Faster,Higher, Stronger

JASON DESAULNIERS Advisor and Endurance Athlete

Jason Desaulniers, CFP, CLU, CIM, CHS, founder of Excalibur Executive Planning in Edmonton, has been challenging himself in obstacle course races (OCRs) since 2018 — think extreme races that include wall climbs and sandbag-carries, like the 50-kilometre Spartan Ultra or the 60-hour Agoge. But last November he took things to a whole other level. He and his partner, Chantal Lacasse, who met at an OCR race in 2019, completed an OCR at Everest base camp in Nepal that ended up being a Guinness World Record-earning event for the greatest ascent and descent on an obstacle course race (3.019 kilometres).

Desaulniers, 48, who started in the financial industry in 1996 and founded Excalibur in 2007, has travelled the world to do these races, heading to such places as Abu Dhabi, Sweden, and Greece. What attracts him to OCRs is the challenge.

“I like to test my ability to see how far I can push myself physically and mentally and get through it,” he explains. “There are a lot of opportunities to solve problems or overcome obstacles; physical obstacles, for sure, but also mental ones like maps to decipher, clues to uncover, or memory tests to do as part of these things. Quite often, there’s a fair bit of risk mitigation as well.”

Excalibur’s speciality is helping business owners by creating risk management and estate planning strategies and comprehensive investment solutions, and Desaulniers sees this work as something that’s helped prepare him for these races.

“I’ve been an advisor a lot longer than I’ve been an endurance athlete, and being an advisor has helped me become a better athlete,” he notes.

“Both roles definitely require of a lot of mental fortitude, a lot of grit, [and] the ability to overcome obstacles. As an advisor, a lot of those obstacles are mental obstacles — dealing with people [and] with the challenges of operating a business.”

But it goes both ways, he says. Having mental fortitude, which he has honed via OCRs, has helped him support clients in crisis.

“When I’m dealing with clients that are going through challenging times, … I can draw on those tools and techniques [learned in races] to help them with getting through their journey.”