The Authority Company

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 other festival, how brand activations get vetted and built, why the team leans into controversy instead of avoiding it (AI, data centers, and even hosting Julian Assange and Edward Snowden via video), and how the festival adapted after the Austin Convention Center was demolished.Peter also shares his advice for anyone attending SXSW for the first time — and previews what's ahead for the 2027 festival, happening March 15–21.

🔗 Learn more: sxsw.com

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What You'll Learn

• Why SXSW's audience behaves differently than any other festival crowd — and why that matters for brands
• Peter's journey from admin assistant to Chief Commercial Officer over 17 years
• What a Chief Commercial Officer actually does at an event the size of SXSW
• How SXSW decides which brand partners and activations make the cut ("more art than science")
• How the team navigates polarizing topics like AI without picking a side
• Why SXSW has never been afraid of controversy (the Assange/Snowden "Outlaw" series)
• How to build a strong internal team culture in a high-pressure, high-prestige organization
• What changed — and what stayed the same — as SXSW scaled from a small event to 4,500+ sessions
• How SXSW adapted its entire footprint after losing the Austin Convention Center
• SXSW's economic impact on Austin (~$350M in 2025) and its relationship with local residents
• First-timer's guide: how to actually plan and get the most out of SXSW 2027

Timestamps
00:00 – Introduction: Joe welcomes Peter Lewis
01:00 – The unique energy of SXSW: why attendees take notes and debrief each other nightly
04:00 – Peter's career journey: from admin assistant to Chief Commercial Officer
06:00 – What a Chief Commercial Officer at SXSW actually does
08:00 – Matching brands with community: how partnerships and activations come together
11:00 – How SXSW judges quality — "the HBO of festivals"
14:00 – Navigating AI backlash while staying on the bleeding edge
17:00 – Why SXSW isn't afraid of controversy (the Assange/Snowden "Outlaw" series)
18:00 – Building and hiring a strong internal team
22:00 – 17 years of growth: keeping the experience simple at scale
25:00 – Logistics after the Austin Convention Center demolition
28:00 – SXSW's relationship with Austin and its $350M economic impact
31:00 – Advice for first-time SXSW attendees
35:00 – Closing thoughts and SXSW 2027 preview

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 today. He also shares the personal story behind his book, The Remedy: Advancing Evidence-Based Healthcare Delivery in a Fragmented System — including growing up as one of 10 children in the Mississippi Delta.

📖 Get the book: The Remedy: Advancing Evidence-Based Healthcare Delivery in a Fragmented System 🔗 More info: theauthoritycompany.com

What You'll Learn

• - Why only 20% of health outcomes are actually attributable to the healthcare system — and what makes up the other 80%
• - The difference between a "remedy" and a "cure" for a broken system, and why Dr. Webb chose to write about the former
• - Why the US is the only industrialized nation that doesn't treat healthcare as a right
• - What EMTALA actually guarantees you in an emergency — and what it doesn't (your bill)
• - The "fatal error" the US made after WWII that still shapes healthcare access today
• - How the Web Health Equity and Sustainability Model combines the chronic care model, the triple aim, and community health needs assessments into one framework
• - Why Dr. Webb believes real healthcare change will come from communities and individuals, not Washington
• - How growing up as one of 10 children in the Mississippi Delta shaped his 40-year career in healthcare leadership

Chapters
00:00 – Intro: Meet Dr. Joseph Webb
00:53 – Is the US healthcare system too big to fix?
02:04 – Healthcare as a commodity: "too many cooks in the kitchen"
03:07 – The 20/80 Health Paradox explained
04:10 – Why he wrote about a "remedy," not a "cure"
08:14 – Is healthcare a right? The EMTALA emergency-room loophole
09:31 – The fatal error the US made after WWII
10:57 – Why the book features a senator, a pastor, and an academic
14:12 – The Web Health Equity and Sustainability Model
16:18 – "The next chapter won't be written by Washington"
18:39 – 40 years, one hospital turnaround, and the moment he decided to write the book
20:16 – Raised as 1 of 10 kids in the Mississippi Delta
23:15 – Closing thoughts & where to find the book

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 shares the story behind his paragliding accident, the nine hours he spent waiting to be rescued, and the three encounters with death that changed the way he sees life. He also explains why fear is often tied to identity, why successful people can still feel deeply anxious, and how stillness can help leaders reconnect with what matters.The conversation also explores Alfonso’s work with sovereign institutions, royal families, global leaders, and ultra-high-net-worth individuals, along with the deeper meaning behind The Source Architect and why the book was written in such an unconventional form.

If you’re interested in leadership, personal transformation, near-death experiences, spirituality, fear, legacy, or the deeper questions behind success, this conversation will stay with you.


Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:47 Alfonso Cahero joins the show
00:49 The 5,000-meter fall
01:31 Why Alfonso was paragliding
02:51 What flying at that altitude feels like
04:40 When the wing collapsed
05:36 The free fall begins
06:35 What protocols exist when falling from the sky
08:22 Waiting nine hours to be found
08:40 How death changed Alfonso’s view of business failure
09:16 Fear, routine, and comfort zones
10:30 Fear as a measure of belief in yourself
12:02 Why wealthy people still feel anxiety
13:39 Learning to understand anxiety at the source
14:49 What “The Source Architect” means
15:40 Why the book is meant to find its reader
16:32 Writing the book as a download
18:00 Why the book creates a different state of awareness
19:09 Why Alfonso’s message is unusual in Latino culture
20:06 How travel shaped Alfonso’s identity
21:25 What Alfonso learned from knowing people across 100 countries
23:33 Why changing your environment can change your life
24:39 Joe reflects on home, identity, and Charleston
26:00 The danger of attachment
26:47 Alfonso’s memory after the crash
27:43 Rebuilding life without attachment
28:45 Why the book avoids conventional editing
30:27 How the book creates resonance
32:29 Ego, distortion, and self-blockage
33:18 Stillness versus meditation
34:39 Why stillness is so difficult
35:37 Connecting with your true self
36:33 Technology, social media, and doomscrolling
37:00 Alfonso’s strange historical AI videos
37:38 Why Alfonso says he doesn’t care about social media
38:50 Using AI, history, and finance creatively
40:17 Alfonso’s next project with global leaders
41:40 Where to find the book
41:56 Closing

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 than they save, and the exact "x-ray" method he uses to reverse-engineer his own talks.

Don is a 13-time New York Times bestselling author, longtime journalist, and one of the most sought-after storytelling coaches in the world — he's worked with Simon Sinek, Forbes, and NVIDIA's senior leadership, among others.

📖 Get the book: The Business of Storytelling: Inspire Action, Build Trust, and Drive Results Through Story

🔗 More from Don and our other authors: theauthoritycompany.com

What You'll Learn

• Why the story you tell about your childhood shapes how you tell every story after it
• The difference between being a good writer and a good speaker — and how to bridge that gap
• How to build a personal "story bank" from the greats (MLK, Oprah, Shakespeare)
• Why the best stories are always human — and how to humanize even boring business numbers
• Why slide-heavy presentations are a crutch, and what to do instead
• The single biggest storytelling mistake: telling "I" stories instead of "you" stories
• The neuroscience behind why Steve Jobs' product launches worked (hint: it's not the specs)
• Whether great storytellers are born or made
• How to figure out the right length for any story
• Don's "game film" method for breaking down (and fixing) a story that didn't land

Timestamps
00:00 – Intro: Meet Don Yaeger & The Business of Storytelling
00:30 – The Thanksgiving story that sparked his obsession with storytelling
03:30 – The moment he learned to watch the room, not just the storyteller
05:00 – Bridging the gap from writer to public speaker
07:00 – Building a "story bank": studying MLK, Oprah, Shakespeare, Simon Sinek
09:00 – Universal truth #1: the best stories are always human
10:00 – Making business stories connect without drowning in spreadsheets and ROI
11:30 – Why PowerPoint slideshows are a story killer
15:00 – The "I" story trap — and how switching to "you" pulls the audience in
17:00 – The neuroscience of storytelling: dopamine, endorphins, and Steve Jobs
21:00 – Are great storytellers born or made?
23:00 – How to find the right length for a story
25:00 – Breaking down his iconic Michael Jordan talk like game film
27:00 – Teaching intentional storytelling to NVIDIA's sales leadership
28:30 – "The story is the strategy" — making the case to skeptical leaders
29:30 – Behind the book's dedication to his wife, Jeanette
30:30 – Closing thoughts & where to find the book

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 yet: AI.

Chris explains why customers don't leave MSPs because of bad tech support — they leave because no one is helping them plan for what's next. He unpacks the rise and fall of the "break/fix" billing model, why the old vCIO (virtual CIO) role is the real key to client retention, and why AI has finally given IT providers a reason to get invited into the boardroom again. Plus: what it's really like starting and scaling a company with your own brother, the mentors who shaped his leadership style, and how to tell a legitimate AI startup from "snake oil" in an inbox full of pitches.

In this episode:
The 3 types of leaders — founder, manager, and turnaround — and which one Chris is
Starting and running a company with his brother (and why sibling co-founders can actually work)
What MSP actually stands for, and how the industry has changed since 2002
The shift from "break/fix" billing to subscription-based managed services
Why the vCIO (virtual CIO) role is the key to "unbreakable" client partnerships
The real reason clients churn from their IT provider (it's not what you think)
Why ownership and accountability separate great service providers from average ones
How to avoid selling AI "for the sake of AI" — and spot real ROI use cases
Chris's #1 piece of advice from the book, in one sentence

📖 Get the book: MSP to MVP: Building Unbreakable Partnerships in the Customer Success Era by Chris Day🔗 More info on Chris and our other authors: https://theauthoritycompany.com

⏱️ CHAPTERS
00:00 – Intro: Meet Chris Day
00:41 – The 3 types of leaders (founder, manager, turnaround)
01:44 – Chris's leadership style & hiring for his weaknesses
03:33 – Building a company with his brother
07:01 – What does "MSP" actually mean?
09:19 – MVP = Most Valuable Partner, explained
09:54 – How the MSP industry has changed since 2002
10:37 – The shift from "break/fix" to subscription billing
13:12 – Starting a business in his early 20s & lessons from F5
17:12 – Mentors: learning what to do (and what not to do)
19:04 – The vCIO and building "unbreakable" partnerships
22:30 – Ownership, accountability & the landscaping analogy
26:23 – The simplest advice: just work a little harder
28:48 – The one takeaway from the book: "get in the boardroom"
31:03 – The problem with doing AI just for the sake of AI
33:58 – Spotting real AI value vs. "snake oil" pitches
35:20 – Where to find the book & final thoughts

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: 
• How to tell a temporary rough patch from a structural business problem 
• The KPIs every owner should track monthly (and why most don't) 
• The real story of "Gina," whose growing business was losing money the whole time 
• Debt vs. equity: when borrowing helps, and when it delays the inevitable 
• The Pause, Shrink, Plan, Grow framework for turning a business around 
• Rob's contrarian take on AI, commoditization, and the next 5–10 years of work

📘 Learn more about Robinson Aquino and The Small Business Money Game 

🎙️ Entrepreneur Authorities — conversations with leaders, builders, and thinkers helping entrepreneurs make smarter decisions.


#SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #BusinessTurnaround #Finance #Leadership

Timestamps00:00 Intro — Rob Aquino returns to talk business turnarounds
01:00 Rough patch vs. structural problem — how to tell the difference
02:00 Why it's usually a third party (banker, advisor, accountant) who breaks the news
04:00 How often should you actually meet with your accountant?
05:00 Early warning signs: KPIs, thin margins, unclear financials
07:00 The "belt size" analogy — how businesses quietly expand the danger zone
10:00 Case study: Gina's events business — successful on paper, losing money underneath
13:00 Debt vs. equity — "borrowing from your future self"
15:00 How Gina used short-term financing to bridge an equity raise
18:00 Why most small business owners don't actually have access to equity
19:00 "It's essentially every small business" — the Ponzi-scheme cash flow problem
22:00 Why recessions repeat every 5–6 years like clockwork
23:00 The PSPG Framework: Pause
25:00 "Would we fund this again today?" — the power of re-evaluating old bets
26:00 AI, commoditization, and the "1998 website gold rush" analogy
32:00 What to do tomorrow morning if you know something's wrong
33:00 Closing — credit delinquencies, functional unemployment, and where the economy really stands

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's a practical, personal look at turning a business into something that outlives your involvement in it — drawn from his book Permission to Unplug.

You'll Learn:
- The heart attack and the decade of rebuilding that followed
- The neuroscience of unplugging and why "vacation with a laptop" doesn't count
- How to build an unplugging habit through micro-experiences
- Killing notifications, hustle culture, and the "American inheritance"
- Why the best leaders are a little "aloof" — and why that's a compliment
- Delegation, AI agents, and turning a job back into a business
- Health, diet, and the private-physician approach to staying alive

Chapters
00:00 — Intro: the heart attack that started it all
00:34 — Life before June 1st, 2016: peak fitness, zero warning
03:06 — A decade of failing forward: replacing yourself as founder
03:34 — The science of "accidentally rewiring your brain"
05:57 — Micro-experiences: how to build the unplugging muscle
07:01 — Killing phone notifications (and why watches are worse)
08:26 — The "American inheritance" of hustle culture
10:12 — The out-of-office joke that says everything about US work culture
11:09 — The Google employee who checked her calendar before heart surgery
12:00 — Bending space and time: back-to-back meeting culture
16:05 — A month off in the Maldives, out of office, filtered emails
18:13 — "You don't have a business, you have a job"
20:27 — Delegation, AI agents, and figuring out what only you can do
22:00 — The case for a "healthy aloofness" as a leader
24:28 — Catching yourself: self-awareness and the creep back to old habits
28:41 — Health update: private physician, diet, inflammation, sourdough
32:10 — The book's dedication and 27 years with his wife Julie

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 coming to your town, and Bailey's outlook for the next 50 years.

Bruce Bailey's new book, Power Shift: The Hidden Forces That Determine Whether the Clean Energy Transition Succeeds, is available now.

What You'll Learn

• Why roughly 85% of U.S. renewable energy is built in red states and red districts — and how rural land-lease income drives it
• Why public opinion has shifted from climate fear to plain frustration over energy costs
• What actually makes up your electric bill (it's mostly delivery, not supply)
• How wind, solar, hydro, and battery storage complement each other to manage variability
• Everything that has to align for a single renewable project to get built: developers, landowners, utilities, banks, zoning boards, and permits
• Why local communities push back on data centers and battery storage — and how that differs from renewable energy pushback
• The "rich vs. poor" divide fueling data center opposition
• How data centers are straining the grid and pushing utilities back toward gas power
• Why the U.S. power grid is 40–70 years old and what modernizing it will actually cost
• Why nuclear power may be poised for a comeback — and why data centers will still win public approval over nuclear in the near term
• Bailey's 50-year outlook for the clean energy transition

Chapters
00:00 Intro: Meet Dr. Bruce Bailey
00:40 Has the climate debate become less polarized?
02:33 Why deep-red Texas leads in clean energy
03:15 85% of U.S. renewables are built in red districts — here's why
04:25 It's not climate fear anymore — it's the energy bill
05:03 What's actually driving your electric bill (hint: not supply)
06:38 How battery storage has changed the game
08:17 The charger-standardization analogy
10:00 50 years in the industry — why write the book now
11:52 Biggest myths about the clean energy transition
14:06 The approval maze: developers, banks, utilities, zoning boards
18:35 Local zoning boards vs. scientific complexity
21:47 Misinformation: windmills, birds, and data center water fears
22:15 The real pushback: rich vs. poor divide on data centers
24:09 How data centers are "hijacking" the energy transition
25:36 State of the grid: how close are we to another 2003 or 2021 Texas blackout?
26:28 Why the grid is dangerously old and needs modernization
28:46 Climate-driven extreme weather is straining an aging system
30:00 Who's actually fighting to fix this?
32:02 Who pays? The affordability dilemma
33:20 Optimistic close: what energy looks like in 50 years
33:46 The case for a nuclear power resurgence
35:27 Pop quiz: nuclear plant vs. data center — which gets approved first?
37:02 Outro & where to find the book

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", the moment they decided to build together, why most healthcare practices never scale, the "Sterling Treatment Method," private equity's growing role in healthcare, and what they think 2030 looks like with AI in the mix.

What You'll Learn

• Why a healthcare practice that depends on one practitioner isn't a business — it's a hobby — and what it actually takes to make it scalable
• How the Carters divide roles (mission/compliance vs. contracts/financials) so neither brother is a bottleneck
• The military-derived system (standard operating procedures + repeatable training) behind managing 800+ clinicians across two states
• What the "Sterling Treatment Method" is, why they patented it, and how it keeps quality consistent across every location — the "Chick-fil-A" standard
• How to make your practice "bankable" — separating personal and business finances and thinking through exit strategy from day one
• The risks and upside of private equity getting involved in healthcare practices
• How to draft a 20-year legacy statement, using the Carters' own umbrella company (Cartera Health) as the example
• Where they think AI is headed in healthcare by 2030 — and why the human/patient connection won't disappear

Timestamps
00:00 Intro: Meet the Carter Brothers
00:42 Being Twins & Business Partners
02:02 The Origin Story: "Let's Build This Together"
04:11 Stephen's Side of the Founding Call
05:52 Where the Business Instinct Came From (Mom's Snow Cone Stand)
07:41 Launching Carter Brothers Consulting & The Business of Healing
09:14 The Scalability Problem in Healthcare
10:56 Scalability as a Deliberate Operational Choice
11:26 The War Story: Why Non-Scalable Practices Collapse
12:30 Dividing Roles: Contracts, Compliance & Legal
14:36 Scaling to 800+ Clinicians Across Texas & Oklahoma
15:27 The Military Playbook Behind Their Systems
15:55 "Built Like Chick-fil-A": Consistency at Scale
16:19 The Sterling Treatment Method (and the Patent)
18:03 What Actually Makes the Method Different
19:21 The Money Gap & Becoming "Bankable"
19:38 The Private Equity Problem in Healthcare
22:14 Writing a 20-Year Legacy Statement
22:29 Cartera Health: The Umbrella Company & the BHAG
23:31 Impact Beyond Patients: Employees & Community
25:01 2030 Predictions: AI in Healthcare
27:07 Stephen's Take: The "Educated Consumer" Era
28:41 The Dedication: Honoring Their Father
31:51 Closing & Where to Find the Book

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 dot-com bust and today's AI boom, why he believes AI could be more dangerous than a nuclear bomb, and what he'd do differently if he could relive the crash. He also opens up about compartmentalizing grief while running a company as his wife battled cancer, and the foundation and marathon tradition he keeps up in her memory.David's new book, The 24/7 CEO: The Battle for Survival That Helped Build Digital Advertising, tells the full inside story.

What You'll Learn

• How 24/7 Media grew from 40 employees to 1,200 people in 29 countries — then crashed to 200 employees and a $15M market cap
• The real mechanical difference between the dot-com bust and today's AI bubble (hint: it's about who can afford to fail)
• Why David believes unchecked AI could be more dangerous than nuclear weapons
• The one strategic decision he'd reverse if he could redo the crash years
• How Wall Street's "growth over profit" mindset echoes the Netflix/streaming correction — and why AI may be next
• Which jobs he thinks are more AI-resistant, and where he pushes back on his own optimism
• How he led all-hands meetings and kept morale up during two years of decline
• How he compartmentalized his wife's cancer diagnosis while running a public company through crisis
• The foundation and marathon tradition he's kept alive for 16 years in her honor

Chapters
00:00 – Introduction: 24/7 Media and The 24/7 CEO
01:00 – Setting the scene: 26 years since the dot-com boom
01:18 – Founding 24/7 Media and the explosive early growth
02:29 – IPO days, stock mania, and 1,200 employees across 29 countries
03:38 – The crash: from $69/share to nine cents
04:51 – Big difference from today: Big Tech can't go out of business
06:48 – "AI is more dangerous than the nuclear bomb"
08:47 – Looking back: what he'd change about the decline
10:37 – Scaling back acquisitions vs. chasing market share
11:03 – The Netflix correction and Wall Street's growth-to-profit pivot
12:06 – What actually caused the dot-com bust (the IPO window closing)
14:00 – Data centers, capital spending, and consumer backlash
15:33 – Rich vs. poor: will the market reject AI overinvestment?
16:00 – The horse-shoer analogy: progress always has winners and losers
17:07 – Which jobs AI can't easily replace (plumbers, masseuses, doctors)
18:38 – Pushback: what happens to white-collar, middle-class jobs?
19:14 – The cyclical trap: cutting jobs while needing customers
20:20 – Workforce "carnage," trade schools, and the road to 2030
21:03 – Leading through crisis: all-hands meetings and rallying speeches
22:33 – Optimism as a choice (and a skill you can build)
23:39 – Triathlons as therapy: running through business problems
24:51 – His wife's cancer diagnosis while running the company
26:20 – The WPP sale, Martin Sorrell's support, and stepping back as CEO
28:33 – Returning as CEO after losing his wife
29:04 – Starting the foundation in her memory
30:06 – Running a marathon every year to fundraise
32:21 – How to support the foundation
33:18 – Closing and book plug