How a Near-Fatal Car Accident Made Guinness World Record Holder Jenn Drummond Stop Living for Everyone Else

It's not. It's something you build, one decision at a time, usually when everything is telling you to stop. Today I'm sitting down with Jen Drummond. Jen is the first woman in history to summit the seven second highest peaks across all seven continents. She started with zero mountaineering background.

Discovered a fear of heights 10 feet off a climbing wall and still went on to complete nine climbs across four years to earn her place in the Guinness Book of World Records. We're getting into what it actually takes to move through fear.

How she rebuild her identity after a near fatal car accident and why the moment you think you're done is almost never the moment you're done.

This is the vault. Let's unlock it. Well, Jen, I like to say, I mean, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me today, super excited to be here. Well, I'm excited because before we were talking, before we kind of, you know, we jumped on.

You're telling me climbing mountains, changing lives, going from achievement to alignment. I mean, all these things that, you know, even as business owners as humans we need, but really, and then 360, there's something you're saying about your, your, this new project you're working on. So I'm excited to jump in all of them, but for the listeners that might not know who Jen is, why don't you tell us a little bit about where you started and where you are today?

Yeah, definitely. I grew up in Michigan, uh, smitten with the men. And it was an athlete my whole life went to college to study medicine. My professor said I wasn't cut out for it because I didn't like the library or knew anybody in my classes to suggest that I get into something else.

“And my business law teacher said, yes, you should be in business.”

What are you thinking? I got into finance thankfully because I would probably finance persons and shoes if I didn't learn the compounding value of money. And then I started my own company that white labeled an investment platform for institutions to utilize, which ended up doing way better than I ever imagined. Um, decided to, like step away from that and raise children, which was super fun until they went to school all day long.

And I didn't know what to do with myself. And I really like creating things. Um, I got into a car accident, which reminded me that this time here is not forever. And all these things I had pushing for when the kids go to school, then I'll do this. When they go to college, I'll do this. And I also had brought a sense of urgency into doing those things now.

I made a bucket list of things I wanted to do before I die on that list was climb a mountain. Um, I was going to climb a mountain named Amat Blom and my son heard it as I'm a dumb blonde. Oh wow. And up that to Everest. And so I'm like fine, I'll climb Everest.

I'll show you whatever ever. As we can summit.

“So I had a higher coach and the coach is like, I think I got one better.”

How about you become the first woman in the world to climb the seven second summits, which I didn't know what they were. And I'm like, why are these? I can't know the second highest peak on all seven continents. If you was thinking about it, seven mountains, seven continents, you have seven children. It's a jackpot.

I'm like, I've never slept in a tent before.

He's like, oh, they're details. And so that I started on this pursuit, which really reflected a whole bunch of business lessons I had learned before. I'm building my own company and scaling that that got there, did that. And here we are. Here we are.

Wow. I mean, this is the life that I was excited. Where do we go? Okay. I'm really excited about the seven, seven mountains, seven second highest mountains.

Yeah. So like K2, like that would probably be the most famous one in the list. So I used Everest as training ground to prepare for K2. Okay. Yeah.

And you're the first woman in history?

Yeah. Yeah. Page 86. So the Guinness World record books my friends. Two to climb the second tallest mountains in seven.

Con. Yes. And then of course, because anybody out there building creating or doing understands that there's false summits. And so I sent in all the documentation, had everything ready for Guinness, all seven continents,

and get us comes back six months later after auditing everything. And they're like, you know what? There's a dispute on what's a continent. So we need you to climb two more mountains. And like, wait, wait, wait.

How can there be a dispute? And they said, well, sometimes Indonesia is considered part of Australia instead of Asia.

“And if that's the case, you need to climb a mountain in Indonesia.”

And then because of the geopolitical turmoil in Russia in Europe right now, we really think you should climb the mountain in Europe of the exclude Russia from Europe.

and then I got it done. Wow. And how long are you? It's not so much.

“Would you say I don't belong climbing a mountain anymore, right, son?”

Right. You're right. How long are you going to take you to do all that? So I started in the winter of 2020. So it was interesting, this school kind of came about after that car accident, which happened in December

2018. 2019 was that big reflection of you are like, why am I here? What's my purpose? Why was I saved? And then 2020, I was turning 40, but then this thing called COVID entered the scene and kind of disrupts my climbing plans.

And then towards the end of the year, actually chilly opened. And so when chilly opened, I climbed Ojos Del Salado, which is located in the Atacama Desert. And that was my first of the seven second summit climbs. And then all of 21 climbed and then 22. And then 23, I thought, I finished and June 1st.

And then Guinness World came back. And I said, okay, well, at that time, my next mountain was in May of 24. And then I finished October 9th of 24 with Sumantry in Indonesia. There are so much here because I'm thinking, there's so much adversity I hear in this in the sense that the business life,

I mean, it comes our way to think that you've done something this big. And then to find out, now you gotta go, not one more. Two more. And it sounds like you just were like, my gate no problem. But surely there must have been some things going on internally,

externally for you to feel a certain way or did you just, nope, okay, let's just go back to training and get it done. You know, for me, the entire pursuit was a unique challenge in the standpoint

of what had never been done by a female before.

Two, I was 0% qualified as a mountaineer, right? Like, I relate to the four seasons hotel, than a four seasons tent all day long to this day. But what happened was when I came home with the concepts, my kids, I was talking to them about it.

Like, hey, I'm thinking of doing this. Well, they started claiming continents. And so all of a sudden, they were equating like a mom climbs my mouth and she loves me and she didn't climb yours. She doesn't love you.

Yeah, right? And that's what kids can do. And that was kind of the first lesson in truly accountability. It's love. Like, at some level, like when you have people around you that hold you

accountable to who you are and what you're capable of doing, sometimes that rattles us, but that's love at its deepest form. And so then when the Guinness came back and said, hey, there's two more mountains, I had two choices. I could fight it and throw a fit and be like, no,

this is why I'm blah, blah, blah, blah. Or I could just be like, hey, this is life. I'm going to go climb those two more mountains. What's next? Bring it to me because I'll take it, right?

And so when your kids are watching, you show them that when you think something is done and it's not, you get to decide how you want to respond to that. And as I respond to, it's like, bring it. Let's go.

“And that's how I hope they respond to things if someone challenges them.”

Absolutely. On average, just so I'm an understanding of how long to take you to climb these mountains. Well, every one of them is different, extremely different.

So for example, Mount Kenya is the second highest point in Africa.

It's actually about a 22-pitch rock climb. We're going to kill the majority. I was like a hike, right, big difference. That one only takes a day to climb. And in fact, you have to be really quick to climb it

because you're at the equator and you only have 12 hours of light. So you want to be climbing this thing and repelling this thing in the light. So you're racing the clock the entire time you're doing that one because the sun rides at six a.m.

and the sun sets at six p.m. Stop for a second. We're talking. You were like, "Mount, we weren't hiking. You were doing."

Because I know, like, I've heard the whole Mount Everest is as more of a bougie, like, it's not real climbing. It's not that hard. But you're actually rock climbing. You're harnessed in.

But you've never been harnessed in before.

“Well, no, so we knew that climb was on my list, right?”

So this is an awesome story. Everybody listening. We'll hear this. So I, like, do a host of Salado. I have success.

So I'm feeling pretty good about myself and the next climbing season. Because mountains have climbing seasons. It's kind of like, "Oh, you can climb Mount Kenya. And he's like, have you ever rock climb before?"

I'm like, "No." He's like, "Do you have a fear of heights?" I'm like, "No." I've been in skyscrapers, roller coasters, chair lifts. Like, "I'm good."

He's like, "Okay, well, I need you to go by this gear and go higher coach and go to the climbing gym down in Salt Lake City." So I live in Park City and start training with an instructor just to make sure you know all of the key moves.

Okay, cool. So I show up down in Salt Lake City, probably a little arrogant

I'm like, "Hi, I'm John.

I'm the one that booked the lesson.

I just need to get some training before I go climb Mount Kenya." And so this coach is like, "Okay, perfect." So he's like, "Teach you me how to tie this knot and put the shoes on and like all the things." It's like the best way to move forward

is for you to go get on that wall. I can see what you're doing and then we'll build a plan around where you're at. Like, "Okay, perfect." So I go up on this wall and I'm like,

"Do you want me to follow a certain color "because indoors there's color," right? That's whatever. Not outdoors. Like, when you get outdoors,

you're like, "Where's my purple holds?" I want purple. I don't have any purple out here. So anyways, I'm on this wall and I'm 10 feet off the ground.

I start shaking. My heart wants to come out of my chest. I'm like, "My vision tunnels "and I look down at my coach "and he gives me the finger to come off the wall

"and come talk to him." So I come out of the wall and I'm like, "What just happened?" So like, "What's going on?" And he goes, "I think you have a fear of heights."

Like, "Okay, I have a fear of heights." I have to climb 17,000 feet. Like, "I can't be afraid of 10."

“He's like, "Well, that's what it looks like."”

I'm like, "Oh my gosh, what do we do?" He's like, "Well, we're going to have to do exposure therapy." I'm like exposure therapy. He's like, "Yeah, you're going to have to learn "how to climb with the fear."

And I'm like, "Okay." So he's like, "What you're going to do "is you're going to go on that wall. "You're going to reach one hand to hold the higher "and then you're going to come off."

And reset. Drink some water. Get a stack, and then we're going to go back on that wall. And when you feel the fear, I just need you to go one-handle tire.

And low and behold, after like 30 days of wanting to vomit, I'm probably losing weight because I was just stressed from the whole experience. Like, I got it.

And if fear never went away,

but it was something that was like, "Okay, here's how it feels "and here's how I can manage it." And I could, I had proof. Like, I used to be scared there, and now I'm scared here, right? Like, I'm good.

So when we got to the actual climb, I was like, "Oh, I really liked it "when I had purple handholds." Yeah, I mean, you surely you climbed outside. But like, a lot.

Well, no, 'cause I literally like climbed my first mountain in December, right? Like, a summit in December, 16th or something. And then I went to Kenya and February. And so then what happened is when you live in Salt Lake,

you can't climb here in the winter because it's snowing. So we went to Vegas for a weekend and February before I left for Mount Kenya. And then had like one weekend to practice because even though the climb is only 12 hours,

it takes you, I don't know. I think like about six days to hike in

“to where the mountain is that you need to climb.”

Wow. Yeah. Wow. This is fascinating. I hope when people are listening to this,

they're understanding like what's coming up for me is like the only limitation in life is your mind. Like it's not, like it just, it's insane. Like, I live actually in like what they cause like the mecca world-class climbing, like outdoor climbing.

And I've been on the mountain. And it's no joke. Like, I'm not a climber. I don't like it. It's not like something.

But like, I've been hard enough to stop. I've done crack climbing for 30 minutes. Maybe 20 minutes. And I wanted off that mountain. And I come from a very professional,

professional sports background as well.

But like, to go from never climbing

to climbing a mountain for 12 hours on a harness is having what it sounds like. Maybe a couple weekends of practice beforehand is just wild. It's wild, right?

It's when you look back on it. But when you're in it. And you land in Africa. And you are with all the people that are going to help you. And there's only one woman on your team

because the women there do not have the same privileges that we do here. And that woman is like the cook who's helping with those kinds of activities. And you try to get to speaking English

with her a little bit. She can't really that well. And she looks you in the eyes and she holds your hand before you go to leave to climb that mountain.

And you realize not climbing this mountain for me. And climbing this mountain for her. To show her that we all just need to keep climbing to get to where we want to go. And we all started different places.

And so for me it was like any time that fear showed up. I was like, I need to turn around or this is getting overwhelmed. And I'm like, girl, you're not allowed to say that.

Like look at where you come from. And look where these people are.

“You have to show these men what women are capable of.”

So they start believing that their women are capable to. Wow. Wow. There's like there was a deeper reason behind all of this. You start off with the kids.

And then it turned into women. And then it turned into like a lesson. Wow.

in these magical ways that I had no idea. But when you got there, like, okay. This is what it looks like. This is what we're doing.

“You need to grab a team or get together a team that went to every, uh, a mountain with you or was every mountain a different team, like a local team.”

Every, okay. So some things I learned there too. Um, uh, all this whole thing was like a big science experiment.

Um, everything, like going to be, you kind of, when you climb the second summits,

you do have different teams. Because unlike the first summits that are almost all hikes, right? So adverse as a hike, Kilimanjaro's a hike, all of those are hikes at some level. Someone's snow someone dirt. Uh, what do you do?

The second summits, like we had the rock climbing one. Add some ice climbing in Antarctica. I had to ski one, and you were kind of. You got stop for you are not ice picking up a mountain without any experience. Well, I mean, you get experience, right?

Because you have to be ready. But I didn't start with experience. And so like the second summits have this whole different skills set that you need. Because it's not just hiking. It's all these different pieces.

Yeah.

“And so then you have to hire different people because not everybody has those skill sets.”

And then also like I started with, I'm going to hire the guides in the country that I'm going to climb and to support their economy. And then after having a few experiences, I was like, you know what?

First I'm going to hire for safety.

And then I'm going to hire for the people in that country. Because we, you quickly realize like we have like IFMGA guides or some of these certifications. Yeah. That other countries don't require. And you're like, next time we're going to do things a little bit different.

Cause safety's first. I do actually want to come off this mountain and talk about it. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Wow. Wow. It's just, it's, it's crazy to me because I understand how hard it is to train for one. But out of nowhere you just went and like it sounds like three years, four years you did seven. Well, actually you did more than you did nine.

I did nine. Yeah. And then also like I like I failed K to the first time. I failed Mount Logan the first time. What do you mean you couldn't get to the top?

Couldn't get to the top. Tired, exhausted, just worse. Um, on K 2. What are my teammates died in an ambulance? Oh.

And so when you have that happen you have a choice to continue to climb or to go back down. And I'm like, I'm not climbing a mountain when a teammate passed away. Like I'm going to go back down the mountain.

I'll always be here who we show up as people as way more important than what we achieve.

I'm going to go take care of my team. And so I had to go back to K 2, which is like a huge deal because it's extremely expensive to climb. It takes a ton of time and training to get to Pakistan. You're talking 36 hours of flights. You're talking like 7 to 14 hours of driving 55 miles to hike into the base.

And then you're waiting for great weather to climb that mountain and then you reverse all of that home. And so when you make that decision of like, hey, I'm turning around. It's not like, hey, I'll be here next week. It's like next year when the climbing season opens again. I'm going to come back and do all of this.

Yeah. Yeah. So we know, wow. So we, I mean, that's mad. An avalanche.

And you're lucky. You didn't get taken out. I'm extremely lucky that I didn't get taken out. Yeah. Sort of bring that up.

Man. The tribulations that go through this, right? It's not all the successes you're about. No, there's so much that just doesn't get said or isn't talked about because everybody loves to celebrate the highlight reel, right?

And when we're building or creating or doing, there is a lot that goes on so that they can even be a highlight reel. So speaking of the highlight reel or the dim light wheel or the life-changing reel, you said you had a car accident. It's interesting because I've been in that probably.

I've been in that similar situation where you probably died and came back.

“I think I did quite die, but I had the choice.”

I was in that space where I had the choice of like dying and I was like, I'm not ready. I'm like, I promise. I'll do something significant. Like let me live. I'm sorry that I got caught up in all these false things and I'm back on.

I'm like, I'll put me back in the game coach type of talk. So let's talk about. Do you want to talk about the car accident or do you want to run? Yeah, I mean, yes. So the car accident, I think, happened for me to be honest.

I think the universe gives you these cues along the way. And if you don't hear them, they get louder and louder until you can't ignore them.

Like I was that mom in the school classrooms running like PTA things or holiday parties. And there's women that love that and they thrive in that space. I was like, they're kids eating glue. Like don't eat glue, right? Like it just wasn't my like skill set.

And when I kept like that's all I saw as a successful mom. And that's what made it good. Mom's like kept trying to be something I wasn't.

“And so when I got in that car accident, it was like, okay, are you done?”

Like pretending you're all these things that you're not. And can you start like standing up for why I put you on this planet? And so then all of a sudden it became this big awakening of is this me or is this society? Or like whatever because I either disappoint you or I disappoint myself. And if I disappoint myself, I'm disappointed in my creator.

And so it was like like gave me so much permission to kind of say FU to everything that didn't feel right. And then that's when like things just went through the roof for me like on meaning and significance and success and all of it. It's it's so interesting. It was interesting because I was paying attention to the side of the road and I was like thinking, you know, you're daydreaming. Why is it the reservoir frozen over yet?

“Are we going to get enough snow so we're out of the statewide drought?”

Like all these thoughts, something grabs my attention. I look at the highway and I realize I was coming up hot and a semi truck going slower than a snail. I was like, oh, okay, okay. And so you look in your rear view mirror, I'm like, oh, I can get over.

I went to get over and I didn't quite make it and I saw the second trailer of the semi truck hit the corner of my passenger side.

And then the car went like fast, right? Like externally, I could go. I was flipping. So I went like dirt sky dirt sky dirt sky. And then I'm like, I don't have enough momentum. I'm going sideways. Then I rolled sideways. And then eventually it stopped and I was hanging upside down in the median. So that's all happening. What in 15, 20 seconds, I don't even know.

But internally, it was like slow motion in 30 some years of my life was flashing forward of like things I did or didn't do or like thoughts I had and memories I was thinking about. I was just really like awakening moment. And I remember hanging upside down. And I started like sound started to return. And like, like, you're, I started to smell and I was like, huh.

“And this guy peeled back my windshield. And when he peeled back my windshield, he was like, are you okay?”

Which I realized he'd probably been saying a couple of times, but I just wasn't kind of putting the words together. And so he looks at me and I'm like, I must not be okay. Because no one looks at you like that if you're okay. And I was so afraid to look at my body because I was like in my head. I was like, I said, I wanted to live. I said, I want to live, but I didn't say anything about happening handicapped. Like, why did I break that up, right? Like, because your body's like so warm.

And I'm like, okay, I don't want to look at my body. So I closed my eyes and I wiggled my fingers and toes. And I was like, wait, wait, I can feel my fingers and toes. I can feel my fingers and toes. And I was saying it out loud, I guess. And he goes, if you can feel your fingers and toes, you're going to be okay. We just have to leave you here to the ambulance, comes because I don't want to move you and it have something going wrong.

And that was one of the first aha moments of, if we look outside of ourselves to get permission to be okay, we're never going to be okay.

Because they're looking at it from an entirely different circumstance. But if we can learn how to close that world out and close your eyes and get back in your body and be like, okay, I can feel my fingers and toes. Everything else is a story. And you can rewrite that story any single time you close your eyes, fill your body. Say, okay, what do I want this to be? And then you start writing that. If we, that's a quote, if we are waiting for the outside world to tell us that we're okay, we'll never be okay.

Yeah. That one hits. Yeah. Wow. Interesting. Wow. Okay. So you're hanging off the median. You're hanging into the median at this point.

And you've had the first done couple flips and you've came to and you've realized that you had another second chance or did anything happen to you?

In that moment where you just knew you were someone different or like did something change and shift internally externally or you just knew as I just consciously like, this is the second chance of life. Like, so I think it like shows up uniquely. So anyways, that what really shocked me, which is sad that I would even say this, but I like I'm like, I'm not hanging upside down until this damn ambulance comes like cute but not happening.

Despite everybody being like, don't move.

And I don't know where are people that have water, have blankets, have like a jacket, somebody's like my I have the sunroof so like stuff flew through the sunroof so they're collecting all my stuff from wherever putting it together. And they're like, how can we help you? Who can we call? And I just remember like sitting there thinking, what a beautiful world we live in. Like these people like just are so loving and caring. And I was like, I want all their numbers. I want to make everything even. I want to like, you know, like all that kind of like you whatever and in my but like God was like just you just have to receive right now.

Like you're going to pay back everybody in their own way, right now you just have to receive.

And so then I like received. I went to the hospital. They ran every test under the sun.

“I somehow like walked away unscathed to which is no one can even you should see the car and it doesn't make sense.”

Yeah. And then I go home to my house. And I like don't open the front door just yet. Like my man he's with the kids. So like I'm sure whatever I don't open the front door and I just looked at that front door and like man. Three weeks ago I hung up a Christmas wreath on this front door and I was like, I need a new front door. I have scooter marks on this thing dog scratches on it like you're like just dirt right like the front door is whatever. And I remember like walking to that door and like touching it and be like, this is my life.

Like these are my stories. This is proof. I was here. I'm so grateful. I didn't change this front door. And then I opened the door, right? And I have seven kids and there's pizza on the counter. Some of those fine roller blades to our fighting and like I'm sitting there just taking in all these moments. And one of my kid catches me and he's like, are you okay? Like why? He's like, because you're not bad. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, oh, we got a met. Like, he's like pointing out all the things that I'm noticing, but instead of responding, I'm just witnessing.

And I just remember thinking, I have two kids in the corner that are fighting right now. But they're fighting because they love the other ones so much that they want the other one to think the same they way dude, they do. So they feel safe.

“They said, like, before I would just butt in there and have my opinion and separate it out. And it was like just these moments of this life is so beautiful like in the most like in the ways that I never witnessed it or experienced it or whatever.”

And then you know, this accident happened a week exactly before Christmas. So the next week's Christmas and the kids are opening presents. And I'm sitting there watching and they're like, mama, are you okay? I'm like, why? Like, well, you don't have to trash bag out. You're not picking up all the rappers like there's rappers everywhere. Mom, like, what's wrong? And like, I think that mom's gone. Like this mom is just, I just love those little fingers opening those presents. I don't want to miss watching those fingers open those presents and like just everything changed.

Yeah, the appreciation for life and just the little nuances that I think as a business owner is for sure, whatever when you're busy doing one thing you miss a lot of the other things that actually are more important sometimes in life. Yeah, or like as a business owner, we're so used to optimizing like, how do I optimize how do I make it better, more efficient, more effective, whatever, like some parts of our life are not meant to be optimized. I feel like you like the universe gave kind of like the universe came here for you to talk to me personally because it's like everything you're staying at.

“I'm like, yeah, that's me a Christmas time on the guy with the big making sure we're cleaning up everything right away because my dad did that. So that's what I thought.”

And then right when you said optimize, I'm like, oh boy. Oh yeah, I've been trying to optimize everywhere else in my life. Instead of realizing the only thing that needs to be optimized is the business and everything else just can be. Yeah, yeah, I hear that. Wow, what, I mean, this is so interesting and now you're working on. Yes. So we're going to a new project because our personalities, like all of us business owners are on here, like we love the build.

We love the climb. We love like the challenge. I mean, we do. If we didn't, you would fly at the top of Everest, like take some photos and like jump on the helicopter, right and accept it. No, we want like the story and the setback and like I overcame this and whatever.

So for me, I can get a dicting, right? So I do, I do the first world record.

And for, and then everybody asks you like what's next? What's next? And that is a hard question for me because I love chasing things. I love pursuing things. I love that. Like whatever. And my mind was telling me, they take a season of winter. Jen, like just don't achieve something like let your kids see what it looks like when you're not in the newspapers. You're not doing this hard thing or whatever. Like let them have a chance to witness recovery.

Like this, we get tricky people you're listening is I dropped my oldest op at college and I sobbed like a baby and I was like, oh my god, this time does and he leaves like I only have six left at home, like how am I going to maximize time? Well, these climbs that I had left the kids could do some of them. And so I'm like, now I get to train with them because to play on the trip together, we get to do the thing together. Like this is amazing. Like this is how I'm going to like sell it to myself and everybody else and whatever.

“And so then all of a sudden I'm like, I have one mountain left and I'm like, if I have one mountain left, I'm going to get asked this question again, like what's next?”

And I'm like, I am not going for anymore mountains because the reality is is like eventually you realize the people you want to spend time with the better you get at something.

The less people you can do it with because you're such an expert at it. And so then now I'll setting you up like it just doesn't work they can't go to those territories or those terrains are way too extreme. And so I'm like, okay, I know I need something or I'm going to implode. I'm like, okay, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to focus on my some days and we all have a some days list like that list like some day I'm going to do this or some day I'm going to do that. I get serious about my some days list and I'm going to make sure that every single date in the calendar year so all 365 have some kind of memory tied to them.

And it doesn't have to be climbing Everest right it could be we're going to go watch a sunrise together as a family or this last spring break all of us went spear fishing for the first time.

And so it's been really this how do I get to do these things with people that I love and care about. And then also get other people to start getting off a autopilot and getting intentional about their lives. And the crazy thing is is like everybody I bounce the idea off of I'm like, what's on your some day list that you haven't done. It takes everybody like three seconds to tell me like whatever that thing is and then I'm like, let's go do it. So like last week there's this guy who owns this company called ages, which is like making people over 50 cool and you know super successful.

And he's like, I've always wanted to do a front flip into a foam pit and I've always wanted to do one of those indoor sky diving things.

“I'm like, okay, done. I sent him an email back. I'm like a book to the next two Tuesdays. We're going to do this on this Tuesday and this is like, what?”

I'm like, no, we're doing this. He's like, I'm 67. I'm like, I don't care. You said you want to do a front flip in the phone, but we're going. And so we did, right? And then we just did the sky diving thing. And now I have like some of these adventures coming up, which are really other people some days that I get to be a part of and I'm loving it. Yeah, that's so is that, is that what you're doing or how would people implement their Sundays and get in to see that is that and kind of being a part of it and like I'm so really what happened was I'm done with this record soon.

And I need something else. My grandma passed away and when my grandma passed away, I realized like all the things that I lost about her and I don't have the chance to ask, right? Like, when did you decide to play basketball or why did you give up basketball or why did you open the store or why did you like do the things that you did and how did you make those decisions they're gone? I know her birthday and I know her death date and that's about it. Like dad just got diagnosed with early onset dementia and basketball or Alzheimer's and I'm seeing what are the things that I want to know about him before he leaves and I can't access those memories anymore because he can't access those memories.

“And then I think about my seven kids that are watching me right now and listen, the extraordinary takes care of itself.”

It's teaching them how to make the ordinary extraordinary and like what we can learn from each other and what we want to know about each other. If I died, I don't want them to be like, well, my mom set these world records. I want them to know so much more about me and so now this is giving me permission to do that and I do better when I'm with other people. So now I'm like including other people and it's been really cool to see what's happened so far. I'm trying to say, is this like a business or is this just more of your past time now and you're helping?

Well, so it's starting as a past time right and now I said and it's like, I, for example, I'm taking a group to Kilimanjaro at the end of July beginning of August because it was like all these people had always wanted to go and like, well, now I got to go with a world record holder like done. Okay, let's do it. And then another person has always wanted to do this track in Iceland that is like one of the most gorgeous tracks in the world and they're like, hey, can I pay you to go do that with me?

Oh, like, yeah, I like that getting paid to do cool shit and watching other people live there like Sundays in reality.

Right. And like once they get this some like their first one and the momentum under it, they get so excited and then they want to get somebody else to do it.

And so we're kind of actually looking at even putting together an app where people would just put their some days in it. And then if it matches somebody else's like we could put together some stuff for people to have. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, yeah.

“Yeah, I feel really interesting. I think about that if marketed well, that's a that's a huge product because there's so many people that that are waiting for permission.”

Well, we're going to have that conversation. Oh, they are definitely waiting for permission. But I think they've even lost their their ability to give themselves to permission. They're not even waiting. They've just lost their ability to dream or even or a dream into existence. And having an app that they can do that and then find out that the neighbor three doors down had the same someday. And they can go do that together. I mean, think about bringing people together, bring people together. They really love in real life.

Real life is powerful. I like it. Yeah, I know. And I felt like I love to have the app that I could have the data. And I could be like, oh, like a hundred people have seen the northern lights. And then you could be like, okay, we're going to go do this at this time. If it feels good like joining in. It's on your list. Yeah, there's a lot of businesses you can already think of all the the spin offs of how you can work with the organ like like the places and the organizations to host this and all that. Yeah, huge opportunity.

We'll become a dream maker and an event hoster who knows. I'm here for whatever shows up next.

Yeah, I never thought I was going to climb a mountain before that car accident. So, you know,

I was asking the question as a parent of two kids seven seven seven seven.

“Yeah, but let me tell you the story on seven because I think it tells a lot about who I am as a person and all of our experiences shape us into the decisions we make in our futures is I struggled with fertility.”

And I had the biggest shame story about it. Like the one thing a woman's born to do is to have kids and it's the one thing my body won't do like all the terrible things you can say. Or think about yourself. And so I went to a fertility treatment center and again, it took us a little while to get everything going. And then finally, they came up with a chemical cocktail that turned me into a chicken and I handout a whole bunch of eggs like all of a sudden, right? Like I was like, we had no eggs and I had a bazillion eggs and whatever. And so they fertilized these eggs.

And they planted two I had my son Jack and I'm like, okay, I've got at least one kid. I'm super happy. And then I got a bill from the fertility clinic. I'm like, that must be somebody else's. I paid you plenty of money. And like now these are your embryos on ice. Like, okay, well, let's walk through what all that is again because I was so focused on having that child. I wasn't maybe paying attention to all the details. And like, yeah, well, with embryos, you either use them. You donate them or destroy them.

And I'm like, oh, okay. Well, destroying them at the time was just not an option. Like no way. It took me so long to get this one child. You want me to just like, no, karma is going to come back and I'm going to have no. And then like donate them. I'm like, so that means like, I grew up with Dr. Soos. And there's this book called, like, are you my mom? So like, like, right on, like, it's, no. Look, I read my little two-year-old. Is that like, it goes up to like a bird? So the truck, yes, you're mom has like big ears.

Yeah, I read that one to my two-year-old. I like it. I got a kid, like, what is like, are you my kid or are you my kid? Are you my kid or are you my kid? Like, no, this is not an option. And so they're like, oh, you might get to maybe three because they rank them. I'm like, okay, fine. I can do, like, I grew up with three. Like, I can do three easy. And so then I have three. And then I have four. And then I have five.

And then there's two embryos left. Like, the worst ones they weren't going to survive the thought. And so I'm like, okay, we're going to plan them clear my conscience and we're good to go. And those two embryos stuck and I have twin girls at the bottom. So I have five boys that twin girls. Oh, my, busy, busy, busy home.

Busy home, but like the most loving, full, active, amazing family ever.

“And here's the thing, like, it just taught me that if you just keep going and keep going.”

I mean, I mean, I peed on like pregnancy tests like every month and it was like a failure. A failure failure failure failure failure failure failure failure failure failure. And then I'll study and you have this win. It's when failures happen in other areas of your life. You're like, okay, well, that's just I haven't played the game long enough. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, the story, it seems like from, yeah, it just seems like you've gone through a lot and I've done a lot.

It seems like there's like, you have a resilience to you. And I feel like that resilience was in you probably for a very, they've not born with it for a long time because you say you play competitive sports.

And you cannot play competitive sports in any elite level without resilience.

“And then going through, you said, med school and everyone has going to be all like, I've had that story too. You shouldn't be here, right?”

And then you find the next path and resilience to learning and going through that and I can only imagine back then. And I'm just going to say what it was to be a woman in the finance world. There's, I just can imagine what you don't do. They're like, are you the secretary? I'm like, let's go. Yep, sure. Yeah, I'm sure a lot of other, you know, not on stuff probably. And it just seems like whatever comes your way, you're like, okay, I'll do it. And then you do it at an extreme level. Where do you think that comes from?

“I think life is a gift and what we do with it is our gift back. And I'm just so grateful to be alive that I don't know. I don't even.”

Winner like when you're doing something big enough when or lose you win. Yeah, right? It's like so if I didn't win, okay, but I attempted and it's like never been done before.

So, okay, I didn't win. And if I did win, it's like, okay, amazing. Now how to make it easier for the next person to do the thing. So we can go even further. Is that how you approach life or did that come before or after the car accident? I mean, I think when you have children, you realize as far as you can take the baton and whatever you're doing, you do that so that you can hand it off to them and let them go further and further and create more. I mean, that's how, I mean, think about like how curious for different diseases come up or how different things happen. If somebody didn't keep pushing and pushing and pushing, where would we be?

And you're like, like, I remember again, from my car accident, I remember like sitting outside of my backyard. I said, all of this was a vision for somebody. All of it, like the downtown and the buildings and the restaurants and the roads and the ski resort, like it wasn't made like this. Like these was somebody's dream that they brought to life and then somebody else brought this piece and that piece and that piece and you could just sit in that for a few seconds. You get that energy and you're like, okay, bring whatever you want my way, I got it.

“Yeah, and that's what I said, I think I said the beginning of the episode here is the only thing that I think is the limit is the limit we put on our mind and especially now with AI and everything.”

It's to incredible where we can go and what we can do and I think it's absolutely incredible.

Uh, we went from never being, I just can't like, I know what it takes to be like, I've been down that road like I know what it takes to actually be a real climber ice picking is not something you just go pick up some ice picks and go climb like, yeah. I was so bad at it, I was so bad. Like if you don't do anything like you wouldn't be bad. You've never done it like, but you did that's the crazy thing is but you did it like you any have figured out a way to keep going and keep in the so many people would have quit.

Yeah, but then right, but then what, right, like my whole thing is like, okay, well, I might as eventually I've been a win like I like like time favors those who keep showing up so that was just my thought I'm like I don't I didn't have a I have to do this in two years I have to do this in four years like my thought was, is this is so significant that it takes me a decade it's still awesome. Okay, fine. And so like not having that pressure and just letting it be and unfold the way it would but know that I was going to go till it happened okay.

We come to an end do I'm trying to think what what not what's next I'm not going to say that for you how not I refuse to say that but I'd say as you see where even where AI's going and where this world's going where do you see yourself being part of it and and giving back and or building to make it a better world. I think just reminding people that life happens in the analog like we're not here to consume life we're here to create it and experience it so as long as I keep creating experiences for people to be a part of or doing things where people's like oh I want to go see what that is or experience that or try that then it helps people keep technology in a space and also life still happening.

So instead of letting like what I'm going to know that is be create the life you want to live don't live the life that's been given or that's being propaganda around you lately you've kind of mentioned a little earlier but yeah.

And that's the truth there well I think that's I mean thank you so much for joining the show and being here yeah thank you people want to find you work and they find you. So Jen Drummond dot com so J.E. and and then all like the social handers are the Jen Drummond but yeah and we'll all see how those in the show notes as well but again Jen appreciate you for stopping by. Thank you.