We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Vollmann a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

When I was 22 and just out of college, I packed up and moved to Nairobi, Kenya. I had no job, no idea of what to do, and I knew just one amazing woman. All I knew is I wanted to be in East Africa, explore that part of the world, and help people. I remember sobbing on the airplane over. I so badly wanted to run off and forget this crazy idea! I left my college boyfriend, friends, family, comfort of living in the US for a huge unknown. I barely had ever had a job, never lived on my own and now I was flying to a totally new and dramatically different country that I have never even seen before to start my “adult” life.

It was a huge risk that paid off in making me who I am today. I had no choice but to constantly learn how to problem solve on the fly, be ok with physical, mental, and emotional discomfort. I made so many mistakes and took so many chances, things we all do in our early 20s, but to do it in a totally different country where mistakes can have dire but quickly elevated my ability to handle difficult situations. I experienced the most beautiful acts of human kindness and was upfront with some of the worst suffering and destruction I have ever seen. That year solidified my “f*ck it, I will figure it out mentality” that has shaped my life today.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a Mindset + Triathlon + Wellness coach. I work with athletes and non-athletes around the world to create a life they are excited to live.

Before coaching, I ran a global education non-profit. I left when I had my daughter to stay home with her. When I sent my daughter off to preschool, I looked around and I didn’t recognize me. I had put myself in a small container and I was limiting who I was and how I was showing up. There was nothing wrong. I had a beautiful daughter, a supportive husband, a house, 2 dogs… but what I knew deep down was I was living a SHOULD life, not a WANT life. And I 100% knew this was not how I wanted to live my life.

Like many people who want a change, I looked to fitness and sport. Sport is a great way to focus on immediate change in your mind and body. At the age of 33, with zero experience in swimming, biking or running, I decided to give triathlons a try. In my first race, I tapped into the athlete that was buried deep inside and I fell in love with triathlons and who I was as an athlete. Triathlon connected me to all these amazing parts of myself. I wanted to bring them into other areas of my life, but I didn’t know how.

Sports can teach us about ourselves, help us push our boundaries, but it doesn’t mean we automatically know how to apply that to the rest of our lives. I used triathlon to connect with me, but I was still unsatisfied, I still wanted MORE. As Brene Brown so powerfully stated, it was like the Universe was still tapping me on my shoulder and telling me to “let go of who you think you are supposed to be and to embrace who you are.”

Here is the thing, once you open Pandora’s box, you cannot close it and it doesn’t mean you actually know what to do with it! My journey to create a WANT life took sharp and painful turns. Turns with deep sadness, pain, letting go, joy, hurting people I love and losing the people I love the most. Like all journeys, there are beautiful and ugly parts, you are never the same on the other side.

In search for me, I blew up my life and the lives of people I love. In my deepest moment of shame and regret, I found the teaching of the Life Coach School and it absolutely changed my life. It was the key I was missing to move out of the suffering I was stuck in and create a life of MORE. I let go of fear and unraveled the strangling spiral of shame and suffering. I fully embraced who I am. Every day I move my create more in my life.

I became a coach to help others tap into who they are using fitness and mindset work. My goal as a coach is to help others strengthen and align their physical, mental, and emotional fitness together to reach their full potential. You do not have to do triathlons or even race to reach your full potential. But I believe you do need to keep your body active and fueled so you can access the deeper parts of yourself that you want to show the world.

When you can align your emotional, mental, and physical fitness you can create a life of more and one you are excited to live!

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We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

As a business owner, coach, and competitive athlete, I have had to let go of perfection. I have always been an A+ kind of student. I would kill myself until everything was perfect.

But perfection is not possible in life and certainly not in business and sports. What matters is consistent effort applied over time.

My first year in business I had so many ideas I waited and slowly developed, afraid to put it out into the world until it was perfect. I missed so many opportunities to grow my business and coach more athletes because I was stalled. The problem with perfection is that your brain will always find ways of finding flaws to fix that hold you back from releasing it to the world.

I had to get comfortable with B-quality work and out the door. B work and out into the world is better than A+ and stuck in my drafts every time. Once I started creating and releasing my creative took off, so did my content and so did my business.

The same is true in racing. Once I released the need for a “perfect” race build, I could release the stress of perfection and just race. If I was waiting to race until I had the perfect training, I would never race. You have to let go of perfection in order to succeed.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

As a coach and business owner and especially as a mindset coach, you have to be willing to do the work yourself. It does not mean you have to have all the answers, or done it perfectly. But you have to be willing to put yourself in difficult situations and work through them. You have to be open to growth and to change and be willing to constantly look at yourself and how you can improve.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.findingendurance.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennifervollmann/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennifervollmann/