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Susan Ershler

History-Making Mountain Climber and Business Executive

Climbed Mount Everest as part of the first married couple to finish the Seven Summits
Top sales executive at Fortune 500 companies including Verizon and FedEx
Tackles sales objectives with a mountain climbing mentality and the mantra “Project, Prepare, Persevere”
Builds cohesive teams by enhancing trust and overcoming limitations

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Susan Ershler knows a thing or two about taking things to new heights. Ershler and her husband Phil, a professional mountain guide, received worldwide media attention including GMA, Today Show, CNN, and New York Times after becoming the first couple in history to conquer the Seven Summits of mountain climbing lore — successfully climbing the highest mountain on each of the world’s seven continents. The remarkable journey culminated at the top of Mount Everest — 29,035 feet — on May 16, 2002.

What makes Susan’s feat even more impressive is that she was climbing the world’s highest mountain while maintaining a successful career as a business and sales executive. During her 23-year corporate career she has held leadership positions in Fortune 500 companies, leading teams to sales records, beating quotas from $1 million to $600 million. Ending as a vice president of sales for a multi-national telecommunications company, she was responsible for the company’s fast-growing Internet division. She also worked at US WEST (CenturyLink), GTE (Verizon), United Technologies, General Dynamics and FedEx.

Throughout her life and career, Ershler, the fourth American woman to climb the Seven Summits and 12th American woman to climb Mt. Everest, has attained heights that most would find unimaginable. What has set her apart is a set of guiding principles that can be adopted by anyone who dreams of achieving a seemingly impossible goal. She speaks about her life journey and shares her secrets for success, determination, and achieving seemingly impossible goals.

Susan, who tours the country as a speaker, shares lessons learned in the high mountains that help overcome challenges in the business world. She lifts her audience's ambitions by showing them how hard work, dedication, perseverance and a total commitment to excellence can pay off in reaching seemingly impossible goals. Her leadership message often begins with visualizing a goal, no matter how difficult or out of reach. She continues with techniques to improve focus and discipline and shows how essential teamwork is to achievement. She then concludes with a passionate affirmation of the value of life and the thrill of celebrating your success from the top of the world.

Susan authored two books; first titled, “Together on Top of the World,” that details the remarkable story of climbing the fabled Seven Summits. The book is a story of going for your greatest dreams against all odds and pushing past mental and physical boundaries and “Conquering the Seven Summits of Sales”, where Susan draws on her experiences to inspire sales professionals, leaders, and anyone striving to achieve their life goals and reach new heights of success, illustrating how anyone can achieve peak performance, published by HarperCollins.

Susan had only started climbing in her mid-30s, and Phil, a mountain guide and the first American to reach the top of Everest from the north face, suffered from Crohn’s disease. Phil taught Susan to love the mountains the way he did, and so she began using her vacation time to join him on his climbs. In fact, Susan trained by climbing the 35 stories in her high-rise office building on her lunch hour for a year — with a 40-pound pack on her back. When a cancer diagnosis threatened to end Phil’s mountain-climbing career, the Ershlers fought back the only way they knew how — to climb.

Speaker Video

Sue Ershler-Project. Prepare. Persevere.

Susan Ershler on Leadership and Perseverance

Susan Ershler on Perseverance

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Reaching New Heights: Everest & Beyond™. No matter how impossible they may seem, your dreams for personal and professional success are never truly out of reach if you Project • Prepare • Persevere®. This is the systematic approach to high achievement Susan Ershler developed while simultaneously climbing the world’s tallest mountains and leading sales organizations at some of the nation's largest corporations.

On May 16, 2002, Susan and her husband Phil made history as the first couple to stand together at the summit of Mount Everest, capping their decade-long odyssey to climb the Seven Summits; the highest mountains on each of the seven continents. In her stirring keynote, Susan tells the amazing story of their Everest experience, the setbacks they overcame along the way, and their triumphant return to reach the summit. She also shares the road-tested strategies she developed that can empower anyone to overcome their perceived limitations and achieve seemingly impossible goals.

Conquering the Seven Summits of Sales^®.Is your sales organization achieving its true potential? What strategies and techniques would transform your sales team into a dynamic force for revenue growth and customer satisfaction?

For two decades, Susan Ershler rose through the ranks of sales leadership while simultaneously climbing the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. Now, her mission is to help others secure the financial rewards and personal fulfillment that come with being a top performer.

In this presentation, Susan shares the Seven Summit principals that every sales professional must master to consistently achieve top performance year after year. She describes the Project • Prepare • Persevere® methodology that enabled her to lead her sales team to achieve a seemingly impossible $300M revenue goal. She also provides practical techniques for overcoming real-world sales challenges and blowing away the numbers. Attendees will walk away inspired to excel and ready to meet Everest-sized revenue objectives.

Conquering the Seven Summits of Peak Performance^®.In today’s increasingly competitive business environment, it takes vision, planning and perseverance to reach the pinnacle of career achievement. Are you ready to see your career trajectory accelerate into the stratosphere? Then Susan Ershler’s Project • Prepare • Persevere® methodology is your key to becoming a peak performer and reaching the pinnacle of personal and professional success.

In this inspiring presentation, Susan shares the Seven Summit principles that every business professional must master to consistently achieve top performance year after year. She also describes practical techniques for overcoming real-world business challenges and securing the financial rewards and personal fulfillment that come with being a top performer. Attendees will leave confident, inspired, and equipped with the tools they need to achieve peak performance and realize their dreams.

Leading Teams to Peak Performance™. On the mountains, successful expedition leaders think like guides, not climbers. In the business world, the most successful leaders think like CEOs. They inspire and lead by example.

Susan is an expert practitioner in the art of sales leadership. Throughout her career, she has excelled at building and leading teams that achieve exceptional, sometimes life-changing results. In this inspiring presentation, Susan shares the Project • Prepare • Persevere® methodology that enabled her to lead her sales team to achieve a seemingly impossible $300M revenue goal while simultaneously climbing the Seven Summits; the highest mountain on each of the seven continents.

Drawing on her knowledge and experience, Susan shows why the best leaders are much more than top performers themselves. They enable every member of their team to overcome their perceived limitations by learning to commit to their team’s shared vision of success. Attendees will walk away with the leadership skills they need to help their teams win the recognition and rewards that accrue to top performers.

Personal Best, Professional Best. Susan learned an important, simple truth from her quest to reach the top of Everest: to achieve something that seems impossible, you've got to first set the goal, then prepare, then keep going until you get there. She and her husband, Phil, were the first couple to climb the Seven Summits not because they were superhuman, but because they were humans who kept going. Susan believes that's what achievement is made of. Personal and professional successes go to those who show up and do the work — until they reach their goals.

How do you achieve your dreams in both your personal and business life — especially the ones that seem impossible? In this inspiring presentation, Susan shares her road-tested methods for combining a demanding job with a fulfilling life, while still achieving all that you desire. Project, Prepare, Persevere®.