Finding Your Summit

Latest Episodes:

Rewind: Peter Cetera: American Singer, Songwriter & Original Member of Chicago May 28, 2021

Show notes

While I am in Nepal preparing for my epic Mt Everest & Lhotse climb, here's a "Rewind" replay of one of my most popular episodes with the legendary Peter Cetera.

On this episode I talk with Peter Cetera, American singer, songwriter, bassist, an original member of the legendary rock group Chicago.

What was it like for Peter Cetera during the early years of performing? "I was a reluctant performer let's just say. You know, I never walked on stage with that, 'I'm going to slay 'em.' I always walked on stage with, 'Oh my God. I can't breathe.' Really. Seriously. And it is just like sports. It takes you a couple of plays to get into the game."

Did you know that Peter Cetera also had the desire to be an athlete? But what was it that pushed this shining star to follow the guiding light of a magical music career? "I think when people ask me about singing, to me it was the emotion I think is the thing I gave, that I tried to give to everything I sang. Emotion. Feeling. I may not be the best scat singer or whatever. But, I try to sing from the heart, from the feeling. And I think that comes through to a lot of people."

Peter Cetera started his band in high school, never went to college, and never turned back from music. But what sparked that occupational inspiration? "These two older guys, older maybe 19 or 20, took me to this teenaged rock 'n roll club. It looked like a real thing, except no booze. This group comes on, The Rebel Rockets, from Mattoon, Illinois, and both guitar players stood on top of the amps. The lead singer wore sunglasses. And it was about the coolest thing I ever seen or heard. And that right there, I just went, 'I want to do that.'"

What was the music grind like for Peter Cetera, making the transition from Chicago to Los Angeles, where Chicago went on to play hundreds and hundreds of shows in night clubs and colleges? "It took a little while. But we all drove out from Chicago. I drove out in my '67 Volkswagen, pulling a trailer, and we all went on to L.A. We lived in the same house. Eight guys in a house, seven of us and a road manager. We just started working clubs."

Peter Cetera shares the electric excitement of opening up for Jimi Hendrix? "There is a knock on the door and it's our road manager and he walks in and his eyes are bulging and he goes, 'Jimi Hendrix wants to come see you guys.' So, Hendrix walks in the room and the door opens, and there he is with that black kind of flat brimmed hat and all the accoutrements...he walks in and goes, 'You cats are mother f**kers.' Just like that. I was like, 'Whoa!' So he came in and he sat and talked with us the whole set and he goes, 'God, you guys are so good.' And sure enough, shortly after that his manager got a hold of us and says, 'He wants to take you as his opening act.' What? Let's go!"

Peter Cetera talks about the process of contributing music to major movies, such as "Glory of Love" for The Karate Kid II that was originally written for Rocky IV. "In the case of that one, they sent me a tape. Not of the whole movie. Just a VHS tape and the script and I sat there and watched it for a couple things and, 'Let's see, fighting. Hmm.' You know? And I had this chord track and I started singing and, 'We did it all...hmmm...oh...the glory of love. Hey, wait a minute, what if it is like knights in shining armor.' I just came along that thing...I finished it and I thought, It's the first and only song where I thought… 'That's a hit. It's got to be a hit. They got to love this. We took it back and they turned it down. Stallone turned it down."

How did Peter Cetera's work with Chicago come to an end? "The big thing about the whole group was drinking and drugs. I mean, that was the big downfall. Let's state that clearly. Big downfall. And we all did it. Some of us got burned out more than the others and some of us quit. That was the downfall of it. Because nobody around you ever said, 'Hey man, could you knock off doing that blow?' You know? Nobody ever said that."

Rewind: Sean Evangelista - Climbing Back Up from the Bottom May 21, 2021

Show notes

While I am in Nepal preparing for my epic Mt Everest & Lhotse climb, here's a "Rewind" replay of one of my most popular episodes with Sean Evangelista.

Sean is a former member of the U.S. Navy Seals, an entrepreneur and the owner of "Thirty Seconds Out", a unique apparel company offering commando-inspired t-shirt and cap designs as well as other military-related items. Sean had a difficult and troubled childhood, but he managed to turn his life around after high school and went on to find success both during and after his military career.

During Sean's military service, he experienced numerous dangerous active combat situations that resulted in more than thirty broken bones and even brain injuries. However, through a combination of perseverance and good fortune, Sean was able to survive these difficult situations and retire from a distinguished career. Now, Sean is devoted to operating Thirty Seconds Out and experiencing every new adventure life has to offer.

On this very inspirational podcast episode of Finding Your Summit, Sean shares how growing up with an abusive stepfather and being molested by a neighborhood boy set his life on a path of lashing out and self-destructive behavior, and he discusses how his time in the military helped him right his course again. Sean's powerful story is one of survival and overcoming challenges, and I hope you'll take as much encouragement from this motivational podcast episode as I have.

Rewind: Ed Viesturs: American Climber Of Fourteen 8000 Meter Peaks May 14, 2021

Show notes

While I am in Nepal preparing for my epic Mt Everest & Lhotse climb, here's a "Rewind" replay of one of my most popular episodes with Ed Viesturs.

Climbing mountains is an incredible feat that takes incredible people with incredible goals. Ed Viesturs is one of these people who has climbed fourteen 8,000 meter peaks. It took him 18 years and 21 attempts to get to all those summits.

From all these climbs he learned a lot of things from guys who were above him, and these guys learned from guys above them. One of these life lesson essential to reaching impossible goals is tempering ambition. It's an 8,000 meter climb, but when you get to the 5,000 mark you need to think where motivation has taken you so far. At this point you should ask if it's okay to turn around and try again when it's safer. Ed shares his wisdom and experiences as a Mount Rainier guide who breaks down goals to keep moving and get to the top.

Ed is a guy who I've climbed with years ago but he's the only American to have climbed all fourteen 8,000-meter peaks. Those are peaks that are over 26,000 feet. He did so without any oxygen. Everybody that climbs the Everest has tanks on their bank. They've got the big face mask. That's certainly what I will have when I climb up that mountain.

He's done it. It's his own will, power and strength that gets him up and down these mountains. Obviously, he's got a very strong lung capacity. I had such a blast talking with Ed. We go back, we talk about his earlier days cutting his teeth with great mentors like Lou Whittaker on Mount Rainier, teaching him the ropes on how to climb safely.

Then we get into when he was filming the IMAX piece which, unfortunately, coincided with the same time that the whole Into Thin Air, the Everest tragedy happened in 1996. It actually turned into a rescue mission for him. He tried to go up and get Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, two of his buddies who ultimately did not make it. It was a very emotional moment of talking about when that happened. They did decide to press on a couple of weeks later to finish the IMAX piece and those guys are still sitting up there. To pass your buddies and have that moment, it's pretty emotional. We talked about his choices about no shortcuts to the top, about why he's still standing and where he's at today.

Ed is a phenomenal guy and full of inspiration. He has life in the right frame mindset of how to go about it and he shares that with many corporations throughout America.

Rewind: Jake Olson, Blind Football Player May 07, 2021

Show notes

While I am in Nepal preparing for my epic Mt Everest & Lhotse climb, here's a "Rewind" replay of one of my most popular episodes with Jake Olson.

In life, there are different things that hit you at different times, but what's important is how you get back up when this happens. One of the hardest thing that can hit you in life is being diagnosed with retinoblastoma as early as 8 months old. Because of this rare eye cancer, Jake Olson lost his eyes.

This setback however, did not keep him from living a life with amazing opportunities that led him to become a blind football player. But other than playing as the long snapper for the USC Trojans, Jake has also set-up a foundation called Out Of Sight Faith and is the author of Open Your Eyes. Learn more of his amazing journey as a kid who lost his eyes but never stopped playing sports.

The thing that makes Jake such a unique soul is that the guy is blind and he plays in the football team. He plays on the USC football team. He's a snapper and he got in two games in the 2017 season. He's the first D1 football athlete ever to do so. The guy is just a remarkable dude. He is a guy that had a rare form of cancer in his eyes. He lost his first one when he was just a youngster. Years later when he was twelve, he lost the other one. Through that whole process, he formed a relationship with the old great college football coach, Pete Carroll of USC.

That morphed into something and the next thing he knew, he was invited to come out and walk on at USC, and there he is. He documented what it's like. He was sitting there in Heritage Hall. He's got his guide dog next to him, and just is so far ahead of the game on so many people. He's written a couple of books, has a foundation, and just continues to inspire a lot of people. One of the better pods I have done. Remember to always rate, review, go in and help us out. Give us some love. Let's get on to a great episode with Jake.

McKenzie Johnson: Overcoming Alcohol Abuse and finding her summit! Apr 30, 2021

Show notes

McKenzie Johnson: Executive Director of Soulumination, a non-profit organization that takes photos of terminally ill children for their families for free, talks about how she overcame an addiction to alcohol that used to be so strong that she wouldn't stop drinking until she was black-out drunk on a daily basis.

How bad was the level of alcoholism that today's guest McKenzie Johnson once experienced? "I'm a really bad alcoholic because I didn't even remember that it was Saint Pattys Day. I'm an alcoholic. I'm in recovery. I've been in recovery for almost nine years now. But the path that took me down… I was a daily black-out drinker for about a third of my life, and then before that for about four years I had a pretty intense eating disorder, which then kind of morphed into pure alcoholism when I got to college."

On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with McKenzie Johnson, Executive Director of Soulumination, a Seattle-based non-profit organization that facilitates free photographs of terminally ill children for their families. McKenzie Johnson sums up the extent of which her alcoholism once consumed her life and the power of bouncing back from this issue by saying, "I have been sober for almost as long as I drank, which will be a huge milestone in the next year and a half."

What You Will Learn:

Was there any point while McKenzie Johnson was a black-out drinker that she felt like something was wrong?' "I definitely knew that I drank differently from the beginning because I could see how other people drank and it wasn't the same as how I drank. When I take a drink, I can't stop. I don't stop until I'm blacked-out. So, I think there were queues there early on, definitely for the last two or three years of my drinking, I would wake up everyday, and be like, 'I'm not doing that again.'"

What were strategies that McKenzie Johnson tried to use to stop drinking? "I tried to restrict my drinking, or only drinking one type of alcohol, or only drinking on the weekends, or I'm not going to drink hard alcohol, I'm only going to drink beer, and all of this stuff, and really try to figure that out for myself. When you are an alcoholic that doesn't work at all either. Your brain is like a switch. So, you are either on or you are off."

Did McKenzie Johnson have family or friends that tried to have an intervention to get her to stop drinking? "A little bit. So, what alcoholics do is they surround themselves with like-minded people, so that people don't do that to them. So, we want to be surrounded by people that are doing the same behaviors so that we don't have to stop what we are doing and be held accountable."

McKenzie Johnson talks about the lengths of which she would go to prolong her drinking without allowing anyone in her family to intervene. "I'm from Seattle. I moved to California when I was 17 and stayed away on purpose so that my family couldn't really see what I was doing. I created a whole kind of separate life for myself. I lived in Australia. I came back to California and that was all by design. My mom would write me letters, like hand-written letters, and mail them to me. And I threw them all away. But I do remember them, and they said, if you ever need help, her father was an alcoholic, we are here. I would just literally throw them in the garbage because I didn't want to see that."

What was the breaking point for McKenzie Johnson to stop drinking and put that pattern in the rear-view mirror of her life? "Towards the end, I was in and out of the hospital a lot. Certain basic functions in my life were really breaking down. I was having a hard time maintaining my job or the roles in my job. My relationships were stressed. Like things really started breaking down and I think that is really common. Because you know the term 'rock bottom,' you really do have to hit that. You have to lose a lot."

Avoiding Temptation

How has McKenzie Johnson been able to prevent herself from getting caught back up in drinking again when she is at social gatherings where alcohol is present? "Honestly, for many years I didn't go to those functions. With alcohol, it is so acceptable. So if someone had a cocaine addiction and they are recovering from cocaine, they wouldn't be expected to go to parties where there is cocaine everywhere. So I didn't think that I should be expected to go to parties where there is alcohol everywhere. To me that is exactly the same thing. One, I avoided them for a long time. Two, I'm really vocal about just saying that I don't drink."

Finding Her Summit with Sobriety

During this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, McKenzie Johnson describes the impact that mountain climbing has had on her sobriety journey. "I know that I wouldn't be climbing mountains if I wasn't sober. But I can't tell you that I would be sober if I wasn't climbing mountains. Like, I don't know the answer to that because it has been such a big part. It has been completely intertwined with my sobriety. After I got out of treatment, I was gym climbing and found them. Then I started climbing outside."

Links to Additional Resources:

Mark Pattison: markpattisonnfl.com
Emilia's Everest - The Lhotse Challenge: https://www.markpattisonnfl.com/philanthropy/
Soulumination website: soulumination.org

Oz Sanchez: American Paralympic Hand-cyclist, Triathlete & former Marine discuss ways in which overcame a spinal cord injury. Apr 23, 2021

Show notes

Oz Sanchez

What was it like growing up in Oz Sanchez's version of Los Angeles as a kid? "My parents were first generation immigrants into the States. Despite having no education, no prior experience wanted to raise their family in a typical American Dream. So, never-the-less, they did the best that they could. But there were a lot of stumbles and falls and what not. My dad worked pretty much seven days a week, 12 hours a day, for a large part of his career while we were growing up."

On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with Oz Sanchez who opens up about internal struggles that his mother dealt with. "My mother was a stay-at-home mother. Mother had a lot of childhood trauma. She was severely depressed. I recall she attempted suicide once and I walked in on her while she was bleeding out in the bathtub. I'm somewhere between 8-11 years of age. Much of my childhood, because of this trauma and my mechanisms to survive in this environment, was my blocking out memories all together. So, much of my childhood experience is almost a blank slate unfortunately. But we did the best that we could."

What You Will Learn:

What was Oz's relationship with his siblings like? "I have a twin sister and an older brother. My older brother always seemed to have a plan. He executed on that plan. He was gonna get his good grades, go on to college with an alternative path of joining the military, and he did that to the tee. I remember him sharing this with me somewhere when he was 15. He is two years my senior. So I was 12-13. Then myself and my twin sister just kind of go with the flow, product of our environment. Very much one direction to the next was more so to do with who we were hanging out with."

Oz describes what his early teen years were like when he was trying to find himself. "We (Oz and his sister) go into using meth when we were 13-14 years of age. We didn't have a sense of belonging at home, or a community, or a family if you will. So, the brain says, 'I have to find that somewhere.' So some of us joined bands. Some of us joined sports. At that age, we sort of joined the gang mentality, and we gravitate towards that. I would say what probably kept me from going off too far on the deep end was that my sort of self-therapeutic mechanism. It was sports, and I leaned into sports. I got into mountain biking really early, I think at 13 years of age."

What was Oz's initial introduction to the military? "We grew up in an area where we had an alleyway, me and my brother would skateboard or me and my amigos that we would skateboard with. Around the corner was both the county courthouse and all four branches of military recruiting. So, we were very much imprinted and attracted to the posters and the billboards that were around this recruiting station all of the time. I can remember as far back as being 6-years-old, just always being impressed and being impressed upon by these billboards."

How did Oz Sanchez ultimately sign up to become a Marine? "I ended up getting in a situation where we got picked up for looting and I lied to the judge saying I had plans to join the service and if I did any kind of time for looting than I would be ineligible and he doesn't want to be responsible for ruining my life. Yadda, yadda, yadda. I wasn't in any way this articulate about it. But he bit off on it. He obviously probably had a better idea what was going on that I did. He said come back here with some documentation and a recruiter possibly, and we will take it from there. So, I went across the street to the recruiter, told him my situation. It is a big sham. I want you to help me out. I don't want to actually join, and the whole thing backfired in my face, and that is how I ended up in the Marine Corp."

Were the rigors of Marine life a difficult transition for Oz Sanchez? "In boot camp, I didn't really suffer a whole lot because, one I was pretty fit. I had sort of gravitated towards physical fitness. At about 6-7 years of age I remember I would do 100 ab crunches, and sit-ups, and push-ups, before going to sleep damn near every single night. Why was I doing this? I don't know because nobody in my family prior to my brother and I, or in my generation I should say as well, really worked out. So, where that influence came from I have no idea. But I did have this thing to self-sooth because I was a really angry kid because of what we had going on at home."

Motorcycle Accident

How did Oz Sanchez's past motorcycle accident occur? "Now that I have worked through a lot of emotional stuff, I can say it was much in a large part to my own carelessness, excessive speeding, a lot of it. Sure, there was another car that ran through a stop sign. But if I wasn't doing 65-70 in a 35-mile-an-hour zone, I probably would have had no problem evading the vehicle. But, since I was speeding, I ended up laying my bike down and having my accident, and breaking my back."

Fate vs. Destiny

During this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, Oz Sanchez compares fate and destiny and their roles in our lives. "Fate is not something we can influence. But destiny is something we can actually manipulate. The difference is that fate is like if a hurricane comes in or a thunderstorm, or a tidal wave and takes your home or whatever. There is nothing you can do around that. But destiny is a different thing entirely that we have the ability to create and manifest for ourselves."

Links to Additional Resources:

Mark Pattison: markpattisonnfl.com
Emilia's Everest - The Lhotse Challenge: https://www.markpattisonnfl.com/philanthropy/
Know No Limits website: knownolimits.com

Oz Sanchez social media: Instagram Facebook Twitter

John Waechter: Celebrating 20 year anniversary of standing on top of the world. Apr 16, 2021

Show notes

198: John Waechter: Private Equity Investor and the 58th person to ever climb the Seven Summits, the seven highest mountains of each of the seven continents, shares how he worked his way into this ambitious mountaineering goal and expanded that same preparation and drive into the business world.

John Waechter

Today's guest John Waechter discusses beginning his journey climbing the seven summits in 1993, including meeting Richard Bass who is the first man to ever climb the Seven Summits. "I got to know Dick climbing Kilimanjaro in 1994. He went with us. So, that gave me the inspiration to want to do the seven summits and my mentor, climber Phil Ershler said, 'You don't even know if you can go high.' That actually happened before 1994. But, I read the book, got inspired, and wanted to climb the seven summits. I had only climbed Mount Rainier, and he said you have to find out if you can go high, if your physiology will adapt. So, that is when the journey started, and I got to Mount Elbrus in 1993."

On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with John Waechter about why mountains often serve as a symbol for achievement. "There is certainly a reason why the mountains have always served as the grand metaphor for goal setting. It is tangible. Climb your mountain, Emilia's mountain. Find your Summit, because the summit exists. On any peak, we are going to go, and we are going to do our best to get to the top. So, it is so tangible, and it is easily related, I feel, to what we are trying to accomplish in our everyday lives."

What You Will Learn:

What inspired him to take on the Seven Summits in the first place? "The mountains are almost easier, aren't they MP, in that you are going to go 29,000-32,000 feet and when you get there you are going to know it, because there is nowhere else to go. In life's journeys and endeavors, we have to create the summits. We have to create the steps along the way, basecamps, the camp 1, the camp 2, the camp 3 of our journey. So, I was motivated by the Seven Summits, largely Dick Bass and Phil Ershler, and other climbers like you are saying. I started to get to know all of these climbers climbing Rainier. I set that goal. But I tried it much like I have for much of my life of trying to define what the summit is."

How does John Waechter define visualization? "Visualization, I think, is critical because it is not dreaming. There is a distinction in my mind. Dreaming, that is not going to get you off of the couch. In fact, you will probably stay on the couch because that is a good place to dream. You dream, all of us, how can life be better? I want to be this; I want to get there. But it is a dream. It is not tangible, and it becomes frustrating. Visualization, I talk about working backwards. So, what are we visualizing? The attainment."

John Waechter addresses what it means to face your fears. "It is charging into the fear within that vision of reality. But you do want your goals to stretch almost through your own reality because you haven't been there yet. But you do believe that with preparation and associating with the right team members and holding onto that vision that step by step, and again, the mountain being a great metaphor, it truly is one step in front of the other and then you are done."

What does John Waechter look for in the right teammate? "Hands down, the attribute of a can-do positive attitude. I will take that anywhere. If it is a person on my rope or on my climbing team, that person that wakes up with 'how are we going to get this done today,' happy about it, and motivating. I absolutely think that is the most important characteristic in someone you want to associate yourself with."

What was John Waechter's greatest takeaway from climbing Mount Everest? "You've got all of these balls you are juggling. You've got your family, your career, and you've got your home, and boom boom boom, you've got all these balls. What I've noticed over time is when you focus on a goal, a challenge, what slowly starts to happen is the balls go away. You are left throwing up one ball. That one goal, you are throwing it up, catching, throwing it up, catching it. You achieve your goal and more balls are going to fall in your life. That is inevitable."

Preparation Meets Opportunity

John Waechter presses the issue of being prepared so you are ready to hit the ground running when opportunities present themselves. "Preparation meets opportunity. When you got out of the weight room from UDub (University of Washington) and graduated, and had your opportunity with the Raiders, one thing that you did know was that if you weren't in the weight room, and you weren't putting in the reps, and you weren't getting your body and mind in shape for your tryout with the Raiders, one thing you did know is it wasn't going to happen."

Finding Your Everest

During this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, John Waechter expresses the importance of knowing what your goal is that you are working towards reaching the summit of. "Keep finding our Everest. Because once you climb Mount Everest, I climbed it 20 years ago this May, May 25th, another great takeaway that I didn't expect was, I have not had one day since then that in some form or in some capacity I didn't think about it. I didn't know the lasting effect it would have. I never contemplated that. I never thought about it. But the point is, we have to set our goals, visualize success, then do what is important to preparing and accomplish that., and should we accomplish it, that does stay with you. Like you said, it doesn't have to be a mountain. Then keep doing it. Just keep doing the next thing."

Links to Additional Resources:

Mark Pattison: markpattisonnfl.com
Emilia's Everest - The Lhotse Challenge: https://www.markpattisonnfl.com/philanthropy/

Doug Lewis: Former US Olympic downhill skier in 1984 and 1988 talks about goal setting, commitment and belief towards achieving your goals.. Apr 09, 2021

Show notes

Doug Lewis: Owner, President, and Director at ELITEAM and Alpine Analyst at NBC Universal Sports TV talks about his journey from two-time Olympic skier to his impressive career with ELITEAM and NBC.

Doug Lewis

Guest Doug Lewis opens up about what it was that made him want to compete in the Olympics? "I think I can remember when I was 8-years-old. I grew up basically on the slopes of the Middlebury College Snow Bowl. My mom was a ski instructor, and if you had caught me and made me stop as I did laps on the lift, at 8-years-old I said I want to be on the U.S. Ski Team. I want to be in the Olympics. What started as this love, I think it started as a love for skiing instilled by my mom and dad, that combined with my competitiveness."

On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with Doug Lewis, Owner, President, and Director at ELITEAM and Alpine Analyst at NBC Universal Sports TV about attending the Green Mountain Valley Ski School. "My parents wanted me to stay at high school, go to college. They are both Middlebury College grads. It was academics, right? My parents, they are like, you can do this for a while. But it was all driven by me. There was Burke Mountain Academy, Green Mountain Valley School, and Stratton. There were three academies. That was the only way that I knew of. I had done my research, that I was going to find my way, get the training I needed to get onto the U.S. Ski Team ."

What You Will Learn:

What were Doug Lewis' beginnings in training to be a skier? "I was lucky enough to go to the Green Mountain Valley School. It was only an hour away from my house. So, my mom didn't have to say, good bye good bye. She could see me in an hour. But, it was a boarding school. But every week, all through high school, I had to drive an hour back each week to take my cello lessons, because mom wouldn't let me quit the cello. The cello is not a very sexy instrument to play in high school. But, she kept me close. But my parents, my mom and dad let me go and pursue it. They supported me. But they were like, you've got to drive the train, and I was happy to floor it and drive the train as fast as I could to the U.S. Ski Team."

Doug Lewis walks us through what was required of him to be chosen for his first Olympic competition in 1984. "The key is to first get to the U.S. Ski team. But that is just the first step. That is not the final step. That is the first step. Then you start training with the best in the U.S. Then you start competing with the best in the world. Then every four years the Olympics come around, and out of the 10-15 down hillers, I was the guy that went straight. I was the speed skier, out of those 10-15 the criteria was you had to have one podium, two top 10s, three top 20s, whatever it is, to qualify for the U.S. ski team. In 1984, at 20 years old, I got those two top 15s and I just remember when they told me I was going to the Olympics, it was a feeling of my chest exploding, my heart exploding with joy, and just this singular focus that it is not over yet. This is again, just another step to being the best in the world."

What is Doug Lewis' take on coping with moments of falling short? "With every failure, with every injury, what did I learn? Because that is the key, right? I learned that number 1, I had to manage this risk. I was 110% all the time. I had to manage it. When was I going to pin it? The second thing is I had to have some physical fitness. So, the next year when I got back to that starting gate, I weighed 20 pounds more. Muscle. Mass. Core. Luckily, I have had no lasting physical injuries. But that day was introval in getting me to where I needed to go. Luckily, it was one step back but five steps forward."

Doug Lewis expresses the power of confidence. "You just got to find your confidence. Believe in yourself and it is so important to know that you deserve to be there. I was in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia on a chairlift and you know, it can be overwhelming. You can lose your confidence. But you just have to believe in yourself, especially during those down times. It is so important."

How did Doug Lewis' two experiences in the Olympics, both in Sarajevo and Calgary different? "Totally different. I view my Sarajevo experience as the private Olympics. It was so far away that not a lot of the American media went. There was no media. It was like this family. In 1984, everyone ate in the dining hall. All of the athletes stayed in the Olympic village. Now all of the special athletes and the fantastic athletes are in their own apartments."

Physical Fitness vs Mindset

What kind of state of mind does an athlete need to be in to go beyond just being physically talented? "The higher you go, it is less about your physical fitness and talent and it is more about what is between your ears. The mental side becomes just what separates anybody. Take for the Olympics for example, I now cover the Olympics for NBC and I was in Pyeongchang, the top 12 athletes, the top 15 athletes in that start, on that day, can win that race. They are talented enough ski-wise. They have done the training. But it is what is between their ears that is going to separate them, their confidence, their ability to handle stress, their focus, their visualization, I could keep going on."

Olympics in Sarajevo

During this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, Doug Lewis "Sarajevo was incredible because it was my first Olympics. I remember driving across the border, across the Iron Curtain. This is 1984. This is the USSR. This is the big, bad country and we were going across the Iron Curtain and they stopped us at the border and it was classic. It was foggy, maybe a little drizzle. It was midnight. They held us for two hours. We didn't know if we were going to the gulag. It was this classic thing and we get through, and we are relieved. We were past this border and arrived in Sarajevo. My roommate Bill Johnson won the gold medal. I was rooming with the guy that did what I wanted to do, and what he wanted to do was be the best in the world."

Links to Additional Resources:

Mark Pattison: markpattisonnfl.com
Emilia's Everest - The Lhotse Challenge: https://www.markpattisonnfl.com/philanthropy/
ELITEAM website: eliteam.com
Doug Lewis social media: Linkedin

London Papamichael: Growing up in a tough environment and having to find his way after his mom died, London has learned the power of forgiveness. Now he seeks to reconnect w/ his dad... Apr 02, 2021

Show notes

196: London Papamichael: Private Personal Trainer at Body By London and Strength Coach discusses how he went from losing communication with his father and losing his mother altogether, to becoming a source of strength for his family, finding forgiveness in his heart, and fulfillment in helping others become their very best.

London Papamichael

Today's guest London Papamichael starts off the story of his life journey by describing his cultural upbringing. "I come from the American Dream. My father was Greek. He came over to the States to chase the American Dream and have a better education. He met my mom and it was love at first sight. I can actually remember from a very early age, I'm 34 now, love in the household and having two amazing parents that I felt that loved me. I can still feel that today and that is very powerful."

On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with London Papamichael Private Personal Trainer at Body By London and Strength Coach, who shares his experience relocating to Cyprus in Greece during his childhood. "My dad got a phone call of, hey, my dad's sick and I need to go back to the little island of Cyprus. My grandfather, my dad's dad, got sick and they said, hey, we need you to come home to take over the family business and my dad didn't hesitate. He packed us up and we left the States. But we weren't ill-willed about it. We were all excited and we were going to live our amazing life in Cyprus."

What You Will Learn:

London Papamichael talks about how his parents ultimately separated. "Slowly as the years went by, the marriage started to deteriorate and they ended up getting a divorce. So, I moved back to the United States with my mom and my sister Gabriella with my mom. My mom said, 'I don't want anything. You don't have to pay child support. Just let me have the kids and anytime you want to see them, communicate, absolutely I want you to be in their lives. I just can't do this anymore as your wife.' So, as a 10-year-old kid, you know, I said good-bye to my father, to my hero. I saw him the following two summers. The relationship, and the closeness, and the communication slowly started to deteriorate."

What impact did London's mother have in his life growing up? "During that time of losing my father and being back in the States, my mom worked three different jobs. We lived in a trailer with seven other family members in a double wide trailer. But the way I was raised and how amazing my mother was, I wasn't upset about it. I didn't think I had this amazing life taken away from me. I was sad about not seeing my dad so often. But I still had love in the household. I had name-brand clothes and I was around friends, and I was still a happy kid, because of the way my mother was and how she raised me."

London opens up about the difficult ways that life unfolded for his mother after her divorce from his father. "She ended up getting remarried and life was good, so-to-speak. But that marriage eventually deteriorated as well and I saw a side of my mother I had never seen before. She got into alcoholism to cope with her pain of the second divorce, you know? My mother, who became my hero, the sweetest, kindest woman, a mom that you want everything in a mom to be, she was that. I saw before my very eyes, a different side of my mother, you know? Life beat the hell out of her. It ultimately took her life on Mother's Day. I got a phone called at 9:32 a.m. on Mother's Day. My mother was 47-years-old. My aunt called me and said my mom passed away. She ultimately fell in her sleep by drinking too much and taking medication that she was on from her psychiatrist."

London Papamichael states the turning point in his life towards responsibility? "There was no step-dad coming to save me. We don't have a relationship. My dad's not coming to save me. There is no relationship there. I had to make a choice. Was I going to rise to the occasion and be there for my sisters the way I felt like my dad wasn't there for me and the way my mom wasn't there for me through the way that she fell apart? I chose to overcome it. I found a way to pay for a $15,000 funeral, to overcome not having any life insurance, my mom not having any money in the bank. I slowly chipped away at allowing my sisters to be my 'why' so I could ultimately understand living for myself and self-love as well."

What is London's advice for aligning yourself with a mentor? "Find somebody you admire the most. Tell them that you will work for them for free, and then tell them that you will pay them. I bet they never heard that before. I said, wow, what a powerful statement. I kept thinking about these people I would like to work with, Will Smith, Lewis Howes, Steve Weatherford, and low and behold DMed Steve Weatherford and I say the exact same statement while I decide to move to New York with a friend to live on a couch for five months because I decided to chase a passion of mine, which is helping people."

10 Goals and 10 Suitcases

What brought London Papamichael out to the west coast? "I always had this calling to go out to the west coast, all the opportunity, the weather. I just gave myself wild permission to keep pushing forward after all of the failings I had been through in life. I wrote down 10 goals before I moved to Los Angeles. I didn't know anybody on the west coast. I had never been to the west coast before. I didn't have a job lined up. But I had 10 goals, I had 10 suitcases, and I had an attitude determined to figure it out. After one year in L.A., I kept tabs with Steve Weatherford and all of those 10 goals got accomplished."

A Leap Towards Forgiveness

During this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, London Papamichael discusses how the power of forgiveness lightened his personal burdens. "I started understanding that, I need to let this pain go, and I had to figure it out. I decided to write down on a piece of paper, 'I foregive my father.' I burned it, you know, and I just told myself in my heart that it is time to forgive him and let this weight go."

Links to Additional Resources:

Mark Pattison: markpattisonnfl.com
Emilia's Everest - The Lhotse Challenge: https://www.markpattisonnfl.com/philanthropy/
London Papamichael social media: Instagram Facebook
Playbook App: my.playbookapp.io/london-papamichael/checkout?promo=london1

He's stood on top of Mt Everest 10 times and the only American to summit K2 twice. He's my guide and we chat up what to expect. Wow.... Mar 26, 2021

Show notes

Garrett Madison: High Altitude Mountain Guide and Founder of Madison Mountaineering talks about how he has managed to build an extremely rewarding career in mountaineering and overcoming the obstacles that presented themselves during the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Garrett Madison

Guest Garrett Madison defines what he does with his business Madison Mountaineering. "As a mountaineering guide service, I organize and lead expeditions all over the world, to the seven summits, which is the highest peak on each continent, and also the highest peaks in Asia, like Mount Everest, K2, which is the second highest peak, Mount Lhotse, the fourth highest peak, and others."

On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with Garrett Madison about how Madison Mountaineering was affected by COID-19. "When COVID hit, we were able a week away from flying from the US to Nepal to go on our Mount Everest expedition. Nepal closed their border. China closed their border. Mount Everest was completely shut down. It was a big surprise for everybody, obviously. Initially, we thought it would just be a couple of weeks of shutdown business and then we would be back up and running a couple of months later when we start our K2 trip in June. Whoever, COVID has endured and much of the world remained totally closed for travel."

What You Will Learn:

How was Garrett Madison able to adjust to COVID-19 business wise? "Fortunately, in late July, Mount Rainier National Park opened up and allowed commercial building again. So, we were able to operate our Mount Rainier program, which was awesome. Climbers came out from the midwest. We met up. We had perfect route conditions, perfect weather. It was a wonderful experience."

How much do local sherpa depend on mountaineering expeditions in their economy? "It is a major loss in her income for the year. Most of them rely on Everest to make the bulk of their income and some of them will do other trips with me during the year, summertime in Pakistan, K2, other peaks, autumn sometimes."

Garrett Madison shares what his experience was like in October 2020 when he went to Nepal. "In the autumn season, Nepal had announced that they were going to open September 1st and they actually postponed that out to mid-October. So, I was very excited to plan an expedition to Ombigaichan, which is a 6000-year peak about 20,800 feet...I was able to team up with very adventurous climbers who were willing to travel during the pandemic. We flew over there and we were the first commercial team to enter Nepal since the lockdown back in March. So, we had to obtain special permits and visas to arrive. We arrived in Kathmandu. It was very quiet. There were no other tourists or other climbers. We had to do a five-day quarantine, which wasn't a big deal. We had a good time."

Garrett Madison talks about the power of looking for opportunities. "One line a buddy of mine said to me is, 'we need to look for opportunities during this pandemic.' I didn't embrace it when the lockdown happened back in March. But, a few months later when I realised that things weren't going to go back to normal anytime soon I started embracing that concept of looking for other opportunities. That is how I came up with the idea to go to Ombigaichan last fall, the climb to Nepal. Then after that I organized a climb to the highest volcano in the world in Chile."

How will Everest be different this year than in the past? "I know that China isn't going to open in time for the Everest season. So, the border is closed and it will remain so for at least a couple more months. Unfortunately for the teams that normally go up the north side of Mount Everest they won't be able to go this spring. Some of them have canceled their plans. Others have shifted to the south side of Nepal that we go to. But as of now, the total count for climbers on Everest in Nepal is about half of what it was in the season of 2019, which is great for us. It means that it will be far less crowded."

Planning Expeditions

Do expedition leaders plan in advance to make sure that they are spreading their trips out so that the area doesn't become too congested? "We do a little bit of coordination between the teams and talk about when we want to plan our summit attempts. That said, there is no regulation. So, anybody can choose to go on any day that they desire. I think a lot of climbers look to the more experienced teams and expedition leaders and guilds on the mountain and say, 'when are you going? When are you submitting?' Because they want to go when the experienced climber is going. So, that creates a bit of a conflict for people like myself because I don't want to advertise which day I'm going to summit and then have a bunch of climbers also going on the same day. So, I am usually more vague about our plans."

Avoiding Impaired Judgements

During this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, Garrett Madison also talks about starting his professional guiding career in 1999 and how the decision-making of climbers can become impaired. "If we look at both Mount Everest in spring of 2019, May 22nd and 23rd, over a half dozen people lost their lives in the death zone above 26,000 feet and looking at what transpired on K2 in the last couple of weeks where five very accomplished climbers who had a lot of experience on other big mountains parrished, it is incredible tragic for them, for their families, their friends, for them. Why does that happen? When we are up in the death zone and we become impaired, climbing without oxygen, or low on resources, they don't have good support, it can become difficult to make good decisions. FOr climbers that are going after Everest, K2, or another big mountain, it is a lot of sacrifice."

Links to Additional Resources:

Mark Pattison: markpattisonnfl.com
Emilia's Everest - The Lhotse Challenge: https://www.markpattisonnfl.com/philanthropy/
Madison Mountaineering website: madisonmountaineering.com
Garrett Madison social media: Instagram

Madison Mountaineering social media: Instagram

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