The CJ Moneyway Show

What if the next chapter of your life requires movement before complete clarity?

On this episode of The CJ Moneyway Show, CJ sits down with Bill Blankschaen, Founder and Chief StoryArchitectof StoryBuilders and author of Your Story Advantage. Bill shares how he moved from ministry and education into storytelling after realizing that someone else could lead the school, but no one else could fulfill the writing assignment he believed God had placed inside him.

The decision came with real pressure. Bill and his wife saw both incomes end on the same day while raising six children. Instead of hiding the uncertainty, they gathered the family, opened the Psalms and began walking

through the season together. Bill studied the craft, developed proposals, wrote and kept moving until one opportunity became a business devoted to helping other people clarify and multiply their message.

CJ and Bill also confront the quieter barriers that keep meaningful stories hidden: imposter syndrome, the Confidence Trap, the belief that familiar experience has no value and the spiritual drift that can begin after success creates comfort.

In this episode:

• Why calling does not always arrive with a complete plan

• How a family can practice faith without pretending fear is absent

• The preparation required after taking the first step

• Why your “normal” experience may contain uncommon value

• Confidence, humility and authenticity among high-level leaders

• How testimony can break the isolation many men carry

• Why success can weaken the disciplines that sustained the struggle

• How to turn a lived story into service, impact and legacy

https://www.linkedin.com/in/billblankschaen/

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Most entrepreneurs begin a book with a topic. Ben Cena believes they should begin with a job.

On this episode of The CJ Moneyway Show, CJ sits down with publishing strategist Ben Cena to examine howexperts can use nonfiction books to strengthen authority, attract qualified opportunities and preserve knowledge beyond their lifetime.

Ben shares how a move from personal training into self-publishing developed into work with entrepreneurs, coaches and thought leaders. He explains why book royalties are rarely the complete business model, why audience research should come before drafting and how the title, cover, formats, keywords, advertising and next-step offer must work together.

CJ presses the conversation beyond publishing mechanics. What does a bestseller label actually mean? How should an author measure the book’s contribution to revenue? When does niche positioning create relevance rather than limitation? And what should someone write if the real goal is allowing future generations to understand the life and principles behind the name?

In this episode:

• Why a book needs a defined business or legacy purpose

• Royalties versus authority and client opportunity

• Audience research before manuscript development

• How titles and covers shape discovery

• Amazon advertising and measurable acquisition

• The difference between retailer availability and shelf placement

• Why bestseller and revenue claims require precision

• How a book can preserve your thinking for future generations

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Kevin Rayner says his mother’s decision to send him away from Gary, Indiana, changed the course of his life. He also says it took writing a book to understand how much of home he lost in the move.

Kevin joins fellow Gary native CJ Moneyway for a conversation about memory, danger, family and the work of telling a story responsibly. He remembers a childhood community marked by Black pride and close neighborhood ties. He also recalls becoming involved in gang life as the environment around him changed. After a confrontation in which someone pulled a gun and attempted to fire it, his mother sent him to Minnesota. Kevin believes that choice gave him a future he might otherwise not have had.

For years, he focused on what the move made possible. Writing The Flight of a Home Town Son brought him back to a different truth. He was not there to watch his father grow older in the same way; he saw his mother only across long gaps; he did not see his grandmother again before she died. He describes realizing that these losses had remained buried beneath his gratitude for surviving.

The book began partly with younger relatives in mind. Kevin wanted them to know the city he remembered before judging only the Gary they had inherited. He also wanted his experience to offer a warning about choices and a reason to believe a different life could be built. Readers have since asked him how he published, and Kevin says he shares what he learned freely.

CJ brings his own Gary memories to the discussion, creating a conversation between two men who know the city as a place of people and relationships rather than a headline. The strongest moments arrive when nostalgia makes room for complexity: a mother’s protective decision can be the right one and still leave a son with grief.

Near the end of the supplied excerpt, Kevin describes using an AI assistant to plan a future book release.

The tool surfaced steps he had not considered. CJ likens AI to a tractor that can spread seeds more widely while the person remains the farmer. That thread is promising as an author-workflow.

This episode is about honoring the people who intervened, preserving a hometown’s story and creating something useful from a life Kevin had to rebuild. His account of the firearm incident and family timeline is presented as his recollection, pending guest review for final release.

Topics

• Gary’s community and Kevin’s memories of growing up there.

• The confrontation and his mother’s decision to send him to Minnesota.

• The complicated grief surfaced by writing about family separation.

• Why he wrote for the next generation.

• Sharing publishing knowledge and testing AI for release planning.

Kevin Rayner, CJ Moneyway Show, The Flight of a Home Town Son, Gary Indiana memoir, Gary Indiana author, leaving home and family, writing through grief, author origin story, Black community Gary, family intervention, resilience and legacy, writing for the next generation, author AI tools, book launch planning

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Your expertise may not be the problem. The problem may be the way you are communicating it.

On this episode of The CJ Moneyway Show(TM), CJ Moneyway sits down with Aurora Winter - media

strategist, author, publisher and former film and television writer-producer - to explore how clear

messaging transforms knowledge into authority, opportunity and business growth.

Aurora shares the story of a struggling business that had a valuable offer but an overwhelming

presentation. Instead of creating confidence, approximately 100 pages of information created confusion.

According to Aurora, the breakthrough came when she reduced the offer to seven words: "Five weeks of

sun, fun and tax shelter."

The product did not change. The message did.

CJ and Aurora also discuss what she learned from working across Silicon Valley, Hollywood,

entrepreneurship and publishing; why a book should begin a relationship rather than end one; and how

leaders can use artificial intelligence without surrendering their authentic voices.

In this episode:

● Why more information can create less understanding

● How to develop a clear and memorable business message

● What Silicon Valley and Hollywood can learn from each other

● Why books should connect to a larger business strategy

● How YouTube, podcasts and websites serve different purposes

● Why websites and email lists remain important owned assets

● How personal stories strengthen authority

● Why AI makes authentic human experience more valuable

Aurora's 2026 book, Turn Words Into Wealth: 7 Ways to Make 7 Figures as a Thought Leader, presents her

approach to connecting books, video, podcasts, artificial intelligence and business strategy.

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What turns a meal into a memory?

Chef Don Bowie grew up in Houston watching his mother cook full meals after working long days, sometimes following work that had already kept her in a kitchen. He remembers the food as one of the clearest ways she showed her children love. Years later, after he had worked in restaurants himself, Don came to understand the effort behind that daily act. It became a model for the feeling he wanted guests to find at Taste Kitchen + Bar.

In this conversation on The CJ Moneyway Show, Don and CJ begin with family. Don describes the scratch-made meals, his mother’s consistency and the role his father later played in cooking and opening a soul-food restaurant. He says he resisted a culinary career for a time. The experiences he gathered elsewhere would eventually help him define a restaurant of his own.

At Red Cat Jazz Cafe, Don learned about the room beyond the plate: the welcome when a guest walks in, customer service, beverages and the role of live music. He later worked with the Sweetie Pie’s brand as it entered Houston, where he observed what public recognition can do for opening demand and why an established name still needs an experience worth returning for.

Before opening Taste, Don says he joined Flower Child for a short period to study how a large hospitality operation built repeatable systems. That experience helped him think through the work behind multiple locations: roles, standards and coordination. His own launch in 2019 aimed to offer Houston a fuller-service, food-led brunch experience that could welcome people throughout the week.

Don resists the idea that Taste happened overnight. He recalls periods of rebuilding and starting again before he reached a concept that connected with guests. CJ brings his own reflections about learning business systems and what it means to take responsibility for decisions made throughout an organization.

The central question reaches beyond restaurants. Don’s mother could personally make a meal feel like care. A founder who wants to offer that feeling to many guests must build a team capable of delivering it consistently while respecting the people doing the work. The episode explores where hospitality begins, how experience is designed and what ownership asks of a leader.

Topics

• The daily meals through which Don felt his mother’s care.

• Why the full guest experience extends beyond the dish.

• Lessons from front-of-house work and live entertainment.

• The purpose of studying large-scale systems before opening Taste.

• Why a 2019 launch represented years of preparation.

 Taste’s official website: https://www.tastehtx.com/

• The CJ Moneyway Show: https://cjmoneyway.com

• Listen on podcast platforms: https://pod.link/1707761906

Chef Don Bowie, CJ Moneyway Show, Taste Kitchen + Bar, Houston chef, southern comfort food Houston, restaurant hospitality, hospitality leadership, restaurant systems, Flower Child chef, Red Cat Jazz Cafe, Sweetie Pie’s Houston, seven day brunch, chicken and waffles Houston, hospitality and family, restaurant entrepreneurship 3rd Ward, 5th Ward

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What does five decades in branding teach you about why some businesses earn trust while others lose it?

On this episode of The CJ Moneyway Show(TM), CJ sits down with veteran brand strategist and author Brandon

Coleman Jr. for a conversation that moves from athletics and fatherhood to storytelling, faith, personal branding and the

promise every business makes to its market.

CJ Moneyway Media(TM) - Brandon Coleman Jr. Post-Interview Package Page 2Brandon traces his path from growing up as the son of a Hall of Fame basketball coach and competing as a ranked

tennis player to discovering advertising while watching Bewitched in his Texas A&M; dorm room. That unexpected spark

became the beginning of a career spanning roughly five decades in branding and business.

At the center of Brandon's philosophy is a simple definition: "A brand is a promise wrapped in a delivery." He

explains why logos and campaigns are secondary to alignment, why every customer touchpoint must reinforce the

promise, and why disrespecting an established market can damage trust that is difficult to recover.

CJ and Brandon also go deeper into fathers and sons, discipline, purpose, Christian faith, storytelling, personal brands

and the responsibility to build something truthful.

Transformational Conversations. Built For Purpose.(TM)

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What good is consuming more information if you can't retrieve it when you actually need it?

On this episode of The CJ Moneyway Show(TM), CJ sits down with Steve Kahle, technology executive, fractional

CIO/CTO and author of Leader Recall, for a conversation about memory, leadership, faith, systems and the difference

between consuming knowledge and actually retaining it.

Steve traces his fascination with memory back to bartending through college, where remembering customers' names,

drinks and personal details helped him build genuine relationships. Years later, his Christian faith led him into Scripture

memorization and deeper study of memory science.

That journey eventually exposed a larger leadership problem: executives consume enormous amounts of information

CJ Moneyway Media(TM) - Steve Kahle Post-Interview Package Page 2through books, podcasts, meetings and technology, yet much of what they learn never becomes usable long-term

knowledge.

Steve breaks down his Capture-Catalog-Recall (CCR) framework and explains how tools including Anki, Notion and

simple capture systems help him preserve insights and deliberately move important information toward long-term recall.

CJ and Steve also go deeper into faith, the story of Joseph, entrepreneurship, stewardship, cybersecurity, AI,

first-principles thinking and why the information you retain may ultimately matter more than the information you

consume.

Transformational Conversations. Built For Purpose.(TM)

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A brilliant invention can exist before anyone has answered the most important question: who needs it, and why?

Curtis Sprouse joins CJ Moneyway for a conversation linking team behavior with biomedical innovation.

Curtis is CEO and president of EurekaConnect, a company focused on leadership and team development.

He is also involved with the Institute for Biomedical Entrepreneurship, which works to help researchers understand the path from scientific discovery to product opportunity.

Curtis begins with his roots around Pittsburgh. He recalls the role sports played in learning to be part of a team and describes how his mother helped him seek an early dyslexia diagnosis. He is careful to distinguish the experience of dyslexia from the personal drive that made him competitive. The combination shaped how he thinks about challenges, relationships and the people who help someone develop.

He tells CJ that good leadership increasingly means teaching other people how to think through a problem. A leader who supplies every answer becomes the limit of the organization. A leader who helps teammates define challenges, prepare for them and solve them can build greater capability around the mission.

Their conversation then moves to the gap between scientific possibility and useful application. Curtis describes helping researchers identify their best role in a company. A talented chemist may remain the scientific lead while other people take responsibility for financing, operations or the commercial pathway.

This is not a judgment about the scientist’s worth. It is a decision about how a team makes the work stronger.

A meeting with a medical leader gives the discussion its sharpest test. By Curtis’s account, an outside expert challenged the proposed use of a technology his team was developing. Rather than treating the criticism as the end, Curtis describes the need to identify a clearer use case and put evidence behind it.

The moment illustrates a distinction that applies well beyond biotech: the ability to build something does not yet establish that people need it.

Curtis also explains his company’s use of behavioral assessments to discuss interpersonal strengths, openness and collaboration. These methods and the claims attached to them are Curtis’s account and should be evaluated on their own evidence. The episode’s larger question remains human: can a confident leader stay open to information that changes the plan?

Join CJ and Curtis for a grounded conversation about people, scientific translation and leadership with enough integrity to change course.

Topics covered

• Pittsburgh, dyslexia and the value of early support.

• From competitive athlete to leader who elevates others.

• Connection and trust in professional relationships.

• Why scientific expertise and company leadership can require different people.

• An expert’s difficult question that changed a technology plan.

 EurekaConnect: https://eurekaconnect.com/company

• Institute for Biomedical Entrepreneurship: https://ibeinc.org/company

• The CJ Moneyway Show: https://cjmoneyway.com

• Podcast platforms: https://pod.link/1707761906

Curtis Sprouse, CJ Moneyway Show, EurekaConnect, Institute for Biomedical Entrepreneurship, biotech entrepreneurship, biomedical commercialization, bench to bedside, leadership development, scientist founder, product market need, use case validation, team behavior, dyslexia leadership, innovation and integrity, science to marketplace, founder role clarity

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Roger Gauthier believes a dream can carry responsibility beyond the person who receives it. The question at the center of his work is simple: “Who’s depending on your dream?”

Roger joins CJ Moneyway for a conversation that begins in prayer and moves into the life behind that question. He describes growing up with a father whose attention he longed for, the effect of bullying and isolation, and how marriage and fatherhood changed his understanding of responsibility.

CJ brings his own experience into the discussion, reflecting on a decision that helped change his life while leaving scars for others. Together, CJ and Roger examine what it means to pursue a vision while taking ownership of its effect on the people closest to you.

Roger also discusses creating a short film around his message and the accountability he felt when sharing it publicly. As the conversation turns toward loss and rebuilding, he begins describing his mother’s death and a difficult transition into entrepreneurship.

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How can a person look successful and feel like they are barely holding everything together?

Mark J. Silverman joins CJ Moneyway for a deeply personal conversation about the distance between external achievement and internal stability. Mark describes struggling with addiction, losing contact with family and reaching a point in his twenties when he was living out of a truck. A call to his brother brought him to Washington, D.C., where family, recovery meetings, work and college classes opened a different path.

Mark went on to build a successful sales career. Income grew, the clothes and car changed, and the public story looked like a remarkable comeback. Yet, as Mark tells CJ, he still felt like someone who did not belong. At a company trip to the Four Seasons, where he had previously waited tables, he worried that colleagues might see through him. He describes using the appearance of success as armor.

The costs of that armor became harder to ignore later in life. Mark talks about panic attacks, a declining sense of control at work, separation from his wife and a period of serious depression. He speaks about seeking support, working with a therapist, training for the Marine Corps Marathon and gradually rebuilding a relationship with himself. He does not present that process as instant or simple.

The conversation also holds a painful family story. Mark’s brother had been central to his early recovery;

Mark later watched him struggle with alcohol and drugs and describes losing him. That experience complicates any easy comeback narrative. CJ and Mark discuss what it means to appreciate the help one received while recognizing that outcomes are not guaranteed.

As an executive coach and author, Mark now works with leaders under pressure. He tells CJ that his most useful leadership tool has become honesty: being willing to connect, show vulnerability and talk about what is frightening rather than performing confidence. CJ brings his own reflections on leadership, faith and the difficulty of accepting how far someone has come.

This episode is about recovery, identity and sustainable leadership. It asks when ambition serves a life, when it begins to shield us from ourselves, and what becomes possible when we stop treating vulnerability as evidence that we do not belong.

Topics

• The call to his brother and the start of a different path.

• Moving from waiting tables to sales success without feeling secure.

• Imposter feelings and the cost of performing a role.

• A midlife crisis, support and a gradual return to self-trust.

• Why connection and vulnerability now shape his leadership practice.

Guest website: https://www.markjsilverman.com/

• Guest books: https://www.markjsilverman.com/books/

• Show website: https://cjmoneyway.com

• Podcast hub: https://pod.link/1707761906

Mark J Silverman, CJ Moneyway Show, Rising Leader Podcast, Rising Leader Handbook, executive coach, imposter syndrome, leadership under pressure, recovery and success, success and identity, vulnerability in leadership, sustainable success, executive burnout, internal work, sales career, resilience, addiction recovery, leadership transformation

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