What’s Your Why: The Calling Behind Summitwise

Summitwise isn’t just a retreat company — it’s a calling. A faith-driven pursuit of excellence, purpose, and transformation in the high places of the Colorado Rockies.

Summitwise exists for two reasons: it’s a ministry rooted in faith, and it changes lives.

Through mountain retreats that spark transformation, leaders rediscover purpose, families reconnect, and teams renew their trust. It’s more than adventure — it’s a calling to create spaces where clarity, courage, and grace take root.

I get asked about Summitwise a lot.
What is it? How do you do it? And most often — why?

My answers vary depending on the day: It’s a ministry. A passion project. A great excuse to get outdoors. All of those are true, but they only scratch the surface. The real question — and the one that matters most — is why do we keep doing this?

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Make no mistake about it, Summitwise isn’t easy to pull off. It takes a tremendous amount of coordinated effort, attention to detail, and commitment to excellence to deliver experiences that meet the standard we hold ourselves to. If you know me, you know that’s no small task. I don’t settle. Sometimes that’s a gift; sometimes it’s a lesson I’m still learning.

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And yet, even with all the work — the logistics, the planning, the endless checklists — I find myself asking the same question again: why do we do this?

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When you strip everything back to its essence, there are two answers.

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First, Summitwise is a calling — a ministry that God’s hand has been on from the very beginning. I can’t explain it any other way. Doors have opened that shouldn’t have opened. Connections have formed that shouldn’t have existed. The timing, the people, the protection — all of it has been guided. Saying “yes” to Summitwise has always felt like an act of obedience, a step of faith that somehow continues to unfold, year after year.

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Second, we get to witness transformation happen in real time. That’s the fuel. That’s the “why.”
I often tell people that life change is table stakes for Summitwise — and while that might sound like a line from a brochure, it’s absolutely true. If I had one metric to hold our team accountable to, it wouldn’t be revenue, headcount, or margins. It would be this: How many lives were impacted by what we facilitated this year?

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Because we’ve seen it — over and over again.
The husband who rediscovers how to lead at home before leading at work.
The executive who learns to work on the business instead of being trapped in it.
The dreamer who finally launches what’s been stirring in their heart for a decade.
The team that comes down the mountain with renewed trust and purpose.

That’s what keeps us going.

And if you start to imagine the ripple effects — the leaders who return home changed, who influence teams, families, and communities differently because of what they experienced in the mountains — it becomes almost impossible to quantify. But you can feel it. The impact multiplies far beyond the trailhead.

In the end, our “why” is simple:
We do Summitwise because we are called to — and because it changes lives.

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That truth carries enough weight to bring joy, excellence, and optimism to every outing, no matter the weather, no matter the challenge.

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Because when you know your “why,” the rest — the work, the miles, the mountain — becomes worship.

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