0:01

Hello, Big Jimmers! This is Olga Karpman

0:03

and I've decided to quickly pop in

0:05

before today's episode with a brief announcement.

0:08

First, you'll soon hear one of

0:10

Eva's favorite interviews with her guest

0:13

Sasha Dejulian. You'll learn

0:15

about her amazing dedication to climbing,

0:17

mindset, and what it's like to

0:19

be a woman in a male-dominated

0:21

sport. The next few episodes

0:24

on the Dream Big Podcast will be

0:26

dedicated to Women's History Month, where

0:28

we'll be showing and sharing stories

0:31

of incredible women in our lives

0:33

and in history who are not

0:35

afraid to break barriers and shine.

0:38

Secondly, I'd love to remind you

0:40

that all the links to this

0:42

episode can be found on dreambigpodcast.com/397,

0:44

including links

0:47

to our favorite platforms, like

0:51

Amazon Music. Just

0:53

download Amazon Music, search for Dream Big

0:55

Podcast for Kids and hit that subscribe

0:57

button. You can easily tell Alexa to

1:00

turn on our podcast and listen to

1:02

it right away. Parents, isn't

1:04

it amazing feature to teach kids

1:06

how to use? Whenever

1:08

our kids' iPods hit the time

1:11

limit on their platforms, they go

1:13

straight to Alexa and say, hey

1:15

Alexa, turn on the Dream Big

1:18

Podcast for Kids and Voila! 30-60

1:20

minutes of educational, entertaining,

1:23

inspiring, and motivational

1:25

content guaranteed. So,

1:27

go ahead, download Amazon Music, subscribe

1:29

to the Dream Big Podcast, and

1:32

enjoy it on your next car

1:34

ride at home during school breaks

1:36

or during your iPod and video game

1:39

free time at home. And

1:41

now, without further ado, I'm handing the

1:43

mic over to Eva and Sasha. Eva

1:47

Cartman Hi, it's Eva Cartman, and you're

1:49

listening to the Dream Big Podcast show,

1:51

the place to go, to learn,

1:54

laugh, and grow. Today

1:56

we welcome Sasha Dejulian and we discuss

1:58

her journey to... to become a

2:00

champion climber, the mindset of a

2:02

champion, her travels around the world,

2:04

and so much more. You ready?

2:06

It's time to dream big. ["Dream

2:11

Big"] ["Dream

2:30

Big"] Sasha

2:35

the Duelian first began climbing at six years

2:37

old in 1998. She's

2:40

won the world championships for

2:42

female overall and placed silver

2:44

in the bouldering world championships,

2:47

as well as bronze in the duel. Sasha

2:50

has been the undefeated Pan-American champion in

2:52

2004 to the present, and

2:55

she is a three-time U.S. national

2:57

champion. I really enjoyed

2:59

our discussion on the mindset it takes

3:01

to send these incredible mountains and was

3:03

really inspired by her work ethic and

3:06

dedication to her passion. Without

3:08

further ado, here's my interview with Sasha.

3:10

Let's roll the tape. Hi,

3:13

Sasha. Hi, Ava,

3:15

so great to finally touch base with you. How

3:17

are you doing? I'm good, how are you?

3:20

I am doing well. I'm

3:23

so thrilled that you're a guest on the podcast because

3:25

we watched a bunch of your videos and we're here

3:27

to prepare for the interview, and

3:29

I have just so many questions. Well,

3:33

thank you for watching the videos. Do you

3:35

climb at all? Yeah, normally I

3:37

do. I

3:40

go to carnivals, climb, and there's

3:42

a rock wall actually near my

3:44

house, and sometimes I go there

3:47

when my friend's having a birthday party. You

3:51

know, that's funny you say that. I

3:54

started climbing actually when my brother had

3:56

a birthday party at

3:58

a local carnival. You

4:00

gotta start somewhere. Yeah.

4:03

So let's start at the beginning.

4:05

Where did you go up? And I

4:08

know that you said that you kind

4:11

of started at your brother's

4:13

birthday party, but how did

4:15

you first discover your love

4:17

for rock climbing? That's

4:19

a great question. Yeah, I grew up

4:22

in Alexandria, Virginia, which is just

4:25

outside of Washington, DC. And

4:27

it was 1998. So

4:31

I was six years old, and my

4:33

brother had a birthday party at a local climbing

4:35

gym. I was really invested

4:37

in lots of different sports, mainly

4:40

figure skating. And

4:43

at the time, I had never really

4:45

known much about climbing at all. After

4:48

the birthday party, I started

4:51

going to the climbing gym

4:53

about twice a week. So on Wednesdays

4:56

and Saturdays for about a year.

4:59

And then one Saturday morning, I walked into

5:01

the gym and there was a

5:03

youth regional championship happening, which is a

5:06

climbing competition for kids

5:08

from 11 and under up until

5:10

19 years old. And

5:13

I entered into the competition

5:17

and I won my category, which was

5:19

11 and under at the time. And

5:21

that was really my first competition and

5:23

my first time recognizing climbing

5:26

is beyond just a hobby.

5:28

It was understanding that

5:30

there was a full sport

5:33

to what I had just

5:35

really fallen in love with back in

5:37

the birthday party environment.

5:41

So really I took it from there. I went from

5:44

climbing about two times a

5:46

week to gradually climbing

5:48

more often and getting

5:51

acquainted with a really good coach that

5:54

became my coach up until I was about 14 or 15

5:56

years old. And I

5:58

competed in the youth

6:01

series of competitions up

6:03

until kind of aged out.

6:05

But at 16 I was eligible

6:07

to really compete on the World

6:09

Cup stage for adult and

6:12

also compete at adult open nationals. So

6:14

that is, yeah, that was the beginning. Wow.

6:17

Whenever I go to the carnival, like

6:20

any carnival near my house or like

6:22

even gym and they

6:24

have a rock wall, like

6:27

that's the first activity that I want

6:29

to do. But I'm

6:31

curious, did you realize like

6:33

at age 16 that

6:35

you could really take

6:37

it and make it

6:40

your profession and like

6:42

actually make it your job? Yeah,

6:45

that's a great question too. I

6:48

actually had my first sponsor

6:50

at age 12 and sponsorship

6:54

is how professional climbers make

6:56

a living. It's your endorsement

6:58

deals with a variety of

7:00

different companies that you represent

7:02

as an athlete ambassador for

7:04

that brand. At the

7:07

beginning stages, when I was 12, it

7:09

was very rudimentary contracts in

7:12

the way that I

7:14

was getting free product or

7:16

pretty minimal arrangements. And that was fine.

7:25

I wasn't even aware that you could

7:27

make a profession out of climbing, but

7:29

gradually as I started signing

7:32

new endorsement deals and kind

7:34

of parallel growing my career

7:37

and breadth and competition climbing

7:39

to start with, I think

7:41

as my success kind of

7:44

continued to grow, I started

7:46

becoming more recognized by bigger

7:49

brands and getting

7:51

more lucrative contracts. And by about

7:53

17 years old, I was making

7:55

a living off of the companies

7:58

that I was working with. And

8:01

that was kind of just like this

8:03

ripple effect of loving

8:05

what I was doing

8:07

and staying motivated

8:10

and also learning what it meant to

8:12

be a professional athlete. Wow.

8:15

I just love hearing stories like

8:18

yours because I've talked to professional

8:20

dog trainers, deep sea divers, dinosaur

8:22

hunters, and now rock climbers.

8:24

So this podcast really proves that there

8:26

are big dreamers out there just like

8:29

you and they're living their dream and

8:31

just having fun. And

8:33

I know that rock climbing like

8:36

got a ton of press last

8:38

year with the free solo documentary,

8:40

which is an amazing accomplishment for

8:42

Alex Honnold. So I imagine

8:44

that rock climbing is a sport

8:47

that mostly men do,

8:49

but can you show what it's

8:51

like to be a female in this sport?

8:54

And like you must be very proud paving

8:56

the way for other young female rock climbers.

8:59

Well, I appreciate you saying that. I

9:01

think that every generation can look back

9:04

at the people who laid

9:06

the foundation before them and you have

9:08

to say thank you and recognize what

9:10

other women and men have done

9:12

to make your career possible. Free

9:15

solo was an amazing accomplishment by

9:17

Alex Honnold. I would

9:20

say that as climbing grows in

9:22

popularity, the sport becomes

9:25

more even in a way, at least

9:28

at the gym scene, with men to

9:30

women. There is definitely a

9:34

larger saturation of men in

9:36

the sport. And a

9:38

lot of that has to do with it's

9:40

traditionally just a male dominated sport. I

9:44

think that what's interesting

9:46

is every year

9:48

climbing is growing at a really

9:51

rapid rate and

9:53

more companies want to be involved.

9:57

There's also more access, more gyms that

9:59

are being... becoming available. There's not

10:02

really a pretty substantial

10:04

rock climbing gym in every

10:06

global city around the world.

10:08

And I would say

10:10

that through my career, I look

10:12

up to women in the past like Lynn

10:15

Hill, Angela Iter, Robin

10:17

Ebersfield, but I also

10:19

want to be, I want

10:22

young girls to be able to see

10:24

what I've done and be like, well,

10:27

she did it, so so can I. And

10:29

if in any way

10:32

I can inspire at least

10:34

one girl to see potential

10:36

beyond what she can really

10:38

think is possible, then I'm

10:40

really happy about that. For

10:43

all her young girl big dreamers

10:45

out there, I think like really Sasha

10:47

proves that your passion is not linked

10:50

to your gender. And like even if

10:52

you love rock climbing, hockey, martial

10:54

arts, you can follow your

10:56

big dreams and do amazing things just

10:58

like Sasha said. And if you

11:00

love rock climbing, follow Sasha.

11:04

Yeah, I know. I mean, you really hit the

11:06

nail on the head is like, if you're passionate

11:08

about it, and if it's what you love to

11:11

do, then success just comes

11:13

naturally. And I think that the main

11:15

thing that I want

11:17

my career to disseminate to other people

11:19

is the fact that I didn't

11:21

know that I was in the path

11:23

of creating a profession when I

11:26

was just following what I love to do. And all

11:29

of us have a unique passion and

11:31

a drive. And I think

11:33

that pursuing that and really seeing

11:35

it as something

11:38

worth investing your time in is really

11:40

important. So true. Just

11:42

for another quick question, we

11:45

saw that towards the end of

11:47

last year, you were training with a

11:49

fractured leg. So you literally

11:51

had a cast on, but you were

11:53

working out in a gym climbing a

11:56

rock wall. So can you share how

11:58

you got injured and Like how

12:00

were you able to train with the injury? Yeah,

12:04

in fact, I actually

12:06

developed injury in September

12:09

and I was training for the New York City

12:11

Marathon and I

12:13

didn't have too much of a running

12:16

base. I went

12:18

on an 18 mile run and I developed

12:20

a stress fracture but I was in the

12:23

midst of traveling throughout Europe

12:25

and then the Middle East for about two

12:27

months and I was climbing outside

12:29

and hiking with heavy pack consistently and

12:31

that just kind of made the stress

12:34

fracture in my fibula

12:36

that much worse. By the

12:38

time I got to Germany, which is

12:40

about two months after this run, I

12:42

had really, really sharp pain in my

12:44

leg every time I stood on it

12:47

and I got an MRI, which

12:49

I should have done sooner, and

12:53

I found out that I had completely fractured

12:55

the fibula. So I had an

12:57

air boot for about two months but

13:00

what's interesting about injuries is

13:02

sometimes, injuries

13:04

can be a professional athlete's fourth

13:06

nightmare but I really believe

13:09

that you can come back stronger from

13:11

an injury as long as you take

13:13

into account adaptive training and make

13:16

whatever you have functioning work

13:18

for you and switch your

13:20

exercises. I started swimming for

13:22

my cardio where I put a pole buoy in between

13:25

my legs so I wouldn't need a kick and

13:28

that really could tackle the cardio

13:30

component in my training versus

13:33

running per se. And

13:36

then I would just put on the

13:38

boot and climb one legged. I

13:41

could focus on getting my arms

13:43

stronger, balance on

13:45

my left leg, which was the

13:47

non-injured leg and just

13:49

working, thankfully I have a

13:51

team with me who

13:54

can really advise and create programs

13:56

and workouts that are specific

13:58

to me and my needs. and I

14:01

just I think stay

14:04

motivated and keep

14:06

on working with what you have. So

14:09

speaking of challenges, was

14:12

that your most challenging climb or do you

14:14

have like a really

14:17

hard climb and if you do how did

14:19

it feel when you completed it and why

14:21

do you think you pushed yourself so hard?

14:25

You know honestly I don't I can't

14:27

look at my career and say that

14:30

was the hardest climb I've ever done or that

14:32

was the climb that made me

14:34

the most happy because whatever

14:36

my next goal is and whatever

14:38

the most recent accomplishment is is

14:41

kind of what I can look at as

14:43

that motivation for the next project but I

14:46

definitely have had successes

14:50

outdoors that I look at and and

14:52

I feel really proud of. I

14:55

think that this last summer was

14:57

one of them I did the

14:59

first female ascent of three significant

15:01

mountains in the Canadian Rockies and

15:04

I think that you know

15:06

what really motivates me the most is looking

15:09

at my goals moving forward and thinking

15:11

this is what I'm training for and

15:13

when I arrive at this location I

15:16

want to be as prepared as possible

15:18

so that's really I guess

15:20

my my driving force. That's

15:23

so cool that you kind of

15:25

focus as like everything as like

15:27

not really challenging

15:29

but you think of your next step harder

15:32

and you keep on making it

15:34

harder and harder for yourself and

15:37

you just don't focus on the

15:39

challenging parts you just focus on

15:41

your goal your ending goal. Totally.

15:44

I Know that one issue you have

15:46

raised before is like the serious issue

15:49

of bullying and particular like cyber bullying.

15:51

So since you have a large following

15:53

on social media and have dealt with

15:56

people like writing and saying mean things

15:58

I Was wondering if you have any

16:00

advice on how you have dealt with

16:02

this. Yeah. That's

16:04

a good question. Also sensitive why

16:07

they think that our world is

16:09

relatively new to social media in

16:11

it ties extreme better sense in

16:13

the way that. We. "Can

16:15

create our own voice and have

16:17

a platform to share it in

16:20

and sat change and super positive

16:22

ways and think that some people"

16:25

Abuse that access and use

16:27

it more in and manipulate

16:29

ever aggressively. And I think

16:31

that. My. My

16:33

goal in my platform and just

16:35

my approach to life is that

16:38

you have to generate as much

16:40

kindness and positivity as you can

16:42

and put that out there and.

16:44

I. Think they. Also.

16:47

Recognizing. Your. Platform

16:49

is for you to stand up

16:51

to what you don't believe in

16:54

on and also send out for

16:56

what you want. Other people. To.

17:01

Understand. About what what your

17:03

views are and cyber bullying me

17:05

a really dangerous thing as can

17:07

just general bullying on and what

17:09

I've learned is that you have

17:12

to surround yourself by positive people

17:14

who really love you in the

17:16

way that you really appreciate them

17:18

as well. I'm insane your

17:21

own lane. Like a a being

17:23

that. Is. The same. It's always when

17:25

the Us at the top of the sri

17:27

in a the are doing something well. Then

17:29

there's going to be people who are insecure.

17:31

Buy that. For. Whatever reason and

17:34

you just have to know

17:36

enough to respect yourself and

17:38

also the people who. Gave.

17:41

You this positive feedback on enough

17:43

to know when to say enough

17:46

is enough and also when to

17:48

just ignore it and continue on

17:50

and and live your best life.

17:54

i totally agree with everything you said

17:56

because i have a dell is people

17:58

reading a mean really of my podcast,

18:00

so my parents taught me early on

18:02

that there will always

18:04

be haters, always people who are

18:07

insecure. So I just chose

18:09

to focus on all the young big dreamers

18:11

that I'm inspiring, and I won't

18:13

let the haters who have nothing better to

18:16

do destroy my big dreams. I

18:18

totally agree. I love it. So this

18:20

is more of a comment than a question.

18:23

I saw in one of your videos that

18:25

you that in your garage at home, you

18:27

have a tread wall, which is like a

18:29

treadmill, but a wall. So

18:32

how does that exactly work? So

18:35

the tread wall is a great training tool

18:38

for to have at home

18:40

or at the gym. And I can

18:43

adjust the angle at which the

18:45

wall is steep or not steep.

18:47

So more vertical versus more inclined.

18:49

So you're climbing on

18:53

overhanging terrain. And

18:55

I can also adjust the speed. So there's

18:57

a scale from one to 10. And I

18:59

just pull lever to make it faster or

19:02

slower. And then there's a

19:04

tracking device that shows you how

19:06

many feet you've covered

19:09

over how much time and

19:12

also, you know, your like energy

19:14

output. And I can work

19:16

on my pacing through this tool.

19:19

And also, I mean,

19:21

I could climb 3000 feet in

19:24

my garage, which is pretty cool. Wow,

19:26

that I agree. That's the coolest

19:28

thing ever. So I have a

19:31

couple of last questions for you. If

19:33

you go back in time and talk to your 10

19:36

year old self, what would be your best advice? I

19:39

think if I went back and talked to

19:41

my 10 year old self, I

19:43

would say, continue doing what you love

19:49

to do. And don't worry about the

19:51

people that give you negative feedback, because

19:54

there's always people that support

19:56

you and love you and love you. get

20:00

them for advice, not the people who are just trying

20:02

to bring you down. That's

20:04

so inspirational. You're

20:07

so right. So big dreamers out there, make

20:09

sure that don't focus on

20:11

the haters because they're going to

20:13

hate, but your family and

20:15

your friends and the people who love you

20:17

will always support you. So

20:19

I know you have already made many of

20:21

your dreams a reality, but if you look

20:23

at yourself today, what is your big dream

20:25

for the future? I

20:28

think for the immediate future, I am

20:30

really excited about doing

20:33

bigger exploration trips, traveling

20:35

to more countries, spreading

20:38

what I really love about climbing to

20:40

new areas and using

20:42

climbing really as that vessel

20:45

to learn about the

20:47

world and about the cultures that exist within

20:49

it. I

20:51

would love to down the line

20:53

work within the sports space and

20:55

women as well. I think that

20:58

women in adventure and action sports

21:01

are relatively unrepresented and

21:03

I would

21:06

love to change that and also

21:08

work with other female athletes to build their

21:11

own brands. That's

21:13

such a cool dream that you have

21:15

to just go out there, travel

21:18

more, work with new brands and

21:21

inspire a woman and

21:23

everyone out there. So

21:25

for very last question, Sasha, where can

21:28

our audience find out more about you?

21:30

I would say that the easiest way

21:32

to find out and follow wherever I

21:34

am is on social

21:36

media. So my handle is just

21:39

at my name, Sasha DeJolene,

21:41

and I post quite frequently

21:43

there. So that's the easiest

21:46

way to follow along as well

21:48

as I have an adventure series

21:50

called 10am on a Tuesday. And

21:53

I post that link on my social profile as

21:55

well as on YouTube and

21:58

it's away from to

22:00

share my training, my

22:02

travel, and my climbing with

22:05

my audience. So everyone

22:07

out there, you heard Sasha.

22:09

All you gotta do is go on

22:11

YouTube, Instagram, and just find out more

22:13

about Sasha. Thank you so much

22:16

for being on the podcast. Thank

22:18

you so much for having me, Eva. Have a good day. You

22:20

too. Bye. Bye. That

22:23

was so much fun. I still can't get

22:25

over the footage of Sasha's training on the

22:27

wall with a cast on. To

22:29

me, that really showed how she was not going

22:32

to let anything get in the way of her

22:34

training and mission to become the best climber she

22:36

can be. Thank you, Sasha, for

22:38

your time and for all the great tips and

22:40

lessons you taught her big dreamers. Did

22:43

you enjoy this special episode? If so,

22:45

please tell your friends and family about

22:47

the Dream It podcast. If everyone

22:49

listening can just tell one person about this

22:51

episode, that would lead to a chain reaction

22:53

that would get the Dream It podcast for

22:55

so many new people, which would be amazing.

22:57

If you haven't already, be

22:59

sure to hit the subscribe button so that

23:02

you can be notified whenever we release a

23:04

new episode. Thank you so much for tuning

23:06

in. This is Eva Cartman reminding you that

23:08

you have unlimited potential. Your dreams

23:10

are not optional. You need to make them essential.

23:13

So take massive action to turn those

23:15

big dreams into reality. Live with passion

23:18

the way life was meant to be.

23:20

I'll see you next episode. Bye. Big

23:24

dreamers, thank you so much for listening to this

23:26

episode. Just a quick reminder You

23:28

can find all the show notes

23:30

at dream big podcast.com/ 397

23:34

including all the links. We also

23:36

put all the links in the description below Remember,

23:39

you can find us on YouTube Kids

23:41

as well, subscribe, and of course, use

23:44

your Alexa and Amazon Music.

23:47

We are there as well. We'll

23:49

see you in the next episode. Thank you so much

23:51

for tuning in. Bye.