The Compound #21: Apparently Amazon sponsors my entire personality now

We’re now at the stage where every normal part of our routine is becoming “the last one”.

One more Hyrox dice games. One more Continuum run club. A handful more Blacklist coffees.

A few more days where we spend half our lives outside and eat better food for less money than a depressing Pret lunch in London.

Naturally, instead of winding down, I’ve booked a dirt bike lesson.

I can already ride. I got my licence in the UK years ago.

But I’ve always wanted to get properly good off-road, and there’s no time like the present.

Neither Abby nor I feel ready to leave.

Which is inconvenient, because we are definitely leaving.

We’ve got five days in Bangkok on the way home, which will soften the blow slightly.

But there are enough reasons pulling us back that the timing does feel right.

Harvey (our dog) is a big one for me. I miss him so much. Rescued when he was 18 months old and I was 25, he’s been by my side for most of my adult life.

I want to see my mum. I want to see friends and family. I actually want to go back into the Toucan office and be around everyone again.

I’m also excited to drive my cars again.

But then I look at what I’m leaving here.

The gyms are ridiculous. The food is ridiculous. The weather is obviously ridiculous.

You can go out for breakfast, lunch and dinner without feeling like you need to remortgage the house.

Most of our social life happens outside.

Cody is thriving. We have built proper friendships.

We’ve built routines we genuinely love.

And this week I’ve realised I’m emotionally attached to a Hyrox class where I roll a dice and suffer for an hour.

I just don’t love the countdown.

When I had ten dice games left, I didn’t care.

Now there’s one.

And leaving feels very real.

I’m glad we’re leaving while we still feel like this though.

It’s better to leave Bali wanting another month than stay until we crave going home.

That sounds slightly offensive considering we’ve been selling actual products for a while.

But there’s a difference between a business that makes money and a business that starts developing its own momentum.

Our first full-time hire is settling in really well. Georgia is vibing with her. They’re making great content. Ideas are moving faster.

And most importantly, I’m seeing things happen that wouldn’t have happened if it was still just Georgia and us trying to fit the business in around everything else.

We hired earlier than we technically needed to. Again.

I’ve learned this lesson enough times at Toucan that I’m now apparently willing to keep paying to test whether it’s still true.

Georgia now has someone around her who understands beauty properly, can throw ideas back at her and can actually execute.

That matters because Georgia has enormous creative energy.

Give that energy the right person to work with and suddenly one plus one doesn’t equal two.

It hopefully equals a lot of lash serum.

We’re still early.

I’m not declaring victory after five minutes.

But the vibe is good.

Bit annoyed Amazon didn’t give me a heads up on this one 😂

So Amazon is now an official Hyrox partner. And they’re the title partner for Hyrox London Excel.

The race I’m doing.

Of course they are.

I’ve spent the best part of a decade building an Amazon agency.

And an increasingly unreasonable amount of my spare time training for Hyrox.

So seeing the two worlds collide is very cool.

Also, from a marketing perspective, I think it makes loads of sense.

Hyrox has built an incredibly engaged community around something people spend money on: training kit, nutrition, wearables, recovery…the list goes on.

Amazon gets to move beyond being just the place you buy those things and actually become part of the community.

And I have some unfinished business there.

Last time I raced Solo Pro in London, I messed it up.

There isn’t really a nicer way to say it.

I learned a lot from that race. And this time I’m a much better athlete.

Jakarta Pro Doubles went almost perfectly.

My running has improved a lot.

I don’t know exactly what time I’ll run in London.

But I know one thing.

I will be getting a PB.

Can’t wait to see what Amazon and Hyrox do together.