Chief Endurance Officer

CEO_Lisa Thompson
===

[00:00:00]

Greg McDonough: Well, welcome to the show. Today we've got a super impressive athlete. She is a worldclass, world class mountaineer, endurance coach, motivational speaker, with nearly two decades of high altitude climbing experience. She is the second American woman to summit K2, the world's deadliest peak, and has stood atop Everest and the six of the seven summits.

She's a breast cancer survivor whose resilience and determination. Drive her passion for pushing boundaries and inspiring others. The author of Finding Elevation Fear and Courage on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain Founder of Alpine Athletics. Please welcome Lisa Thompson. Lisa, it's great to finally have you on the show.

Lisa Thompson: Thanks, Greg. It's really great to be here. I'm always a little [00:01:00] humbled when I hear just all of those accolades listed back. To back. It always gives me a little pause, but thank you for having me.

Greg McDonough: It is, it is an honor, and I find like those accolades, especially over time, when you say 'em all in one sentence, it feels like a lot.

Lisa Thompson: It does.

Greg McDonough: A 10 year period, it kind of, and it just kind of teaches us a little bit about perspective again. before we jump into that, Lisa, I would love to know how your endurance mindset has impacted your life Unexpectedly.

Lisa Thompson: That is a good question. I think that for me it's shown up in a lot of ways, probably related less to physical activity, but more to like leadership. Um, and I think that sometimes is subtle, you know, when we're talking about physical, uh, pursuits. Or activities. There's a lot of grit involved in that, and I think that is true in leadership too.

But I think [00:02:00] it's also true that when it comes to leadership, endurance means pacing and emotional regulation and being able to adapt when things don't go exactly the way we planned them to go, which happens often. Um. I'd really try to embody those same principles when I'm leading, as I do when I'm in high altitude environments, to think about what I can control, accept the things that I can't, and stay connected to what's important to me and what my goals are around that endeavor.

So it was. Interesting to think about it in those terms because I've so often thought about endurance in terms of a physical pursuit or activity. But I think when you're an entrepreneur, um, endurance is also a, a key principle or a skill to have.

Greg McDonough: Yeah, the similarities are are parallel, right? It's um. And, and

there,

there's

a

couple

Lisa Thompson: Okay.

Greg McDonough: you've left me as [00:03:00] breadcrumbs and one was an emotional regulation and where my mind went when you mentioned that not just your own emotional regulation, but those of

the

others that

you're

leading,

like

Lisa Thompson: Hmm.

Greg McDonough: do you interpret emotion, their emotional reaction, where they're gonna be like, where are, where's their state of mind? Lisa, as, as a leader and as a, you know, a mentor. How have you sort of handled that? You know, kind of reading the room, understanding where people are as well. Let's leave it at that and then I'll go into the next version of that

Lisa Thompson: Yeah. That shows up for me a lot as a coach. And you know, I have this very fortunate position to be a coach because I've experienced a lot of things and it's been important to me to share those things in terms of climbing and skills, um, with other climbers who, who endeavor to do similar things. And I find myself sometimes like.

So I was taught by sort of [00:04:00] hard men, like mountain men. Those are the people who taught me how to be a mountaineer, where there was like no room for screwing up like at all. And for a long time, I emulated those things as a coach and as a leader in the mountains. And I find that that can very often be my default approach to a situation.

And I have to. I think about my own emotional regulation and tell myself that I am here in order to help coach people and, and share what I've learned. And I think the best way to do that is to have a little more compassion in the situation. And I will remind myself also when it comes to climbing in the mountains, we, we all started from the same place, which was basically zero.

The reason that I spend so much of my time coaching is that I want to help elevate and educate other [00:05:00] people, and that means meeting them where they're at and thinking about how stressful it must be for them to wake up at four in the morning when it's cold and windy and have to get packed and eat. And you know, if they're 10 minutes late, that's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

And it's important for me to understand where they're at and where they're coming from and what it feels like to be stressful for them. And then the sort of ripple effect of that, I feel, is that hopefully they continue to pay that forward and to share what they've learned as a mountaineer someday with someone else who's, you know, coming at it from a learning situation perspective.

But I think it starts with my own emotional regulation first.

Greg McDonough: difficult. Um, Lisa, just to clarify, are you leaders who don't climb? Are you only coaching climber? Like,

like

give us

a

sense

of

what,

of who

Lisa Thompson: Yeah. Yeah. So I coach climbers of [00:06:00] all, um, backgrounds, all levels of ability, whether they wanna go on their first, you know, fourteener in ca in Colorado, or they're climbing Mount Everest. And, you know, through the course of coaching people, and those engagements usually last for nine months, sometimes, you know, multiple years.

I get to know what those athletes are about very intimately. Um, sometimes I think I cross the line into being a therapist a little bit. So the short answer to your question is I'm coaching athletes, but there's very often, as you said, there's this carryover between what we pursue outside of the office and you know, what we do day to day in our jobs.

And so it's, it's fun for me to be able to connect those things for people.

Greg McDonough: That's helpful. Very helpful. So I'm also curious, we, we just talked about, you know, meeting these climbers where they are right. And having this emotional and [00:07:00] compassion for them.

And, you know,

Lisa Thompson: Yep.

Greg McDonough: might

not be that big of a deal if you're at base camp, but if you're summiting it's probably a different story, I would guess.

Lisa Thompson: Yep.

Greg McDonough: diving in a little bit deeper. Like how, how have you, what tools do you use to understand where somebody. Is on day one or month one.

Lisa Thompson: Yeah, I think for me it's just observation and it's nothing fancy really, but it's like observing how people are showing up. Like do I sense stress, voice, do I see them like sighing a lot or you know, maybe being short with other people on the team. And when it comes to people that I've coached, I get to, you know, as I said, know them pretty intimately so I have a sense of what their sort of baseline is.

But I was, um, I don't really often guide in the mountains, but I was this summer and there was a woman, you know, we were doing our gear check and she was, [00:08:00] I could tell just like not really tuned in with what I was saying. She was sort of like, you know, playing with her gear separately from the team. And it occurred to me that she was probably being very, probably feeling very overwhelmed by this situation, by the mountain that she was gonna climb the next day.

And so I, I really think it's just that observation and thinking about how other people must feel in a given situation. And, you know, as we sort of ascend through our careers, something that feels very natural to us can be incredibly. Unknown and scary to somebody else, and being aware of that I think helps us all lead

Greg McDonough: I, I think you're spot on. And, and you, you hear that when people say, you know, I do long distance triathlon, and every day someone's like, goes, Greg, I don't understand how you can do that. And it's probably similar to, you know, I couldn't even imagine the big summits, but somebody, uh, a mountain, right.

Lisa Thompson: right.

Greg McDonough: [00:09:00] Um. But it's the training and the preparation and all that work that you do when nobody's watching that allows you to get that performance and when you need that performance to happen.

so take us, take us back, Lisa. How'd you get into this? Were you sort of a climber as a kid? Were you always on the back of the couch and jumping off of things and like, how did all this sort of unravel for you?

Lisa Thompson: Yeah. Um, no. The answer to those questions is no. I grew up in central Illinois in the US so, you know, one of the flattest states in our country. Um, I spent my time, I, I did enjoy being outside as a kid, but there were no mountains, you know, I didn't even understand what a mountain was until I was probably.

A teenager and took a trip to Colorado and was just like overwhelmed by these incredible peaks that seemed so, um, so unapproachable really at that point in my [00:10:00] life. And even that didn't provoke me to start climbing or even, you know, studying mountains. So I didn't grow up reading about pioneering mountaineers like Tenzing Norge or Sure.

Edmund Hillary. But eventually I moved from the Midwest to Seattle, which is where I live today. And here, climbing is a big part of the culture, right? We are surrounded by beautiful peaks, multiple ranges, glaciated peaks, rock peaks, like, you know, it's just a part of how people recreate in the Seattle area and in the Pacific Northwest.

And so I moved here from the Midwest. And my peers would go climbing on the weekends and they never asked me to join them. And it wasn't that I was attracted to the mountains or wanted to go climbing necessarily, but I saw spending time with them in the mountains as a way to be seen as more capable in the office.

And so instead of just doing what today feels like the [00:11:00] logical thing, which would just be to raise my hand and say, Hey, how about I join you some weekend? I just decided that I would go climb my own mountains, not knowing, of course, what that even meant, and definitely not where it would lead me. Um, and so the first big mountain that I climbed was Rainier, which is the highest peak in Washington state.

A beautiful 14,000 foot glaciated peak. And I realized how important it was to plan and prepare, and w. Near the summit of that peak, I got this incredible sense of accomplishment and that feeling. And at that time it was also related to proving people wrong, of course. Um, but that feeling was something that I wanted to continue to, to strive for.

And so I just started, you know, picking a bigger peak somewhere in the world, um, year after year. [00:12:00] And at the time I was managing that climbing and that preparation for climbing with a corporate background. So I, you know, worked my, I started as a biomedical engineer and then spent, gosh, over 15 years in the med tech industry leading service and operations teams and, you know, will always appreciate and, you know, be grateful for what I learned from that experience.

But I also felt. During my corporate career that there was just something that was misaligned. Um, I just never felt like I was really able to truly be myself and, and help people in the way that I get to today. And I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and that hard to believe it's been 10 years ago.

but yeah. Thank you. thank you. That experience really tested. You know, this [00:13:00] illusion that I had of what control was, and it made me think about what my true priorities are in life and how I wanted to spend my time and who I wanted to spend it with. And so, as a result of that diagnosis, I, you know, felt very strongly that I wanted to spend more time in the mountains.

And quit my corporate job, uh, climbed Mount Everest. And, um, I did have another stint in corporate America, uh, several years later. But really since that time, have been focused on just doing what I'm passionate about and helping people, other people achieve their goals too. You.

Greg McDonough: So when did coaching aspect come into that? Because it sounds as if you left Corporate America Summit Everest. At some point, a friend probably came up to you and said, Lisa, hey, can you help me get to point

A?

Lisa Thompson: Right.

Greg McDonough: into another word of mouth. And so how did that unfold into becoming your new [00:14:00] passion, your new career?

Lisa Thompson: Yeah. I, um, before I climbed in the Himalaya for the first time. I felt like I am in over my head and you know, the Himalaya is this huge mountain range that Bisex Asia and the highest peaks in the world are there. And it felt, I felt very accomplished just to be able to be ready to climb there. And so I worked with a coach to just prepare physically for, you know, the challenge of climbing up to 8,000 meters.

And, you know, being on an expedition for two months and all the things mentally and physically that are, that, that entails. And I really fell in love with this idea of coaching other people throughout that process. And so in 2018 when I was actually at K2 base camp, I took a notebook with me and I sat there with a pen and wrote out the copy for a website and a, you know, [00:15:00] very rough business plan.

There's actually a lot of downtime in High Ex in expedition climbing. Um, and so I used that to think about, you know, how I could actually incorporate climbing into my life and make that my focus. And I returned from K2 and from Pakistan that year and got my first athlete to coach about a month later.

And it's just been, you know, growing and enjoying it ever since.

Greg McDonough: You know, the question that popped into my head as you're sharing that, um, was you mentioned a two month expedition and where my curiosity went is. What is it like coming back to civilization? Right? You, you're what's that feeling when you're unlocking your front

door

Lisa Thompson: Yes.

Greg McDonough: seen the inside in

two, three months? Talk to us about that feeling.

Lisa Thompson: Yes. This is a very astute question, Greg, because a lot of people, you know, [00:16:00] they're very focused on did you get to the summit or not, and what was it like to climb? And you know, all these questions you get about being on the mountain, but there's this very real challenge of coming back to the real world

after you've been gone for two months.

And,

you know, it's exacerbate, exacerbated by the fact that during that two month period you have predominantly thought about survival. You've been focused on, you know, eating and drinking and sleeping and moving safely in the mountains, and you're not thinking about your email or what you're gonna, you know, where you're gonna go for dinner that, that night.

It's just very hyper-focused on keeping yourself alive and safe and. Coming back to a world where people are, you know, talking about what's on Netflix tonight and like all those things that seem to me, they always seem very mundane and like insignificant. And it takes me a while [00:17:00] to recalibrate, to be in a normal environment again with friends and family and you know, just moving through your day in a way that we would all call normal.

Um, there also is this very real sense of let down after achieving a goal, which you probably are familiar with as well, where, you know, you've, even if that, if you achieve that goal, if you were successful by whatever definition you created for yourself of success, there's this sort of, you know, gap in your life when it comes to having such an intense goal.

And there's all this sudden free time, you know that you had spent preparing and training and you don't have to do that anymore. And so while on the one hand it feels very good to, you know, be back in the comforts of your home and sleep in your own bed and, you know, not have to melt snow in order to make something to eat every day.

Um, there's this, you know, the [00:18:00] opposite side of that coin is that you feel very just sort of let down and a little bit disconnected from. Everyone around you and I find that it's best for me to take some time to just reacclimate to my normal life and to not have any, you know, sort of big goals on the horizon to be very just, you know, gracious with myself and if I need to like lounge around or sleep.

All day that that's okay because it's all a part of me metabolizing and absorbing everything that I've just been through, and that in turn helps me show up better as a coach and friend when I'm ready to do that.

Greg McDonough: Certainly, and I would imagine you've almost mastered that reclamation where it's days one through three, I'm doing X, Y, and then four through seven. It's this like, can you walk us through sort of what your process is?

Lisa Thompson: [00:19:00] Yeah, so what has worked best for me is actually to have a stopover somewhere tropical on the way back from Nepal. So to, like, there's a, a yoga retreat I love in Thailand and I will very often spend a week there you, after I leave the mountain

Eat, you know, really delicious food and move my body in different ways. And having that break that is such a counter been doing for the past two months helps me reset. And then when I get home, I try not to have any big decisions or work commitments for a week so that I can just. Kind of move through my day in a way that feels natural and organic to me and, and not be constrained by commitments.

Um, I think that's a very important, like not having any big decisions to make is very important. And then I usually will start thinking about [00:20:00] like, what do I want my next goal to be? Like what are the that I, I will look back on the climb I just completed and think about what. And I will actually write this down, like what went really well and what are the things that I could improve upon for the next time?

And then I will start thinking about a goal or a climb that lets me push myself a little bit more in those directions that I wanna continue to grow in.

Greg McDonough: That's awesome and super helpful. Um, you know, another idea that came to mind, um, when you were talking about the yoga retreat in Thailand, I started to wonder like, what. Parts of the world have you been able to discover through conversations with other mountaineers, right? So you're on this two month expedition, it could be longer than that, and you're really connecting with like-minded individuals know that there's a yoga retreat location in Thailand who knows that X, Y, and Z

Lisa Thompson: [00:21:00] Right.

Greg McDonough: South Africa. mean, any

unexpected sort of. Discoveries or adventures that have come out of the adventure itself.

Lisa Thompson: I think what has been unexpected is the, and maybe it's not entirely unexpected, but I, because looking back, it seems obvious to me, but it's the connections that I've made, like you said, Greg, with people from all over the world who are like-minded, and that has enabled me to travel to those places and meet those people again.

And spend some time adventuring in their domain. So like, maybe I, you know, visit a friend who I've climbed with in Norway and get to just not even do anything crazy with her, but like, go for a hike and like, near her home and see what that's like for her. So it's, it's really been cool to have these connections with people all over the world and to be able to adventure with them in different ways.

Yeah. And it's cool to, you know, be [00:22:00] traveling like, oh, I'm in. Japan, do I know anybody here and can I like, you know,

who can I go spend some time with?

And

Greg McDonough: That's awesome.

Lisa Thompson: I think it's, you know, it's by virtue and part of being in this extreme environment with someone that you build bonds that are very real and very lasting and you're able to, you know, continue that conversation or continue that friendship outside of the mountains.

Greg McDonough: That's, that's impactful and, and, and long lasting.

Lisa Thompson: Yeah.

Greg McDonough: Um, shifting gears a

little

bit,

when I was researching you and your website and, and your history, I, I noticed a lot of philanthropy. Came up through many of your clients. Can you talk to us about, from a philanthropic perspective, how you,

Lisa Thompson: yeah,

Greg McDonough: you're doing.

Lisa Thompson: yeah, I, um, mountaineering has often and correctly been accused of being a very selfish pursuit. Right. Nobody really benefits from me standing on [00:23:00] the top of any mountain. And that never really felt right to me. And as I traveled to different countries, particularly Nepal, you know, when you see how people live and it's how, just how different it is from how we live.

And it's not that one way is better or worse, but you, for me, it was important to have a positive impact in the places that I traveled to and climbed in. And so in 2022, um, a group of of climbing friends and I decided that we wanted to climb as a group of women that were fully supported by women. And there've been a lot of all women expeditions in the Himalaya, but many of them were guided by men.

And so we thought that we wanted to really explore what women could do. Solely when we supported one another. And it was important to us that we, um, as a part of that process and as a part of picking the team of [00:24:00] climbers, worked with women who aspired to have a job in the mountains in the Himalaya, but hadn't been given that opportunity because it's rare for women to work in the mountains in Nepal.

And so we've, you know, very specifically chose women that we felt like we could mentor or teach a skill to, and they were open to, to that learning and gaining that knowledge. Um, and that we additionally, sort of on the opposite end of that spectrum, raised money for girls education in a particular village in Nepal where girls are not usually educated and the, and therefore are very often trafficked by their parents.

Which is, you know, just a heartbreaking decision to think about making and situation to see happen. And so that climb, which was on a mountain called Azzi in Nepal in 2022 was just meaningful on so many ways. The [00:25:00] climbing was pristine and beautiful, but seeing the impact that that climb had on women in Nepal.

And the ripple effect that that has on their village and their children and their husband who might be sick and unable to work was just. Incredibly impactful. And so that has triggered for me, um, a focus on creating all women's expeditions that are in some way philanthropic. Um, and in the US I usually work with a cancer survivor organization here in the Seattle area called Northwest Hope and Healing that, um, raises money for women who are fighting breast cancer.

It just, I think it was born out of me needing to feel more aligned with the places I'm climbing in and to start to give back to other communities. So we've done that, not just in Nepal and in the US but in Ecuador and in Mexico as well. And there'll be some [00:26:00] more climbs coming up in 2026 too.

Greg McDonough: And those climbs are, are listed on your website, is

Lisa Thompson: Yeah.

Yep. Absolutely.

Greg McDonough: That's awesome. And do you take in support outside of. who are climbing and participating in Expedition?

Or do you take outside support from via your website

Lisa Thompson: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. I think it's important to, to me, to do all that I can is, you know, to support the people that, that I'm climbing in their communities, in their backyards.

Yeah.

Greg McDonough: That's beautiful. gonna switch gears on you slightly, um, and go back to coaching. And I would love to talk about the mental prepara, the how you mentally coach, not your mentality, but how do you coach the mental preparation To achieve one of these fees, one of these summits.

Lisa Thompson: this is such a huge topic and one that I am my passion for has been growing. Um, I mentioned, you know, wanting to work with a coach before I went to [00:27:00] the Himalaya for the first time. And before I went to Everest, I realized that, you know, I had spent all this time preparing physically but not mentally for what I was about to endure.

And I knew that the mental game was important, but for me, at that point in my life, it felt like paramount, that I get some support to just build my strength mentally. And so I worked with a performance coach. It was incredibly impactful for me. And then as I've, you know, grown as a coach, I've, you know, seen people who are incredibly prepared physically, but they're terrified of exposure or they don't have the skills that they need to just push through something that's difficult.

And so I've incorporated in coaching, in the coaching that I deliver this, you know, aspect of mental preparedness and mindset. And we start usually with understanding what your motivators are.

Greg McDonough: [00:28:00] Hmm.

Lisa Thompson: know, what is it about this particular climb that's important to you? And for some people it really is like, I just wanna stand on the top of this mountain.

And you know, for other people it's to prove to their children what they're capable of. Or, you know, there's some sort of, you know, really strong extrinsic reason for climbing. And then once we know that we, you know, build tools and a framework around that why or that meaning for them so that they have something to really anchor into when things get difficult.

Um, that has always worked for me personally and I've, you know, just seen it's really is special to me when, you know. People that I've coached come back from a climb and they talk about using those tools and like really thinking about their why or using mantras when things got difficult. Um, and to me that's climbing and any kind of endurance activity is physical for sure.

[00:29:00] But there's a point, I think I'm sure you would agree when it's not about what your body can do anymore. It's about what your mind can do. And if we haven't prepared for that, we're, you know, probably gonna hurt more than we need to.

Greg McDonough: Absolutely. Is there any particular story that you have of when that mental preparation sort of really came to the forefront and got you through a situation?

Lisa Thompson: Yeah, when I was on Everest in 2016, um, there's a point above camp three. Where the terrain actually sort of flattens out a little bit and curves around to a rock feature called the Yellow Band. And I, of course had meticulously studied the route. So I expected when I got to this point of the climb that I would feel pretty good because the terrain was, you know.

Easier than it had been previously. But when I got there, I was like [00:30:00] sluggish and slow and I just could hardly take a step and remember just this really strong urge to wanna sit down and rest. And I finally realized that I had run out of oxygen, um, through the help of someone else who like came up behind me and saw that I was struggling.

And he looked at my oxygen tank and, and told me that it was low. And so I had a choice to make in that moment. I'm at about 25,000 feet, and I could have turned around and, you know, gone back to to camp three and gotten a fresh oxygen bottle. But I'm pretty stubborn and I didn't want to lose all that elevation that I had just gained.

And so I decided to keep climbing. And the, you know, after that sort of flat part, this rocky section called the yellow band is probably 35 degree rock. So at sea level it would be like a fun, you know, feature to [00:31:00] climb. But on that day, um, at that elevation without the benefit of oxygen, I knew that it was gonna be.

The hardest thing I had done at the time, I thought physically. Um, but looking back, what I realized is that, you know, the only thing that was really pushing me at that moment was my mental preparation and mental strength to get through that. And I remember, um, telling myself that I am, I saw a climber ahead of me and I committed to myself that I was never gonna let him outta my sight.

And that just kind of like. I would say micro goal, but it was sort of a big moment, but like, it's a very simple task, right? Like I'm just gonna, I am always gonna have a visual on that guy, and that pulled me through mentally to get to the, you know, next bottle of oxygen. And I will never forget, like.

Someone had to connect it for me because I was so just, you know, hypoxic [00:32:00] and unable to really function and that feeling of like being oxygen deprived. And then when your blood is flooded with oxygen and like your vision comes back and you get warmer again and you, I just felt like I could run up the mountain.

But when I look back, it was, you know. Mentally or physically my body was breaking down my, you know, legs and brain, didn't have the oxygen it needed to, to perform what it needed to at that level. And I really believe it was just being mentally strong and being able to use some, some mindset tools that got me through that.

Greg McDonough: Thank you for sharing that.

You've got my palm sweating. Just about it, my, my tactic when doing triathlon, especially on the run, when I'm just a. My day is done, but I gotta finish. I wanna finish. As I start counting light posts, it's like, all right, I'm

Lisa Thompson: Yep.

Greg McDonough: to that light post. I'm gonna

walk to

Lisa Thompson: Yep.

Greg McDonough: And so, to your point about

micro goals, it just, the smaller you make it, [00:33:00] the more accomplished you feel, and then you just build on one accomplishment to the other.

Lisa Thompson: Absolutely.

Greg McDonough: I'd I'd

love to talk to you about your book. Um, tell the audience a little bit about it and, and what, since you know, what, what do you get out of reading

Lisa Thompson: Yeah, so finding elevation, fear and courage on the world's most dangerous mountain, um, is a memoir. And at its heart it's really about climbing. But I layer in stories about what I have learned and my growth in the mountains and how the mountains have changed me. Um. And what I hear from readers is, is that, you know, it really is a story about inspiration, about learning what we're capable of and being able to not let anyone else define what we're capable of and setting goals that push and allow us to grow in different unexpected ways.

Um, we just released the paperback version last month, so I'm excited to have a reprinted version [00:34:00] of that. It was, um. When I was a kid, I thought I wanted to be a writer for like, you know, a summer. And somehow that stuck with me and I started writing when I had cancer and it was, you know, I was just journaling through that process and I very naively thought I could just somehow send my journals to a publisher and turn it into a book.

Um, and realized, uh, quickly how wrong I was about the process of publishing. And so it was really a, you know, a long process, a seven year process of learning the art, of, of writing, and of memoir. And I wasn't prepared at the beginning for how vulnerable it would that book would need me to be in order to create a book that I was proud of and that other people connected with.

Um, and so I'm very happy that it's out there and that, you know, other people are able to learn from. From my journey and hopefully set some [00:35:00] big audacious goals for themselves.

Greg McDonough: That's brilliant and we'll include link to that in our show notes. Am I also correct that you do speaking and keynote events

as well?

Lisa Thompson: Yep. I, um, when I came back from Everest, I, well, let me back up just a little bit. So. For me to climb Everest financially was a huge stretch. And I remember calling my bank saying I'd like to borrow $50,000 to climb Mount Everest and like just spitting it all out there because I thought they're just gonna hang up, so I'm just gonna like lay it all out there at once and not waste anyone's time.

And they didn't even blink. And you know, I had took out a loan to climb Mount Everest and when I got back I was incredibly appreciative to my bank for. That support. And so they asked me to speak at a company event and it really, you know, even though that was a very small casual event, it really sparked in me how, how [00:36:00] what we do that may seem, you know, benign to us, can inspire other people.

And as a part of me just. Sharing and coaching. It's become really special to me to share that message with other audiences, usually corporate audiences these days. Um, but I talk a lot about teamwork, about resilience. Um, lately have been talking a lot about boundaries and about how we know when we show up authentically for ourselves, and that's apparent to other people that we are.

Interacting with or leading that, it, it allows us to be stronger as a team. So, yeah, it's, it's fun for me to get to interact with people and share those stories about climbing. I often hear what you said, Greg, that like people in the audience are getting sweaty palms just thinking about being in these environments and, and there are so many ways that climbing, I think relates to, to leadership.

And so being able to draw those analogies for [00:37:00] people has been really fun for me.

Greg McDonough: That's awesome. And we've got lots of entrepreneurs who listen to this show and business owners and people a part of, like the Entrepreneurs Organization or YPO or Tab. Um, again, we'll include some links in our, in our show notes there so they can chase you down and get you on, on their stage.

Lisa, it's first of all, uh, audience member wants to get in touch with you.

What's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

Lisa Thompson: Through my website, which is Lisa climbs, um, or you can reach out to me on Instagram, which is also Lisa climbs.

Greg McDonough: Fantastic members. If you've got some value out of today's show, please subscribe. Please, like, let's share this episode with your community and, and, and expand the, the lessons that Lisa's been teaching us across this last 40 minutes. Lisa, it's been great having you on this show. I'm really inspired by what you're doing, especially from the philanthropy. As a father of two girls, um, I love seeing barriers being knocked down when they, they, they never should have been there in the first [00:38:00] place. So thank you for the work that you and your team are doing. Again, it's been super to have you on the show.

Lisa Thompson: Thanks for having me. It's been a lot of fun and your daughters can comply with me anytime.

Greg McDonough: No, don't tell them that.