We had the good fortune of connecting with Jeannie Bartholomew and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jeannie, how do you think about risk?
Jeannie- One of my favorite quotes is “The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that is changing quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks” Mark Zuckerberg I think about risk as a necessity for growth. If you don’t take risks you will never find find out what you are truly capable of. In skydiving, especially canopy piloting we take risks every day. Those risks are very calculated. To become successful in business or sport, you cant play it safe, you have to take risks but you can do that in a way where you position yourself for success. When I was 24 I picked up my entire life and moved from California to Florida to pursue a career in Skydiving. At the time I had a very successful business in All Star cheerleading. A business I had dreamed of my whole life. Something was pulling me away from that world and into a whole new one. That move was scary and hard, but it put me on a new path where I would go on to inspire and help many people in our sport, I also met my Husband whom I have been with for over 13 years now. We’ve gone on to build an incredible life where we travel the world teaching people how to fly their parachutes. Developed a successful canopy piloting competition business where we help aspiring pilots grow and become incredible athletes on the International level! And created a travel adventure company where we take skydivers on destination trips to experience some of the things we have in our careers. All of these companies involved taking risks at some level and hoping we didn’t lose everything trying to create them. We became successful by taking risks.

What should our readers know about your business?
We came up with the idea of Alter Ego because when skydivers come out to a drop zone to skydive their Alter Egos come out to play. They don’t have to be the everyday person working 9-5, they can take risks and feel what its truly like to be free. We developed our coaching based off of my Husbands degree in aeronautics. We came up with a fun and simple curriculum to teach people to fly their parachutes and make the learning process fun! We started out with just the two of us coaching. Today we have 26 instructors around the world that teach our courses in over 8 different languages! When we started out, we were not well known. There was another canopy flight school that had monopolized the industry. We started gaining recognition when our Team started winning every competition. Our names were getting out into the industry and in the magazines and it didn’t take long for us to start booking out a year in advance. Our curriculum was different, new and cutting edge and word was spreading. At the time I had a full time job, as we continued to get more and more work I realized I needed to take a chance and leave my full time job to pursue my dreams. My Husband and I built our businesses from the ground up, without any help. We were always told we could’nt do it, or we wouldn’t make it and here we are.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
When we were competing in Arizona my best friend did come out to visit! We spent most of out time at the drop zone. We also enjoyed some beautiful hikes up Picacho Mountain, we went to the neon sign park in Casa Grande and the Casa Grande museum! There was a fabulous ghost hunting tour in the town of Jerome where we experienced some very interesting and frightening paranormal activity! We also visited some wonderful local wineries in the area.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My husband has been my coach and mentor my entire career. He is an 8X World Champion, 10X National Champion and the greatest canopy pilot in the history of our sport. He has pushed me past the limits I had put on myself and helped me reach the level I am at today.

Website: www.thealteregoproject.com

Instagram: Alex_pink

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JeanniebartholomewAEF/

Image Credits
Bina Maja Lars Mikkelsen Jim Harris

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