Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Jenn Drummond on the 7 Secrets to Realizing Your Life Dream EP 397

Episode Date: January 9, 2024

https://passionstruck.com/passion-struck-book/ - Order a copy of my new book, "Passion Struck: Twelve Powerful Principles to Unlock Your Purpose and Ignite Your Most Intentional Life," today! Picked by the Next Big Idea Club as a must-read for 2024. In this episode of Passion Struck, host John R. Miles interviews Jenn Drummond, the first woman to climb the seven-second summits. Jen shares her incredible journey of resilience and perseverance, from surviving a life-altering car accident to conquering some of the world's most challenging mountains. Jenn is the author of "BreakProof: 7 Strategies to Build Resilience and Achieve Your Life Goals." Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://passionstruck.com/jenn-drummond-the-7-secrets-to-your-life-dream/  Sponsors This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://www.betterhelp.com/PASSIONSTRUCK, and get on your way to being your best self. Brought to you by Indeed: Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed dot com slash PASSIONSTRUCK. Brought to you by Lifeforce: Join me and thousands of others who have transformed their lives through Lifeforce's proactive and personalized approach to healthcare. Visit MyLifeforce.com today to start your membership and receive an exclusive $200 off. Brought to you by Hello Fresh. Use code passion 50 to get 50% off plus free shipping!  --► For information about advertisers and promo codes, go to: https://passionstruck.com/deals/ John R. Miles Talks to Jenn Drummond on How to Become Breakproof The episode with Jenn Drummond reminds you to cast a wider and deeper vision, fully commit to your goals, embrace the messy middle, and have fun along the way. Living authentically and pursuing your passions can make a significant impact and inspire others to do the same. All things Jenn Drummond: https://jenndrummond.com/  Watch my interview with Dr. Jud Brewer On Breaking Anxiety Shackles And Rewiring Habits: https://passionstruck.com/dr-jud-brewer-on-breaking-anxiety-shackles/ Take a look at my solo episode on What Is Sisu? Harnessing The Finnish Art Of Courage For Life: https://passionstruck.com/what-is-sisu-finlands-powerhouse-of-resilience/ Watch my interview with Katy Milkman On Creating Lasting Behavior Change For Good: https://passionstruck.com/katy-milkman-behavior-change-for-good/ Catch my interview with Scott Barry Kaufman And Jordyn Feingold On Choose Growth, Transcending Trauma, Fear, And Self-Doubt: https://passionstruck.com/jordyn-feingold-scott-barry-kaufman-chose-growth/ Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally! How to Connect with John Connect with John on Twitter at @John_RMiles and on Instagram at @john_R_Miles. Subscribe to our main YouTube Channel Here: https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnRMiles Subscribe to our YouTube Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@passionstruckclips Want to uncover your profound sense of Mattering? I provide my master class on five simple steps to achieving it. Want to hear my best interviews? Check out my starter packs on intentional behavior change, women at the top of their game, longevity, and well-being, and overcoming adversity. Learn more about John: https://johnrmiles.com/ 

coming up next on Passion Strike. My coach kind of laughed. He's like, hey, Jen, I've got the perfect world record for you. I think you should be the first female to climb the seven second summits. At that point in my life, it sounded like a tongue twister and even know what he was saying. I'm like, the seven what? He was the seven second summits. It's the second highest point on each of the seven continents. It has only been done by one male. It's harder than the first seven. You would be the first woman.

And you go, think about it. Seven continents, seven mountains, seven children, it's a jackpot. I'm like, it does sound like a jackpot. I've never slept in a tent though before. Like, we've got things we got to figure out. And he said, you'll do it. I'm like, okay, let's say yes.

To me, you check the boxes of traveling and experiencing the world, doing hard things. And I felt it would be an inspirational pursuit for others to step into theirs. Welcome to PassionStruck. Hi, I'm your host, John Armiles. And on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer

listener questions on Fridays. We have long-form interviews the rest of the week with guest ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries and athletes. Now, let's go out there and become PassionStruck. Hello everyone, happy 2024 and welcome back to episode 397 of PassionStruck, consistently ranked by Apple as the number one alternative health podcast. And thank you to all of you, come back to the show every single week to listen and learn, and live better, be better, and impact the world.

And as we step into 2024, I want to offer you an incredible opportunity to actively pursue your goals and transform your life. I'm thrilled to introduce the 50-week challenge, a carefully crafted journey to help you unlock your full potential and make meaningful progress towards your aspirations. Each week we'll tackle a new challenge focusing on various aspects of personal growth and well-being. Sign up for our newsletter to receive weekly updates on part of a community committed

to making each day count. Are you ready to elevate your life, join us in the 50-week challenge and step into your most precious truck self? If you're new to the show, thank you so much for joining us, where you simply want to introduce this to a friend or a family member, and we love it when you do that. We have episodes starter packs which are collections of our fans' favorite episodes that we organize and convenient playlists that give any new listener a great way to get acclimated to everything we do here on the show.

Either go to Spotify or PassionStruck.com slash starter packs to get started. And in case you missed it, last week, I had two fantastic interviews. The first was with Dr. Anthony Yoon, a plastic surgeon, author, and social media influencer. Dr. Yoon is author of the new book, Younger for Life, a complete guide to turn it back to cloth holistically using a process called auto-juvenation. In our discussion, Dr. Yoon discusses how virtually anyone can see great changes in their skin, energy, and how they feel using the power of their own bodies' regenerative abilities. I also interviewed Dr. Amelia Elizabeth Lati, who specializes in the applied psychology of

Interstring, Conscious Leadership, and High Performance. We discuss her book, Gentle Power, and also her 2400-kilometer run in bicycle ultra endurance feet across the entire length of New Zealand for her research on the finished concept of Tsisu. I also wanted to say thank you for your ratings and reviews and if you love today's episode or the other ones I mentioned we would appreciate you giving it a five star review and sharing it with your friends and family. I know we and our guests love to see comments from our listeners. I want to start off today's episode by sharing a personal story. I remember vividly on my first day heading to work at Arthur Anderson in Houston, Texas. It was a day like any other with the sun just rising, and I was well ahead of time for my commute. As I was merging onto

a highway, something unexpected happened. I was in the outer lane next to a massive semi-truck. As we both maneuvered the turn, I ended up making the turn, but the tractor trailer did not, and in an instant, it hit me. My car, spinning uncontrollably on the road. When I came to a stop, my heart skipped a beat, and I was faced with an uncommon traffic. That heroine moment, with cars speeding towards me, reshaped my entire perspective. It's in these life-defying situations that we often find our true strength and resilience. Today's guest, Jen Drummond, has experienced her own life altering situation, one that has reshaped her entire life, influenced her journey to becoming

a passion-struck, and led to the creation of her new book Breakproof, Seven Strategies to Build Resilience, and Achieve Your Life Goals. This isn't just an interview, it's a vivid testament to the unyielding human spirit, a narrative that echoes the essence of a true go-getter, and underscores the vital importance of maintaining life balance, setting ambitious goals, and embracing the fullness of life. Through our discussion, I will guide you on Jen Drummond's audacious journey to conquer the seven-second summits. With no prior experience in mountain climbing, Jen set out to achieve a feat considered by many as insurmountable.

Her journey, fraught with both emotional and physical trials, is a compelling tale of resilience, perseverance, and finding inner strength in the face of life's daunting challenges. The podcast delves into the heart of personal evolution. Mountain climbers regard the second highest mountains, and each continent has more technically challenging than their highest counterparts. Gen's experiences on these towering summits are potent metaphors for life's goal achievement and a testament to the power of relentless self-impermanence. In this conversation, you'll uncover actionable strategies and exercises to initiate your journey, build resilience and tackle life's hurdles. The significance of setting goals,

pursuing continuous self-imprimit and personal growth, methods to navigate through seemingly insurmountable obstacles, inspiration to become a relentless go-getter, to never give up and to embrace a balanced, fulfilling life. Jen Drummond is not just a world record holding now near. She is a mother of seven, a successful business owner, and an inspiration to us all. Through her book, her podcast and her talks, she shares her story and strategies, guiding others to create, thriving businesses, and a lasting legacy. Join us in the surrounding episode of the PassionStruck Podcasts, as we discuss life-changing

experiences and the resilience to overcome them with Jen Drummond. Thank you for choosing Passion Struck and choosing me to be your host and guide and your journey to creating an intentional life. Now, let that journey begin. I am so honored and thrilled to have Jen Drummond on Passion Struck. Welcome, Jen. Hey, thanks for having me today. Well, we're going to spend most of today talking about your incredible new book, Break Proof, Seven Strategies to Build Resilience and Achieve Your Life Goals. I'm so excited for you. Congratulations.

Oh, thank you so much. It's been a project to say the least. Believe me, I know exactly what you're saying. It has been so much more work than I ever would have thought in a million years, but your book is great and I can't wait to dive into this interview. Jen, I'd like to start out by giving the audience some context so they can get to know you. And my father and his whole family are from Michigan. And I understand we have something huge and common. We happen to be fans of the Michigan Wolverines. So we are.

We are. And we just had a big win. So thank you. Thank you. Yes, we need a few more along the way. But growing up as a kid, I spent a lot of time in Michigan. And I have actually been to Holland where you grew up. And I was hoping you might be able to share a little bit about the environment in Michigan

and in Holland and how it shaped your early perspectives and aspirations. Yeah. Holland was one of those quaint little towns. I'm from a huge family. My dad is one of 13. So I grew up in this pack of family members with tons of cousins and I have a brother and a sister. So I had one of those amazing childhoods that was involved in sports and play and family and my mom was to say, oh, mom, so life was good. I was definitely competitive. I

took school serious. I was one of those people that liked to be at the top or number one or learning my limits. And so that's definitely carried into my adulthood. I will say that I went to college at Hope College, which is in Holland, Michigan as well. And was studying to be a doctor. My chemistry teacher pulled me aside and thought, you know what, Jen, I don't know if this is the best field for you. Maybe you should get something in a business. And I remember being offended, but he brought up a good point. He said, listen, do you know any of your classmates?

Said, no, I don't. He goes, do you want to know why? I'm like, sure, he goes there at the library on the weekend studying and you're not. And if you want to spend the next eight years of your life studying with these people, then yes, you can be a doctor, but I think you have talents that would be better served

other ways. And I just, of course, I was angry with them at first, but then grateful later on in life because it worked out the way it should have. And I'm glad he had the courage to have that conversation with me. I did an internship in school where I helped staff temporary labor on to like manufacturing lines,

their manufacturing a office chair. I was in college when Y2K happened. So during that time frame, we were begging people to come into work to help make this chair work weekends, work long hours, do whatever. And then almost overnight, we had to let go these 200 people that had dedicated their life to try to make this chair so they could have a full-time job at this manufacturing company. And I don't know why I didn't quit, right? Like why did I was a college student? Why didn't I quit? I didn't quit. I helped let go 200 people and I just remember that experience telling me I'm never going to work for somebody. I have to work for myself because I have to be responsible for my job. I can't imagine coming into work giving 100% and having somebody else say

just kidding you're out the door. So that definitely played a huge role in my career. I started a firm and financial services helping individuals. I started having a family, hired myself out of a job at the company so that I could be a stay-at-home mom. I relocated the family to Park City, Utah so that we could have a more year-round outdoor lifestyle that was active and busy. And then in 2018, I got into a horrific car accident that kind of shifted everything. So before we get into that car accident, I want to take several steps back. So something as I was doing my research, I found that you and I had in common

is we both started out doing division one sports. You were at SMU if I got it correctly. And I started out as a cross country and track athlete at the Naval Academy. And I did it for a few years, but I just kept running into injury after injury. And I had so many stress fractures. I was starting to spend more time in this women pool or on a spend bike than I was actually running. And so, unfortunately, I had to give it up, but I learned so much through sports. And I was hoping you might be able to share

some of the things that you learned through that sports aspect of your life that have carried with you. Yeah, no, definitely. I think sports have played a huge role in who I am. Some of my favorite things about playing soccer is that you had an hour and a half. That's it. Like the game was over and an hour and a half. Like it was so you could put everything on the field and leave it on the field because in an hour and a half it was done. And I think a lot of times we forget that whatever we're going through is temporary. It's not forever. So leave it on the table, give it your all, do what you can. I remember a coach talking to me once I was a striker. So I like to shoot the goals in. I love the sound of a pretty goal, right? I can hear it in my head now where it hits the net

and it runs down the background and like everything being set up perfectly. And for a while, I was in scoring because I kept trying to set up that perfect goal. And then I would get intercepted or the ball would get kicked out of the way or whatever. It was really hard to get that perfect goal set up. And finally, my coach pulled me aside and he goes, Jen, no one remembers what your goal looks like.

They just remember that you got the ball in the net and what the score of the game is. So why don't you just get the ball in the net. And then after you have three goals, then you can look for the pretty one. I'm like, okay, fine. I literally, they call it a hat trick when you get a three goals in each game. The next 18 games, I got three goals a game, sometimes more. And it's because I allowed that perfect setup to be whatever I just wanted the ball in the net, it didn't matter what it looks like.

And I think a lot of times when we're doing things ourselves, we're so caught up in what it looks like instead of just getting it done. And soccer really taught me, like, just got to get it done. I think there are a couple of things there that you highlighted that I love. One of them is this concept that trying times and which is something that I try to share too. Because if we use our perspective to cognitively reframe situations we're in, it can help us get through some of these adversities that seem like they're never going to end. But if you just reframe it as maybe it's

like going to Christmas dinner with a family member that really drives you nuts. But if you think about that as it's just a couple hours of your life, it makes it a little bit easier to move through. And I also liked how it's not necessarily how you finish. It's that you do. And I think of the touchdowns that are scored in football and how many of them look pretty messy, but it doesn't matter because you got the ball over the line. So I think those are both great. And I have older kids than you do.

Mine are now 25 and 19, but I always have this fear of my son moving away and being in this big family like you were in. What was it like for you to tell them, Hey family, I'm moving to Utah. Yeah. No, not well received at all. Why would you want to live? Leave this Midwest vortex. Everybody's here. Everything's here. This is so magic. Bubble, blah, blah, blah.

And I'm like, okay, I'm just going to try it. So I literally went to Utah Park City for six months. And it was a six month trial. By month, too, I'm like we're moving. But I couldn't tell everybody at home that yet. They needed to see us thriving and having a good time and coming out to visit to see why we even want to move 2,000 miles away from home.

But I have seven children, five boys, twin girls at the bottom. And in Michigan, those winters are gray. They're indoors. They're not a lot to do. Out here in Park City, we have sun, so many days out of the year. And so when you're skiing in the winter, you're skiing in sunshine, you're outdoors.

It's just such an outdoor lifestyle. And I had, it was a great way to burn energy out of little bodies. And it's a direct flight to Detroit, but it's not terrible. It was a hard move for everybody at home, for sure. So I have two kids and I know what it was like raising them. You have seven children.

Yes. Can you tell us about this journey to motherhood and the dynamics of your family life? Yeah. Well, it was a struggle, right? It was fascinating. I struggled getting pregnant, right? Every month the pregnancy test would come back negative

and I felt like a failure. And it's the one thing we're born to do as women is to carry babies in my body couldn't do that natural thing, which had an old guilt shame story tied to it. I ended up working with a fertility clinic and nothing worked for a while. Until one day we came up with a chemical clinic and nothing worked for a while until one day we came up with a chemical cocktail that turned me into a hen and all of a sudden we got

a whole bunch of eggs which became a whole bunch of embryos and we planted two and I got my son Jack who's my oldest and then I got a bill from the fertility clinic. Okay, well here's for your other embryos on ice. So we had that discussion of what does that mean? And Michigan at the time, you had three options. You could use them, donate them, or destroy them. Destroying them just was not even in the realm of possibility for me, especially with the journey that I had been on.

Donating them, I didn't want to be like, are you my kid, are you my kid, the rest of my life? It didn't feel right. And so using them was the option that felt good for me and my husband, we thought we'd get three to four children, we ended up getting seven. Luckily for me, I grew up in a huge family. So I have a brother and sister, but when my dad's one of 13 and you're just used to that energy and chaos and crazy. So I think I was primed for it at some level with that. I wouldn't

change it for the world, but it's busy. It's expensive, but it's fun. I have to ask, I understand during COVID that you might have had to become a teacher for this large family. What was that shift like? Oh my goodness. So this happened right, like after the car accident, after I'm like, okay, I'm going to get into me again. And I'm going to put like the mom hat on the, like, it's going to be an end, not an only. And so all of a sudden, I start setting these goals and then right away, the universe hits me with COVID. And it's like, oh, guess what? You're not going to go climb a mountain. You're going to stay home and homeschool seven children

because school shut down. And I just remember thinking this is funny universe. Thank you. So yeah, I was challenging. We got lucky. We were probably the people that did COVID the best that of anybody I've met. Oh, I was on my way to a ski race down in Idaho with two of my boys. We were running late. I got the phone call in Salt Lake City, which is about 30 minutes from my house, saying the race was canceled. It was eight and a half

hours away. So grateful that I was running late because otherwise it would have been there and had to drive eight and a half hours back, that the race was canceled because of this thing called COVID. I called the nanny who helps with the kids and I said, Hey, I think this COVID thing's going to shut things down. Let's go to spring break early. Which I'm in, I'm like, okay, perfect. So I called this house that we are renting in Hawaii and I'm like, hey, can we call it a Saturday? And she's like, sure, I can get it ready.

So we send the kids to school on Friday. We packed all their bags to go to Hawaii on Saturday. They don't cancel school on Friday, like I thought they would, until about eight o'clock at night. Hey, this COVID thing's going to shut school down. Bubba, Bubba, Bubba. So I was like, okay, we got lucky. We called it right.

We went to Hawaii Saturday morning. And then Hawaii didn't shut down until April. So we were there for the month of March. School that ended up opening. The house that we rented, the people are like, hey, we can't travel there. If you guys just want to stay to have the house be used, we'd be happy to have you stay. So we stayed in the house in Hawaii and the beautiful thing was is about a couple miles down the road was BYU University, which closed. But these kids all stayed. So then we would have these girls come from BYU to help do school in the

morning. We'd eat lunch, then we'd go surfing in the afternoon. And my son was young enough to say, what'd we do for COVID-18? This COVID-19 is pretty awesome. COVID-20, can we go to Brazil? I'm like, honey, little do you know what's going on in this world and am I ever grateful? I love it.

Yes. I want to now talk about the incident that changed your life. And I think those of us who have had life altering incidents like yours, I've had a few both in combat. And more recently, I came home to an intruder in my house, pointing a gun at me. And not everyone has these wake up call moments, but yours was pretty significant.

It was a car accident that reshaped your life. Can you walk us through a little bit of what happened. And they made it impact that it had on you. Yeah. So I was driving home and my attention got pulled to the reservoir, the side of the road and just looking at things daydreaming. And when I got pulled back to the road, I realized I was coming up really fast on a semi. So I went to get into the fast lane. really fast on a semi. So I went to get into the fast lane. The same time there must have been something on the side of the road and his second trailer bumped out into that fast lane and I collided with the passenger side headlamp in the back of the semi. And I remember watching it happen

and I said to myself, I need to surrender. I'm not strong enough to beat this car and the only way I have a chance of living is letting go. And so I put my hands on a steering wheel, my head on the headrest, and I sat on that accident. And it's one of those things where you dilate time, right? It's going so fast that it's going slow. And I remember telling myself, okay, I'm gonna roll once, I'm gonna roll twice, I'm gonna roll three times. Okay, now I'm gonna start doing sideways rolls.

So I did a whole bunch of sideways rolls and I ended up upside down in the median. And I just remember sitting there thinking, okay, Hollywood's trained me that another car's coming. I was like, waiting to get smacked by another car. Luckily that didn't happen. An individual ran towards me to try to help to see if I was okay. When the ambulance came, they're like, there's no way that person's alive. I was. I went to the hospital. they did a whole bunch of tests. I actually was released the same day. Came home to my family. I remember walking in that front door just thinking, wow,

I almost would never walk in this front door again. Like I almost never got to see these kids again. It was just such a shake up of man. Am I living? Do people know that I love them? Do they know am I showing up the way I want to show up? Am I doing things the way that I want to do them? The police called a few weeks later after the accident to let me know they've tried to rebuild it about 50 different times. They could not build a scenario where I lived, let alone walk the way. Add to this scenario that a girlfriend of mine went running

on a trail that you and I could push a stroller. It was wet out. She slipped. She hit her head and she never came home. So I'm like metabolize like why was I saved and why didn't I die? Then why did she do something healthy? And she's not still here and blah blah blah blah. And the bottom line is I came to the conclusion that I don't get to choose when I die. But I sure get to choose how I live. And am I really living with this gift of life? or am I just checking the boxes? And at that point I was checking the boxes to be honest. I was living that if then when my kids get to college then I'll get back to me. When this happens then I'll do that. We all felt guilty of that story. And at that point I was like, you know what? I'm living. I don't care what your

opinion is of me, you're going to die someday too. I'm going to start tuning in to my authentic self and living from that space. And that's when things started to unfold at a whole new level. Well, I can't even imagine what you went through because flipping end over end three times and then all the roles I myself was involved in a car accident many years ago. 29 or 30. It was my first day at Arthur Anderson, which should have been an omen to me to do something different. But I was hit by a tractor trailer and I remember to this day,

I'm just sitting here spinning and I know there's nothing I can do, but just ride this out. And we were converging on to from one highway to another highway. And as I'm done spinning, I'm facing oncoming traffic and see all these cars that are flying up to hit me in this

one puts on its brakes and just stops two inches from my car. And I'm just like man, it could have been the end. So you come out of that life flashes before you and you're now transitioning from this profound experience. How in the world were you drawn to mountain climbing of all things? I feel right, isn't that funny? Well, I live in the mountains in Park City. So that was part of it.

I'd climb the Grand Teton in Jacksonville with friends before. And I remember loving the experience. And I just remember someday I'm gonna climb a mountain again. Just that's right now it's too busy, but I'm gonna do that. So 2019 after the car accident was this year of the bucket list. What do I want to experience? What do I want to do?

What do I want to see? What do I want to try? What like this life could end? What do I want to make sure I've done before life is over? And on that list, amongst a million other things was climb a mountain. Well, I was turning 40 in 2020. So when I was looking over my list for what I wanted to do for my 40th birthday, I'm like, you know what, I'm going to climb a mountain

for my 40th birthday because that's a great way to launch this next decade. I asked some friends that were into mountaineering, like if you could climb one mountain in the whole world, what would it be? And actually a general consensus was this mountain named Alma DeBlanc, which I had never heard of before. But they're like, it's the Paramount Pictures logo with all the stars around it. And so every single time you go to a movie, you can say, I climbed that mountain. I'm like, perfect, it's in Nepal, sounds per,

I've never been to Nepal, I've always wanted to go. So I decided to train for Alma DeBlanc. And then the COVID thing happens, I'm a home school teacher. And one day when I'm doing the home school thing, one of my kids is struggling with this homework. And I'm trying to give them that pep talk. Like, we do hard things, but you've got this.

And he looked at me and 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 de Blum, honey. Not I'm a dumb blonde. But thank you. That's cute. So he finishes homework.

We looked at Everest. He went to bed. I was still looking at Everest. And I said, you know what? If Everest is the hardest mountain in the whole world to this little guy, I'm going to climb it. And I'm going to show him that whatever Everest is, we can summit.

And so I called a coach, and yep, with your background, I can get you ready, no worries, buy this book about becoming an uphill athlete. So I bought this book about training to become an uphill athlete. And in the front, there was a lady who got a Guinness World Record

for doing something in the Alps. And I just remember talking to my coach telling him, I could have done that. Like I can suffer, I can do hard things. My kids learned how to read and get us world record books if I got one, I would be a cool mom. I am not a cool mom as a home school mom. It is not working out for me.

And my coach laughed, he said, I'll think of something, don't worry. And then a few weeks later, he calls me back, he's like, Jen, I've got the perfect world record for you. I think you should be the first female to climb the seven second summits. At that point in my life, it sounded like a tongue twister and I even know what he was saying. I'm like, the seven what?

He was the seven second summits. It's the second highest point on each of the seven continents. It has only been done by one male. It's harder than the first seven. You would be the first woman. And you go, think about it. Seven continents, seven mountains, seven children. It's a jackpot.

I'm like, it does sound like a jackpot. I've never slept in a tent though before. Like, we've got things we got to figure out. And he said, you'll do it. I'm like, okay, let's say yes. It, to me, it checked the boxes of traveling and experiencing the world, doing hard things. And I felt it would be an inspirational pursuit

for others to step into theirs. There's definitely something in that number seven. So I love that story. And I wanted to just frame it this way. So many people, I've talked to you, always say, I would love to do this and take on that challenge or write a book or whatever it is.

But I've got kids, I've got my job, I've got my husband, I've got my friends, my family. I never have enough time to do the things that I want to do. Well, you run a business. You have seven kids that you were homeschooling. How did you create the you time to pursue the school and what do you recommend to others? Yeah. Well, you first need to get really clear on who you are. So for me, I had three things. I'm a mom first, a business owner second, and an athlete third. So everything had to fall into those categories and it had to be time wise to

those categories. If my calendar was 40 hours a week athlete, and then I was an athlete first, not a mom first. So that was an interesting thing to balance. But you get creative. So you say, okay, I'm going to do this thing. And I would plug in all the kids activities, I plug in some work stuff. And then I'd meet with my coach, I'm like, okay, what are we going to do? And my coach would laugh. She's like, I don't know, you're going to climb a mountain, like you're not climbing any mountain with this. I'm like, well, we have to figure it out. So one of the things we did is on my kids sporting events, I would bring a 12 inch step and a backpack full of water bottles. And

why they were playing their sport, I would be on the sideline doing that step up the entire time, right? So I'd get an hour and a half on Saturdays. I get three hours because I'd have everybody has soccer Saturday. And I would be that mom that wouldn't be sitting watching. I'd be moving watching. And then when it came to work meetings, I would have someone in there taking the notes from the meeting. And I when it came to work meetings, I would have someone in there taking the notes from the meeting. And I would be on a treadmill at an inclined so I could hear what was going on. I would jump off the treadmill when I needed to comment on something. But I did a lot of meetings on a treadmill so that I could at least get some exercise in.

And the nice thing about mountaineering is that it's not a speed sport. So I'm not trying to set a world record on how fast I can climb Everest. It's just about time under pressure, right? Time on your feet, time doing the thing. So for me, I could do it with a lot of other activities going on, and I just had to have it stuck. So when I think about mountain climbing, there's the physical aspects about it, but there's also the weather aspects that you have to endure, whether it's cold, high winds, the altitude itself. So as you were going through this training program, what did you find were some of the hardest things that you had to learn how to endure?

It's gear. Getting gear to work in cold environments and knowing, okay, do you don't you can't get wet on the mountain. That's probably one of the biggest things you need to watch because if you get wet, you're going to get cold. So you're always managing your temperature as much as you can because you want to stay under that sweat threshold. And as you get higher up the mountain, there's less oxygen, so your muscles are working harder. So they want to stay under that sweat threshold. And as you get higher up the mountain, there's less oxygen, so your muscles are working harder. So they want to sweat faster,

even though it's colder. Anxiety, right? They have a fear of heights. So sometimes in certain environments, my body would want to sweat because I'd be like, okay, I have to go over this crevasse. And if I fall, it's 2,000 feet to the ground. This is crazy.

So a lot of it is just, I would train in Park City at the ski resort at night once the kids went to bed. I would ski up the hill and pull a sled with weights or have my backpack full of stuff. And then I would ski back down or I'd hike up and go back down on ski so that I could just get the training loops in and learn the layering of clothing, and then having gloves that are warm enough to keep you warm and cold environments, but you have the dexterity to still tie a shoe. Because when you get into some of those high altitude environments, you can't have skin show if it shows it will become frostbite.

So it's really like just practicing and mimicking the environment as much as possible here. So when I was there, I was efficient, effective, and can go. So I wanted to talk a little bit about P2, because P2 was a critical element of your seven seconds on its journey. And for those who aren't familiar with it, it has staggering fatality rate. It's known as deadliest peak. For that climb in particular, what mental and physical preparations did you undertake to face such formidable odds? The crazy thing is Mount Everest was my training ground for K2. So when I went to Everest

first, we were using that to like make sure my gear was right to just test everything, make sure I could handle that altitude. Everest is about 800 feet higher than K2. So then once I knew I could do that, then it took that question out of the equation because we would already accomplish something harder and higher. And I think that's a lot of times what you try to do. You try to do harder environments than what your actual game day is. Because that allows you to be more present in game day because you've already handled more stressful things. So definitely mimicked that. I live in snow in park city. I've been around snow for years. That's a huge advantage to me climbing in K2 because I know avalanche risk terrain a little bit better because I've been exposed to it so often compared to people that come from Florida or come from the Middle East to climb that the K2 is one of the only times of the year that they see snow.

That's a definitely more risky thing for them because they're not as familiar with that environment. So K2 took me to attempts the first year that I went one of my teammates passed away in an avche, so we canceled the expedition and took care of them. And when we went back, we had success. You have to bend a mother nature. She wins the mountain wall always be there. It's us that get to play on them and decide if we're going to risk it or not. Yes, you think about some of the major stories that we've heard about Everest. And it was just that people either either spend too much time at the summit, or they try to forge ahead thinking that they can overcome Mother Nature and it never works out the way they hope.

As you are climbing these mountains, there have to be just times where it's getting grueling. You're not really having conversations with people because it's so cold, so you're just sitting there in your own head in that pain and agony that you're facing. How did you find your way to get through moments like that and to keep persevering? Yeah, well, I think you have like a toolbox full of things, right? It's not ever one thing. You need to have a handful of things so that you can work with yourself. So I wrote myself letters for when it would get hard. So that when

it got hard, I could talk to myself into the position that I was in. I carried the photo of my children on the mountain. Every time I got hard, I just remember that they were watching. I'm demonstrating to them how we get through hard things and what we do and how we make smart decisions on the mountains. It was this decision that I would want one of them to make. And so that helped me stay in present moment with what was going on. The car accident taught me to, I remember when the guy pulled back the windshield and he looked at me, he's, are you okay? And when I looked at his facial expression, I was like, I must not be because that's not a safe face. And so I closed my eyes and wiggled my fingers and toes. And I said, I'll out, I can feel my fingers and toes. I can feel my fingers and toes.

I'm okay. And so even in the mountains, when my head started running a story like this is crazy, This is dangerous What are you doing blah blah blah? I would close my eyes shut down that story and wiggle my fingers and toes I'm like I can feel my fingers and toes everything else is a story that I'm writing right now There has to be a more positive way to write this to get me through this situation And so I do that I'd have music that I liked I, I was the girl that brought the red and white gummy bears and Everybody knows me as the gummy bear lady because if you needed more love because you missed your family and friends at home Everybody would come to me for a red gummy bear

Which is a lot easier to say that can I have a red gummy bear versus? Can you tell me you love me or We had white gummy bears and those were courage So anytime somebody was going through a hard time and like, hey, can I have a white gummy bear? And that was just the placebo effect that we would use. But then it also gave everybody in the community a cue, hey, this person's going through this thing, be aware.

And so that's kind of the stuff that we used to get through it. So fast forward, June 1st, 2023, it's hard to believe that it was just six months ago. You become the first woman in history to delete the seven-second summits. Can you describe the moment you reached the summit of Mt. Logan knowing you were setting a world record? So, you know you're doing it in ten steps, right?

Because you're like, okay, in ten more steps, I'm at the top. And you almost want to slow-mo those steps because you're never going to get them back. And that's the interesting thing about these environments that I went to. I was not coming back to them if I submitted. So I tried to take them in as much as I could because I'm like, I'm never going to see the world

from this experience again or this place again or this view again. And so when I got to the top of Mount Logan, I took in this huge deep breath and in that moment everything disappeared. There was no time, there was no distance, there was no separation. I was just one with everything.

It was the feeling of awe. And then of course you have to breathe out and then things start to separate again and you feel the wind on your face and you're cold and you think, Oh my goodness, this is done. And there's a part of you that's ecstatic that it's done. And then there's actually a part of you that's sad that it's done because it's giving you so much purpose and direction and just meaning in your life. I like, wow, two and a half years ago, I was like, we'll see what happens. Halfway through, I was like, oh my goodness,

this is really happening. And then you're done. You're like, this just happened. What? Humans are amazing. Are you kidding me right now? And yeah, so it's all of that. It's everything. I love it. And congratulations, what an amazing compliment I've had. Collin O'Brady on the show before and talking about some of his achievements. But and it is just remarkable. And that you did it in just a few years, really from the time you started to you completed it. So wow, what an inspiration. So I want to take that and now go into exploring more of the book and break proof. You go through seven strategies for resilience and achievement.

And the first strategy, cast your vision wider and deeper. I really loved because it coincides with one of the first chapters in my book called The Mission Angler. And I have found that in this journey of creating this life aspiration that you want, often we don't think about it as really life crafting. And that if you want to envision this future self that you want to become, you need to cast that vision as you're saying, wider and deeper than you probably even imagine the possibilities becoming. How do you encourage people to do that? Yeah, it's interesting.

Mine recently unfolded, right? So I was climbing a mountain named Alma De Blanc. I'm not really sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure. I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure. I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure. I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure. I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure. I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure. I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure. I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure.

I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure. I think it's the universe giving you little nudges of, yeah, this sounds like a fun thing to do. And then having my son do some goofy thing that is like, you know what? Yeah, all right, let's do this buddy, let's bring it. And so I think for all of us, we start on something. And then as we walk towards that thing, maybe bigger doors open or bigger stage opens

or bigger idea opens to take something further farther and wider. And that's where the excitement comes in. That's where you get the thrill to be like, okay, I'm going to do this. I have no clue how, but this is exciting. It gets me a whole body. Yes, let's see what happens. And that's awesome. And your second strategy, you talk about the importance of full commitment. So how do you go about having this mindset of either fully committing or don't climb that mountain?

That's ahead of you. Because I think it's something that's so important. Because oftentimes we will say we're gonna do something, but our words don't match our actions. And I think a lot of it has to do with that mindset of how we approach it. Yeah, I'm very selective on the words that I use with myself because I know that they matter. And so if I'm going to say I'm going to climb Everest, I'm going to climb Everest. I have to climb Everest because I said it.

Otherwise, I don't have any truth or trust with myself. If I start going back on things that I say, when it becomes a slippery slope. And the other advantage to that too is when you say, okay, I'm gonna climb Everest. Now my body or brain has no room to try to figure out ways to wiggle out of that commitment. I like that commitment's been set.

So I'm committed to the commitment. Now what my brain needs to do is figure out how, and if you're in a great position, how to have fun doing it, right? Because the person who has fun is like the hardest person to beat and any activity that we're doing. And I remember when we were climbing Everest,

there's a section of Everest called the Lotte Safe Face. It's a 3,700 foot outdoor stairmaster for lack of better words. It's just this wall that you climb for the whole day that takes forever, that's in the elements, that's freezing and blah, blah, blah, blah. It's most people's least favorite section of Everest. And I knew that going in,

so I'm like, okay, well, we're climbing this. It's not a debate of whether we're going through this because we're going to the top. So this is part of our journey. So here we are. And what we did as a team, as we said, okay, listen, we're gonna make this fun. Whoever's in front of the line is responsible

for the songs we're gonna sing, the jokes we're gonna tell, the stories that are gonna recall, so we can hear about their childhood and blah, blah, blah, blah, and then when they're exhausted and tired and have nothing else, they go to the back of the line and the next person steps up. I will tell you that my team's favorite section of Mount Everest was the load safe face. And that's because we already committed to the fact that we were doing it.

And so now we had energy to use. And how do we make it fun? How do we make it enjoyable? How do we make it memorable? And that's what we did. I just completed taking an improv class, something I never thought I was going to do before. And one of my favorite aspects of it was the games that you got to play. Luce and everyone up to start trusting each other and being able to get to know each other better. And I just forget how important each other better. And I just forget how important fun is and how little time we put to having adult fun and how much it can change your complete perception of what you're doing. So I think

that's a great story that you just shared. One of the things that I get asked countless times is you want a passion struck life. How do you achieve it? And I start out by saying that the most difficult choice you have to make is the first one, and that is to start. And I think people get really afraid because they get so worried about starting and that maybe it's not going to be a perfect start to their journey. And I think the imperfect starts are the way that the majority of people actually start their journeys.

And this is something that you talk about is how this can be an incredible power that we need to embrace. Yeah. Well, I had the crazy experience. So I was climbing in Russia, which is the second highest point for Europe. highest point for Europe. And it was a technical climb that I curated specific gear for. Example, I ordered 20 pairs of gloves, sent 19 pairs back. So I had like a perfect pair for my fingers and blah, blah, blah, blah. I landed Moscow, my bags are missing, and they have no clue where they are, or when they're gonna be found, or anything like that,

and the guide met me at the airport. And he's like, listen, the weather window is now. So we either climb now, and we'll go to a rental store, or you go home. And you'll come back another time. And this was the end of the season. So in Russia, you climb August, September. We were in September. So I'm like, okay, I just spent 36 hours in an airport.

I am not going to listen to another airport intercom. Let's rent gear. Whatever I learn about on this mountain will help, but we're not going to sum it another airport intercom. Let's rent gear. Whatever I learn about on this mountain will help, but we're not going to sum it. It's okay. At least I'm here and I can take back and understand how to better even pack when I come the next time. So we go to the rental store, nothing fits. It's after COVID, so nobody has inventory. And I have a jacket that I have to roll up the sleeves. I have boots that are three sizes too big. I have a backpack that we're tying so that it doesn't fall off my shoulders.

And we go and I don't know. We just kept going one step at a time imperfectly up the smile and somehow made it to the top, which is crazy. And then we had to make it down and it wasn't a pretty descent. There's times that I was butt scooting

instead of walking in my boots because I broke a toe because it slammed it in the front of the boot so many times that I was trying to like, baby it, but we made it. And when I got back to the airport to fly home, my bag showed up the day before. So I had all my bags to fly home with.

And then six months later, Russia closed to US citizens and it would still be closed to this day. And I sit there and think like I did not embrace all the crazy side waste things that happened in that story. I wouldn't have submitted. I wouldn't have this world record right now. And was it perfect? Was it picture beautiful? Absolutely not. Doesn't matter. No, because we got to the top and it's done. So one of my favorite authors is a personal friend of mine, Robin Sharma. And one of the favorite sayings that Robin has is all change is basically terrible at the beginning, messy in the middle and glorious in the end. Yeah. Because the messy middle is where the challenge really arrives. Challenge is really arrives. You get from this euphoria of starting the journey, and now the hard work is starting, and you have setbacks and other things.

Can you share another experience from your climbs that kind of exemplifies this messy middle and how you manage to push through it? I swear every climb is messy. Like you could pick any one of my climbs and be a messy middle. But it when we were in Antarctica, you get dropped off at this mountain and then the airplane pulls away and you are an hour and a half flight from like the next human or rescue or anything

like that. And our first night there was the coldest day. I and my four guides who had been guiding for 20 some years have ever had an entire career of mountaineering. And I just remember thinking, this is what we're climbing in, we're in trouble. This is gonna be bad because I don't know how we're gonna stay warm. And we got, and then the weather window came. We had two weeks to have three days to climb this section before the plane came back to

get us. And so we're like, okay, well, there's gorgeous areas around here to play. We're like, okay, the weather came in. It was time to go right at the beginning. We literally carried a load up the next day, came back down and then went to go summit. And when we were on the mountain, we're climbing. It's an ice climb. So you have ice axes and crampons and ropes and everything.

And where there's the last two sections before you hit a plateau and then can walk like a normal human again, there was this section called blue ice. Okay, anybody who knows blue ice, it's blue. There's no oxygen in it. It's super hard. When you go through an ice tool at it, it gets rejected and kicked back because there's nothing in the ice to let it like receive this ice tool. So we're trying to

break the ice up. Thank God it was in 22 pitches of this blue ice and it was only two pitches of blue ice, but you have to be so precise and so exact because if you're not, you're going to get rejected. And so it is such a hard tedious task. And the first section I did, I got about five feet from where we would stop. And when I got five feet from there, I hit the ice wrong and slid all the way down. It's like shoots and ladders. I went all the way down to the rope, caught me and then I had to start again. So one, your heart said your throat because you just fell and you're sliding down this mountain. And then you have to do it again and you can't mess up any time in this whole section

or you're going to slide to the rope, catches you until you get to the safe spot. And it was horrible. Like the, that's the thing that I remember of the climb the most is that hard section that I messed up on and fell had to do again and it probably took, I don't know, a couple hours to do this section where everything else was like maybe 30 minutes per section or 45 minutes per section. We did the summit day in 18 hours, which was a record day, but it was horrible. However, we got through it and now it gives us a story to tell for the rest of our lives. Well, I love that. I'm not sure if you're a fan of Steven Covey, but he has a company in your backyard. His CEO is three neighbors down just to let you know. So there you go.

My friends got Jeffrey Miller worked there for decades. I once had this sermon that I listened to that just stood out to me more than almost any other sermon I'd ever heard in church. And the pastor basically talked about Stephen Covey's saying that the main thing about the main thing is keeping the main thing. Yes. Sometimes when we're going into our goals, the goal we think we're pursuing isn't actually the main thing that we're actually pursuing. You call this understand that the goal is not the goal. How does this philosophy resonate with your overall journey and what deeper goal did you discover beyond the summits? Yeah. So, monitoring in general is considered the selfish sport by many people. And you can

imagine me being a mom of seven kids doing this pursuit and all the opinions everybody had of what I should be doing and shouldn't be doing and how dare I take on this quest. And I owned a company that did well and we donated to charities and we did things for sure. But when I stepped into this mountaineering quest, I had no idea the impact I would be able to have for women worldwide. I was able to bring period products over to Africa and I kept 400 women in school for four years

during that time of the month. When I failed K2 my first time, I was devastated of course, but came back a second time, was made aware of a female that was trying to train for the climb didn't have the resources to make it happen. I helped bring resources over. I became the third American female the stand on top of K2. She became the first Pakistani female to stand on top of her country's prized peak. She was one of

showed Muslim women throughout the world what they're capable of and what that can do. And so I feel like I was put on that quest to show women, to show moms, to show the world like we're more than just one role. And when we step into what sets our heart on fire, which for me is mountaineering, so much goodness comes from it that you didn't even anticipate or plan or could figure out, but because you did you, the universe lines up and allows you to participate in things and make differences in ways that I could have never had impact in my field or my job or my life before. And I think it's so important for us to just own who we are, live that truth out as best as we can, because we give permission to others

to do the same. And we will have impact. Our story is much more than our success story. It's the significance of inspiring others to do things that they desire. Love that you ended on that because PassionStruck is really about how do you create a life of significance and that's exactly what we're trying to teach the listeners on how to do.

Jen, if a listener wants to learn more about you and your story, where's the best place for them to go? Yeah, so check out my website, genadrummin.com. You'll have access to by the book. You'll see some of the little challenges that I put on. You'll have all my social media handles.

Reach out, say hi, let me know what you're up to. It's my favorite thing about doing podcasts is meeting the people afterwards. Okay, and I've got one fun question to end with. You have had so many significant achievements already. If NASA selected you to be on the inaugural mission to Mars, and once you landed, you could set an edict for the future of humanity on the planet. Given what you've gone through in your own life, what do you think would be the edict that you

would want to set? I want to tell people to have fun. I don't know what your religious background is or what you believe, but we were created to not be so serious, not be so concerned, to not be so worried, to not be whatever. We're here to have this playground of a world and now playground of Mars to experience ourselves being human

and taking care of one another. And I think the biggest thing that we're all missing in today's world is having that true authentic fun. Well, Jen, thank you so much for joining us. It was an incredible honor and what an amazing book in journey. Thank you. I thoroughly enjoyed that interview with Jen Drummond, what an inspirational story. And I wanted to thank Jen and Mango Press for the honor of having her appear on today's show. Links to all things Jen will be in the show notes at passionstruck.com. Please use our website links if you purchase any of the books from the guests that we feature here on the show, all proceeds go to the show. Videos are on YouTube at both our main channel, John Armiles, and our Clips channel at Passion

Struck Clips. Please check them both out and subscribe. Advertiser deals and discount codes are in one community at PassionStruck.com slash deals. Please consider supporting those who support the show. Additionally, I wanted to tell you about the PassionStruck 50-week challenge. Every week, throughout 2024, I will be dropping a new challenge that helps you chart your course to creating a PassionStruck life. You can sign up for our newsletter where I will release the challenges at passionstruck.com and you can also join our Facebook group which can give you support along your journey. I'm at John Armiles on all the social platforms and you can sign up for our work related newsletter work intentionally on LinkedIn.

You're about to hear a preview of the passion strike podcast interview that I did with Dr. Scott Rick, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Michigan Ross Business School. Our interview focuses on the emotional causes and consequences of consumer financial decision making with a particular emphasis on the behaviors, heightwads, and spend thrips. So the more activity we saw in the insular, the less likely people were to buy the item. It was as if we were seeing this distress signal saying, stop, don't do it.

And it was evidence in our mind that there is what is called a pain of pain that kind of serves as the brakes, like the more distress we have, the less likely we are to spend. And we think tightwads are particularly saddled with this pain of paying this distress. The fee for this show is that you share it with family or friends when you find something useful or interesting. If you know someone who wants to tackle their own personal challenge like Jenn did, then definitely share this episode with them. The greatest compliment that you can give us is to share the show with those that you love and care about. In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show,

so that you can live what you listen. And until next time, go out there and become Ash and Strock.