Certified speaker/coach with the John Maxwell Team, blogger/vlogger, writer of five books, counselor, leadership coach and mountain lover. He currently helps people face the challenges and adversity they face and to find purpose and meaning again. He has been married to Jackie since 1976, has two grown children and six grandsons. He has climbed nine 14,000 foot peaks in Colorado and hiked in other beautiful ranges all over the U.S. and Europe.
2 topics · no fee, no honorarium, no mileage
Review available topics below. Use the “Request This Free Speech” button and fill out the contact form. Gary contacts you to discuss the details of the request.
We all have mountains to climb, some big, some little. But often when confronted with ours, they seem like Mt. Everest or Denali. They loom large and take our breath and motivation away making it difficult to even start to overcome them. But Gary and his wife, avid hikers, were forced to face a mountain with Jackie, her stage 3 cancer. And when this new peak in their lives threatened to paralyze them by its size and magnitude they began with God's help to climb it the way they climbed actual mountains of granite... one switchback at a time.
Together they learned practical strategies for both preparing for any personal mountain, getting started, looking for potential problems and getting up the trail a little bit at a time. Gary uses both humor and poignant illustrations to keep audiences on the edge of their seat while able to take something with them to tackle their own challenges.
Let's face it, most people eventually wonder if they're making a real difference because of what they do, who they are or how much they've accomplished. This is especially true for those who work with people in education, medicine, mental health, faith institutions, non-profits and the like. They often don't see the results of their work or relationships in general, so get discouraged and sometimes ready to quit. This presentation will help change hearts, minds and attitudes through real-life stories and principles that show how impacting just one person can literally over time touch tens, scores, hundreds, even thousands whether they see the results or not.
Gary compares the process to a large domino display where a first domino must be pushed to start a chain reaction of other dominoes that impact other dominoes, etc. The audience begins to see how they too can impact far more than they'll ever know and in fact, probably already do. This presentation is powerful and often brings tears to the eyes of teachers, doctors, nurses, counselors, church workers and even service workers who serve in restaurants or cut hair. Each person in the audience also gets a domino to take with them and remind them to keep their eyes, ears and hearts open to who might be the "first domino" for them that day.
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