# How to Become Resilient and Break World Records (ft. Dean Stott)

An episode of [SOLVED with Mark Manson](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1247526593), 19 Jun 2024, 1 h 05 min.

Audio: https://claritaspod.com/measure/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/441/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/episode.flightcast.com/wyws4w814uput9oiyl7ra8hv.mp3

After a catastrophic parachuting accident ended his military career in the British special forces, Dean Stott couldn't just retire to a quiet life. Instead, he decided to shatter boundaries in entirely new fields. These days, when Dean isn't prepping to beat another world record, like a 14,000-mile bike ride in less than 100 days, he's jet-setting around the world rescuing civilians and diplomats alike from war zones. In this episode, Dean shares his unique approach to overcoming adversity, managing risk, and staying mentally tough in the most challenging situations. We explore his fascinating experiences from war-torn countries to royal security and the psychological benefits of meticulous planning and mission-driven thinking. Dean also offers a glimpse into how he balances extreme challenges with a grounded personal life. Enjoy. CHAPTERS Chapters • 00:00:00 Introduction: The Baddest Motherfucker I've Ever Met • 00:03:40 Dean's Relationship to Pain and the Parachuting Incident • 00:08:04 Breaking the Pan-American Highway World Record • 00:12:18 Mortality, Risk, and Making Smart Decisions • 00:16:18 The Canadian Embassy Evacuation and Understanding Local Cultures • 00:20:01 Building Trust in Dangerous Places • 00:22:17 Choosing the Harder Path and Becoming SBS • 00:25:47 What the Military Teaches That Civilians Miss • 00:30:53 Preparation, Perfectionism, and OCD • 00:33:24 Dealing With Extremes and Training Two Up • 00:37:57 The Power of Non-Judgment and Making Friends Anywhere • 00:39:46 Alana: Partnership, Purpose, and Power Couple Dynamics • 00:46:56 The Duty to Give Back and How to Ask for Money • 00:48:03 Meeting Prince Harry and Fox Piss One • 00:52:31 The Skill of Being Famous and the Burden of Duty • 00:59:02 Toughest Forces on Earth and Still Got It • 01:02:51 Ocean Rowing the West Coast and Taking Alana Out of Her Comfort Zone ⇨ Sign up for my newsletter, Your Next Breakthrough. It will help make you a less awful person: https://markmanson.net/breakthrough ⇨ Get clarity on what actually matters. Try Purpose, Mark's AI mentor app that learns your patterns, challenges your blind spots, and helps you take action. Get started at https://bit.ly/4w46FMH FOLLOW MARK Mark's IG: https://www.instagram.com/markmanson Solved IG: https://www.instagram.com/solvedpodcast/ Twitter: https://x.com/markmanson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmanson/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IAmMarkManson

## Transcript

[0:00] Imagine there's a guy in Special Forces who nearly rips his leg off in a parachuting accident. It puts him in the hospital for nearly a year and ends his military career. Now imagine if that same guy went on to break cycling world records with no prior experience cycling. Yeah, what the fuck. My guest today is that guy. His name is Dean Stott and he is the baddest motherfucker I've ever met.
[0:23] And aside from breaking absurd cycling world records, he was a member of the United Kingdom's special forces for 16 years. He has been on missions in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen, among other undisclosed locations. Since leaving the military, he's worked in private security, extracting foreigners in war zones and protecting members of the royal family. As you will see, Dean's mental strength is absolutely awe-inspiring.
[0:47] He's been in some of the most difficult situations imaginable, both mentally and physically, and in this episode, we're gonna discuss all of that. We're gonna talk about his relationship to pain and how he's trained himself over the years to never be stopped or affected by it. We're gonna talk about the psychological benefits of an absurd amount of planning, and why it's useful to see everything as a mission, and how Dean thinks about risk.
[1:10] We'll discuss the importance of remaining aware of one's mortality without also being consumed by it. We talk about why understanding local cultures and respecting each individual is actually the key to safety and getting things done in the most dangerous places in the world. We talk about his wife and the role that she has played in his success and how they've stayed connected and happy despite the fact that he keeps doing things that risk his life.
[1:34] And in the conversation, Dean shares with us the one thing that he believes the military teaches that every civilian would benefit from. Dean, if you haven't noticed, is kind of a badass, but you'd never know it by just talking to him. I met him at a friend's house a few years ago where we mostly talked about surfing. It was only at the end of the night that someone happened to mention that he was single handedly responsible for evacuating the entire Canadian embassy from Benghazi and Libya when the civil war broke out. And then I was like, wait,
[2:02] What the fuck did he do? Dean's laid back, easy going nature is, as we'll see, the key to the scope of his success. Security is, after all, ultimately about managing people. Whether through force or through mutual respect and understanding, Dean is world class at both.
[2:19] Now this conversation was a blast. I know it's going to blow your mind and be a ton of fun, but before we get into it, I have a quick announcement to make. We are moving the podcast over to its own YouTube channel. So if you're still watching on the Mark Manson channel, please go over to the Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck podcast channel and watch the episodes there. In July, we're going to only post episodes over there. So pretty soon, you're not going to see them here anymore. So please go over there, subscribe. The link's in the description below. Without further ado, this is Dean Stott.
[2:47] Let's get into it. The podcast that's saving the world one fewer fuck at a time. It's the Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck podcast with your host, Mark Manson. Dean, it's good to see you, man. Hey, good to see you again. It's been a while. Yeah. Welcome to the pod, my friend. You might have the distinction...
[3:10] of being the hardest motherfucker I personally know. If there was like a death match and my life depended on it and I had to like nominate a champion, I would call up Dean Snod. You clearly didn't have many names in your phone book. Well, you know, I don't, my circle of friends are a little bit bookish and nerdy. So, but it's great to see you. It's great to have you here. I've known you for a few years. We've talked a lot about your stories.
[3:40] the last couple of days. I want to start with just a very kind of philosophical question. How would you describe your relationship to pain? To pain is, it's a respect thing. Yeah. Yeah. And so for me, I understand...
[3:56] When I'm in pain either physically, I try and take a negative and turn it into a positive. So for me, there's been incidents throughout my military career where I've had pain, whether that's through an injury. But I also know that you can work through that pain. For me, all I need to know is if I carry on with this pain threshold, is there going to be any long-term damage or is it just short-term? If I realize it's just short-term,
[4:22] then it sort of subsides in my head and I can manage to sort of push through it. And the same in the physical aspect when I'm doing some of these big challenges. You know, I like – I'm not a glut for pain. I just – I don't like pain, but I can just respect it. I tend to know now how far I can push my body and then realize actually what is actual –
[4:45] just pain through physical endurance or what is actual pain through a long-term injury. A big factor for me was when I got injured out of the special forces, you know, that incident, I had a parachute in accident. Um, I exited the aircraft, my leg got caught up in a line and that pain, I'd never felt pain like that before. And it was that bad. I was vomiting because of the pain. Uh, and so then I knew that was a distinction. This is pain I never felt before. It's not like pain through physical activity. So,
[5:13] For me, I just know the varying levels of pains and I know how far I can push. I mean, if there's this point where I realize actually this is too much and it may have detrimental effects long term, then I'll wind it back. But if I know that it's not going to have an issue, I'll try and push even harder. Did that parachuting incident, was that a little – is there like any sort of before and after experience with that of like –
[5:38] the things that you push through after that incident, you're like, oh, I've been through so much worse than this. Like, this is nothing.
[5:44] No, with that one slightly different. I've known guys that were on operations in Afghan and the guy would go over on his ankle. He actually broke his leg and carried on on the assault and then marched out 10 miles afterwards, you know, because guys don't want to let each other down. And so I've seen guys with pain thresholds, but with this one, I knew it was different. I have had fractures before. I've had numerous injuries. You know, it's the nature of the beast in the special forces.
[6:13] But this one was slightly different. This I was like, I think for me, we were about to go out to Afghanistan in two weeks time. And that's all I was looking forward to. And then I sort of knew I'm not going to be going with my friends. And so it was a mixture of physically not being able to do, but mentally trying to get my head around that. I think that was probably the mental was the hard thing. You know, the physical I don't mind with.
[6:36] So I like that the purpose thing makes a lot of sense, right? Like if there's some sort of higher purpose or deeper cause, right? Like that gives a justification of like, okay, just ignore the pain. Like I imagine that's a huge part of it. But it's just funny reading your story as a civilian, as like somebody who's never done anything like this, right? Like I read your story both in terms of the special forces stuff, you know.
[7:03] You write about in Kosovo being up in subzero temperatures up in the mountains for 20 days straight, right? Or doing the bike, the Pan American Highway bike ride, which I just imagine like you probably got blisters on your ass. You're getting pelted with like rain and wind and hail. Yeah.
[7:24] you're climbing up mountains for literally weeks and weeks and weeks in a row, right? Like, it's – I just – when I try to imagine myself in those situations, my experience with, like, enduring long durations of pain is that I eventually reach a point where my mind is just, like, desperate to escape, you know, and starts rationalizing any reason I can come up with of, like –
[7:49] Get the fuck out of here. Like any excuse, any story that seems even mildly believable. And so when I meet somebody like you, I'm just curious, like, A, do those stories come up? And B, if so, how do you respond to them? Or do you respond to them?
[8:04] So for me, when it came to the bike ride, you know, I'd been in all those environments before, but I'd never done it on a bike. And so I just literally, I think if I did that bike ride at a very young age, I probably wouldn't have been able to do it. I literally was able to do it because I'd taken all those experiences before and just put it into a sport. And yeah, like you said, your worst enemy is your mind.
[8:29] You know what I mean? When it is hard and it is tough, you do start drifting away. You always look at maybe the easy route out. So actually for the listeners, I'd never cycle more than 20 miles before I applied for the world record for the world's longest road, 14,000 miles.
[8:45] And six months before I even went off on the challenge, we had a fundraising group together. We were already planning the welcome back party before I'd even set off. You know, so I remember Amanda, she was the fundraising manager. And she said, look, Dean, she goes, what is the contingency?
[9:02] Because she had to obviously think about all these options. And Alana would say, well, we go to Dean's funeral. And I never used to answer. And the reason I didn't answer her, and I did answer when I got back, I said, look, if I knew there was a contingency, if I knew it got hard and it got difficult and there was an alternative, you naturally take that route. Yes.
[9:22] And so for me, I was blocking off those exit routes. And it was literally the only way this is going to end is either me dead or we finish this challenge. And so that's how I look at it. In the military, especially Special Forces, we're mission driven. We had a mission. My mission was to get to Alaska.
[9:40] in quicker than 117 days. So that was always the mission. You know, how we do it, you know, the plan from the start to the actual, the way it actually panned out was two totally different things. You know, we're having to change plans on the road. And then the other sort of distractions as well, you know, is when it's getting hard. You know, we raise money for a mental health campaign.
[10:00] which had 11 charities under it, everything from young children, teenagers, postnatal depression, veterans, adults. And so for me, one of the charities I was doing the bike ride for was called Place to Be, which was basically helping children in school speak to a counsellor. And the £100,000 that they got would have enabled 14,000 children to speak to a counsellor. So I just related that to the miles I was doing. So each mile I'm on this bike, another child is getting to...
[10:29] to speak to someone, but unlike other, maybe, um, cycling and adventurers out there, a lot of them, they, they do the bike ride and they have a team that sort of coordinate all the planning and the coordination. Alana and I did the planning and coordination for this. So that would also was another distraction for me. So rather than just being fixated on the bike computer, I was already thinking about the next two or three stages as well. It was almost like a, a military operation. So I had those distractions when, when it was hard.
[10:57] But I also made sure I hit my targets for the day. I see people going out on challenges and like, well, I'm 10 miles behind today and I'll catch up tomorrow. But you don't know what's going to happen the next day. You could have another bad day, be 20 to 30 miles behind. So I always made sure by the end of the day I was where I should be because then you're in a good headspace. And at the evening when you go to bed, you know that next day we're on point where we are.
[11:24] That's interesting, the idea of providing yourself productive distraction. The useful things for your mind to work on that take it kind of away from the discomfort of the present moment. But you said the no contingency. I'm either going to do this or I'm dead. I love that. I mean, it reminds me of like the –
[11:44] the Spanish conquistadors burning the boats, you know, when they came to the new world. Uh, but that also requires a certain comfort with the possibility of one's own death. Like, I mean, and obviously doing, you know, being in special forces for so long, going on all these missions, well aware of the fact that you might not come back. Like, you know,
[12:02] What, how would you say your relationship is with thinking about your own mortality? Do you think about your own mortality when you're on these missions, when you're doing extractions, when you're in war zones? And if so, like, how did you develop a comfort level with that?
[12:18] Yeah, I think you do think about your own mortality. You're naive to think that you're indestructible or an immortal. So for me, you know, I was very fortunate. I've been on these operations with guys. And in this special forces, especially like we're in tier one special forces, and literally everything is about mission success, mission success, and getting the guys back. We don't think anything but that.
[12:40] And we do. We do get guys injured and we do lose guys along the way. So for me, I sort of think I'm very fortunate. I've been in those situations. I'm still here. I think your time is your time. I think sometimes you can focus too much. If you think too much about...
[12:57] your mortality, then it's going to blur your vision. You know, that's going to instill so much fear into you you don't even want to go do it. So it's a balance. It's a balance of thinking that, no, I'm not indestructible, but I still need to complete this mission. But where, you know, the training sort of,
[13:15] It helps you mentally. You know that you've been through a situation before. You know you are one of the best trained in the world and you can do it. And having a plan as well. You know, for me, whether it's the evacuations, whether it's the bike ride, you know, have a plan, be comfortable with your plan. But as I mentioned before, you know, also be respectful of the fact that it doesn't always go to plan.
[13:35] And I think that's where the special forces and where I have done really well is the fact that I've had to react to situation changes on the ground. You know, when I'm before I deploy somewhere to do evacuations, you already have in your head a perception of what it's going to be like when you get there. And then when you actually get there, it's like, OK, we need to change the plan. And so. So, yeah, so back to your original question, I'm not naive to think I'm an immortal. I'm comfortable in the fact that, you know, in my training, having a plan.
[14:04] Um, and yeah, I've been in situations that I'm still here to tell them stories where some of my friends aren't. And so I'm unfortunate in that aspect. Yeah. You have, uh, like a, uh, a penchant for risk, obviously is kind of what we're talking about here too. Um, but you, I'm sure you've learned how to mitigate a lot of that or at least approach it. What is your approach to risk? Like what, what to you makes a smart risk worth taking versus a dumb one?
[14:29] Because you've taken some extreme risks. Yeah, I take some extreme risks. You know, a lot of the stuff I do is probably more so the evacuations that I do. You know, everyone sees, you know, Hollywood doesn't help matters. You know, I call it the biceps, the bullets, the biceps, the bullets and the bombs. You know, it's almost like, you know, it's all exciting and it's blown off. You know, I say that that's 25%.
[14:51] of what we do is what you see on the TV. And that's always the last resort. Actually, 50% of what we do isn't really that sexy at all. It's hearts and minds, support and influence is being embedded with locals, understanding demographics, politics, tribal influences. So that's where my success has been is the fact that I utilize as many local resources as possible. If I was trying to, again, I'd be naive to say I'm going to go into Israel, I'm going to go into Libya and get these people out without that. So for me,
[15:19] It's having a plan, having those local resources that help you. And then some of the risks, it has to be balanced. I'm not going to take stupid risks at all. The only time I would take a risk if there was...
[15:35] If someone's life was imminent, was at risk, then I would have to make a decision which would probably offset the balance. But actually, someone said, when you leave the special forces and go into the private security sector, you've gone from being one of the bravest in the world to the biggest cowards.
[15:51] Because actually a security guy who ends up getting into trouble hasn't looked at all the potential options in front of him. You know, you need to, if there's trouble over there, why would you walk towards that direction? You go around. And so, yeah, we do a lot of risk mitigation. And like I said, the only time we would ever compromise something like that is if someone's life was imminently at risk. So I imagine you've turned down a number of jobs just because it seemed too risky. Yeah.
[16:18] I always like to look at an alternative option. For example, the Canadian embassy in 2014, I single-handedly evacuated the Canadian embassy out of Libya, 18 military and four diplomats. And all the other security companies couldn't come back in. I didn't need a big team. I looked at the situation we had on the ground. We had to get from A to B and it wasn't actually that far. It was the coastal road from
[16:44] Libya to Tunis. So I got a fixer who was from the local tribes who came out and we spoke to the tribal elders. I didn't want to bring any attention to the group. They had their diplomatic vehicles, which should have safe passage through. Their issue was all their specialist equipment. And so for me, I was like, well, how do we get this specialist equipment out undetected? And so they had from Tripoli to Tunis, the Tripoli port, their fish wagons every day
[17:13] doing that route and just literally get waved through customs. And so that's what I did. I just got to the local fish wagons and stuck millions of dollars of all their sensitive equipment in there. So we just looked at it in a different manner. And also, I think the week before, the British Embassy got shot at every checkpoint between Tripoli and Tunis. And so I went out. I didn't speak.
[17:39] to the guys with the guns, me and my fixer, who's from Zawara, which was the border town to Tunis. We went out and spoke to the tribal elders and we just sat down with them and we just explained who we are, what our intentions were. And it was just about showing them a bit of respect and a bit of communication.
[17:58] And, you know, that's what's managed to get me through some of these hairy situations is the fact that don't try and sneak around. You know, the reason the British MJ got shot is because they hadn't communicated with them and they just drove through the checkpoints at speed panicking. And so, again, it's everyone's perception or lack of knowledge of the regions. And so that's where my approach is slightly different. And you had had previous experience in Libya, so you knew...
[18:26] a lot of the local people, the dynamics, the tribal affiliations and everything. Yeah, the tribal affiliations in Libya is very difficult to navigate. There's 167 tribes in Libya. So my original one back in 2012, when your American ambassador got killed in Benghazi, I was there that evening and got an oil company, a German oil company from Benghazi back to Tripoli.
[18:53] And again, you know, someone without real knowledge of the ground would probably say, right, let's take the coastal route and drive straight to Tripoli. But you have to then go through Maserata, Tripoli. You've got guys and drivers from Benghazi, and they're going to be your biggest risk. Not you yourselves as Westerners is the fact that, you know,
[19:12] It's these guys. So what I did with that one is rather than taking the coastal road, we headed south and I had a safe house in Zella out in the middle of the desert. And we just lay up there for 36 hours. And the reason we're laying up there was to, A, understand that local knowledge, whereas other providers may just panic and just take that coastal road and end up in trouble.
[19:34] Yeah, understanding the demographics, understanding the tribal influences and who's operating where and having the right fixes. I must have about 15 fixes in Libya, all for the varying regions. Yeah. How do you develop those relationships and get the trust that you need? That's got to take – there's cultural sensitivities you've got to think about. There's just – I mean, there are 167 tribes in Libya. Some of them probably don't like each other. How do you –
[20:01] You said it's hard to navigate. How do you even start to navigate that? So for me, the way I do things is I tend to work on my own as well. I keep a low profile. A good example of this and trying to establish these relations was Somalia. I got asked to go into Somalia to help. One of the largest private security companies in the world was struggling to get a footprint in there. And so everyone, when I landed in Mogadishu, everyone stays within the airbase.
[20:30] Well, I didn't. I just grabbed my bags and just walked straight out of the airport towards the nearest hotel. And you could see people look at me like, because obviously I do stand out, you know, I'm bald haired tattoos and like, you know, quite muscular. And I think they were just in shock. Like, who's this guy? But I got to the hotel. Hotel manager actually gave me an AK-47 and a pistol and said, you might need this.
[20:51] I probably would. But you then start to, you know, people start coming up to you. You know, before I went in, I obviously understood the history of the country as well. You know, I don't go in blind. I do my own homework first. And, you know, I was having meetings and people, it's all about networking. They said, oh, you speak to such a...
[21:10] a guy called Abshir, and I'm sure he's French intelligence. But actually, he was from London, typical of all the places. We could have actually done this back in London rather than in Mogadishu. But actually, when him and I sat down and we had some dinner on the beach in Mogadishu, I got their respect because he said, well, they get emails all the time from security providers and they all offer the same services. They're all ex-special forces and things like that.
[21:37] He said, but you've taken the risk. You've come here. You've come here. You've sat across the table from me. You now understand the atmospherics of the country. And so that's where I got a lot of respect is the fact that rather than doing it via email, I would land in the country and I would physically go see these people face to face. Because, again, my perception of Somalia and then what I actually saw when I got there were two different things. Now, I go spearfishing off Mogadishu and Mogadishu.
[22:01] We cook lobsters on the barbecue, but everyone obviously sees Black Hawk down and thinks that's their perception. So that's how I've managed to build those relationships. One common thread that I noticed, like throughout your life, you have these major decision points and you tend to...
[22:17] Choose the more challenging path. Like when you first joined the military, because your father was, he was in the military, but he was in charge of sports. He was a coach. And there was, that option was available to you. You could have easily followed that path, but you chose not to. You went, you wanted to become a paratrooper, I believe. Yeah, commando. Yeah. And go into combat. Then you chose to go into special forces, but it wasn't enough to go into special forces. You had to pick like the harder way to go into special forces, you know, instead of the normal route that most guys did it.
[22:46] It just seems like you, when the path forks and there's like, I don't want to call it the easy way, but there's like the challenging way and the more challenging way, you seem to consistently opt for the more challenging way. And I'm just curious, like, does that resonate? And if so, like, what...
[23:03] What drives that? What motivates that? Yeah, so for me, I didn't have a plan to be in the military. As you said, I called my father the Ted Lasso. He was the army soccer manager and coach. But now I've seen Ted Lasso. He's nothing like Ted Lasso. He's nothing like Ted Lasso at all.
[23:18] But he's what we call a tracksuit soldier. So his career, as you touched on, was very sports oriented. And my first year was the same. As soon as I realized my dad was Dave Stott, I was in the army soccer team and doing the same. And then like you said, I then joined the commando forces. But I always had a – my father told me going back slightly, I'd last two minutes. And so for me, I always say, you know, the best course of action is action itself. There's no point in arguing with someone.
[23:44] Because if they have their beliefs and you have your beliefs, the only way you're going to prove them wrong is by course of action. And so I did. I joined the army. And then once my dad realized I was actually being quite serious, he then supported me and gave me some direction. No, there's guys...
[24:00] I was on selection with who all they've ever wanted to be from a young boy at the age of six or seven is special forces. You know, they wanted to be a parachute or a commando and go SPS, SES. I always wanted to be a fireman. I had no ambition of being in the military as well. It's just my life had sort of put me in this position. Here I was on selection. So I never put myself under any self-induced pressure.
[24:24] It is what it is. Here I am. And some of these guys were coming off and failing. You know, they'd reached, you know, that time in their life, you know, do or die. And they were coming off and that was it. They were devastated. They would then leave the military. So for me, it was like, well, I pass, I pass. If I don't, I don't. And yeah, I ended up becoming one of the first army guys to go SBS. And I think now 15 percent of the SBS comes from the army. Do you consider yourself...
[24:50] a perfectionist. Yeah, I am. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like to, if I can, if I can, I'll try and get, you know, I have an OCD. Yeah. I, I, I, I hadn't had it all my life. I mean, it's something in the military, you know, I ended up, unfortunately it was a blip in my career. I ended up in a military prison, uh, for fighting, um, for 56 days, but I loved it because we had room inspections every day. Everything was methodical. It was in pairs. I was like, this is, this is amazing. Yeah.
[25:16] If I got paid to stay here, it's great. But my OCD seems to have sort of worn off now and I have three kids. My first daughter, I was literally around now, picking her up. But yeah, everything, like you say, everything I like to do, I like to try and do as much research. And I understand that you can't be a perfectionist, but just try and... Things don't always go to plan, as I keep touching on. What do you think is the most useful or important thing that guys learn in the military?
[25:47] that civilians don't have access to. That it's like, man, if everybody learned this the way military guys learned this or experienced this the way military guys experienced this, the world would be a better place if it had to be one thing. Yeah, I don't mean to say one thing. I do a lot of guest speaking, and everyone's fascinated in the corporate world. The battlefield to the boardroom, I call it.
[26:09] They understand your mindset, making these decisions in these sort of situations. And the thing is, that's one thing the military brings that no other organisation out there can replicate is the scenarios and situations that they put you in. Whether you're jumping into the Indian Ocean to then go rescue hostages or whether you're diving off a submarine off the coast of Libya, no one could do that. So for me, I think the real...
[26:39] takeaway I got from my time in the military was, was my self-confidence. I joined at the age of 17, I was five foot seven and probably weighed about 130 pounds. You know what I mean? So physically I wasn't there, but mentally it was believing that anything was, was, was, was possible. And so I'd probably say that's the big takeaway. Um, for me is, is that individual belief that you're, you're capable of doing it, but also that, that teamwork, that camaraderie, I think.
[27:08] Again, it's very difficult to replicate that in the civilian sector. Yes, you may work with people at work. Probably the only similar scenario is a professional sports team. I think that's what's lacked in the civilian sector, which you do get from the military. We literally go to the toilet together. We shower together. We live together for mums on end. Your lives depend on each other. I think that's the irreplicable thing. It's like...
[27:34] your life literally depends on the guy next to you. Yeah, literally. And as I said, you know, when I'm on the ground, two things I think about is mission success and getting everyone back on that helicopter. Because my guy in front of me, I met his wife and his kids. Yeah. You know, we have barbecues when we go back home. So it's not just, he's not just my coworker. I know everything.
[27:54] about him as well. And so, yeah, that's probably what you can't really replicate in the civilian sector is that sort of that brotherhood or camaraderie. And I think that's where a lot of guys, you know, we talk about mental health. I mean, that's where a lot of guys and girls struggle when they leave. You know, you obviously know the book Tribe. You know, you've left this tribe. You can't go back into that tribe. You know, what other tribe?
[28:19] do you belong in? And I had the same thing when I got injured out, you know, I had a huge identity crisis. My guys were going to Afghanistan and then I was going to physio. I mean, I was now a civilian. And so really I'd sort of lost that. You know, what is my role? What is my purpose? You know, how do I fit in society? So, um...
[28:38] So yeah, but you still, I could call one of my friends at any time now. And it's almost like, you know, if some of the guys haven't spoken for six years, but I could call him, it's like we were chatting yesterday. So I think that's probably what lacks in the civilian sector that we get in the military. And would you say the self-confidence piece that kind of comes back to what we were talking about pain and experience before of like,
[29:04] You get experience by having experiences. Like, you know, the military just puts you through so many difficult experiences that you can't help but develop that confidence of like, okay, I've been through worse before. Yeah. I think you just can't help. And it also has to be a bit of self-confidence as well. We used to get these annual reports. They were like confidential reports from your officer and they'd tell you about how you're doing and where you are with the rest of the guys and how you can advance in your career. And I used to always have the same comment every year. There's a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Yeah.
[29:34] And I was like, I said, yeah, but if you're good, you're good. And for me, it was like, it's almost contagious as well, because if you're leading a team and you're lacking a bit of confidence, they're looking at you for direction. And so, yeah, sometimes, yes, when you talk about fear or self-induced pressure. Yeah, there was times that I did have that, but I couldn't let...
[29:57] my team see that, you know, because they see fear in you that it will, you know, dissolve onto them. And so, so yeah, there was an element sometimes of like, but then because you were completing the missions and you were achieving, then yeah, there was an element of, you know, it's not arrogance. It was confidence. And I think you have to be confident because you have any doubt, then, you know, doubt will creep in and you won't be mission successful.
[30:20] Yeah. Well, I think would you say, too, that the military taught you how to deal with extremes in a way, not just extreme situations, but like you were saying, you you are a perfectionist and you put yourself in situations where your perfect plan is not going to pan out. And also, I mean, just things like some stories I've I've read and heard from you where you're in a very, very tense situation, but you have to be.
[30:44] You can't let that anybody know how freaked out you are or anything like that. So dealing with extremes within yourself, too, I think is probably a skill that.
[30:53] I know I don't. I certainly don't have very well. When extremes come up in my life, I tend to kind of just fall apart a lot of times. Yeah, but the military is great in the fact that, because it's not all on your shoulders, you've got the rest of the team. So what we do in the military, the British military, is we train two up. So if you're a land corporal, you already know the job of a sergeant. If you're a sergeant, you know the job of, so should something happen,
[31:18] These guys already know what to do as well. So actually, if you've got the best team around you, your job is quite easy because they already know what you're thinking. They've already done it. So that's the thing. It's trying to be two or three steps ahead of these guys who are experts as well. So that sort of takes the pressure off as well. It comes back to preparation. Yeah. Just like an obscene amount of preparation. Obscene amount.
[31:41] amount of preparation. Yeah. And that's what I mean, you know, you know, what you see, you know, the sexy stuff, you know, it's all the training behind the scenes, you know, for us, we used to do two year, it's like a two year rule month in the special forces and, you know, six months build up. So to Afghanistan or Iraq, you do all your training then. And then you also have your own individual skills, whether you're a medic, whether you're a JTAG brings in the jets, we were demolitions expert.
[32:06] You have to then practice all your insurgent skills. You are literally training and training all the time. And so when it actually comes to the operations, you're like, thank God we're actually here now. It's almost a bit of respite because of the training that's come before you. And then you come back from that tour and then you're on the pager to deploy anywhere around the world through this situation. And then we do counterterrorism hostage rescue. But unlike the US, we actually do homeland and overseas.
[32:33] So yeah, we got... So you're like SWAT team and... SWAT team, yeah. And extraction. And overseas as well. So you're, I mean, before you know it, you then start in the rotation to go back out to Afghanistan or Iraq. So literally the training behind the scenes is immense. And you have to stay current as well, you know, because by the time you go back out on your next tour, you're probably out of date.
[32:55] valid for about a year or maybe two years. And so, yeah. So the training, because it's training so consistent, it just becomes second nature. It just becomes second nature to you. I imagine a huge part of succeeding in your industry is just an intense lack of judgment. And I don't mean that in a... That sounds bad way. No, but like an intense lack of judging people based on...
[33:25] nationality, culture, ethnicity, gender. Like you're dealing with everybody from all walks of life, from all backgrounds, from all nationalities, probably extremely unique personal stories as well. And it just occurred to me that like the ability to –
[33:43] to just approach people as humans and not see them as by, you know, whatever label you want to put on them. It's true. It's probably an underrated trait. It's an underrated trait. Alana says to people, my USP is I can make a friend with anyone from any culture anywhere in the world.
[33:59] quite intimidating. Yeah. But it doesn't put anyone off. I make friends all over the world. And I think you're right. That's success. Unfortunately, you know, people are quick to tarnish a certain community because of something that was bad. So I take 9-11, for example. No, 9-11, although quite bad it was, you know, everyone tarnishes that Muslim community. But there's only a small minority that were bad. And there's small minorities that are bad in every culture, every community. And so for me, I'm telling you about some of these success stories. None of these would have been successful if it wasn't for those locals.
[34:29] Yeah. You know, and so I understand the benefits of them and how they can help me and help help the mission. So that's probably been, you know, one of the big factors of this is understanding and showing them respect. And when I go to some of these places, I will sit on the floor. They'll offer me a table with a fork.
[34:46] and a plate and a knife. And I'm, no, no, I'll sit with you. And that goes a long way, whereas some others may not. No, they may just be quite arrogant and just sit on the table with their knife and fork. So for me, it's understanding the cultures. And I do a lot of read. If I don't know, I'll ask before I go in. But, yeah, obviously I've been fortunate to go pretty much all over the world now. I think I've been over 110 countries around the world now.
[35:11] and understand the differences between the cultures. Simple ones like, and I also train as well travel security for some of the corporates and individuals. For example, Saudi is quite a sensitive place, but as long as you know what you're doing, people are worried about those places, but the only thing that gets them in trouble is their lack of knowledge.
[35:31] As we're seeing, Turks and Caicos, the Americans with ammunition in their bags, or WNBA women taking marijuana. It's just individual errors that get people in trouble. If you have a Bible in Saudi, that's fine. If you have two Bibles, you're a preacher who gets arrested.
[35:53] It's just understanding just little things like that. So I always say to people, you know, don't worry about these, you know, because it can be quite intimidating when you go to some of these places. You know, especially with the Middle East, the way that they talk to each other is quite loud and aggressive. I used to pick people up from the airport and I thought, what are they arguing about? Ooh, they're not arguing. That's just the way they speak. So I always tell people,
[36:15] my advice is to do a little bit of research, you know, and some of these websites, .gov.uk, the American equivalent, they have them on there. They have cultural awareness on there. And I always say that to people is, because that's the only thing I see that gets people in trouble is just the lack of cultural awareness. Yeah. Yeah. It also plays into like something that I, I found living abroad for a number of years and also just deeply believe that like,
[36:38] most people are good. Anywhere in the world, any country, any background, any religion, like the vast majority of people are just nice people who wanna help out. And it tends to be the people with not so much money as well, I find. You know, Africa is probably my favorite continent. You know, they don't have much money, but they are so hospitable. When I did my bike ride, actually, when I guest speak, you know, I always get the question, oh, what was it like? Because, you know, you cycle through South America and Central America and Mexico, Colombia. Well, Colombians love cycling, so that was it.
[37:07] Mexico, was it bad with the cartel? And I was like, no. The only security incident we had on that bike ride was in Colorado Springs. Someone broke into the support wagon in Colorado. So I'm sort of like, when I put that on the table, that really. But yeah, again, it's the media monster that scares people. And I think if you listen to everything you see or read, you would never travel. You never leave your front door.
[37:33] And so just take a little bit. Yes. And as you touched on, there's bad people in all communities. There's places in LA I won't go to. I was in New York a couple of weeks ago at a wedding. Oh, my word. And I felt safer down in Yemen or in Mogadishu. But then there's beautiful places in America as well. And I think everyone just needs to really understand that it's everywhere. Everywhere is a good and bad place.
[37:57] Well, I'm sure you've had these local relationships that you've developed, so many of them. I'm sure you've had some betrayal of trust or something like that. How do you deal with that when that comes up?
[38:07] Touch wood, I've never had one. Really? Yeah, I've never had betrayal of trust with foreigners working abroad. No, nothing really let me down. Is that just because you spent so much time up front developing that relationship and you've needed out every little detail that you needed? Developing that relationship and actually paying them a decent wage as well.
[38:27] A lot of these security providers will always look at how they can – a lot of these big security companies now are actually run by accountants. That's the problem. And so they're trying to obviously cost cut. So for me, it's like, no, it's fair. I will pay you, whether you're in Libyan, whether you're from Tunis or Guinea or Ghana, I'll pay you the same as what I'll pay one of my guys coming in from UK or America, which is huge for them.
[38:52] And so you don't then get, you know, because there's plenty of money to go around and they're not going to betray you because they're onto a good thing as well. And again, it's that respect thing is that, no, why would I pay you any less than someone else if you're delivering the same product? So, yeah, that's what I tend to do. So I say, I think where Alana and I've been quite successful, because it's a husband and wife, we're very nimble. We make a decision straight away rather than having to make phone calls and pull guys in. And so for us, it's just...
[39:22] Because we are nimble, I will fly in and we already have people on the ground. And so, you know, we'll just pay them what they're due. So speaking of Alana, how has all of this affected the relationship over the years? And how have you guys adapted to... I mean, because you're traveling all the time. Yeah. Or at least you were in the past. Yeah.
[39:46] you know, any given trip, there's a possibility you don't come back. You have kids. You have kids. So I imagine that's incredibly hard on her. Like, how did you guys navigate that? Yeah, like I say, everyone sees us now and like the power couple and things that, you know, no, but that's 15 years we've been together. There has been ups and downs. There's been mistakes along the way. You know, I talked about, you know, being home only 21 days and really that was lack of communication. You know, she thought I wanted to be away. I thought she wanted me to be away.
[40:16] And so we, we, again, we've, we've made mistakes. We've learned from those mistakes. We don't, um, we don't sort of fall back into that yin yang off balance. Everything we do is, is, is the give back factor as well. Um, you know, even the bike ride, you know, going away for so long, you know, dad's going to help children, you know, some of my daughters, that's fine.
[40:37] And so for me, it's just literally a lot of communication. And yes, there are sort of dangerous situations. And if Alana says no, then I won't go. But she understands Alana's got such a big heart. She always wants to give back. She sees the bigger picture about helping people as well. And so really, we're in a position where if you have the capability to do it,
[40:59] then I think you should do it. You should always give back if possible. I'm very fortunate. I have my skill sets. Alana has her skill sets and we can utilize them. And what you don't want to do is just sit back and hope someone else is going to pick it up and do it. That probably won't happen. But like I said, it's been turbulent, but we've now managed to find an even playing field, which works for us both.
[41:22] It sounds like getting aligned on purpose is a big part of that. Yeah. Literally, each mission has to have a purpose. Yeah. Because she works in the human trafficking area. The Haiti disaster had not long happened. And there was a woman there, and she was needing some security. And the price on her life was only like $5 over there. Wow. But they couldn't afford to get any security providers in. They were a nonprofit and stuff like that.
[41:52] help people and we can have the money to do that. So Alana trained, gave up the banking. When I got injured, I said, well, work in security. She's a close protection officer. She's a surveillance operator. She's done maritime security. But what she did do, she has an understanding of the security sector when it comes to planning. So yeah, we both work quite well on the things. And I'm very fortunate. I do have a forgiving wife in the fact that she does let me go away for long times.
[42:19] As I said, it has to have a purpose and a give back purpose as well. Yeah. And she sees that. If it's not benefiting someone or a community, then we won't do it. But there's also the fact that, you know, you also have to support your family as well. And so, you know, so we just got to get that balance. And sometimes we don't, you know, my wife sort of jokes, she's the, you know, she has a book, How to Ask for Money. Yeah.
[42:43] And the reason that book came about is, you know, my bike ride, she got me half a million pounds sponsorship as a non-cyclist. She raised $1.4 million for the charity. She's not scared in asking for money. But for me and a lot of guys in the military community, you know, we've, I joined the Army at 17, left at 33. You know, when I'm planning operations, you know, I need help.
[43:06] I need a UAV, I need a specter gunship, I need three Blackhawks, I need a squadron of 40 guys. No one gives me a bill. No one tells me what that costs. It's already done. And so you come from that environment to then leaving. And I said, oh, and I generally believe everyone in the corporate world was like the military. And she's, oh, no, no, no. She's cutthroat.
[43:29] So Alana literally, I still don't deal with any contracts. Alana deals with all of that. So she works from that side of the house and I work on the delivery. But no, it works well. When I said I was going to business with my wife, a friend of mine said that never worked. It might not work with his wife, but it has worked out for us.
[43:48] Well, you guys have a nice division of labor. Like there's really clear roles and it's like she has her skill set, you have your skill set. It sounds like there's not tons of overlap. Like you're both experts at what you do. And so there's like a nice synergy. Yeah, we understand our strengths and weaknesses. I don't get involved. You know, she said I'm the one who can schmooze clients. Clients like to talk to you, but then when it comes to contract, I just...
[44:11] Hand them over to Alana, yeah. And that's why I say, some of the clients that we have, some big names, when they come, they'll probably come to me initially with their problem. And then when we have the meeting, I'll bring Alana. I'll say, well, actually, everything you need, that's what Alana does back at house. Whether it's forensic investigatory stuff, due diligence, helping fix problems. And then I sort of say, if you need me, then it's all gone wrong. I mean, I've probably come a rescuer. It also sounds like
[44:40] I mean, I don't want to speak for her, but it sounds like she knows what she signed up for. Like it's I run into like I get a lot of emails from people with relationship or marriage problems. And I often see the circumstance where it's like, you know, I married a special forces guy. He's never around. He's always in war.
[44:57] zones. And it's like, well, yeah, you married a special forces guy. Like, this is what you signed up for. Yeah. Well, actually, when I met Alana, she didn't even know who the SBS was. When I told her I was in the SBS, there's a furniture company called SCS, you know, which deliver large sofas. She thought I was in the SCS. I was like, okay, that's fine. And so she hasn't been there. You know, that didn't work. But actually, you know, when you speak to Alana, she would talk about when she sort of...
[45:25] fell in love with me when she sort of knew this was a guy. So when I met her in Aberdeen, Aberdeen's like the oil and gas capital of Europe. It's like the Houston. So very much a lot of oil and gas people come in. Now we have, they have 400 offshore platforms off the coast of Aberdeen, yeah.
[45:41] And so very oil driven, male dominant environment. And, you know, she comes from a family and a background where you stay in your own lane. You end up being a bank manager at 21 and she's told she couldn't do it and ends up doing it. So when I met her, I said, I said, what is it you've always wanted to do? You've always been wanting to be in banking. She goes, no, no, I've always wanted to be a spy. I said, oh, so what have you done about it? She goes, oh, well, you know what?
[46:05] No, it's not for me. I was like, okay. So next day, I turned up at a bank with the MI6 joining instructions and a phone number for a friend who was actually doing recruiting for MI6. I said, give this guy a call. And she ended up – she went through the whole process. I think she got to the very last stage. I think she failed on family history, so God knows what I've married into.
[46:27] You're still figuring that one out. But for me, I think she then knew, well, this guy is going to push me. And likewise, she pushes me as well. She found the world's longest road. I was thinking maybe east to west coast of Scotland. She just finds the world. So we actually, we work well off each other. But that was the turning point for her. This guy is a bit different. Yeah. I think that's really important, pushing each other within the relationship. Trying to bring the best out of each other.
[46:56] Well, you both have such a strong sense of duty, too, it sounds like. I mean, you wanted to be a fireman and then join the military. And she works with human trafficking now. And you guys have this whole thing. Like you have this very strong sense of duty, I think, to your just fellow human beings. Is that kind of what drives you guys? Would you say a lot of this? Like when you're in these crazy situations that you put yourself in.
[47:16] What is, is it that sense of duty that you have to other people or like you said, because I can do it, I should do it. Yeah, I think it's an element of both. There's a sense of duty. But again, I think because we have the capability of doing it, you know, and we can make change and then we should. And we're very honest. If we can't.
[47:34] make it happen if you can't make it work but then you know you do know people who can you know a good friend of mine said to me when I first got out he said ding he goes when you go into these meetings you know if they ask you if you can do it just say yeah he said then afterwards because we do we have such a great network of people who probably can and so for us it's that sense of duty being able to we have the capability of doing it or if not we know who we can someone else who could help you yeah yeah nice we love it
[48:03] How did you meet Prince Harry? So Prince Harry and I were on a JTAC course. A JTAC course is a forward air control. He drops the bombs from the jets. And so back in 2007, so he was young. He was 23 at the time. He was a young second lieutenant, just joined, just come out of Sandhurst and joined the Blues and Royals. And his unit were going to Afghanistan.
[48:24] And so he wanted to go to Afghanistan as well, you know, wanted to go with his guys. But his commanding officer was a ex SAS Special Forces guy was like, well, you can't just go to Afghanistan. You need to have a role or a title. So go away, do the JTAC course and you can be the regimental forward air controller.
[48:42] So this course is in RAF Leeming in Yorkshire. And up there, you've got the Eurofighter, the Tornadoes, all the RAF, all the top guns. And then there's a little wooden hut at the end of the runway, which is where this course is run, where the Army are from. And the Air Force pay no attention.
[48:58] to this little hut. But the opening day, I turned up and there was a lot of, I call them brass. There was a lot of gold stripes. Higher ups. Higher ups, a lot of hierarchy around here for some reason. And I walked in the room and there's 18 students, 18 seats and the four back seats for the SAS and SBS, two SAS, two SBS. So I took my seat and I look in front of me and obviously Harry sat there.
[49:26] And every man and his dog came in for this opening address just to get some face time with him. So I was like, okay. Anyway, he then leaves the room. And then the sergeant major and the course officers say, look, you know who's on the course and he gets no preferential treatment. You treat him like one of your own. I was like, fine.
[49:43] So he comes back in the class and the first lecture we talk about is call signs. So on the course, they give you a number jackpot. So jackpot one to jackpot one eight. So the pilot then knows which student he's talking to on the communications. And then when you go to your units, you get your own call sign. So mine was Mayhem 4-3 in the SBS. We're Mayhem and then whatever your number is. And then the SES is like Widowmaker. So Harry puts his hand up and says, oh, you know, if successful on this course, do I get a call sign? Yeah.
[50:12] And I just blurted out. I said, yeah, you're Fox Piss 1. And of course, everyone's face, like jaws hit the ground. You know, I was out. What? And then so he looked around and he smiled. He saw my beret, smiled. And then that afternoon, the sergeant major said, right, I've randomly picked these jackpot numbers. You'll be working with me and the rest will be staff sergeant or whoever.
[50:36] And he ended up picking four numbers and 14. I was like, well, that's not an even split. But it ended up being me, Harry, an SAS guy and a RAF officer. And then you then have to work in pairs through the course. So he said, you're with Harry. Because he knew I would treat him as one of our own. And I didn't see him as a member. I did see him as a member of the royal family.
[50:58] I wasn't acting like that around him. I just saw him as a young officer. And yeah, he was a competent JTAC. He was good on the radio. He was great. And then, yeah, we then just maintained that relationship. And I used to do a lot of stuff for the Special Boat Service, our nonprofit. He would come to do some events there. Then when I ended up getting injured out of the military, I had an intelligence fusion cell phone.
[51:25] based in Mozambique and Tanzania. And we helped identify the smuggling roots of the ivory from Africa to Asia. And so I would always send that to him as well. So we had that relationship post-military. It wasn't until the bike ride really that's
[51:41] that sort of relationship came out in the public domain. Because it was actually, he was the first person I rang when Guinness had said, you've been successful. I said, I'm going to cycle the world's longest road. I said, what charity should we do it for? And him and his brother and Kate were just about launched Heads Together, which was a mental health campaign. And so, yeah, that was the one we raised the $1.4 million for.
[52:01] And so, yeah, that's when it then became apparent that you and this guy are friends. And here we are now, you know, 17 years on, still friends. He's only up the road. You know, things have changed. When I met him in 2007, I didn't even know Alana then. And, you know, he clearly didn't know Megan at the time. So we've known each other as single guys and they've grown up together. I've got married. I was fortunate to go to their wedding as well and see each other grow families.
[52:31] people there's a certain level of, of fame or status that makes most like when they are in the room, most people's brains just like people lose 20 IQ points. And it's as somebody who's just kind of fascinated with psychology, I, I found it endlessly interesting to watch. Um, but I'm curious a, how that plays into kind of thinking about security and, and, and your role. Um,
[53:01] But I'm also, I don't know, I'm... One thing that I noticed with him and some of the people that he used to hang around with is that, like, there's actually a skill to that. Like, there actually is... There is a reason why they picked you to go with him because some people don't seem to be able...
[53:16] to turn that off. Yeah, yeah, no. I've witnessed it before. I've seen people, their whole attitude change when they come in the room. I'm like, what are you doing? Just be normal. And I think that's what Alana said. I will speak to a child on the street the same as I will speak to a rural member of the family. There's no in-between. And that's the thing. I think that's where it's quite unique for me. I will speak to him like, so I'm not phased...
[53:41] buy it by that um but i i have seen it before and i i just yeah i think as you rightly said they pick up on that yeah they know that and that's one great thing about harry and i remember doing a uh promo video for the bike ride and we did it in kensington palace and this guy mark who was running the running the whole um production and we had four cameras and i mean harry walked in the courtyard and fucking
[54:07] Mark almost like jumped to attention. I was like, what are you doing? I was like, I can't help. But what Harry was great, because they pick up on it. Harry, before we did any film, he went round and spoke to everyone. Spoke to every cameraman, spoke to everyone behind the scenes and introduced himself and literally just put them all at ease. So they know it. They sense it. No doubt Will senses it as well. Some people aren't the same when they're in front of people.
[54:32] But for me, I don't have a filter. I'm just like, you know. And for him, that family, going back to your question, they were born into that. That's a hard life to be born into. They were constantly under the spotlight. And I think that's where I saw Harry at his best because he's not comfortable in speaking in public. He's admittedly, he doesn't like that. And so he was most comfortable in the military because he wasn't being judged as a member of the royal family. He was being judged as being an officer
[55:00] uh in the military and you know you know if you got things wrong you got things wrong if you got things right you got things right so but yeah i think they do pick up on those those things i and i think that skill goes both ways that's the other thing i like will there's a skill to being famous yeah like what you just said like knowing to go around introduce yourself to the cameraman knowing how to
[55:21] How to speak, you know, like understanding that your words are going to have more weight or are going to be interpreted in different ways. And what I've noticed just being around, I guess, some of the higher profile people that I've been around is that some people seem very naturally disposed to that. Like they have the personality for it. Like Will has the personality for it.
[55:42] He loves people. He loves chatting and schmoozing with people. Like, it's fun for him. Yeah. Some people it's not fun for. Yeah. And, like, it feels like pressure. It feels like work. It feels like judgment. And so, I mean, coming back to the crown, it's interesting because it's, like you said, they're born into it. And I imagine some of them are – they handle it well. Yeah. Like, you know, it's a personality thing. Some of them are just kind of built to, like, you know, it –
[56:10] this is no problem. This is part of it. And some of them are like, this is terrible. Probably the biggest difference there, like we'll probably doing it, you know, and, you know, financially, you know, he's there for, you know, he's good. They have to do it as a duty. Yeah. They're not getting paid for it. And they would do four or five a day. Yeah.
[56:27] And to keep that smile going for four or five times a day, you know, that's hard work. That's probably the big difference for them is they're not financially gaining. They're doing it as a duty, as a role, as a purpose. And so that's the difficult one, yeah. Well, that goes back a little bit. I was getting paid. I'd smile all day. I'll shake anybody's head. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[56:47] That duty thing, though, it goes back to I didn't really get the whole royal family thing. I was outsider looking in and everything. But I heard Ricky Gervais one time talk about how the prime minister has to go before the king or queen every single week. And that has to be somewhat of a humbling experience for them. Whereas, you know, like we see the president of the United States is, you know, the flout Congress. They're like, you know, whatever. There's nothing humbling the president of the United States. There's nothing humbling them.
[57:13] And that made a lot of sense to me. I was like, it just keeps it in historical context for them and puts it into context where they have to be a part of something that's much larger than themselves. And there's an institutional aspect of that as well. I remember – so I studied geopolitics in college and –
[57:32] like international relations. And I remember I took a class and there was a class on kind of English system and the constitutional monarchy. And the professor was saying, he was like, he said one thing that's unique, was unique about Queen Elizabeth was, you know, you can have a new prime minister come in. He thinks he's hot shit. He's got all these ideas, you know, and he explains it to the queen. And she's like, well...
[57:55] you know what Winston told me once, you know? He just pulls out the Churchill card and is like, yeah, you're not that smart. Probably Prime Minister number 11, don't worry about that. But I think with the royal family, and I talk about, you know, it's difficult for them because I think it's great keeping that history there. You know, that is very important, but obviously times are changing quite quick.
[58:18] You know, and so really it's finding that balance. And sometimes they've been criticized that before because you have the old suits. Yeah, this is the way we do it. But even you have to have the modern world. So I think like, you know, if I remember rightly, like Queen Elizabeth did like the first ever email, didn't they? And they did the first ever like radio. Yeah, her father did the radio broadcast.
[58:38] radio broadcast you know they've done a lot of things for the first um and so that's why i think like sort of william and kate will be great when they they come in and take over because he needs to almost like modernize the the the royal family um but they have a hard yeah hard balance yeah yeah so you just had a netflix show come out yes tell us about that
[59:02] Yeah. So I think you and I probably met each other nearly three years ago. You were just starting it. Just starting it. Yeah. So literally from the initial phone call to where we are has been over three years. So, yeah, Netflix show is called Toughest Forces on Earth. And the best way to describe it is almost like Top Gear with guns. Okay. But we can't call it Top Guns. That was taken. That was taken, yeah.
[59:25] And Litch is myself and two American co-hosts, and we go around the world, visit eight special forces units from around the globe, and we showcase what's unique about them. Whether geographically where they're placed, the threats to the country, environments that they operate in, different weapon systems, and sort of really just gives people an understanding of...
[59:46] of other units around the world and some of the other capabilities that we do, because people don't really get to see everything in the special forces. So for me, I'm 47 years old and I got injured out back in two years. I didn't think I was going to be falling through the ice or abseiling out of helicopters again. So for me, I thoroughly enjoyed it. But it gives people an idea of the militaries and all the other skill sets that you have and that it brings. Yeah.
[1:00:13] But also recruitment. Recruitment is at an all-time low around the world, apart from the U.S. Marine Corps, I think. Interesting. The one who's hitting their mark. What was your favorite of the eight? There's eight of them, right? Eight. Which was your favorite? Which was the hardest and which was your favorite?
[1:00:28] So we filmed in USA, Colombia, Mexico, Austria, Sweden, Jordan, Philippines, and Malaysia. So we went all the way around the world. Now, the hardest thing for me, for me, I was very fortunate. Everything we did, we filmed I'd done before. The only thing I hadn't done before was the swamp survival in Malaysia, where we literally were there in a pair of shorts, a weapon, and just got covered in mud. And so that was a new experience for me. So there was nothing that stood out that was hard. What was hard for me was...
[1:00:54] the transition going from one country to another. Literally, we were doing Arctic survival in Sweden. And then next one, we're in Colombia in the jungle. So we're from minus 30 to plus 30. Oh, my gosh. And so that – and then dealing with the time zones as well. So that was difficult for me. But a lot of it was refreshing and revision. Yeah. But for me, what I really took away was that you still had it. You know, that muscle memory hadn't gone too long. It needed a day or two. And then you're just almost like –
[1:01:23] back in the teams, which is great. Whereas for Cameron, you know, Cameron, the least experienced of us all, and a lot of these were new first to him. He'd never dived before. He'd never put skis on before, you know, and things like that. So that was a great, great experience for him. Nice. Dean Stott, still got it.
[1:01:39] I was slightly worried. I do pick up a military pension for being injured, not being able to run. And I ended up beating them two on the sprints. I'm like, Oh, don't take my pension back. Nice man. Well, thanks dude. I'm, I'm, I'm thrilled for you. I'm glad the show, the show came out and, um, everybody should check out the book. Anything else you want to promote? Any, any, I know you say you, you don't have a website.
[1:02:03] No, I have a website. It's deans.com. You have a website. The security business does not have a website. I've actually put a security page on there. So, you know, people need to get out, whether it's get in touch with, whether it's through security, they can find me on there. You know, as I said to you earlier, you know, the world only sees 30% of what we're doing and 70% of what we're not. But for me, I have another challenge coming up next year.
[1:02:25] I'm ocean rowing the West coast of America has never been done before, but we're going to start in Vancouver and finish in Tijuana. And so we've done charities, you know, human trafficking, we touched on veterans, you know, mental health, you know, we've done all that. This one is going to be for ocean conservation. Okay. Um, and to really highlight the issues there. And so next summer, so I've just bought a rowing machine. Um, um, I mean next summer I'll row the West coast of America.
[1:02:51] But the difference on this one, Alana is going to be joining me. Alana has done no, as in she has done no sport in her entire life. And she gets upset because when I did the bike ride, a lot of people were like, well, of course he could do it. He's special forces. Well, I know 99.9% of special forces couldn't do that. Yeah. And so it sort of gets overlooked because you're a special force. People assume you're a superhuman.
[1:03:13] And so what I'm doing with this is I'm taking someone who literally is a level playing field, never done anything before. And then we're doing it with her. Okay. So it'll either be her or be one of my kids. Depends how busy we get. Yeah. For the whole way. For the whole way. Which is why we're going to do it on the summer holidays. Okay. And it's what? You're rowing and...
[1:03:33] She's sitting in the back. Well, no, she can row as well. It's a two-seater row. But it has these big cabins. Yeah, it has a cabin where you can sleep. It has a cabin which has all the communications and navigational stuff. And they have the solar panels. And so she'll probably just be on her laptop just doing all the work. And I'll just row. But no, no, she likes to – I think she sees this as a good challenge. She's never done anything –
[1:03:55] This is taking her out of her comfort zone. You know, I've been out of my comfort zone a lot. I think her doing it with it, she'll feel comfortable that I'm there, that, you know, there's someone who's capable. And I was fortunate to do my yacht masters and everything in the SBS. I have all those sort of semen cards that we need. But, yeah, it'll be interesting. You know, that'll be a big test, you know.
[1:04:18] A few weeks in the back with your wife. For sure. But no, yeah. Keep an eye out for that one. Amazing. All right, man. Well, we look forward to it. Thank you so much. Thanks for coming in. Thanks, Dean. I appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah.

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