Writing this from Blacklist Coffee in Bali with an iced americano and sore legs.
Yesterday I planned to run somewhere between 10 and 12 kilometres. I ended up running 17…my longest outdoor run and apparently enough to convince me I can run a hilly, humid half marathon in under two hours (with no specific half mara training).
We have one month left in Bali, the race is two weeks away and suddenly the end of this trip is feeling close.
He skipped the small talk.
I have now run with the same guy twice at my run club. I think someone forgot to tell him how small talk works…and I’m here for it.
The first time we met, I thought he was quite intense. At one point, he stood next to me and scrolled through my LinkedIn profile in front of me, analysing my style and format.
Not exactly the normal run club conversation.
Most people ask where you are from, how long you are in Bali and what you do for work. He asked about my family, my mentality and how my brain works.
He has a podcast and is building his own business, so asking deep questions is clearly part of his personality.
During the run, he asked what happens when I am exercising and my brain tells me to give up. I don’t think I’ve ever specifically thought about this…let alone at 7am with no coffee in my system.
My answer was that I desperately don’t want to disappoint myself. I have a limited time to achieve my goals. Whether that’s fitness or business…the discipline is the same muscle.
I also believe I’m strong willed. Giving up because something feels uncomfortable would contradict the person I believe I am.
Your mind will almost always want to stop before your body actually needs to. The body is genuinely remarkable. Once you have proven to yourself that you can keep going physically, you just need to block out the voice in your head telling you to stop.
Sunday morning helped me understand him better too. I still think he is intense. I just now see that as a positive.
I admire the confidence required to skip the same five questions everyone asks and go directly into how someone thinks.
”Some people aren’t too intense. They’re just more interested than we’re used to.”
Your second business gets your first business’s experience.
Twenty One Beauty has achieved in one year what took Toucan roughly three.
Six figure profit. Debt free. A business that is already operationally mature.
Part of that is the model. Twenty One can sell 100 units or 10,000 without growing the team. Toucan needs another account manager whenever client capacity fills up.
We also started with advantages.
The brand is co-owned by Georgia Harrison. Georgia gave the brand instant attention and credibility. We sold our first 1,000 units without spending a penny on marketing. Toucan already had the infrastructure to run our Amazon and TikTok Shop properly.
But the biggest advantage was experience.
We invested just £3k and paid it back within months. We hired a Meta agency quickly. We reinvested the profits. Our first Brand and Marketing Manager starts today…before the workload technically demands one.
Toucan taught me that strong hires normally repay the risk of making them early.
It also taught me how to delegate, read a P&L, choose partners and recognise which problems are genuinely dangerous.
Fewer decisions feel new the second time. So you make them faster and with more conviction.
Experience cannot accelerate everything. Product development still takes time, and our next challenge is building a serious beauty brand that benefits from Georgia without permanently depending on her.
But we are approaching those problems with far better judgment than I had when starting Toucan.
That is why I think people should accumulate real responsibility early. Not necessarily by starting a business, but by putting themselves in positions where their decisions have consequences.
Build something, own something, get things wrong, learn…and try again.
”Your first business produces the founder who builds the next one.”
The best part is on the other side of discomfort
Back to Sunday’s run. Run club is a big highlight in my week. After five kilometres, the route and group splits.
You have to make a decision. 10k or 17k.
I had planned to run 10. One group headed back. The serious runners continued for 17.
Maybe the earlier conversation about mentality influenced me. Either way, I followed them.
Their zone two was probably closer to my zone three. I averaged 5:55 per kilometre, spent most of the run in zones three and four and covered plenty of elevation.
But the longer route took us away from Canggu’s motorbikes and into the rice fields around Seseh.
Absolutely unreal views! And some proper fresh air for the first time that morning.
The best part of my morning was beyond the point where I would normally have turned around.
It was my longest outdoor run and enough to make me believe I can break two hours in a hilly, humid half marathon with zero specific training.
I’m still treating it as an experience rather than reorganising my life around it. But I want to know I pushed myself.
”Sometimes the rewards is on the other side of pushing yourself.”
We now have one month left in Bali.
I’m excited to go home and see Harvey (our dog), our family, friends and my colleagues. I also wish going home was only a 1-2 month visit. I love our life here.
What I will miss most is time.
Time saved by not cooking, cleaning or doing laundry.
Time with Abby. Time to train…and time spent with Cody watching him thrive.
He is now (mostly) potty trained, speaking so well, using at least 30 or 40 Indonesian words and singing nursery rhymes in Indonesian. Abby was apprehensive about coming here. Now I think we would both stay longer if we could.
For now, there is still a half marathon to run, a jungle dirt bike tour to book and another month to enjoy.
That's issue eighteen.
17k down. 4.1 to find.