Sunday, April 3, 2011

Kevin Elko, Mike McCarthy and Motivating Me

My friends all know that I am a pretty serious Pittsburgh Steeler fan.  The photo on my Facebook page is me with colleague/friend Marcie at the AFC Championship game last January all wrapped up in the freezing weather.  My husband thought I was certifiably crazy to endure the elements.  But it was a great game.  However, as much a fan as I am, it was tough to be too upset at the Steelers subsequent Super Bowl loss for several reasons not important to the point of this post.  The most important reason I did not go into mourning is that I was so happy for Packers head coach Mike McCarthy.  Mike and I went to the same small, poor and long-shuttered Catholic high school in Homestead, Bishop Boyle.  Bishop Boyle only existed for about 25 years.  It was a victim of the domino effect of the steel industry collapse.   In the hierarchy of prestigious local Catholic high schools, Bishop Boyle was at the bottom.  The building was a converted and old elementary school, our girls gym was in the Salvation Army building next door -- you get the picture. 
But I don't know Mike and Mike doesn't know me -- we are about ten years apart in age and Mike traveled to school from Greenfield, the other side of the Homestead Grays bridge.  
After the Super Bowl was over, I learned that Mike selected someone I do know from the Pittsburgh area to give the pre-game speech to his players, Dr. Kevin Elko.    
Kevin and I worked together at a place that does not appear on the blue-chip version of his resume, the one that lists his involvement with championship teams and says how many big rings he has (assuming Mike McCarthy gives him one, I think he has as many Super Bowl rings as Ben Roethlisberger)If you google 'Dr. Kevin Elko', hundreds of references to his success appear -- and not just to his work as a motivational speaker.  He has a real and impressive record of achievement in selecting and building championship teams.  After all, talk itself is cheap.  Actually, in Kevin's case, talk is not cheap.  One of the sites I looked at yesterday pegs his per speech fee at $35,000-$50,000.   Suffice it to say, I knew Kevin when you could go to one of his 'talks' for free.  He was in graduate school at the time.  Even then, it was apparent that he had an incredible gift.  He speaks with a soft West-Virginia drawl and his presentations were thought provoking, funny and actionable.  We stay in touch although in recent years, not as much.  I still remember picking up the phone one day and Kevin being on the other end saying, "Guess what, Rosanne, I just met Nelson Mandela!".  We travel in very different circles now, but he is still a friend.   Yesterday, I was looking at Kevin's website (which is on the list of sites I follow) and decided to download the white paper called 'Five Questions That Will Change Your Life' .  You can get access to it by signing up for his newsletter.  I'm not going to give you the five questions, only the following quote:  "The only way to consistently do anything is to be mindful of it.  Mindful means to be conscious, to think about, to set out early in our day and intend to do something".  I spent a fair amount of time in London thinking about what to name this blog -- and a lot of the time in trying to change behavior has to date focused on the 'eat' and 'move' part of the title.  This week I am going to 'mind.' 

No comments:

Post a Comment