Show Transcript

[TRANSCRIPT]

0:00:01 - (Jenn Drummond): Jen. Jen like, hi, Alan. How are you? He's like, I got the perfect world record. Like, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. What? He's like, I think you should climb the seven second summit. Like, Alan, I don't even know what you're talking about. Like, what are the he goes, listen, listen. They've only been done by one male. They're harder than the first seven, and they're the second highest peak on each continent, so you're going to be the first woman to do it. And there's seven continents, there's seven mountains, and you have seven children, so I think it's a jackpot.

0:00:39 - (Kevin Lowe): What's up, my friend and welcome to grit graceland inspiration. I am your host, Kevin Lowe. 20 years ago, I awoke from a life saving surgery only to find that I was left completely blind. And since that day, I've learned a lot about life, a lot about living, and a lot about myself. And here on this podcast, I want to share those insights with you. Because, friend, if you are still searching for your purpose, still trying to understand why, or still left searching for that next right path to take will consider this to be your stepping stone to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

0:01:18 - (Kevin Lowe): Welcome to grit Grace and inspiration. This is episode number 225. If you would like to take this podcast listening to the next level, well, I want to invite you to become a grit grace and inspiration insider. How do you do that? Why would you do that? Because it's a midweek pick me up by being on the list, the email list, that is. Because I drop an inspirational, encouraging email in your inbox each and every Wednesday morning.

0:01:50 - (Kevin Lowe): It's there in time to be that midweek boost that you've been looking for. If you want to sign up, head on over to slash insider or just check out the link inside of today's show notes. My friend, welcome back to gritgrace and inspiration. I'm, of course, your host Kevin Lowe, as well as transformational life coach. Today we have got a lady in the studio who is bringing out some adventure in us all. She's upping the ante around here in a very big way.

0:02:30 - (Kevin Lowe): Because at a time in life when most people are maybe thinking about slowing down, turning 40 years old, much less during a pivotal time as 2020, when we were all facing the crazy pandemic, people may be thinking about slowing down, turning 40 years old. Got to settle down, slow down. No, not for today's guest. Not for Jen Drummond. Because Jen saw an opportunity. She saw a challenge here. She was about to turn 40 years old, and she wanted to do something awesome.

0:03:07 - (Kevin Lowe): So why the heck not climb a mountain? Climbing a mountain, though? That was just a thought. What would come next was something magical. Because through a conversation with her son paired with her trainer, next thing you know, Jen drummond would set out to set a world record. The first woman to climb the second seven summits. That is the second highest mountain on all seven continents. No easy feat, and yet Jen Drummond, today's amazing guest, she would do it.

0:03:44 - (Kevin Lowe): Now, Jen's story has its ups and its downs. You're going to hear about a crazy event right off the bat. As soon as I'm done talking, we're going to dive right into the good stuff, because I want you to see that everybody's life has challenges. We all have things we have to overcome. But when we're somebody like Jen Drummond, the only way is up. Onwards and upwards, my friend. And I'm here to tell you that if you have a mountain to climb, if you have a hurdle to overcome, then I'm telling you, this is the episode for you.

0:04:24 - (Kevin Lowe): So stay tuned. Be sure that you listen up. Be sure that you check out today's show notes so you can find links to get plugged into Jen's world. She's got a book, she's got resources, and she's just got her amazing sense of energy that I'm telling you is electric. If you're feeling it, awesome. It's my pleasure to introduce you to today's amazing guest. Here is my interview with the superwoman Jen Drummond.

0:04:58 - (Jenn Drummond): Yeah, I would say the big pivotal event was a car crash that happened in 2018. I was driving down the road to come home, and my attention got caught to the side of a road, paying attention to the reservoir and just thinking about when is it going to freeze over and are we going to get enough snow? And all those happy little peaceful thoughts. And then my attention got pulled back to the road. And I was coming up really fast on a semi truck, and I look in my rear view mirror to get out of his way.

0:05:31 - (Jenn Drummond): I go to get into the other lane, but I didn't make it. And so my passenger side hit the trailer side of the second trailer. So it was a semi pulling two trailers. The second one kind of bumped out into the lane and we collided. Ended up going end over end three times and then rotating sideways a handful of times, hanging upside down in the median and just thinking, wow, that just happened. A guy came running, yelling like, are you okay? Are you okay?

0:06:05 - (Jenn Drummond): And it was one of those things where you could hear it, but I don't know if he was talking to me right.

0:06:09 - (Kevin Lowe): I don't know.

0:06:09 - (Jenn Drummond): I was kind of just coming to it all again. He peeled back the windshield, we locked eyes, and he's like, are you okay? And I remember looking at him thinking, I don't know, but the way you're looking at me makes me think, maybe not. I was, like, too afraid to look, right? I was too afraid to look at my body. So I closed my eyes and I wiggled my fingers and toes. And I remember thinking, I can feel my fingers and toes. Like, I can feel my fingers and toes. I'm okay.

0:06:43 - (Jenn Drummond): And the guy on the other side, he's like, you're okay. I'm going to sit with you until the ambulance comes. You're not going to move. I'm so glad you can feel your fingers and toes. And the ambulance came, took me to the hospital, ran every test known to man. I got sent home a few hours later, walked in the front door and just was in awe of everything that I just went through. Saw my kids running through the house. And I thought, man, they were so close to being orphaned.

0:07:13 - (Jenn Drummond): I didn't even know how to place it. Like, I didn't know where to put all that.

0:07:17 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow. So were you conscious the entire time?

0:07:22 - (Jenn Drummond): I was. You know, you hear people who leave their bodies, right? Yeah, I was not that person. So I remember watching the corner of the car hit the semi, and I remember the instant I saw the two collide, I started negotiating with death. I'm like, please don't let me die. And I kind of got this feeling that I wasn't going to die. And then I remember thinking, why didn't I ask not to be paralyzed? That's a thought that ran through my head. But I'm like, okay, I'm in this accident.

0:07:55 - (Jenn Drummond): The only people that survive accidents are people that relax and roll with the accident. So I told myself, put your hands on the steering wheel, keep your head on the headrest and just breathe. And I remember saying, I have enough energy. I'm going to roll once. Yes, I still have a lot of momentum. I'm going to roll again. I have enough momentum. I'm going to roll that third time. And on that third time, I'm like, oh, we're losing momentum now we're going to start going sideways.

0:08:20 - (Jenn Drummond): And we started going sideways. So it was really weird because everything was happening so fast, and it was loud, but it was loud almost like at a.

0:08:33 - (Kevin Lowe): Mean, like you sound like you're somebody who had professional NASCAR training.

0:08:38 - (Jenn Drummond): I know, right? I'm definitely one of those people that when chaos happens, I can hyper focus and shut out the drama. I just didn't realize I was that intensely. That.

0:08:54 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow. Wow, that's intense. Now, where were you living when that accident happened?

0:09:00 - (Jenn Drummond): So I was living in City. Okay, so yep, all my family was in Michigan, except for my kids and I. And the crazy thing about the accident was a car full of people that knew me was like, five cars behind me randomly. And so when the accident happened, they pulled over and they started collecting all the stuff that came out of my car. I had a car that was one of those kind of hatchback SUV things. So there was a tire in the way back that ended up getting loosened, and so it shot through the sunroof and everything went everywhere.

0:09:40 - (Jenn Drummond): So this family collected all my stuff. And then when I went to the ambulance, to the hospital, they actually drove to my house, dropped off the things that they collected, and told the babysitter, like, hey, Jen's in an accident. We think she's okay. We just wanted to let you know, here's her things. And this family brought dinner to my family's thinking about this. Then the story doesn't even stop.

0:10:07 - (Jenn Drummond): Then this couple went to the hospital and they waited in the waiting room until I was discharged. I had no clue they were there until it was time to go. And they drove me home to the hospital, to my family.

0:10:24 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow.

0:10:25 - (Jenn Drummond): I know. Unbelievable.

0:10:28 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. Oh, my gosh. That is absolutely incredible. So you have this accident, I mean, honest to goodness, should have been a life changing accident from the perspective of massive trauma. Massive. Whether you're left paralyzed, lost your life, but even though you didn't have anything like that happen, did it change kind of your life in other ways?

0:10:57 - (Jenn Drummond): Yeah. So when I first had the accident happen, all of a sudden I was so calm about so much in life that I wasn't calm about before. I would see two of my kids fighting and before I try to intervene and say, like, stop fighting, we don't need to do this. And then after the accident, I would just sit there and watch my kids fight or argue or do whatever, and I was like, isn't this amazing? Isn't life amazing that I have two humans that care so much about their opinion and actually love their siblings so much that they want them to think the same way?

0:11:38 - (Jenn Drummond): Life is amazing. So I would say I really became an observer and so appreciative of all the things going on in life. Like, I got a call from the principal because one of my kids was doing something he wasn't supposed to. And the principal was like, you actually sound excited that I'm on the phone with you. I'm sorry, I don't mean to come across as excited. I go, I just was so close to dying a few weeks ago.

0:12:05 - (Jenn Drummond): I don't even have words for how grateful I am to be here for this moment and to be able to receive this phone call. Everything, even if it was good or bad before, everything was just like, hey, at least I get to experience this. At least I'm still here, bring it, give me whatever. I'm just so grateful to be alive. And then you pair, like, a unique situation for me was I survived this accident. A few weeks after it, a friend of mine was running on a trail and she invited me to go for this run. And I'm like I can't today. I'm sorry.

0:12:43 - (Jenn Drummond): And it was wet out. She slipped, hit her head and never came home. So I am dealing with this thing where it's like, I survived this horrific crash, a friend of mine was doing something healthy and never got to come home. Like, what does even life mean anymore? What's going on? And I came to this conclusion that I do not get to choose when I die, but I sure get to choose how I live. And so every day, I'm going to make sure that I'm choosing to live.

0:13:20 - (Jenn Drummond): And that was powerful for me. Yeah, it was a big change because before as a stay at home mom, and I was grateful for the opportunity. And there was definitely a time that that needed to happen. But my kids were in school now, and I wasn't really doing things that were filling my bucket. I was just really busy taking care of all of their to do list items. And that accident made me realize, you know what, Jen?

0:13:49 - (Jenn Drummond): You might die tomorrow or the next day or a year later or a decade later, you better make sure you're filling your life with things that you like to do, because you don't get to know when your last day is. And so 2019 was this huge year of who am I? What do I want to do? I started making bucket lists of all the things I wanted to experience. It's going to take me about four lifetimes just to let you know.

0:14:16 - (Jenn Drummond): But yeah, it really invigorated me to step into life and say, hey, guess what? This might not look like everybody else's mom or everybody else's family, but our family, we're doing this living thing to the nth degree.

0:14:32 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. So much wisdom, so many life lessons for all of us to really think deep about. Packed inside of what you just said. I love it so much. So you decide you're going all out. You're no longer just being mom at home. You're going to be adventure mom.

0:14:55 - (Jenn Drummond): Yes.

0:14:56 - (Kevin Lowe): And so what do you decide? I mean, you've got all this whole list of things to do. Where did you start?

0:15:04 - (Jenn Drummond): Well, so here's the deal. I'm making this list, and I was turning 40 in 2020. And so I'm like, you know what? I'm going to climb a mountain for my 40th birthday because that's going to launch this decade. It's like, this is something significant, and I'm here and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so I climbed one mountain before, and I loved the experience, but this time I was going to do a bigger one.

0:15:26 - (Jenn Drummond): And I live in Park City, Utah, so there's a lot of outdoorsy mountain type people here. And one of my friends was like, you know, I think you should climb this mountain named de Blom. Like, okay, I don't know anything about this mountain. He's like, yeah. He goes, It's gorgeous. It's the Paramount Pictures logo. It means the mother's necklace. It's in the Himalayas. I'm like that. Sounds fantastic. Okay, cool. I'm going to do AMA de Blom. So I'm starting to train for this mountain named AMA de Blom and COVID hits.

0:15:57 - (Jenn Drummond): And so now, all of a sudden, I'm a homeschool teacher to seven children, and I'm not going anywhere. Not cool. So one of my kids is struggling with this math homework. I'm like, buddy, we do hard things. Like, you've got this. I'm giving him, like, the mom pep talk, and DA DA DA DA DA. And he looks me at my face and starts giving the pep talk back to me, and he goes, mom, 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?

0:16:33 - (Jenn Drummond): Okay, first of all, AMA de Blom is harder than Everest, okay? And it's AMA de blom not I'm a dumb blonde. And if this was a visual podcast, you would all know that's listening people call me mountain Barbie. I have long blonde hair. So I go, finish your homework. So he finishes his homework, and we go look at Everest. And he goes to bed, and I'm still looking at Everest. And I thought, you know what?

0:17:07 - (Jenn Drummond): If Everest is the hardest mountain that he thinks is in the world, I'm going to go climb that, and I'm going to show him that whatever our Everest is, we can do it. And so by the end of the week, I had a coach hired, and he was training me for AMA de Blom and Everest.

0:17:25 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow.

0:17:26 - (Jenn Drummond): Yes. So don't challenge your kids in a math assignment because you might end up climbing Everest. Is the lesson from that.

0:17:34 - (Kevin Lowe): Oh, my gosh. I just love it. So just you know what? You can't beat the perspective of a child, right? They're just straight up they're just mean. Imagine imagine if you hadn't listened to him. Who knows? What would have.

0:17:57 - (Jenn Drummond): Know? I know. So here's the deal. So I hired this coach, and this coach is like, hey, Jen, I need you to buy this book. It's about becoming an uphill athlete. Like, okay, I'll buy that book. Sounds like, appropriate. So I buy the book, and in the front of the book, there's this lady that gets a Guinness world record for doing something in the you know, I'm having a conversation with my coach, and I tell him, I'm like, alan, I could have done that.

0:18:30 - (Jenn Drummond): I can suffer. And my kids would think I'm the coolest mom in the whole world because they learned how to read on Guinness world record books. And right now, this homeschooling teacher thing not cool. Like, zero coolness going on over here. And Alan's like, I'll think of something, and I'm like, alan, just letting you know, I'm not growing pumpkins. I'm not growing up my scooter nails. I'm not speed eating hot dogs. So whatever you come up with, just understand.

0:19:06 - (Jenn Drummond): And he's, yeah, yeah, whatever. And we let it like it was like a conversation of me letting go of my steam, that my kids hate me because I'm their teacher. And then Alan calls me back a couple weeks later, and he's super excited. He's like Jen. Jen? Like, Hi, Alan. How are you? He's like, I got the perfect world record. Like, oh, yeah? Oh, yeah. Okay. What? He's like, I think you should climb the seven second summits.

0:19:37 - (Jenn Drummond): Like, Alan, I don't even know what you're talking about. Like, what are the listen, listen. It's like they've only been done by one male. They're harder than the first seven, and they're the second highest peak on each continent, so you're going to be the first woman to do it. And there's seven continents, there's seven mountains, and you have seven children, so I think it's a jackpot. Yeah, I don't even know what these things are, but okay, so I'll look into it. So I look at it and I review it with my kids, and I sit there thinking, like, yeah, you know, I'm alive.

0:20:14 - (Jenn Drummond): I want to go travel the world, so this is a reason to do that. I definitely want to empower women and do all that kind of stuff. So that sounds cool. And the fact that it's respected amongst the mountaineering community because they're harder than the first seven, I kind of like that. So sure, I'm going to do this. Let's not talk about the fact I've never slept in a tent on snow before, but we can figure that out.

0:20:38 - (Jenn Drummond): So then that quest started, right?

0:20:41 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow.

0:20:42 - (Jenn Drummond): Yeah.

0:20:43 - (Kevin Lowe): Okay. That is just so incredible. So awesome. So talk to me about two questions. First and foremost, kind of, I'm curious to know how you decided which mountain to take on first and in what order they came in. And then, though, I would love for you to kind of also explain, because when you say the second highest, we automatically would think they're easier, yet you said they're more challenging.

0:21:13 - (Jenn Drummond): They are, yeah. So, mind you, I said yes to this when COVID was happening. Right. So everybody was I think at this point in COVID, we're kind of like, okay, well, I don't think everybody's going to die tomorrow, but when are we going to open up and where can we travel to? And all that kind of stuff. So Nepal opened, and I ended up climbing AMA de Blom. In the fall of 2020, I got back from AMA, still my favorite climb. So if anybody wants to climb the most amazing mountain, I highly recommend that one.

0:21:46 - (Jenn Drummond): And then Chile opened, and the second highest point in South America is called Ohos Del Salado, and it's located in the Atacama Desert in Chile. So I went there next. Not my favorite climb because it's a volcano, and volcanoes are kind of boring to climb. When you climb a mountain, you have cool mountain range and these different things to look at and kind of normally different landmarks that you got to this point and then that point.

0:22:17 - (Jenn Drummond): They label things on a mountain differently to kind of tell you where you are.

0:22:21 - (Kevin Lowe): Yes.

0:22:22 - (Jenn Drummond): A volcano is like climbing a pimple. Okay? I wish I had a better way to say it, but if I was shrunk down to this teeny, tiny little thing and you looked at an ant hill, that's what's like climbing a volcano. You take one step up, you slide half a step back. It's just this rocky, boring nothing changes until you get to the top. It's kind of a slog. I remember thinking, oh, my goodness, if I just signed up for 70 of these, like, shoot me now.

0:22:52 - (Jenn Drummond): Thankfully, it was my only volcano. Then the next mountain that opened, because mountains have climbing seasons, so that's why you always see Everest climbs in May and K Two climbs in July. That's just the season that it makes sense to climb these different mountains. So the next country that opened was Kenya, and I went to climb Mount Kenya, which is the second highest point in Africa. Very different from its taller sister.

0:23:22 - (Jenn Drummond): So Kilimanjaro is a challenging hike. You can modify a wheelchair and still get up. Kilimanjaro okay. When you do Mount Kenya, it's a 20 pitch rock climb. So you're in a harness, you're in rock climbing shoes. And by 20 pitches, it means, like, you're taking a section, you have a rope that connects you to your guide, and you climb one at a time. And so then you go let's say the rope is 60 meters. Then you're going to go to that rope ends, and then you're going to do another section that's 60 meters and another section that's 60 meters. So it takes 20 of those to climb, and it's scary.

0:24:10 - (Jenn Drummond): I'm scared of heights. And that was a big deal. Thankfully, we summited the first time, so I didn't have to go back to that. Came home from Kenya, was home for a little bit, went to Everest. Everest was a great experience. It's not a second summit, right? It's the tallest point in the world. But I was actually using Everest as training ground for K Two because K Two is the second highest point in the world, and K Two and Everest are opposites.

0:24:40 - (Jenn Drummond): Everest is this nice, gentle giant that is so happy you're here. If you watch the movie Lion King, you can think of, like, Everest as mufasa. And then K Two is like scar. K Two throws rocks at you. It's sharp, it has climbing features. It's angry that you're there, all the things. So I went to K Two in 2021. I did not summit. We had some tragedies happen on our team, and the weather just wasn't cooperating, and it wasn't safe to continue.

0:25:14 - (Jenn Drummond): So I came home without a summit to have to go back later. After K Two, I went to Russia to climb Dictau, which is the second highest point in Europe. That was an interesting lesson because I curated all this magical gear to make this climb as safe and as easy as possible only to arrive in Moscow with not any of my luggage.

0:25:39 - (Kevin Lowe): Oh, no.

0:25:41 - (Jenn Drummond): I know. They lost it. They lost all my things. I was, like, sobbing. I was tired, but I was sobbing at the same time. What do you mean, lost my stuff? And so the guide came, and he's like, Jen, the weather's now, so you either rent gear and we go, or you go home and you come back another time. I'm like, I just spent way too many hours in an airport. I'm not going. Like, that's the only reason why I'm like, I'm not spending another hour in an airport. I cannot handle the intercom systems. It's over.

0:26:13 - (Jenn Drummond): Intercom systems in the US are bad. In a foreign country, when you don't understand the language, it's even worse. So I went to a rental store. This is after COVID again, right? This is the fall of 2021. So there's no gear, there's no surplus of items. Nobody has any inventory of anything at this point. And so I'm wearing a jacket that I have to roll up the sleeves. I have a backpack that I have to tie on because it wants to fall off my shoulders because I'm narrow and I have boots that are too big.

0:26:42 - (Jenn Drummond): So I look like this orphan climbing this technical mountain. And by the gift of the universe, we get to summit, which is amazing. But on my way down the mountain, I broke a toe because I kept jamming into the front of the boot when I was going downhill that I started butt scooting down the mountain. Like all those fancy mountaineering photos. You see these people being, like, brave souls, and then you see me scooting down the mountain like I'm a child trying to wipe my bottom. It was so embarrassing.

0:27:15 - (Jenn Drummond): Luckily, no one asks you what you look like when you climb mountains. They just ask you if you summit or not.

0:27:20 - (Kevin Lowe): Exactly.

0:27:21 - (Jenn Drummond): Yeah. And I'm so grateful I did that mountain because, like, six months later, Russia closed. I mean, Russia hasn't opened up yet to us, so I wouldn't be able to climb it yet. So the reality is, hey, your start might be imperfect. Still start. That's all I'm telling you. That's a lesson from Russia.

0:27:41 - (Kevin Lowe): Yes.

0:27:41 - (Jenn Drummond): After Russia, I went to Antarctica. That was super amazing.

0:27:46 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah.

0:27:47 - (Jenn Drummond): Summited that mountain, I was the second female ever. There have only been about 20 people that have summited it. So that was pretty cool, too, just being taking notes and writing down photos and everything else. So when the next person goes, it makes it easier for them. And then from there, I went to Mount Logan, and that's the second highest point in North America. We didn't summit Mount Logan home territory, and it booed us. The weather was too cold, so we had to turn around because safety first.

0:28:22 - (Kevin Lowe): Safety first, of course.

0:28:24 - (Jenn Drummond): Yes. Then went back to K Two in 2022 and summited. So that felt amazing. Then headed over to Australia to do the second highest point there, which is Mount Townsend. Super easy one. I live at that same altitude, so that was fun. And then went back to Mount Logan this spring and summited on June 1 of 2023. And that felt pretty amazing.

0:28:48 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow. Oh, my gosh. That is incredible. I can't imagine the feeling that you had to do that. You did that in, what, two years?

0:29:02 - (Jenn Drummond): Two and a half years, yes.

0:29:04 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. That is just absolutely incredible. Incredible. Wow.

0:29:11 - (Jenn Drummond): I had to do two mountains twice, so nine mountains or nine attempts for seven mountains, and yeah. I'm so grateful. It kind of still doesn't feel that it's done. I'm still like, Wait, shouldn't I be training? Don't we need to go somewhere? It feels a little surreal, yet.

0:29:28 - (Kevin Lowe): No, I know. When climbing these mountains, you're obviously not just going solo. Did you have the same team on all of these climbs, or were they different teams at each location?

0:29:41 - (Jenn Drummond): Different teams. I did have some people that were the same, so some people did more than one mountain with me, but for the most part, it was different teams. I tried to work with people that were from those countries when possible. Right. Like, I wanted to learn the culture. It was a chance to go over and climb, but it was a chance to meet other cultures and see other ways of doing life and just becoming, like, having friends all over the world.

0:30:06 - (Jenn Drummond): I literally have friends all over the world now, and I'm so grateful for all those little people.

0:30:10 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, I love it. What has been the reaction from your kids?

0:30:15 - (Jenn Drummond): Here's the thing. So I climb this last mountain, secure the world record as the first woman to do it. I get off an airplane that I've been on for way too long. My son gives me a hug, and he goes, mom, you have bad breath. I'm like, yeah, I've been on an airplane for hours, so thank you. And it's just like the epitome of life, right? Like, you do this amazing thing. You're still a human. You still are a human. There's nothing special about you except you're a human.

0:30:43 - (Jenn Drummond): And my kids remind me that all the time, so I think they think it's cool, but I'm the same mom. It didn't win me as many cool points as I thought it would.

0:30:51 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. That is so funny. Now, something I'm kind of curious about, because we've just breezed through because we want to touch on all the mountains that you climbed, and we've kind of checked them off of a list. But I would only imagine that some of these had to be extremely grueling, both mentally and physically exhausting. Is that the case?

0:31:20 - (Jenn Drummond): Oh, for sure. But here's the deal. I have seven children for that mental training, and so I told people I'm like, the Mau can throw about anything at me. My. Kids are ten times harder than these mountains. I'll be honest with you. Right the moment it's very black and white of what's going on, kids no no longer means a no. You need a 30 minutes explanation of how you came to that no. And decision making processes and all the things that are going on.

0:31:51 - (Jenn Drummond): But the physical part, you can train. Right. So I always believe in training harder than what's required of you. So I always came in very well physically prepared because I wanted the mountain to be easier than what I was training so that my brain could relax and focus more on the environment and less on the physical.

0:32:17 - (Kevin Lowe): Amazing. So are you going to be in the Guinness Book of World Records?

0:32:23 - (Jenn Drummond): I mean, I don't know how they pick who gets in them. Right. I don't know exactly what that goes on. We're in the application process because it's not a typical record that they give, so it takes a long time, and I don't know if it's the coolest photo that they put in there for their thing compared to you can get a Guinness World Record. I mean, one of my friends got one for building the largest blanket fort, so we'll see what happens.

0:32:48 - (Kevin Lowe): Exactly. That is too funny at this point. Do you continue I almost feel like you knocked this off from the .1 of you know what, I'm going to start hiking to boom. I just completed this amazing goal. Do you continue hiking, or do you be like, okay, let's go to something different?

0:33:15 - (Jenn Drummond): I'm kind of interested in doing something different. I mean, I like it. A couple of my boys wanted to go on a climb, so we're going to go do a climb together in February. There's so much to see and do and experience that I don't want it all just to be on mountains. I want to go swim in different oceans and learn about different villages and see where the gorillas live and that kind of stuff. There's so many things that excite me that I don't want to just dedicate the rest of my life to climbing.

0:33:45 - (Kevin Lowe): Absolutely. Of course. No, I love it so much. So you're on this track, you're doing all these climbs. You're summoning mountains, you're checking things off list. You're becoming superhero, not to your kids, but to the rest of the world. And at what point do you decide, you know what? Let's be sure to capture this inside of a book.

0:34:06 - (Jenn Drummond): Yeah, well, here's what happened. So I was just finishing up my Antarctica climb, and a friend of mine who's an author, we went out to lunch, and he was like, you know what? You should write a book. As in, you know what? You should order dessert. Okay. It was, like, in the same type of tone, and I'm like I like dessert. That sounds like a great idea. I mean, no clue what's involved with writing a book, except that it was presented as if it was as easy as ordering dessert.

0:34:35 - (Jenn Drummond): And so I started writing a book and it's just finishing up right now. And I wrote it to my younger self. I wrote it to the Jen that was living life before the car crash because I think about all the things I stepped into when I realized life could end at any moment. And I think about all the things that happened because I stepped into that gen. And it makes me so passionate about the people that are listening or the people that are alive on this planet. Like, do not quit on the things that set your heart on fire.

0:35:17 - (Jenn Drummond): There's a reason they set your heart on fire. You are here to share those things with the world, and when you do, we all benefit. So the book is about becoming resilient and achieving your life goals because that's what we need to do. We need to be resilient and we need to achieve our life goals because there are goals.

0:35:41 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, man, you got the pep talk going. I love it. I love the energy. I love the whole kind of mission behind what you're doing, the books in the process. Where's the best place for people to go? Is there maybe somewhere on your website or something that they could stay tuned on the book and what's going on in your life?

0:36:06 - (Jenn Drummond): Yeah, so we're like having a little debate on the book title right now. That's why I haven't released it to you, but on my website. So, Jendrumond.com, you will have an Amazon link to buy it. If you buy it in pre order, you get all kinds of fun goodies. So I highly recommend doing that because the pre order goodies are cooler than the book, I think, in some levels. And then also when you're on my website, you'll be able to find all my social media handles. So if you have a social platform of preference, you can reach out to me there and say hello because I love connecting with people and we're friends now, so reach out, say hi.

0:36:44 - (Kevin Lowe): Amazing. I will be sure that your website is provided inside of the show notes for easy access to you listening. Jen, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the podcast to share your exciting, thrilling story. You're absolutely awesome and I wish you nothing but the best moving forward.

0:37:05 - (Jenn Drummond): Oh, I just appreciate being here. I love you so much. So thank you. Thank you, thank you.

0:37:10 - (Kevin Lowe): Absolutely. And for you listening, be sure check out those show notes. Be sure you get tuned in to the world of Jen, because as you've kind of seen, I think we could all benefit from a little bit more of her energy in our life. So we never know, maybe it's time for you to take on a mountain. So anyways, my name is Kevin Lowe. This is great. Grace and inspiration. Get out there and take on the day.