Just Short of the Summit

Mount Everest – the highest mountain peak on planet earth. For mountain climbing types, Everest is a bucket list must-do. Many people attempt the summit, often several times, but not many actually make it. Do you know what doesn’t usually happen a lot on Everest? Climbers making it to the final base camp, with the summit in sight, and call it, saying, “you know, I’m good... this is close enough.” No one sets out to climb most of the way up Everest. People who don’t make the summit, if they are able to, will come back 3, 4, even 10 times to keep trying to get there.

The parallels between summiting Mount Everest and building a career as an on-air communicator or programming professional are ripe for the picking of a talent coach and writer like me, hoping to encourage you and inspire you to go from decent to greatness in the next chapter of your career.

If you have done this kind of work for a while, and you have had even a hint of success at it, congratulations. Chances are early on in your career, that recognition – from listeners, fans, or from your boss - became almost like a narcotic to you, giving you the jolt of affirmation that motivated you to keep trying, keep growing, to try to do what you do just a little bit better like the rush a mountain climber feels when he reaches a peak that is higher than he’s ever been before. It’s that rush that creates the momentum in the climber to go try the next higher peak, to push himself or herself just a little bit harder. More growth turns into more jolts of affirmation, and more steps up the rungs of the ladder of success. A bigger market, a better daypart, more influence, more platform.

Over time though, the affirmation become commonplace, and isn’t as powerful or influential any longer. ?Career-wise you have hit a plateau. You have come to the realization that you are pretty good at what you do, and whatever external motivations that drove you to work harder and do better have either been achieved, or they are no longer as important to you as they once were. Unfortunately, this is where many talent and program directors slow or even stop in the development of their craft.

This career plateau is the equivalent of arriving at the last base camp prior to the summit of Everest. Just about everyone can get there. Yes, it takes a lot of work, time, and maybe a little bit of right place / right time luck mixed in, but it is attainable. In all my years of experience working with dozens of air talent, 90% of them hit this plateau, and just… stay there. In other words, they get to the final base camp before the summit, and say, “I’m good, I’m not going any farther. The view is pretty decent, I’ve already worked hard to get to this point, the money is good and I’m comfortable.” Only about 10% say “I must keep going, I must keep achieving”, and then go on to greatness. For those 10%, the motivation changes and becomes more personal, more rooted in a desire to do the best with the platform they’ve been given, rather than earning more or getting more notoriety.

If you are still reading this article at this point, the fact that you would invest the time in reading something with the purpose of gaining knowledge that might make you a better communicator is noteworthy. Most of the people who posted up at base camp in their career and called it day stopped reading 2 paragraphs ago. The question you could be asking yourself is, what do I DO? Well, I’m glad you asked. ?

First, get ready to put in the work. I believe that the last miles of the marathon, the last 1000 feet of the climb, or the gap between decent and remarkable takes more work than all that it took to get to that point. There is a common fallacy that once you’ve paid your dues, that you just get to coast, relying on your past experience and natural talent. If you think that, you’ve plateaued and you will quickly be passed up by others who, in spite of their success, will continue to bust it to get better, to never phone it in, and to grow their influence. ?Virtually all of the people who are in the top 1% of their professions (in other words, standing on the summit) are working just as hard, if not harder, than they were when they first started the career climb.

Second, find your motivation. You must settle on your WHY – What is the motivation that will keep you pushing for more? At this point in your career it may no longer be money or market size. Instead, it could be influence, impact, even family or retirement. You must have something to drive you to keep putting the work in to turn good into really great, when everything in you will be tempted to relax, coast, and rest on doing tomorrow what you did yesterday.

Third, keep learning and studying. Even as well seasoned and experienced pros, we should be learning from and studying others who do what we do or are experts in an adjacent field that we can learn from and apply to our craft. Radio is no different than any other field… the second we don’t think there is anything else to learn, we are dinosaurs.

Lastly, get a coach. All the best no matter the field - even at the pinnacle of their career - have a coach, a person to help get them to the next, little bit higher level. The longer you do anything, the harder it is to recognize in yourself needed areas of growth, and more importantly, untapped potential that is still in you. A coach can help you get unstuck and unlock more of that potential. If Patrick Mahomes, Jordan Spieth, and Jimmy Kimmel all have a coach, is there some reason you don’t think you need one?

The summit of greatness in your career is in sight, and you can reach it, but you can’t take your foot off the gas. Keep showing up, keep a good attitude, and keep working hard. The view of your impact is so much better just a little higher up. If you need help, please reach out.