HIS DAD DIED. HIS MARRIAGE ENDED. HIS ANSWER COULD HEAL YOU TOO.

Meet Mark Patterson

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Hi, I'm Kimmel Lexus and today is here with Dr. Kelly is showing his collection of spring climbs. Hi, I'm Kimmel Lexus with your ticket to adventure. I'm Kim Alexis, and I'm here in New York City. We've got a great show coming up for you, so stay tuned. So I am here today with former wide receiver in the NFL, mountaineer, entrepreneur, and motivational speaker, Mark Patterson. You've got a lot of things going on.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

There's more in that too.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

I know. And so you are definitely talking right now from the top of a mountain. Where are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Close. You know, I'm in Boise, Idaho, which is about two and a half hours away from my my main place I live, which is Sun Valley, Idaho. So at the end of the day, I'm 3,000 feet in the air right now. And where I normally live is 6,000 feet. So I came down just a little bit.

unknown 0:59

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Which is up for many other people.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

I know. I know that.

Growing Up Outside In Washington

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Well, let's start with you about your growing up, just because it helps set the tone. Did you grow up in a sports family or did you find that by yourself?

SPEAKER_00 1:13

You know, I I think at the end of the day, I grew up in Sailor, Washington. And back then things were very simple. You and I are roughly about the same age. And so I I love these little videos I've seen where back in the 80s, you know, life wasn't so complicated, but going back even further than that, um, you know, where there were three uh channels, really ABC, MBC, CBS, that was it. There was no cell phones, you know, you had to hand dial, all that kind of stuff. Communication was so much different. There were newspapers, yeah, and everything in the course has changed, you know, to these days. And so I just never felt any value around watching cartoons, the Flintstones, and and those types of things. And so I spent all my time when I wasn't in school outdoors. I grew up, like literally, my backyard was was lined up next to a play field, and we'd go out there and just play, play, play, and it was football and and it was wet nights. And I know you're in Arizona right now, and there's no time. Yeah, there's there was a lot of wet days and wet nights, and you're just out there in in t-shirts, and it wasn't a big deal. That's just what we grew up in. And so, so, anyways, um, my dad was a mountaineer. He he uh climbed all the major peaks around Washington and Oregon, um, Mount Rainier and Mount Baker, and it was really cool that I got to go up Mount St. Helens, which for those who don't know, this was I was probably 10 years old at the time, but uh in 1980 it blew its top and blew like you know 2,000 feet off the top and spread its ash all over Washington and Oregon and Idaho. And uh I climbed it before that all happened. So that was my first kind of big mountain that I climbed when I was 10 years old.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Wow. Wow. So yeah, you you loved being you thrive outdoors, you're always outdoors.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Yeah, and I think, you know, like a lot of things come innately to different people. And when it came to sports, in particular with football, I was just like born with a football in my hand. I just I my my I was very instinctual. I just happened to be faster than everybody, and I was just better than everybody. And that's not being egotistical because by the time I got to college, I wasn't that way anymore. And that's where I really had to make a decision on where I wanted my life to go.

Finding His Place In Football

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Right. So you were at the University of Washington, right? D1. And did you have that position in mind of wide receiver, or did they just slot you into something, or what happened?

SPEAKER_00 3:36

It's actually a really good question because when I was coming up, um, my sophomore and junior junior year in high school, which is where I really took off. We had a really good quarterback. He was a year ahead of me. And uh I I we together as a team, you know, we really thrived, and that's where I was really started to make a mark. And I was getting recruiting lever letters from all over. And then my senior year, we didn't have a quarterback, and so they grabbed me from receiver and put me at quarterback, and I also did well there. And so I was record recruited in different colleges, like University of Oregon, Oregon State as a quarterback, and then everywhere else as a as a wide receiver. But the University of Washington, Don James, was the Hall of Fame coach there um at the time, and and he is the one who said Mark's gonna stay at receiver no matter what, and that's what he's gonna be, and he was probably right, you know, in terms of the long-term play.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Right. So, how did you get drafted then from college?

The Combine And Draft Reality

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Well, you know, the whole thing, it's a it's a it's a process. And as we as we talk on on this day and kind of the beginning roughly of April, um a lot of the guys are going through that same process. So obviously you you have to get on a you know be in games you need to be playing and you need to get a a certain a certain um it's a draft status or whatever you want to call it, but there's all these scouts out there that create these boards, right? And so out of that there's a something called the combine. And so 336 players from around the country every year get invited to come. Now it's in Indianapolis. When I went through it, it was in uh down where you are in uh in Arizona, Arizona State University. And so the top 336 players come in, all the GMs, all the coaches, all the owners, they're all out there. It's pretty intimidating. Jerry McGuire was a great movie. I don't know if you ever saw that, but it's just a great movie. Show me the money, and that's where they went through a lot of that. And so I went through, I've met with Lee Steinberg and and all that who was in the movie, but that's what it's like. And you go down there and you do your best, and you're kind of auditioning, kind of like some of the things you used to do, right? Yeah, and yeah, and so you get out there and you do your best, and then you're giv given kind of a draft grade, and then actually draft day, anything can happen. And so I was projected to be drafted during this kind of range, and it turned out I got drafted in that range, and so it all worked out to the to the LA Raiders.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Yeah, yeah. So then you go to the LA Raiders and you stayed there a bit. You played what five total years?

Raiders To Saints And Sudden Trades

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Yeah, played five years. I was there for going into my third year, and two days before the first game, I was absolutely crushed. I was traded to New Orleans, and I I fly down there just like, what in the world just happened? Because, you know, you you go through, you find this with a lot of military people. It's just like going through training camps and summer camps and full seasons, and you get to know these guys like brothers, and you're out there blood, sweat, and tears. And then next thing you know, it's just like one day you're there in Manhattan Beach, California, living the dream. I was driving a little Porsche, life was good, and now poof, you know, I get pushed down to the South. I'd never lived in the South, I'd played down there, but never, never lived down there. New Orleans is just a different kind of town. I'm sure you've been there. Um it's not really set up for athletes, it's more food and drink. And so uh around that, it's fun, Mardi Gras, all that stuff. But uh it took me a little bit to get used to it, but it was super fun once I got going. And and it was the first winning season of all twenty twenty years at that New Orleans Saints had been a franchise was the first time they'd ever won. It was the year I happened to show up.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Ah, good. But you didn't stay there long.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

A couple years, yeah. It was over a couple years, right? You know, I mean, look, look, the NFL, yeah, um, you know, just true it it's hard. It like the the the heights that you got to in in modeling, you know, it's hard and it's competitive, and people always coming in to try to take your job, same deal as you went through. And um I, you know, as much as I'd love to say um that I was a you know tier one player, I wasn't. I had to reach my potential and my height and my ceiling and is is awful and as hard as it was, because now I'm 30 years old, 29 years old. I'm like, okay, now what? Right? And that was the hardest part. And they don't have all these programs set up today in the NFL called the trust, where it's kind of like life after football as they as they had back then. There was no no plan. So you just drove off the cliff. That was it.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Yeah. Well, yeah. So so but you did go to the Rams after?

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Yeah, that was just a quick kind of sh, you know, stop, you know, here. But that's just all part of it when you're kind of you know tailing out like that, you're kind of stop here and stop there, and you go down and you try out for this team in that time. I tried out for the Giants and Packers and other teams like that. But you know, at some point in time, you just have to shut it down, like it is what it is, and you move on.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

So you but you were smart enough to figure that out. Like you knew your potential and you knew where you peaked, and then you even though you didn't necessarily have a game plan, correct?

SPEAKER_00 8:41

It took you a while to adjust once you retired. It was a couple years, and uh, you know, Kim, it was really hard. It was really hard for me because I was really good at one thing, which is catching the football. But that doesn't really translate into how I can help a company elevate and thrive, right? And whatever they're doing. And so it it and I and the other thing that was a big wake-up call for me was that I thought, like, I'm I'm personable and I knew a lot of people, and I was pretty connected. And I thought my phone ring off the phone. Mark, you got to come in here and work for me. And nobody picked up the phone. My phone did not ring one time.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

Wow, so you lost your teammates, you were isolated, you had no structure, no schedule, no training to show up to.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

So did you continue working out like or drink beer?

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Yeah, no, I never went that direction necessarily, but you know, unfortunately, everybody's kind of got their their things, but I just and that's actually like where I sit today. Um, and people ask, well, God, how did you get to mountain climbing? Well, the thing is, I never really stopped. I always kept that in my part of my day of my structure. And so I was still fairly disciplined around that. It's just I was so frustrated because I just couldn't figure out what I want to do, but I knew I was destined to do something great. I just couldn't figure out what it was because I hadn't done anything, so I wouldn't have any of that background on what sounds fun and what doesn't, what's challenging, what's not. Yeah, but you did graduate from college, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Did you have a degree? Did you have tools?

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Yeah, I mean, but I think today, like my kids, you know, having gone through, you know, USC and Arizona, um, you know, it's just so much better set up for practical, like uh applications that you can use directly that are gonna be applicable to this next company. They have sales programs and they have my daughter, my younger daughter took um a course in social media and how to do that and post and what becomes viral and all that stuff. And I I I I really graduated in football, but uh, you know, my my my my degree was in political science. So that's just a general thing on history, and and that's great for background, but that's not teaching me any life skills on how to go in and be an asset to a company.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Right.

Life After Football Feels Empty

SPEAKER_01 10:59

So you did what during those years or two years? You studied other businesses?

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Well, yeah, and I and I, you know, I fortunately I built up I I I've been buying a number of different houses up in the Seattle area, and that's about the same time that Microsoft took off. And so I was in in the right place at the right time. So I had that going, and but that wasn't, you know, any driver because you buy a house and then you rent it out, right? And then you're kind of done with that.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

But there was just a lot of frustration around the amount of time I had and just really trying to think my way out of it. And the one thing I really learned out of uh of the whole thing was that no matter what you do, the action creates reaction, right? And and so the worst thing anybody can do is what I was doing for two years, which is feeling stuck. And and I had the money to to because I didn't really spent it, I had the money to like figure it out, but I was frustrated because I was stuck because I wasn't taking action because I didn't know what to do, and and taking a job from some like wine distributor for $21,000 a year and a cheap car, like it was not appealing after the kind of money I was making. And so um it just took me a while, but ultimately I'd run into a guy and I I started a marketing company and really kind of the the the broker in between um events uh that were going on and companies that were sponsoring those things, and so that really took off in a big way, and and I got in bed with Starbucks, and that turned out to be a uh multi-million dollar account for me for 14 years, and that really helped kind of elevate me to business and how it goes

Action Creates Reaction In Business

SPEAKER_00 12:39

and

Building A Marketing Firm With Starbucks

SPEAKER_00 12:40

a bunch of things like that. So

Toy Of The Year And Internet Pivot

SPEAKER_00 12:41

it was it was a great experience.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

And so uh how did you get into SI and digital media?

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Yeah, so I started before that, another all these things kind of have connections from kind of one to the other, the other.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

And you don't realize until later, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Like Yeah, yeah. And and and so I mean, the one thing I've always been able to at least understand is kind of market opportunity. And so I the one thing I didn't like about being this broker was that it was a commodity and anybody could do it. And so I was like a real estate agent in that anybody could use me and they used me because they like me and that and I delivered, but they could use a thousand other people too, right? There was really still gonna make six percent commission. I'm making this up, like equating that to a real estate broker, right? Right. But but um I realized I want to have something more proprietary, so I couldn't just be knockoff. So I there's a guy that I ran into at a park, and it was kind of like peanut butter and chocolate, and you mix them together, and you get Reese's peanut butter cup, right? And we were that kind of combination of that team. I was more on the business driver, and then he was more the creative. So we started this toy company, and so we we created this the category. We were the ones who actually trademarked coffee table games, and then went out and built these games, and so we ended up being this small little Seattle company, there was eight of us, and we beat out Hasbro and Mattel and the other big ones, but we won Toy of the Year in 2001 and 2022 and did uh partnerships with uh 20th Century Fox and Barnes and Noble and all kinds of stuff. And so we were really flying high, and that was going great. It was also venture-backed, we sold it ultimately, but um, out of that was kind of the time when Amazon was kind of taking off the internet. This new thing called the internet, these these new things that you could put in your hand called the cell phone, so you weren't tethered to being in your house or at the landlines, right? Right. And so um I I really I realized that the future was in the internet and not necessarily what I was doing. And so after my front porch classics, which was the name of the gaming company, um, I really started to sink my teeth in and learning everything I possibly could about how you generate money on the internet and um how you do e-commerce and all that. And so um I ended up consulting for a number of years and helping companies um build out systems and programs and e-commerce uh platforms and things like that. And then and then out of that I landed in another competing company called Scout. Um, and Scout was this kind of idea of finding local journalists to write about localized teams, mainly in college, so the University of Washington, USC, all these teams like that. Um, and then that ultimately was sold to CBS. Uh they have a which merged into this thing called 247. And then out of that, we started another company called Maven, which became Arena. And then Arena, we came together and there was an opportunity to buy Sports Illustrated. And because I had started a sports network um existing at that time through this Maven company, um we decided to blend that in with Sports Illustrated because Sports Illustrated only did national coverage, and so I could take the wood I'd built already and bolted into SI and do local coverage and national coverage at the same time. And that's really how it has been on my journey in the last 10, 12 years.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Right. Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

There's a there's a lot in there right now.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Yeah, I know it's and it's great. I mean, because you just I mean, you started out one way and you were able to pivot. So and then so now you're successful uh externally, but did you go through a life struggle with your dad and your divorce?

From Local Media To Sports Illustrated

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Yeah,

Grief Divorce And A New Mission

SPEAKER_00 16:32

I mean, that was kind of all through there, and those are part of the I wrote this book recently, Finding Your Summit, you know, and kind of the take a line below it is kind of how you navigate how you have your resilience and faith through the peaks and valleys that we all face. And and so my dad um passed away. This is probably 12 years ago um now, and I was going through um, you know, my my marital situation was falling apart. And so I can I continue to do this, and this kind of like, even though I was this was my my business life was still going forward in a positive way, those two pieces were my dad, obviously, that that was what it was. And and my my personal situation, the hardest thing is always the kids and how you navigate around that. Yeah, um, and so this now kind of like steps into the mountaineer, the seven summit thing. And and for those people don't know, it's the seven highest peaks on each continent, there's seven continents, and and so trying to navigate around that, I just needed something massive to really pull myself back out. Again, we talked about earlier, action creates reaction. Right. And so having finally it took me like a year and a half to figure this out. And one night I was walking walking my chocolate lab around Santa Monica, and it was just like, I gotta do something massive, and I've got to do something athletic, and I can't go back and still play in the NFL. So what can I do? Well, I grew up in Seattle and I've climbed 8,000 mountains or smaller, but I've done that, I've climbed Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens and these other ones. So maybe I could try to become the first NFL player to climb the seven summits and um it's no small cat. But what it did, which was so wonderful, and I just had this conversation with somebody else yesterday about their they're they're feeling the stock. And I said, when you put that B heck, that big, hairy, audacious goal out there, you know, it really changes your focus. And usually where your focus goes, your energy always follows. Like I'm my my I'm focused on I'm I'm sad, so your energy sinks. I'm focused on I'm going to Europe, right? I'm on, it's awesome. You know, you're like, hey, it's exciting. Right. And so that's usually the way these things go. And so now all of a sudden I was more focused on that than my marital thing falling apart, which I had no control over. It was gonna be what it was gonna be. And it was just time to move on and making that transition, which is always hard and it wasn't easy, but it this this big goal really helped me navigate through that.

Seven Summits As A Lifeline

SPEAKER_01 19:00

So, what was your first summit and how did you how long did you have to train for that since you were already hiking and mountaineering, anyways?

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Yeah, I mean, I think this is kind of a um it these things are always kind of a work in progress. And so um I didn't like how what's the roadmap? Like, how do you do this? And so I was in Washington, DC. We were still as a family, we were there visiting the Capitol and the White House and all that. And so I made a call from Georgetown to uh to a mountain guy that runs a service out of Mount Rainier, and so he kind of gave me the whole game plan, and we started off with Kil Maduro. I've been on that mountain actually twice, but it's really the first one that doesn't have a lot of technicality to it, so you don't have to worry about that, but it has a lot of altitude. It's actually the highest from the group the the floor, which is you start in the jungle and there's monkeys jumping around and everything, to go all the way to the top, which is 19,333 feet. And so um, it really teaches you about altitude and can your body even handle, you know, going up that high. Right. And I've been on there, like I said, a couple times and it's it's had a major effect. The first time I did it, it had an effect on me around 15,000 feet. Well, um, I started. Yeah. Well, I yeah, it I I was going along and I was into it like an hour, and all of a sudden I just bonked. I just didn't have the energy because I didn't really understand how to hydrate. You as you get higher in elevation, um, your appetite actually gets suppressed. And along with that is your you you kind of just stop drinking water, even though that I mean it's not a hard stop, but you just don't have that need to drink water, and that's how you get dehydrated, and then that's how the altitude really takes you apart.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

And so I just had to like have a big time out and sit down and drink a bunch of stuff, and then you know, jamma that my my porter at the time just he was like kidding me in the face and the shoulders and the chest, like wake up and jam this power bar down my mouth, and I I ate, I got rede-energized, and off the top we went, and it was great. Right? Yeah, yeah, but it was just a great, it was a great lesson, just in like even when you don't think you're thirsty or hungry, that you gotta drink and you gotta eat as you're going up these mountains. And then kind of that started the you know, that was the first of many. And and the journey took me almost 10 years to do to complete the Seven Mountains, just because I forgot about Mother Nature. It's not like you book a trip and you're for sure going on that day. It's just Mother Nature it's got some mind about you know, things that are going on.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

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SPEAKER_00 22:08

Well, I've had a lot of turning points. And uh yeah, so through there, the next year I was in Russia, and then after that, Australia, and then after that, I was in Argentina and Mount Kalakancagua, and

Altitude Lessons On Kilimanjaro

SPEAKER_00 22:20

there's some things that

The Long Timeline Of Nature

SPEAKER_00 22:21

went down there, and

Everest Two Months Of Suffering

SPEAKER_00 22:22

then after that was Denali, and I had to do that twice because I was in minus nine degree weather the first time I was up there. And it it's just brutal, right? So you gotta you gotta really embrace long-term suffering and being uncomfortable, right? Being comfortable when you're super uncomfortable, right? And that was one of those times. But yeah, I mean, uh the last one was Mount Everest. I was supposed to go there in 2020, but of course the whole world shut down because when you go off to these types of mountains is in late March, and of course, March of 2020 is when the whole world blew up and and the whole world really shut down, is what it did. And you couldn't travel anywhere on businesses, and it was we all we all went through that. And so we pushed everything out a year, and what people don't realize is the mindset that you gotta have because you're there sleeping on ice and rock and eating bad food for two months and very little communication to you know your loved ones and family and friends and all those things. And so just just you know, keeping your eye on the prize, and and part of the problem for me was that it's so long and you're so dehydrated, and you're living at 17,000. I mean, I was just talking about 3,000 feet, yeah, and you're at zero feet, I'm at 3,000 feet. I was living at 17,500 feet, which is you know, it's hard, it's hard living, and you know, your body is almost actually dying, but I'd lost 35 pounds and and uh you were not big to begin with. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and kind of by the time we got to two months later, and when kind of the jet stream had risen from the top, and when I when I came out of my tent late at night, I think it was midnight, and they were late getting us up, and it was a big rush, rush, rush. Um, there was a 45 mile per hour wind blowing left to right with all these little ice particles. I didn't have any goggles on it, so it ripped out my left eye. So, you know, when you're supposed to be at your best when your best is required, and I was at my my worst when my best was required. I'm hungry, I hadn't eaten. The three days before that it was in a cyclone stuck at 23,500 feet in a in a in a 23 or uh 35 degree uh slope, um, couldn't move in your tent, stuck. It was awful. And then the third day, it was sun came back out, and off we went to the camp four, 26,500 feet. And uh, you know, it was it was a big time challenge to try to get uh you're going straight up. I'm talking straight up on the most one of the most deadly mountains in the world. I haven't eaten, I'm down 35 pounds, I'm blonde in one eye, and you know, trying to get up there was one thing, and trying to give it to get back down was another, you know, amazing uh thing that I had to go through. That wasn't fun.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

Yeah, yeah. You can come down one of two ways, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:13

Roll down or yeah, that's pretty much it.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

So after that, now you've done seven summits, and I mean, and you did this voluntarily. I mean, I know crazy. Now, during this time, while you were up in these tents and sleeping in miserable conditions, you were also you still maintained your businesses somehow.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, still running Sports Illustrated and and doing that. And um, I just told those guys from day one, like, this is what I'm doing. So you can fire me, you can do whatever you want, but this is what I'm doing. And I didn't, I didn't, I uh earlier said it took me almost 10 years to complete the seven summits, and then after that I climbed the Matahorn and the Iger and Codapox and Grand Teton, and you know, I've done all these other ones too. But one

Snowblind On The Roof Of Earth

SPEAKER_00 26:00

uh one time every year I go off and do these mountains, and that's just what I do. Now, the thing that makes Everest so much different that is can j uh threaten your job security is that rather than go off for 10 days or 14 days or something like that, you're now talking two months, and that's a big chunk of time. Right. And for a lot of employers, they're not cool with that. But I was just like, this is too important in my life to complete that if I have to go find something else, then I will. But fortunately it didn't it didn't play that way and they were cool, and I came back and you know kept going.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

So what was that feeling to hit your seventh summit and you're up at the top? Did was it like I did it?

SPEAKER_00 26:43

Or I mean, how did I never gonna go up there, so I need to know what's well I think there's there's a variety of ways that you can do it and do it the right way. And because I've been there for so long and I just described, you know, kind of my my my physical condition, right? You know, and and now what literally happened is by the time I got up there, there were six other people and they were from some other country, and then they went down, and then my Sherpa only cared about taking his own little uh selfies, and then he started to go down, and then I started running out of oxygen. I'm sitting there looking down on top of the world, and you know, I'm I'm I'm snowblind, I haven't eaten in three days, my I'm running low on oxygen, my Sherpa's taken off. I'm literally the last guy sitting on top of the world, and I'd been climbing for 10 hours throughout the night just to get to that point. I knew I still had another eight to nine to get back down, and I also knew that I'd be stepping over my tent mate, Don Cass from Antarctica, who you know, this is from 2019, when later that same year he'd gone up to the top race's hand and fallen over dead, and he was laying right there, right? So it's just like you gotta be locked in and you gotta have that mindset, like you just gotta get back down to Camp Ford, 26,500 uh uh feet, and find a way just to keep going. And I just want to roll back and just go to sleep and just take like a 15-minute nap. And that's where so many people die, and they don't understand that you know, the that that that when you get to the top of some of these mountains, you're only halfway there. You're not like, oh, I've done it, and then you're you're done, right? So like when you run a marathon at the end of your 26 miles, you're done, but you don't stop at mile 13 and go, I'm done, because you got another 13 to go. And that's kind of the same mindset, but a lot of people start rejoicing, and that's one of the reasons why most people die on the way down, not on the way up.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

Wow, crazy, crazy, crazy.

The Summit Is Only Halfway

SPEAKER_01 28:38

So you came back to normal normalcy and talk about that. Talk about like what's going on now.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Yeah, so um, so well, I continue to climb, which is the biggest thing. I still had aspirations, and I shifted a lot of that to more rock, so going straight up, which Iger, by the way, or the is terrifying, but the Matahorn is super terrifying. You know, you're inverted and you're going upside down and all that stuff. But really, um can yeah, continue to do, you know, mountains and it's fun with the adventure travel. So that was great. That was number one. Um, number two is which is sort of a life life change, is about four months ago. I left uh Sports Illustrated, um, and I've moved on and and I'm out, I've done been doing quite a bit of uh speaking. I finished my book. I've got this thing called the Seven Summits Summit in Sun Valley, Idaho in September. Uh I've got an amazing bunch of speakers. I think your buddies with um Marielle Hemiway might be. Yeah. Yep. So she's gonna be out there speaking with me. She's super cool. I know her, like I know you, and and I've got others too that are gonna come and do that. And so we're we're looking forward. It's just a whole yeah. So what it what it is, a Seventh Summit Summit is is really this idea that um I I've gotten to know a lot of cool people around you know the country, yourself included. And many of these are on the public stage and speaking about different subjects. I've got a guy who's a former quarterback, and so he talks about leadership. I've got a blue angel pilot, he talks about precision and excellence, and Mariel, of course, with you know the five different suicides, might even be seven suicides in her family, including her famous uh grandfather, Ernest Hemingway, maybe the most famous writer in American history, and really how to navigate around that. Mine is really, you know, how you you climb out of valleys and you know get to your peaks. But rather than just get in a in a room um and talk, which most people do, I just got back from a talk in Austin in Seattle. Um, but we're also gonna get people out in the in the mountains and and then we're gonna have like a beginner and intermediate and advanced level. And so that's where we really think the connection comes and we want to create that community. So it's not just about talking about mindset, but we're gonna get people out and do it, and then we have a give back to higher ground local uh nonprofit in Sun Valley. So it's gonna be really cool.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

So, and yes, to get to your higher ground, so that is a it a foundation that helps epileptics. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 31:16

Well, yeah, my my yeah, my my daughter, no, well, indirectly, my my daughter has uh epilepsy now. She's she's been seizure free for the last two years, and and and that's just a whole nother story, which I'd love to share with you sometime. But um, their main goal is to bring in ex-veterans who have been um banged up in a big time way, and people that are hurt and really empower them with doing, right? Skiing down the mountain. So a lot of times, like once people have become amputees and things like that, you know, it's just like my life's over. And they're like, no, it's not. We're gonna go river rafting, fly fishing, mountain biking, and they have all these adaptive uh type equipment. So it's just they've been a

Leaving Sports Illustrated And Speaking

SPEAKER_00 31:58

great alignment with me, you know, for a number of years now. And so um, they're active in the community and it just seemed like the perfect fit.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

Yeah. Oh, that sounds great. So that's part of your philanthropy. And you and I met at a charity golf tournament, so you do those also.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

I think we're meeting next week too in in uh South Carolina somewhere, right?

SPEAKER_01 32:19

Yeah, I'll see you there.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

Yeah, hoodie and the blowfish. Can't wait for that.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

I know. I can't believe that you golf and also, I mean, and before golf, like when you're at the hotel and you're sitting there in the lobby in the morning drinking coffee, Mark sneaks by and he's not a run in the middle of nowhere or some seedy place wherever we're at. And I'm like, I know he comes back, like whatever, and then he goes and plays golf and does I mean your energy level is just amazing.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

I know, I know I bug a lot of people with it too, but that's just what I do. Yeah, and yeah, I'll tell you what, you know, it helps me like when you're talking about I've got a lot of projects going on right now, and I've I've I've got some other things I can't talk about today, but um, there there's a lot on the table, and I'm able just uh my my brain works in like multiple panes, like on your computer, and I'm able to accomplish a lot of different things during the day, kind of running 100% all in one. And it it really to me, it it starts with how you for

Seven Summits Summit And Community

SPEAKER_00 33:20

me personally, it's like how I do something is how I do everything. And so starting every single morning at 5 30 and out the door, this morning I climbed up this mountain behind me that you can't kind of see, but you know, it's just exhilarating, it really helps me clear my mind. And and I think other people get that from yoga or some form of meditation, but that's my meditation. Really, I get really clear and things become um crystallized, and creative things come out too on like how do I approach this problem or do this or do that.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

So and that's so different from football when you think back on that, right? Like you didn't need to be creative necessarily in football, you just needed to figure out where to eat a catch the ball.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

Yeah, no, it's actually a really good observation, and and you're right. Um, and it and it because it was it there's more of a uh objective because I was always trying to beat somebody across from me, right? So you're which leads to winning the game as a team and everything else, but individually you have to do your part. Right. But I think it was more the training mindset of the and the benefits and how far I've been able to go doing all these different things by just trying to say yes to everything and and being open to all opportunities. Um and and then as I came out of football in that really hard two-year transition I had of of not knowing what to do, it just really helped me like problem solve as I've been out there through my the divorce stuff, right? My dad dined, you know, passed away. My the my daughter's epilepsy, you know, just just I'm I just need to get out in the mountains where there's butterflies fluttering and bees buzzing and birds chirping.

SPEAKER_01 35:01

Butterfly kind of guy.

SPEAKER_00 35:03

Well, I know, but it's just more the like that the it's just like the peace in nature that you're not connected to your phone and just sitting there. And I think that's one of the big mistakes so many people do is they sit and they don't move. And so I think through movement, there's a lot of creativity, I guess is what I'm trying to say.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

Yes, yeah, yes, yeah. For me, it used to be running, and then my knee, you know, you start to get older and my knee got banged up. And so it's like, darn. So yeah, you have to find different outlets and figure out what is it and what drives me and what do I need in order to be the most fully functional person. And it sounds like you did that.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

Well, yeah, I I gotta tell you one more Everest story because it it's because I'm kind of matching it with your knee, you know, your knee not uh healthy enough for you to run anymore and trying to figure out different ways how you can get that. So when I was on Everest and I was probably three weeks into it, we were going up. You did these

Higher Ground And Adaptive Adventure

SPEAKER_00 35:55

rotations because you're trying to build red blood cells, so you keep going up and back down, and red blood cells carry oxygen around your body. So the higher you get up with a third less oxygen, you can actually survive it. If you just went right to the top on day one, you die. Okay. Okay. So um I was coming back down after like the first three weeks I was there, and uh I was probably at about 19,500, and I was climbing on this ladder that they had set. It was a 20-foot ladder, and I was kind of climbing down into a crevasse so I could climb back out and keep navigating my way down. And I had this really heavy backpack, and so I was on this ladder, you know, I've got spikes on my feet, cramp on some of my my boots, and it the the weight of my pack pulled me back, and and I went, it ended up going upside down on my head all the way down this ladder, and probably 17, 18 feet, and uh, you know, the I hit the ice, it's rock hard like cement, and just ripped up my back. I it was a miracle that I didn't like blow out my shoulder or break your neck or break my neck. Yeah, it really was. It was it was it was amazing. And uh, but uh when I ripped up my back, um I was able to complete the journey, but it it it it it moved some cord, spinal cord thing um in my lower back where I can't run anymore, kind of like you were you were talking about. Yeah. So I've I've just turned into the master power walker, you know, and just try to get my steps in the day that way. And that's really I think over the long from like here out, that longevity for the parts of your knees and your ankles and your hips. I think it's it's kind of a blessing in disguise, but that's one of the things through, you know, an unfortunate accident that I was able to recover from. I haven't been able to run, and that's okay. I'm okay with that.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

Yeah, we have to, as we get older, we have to be okay that certain things don't work the same. We have to pivot. I mean, we have to just make it work.

unknown 37:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

I think some people don't. As you said, they may just say, Oh, well, I must be done. But uh for us, it's it's good to get out there, and I think people need to hear that message to get out there, pick yourself back up, stay moving, action is important, and um you can do whatever you put your mind to. I'm just so amazed at your life and what you've gone through, and really appreciate you coming on.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

So Yeah, it was well, thank you. I mean, it's an honor to be able to be on your podcast. And by the way, what is the name of your podcast? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

Unexpired. So we're change meets strength or change means strength. So unexpired is the name that I've picked. A lot of names were taken, but that really spoke to me because I'm very big on longevity like you, and want to keep what I've got. I mean, we're here to keep what we have and try to even make it better if possible in different ways. And unexpired also means like I was retired at 27 from modeling, so then what do you do? Just like your life. And so that is

Movement As Meditation And Creativity

SPEAKER_01 38:52

my mission now on this show is to talk to different people about what made you move forward and where was your motivation and how did you how were what were you thinking about? And so there's been some great stories that have come out of it.

SPEAKER_00 39:06

Yeah, yeah. You know, the great that the gift that you're gonna get, just like I've got, I've done almost 300 uh podcasts on my Funny Your Summit podcast. And when I interview people like you and uh many others, it's amazing the gift that you give back based on their resilience on overcoming whatever they've had to overcome. I mean, it's been amazing the amount of people I've been able to talk to and their story. Some are famous, some aren't, and just breaking down in tears and you know, just really understanding the humanity of what certain people have in their life, and like you said, how they overcome and and move forward with dignity and strength and all those things.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

Yeah, and everybody goes through something. And I think it helps when we share that because they look at us like oh, you were an NFL player, you had everything, you know, and the model, and oh, you don't have problems. Well,

Unexpired And Closing Invitation

SPEAKER_01 40:00

yeah, we all do. So it's a matter of overcoming them and um pivoting. I mean, just really looking around and figuring out what's next. And you've done a wonderful job with that.

SPEAKER_00 40:14

Well, my big, my big big goal for next year is to plan the masters, even though I don't think it's that might be a long shot, but I at least you can you can you you can hope and you can wish.

SPEAKER_01 40:26

Right, right, right. Okay, well, you go for that. I'm not gonna that's not one of my goals. So, Mark Pettison, thank you so much for being on.

SPEAKER_00 40:35

Thank you. It's great. You're really really good at what you do here.

SPEAKER_01 40:38

Thank you. All right. Thanks for watching the show. If you have any questions for me or you want any more information, go to kimalexis.com.