In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Gerald Wood, founder of Authentic Consult. Wood shares a personal health transformation sparked by his father's dying words, leading him to quit smoking, ride Route 66 on a Harley, and eventually run a marathon. He explains Authentic Consult’s mission: improving employee and customer engagement by treating employees fairly, arguing that happy employees create satisfied customers. Wood outlines five leadership practices his firm models and recommends to clients—open communication, respect, recognition, purpose, and role modeling. He offers personal advice to his younger self to prioritize health and enjoyment over money, describes his view of happiness as a self‑chosen mindset that spreads to others, and discusses the book The One Thing by Gary Keller, emphasizing focused prioritization. His favorite quote, an Oscar Wilde line about endings, reflects his optimistic outlook. The episode concludes with Wood’s contact information (authentic‑consult.com, Twitter, LinkedIn).
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite makes the process of becoming a published bestselling author as simple as sipping your morning cup of coffee. You can learn more about Authors Unite at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Gerald Wood with us. He is a consultant with Authentic Consult and believes companies need to get back to the basics of treating employees and customers fairly. So welcome to the show, man.
Yeah, hi Tyler, how are you doing?
Awesome, man, how are you?
Good, good, great, thank you.
Awesome, man. So yeah, we'll jump into the first one, Gerald. The first question I have for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Yeah, okay. I'd almost not call it the best story, but for me, it's the most impactful story. It was basically a few years ago, 2010, when my father had cancer and was dying. And the last time I saw him alive, because he lived in South Carolina, I live in Germany. He asked me to live a more healthy life. And shortly after that, he died. And those were the last words I had in my mind when he died. And I took a trip along Route 66 on a Harley-Davidson. And the first thing I did is I threw away my cigarettes. And because I had been smoking up to 2 packs a day. And when I got back to Germany after the long trip and thinking a lot about my father, I started taking up running. And I was overweight and everything, very unhealthy. But I started running. And a few years later, I did my first marathon. And now I've lost a lot of weight. I'm healthy again. And I'm living the dream that my dad had for me of being healthy. And I think that's been the most impactful part of my life so far.
Thank you for sharing that with us, man. The next one I have for you is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Yeah, I mean, I'm a consultant, as you know, and, you know, and my consultancy is called Authentic Consult, which means, you know, we consult authentically with our clients. And, you know, I like to talk about— we do change management, you know, from a helicopter perspective. We do strategic marketing, strain change management, interim management and things like that. But at the heart of everything we do, we like to talk about, you know, dealing fairly and squarely with your employees, because if you take care of your employees, your employees will take care of your customers. And, you know, you have to really get back to the basics of true leadership and management in order to do that. But it's the heart of our business is basically improving employee and customer engagement.
Got it. Okay. So then, you know, what's your best— the next question is, what's your best piece of overall business advice? But maybe you want to touch on like how your company kind of does that, like maybe some tips on leadership and how to treat your employees so they do treat your customers well?
Yeah, so, you know, a key part of our business is, again, helping companies do better within their markets. So what we advise our clients, we do the same within our company. So we treat our employees fairly, and we do that by— I think there are 5 things that we do. We have open communication, which is done often. We treat our employees with respect, and I know that's kind of a catchphrase for all, but it's really, you know, looking eye to eye with your employees. Also giving them praise and recognition for the work that they do. Also giving them a purpose of mission, you know, making sure that you don't just tell your employees what you want them to do, but you explain to them why it's necessary and why it's important for their job, because people want purpose. In their lives and in their workplace as well. And then finally, you have to be a great role model. And so that's kind of how we do it here at Authentic Consulting and how we advise our clients as well. And at the end of the day, it pays off because customers— and you give them the customer focus as well along the line— but customers will reward your company because they feel that they're being treated right because they know you're treating your employees fairly and squarely. So that's kind of, and that helps our company grow as well, but it also helps our clients grow, and that's the most important thing for us.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Well, I thought about that a lot because I would say it's live your life to the fullest and don't always chase the money, you know, do things that are right. Live your life, enjoy your life, you know, get outside, run, take care of yourself, climb a mountain, climb a tree or whatever, and just have fun, you know, don't lose that part of, you know, your younger self as you grow older.
And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
Yeah, of course, that's a tough one. If I had the answer, you know, then everybody would be happy, but, For me, I think it's deciding to be happy yourself. And once you've done that, once you can understand how to kind of, you know, wake up every morning with a fresh sense of, you know, happiness and, you know, looking into the day with a bright attitude and everything, then you start loving others and making others happy because you're happy. I think that's a key. There might be 1,000 other keys. Some people would say reading the Bible, things like that. But to me, it's being happy within that's a key to happiness.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
OK, so I've read, of course, I'm kind of a not so old guy, but I'm up there. So I've read a lot of great books. I think recently I read The One Thing by Gary Keller. And what, what I liked and enjoyed about the book is that he kind of goes through how to focus on the one thing that's extremely important for whatever you want to get done, whether it's in your personal life or in your business life. And I think that's been very helpful to me because he combines Not just the kind of motivational book, but he has a website with a lot of kind of tips and daily routines that you can go through to make sure you stay focused on your one thing that's important for you.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
Okay, my favorite quote is from Oscar Wilde and it's called 'in the end, everything will be good. And if it's not good, then it's not the end.' I think I enjoy that quote so much because, you know, it makes a lot of sense. You know, we often say at the end of the day, everything will be fine, right? And then, you know, he adds on to that, and if it's not fine, then it's not the end of the day, you know? So in other words, it's always going to be fine. Because if it's not, then it's not the end.
Yeah.
So, uh, I love that.
That's an awesome quote.
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you so much for coming on, man. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where's the best place for people to find you online?
Yeah, basically it's just, uh, it's my website. I'm— I have a Twitter feed, a LinkedIn account, and things like that, but, uh, via my website at authentic-consult.com, you'll always be able to reach me.
Perfect, man. Thanks again for jumping on.
Yeah, thanks a lot, Tyler. Have a great afternoon.
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