On today's episode of gathering the Kings. I got into a car accident in 2018. That should have taken my life and didn't. After that accident, I realized I do not get to choose when I die, but I sure get to choose how I live. If you have a business, no matter where you are, Does your community know what those things are? Are you waving your flag? Because if you wave your flag, it allows the universe to work with you to make your things possible.
When you're willing to take on things that don't look like your neighbor, you need to be willing to do things that don't look like your neighbor. What's up everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe, gathering the king's podcast, coming back to you here today. Special guest. I got a queen here on the king's stage. Miss queen Jen Drummond. How we doing? I'm fantastic. How are you? Wonderful. And I told you before we hit the record button that I'm looking for a whole different frequency of energy.
You bring inspiration to people all across probably the world with your stages and and the talks that you've given. And so I am just honored to be in the presence, but also to share you with our wonderful audience. So thank you for being here. I'm excited. Thank you. Good. Tell us I mean, I kinda just hinted Chaz a little bit, but tell us what kind of business that you have. What do you do? Okay. So My primary business is in Financial Services.
I started this company when I had exited college and hired myself out of a job. So we manage about a 1,000,000,000 in assets and take care of people's financials. And then recently, the last few years, I got into mountaineering I'm writing a book on speaking stages and doing the whole coaching aspect for resilience. Love it. Well, you just gave us a whole mountain to to use your language of stuff to talk about. You you're managing quite a lot of money doing it well. I presume at this point.
And and then you're gonna be sharing some other tactics in a book coming up about just how to win in life, but specifically resiliency, why why that topic? I mean, I'm I'm with you on the mountain. You kinda gotta press through, but let's dial in on the word resilience. Why why does that mean? What does it mean? Why does it mean something to you? Yeah. You know, I think resilience is the ticket.
If we have the ability to keep going forward to face your obstacles and setbacks and challenges, learn from those and continue. That's where the freedom lies on the other side of those things. We do not want to be caged in by what limits us but overcome those limits and become more. So I got into mountaineering really on a challenge for my son. I was giving him the proverbial pep talk of we do hard things.
And when that happened, he upped my goal of climbing a mountain to something more stream, and then my coach took it further. And here we are today. Wow. Okay. Well, give us a little bit of that detail because I want the audience to know what the heck you're talking about. You know, this this goal to climb a mountain, but what what did it turn into? Yeah. So I got into a car accident in 2018. Chaz should have taken my life and didn't.
After that accident, I realized I do not get to choose when I die, but I sure get to choose how I live. I definitely was choosing to put my life on hold till my children got to college level. Right? And that was my excuse. Society ports it. So I was kinda hiding in that mantra. Thankfully, the accident reminded me that life goes fast. We only get one Chaz. Who cares what everybody else thinks? What do I want this experience to be for myself?
So 2019 became a big year of creating the proverbial bucket list and all the things I wanted to do, see experience, explore, try, and this world before my time's up. And on that list was climb a mountain. So in 2020, I was turning 40. I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna climb a mountain for my fortieth birthday and launch decade was something significant. And so I asked some friends that were into mountain deniering, hey. If you could climb 1 mountain in the whole world, what would it be?
And more than one person said a mountain named Alma DeBlom. I'd never heard of it, so I looked it up. And I'm like, okay. It's located in the Himalayas. It means the mother's necklace, and it's the Paramount Pitchers logo. Mike, that sounds like a perfect mountain for me to climb. And so I'm starting to train for that. And as you remember, at the beginning of 2020, the world shut down and no longer was I gonna be traveling anywhere to climb a mountain.
And I was gonna be a homeschool teacher to buy 7 beautiful children. Wow. So it's doing the homeschool thing. And when my son was struggling with this math homework, I'm like, you got this. We do hard things. You keep at it. Like, you'll get it. And he looked at me and he goes, if we do hard things, Why you climb in a mountain called I'm a dumb blonde instead of a real mountain like Mount Everest? I said, Alma, the blonde, honey, Notheim with Dunblonde. Thank you. So you finished your homework.
We'll look at Everest. So he did and we did. And when he went to bed, I thought, you know what? If Everest is the hardest mountain in the world to him, I'm gonna climb it. And I'm gonna let him know that whatever Everest is we're capable of doing. Wow. And so I call the coach, Coach said, yes. I can get you ready. And the coach mailed me a book about becoming an uphill athlete because I was not I had climbed 1 mountain before, So I had fitness.
I just didn't have the skills or techniques that you need to be a mountaineer. And in the front of the book, There was this lady who received a Guinness World record for doing something in the Alps. And I remember being on a phone call with my coach saying, like, I could've done that. Like, I can suffer. I have 7 children. I'm homeschooling. I am not a cool mom right now. There is zero cool things about me. My kids learned how to read on Guinness World Record Bucks.
If I got a Guinness World Record, I'd be the coolest mom ever. And my coach took that as a challenge. He's like, okay. I'll think of something. Don't worry. And I was like, okay. But I'm not growing pumpkins. Or growing long fingernails or any of those weird things that we read about in the record books. He's like, don't worry. I got you. And then a few weeks later, you call me back. He's like, Jen, Jen, I have the perfect world record for you. I'm like, okay.
Because I think you should be the first woman to climb the 7 second summits. I'm like, alright. But what are those? I don't even know what that is. He goes, okay. Listen. Listen. He goes, it's been done by one mail. They're harder than the first seven, and it's 7 continents, 7 mountains, 7 children. It's a jackpot. Like, it's a perfect goal for you. I said, you know, I do want to empower people to let them know that the limitation is what they make it. I wanna travel the Wolfe.
This sounds like a really cool quest if no females done it, especially if it's respected within the mountaineering community. I'm in. So I signed up. I'd never slept in a tent before, but those are details. Wolfe figured that out. I it's okay. You you just gave so much. And so I just need to really dial into what what you just said. You just said you've never slept in a tent, but you're gonna be 7 continents, 7 mountains.
Why do you think it turned from writing a small goal of just climbing a mountain Nope. To something bigger to something bigger to something that's just ginormous thing that most people would just go. Sure. Right? Like Yeah. I saw how what happened in the story. Like, it obviously had its, you know, exclamation points. But Oh. Why why did why did you? Why what what's different about you that allowed it to get there. Are you going big? You know, I'm I think this timing of events Right?
I think the the car accident really shifted me. It was a line in the sand for my life because who cares if I failed? Right? I wasn't worried about succeeding. I was worried about having the experience and getting to meet other people and other cultures. And The mountain gave me a pursuit of something that was consistent on each place. It gave me something to work towards. It gave me something to lock into. It hadn't been done by a woman before. So I'm like, if I didn't succeed, okay.
No big deal. No one else has. That's a female. Only one male's done it. So that gave me permission to stay curious and try. And it just sounded like a big enough thing Chaz it was worth my energy. I have 7 children that are competing for my time. If I'm gonna say yes to something, it has to be significant. Yeah. Chaz to be big. What do you think?
I'm gonna I'm gonna ask the same question in 2 different perspectives because you've obviously your children you know, are are a huge part of your story, but also this story that you've created. I love how it ties into the fact that you just I do hard things. I had 7 children. My my wife who's had 4 at home would be right in the same camp with you and be like, no. I'm I'm I'm that chick. Okay? So I'm with you.
What do you think they're saying or thinking even about what you're putting together right now? Yeah. You know, at the beginning, I don't know if they knew. Right? I don't know if any of us do. I wasn't a mountain year that could give them any kind of experience. So when the challenge was presented to myself, we started looking up where the mountains were on the map.
We started to understand, oh, like, I get to go to Africa or I get to go to Antarctica or, you know, like, there's all these sexy things that are fun because you're filling in the blank because you don't know that much. Oh, that'd be really cool to see her. That'd be really cool to experience. The interesting thing is is that in the beginning, I did climb Everest. Right? And when I went to climb Everest, I'd never been away from home for more than 3 weeks.
So I that was I was super nervous about going to that climb because there was such a big one, and it was so long. I was afraid that it wasn't a good time because I had kids at home. And what would that do to them? And I wasn't gonna be there, and I've always been here. And then I stopped for a second. I'm like, that's the limiting belief I'm subscribing to. Is there another option? Is there another truth that also is available for me to latch on to.
And so I had set up help at home, and I went to the kids school. And I talked to the teachers. And I said, hey. Listen. I'm gonna be gone for 3 weeks. I have things set up at home, but I'm not there. So it's gonna be different. And my kids might have a hard time adjusting, and they might be a little more sensitive. Can you offer them a little bit more grace during this time frame? The school came back and one upped it.
They said, Jen, why don't you come in and teach the kids about setting goals and and what's your Everest campaign? So I went into the school. I've talked to all the classrooms about setting goals. The kids had little hickers with flags. They wrote what their upper school was on that flag, and the front of the school would put up a big mountain. And then we had a little hiker that was me and I had a tracking device on me while I was climbing.
And so then the school could move me up and down the mountain depending on where I was. Yeah. And in today's day and age, you have wifi at Base Camp of Mount Everest. So I could call in to the classrooms and answer questions about what I ate, where I pooped, and all the things that kids ask. And so then when I summited Everest, wasn't I've physically summited it, but my entire community was with me.
Everybody was behind me, and my kids felt so seen, so loved, so empowered about their mom was doing something cool that Everybody cared about. Yeah. And I talk about it a little bit in my book about Big Mountains. Take big teams. That's right. So if you're gonna do a big pursuit, you have to have a big team behind you to make that happen because, otherwise, you're gonna run out of energy. Otherwise, it's gonna be a lot harder than it needs to be.
And so that was since that happened early in the pursuit, Everybody really got on board with what I was doing, and my kids were probably my biggest cheerleaders. Yeah. I can imagine. What do you fast forward, you know, 30 years? And what are your kids telling their kids about this time in their life? You know, I don't know. Who knows? Right? I do know that the kids come over after school, and I'm still the mom that climbed Everest. Like, oh, you're the mom that climbed Everest.
I wanna climb Everest someday. Like, I'm here for you when you do. You let me know. I will train. And then some of my kids will be like, you don't wanna train forever. It's a lot. Do do any of the 7 have aspirations to to follow Bob? Yeah. You know, I've I took well, they had school off on Monday of this week, and I took 3 of them climbing for the afternoon just to get out in nature. And the cool thing about climbing is It's it's scary. Right?
There's fearful spots, and they get through those spots, and their confidence sores And then they come home with, like, a little proud peacock chest up, and that's okay. Right? Like, I'm all about building that. That muscle of courage and metabolizing fear in these different pieces. 3 of them, I'm taking Climbing in February to Kenya. So we're gonna do one of the mountains I did just to have them have that experience, and we're gonna volunteer why we're there. So it's it's in our life.
Yeah. Yeah. You've integrated it, and so it's not that it's not that you're trapping them with it, but you're actually developing them through it. Yeah. Yeah. It's incredible. What do you think? For the listeners right now, I mean, they're, you know, run they're running a maybe a small service company with 2 guys, or maybe they've got a $300,000,000, you know, commercial development. And they're wondering how you climbing Everest and and your community coming with you applies to them.
What what would you say? I would ask them to look at their goals. And see who around them can be a part of it. Who can help them? Who can they help? So one of the unique things about climbing mountains is that we can all picture the person on top waving the flag. I made it to the summit. Here's my flight to prove it. Right? And we sometimes convince ourselves that we climb for the summit. But I think that's a story.
Because if we truly just wanted the summit, we would take helicopters and go from summit to summit, jump out, waver flag and take photos. The reality is is that that summit is so significant because it symbolizes all the times we overcame and who we became and the pursuit of this goal. So when we're at the top and we're waiving our flag, we're really signaling to ourselves. Like, look what I can achieve. Look what I can accomplish. Like what I've overcome.
And so when you're in a business, no matter what the size is, you need to wave your flag. And it's fun to wave it at the top, but you need to wave it along the journey because then it signals to the world. Here's what I'm trying to do. Here's what I need, and here's how I can help. And I'll share this with you. When I was climbing, I was saving Mount Kenya for the end. Because Mount Kenya Chaz a pretty technical rock climb, and I didn't really have rock climbing skills.
So I'm like, oh, I'll just put this at the end, and it'll give me more time to develop those skills. Well, I had posted that, hey. I'm trying to become the first woman to do this pursuit. That's not my personality. My personality before was we're gonna talk about once it's done. But my friends convinced me to share the journey because that was the closest they were gonna ever get to these environments. And they wanted to see it unfold.
So I Chaz it on Instagram Chaz that's what I was trying to do. The first climb I did was in South America. And then I got a message on Insta. And they said, hey. Are you going to Kenya soon? I said, actually, it's not I was planning on saving it for the end. Like, do you think you could, like, bump it up if we could help you? I'm like, potentially, what's going on? So I got on the phone and we talked, and there is this charity Chaz had raised funds to provide an ambulance for a place in Kenya.
And mind you, this is like 2021 And, you know, COVID's just ending, and there's a lot of need over there. Like, we don't want to pay to send somebody over. From our charity to represent us. So if you would be willing to represent us and help us with this charity lift, then we would be able to connect you with some climbing coaches and stuff from the other side. I'm like, I started going to Vegas every weekend to start training rock climbing.
Yeah. Or the couple of my kids did improve those skills, and I got to go I put Kenny as my second climb. I went in February 2021. I got involved in that charity. I also got involved in another charity, which was a period poverty thing. And helped bring period products to women there so they could stay in school during that time of the month for them. And I got to climb the mountain. Yeah. Okay. It was such an amazing story, and that's because I was waving my flag and letting my community know.
Here's what I'm trying to do. Here's what I need. Here's how I can help. And so if you have a business, no matter where you are, does your community know What those things are? Are you waving your flag? Because if you wave your flag, it allows the universe to work with you to make your things possible. Yeah. I I mean, obviously, the there's so much power and everything you just said. It's it's a moment in time where we're hearing this incredible thing unfold.
And even just the things that we know, like, as soon as you say, well, it's more about the journey or it's more about, you know, the the work and the overcoming that it took to get to the top, that's what makes the top special. And we we recognize that. Like, we're in agreement with you on that. But you know Chaz well as I know that the listener who already agrees with you, but then immediately thinks, but I'm in one of those tough moments right now.
And it's hard, or I don't know how to get over it, right, which brings us back to your word resilience or persistence. And so talk about some of those maybe moments in your own business or on the mountain Chaz that they might be right now going, I hear you Chaz the top's gonna be amazing and that the journey is cool, but, like, it sucks right now. And I'm hurting, and I don't know how to overcome it. What would you say?
Yeah. You know, I I have a lesson from the mountain that Wolfe apply first, then we can get into business tactics if we want, but when I went to climb Everest, for example. I thought that you went from base camp to the top. And it just took you that long to make it happen. When I got there, I realized there's this thing called acclimatizing. And so a climatizing means you go up to from base camp, either camp 1 or camp 2, depending on your genetic makeup. And then you hit a point of failure.
You cannot go any higher because there's not enough oxygen in the air for your body to be able to continue. So you hit that point of failure. You try to eat lunch there, so you live in the point of failure as much as possible, and then you come back down to base camp. And you stay at base camp for another 3 to 4 days. And when you're at base camp, your body starts doing a physiological change and starts producing more red blood cells.
It didn't know to produce those red blood cells until you hit the point of failure. Right. And so now that you hit the point of failure, you came back down. Your bodies don't go, man. We gotta adjust because this is the new thing that we're going up against. It makes all these red blood cells. You go back up. And you're skipping at camp 2. Where the week before, you're like, uh-huh. What do you gotta do? I gotta do. Right? I mean, it's an entirely different experience.
Yeah. And so in business, when you're running up against that obstacle or that failure or that setback, that's a chance to come back to base camp. What did you learn? What do you what do you see in this environment? What's going well? What's not going well? How can you acclimate your current situation to be able to go further up the path the next time you go up the mountain. Yeah. And I think that's one thing that we always need keep in mind, like, we're climatizing.
We're not gonna get there the first time every time. And if you're running into a rough spot, take a breather. Take a step back. Spend a little bit of time evaluating the situation and figuring out now what you know. How could you do it better? Yeah. How long before you knew the answer, how long did you think it was gonna take to get to the top of Everest? I mean, I my expedition was quick because I live at El tude. So I know teams Chaz are there for 6 to 8 weeks.
I told them that was not an option for me because I have little kids at home. And so I rented this machine that you put on your bed that simulated a lack of oxygen environment. So I could acclimatize at home and go there for a lot shorter period of time. So I thought I was going for 3 weeks, and that's how long it took me to get to the top and bottom. I really didn't pay attention until I got into it Chaz, oh, no, actually. It takes about 5 days to climb Everest. And get back down.
Yeah. But all that other time is spent, like, going up and down the mountain to get your body ready to handle, Chaz less oxygenating environment so that you're less likely to get injured or hurt. Right. Yeah. I think that that's Chaz that picture of time, even in your mind, of of 3 weeks. And that's how long it took you, but that's not how long it takes. Right. Right? And it's the 2 steps forward, one step back, you know, phrase that we hear oftentimes in life or a business.
This might be a little bit of an interesting question. I don't know if you'll have an answer for it, but in business or life, for that matter, what are the red blood cells? That we're coming back down to build. Yeah. You know, I think that depends on what industry you're in. Okay. So, for example, for me, when I was in the financial service industry, I had an idea of what it was supposed to look like. Like, okay. We're gonna have this building.
We're gonna have a secretary, a color copy machine, or name on the sign, and all this kind of stuff. And so I put a ton of money and time and resources into making that happen. And then all of a sudden, I had a client meeting, and my client meeting was with CEO of a credit union. And she, in our meeting, I found out that the credit union was gonna start offering investment services to their membership, where before laws prevented them from being able to do Chaz.
But with this law changed, they were gonna be able to do this service. I was like, hey. I can do that. I can I'm helping you. I could help your membership. And she's like, oh, yeah. I didn't even think about it. Why don't you apply. So I gave a presentation to the board, and the board selected to go with me. And so now all of a sudden, my business was in their office, so I didn't need office space. Right? I didn't I was white labeling the program.
So I was marketing under their name instead of my own name, and a whole bunch of things looked different than what I thought. And so now all of a sudden, this was a very lucrative business from a number of perspectives. So I pulled out of the current business that I was in. And I started down this other path, but I had to learn the way that that path worked. Right? Like, what is the incentives look like to get referrals from tellers.
Now I don't need to make cold calls, but I need to build relationships with these people. And how does that work? And our first rendition of that program was garbage. I mean, total garbage, but it was like we had to have something to make tweaks from. And so then we realized, okay. This works and that works or this doesn't. And now we modified, and now the program is almost twenty years old. It's a whole different ballgame than what it was year 1. Yeah. Hey. Kings and Queens.
Jazz Wolf. I wanna talk to you about something that's super important to me. We put a lot of time and effort. We, meaning myself and my team, into this podcast, into the content that goes out every single day. And if you have been getting any sort of value or insight from this, we want it to be able to reach other business owners too.
So we would love If you would like, comment, share, leave a review, post, share again, all of the things on social media, on all the different platforms, or even on the podcast, mediums of Apple and Spotify. We would love to be able to get our content into more hands, more entrepreneurs so they can grow their business as quick as Together, we are building a community of like minded entrepreneurs who are committed to growing their businesses to new heights. So let's do this.
Let's help each other. Let's help each other grow. Yeah. You've taken a lot of two steps forward. One steps back. Yeah. Definitely. What do you think that the, you know, before we kinda move on from this, you know, kind of forward backward motion, what do you think that most entrepreneurs are missing outside of the obvious of that this is the normal track? That it goes a little bit forward and a little bit back and a little bit forward and a little bit back.
That in itself is a huge revelation, and I get Chaz, but Is it the mindset of understand, like, like, being able to flow with that? Is that a is it emotional control through that? What what are most people because they under they understand what you're saying, but they're not doing it. What are they missing? Do you think? Maybe the bandwidth to absorb it. Okay. So I think when you climb a mountain, the top's only halfway. K. You have to get all the way back to base camp. Right? Right.
Okay. You're not you're not free until you're backspace. Yeah. And so a lot of times when we're building a business, we have this idea of what the summit is. Or what our goal is or what our next, like, KPI is gonna be. But the reality is is when we're making that decision, Are we leaving enough slush to make it all the way home? Yeah. It's good. And what happens if we have to go down a different route than we came up because if something happened?
And so I really love the mountain metaphor when I'm looking at my business decisions because now I'm not just looking to the summit. I'm looking to how or can we make it back? Can we absorb whatever we're doing, have enough bandwidth to be able to go out again and give it another shot? Yeah. I think it goes back to a point that you made earlier that the summit really isn't the end destination. Right? If the journey is really our focus, then the journey includes going up and back down.
And so I think you're spot on with that because, you know, maybe more practical ways that it's gonna cost more, take more effort, and take a lot longer than you think. Always. Oh, hoist. Always. The runway is always longer. Mean, if I look at businesses over the years and I was actually looking at a business the other day because someone had said, oh, you should start, like, a skincare line. With, like, the 7 summits and the quests that you did and all this kind of stuff.
Yeah. And I'm like, yeah, that's a lot of money to start one of those from ground 0. I bet you there's a handful of them that are in cash flow issues soon. So why don't we just wait to see if somebody has a formulation that we like And if they get into a pinch, then we can come in there and buy it.
If you look at subdivisions that were developed in Park City, it's usually the 3rd buyer that has success with the subdivision because they worked out all the bugs and didn't have the bandwidth with those first two buyers. So when you're thinking about your business, What stage are you in? What what makes sense for you to continue to move forward on? And are you positioning yourself to absorb the things that you're pursuing.
Yeah. Do you think that in order to really be able to prepare for the absorption? To really know, like, okay. It's the journey of the up and down. We gotta be prepared for that. How much clarity do I need? As far as what because, I mean, you'd never been up and down before on the mountain. So how much clarity did you have or will someone need on the journey that they don't know what it's gonna be like, but they still have to have all this known bandwidth.
Yeah. I mean, I think that's the $1,000,000 question for all of us. If we have that answer, it'd just be tick, tick, tick, tick, success. I will say that You know, climbing address is very commercialized. It's much easier than it's ever been. If you had to climb in the eighties, I can't even imagine having to figure out how to do that. Nowadays, we have drones. We can fly drones over the ice field and be like, oh, yep. Chick, Chick, Chick, Chick, Chick, this works.
We can put ladders here, and we can make that happen. Back in the day, you didn't have that. You would walk to a point and be like, just kidding. This isn't gonna go. We gotta come back and figure out if we can go up another way. Right? So there's advantages to being in industries that have more depth of knowledge and more experience of people going through because it just makes the pathway a little bit clearer.
When we climbed the mountain in Antarctica, think I was the 15th person or 15th to 20th person to summit. Hey. There's not a lot of beta out there. There's a lot a lot of noise So when we're going up that mountain and we're looking at notes from people that had climbed it a few years before us, there's a rock. We're like, okay. Is that rock fall down the mountain? Is it underneath the snow? Where did it go? Like, I'm not really quite sure.
And so the strategy that we use to climb that mountain was an entirely different strategy than we used to climb Everest. And so if you're in a new frontier and you're developing a new thing, your calculations have to be much more conservative than if you're an established industry. Yeah. Yeah. That's really concise.
Let's go with the, you know, just the growth in technology and the ability for whether it be drones or wifi at Basecamp in the analogy, on the mountain, but how does that apply today where you could probably say something similar. It's that's it's the easiest that it's ever been to start a business. It's the easiest that it's ever been to make money It's the easiest that it's ever been fill in the blank when it comes to business, but very similar to the mountain.
That doesn't mean everybody does it, even though that it's Easy. And then even though you still have those things, you still have to learn the tactics and actually do the playbook. What do you think that there's a cross here as far as from, like, the technology the people that are listening right now, the access that they have to things that maybe they aren't using, that you can give some insight on. I think we have so many things now. Chaz it's easy to get lost before you even get started.
Yeah. You have I mean, so for example, in my branding, Chaz Jen Drummond, there's tiktok, YouTube, instagram, linkedin, website, Email list. Like, there's so many things that you could be spending money in all these categories, and you're barely getting any lift. Because you're just a little player in all the ponds. So I think when you're starting out, you have to say, like, what's my platform?
What platform am I gonna dominate on and just put a lot of energy into and be like, this is my this is my area? And then once things start coming in or generating revenue, you can say, okay. Now we're gonna start branching into this other piece. We're gonna start doing this other side of things.
To be able to show different sides of our personality or different things that the different platforms allow, but just really honing in on where you want to start and shut out the noise around you of you need to be all places at all times. Because that's really hard to have the revenue coming in to support that. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a it's a little bit of a fallacy. I think just that that we need even need to be everywhere at all times for all people. Right? Right.
Little bit of those, you know, I love I like the way that you framed the limiting belief that you had earlier and then your ability to release that and then latch onto something different, Chaz that's necessarily what you just did with social media, for example. So we gotta get rid of this belief that we have to be all places or all things to all people even. Yes. So much so. Definitely. It's current. It takes a ton of courage to be who you are. And to have the entire world tell you.
You need this. You need this. You need this. You need this. I can help you with this. I can turn this into shorts. I can turn this into whatever. And you have to be oh, no. I have my blinders on. Here's what I'm doing. Thanks for the noise. I'm not interested. And You get good at saying no because everything you say no to gives you bandwidth to say yes to what really serves you. That's right. Right. What have you done to help identify those things that serve you?
And and whether you share the practicals of those, it doesn't it maybe Chaz matters much, but what's what's the exercises that you've done in preparation like the mountain for being able to say no in that moment? Cause that's that's what I've learned is that the no in that moment is just so much easier when I'm super clear on where I'm headed like you just said. Mhmm. You know, I really have to plug into myself every day.
And sometimes multiple times a day if I have one of those days that's got a million things going on and just be like, this is my game. This is who I am. This is what I'm trying to achieve so that when another opportunity comes up, it's easier to identify it as not fitting into the puzzle. Right? But if you don't have that clear thing communicated to yourself or understood at a very deep level. Everything sounds fun and exciting. And, yeah, okay.
Sure. And then all of a sudden, you're everywhere not as far along the path as you want to be instead of one place further. Yeah. How how does the impact of singular focus work on a mountain. And we've kinda talked about it from business, and we're gonna move it over to the side. We've kinda done the opposite on all the other ones. Yeah. You know, I learned this in business. Commit to the commitment. So I'll give an example. When I graduated from college, I took a job as a financial advisor.
I did not ask great questions in my interview. K? I thought I knew what a financial advisor was. I got out of college early. I told my parents Chaz graduated, and they said, fine. Any job you take, you're staying at a year no matter what. I register, worked for my courses. I had to take a couple summer classes, and I was done. I show up to my financial advising job. I'm like, hi. I'm Jen. I'm the new financial advisor. Nice to meet you. And she's like, hey, Jen. Great for you to show up.
Chaz table over there with a phone and a phone book is yours. Go help yourself. I'm like, oh, no. No. No. I'm the finance advisor. That's call center different. She's like, oh, I'm sorry, honey. It's not. So go over there. You'll learn, and you'll figure it out. So my 1st 3 weeks of this job, I go home sopping every single day. I'd never heard the word no so many times in my life. It was absolutely horrible, but I couldn't call my parents. Like, that was not an option. I was fearful of them.
I called the school. Do you think he can get me back in? Like, I was kidding. I don't wanna graduate. They're like, honey, you're graduate. Like, we'd have to re register you and everything. I was like, oh my goodness, really. So all of a sudden, I'm like, okay, listen. I cannot put any energy into quitting this job. I have 49 more weeks left of it. I circled the day of my calendar when I was allowed to quit. So now all my energy has to go into making this successful and making this fun.
And so I bring it to the mountains Wolfe, like, when you go out you go to a location. So say you fly into Pakistan, and I'm gonna go climb K2. I'm not debating whether I'm climbing K2 or not. Now all my energy is, how do I make it fun? How do I keep it safe?
How I'm making decisions that are moving me closer to the top of this mountain and not away from And so when you're in a business decision or you're running towards something, you need to take off the table whether that's gonna happen or not. And just be like, here's my commitment, and this is what I'm committing to. And now all your energy and everything that happens gets to work on How? Yeah. So powerful.
The the moments that you've just described, especially, you know, the fun the fun parts of, you know, the job You know, in essence, you were boxed in and you were forced to keep the commitment, but for somebody listening right now who isn't forced they don't have the the constraints of, you know, not being able to call the parents or not being able to quit whatever the scenario are or is for them. How do they commit to the commitment? Because it we understand what you said.
How do we do that so that we can focus on the how after the commitment? You have to be disciplined. You have to have the courage to say this isn't gonna be fun. This isn't all rainbows and unicorns and puppy dogs right now. And so whatever that is for you and depending on what you want to receive, like, give it a year. If you can't give it a year, give it a quarter. Give it 6 months.
Give it something where you get to acknowledge that this is a concern or thought that I have, but it's not serving me. So I'm not giving it any more bandwidth, but I'm not gonna totally ignore it. So I will revisit it at this date. Then whatever that date is, you save it for that date. And then right now, you work on the how.
Yeah. Yeah. Something that, you know, comes up often special entrepreneurs, you know, is the is the getting up at a certain time, maybe having a morning routine, you know, whether it's working out, whatever, and a long time ago when I was trying to build some discipline around this. It wasn't so much whether I would get up or not. I had, like, a a kind of a natural drink that I drink as soon as I wake up. And and so my my commitment to myself wasn't whether I was gonna get up or not.
I knew I was getting up. I had to get up and drink the drink. And that was, like, that was my that was my agreement. It was I'm a get up and drink the drink because I knew as soon as I drank the drink, there was no way I was going back to sleep. Yeah. And so, yeah, I actually, to your point, I made I made the commitment the next level up. I knew I was gonna get up. What was the next thing? Well, the next thing I had to do when I got up was the next thing.
Or you know, that 15 minutes later, someone's gonna show up on my house to work out or whatever the scenario is that I can build in this forced commitment. In essence, that's what your parents did kinda for you. Yeah. But we can do that to ourselves. We can box ourselves in and go, no. I'm committed, and I'm gonna put people or things or circumstances around me so that I don't really have a way to back out. And then so now my focus can be on the higher level activities. Is that right? A 100%.
I love it. Drink the drink. It's the drink. I still drink it. It's called early bird. I love it. I I probably should be. I should probably they should probably sponsor the podcast. Yeah. I think they're sponsoring this episode. Thank you. Seriously. Thank you earlier. Alright. So I gotta ask you about family, and then and then we're gonna wind up here, but you have 7 children. You have a family is what it comes down to. Yep. But you also have a fantastically successful business.
And then, oh, by the way, you've climbed mountains all over the world. So That's the context of this conversation. We all know that now, but my question is, how have you obsessed? Cause I know you don't climb Everest or have a billion in assets or 7 children for that matter. You haven't done anything without obsession. It's really what I see, and I love it. How do you how have you obsessed about all of it at the same time. Yeah. Well, it's not all like, I think this idea of balance is baloney.
So I think if you take out a longer version view, then maybe you'll see balance, but in the day to day, if you're striving for balance, you're gonna get in my opinion. So sorry if I offended some people that are listening. They can do that for you. Yeah. Other show, Braun plates. I do I do multitask at some level. So for example, when I was getting ready to go to Everest, I would plug in my kids first. I would plug in my business meetings, and then I'd give my coach my calendar and say, hey.
Good luck. My coach will look at me like you're kidding. Right? We need to figure this out. So when we would figure out the fitness part of it, sometimes it would be, hey. I'm gonna go to the gym with one of my kids. And we're gonna go lift together. It's not as efficient, but it is effective for what I'm trying to achieve. Yeah. When I had a son that had soccer games, I would be the mom that'd bring a 12 inch step to the soccer game.
I'd have a backpack full of water bottles and while he was running on that field for an hour a half, I was up and down doing steps to get those steps in so that I was conditioning my body. So I could have sat there and watched the game. But that wasn't serving my bigger picture. So when you're willing to take on things that don't look like your neighbor, you need to be willing to do things that don't look like your neighbor. And a lot of that was those type of activities.
I would take Zoom calls. If it was possible, I would do them on my phone and walk around the neighborhood. Right? Not every Zoom call you need to be next to your computer glued down taking notes. I did that technology thing. There's a little firefly guy. Chaz follows me to all my Zoom meetings, and he takes down all the notes for me so that it allowed me to walk around and do different things while I was listening.
And in fact, It's been so much better for me in meetings because now I'm not worried about writing things down. Now I'm just worried about being present. I have something else that's keeping the notes. So you start finding little hacks in your life that work for you and you start building your calendar that works for you. My girlfriends know we're not going to dinner with Jen. And we wanna hang out with Jen. We're going for a walk. And that's it.
Like, they tease, but they're like, Jen's my walking friend, and we all go out for walks, and that's what we do. Yeah. I love it. I I was just thinking of my wife, Julie, who, every morning, around 6:30, she's downstairs. We have our youngest of 4 is just a year. And the first, basically, hour of in the morning is her her pulling our daughter out of the crib and then working out right there in the room. She's got a TV on that wall and just does her little YouTube workout scenario.
And she goes hard. And the baby plays, and and then they come up for breakfast. And it's like, wow. How how many people are trying to really integrate all the things or how many more would have just said, oh, well, I I don't have time for the workout rather than, like, you're saying, integrating the 2 or, really, it's committing to the commitment. Right? Yeah. Like what you're saying? Yeah. You're right. I've got one last question here for you, Jen.
You've been just obviously incredibly inspirational, but some of the things that you've given are just really powerful. I wanna I wanna I wanna get your perspective. If you had a chance to reach back into time and whisper to the younger gen, what would you tell her? Have more fun. A 100% have more fun. I think I was so convinced that I needed I just did it the hard way. Right? Like, I vice grip success. I'm like, okay.
Well, if you're gonna work 8 hours, I'm gonna work 12, and I'm gonna beat you because I put more time in. And I think if I would allow myself to have a little more time to be successful, I would still be successful, but I would've had more fun along the way. Yeah. And I think if you say, hey. I'm gonna be successful. You will be. You'll do the things that successful people do. But do not forget to allow yourself to enjoy the journey.
Yeah. Yeah. If you're committed to the commitment of success, however long it takes. Mhmm. Then somewhere along the way, you get to experience the up and down of the mountain. Yes. Jen, how can we find you? You have a book coming out all these lessons that you've been sharing about the mountain, they're gonna be in this book, I believe. So tell us where to find the book. Tell us where we can find you and maybe even think that you speak on stages.
Like, there's all kinds of opportunities for us to connect. Or if somehow we need you to manage our money, how do we do that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So the best place to find me is gendrummond.com, and that's double n for Jen. And on that website, we'll bring you to, if you wanna hire me for speaking stuff, if you'd like to buy the book, It's called break proof 7 strategies to build resilience and achieve your life goals. You can pre order on Amazon and get a whole bunch of fun freebies.
Otherwise, it will ship January 9. And then it has all my social channels there. So depending on your favorite platform, reach out, say, hi, introduce yourself, And when it comes to wealth management, I can introduce you to one of my amazing people that would be happy to help. I love it. Well, you have been quite the queen here today, sharing all of the pieces of resilience.
I look forward to watching the journey, getting the book, all of the things that you've deposited, even in me personally here today. I thank you for that. Thank you for being here and sharing with the audience as well. Blessings to you, your family, the whole night. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for listening to gathering the Kings today. I hope that you were able to pull out few nuggets to go apply into your business right away.
More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself, doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself. What I have realized, not only in my own journey from multiple businesses in multiple different industries and now interviewing over 2 or 300 other very successful 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners is that It's tough to do it alone. And so gathering the Kings exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs.
In fact, we are putting together 1000 kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done. We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities, and here's what we believe Chaz in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy.
So if that relates and and resonates with you, and you know that you need people around you, sharp, qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gathering the king's dot com. Want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 kings. Talk soon.