Authority in the Wild

Gabe Marusca
  • 5.0 (9)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Welcome to Authority in the Wild Podcast. I'm your host, Gabe Marusca, helping action-takers achieve Freedom Through Entrepreneurs, without sacrificing the things that matter to you. From sales and engineering to freelancing and business consulting, I've worn many hats for the past 20 years. Leveraging that background, I host unscripted conversations with successful entrepreneurs, renowned business leaders, and subject-matter experts. Learn the insights, tactics, and business principles successful people rarely share elsewhere. Take what you discover and use it to build your path to freedom.

  1. 16h ago

    How to Fix Your Sleep by Doing These Simple Things w/ Chester Maglo

    The number your wrist shows you each morning is deciding how your day goes, and it is closer to a guess than a measurement. Chester Maglo spent years inside the sleep research and now runs a 90-day one-on-one sleep system for business owners who cannot rebuild their lives around a two-hour wind-down routine. The question driving this episode: if the score and the eight-hour target are both the wrong numbers, what actually decides how you feel by mid-morning? In this conversation, we get into: Why working harder at your sleep is the fastest way to break itThe accuracy problem inside wrist trackers, with the real percentagesWho should wear a tracker, who should take theirs off, and how to tell the differenceWhat the 3 AM wake up is signaling, and why it keeps happening in stressful weeksHow to actually fix your sleep Chester's approach starts with what you cut, not what you buy. If you run a business and your energy swings from one day to the next, this conversation lays out a realistic way to steady it without turning your evenings into a second job. 🟪 Timestamps (00:00) Intro (01:17) Why Trying Harder Makes Sleep Worse (04:19) The Sleep Guru Problem (08:16) When the Score Lies to You (10:58) Who Should Actually Wear a Tracker (16:51) The One-Change Rule (22:06) The Truth About Night Wakings (27:57) The Disruptors You Don't Notice (31:56) Sleeping Anywhere Like Home (43:32) What Great Sleepers Do Differently 🟪 About the GuestChester Maglo is a sleep and performance coach known as The Somnoscientist. He works one-on-one with business owners across a 90-day system built to fix their sleep and get them performing at full capacity. His position is simple: sleep quality matters more than duration, and realistic changes to your environment outperform the extreme protocols that only work for people with nothing else on their calendar. 🟪 Connect with Chester Maglo Performance Quiz: https://thesomnoscientist.com/performance-quiz/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chester-maglo-1b1402387/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChestermagloInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/chestermaglo/ 🟪 Connect with Gabe Marusca Website: https://www.gabemarusca.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@gabemaruscaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabemarusca/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabemarusca/X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gabemaruscaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/gabemaruscaTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gabemarusca

    How to Fix Your Sleep by Doing These Simple Things w/ Chester Maglo

  2. Jul 14

    From American Idol Elimination to Creating a Prime Video Show w/ Michelle Delamor

    Forty million people watched Michelle Delamor get eliminated from American Idol. What happened next changed the direction of her li In this episode, I sit down with Michelle Delamor, co-founder of Sonic Gods Studios and creator of 60 Day Hustle, to talk about public rejection, reinvention, and what it takes to build your own stage. Michelle shares why she disappeared for three months after American Idol, how messages from young women led her to create No Girl Left Behind, how COVID erased years of work, and why the company behind American Idol is now helping take her own competition show global. Whether you're building a company, reconsidering your path, or feeling trapped inside someone else's vision, this conversation will help you think more clearly about identity, effort, and ownership. 🟪 What We Cover - The promise that pushed Michelle into American Idol - What elimination felt like in front of millions - Why she turned off her phone for three months - Realizing she was a builder, not only an artist - Creating No Girl Left Behind - Losing a million-person tour plan when COVID hit - Building Sonic Gods Studios and 60 Day Hustle - The full-circle partnership with Fremantle - Hustle, burnout, recovery, and sustainable effort - When to join someone else's vision and when to build your own stage 🟪 About Michelle Delamor Michelle Delamor is a transformational speaker, entrepreneur, and former American Idol finalist who uses entertainment as a vehicle for impact. As the founder of No Girl Left Behind and co-founder of Sonic Gods Studios, she creates powerful platforms that inspire confidence, purpose, and action. Through live experiences and media like 60 Day Hustle, Michelle empowers individuals to step into their potential and build lives aligned with their vision. 🟪 Timestamps (00:00) Intro (00:39) A Promise That Changed Everything (04:18) 40 Million People Watching (09:29) The Song Choice That Backfired (13:03) Three Months of Silence (16:17) The Messages She Couldn't Ignore (20:44) Losing It All Overnight (24:48) The Amazon Pime Show (29:13) Too Big, Too Soon? (32:40) Inside the Arena (41:46) The Truth About Hustle 🟪 Connect with Michelle Delamor - Website: https://www.sonicgods.media/ - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-delamor-2a74a2125/ 🟪 Connect with Gabe Marusca - Website: https://www.gabemarusca.com - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@gabemarusca - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabemarusca - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabemarusca - X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gabemarusca - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gabemarusca - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gabemarusca

    From American Idol Elimination to Creating a Prime Video Show w/ Michelle Delamor

  3. Jul 7

    What get You Hired in AI Startups in 2026 w/ Henry Jia

    Every internship said no, so Henry Jia stopped applying and built something instead. The platform he ended up engineering later booked him onto this very show. He got there with a business degree and six months of teaching himself to build, and today he is the founding engineer at PodPitch, the AI platform behind roughly 5% of podcast guest bookings worldwide. In this conversation, we get into: What his startup reads first on a resume, and why the school name never matters How the customer support team ended up fixing the platform's code themselves Why he argues most AI work needs a far cheaper model, against his own team's advice What five background agents did to his laptop in the middle of this recording Most AI career advice comes from people watching from the outside. Henry is inside the hiring, the building, and the tooling at once. If you are deciding what to learn next, or what to stop paying for, start here. 🟪 Timestamps (00:00) Meet Haoxiang (Henry) Jia (02:24) Rejected from every internship (04:47) Why the school on your resume stopped mattering (09:03) The one skill that gets juniors hired now (12:00) Six months that beat four years of college (16:25) When the support team started shipping code (21:45) The 200 million token confession (25:30) The cheap AI model he trusts for real work (29:21) Five agents crashed his laptop, live on air (31:19) Inside PodPitch that booked him on this show (38:49) Why podcasts stick when short video doesn't 🟪 About the Guest Henry Jia (Haoxiang Jia) is the founding engineer at PodPitch, an AI podcast booking platform at $4M ARR whose clients include Beehiiv, MyFitnessPal, and Penguin Random House. He earned a Master of Business Analytics from Fordham, taught himself to build outside the curriculum after a run of internship rejections, and shipped GPTInterviewer (261 GitHub stars) before joining PodPitch as its first engineer. He builds tools for other builders and argues that the credential barrier to writing software has quietly collapsed. 🟪 Connect with Henry Jia Website: https://jiatastic.comGitHub: https://github.com/jiatasticLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haoxiang-jiaX/Twitter: https://x.com/jiatastic520GPTInterviewer: https://github.com/jiatastic/GPTInterviewerdemo.dev: https://github.com/jiatastic/demo.devPodPitch: https://podpitch.com/ 🟪 Connect with Gabe Marusca Website: https://www.gabemarusca.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@gabemaruscaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabemaruscaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabemaruscaX/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gabemaruscaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/gabemaruscaTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gabemarusca

    What get You Hired in AI Startups in 2026 w/ Henry Jia

  4. Jun 30

    How to Build a 7-Figure Business without Amazon, Investors, or Influencers w/ Kate Assaraf

    Kate Assaraf built DIP into a seven-figure haircare brand with forty thousand dollars from her kitchen table, with no Amazon, no investors, and no paid influencers. Her case is that the standard playbook most founders are handed is a trap, and the money you supposedly leave on the table by skipping Amazon is money you keep circulating with your own customers and retailers instead. I brought her the strongest objections any founder would raise, and she answered every one of them with receipts. 🟪 Important Timestamps (00:00) Intro (01:00) The Table Everyone Says You're Crazy to Leave (06:28) The Factory That Almost Didn't Happen (10:55) Scaling Without a Single Investor (15:36) One Tiny Store, One Staggering Number (21:51) The Ugly Secret Behind Everyday Products (26:20) When a Competitor Came After Her (30:43) Who Wakes Up and Does This? (36:22) What Convenience Is Quietly Costing Us (40:29) The One Word That Changes Everything (43:17) Why Founders Really Keep Going 🟪 About Kate Founder and CEO of DIP, a sustainability-forward haircare company making salon-quality shampoo and conditioner bars. 7-figure brand built with $40K personal savings, no Amazon, no VC, no influencers. 800+ small independent retailers. Oprah Daily's #1 Pick for Curly Hair. NJ Family's 2024 Mompreneur of the Year. 🟪 Connect with Kate Assaraf - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dipalready - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-assaraf-b25a741a7 - Press Kit: https://dipalready.com/a/press-kit 🟪 Connect with Gabe Marusca - Website: https://www.gabemarusca.com - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@gabemarusca - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabemarusca - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabemarusca - X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gabemarusca - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gabemarusca - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gabemarusca

    How to Build a 7-Figure Business without Amazon, Investors, or Influencers w/ Kate Assaraf

  5. Jun 23

    4 Simple Habits that Bring Burn Out People Back to Life w/ Martin Lesperance

    The people who are quietly checking out at work usually hide it well. They still show up. Something has just gone quiet. Martin Lesperance is a keynote speaker who delivers around 100 talks a year in more than 20 countries; his audiences started calling him the Simon Sinek of Quebec. In this conversation we get into: Why so many people have "quietly quit" & burning outThe four simple habits that pull a person, and a team, back to lifeWhy your real purpose was never the numbersAnd much more. This is less a talk about engagement than a story about choosing your attitude when you have every reason not to. If you have built something that works but does not feel like freedom, or you manage people who have gone quiet, you will leave with four things you can use today. 🟪 Important Time Stamps (00:00) Intro (00:43) What you'll learn today (02:14) Why engagement is at all time low (07:05) Starving for human connection (09:23) How the Inspire Framework came to life (18:20) Secret #1 (31:00) Secret #2 (44:12) Secret #3 (48:34) Secret #4 (53:39) The call that came the night before my biggest talk (58:52) How to connect with Martin 🟪 About the Guest Martin Lespérance is a bilingual (English and French) keynote speaker based in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec. He delivers 80-100 keynotes a year across more than twenty countries. He started his career as a high school science teacher, then became a national trainer at Bayer and Director of Training and Development at Essilor before going full-time as a speaker. He won Inspirational Speaker of the Year at Speaker Slam and is the author of Inspire (available in English and French). Audiences call him the Simon Sinek of Quebec. 🟪 Connect with Martin Lespérance - Website: https://www.martinlesperance.co - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-lesperance-0355263/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/martinlesperance.ca - Book Inspire (EN & FR): https://www.martinlesperance.co/book 🟪 Connect with Gabe Marusca - Website: https://www.gabemarusca.com - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@gabemarusca - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabemarusca - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabemarusca - X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gabemarusca - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gabemarusca - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gabemarusca

    4 Simple Habits that Bring Burn Out People Back to Life w/ Martin Lesperance

  6. Jun 16

    Why Good Marketing Pisses Off 80% of People? w/ Ada Wardzala

    The most polished marketing is the marketing nobody remembers. Ada Wardzala started in the call center of the company that publishes Harvard Business Review in Poland and was directing its marketing by age 23. Today she runs SUUR, a B2B agency where clients wait for her availability. In this conversation, we get into: - Why 80% of your effort belongs on the part most teams treat as an afterthought - How three women in Utah turned Stanley's worst-selling product into a $750 million business - What a reader should get from your content that they could never get from ChatGPT - The trap that makes expensive events produce names but no clients Ada does not talk in marketing theory. Every claim comes with a client story, a number, or a scar. If you create content, run campaigns, or pay someone who does, you will leave knowing exactly where your effort is leaking. 🟪 Timestamps (00:00) Intro (00:34) The Marketing Nobody Remembers (05:19) The Real Way to Win People Over (10:46) Why Saying "No" Wins (16:28) Know Them Better Than They Know Themselves (21:41) Built to Go Viral (27:12) Why "Write Me a Viral Post" Always Fails (33:08) Play Every Card in Your Deck (37:57) Brand Building vs. Cold Hard Revenue (44:25) What AI Can Never Fake (49:08) The Voices Telling You to Quit 🟪 About Adrianna Adrianna Wardzała is the founder and CEO of SUUR Marketing, a B2B marketing agency in Warsaw. At 23, she became the youngest-ever Marketing Director at ICAN Institute (publisher of Harvard Business Review Poland), where she also launched MIT Sloan Management Review Poland. After 7 years at ICAN and a year in tech at 10Clouds, she founded SUUR in 2021. She hosts the podcast Surowo o marketingu (31+ episodes) and writes a biweekly newsletter on B2B marketing. 🟪 Connect with Adrianna Wardzała - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriannawardzala - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@adriannawardzala - Agency: https://www.suur.pl - Personal: https://adriannawardzala.pl - Podcast: Surowo o marketingu (Spotify/Apple) 🟪 Connect with Gabe Marusca - Website: https://www.gabemarusca.com - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@gabemarusca - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabemarusca - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabemarusca - X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gabemarusca - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gabemarusca - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gabemarusca

    Why Good Marketing Pisses Off 80% of People? w/ Ada Wardzala

  7. Jun 9

    How to Actually Implement Innovation (Not Just Generate Ideas) w/ Vaughan Broderick

    Vaughan Broderick has worked on more than 300 innovation projects and trained over 350 leaders across 20 industries. In all of it, he kept seeing the same thing: good ideas dying before they ever reached the people they were meant for. Not because the ideas were weak. Because of the part of innovation almost nobody teaches. In this conversation, Vaughan breaks down why organizations jump to solutions before they understand the real problem, the four forces that quietly kill ideas after everyone says yes, and why what looks like resistance is usually something else entirely. We also get into the question everyone is asking right now: where does AI actually help you innovate, and where does it just help you fail faster? This is Vaughan's second appearance on Authority in the Wild. Episode 35 aired back in 2023. Since then he has co-authored "Innovation in Action" with Dr. Christian Walsh that you can order it now to unlock exclusive bonuses: https://innovationinactionbook.com The book is built on the DUCTRI framework refined over a decade and 300-plus projects. 🟪 Timestamps (00:00) Intro (04:30) How to Know If Your Idea Is Actually Useful (09:17) What People Always Overcomplicate About Change (14:27) The Barrier Leaders Secretly Underestimate (18:36) What 'DUCTRI' Really Stands For (22:57) Where AI Helps Innovation — And Where It Fails (28:31) The One Thing AI Can Never Replace (33:11) Where the Best Ideas Actually Come From (37:05) From Idea to Action: The Real Steps (43:47) The Belief He's Now Letting Go Of 🟪 Connect with Vaughan Broderick - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vaughanbroderick - Website: https://vaughanbroderick.com - Innovation in Action Book: https://a.co/d/0gSsAIwf 🟪 Connect with Gabe Marusca - Website: https://www.gabemarusca.com - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@gabemarusca - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabemarusca - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabemarusca - X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gabemarusca - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gabemarusca - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gabemarusca

    How to Actually Implement Innovation (Not Just Generate Ideas) w/ Vaughan Broderick

  8. Jun 2

    She Almost Died. Then She Fixed Gluten-Free Food. w/ Carolyn Haeler

    Carolyn Haeler spent nine months losing her hair, going gray, and wasting away before anyone figured out what was wrong. Then she bit into a gluten-free cookie that was barely edible, and decided to fix it herself. Carolyn is the founder and CEO of Mightylicious Gluten Free, nationally distributed across 43 states, available at Whole Foods, Walmart, Costco, and 2,600+ specialty stores. She was also the first female LGBTQ+ founder to raise $5 million on Republic.co In this conversation, we get into: Why every gluten-free product on the shelf tastes the way it does (and what the industry keeps getting wrong)How she taught herself the food science in a tiny apartment with a 24-inch ovenWhy she chose crowdfunding over VC, and what that decision actually costsWhat CPG distribution really looks like when you are not a two-bros startup with venture backingThis is a story about obsession, recoverable risk, and what it means to build something that matters to the people who need it most. For founders, operators, and anyone who has wondered why "good enough" keeps winning. 🟪 Timestamps (00:00) Intro (01:44) When Your Body Turns Against You (04:53) Gluten it's in Almost Everything! (09:34) One Bad Cookie. One Big Decision. (13:25) The Hidden Reason Gluten-Free Tastes Wrong (17:22) The Ingredient Nobody Else Was Using (20:24) Why She Skipped the VCs (23:05) The Moment Everything Unlocked (39:36) You Don't Need a Master Plan to Start (44:27) What's Next and What She'd Never Do Again 🟪 Connect with Carolyn Haeler Website: https://mightylicious.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/@mightyliciiousfoodsLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cpotz/🟪 Connect with Gabe Marusca Website: https://www.gabemarusca.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@gabemaruscaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabemarusca/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabemarusca/X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gabemaruscaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/gabemaruscaTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gabemarusca

    She Almost Died. Then She Fixed Gluten-Free Food. w/ Carolyn Haeler
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5
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

Welcome to Authority in the Wild Podcast. I'm your host, Gabe Marusca, helping action-takers achieve Freedom Through Entrepreneurs, without sacrificing the things that matter to you. From sales and engineering to freelancing and business consulting, I've worn many hats for the past 20 years. Leveraging that background, I host unscripted conversations with successful entrepreneurs, renowned business leaders, and subject-matter experts. Learn the insights, tactics, and business principles successful people rarely share elsewhere. Take what you discover and use it to build your path to freedom.

Information

  • Creator
    Gabe Marusca
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    167
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Gabe Marusca
  • Show Website
    Authority in the Wild