Turning Wonder on – Meet Eric Holdener

What happens when a mastermind of hyper-efficiency stops looking at spreadsheets and starts looking through the lens of a camera?

We are incredibly excited to share our conversation with Eric Holdener, a true visionary at the intersection of business infrastructure and human imagination. Long before he began building spaces for executive transformation, Eric spent nearly two decades optimizing operations for Fortune 500 giants like Nestle and Crocs. But along the way, he noticed a critical flaw in traditional corporate consulting: the systemic elimination of human creativity..

Now, Eric is merging his rational business acumen with his creative fire to introduce a radical new way of thinking for the next generation of global leadership. His latest venture, Wonder On, tosses out the tired, cookie-cutter corporate retreat playbook of five-star luxury hotels and rigid team-building seminars. Instead, it invites top-tier executives into immersive, raw creative residencies—from the vast deserts of Joshua Tree to the mountains of Morocco.

In this exclusive interview, Eric walks us behind the scenes of these unique environments, discussing the science of curiosity, the profound necessity of play, and why a corporate leader’s greatest asset in a hyper-digital, capitalistic world isn’t an eye for productivity—it’s the willingness to experience wonder.

Interview by Frank Roller, Places of Healing

The Human Element & The Corporate Matrix

POH-Frank: You spent almost 20 years optimizing Fortune 500 companies like Nestlé and VF Corporation. What did you notice was chronically missing or broken in the human element of executive leadership that traditional consulting couldn’t fix?

Eric: I spent more than a decade inside Nestlé, often working as an internal consultant helping teams improve operations, technology, and business performance. What ultimately determined success was not the process or the technology—it was whether we understood the human being at the center of the change.

There is often an assumption that once a strategy is defined and documented, people will naturally execute it. In reality, success depends on adoption, behavior, and motivation. That realization led me to study change management, design thinking, and human-centered design.

The second observation was that many organizations unintentionally suppress creativity. They become so focused on efficiency and performance that people stop paying attention to the world around them.

I remember taking a leadership team to a coffee shop and asking them to simply observe. What did they hear? What did they smell? How did people interact? What conversations were taking place around them? It sounds simple, but it was transformative. They realized how much of the world they had stopped noticing because they had been conditioned to view everything through the lens of efficiency and performance. The exercise opened a different way of seeing.

The Central Thesis: Why Wonder?

POH-Frank: Your practice is called Wonder Machina, and the residency you’re building is called WonderON. Wonder seems to have become a central theme in your life. Why wonder?

Eric: I spent a long time reflecting on that question. We often talk about creativity, but I see creativity as the expression of something deeper, and that deeper source is wonder.

Wonder is our ability to see things anew. It is the capacity to notice beauty, possibility, and meaning in places that others overlook. Sometimes it appears in something vast and awe-inspiring. Sometimes it emerges from something as simple as watching a hummingbird at a feeder.

When we lose our capacity for wonder, we gradually lose our ability to see new possibilities. We stop being surprised. We stop being curious. Over time, creativity begins to diminish.

There is growing scientific evidence suggesting that wonder and awe influence how we learn, perceive, and make sense of the world. For me, wonder is not a luxury—it is a prerequisite for creative leadership because it allows us to imagine possibilities that others overlook.

Overcoming the Busy Executive Mindset

POH-Frank: Your audience is primarily executives who are extremely protective of their time. How do you convince a busy tech executive or global VP that they should focus on play, beauty, and imagination?

Eric: The people who are drawn to this experience usually do not need convincing. They have already sensed that something is missing. They have reached a point where greater productivity, more information, or another leadership framework is no longer the answer.

The first step is openness. Once someone becomes curious about a different way of engaging with the world, our role is simply to create the conditions for that exploration.

What we are offering is intentionally counterintuitive. Participants will not spend four or five days studying leadership models or business strategy. They will immerse themselves in a creative practice, work on a meaningful project, and spend time alongside remarkable people. The leadership impact emerges as a consequence, not as the objective.

The Hyper-Capitalistic World and the Analog Resurgence

POH-Frank: Do you think we live in a culture where something as simple as wonder has to be sold because people no longer appreciate its value?

Eric: I think it is partly the result of a culture that places enormous emphasis on productivity as the primary measure of success.

At the same time, we live in a highly digitized world filled with constant distractions. Together, these forces make it increasingly difficult to pay attention to simple experiences.

What is interesting is that we are also witnessing a growing return to analog experiences. People are journaling, sketching, working with ceramics, taking notes by hand, and rediscovering film photography. These activities encourage presence, attention, and craftsmanship. In many ways, they represent a natural counterbalance to the speed and distraction of modern life.

Addressing Elitism: Joshua Tree vs. Five-Star Hotels

POH-Frank: Executive retreats for wealthy and influential people are nothing new. How do you respond to the criticism that WonderON is simply another exclusive playground for the elite?

Eric: The exclusivity does not come from luxury. It comes from the people, the setting, and the experience itself.

We bring together a small group of leaders alongside artists, photographers, designers, and creative practitioners we call Wonder Makers. These are individuals who have dedicated their lives to exploring creativity in unique ways.

The environments themselves are also essential. We gather in places like Joshua Tree, the Moroccan desert, or Provence—places that naturally create a sense of perspective and displacement from everyday life.

In the future, I would love to make this work accessible to a broader audience. Today, however, I believe there is an opportunity to create impact by working first with leaders who influence organizations, communities, and culture. When those individuals reconnect with wonder and creativity, the effects often extend far beyond themselves.

Behind the Scenes: Senses, Play, and Slowing Down Time

POH-Frank: Take us behind the scenes. What happens when someone enters a WonderON residency?

Eric: The first objective is displacement. We remove people from their familiar environment and place them somewhere that changes their perspective. This creates an opening—a moment where they begin noticing things differently.

Joshua Tree is a perfect example. It operates on a geological timescale. The landscape appears still, yet everything is in motion. It invites a different relationship with time, one that is slower and more expansive than most executives experience in their daily lives.

The second element is curiosity. Wonder naturally creates curiosity because it introduces something unexpected. We become interested in understanding what we are seeing and why it affects us.

The third element is play.

One of our Wonder Makers is choreographer Dimitri Chamblas, whose work explores the relationship between movement, the body, and the environment. Most executives would never voluntarily sign up for a dance workshop. Yet when people enter a playful environment where judgment disappears, they often discover new parts of themselves without realizing it.

Play is how children learn. It creates a context where exploration feels safe and experimentation becomes natural.

Together, these elements create what I call salient experiences—deeply memorable experiences that engage the senses, emotions, imagination, and body simultaneously. These experiences stay with people long after the residency ends.

The ROI of Reconnecting with Creative Energy

POH-Frank: How do you measure the return on investment of an experience like this?

Eric: I do not think of this primarily as a corporate investment. I see it as an investment that leaders make in themselves. The return is renewed creative energy.

As children, we naturally imagine possibilities. Over time, many leaders lose access to that part of themselves. When that happens, they may remain highly effective managers, but they stop imagining what could be different.

Reconnecting with creativity restores that capacity. It allows leaders to approach challenges, opportunities, and people with fresh eyes.

Leadership Loneliness and Psychological Renewal

POH-Frank: Leadership can be deeply lonely and emotionally demanding. Is there a healing dimension to this experience?

Eric: I would describe it as regenerative. Creativity is a source of energy. Wonder is a source of energy. The purpose is not simply to create a memorable experience for four days and then return to old patterns.

That is why photography plays such an important role. Participants spend the residency developing their photographic eye with accomplished photographers, but they leave with a practice they can continue using long afterward. The same is true with journaling and field-note excursions. These become tools for paying attention differently once they return home. WonderON is ultimately about helping people turn wonder back on—and keep it on.

POH-Frank: Is the goal simply to make people more creative, or to make them better leaders?

Eric: Better leaders. This is not creativity for the purpose of solving a business problem. It is about becoming a more expansive human being and, therefore, a more expansive leader. Leaders who can imagine new possibilities, remain curious, and bring creative energy into a room naturally inspire others. People are drawn to that energy far more than they are drawn to authority alone.

Retreats vs. Residencies: The Future of Transformation

POH-Frank: There are countless retreats available today. How do you see transformative experiences evolving over the next decade?

Eric: Retreats absolutely have value. I have designed and facilitated them myself. They are effective when teams need space to think about culture, leadership, strategy, or a specific challenge.

What we are creating is different. A retreat is typically designed around a specific outcome. A residency is designed around emergence. An artist enters a residency without knowing exactly what they will create. We are applying the same principle to leadership.

The environment, the people, and the experiences create the conditions for something unexpected to emerge. Participants are given space rather than prescriptions. What comes out of that space is their work.

Planting Seeds for Macro-Level Change

POH-Frank: The world is facing climate anxiety, political division, and economic uncertainty. Can a private creative residency contribute to solving larger societal challenges?

Eric: I do not see WonderON as a think tank or an idea incubator. There are many organizations already doing extraordinary work in those areas.

What I hope to do is plant a seed. Much of what we create is connected to the natural world because wonder often emerges when we reconnect with something larger than ourselves. Whether that is the desert, the mountains, or a night sky filled with stars, those experiences can shift perspective.

What participants ultimately choose to do with that perspective is up to them. If it influences how they lead, build organizations, or contribute to society, then that is a meaningful outcome.

Lessons from Childhood: Imagination Supercharged

POH-Frank: What have your children taught you about wonder and play?

Eric: As a father of three boys, I have spent years observing how naturally children engage with the world.

They can turn a long car ride into an adventure simply by paying attention. They find possibilities where adults often see routine. What has inspired me most is not only how they played as children, but how they have continued nurturing their imagination into adulthood.

My generation was often taught that there comes a point when it is time to become serious. What I have learned from my children is that imagination does not need to disappear with age. We can remain serious about our responsibilities without losing our curiosity, playfulness, and capacity for wonder.

The Legacy of Breaking Out of the Box

POH-Frank: When your children look back at your career—from global business transformation to building WonderON—what do you hope they take from it?

Eric: I hope they understand that they do not have to choose a single identity. You can move between worlds. You can be analytical and creative. You can work inside a corporation and later build something entirely different. You can be pragmatic and imaginative at the same time. If there is one lesson I hope they take from my journey, it is that they do not have to live inside a box someone else designed for them.

POH-Frank: Thank you for your time. I would love to be part of the next residency.

Eric: We’d love to have you.