Authority in the Wild

Being funny is a skill, and Andrew Tarvin has the data showing most of us never practice it. He studied computer science and engineering, managed projects at Procter & Gamble, and joined his first improv group only because his best friend needed someone organized enough to run the meetings. He was terrible at it.Today he runs Humor That Works, has trained 250+ organizations and his TEDx talk on the skill of humor has passed 16 million views. Somewhere between those two points is a method, and this episode walks through it.I opened this one with a confession. I have a physics and computer science background, I tinker with tech all day, and I truly cannot remember the last time I made someone laugh. So I asked Drew to treat me as the test case.In this conversation, we get into:The eight separate skills hiding inside "being funny", and why you probably already have at least two of themThe one habit Andrew's own assessment shows only 30% of people keep, and what it changes about how you see your dayThe three reasons a joke breaks trust at work, and why the joke itself is rarely the problemWhy AI is the worst possible audience for your humor, and the one job it is actually good forAndrew's Humor Intelligence model treats humor as eight competencies you can measure, practice, and point at real problems, instead of a personality trait you were born with or without. If you have ever been told you are not funny or you stay quiet in meetings because a bad joke feels riskier than silence, this episode gives you a place to start this week.🟪 Timestamps(00:00) Two Nerds and The Theory of Funny(01:21) The Hidden Payoff of Being Funny(06:42) The Eight Competencies of Humor(10:32) Engineering a Laugh(14:53) The Two-Part Practice(19:54) Funny Without Telling Jokes(23:07) Where Humor Goes Wrong(30:41) Forms of Humor(34:54) How to Not Break Trust with Humor(41:06) Where to Practice Humor(46:35) AI and Humor(50:58) Action Point🟪 About the GuestAndrew Tarvin works with top organizations–including IBM, NASA, and the UN–to solve human challenges with humor solutions. A best-selling author, Andrew has been featured on Dry Bar Comedy, The Wall Street Journal, and the BBC, and was named a ‘Visionary Alum’ by the P&G Alumni Network. His TEDx talk on the skill of humor is one of the Top 50 most viewed TEDx talks on YouTube with 15+ million views (only half of which were from his mom). He has delivered programs in all 50 US states, 36 countries, on 1 planet (Earth). He loves chocolate and singing the Hokey Pokey with his 4 year old daughter (because that's what it's all about).🟪 Connect with Andrew TarvinHumor That Works: https://www.humorthatworks.comPersonal Website: https://drewtarvin.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/drewtarvinLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theandrewtarvinInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/drewtarvinTurn expertise into influence: https://studio.com/apps/humor/intelligence🟪 Connect with Gabe MaruscaWebsite: https://www.gabemarusca.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@gabemaruscaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabemaruscaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabemaruscaX/Twitter: https://x.com/gabemaruscaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/gabemaruscaTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gabemarusca

Lauren Pires was born with a rare neuromuscular condition that leaves her with roughly 33 percent of the physical strength of an average person.She hid it for more than 30 years, and during those years she built an 11-year career in event production at one of the largest music festivals in Canada, a job made of long days on your feet. At 32 she stood on a stage and spoke about it in public for the first time, at North America's largest inspirational speaking competition. She came second, then second again in the finals, and today she speaks to companies about invisible disability, resilience, and belonging.I live with an autoimmune condition, so this conversation got personal fast. We compare the excuses we both used to get out of a hike, how much of your day hiding something actually eats, and the question everyone with something to hide eventually faces: who do you tell first, and what happens after that. If you are living with something people cannot see, or you are ambitious and your body keeps saying no, this episode shows you what keeping it hidden is costing you and what she found on the other side. 🟪 Timestamps(00:00) When Ambition Meets a Body That Says No(04:42) The Secret She Kept for 30 Years (10:18) What Hiding Actually Costs You (14:15) The Energy You Get Back (17:04) A Tiny Ritual Called the Daily Yay (21:54) The Upside Nobody Talks About (26:59) Walking Away After 11 Years (30:56) Afraid of Being Seen Differently? (35:49) The Room She Loves to Speak In (41:53) The Line That Rewired Her Brain 🟪 About the Guest Lauren Pires is an invisible disability speaker from Canada who talks about resilience, joy, and belonging. Born with Central Core Disease, a rare neuromuscular condition, she concealed it for over 30 years while working in event production, public relations, and hiring at a nonprofit behind one of the largest South Asian festivals in Canada. She first spoke about her disability in public in 2022 and went on to become the runner-up inspirational speaker of the year at Speaker Slam. She now speaks to corporate disability employee resource groups and conferences, delivered a TEDxMississauga talk in 2026, and is the creator of the Daily Yay, a practice of noticing one good thing every day. 🟪 Connect with Lauren Pires Website: https://www.laurensaysyay.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurensaysyayLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurensaysyayYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@laurensaysyayTEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWVUgHY3ibM 🟪 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://x.com/gabemaruscaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/gabemaruscaTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gabemarusca

Thibault (Tibo) Louis-Lucas burned 500,000 euros of VC money and spent four years on ideas that never generated revenue. Then he rebuilt from zero, sold Tweet Hunter and Taplio to Lempire for $8 million, and now runs a bootstrapped SaaS products portfolio that makes over $1 million per month.Not one of those products started as an original idea. Every single one entered a market that was already crowded and won anyway.In this episode he shares his entrepreneurial journey while walking us through his full playbook in order:how he picks what to buildhow he validates it before it eats a year of your lifehow a copied product beats the companies it copiedhow he priceshow he turns strangers into his sales force.Halfway through, I pitch him a product I have not announced anywhere and let him take it apart on air.If you are sitting on an idea and cannot tell whether it deserves another year or a fresh start, this episode shows you how he makes that call.🟪 Timestamps(00:00) From Burning VC Money to an $8M Exit(03:54) Ship Until Something Works(05:55) How to Choose What To Build(08:47) Your Weird Workflow Might Be a Product(15:01) 10x Better at Exactly One Thing(19:40) Gabe Pitches His Secret Project(24:51) The $15K Bet That Became His Best Product(29:08) The Audience Myth, Debunked(35:34) How to Run Multiple Products in the Same Time(37:30) Pricing That Filters Your Customers(41:07) Turning Strangers Into a Sales Force(43:22) How to Improve Your Product Based on Feedback(47:35) How to Get Started to Build as a Non-technical🟪 About the GuestThibault Louis-Lucas, known online as Tibo Maker, is a French SaaS founder and product builder. After two failed startups and a stretch as CTO of a fast-growing scale-up, he co-founded Tweet Hunter and Taplio and sold both to Lempire. He now runs a bootstrapped portfolio that includes Revid and Outrank, built for small founders who want more sales and more traffic, and documents his builds, wins, and failures publicly on X.🟪 Connect with TiboWebsite: https://tmaker.ioX/Twitter: https://x.com/tibo_makerRevid: https://revid.aiOutrank: https://outrank.so🟪 Connect with Gabe MaruscaWebsite: https://www.gabemarusca.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@gabemaruscaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabemaruscaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabemaruscaX/Twitter: https://x.com/gabemaruscaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/gabemaruscaTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gabemarusca

Personal branding changed: expertise is now table stakes, and people buy who you are before they check what you do. Personal brand strategist Magali De Reu breaks down the personality first content system she used to rebuild from zero on LinkedIn, land a Netflix client seven days after one post, and turn content into discovery calls and paying clients.After walking away from a startup that owed her close to 100,000 euro, Magali rebuilt her business on LinkedIn with nothing but her own voice. In this episode she teaches the full system: the three personality signals (scars and stripes, stance, style), the swappable test that tells you in ten seconds whether your content is generic, how much of yourself to share without trauma dumping, the open questions that pull out the stories buyers actually respond to, why content templates become a cage, and how writing about moments instead of topics makes content creation easier and more relatable.If you are a consultant, coach, solopreneur or founder trying to get clients from LinkedIn and stand out with your personal brand, this conversation gives you the diagnosis and the starting point for tonight.🟪 Timestamps(00:00) Seven Days Later, a Netflix Client.(01:09) The Red Flag That Changed Everything(02:58) Why LinkedIn?!(04:32) What Everyone Gets Wrong About Personality First Content(09:56) How Much of Yourself Should You Share?(13:45) How to Get Client from LinkedIn(16:32) The Questions That Unlock People(21:16) A Safe Space and a Safety Blanket(29:08) The Pigeon That Outperformed the Experts(30:49) Why Templates Become a Cage(35:44) What to Do Now To Start Your Content Journey🟪 About the GuestMagali De Reu is a personal brand strategist based in Antwerp, Belgium, who works with consultants, speakers and senior experts on positioning around personality rather than competing on expertise. She is a TEDx speaker and the author of two Dutch books on neurodivergence, "Aut of the box" and "Allemaal Autcasts", and she spent years as a technology writer and talk show host before building the practice she runs today. Her work rests on a single argument: in a market where knowledge has become a commodity, the part of you that cannot be copied is the part that gets you hired.🟪 Connect with Magali De ReuThe Obvious Yes Challenge: https://www.theobviousy.es/fll-challengeWebsite: https://magalidereu.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/magalidereuInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/magalidereu🟪 Connect with Gabe MaruscaWebsite: 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

How to grow your personal brand when you have no content team, no budget and 20 minutes to learn it.Caleb Ralston was an integral part of the team that helped grow Gary Vee's TikTok from 300,000 to over 3.5 million followers in 3 months and helped take Alex and Leila Hormozi from about 1 million to over 11 million followers.Then he left, started his own firm Ralston Select and put a six-hour personal branding course on YouTube for free. In this episode of Authority in the Wild he compresses that course into the steps a solo founder cannot skip.We cover:- Student or expert: the first question every personal brand has to answer honestly- The Brand Journey Framework, the 4 questions to answer before you post anything- Why the selfish goal behind your personal brand is the one that funds the altruistic one- The Charlie Munger inversion for finding what you need to be known for- Picking a content cadence that survives running a business (Caleb started with one video a month)- What the Gary Vee documentation model looks like in 2026- Views versus conversionsTimestamps(00:00) A 6-Hour Course in 20 Minutes(00:55) Where Every Personal Brand Starts(02:54) 4 Questions to Answer First(07:36) Is Personal Branding Selfish or Altruistic?(09:49) The Reputation That Opens Doors(13:14) How to Actually Know Your Audience(14:11) Finding Time When You Have None(17:36) Do Views Actually Matter?About Caleb RalstonCaleb Ralston is a personal brand strategist. He served as TikTok lead on Team GaryVee and was the first content hire for Alex and Leila Hormozi at Acquisition.com, where he built the in-house media team. He now runs Ralston, a consulting firm that builds personal brands optimized for trust rather than virality, and his full six-hour personal branding course is free on YouTube.Connect with Caleb RalstonWebsite: https://calebralston.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CalebRalstonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/calebralstonInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/calebralstonConnect with Gabe MaruscaWebsite: https://www.gabemarusca.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@gabemaruscaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabemarusca/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabemarusca/X/Twitter: https://x.com/gabemarusca