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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What happens when good people work inside a system that rewards the wrong behavior?

In this episode of The CJ Moneyway Show(TM), CJ sits down with Jon Read, a two-time healthcare technology founder whose work connects entrepreneurship, product design, behavioral health, and human outcomes. Jon shares how moving repeatedly as a child taught him to enter unfamiliar environments, build relationships, and create games people wanted to play together.

The conversation follows Jon to Brazil, where a motorcycle accident shattered his collarbone and left him vulnerable far from home. A stranger helped him return safely, a landlord drove him hours to a hospital, and a chance connection later opened an investor relationship. During rehabilitation, Jon built a simple tool to keep himself accountable to physical therapy. That tool became the seed of Keet Health.

Jon also speaks candidly about the emotional reality of selling a company. The exit created freedom, but the building was the meaningful part. That realization, combined with the loss of friends to mental-health and substance-use struggles, helped move him toward Confidant Health and a more difficult mission.

The episode's defining leadership lesson is simple: incentives reveal what an organization truly values.

When volume is rewarded more than connection or outcomes, work becomes a math problem instead of a human experience. Jon and CJ explore how leaders can understand constraints, remove administrative

friction, recognize quality, build guardrails, and design systems that teach the right behavior.CJ MONEYWAY MEDIA(TM) | PODCAST EDITORIAL INTELLIGENCE

The supplied transcript ends at 30:00 during Jon's answer about recognition. The final mastered episode may contain additional discussion, including AI in clinical care, that must be reviewed before the release copy is expanded.

Episode Key Takeaways

Frequent change can become training in relationship-building and adaptability.

A personal problem can expose a scalable opportunity when the founder observes the system around it.

Authentic, unconventional tactics can open doors that standard playbooks miss.

An exit can provide freedom without providing purpose; the journey may have been the real reward.

Personal grief can become responsibility when it is converted into better access and better systems.

People optimize around the incentives, metrics, and recognition an organization makes real.

Leaders should test incentives for unintended consequences and gaming before scaling them.

Not all recognition is financial; identity, peer respect, and proof of impact can shape performance.

Guest Links and CTA

Confidant Health: https://www.confidanthealth.com/

Provider network: https://www.confidanthealth.com/for-providers

Jon Read on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonread

Keet Health legacy site: https://www.keethealth.com/

Guest must confirm the preferred primary CTA, current title, tagged accounts, approved biography, and whether the audience CTA should serve patients, providers, partners, or employers.

CJ Moneyway Audience CTA

If this conversation made you question what your organization is really rewarding, share it with a leader

who can redesign the system. Follow and subscribe to The CJ Moneyway Show(TM) for more purpose-

driven conversations that build people, relationships, systems, and legacies brick by brick.

CJ Moneyway Partner CTA

Ready to strengthen your brand visibility, audience engagement, or media strategy? Connect with The

Seidel Agency through the CJ Moneyway referral portal: http://theseidelagency.com/Referral

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