Finding Your Summit
Signature Keynote
Finding Your Summit
How to define a summit worth ten years, break it into stages you can actually survive, and keep moving when the route disappears. Mark Pattison’s flagship talk, built on the true story of the Seven Summits.
Praised by leaders and audiences at Google, Harvard, Sports Illustrated, FLUKE, Q Sciences and EO.
- 7Summits climbed
- 10 yrsTo finish the goal
- Emmy2022 award winner
- TEDxFeatured speaker
As featured in
The premise
Everyone has a summit. Almost no one finishes the climb.
It took Mark nearly ten years to become the first NFL player to complete the Seven Summits. Not because the mountains got harder, but because life did, injuries, doubt, a career that would not stay out of the way, and years where the goal quietly slipped to the bottom of the list.
Finding Your Summit is the story of what it actually takes to finish something that big: how to define a goal worth ten years of your life, how to break it into stages you can survive one at a time, and how to keep moving on the days the route disappears and quitting would be completely reasonable.
This is not a highlight reel. It is a working model for anyone chasing a goal that will not fit inside a single quarter.
Ideal audiences
Built for anyone chasing a summit that will not fit in a quarter
1
Annual meetings
A season-opening keynote that sets an ambitious goal and gives the room a way to actually reach it.
2
Leadership offsites
A framework for leaders setting multi-year strategy, not just next quarter’s targets.
3
Sales kickoffs
A story about staying in the climb long after the excitement of day one wears off.
4
Associations and conferences
A universal story about long-term goals that lands with any professional audience.
5
Universities
A story students and young professionals use to define their own version of a summit.
6
Anyone facing a long climb
Built for audiences chasing a goal that will take years, not weeks, to reach.
The outcome
What your audience walks away with
- A method for defining a summit worth years of effort, not just this quarter’s target.
- A way to break a huge goal into stages small enough to actually survive.
- The discipline to keep moving on the days the route disappears and quitting looks reasonable.
- Permission to take ten years if that is what the goal actually requires.
Signature keynote
Finding Your Summit: the full arc
Keynote – 60 / 45 / 30 min – fully customizable
What the room actually gets
Mark walks the audience through the full decade, the goal, the setbacks that nearly ended it, the moment he almost let it go, and the final summit push, then reverse-engineers the framework into steps your audience can apply to their own long-term goals.
- How to define a summit worth years of your life
- Breaking a ten-year goal into stages you can survive one at a time
- What to do in the years the goal falls to the bottom of the list
- Reading the moment quitting looks reasonable, and pushing through it anyway
- Building a support team for a climb that takes longer than expected
- Knowing the summit when you finally reach it
Your speaker
Meet Mark Pattison
Mark Pattison played in the NFL for the Raiders, Saints, and Rams, spent a decade as a Sports Illustrated executive, and became the first NFL player to complete the Seven Summits with his ascent of Mount Everest.
His climb became the NFL Films documentary Searching for the Summit, which won a Sports Emmy in 2022. He also wrote the book Finding Your Summit and hosts the Finding Your Summit podcast, but this keynote is where the story was built to be heard first, live, on your stage.
- 10 years To complete the Seven Summits
- First NFL player to climb all Seven Summits
- 2022 Sports Emmy
- TEDx speaker
- Author Finding Your Summit
Proof
What audiences say about this talk
★★★★★
“Mark’s words resonated across the class to people from all walks of life, which led to a lively discussion that went over time. I would highly recommend Mark to anyone looking for a guide as they find their own summit.”
Chris JamiesonHarvard University
★★★★★
“As a speaker at our convention, Mark Pattison was phenomenal. The way he correlated his climbing experiences to life lessons was masterful, inspirational, and impactful. His story of grit and determination is a story everyone needs to hear.”
Marc WilsonCEO, Q Sciences
★★★★★
“Your career is phenomenal, but more than your professional milestones shine through. Your passion, your why, your commitment to the journey, those are the gems that shine brightly.”
LexFLUKE, Xcelerate 2026
★★★★★
“Thank you so much for sharing your story, your energy and passion with us today in class. It was an absolute breath of fresh air and a reminder of what it sounds like and looks like to be in harmony with purpose.”
Danielle KaufmanHarvard University
★★★★★
“As a longtime member of Entrepreneurs’ Organization, I’ve been blessed to partake in many amazing experiences that have inspired me to elevate my thinking, my leadership and myself. My most recent Transcend Forum retreat was no exception.”
EO MemberTranscend Forum Attendee
★★★★★
“Great to be inspired by Mark Pattison, former NFL player who climbed seven of the world’s highest summits as a personal return to accomplishment.”
Terrence O’HanlonFLUKE Corporation
Watch the talk
The message, in his own words
Questions
Booking Finding Your Summit, answered
Is this the same story as the podcast and book?
Same underlying journey, built as a live keynote. The talk is a distilled, staged arc designed to work in 30 to 60 minutes, not a reading of the book.
How long is the keynote and can it be customized?
Choose 60, 45, or 30 minutes. Mark tailors the framing and takeaways to your event’s theme and the specific long-term goal your audience is chasing.
Who is this keynote best for?
Any audience setting an ambitious, multi-year goal, annual meetings, leadership offsites, sales kickoffs, associations, and universities.
How do we check availability and book?
Use the button below to send your event date, audience, and goals. You will hear back quickly with availability and next steps.
Explore more
Other keynotes from Mark Pattison
Bring the full story to your stage.
Give your audience a working model for chasing a goal that will not fit in a single quarter. Check Mark’s availability for your date today.