Authority Capital

What if the authority you are chasing is built on five levers, not a bigger audience?

Cameron Herold scaled 1-800-GOT-JUNK from $2 million to $106 million, then got fired by his best friend. He has built multiple nine-figure companies, written seven bestselling books, and been paid to speak in 30 countries. He came on Authority Capital to break down how he actually built his name.

Jay and Cameron get into the five levers Cameron used to build authority that compounds: PR, speaking, books, podcasting, and masterminds, and the order he ran them in. He shares the five stories any founder can pitch to the press, why speaking was the engine that started it all, and how one book landed him coaching the royal family of Qatar.

If your expertise is not translating into recognition, this one hands you the playbook and the order to run it in. Listen now.

• [00:01:47] From employee number 14 to scaling 1-800-GOT-JUNK from $2 million to $106 million
• [00:03:12] How the dot-com crash turned Cameron into a garbage man
• [00:04:04] The 101-item bucket list that led him to sell everything and travel the world
• [00:07:05] The grapefruit breakfast where his best friend fired him
• [00:11:15] What happens when your identity becomes your company’s brand
• [00:12:05] Why most executives only last three doubles
• [00:13:40] Why no founder talks about failure while it is happening
• [00:16:23] The levers Cameron used to build his authority capital
• [00:18:30] How a 20-year-old house painter landed his first newspaper story
• [00:22:23] The five stories every business can pitch to the press today
• [00:25:21] How to be interviewed: speak in soundbites
• [00:30:09] From speaking for free to $40,000 a talk
• [00:35:26] The plane conversation that turned the CEO of Sprint into a coaching client
• [00:38:15] How one book handed out on a plane led to coaching the royal family of Qatar
• [00:42:50] The one reason he started a podcast, and how it feeds the COO Alliance
• [00:48:55] The digital trifecta: it is what you do with the content that counts kfRjGtTJs1gFTsv27oU9
• [00:50:29] Why he has spent over $1 million on mastermind groups

• The Second in Command by Cameron Herold
• Free PR by Cameron Herold and Adrian Salamunovic
• Double Double by Cameron Herold
• Vivid Vision by Cameron Herold
• Meetings Suck by Cameron Herold
• Grandma's Business Secrets by Cameron Herold
• The Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs by Cameron Herold and Hal Elrod
• COO Alliance
• Invest in Your Leaders
• Second in Command Podcast
• 1-800-GOT-JUNK

Cameron Herold is a business growth strategist known as the CEO Whisperer, and the founder of the COO Alliance, the global peer community for seconds-in-command, and the Invest in Your Leaders training. As COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK, he scaled the company from $2 million to $106 million in six years, from employee 14 to 3,100 system-wide. He has helped build multiple nine-figure companies, authored seven bestselling books including The Second in Command, Double Double, Vivid Vision, Free PR, and Meetings Suck, and hosts the Second in Command Podcast, now past 600 episodes. He has been paid to speak in 30 countries on all seven continents.

🔗 LinkedIn | Website

Connect with Jay: Website | LinkedIn

Work with Jay, grow your brand with a podcast: Book a strategy session with Jay

Authority Capital is an original production hosted by Jay Wong. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.

What if the same drive that built your success is quietly steering you toward the mistake that could wipe it out?

Matt Stewart co-founded a group of companies now marching toward a billion in revenue, but he came on to talk about the parts founders rarely admit, including the three times he lost everything by chasing businesses outside his core competency.

Jay and Matt get into the inner marketer that convinces you any deal will work, why real estate quietly pulls focus off the main thing, the community that saved him when his name was on the line of credit, and how he built three decades of authority by doing what he was actually built to do.

If your expertise keeps getting pulled in ten directions, this one shows you where real leverage lives. Listen now.

• [00:03:09] The 30,000 alumni and 3,000 employees behind a quiet operator
• [00:04:28] The side thing Matt did for 25 years before he realized it was his calling
• [00:05:30] The behemoth he says he did not build
• [00:05:55] Why he thinks your 50s, not your 40s, are where it happens
• [00:08:10] The no asshole rule and the 15 to 1 filter behind the growth
• [00:14:54] Losing all his money three times, and the lesson underneath it
• [00:16:01] The phrase he paid $14,000 to copyright
• [00:17:53] The five businesses that all blew up in his face at once
• [00:19:45] The money rule he learned the hardest way possible
• [00:20:49] Why 22 Airbnbs will quietly wreck your focus
• [00:23:16] The things he thinks every 20-something should figure out
• [00:40:16] What Aristotle got right about your five closest friends
• [00:45:29] His take on the jobs AI will erase, and who survives
• [00:47:21] The month in 2026, his brother says the world changed
• [00:56:29] The single most important thing that ever happened to him

College Works Painting

National Services Group (NSG)

Home Genius Exteriors

Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO)

YPO (Young Presidents' Organization)

Vistage

DISC assessment

StrengthsFinder (CliftonStrengths)

Kolbe A Index

Strategic Coach, founded by Dan Sullivan

The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss

Core competency, the concept from C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel

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Matt Stewart is the co-founder and CEO of National Services Group (NSG), the parent company behind College Works Painting, Empire Community Construction, Home Genius Exteriors, and SMJJ Investments. Over more than three decades, he and his partners grew NSG from a single Southern California division into an international operation across the United States and Canada that is now approaching a billion dollars in revenue. He is past global chairman of the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) and the host of The Edge of Excellence podcast. His focus is helping people in their 20s figure out who they are and what they are built to do.

🔗 LinkedIn |  The Edge of Excellence

Connect with Jay: Website | LinkedIn

Work with Jay, grow your brand with a podcast: Book a strategy session with Jay

Authority Capital is an original production hosted by Jay Wong. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.

What happens when the guy who builds podcasts for 250 CEOs is too scared to hit record on his own?

Jay Wong has launched more than 250 shows for other founders, and he still almost didn't record this one. In this solo episode, he names the resistance out loud and goes first.

Jay shares the real story: hitting number one in self-help with The Inner Changemaker with no business behind it, becoming what Julia Cameron calls a shadow artist, and the years of millions in revenue, near bankruptcy, and trips where he was never really present. Then he lays out the thesis of the show. AI can do a lot, but it can't be someone you trust.

If you're great at what you do and still the best-kept secret in your market, start here. Listen now.

• [00:00:10] The Steven Pressfield idea that explains why sitting down is the hard part
• [00:00:57] Why the guy who built 250 shows had to go first
• [00:01:52] The three promises this show makes to every founder listening
• [00:02:41] Who this show is for, and who should skip it
• [00:03:29] How The Inner Changemaker hit number one in self-help on iTunes
• [00:05:21] 250 shows, top 100 rankings, and what can still go wrong
• [00:06:12] The hobby Jay tried to force-fit into a business
• [00:06:34] The shadow artist trap Julia Cameron describes
• [00:07:27] Loans to cover payroll and a dream wedding in Italy
• [00:07:56] Why his wife says he was rarely present on those trips
• [00:09:04] What Instagram’s long-form move tells you about the market
• [00:09:52] The client who sent back an AI digital twin of himself
• [00:10:33] The thesis of the show: AI can’t be someone you trust
• [00:11:18] Why you only need the right 50 or 100 people
• [00:11:41] The lineup: half a billion dollars, $106 million, and getting fired by your best friend

• Steven Pressfield
• The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
• Essentialism by Greg McKeown
• The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks
• Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield
• The Inner Changemaker podcast

Connect with Jay: Website | LinkedIn

Work with Jay, grow your brand with a podcast: Book a strategy session with Jay

Authority Capital is an original production hosted by Jay Wong. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.