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Susan Ershler

  • Mount Everest Climber
  • Co-author of "Together On Top of the World"
Speaker Fees
Keynote: $18,000
Travel Fees
West Coast: $1,000 West Coast Flat Travel Expense Fee (Events in Mountain & Pacific Time zones), covers airfare and ground transportation in home city. Client covers hotel accommodations for one, ground transportation and meals in event city.
East Coast: $1,500 East Coast Flat Travel Expense Fee (Events in Eastern & Central Time zones), covers airfare and ground transportation in home city. Client covers hotel accommodations for one, ground transportation and meals in event city.
Traveling From
Washington

Susan Ershler tours the world speaking about her life journey and sharing with others her secrets for success, determination, and achieving seemingly impossible goals. Susan’s record would be remarkable enough if it only detailed her business achievements. During her 23-year corporate career, she has held a series of increasingly responsible executive positions in the sales...

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Susan Ershler tours the world speaking about her life journey and sharing with others her secrets for success, determination, and achieving seemingly impossible goals.

Susan’s record would be remarkable enough if it only detailed her business achievements. During her 23-year corporate career, she has held a series of increasingly responsible executive positions in the sales divisions of Fortune 500 companies. She led teams to sales records, beating quotas from $1 million to $600 million. Ending as a vice president of sales for a multi-national telecommunications corporation, she was responsible for their fast-growing Internet division. She also worked at US WEST, United Technologies, FedExKinko’s, and GTE (Verizon). During her business career, she earned 11 annual President’s Club sales awards — the top honors awarded to the sales people in these companies.

But as she was marking these achievements, she and her husband Phil, a professional mountain guide, were climbing the Seven Summits — the highest mountain on each of the world’s seven continents. That remarkable journey culminated at the top of Mount Everest on May 16, 2002. With that climb, she and Phil became the first couple in history to climb the Seven Summits together. They’ve written a book on their adventure, Together on Top of the World: A True Story of Love and Courage, published by Warner Books.

That feat earned them world-wide media attention, including Good Morning America, CNN, The New York Times and many others. As Alex Ward of the The New York Times put it, “Surmounting Everest’s 29,035 feet remains one of the great mythic achievements, an undisputable display of skill and courage against ice and rock, bottomless chasms, body-numbing temperatures and tent-shredding winds, all in an oxygen-deprived danger zone. Ms. Ershler worked hard to get there.”

Not a professional mountain climber, 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. Susan tells her electrifying story to audiences with clarity and passion. 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 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. And she concludes with a passionate affirmation of the value of life and the thrill of celebrating your success from the top of the world. Susan’s message stands apart for its credibility and power. Having climbed the mountain — in work, and in the world, Susan Ershler is the real deal.

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Susan Ershler in Media

Speaker Programs

Personal Best, Professional Best
I learned an important, simple truth from our 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 ...more
I learned an important, simple truth from our 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. My husband Phil and I were the first couple to climb the Seven Summits not because we were superhuman, but because we were humans who kept going. I believe 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. ...less
Fit for Business
How do you achieve your dreams in both your personal and business life, especially the ones that seem impossible? In my talks, I share my road-tested methods for combining a demanding job with a fulfilling ...more
How do you achieve your dreams in both your personal and business life, especially the ones that seem impossible? In my talks, I share my road-tested methods for combining a demanding job with a fulfilling life, while still achieving all that you desire. ...less
Seven Summits of Sales
We don't climb alone, and we don't sell alone. Before I started climbing mountains I climbed sales 'summits' for over 20 years, culminating in $600 Million sales goals as a Vice President in Sales. My ...more
We don't climb alone, and we don't sell alone. Before I started climbing mountains I climbed sales 'summits' for over 20 years, culminating in $600 Million sales goals as a Vice President in Sales. My mission is to help others avoid the crevasses and achieve their professional and personal dreams. This talk focuses on the particular challenges of sales teams with stretch goals to meet and how to help them reach the top year after year. ...less
Reaching New Heights, Everest & Beyond
When Phil and I stood on the top of Mount Everest in 2002, it was the realization of a dream that had begun more than a decade before. Illustrating my talk with slides and stories ...more
When Phil and I stood on the top of Mount Everest in 2002, it was the realization of a dream that had begun more than a decade before. Illustrating my talk with slides and stories from our climbs of the highest mountains on each of the seven continents, I help audiences discover how to set impossible goals and reach them despite the odds. ...less

Reviews

"Sue's presentation was an outstanding story where we share the excitement of her journey to the summit and how this experience is related with our business, specifically in terms of setting goals and teamwork. Sue performed flawlessly and the team was pleased and really motivated by this absolutely great keynote. She is truly an inspiration…

- Business & Marketing Officer, Microsoft

"Your presentation was absolutely fantastic and you made a lot of friends in Olympia. On a personal level, I have to tell you that you really made my day as program chair because I have been receiving compliment after compliment about what a great program I secured."

- Chief Justice, Supreme Court — Washington

"Thank you again for coming to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. It was a wonderful experience for all of us to hear your stories and adventures in conquering the Seven Summits. We had a very special evening. Thank you so much for joining us."

- President, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

"I recommend Susan as a speaker for any company that wishes to motivate and build teamwork within their organization via a very interesting story that is exciting and "outside the norm" of traditional motivational/business speakers."

- Aflac, Inc.

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