The Authority Company

Dr. Claire Feagley — business psychologist, executive coach, and M&A expert — joins the show to break down her new book, The Toxicity Tax: Why Dysfunction Costs More Than You Think and How to Break Free. We dig into why 70–90% of mergers fail to hit their financial targets, how "ordinary" toxicity (not the explosive kind) quietly drains teams, why childhood shapes how we handle conflict at wor...

Dr. Jae Woo Kim grew up on a farm in rural South Korea in the 1960s and '70s without electricity — and went on to become a Samsung engineer, a Qualcomm veteran, and a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. In this episode, host Joe Pardavila sits down with Dr. Kim to unpack his book, The Rise of Seoul: South Korea's Journey from Rags to Riches, and the extraordinary six-decade transformation he lived throug...

Padel has officially overtaken pickleball as America's fastest growing sport. So what is it, why are people so hooked on it, and can it actually break through in the U.S.? On this episode of The Authority Company Podcast, host Joe Pardavila sits down with Ben Nichols, founder and CEO of Padel 22. Ben has spent 20 years in global sports, including Formula 1, anti-doping, and professional tennis. He...

Peter Lewis joined SXSW in 2009 as an administrative assistant. Today, he's the Chief Commercial Officer, overseeing partnerships, sponsorships, and the brand experiences that connect thousands of companies and attendees every year. In this episode of The Authority Company podcast, Joe Pardavila sits down with Peter to unpack what actually makes SXSW's audience and culture so different from every...

Dr. Joseph Webb spent four decades leading hospitals across the country, including a nationally recognized turnaround at Nashville General Hospital. In this conversation, he breaks down why the American healthcare system isn't a "right," why only 20% of health outcomes actually come from healthcare itself, and the fatal policy decision the US made after World War II that we're still living with to...

Alfonso Cahero survived a fall from 5,000 meters. But the story doesn’t end with survival. In this episode of The Authority Company Podcast, Joe Pardavila sits down with Alfonso Cahero, author of The Source Architect: Meditations on Form, Death, and the Geometry of Being, to explore how a near-death experience reshaped his understanding of fear, identity, business, legacy, and stillness. Alfonso s...

Don Yaeger has spent 30 years studying what makes stories stick — and he's put it all into his new book, The Business of Storytelling: Inspire Action, Build Trust, and Drive Results Through Story. In this conversation, Don breaks down why "the story is the strategy," the neuroscience behind why we fall for a good story (looking at you, Steve Jobs), why PowerPoint slides kill more presentations tha...

Chris Day has spent over two decades building and selling companies in the managed services industry — including Fully Managed and IT Glue. In this episode, he joins Joe Pardavila to break down his new book, MSP to MVP: Building Unbreakable Partnerships in the Customer Success Era, and why the MSP (Managed Services Provider) industry is at its most exciting — and most vulnerable — inflection point...

Is your business in a rough patch — or is something structurally broken? Robinson Aquino, author of The Small Business Money Game, returns to Entrepreneur | Authorities to break down how owners can spot the early warning signs of a business in trouble, why taking on more debt can make things worse, and his PSPG framework — Pause, Shrink, Plan, Grow — for navigating a turnaround. In this episode: ...

Christopher W. Brown spent three decades building businesses that depended entirely on him — until a heart attack in 2016 forced a decade-long rebuild of how he works, rests, and leads. In this conversation with Joe Pardavila, Christopher breaks down the neuroscience of unplugging, why "aloofness" is a leadership skill, and how he trained his team (and himself) to stop needing him in the room. It'...

Dr. Bruce Bailey — meteorologist, 50-year renewable energy veteran, and former head of AWS Truepower — joins Joe Pardavila to break down the real forces shaping America's energy future. They cover why deep-red Texas leads the nation in clean energy, why your power bill is mostly delivery cost (not fuel), the aging grid's $trillions modernization problem, the data center vs. nuclear power fight com...

Twin brothers. Army veterans. Business partners. Dr. Sterling Carter and Stephen Carter, MBA built a healthcare empire spanning staffing, hospice, and outpatient physical therapy — now scaled to 800+ clinicians across Texas and Oklahoma. In this episode of The Authority Company Podcast, host Joe Pardavila sits down with the Carter brothers to talk about their new book, "The Business of Healing", t...

David J. Moore co-founded 24/7 Media, took it public with $2.5M in revenue, watched it soar to a $1.8 billion valuation — and then rode it all the way down to nine cents a share and a "going concern" opinion before clawing it back and selling to WPP. In this episode of The Authority Company Podcast, David sits down with host Joe Pardavila to unpack the eerie and not-so-eerie parallels between the...

Bridget Way spent nearly two decades in the trenches of tax season before asking one question that reshaped her entire business: what if doing great work didn't have to mean burning out? A CPA based in the mountains of Colorado, Bridget rebuilt her firm around AI after a disconnected family trip to Utah during COVID convinced her there had to be a better way to work — one where technology creates...

Brendan P. Keegan joins Joe Pardavila on The Authority Company Podcast to challenge one of the most common ideas in modern leadership: work-life balance. Brendan is an award-winning president and CEO, investor, board member, and author of Unbalanced on Purpose: Move Beyond the Myth of Perfect Balance and Live With Intention. After raising more than $10 billion in capital, leading over 250,000 peop...

Why do so many family businesses struggle after the founder steps away? In this episode of The Authority Company Podcast, Joe Pardavila speaks with Alejandro Cárdenas Villa, author of "Legacy Traps: Why Family Businesses Fail and How to Protect Yours", about the relationship problems, succession mistakes, and emotional decisions that can threaten a multigenerational company. Alejandro explains why...

Dr. Kerry Mitchell Brown joins The Authority Company Podcast to discuss her book Revolutionary Leadership: A Power Playbook for Black Women and the urgent need to rethink how leadership is recognized, developed, and supported. In this conversation, Dr. Brown explains why Black women remain underrepresented in top executive roles, how traditional leadership systems often miss the skills Black women...

How do successful companies stay fast, hungry, and focused as they grow? In this episode of Entrepreneur | Authorities, Joe Pardavila welcomes back Matthew Domo, CEO and founder of FifthVantage. At Amazon, Matt created Amazon Web Services' first database and pioneered the database-as-a-service category. Matt breaks down Amazon’s influential “Day One” leadership mindset and explains why it’s an ope...

Shep Rose built a public image around charm, adventure, and saying yes to almost everything. As one of the breakout stars of Bravo’s Southern Charm, he became known as the fun-loving guy who could turn any room into a party. But in his new book, Nothing in Moderation: A Psychedelic Reckoning With Excess, Shep opens up about what happens when that persona starts to cost you. In this episode of The...

Why do some brands become part of our lives while others disappear? In this episode of Entrepreneur Authorities, Joe Pardavila sits down with branding expert and author Ernie Ross to explore the hidden forces that shape the way people connect with products, companies, and ideas. Ernie is the founder of an award-winning branding and innovation agency and the author of Intangience: How Human Connect...

Most acquisitions look strong on paper. The real challenge begins after the deal closes. In this episode of The Authority Company Podcast, Joe Pardavila sits down with J. Michael Coffey, author of G.A.L.E. Force: Navigating Strategy, Culture, and Value Creation in Modern M&A, to explore why so many mergers and acquisitions fail to meet expectations, and why culture often becomes the biggest ob...

Every email receipt, loyalty card, online search, app permission, and free Wi-Fi connection can reveal more about you than you realize. In this episode of Entrepreneur | Authorities, Joe Pardavila speaks with data science and AI expert Wes Chaar, author of Data Independence: Reclaiming Privacy in an Era of Evolving Tech, about how companies follow our digital breadcrumbs and turn personal informat...

What does “real trading” mean in a market dominated by algorithms, AI, dark pools, high-frequency trading, meme stocks, and commission-free apps? In this episode of The Authority Company Podcast, Joe Pardavila sits down with Daniel Schlaepfer, founder of Select Vantage and author of Real Trading: Why Stock Markets Will Always Need a Human Touch, to unpack how modern markets really work and why hum...

AI is everywhere in business right now, but does every company really need to be “AI-powered” to survive? In this episode of Entrepreneur | Authorities, Joe Pardavila sits down once again with Demos Parneros, former Fortune 500 C-suite executive and longtime retail leader, to talk about what AI really means for retail, startups, founders, and customer experience. Demos compares today’s AI rush to...

Most CFOs spend their careers focused on accounting, compliance, and reporting. The best CFOs do something completely different. In this episode of The Authority Company Podcast, Joe Pardavila sits down with Chris Festog, author of The CFO Advantage, to explore how finance leaders can move beyond the numbers and become strategic partners, transformational leaders, and drivers of organizational gro...