Jenn Drummond, a remarkable mother of seven, successful business owner, and world record holder is with us today on the Raising Wild Hearts podcast. Drawing on her captivating experiences, from surviving a traumatic car accident in 2018 to climbing the second highest summits on each of the seven continents, Jenn shares how she continually pushes boundaries and shatters expectations.
👉Learn more about Jenn and get her book here
❤️🔥Join the Raising Wild Hearts Membership
If you feel inspired please consider sharing this episode with a friend, writing a 5⭐️ review or becoming a Raising Wild Hearts Member here!
Jenn Drummond, a remarkable mother of seven, successful business owner, and world record holder is with us today on the Raising Wild Hearts podcast. Drawing on her captivating experiences, from surviving a traumatic car accident in 2018 to climbing the second highest summits on each of the seven continents, Jenn shares how she continually pushes boundaries and shatters expectations.
👉Learn more about Jenn and get her book here
❤️🔥Join the Raising Wild Hearts Membership
If you feel inspired please consider sharing this episode with a friend, writing a 5⭐️ review or becoming a Raising Wild Hearts Member here!
If I have safe feet, I'm fine. So every time I was walking, I just kept repeating the mantra safe feet, safe feet, safe feet. And I would just focus on making each next foot safe. And when I kept repeating that, it didn't allow another thought to enter because it was being blocked out by the safe feet mantra. And so whenever I'm in a scary spot, I think of OK, what do I need to do to get through this section?
Speaker 2:Welcome, revolutionary Mama, to the Raising Wild Hearts podcast. I'm Ryan Watkin, educator, mom of three, revel at heart and passionate soul, on a mission to empower and inspire you.
Speaker 2:Here we'll explore psychology, spirituality, parenthood and the intersection where they all come together. We'll discover how challenges can be fertile soil for growth and that even in the messy middle of motherhood, we can find magic in the mundane. Join me on my own personal journey as I talk to experts and share resources on education, creativity, self-care, family, culture and more. I believe we can change the world by starting at home, in our own minds and hearts, and that when we do, we'll be passing down the most important legacy there is Healing, and so it is. Hi friends, welcome back to the Raising Wild Hearts podcast. Thanks for being here. From my heart to yours, I'm so happy you're here and that you keep coming back, yay. So I'm really excited to share today's conversation with you, and I've got some more amazing conversations in the works for the next couple of months. I'm really excited to share all these brilliant hearts and minds with you all. I've been super inspired by every single conversation I've had. The inspiration is, all you know, different. It lands differently depending on the day and depending on the guest, and it's interesting how everybody and their unique experience of life can still be such a learning experience for us. So thanks for coming on this journey with me. It's my favorite thing in the whole wide world right now.
Speaker 2:All right, so today we have Jen Drummond. Jen is a mom of seven, a successful business owner and a world record holder. She was the first woman to climb the second highest summits on each of the seven continents. Now she spends her time inspiring others to create a thriving business and lasting legacy of their own. She shares her stories and strategies for success through her new book, breakproof Seven strategies to build resilience and achieve your goals, and her Seek your Summit podcast programs and signature talks. I will put her website into the show notes. You guys can click there and learn about her work and her book and everything. So she elevates devoted and determined entrepreneurs to go beyond a life of success to a life of significance, which we get into a bit in the future.
Speaker 2:Jen had such a varied perspective on so many things. We went so many places motherhood, business ownership, challenges in life. It was a fantastic conversation. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did. Hi, jen, welcome to the Raising Wild Hearts podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm excited to have you.
Speaker 2:I was just watching your clip on the Today Show no big deal, no big deal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got super lucky. Grateful for that. Oh my gosh, that was so cool.
Speaker 2:So you've climbed seven of the seven continents. So you've climbed seven of the second highest summits on seven continents. Yes, and you also have seven children, which I don't know. What's more impressive, honestly, jen.
Speaker 1:I will tell you, the children are much harder than those mountains.
Speaker 2:There you go. I believe that in every cell of my body I do so. I heard you say on the Today Show I am signifying what's possible for all of us and that gave me the chills because I think so many of us are just trying to get through the day and trying to not be stressed out from all the things and for you to do this amazing feat, to have seven children, to have this story that you have, how did you get to the point where you're like I'm just showing us all what's possible, Like what made you come to that conclusion?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would say one. When I started on this quest, I had never slept in a tent before, right, so I was new to my. It wasn't like I was mountaineering forever and this huge hiking family went camping my entire life and everything like that. So I think it's really important to realize at any age we can learn new things and try new things and pick up new skills and push ourselves to different levels. You know, I also had that horrific car crash in 2018.
Speaker 1:And since that car crash, I just remind myself like I get to have this day, like I get this opportunity, I get to be here. I remember getting a phone call from the principal's office a few months after I survived the wreck and the principal was like you don't sound disappointed, I am disappointed in my son's actions. I'm sorry about that, but I'm so grateful to be here, to receive this call, because that almost wasn't in my future. And so when you just come at it with less pressure, less stress, less all of it, because you're just grateful for the day, and you realize, hey, whatever happens, good or bad, at least I'm here to experience it it really changes the lens and what you operate from.
Speaker 2:Right. I think having a finger on the pulse of our mortality in general is like a healthy dose of fear to have, in addition to the gratitude that it brings to just be here now. I love that. So when you say disappointed in your son's actions, was he driving the car when you were in the car accident?
Speaker 1:Oh no. So he got in trouble. Like he was in, he did something naughty in the classroom, and so the principal called me and said hey, listen.
Speaker 2:Okay, I see, I see.
Speaker 1:Junior didn't handle a certain circumstance correctly. We're letting you know I'm like we'll fix it. We're good, I'm here, we'll do it.
Speaker 2:Yes, all good, okay, got it. It's like a whole new perspective. So you are a world record holder and I'm curious. Sometimes we hear stories about, or in our own lives, people getting to a goal and then feeling like, hmm, this is it. So I'm curious when you got that world record, was it like what's next? Was it like oh my God, like were you able to bask in it? Was this as good as you thought it was going to be?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know I think, with every record or every goal, everything that we set out to achieve, once we get there there is a little bit of let down. You're like I'm here, like it gave me. I was doing that pursuit for two and a half years. It gave me purpose, it gave me an idea of like what I'm doing every day and how to show up. And all of a sudden you're like it's done, like I didn't know. You know, in the beginning I didn't even know if it was going to be possible.
Speaker 1:And then, when you get to the end, you're like here it is, and it's just a reminder that it's the journey, not the destination. And so, as long as you can enjoy the journey and the process, like even when it was hard, I remember saying like someday this is going to be done, like it's hard right now, but someday this is going to be my past and I just have to embrace that. And so, when it happened, I'm like whoo, but I'm also aw, like now what. You definitely have that. Now what? But I was very deliberate, saying I'm not committing to anything for another year, because I do feel our society is always training us what's next, what's next, what's next, and I really want to make sure what's next is intentional and feels right on all the levels, and I want to just slow down and be okay, this was big. We can allow this to be what it is and enjoy it and not be in the season of summer all the time, love these other seasons and like learn how to navigate those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so 10 or 15 years ago would you have guessed that you'd be sitting here right now talking about climbing these mountains and doing these things? Not at all.
Speaker 1:Like not even remotely right. But it is funny because when I look back at my past, I was a gymnast when I was young. So gymnasts and mountain climbing is really good because you have body awareness. I played soccer and soccer gives you that fast and slow with your doing, and when you're climbing there's punchy sections and there's just endurance sections. And then when I got older I got into triathlon, which really gave me the endurance muscle, and so those activities that I did definitely prepared me for this, but I had no idea, like that's what it was going to lead to by any means. And yeah, it's kind of fun how things evolve when you open a door and then other doors open, and then other doors open and then all of a sudden you're there and a whole different pursuit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so how did it turn into? I'm going to climb a mountain Like where did that come from?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so when I first moved to Park City, I went to climb the Grand Teton in Jackson Hole with some friends and I absolutely loved the experience. And then I'm like you know what, when my kids are old, I'm going to get into mountain climbing again. I just right now. It's really hard to fit it all in. And then the car accident happened, and the car accident made me realize I don't get to choose when I die, but I sure get to choose how I live, and I'm choosing not to put things in my life that I'd like to. That's not being forced upon me, that's a choice that I have. And so 2019 became this big year of the bucket list. What do I want to do? What do I want to see? What do I want to do All of a sudden, if I die tomorrow? I want to know what the pyramids look like. I want to know, I want to see them in real life. All the things just kind of priorities changed. And so 2020, I was turning 40. And I remember thinking, okay, I'm going to climb a mountain for my 40th birthday, I'm young, it's on my list, it's going to launch my decade, it's going to be perfect. And so I asked some friends about what mountain should I climb? I'm like you know you should climb this mountain named Amma de Blom. It's located in Nepal, it's in the Himalayas. It means the mother's necklace, it's the Paramount Pictures logo. And so I'm thinking, okay, that's perfect, like mother's necklace I wanted. The Himalayas were on my list. Like I kind of knocked a couple things and then COVID hits. And so then, when COVID hits, now all of a sudden, I'm not training to go to any country, I'm just training my children in homeschooling stuff, because we all are not in school anymore. And so I'm at home with the kids and one of my sons is struggling with his math homework. I'm like listen, buddy, we do hard things. I've given him the pep talk he goes if we do hard things, why are you climbing a mountain called I'm a dumb blonde instead of a real mountain like Mount Everest? I said I'm a dumb blonde, not I'm a dumb blonde, sweetheart, but thank you, Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:So then I started training for Everest and then my coach was like gave me a book about becoming an uphill athlete, because this was a new thing, and in the front of this book there was a foreword about a lady who received a Guinness world record for doing something in the Alps. And I just remember telling my coach I could have done that. Like I can suffer. And if I got a Guinness world record, my kids would think I'm the coolest mom in the whole world because I am not right now being this homeschool teacher. And ah, and my coach is like, well, I'll think of something. I'm like okay, fine, but not growing pumpkins or speeding in hot dogs or you know doing the fingernail thing, like at all. He's like don't worry, I'll think of something cool. And he came back and he said hey, I think I could have done that. I thought of something Like okay, what he's like I think you should climb the seven second summits.
Speaker 1:Like I don't even know what those are. Like. What is that? He's like well, it's the second highest point on each continent. They're actually harder than the first seven. They've never been done by a woman. And you said you wanted to make a big impact for moms out there to make sure they keep doing themselves while they're raising kids. So he's like seven continents, seven mountains, seven children Sounds like a jackpot. I'm like all right, let's try it. I'm in Sounds perfect, yeah.
Speaker 2:And now your book has seven tips.
Speaker 1:Yeah, seven strategies, yes, I decided to stay with sevens, like sevens are kind of my magic number. I like it, yeah. So the book's titled Breakproof and it's seven strategies to build resilience and achieve your life goals, and basically what I did is I take people to the mountain adventures with me and then on that particular adventure you kind of get a summit with me and then we take out different lessons that I learned that apply to your life or to your business and would help you be more resilient in your pursuits.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's double click on business a little bit, because a lot of the people who listen to this are mostly mothers really, and for a number of years I've chosen to be a stay-at-home mom. And now I'm dabbling in the idea of I don't just have to be a stay-at-home mom. I can provide a source of income for my family. I can make six, seven figures if I'd like to, and so that's all kind of in the process. And I loved when you said when my kids are older and because that's constantly my mantra, my kids are one, six and eight. So I'm like, oh, when they're a little bit older. And I heard you say that and I'm like, oh, my, I guess I have no excuse now, Jen. So thanks a lot, but let's double click on the business part a little bit. How you got into business, were you always into business? And maybe what's your best piece of advice for a mom like yourself who thinks she might want to get into business but doesn't know how, what. Why all that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was in business before I had kids. I started my own company in finance and then hired myself out of a job and I still own the company, but I'm not actively working in it, and that was awesome because it was before kids, right. And then all of a sudden kids enter the scene, so there was an income stream coming in and then I stayed home with them and then I just felt I don't know. I felt like I was meant for more, like there was more in me. There was a different side of me that wasn't being experienced or explored or navigated, and I didn't know how to get into it at first. Right, like what does it look like? How does it feel? What happens if it doesn't work? Like you have all these things that are.
Speaker 1:It's just so much easier to stay put versus stepping into the unknown on everything that we do, and so I would highly recommend what do you like? Right, like what are you into what? What works with your schedule? Does helping out at school work? Does volunteering work? Does there's so many opportunities nowadays, especially if you have writing skills or things like that from online and just doing freelance work and adding that up, and then, okay, I can do this five hours a week and I don't feel overwhelmed, or I can do it 10 hours a week and I don't feel overwhelmed, and you're going to find what works for you, and just allowing that to not have a definitive idea of what it is, and just allowing it to kind of be discovered and explored, I think is the best way to go about it, because that's what's going to feel most comfortable, I think, for most people.
Speaker 2:Right, just taking small baby steps. It's not. I mean, a lot of us are all or nothing and so it's like I have to get. I was just talking to a mom the other day and my little like mommy and me group that we do on Tuesdays and she's like she's a physical therapist and she's, you know, was a very successful professional. She's got four or five kids, I can't remember what, and she's like I just want to like do the business but I want to go all in and she goes, but meanwhile I could have like one part time client that I see at my house event, you know, and she's like I just want this, like immediate gratification, and I think your work, what you talk about, is such a testament to following the breadcrumbs, like taking the small steps.
Speaker 2:It's not. You didn't climb the seven second summit in a week, I mean. So, yeah, I think that's a beautiful, a beautiful testament to that. So what, in your opinion, is resilience? I mean, I know we could just kind of like you know there's there's a definition out there, but how did you really harness that resilience? How do you look at it now when you're writing your book for people like me and you know people who are listening, like what do you want us to know about resilience?
Speaker 1:Something we get better at right. It's something where the reason why the book is called breakproof is because when we're doing things, we're going to break, right. I mean, no one. I wish we could get there without any setbacks or without any obstacles, but that's just unrealistic and I don't even know if we'd want to if we didn't have any obstacles, because that's kind of fun to solve. But where you break, that's the proof of what you need to improve on to be able to make things go better for you in the future. So I will tell you, I was one of those people that's super not good at asking for help, right, Like I just wasn't.
Speaker 1:I just I'll do it myself. I got this. I don't want to rely on other people. You know all those stories and the reality is is big mountains, take big teams Like the. You can't climb Everest by yourself, right? The bigger the mountain, the bigger the team you need to have. And so I have seven kids.
Speaker 1:I was going to go climb Everest and I'd never been away from home that long. So I called my mom, I called the, sit like we. I had everything lined up at home and I'm sitting there thinking, like you know, I bet the kids might be off a little bit emotionally at school. I should let school know that I'm going to be gone so they offer my kids a little more grace. So I went into the school and I said hey, here's what I'm doing, I just want you to know here's who's running the show at home. But because it's off, sometimes kids are off when things aren't the norm and they're like oh yeah, this is amazing. Why don't you come in and teach the school about like we'll do a goal setting campaign and we'll help the kids say what's their Everest, and so you can come into the school, you can help them with the school setting. And so I did. And all these little kids had hikers in the hallway and then on their little flag it told me what their goal was. And then in the front of the school we had a huge Mount Everest made and then I was a little hiker on it and I had a tracking device while I was on Everest, so then the school could move me up and down the mountain depending on where I was, and nowadays you can even zoom call from base camp into the classrooms. So I called in the classrooms. I answered the questions like where you pee, what you eat, you know how you poop on the mountain, because that's what kids care about.
Speaker 1:And when I summited the mountain, it wasn't just me summiting, it was that entire school, like all those little kids and my kids felt so loved because everybody was like here's where your mom is, here's what's going on. She talked to my classroom here's my goal. And then I came back and I got to reconnect with everybody and it was so magical and my intention was hey, I want to, like, take care of my kids. I got the school involved. They stepped up the game to a whole nother level and it made that experience so much better for all of us. And so I incurred, like I think one of the hardest things we have is asking for help, because help is being vulnerable.
Speaker 1:Help is showing where you're weak. Help is showing, like here's behind the scenes of what's going on. It might look pretty on the outside, but it's a scrambled eggs on the inside, potentially, and but when you do, how much can get magnified and how much better everything can be. So I just encourage you to think about, like, whatever your mountain is, how big of a team do you need to be able to really make it to the top?
Speaker 2:Wow, so how many people did you actually need for Everest?
Speaker 1:So Everest is a very unique mountain. When you climb it you pay permits. It's very commercialized. So back in the day, if you climbed Everest in the 80s, you'd be a superhero Like I can't even imagine. Nowadays there's so much technology and there's you pay for a permit and this permit has teams that are responsible for certain sections of the mountain.
Speaker 1:So the famous part of Everest is the icefall, which you have to like navigate through all these different ice fields and back in the day you'd be, oh, this is a dead end, we got to go back. We got to go this way, like there's no way. Nowadays there's drones, so they can fly a drone and be like oh, this is how we can use this maze this time, or here's where we need a ladder, here's where we put the ropes up, and there's a team that goes up that section every morning and every evening, because the icefall moves three to six feet a day. So I went through the icefall four times and every time it was different. If I had to re figure out the navigation or what changed or what shifted every time, that's a lot of work. When somebody goes through that and does that for you, then you just have to like show up. So Everest is much more showing up and doing the work than it is like strategizing and deciding how we do these different pieces. It's all established for you.
Speaker 2:Okay, there's many, many people behind the scenes with the technology and the whole thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they're setting up your tents, they're cooking food, they're doing all the things.
Speaker 2:Did you hike with people or was it just you solo? No, you hike with the team. You hike with the team. Okay, so you had people with you. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and which? So I saw a picture of you holding I don't know which top of the mountain you are you were on, I'm sure you'll know but it was holding a picture of your seven kids in like a plastic baggie. It was like a huge snowy mountain and I just was like, oh my gosh, was that Everest? Or which mountain was that it's?
Speaker 1:every mountain, so every mountain, so every mountain. Okay, I keep a pit, like I laminated a photo, I keep it in my jacket and every mountain, like, because it gets hard, and when it's hard you need to get out of your own mind and into something else. And so then I would look at that photo and I think of my kids and I'd be like if they were doing something hard right now, I'd want them to continue, so I'm going to continue for them. And so whenever I got to the top of a mountain we got to the top of the mountain Wasn't just me, they're part of this team, they're part of making it possible, they're part of all of it. So every mountain top, I took a photo with each one, with them.
Speaker 2:I love that. Talk to us about fear. Were you always comfortable feeling fear? How in the past did you push through fear versus how you push through fear, how you push through fear now.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I kind of feel that fear is always in the car with you, okay, so I just have to make sure I'm driving the car and not fear driving the car. So fear gets to sit in the back seat when I'm lucky and in the front seat when I'm not as lucky. And you have a choice, right? If fear is there, so are other things, but I'm choosing to focus on the fear.
Speaker 1:So I have a fear of heights, which is crazy, because I climbed mountains and when you go and Everest, you see these ladder photos right when you're walking over these ladders to get from one snow bank to the next. And it is scary, right, like if you look down, you're like and that I'm walking on a ladder, that's like wobbling when I move my feet and this is over, like it's scary. So instead of thinking of that, I have to think about oh, I have safe feet. If I have safe feet, I'm fine. So every time I was walking, I just kept repeating the mantra safe feet, safe feet, safe feet, and I would just focus on making each next foot safe. And when I kept repeating that, it didn't allow another thought to enter because it was being blocked out by the safe feet mantra, and so whenever I'm in a scary spot, I think of Okay, what do I need to do to get through this section? And I'll just start repeating that all the time so that I don't allow other thoughts to latch on.
Speaker 2:Right. So do you still get scared, like in everyday life, in parenting? I mean, parenting is one of the most terrifying things there is in business. Do you still find yourself having to face those fears outside of the moment? Oh, 100% Right.
Speaker 1:Like I'm scared of by doing this wrong Right and my parenting wrong, is the decision I make today going to have this lasting? And you know, like the crazy things that we feel, like every teeny tiny thing is this magnitude of it. So it's like learning how to balance all of that and just trust your instincts. I definitely take a pause. So when I get triggered by one of my kids, my natural reaction is to react. I'm like Nope, I want to respond. So for me to respond, I'm going to need a minute to figure out what makes the most sense and if it's something big.
Speaker 1:So you know, my son came in one night, went to bed I thought I went to bed walked out the back door, borrowed my car to go, drive down to Wendy's and got pulled you know it's after curfew got pulled over and when the police called I had to pick him up and do all these things. I'm like I don't know how to parent this right now. It was not a good move. We're going to have to talk about this tomorrow when I have sleep and I can think about what's the next move forward, and I'm going to need your help on what you think should be done too. And so just saying like I don't know how to parent this. You know, like that's automatically disarming of whatever. We're going to figure this out together, but what you did was something that needs to be not okay, right? What's the age range of your kids? Yeah, so my oldest is 16 and my youngest are 10. Wow, yeah, awesome.
Speaker 2:So how, just like logistically speaking, how do you find the bandwidth every day to you know, meet the seven different needs? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's very calculated, so on a weekly basis really. I look at the calendar and I say, okay, how am I getting time with each one? Because if I don't book it in it's not going to happen. You have one or two kids. You can make it work every day when you have seven. It's definitely needs to be intentional. In the morning I have three different school start times, so it allows me to kind of do the first four, then the next two and then the last one, and then they come home at three different times during the day. So it's just very intentional, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that. And you know, even with three kids one kid, two kids, whatever we can take a page from that book because you know, we think, oh, we have all the time in the world, but there still needs to be that intentionality, no matter what. You know, we just started booking dates with our older two, like just my husband and I with them, and they love it. It's like Christmas for them and we're like, oh, this is like a big deal, you know, just to have that time with them, to focus on them, to look in their eyes. You know, because sometimes it doesn't happen in the day to day or you know it just. You know we're busy, everybody's busy, we've got things going on. I love that. So you talked about shifting from success to significance. Talk to us about that shift, because we're in this success obsessed culture where everything needs to be success, success, success. What is success versus significance to you?
Speaker 1:Significance is longer lasting. I feel success when we're on that. We're chasing it continuously. I was climbing K2 in 2021 and I had a teammate die in an avalanche. I had one loses hand to frostbite and another one get injured, and so our team was very like. I was one of the only people that walked away without having a problem.
Speaker 1:When I was on the mountain, we got the phone call that the avalanche had taken out a team member lower down the mountain, and I would just remember thinking like wow, we did not plan for this. This is now what right? Another team came up the mountain and they're like hey, jen, your team's going down. Do you want to join us to go up to the top? And I remember sitting there thinking my teammate like just died. Another one just got in like no, I'm not going up to the top of this mountain and having the rest of my life have this success clouded by that horrific event. I'm going to go down and take care of my team.
Speaker 1:And so I went down, I took care of my team and there was no opportunity to summit again, so it was time to go home and I came back to the US. And then my kids came home from camp and they're like mom, did you summit? Did you summit? I said no, but I had success. I'm like what do you mean? I go? Who we are as people is so much more important than what we achieve, and I showed up as a person I'm proud of. I took care of my team.
Speaker 1:The mountain will always be there, and in your life you're going to have choices where you get to put people over peaks and you need to decide who you are, and I hope you're one of the people that put people over peaks. And so they only learn that by living that right. They only learn that because you're doing it and so they're seeing it. And so that story I did not, I didn't summit right, but the lesson was so significant that that was really the success, not necessarily the summit.
Speaker 1:And the story goes even deeper because in 2022, I went back to climb K2 and I got a phone call and there was a lady that was from Pakistan that was training to climb her country's price peak, but she didn't have the resources to do it, and so then I brought over resources for her to be able to climb, and when I summited in 2022, she summited about 30 minutes later and he sat there and he think, wow, if I would have summited that first time, I would not have been able to be a part of this history of the first Muslim, the first female Pakistani, standing on top of her country's price peak. So I feel there's always a chance for significance and when we're living life, if we can try to have that be our North Star instead of the traditional success, things just get so much more rewarding.
Speaker 2:Right. So I think of, instead of like checking off a box, it just is like following your internal morals and values to actually make a difference in whatever it is that you're doing. I really love that reframe. What's your take on balance? It sounds like you have a balance going. You have to have a balance. A lot of people coaches, companies are saying no, there's no such thing as balance, and I, you know lately and I think that there has to be, just like in my life personally. So what's your take on balance? Balancing the seven children, your personal goals, your business, everything else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I look at things in a larger time horizon so that I feel balanced, because in the short term I don't know if any of us will ever feel balanced. And so, for example, when I started my company and I didn't have kids yet, I mean I was working 12 hour days, seven days a week, sometimes sometimes five days a week, and that was a lot. But then when I had my kids, I wasn't working really at all but I was still making money and so over like that timeframe it's balanced, but it was definitely a front loaded career and then I could back off of it later. And so I think balance is what does it look like over the next quarter, over the next year?
Speaker 1:Because when I would go on expeditions, for example, I was gone for three weeks when I was on Everest. Those three weeks are not very balanced. Right, I mean, that's the only thing I'm doing. So before Everest I was very much kid heavy in my schedule because I knew I was going to be gone, and so then if you looked at that two months or those three months, it was very balanced, but it wasn't balanced on the daily.
Speaker 1:So I think giving yourself permission to be, hey, this is gonna take a little bit more to get started, but then once it gets started it's gonna balance out or just understanding what career paths and what things you're doing and what does that really look like in the future, because some of us take jobs that require more time in our 40s or 50s. Some of us take jobs that require more time on the front end, so then we have more free time in our 40s and 50s and if you're trying to balance out what you want your life to look like, like just considering what that can be- yeah, I like that More of a bird's eye view.
Speaker 2:That makes sense really. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. Right, it's kind of cliche because it's true. Yeah, okay, cool, I like that. So will you tell us about your upcoming book and then maybe share one of the strategies with us?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, so, yeah.
Speaker 1:So Breakproof is the title. We talked about that a little bit earlier. It was, I'll tell you. I was at lunch with a friend who's written a handful of books and I was talking about the expeditions Like you need to write a book. This is fascinating. I don't even like mountaineering and I love these stories and this is so good and I'm like okay, but as in, like you need to write a book, as in, you should order brownie for dessert, like it was. As this will be easy, this is gonna be fun.
Speaker 1:You write a book. You're like, oh, my goodness, I am a moving body, human. This is a lot of sitting and trying to stay focused, and when you write a book, you have so many stories and you have to dial them into a cadence that isn't long, isn't boring, isn't giving you details you don't want, but giving you enough details. So you understand it if you're not in the industry, and so it's challenging. And I think it's funny that it's named Breakproof, because there's a hundred times that I wanted to like break down and say, no, I'm not doing this project. I'm like I can't. When I titled it this, so I stuck with it and I would say one of the things in the book is about owning your awesome and really just embracing who you are as an individual and celebrating that.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of times it's easy for us to put our own light on hold to take care of everybody else's, and we really teach our children how to shine their lights when we shine our own. And I know that I was doing a good job as a mother before the car accident, but I'm a lot better a mother after. And the difference is is that I stepped into me more and I just I know my kids are watching and they're now thinking, oh, this would be cool to be a mom, like my mom does cool stuff and she's a nice mom and she's like takes care of me. Where before I think they would look at me and say, man, if you're a mom, you don't get to do anything, but be a mom, and I don't want them to feel that way. I don't want my daughter to be my age and not do what sets her heart on fire. I want her to always own who she is and like explore that and experience that and figure out who that is and let that evolve, and they're only gonna know how to do that If they say me doing it.
Speaker 1:And so when I stepped into this quest, I mean, yeah, they didn't wanna do homework, I didn't wanna train. None of us wanted to eat healthy, like all the things we were doing life in parallel. Yeah, I totally get it, honey. I'm feeling that way here too. But you know what? We do? Hard things. We continue because on the other side of heart is freedom.
Speaker 2:Oh beautiful. So if you could teach a class to elementary age kids. I'm like obsessed with the zero to 10 age Cause I think once they reach that 10 age they're like values are pretty cemented in. And, plus, my kids are little. So what would you teach to a group of elementary age kiddos?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I loved the what's your Everest challenge. Like I loved sitting there and talking to them about why we set goals and how does it feel when we don't reach them, and just normalizing the setbacks. Because when they're young they don't take setbacks personal. When they get a little bit older, they start getting shy about it or embarrassed about it. They're like okay, I'm not good at that and I don't wanna do that anymore, and I think the more we can say no, yet, you're not gonna get that yet right. Then they give themselves more permission to explore and experience. I have seven entirely different humans and it's so fun to nurture what they find exciting themselves and just continuously asking questions and letting them have their vein of expertise in our family. It's, it's oh yeah. I mean you know, as a mom, there's nothing greater. It's watching your kids have those aha moments, watching them overcome right when they look at their handwriting from the beginning of the year to the end of the year and you're like, look, you've got your A's in the spot that they blog.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, I'm crying. So I just think it's so beautiful, because I think my North Star is giving my kids an opportunity to get to know themselves and to get to know what does light my heart on fire, because I think for so many years we forget, like I forgot for like 30 plus years, like why I'm here, and then it's like, oh, that's right, you know, because there are so many clues from when we're little that really shape who we become and our desires and our hopes and our dreams and our visions for our lives, and even I'm gonna go ahead and say a better world, you know. So, oh, that's beautiful. All right, as we start to wrap up, will you tell us where we can find your book and where we can find and follow you and learn more about what you do?
Speaker 1:Yeah, please. So jendrummondcom, and that's double N my website. You'll have a link to buy the book. I'm running some challenges right now, so I have a 40 day parenting challenge. That's pretty fun for people. And, yeah, all my social media handles are there, so you'll be able to connect on whatever social channel you like and please reach out, because I absolutely love connecting with people and hearing what they're up to Amazing.
Speaker 1:When does that parenting challenge start, so that the first one starts October 1st, so I think you're gonna be a little late for that one, yep, but we will run another one after that. We have an intention challenge starting in January, and that's really for moms, right. Like to just be intentional and take care of yourself while you're doing your other roles. And then we have an Everest challenge in April, which is super fun, so you'll climb Everest from the comfort of your home using your staircase or a step. And then I do a leadership challenge in July, which is just really. We're all leaders wherever we are in life. So looking at ourselves as leaders and what impact we have with the people around us, yeah, where did you get that philosophy that we're all leaders?
Speaker 2:I'm so curious about that because I'm starting to teach a leadership class for little girls only first through fourth grade, and so I'm obsessed with this idea of we're all leaders as well, and I just like can't wait to get to know these girls and you know, my two girls are gonna be there too and just to like pump them up and empower them, because they're all so different, we're all so different and I'm so excited. So where did that we're all leaders come from for you? Was that always the case, or?
Speaker 1:Think you know, like everybody leads in a way right, we're all unique and so then when we step into who we are, we kind of become known for those different things. And I know for me I have seven kids. One of my kids is not afraid of heights and so when I think of like I'm in those scary sections, I just like I'm channeling my inner Jacob. I'm channeling my inner Jacob. He has no fear of heights.
Speaker 1:And you know, my son, josh, loves music, and so whenever I'm getting really busy and just in my head I'll turn on music. I'm like it's time for me to channel Josh, because Josh doesn't hear music, josh feels music, and so it's like reminding me to start feeling again and getting out of my head. So each of our kids are unique. They give us little guide posts on how to be more of whatever this is. And so if you can teach a leadership class and help these kids like own who they are and understand like I get to lead this and you get to lead that and there's room for all of us to lead, I mean, imagine where that goes.
Speaker 2:Totally. I mean, it all boils down to self-discovery. It really does Like all the unique interests and everything. Oh gosh, I love it. Okay, so I'm gonna ask you the three questions I ask everybody at the end of the interview, and the first one is what's bringing you joy today?
Speaker 1:Oh, I have new kittens at the house and let me tell you, when you have two kittens that love on each other and just wrestle and play and all day long, nothing makes you happier. Just remind, life is so simple.
Speaker 2:So cute. What, if anything, are you reading right now?
Speaker 1:I am reading Unreasonable Hospitality. It's a really good book on how we can be more hospitable in our everyday lives.
Speaker 2:Oh, that sounds awesome. I'm gonna put that on my list. I love all the book recommendations from my guests. It's like my favorite thing to ask oh, I'm sure, yeah, there's so many good ones that's gonna be on the list. And then the last thing is who or what have you learned the most from?
Speaker 1:My children I've learned the most from, because they remind me that mistakes are normal and curiosity is what allows opportunity to present itself.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful. Thank you so much for showing up in the way that you do and for sharing your wisdom with us today. It's been so impactful. I know it's gonna touch so many minds and hearts, Jen. Well, thank you for having me.