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

The Vault Unlocked - Kayvon Kay

Jenn Drummond, the first woman in history to summit the seven second highest peaks across all seven continents and a Guinness World Record h

Key takeaways

• Resilience is not innate but built through consistent decisions in the face of fear and adversity.
• A life well-lived isn't about external achievements or societal expectations—it's about creating authentic experiences and defining your own success.

Main topics

• Overcoming fear through action
• Rebuilding identity after trauma

Notable quotes

"Most people think resilience is something you either have or you don't. It's not. It's something you build, one decision at a time."

Conclusion

Jenn Drummond's journey illustrates that true achievement comes from aligning

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Most people think resilience is something you either have or you don't. It's not. It's something you build, one decision at a time, usually when everything is telling you to stop. Today I'm sitting down with Jen Drummond. Jen is the first woman in history to summit the seven second highest peaks across all seven continents. She started with zero mountaineering background, discovered a fear of heights 10 feet off a climbing wall, and still went on to complete nine climbs across four years to earn her place in the Guinness Book of World Records. We're getting into what it actually takes to move through fear, how she rebuilt her identity after a near fatal car accident, and why the moment you think you're done is almost never the moment you're done. This is The Vault. Let's unlock it. Speaker 2 (0:57) Well, Jen, I like to say, I mean, welcome to the show. Speaker 1 (1:00) Thank you for having me today. Super excited to be here. Speaker 2 (1:03) Well, I'm excited because before we were talking, before we kind of, you know, we jumped on, you're telling me you're climbing mountains, changing lives, going from achievement to alignment. I mean, all these things that, you know, even as business owners, as humans, we need, but really, and then 360, there's something you were saying about this new project you're working on. So I'm excited to jump in all of them. But for the listeners that might not know who Jen is, why don't you tell us a little bit about where you started and where you are today? Speaker 1 (1:31) Yeah, definitely. I grew up in Michigan, smitten with the mitten, and was an athlete my whole life. Went to college to study medicine. My professor said I wasn't cut out for it because I didn't like the library or knew anybody in my classes, so suggested I get into something else. And my business law teacher said, yes, you should be in business. What are you thinking? I got into finance, thankfully, because I would have probably financed purses and shoes if I didn't learn the compounding value of money. And then I started my own company that white labeled an investment platform for institutions to utilize, which ended up doing way better than I ever imagined. Decided to. like step away from that and raise children, which was super fun until they went to school all day long and I didn't know what to do with myself. And I really like creating things. I got into a car accident, which reminded me that this time here is not forever. And all these things I had pushing for when the kids go to school, then I'll do this. When they go to college, I'll do this. And all of a sudden it brought a sense of urgency into doing those things now. I made a bucket list of things I wanted to do before I die. on that list was climb a mountain. I was going to climb a mountain named Ama Dablam. And my son heard it as I'm a dumb blonde. Oh, wow. And up that to Everest. And so I'm like, fine, I'll climb Everest. I'll show you whatever Everest is. We can summit. So I had to hire a coach and the coach is like, I think I got one better. How about you become the first woman in the world to climb the seven second summits, which I didn't know what they were. And I'm like, What? He's like, yeah, I know the second highest peak on all seven continents. He goes, think about it. Seven mountains, seven continents. You have seven children. It's a jackpot. I'm like, I've never slept in a tent before. He's like, oh, those are details. And so then I started on this pursuit, which really reflected a whole bunch of business lessons I had learned before on building my own company and scaling that, that we got there, did that. And here we are. Speaker 2 (3:36) Here we are. Wow. I mean, this is why I said I was excited. Where do we go? I, okay. I, I, I'm really excited about the, the seven, uh, seven mountains, seven second highest mountains. Yeah. Speaker 1 (3:50) So like K2, like that would probably be the most famous one in the list. So I used Everest as training ground to prepare for K2. Speaker 2 (3:58) Okay. Yeah. And you're, so you're the first woman in history. Speaker 1 (4:02) documented Speaker 2 (4:02) history. Yep, Speaker 1 (4:04) page 86 of the Guinness World Record books, my friend. Speaker 2 (4:08) To climb the second tallest mountains in seven continents. Speaker 1 (4:17) Yes. And then of course, because anybody out there building, creating or doing understands that there's false summits. And so I sent in all the documentation, had everything ready for Guinness, all seven continents. And Guinness comes back six months later after auditing everything. They're like, you know what? There's a dispute on what's a continent. So we need you to climb two more mountains. I'm like, wait, wait, wait, how can there be a dispute? And they said, well, sometimes Indonesia is considered part of Australia instead of Asia. And if that's the case, you need to climb a mountain in Indonesia. And then because of the geopolitical turmoil in Russia and Europe right now, we really think you should climb the mountain in Europe if we exclude Russia from Europe. So I went to Switzerland to climb Mount Rosa and I went to Indonesia to climb Sumantri and then I got it done. Speaker 2 (5:06) Wow. And how long is not so much would you say a dumb blonde climbing a mountain anymore? Right, son? Speaker 1 (5:12) Right. Speaker 2 (5:14) You're right. Speaker 2 (5:17) How long did it take you to do all that? Speaker 1 (5:19) So I started in the winter of 2020. So it was interesting. This goal kind of came about after that car accident, which happened in December 2018. 2019 was that big reflection of you're like, why am I here? What's my purpose? Why was I saved? And then 2020, I was turning 40. But then this thing called COVID entered the scene and kind of disrupts my climbing plans. And then towards the end of the year, actually Chile opened. And so when Chile opened, I climbed Ojos del Salado, which is located in the Atacama Desert. And that was my first of the seven second summit climbs. And then all of 21 climbed and then 22 and then 23. I thought I finished in June 1st and then Guinness World's came back. And I said, OK, well, at that time, my next mountain was in May. of 24 and then i finished it october 9 of 24 with a sumantri in indonesia Speaker 2 (6:15) there uh there's so much here because i'm thinking there's so much adversity i hear in this in the sense that business life i mean comes our way to think that you've done something this big and then to find out now you got a good code not one more two more And it sounds like you just were like, okay, no problem. But surely there must have been some things going on internally, externally for you to feel a certain way. Or did you just, nope, okay, let's just go back to training and get it done? Speaker 1 (6:51) You know, for me, the entire pursuit was a unique challenge in the standpoint of one, it had never been done by a female before. Two, I was 0 % qualified as a mountaineer. Right. Like I relate to the Four Seasons Hotel than a Four Seasons tent all day long to this day. But what happened was when I came home with the concept, my kids, I was talking to them about it. Like, hey, I'm thinking of doing this. Well, they started claiming continents. And so all of a sudden they were equating like a mom climbed my mountain. She loves me and she didn't climb yours. She doesn't love you. Speaker 2 (7:22) Yeah. Right. Speaker 1 (7:23) And that's what kids can do. And that was kind of the first lesson in truly accountability is love. Like at some level, like when you have people around you that hold you accountable to who you are and what you're capable of doing, sometimes that rattles us, but that's love at its deepest form. And so then when the Guinness came back and said, Hey, there's two more mountains. I had two choices. I could fight it and throw a fit and be like, no, this is why and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Or I could just be like, Hey, this is life. I'm going to go climb those two more mountains. What's next? Bring it to me because I'll take it. Right. And so and when your kids are watching, you show them that when you think something is done and it's not, you get to decide how you want to respond to that. And I was going to respond to it like, bring it, let's go. And that's how I hope they respond to things if someone challenges them. Speaker 2 (8:17) Absolutely. On average, just so I have an understanding, how long did it take you to climb these mountains? Speaker 1 (8:22) Well, every one of them is different, extremely different. So, for example, Mount Kenya is the second highest point in Africa. It's actually about a 22 pitch rock climb. Kilimanjaro is like a hike, right? Big difference. That one only takes a day to climb. And in fact, you have to be really quick to climb it because you're at the equator and you only have 12 hours of light. So you want to be climbing this thing and repelling this thing in the light. So you're racing the clock the entire time you're doing that one because the sun rides at 6 a.m. and the sun sets at 6 p.m. Speaker 2 (8:59) Stop for a second. We're talking. You were like mount. You weren't hiking. You were doing because I know like I've heard the whole Mount Everest is more of a bougie. Like it's not real climbing. It's not that hard, but you're actually rock climbing. You're harnessed in, but you've never been harnessed in before. Speaker 1 (9:18) Well, no. So we knew that climb was on my list. Right. So this this is an awesome story. Everybody listening will hear this. So I'm like, I do a host del Salado. I have success. I'm feeling pretty good about myself. And like the next climbing season, because mountains have climbing seasons. It's kind of like, oh, you can climb Mount Kenya. He's like, have you ever rock climbed before? I'm like, no. He's like, do you have a fear of heights? I'm like. No, I've been on skyscrapers, roller coasters, chairlifts. Like I'm good. He's like, okay, well, I need you to go buy this gear and go hire a coach and go to the climbing gym down in Salt Lake City. So I live in Park City and start training with an instructor just to make sure you know all like the key moves. Okay, cool. So I show up down in Salt Lake City, probably a little arrogant, to be honest with you. And I'm like, Hi, I'm Jen. I'm the one that booked the lesson. I just need to get some training before I go climb Mount Kenya. And so this coach is like, okay, perfect. So he's like teaching me how to tie this knot and like put the shoes on and like all the things is like the best way to move forward is for you to go get on that wall. I can see what you're doing. And then we'll build a plan around where you're at. Like, okay, perfect. So I go up on this wall. And I'm like, do you want me to follow a certain color? Because indoors there's colors, right? There's whatever. Speaker 2 (10:29) Not Speaker 1 (10:29) outdoors. Like when you get outdoors, you're like, where's my purple holds? I want purple. Why don't you have any purple out here? So anyways, I'm on this wall and I'm 10 feet off the ground. And Speaker 2 (10:41) I start shaking. My heart wants to come out of my chest. Speaker 1 (10:45) I'm like my vision tunnels. And I look down at my coach and he like gives me the finger to come off the wall and come talk to him. So I come off the wall and I'm like, what just happened? Like what's going on? He goes, I think you have a fear of heights. How Speaker 2 (11:00) can Speaker 1 (11:00) I have a fear of heights? Like I can't have a fear of heights. I have to climb 17,000 feet. Like I can't be afraid at 10. Speaker 2 (11:08) He's like, Speaker 1 (11:08) well, that's what it looks like. I'm like, oh my gosh, what do we do? He's like, well, we're going to have to do exposure therapy. I'm like, exposure therapy? He's like, yeah, you're going to have to learn how to climb with the fear. And I'm like, okay. So he's like, what you're going to do is you're going to go on that wall. You're going to reach one handhold higher. And then you're going to come off and reset, drink some water, get a snack. And then we're going to go back on that wall. And when you feel the fear, I just need you to go one handhold higher. And lo and behold, after like 30 days of wanting to vomit and probably losing weight because I was so stressed from the