Ship’s Log 03: True North at 29,000 feet with Alan Mallory

"Climb your own Everests in life, and in every step, embrace the challenges, the lessons, and the small victories along the way" – Alan Mallory

Episode Summary:
In this episode of Project Candor, host Jeanne Andersen sits with Alan Mallory, high-impact international speaker, author, and performance coach, to explore mindset, resilience, and what it takes to perform at your best under pressure. Alan shares how his background in engineering and psychology shaped his approach to peak performance, mental health, and leadership. He also reflects on his record-setting Mount Everest ascent with his family, the importance of always having a meaningful goal on the horizon, and why growth comes from pushing beyond comfort zones—at any stage of life.

Guest’s Bio:
Alan Mallory is a high-impact international speaker, author, and performance coach who empowers individuals and teams to reach their full potential – personally and professionally. With a background in engineering and a Master’s in psychology,he brings a rare combination of strategic thinking and mental mastery to the stage. His record-setting ascent of Mount Everest with his immediate family is more than an incredible story – it’s a blueprint for pushing boundaries, staying focused under pressure, and performing at your best when it matters most. Alan’s message is all about building the mindset, habits, and team dynamics needed to thrive in high-stakes environments and reach new heights.

Links:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanmallory/
Website: www.alanmallory.com

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Transcript

Hi everyone and welcome to Project Candor. I'm your host Jeannie Anderson. Each week I sit down with people from all walks of life, creators, leaders, dreamers, and everyday folk who've experienced something worth sharing. Here it's not about fame or headlines. It's about real people doing real moments and experiencing real activities that will surprise you, challenge you, and sometimes even change you as you listen to these guests that I have. Because at the heart of the show, Project Candor is where ordinary people share unexpected stories.

Today I'm thrilled to have my guest Alan Mallory. He is a high impact international speaker, author, and performance coach who empowers individuals and teams to reach their full potential personally and professionally. With a background in engineering and masters in psychology, he brings a rare combination of strategic thinking and mental mastery to the stage.

His record selling record setting ascent, I'm sorry, of Mount Everest with his immediate family is more than an incredible story. It's a blueprint for pushing boundaries, staying focused under pressure and performing at your best when it matters most. Alan's message is all about building the mindset habits and team dynamics needed to thrive in high stakes environments and reach new heights. Alan, welcome to Project Candor. I'm so glad you're here.

Alan:
Awesome, good to be here.

Jeanne:
Thank you for taking the time away from your busy schedule. I'd like to, if you want to say anything before we get started, or we want to go straight to questions, it's up to you.

Alan:
My pleasure.
I can certainly introduce myself. Yeah, my background's in engineering and eventually I got into project management. So I have a technical background, but then I went through my own mental health journey in my younger years, which is really what motivated me in the psychological direction and eventually went on to get a degree in that as well. And so I'm kind of uniquely positioned, you might say, since those are polar opposites, but I've really found how the psychological studies in particular have been beneficial in my life.


Jeanne:
fantastic. As I was reading through a lot of your information, I noticed that you are not really an ordinary person. You have done so much more than just an ordinary person, but we'll get dig into it a little bit more. If we were to strip away all the titles and the adventures and the achievements, what's the one truth about you that sits underneath it all?

Alan:
Ha

Well, I guess I could say, you know, I'm pretty intrinsically motivated to, if I try to look at some of the things I've done in my life, I could say it's a journey of self-discovery. know, I've done a lot of them, and through the mountaineering and writing my books and so on, to kind of prove to myself that I can. There's a elation and satisfaction in that. so, you know, I try to set...goals in life that are meaningful to me. And that's a difficult thing to really determine because we're often pushed in certain directions by friends and family members and all of that. But you find things that are meaningful and then I try not to let too much get in the way of them. so, you know, that's, if we talk about what drives me, I guess I would have to say that. It's kind of a, you know, I like following those self-discovery journeys.

Jeanne:
Okay, that's very interesting. what you're kind of I'm hearing is that you don't spend a lot of time with the wonder why you just try to discover and learn and keep moving forward, not looking backwards. Would you say that?

Alan:
Well, I would, yes, but I'd also say like it's not, you know, I'm not, you know, automatically motivated to do those types of things. What I've found is when I don't have something on the horizon that I'm working towards, and that can be in athletics, mountaineering, philanthropy, business, whatever it is, there's almost this like stagnation and still like something's missing.

And I found that actually the antidote to that is to try to find another area to push myself out of my comfort zone. And it's interesting that even on when you look at Everest, and we'll probably talk a little bit more about my family's expedition on Everest. Yeah, there have been people that have gone into depression after climbing Everest. And it's because it isn't the accomplishment that's actually bringing meaning to their lives. It's the pursuit of something.

Jeanne:
You know, I'm kind of steering clear of your stories, but...
Mm-hmm.

Alan:
And when they actually interview people, and I've seen lots of interviews of people that have achieved longevity and they're trying to find the secret sauce to their longevity, you know, they almost always say some version of, I kept pushing myself mentally and physically to the end of my days in all these different areas. And then they kind of share what those are. And so I think that we're hardwired to some degree to do that. And if we want to live meaningful lives, then we...

Jeanne:
All

Alan:
We take advantage of that and make sure that we are always improving ourselves, pushing ourselves a little bit outside of our comfort zone. Now you can obviously take that to the extreme in the case of workaholics, for example. And I've had to be careful of that in my life. Actually, in my second book, talk about getting the balance right. It's the summit of self-balance between that self-discipline, which I'd say came more naturally to me, and self-acceptance.

Jeanne:
Right.

Alan:
where you have to make sure you've struck that balance right. But the discipline aspect is pretty important. Make sure you're always striving a little bit or that stagnation sets in.

Jeanne:
Well, as an engineer, an adventurer, a speaker, a family man, and a musician, which identity came first to you?

Alan:
Well, I guess if we look at my career, maybe it was the engineer, but probably the adventurer. You know, I can thank my parents, especially my father. know, he really got my siblings and I, a younger brother, older brother, younger sister, you know, into a lot of outdoor adventures and instilled that mentality of the importance of putting your, pushing yourself, you setting lofty goals in life and not letting too much throw you off course when you have set those. And so I was starting to do adventures at a pretty young age. Triathlons, adventure races, winter camping, whitewater canoeing, whitewater kayaking. And some of the activities I would say that also set the stage and prepared me for the more...advanced mountaineering endeavors that I got into later in life. And so, yeah, probably that adventuresome spirit was a precursor to the others.

Jeanne:
Mm.
Okay, that sounds good. I was thinking of barrel, a barrel going over the Niagara Falls when you said that. don't know, my mind goes a little crazy. So you said you talked a little bit about engineering. So how does that background shape the way you approach extreme challenges?

Alan:
i haven't got that far yet
Well, it's interesting because I've mostly moved away from engineering, but I would say I've retained the, you know, the essence of design thinking and how to solve problems. And that's where it's been really beneficial in my life. I did work as an engineer and eventually a project manager for at least eight years, even after we did the climb before I kind of moved more into the speaking and training and teaching space.

Jeanne:
Mm-hmm.

Alan:
And I would think that it's been helpful. Now, I would say for those listening that are engineers or have a technical background, that I've also come to appreciate the importance of developing the psychological side because, you know, as an engineer, I was very, very analytical. And when I went through my own mental health journey, I had quite a severe social phobia and anxiety disorder in my younger years known as generalized anxiety. GAAD, generalized anxiety disorder. And so I was so analytical that I would spend most of my days in my own mind playing these mental movies of past disasters or envisioning future disasters. And I was kind of treating myself as I would an engineering problem. And the challenge with the human psyche is that it's actually the...excessive focus on your own challenges that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. And I was, in the end, was perpetuating the challenges that I had. And so when I started to get my hands on all the books that talked about what I was going through and try to really understand it psychologically, that allowed me to realize, no, no, I'm the one who's perpetuating this. It's not something separate than me. And really, I had to learn those strategies to get out of my own mind and start living life and just not be so analytical when it comes to the human psyche.

Jeanne:
Well, that's interesting because I've been a project manager, certified PMP, just as you have been Scrum Master, that kind of thing. And I do work with a lot of technical teams and I do find that when you're a good architect or engineer, you do kind of go internal and stay internal and have less of a communication capability with the rest of the team. So then as a PM, you're just trying to balance all that in some manner or some other way.

Alan:
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jeanne:
and you know it can burn the PM out. The project manager in me gets really tired just trying to say this personality versus this personality and yeah so very interesting I hadn't heard a GAD before but I'll have to look at that maybe we should talk about that more at some point.

Alan:
Yeah, really what that is is when you don't need an external trigger anymore to perpetuate the disorder because the noticing of your own symptoms of themselves is enough to trigger that anxiety cycle. And so then you just are stuck in your own mind and all day, you know, kind of noticing and analyzing the symptoms. And that was really quite, you know, problematic and detrimental. Those were pretty rough years.

Jeanne:
wow.
Well, then there's the Elon Musk who his wife said sits on the side of bed for the whole night and never moves and it's just in his mind, but what a brilliant mind. So I've got another question. Like you speak around the world about peak performance and what's the one truth about resilience that people consistently misunderstand?

Alan:
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Well, resilience is a bit of a deep concept because some of it is, you could say, you know, some people are just more resilient than others in terms of what they've biologically inherited. But that doesn't mean if you haven't won the resilience lottery that you throw your arms in the air and say, well, there's nothing I can do about it. I'm just not a resilient person. You can cultivate resilience as far as I can tell through

Jeanne:
Mm-hmm.

Alan:
many small actions and I think I've done that to some degree in my life. When you go through the little challenges, you try to make sure you work through them in our success when you kind of, well there are two things that happen. You become better at problem solving because resiliency, there's a problem solving element in that. You have to find strategies that will help you rebound.

Jeanne:
Mm-hmm.

Alan:
So that's one element of resiliency that's particularly important. going through many different challenges in life actually helps you be more resilient if you're successful in solving them. And so I would say how you cultivate resilience is be careful with the little things. When you set a small little New Year's resolution, make sure it's meaningful to you and make sure you follow through with it because...
then you train yourself that you are the type of person that takes that internal dialogue seriously and is capable of bouncing back when the inevitable challenges are thrown at you in volatile environments. And as far as I can tell, that's how people become more resilient. There's a lot of strategies that can certainly help with that. Cognitive strategies in particular. Be solutions focused.

You know, don't allow yourself to be so always identifying here's all the reasons why this I'll never be able to get back on my feet. You your mind, and this is where you might naturally be someone who's more, you know, there's a personality trait called neuroticism where you're kind of more in the negative mindset, but you can stop yourself. You can say, okay, I shouldn't go down that path. You know, this is pretty bad. Everything's going bad. It might be other people's.

Jeanne:
Mm-hmm.

Alan:
you know, they've always say that have caused this, but that's not helpful to me. What's helpful is say, is there a way for me to maneuver within this space that I've been thrown into inadvertently or chosen that will allow me to get back on my feet and continue forward? And if you're honest about that, often there is, you can say, well, I can do that, you know, it's something small, but it'll move me in the right direction. So.

Jeanne:
Yeah, that's really fantastic because I probably lean more to the negative everything. The house is on fire. I know my husband, he's Swedish, born and raised, but he's a Danish citizen and still he's in the US, but he's still Danish. And he always tells me that I paint devils on the wall, which I didn't understand what that was. Finally.

Alan:
Well, and you might be naturally predisposed to that. And if it's not causing you trouble in life, then you probably don't need to worry about it. But if you find that that's really putting you often in that darker mode of seeing the negative in things, you try to develop strategies to... I was pretty interested in happiness and is there a way to just be happy all the time, for example? And I'm not saying that is the number one goal you should aim for.

Jeanne:
Yeah.

Hahaha

Jeanne:
Ha ha ha.

Alan:
But a lot of that is, unfortunately, it seems like it actually is the genetic lottery. And so, you know, some people, and I even see this in my kids, you know, my youngest, she's happy about everything. She kind of sees the sunshine and the rainbows and everything. And then, you know, me and some of other kids, you know, you have to almost work at it a little bit. And in that sense, the idea is, well, find ways that allow you to...

Jeanne:
All right.
Okay.

Alan:
you know, find strategies that allow you to see that silver lining, I guess you could say. And not naively, you just want to see rainbows and everything, but there's practical implications in why that's important in your life.

Jeanne:
Yeah.
Right, right. Yeah, I think I probably grew up as somebody that saw rainbows and then I had death of parents and then that just kind of sent me down to the other side. And I try really hard to climb out of it. I think that's why I like Project Candor because I really like, for instance, talking to you, you're so positive, you've done so much. It's just like, it's redeeming for me to spotlight people like you. And I just, I just love it. So.

Alan:
Yeah, you know, I'm the same way, you know, people kind of, you know, down talk, you know, motivation and that sort of thing. But I've found when I'm down in the dumps, when I kind of, well, there's two things. Sometimes I just, you know, think of, you put it into perspective, you know, the rest of the, the majority of the world compared to the challenges that I'm facing in that moment, they're trivial compared to most others. So that sometimes helps me, but also just like listening to

Jeanne:
Right.

Ala:
you know, positive people that have overcome their own summits in life, and all of us have them, you know, that helps me put it into perspective. And I do find that helpful for me.

Jeanne:
Right. Right.

Mm-hmm.
Yeah, fantastic. So we're getting down to the game, but I still have a few more questions I'd like you to cover. So what's the most memorable reaction or question that you got from an audience member after that you listened to you speaking?

Alan:
The most memorable, you know, often, most, my most popular program is my Reaching New Heights keynote, which is built around my family's Everest expedition. And so, you know, a lot of the questions end up, even when I'm speaking with technical audiences and it kind of has a, you know, professional development element to it, they're most interested in the story and the family dynamics. And I would say some of those questions around family, I'm trying to think of what would be a memorable question.

Jeanne:
Mm-hmm.

Alan:
You know, a lot of times people are asking questions that, people are solutions focused in their own lives. So it's often questions about how could, how did you, how were you able to get along as a family throughout those two month expedition? yeah, and so some of, I would say those are the questions I really enjoy and the psychological questions. How are you able to,

Jeanne:
Yeah, that's admirable on its own.

Alan:
dig deep enough to find the perseverance when it seemed like everything was going badly around you. And I think I just enjoy answering those own questions in my life. So those types are pretty memorable.

Jeanne:
Yeah, yeah, I wondered if people ask you, it ever too late, you know, cause to try what you want to try. Cause a lot of people will say, as I'm getting older, I want to stop. I I just, I did my time or whatever, but you know, you remind me of somebody then what you're saying. And I don't know, have you heard of Dave Goggins before?

Alan:
Yeah. Well,

Alan:
I don't think so, no.

Jeanne:
he's a fellow Navy veteran. mean, he was a Navy SEAL, but you should look him up. He's, he works through, he'll run a marathon with a broken leg. I it's crazy. unfortunately, some of his books are a little bit, not, I wouldn't say lewd. No, he's not that, but he just curses a lot of that. If you can get through that, this guy is phenomenal.

Alan:
Yeah.

yeah, yeah.
Okay, yeah, so Sure Well, and I love those types of stories as I said and I would really you know because I hear that a lot what you know people say well I wish I'd done this when I was in my younger years or whatever and Now I would say naturally it's been it's been kind of shared and emulated from my father because he he is 74 years old now and he just got back from Europe doing an Iron Man triathlon he is really kind of

Jeanne:
my gosh.

Alan:
embodied that mentality of age is just a number. I'm gonna keep doing what I love as long as I can. And it's quite, it's been interesting to watch him because we're both part of a service club, the Rotary Club here in Barrion. You know, most of the members are ordering their walkers and he's running.

Jeanne:
Okay.

Yeah.

Alan:
Marathons and doing these Ironman and so, you know, I think that is and when I've talked to him about it He basically says like age is just a number I'm just and it has kept him young in in in that sense. So I I would say it's kind of never too late. There was an 80 year old that climbed Mount Everest Yeah from Japan

Jeanne:
Parathon.

Yeah.

Jeanne:
Really? Wow.

Man, wow.

Alan:
If you want it bad enough, you can make it a reality.

Jeanne:
Yeah, every time I watch Survivor sometimes and every time that Jeff Proce, I think that's his name, the actual host of that show says, join Survivor, it's never too late, join, apply. I'm like, uh-uh, sorry, I'm out.

Alan:
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So, yeah.
So I actually survive every day here in sunny Florida. Is there a skill, a habit or a quirk that you have that people would never guess about you?
Skill, a habit or a quirk?

Alan Mallory (21:00.046)
I don't know, that's a tough one.
people not guess. mean, certainly, maybe if they've just kind of met me or seen one of my technical programs, the music side of me maybe doesn't come through right away, but that's a side that I've really enjoyed and embraced through from my younger years. started playing the violin at a really young age.

Jeanne:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, might be one.
That's true, I wouldn't have guessed that until I saw all your website. So I hope people will check that out because it's really good information over there. All right, so here we go. We're gonna transition to our game. You've got layers that most people don't see, which makes your stories even more fun. So let's shift to one of my favorite parts. That's Two Truths and a Lie. I'll tell everybody how it works.

Alan:
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Jeanne:
For listeners, Alan has provided three story headlines for the game. I'll read each headline and then I'll take my best guess at which one's the lie. After that, we'll dive into the stories behind them and see where the truth really lies. So, all right, Alan, here's the headlines. I'm going to share my screen. This is that transition we might cut out. Let me share my screen.

Jeanne:
Here you go. So you have told me that one of your stories is my family and I are the first family in the world to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Also that you spent a year traveling around the US with your wife and three young kids in a fifth wheel RV. And the last one, number three is my love of music was inspired by listening to my grandfather playing the cello.

All right, for me as a host, get to guess and I'm gonna say, well, I know one is close. It could have a twist in there that maybe, I'm gonna say number two. So we're gonna go with number two, because I can't imagine being in an RV with my family, my kids. My kids are adults now, but my gosh. Okay, so let's go to you, Allen. Tell us about it. What,

Alan:
Should I give you the answer? 

Jeanne: 

No, not yet.
Not yet. At the end, tell us the stories because other people might play along too and see if they've guessed the right one.

Alan:
Okay, well the first is about my family and before us there had been like a father and son team but this was my father, brother, sister and I and my mother was there as well. She had a fall just above base camp and tore her Achilles tendon so she had to abandon her climb but the other four of us were after two months of climbing through some exciting yet horrific challenges. It's really quite a a crazy story.

Jeanne:
Two months? Whoa.

Alan:
Yeah, you climb for two months and you're planning for two years before that. You have to more than double your red blood cell count over those two months in order to survive up near near the summit. And lots of just harrowing sections crossing, you know, 50 plus bottomless crevasses with these aluminum ladders. Like it's really quite a quite a unique story. But yeah, we we ended up, you know, the four of us were successful. And so that's that's that first first narrative.

Jeanne:
Wow. What in the world made you say you wanted to do that? mean, and your family too. They're like, yeah, let's go for the movies, Dad. No, let's climb Mount Everest. What caused you to do that?

Alan:
Yeah.
Yeah, well, I mean, the idea certainly started with my father and, you know, as I touched on earlier, he's, you know, been pretty empowering for my siblings and I in terms of, you know, allowing us to set these lofty goals in life. And he did come up with the idea as well. He got us into each into mountaineering in that when each of us were 19 years of age, he took us to climb one of the world's seven summits. Those are the highest mountains on each of the seven continents. And So in my case, when I was 19, this was Mount McKinley or Denali in Alaska, the highest in North America. And that really, you know, it was my first taste of intense mountaineering. We'd done other day hikes, winter camping up in the Rockies, for example, but that was a two week expedition and learned a lot on that. It's a cold, dangerous, difficult mountain as well. But those, I call them those smaller mountains, kind of ignited that passion, I think, within each of us. And so that's why when we started discussing Everest, the more we looked into it, I can only speak for myself, but it really kind of morphed into this personal dream. Can I push my mind and my body to that limit and be successful in the end?

Jeanne:
Mm-hmm.
Wow, that is fantastic. I know I asked you before when we were talking on another call about insurance. Who would underwrite such a claim for a whole family too? So.

Alan:
Yeah.
Yeah, mostly you're excluded for those types of adventures.

Jeanne:
Yeah, that's my insurance background as project manager. I wonder, underwriting was a tough call. Well, that's good. So next story, let's talk about going around in the RV, because that is just probably just as much of yeah.

Alan: Mm-hmm.
bit crazy as you learned to do but I will say this did happen that we well if I tell the story you'll know it's true but I okay so I guess I could have just made I could be making up the story but no this is we I like these types of crazy adventures I would say that other I just I get kind of bored with the status quo you might say so the

Jeanne:
you're not supposed to tell me that's
Yeah.

Alan:
This is about how many years ago was this? Five years ago or so, but during COVID actually. And I had this idea and my wife with a little bit of coaxing agreed to it. We moved out of our house and sold most of our stuff. We bought this fifth wheel RV and yeah, we set out and we spent about a month or so in Florida. That's where we visited Krista River and all down the West side, right down to the Keys and loved our time down there and then started just making our way across the southern US, visiting national parks and state parks, and we had our mountain bikes along with us. The kids would, mean, school was all online mostly anyway, during that time. And so they would do schoolwork in the morning, and then in the afternoon, almost every day, we'd be doing some sort of adventure, hiking, swimming, mountain biking. Made our way over to Arizona.

Jeanne:
Okay.

Alan:
We spent a lot of time in Arizona just because it was nice and warm and I just love the adventures and those red rock canyons and that sort of thing. And then circled back through Denver.

Jeanne:
All right. You do know that Arizona gets to be 110 degrees in the summer and they have to cool you off at restaurants by spraying you down. my goodness.

Alan:
Yeah, we actually lived two years in Arizona before we had kids and we had a place in Mesa and I loved the time in Arizona. This summer was, it was hot, but you can almost prepare for that. We would do these night rides in the desert with headlamps, for example, with mountain biking. Compared to the cold, I think I preferred that. It's almost like you can plan for it a little bit better.

Jeanne:
Night rides in the canyon. So I don't know much about Arizona, not just the city life, right? So do they have like prairie dogs and holes and all that stuff? Isn't that dangerous to be in the night riding?

Alan:
Yep. Yep.
Well, most of the dangerous stuff they do have in Arizona does come out at night to hunt. And so we did, that's when we'd see the diamondback rattlesnakes and these big, I guess, tarantulas, these big, are they tarantulas? Anyway, these big hairy spiders. And so you'd have to be a little bit careful, but these were, forget who, yes, scorpions, all of that stuff. And so, but it's also kind of thrilling. And I don't think, I mean, there was other people's doing.

Jeanne:
Yeah.

Scorpions maybe?

Alan:
people doing these rides and I never heard of anyone having any particularly grave happening to them. it's not, I wouldn't say it was a huge risk doing it. It was more just, well, fun, exciting. It was kind of neat. You look out there and all these headlamps from other mountain bikers. I guess I kind of gave away the idea on that one. Do anything. OK.

Jeanne:
wow. Okay, well then we already know that one's true, I, so I failed. How about the music? Did your grandfather play the cello or does he play the violin? Was that the twist?

Alan:
My grandfather was a wonderful man that I learned a lot of different things from and I actually dedicated my first book to him because of the, you he was just really involved in my life in my younger years, but he was tone deaf and so he never played the cello and I wouldn't say I got any of my musical talent from him. I can remember driving in his old pickup truck and him singing Let the Moon Shine Over the Cowshed or something like that, one of these old songs. I thought it was pretty well sung at the time, but looking back, I wouldn't say music was a strong point. But despite that, I did start playing the violin at quite a young age and embraced that for a lot of my life. I really enjoyed music and now I have a couple electric violins and I use them in some of my speaking programs.

Jeanne:
Strong point.

Alan:
I have one called the psychology of connection, which is particularly important. We get people up dancing at the end and it's kind of fun having the music, live music integrated.

Jeanne:
Yeah, that is fun. Music is fantastic. I can agree with that one. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I actually am a groupie for, you know, going to this thing called rock camp dot com so I can get on stage with actual people that know how to play. All right. Well, this has been so fantastic. And so I didn't guess right. But so your family.

Alan:
yeah, cool.
You're close, you only went off.

Jeanne:
Yeah, your family and you are the first family in the world to reach this summit. That is a major thing. And how many family members again? Let's say that again. Your mom, mom couldn't make it, but your dad and your brother and you.

Alan:
Yeah, there's the four of us. No, my brother and sister and I, It would be tough for there to be another family, for one, that we're all interested in it, and for two, they could kind of pull the logistics together, and for three, statistically, the odds of even one of us making it were extremely low. So, I don't know, never say never. There might be another family crazy enough to give it a try, but it's...

Jeanne:
Yeah.

Alan:
It's a pretty, pretty harrowing endeavor.

Jeanne:
Wow, wow, it's also very cold. unless, yeah, maybe it's better if you don't like cold weather, not to try that one. But so let's just talk about, I'm to go to the, let's talk about how to get in touch with you. Cause you have been such a fantastic guest on here. I'd like for people to know more about how they can work with you or, or how they can get in touch with you. So you gave me a great quote. I'd rather you talk this slide through than me. So I'll give it to you.

Alan:
Yeah.
Thank
Well, I can just read the quote. Firstly, climb your own Everest in life and in every step embrace the challenges, the lessons and the small victories along the way. We kind of talked about that a little bit earlier, the importance of having an Everest or one or more Everest that you're always working towards. Otherwise that kind of stagnation sets into your life. And that's the underlying message. know, no one who sees my, or almost no one who sees my Reaching New Heights program, for example.

Jeanne:
Mm-hmm.

Alan:
would still have Everest on their bucket list. It's a crazy adventure. And that's the most common comment I get probably is, I had people say, well, I was on my bucket list, it's off now. So.

Jeanne:
Hahaha

If you want to cry, you could say to people, read my book and then you can live vicariously through me. So you don't have to do it.

Alan:
Yeah, exactly. But it is what it's so it's an analogy for Everest in life, or, you know, the challenges that you're faced with. And that is what people really take from it. And it's quite often that I'll get emails where people will kind of get some version of if you guys can do that, I can do this and then they share their own their own summit, whatever that is.

Jeanne:
Mm-hmm.

Alan:
And so that's really what the message is. That's why people find it so inspiring, really listening to that story. It kind of, you know, it puts things into challenges, into the perspective and kind of, you know, encourages and inspires people to climb their own mountains. You know, don't put it off for too long. Later becomes never. And I like those emails that I've got before when people remember there was

Jeanne:
Yes.
Right.

Alan:
one lady had emailed and she was, you know, for years had been trying to put together this camping trip with her family. And, you know, it just never happens, you know, this and that. she said, after seeing your program, I booked it the next day. And it was just kind of, that was nice to hear, you know, don't put it off. You don't know what tomorrow will bring. And I've tried to live that in my own life, you know, with the RV trip even.

Jeanne:
wow.
Right.

Alan:
When I was first discussing it with folks, they say, well, you know, that might be something better done when you're in retirement. We don't know what retirement will look like. Live now.

Jeanne:
Right. Even if you retire, might have another career afterwards, so.

Alan:
Sure, yeah, live now, don't put it off.

Jeanne:
Yeah, and don't stop challenging yourself. That's what I got out of it. Don't stop challenging yourself because that's what Project Hander is about. I'm myself and listeners to learn how they can find the extraordinary inside themselves. And you already are doing that as well in a much larger scale with your clients. So what do they do if they need to find you?

Alan:
Mm-hmm.
Well, probably checking out my website is the easiest. Certainly if anyone has evolved in an organization that has these team meetings, the interactive team meetings or any kind of conference, it's a pretty popular program. And I have lots of different versions where I kind of tailor to the specific theme or the specific amount of interaction. Whether we end with the ropes activity or just have discussions throughout, I just love working with lots of different groups.

Jeanne:
Fantastic. Okay. Well that comes kind of to the end of our time here
We so much appreciate you being on the show and really hope that this has been a good time for you and I hope listeners will reach out to you. For the listeners, we thank you for joining us and we'll try to bring you more and more content like Alan. I mean, but that's gonna be hard. He's at the top of the peak here. Top of the world.

But we hope you will keep joining us and listening in. Thank you so much, Alan, and we hope you have a great, wonderful day.

Alan:
Thank you, my pleasure, take care.