Finding Your Summit

Randy Hetrick is the Founder and CEO of successful fitness company, TRX. He is a former U.S. Navy Seal who served for 14 years on both Seal Team 1 and the legendary Seal Team 6. Growing up, Randy was a competitive wrestler and rower, which he says are “grinder sports that no one gives a damn about”. Interestingly, statistics show that athletes with backgrounds in these two sports have the highest...

Trent Dilfer is a former NFL quarterback (14 years), Pro Bowler and winning quarterback of Super Bowl XXXV with the Baltimore Ravens. After retiring from the NFL, he spent 9 years as an ESPN Analyst. Trent is the Head Coach of Elite 11, a quarterback camp featuring 24 of the nation’s best high school quarterbacks. In January, Dilfer was named Head Football Coach of Lipscomb Academy in Nashville, T...

Blair Kellison, the CEO of Traditional Medicinals on living life with purpose after facing a career crisis. In 1995, Kellison, a former CPA with Ernst & Young and Brand Manager at Nestle, walked into 19th Street Natural Foods Co-Op in Los Angeles and his life was forever changed. He realized that just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean that you like it, so he took a 70% pay cut and went...

Garrett Madison of Madison Mountaineering is a world-class mountaineer and guide and also holds multiple high altitude mountaineering world records. His records include first person to summit Mt. Everest and Lhotse in less than 24 hours, the only person to climb Mt. Everest and Mt. Lhotse in a day 3 times, first person to guide a successful ascent of K2, first American to summit K2 more than once...

Ed Molitor of The Molitor Group and Athletics of Business Podcast is a former NCAA basketball player for Creighton University and Basketball Coach at Texas A&M University. He founded The Molitor Group in 2016 to help ambitious individuals, organizations, and teams think, act, & execute at an elite level. After leaving the sport of basketball, Ed went through a period of his life where he struggled...

On this gripping podcast episode of Finding Your Summit, Kechi Okwuchi shares her experience as one of two survivors from a major plane crash in 2005, and she discusses the role that music played in her long journey to recovery. Kechi's compelling story is one of hope & perseverance; I have no doubt you’ll take as much inspiration from this episode as I have.

In this REWIND episode, Mark and Tom discuss moving faster with less chaos. "We must stop, slowdown and think," says Tom. When companies are too focused on efficiencies, organizations lose intentionality. These automated approaches to life and work invite chaos. To be nimble and fast, leaders have to create the right kind of speed, and Tom helps folks develop that clean speed. Tom suggests buildin...

Jean is the first and longest tenured female news anchor in US history. Graduating from Stanford in 1966 Jean mapped out a plan to continue her education and earn a PhD. Life got in the way and launched her on her remarkable career. Staring with KING 5 TV in Seattle in 1968 Jean's first job with the documentary film production company. A week later, the documentary production capability was dissol...

Cody grew up in a Stockton, a little town in western Kansas. His graduating class was 27 people. Though his upbringing rural, his grandparents were entrepreneurs. In a one stoplight town, they owned the bowling alley and cafe for the town. His entreprenurial grandparents started him on his path. Today Cody is the Co-Founder of Advisors Excel. In just over 10 years, his comany has moved from the ki...

Sheryl O’Loughlin has always been on the move. As a child she was too impatient to slow down to pour milk in a glass. As an adult she’s lead companies so often, it seems like her first name is CEO. In 1998 Sheryl joined Clif Bar as the Executive Vice President of Brand. Next, Sheryl was the CEO. She grew the brand to a massive world-wide hit. She introduced the world to Luna Bars recognizing that...

Sean Evangelista is a retired Navy SEAL. Today he’s a clothing company founder-it’s called 30 Seconds Out, he’s also a ski patrol member and the kind of guy that’s just going to keep on going. An Unsettle Youth Sean grew up with adversity. His mom struggled early in Sean’s life to find reliable work. He also had a drug addict dad who left home when Sean was three. With 75 cents in her pocket, Mom...

Anthony Allen and Mark Pattison were teammates at the University of Washington. Before that they were cross-town rivals. Anthony attended Garfield High School in Seattle. Anthony also played for the Washington Redskins. During his time in DC he scored a touchdown on an 88-yard pass. Finally, in 1987, Anthony and the Redskins won Super Bowl XXII. Anthony and Mark caught up on memories, kids and car...

Akshay Nanavati is a Marine, entrepreneur, author and ultra-runner. His life was simultaneously saved and challenged when he joined the Marines. He saw purpose in serving in the Marine Corps Akshay found something that worked, Fearvana. He defines Fearvana as the bliss that results from engaging our fears to pursue our own worthy struggle. By redefining his fears as opportunties for growth and he...

Mark, recently bagged summit six, the Vinson Masiff. Vinson is probably the most challenging mountain to get to in terms of logistics, weather and temperature. Vinson is located on Antartica. Here’s a list of things that live on the continent–penguins–that’s it, nothing else, no plants, not trees, not even bugs. Suffice to say, the South Pole is an inhospitable place to spend a few weeks outside.

Bernie Swain, his wife and Harry Rhodes Jr co-founded the Washington Speakers Bureau. It took 8 years of working, gathering speakers, building their business to get to the moment when they truly arrived. They'd met with a speaker they wanted to sign. Everyone in DC wanted him, Swain's company wasn't a front-runner; there were bigger more established firms. President Reagan's Chief of Staff called...

Ta'u Pupu'a is one of nine siblings. His family originally from the Kingdom of Tonga emigrated to Salt Lake City. Ta'u at 6'5", earned a full-ride scholarship to play defensive line for the local Weber State University football team. His football career continued to provide promise. In 1995 he was drafted by the Cleveland Browns (soon to be the Baltimore Ravens). Unfortuantely, that's as far as he...

Kristy Sobel is a Prize Fighter. The Prize she battles for is life. Her world was completely changed when she was hit in a car accident. From this crash: her unborn daughter died, she had her spine crushed, a subsequent procedure failed and nearly killed her again. She lost her marraige. On the edge of life or death, she pointed her car towards certain death and hit the gas. Moments before the end...

Powder Matt Mosteller’s life changed in the mountains. Sitting in a station wagon alone, waiting…Matt wanting some fresh air opened his car door. A ski instructor on the way up the mountains saw Matt and said, “Come on, I’m about to give a lesson, come with me and I’ll teach you how to ski.” Matt’s life began to change at that moment. He didn’t have gear, he didn’t have a real reason or guide unti...

Mariel Hemingway Mariel as a child, experienced tumult constantly, yet grew up surrounded by beauty in Ketchum, Idaho. Being part of the Hemingway family meant exposure to drug and alcohol abuse, mental disorders; plus, seven separate suicides within the family. Everyone was damaged and self-medicating to cope. Mariel made a documentary Running From Crazy that chronicles that tumultuous upbringing...

Rebecca Rusch is known as the Queen of Pain. She was given that nickname by her peers who've marveled at her determination and focus despite the challenges presented in a given moment. Rebecca is a 7 time world champion across a number of disciplines.

Stephen is a mountain climber. In 2010 he ascended El Capitan. That feat by itself is a challenge, but something done by thousands of people. However, Stephen has Cerebral Palsy making his ascent a singular accomplishment From a young age, Stephen's neurological disorder earned him no special treatment at home. His parents treated him just like his four siblings. His life changed at nine years old...

Tim Kennedy is a warrior of the first order. He's a Ranger, Special Forces, sniper, Green Beret, 19B (Weapons) soldier with several deployments. He's also a championship grade UFC fighter, at one point he ranked as high as 5th in the world, who’s twice fought for the title. Growing up, Tim's parents exposed him to a variety of pursuits. He learned to cook, shoot, fight, wrestling and play piano. A...

Everyone knows Shelley is a pro. When life creates adversity, Shelley gets simple. She creates a plan and keeps working. Smith defeated cancer. When she lost her hair from treatments, she appeared on camera bald, enjoying not having to worry about the wind messing up her hair. While covering the Warriors, Shelley had a stroke in the team's locker room. When her mom passed, she got back to work on...

Todd Orr is an outdoors man. Oct 1, 2016 About two weeks prior to the open of Elk season, Todd went in searching for prime hunting locations. Just before dawn, about three miles away from his truck, armed with a pistol and bear spray... He sees a mother bear and two cubs. She turns and heads up the hill, thinking this is a good bear that doesn't like humans, Todd gave her a minute to get away, he...

Mike Hamill - Climbing The Seven Summits Mike Hamill is the founder and lead guide for Climbing the Seven Summits. His company focuses on the 7 summits, and a few other select mountains that Mike finds special. Mike gets clients to the top over 90% of the time, more importantly, he always gets his clients home safe. Mike cut his teeth climbing in the White and Adirondack mountains of the northeast...