You Are Not A Victim - Tom Otton - #252

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello, people in Podcast Land. welcome back. My guest today is Tom Otton, Managing Director at Create Media Group and an Ultra Endurance Athlete. Everyone experiences negative self-talk and doubt. How you deal with it is what makes the difference, and the choice is yours. Tom has run some of the toughest foot races on earth. On top of that, he's the Managing Director of one of the quickest growing companies in Dubai, and has a brand new marriage which hasn't fallen apart. The fact that you can put all of this together means that he has an awful lot that we can all learn from him. So today, expect to find out what it's like to run for 50 hours without sleep, how to create the perfect company culture, why a victim mindset is the most important thing to overcome, how to lean into your fears to overcome failures, and much more. If you enjoyed the Marcus Smith episode from last week, then this is right up your street. I've absolutely adored recording with both of these guys. I do need to hold my hands up. It's another episode in my buddy Nick's flat, so there's a little bit of audio bounce. Also, someone in the YouTube comments last week identified that the call to prayer coming out of the local mosque could be heard just as Mike Thurston started talking about his sex life. So I'm not 100% certain what is in the background of this episode, but I'm not liable if that happens again.
In other news, this episode of the podcast is brought to you by Manscaped, precision engineered tools for your family jewels. We have got Christmas coming up and now is the time to buy yourself or a loved one who is perhaps in need of a little bit of a trim, something to make them less hairy. And it is not, I repeat, it is not a three year old electric shaver that used to shave your face and now shaves your balls. Manscaped has designed the Lawnmower 3 to be the greatest ball and body hair trimmer ever created, featuring a cutting edge ceramic blade to reduce grooming accidents and 90 minute battery so you can take a longer shave, waterproof technology which allows you to groom in the shower and an LED light which illuminates your dark areas for a closer and more precise trim. They have also upgraded to a 7,000 RPM motor and you can get 20% off everything plus free shipping with the code MODERNWISDOM. Simply head to manscaped.com and put the code MODERNWISDOM in to get 20% off absolutely everything that they make. Make sure that you're not starting 2021 with hairy balls or with an old razor or your partner as well. Just let them trim the hair somewhere damp, like in the rain. They could do it in the rain. They could shave in the rain because it's waterproof and the neighbors hopefully won't call the police. manscaped.com and the code MODERNWISDOM for 20% off and free shipping. But for now, it's time for the wise and wonderful Tom Otton.

**Tom Otton** (3:20)
It completely changed your headspace. I'm a completely different person than what I was when I started the whole ultra conversation. I'm a completely different human. I look at things differently. I approach things differently. I value things differently. Interesting. Everything changed.

**Chris Williamson** (3:33)
Well, that's a good place to start. So what has changed? You have done multiple ultra events. What like? And what's the impact been on you?

**Tom Otton** (3:42)
In terms of races, the first big one for me actually went really badly.
And so myself and Marcus flew across to Wales and we did a 80-kilometer run across the brecon beacons. First time I've done anything like that. And it was a little bit last minute in terms of deciding that looks like fun. Let's have a crack. Training was terrible for it in terms of when I look back now. And the body kind of fell to pieces, head felt to pieces. And it was one of those situations we've all been through. Like you have to kind of hit the bottom before you can start to realize where you want to go. And you look back on that later in life and you realize that's exactly what needed to happen for me to then sort of evolve from there. So that didn't go well. Like I said, what's not well? No, I just body broke down, which is fine. I mean, that happens if you haven't trained for something, then obviously you can't expect to get through it very well. Finished it, but like weak head, complaining, just moaning about shit. I'm done with this. Just like, as I suppose you'd expect somebody that hasn't worked on any form of mental strength or tried to sort of build that side of themselves up, you fall to pieces when you get into an environment like that, when you're however many hours we were in. So that was the first experience and it haunted me. It really stuck in my head.