REAL AF with Andy Frisella - 512. Special Ops To Breaking Records Ft. Dean Stott

Episode Date: May 8, 2023

In today's episode, Andy & DJ are joined in the studio by a former soldier in the Special Boat Service (SBS) turned private security consultant, Dean Stott. They discuss Dean's exceptional career as a personal security consultant, his journey to becoming a world record breaker in cycling across South America, and the mindset he brings to every endeavor he sets out to accomplish.

What is up guys, it's Andy Priscilla and this is the show for the realest sake of out of the lies, the fakeness and delusions of modern society. Welcome to Motherfucking Reality. Guys, today we have a full-length podcast. I'm going to get into the amazing guests that we have in just a second. If this is your first time listening, we have shows within the show. Today you're going to hear a full-length show. But other times you tune in, we have Q&AF. That is where you get to submit questions and I answer them.

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another time we had to reschedule and we we've had a show on the books another time. We had to reschedule and we're trying to get this done for a long time. Yeah. It's been a while. Yeah. It's been a while. Yeah. So how's everything? How was the trip in? Yeah. Trip in was good. Yeah. Now currently in Orange County in California. Yeah. Moved there two years ago with my wife and two kids at the time. Now have three kids. Yeah congrats so we we just took advantage of the covid situation it was me and my wife were very busy uh with life and we sort of blinked we always wanted to move to america uh blinked turned our head we had a nine-year-old and a four-year-old and so while the world was paused we thought we'd take advantage of this situation and um you know

take the leap otherwise 10 years would pass and we'd probably be kicking ourselves if we didn't. So couldn't actually get into America straight away. So we had to go to Mexico for 14 days and bounced in from there. So you come across the border? Came across the border. Yeah. Legally. Swam across the river? Yeah. There's a couple of tunnels. But yeah, we didn't know where we were going to. We looked at LA and then my wife was on Zillow. The school ratings were pushing us further south in Orange County. And we just, yeah, we flew in and the embassies were all shut at the time. So your normal process of moving to the US would be get your visas and everything sorted first and then come in.

But we did it the reverse. So we're there now. Everything's working out though. Everything's working out now. Green cards through and yeah, we yeah, you've got no regrets at all. It's probably the best decision.

And unfortunately COVID wasn't great for many people, but for us as a family, it was, it was a great move. Yeah. That's cool, man. Well,

welcome to America, brother. Happy to have you need more like you, bro. You lived a very incredible life and you've done a lot of incredible things just break down some of the things that you know have gotten you to this point because i know we want to talk about some other things but yeah there's so much there it could be a seven hour podcast i mean dude special forces uh you know executive protection yeah

executive protection you wrote the bike ride, everything. So like, tell us a little bit about yourself. Yeah. Quick summary. Yeah. So, um, I, I joined the UK military. My father was in the military, my grandparents in the military. Um, I actually, uh, as a young boy, I always wanted to be a fireman.

Uh, never had any aspirations of actually joining the military myself. Um, but, uh, I decided to cut college early and go surfing for a couple of weeks, which then extended into six months, long before the mobile phones. And my father then found me working in a surf shop, and he told me how I'd ruined my life at the age of 17 and what was I going to do. So to sort of silence him, I told him I'd join the military. And he told me I'd last two minutes.

It wasn't the warm, comforting words of motivation I expected. But for me, I was like, and I've come across this same scenario many times in my life. There'll be those naysayers that tell you you can't do it. And there's no point in arguing with that person because if they believe what they believe and you believe what you believe, you're just going to, you're not going to come to a conclusion. So the only conclusion is that to go away and prove that person wrong and then come back to the table and so that's what i did i joined the military at the age of 17 i was i weighed um you guys work in pounds i uh so i was probably about 140 pounds and five foot seven so i could

see where my my father was coming from but in a short period of time, I sort of grew physically and mentally, got to 200 pounds within 18 months and was one of the youngest airborne commando divers within the military. And so for me, my life, I never looked as a career in the military and then ended up joining the UK special forces. So I joined the Special Boat Service, but coming from the army to the Navy was like one of your guys, your Delta Force guys saying, well, actually I'm going to go SEAL Team Six. So that's what the Special Boat Service is like the equivalent? That's the equivalent. Yeah. The Tier One Special Forces in the UK is the Special Air Service for the Army and the Special Boat Service for the Navy. And then here you have Delta Force and

SEAL Team six. Okay. But unlike, uh, here in the U S where Delta and, um, DevGroo have their own selection, ours is actually joint. So not one is harder or easier than the other. Yeah. But you need to be the gray. They tell you to be the gray man on the course. Uh, you know, try and blend in, don't stand out for the right reasons or the wrong reasons. And a six-month course, I was the gray man for two minutes. They literally called my name out and were like, why are you going to the SBS? I was a senior dive instructor for the Army, and I'd spent eight years with Commando Recce Force.

So for me and my love for the water as well, surfing, SBS was that natural pull to me. So, yeah, I wasn't the gray man for long. But six months later, we start with 208 pass. I was one of the final guys. But what was great for me wasn't me passing. It's now looking back at the unit, 15% of the special boat service now come from the army. So you sort of open up that pathway for others to follow. I joined at a higher time on the war on Terrier.

It was the busiest time in UK Special Forces and US Special Forces history. We had Afghanistan, we had Iraq. I was rescuing hostages off Somalia and I was diving on cartel boats in Colombia. I was ticking a lot of boxes in a short period of time. And so for me, I never looked beyond the military. I'd reached my pinnacle in my career. I was now working with like-minded individuals guys had that same drive that same passion um that mission success but unfortunately i took a tragic turn after 16 years i had a parachute in accident and uh that shortened my career my leg got caught up in there it was actually on exit the aircraft my leg got caught in the line and pulled and so i tore my acl um my lateral

meniscus my mcl my hamstring my calf and my quadriceps all the supporting muscles as well and so oh yeah that's an injury there's an injury i landed one-legged it was a great landing but um you know other than that you know i was sort of then told you know no thank you for your service it's time to leave so it's a bit like a professional, there's a lot of comparisons between special forces and professional athletes. It's like, you know, someone going, watching the rest of the team go off on a tour and then you've got to go to physio. Yeah, it was a big part of your identity. Exactly. Yeah. And those guys went to Afghanistan and I was actually left the military. And as you rightly touched on, I didn't know it at the time, but you know, i got to where i had in the military because

my physical attributes i now couldn't even run 100 meters i had an identity crisis you know knew what i was doing for the next two years um you know literally next two years is planned out um knew my role knew my purpose and it's not how what is my role now within society how am i now going to fit in to what for me was an alien community um i didn't know much about the military but thankfully if you mean my wife was very entrepreneurial and she sort of picked up those those worries that i had and as you know dj you know um well people with our skill set about sounding like liam neeson our natural progression is the security industry um what's great now in the special forces they have transition programs so a lot of guys and girls

may not want to do that and there's other options but i didn't have that time i literally was told you've got to go so all my friends were doing security um of somalia maritime security was at height but i wanted to find a niche within the industry. I wanted to stand out. I wanted something that AO would be comfortable doing. And fortunately for me, the Arab Spring was now kicking off in May 2011. And my first job within 48 hours to help set up the British Embassy in Benghazi. And when I was there, I soon saw these, I never name and shame them, but I call them the big five, these big, huge security companies. And they were winning these great big contracts with some of the oil and gas and the NGOs, just purely on their company name.

Everyone assumed because they're the biggest, they're probably the best, which over time in industry isn't the case. But they were charging six, seven figures sums for these crisis management and evacuation plans, which weren't actually in place. It was just as good as the paper it was written on. And so for me, I was a bit concerned with that because, A, if something happens, I'm probably going to be reliant on that plan. And so my wife was giving birth to our daughter. I flew back out and I said, look, I've got a plan. There was a huge proliferation of weapons in Libya at the time.

And so I bought 30 weapons on the black market and I buried them between Tunis and Egypt and designed my own evacuation plans and just sold that to the oil and gas sector. We lived in Aberdeen, which is the Houston of Europe. So I had exposure to the oil and gas companies. And fortunately for me, my wife, you know, she trained to be a CP operator. She did surveillance as well, which we didn't plan on having our first daughter. So she ran the business behind the scenes.

And so I didn't go on certain contracts. I was working on ad hoc. Every time the phone went off, it was a new country. It was a new country. It was a new type of security. But when you tell people in the security industry, people look like me and DJ. I think we're doormen from the local nightclub.

You know what I mean? Yeah, right. The security industry is so diverse. It's everything from executive protection, consulting, crisis management, surveillance, coaching, mentoring. It's huge. And so I was learning a lot about this industry in a short period of time and ended up doing more sensitive jobs as a civilian than I did when I was actually in the special forces. 2012, your American ambassador got killed.

September 11th, I don't know if it was right place, right time or wrong place, wrong time, you know, because normally if I'm there, something's gone wrong. And I was there that evening when he got killed in Benghazi, and I got an oil company, their engineers from Benghazi, back to Tripoli through safe houses that I had in the desert. And then in 2014, I was in Brazil covering the World Cup, and I get a phone call from the Canadian embassy. There's the Tripoli War now, which is a civil war between the militias and the government.

All the big security companies couldn't do anything about it. And this young girl rings me and said, look, your name has come up. Can you help us? So I flew back in, and I single-handedly evacuated the Canadian embassy, 18 military, and four diplomats, which sounds very sexy and very Hollywood. But my success in the security industry was understanding the ground truth, not what you're seeing on TV, understanding the politics, the tribal influences, the demographics as well, and not what's being relayed on the TV. You know, Hollywood doesn't help matters with special forces.

You know, I call it the bicep bullets and bombs. You see Dwayne Johnson's and your Jason Statham's and them lot, you know, doing triple backwards somersaults. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's got absurd now. And then everything explodes. Yeah, you've got to be catching a car. Yeah, I always wonder where they're going to change their magazine.

I'm like, I'm sure that's 30 rounds gone now. But that's the offensive action. And in the Special Forces, that's 25% of what we do. And that should be our last resort. 50% of what we do isn't actually that sexy. Support and influence hearts and minds, being embedded with locals. And I just took that skill set from my time in the Special Forces and adopted that into the secure industry.

So for me, it was adopted that into the secure industry. For me, it was just chatting to the tribal elders, having respect for them, showing them communication, trust. Yes, palm in their hands with a few hundred dollars maybe, but it just opened up a corridor for me to get these out. It wasn't eight guys looking like me trying to bully their way through with weapons. We just did it just a political way. A political way. Yeah, yeah. A non-discrete approach. And so that's where I've been sort of successful in the security industry.

And also where I have been successful as well is that when I go to these countries, whether it's in Africa or Latin America, you have to remember you're guests in their country. No one has better knowledge of that country than the locals themselves. So I try and give as much work to the locals as I can, because if you're putting food on their table and showing them respect, that comes back. They will respect you, They will look after you. And there's certain roles that I can't give them for sensitivity reasons. But the majority of the work I can. And I think that's where I've been quite fortunate in the secure industry as well to do that. But no, after the...

This is a short intro about me. No, really. It's awesome. Yeah. But then after the Canadian Embassy, my wife sat me down and she sort of highlighted I'd only been home 21 days in a 365-day calendar. So what I was doing, I wasn't really aware. I was trying to match the adrenaline rush I had when I was in the Special Forces without

coming to terms with the fact that you actually left. So fortunately for me, all the missions were successful. But if they weren't, I didn't have sbs or the ses coming to get me i was on my own and so um chapter 16 in my book is called dead or divorced that was the conversation me and my wife were now having at this point she just put a bottle of pork down two bottles of pork actually we drank until the sun came out and actually then realized I thought my wife wanted me to go away I felt I needed to support my family as much as possible and she thought I wanted to go away for the adrenaline rush when in fact we didn't we just miscommunicated and from

that point on you know we we communicate all the time we'll never get ourselves in that in that position so my wife is a property developer said no come work with me. And this leg now was two kilos lighter than this leg because of the muscle wastage. What year was that injury? The injury was in 2011. So you've been dealing with it for a long time. Yeah, dealing with it for a long time. We're now in two, where are we now? We're probably in 2014 after the Canadian embassy. So I'd sort of neglected my own physical and mental wellbeing. I've been so fixated on work. And so I decided I will work with my wife. And I bought a push bike off Amazon and just cycled to and from the office,

only about eight miles each way. But as you know, being physically active, I just felt like there was a huge weight. I felt I could breathe again. You know, cardiovascular PT is very different from, you know, maybe in the gym. And so, no, I felt comfortable. But you can imagine with my backstory, I was working with my wife and we were in these meetings. And, you know, she could see that glaze in my eyes.

Something had to change. And so I said, well, I've always fancied doing a world record. And it was about a month before my 40th birthday. And she said, well, what in? And I said, well, cycling's not hampering my knee. And so my wife and found the world's longest road, which runs from Southern Argentina to Northern Alaska, which is 14,000 miles over two continents. And I never mean to sound arrogant, and it can come across quite arrogant.

Having only cycled 20 miles, I applied for the world record. I said, yeah, that'll do. And so Guinness came back. Guinness came back six weeks later and said, yeah, you've been successful on your application. And so I now had the challenge. Me and my wife do a lot in the philanthropy area. We found a campaign that we were going to do work for,

which is to promote mental health, but not just veterans, from young children, teenagers, post-natal depression, the whole sector. And the world record was 117 days. I set a target of a million pounds. My wife ran the campaign, did all the fundraising, managed to get me sponsorship as a non-cyclist. She managed to get me half a million pound sponsorship. That's awesome. 117 days? The world record was 117 days. And I did it in 99 days. I became the first man in history to do it under a hundred days, smashing it by 17 days. Did you

set out to do it under a hundred days or did it 17 days. Did you set out to do it under 100 days? Or did it just, you start halfway through or a quarter way through, you're like, fuck, I could do this 100 days. No, what it was is I spoke to the previous record holders because when I was doing all my planning, there was a lot of stuff and I was quickly learning about cycling through magazines and books, but I wasn't getting that crucial information I needed to plan this project. So the best people to talk to are those that experienced it themselves. So one of the things we do in the Special Forces is, you know, one of the reasons we're

one of the best in the world isn't because of the caliber of the guys and the training. It's because we're always learning from our mistakes. We're always evolving and changing. And so what we used to do, not just on operations, but even on training, everything we do is called a hot debrief. So as soon as the helicopter lands or the plane lands or the boat comes in, before you go clean your weapon, go get food, you would have a hot debrief because it's still fresh in your mind. And the three questions you normally get were, what worked? What didn't work? And if we were to do that again, what would we do differently?

And you just get all that information from there. People do make mistakes. It's natural for people to make mistakes. It's not a problem. But as long as you learn from those mistakes, then it doesn't repeat itself. So that's what we tend to do. So I asked those three questions to the previous record holders, and they all started in Alaska and finished in Argentina, but all their

issues were in South and Central America. So for me, being a military guy, I was like, why would you not address those issues early? Get them in, whether it's bureaucracy, languages, spares for the bikes, get that out of the way early. And then once you're into North America, you're home dry. So I turned it on its head. I started from Argentina. And yet the wheel record was 117 days. I was aiming for 110. And it wasn't because I wanted to smash it by a week and show off. When I was doing my planning, there was things that were out of my control, like natural disasters, coups, third party influence. So if we encountered any of that while I was on the bike ride, if I was on the bike ride,

if I was going for the 110, then at least we call it fudge in the military. I had that one-week fudge that it could eat into that time. So 110 was the target. I did South America in 48 days, took 10 days off the South America world record. My decision from going South to North was a good decision. I had nice tailwind through South America, but logistically it was slowing me up in the fact that you could get a vehicle from Alaska to Argentina if you crossed the Darien Gap on a ferry, but coming up, you had to swap vehicles in every country. So that was slowing us up. So my wife, we bought an RV in a four by four in Fort Lauderdale and was going to get shipped to Panama. When I was in Ecuador, my wife rang me and told me that the vehicles hadn't been loaded onto the shipping container and they're still stuck in Fort Lauderdale. So my wife,

my PA, thankfully had foresight. They flew over with a couple of my friends and drove the vehicles 4,000 miles in eight days from Fort Lauderdale through Mexico all the way to Panama. I broke the wheel record in Cartagena, flew over, and an hour later they came in and handed the keys. But what's really important about that situation is that, and it's relatable to the special forces, is the team behind the scene that people don't see. You're only as good as your support team, your support network. So in the special forces, for every special forces guy to step off a helicopter or jump out of the plane or into the water, it takes seven other people you don't see. So Alana was integral on that. Now, did you have a team on the ground in South America with you?

Yeah. So when I was playing for the World Record, there was no distinction between supported and unsupported. I was like, well, I'm having a support team because I don't know how to change a puncture or fix a bike. Yeah. I just didn't know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So you were saying they met you. So I didn't know if you rode the first part alone. No, no. So I had a support team with me and then we had a documentary team with us as well. And what was really an eye-opener as well is the support team that weren't there at the end. We had volunteers from everywhere. And because of the mental health side of things, I thought people wanted to get involved for

the right reasons. It turns out when we're on the challenge, they had hidden agendas, you know, to self-promote their businesses and had wrong reasoning to be there. So, but thankfully for me, I had Alana who was sort of managing that, you know, the medic I had to send home on day 13 because he was bullying the documentary team. And I'm like, we're on a mental health challenge here and I'm going to get allegations of bullying. So I'm having to deal with these, me and my wife having to deal with these situations when we're on the ground. I get to Mexico and the bike mechanic tells me that he now wants to be the project manager, wants to change.

Now the success of the challenge is I've already broken one wheel record. You know, he saw the success of that and wanted to change the challenge name to replicate his company. He said i couldn't do it without him so it gave me an ultimatum in mexico so i flew him home and my friend carried on and we you know so actually the bike ride was the fun when people do that isn't it yeah you know it wasn't like you can't do this without me i can't tell you how many times i fucking heard that yeah Yeah. That's 24 fucking years. Exactly. And so for me, it's like, you know, the bike ride was the easiest part. It was dealing with egos.

That was the hardest thing, the behind the scenes, what people didn't see. But I got into, they left in Mexico and we only had five days out before we got to America. And I thought, well, when we're in America, there's bike shops, there's masseuses and stuff. So I get into America on day 70 and I'm 14 days ahead of the world record. At that point right there. Just at that point. That's crazy. Just at that point.

I'm 14 days ahead. I'm like, perfect. You know, the world record's in sight. Hopefully now, having spoken to previous record holders, all our issues should be behind us. And I get an hour into Del Rio. It's Del Rio. I'm in Texas and I'm cycling along and I have five missed calls of my wife. And Alana is very good in keeping any sort of distractions away from me.

So I knew it was obviously important, but my initial thought was our children. There's obviously something wrong. So I jump off and I phone her and I ask if everything's okay. She goes, oh, no, everything's fine. She goes, what do you wear to a she goes oh no everything's fine she goes she goes what do you wear to a royal wedding i said sorry what do you wear to a royal wedding i said what do you mean she's good oh we've been invited to harry and megan's wedding i said oh yeah that's nice she goes no you don't realize because i've done the calculations for you to get back in time you need to be finished by day 102. so going into the phone call i was 14 days ahead 10 Ten minutes later, I'm now a day

behind. So everything I'd done up until now hadn't really counted. All my gains had been taken away from me. So the objective was still there. The timelines had now moved. In South America, because my support team and my documentary team are a bit more risk averse than myself, I had to be mindful of their welfare. I would only cycle from first light to last light and then be in the hotels just for safety reasons. Coming into North America, you've got the luxury of the safety, so I could cycle at night.

I got to Lubbock the next day and we had 60 mile an hour winds and tornadoes and I was grounded for another 24 hours. So I'm now two days behind my new target. And there's an app called Windy TV. It's quite popular with sailors and it gives you the strength and directions of the winds every hour. And so all I did was I just scanned this app, just moved it every hour, looked at the winds. And I had to cycle 340 miles in the next 36 hours to miss the next weather window before the next winds came in. And so I just played chess with Mother Nature, did majority of my cycling at night when it was dark, plenty of highway patrolmen stopping me at three in the morning, wondering what I was doing um and actually of all the places that i travel through security

situations it was colorado springs that one of our vehicles got broken into yeah so here's me thinking that's not surprising colorado's getting hot no it is getting hot but that is that's funny yeah i mean you're fucked to go through all south america that's fucking colorado springs yeah i thought you would have said like oakland california now one of my mates had driven down from vancouver island once i told him about the the support team leaving he said well i've got time off he came down and he does a lot of fishing and hunting so he'd obviously seen an attraction with his vehicle um but yeah i but i also use those winds to my advantage i I got to Cheyenne in Wyoming and I picked up a 50 mile an hour tailwind. So I cycled 270 miles in 11 hours.

And so, yeah, that's all I did for North America. We had 17 days planned for North America. I cycled in 11 and a half days from Texas to Canada. So I was now back on target where I should be. And I get to a town called Whitehorse and I was in McDonald's and literally, you know, I'm burning calories. I'm burning nine to 12,000 calories a day. And so however much I ate, I was still losing weight. Um, and that was one of the, one of the good things about coming into America was the culinary options. I could literally eat whatever I wanted and as much as I wanted as well. So I'm sat in McDonald's, you know, don't judge me, but I'm just eating about four Big Mac meals. And I'm on social media.

My friend tells me about this professional cyclist who's already got three other world records sponsored by Red Bull, all the big brands. And he come out on social media that day and told the world that he was going to cycle it in August and be the first man in history to do it under 100 days. So every time I thought I was at my objective, my objective kept moving. So for me, I sort of cycled away from that. And I'm like, would I be comfortable coming in whatever time I come in now, knowing I hadn't pushed myself even further, or do I try and come in under the a hundred days? And so I had to cycle for 22 hours in the last 30 hours in minus 18 degrees centigrade in the snow to get into, into Prudhoe Bay. So yeah, became the first man in history to do it on a hundred days. So it wasn't the original question. It wasn't the original

plan. It's just how things changed on the ground. And I think my time in the special forces helped with that. You know, we go on operations and sometimes there's no infrastructure in place. You still have your objective, but you just need to bounce your way along there, you know? And so it's just being reactive to the situation changes on the ground, which was the success of this challenge for me. I want to ask you because there's a quote that I love. We talk about planning, right? And one of my favorite quotes when it comes to this stuff is like, the perfect plan

is imperfect, right? And you have to be able to stay fluid enough to handle these different changes. Can you break down in your mindset, in your mindset, in your experience, what, what would you consider the foundation of a perfect plan? Yeah, I don't think there is a perfect plan. You know, Mike Tyson has a good one. It's always a good plan to get punched. Um, you know, we have one in the military, your plan doesn't survive first contact. So when we're doing our plan, we didn't expect them to start shooting back. Um, so for me, you know, where I was lucky is you can't be experienced without experiences. I've never cycled 14,000 miles. But one of my old sergeant majors

used to tell me when there was a big situation, the first question was, is someone going to die? If there is, then obviously we need to do something now. If not, let's have a cup of tea, and let's talk about it and make a plan. And that's how I sort of looked at it. I thought, well, you can't control the uncontrollable. That's what it is. You just need to be reactive. Plans are good.

It's always good to have a plan, but don't be reliant on that plan. You need to have flex. Don't get upset. And a lot of people get upset and don't know what to do when it doesn't go to plan. Just say, well, the objective's still the same. Obviously, that route's blocked. So what are we going to do now? How are we going to still get there? Maybe I need to now cycle 18 hours rather than 10 hours. Well, I think that's a fundamental skillset, even in entrepreneurship, right? I was talking to a group of entrepreneurs, actually Arte Syndicate call last night. And the

topic was, the question that I was answering was how, when you create this vision for your company, right? And then you trace the plan backwards, right? You're here. I want to get to here. This is where I want to be. How am I going to get there and make the plan backwards, right? You're here. I want to get to here. This is where I want to be. How am I going to get there and make the plan? And people were confused. Like a lot of people, not a few, like a lot of people, they're like, well, what happens when the plan doesn't work? And I'm like, bro, that's the game. Like that's the art of entrepreneurship. We find another way around, you know, like the destination doesn't change just the way we get there, you know? And that's, I think that's, that's skillset, which is autumn. Like that skillset is kind of built into my mindset.

And I know it is yours too, but like, it's, I think it's hard for people to really grasp that concept. I think they do get frustrated, man. When like the thing doesn't go, like when things don't go to plan, like, you know, this DJ, DJ is with me every day. Like when things never go to plan, I've never had one day. So we don't get pissed off though. We're like, okay, so what do we got to do? We got to do this, this, this, and we'll still get it done. And it does seem like a lot of people really have a hard time with that concept. Yeah. I think that people always look at the

negatives. We did a big fundraising event in UK. We raised £70,000. And that money went for us to put a deposit down on the hotel in London for the Welcome Back Party. So before I'd even gone on the challenge, we're planning this huge Welcome Back Party with Royal Family there, some big celebrity names. And a good friend of mine, Amanda, she runs the events. We had this committee and she would

say so so what's what's plan b now what and i never used to answer her my wife would answer it she goes plan b is we go to dean's funeral and i actually said to her when i got back i said the reason i didn't give you an answer is because i i couldn't comprehend that we had an alternative option i goes because that's what people tend to do. People, if they realize there's a plan B or a plan C, when it gets hard, they will naturally veer to that. So for me- I think that's the suicide of most people's dreams.

It is, yeah. It really is. I know what you were saying. People are already telling you why they can't do it rather than why they can. So I used to block off them. For me, it was like- Zero option mentality.

Zero option. That's it. We have to do block off them. You know, for me, it was like- Zero option mentality. Zero option. That's it. We have to do it. But a challenge like that as well, you know, 14,000 miles. And I was saying about you can't be experienced with experience. I'd never cycled before, but I had done endurance challenge. Like our selection is nine months, six-month selection, and three months with the SBS.

And on day one, I'm not thinking about nine months later getting my beret and belt. I'm thinking about what do I need to do today to get here tomorrow? You're chipping away at the iceberg. That's why I did this challenge. I looked at the 14,000 miles. Just consume me. You wouldn't get on the flight. I broke it down into countries, broke it into days, and broke that into stages. As I talked about nutrition, I was going to always be losing weight. So nutrition was key for me to eat as much as I could. But as cyclists know out there, when you go for a bike ride from home, you tend to do a loop. At some point, you'll have a headwind. At some point, you'll have a tailwind. Well, for me, I'm going in one direction. So I

would get on the bike in the morning and just cycle as fast as I could for two hours. And that would give me my average speed for the day. And then I would then be able to make a plan from that. I'd stop, pause for 30 minutes, quite disciplined in my timings. It was literally 30 minutes and I'm back on the bike. I wasn't having a selfie with a llama. I wasn't chatting to the documentary team or doing a tweet. And then I would just look at the next two hours. I wouldn't look at that afternoon,

the next day or look at any of ours. And so for me, I was just doing four training rides a day. Bro, don't you, don't you think, I mean, you, you know, a lot of people who have done amazing things. Yeah. Isn't that comp, isn't that like the way they all look at it? Like that's how, that's how I look at my entire life. Yeah. i look at it day by day and then action by action you know and anybody who i've ever met that's done extraordinary things like you have or or let's say james lawrence right the the iron cowboy yeah like dude it's just a system man it's just executing within what's right in front of you and and i think people over complicate it because they get so enamored with like the scale of the job. The main objective.

Yeah. That they think it's impossible. Like, dude, nothing's impossible if you're willing to break it down into hourly actions that you must take. And it's a bit of maths. It's a bit of discipline. You know, I always,

I think the first week I was in the Ushuaia in Argentina, we had strong winds. And so by the end of the first week, I was 39 miles behind target, but my target was still a week ahead of the world record. And from then on, it was all gains. And so for mentally, I was always in a good place. People, I don't know how hard was it, but you see people when they're doing challenges and they're like, well, I'm 10 miles behind today. You know, what I'll do is I'll catch that up tomorrow. But you don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. You may have another bad day, you know, 20, 30 miles. And so mentally, when you're going to bed at night, you're not in the right mindset.

And so for me, I always say, stay on that bike. You know, even in business, make those extra five phone calls because you're where you're supposed to be for the day. And then you're in a good headspace at night and start in the next day. And so it's just little, there's nothing, there's no, it's just tricking, just tricking the mind. Yeah. Yeah. That's all it is. Yeah, man.

That's awesome. I want to ask you, did the guy who, uh, who made that announcement saying that he wanted to smash, did he end up like attempting it? Did he? He did. Yeah. No, Michael Strasser. I met him in um in vienna he went and beat my uh my world record he he actually went from alaska to argentina and um but when i

met him he said yeah but you you are still the first man in history to do 100 days the thing is i'm not a cyclist and so i dip my toe in cycling i've enjoyed it and now i'll dip it in another sport so how many days he do it uh what do you he did in 87 days you gotta do it again then yeah the hot debrief what worked what didn't work and we can do it again what would we do differently yeah but um no what's great and we're now actually there's a young lads i say young lads because i'm 46 uh there's a young lad who's 46. I'm 46. Yeah. You look good.

Yeah, no, I did. Yeah. So I started cycling at 40 and broken the record 41, but as young lad doing it next year, and so he's come to me for advice and I've given him everything that he needs and actually Michael from who broke my wheel record, he was going to go a slightly different route and what was comforting was the fact that he said, you, your route was perfect. I you did so for me that was a nice comfort that you know he's a nice compliment yeah compliment yeah uh planning and execution exactly yeah and will records

you set the bar for other people to try and hit that bar and that's why i did i i hit michael hit that bar i mean now this young lad next year, me and Michael are now giving him our input and information. I bet that makes you feel good, dude. Yeah, it does. Yeah. Yeah.

I, I don't like when people, um, a challenge in other people or who are trying to beat their child. For me, it's like, I'm not fingers. I'm not a cyclist.

Yeah. And so for me, I just, I just, um, I just took what I know is a success in the military, even the security industry. And then I've done it in, in a, in a sport.

It's all about education is what can people learn from, from your experiences. It always feels good to see people win that, that you helped inspire or, or see them on a path. You know what I mean? Like I've been doing this long enough now where I've had a couple, you know, notable guys in business, you know, they say, Hey bro, I watched what you've done. And I went and did that. And I, that shit always makes me feel good, even though i'm competing against the same people you know

exactly yeah no it's cool it's a nice mutual brother respect like you know but when i reached out to the previous record holders i thought none of them are going to speak to me every one of them spoke to me and gave me everything i needed so why would i not do that the same to the yeah to the next person you know that's cool me. That's cool, Will. That's the way it should be. Yeah. But what was more impressive, you know, it's great having the world record and doing that. But we raised $1.3 million as well, which is probably more impressive than the bike

ride. And so for that, me, was that added comfort as well. I wasn't doing it just to self-promote. I was doing it so I wasn't you know working not working my wife but just bro you're a fucking badass motherfucker i think my wife for real dude yeah yeah yeah no so um so this is a great intro yeah motherfuckers gonna be like hey this is the old the show that andy talked the least on half people are gonna love it

so i yeah i never looked beyond i did it so i wasn't smuggling people across borders i didn't see career and guest speak in tv or book opportunities um but for me you know i i you know it's nice i've enjoyed that um but security is still where i still wear my heart and passion lives i like to to help people. So yeah, I was actually chatting to the head of station, the CIA in one of the Middle Eastern countries. Did he mention me? He knows you.

Where am I out of the list? That's this station chief in the US. You should be good over there. And he says, I've just Googled it. I said, look, don't Google me. There's two Dean stocks. There's the one that the world sees, You should be good over there. And he says, I've just Googled it. I said, look, I said, don't Google me. There's two Dean Stotts. There's the one that the world sees,

and there's one that still very much enjoy helping people in the security world. So we got hundreds of people out of Afghanistan. We still are getting people out of Afghanistan, although everyone thinks Ukraine's the main focus. It's still Afghanistan. Excuse me, I was upset. And to see some people took advantage of that situation to self-promote their businesses and then as soon as ukraine a week later

they're in ukraine i'm like there's still a problem in afghanistan but my reason for that is i like to help people that that's where my skill set there were a lot of scams going around around afghanistan people don't shit people aren't aware of that yeah because i think because of the success of the canadian embassy and everything i'd done before my name obviously was was pushed out there and we ended up bringing out clients who none of them were our clients they were from other security companies who again some of the big five who actually didn't realize that a they didn't have a plan in place but actually weren't even insured and so where i've sort of been successful in in the crisis management evacuation plans insurance companies will get an aircraft in there. They'll get an

aircraft into the airport, but you're not covered from your start point to there. So that's what I focus on. It's called the first mile. I'm not worried about the airport. That's the easy part. And how am I going to get you from A to B? So we had 10 years of connectivity on the ground. We were actually working with the Taliban intelligence. They were opening the doors. They didn't want a situation happening on their watch. Obviously, ISIS came in and got involved, but the Taliban were actually very proactive in helping us.

But yeah, it was nice. It's hard for people to accept. It's hard for people to accept, but that's ground truth. I know. People have been told the whole entire time, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. And then when you hear those things, people get upset about it. Yeah, but they still did. Right.

Okay. It's like, bro, you're not understanding the cultural dynamic in the country. Well, it goes back to your point. I mean, there's a difference between understanding and seeing what you're seeing on mainstream media and actually knowing the ground temperature. Yeah. Actually knowing what's going on. It's usually the opposite. Yeah. Always, no, it's usually the opposite.

Yeah. Always. Yeah. It's crazy. Unfortunately, you know, with, with the world of media,

everyone's quick to tarnish a certain community because of a certain bad group within that community. Um, you know, I talk about some of my successes. None of that would have been possible. I actually wasn't for the Muslim community in Libya. Give me safe houses in Somalia and Yemen.

And so it's- You know what's crazy, dude, is how hard they brainwashed. I was just talking to my friend who's actually from, he's from Kuwait. I was talking to him just yesterday and I used to make jokes, like, cause we were pretty good friends

and I'd make jokes. He'd be like, man, come see me in Kuwait. I'm like, bro, I don't want my fucking head cut off. Like we would joke shit, right? right and then but like i actually told him the other day i'm like bro i i you know i want to apologize for for those jokes because what i realized is that i was being lied to about middle eastern culture the entire time you know and and dude these people aren't the terrorists that the american media has made them out to be. They're very kind people with high standards of civility that don't tolerate any bullshit.

I kind of like it. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And, and a lot of them, a lot of them, especially some of the Middle East countries I go to,

they don't like the extremists and they will quash it themselves. Yes. Um, and, and actually, you know, some people ask me, you know,

what, especially the 20 years in Afghanistan, what's the difference between Taliban 1.0 to 2.0? And I said, we're at 1.5. They're very social media savvy. They're a bit more intelligent. You know, there's still issues with like education, um, and stuff, but you know, there's bad people there, but there's bad people here in our, in our society. And so it's, it's all over the world, but it's just really understanding that.

But yeah, back to the Afghan, we had, I think I had on 46 WhatsApp groups and everything from, probably had there is everyone saw an opportunity to try and get everyone out and it's like, unfortunately, but it's hard for us to say no to certain people because you had to fit a certain bracket, you know, I had like the British boxing association telling me the Afghan boxing team at risk. I said, they're not at risk. No, they've not worked with the Americans or the Brits. We had the housewives of Orange County.

It actually wasn't Orange County, but they'd raised like $2 million, and they wanted to do good. So all these nonprofits were popping up. All these veterans were trying to help. But they soon all then are now being investigated by the FBI for human trafficking because they didn't understand the nuances of evacuations. They were getting people out with no passports and dropping them in Latvia, Romania. I'm like, have you heard about these places? So for us, it was hard for me because

I never liked to say no, but we had to do it and we had to be methodical. There had to be the right paperwork in place. And that's why we continue to still do it. But yeah, it's sad to see that everyone's heads then started turning to Ukraine, but that's what's trending. And then all of a sudden, these certain individuals took their TV crews and went over there. And I was like, well, there's still an issue in Afghanistan. And the big difference between Afghanistan and Ukraine is Afghanistan, the men left and the women and kids stayed behind. In Ukraine, the men stayed and the women and kids left.

That's the two distinctions, and that shouldn't have happened. Yeah. So tell us about what you're actually working on right now. So working on a few things. Obviously, the security stuff, we're now working in Sudan. Obviously, in the Sudan crisis now. How is that over there? It's not, unlike some of the other situations, it's military on military.

So they're not targeting the civilians. They're not targeting the Westerners. Unfortunately, with the time in, there was 10,000 Brits there and 17,000 Americans because it was in the middle of Ramadan. They'd all gone over for Ramadan. That's why there's a high number of people there. But the American military went in, the British military gone in, they've taken out all their embassy staff.

And I think they've learned a lot from Afghanistan. It's like, we'll take those critical. But it's then down to the private security companies to get the rest out. But I think, again, it's not as bad as what the media is making out. So there isn't a mad rush to get one out. There's a lot of lessons learned from Afghanistan, but it's different there. It's military on military.

So as long as you can try and avoid the unfortunate incident where you get caught in the crosshairs, wrong place, wrong time. But these are just some examples. This goes on all the time. There was an incident in Mozambique a couple of years ago where 70 Brits got killed by terrorists. That didn't even make the news. That's bigger than any deaths we had in Afghanistan,

any we've had in Sudan. 70? 70, yeah. Damn. Yeah, and they got ambushed trying to go from their hotel to the port thinking there was a ferry there and the ferry wasn't there only a couple of vehicles made it through the rest the rest got killed and they get another example of an evacuation plan which actually wasn't in place a lot of them it's just the paper exercise it's

like the shit they were doing in megazi yeah exactly Yeah, exactly. And it's like, oh yeah, we've got a plan. Well, has anyone tested that plan? That's what we tend to do. We go out and we practice the first mile. We'll pen test it and make sure that you have a secondary plan, you have a tertiary plan, you have safe houses along the way. And I've done it for a couple of the big organizations in South America, met their security team, and I said, oh, so what's the evacuation plan? And they've probably just gone on Google Earth and said, oh, this is the route. And I checked the weather the next day and it's like rain. I said, well, we'll go out tomorrow. It's impassable. And so it's like, so what's your secondary plan? Well, we don't have one. So for me, I just like to educate security organizations. It's like, well, this is what you need to have. Again, just sharing that information.

A lot of them think I'm a bit of a disruptive. I'm not a disruptor. I just, a lot of security can understand they've got to make money, but they make it hard for the rest of us in the security industry when they're charging far too much when they don't need to be. But what you tend to find though is those that are charging too much are the big companies which have big overheads and lots of staff. But the guys that are doing the work on the ground are me and my friends.

So I always say that we can still deliver at 50%. Are you still going out in the field on these things? I think probably now my book and everything else, I'm not the one smuggling people across borders anymore. But, but the other, the other reason I like to stay in the security industry is, is as we touched on earlier, that identity crisis. When you're leaving- I just asked bro, cause I want to go. I will get a job for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's fucking awesome. Yeah. We'll get you in a, in a turban dressed up, you know, yeah, there's a, there's a great image of me with a full onon turban and uh and um that's one of the things i regret dude like about like the path i i'm very fortunate the path i took but a lot of times man like i think about some of the cool stuff that you know the cool other stuff that i could have done and i hear these stories i'm like fuck that sounds awesome yeah but i think also then probably people in the ministry listen to your podcast. I'd love to be Andy. The grass is green on the other side.

I think when I did selection, there was guys I was on selection with who all they've ever wanted to be is in the special forces from a young age. And they all failed selection because they got themselves that self-induced pressure they put that their whole life had been up until this point i sort of went into it in the blase approach is like well we'll see what happens i've seen guys you know and so you know your path where you end up is very different from when you're i always want to be a fireman i'm not a fireman you know i look at fireman yeah i think i wish i could could do that. And they're probably looking at me thinking, oh, I wish I could do what you did.

So I think you appreciate what you've got in front. And yeah, no, I think you're in a good position. Well, no, it's not terrible. There's worse than that for sure. But yeah, the security though, I understand that identity crisis. That's a really difficult period when all you've known is the military for 20 right 25 years i mean you're you're about to enter into the civilian sector i think that's for anybody that goes through a major change yeah you know uh you know i don't know if you know you know phil heath seven time mr olympia or eight time mr olympia i believe uh good buddy of mine we were him and i were chatting on dms

the other night just talking shit and he was was like, you know, after he quit competing, he went through an identity crisis and we were taught. And I'm like, man, that would be like, if I sold my company, it's like, it's your whole thing. And then you kind of have to reinvent who you are and become that next version or that next evolution of who you are. Yeah. It's not just military as you rightly put there, you know, it could be sports, could be working for an organization. We like to be in a tribe. And then when you're no longer in that tribe, you're trying to find another tribe that you fit in. And that's the dangerous part. When I see these veteran suicides, I learned a lot about mental health when I was doing the

bike ride and getting introduced to these charities. And I'm very fortunate I don't have post-traumatic stress myself, but 75% of those in the military who have post-traumatic stress has got nothing to do with the military. It's their childhood. It's just triggers in the military. And so when they come out, they feel lost. I might not relate to that group or I might not fit into that group. And so that's the vulnerable time. And that's where I like the security because I know when they're at their most vulnerable and they're worried about, is there going to be work out there?

How can I support my family? And everything else is that I can bring them work. So I've got a good pool of guys and girls getting out. And so if I can just help them on that initial phase, then I feel like I'm giving back as well. Yeah. Yes. Are the, because when we talk about like, you know, veterans, mental health,

suicide awareness, things like that, do you guys see the same numbers in the UK as we see over here? I think in comparison to the size of the military, because, you know, I was looking the other day, I do a lot of stuff. I did work here in the US with the Honor Foundation, which is a nonprofit, which is a transition program for special forces men and women.

It's like a 13-week program when they get out. And then I looked at SOCOM, Special Operations Command, about 59,000. Our military is only 80,000 in total. So in comparison to numbers, they're probably similar. We don't have as many suicides, but we don't have as much of a larger military. But yeah, I think it's the same throughout. What's the comparison

on suicides for veterans versus just regular people, percentage-wise? I don't even know that's massively different. Is it? Massively different, yeah. I mean,

that's where the whole 22-a-day thing came from. I understand that, but we don't know how many actual, like, that doesn't mean it's massively different.

1.5? Okay. Yeah. But I think, again, that doesn't mean it's massively different. 1.5? Okay. Yeah. But I think, again, I don't think it's, yes, there's those that have post-traumatic stress from what they've probably seen in the military. And everyone's different in the military. And I see guys who are on the same operations

and their reaction is slightly different from mine or whatever. But I think you don't get as many suicides when in the military is when they've left that community and they haven't got that support they don't have the structure they don't have yeah they don't have structure they don't know where they're going to fit in society and and and that's where they're most vulnerable um and the military's i've seen it now with the uk there's a there's a lot more to help and support it's still not great I left, I got a phone call 10 weeks later asking if I had a job. I mean, that was it. It's the last time I heard from him. That was it. I think people, I have a lot to learn, obviously. But in my 43 years,

what I've figured out about myself is that, you know, who I thought I was at 20 is much, or who I thought I was going to be at 20 is much different than who I actually was at 30. And who I thought I would be at 40 is actually much different than who I actually became at 40. And I think we struggle when we're young, which most of the people in the military are young, with labeling an iron, it's sort of like what we talked about we're young, which most of the people in the military are young, with labeling an iron... It's sort of like what we talked about with the planning, right? You label yourself so hard this one thing, right? I'm a special forces operator, or I'm a business owner, or I'm a bodybuilder, and I'm an Olympia

winner. And that becomes set in stone, so much so that we don't recognize that life is a set of evolutions over the course of time and there's going to be three or four maybe even five times over the course of your life where that thing that you tried and worked and put all your effort into becoming is there's going to be an end of that chapter and and there's going to be the beginning of a new chapter. And for some reason, and I don't think, well, actually not for some reason, nobody ever tells us that. Nobody ever explains that to us. Nobody ever says like, hey, one day, man, you're probably not going to own these companies. One day, you're probably not going to be jumping out of airplanes.

One day, you're not going to be able to compete on a stage. And because no one tells that, it's very hard to adjust to the new identity. And there's that a stage. And because no one tells that, it's very hard to adjust to the new identity. And there's that time period. And I think that's where people get vulnerable with the mental health. I think it's where they're confused. Because I've done a lot of speaking engagement with veterans that are transitioning out as a potential to be entrepreneurs afterwards. And it always feels like they're kids. They're little, just young kids. And it always feels like they, like, it feels like they're kids, like they're little, just young kids. And they're like confused. And it's like, bro, like you guys can do this shit. This is, this is, this is very reasonable things for you guys to do. And, um, you know,

when we're in those transition phases, our confidence is low. We're unsure. We're insecure about who we are. Our whole entire, uh, path is questioned. And, and is questioned. And I think that's where people get mentally vulnerable. I think we have to understand that it is a series of evolutions that we're going to go through. It is, yeah. I think in each evolution, you have an experience you take into the next evolution. I think a good point you touched on there is that you're almost like kids when you leave. I've never felt more vulnerable when I was 33 leaving. I'd done some amazing things in operations, but I was so intimidated about this world that I was unaware leaving. I'd done some amazing things in operations, but I was so intimidated about this world that I was, I was unaware of. You know, the military are great.

They're like your mother, your father, they clothe you, they feed you, they pay you on time. I didn't know who provided the gas or the electric. I didn't care. That was dealt for those because I had a job to do. So they keep all the distractions away from you. And so when I left the military, it was like, they give you, you call them resumes, we call them CVs, CV writing and interview technique. That's all they teach you. Well, I've never had an interview, I've never written a CV, but I want to know is, who do I need to go to from a local council for this advice or whatever? But guys get intimidated and girls when they get out, because yes, they may not have degrees, but they have so many other skill sets which are lacking now in society.

Being able to talk in public, um, being able to make decisions on the ground, make important decisions without worrying about kickback from the, from the boss, being reactive to changes in the plan. That's something that naturally comes in the military, but in the corporate world, yeah, but in the corporate world, it's not. And so for them, it's just sort of explaining that narrative and also the crosses. For example, like J4 we call is like stores. It's just like doing a warehouse check. Well, that's what J4 is, and just explaining that to them. But I think a lot of them do get intimidated

and feel they can't come out. But I think a lot of them come out and they're already above their potential peers. It's just explaining to them where they can potentially fit. But yeah, it is. I was the most vulnerable when I was getting out. I thought, I can't do it.

But my wife, I was lucky. I see people's transition quite turbulent or quite smooth. And those that are smooth tend to have a good support network around them. And my wife sort of took, I still don't know who provides the gas or electric to the house. My wife still, you know, she took that responsibility away from me. She does that. And my wife has a book out actually, you know, pitching for her now. It's called How to Ask for Money.

And the way she explains it, when I was in the military, and this probably goes for some of these ones that are leaving, is when I'm planning an operation. Now, hold on. How to Ask for Money, what's her pen name on the book? So people can buy it. Oh, How to Ask for Money is Alana Stott. Okay.

Yeah, Alana Stott, MBE. Yeah. So she's just now been honored the. I don't get this right. Most excellent order of the British Empire. It sounds archaic. But it's services to vulnerable women and mental health because of the money that she raised on the bike ride. But when I'm explaining, when I'm in the military,

I'm planning an operation in Afghanistan. I need two Chinook helicopters. I need two Blackhawks. I need some fast air, 40 guys, this amount of ammunition. No one gives me a bill. No one tells me how much that costs, an NDA or a proposal. It's automatically done. So we come from a society where it's there for you. And we don't know what the bottom line is because we've got a mission to do. And then you have to come into a society where it's all about money. And so that's where it gets quite intimidating.

And I still don't, I still feel vulnerable asking for money. And that's where my wife comes in. And I think a lot of people from the military, that's where they struggle because they can't value their worth. You know, what is our worth compared to these? How do we translate? How do we translate? And my wife says it with me is like,

I charged $7,000 to evacuate the Canadian embassy. That was it. That's all I needed to get a couple of my fixes. And it was the right thing to do. Whereas my wife's that way. We don't, from our background, our objective is to help people and get them out. If we see someone who is K&R, kidnap, ransom, or evacuating people out of countries, I don't see a price on that life.

I just need to get them out. Whereas actually my wife sees, well, no, there is a price on that life. And so that's where a lot of guys and girls in the military, they undervalue their worth. And people take advantage of that as well. What would one of the bigger companies charge for that job? Oh, you get hundreds of thousands per head. Yeah. Per head. And they would probably have charged for a retainer for having the plan in place.

And then when the phone call goes, then they upscale for the manpower. But for me, it was $7,000. And the reason for that was for us to get more money, it was going to take more time and we were on a short time window we had to get out and for me it was it was the right the right thing to don't get wrong like tenfold now i get work from that because it's the right thing but when you go back to afghanistan there's people flying in planes charging

you know not point you but there's people flying in planes charging ten thousand dollars a seat and i'm like well you know you're doing it for the right reasons. If you can afford to get a plane in there, you know, I'm not saying, uh, break even or lose money. You can still make money, but it, you know, don't take advantage of people whose vulnerabilities. And that's where I get upset sometimes in industry. But then my wife then brings me back down to earth. She goes, yeah, but we need to still feed our kids.

So, so that's where people in the military struggle is because they don't understand their worth people see that they have great skill sets and can bring great things to the team and sort of take advantage of that and so that's where i try and help when they're transitioned give them work give it explain to them what an nda is what a proposal is, you know, and stuff like that. And that's what the military should be working on is, is those sorts of skillsets, those skillsets in business. Yeah, for sure, man. Dude, you, you've done some incredible shit, brother.

Like I'm sitting here thinking, I'm like, fuck, special forces, bike ride. Now you're running security. What's your favorite thing out of all of these things that you're doing what's your what what is the thing that like you're most proud of besides your family because that's a generic answer yes and easy everyone's gonna say my kids my wife i'm not talking about that shit we all know that but like what do you what do you what makes it tick for you man i think as you touched on the evolutions when i was was in the military, it was getting in the special forces. And then, you know, the evacuations that I've done,

I'm proud of that in the security industry. And then the bike ride was great as well. So for me, there's a number of things that I'm proud of, but then I just look forward. I don't think I've written my legacy yet. You know, I'm just starting. What's the next evolution and what can I do can i do for that you know a great one i bumped into my chief instructor on my selection at an airport once and the problem we got with some of the guys and girls

in the special forces they rest on their laurels from two evolutions back and he's like i'm not interested what you did then what have you done what are you doing now you know what are you doing next you know because it are you doing next, you know, because it's easy for me to say, well, I'm special forces, will record, done this and just sit back. But for me, I just want to, and I'm continually learning, learning from others as well, you know, what are we going to do next? Will I do another challenge? I need to get that cleared by the wife, but, or, but for me, it always comes back to, to the security. You know, I like, each day is a different day. Each time I get a phone call, it's a different task.

It's a different country. It's a different challenge. I like to problem solve. But I'm also mindful at the moment that I can spend more time with my family as well, that we don't have that conversation again on Chapter 16, dead or divorced. Yeah, no shit. Yeah. So it's just trying to balance that yin and the yang so there's a back to your question special forces was a proud moment for me um the canadian embassy stuff was good the bike ride of course was great and then raising the millions but also my wife being honored with her mbe that's a

proud moment for me as well because i feel like now because none of this would have been possible without her and i feel like now she's being recognized for yeah uh you know going forward and and it gives her that credibility moving forward yeah yeah so that's cool so what's next so what's next next week, right? Yeah. So I'm filming it. I'm doing a show with one of the mainstreamers. I got asked to do it a couple of years ago. And it's within my wheelhouse. It's to do with a special force.

It's not a baking show or a gardening show. That's the next season. You and DJ doing a baking show? That will be coming out later on this year eight episodes um so i'll be finishing that i'm still doing a lot of the security stuff as i mentioned sudan's uh still going on um my wife's got five books coming out this year free kids books how to ask some money her own memoir and we just launched our own podcast as well called behind the scene there you go but seen as in swn so we're getting guests on those from either celebrities sports business as we touched on i i generally believe that anyone can break a will record if you have that support

network around you and so in any relationship uh the success of someone, someone has to sacrifice or someone's doing work behind them. So the podcast is bringing a person on who the world sees and then bringing the person who actually does all the work. So a bit like my wife. That's actually a really cool concept. Yeah, behind the scenes. Yeah, dude, I think that's an awesome concept. Because, dude, it's true. Behind every successful initiative or mission dude behind, it's true behind every successful

initiative or mission or company, there's people and there's people that get no light about, about the victory of, of the win. Like, you know, I get a lot of credit cause I'm the face of these things and I'm like, people are like, Oh, and I'm like, bro, you have no idea. Like I'm surrounded by all these fucking people who are amazing at what they do. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's like, all I have to do is show up and fucking open my mouth. You know what I mean? Like it's a, I love that. Yeah.

Well, you're only as good as your support. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. And I wouldn't be here telling my story if it wasn't, wasn't for my wife. And so it's an opportunity for, and I think it doesn't, anyone can relate to it. You know, like in the military, when the guys go away, the wives have to stay with the kids. Yeah.

Law enforcement, when they go out. Bro, I love that concept. That's something nobody's doing. Yeah, I know. Yeah. That's going to be big. the wives have to stay with the kids. Law enforcement, when they go out each day. Bro, I love that concept. That's something nobody's doing. Yeah, I know. That's going to be big. It's going to be big, yeah. So we were just doing our first recordings now. And yeah, we'll get that out.

But I think a lot of people can relate to that. People think, oh, that person's doing amazing. But as you've touched on, the team, you surround yourself with a good team. And actually, you can be successful if you have the right team around on, the team, you surround yourself with a good team. Actually, you can be successful if you have the right team around you. You don't actually have to know anything. Yeah.

And you know what also is crazy? None of those people ever care about the credit. The best teams, nobody cares about the credit. No one cares, man. No one cares. Yeah.

Yeah. That's why one of the efforts of Special Forces is humility. Yeah. It's all about humility. And so, so yeah, so I'm looking forward to that podcast. Yeah, that's going to be cool special forces is humility yeah it's all about humility and uh so so yeah so i'm looking forward to to that podcast yeah that's gonna be getting out and we'll get yourself and emily on yeah sure yeah be cool man yeah yeah that's a real i mean when you said that i'm like

well fuck dude that's kind of my life yeah you know what i mean so i can immediately that's what i thought of so yeah well now you go into meetings and people you know we understand our strengths and weaknesses my wife can't cycle 14 miles, but I can't raise $1.3 million. So we know our strengths and our weaknesses and we sort of work on that. So when I go into meetings, I'm like, well, you've only met 50% of the team.

And yeah. That's cool, bro. She used to be the good cop, bad cop because people would fall in love with me. I'd chat to them and then she'd just swoop in with a contract. That is totally the fucking dynamic is it is it he knows how many times you got the fire from emily bro i only get the fire yeah people think it's me bro it ain't me oh man that's funny all you fuckers know in here don't you fuck dude that's cool man um before we end the show because first of all uh thanks for coming

out here man um you guys are in california now and you're you were talking before the show that you're looking at maybe not staying in california maybe looking at some you know some places with some land be able to do some of the things that you enjoy doing. What's the list of possibilities? The list? What's the short list? What's the short list? I think you got the short list. Missouri.

Really? Tennessee. Bro, listen, Tennessee and Missouri are very similar. I've told you, both places. The only thing is, Tennessee's cool right now. Missouri's still not cool, so nobody's coming here. Which is great. Yeah, it's great.

It's great. Yeah. Don't tell anybody. Actually, don't move here yeah we'll take dean yeah right yeah we love yellowstone so montana's right on that list as well yeah so um yeah and a few of my friends are pulling me towards texas yeah so now we've been here for two years you know orange county is great when we landed but i don't't know if you've been to Orange County. It's almost like a false bubble, a false security bubble. Everything's landscape. It looks like Disneyland on steroids.

And so for me, I just want to sort of bring my kids back to reality, take them back to the wildlife and things like that. Lots of people are doing that now, dude. It's really cool to see. I see a lot of people who have never been introduced to any kind of outdoor skill or any sort of nature at all, taking interest in it so that their kids can learn it. That's cool, man. One of the charities back in the UK that we were raising money for, we went to one of their schools in London. It was a school where the kids had all been kicked out of school and none of the schools wanted them. So we went there and there was no air conditioning.

It was hot summer's day. And I went and did a presentation about what I was doing. And then afterwards, this young lad came up to me, Ahmed, and he said, what are you doing for us? I said, I'm cycling. He said, no, no, but what are you doing for us? And I actually thought about it. I said, these kids will never have a bike. So this story doesn't even relate to them.

So I rang my friend who was the regimental sergeant major from a military training camp, about 30 minutes down the road. And we hosted them for a day, had them out on the boats, had them out. And I remember one of the young kids come up to me and he said, oh, what's this? And it was an acorn. I said, oh, it's a a conker and he'd never seen a conker before and that for me was like wow you know how people especially in these cities haven't yeah experienced uh nature but no back to it with our kids you know you know my my children i try to they're they're born into a digital world you know they know no different and so you can't really shout at them when they've got the iPad and things like that. But if you can spend time.

So we're taking them to Mexico in the summer, and we're going to build some houses down there. That's awesome. Yeah, just sort of ground them a bit. Yeah. But not rub their noses in it. Just let them know that it's not all rainbows and unicorns like Orange County. Yeah, and when you're doing good, you have an obligation to do good for others.

Exactly, yeah, and it's all about giving back. So yeah, we'll probably do that. So as long as we can do that and then escape somewhere with them. So yeah,

we're looking at a few of the states. Yeah, that's cool. That'd be cool if it was Missouri, bro. Yeah, no,

yeah, Missouri would be good. Yeah, like I said, I now get sponsored by some of the Leopold's Scopes and Staccato, but I can't use them

in Orange County. I told him, I hear you should have a back porch, bro yeah it's good yeah you can well brother i really appreciate you coming on and sharing all that man um i'd like to have you on again and talk some more of course yeah yeah we'll definitely make that happen next time you're out here at 1p and uh we'll figure that out but uh anything like that you would say you know you're a big mental health advocate, you've raised a lot of money for that cause. As we close the show down, what would you say to someone out there who's struggling right now with their mental health? And they're struggling to find their identity and they're struggling with the things that we identified that contribute to these

problems. What would you have to say to them? Well, there's three ways of dealing with mental health, what I learned. One is the pharma, which I avoid completely. I'm not a fan of the pharma. That should be the last resort. Communication is always a key one. If no one knows there's a problem, then no. But for me, what I was trying to promote with this bike ride, when I got introduced to the

Royal Foundation, so worked with Prince Harry and William and Kate. It was their campaign. And when I got sat down in the Royal Foundation, they said, what's the message you're trying to promote with this challenge? I didn't really have a message. I came in because my ginger friend told me to come in. But then actually when I sat about and I looked internally, I said, well, physical activity helps your mental state. And I got told, I got challenged in 2016. They said, oh, no, you can't use that.

I said, well, why not? They say, because it's not being scientifically proven. I said, well, that's fine, but I don't need a scientist to tell me that I feel good when I'm training. So I ignored them anyway. Now, years later, it's recognized as one of the coping mechanisms. So two answers, really, is talk to someone and get active. Dude, you know, I've said this recently on a show, So two answers really is talk to someone and get active. Yeah.

Dude, you know, I say, I've said this recently on a show, but I want to note it again since we're on the topic. You know, something that's tremendously, tremendously improved my life for my mental health is doing cold plunges. I just, it has nothing to do with our conversation other that we're on the topic and I want to talk about it just for a second. But if you guys are struggling, dude, and you're having trouble, just understand that there is actual science behind putting cold immersion therapy on your vagus nerve, which increases the

hormones that make you feel alive and make you feel happy and like a normal human being. And I'm going to do a whole episode, a video on YouTube about my protocol for mental health with the cold because dude, it has fucking transformed in like a short amount of time, like 30 days. So if you guys are out there struggling with that, think about starting to implement that in your morning routine as the first thing you do. And you got to get in the water all the way up to your chin. Okay. And you got to do two to six to eight minutes, somewhere in there you work up. But I can't speak enough good about it, about how much it's done for me to completely fucking changed me as a human being. Like I didn't even realize how bad

I was. I had no idea. And I had gone the farmer route. I went the farmer route for 11 years, bro. And it fucked me up real bad. And, um, I just want to put that out there because no one talks about it. No doctors talk about it because they can't sell you fucking cold water. Okay. If you're not cold plunging and you're suffering mentally right now, figure out a way to fucking do it the right way. Spend the fucking money. It'll be the best money you ever spent and get your fucking ass in there every single

day. Dude, it'll change your life. So I just want to leave people with that. It's something that's cost-effective, works very well. And I promise you, if you do it consistently, it will change everything for you. So, bro, thanks so much for coming on, man. Thank you, Abner. I appreciate it.

Yeah, it was really cool. So guys, that's the show. Where can people follow you at? Where are you doing most of your content and social and how can they support you? Yeah, so I'm on Instagram and Facebook. Um, you know, I'm teaching an old dog, new tricks with, uh, with social media. It was a taboo when I was in the special board. So yeah, Dean Stott on, uh, on, uh, Instagram and, and Facebook. And then, uh, my website is www.deanstott.com.

Cool guys. Make sure you support this man. He's a good man doing really good things in the world and there's a lot to learn from him. So, brother, thank you so much. Thank you again. All right. That's the show. Make sure you pay the fee. We're from sleeping on the floor.

Now my jury box froze. Fuck a bowl. Fuck a stove. Counted millions in the cold. Bad bitch. Booty swole. Got her on bankroll. Can't fold. that's a no

Headshot, case closed