Leading At 90 Below Zero – Antarctic Mike Pierce, Ep. 59

Podcast interview with Antarctic Mike Pierce.

How can you really ever know what your limits are unless you are constantly testing and challenging them?

And when times are tough, how does one continue to pour hope into people?

Mike Pierce, better known as “Antarctic Mike,” is a professional speaker who works with organizations that want to find, engage and keep the best-performing people.

And, boy, can he ever tell a story.

Subscribe to the podcast:

Listen:  Apple Podcasts (iTunes) |  Google Podcasts |  iHeart Radio  |  Spotify  |   Stitcher

With a successful background in sales and recruitment, Mike had a long-held desire to speak professionally. In 2001, he came across a book called “Shackleton’s Way,” which told the story of a team of 28 men trying to become the first group to attempt to cross the Antarctic on foot, back in 1914. They became stranded for over two years before finally returning home. As you’ll hear from Mike, that book and its contents had a profound effect on him and his life and career from that point forward.

In the time since, Antarctic Mike became one of nine people to run the first ever Antarctic Ice Marathon and later became the first American to run the Antarctic 100K, a grueling 62 miles on an ice shelf 600 miles from the South Pole.

From SoCal To 90 Below

What I haven’t mentioned yet is that Mike lives in Southern California.

Imagine, living with constant sunshine and swaying palm trees. If that were you, would you challenge yourself to:

a) Run a marathon and …

b) Do it in so harsh an environment as Antarctica?

How would you even adequately prepare for change in environment like that?

In this episode, Mike addresses both why and how he did those things in a very captivating fashion.

His flagship program, “Leading At 90 Below Zero,” connects the principles of Antarctic expedition history to the real world of finding, engaging and keeping great people in today’s business world.

Mike shares all kinds of incredible wisdom and experience in this extraordinary story.

Some highlights from Antarctic Mike:

1. You’ve got to go – This is advice he received and and talk, about actually going to the Antarctic and having the experience first-hand. It’s just like anything else, you can only learn so much without actually going and doing it. 
2. The greatest threat? You’re carrying it with you – We live in a culture that is quick to make excuses and point fingers. But I agree wholeheartedly with Mike when he suggests that the greatest threat to anything that you’re looking to do retrieve are actually the mental threats in your own mind. 
3. Difficulty is something to run toward – Among the many great things Mike says in this episode was “I thought difficulty with something you run toward.” Over and over again, you will hear Mike talk about not knowing what to do but just moving forward anyway, running toward difficulty. This is just like facing your fear. The way to dissolve the fear is to step into it and the way to make something difficult doable is to start doing it.

True Tales of Adventure!

I’ve been interested to have this chat with Antarctic Mike Pierce for quite a little while. I’ve gotten to know a little bit about Mike as we share some mutual friends. Still, I was not fully prepared by how immediately Mike would put me back in my seat with his remarkable storytelling. This is one of the most compelling examples of actionable storytelling of any of the episodes of this podcast so far. At times, I felt like a kid listening to Tales of Adventure from his far-off uncle or some other larger-than-life hero. But Mike’s just a person, his stories are real, and like him, you can also do anything you set your mind to.