May 25, 2023 • 51 mins
We chat with Tim Warren the Show Runner of the Discovery Networks Hit Show “Undercover Billionaire” and you get to hear all the behind the scenes stories of what it took to film the show.
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(00:03):
Hi, I'm Mindy Sterns and I'mGlenn Sterns, and this is great Happens.
Join us as we engage in candidconversations with some of the most successful
people in every field and from everywalk of life, all with a common
thread of grit and a goal ofnot just surviving, but thriving. And
we hope that the show will helpyou feel informed, energized, and especially
(00:27):
inspired. So let's get started.This is great Happens. I am so
excited about today because we continue ourseries on your Integrity book launch conversations.
The book No, no book nothing, no product placement, nothing to buy.
No, you would never do that. Um. It's been an exciting
(00:51):
conversation we've been having with a lotof the people throughout the arc of your
life that have been in many storiesand chapters, whether they're in the book
or not. The chapters of yourlife are very person very um interesting and
dramatic. And one of the chaptersthat you had in recent years was the
filming of the Discovery show Undercover Billionaire. And there was a character involved in
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this process that was very much intimatelyinvolved with you in every like a lot
of steps. A character. Yeah, he's definitely a character, a character,
and you know what, why don'twe just bring him on and we'll
introduce him and we can learn alittle bit more about the man who has
probably seen parts of Glenn that mostpeople have it. Mister Tim Warren,
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showrunner, extraordinaire, director, producer, award winner, so many things,
you are so many Hi Tim,good to see you, guys, Hello
friends, Hello friends. I missyou ninety days, every hour, waking
hour with you. And then wego just completely silent, dark, silent.
(01:56):
No, it's not we can takeit back. So Tim Warren is
a showrunner who was very much thekind of the lead on the entire process
of filming Undercover Billionaire. And you'renot even getting a word in do you
see this is my life? Youstarted to say hello, I'm listening and
nodding. Yeah, it's kind oflike lended when you were working on the
show. Right, He listened andnodded, and then you gave him the
(02:19):
words and then he spoke exactly.So you'll let me know when you want
me to talk, so I'll justyes. So let's tell us, first
of all, what is a showrunner? Explain to people what a showrunner is
and then well I say that I'mpart cheerleader pipe part psychologist, you'll run
the whole deal. The idea isthat, yes, I sort of oversee
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everything on a television program from sortof the thirty five thousand foot view.
You know. My job is tomake sure that everybody that works on the
show, there's a part of theshow, has the tools they need to
succeed. And I'm interfacing with thepeople in front of the camera, behind
the camera, the production company,as well as the network buyer. So
(03:07):
I'm serving sort of a lot ofdifferent masters. But yeah, you know,
I try to really just hire greatpeople, work with great people,
you know, and empower them todo what they do, and uh,
you know, give them the toolsthey need to succeed. Him is the
orchestra leader. He really is,and he's out there playing the tambourine.
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Okay, okay, so take usback you you Discovery. You're working with
Discovery for this show, and youmeet Glenn Starns. What was your first
impression of Glenn and the idea behindthe show that well, like I was
hooked. You know, they whenyou sell a show that you know,
you usually do like a couple minuteteaser and the production company was this is
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just a test. And I hadworked with one of the executives at Discovery
at the time, Chris Rentibaki,who had worked with previously its Spike,
and you know, he thought thatI would be good to run this show.
So the folks at Teachad, whoI hadn't worked with before, you
know, sent me this teaser,and so, long story short, I
looked at this teaser, I waslike, I was fucked. I like,
oh, my gosh, what agreat show. It was so clean,
(04:15):
it was so concise. It's like, you know what happens when you
take someone that's super successful and stripthem of everything their name, their money,
their contacts, and drop them intoplace they've never been and see,
no, not only can they survive, but can they thrive? You know,
can they build this business in ninetydays? And I just thought it
was such a great concept and Iwas I was just in And you know
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the thing about Glenn is he youknow, if you were going to line
up ten billionaires in a row,you know, Glenn would be the last
one that you pick out of lineupbecause he's so relatable, he's so unassuming,
m and just you know, justreally engaging, really likable. So
I just thought that they just hada lot of potential this show, and
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it was awesome. I wonder ifI take that as a compliment. Yes,
it was delivered as it was deliveredas a compliment, because you don't
you know, that's a big partI think of why you know, that
first season of Undercover Billionaire was sosuccessful because you are very much in every
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man, very relatable um, andyou sort of have this no nonsense approach
that connects with people. UM,and that was successful, you know with
the television show, and it ultimatelyI think one of the big reasons why
you've been successful in your professional lifeas well. Well. I'll tell you
in in in Uh, you knowyou'll find probably I'll joke a lot during
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this because I really got to knowTim and had the and have the utmost
respect for all that you do.Um. We got to really go deep
with each other because I mean literally, you spend all day together and while
day most of it is quote inreality, right, you know, I'm
out there winging it. You know, there's so much going on behind the
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scenes that people don't understand. Andthen to be able to to keep it
all together and keep everybody happy.There's a lot of people, hamera people,
you know, sound people, drovea lot of players in the equation.
Really gosh, and then he's gotto go all the way back to
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La to all those people. Imean, there was a lot going on.
And to say you're organized and havea big picture in mind, I
mean, you know, it's muchmore than that. People don't understand your
job. You're used to working withsome pretty big personalities. I mean,
you've done twenty four Hours to Hell, I'm back with Golden Ramsey, You've
done bar Rescue with John Tapper,Extreme Makeover Home Edition. You've done some
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pretty significant shows out there. Andof all the people that you've worked with,
how does Glenn stack up to thepersonalities that you've seen that on the
show secutic Well, I would saythat, Um, you know you mentioned
some of those folks like like Johnand Gordon. You know those guys are
certainly bigger. Um maybe personality inBravado, you know, Um, but
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you know, I think that thesimilarity is really the the passion for for
what he does. And you knowJohn and Gordon have that same thing.
They have this commitment, you know, they strive for perfection and they settle
for excellence, you know. Um, and they're always trying to be you
know better. They never quit.And I think that's you know, again
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what Glenn has intrinsically, um,that makes him successful. And again he
brought that to Undercover Billionaire because it'slike it was a a grind. It
was ninety days shooting every day,long hours and he was fully committed to
the process. Um. And Ithink that's what makes for a great TV
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show because it's people at home areso savvy. I think of these quote
unquote reality shows and it's like theywant authenticity and that's what Glenn delivers over
and over again. Um. Youknow, folks at home they can sniff
out the bs and there's no bswith glennon It's like it's it's very authentic
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and he is an open book umand was willing to share the good,
the bad, and the ugly uhyou know, through the process, and
there was there was a lot ofgood, but there was also a lot
of bad and ugly um. Andbut but at the end of the day,
you know, it was just sucha highlight for me in my career
because of you know, I thinkwhat Glenn, you know, overcame what
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he accomplished an erie and building,you know, undergo Underdog Barbecue, which,
by the way, I'm representing productplace nice Sweat, you know.
So, Um, okay, let'swhat you said. You said, there's
a lot of a lot of uglyLet's let's go a little bit. I
want to go I want to gointo that. Okay, let's go to
(09:09):
the before we do that. Um, you know, I did not know
what I was getting myself into allright at all? You know. I
mean I had said over and overagain to a lot of different production houses.
You know, I'm I'm okay.You know, I'm a business guy.
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Uh. You know, we dida show twenty years ago or eighteen
years ago, and and that kindof people wasn't looking to be a reality
stars. What he's saying, whojust it just kind of fell in his
lap. And then this opportunity,you know, this was something that he
had always talked about, like right, and so we kept saying it's okay.
I said about Look, you wantto throw me out in the middle
of nowhere with no money and noyou know, contacts, I bet I
(09:52):
could build a business again. It'sa lot of people challenge you throughout all
you just got lucky. You justgot lucky, and you're like, no,
I know, I could do itagain. It was kind of a
challenge getting out there and then doingit UM again. I didn't understand how
hard it would be or why.You know, some of my friends like
John Elway and Richard Brins and theguys that we had interviewed UM, but
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they didn't make UM. And Ithink you just want to keep it real
real instead of bringing all these otheroutside influences. I get it, UM,
but they both I know, thosetwo said I'd never want to restart
again, Like, why do youwant to go out and risk all that
when all you're probably you're gonna endup having is a bunch of people see
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you fail. And and I didn'tunderstand that until I was in the middle
of it, going oh crap,the world's gonna watch me fail and that
pressure. But the point I'm tryingto make, which has nothing to do
with that, is the way youguys were able to document and capture everything
and turn it into a show thatI'm very proud of. I mean,
(10:58):
so so many people all over theworld. I've said I don't watch reality
shows. I don't watch these fakethat I just don't get involved and I
don't like it. But I watchedyour show and I was hooked because it
felt so real and I felt thepain you were going through, and I
learned so much. We're going toa school on Monday, yeah, and
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Mother's Day weekend, and they showedtheir whole class this, and so many
colleges, so many high schools areshowing that. I just had someone else
today say this needs to be inevery single high school business class, a
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business class, right, So thatmakes me feel good. And that was
what that was the magic you did. I mean we you know, I
lived through the pain, but youwere able to document it so well and
create a story out of thousands ofhours the footage that was, oh my
goodness. Yeah, well, youknow, and and we had such an
(12:05):
incredible team out there, and Ithink, you know, everybody bought into
the journey. They bought in toGlenn's journey and what we were trying to
accomplish, which I think was reallykey. And going back to you know,
Glenn is like you know, he'sable to rally people around, and
people, you know, the wholecrew really believed in him. It's like
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if if he's willing, if thisguy who has it all is willing to
go and sleep in the truck andand go through all of this you know,
pain, um and suffering, youknow, UM to do this,
it's like, you know it justit motivates people, I think, to
go the extra mile and to capturethose stories as best as best they can,
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you know, as funny as UM. I never read the the blogs
or the people that were the peoplethat said good things are bad things,
the critics whatever you want to callhim and um. And now with social
media again, when we did ourshow eighteen years ago, there wasn't um
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social media really and so but Iwas able to go in back then and
every after every show, I justwonder what people are saying. And there
were things in chat groups and UM, I remember back then it was fun
there's one he just loves he therewas all these um how you found that
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that's a lot of times people wouldsay very nice things. Oh we love
Glenn and Mindie, they're so niceand all this, and you know it
makes your ego, it makes youfeel good, right, But I did
I got some somehow. There wasa chat room of people talking and happened
to be a gay chat room.Now do I care? No, am
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I you know, and they go, yeah, you know that Glennie.
It's kind of cute, but he'ssure is a little chubby, a little
hurt man, and uh yeah,so and I, you know, I
laughed because obviously, you know,you get the raw and the real and
it's and it's and it's perfect right, It's just you know, everybody's got
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an opinion and you get to hearabout it. So this time around,
I was like, man, Idon't care to read it or I don't
care really and I never did.But some like my kids and Mindy,
you know, they get I can'tbelieve they'd say this or whatever, right,
and and you can't believe every right. But but there was, you
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know, so many people that reallysaid wonderful things. Mostly ninety nine percent
of things were wonderful. And Iwas again, I was very proud because
my daughter, especially, she'd readover and over and over again all the
people and the word that kept comingup with inspiration or buying or whatever.
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And again I didn't expect that becauseI really was doing this because I really
wanted to show my kids hard work, grit, you know, this is
what you need. And I hadgone through some cancer before that, as
you know, and you know,they didn't get to see that. My
young kids growing up didn't get tosee me grind and grind. So I
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thought, Okay, this would bea good good place to show them that
and then to get that, youknow, the benefit of all these people
that became inspired a just I wasn'texpecting that, and that's such the wonderful
thing that came out of it forme that I absolutely appreciate. Jim,
let's talk a little bit about yourwhen you jumped in, you were you
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know, take when you jumped in, we were ready to go. And
then Glenn got his second cancer diagnosisand you were right by him through that
whole process. And what did youlearn about Glenn going through that that curveball
kind of first curveball of the wholeproduction really right? Yeah, I mean
we had I think we had startedand it was sort of February and March
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and we were getting ready to youknow, go out. Um I think
it was made June of that year, and um, you know, as
you said, you know, duringthat sort of pre production process, maybe
it was April, you guys wouldknow the timeline. Um that you know,
Glenn went to get his check up. Yeah, and it came back
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that you know that his cancer hadI guess resurfaced in his throat and you
know, ultimately, you know,went down to Houston to have a surgery.
Um and you know, you guys, you know, thought it was
really important to to document that.So it was just me Um in a
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camera. You know, I hadactually had a medical background in a previous
life. Yes, you had rightbehind you high school one. Yeah,
I mean I was. I workedon an ambulance service when I was a
teenager back in Team right, drivingambulances and yeah, it was a whole
whole different thing. Yeah, Darrenms Post fifty three and Daryan, Connecticut,
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which has been around for actually fiftythree years, and it's the only
emergency medical service in the town oftwenty thousand people, and they get option
for scripted series by CBS. Isthat happening, That's hopefully happening. Yeah,
we got this writer strike now,so it's a little bit stalled,
but you know, hopefully bigger,better things will will come of the documentary.
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But you know, this this ambulanceservices run by high school students and
it was really shaped my life.And even though I didn't go into the
medical field, it really taught meabout everything from working with a team,
to managing time, to handling stressand making decisions under stress. Um.
But anyway, I had been obviouslyin the medical field. I had been
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in hospitals, I had been inours and things like that. So you
know, I went with you guysdown to Houston and was documenting your experience
as you went through the surgery.And you know, the idea was to
go in and remove a little bitof that cancer. And I think going
in it was not supposed to bethat big of a deal. You know,
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there was some cancer on your epiglottys, I believe, and you know,
they went in and I was filmingthis whole thing, and they would
take a piece you know, ofcancerous tissue out and they would come out
of the r and you know,and take it to the lab and they
would put it under a microscope andthey'd say, oh, you know,
no, there's cancer is still onthe edges. They need basically needed a
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clean edge, you know, aroundthat they were taking. And you know,
so this surgery that was supposed toonly supposed to be less than an
hour, turned out to be severalhours. And it was you know,
going back and forth with doctor GrossI believe was his name, the Sergemon,
and you know, we would bein the rlee Glenn is under and
he's on the table and they've gotall of the various you know, doctors
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and nurses around, and you know, doctor Gross would take a piece out
and go back to the lab andthey would analyze this, and long story
short, you know, he wentback six times and every time, you
know, he would go back andhave it looked at. You know,
you could see he's just getting moreand more deflated. And you know,
the long story short is that theyended up removing your entire epiglottis, which
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completely changed you know, um.And you know, so that was really
obviously one I felt this really honoredand privileged to be there because it was
such a personal thing. But obviously, going into that surgery there was a
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certain set of expectations, which it'slike, you know, Glen's gonna go
in, They're gonna Doctor's gonna goin, these take this little piece of
cancer out and will be good togo, and you know, no problem.
UM. But again it just itjust kept getting worse, actually to
the point where again they had totake your entire applical ayss off. And
that was that was just really itwas just really hard and then obviously very
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hard to you know, see youand talk to you after you, you
know, came out from anesthesia andyou know, let you know that that's
what happened, and you know,in the ramifications of that. Um.
But of course, you know,typical Glenn, you know, I guess
mindset is like well he was justlike, well, all right, I'll
be laid up for a couple ofweeks and then we'll go and shoot the
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show and um, and and thatjust really that wasn't realistic because the reality
is that you needed to retrain yourselfto eat and you had, you know,
a feeding tube and um, youknow obviously you guys can you know
talk about that that process. Butthere was you know a lot of bouts
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with pneumonia and things like that becausefood would you know, get down in
your lungs. And in the longstory short, instead of being able to
shoot and June July, we hadto push that off, much to Glenn's
chagrin because he wanted to go,even though he was really not very well
and very strong at that point.I mean, how many times did you
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and I have side conversations where I'mlike Tim, I know, he says
he's ready, but yeah, andTim is like Tim finally said, look,
we want Glenn, but we wantGlenn to be Glenn for like six
to eight weeks, not Glenn comingout of surgery, Glenn coming out of
hospital Glenn. We want him tobe whole, healthy, strong Glenn,
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and then we'll shoot and then andthat did. We didn't end up going
until March the following year, andhe was headstrong, was gonna. He
was like, I'm going, I'mgoing. Yeah. It was first we
had to push from July and thenthere was talk about doing it in the
fall, and just we couldn't dowinter in Erie. There was no way.
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Well, and we ended up doingwinter and the Erie it was in
Lake. Yeah, we started inwinter and then went into into spring.
But um, but anyway, itwas. Yeah, it wasn't exactly the
way anybody saw it going. Andyet you know, I think when I
look back on on that again,I like it even more because, um,
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you know, it felt like Ineeded the odds stacked against me,
Like I like that is. Idon't know why, but I just find
it, am an interesting The moreyou have things against you, the more
you fight, you know, oryou or you don't fight. But in
the case of this, you know, I think there were a lot of
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people out there that thought, youknow, oh, you get to go
and do this, play this thispoor person, and then you get to
go back to your rich life,and you know, and that's the ones
I would hear. That's the onesthat that they would tell me about people
saying and you know what people didn'tunderstand or whatever is Yeah, I had
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some health issues going on. Iwas eating out of the feeding tube still
am and and I didn't have todo this. But I could take this
wonderful reputation I had my whole lifethat I'm very proud of and turn it
off completely upside down, not justto you know, people that I know
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in my community, but to thewhole world and then my family. You
know, inside my own head,I'm thinking now that I'm involved, and
I'm going, man, I'm notone hundred and I'm not gonna make it.
And now the rest of the world'sgoing to see me as a loser,
and then that's going to really affectmy family, at least what I
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think my family thinks of me.So I don't know why. Yeah,
so all that was in my mindgoing quit, quick, quit, don't
do it. They were right,you know, these guys were right.
I shouldn't have done it. Andthat is the microcuse of what real life
is, just boiled down in theninety days, which is life is hard.
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Sometimes we don't have the dack stackedin our side, and sometimes it's
against us, and sometimes you wantto give up and you want to run,
and you think maybe if you closeyour eyes long enough, the problem
will go away, you know.And in my case, if I just
walk out of here, you can'tmake the show because there's no ending.
(24:34):
And I thought about that many manytimes, especially when we did that barbecue
fest. I'm like, I'm thisis not going my way. And also
when that guy kind of hijacked uswith the building, you know, all
the right at the very end,we're written ready to open up and the
guy realizes we're under a deadline andholds out for more money. There are
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a lot of obstacles and curveballs.I mean, you obviously the one that
played into his health was immediately goinginto the hospital, which you know,
obviously the camera couldn't spend five daysfilming him, but he was in the
hospital a lot longer than was representedbecause you know, and Glenn realize,
if I eat, I'm going toshut down production. I can't do that.
He runs the I mean here heopened a barbecue restaurant. He can't
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even eat the food. People arelike, whoa, what were you doing?
And the reason, I mean,there's a lot of funny and stressful
and crazy things that happened. Butthe reason why I like about it because
the people I think that watch thepodcast or listen to it, whichever,
is that a lot of it canbe again something that hope is relatable to
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them, which to me was takinga big chance, and while other people
think, again, it's not abig chance. In ninety days, you
get to go back. No,I'm gonna look like a loser to the
world. And whether or not,you know, unless you're in that situation,
you don't understand that stress right ofgoing give up, give up.
(26:06):
Did you ever think at any pointhe was going to walk Tim Well,
I don't know. I don't thinkI thought he was going to walk,
but I didn't know whether honestly hisbody was going to fail him. I
mean, again, you were inthe ear. We were in the ar
together within a couple of days.I mean, it was cold, it
was snowy. You know, you'resleeping in the truck and you know,
(26:30):
you're trying to have your cup ofnoodles, and that's ultimately what got you
into the ear because some of that, you know, went down in your
throat, and you know, thatwas the whole thing that we were sort
of talking about, like, well, well do we embrace this story of
the fact that you know, Glennis on you know, eating out of
this this feeding tube, And ultimatelyit was just like, well, we
didn't. We felt that there mighthave been like some backlash of like,
(26:52):
why are you putting this person that'syou know, compromised in this really bad
situation. And I think also Glenndidn't want to use it as as an
excuse um. But but reality behindthe scenes was like, you know,
and I'm feeling it as a showrunner, right like I'm the one that's like
been said, no, we're notgoing to shoot you know. Two weeks
(27:12):
after your surgery, no, we'renot going to shoot three months after your
surgery. But now it's it's sixplus months and it's snowing sideways and this
guy's sitting in the truck and I'mlike, am I going to kill this
guy at all? So um,you know, so it often waghs so
but again it's like Glenn does notquit, like he's either going to succeed
(27:34):
or die trying. And I was, you know, at times, concerned
about the ladder um. But youknow, and in true you know,
Glenn's Glenn. You know, heis the cat with nine lives. It's
like he just you know, heends up recovering and he pushes forward and
he's stronger, you know, becauseof it. And you know, I
know, I'm I know it's inthe book. It's just like that.
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That's it really does. It's sosimple, but it's separated. It's people
that are successful or not. It'slike so many people when it gets so
tough and it's just like it justis unbearable, they quit. Blend Sterns,
doesn't you know. And that startedfrom early obviously in his life,
you know, in the in thecards that you were dealt between you know,
(28:18):
family with addiction problems and having akid at fourteen. It's just like,
you know, you could have justsaid, oh, well, you
know, I got a bad deckof cards and I'm just gonna like give
up. But you never did.And that's been a through line, you
know, for your entire life andagain for you to like, you know,
have another bout of cancer feeling likecrap. I mean your replica I
(28:41):
was taken out, you're on afeeding tube, you know, yet you
still go and put yourself in areally difficult adverse situation. Ninety nine pc
of people would never do that,right, But yeah, but I'll tell
you I think you know it wasum, you know that maybe that's the
(29:07):
difference. Probably a lot of itis, whichween a lot of people that
say, like how can you achieveall this? You know? And why
don't other people? I don't?I absolutely know for a fact. It's
not because you know, I'm smarterthan anybody, right, It's just maybe
you just stick it out a littlelonger, right, And that's at all.
It's like, Okay, what's thesecret? Right? Not very many
(29:33):
secrets out there. It's just youknow how much your brain wants to tell
you to turn off a. Therewas a glennism in the film that was
like, when things go bad,don't go with them. Were there any
moments where Glenn kind of almost wentwith them when things were going bad,
because did you see him? Likethe funny thing was like, and we've
(29:55):
got to get this clip, butlike the blue truck, Glenn hated that
blue truck and he got hated it. He got so pissed at us because
he's just like, he stuck mewith this crappy truck. Everybody's making fun
of me. It goes you know, he was well Grant. Grant had
a beautiful jeep that he drove.Glenn had this He's a you know what
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it was. Finally I got toa point I'm like, you know what,
You've made it already so hard onme everything about this, and people
ask like, how real is realityTV? Right? And I'm sitting there
thinking in my head about so manyshows that they just tee it up and
it's all you can tell when it'sfake, right, And I'm sitting there
(30:45):
going why is no one helping me? A matter of fact, not only
the not helping me, they're hurtingme on purpose in that damn blue truck?
Right, like fix the fricking fanbelt, right, It's like,
why did it have to screet?Linda and I lost it one time?
On the guys are just f inwith me to some purpose. We had
(31:07):
to put Glenn in a time out. Yeah, I was so pissed about
that damn truck. I'm like,they are they know I'm coming like two
blocks away and it's a small town, like, let me at least kind
of slide in. But no,you know, one more thing that's kind
of this is kind of funny,because were you nervous at all when Chris
(31:30):
Trot was onto him? When Glennaccidentally sent that email and revealed who he
was. I mean the whole hiswhole books about integrity, being who you
are, being authentic, and there'sa conflict right there being someone you're not
not using your name, trying tohoodwink all these people. That's hard not
you know who you are and youknow integrity is everything to him. So
here he is going undercover, butnow someone's onto him. What were your
(31:52):
thoughts in that moment when that wellI happened to be in the trucks,
I was in the truck. I'mlike, that's one of my you know
few hitchcocky moments from Undercover Billionaire.You actually see me in there. I
actually had my beard at the time. Um, and you know, Glenn
basically goes. I just sent himan email from my you know, Glenn
(32:13):
Stearns email and like we're on dayeighty six, like like we like this
whole ruse has gone on this long, and I go, are you effing
kidding me? Really? Sterns,We're like like, you know, the
marathon and you're gonna like go andfumble the ball right now? So you
knew each other. Well then,because it's not you can think about this.
(32:37):
We've come all this way and nowthis guy can go. You know
what, this guy's bullish it,he's making it up. This is a
whole lie, this is his reallife. Could have bown it off.
Yeah, well he wasn't. Iwas really I was really nervous. And
(32:58):
it's like but I think you knowGlenna, I had the same you know,
thought about it. It's like,well, we can't run from it.
It's like, you know, Glennahad to go and what happened again
He locked himself in his in theshed. He had to go into the
shed. No camera he wanted totalk to you about it. I even
don't remember exactly. I think wecould. You wouldn't let it, wouldn't
(33:19):
let the camera want to talk tohe talk to you. But he was
like, look, who is thisguy? I like, who's this Glen
sterns I see hanging out with allthese celebrities, Like you see him.
He's like, who is this person? You know he had he had a
lot of power in that moment tochange the course of the whole show.
Well he did, and ultimately,you know, uh, you know,
it was convincing him ultimately that youknow that he needed to talk to Glenn
(33:42):
and it needed to be you know, on camera, and you know,
obviously Glenn or Chris had already investedso much time, you know, in
building Underdog part and and all this, and it was really like, you
know, you gotta trust us atthe end of the day that this is
a good thing. But I said, you know, you hear it from
Glenn and and that you know thatscene, you know, is real.
(34:06):
And when the scene when we're shootingit, like I don't know how it's
gonna go, Like it's like itis Chris gonna basically hear Glenn and say,
okay, I'm with you. I'llkeep your secret because I know this
is a good, positive thing.Or is he gonna, as Glenn would
say, go pound sand right,And we're all sitting there shooting this and
we don't know which way it wasgonna go. So it's like I was
(34:28):
like literally living in this reality momentof like, well, in about five
minutes, I'm gonna know whether thewhole thing is going to blow up.
Yeah, I'll tell you another.Two other times right, one was I
finally I've got a building we're gonnamove in on like next Tuesday. Everything
was was good and you know,and so we said, can we shoot
(34:52):
um the tasting of the meats wewere we were interviewing the the different you
were Federal Hill, we were interviewingthe oh yeah, head smoker, and
can we do it already in yourplace? He said sure, So he
was in and he was in behindthe scenes watching us interview everyone, and
(35:16):
we were filming that, and that'swhen I think he got the idea of
this guy that, you know what, maybe I'm gonna hold out for more
money. And all of a sudden, it's like we're supposed to close he
goes, you know what, Ithink I need more money and just threw
us a curveball, and all ofa sudden, you know, this is
(35:37):
not gonna work and I'm gonna fail. And that was one of those times
we went on and people do thatin life too, and so many people
have also talked about they go,yeah, so you found a pink building
and then you were in and italso already had barbecue in it before.
Yeah, right right, Jack,Hi, that didn't work out, and
(35:57):
then you had to re repivot there. So what I'm talking about was the
first place, and now we goto this place a little outside, and
that was the place that was theold barbecue place. And I mean it
was a perfect way to have itshow a transformation and everything, and it
was ultimately perfect. But you notin the moment, you don't know it's
(36:19):
perfect. You think you couldn't scriptthat. You would never. I mean,
it's a perfect like antagonist in astory, and you you couldn't have
scripted it. A lot of thosethings, just like there was already enough
story. I thought, all right, and now we got to do this,
which obviously made it better. Butyou know, I'm not You're not
thinking that way. But I willtell you one time when I finally started
(36:40):
to understand this business and what Timwas about. Okay, I'm gonna give
a little tiny behind the scenes,but not much. Are you gonna say,
are you gonna tell? No,I'm gonna I'm gonna give a little
behind the scenes. So see whatI talked about this. So there was
the last couple of days where weneeded to fit a lot of stuff in,
(37:02):
and I would not know sometimes somethingthat maybe the producers knew because maybe
they had talked to a person alreadyand they knew that their mother had died
and it but she was a barbecueexpert. I'm making something up, right,
But they knew that. So whatthey would do from a time to
(37:23):
time is whenever we kind of cutfor a minute and they had reduce something
or my microphone wasn't working right,they'd say, you should ask Mary about
her grandmother or whatever. That's it. Now. I didn't know what that
meant either, but it could leadto something good, right, So I'd
(37:44):
come back and I'd say, so, how's your grandmother? Oh, she
died of barbecue, right or whatever. You know. When it would go
away, that was good. Well, that's what your producing team is there.
But now we're down to the lastcouple of days and they don't have
enough time to kind of cut.But they gave me this little earwig just
say, like, ask her abouta barbecue. Okay, So I get
(38:07):
this in my ear But I'm drivingin the last day and it's just Tim
and me, and I said,Tim, you know what I said for
eighty nine days, I said,I have been doing reality TV. You
thrown me to the wolves. Everythinghas been hard and painful, and that's
(38:30):
reality. I said, But you, my friend, you have been making
a television show. It's a lotdifferent than me living reality and you wanting
a great show. So with that, I want to know something. What's
that clim There's an evaluator coming inright now, and I said, I
(38:51):
want to know what. Do youknow? What has he told you?
What's this evaluation going to be?I said, trust me, I'll help
run it like it should be.It's all about the reality. I get
it, But I need to know. Am I gonna fail miserably? Am
I going to succeed? What isit? Because I don't want to be
so shocked on camera and embarrassed.I just need to note him, tell
(39:15):
me we're friends, let me know, and he goes, glem, did
you know? You know that allthe big wigs from Discovery have flown in
said yeah, he goes, doyou know why? Why? He goes
because none of us know. Weall are waiting for the same answer.
We don't know what the value is. I go, what, you don't
know, you gotta go figure itout. I go, h what are
(39:37):
you talking? He goes, that'sreality. I want to hear his side
before you finished answer, where wereyou when he was asking you this question?
In your mind? Well, it'slike we were in the truck together,
or we were driving in and thereality. I think what I was
thinking is like everything's been real tothis point. It's just like, you
know, it's we're gonna go thewhole They're gonna go the whole way.
(39:58):
But that's like that was the beautyof the show. You know, it
was exactly. It wasn't like wewere producing an evaluation. It was like,
you know, we had somebody thatwas you know, evaluated, you
know, put valuations on businesses,I think from Ghannon University. And you
know, again they were gonna lookat the books and look at the plans
(40:20):
for the future, and look atthe assets, look at the liabilities,
and and ultimately come up with adecision. So that was the beauty of
it. It was just like,just like how I didn't know whether Chris
Trott was going to, like,you know, basically blow up the whole
show. I didn't know, youknow, what the valuation was. I
was actually I was actually a littlesurprised that he even asked me the question,
Well, here we are then thelast day, and I thought,
(40:43):
all right, I know I'm inreality and I know you're doing a television
show, but I don't know howmuch you know, you know what I
mean, Like, I've never askedyou that, right, I don't know.
I'm just living every day. Andbut now it's down to the wire.
What's happening? What do you reallyknow? Tim? Because I never
asked him that. We never youknow, set there, and you know,
(41:05):
I just have to live every day. And so when he tells me
I have no idea either, thisis what it's all boiled down to,
Glenn, I'm like, I know, but now I'm really nervous, like
you know, I mean, heck, so the funny part to me,
and that's what I was trying toget at is so I've got that little
earwig in because it was just tomove it along quicker, right, like
they had a lot to cram in. And so when I see I walk
(41:29):
in and to the the restaurant andthere's the valuator, and I'm like,
now I'm really nervous. I gottasell this guy. Man, he's gotta
you know, I need to makesure my value. That is a really
good salesperson. Wouldn't you say,he's really but now, like the world
couldn't sell dog toys. Damn,you're right about that. But I start
(41:52):
selling this valuator. Hey, youknow we have five income streams. You
know, obviously we've got butts andseats. We can turn it twice and
got the ale trail merchandise. Butthen in my ear, I hear,
right, Glenn, enough selling,move on. I'm like, nope,
I'm not done, man. Myass is on the line. I'm keep
selling, man, Okay, solet me tell you more again, what
we're gonna do, Glen, enoughselling? I heard my voice. No,
(42:15):
I don't care, man. Itwas hilarious, you know, but
I was just I'm on the hotseat. So there's plenty, you know.
And again it's you know, evaluationis somewhat subjective and and I think
you know whether you know some ofthat puts valuations on company or not.
It's just like, you know,the person that you know, they want
(42:37):
to know that you have a vision, that you have a passion, that
you have a plan, you know, and that you know the difference between
a couple extra bucks. So Igot it. I was on the clock
though I needed to. Yeah exactly, I mean no, you you were
in full Look we got this muchtime. We got to keep it moving
right, you know. And Iwas like, I just my reputation.
(42:59):
It was a that was my greattension between Tim right then. You know,
it's funny. But the other thinga lot of people would ask is
or tell me is like, youknow, well, the cameras must have
helped you a lot, because peoplejust say yes. Like actually a lot
of people were saying no if theysaw a camera. When we went in
(43:20):
to sell the cars, I wastrying to go into a lot of card
dealers and say, I know,you get trade ins, and I'd love
to be able to be able totake your junk or trade in. You're
gonna end up auctioning off. Andthese guys all thought we were a sting
operation, right Like we were comingin and they were like, we don't
want you guys around and I haveto sit with Tim. Go Tim,
can you just keep the cameras wayfar away because they don't want to deal
(43:45):
with with They don't believe me.They think I'm in here as some sixty
minutes or something, you know,trying to trying to get these guys or
realtors or whoever. It's It's interesting. It hurt a lot more than it
helps them times. Yeah, Ithink that's why we started to shoot it
a lot more long lens, likewhen you're selling the cars, we're like
(44:05):
way way back, because we didn'twant to impede on the deal, you
know. And I do you knowthat the cameras actually hurt much more than
they helped. That was yet onemore you know layer, because people are
just so skeptical today about cameras andsocial media and stuff. So speaking,
(44:28):
Okay, so you've got this show. You've come in under the guise of
your someone else, and obviously youknow in some way you're pulling the wool
over the eyes of a lot ofpeople, but you have something in the
end that really is a is Ais an altruistic outcome. You really are
trying to make good TV, inspireothers and show this thing. And I
know there was conflict. I knowit was hard for Glenn to not use
his real name and not tell peoplewho he was, and that's hard.
(44:50):
So on that note, like segueinginto the word integrity, like it almost
flies in the face of integrity,but at the same time, there's a
there's a real strong message here.What in your mind, how does integrity
work itself into this equation in youropinion? What does it mean to you?
Well, I think that just interms of the show, and Glenn
and I talked about this a lot, because there was this push pull I'm
(45:14):
not being my authentic self. I'mI'm lying to people, and we as
production people, we were lying,you know again, we were saying that
we were doing, you know,this documentary on this gentleman that was,
you know, starting over in lifeand you know, wanted to run his
own business and all that. Youknow. But what I said to Glenn,
and I constantly said to myself,it is like we're doing a good
thing, you know, it's like, yes, we're not being you know,
(45:37):
truthful right in this moment, butat the end of the day,
we're doing something that you know,in success is going to motivate people,
inspire people. It was also,you know, we picked Erie because it
was a city that you know,could use a boost, right you know,
they had had you know, bad, bad press, and it's like,
(45:58):
you know, here was something toshow like how great of a city
the Erie was, and to builda business that would generate not only positive
thoughts about the city, but actuallyyou know, provide jobs and all that.
So I think that when we werein this sort of constant uncomfortable ness
of not being you know, ourtrue selves. Um. You know again,
(46:19):
it's like we were all you know, even the crew was under pseudonyms,
you know, because we didn't wantpeople to like google us, you
know, and us found out.Um. But you know again, Glenn
and I talked about it quite abit, is that at the end of
the day, we are doing somethingthat's good, um, and so sort
of keeping the truth in the shadowsuntil we're ready to reveal it. Um
was good. But these and EasterBunny I struggled struggle. I agree with
(46:44):
him. I did, And yetI also looked at the end, as
you know, something that I hopedwould happen. To your point, hey,
that city was known as the pizzabomber city, right, you know,
and and what came with that wasall drugs and you know, the
meth and all that stuff they talkedabout. You know. Now, I'm
real proud what we did. Um. I think it's put them on the
(47:07):
map for being a very entrepreneurial,you know, city that's pulling itself up
by its bootstraps. And I thinkwe've showcased some really hard working people in
there. And and you know,you could say negative things about any city,
we highlighted the really the beauty andstrength of the city. And so
(47:28):
I think we did the right thing, and so I was okay with it,
you know. Right. So butyeah, to your point, you're
talking about, um, you know, integrity, and it's you're you're you're
right. It's like, was ityou know, is it integrity? You
know? I think you associate integrity, you know, with with with honesty,
um offer people often do, ButI think, you know, integrity,
(47:51):
I think is you know, interms of the book, in terms
of the show, it's like,it's the to me. I think about
follow through. It's like Glenn committedto not only go through this process,
but to build a successful business inninety days and not use his name and
not use his contacts and that youknow, uh, use his money.
Um. And he followed through withthat to again be an inspiration to people
(48:16):
and to motivate people and in asense show the process of how you build
the money. It's like, youcan, you can actually build something from
nothing. You don't need money tomake money. Um. And so he
went through that process. So Ithink that speaks to you know, integrity.
You know, you have an idea, you have a goal, and
(48:37):
you follow through with it to thebest. And I didn't leave them high
and dry. Okay, we cameback. We created an entrepreneurial fun we
you know, have been back manytimes times or the small business and stayed
in contact with a lot of them. Man Gannon University honored him with a
doctorate and for the community. Wehave you know, done a lot of
(49:00):
additional work with them, you know, off camera, you know, I
mean obviously nothing to do with withthat anymore. I'm very proud of a
lot of the relationship to have there. So that's I agree with you too.
So I know, I know wegot to wrap up here because there's
wonderful confers. I know it wasso wonderful and so fat. What's next
for you, Tim? What canwe be looking at down the line?
What do we get? The TimWarren Machine? Uh so, just working
(49:23):
on Hot Wheels Ultimate Challenge for NBC. That's gonna premiere on May thirtieth.
Um. So everybody you know hashistory with hot Wheels. I certainly grew
up playing with. God, Ihave them too all over the house.
My brother had them. So yeah, so it's it's two hot wheel super
fans get to take a car fromtheir past and turn it into a life
(49:45):
size Hot Wheels and you know,it's a lot of a lot, a
lot of fun. Um. Youknow, show that we created called Drink
Masters is currently streaming on Netflix,so check that out. We're hopeful to
do another season up. When dowe follow you? Where do you are
you of a social media we canOh my gosh, well boo Boomerang Productionsmedia
(50:07):
dot com. That's our website.Uh. Instagram is twour fifty three m
so yeah, you can find me. You can also google me we can
find you google. We can googleTim Warren. Tom Warren, thank you
for joining us today. We arewe miss you. Your baby's growing fast
and hopefully we get a chance tosee you and Kelly again soon. Thank
you for joining us today, thanTim, and get you a book,
(50:30):
Books coming, Books coming. Youhave been a big part of my life,
honestly, absolutely, you know,I have you in my heart as
far as a very close friend,and I have appreciated everything we've done together,
and you know, and a lotoff again camera not having anything to
do with this, so I can'twait to see what your next show together
(50:52):
is. I'm sure there's something downthe line. Well, the feeling is
absolutely mutual. You know, Glennis somebody that is really touched my life
in a very meaningful way and somuch I learned from learn from him and
continue to learn from him. Andyou know, you're just you're You're inspiring,
Len. I think you all inspirepeople to be to be better and
(51:13):
to go after their dreams. Andyou know, I know the book's going
to be a huge success. Thankyou, Tim, Thank you all right,
Well that's it for another wonderful episodein our series covering the book Integrity.
You can see the book Integrity onlinedot Com with Amazon Amazon it's available
for pre sale, and join usfrom our conversations here on another episode of
(51:35):
Say It with Me for It Happy
Hi, I'm Mindy Sterns and I'mGlenn Sterns, and this is great Happens.
Join us as we engage in candidconversations with some of the most successful
people in every field and from everywalk of life, all with a common
thread of grit and a goal ofnot just surviving, but thriving. And
we hope that the show will helpyou feel informed, energized, and especially
(00:27):
inspired. So let's get started.This is great Happens. I am so
excited about today because we continue ourseries on your Integrity book launch conversations.
The book No, no book nothing, no product placement, nothing to buy.
No, you would never do that. Um. It's been an exciting
(00:51):
conversation we've been having with a lotof the people throughout the arc of your
life that have been in many storiesand chapters, whether they're in the book
or not. The chapters of yourlife are very person very um interesting and
dramatic. And one of the chaptersthat you had in recent years was the
filming of the Discovery show Undercover Billionaire. And there was a character involved in
(01:15):
this process that was very much intimatelyinvolved with you in every like a lot
of steps. A character. Yeah, he's definitely a character, a character,
and you know what, why don'twe just bring him on and we'll
introduce him and we can learn alittle bit more about the man who has
probably seen parts of Glenn that mostpeople have it. Mister Tim Warren,
(01:36):
showrunner, extraordinaire, director, producer, award winner, so many things,
you are so many Hi Tim,good to see you, guys, Hello
friends, Hello friends. I missyou ninety days, every hour, waking
hour with you. And then wego just completely silent, dark, silent.
(01:56):
No, it's not we can takeit back. So Tim Warren is
a showrunner who was very much thekind of the lead on the entire process
of filming Undercover Billionaire. And you'renot even getting a word in do you
see this is my life? Youstarted to say hello, I'm listening and
nodding. Yeah, it's kind oflike lended when you were working on the
show. Right, He listened andnodded, and then you gave him the
(02:19):
words and then he spoke exactly.So you'll let me know when you want
me to talk, so I'll justyes. So let's tell us, first
of all, what is a showrunner? Explain to people what a showrunner is
and then well I say that I'mpart cheerleader pipe part psychologist, you'll run
the whole deal. The idea isthat, yes, I sort of oversee
(02:46):
everything on a television program from sortof the thirty five thousand foot view.
You know. My job is tomake sure that everybody that works on the
show, there's a part of theshow, has the tools they need to
succeed. And I'm interfacing with thepeople in front of the camera, behind
the camera, the production company,as well as the network buyer. So
(03:07):
I'm serving sort of a lot ofdifferent masters. But yeah, you know,
I try to really just hire greatpeople, work with great people,
you know, and empower them todo what they do, and uh,
you know, give them the toolsthey need to succeed. Him is the
orchestra leader. He really is,and he's out there playing the tambourine.
(03:29):
Okay, okay, so take usback you you Discovery. You're working with
Discovery for this show, and youmeet Glenn Starns. What was your first
impression of Glenn and the idea behindthe show that well, like I was
hooked. You know, they whenyou sell a show that you know,
you usually do like a couple minuteteaser and the production company was this is
(03:52):
just a test. And I hadworked with one of the executives at Discovery
at the time, Chris Rentibaki,who had worked with previously its Spike,
and you know, he thought thatI would be good to run this show.
So the folks at Teachad, whoI hadn't worked with before, you
know, sent me this teaser,and so, long story short, I
looked at this teaser, I waslike, I was fucked. I like,
oh, my gosh, what agreat show. It was so clean,
(04:15):
it was so concise. It's like, you know what happens when you
take someone that's super successful and stripthem of everything their name, their money,
their contacts, and drop them intoplace they've never been and see,
no, not only can they survive, but can they thrive? You know,
can they build this business in ninetydays? And I just thought it
was such a great concept and Iwas I was just in And you know
(04:39):
the thing about Glenn is he youknow, if you were going to line
up ten billionaires in a row,you know, Glenn would be the last
one that you pick out of lineupbecause he's so relatable, he's so unassuming,
m and just you know, justreally engaging, really likable. So
I just thought that they just hada lot of potential this show, and
(05:00):
it was awesome. I wonder ifI take that as a compliment. Yes,
it was delivered as it was deliveredas a compliment, because you don't
you know, that's a big partI think of why you know, that
first season of Undercover Billionaire was sosuccessful because you are very much in every
(05:20):
man, very relatable um, andyou sort of have this no nonsense approach
that connects with people. UM,and that was successful, you know with
the television show, and it ultimatelyI think one of the big reasons why
you've been successful in your professional lifeas well. Well. I'll tell you
in in in Uh, you knowyou'll find probably I'll joke a lot during
(05:43):
this because I really got to knowTim and had the and have the utmost
respect for all that you do.Um. We got to really go deep
with each other because I mean literally, you spend all day together and while
day most of it is quote inreality, right, you know, I'm
out there winging it. You know, there's so much going on behind the
(06:06):
scenes that people don't understand. Andthen to be able to to keep it
all together and keep everybody happy.There's a lot of people, hamera people,
you know, sound people, drovea lot of players in the equation.
Really gosh, and then he's gotto go all the way back to
(06:27):
La to all those people. Imean, there was a lot going on.
And to say you're organized and havea big picture in mind, I
mean, you know, it's muchmore than that. People don't understand your
job. You're used to working withsome pretty big personalities. I mean,
you've done twenty four Hours to Hell, I'm back with Golden Ramsey, You've
done bar Rescue with John Tapper,Extreme Makeover Home Edition. You've done some
(06:50):
pretty significant shows out there. Andof all the people that you've worked with,
how does Glenn stack up to thepersonalities that you've seen that on the
show secutic Well, I would saythat, Um, you know you mentioned
some of those folks like like Johnand Gordon. You know those guys are
certainly bigger. Um maybe personality inBravado, you know, Um, but
(07:16):
you know, I think that thesimilarity is really the the passion for for
what he does. And you knowJohn and Gordon have that same thing.
They have this commitment, you know, they strive for perfection and they settle
for excellence, you know. Um, and they're always trying to be you
know better. They never quit.And I think that's you know, again
(07:39):
what Glenn has intrinsically, um,that makes him successful. And again he
brought that to Undercover Billionaire because it'slike it was a a grind. It
was ninety days shooting every day,long hours and he was fully committed to
the process. Um. And Ithink that's what makes for a great TV
(08:03):
show because it's people at home areso savvy. I think of these quote
unquote reality shows and it's like theywant authenticity and that's what Glenn delivers over
and over again. Um. Youknow, folks at home they can sniff
out the bs and there's no bswith glennon It's like it's it's very authentic
(08:24):
and he is an open book umand was willing to share the good,
the bad, and the ugly uhyou know, through the process, and
there was there was a lot ofgood, but there was also a lot
of bad and ugly um. Andbut but at the end of the day,
you know, it was just sucha highlight for me in my career
because of you know, I thinkwhat Glenn, you know, overcame what
(08:48):
he accomplished an erie and building,you know, undergo Underdog Barbecue, which,
by the way, I'm representing productplace nice Sweat, you know.
So, Um, okay, let'swhat you said. You said, there's
a lot of a lot of uglyLet's let's go a little bit. I
want to go I want to gointo that. Okay, let's go to
(09:09):
the before we do that. Um, you know, I did not know
what I was getting myself into allright at all? You know. I
mean I had said over and overagain to a lot of different production houses.
You know, I'm I'm okay.You know, I'm a business guy.
(09:31):
Uh. You know, we dida show twenty years ago or eighteen
years ago, and and that kindof people wasn't looking to be a reality
stars. What he's saying, whojust it just kind of fell in his
lap. And then this opportunity,you know, this was something that he
had always talked about, like right, and so we kept saying it's okay.
I said about Look, you wantto throw me out in the middle
of nowhere with no money and noyou know, contacts, I bet I
(09:52):
could build a business again. It'sa lot of people challenge you throughout all
you just got lucky. You justgot lucky, and you're like, no,
I know, I could do itagain. It was kind of a
challenge getting out there and then doingit UM again. I didn't understand how
hard it would be or why.You know, some of my friends like
John Elway and Richard Brins and theguys that we had interviewed UM, but
(10:15):
they didn't make UM. And Ithink you just want to keep it real
real instead of bringing all these otheroutside influences. I get it, UM,
but they both I know, thosetwo said I'd never want to restart
again, Like, why do youwant to go out and risk all that
when all you're probably you're gonna endup having is a bunch of people see
(10:37):
you fail. And and I didn'tunderstand that until I was in the middle
of it, going oh crap,the world's gonna watch me fail and that
pressure. But the point I'm tryingto make, which has nothing to do
with that, is the way youguys were able to document and capture everything
and turn it into a show thatI'm very proud of. I mean,
(10:58):
so so many people all over theworld. I've said I don't watch reality
shows. I don't watch these fakethat I just don't get involved and I
don't like it. But I watchedyour show and I was hooked because it
felt so real and I felt thepain you were going through, and I
learned so much. We're going toa school on Monday, yeah, and
(11:22):
Mother's Day weekend, and they showedtheir whole class this, and so many
colleges, so many high schools areshowing that. I just had someone else
today say this needs to be inevery single high school business class, a
(11:43):
business class, right, So thatmakes me feel good. And that was
what that was the magic you did. I mean we you know, I
lived through the pain, but youwere able to document it so well and
create a story out of thousands ofhours the footage that was, oh my
goodness. Yeah, well, youknow, and and we had such an
(12:05):
incredible team out there, and Ithink, you know, everybody bought into
the journey. They bought in toGlenn's journey and what we were trying to
accomplish, which I think was reallykey. And going back to you know,
Glenn is like you know, he'sable to rally people around, and
people, you know, the wholecrew really believed in him. It's like
(12:26):
if if he's willing, if thisguy who has it all is willing to
go and sleep in the truck andand go through all of this you know,
pain, um and suffering, youknow, UM to do this,
it's like, you know it justit motivates people, I think, to
go the extra mile and to capturethose stories as best as best they can,
(12:52):
you know, as funny as UM. I never read the the blogs
or the people that were the peoplethat said good things are bad things,
the critics whatever you want to callhim and um. And now with social
media again, when we did ourshow eighteen years ago, there wasn't um
(13:13):
social media really and so but Iwas able to go in back then and
every after every show, I justwonder what people are saying. And there
were things in chat groups and UM, I remember back then it was fun
there's one he just loves he therewas all these um how you found that
(13:33):
that's a lot of times people wouldsay very nice things. Oh we love
Glenn and Mindie, they're so niceand all this, and you know it
makes your ego, it makes youfeel good, right, But I did
I got some somehow. There wasa chat room of people talking and happened
to be a gay chat room.Now do I care? No, am
(13:54):
I you know, and they go, yeah, you know that Glennie.
It's kind of cute, but he'ssure is a little chubby, a little
hurt man, and uh yeah,so and I, you know, I
laughed because obviously, you know,you get the raw and the real and
it's and it's and it's perfect right, It's just you know, everybody's got
(14:16):
an opinion and you get to hearabout it. So this time around,
I was like, man, Idon't care to read it or I don't
care really and I never did.But some like my kids and Mindy,
you know, they get I can'tbelieve they'd say this or whatever, right,
and and you can't believe every right. But but there was, you
(14:39):
know, so many people that reallysaid wonderful things. Mostly ninety nine percent
of things were wonderful. And Iwas again, I was very proud because
my daughter, especially, she'd readover and over and over again all the
people and the word that kept comingup with inspiration or buying or whatever.
(15:01):
And again I didn't expect that becauseI really was doing this because I really
wanted to show my kids hard work, grit, you know, this is
what you need. And I hadgone through some cancer before that, as
you know, and you know,they didn't get to see that. My
young kids growing up didn't get tosee me grind and grind. So I
(15:22):
thought, Okay, this would bea good good place to show them that
and then to get that, youknow, the benefit of all these people
that became inspired a just I wasn'texpecting that, and that's such the wonderful
thing that came out of it forme that I absolutely appreciate. Jim,
let's talk a little bit about yourwhen you jumped in, you were you
(15:45):
know, take when you jumped in, we were ready to go. And
then Glenn got his second cancer diagnosisand you were right by him through that
whole process. And what did youlearn about Glenn going through that that curveball
kind of first curveball of the wholeproduction really right? Yeah, I mean
we had I think we had startedand it was sort of February and March
(16:06):
and we were getting ready to youknow, go out. Um I think
it was made June of that year, and um, you know, as
you said, you know, duringthat sort of pre production process, maybe
it was April, you guys wouldknow the timeline. Um that you know,
Glenn went to get his check up. Yeah, and it came back
(16:30):
that you know that his cancer hadI guess resurfaced in his throat and you
know, ultimately, you know,went down to Houston to have a surgery.
Um and you know, you guys, you know, thought it was
really important to to document that.So it was just me Um in a
(16:51):
camera. You know, I hadactually had a medical background in a previous
life. Yes, you had rightbehind you high school one. Yeah,
I mean I was. I workedon an ambulance service when I was a
teenager back in Team right, drivingambulances and yeah, it was a whole
whole different thing. Yeah, Darrenms Post fifty three and Daryan, Connecticut,
(17:14):
which has been around for actually fiftythree years, and it's the only
emergency medical service in the town oftwenty thousand people, and they get option
for scripted series by CBS. Isthat happening, That's hopefully happening. Yeah,
we got this writer strike now,so it's a little bit stalled,
but you know, hopefully bigger,better things will will come of the documentary.
(17:34):
But you know, this this ambulanceservices run by high school students and
it was really shaped my life.And even though I didn't go into the
medical field, it really taught meabout everything from working with a team,
to managing time, to handling stressand making decisions under stress. Um.
But anyway, I had been obviouslyin the medical field. I had been
(17:56):
in hospitals, I had been inours and things like that. So you
know, I went with you guysdown to Houston and was documenting your experience
as you went through the surgery.And you know, the idea was to
go in and remove a little bitof that cancer. And I think going
in it was not supposed to bethat big of a deal. You know,
(18:19):
there was some cancer on your epiglottys, I believe, and you know,
they went in and I was filmingthis whole thing, and they would
take a piece you know, ofcancerous tissue out and they would come out
of the r and you know,and take it to the lab and they
would put it under a microscope andthey'd say, oh, you know,
no, there's cancer is still onthe edges. They need basically needed a
(18:40):
clean edge, you know, aroundthat they were taking. And you know,
so this surgery that was supposed toonly supposed to be less than an
hour, turned out to be severalhours. And it was you know,
going back and forth with doctor GrossI believe was his name, the Sergemon,
and you know, we would bein the rlee Glenn is under and
he's on the table and they've gotall of the various you know, doctors
(19:03):
and nurses around, and you know, doctor Gross would take a piece out
and go back to the lab andthey would analyze this, and long story
short, you know, he wentback six times and every time, you
know, he would go back andhave it looked at. You know,
you could see he's just getting moreand more deflated. And you know,
the long story short is that theyended up removing your entire epiglottis, which
(19:29):
completely changed you know, um.And you know, so that was really
obviously one I felt this really honoredand privileged to be there because it was
such a personal thing. But obviously, going into that surgery there was a
(19:49):
certain set of expectations, which it'slike, you know, Glen's gonna go
in, They're gonna Doctor's gonna goin, these take this little piece of
cancer out and will be good togo, and you know, no problem.
UM. But again it just itjust kept getting worse, actually to
the point where again they had totake your entire applical ayss off. And
that was that was just really itwas just really hard and then obviously very
(20:11):
hard to you know, see youand talk to you after you, you
know, came out from anesthesia andyou know, let you know that that's
what happened, and you know,in the ramifications of that. Um.
But of course, you know,typical Glenn, you know, I guess
mindset is like well he was justlike, well, all right, I'll
be laid up for a couple ofweeks and then we'll go and shoot the
(20:33):
show and um, and and thatjust really that wasn't realistic because the reality
is that you needed to retrain yourselfto eat and you had, you know,
a feeding tube and um, youknow obviously you guys can you know
talk about that that process. Butthere was you know a lot of bouts
(20:53):
with pneumonia and things like that becausefood would you know, get down in
your lungs. And in the longstory short, instead of being able to
shoot and June July, we hadto push that off, much to Glenn's
chagrin because he wanted to go,even though he was really not very well
and very strong at that point.I mean, how many times did you
(21:14):
and I have side conversations where I'mlike Tim, I know, he says
he's ready, but yeah, andTim is like Tim finally said, look,
we want Glenn, but we wantGlenn to be Glenn for like six
to eight weeks, not Glenn comingout of surgery, Glenn coming out of
hospital Glenn. We want him tobe whole, healthy, strong Glenn,
(21:34):
and then we'll shoot and then andthat did. We didn't end up going
until March the following year, andhe was headstrong, was gonna. He
was like, I'm going, I'mgoing. Yeah. It was first we
had to push from July and thenthere was talk about doing it in the
fall, and just we couldn't dowinter in Erie. There was no way.
(21:55):
Well, and we ended up doingwinter and the Erie it was in
Lake. Yeah, we started inwinter and then went into into spring.
But um, but anyway, itwas. Yeah, it wasn't exactly the
way anybody saw it going. Andyet you know, I think when I
look back on on that again,I like it even more because, um,
(22:19):
you know, it felt like Ineeded the odds stacked against me,
Like I like that is. Idon't know why, but I just find
it, am an interesting The moreyou have things against you, the more
you fight, you know, oryou or you don't fight. But in
the case of this, you know, I think there were a lot of
(22:41):
people out there that thought, youknow, oh, you get to go
and do this, play this thispoor person, and then you get to
go back to your rich life,and you know, and that's the ones
I would hear. That's the onesthat that they would tell me about people
saying and you know what people didn'tunderstand or whatever is Yeah, I had
(23:07):
some health issues going on. Iwas eating out of the feeding tube still
am and and I didn't have todo this. But I could take this
wonderful reputation I had my whole lifethat I'm very proud of and turn it
off completely upside down, not justto you know, people that I know
(23:29):
in my community, but to thewhole world and then my family. You
know, inside my own head,I'm thinking now that I'm involved, and
I'm going, man, I'm notone hundred and I'm not gonna make it.
And now the rest of the world'sgoing to see me as a loser,
and then that's going to really affectmy family, at least what I
(23:52):
think my family thinks of me.So I don't know why. Yeah,
so all that was in my mindgoing quit, quick, quit, don't
do it. They were right,you know, these guys were right.
I shouldn't have done it. Andthat is the microcuse of what real life
is, just boiled down in theninety days, which is life is hard.
(24:14):
Sometimes we don't have the dack stackedin our side, and sometimes it's
against us, and sometimes you wantto give up and you want to run,
and you think maybe if you closeyour eyes long enough, the problem
will go away, you know.And in my case, if I just
walk out of here, you can'tmake the show because there's no ending.
(24:34):
And I thought about that many manytimes, especially when we did that barbecue
fest. I'm like, I'm thisis not going my way. And also
when that guy kind of hijacked uswith the building, you know, all
the right at the very end,we're written ready to open up and the
guy realizes we're under a deadline andholds out for more money. There are
(25:00):
a lot of obstacles and curveballs.I mean, you obviously the one that
played into his health was immediately goinginto the hospital, which you know,
obviously the camera couldn't spend five daysfilming him, but he was in the
hospital a lot longer than was representedbecause you know, and Glenn realize,
if I eat, I'm going toshut down production. I can't do that.
He runs the I mean here heopened a barbecue restaurant. He can't
(25:21):
even eat the food. People arelike, whoa, what were you doing?
And the reason, I mean,there's a lot of funny and stressful
and crazy things that happened. Butthe reason why I like about it because
the people I think that watch thepodcast or listen to it, whichever,
is that a lot of it canbe again something that hope is relatable to
(25:45):
them, which to me was takinga big chance, and while other people
think, again, it's not abig chance. In ninety days, you
get to go back. No,I'm gonna look like a loser to the
world. And whether or not,you know, unless you're in that situation,
you don't understand that stress right ofgoing give up, give up.
(26:06):
Did you ever think at any pointhe was going to walk Tim Well,
I don't know. I don't thinkI thought he was going to walk,
but I didn't know whether honestly hisbody was going to fail him. I
mean, again, you were inthe ear. We were in the ar
together within a couple of days.I mean, it was cold, it
was snowy. You know, you'resleeping in the truck and you know,
(26:30):
you're trying to have your cup ofnoodles, and that's ultimately what got you
into the ear because some of that, you know, went down in your
throat, and you know, thatwas the whole thing that we were sort
of talking about, like, well, well do we embrace this story of
the fact that you know, Glennis on you know, eating out of
this this feeding tube, And ultimatelyit was just like, well, we
didn't. We felt that there mighthave been like some backlash of like,
(26:52):
why are you putting this person that'syou know, compromised in this really bad
situation. And I think also Glenndidn't want to use it as as an
excuse um. But but reality behindthe scenes was like, you know,
and I'm feeling it as a showrunner, right like I'm the one that's like
been said, no, we're notgoing to shoot you know. Two weeks
(27:12):
after your surgery, no, we'renot going to shoot three months after your
surgery. But now it's it's sixplus months and it's snowing sideways and this
guy's sitting in the truck and I'mlike, am I going to kill this
guy at all? So um,you know, so it often waghs so
but again it's like Glenn does notquit, like he's either going to succeed
(27:34):
or die trying. And I was, you know, at times, concerned
about the ladder um. But youknow, and in true you know,
Glenn's Glenn. You know, heis the cat with nine lives. It's
like he just you know, heends up recovering and he pushes forward and
he's stronger, you know, becauseof it. And you know, I
know, I'm I know it's inthe book. It's just like that.
(27:56):
That's it really does. It's sosimple, but it's separated. It's people
that are successful or not. It'slike so many people when it gets so
tough and it's just like it justis unbearable, they quit. Blend Sterns,
doesn't you know. And that startedfrom early obviously in his life,
you know, in the in thecards that you were dealt between you know,
(28:18):
family with addiction problems and having akid at fourteen. It's just like,
you know, you could have justsaid, oh, well, you
know, I got a bad deckof cards and I'm just gonna like give
up. But you never did.And that's been a through line, you
know, for your entire life andagain for you to like, you know,
have another bout of cancer feeling likecrap. I mean your replica I
(28:41):
was taken out, you're on afeeding tube, you know, yet you
still go and put yourself in areally difficult adverse situation. Ninety nine pc
of people would never do that,right, But yeah, but I'll tell
you I think you know it wasum, you know that maybe that's the
(29:07):
difference. Probably a lot of itis, whichween a lot of people that
say, like how can you achieveall this? You know? And why
don't other people? I don't?I absolutely know for a fact. It's
not because you know, I'm smarterthan anybody, right, It's just maybe
you just stick it out a littlelonger, right, And that's at all.
It's like, Okay, what's thesecret? Right? Not very many
(29:33):
secrets out there. It's just youknow how much your brain wants to tell
you to turn off a. Therewas a glennism in the film that was
like, when things go bad,don't go with them. Were there any
moments where Glenn kind of almost wentwith them when things were going bad,
because did you see him? Likethe funny thing was like, and we've
(29:55):
got to get this clip, butlike the blue truck, Glenn hated that
blue truck and he got hated it. He got so pissed at us because
he's just like, he stuck mewith this crappy truck. Everybody's making fun
of me. It goes you know, he was well Grant. Grant had
a beautiful jeep that he drove.Glenn had this He's a you know what
(30:21):
it was. Finally I got toa point I'm like, you know what,
You've made it already so hard onme everything about this, and people
ask like, how real is realityTV? Right? And I'm sitting there
thinking in my head about so manyshows that they just tee it up and
it's all you can tell when it'sfake, right, And I'm sitting there
(30:45):
going why is no one helping me? A matter of fact, not only
the not helping me, they're hurtingme on purpose in that damn blue truck?
Right, like fix the fricking fanbelt, right, It's like,
why did it have to screet?Linda and I lost it one time?
On the guys are just f inwith me to some purpose. We had
(31:07):
to put Glenn in a time out. Yeah, I was so pissed about
that damn truck. I'm like,they are they know I'm coming like two
blocks away and it's a small town, like, let me at least kind
of slide in. But no,you know, one more thing that's kind
of this is kind of funny,because were you nervous at all when Chris
(31:30):
Trot was onto him? When Glennaccidentally sent that email and revealed who he
was. I mean the whole hiswhole books about integrity, being who you
are, being authentic, and there'sa conflict right there being someone you're not
not using your name, trying tohoodwink all these people. That's hard not
you know who you are and youknow integrity is everything to him. So
here he is going undercover, butnow someone's onto him. What were your
(31:52):
thoughts in that moment when that wellI happened to be in the trucks,
I was in the truck. I'mlike, that's one of my you know
few hitchcocky moments from Undercover Billionaire.You actually see me in there. I
actually had my beard at the time. Um, and you know, Glenn
basically goes. I just sent himan email from my you know, Glenn
(32:13):
Stearns email and like we're on dayeighty six, like like we like this
whole ruse has gone on this long, and I go, are you effing
kidding me? Really? Sterns,We're like like, you know, the
marathon and you're gonna like go andfumble the ball right now? So you
knew each other. Well then,because it's not you can think about this.
(32:37):
We've come all this way and nowthis guy can go. You know
what, this guy's bullish it,he's making it up. This is a
whole lie, this is his reallife. Could have bown it off.
Yeah, well he wasn't. Iwas really I was really nervous. And
(32:58):
it's like but I think you knowGlenna, I had the same you know,
thought about it. It's like,well, we can't run from it.
It's like, you know, Glennahad to go and what happened again
He locked himself in his in theshed. He had to go into the
shed. No camera he wanted totalk to you about it. I even
don't remember exactly. I think wecould. You wouldn't let it, wouldn't
(33:19):
let the camera want to talk tohe talk to you. But he was
like, look, who is thisguy? I like, who's this Glen
sterns I see hanging out with allthese celebrities, Like you see him.
He's like, who is this person? You know he had he had a
lot of power in that moment tochange the course of the whole show.
Well he did, and ultimately,you know, uh, you know,
it was convincing him ultimately that youknow that he needed to talk to Glenn
(33:42):
and it needed to be you know, on camera, and you know,
obviously Glenn or Chris had already investedso much time, you know, in
building Underdog part and and all this, and it was really like, you
know, you gotta trust us atthe end of the day that this is
a good thing. But I said, you know, you hear it from
Glenn and and that you know thatscene, you know, is real.
(34:06):
And when the scene when we're shootingit, like I don't know how it's
gonna go, Like it's like itis Chris gonna basically hear Glenn and say,
okay, I'm with you. I'llkeep your secret because I know this
is a good, positive thing.Or is he gonna, as Glenn would
say, go pound sand right,And we're all sitting there shooting this and
we don't know which way it wasgonna go. So it's like I was
(34:28):
like literally living in this reality momentof like, well, in about five
minutes, I'm gonna know whether thewhole thing is going to blow up.
Yeah, I'll tell you another.Two other times right, one was I
finally I've got a building we're gonnamove in on like next Tuesday. Everything
was was good and you know,and so we said, can we shoot
(34:52):
um the tasting of the meats wewere we were interviewing the the different you
were Federal Hill, we were interviewingthe oh yeah, head smoker, and
can we do it already in yourplace? He said sure, So he
was in and he was in behindthe scenes watching us interview everyone, and
(35:16):
we were filming that, and that'swhen I think he got the idea of
this guy that, you know what, maybe I'm gonna hold out for more
money. And all of a sudden, it's like we're supposed to close he
goes, you know what, Ithink I need more money and just threw
us a curveball, and all ofa sudden, you know, this is
(35:37):
not gonna work and I'm gonna fail. And that was one of those times
we went on and people do thatin life too, and so many people
have also talked about they go,yeah, so you found a pink building
and then you were in and italso already had barbecue in it before.
Yeah, right right, Jack,Hi, that didn't work out, and
(35:57):
then you had to re repivot there. So what I'm talking about was the
first place, and now we goto this place a little outside, and
that was the place that was theold barbecue place. And I mean it
was a perfect way to have itshow a transformation and everything, and it
was ultimately perfect. But you notin the moment, you don't know it's
(36:19):
perfect. You think you couldn't scriptthat. You would never. I mean,
it's a perfect like antagonist in astory, and you you couldn't have
scripted it. A lot of thosethings, just like there was already enough
story. I thought, all right, and now we got to do this,
which obviously made it better. Butyou know, I'm not You're not
thinking that way. But I willtell you one time when I finally started
(36:40):
to understand this business and what Timwas about. Okay, I'm gonna give
a little tiny behind the scenes,but not much. Are you gonna say,
are you gonna tell? No,I'm gonna I'm gonna give a little
behind the scenes. So see whatI talked about this. So there was
the last couple of days where weneeded to fit a lot of stuff in,
(37:02):
and I would not know sometimes somethingthat maybe the producers knew because maybe
they had talked to a person alreadyand they knew that their mother had died
and it but she was a barbecueexpert. I'm making something up, right,
But they knew that. So whatthey would do from a time to
(37:23):
time is whenever we kind of cutfor a minute and they had reduce something
or my microphone wasn't working right,they'd say, you should ask Mary about
her grandmother or whatever. That's it. Now. I didn't know what that
meant either, but it could leadto something good, right, So I'd
(37:44):
come back and I'd say, so, how's your grandmother? Oh, she
died of barbecue, right or whatever. You know. When it would go
away, that was good. Well, that's what your producing team is there.
But now we're down to the lastcouple of days and they don't have
enough time to kind of cut.But they gave me this little earwig just
say, like, ask her abouta barbecue. Okay, So I get
(38:07):
this in my ear But I'm drivingin the last day and it's just Tim
and me, and I said,Tim, you know what I said for
eighty nine days, I said,I have been doing reality TV. You
thrown me to the wolves. Everythinghas been hard and painful, and that's
(38:30):
reality. I said, But you, my friend, you have been making
a television show. It's a lotdifferent than me living reality and you wanting
a great show. So with that, I want to know something. What's
that clim There's an evaluator coming inright now, and I said, I
(38:51):
want to know what. Do youknow? What has he told you?
What's this evaluation going to be?I said, trust me, I'll help
run it like it should be.It's all about the reality. I get
it, But I need to know. Am I gonna fail miserably? Am
I going to succeed? What isit? Because I don't want to be
so shocked on camera and embarrassed.I just need to note him, tell
(39:15):
me we're friends, let me know, and he goes, glem, did
you know? You know that allthe big wigs from Discovery have flown in
said yeah, he goes, doyou know why? Why? He goes
because none of us know. Weall are waiting for the same answer.
We don't know what the value is. I go, what, you don't
know, you gotta go figure itout. I go, h what are
(39:37):
you talking? He goes, that'sreality. I want to hear his side
before you finished answer, where wereyou when he was asking you this question?
In your mind? Well, it'slike we were in the truck together,
or we were driving in and thereality. I think what I was
thinking is like everything's been real tothis point. It's just like, you
know, it's we're gonna go thewhole They're gonna go the whole way.
(39:58):
But that's like that was the beautyof the show. You know, it
was exactly. It wasn't like wewere producing an evaluation. It was like,
you know, we had somebody thatwas you know, evaluated, you
know, put valuations on businesses,I think from Ghannon University. And you
know, again they were gonna lookat the books and look at the plans
(40:20):
for the future, and look atthe assets, look at the liabilities,
and and ultimately come up with adecision. So that was the beauty of
it. It was just like,just like how I didn't know whether Chris
Trott was going to, like,you know, basically blow up the whole
show. I didn't know, youknow, what the valuation was. I
was actually I was actually a littlesurprised that he even asked me the question,
Well, here we are then thelast day, and I thought,
(40:43):
all right, I know I'm inreality and I know you're doing a television
show, but I don't know howmuch you know, you know what I
mean, Like, I've never askedyou that, right, I don't know.
I'm just living every day. Andbut now it's down to the wire.
What's happening? What do you reallyknow? Tim? Because I never
asked him that. We never youknow, set there, and you know,
(41:05):
I just have to live every day. And so when he tells me
I have no idea either, thisis what it's all boiled down to,
Glenn, I'm like, I know, but now I'm really nervous, like
you know, I mean, heck, so the funny part to me,
and that's what I was trying toget at is so I've got that little
earwig in because it was just tomove it along quicker, right, like
they had a lot to cram in. And so when I see I walk
(41:29):
in and to the the restaurant andthere's the valuator, and I'm like,
now I'm really nervous. I gottasell this guy. Man, he's gotta
you know, I need to makesure my value. That is a really
good salesperson. Wouldn't you say,he's really but now, like the world
couldn't sell dog toys. Damn,you're right about that. But I start
(41:52):
selling this valuator. Hey, youknow we have five income streams. You
know, obviously we've got butts andseats. We can turn it twice and
got the ale trail merchandise. Butthen in my ear, I hear,
right, Glenn, enough selling,move on. I'm like, nope,
I'm not done, man. Myass is on the line. I'm keep
selling, man, Okay, solet me tell you more again, what
we're gonna do, Glen, enoughselling? I heard my voice. No,
(42:15):
I don't care, man. Itwas hilarious, you know, but
I was just I'm on the hotseat. So there's plenty, you know.
And again it's you know, evaluationis somewhat subjective and and I think
you know whether you know some ofthat puts valuations on company or not.
It's just like, you know,the person that you know, they want
(42:37):
to know that you have a vision, that you have a passion, that
you have a plan, you know, and that you know the difference between
a couple extra bucks. So Igot it. I was on the clock
though I needed to. Yeah exactly, I mean no, you you were
in full Look we got this muchtime. We got to keep it moving
right, you know. And Iwas like, I just my reputation.
(42:59):
It was a that was my greattension between Tim right then. You know,
it's funny. But the other thinga lot of people would ask is
or tell me is like, youknow, well, the cameras must have
helped you a lot, because peoplejust say yes. Like actually a lot
of people were saying no if theysaw a camera. When we went in
(43:20):
to sell the cars, I wastrying to go into a lot of card
dealers and say, I know,you get trade ins, and I'd love
to be able to be able totake your junk or trade in. You're
gonna end up auctioning off. Andthese guys all thought we were a sting
operation, right Like we were comingin and they were like, we don't
want you guys around and I haveto sit with Tim. Go Tim,
can you just keep the cameras wayfar away because they don't want to deal
(43:45):
with with They don't believe me.They think I'm in here as some sixty
minutes or something, you know,trying to trying to get these guys or
realtors or whoever. It's It's interesting. It hurt a lot more than it
helps them times. Yeah, Ithink that's why we started to shoot it
a lot more long lens, likewhen you're selling the cars, we're like
(44:05):
way way back, because we didn'twant to impede on the deal, you
know. And I do you knowthat the cameras actually hurt much more than
they helped. That was yet onemore you know layer, because people are
just so skeptical today about cameras andsocial media and stuff. So speaking,
(44:28):
Okay, so you've got this show. You've come in under the guise of
your someone else, and obviously youknow in some way you're pulling the wool
over the eyes of a lot ofpeople, but you have something in the
end that really is a is Ais an altruistic outcome. You really are
trying to make good TV, inspireothers and show this thing. And I
know there was conflict. I knowit was hard for Glenn to not use
his real name and not tell peoplewho he was, and that's hard.
(44:50):
So on that note, like segueinginto the word integrity, like it almost
flies in the face of integrity,but at the same time, there's a
there's a real strong message here.What in your mind, how does integrity
work itself into this equation in youropinion? What does it mean to you?
Well, I think that just interms of the show, and Glenn
and I talked about this a lot, because there was this push pull I'm
(45:14):
not being my authentic self. I'mI'm lying to people, and we as
production people, we were lying,you know again, we were saying that
we were doing, you know,this documentary on this gentleman that was,
you know, starting over in lifeand you know, wanted to run his
own business and all that. Youknow. But what I said to Glenn,
and I constantly said to myself,it is like we're doing a good
thing, you know, it's like, yes, we're not being you know,
(45:37):
truthful right in this moment, butat the end of the day,
we're doing something that you know,in success is going to motivate people,
inspire people. It was also,you know, we picked Erie because it
was a city that you know,could use a boost, right you know,
they had had you know, bad, bad press, and it's like,
(45:58):
you know, here was something toshow like how great of a city
the Erie was, and to builda business that would generate not only positive
thoughts about the city, but actuallyyou know, provide jobs and all that.
So I think that when we werein this sort of constant uncomfortable ness
of not being you know, ourtrue selves. Um. You know again,
(46:19):
it's like we were all you know, even the crew was under pseudonyms,
you know, because we didn't wantpeople to like google us, you
know, and us found out.Um. But you know again, Glenn
and I talked about it quite abit, is that at the end of
the day, we are doing somethingthat's good, um, and so sort
of keeping the truth in the shadowsuntil we're ready to reveal it. Um
was good. But these and EasterBunny I struggled struggle. I agree with
(46:44):
him. I did, And yetI also looked at the end, as
you know, something that I hopedwould happen. To your point, hey,
that city was known as the pizzabomber city, right, you know,
and and what came with that wasall drugs and you know, the
meth and all that stuff they talkedabout. You know. Now, I'm
real proud what we did. Um. I think it's put them on the
(47:07):
map for being a very entrepreneurial,you know, city that's pulling itself up
by its bootstraps. And I thinkwe've showcased some really hard working people in
there. And and you know,you could say negative things about any city,
we highlighted the really the beauty andstrength of the city. And so
(47:28):
I think we did the right thing, and so I was okay with it,
you know. Right. So butyeah, to your point, you're
talking about, um, you know, integrity, and it's you're you're you're
right. It's like, was ityou know, is it integrity? You
know? I think you associate integrity, you know, with with with honesty,
um offer people often do, ButI think, you know, integrity,
(47:51):
I think is you know, interms of the book, in terms
of the show, it's like,it's the to me. I think about
follow through. It's like Glenn committedto not only go through this process,
but to build a successful business inninety days and not use his name and
not use his contacts and that youknow, uh, use his money.
Um. And he followed through withthat to again be an inspiration to people
(48:16):
and to motivate people and in asense show the process of how you build
the money. It's like, youcan, you can actually build something from
nothing. You don't need money tomake money. Um. And so he
went through that process. So Ithink that speaks to you know, integrity.
You know, you have an idea, you have a goal, and
(48:37):
you follow through with it to thebest. And I didn't leave them high
and dry. Okay, we cameback. We created an entrepreneurial fun we
you know, have been back manytimes times or the small business and stayed
in contact with a lot of them. Man Gannon University honored him with a
doctorate and for the community. Wehave you know, done a lot of
(49:00):
additional work with them, you know, off camera, you know, I
mean obviously nothing to do with withthat anymore. I'm very proud of a
lot of the relationship to have there. So that's I agree with you too.
So I know, I know wegot to wrap up here because there's
wonderful confers. I know it wasso wonderful and so fat. What's next
for you, Tim? What canwe be looking at down the line?
What do we get? The TimWarren Machine? Uh so, just working
(49:23):
on Hot Wheels Ultimate Challenge for NBC. That's gonna premiere on May thirtieth.
Um. So everybody you know hashistory with hot Wheels. I certainly grew
up playing with. God, Ihave them too all over the house.
My brother had them. So yeah, so it's it's two hot wheel super
fans get to take a car fromtheir past and turn it into a life
(49:45):
size Hot Wheels and you know,it's a lot of a lot, a
lot of fun. Um. Youknow, show that we created called Drink
Masters is currently streaming on Netflix,so check that out. We're hopeful to
do another season up. When dowe follow you? Where do you are
you of a social media we canOh my gosh, well boo Boomerang Productionsmedia
(50:07):
dot com. That's our website.Uh. Instagram is twour fifty three m
so yeah, you can find me. You can also google me we can
find you google. We can googleTim Warren. Tom Warren, thank you
for joining us today. We arewe miss you. Your baby's growing fast
and hopefully we get a chance tosee you and Kelly again soon. Thank
you for joining us today, thanTim, and get you a book,
(50:30):
Books coming, Books coming. Youhave been a big part of my life,
honestly, absolutely, you know,I have you in my heart as
far as a very close friend,and I have appreciated everything we've done together,
and you know, and a lotoff again camera not having anything to
do with this, so I can'twait to see what your next show together
(50:52):
is. I'm sure there's something downthe line. Well, the feeling is
absolutely mutual. You know, Glennis somebody that is really touched my life
in a very meaningful way and somuch I learned from learn from him and
continue to learn from him. Andyou know, you're just you're You're inspiring,
Len. I think you all inspirepeople to be to be better and
(51:13):
to go after their dreams. Andyou know, I know the book's going
to be a huge success. Thankyou, Tim, Thank you all right,
Well that's it for another wonderful episodein our series covering the book Integrity.
You can see the book Integrity onlinedot Com with Amazon Amazon it's available
for pre sale, and join usfrom our conversations here on another episode of
(51:35):
Say It with Me for It Happy
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