Finding Your Summit

On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with Rocky Bleier, NFL Running Back with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Owner and President of Rocky Bleier Inc, and Managing Member of Bleier Insurance Group.

On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with Kevin Rutherford, CEO and Chief Eternal Optimist of Nuun hydration. Hear how he explains the philosophy of having an ‘attitude of gratitude.’ “

144: Shawn Richardson: Life Coach for parents of special needs kids and an avid Mountaineer discusses how she managed to overcome an emotionally shattering unexpected divorce and arrived on the other side through the clarity that came with mountain climbing and being a heroine for her son Charlie who has autism.

Shawn Richardson

Shawn Richardson is a super woman who found her superpowers through the transformative clarity that comes with her passion for climbing mountains. But before this metamorphosis took place, first Shawn was married for over 23 years to a successful man that graduated from Harvard and managed a hedge fund, with whom she had three sons in high school with. What happened in 2008 when his hedge fund was decimated and much of their capital disappeared along with it? “It’s five years after 2008...I’m not seeing it happening and I’m not thinking about the end of our marriage. But, I’m getting resigned to the fact that life doesn’t feel so great. So, anyway, we are still very married at this point. He goes on a business trip to check on some residual investments in Thailand and came home and immediately told me that he wanted a divorce, and I was so surprised by this news, and I thought that it would pass, that it was just a moment of fear or something, a reaction that he was having and he would come down in the following days and come to his senses so to speak. It never happened. He kept saying every day, ‘I want a divorce. I’m actually moving to Thailand.’”

On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with Shawn Richardson, life coach for parents of special needs kids and an avid mountaineer. Shawn discusses what pushed her to step into the fear of her situation and face it head-on. “I was trying to repair and prevent the divorce from happening and there was a very clear moment when I made the decision to not protect the marriage but protect myself and my children. So, that was a clear decision. I think a lot of people may face that moment when they’re trying to prevent a divorce from happening. Then there is that moment when they say, the divorce is going to happen, and I must think and make my decisions accordingly.”

What You Will Learn:

How did mountain climbing play a role in Shawn Richardson’s revitalisation process after the pain of her divorce? “I’m a big mountain climber like you. So, I grew up in Montana and climbed a lot during my college years. But, then I stopped all throughout my marriage, and after my divorce I ran into an opportunity to climb Whitney, and I just did it, just to get back into the mountains. No particular drive. Just to pursue the experience. I got on the summit and I stood up there and I was reminded after 25 years or however long it had been, how great it is, how amazing it feels to be on top of a mountain, and I said, ‘why aren’t I doing this all the time?’”

What was a pivotal moment in Shawn Richardson resetting her mindset into a more positive direction? “I studied spiritual psychology in L.A. for three years and the very first night of my very first class the teacher said, basically, that we are all divine souls using human experience for our learning and that everything happens for us, not to us, and that, in fact, we have chosen these experiences for our learning. That whole reframing, moving from victim consciousness I’m here to heal from a divorce, into how is this happening for me? What is my opportunity here? Moving into empowerment. That night was the moment, I drove home and I said, I can build whatever life I want for myself, and I set out to do that, and I have been doing that.”

Shawn Richard talks about the tumultuous elements of fear that bubbled up to the surface during her shock of divorce that she would later face directly. “I saw a very large transfer of money, six figures, leave our account and go to Thailand, and it was in that moment where I was WTF, yikes. So, I got to get a lot smarter here and I need to protect myself and my kids. I don’t know what is happening. I don’t know what is going on. So, that was the moment. You know, I didn’t even know how divorce worked. I knew nothing. While processing all the emotions of what was going on, my children not knowing what was happening at all. They knew nothing at this point. I also had to do the legal study of, what do you do? How do you get control over money so that it doesn’t all disappear?”

What is it about mountain climbing in particular that makes it such a force of healing for Shawn? “For me, the whole physicality of climbing, it is just a massive movement of energy. You are moving and processing so much energy when your body is traversing a mountain. Just that alone is an incredible experience. Anything stagnant in you, any feelings that are stuck, you just get agitated and move. So, I also find in the meditative movement, the step after step...

On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with Alan Arnette, Mountaineering Expert who has summited Mt. Everest upon his fourth expedition and has also climbed up to the top of K2. Alan returns to the show after having appeared on episode 115 and shares his experience of traveling to climb during the time of the SARS virus spreading.

On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with Ronnie Lott, Former NFL player, Hall of Fame Inductee, 4-Time Super Bowl Champion with the San Francisco 49ers and 10-Time NFL Pro Bowl All-Star. Ronnie Lott explains why his best time in all of sports was when he was going to Eisenhower High School in Rialto, California.

On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with Matt Millen, 4-Time Super Bowl Winner with three different teams, the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders, the San Francisco 49ers and the Washington Redskins as well as the previous President and CEO of the Detroit Lions.

140: Jim Mora: Dad, Football Coach, ESPN Analyst, and Philanthropist talks about going from coaching in the NFL for the Chargers, Saints, 49ers, Falcons, and Seahawks, at the college level at UCLA, and finding fulfillment after coaching football.

Jim Mora

Jim Mora is not just an alumni who earned a living working in the NFL like Mark Pattison, he is also a personal friend of Mark who met him in their senior year of high school in the summer before they went to the University of Washington. Jim discusses the positive attitude that Mark continues to carry. “I think this whole thing with Everest started when he was going through some changes, some extreme changes in his life. He was going through separation and divorce. He was struggling with his daughter Emilia, who he mentioned earlier, and her bout with epilepsy, which he is working hard to overcome. He was at a point in his life that wasn’t really bright at the time. Mark has always had a real positive outlook on things.”

On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with Jim Mora, Dad, Football Coach, ESPN Analyst, and Philanthropist. Jim discusses his own career as well as Mark Pattison’s evolution as a man and a mountain climber. “It is impressive how you stuck to it because a lot of people would start the journey, would get to a better spot, like you did, and then might say, I’m ok now, I’m good now. But your will to complete the journey, to complete the seven summits, to keep pushing for Emilia, to find your way out of the darkness, to invite happiness back into your life, to completely restructure everything about yourself has been inspiring. But anyone that knows Mark, would understand what I’m saying because he is incredibly positive about everything. It’s never a can’t. It’s always a can”

What You Will Learn:

What does Jim see as Mark’s advance when it comes to mountain climbing? “Some people walk up a mountain. Some people attack a mountain. Mark attacks a mountain. When he gets on Everest he will be paying respect to Everest. But he will be in a mode where he is being safe. He is being smart. But he has a relentless attitude, and that is what you’ve always been. Relentless.”

Jim Mora tells the story of a special football player he mentored named Cody Ennis. “Cody (Ennis) went from a 310lb offensive lineman to a 185lb, now as a member of the United States Navy Seals team. I got a text from him two days ago. It’s a picture on my phone. I screenshotted it. He’s in a helicopter. He is in deployment, I believe in Afghanistan and he goes, ‘Coach Mora, I just want to thank you so much for shaking the sickness of complacency from me when I got to UCLA. I would never be where I am now without that. It just meant so much to me.”

Jim talks about the importance of loving the process that is involved in whatever your goals or journeys consist of. “People that are in love with the process find success. People that are relentless like you (Mark Pattison) they find success because they are doing it for the right reasons and what you’ve done Mark over and over is, and you said it, the top pyramid on John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success’ is competitive greatness is. And his definition of competitive greatness is, being at your best when your best is needed.”

Jim shares how coaching felt when he went from the NFL to UCLA. “Coaching changed for me dramatically when I went to UCLA, the purpose of my coaching. The purpose in the pros was only to win. That is all they cared about in the pros, and the definition of winning was winning the game on Sunday. The definition of winning for me changed when I went to UCLA and certainly it was winning on the field because winning on the field allows you to continue to do what you love to do, which is coach these young men and help them in life. But it also became about these young men getting an education and graduating, which is two different things.”

While talking about the late great Kobe Bryant’s 10 elements that make a champion, Jim Mora expounded on the first one on the list. “A champion’s mentality means doing things that others won’t. It means being fully committed. There’s different levels of commitment. There is someone who is fully committed. There is conveniently committed. There is partially committed. But having a champion’s mentality, that means no matter what, no matter why, no matter how, no matter what the circumstances, you are committed to being a champion.”

Just Keep Going

Motivation comes and goes. But dedication can help you reach the peak of your personal summit. “Just take the next step. Just keep walking. Just keep breathing. Keep hoping and you will get where you are supposed to be, you know? And that is number seven on Kobe’s thing. Just keep going. You are going to get hit with adversity. You are going to get hit...

139: Jason Schechterle: Keynote Speaker and subject of the book, Burning Shield. Co-Host of Badge Boys on StarWorldWideNetworks.com, shares his personal and professional journey of going from being a dedicated

Jason Schechterle

Jason Schechterle takes us back to March 26th, 2001 when he was just 28-years-old, 14 months as a Phoenix police officer in his hometown during a 10-hour-shift. With about one hour and a half left in his shift, he decided to take an emergency call that was out of his range near downtown Phoenix. “When you are running what we call Code 3, lights and siren, if you have a red light, you still have to come to a complete stop to make sure that people are seeing you from the other directions. They are going to yield to your vehicle. And it only takes a second to clear an intersection and just as I was going to proceed, my patrol car was struck from behind by a taxi cab.”

On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with Jason Schechterle, Keynote Speaker and subject of the book, Burning Shield. Co-Host of Badge Boys on StarWorldWideNetworks.com, Jason describes the aftermath of his car collision. “I was knocked unconscious so, you get to erase the fear. You get to erase the chaos. You get to erase any of those memories. And even more importantly, my car burst into flames. It traveled 270 feet through the intersection and miracle upon miracle, twist of fate. You can put a lot of labels on it. But I came to rest 50 feet from a fire truck.”

What You Will Learn:

What was the first ‘aha! moment’ that Jason Schechterle had prior to his injury? The first happened exactly two years to the day of Jason's injury, when a Phoenix police officer was shot and killed in the line of duty, inspiring Jason Schechterle to be a police officer just like him. Jason also discusses the second event. “I think I have always been inclined to a call-of-service. I joined the air force out of high school, did my four years, really loved it. It gave me exactly what I needed in life, a little structure, a little discipline. I was very proud to have served in the places that I did. When I came home at 22-years-old, I wanted to be a cop.”

Jason shares exactly how blessed he feels to be alive after this ordeal, and the outcome of events that were involved in his survival. ”It took so many little pieces and little precious seconds and effort, different effort. One person couldn’t help me. It took a lot of people to get me, not only out of that car but, to what I am going to argue, is the best burn center in the United States. The Maricopa County Hospital, on their trauma table in less than eight minutes.”

Jason Schechterle talks about his initial burn injuries and the impact that he experienced in his body physically. “I know with my injuries, from the neck up it was fourth degree, which like you said, down to the last layers of muscles and into the bone. My shoulders to my hands were third degree later. But probably in the initial stages they were severe second degree burns. Burns will keep on burning until a doctor gets all that dead bacteria tissue off of you, they will continue to get worse and deeper. That's probably why burn victims end up with severe scarring.”

Jason Schechterle discusses how his eyesight was affected by his burns. “I currently don’t have my full sight. They were able to get me back, I was 100% blind for about 9 months...they actually covered my corneas with skin grafts because my corneas were severely damaged by the heat and fire and then, through a lot of medical procedures, even using my own blood as eye drops because your body heals itself so well, I was able to regain a lot of my sight.”

Jason Schechterle talks about what his wife went through during his recovery, including giving up her career. “I don’t think I will ever fully understand or appreciate what she went through in those first couple of months while I was asleep. We had two kids at the time, a seven-year-old daughter and we had a son who turned three while I was in my coma. So she had her hands full and she had to make all the decisions.”

Becoming an Agent for Change

How did Jason Schechterle make the mindset shift to be strong for himself and others? “I need to be accountable and when I recognized that, I understood that if all these choices got me here, then every choice I make starting now will take me where I need to go. Of course there were a lot of dark days. There was so much fear, so much pain, so much, ‘How are we going to get through this? How am I going to get through this?’ But the beautiful thing about positive momentum is once it gets going, it can be a powerful force if you just get out of the way and let it go.”

The Fight Worth Having

During this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, Jason Schechterle also talks about starting...

On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with Mark Allen, 6x Ironman Triathlon World Champion, and Author of The Art of Competition, Fit Soul, Fit Body, and Total Triathlete.

137: Jack Kavanagh: Performance & Wellbeing Coach & Speaker and Pharmacist, talks about how he never let his spinal injury prevent him from traveling the world, becoming a public speaker, and maintaining a steadfast thrust towards his goals.

Jack Kavanagh

Jack Kavanagh shares how he acquired his spinal record injury at age 19, the summer that he’d finished his first year in college. “I was studying pharmacy in Trinity. I had always been interested in the intersection between health and people and how do you allow people to thrive. Just before I went back into my second year of college, I was finishing up a season having worked as a windsurfing instructor in the west of Ireland and I went away on holidays with some of my best mates. On the first day, as I had done some many times that summer, on that day as well I ran down the beach. I dived into the water over a wave, not anticipating how shallow it was, unfortunately I hit my head off the sand and in that moment I broke my neck.”

On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with Jack Kavanagh, Performance & Wellbeing Coach & Speaker and Pharmacist in Dublin, Ireland. Jack provides insight into his mindset adjustments that have empowered him to overcome obstacles. “As I gradually became aware of my surroundings I do still remember one of my best friends Garrett walking around the bottom of the bed and he had obviously pulled the short straw to be the first one to come and see me. I couldn’t speak but I mouthed the words, ‘It’s going to be OK.’ That was kind of my first decision because I did know that this was going to be a tough challenge. But I suppose I was very lucky that I had a strong sense of tenacity from before my injury.”

What You Will Learn:

What was growing up like for Jack Kavanagh? “I was a very athletic guy. I played a lot of rugby. I did a lot of running. I was incredibly passionate about water sports and adventure sports. And it was a period where you push out against the limits of your own comfort zone and your family and your teachers and coaches and as I did that I started to come up with a good sense of who I was.”

What does the phrase ‘Victory is forever’ mean to Jack Kavanagh? “I’m still trying to fully understand what that meant in that moment. But for me it was in that moment and ever since, it’s really encapsulated that the little wins that you have day in and day out, whether that is in your mindset, whether it is a physical win, whether it is some sort of a business win, whatever it is, those little victories that you have along the way are things that can never be taken away.”

Jack Kavanagh discusses what he was up against while in rehab therapy. “In the months afterward, I found myself in rehab and really at that point my first job was, like a child having the umbilical cord removed, it was to learn to breathe unaided. Then I had to go on to relearn to use about 15% muscle function that was remaining. So, my shoulders, my biceps, and wrists. Physically that was very demanding. But psychologically, and you pointed out mindset a few times, it was even more demanding.”

How did Jack Kavanagh propel himself forward towards his travel goals while making a documentary called Breaking Boundaries in spite of the obstacles that his injury presented? “Confidence came from doing. Those small actions day in and day out of actually showing up and failing in small ways repeatedly. But that builds momentum and that gave me confidence over time to try some of these bigger things.”

Jack ran a GoFundMe campaign to raise the initial seed money to start the documentary. But he had to get other investors involved in Ireland as well to finish it properly with a friend who edited it and who has gone on to producing in Toronto. How did Amazon Prime get involved in Jack Kavanagh’s documentary Breaking Boundaries? “We had an agent at the time and he recommended the documentary to Prime and that is how it came about in the end.”

The Other Self

How does Jack Kavanagh define his mindset shift? “I realised that I was the same Jack as I ever was before. But that I had also unlocked a mental toolkit. Look, adversity and challenge is all relative and I called this toolkit “the other self” and everybody has it. You will have it as you face the mountains you climb and Everest will absolutely bring this out in you and your training for it will. But no more than a single mother trying to raise a couple of kids or whatever challenge you can imagine. The Other Self is that part of ourselves that only gets discovered or uncovered when we talk on a big challenge.”

Sharing His Story

During this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, Jack Kavanagh also discusses becoming a pharmacist and his speaking engagements, including a TED Talk: “I do a lot of...