Writing this from Blacklist Coffee down the road from the villa. Blacklist has become my new spot for coffee and creative work. It’s also probably the only coffee I’d pick over Starbucks.
Strong iced black americano. Five days to Jakarta. The training is done, and I've been trying to work out why I feel so settled right now given that I'm about to race a Pro Doubles HYROX in a different country with someone I've only done one full sim with.
I think I know why. I'll get to that.
Two submissions, one quiet moment.
We found out this week that Toucan has two submissions in the semi-finals of the Amazon Ads Awards.
The concept is simple…but not easy. We submitted work we're proud of, work that reflects what we've spent the last few years building, and it made the cut. Years of building lead to this moment. That's it. We'll see what happens next.
What I'll say is this: the categories we entered are not the easy ones. It’s not about "most spend managed" or "biggest client logo" (although we’re good at that too). They're about the quality of the thinking, the strategy behind the campaigns, the commercial outcomes. That's the work Toucan wants to be known for. Not the size of the budget. The quality of what you do with it.
A lot of agencies spend their energy chasing the appearance of credibility. Awards submissions, partner badges, client name drops. Some of it is necessary. But the thing that actually compounds over time is the work. The work that makes a client call you rather than go elsewhere. The work that makes a team member proud to be on the account. You can’t fake that…no matter how many awards you buy (shots fired).
“You can buy attention and borrow credibility. But you only get recognised for great work when you’ve been doing great work consistently.”
Ten days in the heat is worth more than it sounds.
The Jakarta race is Pro Doubles. I'm going with Neil. We did one full sim together and it went well enough that I'm not nervous about the partnership, which is the thing that can unravel a doubles race faster than anything else.
Training in Bali for the last two weeks has been brutal in the best way. Running outside here when it's thirty degrees and ninety percent humidity is a different experience to a treadmill at David Lloyd. Everything hurts more. Pace drops. Heart rate spikes faster. You adapt, or you stop.
The logic is simple: if I can hold my form and pace out here, an air-conditioned stadium in Jakarta is going to feel like a different sport. I’m feeling strong outdoors. In controlled conditions, I think there's more in the tank.
I could have done most of the prep indoors and convinced myself it was the smart option. It would have been easier. I’m not sure it would have made me any better.
“Train in the conditions that make you worse. Race in the conditions that make you better. That makes the difference.”
The thing nobody tells you about remote work.
Life is easy in Bali. The sun is shining, the food is healthy, the people are welcoming.
That's not actually why it works for me.
What works is that my free time here is genuinely free. At home, free time fills itself. There are always plans forming, life admin to complete, commitments creeping in, the sense that you should be somewhere or doing something. Here, there are no plans most of the time. Run club in the morning. A Hyrox class. Good food that someone else has made. Laundry returned folded. The basics handled.
I miss people. Friends, family, the Toucan team. But what I've noticed is that stress here is lower than it's been in years. I am busier than ever with work, so it’s not a workload thing. It’s the absence of background noise. Fewer plans. Fewer small obligations. Fewer things taking small chunks out of my day and my headspace.
Peace, isn't the absence of pressure. It's the presence of space. Space to think, to train, to be a bit bored and not fix it immediately.
Most people have no idea how much ambient noise they're carrying until it stops.
“Most people do not need less pressure. They need fewer things taking small bites out of them.”
That's issue eleven.
Jakarta in 5 days. I'll let you know how it goes.