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

Kayvon Kay0:00Most people think resilience is something you either have or you don't. 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 rebuilt 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.

Kayvon Kay0:58Well, Jen, I'd 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 kinda, you know, we jumped on, you're telling me climbing mountains, changing lives, going from achievement to alignment. I mean, these things that, you know, even as business owners, as humans, we need. But really, and then three sixty, 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,

Jenn Drummond1:35smitten with a mitten, and 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, so suggested 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 have probably financed purses 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. Decided to, like, step away from that and raise children, which was super fun until they went to school all day long, I didn't know what to do with myself, and I really like creating things. 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 all of sudden, I 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. I was gonna climb a mountain named Ama De Blomme, 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 Everest is. We can summit. So I had to hire a 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, what? He's like, yeah. I know the second highest peak on all seven continents. He goes, think 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, those are details. And so then I started on this pursuit, which really reflected a whole bunch of business lessons I had learned before on building my own company and scaling that that we got there, we did that, and here we are.

Kayvon Kay3:37Here we are. Wow. I mean, this is why I said I was excited. Where do we go? I okay. I I I'm really excited about the the 77

Jenn Drummond3:48Mount seven second highest mountains. Yeah. So, like, K 2. Like, that would probably be the most famous one in the list. So I used Everest as training ground to prepare for k two.

Kayvon Kay3:58Okay. Yeah. And you're so you're the first woman in history?

Jenn Drummond4:02Yeah. Ever. Documented history. Yep. Page 86 of the Guinness World Record books, my friend.

Kayvon Kay4:10To to, to climb the second tallest mountains in seven

Jenn Drummond4:17continents. 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 Guinness comes back six months later after auditing everything. They're like, you know what? There's a dispute on what's a continent, so we need you to climb two more mountains. I'm like, wait. Wait. Wait. How can there be a dispute? 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 and Europe right now, we really think you should climb the mountain in Europe if we exclude Russia from Europe. So I went to Switzerland to climb Mount Rosa, and I went to Indonesia to climb Sumantri, and then I got it done. Wow. And how long

Kayvon Kay5:09not so much would you say dumb blonde climbing a mountain anymore. Right, son? Right. You're right? How long did it take you to do all that? So I started

Jenn Drummond5:22I started in the winter of twenty twenty. So it was interesting. This goal kind of came about after that car accident, which happened in December 2018. 2019 was that big reflection of your, 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 kinda disrupts my climbing plans. And then towards the end of the year, actually, Chile opened. And so when Chile opened, I climbed Ojos Del Solado, 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 in June 1, and then Guinness Worlds came back. And I said, okay. Well, at that time, my next mountain was in May '24, and then I finished it 10/09/2024 with a Sumantry in Indonesia.

Kayvon Kay6:16There there there's so much here because I'm thinking there's there's so much adversity I hear in this in the sense that business life, I mean, comes our way to think that you've done something this big and then to find out, nah, you gotta go, not one more, two more. And it sounds like you just were like, okay, 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

Jenn Drummond6:48nope. 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 one 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 concept, my kids, I was talking to them about it. I'm like, hey, I'm thinking of doing this. Well, they started claiming continents. And so all of a sudden, they were equating like if mom climbs my mountain, she loves me and she didn't climb you or 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 is 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 and blah blah blah blah blah. Or I could just be like, hey. This is life. I'm gonna go climb those two more mountains. What's next? Bring it to me because I'll take it. Right? And so and 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 wanna respond to that. And I was gonna respond to it. I was like, bring it. Let's go. And that's how I hope they respond to things if someone challenges them.

Kayvon Kay8:17Absolutely. On average, just so I have an understanding, how long did it take you to climb these mountains?

Jenn Drummond8:23Well, 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. A Kilimanjaro is 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 twelve hours of light. So you wanna 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 sunrise at 6AM and the sun sets at 6PM.

Kayvon Kay9:00Stop for a second. We're talking you're you're you were like mount you weren't hiking. You were doing because I know, like, I I've heard the whole Mount Everest is is 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,

Jenn Drummond9:16but you've never been harnessed in before. Well, no. So we knew that climb was on my list. Right? So this this is an awesome story. Everybody listening will hear this. So I'm like, I do a host Del Solado. I have success. I'm feeling pretty good about myself. And, like, the next climbing season, because mountains have climbing seasons, it's kinda like, oh, you can climb Mount Kenya. And he's like, have you ever rock climbed before? I'm like, no. He's like, do you a fear of heights? I'm like, no. I've I've been on skyscrapers, roller coasters, chairlifts. Like, I'm good. He's like, okay. Well, I need you to go buy this gear and go hire a coach and go to the climbing gym down in Salt Lake City, because I live in Park City, and start training with an instructor just to make sure you know all of, like, the key moves. Okay. Cool. So I show up down in Salt Lake City, probably a little arrogant, to be honest with you. And I'm like, hi. I'm Jen. 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 teaching me how to tie this knot and, like, 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 colors. Right? There's, like, whatever. Yeah. Not outdoors. Like, when you get outdoors, you're like, where's my purple holds? I want purple. Why why don't you have any purple out here? So anyways, I'm on this wall, and I'm 10 feet off the ground. And I start shaking. My heart wants to come out of my chest. I'm like, my vision tunnels. And I looked down at my coach, and he, like, gives me the finger to come off the wall and come talk to him. So I come off the wall and I'm like, what just happened? Like, what's going on? He goes, I think you have a fear of heights. Like, how can I have a fear of heights? Like, I can't have a fear of heights. I have to climb 17,000 feet. Like, I can't be afraid at 10. Yeah. 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 gonna have to do exposure therapy. I'm like, exposure therapy? He's like, yeah. You're gonna have to learn how to climb with the fear. And I'm like, okay. So he's like, what you're gonna do is you're gonna go on that wall. You're gonna reach one handhold higher, and then you're gonna come off and reset, drink some water, get a snack, and then we're gonna go back on that wall. And when you feel the fear, I just need you to go one handhold higher. And lo and behold, after, like, thirty days of wanting to vomit and probably losing weight because I was so stressed from the whole experience, like, I got it. And then 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. 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, but here we are. Yeah. I mean, you surely you climbed outside, but, like, a lot. I well, no. Because I literally, like, climbed my first mountain in December. Right? Like, summited December 16 or something. And then I went to Kenya in 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 in February before I left for Mount Kenya and then had, like, one weekend to practice. Because even though the climb is only twelve 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.

Kayvon Kay12:47Wow. This is fast. I I I hope when people are listening to this, they're they're understanding like what was 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 I were I live actually in, what they call is, like, the Mecca world class climbing, like outdoor climbing. I've been on the mountain and it's no joke. Like, don't I'm not a climber. I don't like it's not who like, it's not my thing, but like I've been harnessed up. I've done crack climbing for thirty minutes, maybe twenty minutes, and I wanted off that mountain. I come from a, you know, a very professional professional sports background as well. But, like, to go from never climbing to climbing a mountain for twelve hours on a harness is in having what it sounds like maybe couple weekends of practice beforehand

Jenn Drummond13:42is just wild. It's wild. Right? It's and 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 gonna 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 speak 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, I'm not climbing this mountain for me. Yeah. I'm climbing this mountain for her to show her that we all just need to keep climbing to get to where we wanna go, and we all start at different places. And so for me, it was like anytime that fear showed up, I was like, I need to turn around or this is getting overwhelming. 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 too.

Kayvon Kay14:50Wow. Wow. There was a there a deeper reason behind all of this. You started off with the kids,

Jenn Drummond14:56and then it turned into women, and then it turned into, like, a lesson. Wow. This is I mean, every one of them, like, that's just unfolded in these magical ways that I had no idea. But when you got there, you're like, okay. This is what it looks like. This is what we're doing.

Kayvon Kay15:10And did you grab a team or get together a team that went to every mountain with you or was every mountain a different team, like a local team? Every okay. So some things I learned there too. This

Jenn Drummond15:23whole thing was like a big science experiment. Everything like, and it'd be you kinda when you climb the second summits, you do have different teams because unlike the first summits that are almost all hikes. Right? So Everest is a hike. Kilimanjaro is a hike. All of those are hikes at some level, some on snow, some on dirt. When you do the second summit, like we had the rock climbing one. I had some ice climbing in Antarctica. I had to ski one in You were in Canada. We got stopped. You were not ice picking up a mountain without any experience. Well, 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 skill 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 gonna hire the guides in the country that I'm gonna climb in to support their economy. And then after having a few experiences, I was like, you know what? First, I'm gonna hire for safety, and then I'm gonna hire for the people in that country. Yeah. 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 gonna do things a little bit different because safety's first.

Kayvon Kay16:47Mhmm. I want I do actually want to come off this mountain and talk about it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Wow. Wow. It's just it's it's crazy to me because I I understand how hard it is to train for one, but out of nowhere, you just went like, sounds like three years, four years, you did seven.

Jenn Drummond17:08Mhmm. Well, actually you did more than you did nine. I did nine. Yeah. And then also like I like I failed K two the first time. I failed Mount Logan the first time.

Kayvon Kay17:19What that mean? You couldn't get to the top? Couldn't get to the top. Tired? Exhausted? Just Worse.

Jenn Drummond17:25Worse. On k two, one of my teammates died in an avalanche. Oh, I'm And 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 gonna go back down. The mountain will always be here. Who we show up as people is way more important than what we achieve. I'm gonna go take care of my team. And so I had to go back to K 2, which is a, 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 thirty six hours of flights. You're talking, like, seven to fourteen 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 gonna come back and do all of this.

Kayvon Kay18:24Yeah. Yeah. So we've had wow. So we I mean, that's mad. An avalanche and you're lucky you didn't get taken out. I'm extremely

Jenn Drummond18:34lucky that I didn't get taken out. Yeah. Sorry to bring that up.

Kayvon Kay18:40Man, the

Jenn Drummond18:42tribulations that go through this, right? It's not all the successes you hear 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's a lot that goes on so that there could even be a highlight reel.

Kayvon Kay19:02So speaking of the highlight reel or the dim light wheel or the the life changing reel. You said you had a car accident.

Jenn Drummond19:12Mhmm.

Kayvon Kay19:13It's interesting because I've been in that. I've probably been in that similar situation where you're you probably died and came back.

Jenn Drummond19:21I think I had a I didn't quite die, but I had the choice. Like, I 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 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, put me back in the game coach type of talk.

Kayvon Kay19:44So let's talk about

Jenn Drummond19:47do you wanna talk about the car accident, or do you wanna talk yeah. About I mean, give us the 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. And I was not living my path. Like, I 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, their kids eating glue. Like, don't eat glue. Right? Like, it just wasn't my, like, skill set. But I kept, like, that's all I saw as a successful mom, that's what made a good mom. So I 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 disappointing my creator. And so it was like it, like, gave me so much permission to kind of say f you to everything that didn't feel right. And then that's when, like, things just went through the roof for me, like, on meaning, on significance, on success, and all of it.

Kayvon Kay21:06It's it's so interesting. When in in the car accident, was it like, did did it flip? Did it

Jenn Drummond21:13Yeah. So, like, I it was interesting because I I was paying attention to the side of the road, and I was, like, thinking, you know, you're daydreaming. Why hasn't the reservoir flow frozen over yet? Are we gonna 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 realized I was coming up hot in a semi truck going slower than a snail. I was like, oh, okay. Okay. And so you look in your rearview 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. Oh, wow. 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. We're gonna start 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 fifteen, twenty seconds? I don't even know. But internally, it was like slow motion, and thirty 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. And it was just really, like, awakening moment. And I remember hanging upside down, and I started like, sounds started to return. And, like like, your my I started to smell, and I was like, 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 times, but I just wasn't kind of putting the words together. Yeah. 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 wanna live, but I didn't say anything about not being handicapped. Like, why did I bring that up? Right? Like, because your body is, like, so warm. And I'm like, okay. I don't wanna 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 gonna be okay. We just have to leave you here till the ambulance comes because I don't wanna move you and have something go wrong. And that was one of the first moments of if we look outside of ourselves to get permission to be okay, we're never gonna 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, feel your body, okay, what do I want this to be? And then you start writing that.

Kayvon Kay24:05If 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.

Jenn Drummond24:18Yeah.

Kayvon Kay24:21That one hits. Yeah. Wow. Interesting. Wow. Okay. So you're hanging off the median. You're hanging into the median at this point. Car's done couple flips and you've came to and you've realized that you've had another second chance or did 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 a second chance of life. That's not. Yeah. Well, like, so I think it, like, shows up uniquely. So anyways, the what really shocked me,

Jenn Drummond25:02which was sad that I can it would even say this, but I, like, I'm like, I'm not hanging upside down until this damn ambulance comes acute, but not happening. So I unbuckle myself and I crawl out of the car despite everybody being like, don't move. And out of nowhere are people that have water, have blankets, have, like, a jacket. Somebody's like my I have the sunroof, so, like, stuff through through the sunroof. So they're collecting all my stuff from wherever, putting it together. 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. I was like, I want all their numbers. I want to make everything even. I want to, like, set you know, like, all that kind of like, whatever, and and my but, like, God was, like, just you just have to receive right now. Like, you're gonna 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, 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 nanny'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. I'm 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, who like, you know, like, just dirt. Right? Like, the front door is whatever. And I remember, like, walking to that door, and I'm, like, touching it and being 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. Someone goes buying roller blades. Two are fighting. And, like, I'm sitting there just taking in all these moments, and one of my kid catches me, and he's like, mom, are you okay? Like, why? He's like, because you're not mad. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, oh, we got a mat. 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 one so much that they want the other one to think the same they way do they do so they could feel safe. And instead, 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, 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, mom, are you okay? I'm like, why? Like, you don't have the trash bag out. You're not picking up all the wrappers. Like, there's wrappers 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 wanna miss watching those fingers open those presents. And, like, just everything changed.

Kayvon Kay28:23Yeah. The appreciation for for life and just the little nuances that I think as a business owners 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 we're like, as a business owner, we're so used to optimizing. Like, 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 like the universe gave I feel like the universe came here for you to talk to me personally, because it's like everything you're saying, I'm like, yeah, that's me at Christmas time. I'm the guy with the with the bag, 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. Mhmm. Just presence. Yeah. Yeah. I hear that. Wow. What I mean, this is so interesting. And now you're working on Yes. A new product. Yes.

Jenn Drummond29:28So we're gonna have 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 the top of Everest, like, take some photos and, like, jump on the helicopter. Right? And exit. But, no, we want, like, the story and the setback and, like, I overcame this and whatever. So for me, I can get addicting. 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, And my mind was telling me, like, 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 or you're not doing this hard thing or whatever. Like, let them have a chance to witness recovery. But, of course, like, I I like, I wanna say that, but then, like, the the bug gets bit. And someone's like, what's next? What's next? I'm like, well, I'm gonna climb the the highest peaks, of course, because yeah. And I only had three mountains left to set the record as being the first and only female to climb the highest and the second highest peaks. And how I justified it, like, we get tricky, people you're listening, is I dropped my oldest off at college, and I sobbed like a baby. And I was like, oh my god. I this time does end. He leaves. Like, I only have six left at home. Like, how am I gonna 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. We get to plan the trip together. We get to do the thing together. Like, this is amazing. Like, this is how I'm gonna, like, sell it to myself and everybody else and whatever. And so then all of sudden, I'm like, have one mountain left. And I'm like, if I have one mountain left, I'm gonna get asked this question again. Like, what's next? And I'm like, I am not going for any more mountains because the reality is is, like, eventually you realize the people you wanna 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 all of a sudden, you have like, it just it doesn't work. They can't go to those territories or those terrains. They're way too extreme. And so I'm like, okay. I know I need something or I'm gonna implode. I'm like, okay. I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna focus on my some days, and we all have a some days list. Like, that list, like, someday I'm gonna do this or someday I'm gonna do that. And I'm gonna get serious about my some days list, and I'm gonna make sure that every single date in the calendar year, so all three sixty five, have some kind of memory tied to them. And it doesn't have to be climbing Everest. Right? It could be we're gonna go watch a sunrise together as a family, or this last spring break, all of us went spearfishing 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 of 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 someday 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 Aegis, which is, like, making people 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 skydiving things. I'm like, okay. Done. I sent him an email back. I'm like, booked us the next two Tuesdays. We're gonna do this on this Tuesday and this next Tuesday. He's 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 wanna do a front flip in a foam pit. We're going. And so we did. Right? And then we just did the skydiving thing. And now I have, like, some of these adventures coming up, which are really other people some days that I gotta be a part of, and I'm loving it.

Kayvon Kay33:21Yeah. That's so is that

Jenn Drummond33:24is that what you're doing, or how would people implement their Sundays and getting to see that? Is that And kinda being a part of it, and, like, I'm tell 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. My dad just got diagnosed with early onset dementia and vascular, or Alzheimer's. And I'm sitting there thinking, what are the things that I wanna 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 wanna know about each other. Like, if I died, I don't want them to be like, well, my mom set these world records. Like, I want them to know so much more about me, and so now this has given 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 it's been really cool to see what's happened so far.

Kayvon Kay34:51Is this this is a and I'm I'm trying to understand it. Is this like a a business or is this just more of your past time now and you're helping?

Jenn Drummond34:58Well, so it's starting as a past time. Right? And now all of sudden 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 who had always wanted to go and are like, well, now I gotta go with a world record holder, like, I'm like, okay. Let's do it. And then another person has always wanted to do this trek in Iceland that is, like, one of the most gorgeous treks in the world. And they're like, hey. Can I pay you to go do that with me? I'm like Yeah. You can. I I am available. Yes. Yes.

Kayvon Kay35:32Yeah. I like that. Getting paid to do cool shit. Yes. And watching other people live their, like, Sundays in reality.

Jenn Drummond35:42Right. And, like, once they get this sum like, their first one or the momentum under it, they get so excited, and then they wanna 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, yeah. To say that. That's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a Sunday app. Yeah. That's a really interesting

Kayvon Kay36:07I like thinking about that. If marketed well, that's a that's a huge product. Because there's so many people that that

Jenn Drummond36:16Are waiting for permission.

Kayvon Kay36:17Well, we're have that conversation. My god. They are definitely waiting for permission. But I think they've even lost their their ability to give themselves the permission. They're not even waiting. They've just lost their ability to dream or even or dream into existence. And having an app that they can do that and then finding out that the neighbor three doors down had the same someday, and they can go do that together. I mean, about bringing people together, bringing people together to in do something they

Jenn Drummond36:47real life. In real life. That's powerful. I like it. I know. And I thought like, well, if I have the app, then I can have the data and I could be like, oh, like a 100 people have see the Northern Lights.

Kayvon Kay36:56And then you could be like, okay, we're gonna go do this at this time if it feels good, like, join in. It's on your list. Yeah. You can there's there's a lot of businesses you can 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. You become a

Jenn Drummond37:16a dream maker and an event hoster. Who knows? I'm here for whatever shows up next. Yeah. That's I never thought I was gonna climb a mountain before that car accident, so you never Someone's

Kayvon Kay37:26asking the question as a parent of two kids. Nice. Seven?

Jenn Drummond37:32Seven.

Kayvon Kay37:33Seven. Seven.

Jenn Drummond37:34Yeah. 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, 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 hand out 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 have 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. They're like, no. 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 was 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's going come back and I'm going to have no. And then, like, donate them. And I'm like, so that means like, grew up with doctor Seuss and there's this book called like, are you my mom? So like, you're like, like, right? I'm like, it's

Kayvon Kay39:05no. Can't. Look, I read with my little two year old. Does that, like, it goes up to like The birds or the truck. Yes. Has

Jenn Drummond39:12like, big ears or whatever. Yeah. Bringing that one to my two year old. I love it. I'm like, oh my god. I can't, like, wonder if, like, are you my kid? Are you my kid? Are you my kid? Like, no. This is not an option. And so they're like, oh, you might get two, maybe three because they rank them. I'm like, okay. Fine. I can do like, I 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 gonna survive the thaw. And so I'm like, okay. We're gonna 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 then twin girls.

Kayvon Kay39:53Oh my. Busy

Jenn Drummond39:55busy 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 you keep going, you I mean, I peed on, like, pregnancy tests, like, every month and was like a failure, failure, failure, failure, failure, failure, And then all of a sudden 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.

Kayvon Kay40:23I mean, it's it's the the store every it seems like from yeah. It just seems like you've gone through a lot and have done a lot. And everything that key and I said it before, there's something that keeps coming up for me, and it 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 if not born with it for a long time because you said you play competitive sports, and you cannot play competitive sports at any elite level without resilience. And then going through, you said med school, and everyone has, you know, we all like, I've had that story too. You shouldn't be here. Right? Yeah. 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 gonna say it, what it was to be a woman in the finance world. There's Right. I

Jenn Drummond41:09just can imagine what you know. They're like, are you the are you the secretary? I'm like, let's go. Yep. Sure. Right. And

Kayvon Kay41:15I'm sure a lot of other, you know, not fun stuff probably.

Kayvon Kay41:19And I and it it just seems like whatever comes your way, you you're like, okay, I'll do it. And then you do it at an extreme level. Where do you think that comes from?

Jenn Drummond41:30I 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 when like, when you're doing something big enough, win or lose, you win. 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. There's 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 cures for different diseases come up or how different things happen. Yeah. If somebody didn't keep pushing and pushing and pushing, where would we be? And you, like like, I remember, again, from my car accident, I remember, like, sitting outside in 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 the ski resort. Like, it wasn't made like this. Like, this was somebody's dream that they brought to life, and then somebody else brought this piece and that piece and that piece. And if you could just sit in that for a few seconds, you get that energy and you're like, bring whatever you want my way. I got it.

Kayvon Kay43:00Yeah. And that's why I said, I think I said the beginning of the the episode here is the only thing that I think is the limit is the limit we put on our mind and that and especially now with AI and everything, it's it's incredible where we can go and what we can do. And I and I think it's absolutely incredible where you 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. I

Jenn Drummond43:34was so bad at it. I was so bad. Like if you don't throw anything like straight would be bad at, you've never done it.

Kayvon Kay43:43But you that's the that's the crazy thing is, but you did it. Like, and you figured out a way to keep going and keep in like, so many people would have quit.

Jenn Drummond43:53Yeah. But then right. But then what? Well, it sounds like my whole thing is like, okay. Well, I might as eventually, I'm gonna 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 or I have to do this in four years. Like, my thought was is this so significant. If 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 gonna go till it happened. Okay.

Kayvon Kay44:26As we come to an end, I'm I'm trying to think what what not what's next. I'm not gonna say that for you. I'm not. I refuse to say that. But I'd say as you see where even where AI is 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?

Jenn Drummond44:48Yeah. 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 wanna 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.

Kayvon Kay45:20So instead of letting, like what I'm gonna get into that is be create the life you want to live. Don't live the life that's being given or that's being propaganded around you lately. You've kind of mentioned it a little earlier, but

Jenn Drummond45:36Yeah. Like, don't, like, push back. Like, do don't defer you. Don't live on autopilot. Don't, like, get caught up in optimizing. Just realize I get to define what a life well lived is, and then utilize the tools and resources around you to create that. And AI is going to make that easier than ever. That's

Kayvon Kay45:57the truth there. Well, I think that's mean, thank you so much for joining the show and being here. Yeah. Thank you. If people wanna find you, where can they find you? Yeah. So jenndrummond.com.

Jenn Drummond46:09So j e n n, and then all like the social handlers of the jenn drummond. But yeah. And we'll obviously have those in the show notes as well. But again, Jen, appreciate you for stopping by. Thank you.