960: John Guastaferro - Leading With His Heart

Mar 26, 2026

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John Guastaferro has his priorities straight. He thinks of others before himself. From his magic career to his professional life as a director on the board of Hundai’s “Hope on Wheels” philanthropic organization. John has just released the third book in his close-up card magic trilogy “The Final Degree.” In these books, John emphasizes how small degrees of change can make a big difference in the effect on your audience. You can see how he puts his work into action when he performs in the Close-Up Gallery of the Magic Castle.

As to his philanthropic activities, John works with this group several months out of the year in helping raise money for cancer research in children. And as if that doesn’t keep him busy enough, he is also an accomplished flamenco-style guitar player.

John Guastaferro as the executive director for Hyundai Hope On Wheels and Genesis Inspiration Foundation, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. Guastaferro is responsible for advancing the missions of both foundations while maintaining current successes, driving program growth, developing diversified revenue streams, and building greater community awareness. As you can imagine, that takes a lot of his time throughout the year and we discuss all that in this week’s episode.

John is a regular performer at the Magic Castle and we chat during the first few minutes about what it was like for his first time at working there and how others may overcome their hesitancy of auditioning to perform there. When we recorded this episode, his new book “The Final Degree” was about to be released. It is now available through the publisher, Vanishing, Inc. and other fine magic shops. We also talk a little bit about his passion with the guitar. This flamenco-styiings feature original compositions that can be heard on iTunes and Spotify, among other platforms and I highly recommend listening to it. It is very soothing and relaxing music.

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Please only submit your name and email address once. You will be automatically entered into the contest for a chance to win one of two books. This is a hard copy of a book published by Vanishing, Inc. but John agreed to pay for foreign shipping, should a winner reside outside the U.S.

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Thank you for entering the contest. There will be two winners in this contest. If your name is randomly selected, then you will be notified on how to order your book from John Guastaferro. Good luck!