Adam Torres and Eric Gardner discuss “Confessions of a CEO.”
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Show Notes:
New film alert! In this episode, Adam Torres and Eric Gardner, Executive Producer NBC/Uni, Co-Director of Confessions of a CEO, explore the film, “Confessions of a CEO.”
About Eric Gardner
Eric Gardner grew up in Oregon City, Oregon and attended college at Columbia University in New York City, and the USC School of Cinema/Television in Los Angeles. He has worked on independent feature films and non-fiction television for over 20 years. Gardner regularly works as a Writer, Director, Producer and Editor. He has received six Emmy nominations for his work as an Editor on the CBS series, “Survivor.” As a Director, he has won several awards, including best feature film at the Big Bear Lake Film Festival for “Under The Influence,” starring Peter Greene. He was Senior Editor of “Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction,” one of Fox’s highest rated specials, and received world-wide attention when co-wrote and produced “Breakaway,” an action/comedy starring the infamous Tonya Harding. His diverse credits also include Producer of “Queenas” a feature length documentary about latino transexuals, financed by Canal + and The Danish Film Board, Co-Producer of “Great Streets: Champs-Élysées” starring Halle Berry for PBS, Co-Executive Producer of “Love In the Wild,” a reality television series for NBC, and Co-Writer and Producer of the documentary, “Dislecksia: The Movie,” featuring Billy Bob Thornton. He is the longest serving executive on Bravo’s “Shahs of Sunset.”
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right, so today my guest is Eric Gardner, and he is a co director over of the film Confessions of a CEO.
Eric. Welcome to the show. Thanks, Adam. It’s very excited to be here. I love your work. Very kind. And I’ve been looking forward to talking to you about this film. So Confessions of a CEO. Now, whenever I’m talking to a filmmaker and and I see a project, I always like to start with where’d the idea for the film come from?
Like, where’d that stem? The idea for this film came from a lot of different places. This is one of those films that came together just out of a lot of different ideas, a lot of different point of views, a lot of different histories. We had a team that made it, and we made it together. And I know that’s sort of a long winded way to say that.
What we got was much better than what we thought we were going to get. Now your background, I mean, as a director and entertainment and working with networks, like maybe, go into that a little bit. Well, , I was a philosophy major at Columbia. And I got a philosophy degree and I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life.
And so my roommate was applying to film school at USC, cinema school, you know, where where George Lucas went and people like that. And and so I thought, is that hard to get into? And, he said yes. And so I thought, well, I’m going to apply and then I’m going to get turned down. And then I can just hang out in New York for a while because I’m from Oregon and and I wanted to stay in New York.
So I applied and I got in. And then they told me, you’re like, Oh man, that, ruined a little bit of curve ball. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I went in there and I found out that I love films, but not the kind of films that they, typically make at USC. I love films that make changes in people’s lives. I love storytelling and I love trying to make the world a better place.
And I think that storytelling. and entertainment is such a great way to motivate change, and so I always, I got into it. You know, into the business because that’s what I wanted to do. And then you know, I graduated from, from college, from film school, and then I, needed to work. And so I started taking jobs and things like that.
And so you sort of get further and further away from the mission of using storytelling to make the life To make the world a better place, so I worked on a lot of stuff, you know, I, produced a movie with Tanya Harding in it, and I, you know, and I worked for Bravo for 10 years producing a show called Shaws of Sunset, and I worked for Survivor for 10 years as an editor, and so , I worked on a lot of different things, but as often as possible, I would, go back and make a documentary, you know, and, In 2022, I got money from the Danish film board and Canal Plus to make a documentary about Latino drag queens in Los Angeles.
And that sort of predates the whole drag queen era today. In fact, in those days, they didn’t have any rights and they were looked down by everybody. And that movie only played in Europe. It played in France and Denmark. But I was really proud of that film. and then I hooked up with, a filmmaker, Harvey Hubble in, Connecticut and he has dyslexia.
So we spent almost 10 years making a documentary about dyslexia to sort of, you know, to bring out the awareness of that. then as time has been going on, I might, you know, I’ve been able to work on this more. And so now I’ve, done two movies back to back that are. Okay.
Movies I’m really proud of one is, is about Hopeville, how I won the literacy, how to win the literacy awards. It’s about how to teach kids how to read. And then this one, you know, , I’ve been doing this for now 30 years. And I think this is the best thing I’ve ever worked on is, which is confessions of a CEO, my life in an out of balance world.
and that I really hope that we can make a difference. I’ve never I’ve worked on a project that is more timely, except maybe the alien autopsy factor fiction. So, so how do you want to set this up? How do you want to set up the film? Let’s go into it and what you can share. Like set it up for us.
Yeah. Let me tell you the confessions of a CEO. My life in an out of balance world is a critique of corporate America told through the true story of Tom Gygax, who evolves from an amoral. Unbalanced CEO to an unorthodox leader, populist messenger, and mentor to American influencers like Al Gore, Deepak Chopra, Blue Zones founder Dan Buettner, and even Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. It’s a very entertaining film that plays like a thriller. It’s a story of growth, redemption, and the impact of self awareness on leadership in life. And the goal of the film is to show a path to a place where we can all have a better life. And that starts with changing how corporations do business.
Yeah. And so maybe go just, slightly for those that aren’t aware of Tom’s background. I mean, many have heard his name, but for those that aren’t, we got it. We got a younger generation listening here too, that maybe don’t have that piece of history. Maybe go into his background, just a little, just a touch.
Tom is. A much cooler saner version of Forest Gump
Oh, that’s great. What a hook. Go, keep going. I’m, I’m hooked. Tom Tom has led the most interesting life, and if you literally stuck a gun to his head, he would say, my life’s not interesting, which is why his life is so interesting. Wow. Tom grew up in Indiana. he was not too far away from The basketball team Hoosiers and he knows the guy who wrote the movie Hoosiers, you know, which is about this underdog team. Thomas had so many crazy intersections in his life with interesting people, but he built a corporation in the Midwest, a tire company, and it became one of the biggest tire companies in North America.
but he did it in an amoral way. So He hit a wall where he had cancer, where he had his marriage broke up and his company was overextended. So even though they were in one of the biggest companies, they were broke. And so he faced that crash by. Turning his life around and becoming holistic and thinking holistically like he hit a bottom and then he bounced back and he changed his way his company So he has this like, you know 80 million dollar company and he said and instead of just doing it the way he did it before he goes I’m gonna do everything holistically.
I’m gonna eat right? I’m gonna Be a good person. I’m going to, you know, look after my employees. I’m going to do all the things that your mother would tell you or what you learned in kindergarten. I’m going to apply it to business. And everybody said he was crazy. And it turned out that it made his business way more profitable.
And so it went from. within three years, I went from an 80 million company to a 200 million a year company, and it got so successful that Bridgestone bought him out. And so then he was able to take his message. He wrote a couple of bestselling books about. How to run a corporation ethically. And the hook is the hook at that is if you run a corporation ethically, you’re not only going to have happy employees and a happy community, but you’re also going to make more money.
and it’s crazy. Like, when a lot of the short term stuff that people do that corporate and people do like these. Huge layoffs and, draconian methods. He calls that a seductive narcotic because a lot of times corporate CEOs are just extremely impatient. And so they want fast results.
And so they do these things that hurt them in the long term. Whereas. Tom found out by, running a corporation ethically, it builds a foundation for the long term and your long term results are way bigger than your, short term results. and so he took that message out and then he ended up like right around he sold his company and right around that time, he hooked up with Al Gore and he helped Al Gore get involved in business and he advised him politically, like he was part of the decision of Al Gore not running again.
He also participated in the creation of. But then he also reorganized Deepak Chopra’s company. And so Deepak Chopra is now a huge financial, juggernaut in that industry. And Tom. Helped him get there. He also helped found Blue Zones, the, there’s a Netflix documentary and everybody’s talking about how to live longer and, and Dan Buettner is a personal friend of his, but also he’s Dan Buettner’s mentor and he helped that company get going and then man, hold on, this is the man that says his life’s just not that interesting.
He’s the guy that says, I swear to God, if you, if you, if you ask him, I know nobody cares about my life. He’s I know it’s hilarious. And then he worked with Robert Kennedy on cleaning up the waterways before Robert Kennedy Jr. got involved in the pharmaceutical world and the health world.
He was the most effective. Attorney and his organization water keepers was the most effective organization in cleaning up waterways in North America and now around the world and Tom sat on the board of directors of that company and help them. I mean, it’s crazy all the stuff that he does. But you know, one of the things when the reasons why he’s not on that he’s not on the interview is that he part of his downfall is he got throat cancer.
So he’s Before his turnouts, part of his rock bottom, he got throat cancer and he got, and the radiation got rid of the cancer, but then not, you know, over the last 10 years, his voice has, gone down. So, and we put it in the movie, we show his voice in the movie so you can hear him, but it’s just not, you know, it’s not, it’s these sort of interviews are not something that’s comfortable, but yeah, on his.
One of the smartest men I’ve ever met and why he says, I’m sorry, Tom, if you’re listening to this, why you think your life is boring? I don’t know. I don’t know, Eric. I think it’s pretty boring. Tom, if you are listening to this, you’re right. I understand. It’s pretty boring. No, yeah, right. Come on, man. Yeah. So, how Getting back to the movie.
Like, , I wanna get some takeaways here. ’cause I definitely want people , to go and watch the film , and get more of this too, by the way. What , if there was, I know there’s plenty of takeaways, but if there was a big takeaway like that you want , the movie goers to, walk away with, what would that be?
The big takeaway is balance. We put balance in the title because Tom’s the big takeaway from the movie and we all agree on it You know Tom is the drumbeat and the author of this for us But we all everybody who worked on the film believes in this is that you have to listen to others You have to care about others and you have to Work with others and work with people who disagree with you.
I mean, that’s like, you know, like, know, Lincoln was one of our greatest presidents and that’s what he did. So this isn’t a new concept, but you know, the whole, it’s just, it’s basically we want to change corporate America. So that, the big takeaway, the biggest takeaway, the overall thing, the thing that cannot go unsaid is the point of this movie is to encourage people to change corporate America.
But we’re not doing it. We’re not talking at people. We’re talking with people. And so the idea is it’s a, such a seductive message that even someone who’s running a corporation and reaping the benefits of a corporation will want to do it, but we also want to. Whip up the grassroots people, the people, because everyone is involved in corporations, whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, corporations have more to say with what your life is like than any other Take care.
So we’re all involved with corporations, and we can all have a say in how they’re run and how they’re, because there’s rules that run corporations and there are formal rules like laws, but there’s also informal rules that you learn in business school. And we feel that our message so universal that if people.
Do the things that we talked about in the movie and the things that Tom did to turn his company around, then not only are we going to get on track financially and economically, but people will be happier. I mean, that’s part of the, that’s part of what we want people. To be is we want to create a world where people are happy, where they’re happy when they go to work and they’re happy, you know, they have a home life and their life is balanced.
So we put balance in the title because we want people to live a balanced life and balanced life also means listening to people who disagree with you. Mm hmm. In making the movie, I understand you used part of Tom’s system. Like, can you explain that a little bit? Like, what that even means? Tom has two books.
One is called, I have them on my shelf next to me. And so one is called Winning in the Game of Life and the other one is called The Big Book of Small Business. And both of these were very popular about 20 years ago and he was very popular on the speaking circuit before he lost his voice.
And basically, Tom through his own life experience, a lot of reading, working with people like Deepak Chopra and other people, you know. That’s just the tip of the iceberg of all the people he is worked with. Mm-hmm . Tom has meticulously researched a program for living your life, both personally, like how to self-coach yourself, and also how to run a business.
Because it’s two things. It’s like know, you’re in control of your. There’s things that you can do to live a more spiritual life, live a happier life. And there’s things that a business can do. Like for example, a business, if I’m running a corporation, I am responsible for myself. I am responsible for my employees. I’m responsible for my shareholders. I am responsible to the community. And so when you’re running a corporation, you have to think of all of that stuff.
And so a lot of times people just think of the shareholders or they think of the themselves or, you know, and so you have to balance that out. so in Tom’s system, cleaning up the environment of your community or giving back to your community is not a luxury.
It’s a necessity For a corporation to be successful, it has to do all of these things, and you have to give back to the community. You have to make space to give back to the community, and you have to look after your employees, but you still have to look after your shareholders. You have to be conscious of all of them, and one of his critiques of corporate America today is the fact that too often the way, and it happens a lot of times, especially now, the way corporations are funded You know, somebody takes over a corporation and they just want a big payday within a few years.
And so they cut all these corners and they don’t look after their community. They don’t look after their employees, they just slash and burn and they get a big payday and they’re on their way. They’re only looking after themselves. They’re not even really looking after their shareholders because the shareholders get are going to get burned too.
And so that’s the kind of thing that’s happening more and more with all this creative financing and it’s creating According to Tom, it’s creating such a, you know, a disparity between the haves and the have nots. And it doesn’t have to be that way. You know, one of the other things is when he ran his corporation, he did not have the, the huge disparity between his salary and the employee salary.
He, did make. You know, a lot more than his employees, but it wasn’t like Boeing and and so that’s another part of this thing is, CEOs shouldn’t pay themselves so much. there’s just many details. I mean, there’s two books, one of them and the movie touches on that and the movie, but the other thing too about Tom is, his system is.
You can learn it and you learn the principles. It’s sort of like, he’s really into sports and, you know, he was a great basketball player. His brother was a great basketball player. So he uses a lot of examples in sports. And once you learn the concepts, aspire towards balance and things like that, then you can kind of figure it out as you go along.
And a lot of it is just, don’t be a jerk, but you can burn yourself. You can burn yourself too, because, for example, and he’s learned that lesson the hard way, like, like, you know, you need to care about your employees, but if you care about your employees to the point where.
You can’t, take care of your shareholders, your communities, and you go out of business and then your employees have nothing. So, you know, that’s His other big thing is being, warm hearted, but tough minded and, you know, and. it’s always y yin and yang in this universe.
Eric, I’ll tell you, this is great. It’s a great story. I it’s a great film. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to bring you on the show , to get it out to my audience as well. That being said, , if somebody’s listener watching this and they want to check out the film confessions of a CEO or they wanna also follow your other work as well, or you, , how do they do those things?
We have a really great website called Concessions of a CEO movie. It’s all one word, concessions of a CEO movie.com. So if you go there, you can get links to everything. You can get links to me too. So if you wanna get involved in, the Eric Gardner universe, you can find me there. you can also, preorder the film. The film drops on. We had a theatrical run. We aired in nine cities across America in January. We finished that theatrical run. So now we’re going into the rental platforms. And so if you go to confessions of a CEO movie dot com, it’ll have links to It’s the usual suspects for renting the movie, Apple Amazon, Vimeo now.
And you can pre order the movie now, and then it drops on February 11th across the nation and, that’s where we are. Yeah. Yeah. So, and in February, listen, just so you know, we’ll definitely put the links in the show notes so that you can just click on the link and head right on over and get that and pre order, or if you’re listening to this when the movie’s already out, then obviously order it and rent it and, and watch it because you’re not going to be disappointed.
So again, this is, you’re listening to this and this is your. First time with mission matters. This is a daily show each and every day. We’re bringing you new content, new ideas, new, hopefully inspiring stories that are going to help you along the way on your journey as well. So hit that subscribe or follow button.
Make sure so that you get the notification. When we we released the next episode and Eric, man, appreciate you coming on , and look forward to seeing more of your work down the line. So thank you. Thank you so much, Adam. And congratulations on your show. It’s terrific.