0:51
me. There's not many people I think I will ever interview that Matt Damon has

0:57
played them in a movie. Well, he's my identical twin. I think you can see why they chose him, right?

1:04
It's such a fascinating story. Give uh listeners the background on what even

Mark's life story - "The Informant"

1:10
happened and what The Informant was really all about, which is your life story. Yeah, The Informant uh that movie came

1:16
out about 15 years ago. I do want to mention that the three FBI a I worked undercover for three years for the FBI

1:23
and the FBI agents were were pretty disappointed in the accuracy of the movie. They did a documentary two months

1:29
later to combat the movie and that's on and that's on my website mark Whitaker.com by Discovery Channel.

1:37
Discovery Channel interviewed the three real FBI agents that I worked undercover with my wife and I, the prosecutor,

1:44
basically all the real individuals. And people watch the documentary, they watch the movie, they say, "Wow, this is

1:51
two different stories." So if if your listeners watch the movie, they may want to watch it because one's a Hollywood

1:57
version kind of based on a true story and the other one is a documentary with all the real people involved, including

2:03
the three FBI agents. But basically almost 30 years ago, a little over 30

2:08
years. I was 32 at the time. I'm in my mid60s now. But when I was 32, I was

2:13
divisional president and corporate vice president of the 56th largest company in America for almost eight years. We were

2:20
70 billion in revenue, a company known as ADM, Archer Daniels, Midland. 70 billion in revenue, 32,000 employees,

2:28
number 56 on the Fortune 500. And I was ranked number four executive out of

2:33
32,000 employees. We had a 75 year old CEO, 69year-old president, and I was 32

2:40
reporting to them and being mentored and groomed by them and and I was caught up

2:45
in the world tremendous. I had my own jet, my own Falcon 50 for eight years. I bought the CEO's home. Uh he gave me a

2:53
startup bonus. Uh when I started, I bought his home. Our CEO owned 5% of ADM. He was 35 years as CEO. And he was

3:01
a billionaire. He owned 5% of a 70 billion dollar company. The largest single shareholder he was. And he lived

3:09
in his home for 35 years. But being 75, he wanted to move something smaller. So he sold me his home. It was my first

3:14
month in that position and I bought uh a 13,000 foot house with an 8car garage,

3:22
horse riding stables where your kids could ride an inside arena and and really Chris the life it was for those

3:29
eight years having my own jet living in a mansion with an eightcar garage with three golf greens on the property inside

3:36
Horse Arena. I mean basically it was Justin Bieber before Justin Bieber. I mean, it was like a rock star. And I got

3:42
caught up in that. It was like an addiction. And my wife saw that and I met my wife when we were in junior high

3:49
and went to our high school proms together. So, we're we're high school sweethearts and and married 45 years

3:56
now, which is a miracle in itself to survive all that. But she's the one that basically she she was a Christian then

4:02
and I she saw how I was caught up in the world buying Ferraris, BMWs, Mercedes. had that eight car garage filled with

4:09
eight cars and she driving a 10-year-old Wrangler uh Wrangler Jeep and she's

4:15
asking and I'm saying, "Jinger, let me buy you a yellow Ferrari. Last month's for last month's bonus, I bought a red

4:21
one for for me. Let me buy you yellow." And she said, "That'd be my worst nightmare." She said, "I want to be a

4:26
good steward for God." I didn't even know what any of that meant. And and so I, you know, I I was caught up in the

4:33
world. She was not. She was caught up in serving others. and working with our

4:38
church and uh nonprofits and helping people and and we were on two different

4:44
uh paths. And when I told her about after a couple years there and the company came to see me and said, "Look,

4:50
Mark, we're going to put in Fortune magazine announce the next COO and president." And at that time I was 34. I

4:56
was only there two years and divisional president. They were going to move me to company president. And they said they

5:02
had someone 10 years older than me they were going to announce as the next CEO because they were getting pressure

5:07
because now the CEO was 77 and the president was 71 and being publicly

5:13
trained they were getting pressure on secession planning at least to be mentoring some individuals that could

5:19
eventually take their place. So they announced that in Fortune magazine. I'll tell you, Chris, when that was announced

5:25
that I'm a year or so away from being the next COO, president of the 56th largest company in America, be the

5:32
number two executive, I mean, I was hook, line, and sinker. I was in. I was all in. I mean, it was an addiction. And

5:41
but then he came back and he said, "Well, we're going to share some things with you that we've not shared with you the last couple years." And they shared

5:47
about really a price fixing scheme working with their competitors. But this is just after they announced it gave me

5:53
a big bonus. Said, "I'm gonna be the next COO and president." I mean, they had me so hooked. And I said, "Well,

5:59
that's not legal." And they said, "Mark, everybody does it. These laws on the books. Politicians don't know anything

6:05
about business. These laws shouldn't be on the books. These antirust laws. And

6:10
we've been doing it 12 years." They said, "Everybody does it in the commodity business. We work with our

6:16
competitors instead of fight with them." and they said this is what you do and for you to move up this is what you have

6:21
to what you have to learn because you're gonna have to take this over someday. So I w I wasn't going to leave that

6:28
position. I mean it 34 years old I just got my PhD in biochemistry in Cornell

6:33
nine years earlier now I'm president of the biotech biggest biotech divisions of a company of in of the for fortune 56

6:40
company. There's no way I could walk away from that. So I said, "Okay, I'll learn it." Especially you're 35 years

6:48
CEO. You know a lot more than than me about business. And I started learning. I shared it with my wife a few months

6:55
later. And she forced me to turn myself in to the FBI. She prayed about it and

7:00
forced me to turn myself into the FBI. And boy did it change everything. The

7:06
FBI gave me a choice to either be arrested or wear a wire. And I said, "Yeah, I'd rather wear a wire." I wore a

7:12
wire 10 hours a day for three years in the largest price fixing scandal in history.

7:18
Wow. I mean, and really, my wife was probably the whistleblower of the case more than me.

The Emotional Impact Of Being An Informant

7:25
You were dealing with so much stress at that point when you were trying to figure out should you be a whistleblower, should you not? Your wife

7:31
was pressuring you, the company's pressuring you. Uh, I know I know the movie's a Hollywood movie and not

7:37
necessarily perfectly accurate, but were you just feeling immense pressure or what what emotion was going through you?

7:44
The documentary shows that so much better than the movie. I think that's what the FBI felt the movie missed is

7:49
the seriousness of the case. Like the in the documentary, which is called Undercover, and it's on marker.com,

7:56
uh, the full onehour documentary. You have a two-minute trailer or the full onehour show. You have the choice on it

8:02
on mark whitaker.com on investigation discovery. The FBI are sharing on that

8:08
documentary. They're saying Mark and I heard this a couple times a week for three years. They're wiring me up at 6 every morning, Monday through Friday for

8:14
three years. And and I wear wire all day long and then meet with them at night and turn over all the recordings and and

8:21
so on and debriefings. And they were saying, "Mark, if these guys catch you, they're going to kill you." And the

8:27
documentary really makes that clear. It was it was the most pressure. Prison's a

8:32
cakewalk compared to that. It was the most pressure I've ever been through in my life being an informant where 30

8:39
people went to prison and four just from ADM alone, but then all the other companies too, almost 30 went to prison.

8:47
Wow. H how did you first hear that there was even a Hollywood production going to come out about this?

Hollywood Production Background

8:53
Uh first heard about it. Um, we walked all the premiere and there's pictures on the website up with us with Matt Damon

9:00
and Steven Soderberg and all the actors. So, when they were writing the script, they contacted they they wanted a

9:06
business card. They asked for a tie. They wore an actual watch. Matt Damon did. So, that watch he had on was really

9:13
mine that I had during those days. Uh, the business card was a true business card where it said divisional president

9:20
and corporate vice president of ADM. One of the ties he wore was actually one of my ties. So, it was some of the things

9:26
that they really uh wanted during the movie. And that was several years before the movie. Probably eight or nine years.

9:33
That script was written in 2000 and the movie came out in 2009.

9:38
Wow. So, th that was just a crazy experience. And then you ended up being

Immunity Versus Prosecution

9:44
convicted at some point and serving time. I did which I'm sure was never on your radar

9:49
or plan. No. How that happened? How that happened, Chris, is is this. They gave

9:55
me full immunity for wearing a wire. Full immunity. Never to be charged. They were so appreciative of me wearing a

10:01
wire 10 hours a day. And they're telling me say, "Mark, you're risking your life." And like I said, the documentary,

10:06
I think, probably shares that accuracy better than the Hollywood version. The movie is kind of uh kind of a dark

10:13
comedy kind of fun and and you know, almost like an Oceans 11, Oceans 12 kind

10:18
of tone. Uh, in real life it was a serious story. I mean, I attempted suicide. I mean, it was it was the most

10:26
pressure. And they show all that in the documentary, the pressure that I was under. But basically, I had full

10:32
immunity. And then when the FBI came up, when they were about ready to do the raid, they said, "Mark, we're going to

10:38
do a raid on FBI on ADM. We're going to send 70 agents because we need to get the paperwork that kind of show what you

10:44
have on tape for three years. We have enough evidence now. Now, we're going to get accounting records to show the

10:50
prices increased and what date they increased and and get a few more witnesses. So, we're going to do a raid

10:56
on it on on ADM and we're going to raid your office, too, Mark. They said that

11:01
way it makes me look not like I'm the informant. Makes me look like one of the defendants and uh to protect me. But

11:09
then they said, Mark, you have full immunity. You're never going to be charged. But if there's anything the

11:16
company when the company's going to learn fairly soon that you're the one working with us and they're going to

11:21
come, this is the 56th largest company in America on the Fortune 500. They're

11:27
going to spend millions on lawyers and they're going to come after you with everything they have. And we're telling

11:33
you right now, if you tell us something that the company's going to use against you, and if you tell us, we'll still

11:39
give you full immunity. But you got to tell us now because then when the company comes and tells us that, we can

11:45
say, "Yeah, but he wore a three a wire for three years for us to get uh to get where he was not charged." So we can

11:52
always use that in turn for your illegal activity. You wore a wire for three

11:57
years. And I said, "No, there's nothing to tell." And then the next day they contacted me again said, "Mark, full

12:03
immunity. We're about ready to do the raid. full immunity if you tell us now if there's anything the company's going

12:10
to attack you with that we don't know and I said no there's really nothing to tell you the day that ADM learned I was

12:17
the informant which was the day of the raid they learned pretty quickly because they're really connected the CEO was

12:22
best friends with President Clinton he was on the phone a couple times a month with President Clinton he flew to

12:28
President Nixon's funeral on President This is a billionaire this would have been like an Elon Musk and and Mark

12:34
Zuckerberg uh Jeffrey Bezos back in in the 90s, you know, late 80s and the 90s

12:41
because uh I was wearing a wire by 92 and I joined ADM by by 1989. So this

12:47
would be one of the most powerful CEOs in the country at that time. And so he

12:52
learned quickly that I was informant. He then told the FBI said, "Well, he's no

12:58
white knight informant. He stole nine." So they were promoting me the whole time when I was with them, corporate vice

13:04
president, telling publishing in Fortune magazine that I'm going to be the next COO, but now they're coming after with

13:10
everything they have. And they told the FBI that they said, well, he wrote $9 million of checks to himself. Didn't pay

13:17
tax on it. The top five salary employees have to file their in a publicly traded

13:22
company with SEC. Mark didn't report this 9 million. So he I mean he's doing

13:28
fraud the same time he's working for you guys the FBI. So the FBI come to my house said Mark we gave you full

13:35
immunity. Now they're saying $9 million. We said anything that they came at you with if

13:42
you tell us now you still have immunity on that. Did you take $9 million? Did you steal $9

13:50
million, Mark? And I said, "Well, not really." I went to my office in my home and brought these stock options. I said,

13:56
'Look, they owe me $9 million if I could exercise these stock options today. And

14:02
they said, Mark, this is a fiveyear set of stock option with 10 more months to go. I said, I know, but I couldn't wait

14:08
10 months because I knew I was going to get fired. They fired me today already. They fired me that day that I'm actually

14:14
having that conversation with the FBI. Once they knew I was informant, my career was over there. So, I said,

14:20
"Who's going to hire someone that wore a wire for three years? I'm only 38 years old now after wearing a wire for three

14:26
years. And I said, "Who's going to hire somebody?" So I said, "This is my security." And they really owe it to me

14:32
because I have it signed by the CEO and the general counsel $9 million worth of stock options if I could cash it today.

14:40
They said, "Mark, you can't cash it 10 months early on your own. There's SEC

14:46
violations here that you uh regarding how you process these stock options."

14:52
And I said, 'Well, I think I could go to a court and I think a jury would listen to this about how they owe me this and I

14:58
risk my life and I I'm not getting most of my income, 90% of my income is in stock options and I don't get the stock

15:05
option because I'm 10 months away on a five-year exercise date. I said, I think

15:10
a jury would be sensitive to that. And I said, well, Mark, they may be, but we got to go to the US attorney, the

15:16
prosecutor. We got to explain this and you're going to lose your immunity. So, they came back with a six-month deal,

15:23
said, "Mark, you've lost your immunity, but the prosecutors were sympathetic. They knew you risked your life on a

15:30
crime that was a billion dollars a year crime for 12 years in a row. And they see where your thinking was, but you

15:36
still broke the law. It's still a fraud in money laundering how you process those stock options. So, they're going

15:43
to have to charge you for that, but they're going to give you a Martha Stewart sentence, six months in federal prison. In turn, for all you did for us,

15:51
wearing a wire, and we're in front of my uh lawyer who who brought this deal to

Decision To Reject Plea Agreement - Fight Prosecution

15:56
us after the FBI gave it to him. I had 48 hours to sign this plea agreement. I

16:02
looked at my lawyer and said, "I don't know if I can do I just wore wire three years. I don't know if I can go to

16:08
prison six months." They said, "Mark, you're going to a white collar camp. No razor wire. You go in at 38, you come

16:14
out at 38. Deal of a lifetime for not sharing how you how you process these

16:20
stock option, which was fraud, how you processed it. And he said, "A deal of a lifetime." My wife looked at me. She

16:26
said, "Mark, I'm begging you to sign it." I looked at Jinger and said, "Jinger, I've had to wear a wire three years because of you. It's all your

16:33
fault that I've had to wear a wire for three years. Now I got to go to prison, Ginger, six months because of you. I'm

16:40
going to do the opposite you want me to do to to do. I ripped up the plea agreement, fired the lawyer on the spot,

16:46
hired a whole group of lawyers the next day and went to court for three years in the court system. Three years. Now I'm

16:54
38 and and just a few months from 41. I'm on the tail end of 40. And I got an

17:00
eight and a half year sentence instead. And I would have had a six-month plea agreement. So I went from immunity to 6

17:08
months, a deal of a lifetime to eight and a half years. And I was so depressed, Chris. Pulled my car in a

17:14
garage and tried to kill myself instead of go to prison. Hospitalized for a

17:19
month, treated for clinical depression, treated for post-traumatic stress disorder, some of the things happen when

17:25
you wear a wire for three years. But I had eight and a half years. So going in at 40 and coming out at 48 instead of

17:32
going in at 38 and getting out at 38. So I just cut their legs off every step

17:38
of the way when they were trying to help me. The FBI agents. Well, and those next eight plus years

Personal Prison Journey - With Chuck Colson

17:45
were extremely difficult, I know. But at the same time, some of the most life-changing years of your life, and it

17:52
set you up for almost what looks like a totally different life after the sentence. talk through what your journey

17:58
was like during those next years uh before you got out. I will Chris. I'll tell you I and and I

18:05
share with a lot of young people and I think your listeners would be interested in this. Show me your mentor, I show

18:10
your future. So I had mentors, two of them, CEO and COO were showing me how to

18:16
do price fixing. We all went to prison. Show me your mentor, I show your future.

18:21
Now, I had a guy from Ian House from CBMC Christian Businessman Connection reach out to me shortly before prison.

18:28
And then Chuck Coulson of the Watergate scandal. He was President Nixon's White House counsel in the 70s, went to prison

18:36
for Watergate. President Nixon was actually going to prison and President Ford pardoned him. But the other 12

18:43
individuals working for President Nixon, the director of the FBI, the attorney general, Chuck Coulson, the White House

18:49
counsel, all 12 of those went to prison. They did not get pardoned. Chuck Coulson became a Christian in prison in the

18:55
1970s and then he got out and started prison fellowship, largest prison ministry to reach out to inmates and

19:02
disciple them. Largest prison ministry in the country. And Chuck Coulson 20 years later that started in 1978. In

19:10
1998, he's sitting in prison. Come to visit me in my prison. Read about me in the Washington Post and show me your

19:18
mentor. I show you your future. He poured into me and I remember the first thing I told him. I said, "Well, look,

19:24
my parents are Christians. My wife's a Christian, but I'm a PhD scientist in an Ivy League school in biochemistry." And

19:31
all I heard in eight years of college, there is no God. It's evolution and big bang theory and Darwinism. And he went

19:38
to Brown, another Ivy League, and he was told there was no God. So, he started showing me article after article. Even

19:44
Albert Einstein was the first article he showed me where Albert Ein said only God could create the universe and only God

19:50
could create man. And then he gave me a book by Sir Isaac Newton that wrote as much about God and Jesus he did about

19:57
science. I said they never told me any of these things at Cornell in the Ivy League. And then he shared a book by

20:03
Fran uh articles by Francis Collins who discovered the human genome a Christian. And it was book after book article after

20:10
article. One of the books was an atheist, a guy named Don Berley, BER,

20:16
in Minnesota, PhD biologist that wanted to prove once and for all that God does not exist using science. He studied it

20:24
exhaustively and he wrote a book titled Surprised by Faith. God exists and Jesus

20:30
is the son of God. An atheist who became a Christian. I finished that book the

20:36
third month as Chuck Coulson's disciple me after many articles and many books and I became a Christian then my third

20:42
month in prison and it changed my life forever. I went from bonuses, stock options, and base salary, 3 million a

20:49
year for eight years, now $20 a month for eight years, 13,000 square feet for

20:55
eight years, now a 10x10 concrete floor, a locker, and a roommate for eight years. And I became a free man in Chris,

21:03
free man in prison. And it changed my life forever. I started helping inmates get their GEDs. I helped some of them

21:09
get two-year college degrees through correspondence. I help Spanish guys speak better English and write better

21:15
English. They became the most productive years of my life at $20 a month. And for

21:21
the first time in my life, I experienced what servant leadership was. But it took me to going to prison to experience

21:29
that, to get to get all the world trappings out of the way for me to experience that. It changed my life

21:35
forever. And I've been out for almost 20 years now. And I've still been on this servant leadership and this faith at

21:42
work path for 20 years since I've been out. Wow, that's so powerful. And obviously

Career After Coming Out Of Prison

21:50
we we met uh well after you had been out and you were you were working uh with

21:56
Coke uh Coca-Cola bottling company. Yes. And I would love to hear how that even

22:02
happened because I think it's it's almost unbelievable. You might have got out thinking you have no career in

22:09
business again and now you're working with one of the greatest companies out there. Yeah. Just a path how I got to Coke.

22:16
I've been out almost 20 years and I learned to serve in prison to be a servant leader and that those were

22:22
productive years. I don't consider those wasted years. My wife today and she's been interviewed several times too say

22:28
thank god my husband didn't sign that six-month sentence. She said I couldn't have been more mad at that time. But she

22:34
said, "I don't think my husband would have listened to Ian House of CBMC or Chuck Coulson of Prison Fellowship with

22:40
an eight with a six-month sentence. He had to be broken. He had to be the end of himself." And I thank God that he

22:47
didn't sign that six-month sentence. God gave him exactly what he needed. So, I did use those years getting no God. I

22:53
wouldn't have listened to Chuck Coulson with a six-month sentence. I would have said, "I'm out of here in six months."

22:58
And, you know, I come in at 38, I'm out at 38. Like Jinger said, I would have come out the same greedy man that I went

23:04
in. But I learned heating and air conditioning, HVAC, and I learned it well in prison during that eight-year

23:11
track. And because you learn a trade if you want to, and I learned it well. I thought I can make a living for my

23:16
family. I'm not going to probably get a job with an Ivy League PhD in biochemistry after this large of a case,

23:23
but I learned HVAC. But some of the other companies, just like Chuck Coulson read about me, it was a high-profile

23:28
case. They read about me and four biotech companies started visiting me in prison and had me review their patents

23:35
and their strategic plans and I started assisting them with their patents and so on. The background that I had and those

23:42
four companies offered me a job the day I got out. And I started with a company called Cypress Biotech with a Christian

23:48
Cypress Systems, a Christian CEO, a faith-based company. And and and I

23:54
started off like right out of the level of college and with four promotions, I became the COO and president of that

23:59
company for almost 10 years. And I'm on the advisory board still today. And and

24:05
then I joined CBMC, one of the very Christian businessmen connection that reached out to me and I became the COO

24:11
there for several years. And now I've been at Coke Consolidated for heading on seven years as vice president of culture

Coca Cola Bottling Company - Culture And Care

24:18
and care and the executive director of TFAC. Now let me mention Chris Coca-Cola Consolidated is the bottling side as you

24:25
mentioned. It's not Coca-Cola company in Atlanta. We're a different CEO, different ownership, different board.

24:31
We're headquartered in Charlotte, not Atlanta. And we are the largest faith

24:36
friendly uh publicly traded company. We have a purpose statement. Think about it. publicly traded company with a

24:43
purpose statement to honor God in all we do by serving others, pursuing excellence and growing properly. To

24:48
honor God in all we do uh by serving others as our purpose statement and we have 104 plant sites. Our department

24:55
culture and care department has a chaplain in every plant. It's basically a chaplain for every 200 employees. We

25:02
have more recommits and salvations than most churches and 131 prayer groups. I'm

25:08
blessed to lead lead 16 of them myself. prayer groups. It's a ministry within an organization that when we hire employees

25:15
and they don't know God, it don't take very long to know God. And I'm telling you, the results on our retention rate,

25:22
higher than most in the beverage industry, uh our if you look at our growth and revenues and profits. I mean,

25:29
God so blesses our business to the point our chairman and CEO, Frank Harrison, often quotes, generosity drives cash

25:36
flow. The more you give your time, treasure, and talent, the more God blesses your business. And we're on the

25:42
NASDAQ under the ticker Coke, C O K. And God has so blessed our business. So, I'm

25:48
at a faith-based company. And the interesting thing is the CO system, Coke Atlanta and Coke Consolidated were the

25:55
largest victim of the ADM case for corn syrup. So when ADM paid hundreds of millions of dollars back to clients,

26:02
they paid 400 million to the CO system, which was the largest fine they paid back in the class action suit. I'm vice

26:10
president of a company that was my biggest victim 35 years ago.

26:16
Only God could do that. The irony and craziness of that is just unbelievable.

26:22
Marriage survived, working for a victim. Uh my wife, we we paid almost everything

26:28
we had in $9 million of fines, several million dollars of legal fees. And the

26:34
companies that were the victims when they won these class action suits, they gave my wife a whistleblower award my

26:40
first year in prison and financed my family eight years when I was in prison.

26:45
The victims of me financed my family for eight years.

26:51
Wow. Miracle of God. Seriously, it's it's almost unbelievable. Yes.

A Culture Of Servant Leadership

26:58
This month I was emailing back and forth with Frank and and I'm curious with what

27:04
you guys have going on at KO. It's just unbelievable. What's the culture of servant leadership look like throughout

27:10
the organization from top down? Oh, it's unbel and it starts from Frank.

27:15
It starts for sure with Frank, our chairman and CEO. This is a this is a a

27:20
mission he's had for the last 20 almost 24 years in the company and that's when

27:25
he started with chapency in one plant and it did so well in one Nashville plant now we have a chaplain in every

27:31
plant prayer groups Bible studies we have a disciplehip program and I tell

27:36
you when you work at Coke a good example when COVID hit our employees were the

27:42
bottles and cans so people working overtime I mean people at home they

27:47
drank more cuz we have Fair Life Milk and and Monster Energy and Gold Peak Tea

27:52
and you know it's 300 beverages. It's not just Coke Diet Coke and Sprite. It's 300 beverages. So people home more, they

27:59
drank more and and but their spouses, a lot of them lost their job when COVID

28:04
hit in 2020. We put a benevolence fund together really with Frank benevolence fund that helped meet all their

28:10
financial needs of hundreds of families for almost a year. Some of them covering

28:17
their family to pay their mortgages to be able to pay their car payments and their kids' college. And and then a more

28:23
recent one that would have been during COVID is when in Asheville, North Carolina when the hurricane just hit

28:29
recently, Hurricane Elaine just in the last couple months it hit. Asheville,

28:34
western North Carolina was hit. We have a plant there. Over 300 teammates got impacted. Over 20 of their homes pretty

28:40
severely impacted within hours. Our rapid response team as part of our culture and care department is there

28:47
which is like a rapid response team of Samaritan Spurs and they're getting trees off roofs and rebuilding roofs and

28:54
rebuilding the rooms that the trees damaged and getting those people back in their homes as soon as they can at no

29:00
cost to those employees. That's the call. When you love on your people, no matter what their faith is or no faith,

29:08
and you just take care of your employees at a different level than what corporate America does, I tell you, it's good for

29:14
business. You do it for God, donor. God know we do by serving others, but it's good for business.

"t-factor" - Transformation Factor

29:21
So, you mentioned something before. I think you called it Tactor. Yes. Explain Tactor because I think it's part

29:28
of everything that you're talking about is under Tactor, but what is Tactor? Yeah. T factor is actually one spoke of

29:34
the wheel of the culture and care uh department. So we have prayer groups, Bible studies, chaplain, rapid response

29:41
team. Then Tfactor is another one of those initiatives as part of that and that's where we share with other

29:47
business that's transformation factor because the target is to transform workplace cultures around the world for

29:54
good, for God and for growth. And T factor is what we just shared here what we do within the company. It's kind of

30:01
the outward expression of what we're doing internally where other Christian leaders will get more bold and do some

30:07
of these things that we're talking about like chapency and prayer groups and take care of your employees when they're

30:14
going through some financial challenges, take care of their houses and help do things when when uh fire, hurricanes or

30:22
tornadoes happen that when you take care of your employees, your employees are

30:27
going to want to they're going to see this is a company they want to stay at long term.

"t-factor" Seminars

30:32
So, as as people are listening to this, there's going to be thousands of people who are leading at every type of level,

30:39
leading big organizations, leading small organizations, leading within a company, just leading their family, whatever it

30:44
is, there's all kinds of servant leaders trying to grow by listening to this. When you think through what Tactor is

30:52
trying to tell the market, if you will, what do you think people should be hearing themselves? For one, I think

30:59
they should attend. It used to be four in-person events a year and four virtual TF factor. Now we just launched in the

31:06
last few weeks uh on demand where they could watch it at their own convenience instead of having to show up in person

31:12
at a 4-hour event, a half day event, or even sign up for a 4-hour event in a virtual event. Now we have an on demand,

31:19
three different languages, soon to be five languages. They can watch on their We've had 79 countries attend TFAC so

31:26
far. almost 5,000 attendees just this year alone and we're really estimating

31:32
about 10,000 next year now that we have the on demand it has really increased the number of attendees and when you

31:40
serve your people when you really when you care for your people and have a different listening skill and we talk

31:45
about that at T factor what we call leads which is L for listen E for empathy have empathy for employee really

L.E.A.D.S. (Listen, Empathy, Advocate, Develop, Self-reflection)

31:53
care about them and their families a for an advocate be your employees biggest advocate. D for develop. Help your

32:00
employees develop even more than you do yourself. S for self-reflection and prayer. What you did differently during

32:07
the week that you wish you would do differently and do it differently on Monday. The self-reflection. Listen,

32:13
empathy, advocate, develop, self-reflection. When you take care of your employees and listen to a different

32:19
level and you value them, I can't tell you the difference that that makes. And

32:25
we see it in our retention rates, in our employee engagement, in our surveys that we do. We see it.

32:33
Wow. I love that. And it's so applicable for anyone who's leading in a company.

Being Salt And Light

32:39
What about for employees that are in companies where they don't feel like that? They hear that leads model and

32:44
they're like, gosh, I'm just in the wrong culture. I don't get any of that. What encouragement do you give them or direction do you give people like that?

32:51
Well, we talk about that T factor, too. We do get a lot of senior leaders, a lot of CEOs and COOs and senior VP levels

32:58
attending TFAC, but we get a lot of middle management too. About a third of our audience is middle management level.

33:05
And we think no matter what your role is, no matter what your c let's say you're a large um some of these

33:11
companies like Amazon have a a couple million, 2.3 million employees. We think

33:17
no matter where you work it, let's say it's a secular company, not a faith-based company, you can still be

33:23
the salt and light in that company and make an impact in that organization no matter what level you're at. And no

33:30
matter if the company is a faith-based company or not, you can be the salt and light and that will make a difference

33:36
and that will impact someone else and then they will they will want to do that way. then they will impact someone else

33:42
and it just exponentially like Intel came to TFA and they had several what

33:48
they call a Christian erg a Christian employee resource group they have several uh employee resource group

33:54
Muslim Hindu uh LGBT atheist most of them a dozen or two dozen people uh

34:01
employees at Intel in these employee resource group about 20 different ones

34:06
they now have 8,000 in their Christian employee resource group. Wow. That's how much it's grown in the last

34:12
three or four years. You have 8,000 employees and a 100,000 employee company. That makes that makes an impact

34:19
on that company. A huge impact when they're living out some of the things we

34:24
share on TFAC 8,000 employees. The impact is tremendous. It has on that

34:30
organization. I think one of the one of the coolest things that I have noticed just from

Making Other Company's Workplaces Better

34:36
afar is that at first when people hear about Teactor, they might think, why

34:41
aren't you just focused on Coca-Cola bottling? Why aren't you just do the business better and focus on yourselves

34:47
and don't care? But the interesting thing that I've noticed just from afar is that as you guys have focused on

34:53
making many workplaces better, building into people even outside of Coca-Cola bottling, it's helped Coca-Cola bottling

35:00
exponentially grow and helped you really become the authority and one of the leaders in how do you build great

35:05
workplaces? It's it's so fascinating to see. Yeah, this was the vision too. You know, the vision to be a faith friendly

35:12
company 23 years ago was Frank Harrison uh our chairman and CEO. our department

35:17
culture and care reports to our chairman's department. We're kind of executing his vision and implementing

35:23
his vision in the company and then TF factor was his vision nine years ago 2015

35:29
to to show how this works and the impact on our culture where other companies could be bold and do these moves. And I

35:38
tell you, we've had over 10,000 attendees total, over 5,000 just this year alone. And we have predict like I

35:44
said 10,000 attendees for next year. Now with this new on demand we've just to

35:50
give you a flavor of the new on demand it's over 2,000 attendees in the last six weeks

35:56
because people can watch their own convenience in their own language and that makes a huge difference and a very

36:01
high quality. They will feel that they're at an in-person event with the quality of this event on demand.

36:09
Wow. Well, Mark, I want to hit you with 10 rapidfire questions. Yes.

Ten Rapid-Fire Questions

36:14
Where you just say the first thing that comes to your mind and there's no wrong answer.

36:19
Okay. Who's the first person you think of when I say servant leadership?

36:25
I'd say two. I'd say Frank Harrison is the first person that I think of and Chuck Coulson is the is the person right

36:32
up that same level too when I think of servant leadership. Love it. What's the five words that most

36:39
describe yourself? I'd say servant leader. I know that's uh uh

36:44
two words compared to my 30s. Humility. Much more humility. I had very it was

36:49
all pride in my in my 30s when I was involved in this EDM price fixing case.

36:55
I think humility compared to my wife would say married to me for 45 years. my humility is a lot different than it was

37:03
uh 35 years ago when pride probably dominated uh dominated my life. So I

37:09
think and listen and empathetic servant leader humility listen better

37:15
and empathetic much different than I was 35 years ago.

37:20
Those are all great words. What's your favorite author or book? One of my

37:26
probably my most recent favorite the f my favorite book is the Bible uh by far

37:31
and I try to read in the Bible in my quiet time each and every morning. But probably my most recent favorite book is

37:38
Ken Boa Life in the Presence of God by Kenboa. is a wonderful book about how

37:44
you bring your faith not just not just on the weekends, but how you how you

37:49
Colossians 3:23, how every minute of your life to to serve God with your

37:55
whole heart like you're working for the Lord and not for man. I believe living in the presence of God, Kimboa is helped

38:01
me improve that. So, it's one of my most favorite recent books. And Ken has a crazy story for those that

38:07
haven't read his stuff. Yes. What about favorite movie? Uh, favorite movie. I love I mean I if you count the

38:14
se you count the chosen like the series. I love The Chosen. We're ready for the next season. But that'd be my favorite

38:21
uh my favorite show. The chosen. Favorite food. Favorite food? Chinese. Love Chinese

38:28
food. Favorite thing to do in your free time. Hiking. My wife and I each and every year for seven years in a row went to

38:35
Teton Mountains and hiked. I mean, from sun up to sun down for a week uh in the

38:40
Teton in Yellowstone National Park, kind of Wyoming, Montana area. And this year was we did seven years in a row of that.

38:47
This was the first year we didn't do that. We went rafting uh and hiking in Sedona, Arizona and rafting down Grand

38:53
Canyon. Wow. Surprising fact about you. I speak fluent German. Lived in Germany

39:00
for four years and speak fluent German. And I live in I lived in Germany because I speak fluent German and the company

39:05
moved me over there for four years. Our youngest son was born there. Wow. Zer good. Uh favorite favorite

39:13
place you've been? Favorite place I've been? Israel would have been the favorite place that I've

39:19
been. 2016 we walked where Jesus walked and uh baptized in the in the Jordan.

39:25
And uh Israel would be would be my favorite place that I've been. brought

39:31
scripture alive. Where is somewhere you want to visit that you have never been before? I've

39:36
been to a lot of countries. Uh Singapore would be another one of my favorite just because the safety and the clean

39:42
cleanliness of it. I stopped at Dubai for a couple layovers when I lived in Frankfurt, Germany without much time

39:48
there, but I'd be interested in seeing more of uh Dubai because I've only been the airport in a layover.

39:56
And finally, what's the best advice you've ever gotten? Best advice that I've ever gotten would

40:03
be uh 30 almost 27 28 years ago Chuck Coulson discipled me starting March of

40:09
1998 and said, "Show me your mentor. I'll show you your future." And it changed my

40:16
life by listening to him. If I didn't listen to him, it wouldn't change my life at all. But it changed my life and

40:22
I've had good mentors ever since. Wow. Well, I'm so thankful, Mark, for

Closing

40:28
your willingness to be on the podcast and to share really the true story of the informant and what life looks like

40:34
after that, which is just amazing. Maybe the rest of the story, right? The informant kind of ends when I went to

40:40
prison, but there's a lot happened in those 30 years since then. So, maybe what we talked about is the rest of the

40:45
story. Wow. Well, thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Servant

40:51
Leadership Podcast. If you enjoyed what you heard, please give it a thumbs up and leave a comment below. Don't forget

40:58
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41:03
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