Forging Resilience
Join us as we explore experiences and stories to help gain fresh insights into the art of resilience and the true meaning of success.
Whether you're seeking to overcome personal challenges, enhance your leadership skills, or simply navigate life's twists and turns, "Forging Resilience" offers a unique and inspiring perspective for you to apply in your own life.
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Forging Resilience
58 Dean Stott: The Man Who Conquered the Pan-American Highway in 99 Days
Dean Stott didn't grow up dreaming of joining special forces he wanted to be a fireman. Yet a chance conversation with his father redirected his path, leading to 16 remarkable years in the military, including his time with the elite Special Boat Service (SBS).
When a devastating parachuting accident abruptly ended Dean's military career, he faced the identity crisis familiar to many veterans: "What is my role? What is my purpose? How do I now fit in society?" His answer came through physical challenges that would test the limits of human endurance. With minimal cycling experience, Dean set off to conquer the Pan-American Highway – a 14,000-mile journey from Argentina to Alaska that he completed in an astounding 99 days, breaking the world record while raising nearly £1 million for mental health charities.
Throughout our conversation, Dean reveals powerful insights about managing pressure, finding motivation when traditional sources of identity disappear, and the unexpected ways we discover purpose. His exploration of plant medicine for addressing underlying mental health issues offers a fascinating glimpse into evolving approaches to healing, particularly within veteran communities. "The plant medicine is the easiest part," he explains. "It's the work afterwards – the integration phase – that matters most."
What makes this episode particularly compelling is how Dean's extraordinary experiences illuminate universal truths about resilience. Whether facing a life-altering injury, a challenging transition, or simply the pressure to constantly surpass your previous achievements, Dean's journey demonstrates how physical challenges can become pathways to mental fortitude. His story reminds us that resilience isn't about avoiding falls – it's about discovering new ways to rise each time we do.
Join us for this fascinating exploration of human potential and discover how Dean's journey from special forces to world record holder offers wisdom for anyone navigating life's inevitable transitions.
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Welcome to Forging Resilience, exploring for a different perspective on strength and leadership. Join me as we discuss experiences and stories with guests to help gain fresh insights around challenge, success and leadership. Today, on Forging Resilience, we're joined by Dean Stott. Dean's best known for his career in a former as UK Special Forces, specifically the SPS. He's an adventurer mental resilience advocate. He set a world record for the cycling the Pan American Highway in just 99 days. He's worked as a private security consultant in high risk environments. His journey includes many things, including overcoming career ender injuries, transitioning to new challenges and demonstrating extreme resilience in both physical and personal domains. Dean, it's been a while mate. Welcome to the show. Been too long, dean. Mate, let's roll straight into it. Give us a bit of, for the people that don't know you, a bit about your background. What's relevant for us today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think what's relevant is the fact that I actually didn't want to be in the military Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I always wanted to be a fireman actually, and my father was in the military, my grandparents and I was immersed in that environment. I grew up in Aldershot, as you know, which is the home of the British Army, but, yeah, it was never forced upon me. I loved. You know the reason I ended up going to SBS. I loved the water. I've been surfing since a young boy Went to college at 17.
Speaker 2:I went on a two-week surfing holiday with my mates and I never came back and my dad came looking Long before the mobile phone this is 1993, 94, sorry. And then my dad came looking for me six months later, found me working in a surf shop and the long drive back, the four-hour drive back from the Southwest you know he's in my ear hole and I said well, I'll join the military. And you know I was hoping I was getting some warm, comforting words and he told me I'd last two minutes and so for me I thought there's no point in arguing with him. And there's stories throughout my life very similar to this. You know, the best course of action was action itself, was just to go do it and prove him wrong. You know that Monday I did. I went into the careers office. You know, living in Aldershot, you're probably going to join the parachute regiment. I'd never even heard of the commandos, or especially the SBS. And as soon as my father saw that I was being serious, he then started supporting me. You know he was in the Royal Engineers and you know, for your listeners, my dad was like the Ted Lasso of the army. He was the army football manager, player and coach, and so he was what we call a tracksuit soldier. Now I've seen Ted Lasso of the army. He was the army army football manager, player and coach, and so he was what we call a tracksuit soldier. Now I've seen Ted Lasso. It's nothing like my dad at all.
Speaker 2:Um, but yeah, I ended up joining the military. Uh, thinking I was I do three years, get a good CV, and that helped me become a fireman, which is what I always wanted to do. And then, as soon as I stepped through those doors, I just fell in love with the environment, with the challenges. I joined at 17. I probably weighed about 65 kilos and was about five foot seven. But in a short period of time, in about two or three years, just shot up five foot 11, 200 pound in weight or 90 kilos. But as I was physically getting stronger, I was physically getting stronger, I was mentally getting stronger.
Speaker 2:You know, when I started basic training, you know, I was like middle of the pack, you know. And then I was starting to come up to the front and then it was like right, I didn't look too far ahead. I had no aspirations of being in special forces at all, you know. Then, you know, past training went over to Germany to play football like my dad, then volunteered for the commando course, did well on that, went to recce troop and it just then.
Speaker 2:Your career then just starts funneling in one direction. And that's when, you know, eventually I ended up going to the SBS. But you know, one of the first army guys to do that, and my reasons for that decision much to the disgust of my friends in Hereford is the fact that I'd spent eight years with free commander brigade. I was um, I'd been an instructor on the all arms commander course and I was also now the senior diving instructor at the defense diving school. So water was that natural pull towards me, not because I didn't want to go SAS. It's just. I actually did both briefing courses. I did the Hereford one yeah, yeah, just to check.
Speaker 2:And then I did the pool one the week after and they were both brilliant both. You know the caliber. The guys is amazing. But when I was down pool it was in the summer and the guys were wearing frog shorts, t-shirts like reef, sandals. I'm like this is my vibe and literally that was the decision maker. That was it.
Speaker 1:Love it love it, love it and um. So how long did you do in total service I?
Speaker 2:did 16 years in the military, um, I did just over five years, uh, my time in pool, um, and, like I said, I I got to the point when I passed selection. Yeah, and you, you've been there, you know what I mean. Once you pass selection, you're on cloud nine, until you actually then turn up Monday morning and realize actually you're the new boy to get the kettle on. But actually, even though I was doing that, I looked around the room and realized I was now where I wanted to be. I was with like-minded individuals who had that drive, that passion always to be the best, and so, for me, I had no aspirations of being a civilian at all. I was what we call a lifer. And we were just on pre-deployment training again to go out to Afghan.
Speaker 2:I was doing a we're doing some hey-ho training. We had some new lads just come through selection, and so we'd already done that on previous tours, and so it sounded major like, right, you go do some fun jumps. But, as you know, the military take great sports like skiing, diving and skydiving and just ruin it. Um, so, yeah, we were doing this. I think it was about third or fourth jump of the day and I normally like to go number one and frog it just to wind up the pgi's. But yeah, this time my tl was that right, you say that you stay in the middle story, you could upset in the raf. And uh, yeah, I was in the middle of the group, exited, and you know, done this loads of times.
Speaker 2:And then, as I was looking and my eyes are open, I was like I'm looking the wrong way. I was looking at my foot caught in the uh, the line above my. So you know, for your listeners, you have halo which is skydiving, which you're free of the lines, but with the halo you're still attached to the aircraft. It's a static line. And then exit, at 15,000 feet the parachute opens.
Speaker 2:So I knew this parachute was just about to pull and then I was frantically kicking my legs out. I couldn't clear it in time and when it did go taut, pulled my leg over my head and to my right, you know. Thankfully, my ankle cleared from the line. But straight away I knew there was a problem. You know, I've never experienced pain like it. I was vomiting because of the pain and at 15,000 feet the oxygen is quite thin. So I was sort of drifting in and out of consciousness. But I had a canopy, I could see the guys in front of me and I was going in the right way, and my first concern was that how am I going to land this? I only have one leg but it was a great landing and I screamed medic.
Speaker 2:And one of the guys was like that was a good landing. I said the exit wasn't. You know, they sent me off to the hospital in Muscat, did an MRI scan. I tore my ACL, my MCL, my lateral, my lateral meniscus, my hamstring, my calf and the quadriceps. It was all the supporting muscles, because normally with an ACL tear you can carry on with that muscle support but everything else had gone. So, yeah, the guys went off to Afghanistan and you know it was the same time as that Icelandic volcano which had grounded aircraft, and so I was stuck in Muscat for like four weeks on painkillers before I could get back and then sent home for six weeks. I mean, unfortunately it was a whole. You know I loved my time in the military, it was brilliant. But that last sort of year there was a whole spiral of errors with regards to the medical and the way I got treated.
Speaker 1:So, but um, yeah, that was my time does. Does that weigh quite heavily on you, though, mate? To to have your career finished like that, or to to exit on on on that note it did because it was out of my control.
Speaker 2:It's not how I wanted to, you know, to leave, you know, and also, you know, at the time when I left, they, they didn't. I didn't leave on the pension, on what I should have done, you know should have been a medical, and they downgraded it and I was like you know. So I felt I hadn't been reciprocated for my, for my time. But I had other things to worry out at that time. You know so. But lana was eight months pregnant with our first kid and there I I had, I was going through an identity crisis.
Speaker 2:I got to where I had in the special forces, in the military, because of my physical robustness. I now can't even run 50 meters without my knee getting in the way. But you know, I mean, there's that whole. You know when you're in the special forces, you know what you're doing for the next two years. You know you have a role, you have a purpose in society. Now, what is my role? What is my purpose? How do I now fit in society? So I really struggled, uh, with that um, but thankfully within 48 hours I was on the ground in libya doing a security job. So that sort of eased that concern about whether there was any work out there. But going back to your one, yeah, I did feel there was a weight on my shoulders, a lot that I hadn't been reciprocated in my last 16 years. Um, you know, hadn't really hadn't been reciprocated in my last 16 years, you know, hadn't really hadn't been financially not financially compensated, but sort of like, yeah, just reciprocated.
Speaker 1:Well, just looked after, really, I guess Just looked after.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I put a case in because actually the way I was paid out it was said I was fixed within 26 weeks it took me 44 weeks to get an operation. I had to threaten to sue them to give me an operation so I could leave, and so I put the case together, got denied. Then there was the you can appeal it. It goes to the second appeal and then it gets denied. But I actually I was chatting to one of the ex-DSF Director of Special Forces guys in London who was working with us on one of our boards and I told him about this and he said Dean, he said they won't even open that file until the third time round and because they know that they're going to lose 75, 80 percent of the guys or guilds anyway pushing it. And so for me, I had time on my hands and so and that was the case the third time we went to a tribunal hearing.
Speaker 2:I sat in front of a board in edinburgh and literally I had, I had my timeline with me, I got the royal british legion to come in on board and uh, yeah, I then got, um, I then got paid. I now get a, a, uh, a monthly tax-free thing, which is actually better than a pension. So for me, I didn't think it was a problem until I walked away from that and then felt, yes, I can now close that chapter and move forward. You know that part of my life's done, um. But yeah, it's um, it's that you shouldn't as you know, we shouldn't even be doing this. It should naturally be done for you and looked after, but that isn't.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, it's one of those things that happens with that organization. They're great at some things and not very great at others.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think now, in reflection, I left in 2011,. So it's been 14 years now and, wow, that's gone quick as well. But the military is a business. They are a business. They need to employ people. They keep them in when you're in, you know it's all about looking after your staff and things like that, but as soon as you're gone, that's it. You know, someone said it's like a smarty tube. You know you're smart. You come in at the bottom, you're all the way at the top, you get popped out the top and then you're forgotten.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, yeah, touched on there that you know, just before you're getting out, you're having a bit that that identity crisis, um, your role and purpose had been kind of or at least the perception of it had been taken away. What, what is it that you did to tap back into that, that purpose, or what is it now? What is it currently that that purpose that you?
Speaker 2:um you, I think alana spotted it and alana realized I was going for a dark place and she, she, you, you know my wife's very entrepreneurial, you know she put her career on hold to sort of like sort of help me with this. But you know, naturally found myself, without sounding like Liam Neeson people with our particular skill sets, we end up working in the security industry. And so when I got out, it was May 2011, height of the Arab Spring, and my first job was to help set up the British Embassy DFID project in Benghazi. And you know, coming from SBS, a lot of my friends now who had already left had their own maritime security companies. Maritime was at its high anti-piracy, so I didn't want to be competing with them. I didn't want to be going out to Afghanistan and Iraq doing six weeks rotations. I wanted to find a niche. I'll tell you what probably the best thing I actually did when I got out was I left that environment. You know, I see some guys now when they leave, whether they retire or they're injured, they stay in Hereford, they stay in Poole, and you haven't left that community. You're still looking in from an outside, you're still bumping into the guys in the bars, and so for me, I moved to Aberdeen, my wife's from Aberdeen. You probably couldn't get any further from Poole, but that was great for me because I disconnected from that military life and was then focused on the security.
Speaker 2:And yeah, being in Libya on that project I never name in shame, but I always say the big five security companies. I was watching them. The Garaffi was now in Tripoli. The city of Tripoli was now surrounded, so everyone was sort of waiting in Benghazi for Tripoli to fall. You had all the oil and gas, all the NGOs you know. Some of the big media crews were there and we were just sat there in a hotel and I was listening to these big security companies charging six, seven figure sums of crisis management and evacuation plans weren't actually in place and so I flew back after two weeks. You know that was it. That was my big indicator as well about, um, uh, the difference between being a civilian and the military. They actually did fly me back to in a no-fly zone two weeks later for my wife to give birth and you in the military you'd be stuck out. And I said to alana you know there's a huge proliferation of weapons at the time.
Speaker 1:I said look, I think.
Speaker 2:I have an idea, sort of sat, spoke her through it and she said, yeah, if you think it's viable, go do it. And so went back in, bought 30 weapons on the black market and I buried them between Tunis and Egypt, just designed my own evacuation plans with caches, which we learn in the military. But living in Aberdeen see, you know oil and gas capital of Europe I had access to some of the oil subsidiary companies and just sold that as a retainer. So I did that and you know I looked at in the security industry. The risk-reward ratio balance is so offset. You know there's guys out in Africa and in Iraq you know on 50% of what guys are doing, working in five-star hotels, flying around in private jets, and I was like, well, I'll go with that that way. So I ended up doing a lot of the corporate close protection but soon realized about an industry you know when we're in the military we get shown one path. You know they'll only show you what they need to show you when you're out as a civilian. I was getting a lot of visibility on this whole private security sector, understanding about some of these demographics, the politics, the tribal influences in these countries, the bigger picture, not than what I was being shown in there.
Speaker 2:Each phone call was unique. You know I was fortunate. Alana never put me under pressure that we had to be guaranteed money each month, and so that enabled me to do work more ad hoc, which then gave me, which then really, you know, built up my CV quite quickly. You know, each phone call was a different country, it was a different task. You know I joke that. You know, when people I tell people I'm in the security industry because the way I look bold, head and muscles, tattoos they think I'm a doorman from Club Tropicana it's like no, it can be anything from surveillance, you know, close protection, coaching and mentoring. You know maritime cyber it's a big old area but, like you know, one phone call would be the UAE Royal Family take their super yacht from Barcelona to the Maldives, which is great, I mean the next one, you pull in a training team together to train the Kurdish special forces. So I built up a quite a good CV at that point, but then really built up a great network around the world.
Speaker 2:And then, after the London Olympics, I was in Benghazi when the American ambassador got killed. Everyone remembers that, september, november 2012. And that's when my first evacuation plan kicked in. I got a German oil company from Benghazi back to Tripoli over 36 hours through a couple of safe houses that we had, and because of the success of that then, two years later, we had the Tripoli War, helped get the Canadian embassy out of Libya, me and my fix 18 military and four diplomats, and then just started getting a name for the crisis, my management and the evacuation stuff. So, yeah, that's uh. So for me that had filled that void.
Speaker 2:But and quite relevant to this, this conversation, actually, when I came back from the canadian embassy, alana, my normal sop, would be laundered my clothes, charge the phone, get ready for the next phone call. And it wasn't um, it wasn't, it wasn't not normal to come home on a morning flight and then Alana meet me at the airport with my new visa and new clothes and be off again. But I came back and Alana had highlighted I'd only been home 21 days in a 365-day calendar. And so I was basically and this was five years after leaving I was trying to match the adrenaline rush I had in SF, without actually coming to terms or addressing the fact with myself that I'd left. You know I was taking high risks and you know, thankfully, that they were successful.
Speaker 2:And but there, you know, something gone wrong. You know the squad, the squadron lads, aren't going to be coming to get you, you're on your own. And so something, something had to change at that point. And so, yeah, and that took a whole evening of two bottles of red wine and a bottle of port and just really, it was a lack of communication. I thought alana wanted me to be away, she thought I wanted to be away, and that wasn't the case. You know, alana has been successful doing property development, so took a sabbatical. That was a big. You know chapter 16 in my books called dead or divorce.
Speaker 1:That was a conversation we were having and, yeah, took a sabbatical, when, when you talk about that, that, that miscommunication or trying to fill that void, then so obviously there's, there's certain need in in a lot of us that tread the paths that we have. How do you fill that void or what is it that you do that gives you, I don't know, your self-worth, or that you find fulfillment in?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we come from, as I mentioned earlier on in the podcast. You know, in the special forces, you know what you're doing for the next two years. They, you know, it's like they keep you busy. I remember once coming back from a course and it was like on a Thursday and I was going away on Monday on a course. That course got canceled on Friday. So I'm like, perfect, I might have a week on camp next week to sort out some admin. You know, get the dentist and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:By Friday afternoon I was on another course. So I actually, like you, don't have time to reflect and so I think that's, you know, especially with mental health is when people haven't got much going on and they have too much time to reflect, and so we almost try and simulate that. I try and simulate that experience in the special forces by keeping busy. You know I, like now, pretty much know what I'm doing for the rest of the year, unless something comes in that changes that. But then you know, physical activity this is when I go on to the bike ride actually.
Speaker 2:So when I, when I took that sabbatical, lano um was doing property developing and, like I said it was, it was, uh, about five years after me, uh, leaving the military and I'd neglected my own physical and mental well-being. My injured leg now was two kilos lighter than my good leg because of the muscle wastage and so I just bought a road bike off Amazon. You know I was keeping in shape upper body, I was flying around the world with a TRX and things like that, but never done any cardio since being injured and I just cycled to and from the office. You know it was eight miles there, eight miles back, but being physically active again, getting getting those lungs going, that bit of cardio. You know I felt like there was a, there was a weight off my shoulders and I was trying. I was almost like seeing that identity that I had before my injury.
Speaker 2:But you know, you've heard, you've heard my backstory now, sat in these architects and planners meetings with alana, you know I was like, you know I was bored. You know we had our second child now tommy, so I'm in the corner feeding him, just not really interested in what they're saying. Alana's like right, you need to do something to keep yourself physically and mentally engaged. And it's about a month before my 40th birthday and I was like I always remember reading the Guinness Book of Records and I'm like, well, I fancy doing a world record. And she said, well, in I said I had to find a sport. That wasn't my injury, wasn't going to obviously play up on us, it was cycling's good and so, living in Scotland, I was hoping to maybe do east to west coast. Alana then found the world's longest road from southern Argentina to the northern.
Speaker 1:Alaska.
Speaker 2:And I'd only ever cycled 20 miles. It sounds quite. I never mean to sound arrogant I was like, yeah, let's lock that one in, and so I applied for the world record for Guinness. They came back six, six weeks later and you have to actually do a pitch as well. You can't. It's not automatically that you're going to get them to approve it. So I did this whole pitch, uh, about how I was going to raise awareness for mental health and, um, you know, veterans and stuff like that. And yeah, they came back and so that was my new, new project, um, that we started working on. You know, um, we, alan and I, worked a lot in the non-profit space or the charity space, you know, since, you know, I was an ambassador for the sbs association. She's an honorary member, the british legion and things like that, and so, yeah, you know, as you know, I have a, a, a former royal friend, who's got ginger hair, used to work in the military, so he was the person I rang up about this.
Speaker 2:I'd actually done a lot of stuff with him behind the scenes. I had an intelligence fusion cell based in Mozambique and Tanzania, and so anytime we had intelligence on the ivory moving from Africa to Asia. I would push it to him and he would send it to these relevant charities. But this was the first time we were coming out together in public and I told him I'm going to cycle this road, and him and his brother and Kate were just about to launch a mental health campaign called Heads Together. So there was three veteran charities within that, but there was eight other charities as well. Every postnatal depression, young children, teenagers, and so I'd seen it firsthand in the military mental health. I wasn't aware how big, how it affects everyone. It literally affects everyone. It doesn't discriminate and so I said, yeah, that's the, that's the one for this. So we set a target of a million pounds. The world record was 117 days and I trained for 15 months and set off on the challenge did?
Speaker 1:did you have a specific target to do that ride in in your own mind there, mate? I know you did it in 99, but yeah, so it.
Speaker 2:So. The target was 117 days. You know, if you asked me at the beginning, I was at 116 days and 23 hours and 59 minutes perfect for me as long as I beat it the when I was doing the planning.
Speaker 2:You know, as you know, we, we always give ourselves a bit of fudge. You know, I'd spoken to previous record holders. They all started in alaska and finished in argentina, but all their issues are in south and central america, be it language, spare sort of bikes and bureaucracy. So I'm like, well, why take a gamble with a second half? You know, I'd literally I'd never cycled before, but I just took a military set of orders, put it on this and just crossed out ammunition and just went through all the, all the subheadings, and which is perfect, I mean, as I, as I then evolved as a cyclist, I then, you know, put that into into the plan, and so I decided to go the other way and I thought there was things that were out of my control when I was planning. There'd be natural disasters, coups. Actually, three weeks after me cycling through nicaragua, there was a coup. I missed it by three weeks, and so I thought, well, if we encounter any of them, I'll give myself a week's fudge. It's not eating into world record. So my target was actually was 110 days because of that, but I took 10 days off the South America world record. And so I was that perfect, I'm on target.
Speaker 2:I got into North America and I was 14 days ahead, so I'm like perfect. You know, when I crossed into North America I thought, well, hopefully now, having spoken to the previous record holders, all our issues now should be in South and Central America. I tell you, I don't know what it was about getting into America. I had a support team and a documentary team as well. And so, you know, in South and Central America, I tell you I don't know what it was about getting into America. I had a support team and a documentary team as well. And so, you know, in South and Central America we were literally cycling from first light to last light. We had to be off the road. Getting into America was like doing an escape and evasion and getting to the war RV. Everyone spoke the language. The culinary options were a lot better. It just felt like there was a huge weight off.
Speaker 2:But after an hour of cycling in there and alana's running the whole campaign as well she's the campaign director, she's very good at keeping those distractions away from me I had like five missed calls on my on my phone. So I'm thinking there's something wrong with the kids and I ring alana. I said, are you okay? And she's like, yeah, she goes. What do you wear to a royal wedding? I said, sorry, is it? What do you wear to a Royal wedding? I said I don't know. And she goes oh, we've been invited to Harry and Meghan's wedding. I said that's nice, because you don't understand, she goes the last flight back. If you want to get back, for this wedding is day 102. So going into the phone call, I was 14 days ahead. 10 minutes later I'm now a day behind.
Speaker 2:I had to sort of change the way that I cycled. The luxury we had in North America was I could cycle at night In South America. I had to be mindful of the fact that the team and everyone else, so we were off the road, so I had that as an added bonus. I got into Lubbock in Texas the next day we had 16-mile-an-hour winds and tornadoes and I was grounded for another 24 hours.
Speaker 2:So there was an app on your phone called Windy TV, very popular with sailors and now cyclists, and it gives you the strength and directions of the winds forecast for the next two weeks every hour and it's about 95% accurate. So I literally just put pen to paper and I'm looking at the winds and I'm looking at times and writing them down. I had to cycle 340 miles in the next 36 hours to mix, missed the next weather window, so I basically play in chess with mother nature through through north america, you know, also using it to my advantage. I got to wyoming uh, cheyenne in wyoming and picked up a 50 mile an hour tailwind and cycled, you know, I did 270 miles in 11 hours. It's like having a wingsuit on.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean so I had 17 days planned for the us. I did it in 11 and a half days, and so I'm now well ahead of the world record. I'm should be back in time for this wedding if I just carry on at this pace. And I was in a town called white horse, which is about a week outside from the the end, and, um, I was looking on social media. A few people were sending me some uh links to this gentleman, uh, michael strasser. He has. He was a 26 year old austrian. He has three other endurance world records sponsored by red bull, you know and he'd come out on social media that day and said he was going to cycle the pan-american highway in august and be the first man to do under 100 days. I was like, oh my god.
Speaker 1:So every time, every time I get hit my objective.
Speaker 2:My objective kept moving. You know, I could have quite happily just stayed at the same pace, broke the world record and come in. But for me, I sat there and I was. I, literally, I generally was eating about three big mac meals. At the time I was sat in mcdonald's um, you know, I was burning nine to twelve thousand calories, so you know, guilt free. And I in nine to 12,000 calories, so you know, guilt free. And I was like, well, do I push it or not? And I was like, well, I wouldn't want to look back and think I hadn't given it my all. So I had to cycle for 22 hours in the last 30 hours, in minus 18, to get in in 99 days, 12 hours and 56 minutes. So for me it wasn't. That wasn't the original plan, no-transcript, free. Due to weather and two logistics, I may have just pushed it and may not have taken those days off, you know. So, thankfully for me I was.
Speaker 1:You know it worked out perfect yeah, I love it, mate, love it. What was a low point on that ride for you? So is there anything?
Speaker 2:that sticks out in your mind. Yeah, there's a couple of low point. You know the when you're doing the challenge, like, like that. You know I was in a great position. I think the worst position I was cycling, why and it wasn't because of the cycling, it was nothing, it was out outside issues.
Speaker 2:Well, I think by the end of the first week we had some strong winds in Ushuaia, tierra del Fuego, you know, living in Abilene, I was used to that. So I was about 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. After that, from then on, it was all gains. So at no point was I behind target during that whole challenge. So, mentally, each night I was in a good headspace going to bed and I tell people this when they're doing challenges, I see people and they're like I'm 10 miles behind today, but I'll catch that up tomorrow. But you don't know what's going to happen the next day. You may have another bad day and you're now 20, 30 miles behind. So for me, I always tell people hit. You may have another bad day and you're now 20, 30 miles behind. So for me, I always tell people hit the target you're meant to do for the day, because then when you go to bed at night you're where you should be, you're in a good space. So there was nothing like that at all.
Speaker 2:You know, we had so many people wanting to help on this challenge and you know, I generally thought people wanted to do it for the right reasons. We had a support team. We had people want to do it for the right reasons. We had a support team. We had a documentary team and things that you know. I didn't find out on day 13 that the medic is bullying the documentary team in their wagon. I'm like why? You know?
Speaker 1:why am I?
Speaker 2:finding this out, I'm doing a drama as well as a challenge I'm doing a mental health campaign and I find out about this bullying so I had to send the medic homes, then cause all these issues. You know. Then, as this, as a time as the challenge ends, becomes quite big and it's getting a lot of um, a lot of press and a lot of attention. And I'm in mexico and the mechanic and the soft tissue therapists are like they just gave me the whole what we didn't do. We didn't have any a contract. I thought everyone was offering their time pro bono. We were giving them, obviously, the food and accommodation and it was all part of the bigger picture.
Speaker 2:You know, they now wanted to change the name of the challenge to reflect his, his cycling company, I mean, you know, and he wanted to now be the ops manager and things that. And he said you can't do this without us. And so I, you know I had a good friend, ivy, who's ex-marine he, he was with me at a time. We looked at each other, said yeah, we can, and we just sent them home. It's like, you know, people just trying to hijack and I wasn't. That caught me out, which was a bit um, upsetting, but also gave me a bit of fire in the belly. Uh, again, you know well, a big one for me was you know heads together who was the who were raising the money for, and we raised at the time 930 000 pounds for them. I broke the world record in south america. They hadn't even done one tweet yet about this and then our pr team were like this guy is busting his balls. You got you know. So there was those sort of things that were playing on your mind because, yeah, you're having hard days and you're like they can't even put a tweet out. Yeah, yeah, but the um.
Speaker 2:But when I got back from that, I spoke to michael. You know he had a similar thing with his support team. I spoke to other people and I said, yeah, it's commonplace in the adventure world that the support team can play up. So lessons learned for that for me is it's a contract, have a contract with them and things like that. It's a business. You know you like to think people want to do it at the goodness of the heart, but that's sometimes not the case. Not saying that there's people out there who won't do it for the goodness of their heart, but you just got to be quite careful on on something like this and when you have big names attached to it as well. You know you've got to think about what. What was their actual agenda?
Speaker 1:yeah, definitely, um, mate. So if, if there wasn't any real like big low points for you on on that ride, apart from the the human challenges of ego and all that good stuff, if you reflect on another part of your career and you don't have to go into details here, how are some of the things that you talk about or that you teach in terms of managing pressure or managing yourself in those challenging times and environments?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, think it was really interesting because when the documentary team, I remember being in, where was I now? I was in America and you know the director's going to Alana, you know he's back in Scotland. He's like right Dean is showing no emotion. This guy you know he's hitting his numbers for the day.
Speaker 2:You know he just seems to be just doing what he said he's doing because they obviously like drama and things like that and he just seems to be just doing what he said he's doing, because they obviously like drama and things like that. And so I remember they came in, I was in the RV having some food and then they're like, you know, you're just like a robot. I said, hang on. I said look, I said I was very fortunate that I didn't have pressure from the sponsors, I didn't have pressures from the charities, which was great. You know, the reason I set the I I applied for the world record was was my own motivation to get up and train.
Speaker 2:You know, it can actually be a target, because if you don't have a target, I'll probably still be on the bike right now, you know. So I'd see it. Um, but I said no, everyone, everyone's under pressure. I said I've told the world that the ethos of the uk special forces is the unrelenting pursuit of excellence, and they're like yeah, I said so. What does it look like to the world if I don't complete this challenge? So actually, the pressure I was under I was self-induced pressure, you know for me was, if I don't do this, can I go back into a bar in Hereford and Poole and hold my head up high? And so that was the yeah. So I was under pressure, but I just turn, I like to turn pressure into, into fuel, into energy, um, and, and that's what I did with this, but you know. But yeah, you have to look at some of these pressures sometimes. You have to look at it right. Is it someone putting me under pressure or is it just me thinking inwards?
Speaker 1:yeah, it's a great question and and I think, mate, as we just touched on before we got online, sometimes that takes years of reflection and and peeling back layers to to really understand, at least in my case, some of the the things that drove me to pursue the career I did was, like I touched on and I'll say again is that my perception of to, to accept, for acceptance was through. Physical challenge is through yeah, raw marines not good enough. Next, selection Selection still not enough. Next, ironman still not good enough. Next, you know, yeah, and I've only luckily, I caught that, I've been shown that, so it's an interesting journey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's interesting you say that, but it is because once you're successful, it's like right, the bars. I know a lot of guys actually from recce troops and airborne units who didn't do selection and they were perfect caliber and I'm like, why are you not doing it? And I won't name and shame A couple of them were like rock stars within recce troops or within the airborne units and the lads within the units looked at them as rock stars. If they went on selection and failed, it brings them back down to their level. So again, I think for us we set the bar high and then we have to keep going higher.
Speaker 2:You know, Alana said to me actually interestingly enough, because as soon as I came back from this, I'm doing another challenge, I'm going to kayak the River Nile. And then, you know, COVID hit, which sort of put that to bed. But then Alana sort of highlighted well, you've done this cycling for 18 months. You know it was great the impact that we had. You know, we helped all these charities and helped so many people, thousands of people. We said what did we get as a family? We just got more time away from me and I was like, okay, I didn't really think about that. And then, as I started looking at other challenges and I ended up getting introduced to the plant medicine, I went on a plant medicine journey and it actually highlighted to me.
Speaker 2:It asked the question. It said who are you trying to prove, who are you trying to prove? And I was like actually, and said who are you trying to prove, who are you trying to prove? And I was that actually that's a. That's a very good point, you know, because if I, yeah, you can probably go do this challenge, um and succeed. And alana also got slightly upset with the bike riders because because of our backgrounds, it's automatic. They were like, well, you can do that because you're special forces. Well, I probably know about 99 of sf who probably can't cycle 140, you know 14,000 miles or 147 miles a day for 100 days, and so you're almost in that bracket that it's almost expected of you as well. So, you know, everyone likes the underdog. And so, yeah, it was almost like, well, who are you trying to prove it to? And so, yeah, that's been a big thing for me the last two years I was just gonna ask, since you've touched on that mate, what did you?
Speaker 1:did you learn anything interesting that you're willing to to share with us, bearing in mind it's a public podcast from from that um plant medicine experience yeah, so I look for me, just so you're listening.
Speaker 2:So when I did the bike ride, I ended up becoming this like mental health advocate overnight. I'm like, look, I know, I used to sort to sort of joke. I said I'm a cyclist, not a psychiatrist, you know, all of a sudden you ended up being this, like, yeah, this mental health advocate. And I remember I was. I did some guest speaking here for some YPO chapters and then I got introduced to like to Deepak Chopra and things like that. They want to do stuff in the veteran space. So I ended up doing, like these, a couple of mental health conferences. But my, what I was trying to promote on the bike ride, which I actually forgot to mention, you know, when I got introduced to Royal Foundation, they said what is the message you're trying to promote? And I said I didn't really have a message at the time and I sat there on reflection. I said, well, physical activity helps your mental state and this is back in 2016-2017. They said, oh, no, no, you can, no, you can't use that. I said, well, why not? And they said it's not been scientifically proven. I said, well, it's fine, but I don't need the scientists to tell me that I feel good when I'm training. So I ignored them completely. And now you know it is a coping mechanism for mental health. So that was always my message when I was on these panels Is it like physical activity? Get your shoes on, get a, grab a bike, you know things like that.
Speaker 2:But then I was hearing about all these other methods helping veterans and people in the general community, and plant medicine kept coming up, this plant medicine thing. And then there's yoga and breath work and things like that. And then there's plant medicine, especially in the special forces community. So I got approached by one of the veteran ones saying would I be interested? And I'd never, never. You know, I joined the army at 17 so I missed my recreational drug days. I missed, I didn't. I never even smoked, you know. I mean because it was a zero policy in the military, so I never even, uh, entertained that space.
Speaker 2:I did a netflix show last year called toughest forces on earth, where me and two uh, american co-hosts like top gear, we go around the world and showcase what's unique about the special forces. So I'm chatting to them offline. I said, oh, have you heard about plant medicine, ayahuasca and things like that? And they're like, oh, yeah, yeah, but the production company were british and the uk is about 15 years behind us. You know, marijuana is illegal there. So, no, they're not even going to entertain plant medicine yet. And so, yeah, the production company, oh, if you do this, you're off the show. I said I'm not doing it.
Speaker 2:And then we finished production and I got introduced and Alana and I did a podcast and it was a charity called Vets, which is a Navy SEAL charity, and they do a thing called Ibogaine and it's like 72 hours. And I said to Alana, you know, and I said to land, you know, I said to at the time, I don't have ptsd, I don't have any addictions, life's quite good. You know why would I want to go do this medicine? But there was something pulling me towards it and I said, right, well, I'll go. I went down there, did this ibogaine plant medicine and the best way to explain it is, and it was good thing for me because I I hadn't done any research. You know, it was typical me, I, I, they gave me four dates and one was the following week. I was like, yeah, let's lock me in on that, I'll just go do it whatever. We went to an event in coronado the next day I got introduced some seal team, six guys who had done it. It was a big plant medicine event. You had dr hooberman there and you know dan crenshaw, and so they, I know I was like, well, I'm reliant on my physical attributes. You know, am I going to be able to do a pull-up when I come out of this medicine? It just cleans you out completely. So yeah, literally I had no clue about what it was or anything went down to mexico and I was in it for 20 hours the longest person in the medicine for 20 hours.
Speaker 2:And the best way to explain it is like you've been invited to a movie premiere but you're the only person in the audience, the only person understands the language. What it's showing you it's like a movie reel, but you can ask it questions. You can ask it things. I don't really understand what you're showing me here. Can you show me from another angle? For example, a perfect one for me was my injury. I was like why did you take me away from the military? Why would you take, why would you take me from a job that I loved? And it said to me it said because you couldn't learn anymore. You know you weren't growing. I was like, okay so, and then explained that when I went into security I then understood this whole other beast and then it showed me everything. The month before I'd just been to israel doing the evacuations there, I got bible college out and it showed me the pastor and his wife talking yeah, it's interesting to, but you, you, it just clears your, your, your brain out.
Speaker 2:You know, some people have get told where they're going next or what to do and things that you know. Some people have some real home truths. You know, I sort of want to elaborate as well. Like 75 percent of veterans diagnosed ptsd has got nothing to do with their time in the military. It's to do with their childhood, and so a lot of them go in there thinking, oh, I'm gonna see.
Speaker 2:You know what one of the clt6 guys said to me you'll see things you might not like. He the best thing to do is called leaning in. You just commit because the medicine gives you what you need. So your experience and my experience would be totally different. Could we come from different childhoods and everything else, seeing different things? And he said best way to explain it is like you don't want to go through that door in Iraq or Afghan, but you have to go through the door. So they were telling me this. I did. I just leaned in and I saw things. But what it did explain to me is that everything up until now is for a reason. You know you're on the right path. And it just told me to protect the children. It just sort of said keep protecting the children. I'm like okay. So I did that.
Speaker 2:They had to get me out of the medicine, to give me some papaya and banana to get me out, because at midnight I went in at nine o'clock on friday, this is seven o'clock on the saturday, at midnight we have to start fasting for the five meo dmt. The next day, which is the toad, which is the most powerful one, was that literally within 36 hours. I'd done nothing before and then went through ibogaine and dmt. But I came home on the train and alana started crying as soon as she picked me up. She saw no, I lost weight in my face and like eight you know eight pounds lighter. I could see it.
Speaker 2:It it for those listening. It just gives you what you need. You know you don't go in there with any intentions and so for me that was a great experience, um, from then I've gone on. I've done ayahuasca, I've done iboga, which is the most powerful, not because I'm now an addict, but I just want to understand the different ones. My final retreat is next month.
Speaker 2:I'm doing psilocybin in Mexico. So I would have done all of them. But really what it is is I want to be a conduit to the UK SF and veteran guys. I talked about this on Jocko's podcast, my second podcast with Jocko, and the amount of messages I got from the UK military community, and so I've sort of signposted them. I sit on the board of one of the plant medicine charities here who have a UK arm as well, so for me it was more of a. I'm intrigued, you know, show me, um, but actually helped me so much, help my family so much. You know I'm more grounded with the kids, whereas before I was like everywhere. Now I stop at giving the attention, uh, the attention that they need.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it gives you what you need yeah, I think it's a really interesting thing and I've had a couple of people on the podcast speak about it, specifically a woman named Dr Kate Pate who does a lot of work and research into plant medicine for PTSD, and something that was really interesting she told me was sometimes it's too easily won wisdom, in the sense of you have the dose but there's still I don't always like to use this term but the work to do afterwards. So if you see the thing that you need, as you put it, there's still. Like you say, when you walk away, the leaning in still needs to happen, the acceptance or the kindness that you need to. You know I'm talking about myself here. Show myself exactly that, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, you're right. Actually, the plant medicine is the easiest part, you know, going away, doing a nice retreat or whatever it's the work afterwards it's called the integration phase, and so your brain is at its most neuroplasticity. So that's why it helps addicts. It just clears what they're used to and then you start reintroducing new habits. So whether you want to do breath work, whether you want to do stuff with the kids, you bring that. I mean that then starts becoming the normal in your head and so but it's difficult, you know they say, yeah, that integration phase is the most important.
Speaker 2:You know, for me, when I came back, I didn't go on social media, I didn't look, watch the news, that sort of toxic stuff you want to sort of keep. You'll never, you know, you'll end up going back, integrating back into society. But hopefully you've got these new habits. You know, for me it was really. You know I didn't have PTSD, but about two or three times a year and it just happened out of nowhere. I just go from zero to 100 red mess. Now, example of this is, like, you know, when I'm away in these crisis areas, that's where I'm at my most calm, when everyone else is is running around with their heads off. You know, that's where I I I enjoy being.
Speaker 2:But what I don't like is is man-made drama, drama that shouldn't be drama. You know, I remember once this guy beat his horn outside when I was exiting my daughter's nursery in Aberdeen. Just beat his horn. I just saw Redmere got out of the car, dragged him out of the car, just dropped him on the floor and then the Redmere slipped and I just apologized and I felt really bad. And this would happen about two or three times a year. Just out of nowhere, just come from nowhere. I didn't even know where it came from and there was.
Speaker 2:There's obviously something underlying that needs addressing, you know. But the, you know I ended up in a homeless home in moss side in manchester, eight years old, fighting. You know, I've been fighting since a young boy, so it's always been in there. But what the? What the medicine does? It doesn't say right, you're cured, you're not no longer going to be angry, whereas before it was a light switch, it would go from zero to 100, now it's a dimmer. I know it's coming and so what I do is I I calm it down, you, so you don't change at all, you know.
Speaker 1:You just know how to you know work, work with yourself yeah, but I guess I what I'm hearing is you respond to those things rather than react. There's a slightly longer, isn't it? Yeah, because you've got that awareness what your body's gonna do.
Speaker 2:I mean, you just take your way. You know, normally I take my way self away, and alana says it sometimes a dean of old, you'd have been like this, oh yeah, probably but, yeah, no, it's been.
Speaker 2:It's been a an eye-opening experience. But you know, for for me, you know it's huge here in the veteran community doing so much here, um, and they do it for their spouses as well. You know, I sort of joke that I've got, I've had, more from the veteran community here than I have from the uk one, and so hopefully for me I just want to be that, that conduit, because it will it'll be about 15 years before the uk even sort of entertain it, which is why I like the stanford university. They're all doing their research. The only one really who's against it is the pharmaceuticals here, because I know it's having success. They'd rather you be an addict and you know and you need that medicine, rather than being cured.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, fascinating, right? Okay, it's really interesting what you're saying about that that um dragging the bloke out of the car in avadina. I've not done that, but I did catch after a long series of coaching, and I think I might have mentioned this on the podcast, but I'll say it again, because my gran and my mum are the only listeners. But um, driving home with the kids in the back of the car on a summer's evening, um, my wife was at home, she was about to go to work, so I was trying to get home on time, um, and a car pulled right out in front of me. Um, I slammed on my brakes and instantly I felt that rush of adrenaline, ready to go. I didn't say anything because there's two young kids in the back, but I caught it.
Speaker 1:I managed to catch it and it was basically fear, I, I, I. It was taking me in my mind. I was literally getting ready to fight and the really interesting thing is that I'd already lost. So basically it was trying to get me to run away from this. But when I could zoom out from that, literally getting ready to fight, and the really interesting thing is that I'd already lost. So basically it was trying to get me to run away from this. But when I could zoom out from that, just pause, like, like, respond. It's like I have no idea why you pulled out on me, maybe it's an emergency at home, maybe you didn't see me, maybe the sun is, you know, and it's like ah yeah, I can respond to this differently, so one of the things I'd like to elaborate on.
Speaker 2:When I did the aboga the aboga is the truth medicine this thing was hardcore, you know. One came over from gabon. You know I did the prop. It was just a one-on-one, it wasn't like a retreat, so it was like you know, it's ended up in this airbnb. It was 100 degrees it was. It was like it's what I needed really.
Speaker 2:But you know, they taught me because I used to like getting into arguments with people what I thought was common sense it's common sense. It wasn't common sense to them and that's where I used to have sort of frictions with people. So it taught me. The medicine taught me how the body works. The brain is unique to you. There's only one brain of your brain, you know. So you have identical twins. So identical twins will look exactly the same but they won't think the same. So identical twins will look exactly the same but they won't think the same. Some of the things they will agree with and the same with you know, same with us, some things we will agree with and some things we won't. So your body. So if you have four people in a room and you're seeing something, your body is analyzing that, but it's giving you your verdict for you, the best verdict for you, not the best verdict for them. And so that's where. So it taught me uh, it taught me a lot about that and to understand that people don't think like you, so don't get upset when they don't think like you.
Speaker 2:Um, and then also people you know, I see people like overweight and I'm like they can't be happy or you know, and some people are happy and it also taught me like they're living their best life. They're happy, you know, like lana's dad. You know he's. He lives in scotland. You know we're over here now. We got him his home and he just sits there. He has like sports on one telly, news on the other he's got, he's got sun in australia and and we're over here, so he's got the weather for a boat, you know on there, but he's just like loving netflix. He's retired now but and we speak to him, he's oh, happy was like really, you know, but for him he's living his best life and I that's what it taught me as well as he probably is, he probably is having his best life. So really, the medicine taught me a lot about myself.
Speaker 1:Also taught me a lot about others love it, mate, love it, start you, mate. As we start to wrap this up, um, is there anything else that you feel like you want to talk about or mention um?
Speaker 2:no, I just, I just think I love podcasts like else that you feel like you want to talk about or mention. No, I just think I love podcasts like this that you know when you you know you're my area, you know we were talking about this 20 years ago. We'd probably been like kicked out or not. You know, I just love the fact that you know people were realizing there is a huge mental health problem, but there are ways of fixing it. You know, I always this probably being one of the most powerful is communication. So, but yeah, I just think the the tides changed. You know, I remember when I did that bike ride. You know mental health was a taboo. That's why they launched heads together. You know plant medicine is a taboo that, hopefully, will soon change as well awesome mate, awesome start.
Speaker 1:If people are interested in in in your book or reaching out to you, mate, or seeing what you're up to, where might they find you?
Speaker 2:uh, yeah, fortunately I am on in on social media. You know I don't like it, but yeah, I am on instagram. Uh, but yeah, or, deanstockcom is a website, you know, always updating stuff there. Uh, what I'm doing next? Sometimes I just don't know what I'm doing next Sometimes.
Speaker 1:I just don't know what I'm doing next. At least not for two years, mate, but anyway, it's been awesome to see you again after so many years. Bear in mind, we met on a para course a long long time ago, bud.
Speaker 2:No, you've got a better memory than I have. I just thought I'd met you when you were up the road at Hereford. Yeah, you obviously remember the time before with the Green Berets, which was actually quite good because obviously we're at an airborne school and so yeah, I think the Green Berets all sort of stuck together.
Speaker 1:Kind of mate. Yeah, it was a good time because it was very windy again and we didn't do much jumping and I had my motorbike, so I was riding with a couple of lads as well. So, mate, pop memories, awesome story. Thanks very much, buddy. All the best and we'll speak again soon, pal, take care.