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

0:00Most people think resilience is something you either have or you don't. It's not. It's something you build, one decision at a time, usually when everything is telling you to stop. Today, I'm sitting down with Jen Drummond. Jen is the first woman in history to summit the seven second highest peaks across all seven continents. She started with zero mountaineering background, discovered a fear of heights 10 feet off a climbing wall, and still went on to complete nine climbs across four years to earn her place in the Guinness Book of World Records. We're getting into what it actually takes to move through fear, how she rebuilt her identity after a near-fatal car accident, and why the moment you think you're done is almost never the moment you're done.

0:46This is The Vault. Let's unlock it.

0:57Well, Jen, I'd like to say, I mean, welcome to the show.

1:01Jenn Drummond:Thank you for having me today. Super excited to be here. Well, I'm excited because before we were talking, before we kind of, you know, we jumped on, you're telling me climbing mountains, changing lives, going from achievement to alignment. I mean, all these things that, you know, even as business owners, as humans, we need, but really, and then 360, there's something you were saying about your, your, this new project you're working on. So I'm excited to jump in all of them. But for the listeners that might not know who Jen is, why don't you tell us a little bit about where you started and where you are today?

1:31Jenn Drummond: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.

2:10Jenn Drummond:Decided to 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, I brought a sense of urgency into doing those things now. I made a bucket list of things I wanted to do before I die. On that list was climb a mountain. I was going to climb a mountain named Ama de Blom.

2:46Jenn Drummond:And my son heard it as I'm a dumb blonde. Oh, wow. And upped 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.

3:21Jenn Drummond: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. 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. So like K2, like that would probably be the most famous one in the list. So I used Everest as training ground to prepare for K2. Okay. Yeah. And you're, so you're the first woman in history.

4:02Jenn Drummond:Yeah. Documented history. Yep. Page 86 of the Guinness world record books, my friend. to, to, uh, to climb the second tallest mountains in seven, uh, con. Yes. And then of course, because anybody out there building, creating, or doing understands that there's fall 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?

4:44Jenn Drummond: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. Wow. And how long is not so much, would you say a dumb blonde climbing a mountain anymore? Right, son. Right. You're right. How long did it take you to do all that? So I started, I started in the winter of 2020.

5:25Jenn Drummond: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 year, 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 came back and I said, OK, well, at that time, my next mountain was in May of 24.

6:11Jenn Drummond:And then I finished it October 9 of 24 with a Sumantri in Indonesia. 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 gotta go not one more two more uh and it sounds like you you just were like okay no problem but surely there there must have been some things going on internally externally for you to feel a certain way? Or did you just, nope, okay, let's just go back to training and get it done? You know, for me, the entire pursuit was a unique challenge in the standpoint of one had never been done by a female before.

6:58Jenn Drummond: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. Right. And that's what kids can do. And that was kind of the first lesson in truly accountability is love. Like at some level, like when you have people around you that hold you accountable to who you are and what you're capable of doing, sometimes that rattles us, but that's love at its deepest form.

7:42Jenn Drummond: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. I was like, bring it, let's go. And that's how I hope they respond to things if someone challenges them.

8:17Absolutely. On average, just so I have an understanding, how long did it take you to climb these mountains?

8:22Jenn Drummond: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. or Kilimanjaro is like a hike right big difference um 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 stop for a second we're talking you're you're like mountain 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.

9:11It's not that hard, but you're actually rock climbing. You're harnessed in, but you've never been harnessed in before.

9:18Jenn Drummond: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 hostel salado. I have success. So 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. And 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, chair lifts. 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.

9:51Jenn Drummond: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.

10:20Jenn Drummond:Like, okay, perfect. So I go up on this wall and I'm like, do you want me to follow a certain color? Cause indoors there's colors, right? There's whatever, not 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 I start shaking. My heart wants to come out of my chest. I'm like my vision tunnels. And I look down at my coach and he 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?

10:58Jenn Drummond:He goes, I think you have a fear of heights. How can I have a fear of heights? I can't have a fear of heights. I have to climb 17 ,000 feet. Like I can't be afraid at 10. He's like, well, that's what it looks like. I'm like, oh my gosh, what do we do? He's like, well, we're going to have to do exposure therapy. I'm like, exposure therapy? He's like, yeah, you're going to have to learn how to climb with the fear. And I'm like, okay. So he's like, what you're going to do is you're going to go on that wall. You're going to reach one handhold higher. And then you're going to come off and reset, drink some water, get a snack.

11:30Jenn Drummond:And then we're gonna go back on that wall. And when you feel the fear, I just need you to go one handhold higher. And lo and behold, after like 30 days of wanting to vomit and probably losing weight, because I was so stressed from the whole experience, like I got it. And then fear never went away, but it was something that was like, okay, here's how it feels. And here's how I can manage it. And I could, I had proof. Like I used to be scared there and now I'm scared here. Right. Like I'm good. Um, so when we got to the actual climb, I was like, oh, I really liked it when I had purple handholds.

12:03Jenn Drummond:Yeah. I mean, you, surely you climbed outside, but like a lot. I, well, no, cause I literally like climbed my first mountain in December, right. Like a summit of December 16th or something. And then I went to Kenya in February. And so then what happened is when you live in Salt Lake, you can't climb here in the winter because it's snowing. So we went to Vegas for a weekend in February before I left for Mount Kenya and then had like one weekend to practice because even though the climb is only 12 hours, it takes you, I don't know, I think like about six days to hike in to where the mountain is that you need to climb.

12:44wow yeah wow this is fascinating i i hope when people are listening to this they're they're understanding like what what's coming up for me is like the only limitation in life is your mind like it's not like it just it's insane like i i were i live actually in like what they call is like the mecca world-class climbing like outdoor climbing um and i've been on the mountain and It's no joke. I'm not a climber. I don't like it. It's not my thing. But I've been harnessed up. I've done crack climbing for 30 minutes, maybe 20 minutes. And I wanted off that mountain. And I come from a very professional sports background as well.

13:28But to go from never climbing to climbing a mountain for 12 hours on a harness is in having what it sounds like maybe a couple weekends of practice beforehand. is just wild.

13:43Jenn Drummond:It's wild, right? It's when you look back on it, but when you're in it and you land in Africa and you are with all the people that are going to help you and there's only one woman on your team because the women there do not have the same privileges that we do here. And that woman is like the cook who's helping with those kinds of activities. and you try to get to speak English with her a little bit. She can't really that well. And she looks you in the eyes and she holds your hand before you go to leave to climb that mountain. And you realize I'm not climbing this mountain for me. I'm climbing this mountain for her to show her that we all just need to keep climbing to get to where we want to go.

14:30Jenn Drummond:And we all start at different places. And so for me, it was like, anytime that fear showed up, I was like, I need to turn around or this is getting overwhelming. me. And I'm like, girl, you're not allowed to say that. Like, look at where you come from and look where these people are. You have to show these men what women are capable of. So they start believing that their women are capable too. Wow. Wow. There was a, there was a deeper reason behind all of this. You start off with the kids and then it turned into women and then it turned into like a lesson. Wow. I mean, every one of them, like that's just unfolded in these magical ways that I had no idea.

15:05Jenn Drummond:But when you got there, like, okay, this is what it looks like. This is what we're doing. And did you grab a team or get together a team that went to every mountain with you? Or was every mountain a different team, like a local team? Every? Okay. So some things I learned there too. This whole thing was like a big science experiment. Everything like you kind of, when you climb the second summits, you do have different teams because unlike the first summits that are almost all hikes, right? So Everest is a hike, Kilimanjaro is a hike. All of those are hikes at some level, some on snow, some on dirt.

15:42Jenn Drummond:When you do the second summits, like we had the rock climbing one, I had some ice climbing in Antarctica. I had to ski one in Canada. Stop. You are not ice picking up a mountain without any experience. Well, I mean, you get experience, right? Because you have to be ready, but I didn't start with experience. And so like the second summits have this whole different skill set that you need because it's not just hiking. It's all these different pieces. Yeah. And so then you have to hire different people because not everybody has those skill sets. And then also like I started with, I'm going to hire the guides in the country that I'm going to climb in to support their economy.

16:22Jenn Drummond:And then after having a few experiences, I was like, you know what? First, I'm going to hire for safety. And then I'm going to hire for the people in that country. Because you quickly realize like we have like IFMGA guides or some of these certifications that other countries don't require. And you're like, next time we're going to do things a little bit different because safety is first. mm-hmm i want i do actually want to come off this mountain and talk about it yeah yeah yeah exactly wow wow it's just it's it's crazy to me because i i understand how hard it is to train for one but out of nowhere you just went like it sounds like three years four years you did seven uh well actually you did more than you did nine i did nine yeah and then also like i like I failed K2 the first time I failed Mount Logan the first time What does that mean?

17:19You couldn't get to the top? Couldn't get to the top Tired? Exhausted? Just Worse

17:25Jenn Drummond:Worse On K2 One of my teammates died in an avalanche Oh And so when you have that happen You have a choice To continue to climb Or to go back down And I'm like I'm not climbing a mountain When a teammate passed away Like I'm going to go back down The mountain will always be here Who will show up as people is way more important than what we achieve. I'm going to go take care of my team. And so I had to go back to K2, which is like a huge deal because it's extremely expensive to climb. It takes a ton of time and training. To get to Pakistan, you're talking 36 hours of flights. You're talking like seven to 14 hours of driving, 55 miles to hike into the base.

18:08Jenn Drummond:And then you're waiting for great weather to climb that mountain. And then you reverse all of that home. And so when you make that decision of like, hey, I'm turning around, it's not like, hey, I'll be here next week. It's like next year when the climbing season opens again, I'm going to come back and do all of this. Yeah. Yeah. So we've had a while. So we I mean, that's mad. An avalanche and you're lucky you didn't get taken out. I'm extremely lucky that I didn't get taken out. Yeah. Sorry to bring that up. Man. the tribulations that go through this, right? It's not all the successes you hear about.

18:45Jenn Drummond:No, there's so much that just doesn't get said or isn't talked about because everybody loves to celebrate the highlight reel, right? And when we're building or creating or doing, there's a lot that goes on so that there can even be a highlight reel. So speaking of the highlight reel or the dim light wheel or the life-changing reel, you said you had a car accident. It's interesting because I've been in that, I've probably been in that similar situation where you're, you probably died and came back. I think I didn't quite die, but I had the choice. Like I was in that space where I had the choice of like dying.

19:29Jenn Drummond:And I was like, I'm not ready. I'm like, I promise I'll do something significant. can't like let me live. I'm sorry that I got caught up in all these false things. And I'm back on, I'm like, put me back in the game coach type of talk. So let's talk about, uh, do you want to talk about the car accident or do you want to talk about it? Yeah. I mean, so the car accident I think happened for me, to be honest, I think the universe gives you these cues along the way. And if you don't hear them, they get louder and louder until you can't ignore them. And I was not living my path. Like I, I was that mom in the school classrooms running like PTA things or holiday parties.

20:11Jenn Drummond:And there's women that love that. And they thrive in that space. I was like, their kids eating glue, like don't eat glue. Right. Like it just wasn't my like skillset. And when I kept like, that's all I saw as a successful mom and that's what made a good mom. So I kept trying to be something I wasn't. And so when I got in that car accident, And it was like, okay, are you done? Like pretending you're all these things that you're not. And can you start like standing up for why I put you on this planet? And so then all of a sudden it became this big awakening of, is this me or is this society or like whatever, because I either disappoint you or I disappoint myself.

20:47Jenn Drummond:And if I disappoint myself, I'm disappointing my creator. And so it was like, it like gave me so much permission to kind of say F you to everything that didn't feel right. And then that's when like things just went through the roof for me, like on meaning and significance and success and all of it. It's it's so interesting in in the car accident. Was it like they did it flip that it was. Yeah. So like it was interesting because I was paying attention to the side of the road and I was like thinking, you know, you're daydreaming. Why hasn't the reservoir flow frozen over yet? Are we going to get enough snow so we're out of the statewide drought?

21:25Jenn Drummond:like all these thoughts, something grabs my attention. I look at the highway and I realized I was coming up hot in a semi-truck going slower than a snail. I was like, Oh, okay. Okay. And so you look in your rear view mirror. I'm like, Oh, I can get over. I went to get over and I didn't quite make it. And I saw the second trailer of the semi-truck hit the corner of my passenger side. And then the car went like fast, right? Like externally I could go, I was flipping. So I I went like dirt, sky, dirt, sky, dirt, sky. And then I'm like, I don't have enough momentum. We're going to start going sideways.

22:00Jenn Drummond:Then I rolled sideways and then eventually it stopped and I was hanging upside down in the median. So that's all happening. What in 15, 20 seconds? I don't even know. But internally it was like slow motion in 30 some years of my life was flashing forward of like things I did or didn't do, or like thoughts I had and memories I was thinking about. And it was just really like awakening moment. And I remember hanging upside down and I started like sound started to return and like, like you're, I started to smell and I was like, huh. And this guy peeled back my windshield. And when he peeled back my windshield, he was like, are you okay?

22:45Jenn Drummond:Which I realized he'd probably been saying a couple of times, but I just wasn't kind kind of putting the words together. And so he looks at me and I'm like, I must not be okay. Because no one looks at you like that if you're okay. And I was so afraid to look at my body because I was like in my head, I was like, I said, I wanted to live. I said, I want to live, but I didn't say anything about not being handicapped. Like, why did I bring that out? Because your body's like so warm. And I'm like, okay, I don't want to look at my body. so I closed my eyes and I wiggled my fingers and toes and I was like wait wait I can feel my fingers and toes I can feel my fingers and toes and I was saying it out loud I guess and he goes if you can feel your fingers and toes you're going to be okay we just have to leave you here till the ambulance comes because I don't want to move you and have something go wrong and that was one of the first aha moments of if we look outside of ourselves to get permission to be okay we're never going to be okay because they're looking at it from an entirely different circumstance.