Resiliency The Podcast

Welcome to Resiliency the Podcast, the place for stories, strategies, and inspiration on how to embrace change, overcome challenges, and redefine resilience in today's ever evolving world. If resiliency is something you're interested in, I encourage you to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel or wherever else you may be listening to us today. Our show features fantastic guests from all over the world in sectors like finance, tech, entertainment, health and wellness, really every place resiliency is a necessity. I am Jen Quater. I am a strategic communications expert.

I'm also CEO of a company called The Smart Agency. And my cohost is a renowned global leader with thirty four years of experience as a director, entrepreneur, strategist, and most recently earned a PhD in strategic resilience from the Paris School of Business, which makes her the first doctor of resiliency, doctor Kelly Culver. Now today, we are honored to have, a very, very special guest. And frankly, this guest is so special that our executive producer, Asif Quater, pushed his way into the episode because he is officially geeking out on today's today's guest. And so I could not be more excited, to introduce you to mister Mark Beaumont.

My friends, this is a massively impressive and resilient person. Over the past two decades, today's guest, Mark, has pushed the limits of endurance. He has spoken at thousands of events, and he's worked in, count it, over a hundred countries. He has held or currently holds many Guinness World Records. Not a world record holder, a multiple Guinness World Record holder.

And he still, today, is the fastest person to have ever cycled around the planet. Today, through his company Eos, his passion for entrepreneurship has taken him into a wide ranges of businesses where he backs innovation and advises on growth for for companies in the seed stage. Please, ladies and gentlemen, we are honored. We are over the moon to welcome mister Mark Beaumont. Welcome.

Thank you very much. What what an introduction. I'm blushing. All the way from Edinburgh, Scotland, I'm I'm blushing.

That's that's and I'm really glad that you said that because you know we're a global podcast. So we tend to ask people where in the world are you today. So you are in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Jen, where

are you?

The sun is the sun is shining. You

know? You know, Asef and I this is a little quick thing. We were married in Edinburgh, Scotland, and I did not see the sun the whole time, but I loved it anyway. Didn't matter. But I'm glad to know that there's sunshine there today, Mark.

There is. I'm sitting in, Orange County just below Los Angeles. Me and Asif are just across on other opposite ends of the house. How about you, doctor Kelly Culver? Where in the world are you today?

Well, normally, our guests are used to hearing me say that I'm in Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada. And today, I'm in Norfolk County, England. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And and even more interesting, my family came from here.

My dad's family immigrated in 1634 from Norfolk County on the Elizabethan, and they landed in Massachusetts Colony. So I'm home.

My other home. Amazing history, Kelly. And the fact that that they ended from one Norfolk to another, it's pretty amazing.

Yeah. It's useless trivia, but there you go.

There's nothing useless about doctor Kelly. I love learning new things every day. Every time we do a podcast, it's always fun to hear new things about the Culver family. Mark, as as Jen said, I did worm my way onto this episode because I am a bit of a fanboy now, to be perfectly honest. I, to be honest, I didn't know who you were, when Kelly came to us and said, hey.

I have this gentleman who I think would be fantastic for the show. His name is Mark Beaumont, and he's doing some fantastic things. And I was like, okay. Who's Mark Beaumont? Let me do a deep dive into who Mark is.

And I dove, and it is kind of amazing what you have done. I mean, to give our listeners some background here, you circumnavigated the globe over eighty days on a bike. And is it eighty days, or is it under eighty days?

The mission was that Victorian fiction, Around the World in Eighty Days. Uh-huh. The the result was seventy eight days, fourteen hours, and forty minutes, which is which is very good that still stands.

Under eighty days, you rode a bike. I it would take me eighty days to get off my couch to go get my phone from the other room. It's so amazing to see what the human body is capable of, and you proved it. And it's fascinating to me. You not only circumnavigated the globe, you have done, all of Africa, right, from the bottom to the top or top to bottom.

You did, across The United States, up and down The UK. You do these things. I think my favorite one that I've seen, you do work with as a global cycle network, global cycling network, where you did the nineteen o three, Tour de France. And I thought that was amazing, mostly because the mustache you had on that was just epic. That mustache was a thing of beauty.

I I I'm I'm mildly upset that I don't see it right now on you. I think that needs to

be a comeback.

There was there was there was two of it. There was two of us making that documentary about the very first Tour de France back in nineteen o three, myself and a very good buddy, James Loselly Williams, I'll be I'll be at his wedding in a few months' time. And, I have to point out for anyone who watches that film, his mustache is fake and mine is real. So that's that's it's important it's important to get that that that in stock. Now, but joking apart, you know, know, I've been inspired over the last twenty years to really push the boundaries of what's possible in terms of ultra endurance.

And with my teams, we have created, you know, huge leaps in performance, but I'm also a history geek. I've very much been inspired by, you know, what people have done, you know, throughout history, how you can learn from them, understand where people have come from so that you're not trying to sort of recreate history, but you also understand where things have where where things have started. You know, it took me two and a half years to break the oldest record in the book on a bicycle, which was the Penny Farthering Hour record set in 1882. It was actually held by, an American over in Connecticut, and I thought if anyone the Penny Farthing Hour record, that's the ultimate British record. If if you want a bit of sort of British eccentricity, so I thought I thought after all those years, we should try and bring it home to The UK.

My my I'm joking. I'm joking. But my my point is, I'm best I'm best known for doing these massive ultra endurance records, not just on the bike, but ocean rowing, Arctic, mountaineering, all the rest of it. But a huge part of my career as a broadcaster has also been geeking out in the history of it and really understanding what people have been trying to do for far longer periods to to really sort of figure out how you could do things differently going forwards.

Mhmm. And I'll say this. I went out after I did my deep dive into Marc Beaumont. I did buy your book Endurance because I I I'm a weekend endurance athlete. I've done a couple of triathlons, and I really find pushing your body to be something that builds resilience.

And on resiliency, the podcast, we're trying to do that day in and day out. So I'm really looking forward to reading, what you have to say and what, I how I can incorporate into my life. Really looking forward to that. Let me ask you a couple questions here about your your writing. One, what what pushed you to do this?

So the riding I was actually gonna quickly comment on on Endurance, the book. This is not a big plug for the book, but I know you've not read it yet, so I'll spoil it for you. The, the the the the opening words of the book are basically young, old, male, female, we can all go further. So we can't all be, you know, track athletes or hill sprinters or, you know, Tour de France racers. But if our goal in life is to be able to endure, which is another word for, you know, I guess, resilience, to be able to to be able to keep going, to be able to ride our bikes further.

It's interesting. So far, you've commented a couple of times on the physicality. But but, actually, if you wanna go further, it's mainly about psychology as opposed to physicality. You know, I'd say it's not your body shape. It's not your aerodynamics.

It's not the power you put out. It's your it's far more the conditioning as opposed to the fitness. If you're if you're the simple premise of the endurance book was for me to try and capture everything I'd learned since I was a 12 year old kid pedaling across Scotland about how to endure, how to go further. And and I think enduring okay. It's not gonna be around the world, but enduring in terms of building your business, enduring in terms of, you know, being a parent, enduring in terms of whatever that means for you, to be able to stay the course is is something we like, it's all about the mental toolkit.

It's all about how you how you deal with stress, and and that that's the stuff that's always fascinated me because your question there was about, you know, riding rather than riding. But my point is, if you wanna learn to ride your bike far, it's about knowing yourself and being able to cope with your emotions, you know, when you're out there. And and I was as I I said it before, you know, I was 12 years old when I first said to my parents, hey, can I go on a big bike ride? And the ambition with with Endurance was to try to capture really everything I've learned since I was a 12 year old kid. You know, I'd started turning around to my parents and saying, hey, can I cycle the length of The UK?

And my mom said, why don't you try something smaller first because you've not cycled off the farm before? And, you know, here here I here I am in my forties, you know, having having done expeditions to a 30 countries. And, you know, I'd love to if people remember nothing else from this conversation, it's this this idea of quiet confidence. How do you turn your ideas into reality? Because you can't change the way the world sees you until you change how you see yourself.

And for me, the idea of endurance is purely sort of saying out loud, you know, that's that's something I can do. Actually, this is a really cool day to record this podcast because do you know what's happening today? A lady from Alaska called Leah Wilcock is about to break the female round the world record. So that that record has been held for years by a buddy of mine, Jenny Graham. And so today's a really significant day.

I know people are gonna be listening to this into the future, but it's really cool that the female record for the round the world, the fastest woman to ever cycle around the world, that record is about to be broken in the next few hours. That's awesome. Back in back in 02/2005, I watched Ellen MacArthur sailing around the world. And, you know, I'm not a sailor, but that was a moment that, you know, transcended the world of sailing. It inspired me, and I thought it's such a simple concept.

How how fast can a human being get around the world? And I thought, well, what does that mean in my world? And I'm thinking about Lael about to smash the female record. When Jenny broke it last, what I love about her story is the biggest challenge she had before you actually get to the 18,000 mile race and how you ride your bicycle around the planet is is looking in the mirror and going, I'm that sort of person. She she wrote a wonderful book called Coffee First and Then the World, and I would encourage anyone to read it if they've got we've all got imposter syndrome, but if they've got any doubts around, am I that sort of person?

Because it's that bit around, you know, we all have a backstory, and then to evolve into something which is a dream or an aspiration, you've got to at some point go, okay, I'm gonna claim that. And Jenny's story is a wonderful one. You know, she was a mom when she was 18. She was a social worker. She she had a career before she became an athlete.

And then suddenly, she woke up one day and said, I think I can do this. And and actually the hardest bit was was was saying it out loud.

I think that's often always the hardest bit. And I think that's what what really inspires me about you, Mark, is that it feels to me just in in meeting you on on this show that you have I'd call it endurance in your blood. You know, you seem to be born with it. Right? And I think that a lot of our listeners, you know, they're they're looking for that type of power.

They're you know, may maybe they're not going to to ocean row, you know, or or cycle across a nation, but they're looking for for the strategy behind it. And I think you said something so interesting, which is, you know, it's not just it's not the fitness. It's the conditioning. It's it's how you shape yourself. So I kinda I I want to look into the motivation behind this, and and where I'd like to dig first is is you at twelve.

You know, you mentioned you hadn't even ridden off the farm yet, and here you were wanting to ride across The UK. What what was that driving factor? Is it something you're born with? Is it something that's cultivated? Talk to me about how resilience is born from an endurance mindset.

I think the the the part for me is I didn't go to school until high school. So I was homeschooled and my buddies were my two sisters and it was just life on the farm. So what does that give you? That gives you a great work ethic. You know, there was 60 goats to milk every morning, 13 horses to put out and muck out.

There was 200 he hens to collect the eggs from. There was a farm to run. And, you know, we were very physical, and we were the three of us were working on the farm all day. And so a good work ethic helps, and I think also not having a peer group that told you this is cool or that's dumb or, you know, you can't do this or you should do that. I found it very strange going into the playground at the age of, 12, 13, I guess, and finding this sort of social hierarchy because I'd never experienced that.

And so I always sort of saw that as an outsider. So even though I was sort of gently bullied into shape, I mean, you know, I might as well have grown up in a cave. I, I think I think not sort of being in an environment from the age of four where I felt felt like I had to conform form was hugely helpful because I was already used to pursuing my own ideas. I was already used to, backing myself. And I've always been very uncompetitive, actually, you know, in in in most in most sort of traditional ways.

If somebody sort of says, you know, I'll ratio. I'll say, well, you win. You know? It's it's not I I couldn't care less. Like, it's not the only person I've ever raced in my life is is myself, and I know that's an egocentric thing to say, but, hey, we're all egocentric.

And and it's not an alpha thing to say. It's just that my sense of drive and competition comes from from deep within as opposed to, you know, a sense of, you you know, showing the world. And I think it's ironic that I've ended up spending my life as a broadcaster and on stage because that's a million miles from the, you know, incredibly sort of closed off homeschooled world that I grew up in.

Oh, but it's that quiet confidence. I I gonna challenge that comment that you just made. I think it's that you you learned that quiet confidence when you were homeschooled and you were on the farm. I grew up on a farm. We had no neighbors, and I was an only child until I was 12.

And I'm not competitive, but I'm very competitive with myself. And I'm very confident in social settings when I shouldn't be because I wasn't normalized. You know, they had to throw me into swimming and that kind of stuff, so I learned how to play with other kids. But I think there's this this core resilience and quiet confidence as you describe it starts when you're in that kind of environment. Like, it what you said resonates with me.

I'm not surprised you're on the stage now.

But I think I think also picking up on your point, like, this is quite confidence. It's not just about, you know, you follow your own ideas and you're not looking for validation. I think a lot of people who step out in adult life in their careers have struggled with something in terms of their identity in their earlier life. And I think when you know, we've we've all got I always think about pillars of your identity. You know, you've got maybe your work, your family, your community, whatever that might be, social clubs.

We've gotta have at least three, if not four, pillars of our identity. And and, actually, pillars can be positive things or negative things. You know, somebody with ill health, that that can be a part of their identity. And so, actually, you've gotta be very careful what you associate your life with. So for me, clearly, sport, travel is a big thing.

Family is a big thing. And so I think in in your early life, you've got to figure out what those pillars of your identity are. And maybe this is an odd way of thinking about it, but it's just the way I've always done it. And because I didn't massively fit in at high school and I always felt like I was a bit of an outsider and then my parents divorced, that's not a sob story. But then having a positive pillar insofar as I was into my adventure sports, I was a big skier, I was a cyclist, I was a horse rider, and these were things I was good at.

I could I could do it on my own terms. At a point where there was natural teenage challenge around, you know, school and and, you know, what was happening in my home life, of course, that's something you focus on. You know, it's it's positively affirming. It's something which, you know, I I I've got this wonderful photograph when I was 12 handing over a charity check to Princess Royal. You know, and it makes a huge impression on a young person's life when they're going through, you know, that struggle in other parts of their life to actually do something you're proud of, get a bit of validation around it.

Of course, you then go, wow. Where could I go next? And it's not like I was sitting there as a 12 year old saying I'm gonna cycle around the planet Earth, but you could see how that led to the bit slightly bigger hill to climb. And then when you climb that hill, that unveils a slightly bigger horizon, then you climb the next hill. And you look back on my career and it looks wonderfully inevitable and sort of professional.

That's not how it feels as you lead lead your life, does it? You just climb the next hill and then it gives you a different view and you decide which hill you're gonna climb.

You know, to to that end, what when when you're doing these these making these accomplishments, are you doing it for are you doing for the sense of elation at the end of it? Is there a sense of accomplishment? Or do when you finish this, are you thinking, okay. What's the next mission? What's the next goal?

I've never had a career plan, and I've never had, you know, even a five year plan. I've always been somebody who's been fiercely focused on the next thing. And I think my career thus far I'm 41. My career thus far has been a a wonderful balance between ideas I've originated and ideas that have come my way because I've been open to them and because I've built that profile and I've been, I've been open to, you know, collaboration. So I always challenge people who say this is what I'm gonna be, and this is how I'm gonna live live my life.

And I'm like, well, the the magic happens actually when when when you take your skill set, you apply it, and you feel like you're in the driving seat. But sometimes, you know, realizing that the world's gonna meet you with ideas and and and you're gonna life's gonna take you in different directions. I think that's the fun stuff. But the motivation back to back to, I guess, your your question is, when you get to the finish line of any big project, I often feel like other people celebrate for you. Because the true emotion with pulling off anything big in life is normally relief.

The there's there's gonna be pride, there's gonna be other emotions mixed in there. But when you've actually showed the responsibility of doing it, you know, there's there's something incredibly sort of life affirming and career defining in pulling off what you set out to do with with the people around you. But it's not normally pulling back flips. It's not normally sort of, you know, celebrating. I often feel like at the end of these big projects that you're slightly rabbits in the headlights and everyone else is celebrating for you, and you're at the heart of it going, wow.

This is the point that I imagined 10,000 times, and it's not quite the way I imagined it. But we're here, and it doesn't feel real until you're later down the road and you sort of miss the you miss the moment. So maybe that's my inability to, to really take it all in. But I've been on so many finish lines and looking around me with everyone else living the emotions I thought I would live, just going, oh my god. I can't believe I'm here.

I get that. I I totally understand that. I think whenever I do any sort of big goal accomplishment, I don't have that elation. I have a sense of relief. Like, okay.

It's over. I did it. Good. Great. But I, you know, I I see a lot of people who sit there and cheer and celebrate, and it's a very interesting, notion, you know, the the the sense of I finished a job.

I'm ready to move on to the next one.

Yeah. And I think this might be a bit deep, but I think people get caught up in this idea of, you know, the emotions of getting to the finish should be positive ones. But ultimately, you've got that accountability because you've, you know, had the idea. You've other people have invested in you and your team. And I think people get sort of caught up in this idea that you constantly need to be sort of positive.

And, by that, I mean, there's a there's sort of an obsession these days with growth mindset and positivity, and I I just I'm a very positive person on balance insofar as, you know, I love I've spent my entire life doing first and fastest and with people telling me it's impossible until we prove otherwise. So it's you you can't say I'm not an optimistic person. But I I the issue with a lot of, I'm I'm I'm looking at Kelly because she's gonna be like, oh, you're you're you're straying into dangerous territory here, but let me let me let me share my piece. I I, I feel like with, with like, a lot of the mentality around positivity, it's in, you know, in in the real world cycle like, life is a roller coaster. Good days, bad days, good hours, bad days.

And it's ultimately around understanding your responsibility and your behaviors and what you say and do regardless of that as opposed to I'm just gonna, you know, I'm just gonna turn up when I feel like it or when I feel happy. And also this incessant need to grow slightly encourages the idea that you're never good enough, and tomorrow always needs to be better than today. And, yeah, of course, as an athlete, I understand what progress looks like, and I understand about, you know, compounding and, you know, learning. Of course, I get that. But life is what you do now.

And and, you know, what separates us from the rabbits is the idea that we can visualize a different future and we can aspire, but ultimately, you know, our emotions are are real for good and bad, and we shouldn't just, you know, embrace this idea that, you know, happiness is about success, and and and we have to be positive, and we have to be better. And I and I always sort of say when we're doing these things which are incredibly hard and there's often no reference point for anyone in ever having done them before, safety is top of the line. Kindness, you know, yes, we're gonna finish what we set out to do as long as it's safe to do so. Try and enjoy it for sure, but but but having fun is not necessarily like barrel of laughs, I'm having a great time. It can be dark humor.

It can be camaraderie. It can be, you know, pride. It can be I know know this is not something you wanna sort of say out loud too much, but it can be invoking that inner hero. You know, this this is gonna this is this is gonna make me feel differently about myself. I'm proving something about myself, which doesn't necessarily have to be a a positive thing and so far as, you know, it feels, it feels happy or rewarding in the moment, but you know that you're gonna look back and it's gonna mean something in terms of your identity.

So so that's I mean, those I I get I guess I spend my life with people sort of assuming that I'm some sort of eternally sort of positive, optimistic. When I'm in, like, a really, really dark place on an expedition, when things are going like hell and I'm sleep deprived and don't give me an inspirational quote. Don't you know, don't don't don't high five me. Don't don't tell me to cheer up. Just tell me tell me that this matters.

Tell remind me that we just need to, you know, read it off script. I trust you. You trust me. Let's just get the job done. We're making history here.

And that that that for me is a lot more fulfilling and inspiring than just telling me to be happy. Look.

I I I'll

Okay, doctor Kelly. Go get him.

No. I I'm Jen's going. And then

I'll They come in.

Yeah. I I I acknowledge and and love a lot of what you said. I I think I I really resonate with kind of incessant need to grow. I I and I resonate with with what you're saying about positivity, but I would like to say

positivity gets

a bad rap. Okay? Because I think that positivity is packaged and sold as butterflies and frou frou. And I think positivity is actually when you're in that darkness and you can keep going. Like, the the this is my this would be my example of it.

My example would be and I I'm not an endurance person, Mark. I'm not even close. But I I but I worked out a lot to try to be able to be on stage. And back in the day, I did But she did a triathlon. We can't brag about this.

I didn't I did not do it in the time that Mark could do it. Let's be honest. But

exactly. Can. He's one of a billion.

But what I would do is I would I would always I was doing jump rope at the time, and I needed to do a thousand jump ropes. But in order to do a thousand, I had to do a hundred and then a hundred and then a hundred. And I think that sometimes we try to think about the thousand, and we go, well, let me just be positive. I'm gonna get to a thousand. But I think what I hear and what you're saying is it's the hundred that matters and then the next hundred and then the next.

And and whether it's you and and, you know, correct me if I'm in misinterpreting, Mark, but I I think what you're kind of saying is you can't go at this with blind positivity. You can't go at this with we're just gonna give it good effort. It has to be intentional. I heard you say earlier, you have to be careful about what you identify with. I see being careful as being intentional.

You have to be intentional about what you're going after. But I would argue or at least insert that some amount of the of conditioning of positivity would be very important to have so that you can survive those dark times because you have to have an underlying you know, this is from my perspective on resilience. There needs to be kind of an underlying layer of call it faith, call it belief, call it your quiet confidence, but something that is built upon this idea of this is worth it, which comes back to your point of this of of of, what matters about this. That's my perspective. I don't really have a question out of that, but I wonder if I could toss it to doctor Kelly Culver to turn it into something beautiful.

I think what you just said was absolutely amazing. And I smiled when Mark said he's looking at me, you know, as if he's gonna go down a dark path. We're human. And, you know, and we respond the way that we we respond in the situations in which we find ourselves. And that's the beauty about resilience.

You know, resilience isn't rah rah happy happy. That's nonsense. Resilience fits a context in which you find yourself, and you draw on your endurance, your perseverance, your survival, your adaptation, your transition, your transformation. You pick the word. It doesn't matter what the word is.

You pick the word of the situation in which you find yourself and you come through it. You can't talk around it. You have to come through it. Like, I I smiled when you said, you know, when when you're in when you're in this, it's dark and someone's gonna say, oh, rah, rah, rah, and you just, you know, wanna sort of punch them in the nose. Those are my words, not yours.

It's I'll give you a personal example. So, you know, I I'm you may know, you may not know. My husband, Peter, passed away from cancer. And he'd had it for some time. And people don't know what to say to you.

And they'd say to me, it's for the better or well, it was expected. And I just wanted to, you know, you can't swear on this, wring the living shit out of them when they say this. And I I use the example of a toaster. You put a piece of bread in the toaster and you push the button down and you ask the toaster to toast the bread, but you never know when it's gonna come up. You may program that toaster for thirty seconds or forty seconds or sixty seconds, but it could come up at 59 and it startles you.

You're never ready. So I I think resilience fits a context in which we find ourself and you have to have it inside you to pull you through.

Yeah. For for sure. I I think that's really interesting because you you brought up the idea of sort of how people react to you, how you see you and how the world sees you, which is there's always a divide between those two things. And I often think it comes down to control. So do you feel like you're in the driving seat?

You know, if I was to say to you, you know, I want you to go and run five k straight off the back of this podcast, or if you took inspiration from what we said and you decided to run five k, it's still five k whether I've told you to do it or you've decided to do it. But how you feel about that is very different. So it's the agency part for me which is interesting. And when you're in really difficult places, never sort of outsourcing that, never saying, well, this isn't fair because, you know, nobody's ever and I think we got to COVID a few years ago in lockdown, and people said, oh, you must be brilliant at this, you know, resilience. And I said, well, yeah, but I kinda feel this has been this has been put on us, and I need to sort of grab grapple back control.

I need to feel like I've got agency here because I think that's at the heart of it. And your comment about there about how people interact with you, I think, is really interesting or not knowing what to say. Because because obviously, we're humans, and and you're constantly having to sort of account for where other people might be in their life, in their experience. I remember cycling around the world. Even my team, they had no idea what to say every day.

You know, and I banned them from asking me how well I felt. Do you know why I banned them from asking me how I felt? Laura Penhall, my performance manager, was allowed to ask me how I felt, but everyone else was banned, and and it became a running joke because they were only asking me because they wanted me to tell them how they should feel. They were looking for reassurance.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. And so Yes. So I just said, look, I could feel top of the world or rock bottom. It's not gonna change what we're gonna do today. Make sure I'm on the boat bike at 04:00 in the morning and not five past four, full stop.

So, you know, having a hundred and one people each day asking me how I feel just to make you feel better is your insecurity leaving your body, and let's not do that. And it became a joke, you know. Don't don't ask Mark how he feels. But it it is interesting because you're trying to account for people's sometimes inability to to filter their thoughts and then their their competence and communication, they're just they're they're they're knowing how to then sort of verbalize, you know, what's going on in their head. And I know people always say, oh, say what you think, but wear your heart on your sleeve.

But you you do actually have a choice to filter between your inner thoughts and and and what you put out in the world because we all cast shadows, and what we say deeply affects those around us. And so we often think, well, it's purely about, you know, what we do and our productivity and our efficiency, but actually stopping and thinking how our behaviors and our words, influence those around us is, is often missed.

Well put

Mark, that what that reminds me of, you telling me that not only did you recognize and understand the psychology of why they're asking you that, but then you effectively and with them still wanting to work with you, got them to stop doing it. It reminds me that you're not only a a world record athlete, but you're also a leader. And you are a leader in business, and you are a leader of many, many teams. And so I wonder if we can look at this rather than through the lens as as a performer, which you are, but as a leader, which a lot of our listeners are. And if perhaps you could weigh in on the topic of resilience and leadership.

And and my reason for bringing this up is you just mentioned, you know, you have these teams of people. They're looking for reassurance. And you're standing in this position where you you've chosen to put yourself in front. You know? I'm going for this record.

I'm going to do this. And so I wonder if you can and and then equally, I wanna bring up the fact that you're not, you're not driving just by positivity, just optimism only. As you said earlier, that it has to be real. So can you speak to us a little bit about your perspective as a leader and and what it requires to be a resilient leader today in 2024?

I guess the important context for leadership for me is actually how you see yourself in a team. So when I was 23, David Peete, the great late David Peet, who was a BBC filmmaker that I worked with, said to me, Mark, try and become valued because of who you are, not because of what you do. Try and grow beyond your technical competence. Because we go through school and university, and we purely think it's about what we remember and our technical skill set. So when I was 23, what David said to me didn't really make sense.

But as I've got older, it has made more sense because what you bring to a team is not just the education you've got, the bit that sits in your CV, but is the values bit. Do people trust you? Do you say what you're gonna do? Do you communicate clearly? Do you have the ability to tell the future?

Sounds a bit daft, but by that, I mean be an architect, not just a builder. And I think a lot of people go through their lives, and it's purely about their technical competence and showing the world how good they are at what they do. And the best boards I've been on and the best teams I've been a part of are people who, for sure, you've got the familiarity bias of the bit you understand the best. But you've also got that much broader perspective of how you put the puzzle together, all the skill sets. You know, take take cycling around the world.

You know, you ask my logistics manager and he'll think it's purely about border crossings and flights and road qualities and topography. My performance manager will think it's about glucose levels and aerodynamics and tar and my finance director purely thinks it's about, you know, how you get the right resources behind the project. So everyone's got their perspective on the same thing, and their bias, their familiarity bias as to and and the answer is it all matters. So leadership for me is the ability to sort of look up, look out, and, a, allow a team to create a create a future, create an outcome which there's often no reference point for. So you're not just looking over your shoulder and saying, well, let's do what we did last year a little bit better, or let's beat the competition.

But you're actually having the quiet confidence to say, this is what's possible, bottom up planning. And then you create an environment where people are focused on the inputs, the behaviors, and not the outputs. So you can't actually go around the world by saying to everyone I had 40 people on my team. You can't actually go around the world and say, does everyone understand how you're gonna get around the world in eighty days? The answer is no.

That's that's crazy. If you're my cameraman or my mechanic, you know, they don't understand how you get around the world in eighty days. I'm not being patronizing or funny. Do you understand your job? Do you understand how fundamentally important it is that every piece of this, you know, chain, this this puzzle, whatever you want to call it, works?

Do you understand what that plan looks like and and how valued you are in that? So that role of sort of the architect rather than the builder is is is is fundamentally important. And then trying to find the language to put timelines around each of those expectations, and reassuring your team that if everyone turns up and those behaviors are correct, the out the outcome will take care of itself. And that's the way I always talk about it. I've never said to my team, let's go and try and break the record.

With due respect, I mean, Andrew Nicholson had the record before I went around the world the second time. He was a New Zealander, an Olympian. I never once, no disrespect to Andrew, I never once mentioned Andrew to my team. I never once said, let's try and break his record. I said, if we do, and it was a bit more complicated than this, but if we do x, y, and zed, we can get around the world in seventy eight days, actually.

And that's exactly what we did. We we we came home within 1.44% of what we set out to do. We broke Andrew's record by 37%, but we weren't looking at his record. And I think I do the same in you know, I've got 21 companies in my portfolio now. I I I I co run an investment fund here in Scotland backing really exciting science and technology companies.

And for me, it's the people and performance bit. Yes. You need to get the the fundamentals right in terms of the the science, the IP, the all the rest of it. But but ultimately, it's about human behaviors and timelines and accountability and values.

Mark, I'm going to tell Jen really quick. I'm gonna apologize right now because I'm going to be using be an architect not a builder a lot to a lot of people, especially

gonna give me that every time.

That's a great line. I love it. But Every time. What you

just said honestly takes, like, about six different seminars I've attended on leadership, and it puts it all together in a clean, crisp way. You know? It it it it really does that, you know, I spent I I tell people it's funny, but, I went to the first big leadership conference and, you know, you pay all this money and you get there. And I was, like, ready for them to tell me how to lead. I was, like, are you gonna you're gonna teach this.

Right? Like, there are steps on how to do this. And it turns out it's exactly what you just said. It's making sure that every person knows what their job is. It is aiming your people and and making sure that they understand without trying to, with without trying to, again, kinda go for the whole, which I think you were talking about in the positivity.

You know, you're it's not a blind go it's not a blind jumping toward the end. And I really like what you talk about focusing on the input versus the output. So many people just go after the competitors. So many people just want to fight their competitors. I wanna ask that within the context of your 21 portfolio companies.

You know, you've got science and tech. We've we've got people who are you know, I can only imagine the type of work they may be working on. Yet I also am a a person reading headlines, you know, and I know that there are struggles in the tech world. I know that there are pressures from AI. I wanna ask, is there a resiliency story within your work with Eos that you could share with us?

You know, how are these companies finding resilience? And and from your perspective as an as an investor, how are you, helping in that leadership to drive those companies forward?

So those who are involved in in investments and science and technology anywhere globally will appreciate that, really, since 2020, there's been a massive market slowdown. There has been in public markets, private markets. There's been a huge liquidity issue, and so scaling companies has been difficult because they've even if the fundamentals are are strong, they've and they've hit inflection points and validated what they're trying to do. They've they've they've they've struggled to raise further venture capital and so often are relying on earlier investors to do rounds beyond where they would have planned to, and that's just the state of affairs. So when there's a liquidity slowdown, when interest rates change, you've got a change in investor habits.

It affects the whole ecosystem. So I'll stop there because we we'll we'll it'll end up as a a a a an investment, podcast. But what I my job within Eos so there's three of us who who run Eos on a day to day basis. I've got a a a we've got an amazing team of 12, but we've got one scientist, one accountant, and one cyclist. I mean, I'm I'm being I'm being I'm being I'm being glib, but my my my my job is not to lead on transactions.

My leader my job is not to lead on scientific due diligence. I never planned to co run an investment fund. I was just a slightly frustrated angel investor. And like when I was 22 and I set off to cycle around the world the first time, I spotted a way to do it differently and change the fundamentals. You know, I I never set out and said, hey, I'm the world's best bike rider.

You know, I look more like a rugby player than a than a cyclist. I don't and so I've never sort of thought that, you know, I'm it's it's my raw talent that got me far from it. You know, it's it's about approach. It's about plan. So five years ago, I took the unexpected and unplanned step to offer to help scale one of the angel networks that I was a part of.

And and and and here we are, you know, in 2024, and we've got I've got an amazing team. We've got an amazing portfolio. And the fundamentals of the portfolio are are strong. The market is challenging. So your question around resilience is, on the investor side, I spend my life saying to people, we we're planting acorns.

We are helping companies spin out from universities, start up out of industry, and we're planting about half a dozen acorns a year. And in the timelines that we work with these companies, which is typically sort of five to eight years, the world will change. And so rather than, you know, having a knee jerk reaction to markets here and now, focus on the timelines it'll actually take. Let's take some examples. Medical devices through, you know, FDA approval, clinical trials, regulatory approvals, whatever that is.

It it takes time. So really mapping out for the investors that sort of ecosystem approach. If we're gonna do this well, and if this is gonna mean something to you in terms of wealth, in terms of positive impact in ten years' time, what does that behavior need to look like today? Don't just sit on your hands. Don't just sort of do nothing because you're worried that, you know, interest rates might change in six months' time.

Who who cares? If you don't plant plant acorns today, you're not gonna reap the fruit in six years' time. So it's just about being ruthlessly consistent but appropriate to the timelines and the risks involved in the companies who are involved. And then on the on the on the founder side, really trying to help them think about what they control. So So what do you affect and what don't you affect?

So you can spend your life worrying about things which are outside of your controls. But the thing I work with our founders a lot is around communication. Really turn the telescope around the other way and get good at explaining to everyone in your ecosystem, you know, and, anyone that needs to care about what you're doing, why it's important, and how you're making progress against plan. Because if you can really exemplify that progress against plan and have a really strong narrative, regardless of all the things that you can't affect, then those relationships that matter will fall into place at the right time. It's never gonna be a straight line, as with all careers and all businesses, but you're gonna have optionality.

And so on it's the same question, isn't it, on the investor side and on the founder side? It's about control. What do you control? Well, you can't change the way the markets are right now, but you can affect your behavior. And on the founder's side, really understanding not just how they focus on what that they can actually affect, but also how they exemplify that, how they how they have a really strong narrative around what they're doing.

Because there's a real risk with companies that we meet that when we meet them, they're incomplete, and we we're we're okay with that. The fundamentals need to be good, but they're incomplete. So it's our job to work with them, build the exec and the non exec teams. Our job is to find local and build global. So, you know, we're constantly building sort of global networks to help these companies get up and out, and that's so exciting.

And when you sort of think really creatively about who should work with these companies, who are the right co investors, you know, what's the real smart money to help. And and ultimately, the fundamentals of all these companies is you're not going to get your big exit and do the wealth creation bit, without also having made a really positive impact in the world. Last week, we invested 8,000,000 into an amazing company, which is got a replacement for microbead plastics. So microbead plastics are a huge issue in terms of water pollution. They're also a healthcare issue because we end up ingesting them.

And so thankfully in the EU, they're starting to ban you use of microbead plastics and cosmetics and paints. So you've got manufacturers crying out for a biodegradable alternative. So that's a perfect technology for us to wrap our arms around and scale, because, you know, if we can fundamentally change, you know, water pollution issues globally in the future, those are the stories I wanna know. Of course, it only works when you create global scales around this, but they all start somewhere. They all start somewhere.

And it's really trying to help people understand how you turn those ideas. Like when I was a graduate, you know, saying I'm gonna cycle around planet Earth. Nobody nobody would speak to me. Nobody would sponsor me. You know, nobody knew who I was.

And then, you know, over the years, you build the credibility, you build the traction, and then suddenly, twenty years on, people think you're the, you know, the the the thought leader in endurance cycling. I can see the same narrative for the companies we're backing now. They're all sitting there with a bit of insecurity going, are we really gonna change the world? Yes. Yes.

You are. And you need to surround yourself by people who are architects and have that ability to build the right partnerships to to create that because, you know, when you're at the technology part, you know, this is what we think we've got. Let's protect it, validate it, scale it. It's quite hard to then sort of step back and say, well, what does this mean? How do you get how do you how do you get the investors, the founders, everyone sort of aligned in terms of psychology so that everyone is motivated by the same thing.

Not just investing some money and, you know, getting companies off the ground, but really creating global scale around these. And that that's I think you can probably guess, that's the bit that I get excited about.

Mark, I Yeah. And and I like that you said you didn't make plans and you were a little surprised to have changed from angel investor to now being a part of it. And yet, your book, as you shared with us earlier, starts with how can we all go farther? And it sounds like that's what you do. You take things farther in every in every way.

Now look, I'm about to turn it over to doctor Kelly Culver because we're about to go into the rapid fire questions. But before we do, I wanna ask you one more thing because you've talked, again, about so many different things in any one of us. I I'm certainly impressed and inspired and and wanna go get on my bike. You know? But but I want one thing that I've heard through everything you've talked about, be it your performance endurance, be it your leadership, be it working with these technology companies that are working to find impact and change the world, You've talked about behaviors.

You've said it again and again. You've said there are certain behaviors that need to happen. And I'm wondering if in a more general context for the listeners of our podcast who are are in all different roles in all different places, are there any overarching general behaviors you can recommend that build resiliency?

I'm pausing simply to try and figure out the right approach because we're creatures of habit. And so it's very hard to be truly objective on yourself. I'm not sure, you know, if I sort of the the compounding that I've had from my early life has clearly led to my form of decision making. But, crikey, you wouldn't want everyone to be like me in a team, and I would hate for people to listen and go, well, you know, it'd be an absolute nightmare. There's 12 of us in Eos, and you only need one Marc Beaumont.

That's for sure. So if I can share ideas which are sort of globally useful, great, but it's not to encourage people to try and sort of assimilate. Be yourself. Be your authentic self. And and, yes, maybe go back to David Pete's great words, you know, be valued because of who you are, not just because of what you do, and bring your technical competence, but but but but but but be yourself.

And maybe the other bit, the other sort of global truth, if there is one, is get good at doing what's necessary even when it's not validated by others. So don't, you know, we live in a world where, you know, there's a lot of show and tell. There's a lot of validation from the world around us, either directly or on social media. Can I give you one quick story about my kids? I, in lockdown in lockdown, I, homeschooling wasn't going brilliantly despite being homeschooled myself.

And so I took on a daft I took on a daft project to to try and I got an a to z of Edinburgh, you know, like the tourist map of the city. And, because the roads were completely empty, I said to my six year old, she was about to turn seven, I said to her, do you want to try and color in all the streets around the house? We would normally just go to the park. So she'd go on her little bike, I got on my trainers, and we went up and down all the streets. And after the first day, we colored them in.

Second day, we were slightly better planned, so so we actually had a bit of a a snail trail, like, planned out which way we would go so we didn't do the same streets twice. After four days, we'd colored in all the houses the the streets around the house. And that night, once she'd gone to bed, I thought, oh, I think it would take about four months. I wonder if we could color in the whole map. So at breakfast the next day, I said, Harriet, do do you wanna try and color in the whole map?

Now what I didn't say to her was, do you want to cycle every single street in Edinburgh? I mean, as a six year old, that's child cruelty. You get into trouble for that. So I I so she said, yeah. I'd love to do that, daddy.

And I said, great. I said, why would you like to do that? And she said, well, basically, because it's been great fun this week. And I went, oh, that's not gonna work. Because I know if her core motivation to do it is the sun is shining and I'm having fun, there's gonna be if you're gonna do it for four months, there's gonna be days which aren't quite so easy and the sun's not shining.

So I said, that's great. I've loved it too, Harriet, but try and come up with another couple of reasons so that, you know, we've really got a strong why. And she came back later in the day and she said, I'd like to try and get my Blue Peter badge. Now that's only gonna make sense to people in The UK, but that's like a kids' TV program in The UK, getting your Blue Peter badge. And then she said, when we go back to school, can I tell my teachers?

I said, sure. Both of those things are great. So we wrote them in permanent marker on her bedroom wall. And over the next four months, we went out every single day, well, six days a week, six days a week for four months, and we did about an hour, an hour and a half each day. I ran, she cycled beside me.

And as a dad, I got to spend over a hundred hours talking nonsense to my daughter. What, you know, what a wonderful adventure. But for her, there was obviously days that she didn't want to. There was obviously days when, you know, it was pretty hard. There's lots of cobbles and hills in the middle of Edinburgh.

But I never said to her, you have to do it because that's gonna get you through the next few days, but it's not gonna get you through four months. So as a six year old, it gave her the ability when she was in a real hole to go, right, do I still want to get my Blue Peter badge? Yes. Do I still want to tell my teachers? Yes.

Okay. Well, today needs to happen then. Nobody's gonna talk about today. Nobody's gonna know about today, but it's the next piece of the puzzle. And after four months, we'd colored in the whole map.

And, it's it's one of my favorite adventures of all time. And and Harriet, you know, like all kids, has struggles in different ways, but she's such a, you know, she's such a bubbly child, and she's built such a quiet confidence from doing daft projects like that where, you know, in the heart of lockdown with all its uncertainty, we just went out for an hour every day and took the next step. And I and I think, you know, maybe it's a bit too grand, but if you go back to the world, you don't actually cycle around the world, do you? You just cycle a little bit further, and then one day you get back to where you started. And I think with that mindset, you know, that that is that is accountability, that is resilience, that is what do I need to do as opposed to what's the big result that it's gonna create.

You've created memories with her, which she'll have her whole life. That's another thing that's important in resilience. Are you ready for me to ask you some rapid fire questions?

Go for it.

Cool. Alright. So what's your favorite movie or TV show that makes you feel resilient?

Okay. I'm not gonna pick, like, an all time favorite. I'm gonna pick one I watched with my wife a few weeks ago, and it's called CODA. So it's only just come out. It's on Apple.

And it's an amazing film about, family in the Northeast Of The US. They're fisher they're all fishermen, fisher people, and, only one in the family, the daughter, can hear. The rest of the family are deaf. And it's about the relationships in the family where you've got, you know, you've you've you've got you've got you've got communication challenges, you've got different interests. She's a an amazing singer, but none of them can hear her.

And how she takes on her dreams and has the opportunity to do what she wants to do while supporting her family because she's ultimately the only person that can communicate with them. It's beautiful. I watched it a couple of weeks ago with my wife. It's called CODA. And, if you've not seen it, check it

out. We will. What's your favorite song that makes you feel resilient or get up and dance?

Oh, it definitely doesn't want. This does not make me want to dance, and it's a bit cheesy. It's a bit cheesy. I'm gonna go with, the Yvette brothers, and life.

Love love love. I don't think that's cheesy, Mark. I think it's great.

You definitely can't dance to that, though.

No. But it's inspiring and it's and it's soulful, you know. And that's what I get from you, Mark. There there's a soul connection there. That's really cool.

Yeah. For sure. No. I I love that. Amazing voice as well.

What's, what's something in the in the recent past that made you laugh out loud?

Again, it's not something that you guys can all go and reference. It's it's my selfish thing. It's my it's my kids. It's my daughters. When I'm stressed, when things are going badly, I mean, especially Willa, my youngest.

She's so distracted from the real world most of the time. And, it's wonderfully it's just wonderfully grounding, you know, when you're taking life a bit too seriously to to suddenly sort of be dropped into a six year old's perspective on the world.

Yeah. I have a six year old niece. I know what you mean. She got me through some tough times.

Yeah.

Alright. So what's a question you would like to leave for a future guest?

Well, I've been fascinated by this series so far and I kinda feel like each of your guests has such a different life experience and take on the word on on the the theme of resilience. So I don't have a profound question. I'm just I'm gonna be fascinated as to where you take this conversation. So it's not a question. It's just this fascination where, you know, the whole topic of resilience is is, I guess, something that I've always been deeply fascinated in, but I've never really talked about head on like this.

So I just encourage you to keep doing what you're doing. I want to see which direction you take it in with people who have lived completely different lives. So it's not a specific question. It's just I love the way each of the guests are taking the theme of resilience in a totally different direction. So I don't wanna sort of hem that in with my own sort of life experience.

Just keep doing what you're doing. I'm I'm enjoying the series.

Wow. That's fantastic.

I want you to give the question of what resilience means to you. We didn't go do that question yet.

Okay. Okay. Mark, one of the things that we ask every guest on our podcast, when we start is what does resilience mean to you?

Resilience for me is having an awareness of your own emotional being and a mental toolkit to be able to deal with the internal dialogue and be relevant to, you know, the outside world. So resilience for me is that amazing connection between what you think, what you say, and what you do in that order, and being relevant, being accountable. I'm always I'm always fascinated by that connection between the sort of the the inner self and the world that we interact with, and resilience for me is being relevant to that, being, you know, making sure that making sure that regardless of the changing world around us, which we don't have complete control over, you know, is something that we can remain relevant to.

Beautiful.

Brilliant.

Alright. Then I have one last question for you, Mark. And this is a question that was left by another guest. And I think this will be an interesting one since you've talked a lot about really what I've I've taken a lot from this is is be yourself. You know?

I've I've heard a lot of that. And and and so this question is from another guest, and it is, have you discovered your purpose? And are you working in it or towards it right now? What do you say to that, Mark?

Have I found my purpose? I don't really feel like I'm defined by the things that I do. It's funny because, like, when I was a professional bike rider, people thought that was my tribe, and I was like, well, not really. Like, it's just the way I'm expressing myself at the moment. You know, I'm now a I'm an I'm an investor.

I'm a musician. I'm a dad. I kinda feel like how you show up and what you're focused on, have I found my purpose? My life so far has been in sort of different chapters, and I think there's probably a couple more chapters to go. But I don't feel like I'm working towards something.

I've it's it it is the next mountain to climb, and I'm interested to see where that will take me. I'm I'm not too worried, to be honest. It's a great answer. Are you kidding?

Or it it's what everyone hopes. Everyone hopes to be able to say, I'm not too worried, you know, about the future. You you've built a foundation for yourself, on which, you know, I I I I would argue that you you are living a purpose and that that purpose continues to evolve. Because you from what I hear in this short time I've gotten to know you, you you live within a purpose where you're not competing with others. You're not focused solely on growth and solely on the end.

You're living in kind of a holistic world where every day you get up and ride that bike for an hour or or go to the meeting, the board meeting, or you get up and you do the work. And it seems to me that that seems to be the formula.

And you climb

the next mountain. You climb the next mountain.

Yeah. I think I think that's fair. But just as a just to burst that bubble for a second, I would hate listeners to think that Mark's got it all sorted. Like, I mean, how we all stress. We all we all stress.

We all we all have insecurities, you know, emotional, financial, you name it. Like, it is to be human. And so don't listen to this or any other podcast and think that they've got it sorted. You know? Listen to Desert Island Discs.

Listen to podcasts which also tell people's backstories in a really authentic way so you don't just see their results, but you see what got them there. You know? And that is that is to be human. So it's don't ever you know, don't take away from this and think, well, Mark's got it sorted. Far from it.

I'm I'm I'm I love I love trying to figure it out, and, you know, it's good days and bad days along the way.

And so so gracious of you and truly amazing because the way you figure things out is really cool. We look forward to continuing to watch you on this journey through Eos, and who who knows what's next with Harriet and all the rest in your family. So, where can our listeners find you if they'd like to connect with you and follow anything that you're doing, Mark?

How to Find Me is pretty easy online. Markbomontonline.com for all the adventure and broadcast work, eosadvisory.com for my work and investments, and, yeah, normal social media feeds. I'm not a huge social media animal. I I kind of focus my conversations as opposed to, you know, trying to build, you know, huge global audiences. So, if people have been interested by this conversation and wanna reach out, you know, they're welcome to do that.

And, yeah, keep up the good work.

And read Mark's book.

Book. Absolutely.

Yeah.

I can't wait to read Endurance.

I can't wait

We will have

a link to that in the show notes, for everyone, and we will make sure to push that on our social media because we are social media animals, Mark. So we'll get it out there for you. Amazing. Good day. But with that, I want to honor and thank you, Mark, for this wonderful time you've given to us.

We are so very grateful for it. And I wanna thank all of you who've been listening. As always, we are so grateful to have you on this resilience journey with us. You can find me online at jenquater through all the social media channels and also at jenquater.com or at my company, the smart agency dot com. My amazing wonderful cohost, the queen of Canada, who is also in Norfolk County, England today, doctor Kelly Culver.

You can find her at the culvergroup.ca,.cafor Canada, or also doctor Kelly Culver on Instagram and LinkedIn. And then with that, we thank you again. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. We will continue to bring you stories of resilience, stories that help you to understand the strategies behind embracing change and overcoming challenges and redefining resilience.

And with that, I wish you a beautiful day ahead and look forward to the next episode. Thank you, Mark Beaumont. You're an amazing person, and we're glad to meet you. Happy resilience.