

“Johannes Chrysostomus” precedes the name “Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart” because he, a Catholic, was born on January 27, the feast day of Saint John Chrysostomus in the West until the calendar reform of 1969.

But I digress. We were talking about the tyranny of the “merely urgent” versus information, contemplation, and procrastination.

1. Waiting serves a purpose. In Manley Miller’s booklet, “Potato Chips: Greasy, Salty, Really Good Stories from Growing Up in New Orleans,” he writes,

I became a pastor when I was still young and foolish enough to say, “All right, God, if I’m not a senior pastor by the time I’m 30, then I’m going to quit being a pastor. I’m just going to take that as a sign from you that this is not what I’m supposed to be doing.”

Later, I found out the reason Jesus didn’t start his ministry until he was 30 is because you couldn’t become a rabbi until you were 30. You didn’t have enough life experience.

Jesus was 12 when Mary and Joseph found him teaching in the Synagogue, and it says that he “spoke with great wisdom.” But then when he’s 30 and starts his ministry, it says he spoke with great authority.

You have an aptitude for something when you have a talent for it.

But you develop proficiency over long experience.

And it’s going to take some time to get there.

Likewise, there’s a long journey from wisdom to authority.

When you have something to say worth hearing, that’s wisdom.

But when people respect you enough to listen, that’s authority.

Waiting is not wasting.

And now we’re going to make a 90-degree turn and head off in a tangential direction. Hold on tight.

Here are the Top Five Regrets of People Who are Dying:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. I wish I had spent more time with my family.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be...

When you are having an adventure, you wish you were safe at home. But when you are safe at home, you wish you were having an adventure.

Every adventure is marked by setbacks, disappointments, and difficulties. Without trouble, there can be no adventure.

Our love of movies, video games, and sporting events proves our craving for adventure, for what are these but a celebration of people overcoming setbacks, disappointments, difficulties, and problems?

What are you facing today?

What must you overcome?

What is your current adventure?

Adventure is exciting when the vision of a glowing future shines brightly in your mind. But when we have no vision of a happy outcome, we walk in darkness.

Jesus spoke of this phenomenon in the sixth chapter of the book of Matthew.

“Your vision is the lamp of your body. If you see the world clearly, your body will be full of light. But if your vision is distorted, the light within you will be darkness. And if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

When our vision is distorted, we lose hope.

Please understand that I am not talking about mental illness. I don’t pretend to have a cure for that. But I do know a thing or two about sadness, confusion, frustration, and loneliness.

One out of every four people you encounter today will be hiding deep sadness, confusion, frustration, or loneliness. They won’t let you see it, but it is there.

This is the cure you have within you: You can listen intently when a person is speaking, so that the person feels seen and heard. You can smile and nod, so that the person feels accepted.

You have the power to make other people feel valued.

Each of us needs to be seen, and heard, and missed when we are absent.

You can shine a light into the darkness.

And sometimes, that is enough.

Roy H. Williams

NOTE: Today we celebrate the 13th anniversary of MondayMorningRadio, hosted by our own Pulitzer-nominated roving reporter, Dean Rotbart. Next week’s episode will be number 600! Can you believe it? And last month we quietly celebrated the 30th anniversary of the MondayMorningMemo. How many of you have been subscribers since the days when it was delivered by FAX? Aroo. – Indy Beagle

Gwendolyn “Wendy” Bounds, an award-winning broadcast reporter, was an eyewitness of 9/11. In his book, September Twelfth: An American Comeback Story, roving reporter Rotbart describes Wendy Bounds as telegenically attractive, “with big chocolate-brown eyes, a sparkly broad smile, and shoulder-length buttery blond hair blended with honey highlights.” Today, the long-time desk jockey is ripped, with muscular arms, strong and toned legs, and broad, well-developed shoulders. Wendy has transformed herself into a competitive Spartan racer, running through mud pits, crawling under barbed wire, swinging across monkey bars, and hoisting sandbags as she navigates obstacle courses. “It is never too late to achieve your full potential,” Wendy writes in a new book, out tomorrow (June 18). “Age,” she tells the roving reporter and his deputy, Maxwell, “can be a secret weapon.” Age. Learn how to use it, at MondayMorningRadio.com

My friends know that I have not used – and do not plan to use – ChatGPT, although I do endorse it for people who do not love to write.

I love to write.

Undissuaded, my friends urge that I should at least allow ChatGPT to gather and compile data for me to edit.

I like to gather my own data.

Jeffrey Eisenberg gave ChatGPT this prompt: “In less than 500 words what advice would Roy H Williams give his good friend Tom Grimes about writing?”

Twenty-seven seconds later, Jeffrey’s computer delivered a 448-word fortune cookie. (I’m not sure why, but I can see it emerging from the front of Jeffrey’s computer on a long, white paper tongue, like the receipt from a grocery story cash register.)

Tom,

Picture this: you’re standing on a bustling street corner, trying to get the attention of a hurried crowd. That’s what writing is like. You have mere seconds to grab someone’s attention and make them care. Here’s how you do it:

1. Engage from the Start: Begin with a bang. Your first sentence should make the reader stop in their tracks. Something unexpected, a question, or a bold statement. For instance, “Have you ever tried to whistle with a mouth full of peanut butter?”
2. Be Conversational: Write as you speak. Imagine you’re having a chat with an old friend over coffee. Use contractions. Keep it casual. The more natural it sounds, the more relatable it becomes.
3. Vary Your Sentences: Mix short, punchy sentences with longer, flowing ones. This rhythm keeps readers engaged. It’s like a song; it needs a beat to keep people moving.
4. Tell Stories: People love stories. They remember them. Use anecdotes to illustrate your points. A well-placed story can make your message unforgettable. “Remember that time we got lost in the woods and stumbled upon that hidden waterfall? Your writing should be like that – a surprising discovery.”
5. Repetition for Emphasis: Don’t shy away from repeating key points. Repetition drills the message into the reader’s mind. It’s like the chorus of a song – it’s what they’ll hum later.
6. Parallel Structure: Use parallel structure to create balance and rhythm in your writing. “He came, he saw, he conquered.” It’s pleasing to the ear and easy to remember.
7. Engaging Openings and Closings: Start strong, but finish even stronger. Leave them with something to think about. A question, a challenge, a powerful statement. Make your closing as memorable as your opening.
8. Be Clear and Concise: Don’t use ten-dollar words when a ten-cent one will do. Simplicity is powerful. It cuts through the noise and delivers your message with clarity.
9. Emotion is Key: Tap into the reader’s emotions. Make them laugh, make them cry, make them think. If they feel something, they’ll remember it.
10. Have a Purpose: Every word should serve a purpose. Ask yourself, “What’s the point of this sentence? Does it move the story forward or add value?” If not, cut it.

Remember, Tom, writing is an art, but it’s also a craft. It takes practice. Don’t be afraid to rewrite, to polish, to perfect. Your goal is to make your reader feel something, to think, to act. Writing isn’t just about putting words on paper; it’s about creating an experience.

So go ahead, write like you’re talking to an old friend. Keep it simple, keep it engaging, and above all, keep it real. That’s the secret.

Cheers,

Roy

My reaction is strangely twisted, like a chocolate and vanilla swirl cone from McDonald’s.

The vanilla twist is that I am impressed by ChatGPT’s ability to extract 10 true things from 30 years worth of Monday Morning Memos. The chocolate twist is my annoyance that ChatGPT used filler words and boring...

“If the founder of an organization does not empower the next generation of leadership to carry the enterprise forward while he is still viable as a leader, the organization he founded will cease to exist within 10 years after his death.”

I have no recall of how I learned that information, but I have known it for nearly 40 years. My confidence that it is true tells me that I trusted the source.

I was working in an industrial steel fabrication shop in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma for 3 dollars and 35 cents an hour when I learned a second truth I cannot prove, but I remember the episode clearly. The year was 1976, when a million dollars was like ten million dollars today.

I was listening to a radio interview while driving a delivery truck down Lynn Lane. The man on the radio had mailed a survey to a large number of millionaires and a surprisingly high percentage of them had completed that survey and returned it to him.

He was sharing the characteristics of self-made millionaires:

“Do self-made millionaires have a high I.Q.? No. The percentage of self-made millionaires with a high I.Q. is the same as the general population.”

“Is it education? No. Self-made millionaires are no better educated than the rest of us.”

“Is it family money? No. Self-made millionaires are no more likely to come from a wealthy family than you and I.”

“Is it family connections? No.”

“Did they marry someone whose family had money and connections? No.”

“Did they ‘get discovered’? Did they get a big break? No.”

When all of my assumptions had been shattered, he said there were only four things that self-made millionaires tend to have in common:

(4.) Self-made millionaires are more likely to have been fired from a job than the rest of us.

(3.) A high percentage of self-made millionaires have filed bankruptcy at least once.

(2.) Self-made millionaires distrust traditional wisdom and believe there is a better way.

(1.) Self-made millionaires think further ahead than we do. They have a time horizon that isn’t measured in days or weeks or months, but in years.

The invisible man on the radio went on to say that a person’s socio-economic strata is largely determined by how far that person thinks ahead.

The average American has a plan for their next two paychecks. Their upcoming paycheck is fully committed, and they have bills to pay with the paycheck that follows, although that one offers a small opportunity for discretionary spending. The paycheck after our next one gives us a little bit of hope.

Two paychecks ahead is the furthest we dare look. This is what it means to be middle class.

But at least we are not struggling to find the money to buy a new battery for the car so that we can get to work, or trying to borrow money to pay a long-overdue electric bill, or wishing we had enough food in the kitchen to last until payday. These people are struggling, but that is not the bottom. No.

At the bottom of the socio-economic strata are the addicts who can think only of their next drink, their next score, their next fix. Their time horizon is a few hours, at most. Tomorrow doesn’t enter their mind.

Friend, I am convinced you can succeed at anything you choose to do, provided you have the emotional staying power to survive your mistakes.

No matter how hard you try, there are a certain number of mistakes you are going to make. This doesn’t mean you have failed. It means you are learning.

So always keep trying. But above all:

Think ahead.

Roy H. Williams

PS: “The one thing all famous authors, world class athletes, business tycoons, singers, actors, and celebrated achievers in any field have in common is that they all began their journeys when they were none of these things.”

– Mike Dooley

PPS: When business owners struggle, they often blame everyone but...

A successful mechanic shop brings in about $500,000 a year. But whether or not the shop owner makes any profit on that $500,000 isn’t determined by how good they are at repairing cars, but by how good they are at running a business.

And even those shop owners who are good at running a business might not be good at converting telephone inquiries into customers.

You realize I’m not just talking about auto repair shops, right? I’m talking about every category of business in America.

At this moment, I’m talking to you about yours.

1. Are you good at your job?
2. (Are your customers impressed?)
3. Are you good at running a business?
4. (Pricing, recruiting, work-flow management, inventory management, vendor relations, employee retention, customer retention, payroll management, etc.)
5. Are you good at generating inquiries?
6. (Advertising, brand-building, sales activation, customer word-of-mouth and online reviews.)
7. Are you good at turning inquiries into customers?
8. (Close rate, conversion.)

Now, back to Jerry:

1. Jerry was good at his job.
2. So good, in fact, that his reputation allowed him to bring in 12 times as much business as the average “successful” auto repair shop. Jerry wasn’t bringing in $500,000 a year. He was bringing in $500,000 a month.
3. Jerry was good at running a business.
4. He and his wife traveled and enjoyed life at a much higher level than most of us.
5. Jerry was good at generating inquiries, mostly because his auto repair shop made customers happy for a lot of years, and happy customers tend to multiply.
6. But Jerry was only average at turning telephone inquiries into customers. Still, he was doing 12 times the sales volume of the average “successful” mechanic shop in America.

Jerry and his wife are often at Wizard Academy.

Jerry was paying attention when I said, “Bad marketing is about you, your company, your product, your service, how many years you have been in business and how many awards you have won. Good marketing is about the customer, and how your product or service can change the private little world they live in.”

After contemplating those words, Jerry and his wife realized that how they respond to telephone inquiries is a form of marketing. Specifically, it is the kind of marketing that can improve the percentage of incoming phone calls that become customers.

I encouraged Jerry and his wife to experiment. I said, “Try something new. Give it time to work, but if it doesn’t work, try something else that is new.”

Jerry’s second experiment caused his business revenues to jump 53% above the previous year, month after month.

Jerry’s mechanic shop no longer does $6,000,000 a year. He now has a $9,180,000 mechanic shop.

I know what you’re thinking. You want to know how Jerry and his wife lit the fuse on the rocket that put their business into orbit, am I right?

Okay, I’ll tell you.

Jerry’s wife said, “Every incoming call begins with the caller saying, ‘Can you,’ ‘Do you,’ or ‘Will you.’”

“Give me some examples,” I said.

She said, “Can you repair the transmission on a 2018 Mercedes-Benz E400?”

Our answer is, “Yes we can. And if you’d like to bring it in, we’ll take a look at it right now.”

“Do you work on Volkswagens?”

“Yes we do. And if you’d like to bring it in, we’ll take a look at it right now.”

“Will you take a look at my Porsche 718 Cayman? It dies every time I make a sharp left turn.”

“Yes, we will. And if you’d like to bring it in, we’ll take a look at it right now.”

Do you see what Jerry and his wife are NOT...