E2A 080: Publishing Paths and Leadership Lessons: Tom Gardner’s Take on DIY vs Full-Service Publishing

Entrepreneur to Author

In this episode of The Entrepreneur to Author Podcast, your host Scott MacMillan is joined by Tom Gardner, a former McKinsey & Company startup COO, strategic advisor, and now the founder of The Management Distillery. Tom shares his journey from consulting to building startups, growing management teams, and his latest venture—The Management Distillery, a development accelerator focused on helping senior managers transition into executive roles.
Tom is also the author of the Amazon International bestselling book From Manager to Executive: Take Your Career to the Next Level. He discusses the inspiration behind the book, the process of translating his knowledge and experience into a written format, and the challenges he faced while publishing it. Tom offers valuable insights into strategy execution, leadership development, and the importance of mentoring emerging managers.

GUEST BIO
Tom has always been driven by his ability to simplify complex problems for others. While studying engineering, Tom started a faculty mentorship program. At McKinsey & Company, Tom simplified strategic problems for some of the world’s most prestigious companies - while also being global training faculty and co-leading an internal consulting best practice initiative.
Looking to drive more impact, Tom joined an early stage start up. Being comfortable both in the boardroom and on the frontline, managing people – Tom took over operations and scaled the business from 30 – 500+ staff. The company won Global Best Disaster Recovery in 2014, and the 2015 Prince of Wales Award for Business in the Community.
Tom then co-founded Carter, a startup simplifying the complex new car buying journey. Their dealerships quickly became the award-winning number 1 performers in the country. And then Co-Flo, a legal technology solution to simplify legal operations – serving some of the biggest firms in Europe and Africa and now entering the US.
On the side, Tom has been a non-executive director, independent advisor, skydiver and yoga teacher.
With his love for joining the dots between strategy, strategy execution and senior management development – Tom started The Management Distillery in early 2024. A consulting firm with a mission to simplify strategy execution for high-potential, medium-sized businesses.

SHOW LINKS: Assess your executive thinking: https://executivethinking.scoreapp.com
Assess the strategy execution prowess of your business: https://strategyexecution.scoreapp.com
Book landing page: https://www.themanagementdistillery.com/frommanagertoexecutive

CONNECT WITH TOM
Website: https://www.themanagementdistillery.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-gardner-mgmtdistillery/

CONNECT WITH SCOTT
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