Mark Pattison, SVP Biz Dev Sports Illustrated - Podcast with Julie Roehm
"In this episode of The Conversational, Mark Pattison, Former NFL Player, Speaker, Mountaineer & Sports Illustrated Executive shares how he’s overcome life threatening obstacles of snow blindness, a COVID outbreak, a cyclone plus ran out of oxygen on Mt Everest, YET still found the strength to conquer the highest point on earth to complete his Seven Summits goal all while raising funds to support his daughters battle with epilepsy.” - Julie Roehm
In the vast sphere of business and sports, few names stand out like Mark Pattison and Julie Roehm. As a former NFL player turned SVP of Sports Illustrated, Pattison's journey is nothing short of remarkable. And who better to unravel this story than Julie Roehm, renowned for her insightful conversations with industry leaders?
When we talk about career transitions, Pattison's leap from NFL player to business development executive at Sports Illustrated is quite impressive. It's not every day that you find someone who's been in the trenches of the football field and the boardroom, mastering both arenas with grace and grit.
One of the fascinating aspects of Pattison's career is how he leveraged the lessons from the football field in the world of business. The skills learned in the high-pressure environment of professional sports—teamwork, strategic thinking, resilience—serve him well in his current role at Sports Illustrated.
Julie Roehm, in her insightful and deep-dive style, brings out these nuances in her conversation with Pattison. If you're familiar with Julie's conversations, you know that she has a knack for digging into her guest's experiences, extracting lessons that listeners can apply to their own lives and careers.
In the case of Mark Pattison, Julie explores how his NFL experience prepared him for his role at Sports Illustrated. If you're a fan of either football or business—or both—this conversation between Julie Roehm and Mark Pattison is a must-listen.
But what does this all mean for you, the listener? The key takeaway is that skills and experiences from one sphere can often be translated into another. Whether you're an athlete, a businessperson, or a fan, Pattison's journey is an inspiration to continually adapt, learn, and evolve.
For those aspiring to make a similar transition, Pattison's advice is priceless. The road to success, whether in sports or business, is rarely a straight line. It's filled with turns and obstacles that challenge us, but also provide opportunities for growth.
Pattison's story, as unveiled by Julie Roehm, is a testament to the importance of resilience and adaptability. It's a reminder that our past experiences, no matter how different they may seem from our current goals, can be invaluable resources for our future success.
In this light, let's consider Julie Roehm's conversations as a rich resource for anyone looking to learn from the experiences of others. After all, isn't that what conversations are about—sharing experiences, learning, and growing together?
Now, let's end with some final thoughts on this enlightening conversation between Julie Roehm and Mark Pattison. The story of a former NFL player navigating his way to the top of a renowned sports publication is undoubtedly compelling. But even more captivating is how the lessons from the football field translate into business acumen, showing us that the playbook for success can come from the most unexpected sources.
About ‘The Conversational’ Podcast
"The Conversational," a podcast by Julie Roehm, is a cornerstone of insightful dialogues, a meeting point of intellects where the power of words shapes the future. Fueled by Julie Roehm's dynamism and her passion for innovation, it serves as an arena where ideas are exchanged and voices of transformational leaders are heard.
Julie Roehm, a titan in marketing and business strategy, adds an extra layer of depth to every interaction. Her experience and instinctive inquisitiveness unlocks unexplored perspectives, making "The Conversational" more than just an auditory experience. It's a platform that bridges the gap between listeners and leaders, creating a channel for knowledge and inspiration.
Navigating through diverse industries, Julie Roehm explores the intricacies of technology, healthcare, marketing, and entrepreneurship. The podcast is a goldmine of stories — tales of challenges, triumphs, and visions that shape the future of these sectors. With Julie Roehm at the steering wheel, the journey is as enlightening as the destination.
The Conversational isn't merely a series of dialogues. It's a masterclass in understanding our ever-evolving world, a compass for those navigating the labyrinth of life and business. Julie Roehm's role is pivotal, her voice a beacon guiding listeners towards enlightenment and transformation.
Transcript:
Julie (00:00):
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Conversational. My name is Julie Roehm, and today I have the great pleasure of introducing you to Mark Pattison. Mark is a hard one to give you his full bio on because it is so circuitous in that it ranges from amazing philanthropic effort to, I think, personal efforts and just going through an athletic background all the way to what he has been doing now in a more executive and professional manner. And so, it's a really thrilling, winding that I know you guys are going to really enjoy.
But just to give you a little taste of what you're about to learn about and then some is that Mark is a former NFL player, which is apropos because we're going to be launching this, you all will be listening to this, hopefully, while you're watching the NFL playoffs and then Super Bowl, so good timing. He's also, as I mentioned, a philanthropist. He too is a podcaster. He's a successful entrepreneur. And as I mentioned, he's an executive at Sports Illustrated.
He's also unbelievably climbed all seven summits, like physical mountains is what I'm talking about, not just personal summits. He's completed this feet by scaling the death defying Mount Everest just this past spring, so less than a year ago. Beautifully, the story is he's dedicated his climb to his daughter, Amelia, who is overcoming her own Everest by defeating epilepsy. He's actually raised over $60,000 with the generous donations from many, many individuals, the NFL, the Vegas Raiders, I'm sorry, Mark, that they lost to my Bengals. We'll talk about that in a second. But all the proceeds go to Higher Ground.
So without breaking into any more of the punchlines of his amazing story, let me please introduce Mark. Hello, Mark, and welcome.
Mark (02:04):
Yeah, thank you so much. As you were saying all those nice things as we were coming in, it reminded me of that movie Forrest Gump, when they're talking about life is a box of chocolates, right?
Julie (02:15):
Yeah.
Mark (02:15):
And it truly can be if you step into certain things that you've never done before.
Julie (02:21):
It is, it's amazing. And as we were speaking, you know I dedicate this podcast to amazing people who have faced amazing holy shit moments or hoshimos in their life, and I'm sure they've in every case have upended what they thought was their game plan for life, whether it's personal or career.
And I am very eager to get into what those things were for you because just even that little tiny intro, it's clear that, I mean, maybe, we'll find out, but did you have a plan to be raising money and climbing all the seven summits of the world? I don't know, but we'll get into it. So let's start with so tell us where were you born? What'd your mom and dad do? Did you have brothers and sisters? So fill us in on the early days.
Mark (03:08):
Yeah, I mean, I think, like a lot of the things that we'll get into here in a few minutes, they're all connected and there were aha moments multiple times, and I'm an open book about what that looks like. But I grew up in Seattle, Washington, and Seattle is, I think as I look at where I sit today, it's had a big influence on me. I live in Sun Valley, Idaho now, a beautiful little mountain town in the middle of nowhere.
But growing up, in terms of the simplicity, my parents were both teachers, and so I didn't actually get on an airplane until I was 18 years old on my first recruiting trip, and it happened to be the University of Hawaii. So if you're going to pick a recruiting trip, that's probably the place to go.
But we just went everywhere in a little VW Bug and did a lot of camping and hiking. And for people that are not familiar with the Northwest, the Pacific Northwest, where Seattle's located in kind of the upper left hand corner of the country, it's very mountainous, and there's lots of lakes.
And there's one big peak up there called Mount Rainier. It's 14,500 feet, and many people around the world have not only come to climb that mountain, but also many very famous mountaineers. Actually, the first American to climb Mount Everest in 1963 was a guy named Jim Whittaker. And all those guys cut their teeth on mountains up in the Pacific Northwest, in particular Mount Rainier. And so, I was really influenced by a lot of these different people growing up. We're talking about mountaineering.
But in the business world, and this came later as I was going probably into my 30s where it really became very entrepreneurial. Bill Gates grew up in my neighborhood. He wasn't wealthy and rich like he is now. But back when he started this little company called Microsoft, nobody knew what that was. That was like 1985, 1986, or something. And then, Jeff Bezos decides to open this little book thing out of his garage. I had buddies that were early investors in that, Howard Schultz from Starbucks.
I mean, I was a contractor for Starbucks for 14 years. We talked about the entrepreneurial side of the things that I've done. And so, I got to know a lot of these different people and all these, Expedia, Rich Barton, another guy, another friend, that's come out. And they're just these guys who, when you're in that type of environment, it's very just, it makes you think outside the box and what is possible and learning to think big. And I think those different influences have all come full circle later in life for me as I sit here today.
Julie (05:55):
So when you were growing up... And I love the visual of the small town in Idaho. My sister-in-law's from Idaho, so I've gotten familiar with it through her. But it is a beautiful part of the country, by the way. My parents lived in Seattle for a long time. It is just spectacular. I know people complain about the grayness, but it's that fresh... I don't know, there's a smell to the upper Northwest, I think. It's this very fresh sort of green smell, watery. It's just, it's a beautiful place to be able to really enjoy nature.
And I can picture this visual that you created of your parents as teachers and you guys zipping around in a VW Bug, I think is very quintessential. And you said you got on the plane to go to Hawaii, in those first 18 years before you started to see other parts of the world, what was it that you wanted to do? So with your teachers and what you saw, at an early age, what is it that you thought you would be doing in life, or what did you really aspire to do?
Mark (06:59):
That's a great question. Again, it's weird for people to think about this today, unless you're in my golden ages, but back in the day, there's no internet and there's only three TV channels, ABC, NBC, CBS, and maybe one PBS thing. And so, most of my time was spent not in front of a computer, not playing video games, was out in the play field all the time. That's all I ever did.
And also, many of those companies, we only really had one big company. It was Boeing that was based out of Seattle, and that was it. And so, this whole entrepreneurial thing, it didn't really, I wasn't thinking about that. Alls I cared about was sports. Sports, sports, sports. In high school, I did fairly well to get recognized by a number of different colleges throughout the country, in particular on the West Coast, and so, now I started to go...
But it still really hadn't clicked in. I was always able to kind of get away with just my natural talent. I was kind of faster than everybody else on the field. And a lot of those things just enabled me to get to where I got. But like all things, they use this little word called potential. And what that really means is, at the end of the day, you haven't really fulfilled the maximum ceiling where we can all go in our different personalities. And everybody has a ceiling.
And so, I'd gotten to a certain level that was better than everybody else, but it wasn't good enough to keep propelling me to go on. So, at the time, it was just football, sports, and that was it. That was my world. Business wasn't even in the picture. Mountain climbing outside of a casual hike wasn't really there. These would all come down the road.
Julie (08:38):
Yeah. So when you went to... Why did you choose... just in your college-
Mark (08:42):
I didn't. I went to the University of Washington, so I don't want to confuse that. When you're a recruit being recruited by all these different... It's just everybody's trying to bring you in. They want you at their school because they think that you can help. And so, I got multiple recruiting trips. My first one happened to be over to the University of Hawaii, so in Oahu.
Julie (09:02):
I don't think about Hawaii as a big football school. I mean, but that's why I asked. I was like, "Oh, why would... " I thought maybe that was one of those that you wanted to go to, yourself, in terms of a school. But no, it was football.
Mark (09:12):
I wanted to go to Hawaii.
Julie (09:12):
Well, who doesn't want to go to Hawaii? Yeah.
Mark (09:17):
Yeah. So that's all I really wanted do. Again, people familiar with the University of Washington know that the UDub is located right in the-
Julie (09:28):
Right downtown.
Mark (09:29):
Right downtown, so it's you're right there. So I grew up, I could actually see Husky Stadium outside my parents' window. And I went to all the games with my grandfather when I was a kid. And so, I always looked down at those guys and with awe like I could ever be one of those guys in the field. I mean, that was the game in town.
And until up until 1976 is when the Seahawks were franchised along with Tampa Bay now with Tom Brady, but they started also. So it was Tampa Bay and it was the Seattle Seahawks that were formed in 1976. And so, then we started to get the professional level there where I could look up to and see those guys and try to emulate what they were doing.
Julie (10:11):
So when you chose Washington, and I'm very familiar with the school, you went largely with, I assume, a football scholarship and went to think, "I'm going to play." Did you have in your mind when you went... I mean, I'm sure every kid does that, although... Look, I just think my son went and played college ball too, but it was a D3. He had no aspirations to go to the NFL, wasn't that caliber, but just loved the game and wanted to play it as long as he could.
I suspect given your passion and the story you're telling that you did have designs on like, hey, watch it, maybe I could go all the way. Was that in your mindset when you went and started to play?
Mark (10:53):
No, not all.
Julie (10:53):
Not at all. Okay.
Mark (10:56):
No, no. So let's go back to first thing you were talking about and those kind of aha moments. And this is the first one for me, because for the most part, I had a happy, great friends, childhood growing up, playing Little League sports, making my way through high school. I had a great coach that really empowered me to kind of go do whatever I want. We had a good quarterback. So it was kind of being in the right place, right time, which then propelled me to this next level.
And the aha moment for me came the day that I stepped out on the field for the University of Washington. And we had a coach named Don James, and Don James had come down from kind of the Paul "Bear" Bryant, who was the great Alabama coach, that whole treeline. And he had started to build some serious momentum at the University of Washington. They'd gone to a Rose Bowl, and they were getting better players.
And I get out there on this first day of my freshman year and fall camp. It was in August, and I'm on the sideline. I'm looking out there. And again, I'm having this holy shit moment because I'm looking out there, I was just little. I was six foot two, 181 pounds, couldn't bench my weight. I was just this skinny little kid who had never worked for anything. All these guys were gunned up. They were strong. They were confident. And that just was not me. And that was not me, and I was just like, "I am so far in over my head."
And I got out there, and I started competing against... I just didn't have the body. I didn't have the frame to compete against these guys who were 22, 23. And many of our players went on into the NFL, so I didn't understand the path that you needed to take to actually get you there.
And so, the aha moment for me was this, is that, number one, I was in way in over my head. Number two is what I had to learn over the next several years was Don James's pyramid of success, so it's really the blueprint which I've taken time and again.
Now, we're talking about my football life, my NFL life, my business life, Sports Illustrated, my mountaineering life, it's the same blueprint I've implemented time and again. But I didn't understand really what that meant, and I had to go through three, four years of I didn't play. I just kept getting bigger and stronger and more knowledgeable and more confident and having the belief system.
And here is the catch on this whole thing is that just because I did A and B, lifting, running, learning my plays, studying film, doing all that kind of stuff, there was no certainty that A plus B was going to equal C. There was no certainty that I was ever going to play.
But because I did that, I did that work consistency, I did it with daily discipline, it led to the magical moment where it was my junior year. We were playing Michigan. We were down by 14. I'm in the game. And as the game winds up, we score a touchdown. Now, we're down by seven. We come back. We get the ball with two minutes ago. We do a drive the entire length of the field.
And they throw me the ball, with 15 seconds left to go in the game, in the end zone, and I jump over the guy, catch the ball, end up on Sports Illustrated. Ironically, I work for the company today. But I jump over, it's a big, huge spread of me on the cover of Sports Illustrated of catching this ball and winning the game.
And so, it wasn't about... That moment was just a validation of the belief system I had to have for buying into this whole pyramid of success, these 25 individual and team goals that I needed to have to go out and excel and exceed to one day put myself in that position to play out.
And there's many people who did the same thing as me, and they just weren't talented enough or they didn't get the right opportunity or when they got in there, it didn't play out well for them. So, for me, fortunately, knock on wood, it did. But regardless it was that blueprint that helped me and has helped me through life of really understanding how to get things accomplished.
Julie (14:48):
So it's so fascinating. I love it. First of all, were you a tight end or a wide receiver?
Mark (14:48):
I was a wide receiver.
Julie (14:50):
You were wide receiver. Okay. They've been showing all the tight ends, the Gronk-
Mark (14:57):
Yeah, I know. They're good.
Julie (14:58):
... and Tony Gonzalez.
Mark (15:00):
There's my Raider jersey right there, back in the-
Julie (15:02):
Oh, beautiful.
Mark (15:04):
Yeah.
Julie (15:04):
Beautiful. I'm a big Bengals fan, so I was pretty excited that we won.
Mark (15:07):
Yeah, cool.
Julie (15:08):
But it's been 31 years, we deserve it. But there's a couple of things about your story that I think were interesting that I want to get to. One is that blueprint. I'd love it if you could share any kind of key points of that blueprint that your coach shared with you that have served you so well through life.
Mark (15:08):
Yeah.
Julie (15:25):
And then, two, is that I have to imagine that that moment where you caught that ball and were on Sports Illustrated was another holy shit moment of a different angle that probably propelled you on in terms of the belief in yourself and the hard work.
Because I think, to your point, there may have been several other people, I don't say many, but several other people just like you, but they didn't choose to dig in, to just push through, to do the hard work, to not be discouraged by the fact that you didn't get playing time in the first two years.
Because I think that that is the story, and at least for me, with all of these interviews that I do with successful people, that little piece is the difference. It's that sticktoitive-ness, if you will, the ability to just hang in there.
And I'm just wondering, those two things, one, was that a holy shit moment? Obviously, you tell the story, so it certainly was pivotal at least. But two is what were those tidbits that your coach gave you that have served you through life? Because I think that would be interesting to share.
Mark (16:31):
Well, there's a lot of them, but let tell you this, at the top of the pyramid, so there's 25 individual... So as you go through this, and he had taken it from John Wooden, and he had adapted this as his own. And so, in the bottom, it's getting bigger, it's getting faster. A block could be get fast, a block could be get strong. A block could be do well in the classroom because if you flunk in the classroom, you can't play on the field. So there's all these different blocks in there.
And at the very top, and it coincides with winning a National Championship. And again, these are what you aspire to be, to be the best possible version of yourself. But in the John Wooden version, which has always stuck with me, this thing called competitive greatness.
And the thing about competitive greatness is this, is that not everybody's going to be Michael Jordan, but whatever you do, in business, in mountaineering, in sport, in personal relationships or whatever it might be, if you don't love the process, it ain't going to last a whole long time.
So let's go back to what you said or the question that you asked about, what was the difference between you where you separated yourself between myself and these other people? And it was a variety of things. A lot of these guys just it was party city, and they were doing the wrong stuff.
Julie (17:50):
No pun.
Mark (17:51):
Yeah, no, seriously. I understand what you're talking about, but they were just... You have to be a very dedicated athlete if you want to succeed and play at the highest level. And so, that wiped out a bunch of people. People didn't do well enough in school, and so that wiped some people. Some people just quit because they couldn't handle it anymore. Other people, there was new talent that was always coming up, new hot recruits. I was a hot recruit coming out of high school, but then when I was a freshman, I wasn't a hot recruit anymore. And now, the new hot recruits are the guys coming behind me, so I was always being pushed.
And I think going into a place like the University of Washington, my first year, we went to the Rose Bowl. My second year, we went to the Rose Bowl. My third year we went, ironically, over to Hawaii for the first inaugural Aloha Bowl. My fourth year, I was there five years, I red-shirted the year... My fourth year, we went back to the Aloha bowl. My fifth year we ended up number two in the country beating Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.
And what a lot of that whole, that arc of the bowl games and being around big time programs and big time athletes, and many of these guys went on, my teammates went on to the NFL, and the guys I played against, which I'd later get to know, went on to the NFL, it started to open my mind on how to think big.
And that was the biggest thing because if my ceiling... My ceiling in high school was just my ceiling in high school, like I'm good enough. I didn't realize that I had a whole nother level, multiple levels to go, to be able to compete at that level. And then, once I got to the NFL, I had to step it up a whole nother level. I didn't even know I had that level. But it's just like sink or swim either, you either swim or you get cut, period.
Julie (17:51):
Period.
Mark (19:33):
That's it.
Julie (19:34):
Amazing. I love the fact that when you get to see a glimpse of the bigness of what happens is that that is what spurred you on because I think many people become paralyzed by that. They see it, and then the self-doubt creeps in because they're like, "It's so big, I could never... " There's a comfort level in the thing that you know that's a smaller pond, and that bigger pond with the unknowns, and when you see all the different, the talent, it can be very paralyzing. And, for you, it was motivating, which I think is a huge difference and says a lot about [crosstalk 00:20:09].
Mark (20:09):
Well, let me tell you why because that's really interesting. I love that question. And the reason why it was motivating is because of this, and this is where people get caught up all the time in business, and again, in other things that they do, which is they get so caught up in whatever the next person's doing.
And the only thing I had to concern myself about was myself. Am I the best version of myself yet? And the answer was always no. And that's what was, maybe fear of failure, I'm not sure what that was, but it was always motivating for me. How can I get better? I can't control what that guy's doing.
And there's three things that helped me get there. Number one is the first thing I had to do... And believe me, when I was a freshman and I was looking at this whole thing, I was terrified. I had this breakdown moment, again, I've had multiple aha moments, but this was another one where I was at that freshman year where I looked out there and that was one. But also later where now I was like a rock star in the fraternity, I was not doing well in class, and I was failing at football. And so, it was just like what door do you want to go through?
And what I had to learn, again, going through this whole pyramid of success was three things. One was stepping in the fear. Was I willing to go through and do all these different things? Number two is I had to do this with daily discipline, and really honor that. I mean, the only person I'm ever cheating is myself. And the third thing is I had to commit like I'd never committed before.
And I'd never really committed to a level like that. I was just the guy that grew up on the playground, and I had to take my dedication and my effort and everything and my heart, my body, and just have a strong why of what's my purpose? Why am I here doing all this stuff? And I realized it was because I needed to become the best version of myself.
Now, I wasn't going to let anything... So what I did is I moved out of the fraternity. I moved home with my parents. I dedicated myself to college, to school. And, again, it took me three-plus years to get on that field, and that's a long time to be in a dark tunnel before the light comes out.
And so, at the end of that, I look back on it, I can say that I didn't leave anything behind. As a matter of fact, I probably could have even given more, but I didn't leave anything behind. But I had to sacrifice a whole lot of things with all my buddies going out and having a good time. And it's just like, you know what? There's going to be time for me to do that down the road, but now is a special time. And how many of those guys would want to be down there on the field playing in Michigan and all these other, USC, Stanford, and all these? I mean, they all want to be out there on the stands, and they don't have enough talent. And so I have to do what I can to be the best version of myself.
Julie (22:49):
Special moment. So did you leave right from college and go to the NFL? Were you drafted? Or how did that process work?
Mark (22:57):
Yeah, so other people have asked me that in the past, who they don't understand quite how that works. You can't just show up at the Raider training camp, so there's a flow that goes on. And the first thing you have to do is typically you have to be at one of the more major colleges. It's shifting a little bit now, but that was certainly the case. And so you get slotted.
And then what they do is the NFL has something called the NFL Combines. They're now held in Indianapolis. They used to, when I was going through, our year, it was in Tempe, Arizona State. But they invite the top 350 players in the country to come. And then, I got drafted in the seventh round by the Raiders. They give you like a where you might get drafted, and I happened to get drafted by the Raiders, which was amazing, in Los Angeles in those days. Now, they're in Las Vegas, as you mentioned at the beginning of the show, and off I went.
And again, the thing that was interesting about that is that when I got down to LA, they'd been in the Super Bowl two years before. They had a couple Heisman Trophy winners on the team, Marcus Allen, Jim Plunkett. They had Howie Long, that's still on TV doing this thing with the NFL and Fox. And it was a collection of greatness.
And as I'm walking, and remember, I'm the guy who my vacations were in a little VW Bug, and OJ Simpson back in the day when he hadn't gone completely cuckoo, he'd pull in the parking lot in the Ferrari, and there's guys in their Mercedes and the Porsches. And I mean, it was just a whole nother level.
It was LA back in the day, this really dates, but I was 23 years old, and we've got Cary Grant and the guy that played in the Rockford Files and all these actresses and they were all around. So again, it took my level of thinking big to opening that ceiling once again of possibility, not only in sport, but in business.
Julie (24:49):
Yeah. Amazing. So I went to the Vegas-Tampa Bay Super Bowl in San Diego. I don't know if that was this Bowl you're talking about, but that was amazing. But so how many years did you play for Vegas? I mean, for, sorry, Los Angeles Raiders?
Mark (25:08):
Yeah, the Raiders, I was there for three years, and then I got traded to New Orleans.
Julie (25:10):
Oh.
Mark (25:11):
Yeah, so I was down there for a couple years. And that was a fascinating experience too because the first year I got there, they had never won. I had always won. I had never lost. I mean, you'd lose games here and there, but I'd never had a losing season.
Julie (25:22):
A losing season.
Mark (25:23):
Yeah. And the Saints up to that point had never had a winning season for 20 years. And the year I got there was the first winning season, and it was just amazing to see the town react to what was. I mean, I can't remember ever buying a drink or a meal or anything, just everybody was so excited about it, about what was going on down there.
But all in all, I had five years in the NFL. And you look at a guy like Tom Brady right now, he's on his 24th or 25th year.
Julie (25:53):
Unbelievable.
Mark (25:54):
He's unbelievable, and he's a rarity, and the average lifespan of any player is like a year-and-a-half. And so, for me to get to that five and get my pension and those things has come full circle, especially with my mountaineering in terms of my NFL career kind of becoming relevant again. So it's been really interesting how this whole thing's had kind of a full circle of things.
Julie (26:18):
Yeah. Were you there with Drew Brees?
Mark (26:22):
No, no, no, no. No, no, no, I'm probably five years older than Drew.
Julie (26:28):
Than Drew, got it, yeah. Just another one of my... He's one of my favorites because I went to Purdue too. We don't have as many elite athletes coming out of Purdue as we did in the '50s and '60s, so I grasp onto to those when they come through. So Drew's been one of my... So what was the impetus for... I mean, five years is amazing, but was it just a point in time where you're like... Was there anything about your health? I'm just curious as to what happened your last year and then what was the impetus to pivot and what came next?
Mark (27:03):
Yeah, again, let's jump into another aha moment. Coming out of my fifth year, I was just like, you know what? I really see myself playing another 10 years, and there was an opportunity to go back to Seattle, and there was a whole set of circumstances around that.
And at the end of the day, they paid me way more money to go do that, but I got cut, and it was very painful because I had a very secure situation down in New Orleans. And I was so defeated by that. And I'd been doing that, playing at the highest level really for 10 years between my college and my NFL thing. I was just burned out on it. I was now 30, and I was just like, you know what? I want to go try some other life experiences. I want to go to Europe, which I'd never been able to do before because I was always working out constantly. I was a junkie.
And so, it probably took me... So I'd like to sit here today and say, "Look, I retired, and it was all smooth and everything was this big ceremony," but I basically got thrown out, right?
Julie (27:03):
Yeah.
Mark (28:00):
And so, at the end of the day, I probably went through two years of really hard times. And I know there's a lot of similarities with military guys that are coming out, or girls, where you've been in this kind of team locker atmosphere or a squadron. And now, you've been doing this thing, you're around, you've gone through the battles. You've had this amazing experience... In our day too, you're very glorified and you're paid... It's nothing like today, but it's all relative, but you're paid good money.
And then, you come out, and then I'm 30 years old, and all my buddies who graduated and had done kind of the normal zigzag to get to where they were, they were stabilized, and they were starting to make some good money, I had to go back to the bottom of the pile.
And I thought my phone would be ringing with opportunities, and it didn't ring at all. And I was just like, okay, what am I going to do? I was really petrified. And I knew I wanted to do something great. I just didn't know how to transition that energy over into something new because I didn't know what was out there or how business works.
Julie (29:02):
Yeah. Right. So what happened? I mean, I get it. I mean, you hear about it so much, especially with athletes, but to your point, it's military too, where it's like an adrenaline game, you know what I mean? It's an adrenaline experience that you're on all the time, and you've got this comradery, and you've got this group, and you belong to something. And then, you're unceremoniously thrown out because it's at the top of your game and you lasted longer than most. But then you're to sink or swim on your own and you probably felt lost.
And I think it's probably difficult for a lot of people to relate to like, "Oh my gosh, look at the success and an NFL player." But I think your experience is probably extraordinarily common, that feeling of being lost in the wilderness and what happens next? What did you do in those two years, and how did you come out? Was it personal things? Did you get married? Did you go home and just... What was the story like for you?
Mark (30:05):
Yeah, so I did get married, and we'll get into that later, another aha moment about the mountaineering.
Julie (30:13):
[inaudible 00:30:13].
Mark (30:13):
Yeah, but I did get married, and she was doing well in what she was doing. We were living in LA. I had been throughout NFL career. I was buying a lot of homes up in Seattle. And that happened to be a very good thing for me, because at that same time, again, Microsoft and these other companies started to really take off. And so, the real estate values were just kept creeping up and up and up, so that turned out to be a great play. But in terms of my day-to-day purpose, I really didn't have anything.
And then, there was a friend mine who thought that I might be good at this marketing opportunity going to big corporations and helping out with whether different events that they were having and things like that. And so, I ended up jumping into that and that lasted for quite some time. And that kind of led from one thing to another. Again, all these different companies were sprouting up, so there's all this opportunity. I'd moved back to Seattle.
And then, somewhere along the way, another kind of big moment for me that happened, which is I had heard through the grapevine that Starbucks was looking to replace their big, green outdoor market umbrellas. So if you go to any Starbucks, you know, you've seen them, right?
Julie (31:26):
Yes, absolutely. Yeah.
Mark (31:28):
Yeah. So anyways, and this really started to teach me about perseverance, not just taking my NFL experience and all the things I went through in college and all the things I went through, but now the same thing was happening in business.
And I called the switchboard and said, "Hey, can you connect me with the person who's in charge of outdoor market umbrellas?" They did. And this gal picked up the phone. I said, "Hey, this is Mark, and I do these things. I'd like to make a run at it." It took me two-and-a-half years to get that account, and I ended up setting up a whole export of fabrics going out of the country. I set up a team in Hong Kong, a manufacturing thing in China.
And I ended up getting the account for 14 years. We did every single outdoor market green umbrella that you've ever seen in North America, South America, and parts of Asia. It was unbelievable.
Julie (32:26):
Wow, that's amazing. That little, that one moment just was a spur for you. So this became its own business, what happened to the business?
Mark (32:37):
So ultimately, that business then, so the business that I was in, the thing I didn't like about it, there was really no barrier to entry. Anybody could do. It was very competitive, and people were always bidding against each other, kind of the lowest price would always win. I was just like this doesn't make sense to me.
So about 10 years, as this company was going along, I ended up starting another company called Front Porch Classics, which was a gaming company, not electronic games, but old, traditional. We called them, we are actually the ones who trademarked the name, coffee table games. People hear that today, but we trademarked that name.
And so, we started this company. I went out and raised 500 grand. It took me two weeks to raise that money. And we started this little company. There was nine of us. And we ended up, in 2001, we won Toy of the Year with this product. And in the world of that, you're competing against Mattel and Hasbro and these gigantic companies, and we beat them all out. And then the next year, we followed up-
Julie (33:39):
What was the game that you beat them with?
Mark (33:40):
It was called Old Century Baseball, so it was kind of an old way... It looked a little bit like a pinball game, but it was miniature size, but it sold out everywhere. And so, then we got venture money and venture capitalists came into it. And it was kind of all about the time when the country was going upside down because we were so plugged in and there were all these dot coms, and then we got hit by 9/11.
And it was right after 9/11 that the venture people called us in and said, "We want to fund your company," which was really amazing. Yeah, and so now what's starting to happen in my business life is I'm going from this little company that I had to starting to play with some bigger players and understanding how bigger business works, and then recognizing that, you know what? I'm competing against every... not my Starbucks business, but the other part of the business, I'm competing against people that are doing the same thing, and what can my point of difference be?
So that's where I was just like light bulb goes on, let me start a company where we have proprietary goods that nobody else competed against us. So we went down that path. And so now, ultimately, that company was sold in 2008, and we ended up in seven different countries. We are in, I think, like 700 different retail locations.
I've been in front of every buyer. So again, I was just working that craft of talking in front and getting in front and I'm doing presentations on why we're better and why that product's going to sell in their department store. And Macy's The May Company, Nordstrom's, everybody we were in. So it was really incredible.
And then that went along for a number of years. And again, having another kind of pivot, I'll make this quick, pivot, is I started see after that company was sold, I knew that this whole kind of revolution of going digital was happening. And so, I kind of put that company down, and that was hard because I had to make another pivot. And that pivot was Mark needs to learn everything he needs to learn without going to college on the world of eCommerce and the world of how the internet works and how advertising works and how subscription works and how the algorithms and everything else, everything.
And so it was painful because the salary I was making took a huge decline. And we went through 2008, 2009, we're in the market crash and everything else. And so, it was a scary time for me. So I'll leave it at that for now. I've talked [inaudible 00:36:08]. But it was just these pivots and these aha moments of there's got to be a different way. There's got to be a different way. There's got to be like where is the puck going, not where I am today, but where is that thing going down the road?
Julie (36:19):
Which is frightening and risky because you kind of put everything at risk to try something new that you know you've got to to be successful, but there's no guarantee that you will be successful at it. So it takes a lot of courage to step out of that comfort zone, which I think has been, by the way, the theme that I'm pulling from your entire being.
But I want to connect two things now sort of, and we'll get to then how you got to Sports Illustrated, but I'm very curious, I know you're married at this point in time. I know for sure, at least you've got a daughter, Amelia, from your story. When was she born and when did the mountaineering combine and how did you end up combining those two things for your philanthropic bent?
Mark (37:05):
Yeah. By the way, raised over $150,000.
Julie (37:05):
Wow.
Mark (37:07):
You mentioned 60,000 early in the program.
Julie (37:11):
Oh.
Mark (37:11):
So I have two daughters, and one is now 25 and the other one's 23. Amelia's 23, the younger one. And when she was eight, we were in Europe traveling as a family, and I had noticed that she wasn't listening or hearing or just not paying attention to me.
And so, one thing led to another, which led to then getting back to the States, back up to Seattle, going in, having a checkup. And she was diagnosed as having epilepsy. And she doesn't have the type of epilepsy where she'd fall over and have convulsions type of thing. It was something called absence seizures, which were like little mini, petite seizures where like you and I are having a conversation like we are right now, and then she'd just blank out for 10 to 15 seconds. But these were daily, and if she had 10 seizures a day, that's a huge win, huge win.
Julie (38:05):
Wow, that must have been frightening.
Mark (38:07):
Yeah. So over all these years, not being able to ride a bike, play on the monkey bars, drive, she still can't drive, it's been a big, huge challenge for her in a major way. And so, stop that story right there for a second, and then we go back 10 years. I was going through a tough time. My now ex didn't want to be married anymore. And so, it was a really hard thing for me to go through.
And so, this went on and on for a couple years. And after a couple of years, I finally just got sick and tired of it. And I said, "You know what? I'm tired of of asking how I got in this position," because I always said I would be the one guy that would never get divorced. And there's no divorce ever in the history of my entire family, and all of a sudden I'm in that position. And there was only one way out. And so, I changed that whole mindset from how did I get here to what am I going to do about it?
And so, I needed something massive to pull myself out of. And obviously, since I've been very physical over my life and coming from Seattle, Washington, I said, "You know what? I'm going to go back, and I'm going to type in the Google browser, 'Has any NFL player ever climbed the seven summits, the highest peak on every continent?'" And the answer was no. So I said, "I'm going to be that guy."
So again, stepping into the fear, doing a daily discipline and commit, same things I had done in football, same things I had done in business. The scary part of... I didn't know anything about mountaineering. I mean, little hikes like all of us do, but not where you're throwing on crampons and going upside down and ice and all these things I've been through now, I've experienced. And so, that's how I got into mountaineering.
And then, this was probably three, four years ago, I got invited by Howie Long's son, Chris Long, who started a foundation called Waterboys. And Waterboys is essentially tasked with raising money to build water wells for the people in East Africa, and in particular in Tanzania, for the people of the Maasai tribe.
And so, it was his first class, and so myself and I think there was five or six other NFL players and some military folks who had their legs blown off in this, we all went down to Arusha, which is in Tanzania. And we went out to the Maasai tribes, and it was just a spiritual experience just to see what these people live like and their happiness factor, their gratitude factor, how high it was considering how little money and resources they actually have. Their currency is a goat. That's what they-
Julie (40:53):
Right.
Mark (40:53):
And then we went, and we climbed Kili. That was my second time I've climbed Kilimanjaro, and we raised, personally raised just on that one alone $46,000 to fund my own well. So it was a really liberating, eye opening thing.
So that then led to the following year when my daughter who was now attending the University of Arizona was really getting mission critical. Her epilepsy had gone to kind of a whole different level. We ended up to medically withdraw her from school to deal with that. And I was just like why am I... I mean, it's great that I helped out and built a water well for one of the villages and the tribes down there, but I need to help my daughter.
And so, I started this campaign called Amelia's Everest. And so, with that Amelia's Everest, I was able through my platform, through the relatively-speaking notoriety I was getting from the NFL and other outlets, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, places like that, I was able to then redirect kind of the light that was being shown on me towards this Amelia's Everest campaign to go help others, which has just been a blessing.
And so, the thing about this too is now we're talking, in the last 11 months, so it's been 11 months since my daughter has not had a seizure.
Julie (42:14):
Oh my gosh, that's amazing.
Mark (42:16):
Yeah. And this is after 17 years. And I really believe part of that is not because of me, it's because of creating this campaign and the empowerment that she has received from being the spokesperson, having to get in front of a lot of people. The NFL also did a film on my journey on Everest, and she played a major role in that film. And I think just, hey, I can do it, and I'm somebody and I'm valued, and not having the shame that she always felt that went along with having epilepsy.
Julie (42:49):
Right. Unbelievable. So today, I mean, I think that that's true. Is this still part of... Is there a foundation or how can people continue to support? Because, look, epilepsy is a lot more common than I think people know. And so, what you're talking about of being able to give some purpose, does the money that you're raising, does it go to helping do medical research or does it go to helping people who suffer from epilepsy, give them some funds to do something else with their life or something purpose? What is it that is at the root of the foundation?
Mark (43:28):
Yeah. It's is a great question, and I think the first thing is not one penny goes to Mark in Mark's climbing, and actually, not one penny has gone to Amelia specifically. It's to help others. So I paired and partnered with a company in Sun Valley, Idaho called Higher Ground.
And so what Higher Ground, their whole thing, and this kind of falls back back on the theme of what I was just talking about with Amelia, why she's been healed, is that they bring probably mostly military people that have come out and have a lot of cognitive and adaptive issues. And so, because we live in a playground here, we've got all these different resources, by having them ski for the first time, go down rivers, fly fish, mountain climb, mountain bike, these different things which they've never been able to do, it's made them stand a little bit taller the best that they can.
And so, again, it's this theme of empowerment and what that can do to the psyche of, if you believe and you think you can do it, then you can overcome and achieve anything.
Julie (44:33):
Absolutely. That's amazing. I love that. Is there a place that people, just since you've got a little bit of a platform here, that people can go to to support and donate?
Mark (44:42):
Yeah. The easiest place to go is markpattisonnfl.com, and there's a philanthropy tab, and you'll see Amelia's Everest. And again, everything goes directly, once you hit a button, Donate Now, it goes all directly to Higher Ground.
Julie (44:55):
That's amazing. Well, good, I want to make sure we get a second for that because it's amazing. It's an amazing story. Okay, so pivot, let's get to your final chapter. How'd you get to Sports... I mean, I know you were on the cover, clearly the jinx didn't happen, the being on the cover and jinxing, that's didn't seem to happen to you, now you're full circle over there. How did you get there, and what inspired you, and what is it like to work at Sports Illustrated?
Mark (45:20):
Yeah, no, it's really cool. So five years ago, I was part of a founding team that we started a technology company. And the technology company at the time and has been really kind of the main focus on what we have done, which was to build a world class technology, to have it all in a single technology platform that we could invite big brands that they would run their companies on our technology.
And so, five years later now, we have over 300 companies, The History Channel, The Biography Channel, Max Magazine, Yoga Journal. And then, two years ago, there was an opportunity to buy The Street, which is a financial advice website, which we did. And then, we also tried to buy Sports Illustrated, and that didn't happen because a gigantic company outbid us. But we turned around because of our past operational experience, and we signed a long term license deal with Sports Illustrated.
And so, again, my role has always been to grow the brand. And for years and years and years and years and years and years, they had not grown. They've been very stagnant. And it's a big accomplishment, I think, because we took Sports Illustrated from number 12 in terms of the rankings worldwide, ESPN's number one, NBC Sports, Yahoo, the big names are up there. And this last year, we ended 2021 in the number five spot.
Julie (46:51):
Wow.
Mark (46:52):
Yeah, we made just a gigantic leap, and we are going on to the New York Stock Exchange. We're listing here in the next couple months.
Julie (46:52):
Amazing. Congratulations.
Mark (47:00):
Yeah. So it's all happening in big ways, and we have a lot of momentum right now. So it's like anything, when you win, it's great, and when you lose it sucks, and we've got great momentum going on right now.
Julie (47:17):
Love that. That's a great story. So let's wrap up by what's next?
Mark (47:27):
What's next? Well, I will continue my work with Sports Illustrated, so that's fun. I have more climbs coming. In late September, I'm headed to Chamonix and climbing a mountain called Mont Blanc. And then, I'm going to follow that up by climbing another mountain a little bit more famous called the Matterhorn. That will be crazy straight up, doing that.
Continuing to do my philanthropy work, raising money. And I've just got a variety of other things that... We're working on a book that's coming. And again, this movie, Searching for the Summit, came out, and I continue to promote that. And so that's just been a blessing. They've all been blessings.
So I'm not stopping. If anything, I just turned 60, and so, for me, it's really starting to accelerate and put the gas down and go. And so, that's the one thing I've learned out of this adversity and about having to pivot and reset and get after it and do all these things is you can't stop, man. You got to keep moving.
Julie (48:35):
I love it. The power of the pivot. That's awesome. So one final thing, where can people see, what is the name of the film, Search for the Summit?
Mark (48:42):
Searching for the Summit. You can find all that stuff on my website. That's the easiest place because the NFL's made it a little tricky to find. So if you go on my website, markpattisonnfl.com, there's a big red button. You can see the one minute trailer, and then you can also see the film, which is shown on NFL 360 as well.
But it's a really moving... I shot a lot of that film up on Mount Everest, and they came to Sun Valley and shot a lot of it. They got a lot of people there interviewed. But it's a 30 minute power-packed film that is not about just some ex-jock climbing a mountain. It's really about the human emotion of what happened to my daughter and how I really dedicated that climb. Because I came so close to not making it back, I ended up, on summit day, I got snow blind in one eye. I hadn't eaten in three days. I was in a cyclone, and I ran out of oxygen, and my Sherpa left me.
So those are not the types of things that you want to have happen on Mount Everest, but they all happened to me. And so, trying to overcome that and really digging deep on what's the most important thing in life?
Julie (49:52):
Talk about a holy shit moment.
Mark (49:53):
That was a big time one.
Julie (49:55):
That was a big one. Yeah, that's amazing. Well, I love that we can see it. Look, there's no shortage of people asking me, "What have you watched lately?" So this is a great one to put on the list and hopefully be moved by that and maybe feel the impetus to give a little bit back to the charity that you're working towards.
So this has been fabulous. Mark, thank you for sharing your story. We're going to send everybody to markpattisonnfl.com. We'll have the podcast out in multiple places. But thank you for sharing your story with us today, it's been fantastic.
Mark (50:29):
Thank you so much. Loved being on with you.
Julie (50:29):
Thank you.