After Paula and I presented at Cannes, we were sent some photographs by WARC.
Of course I wanted to look at them, but the thing that shocked me the most was the difference between the photo from our session, and the one – almost 2 years to the day – from our Strategy Is Constipated, Imagination Is The Laxative presentation.
Of course I knew there would be a difference – I’m now literally half the man I used to be – but I guess I hadn’t realized just how different the overall impact would be.
Which highlights one important thing: Strategists are fucking idiots. [Or at least I am]
Anyway, this is what I’m talking about …
While I recognize the ‘before’ sight of me, I can’t quite believe I let myself get into such a state.
Now some of it was not entirely my fault.
When I was younger I was very fit but an issue with my eye [Not the issue I’m going through now, another one and another eye] meant I was not allowed to do much exercise as there was a real chance of losing my sight, which obviously I didn’t want.
But then, over the years, the sedentary life because my day-to-day life.
And while I – if I’m being honest – didn’t like how I looked, I couldn’t see a way out of it.
Part of it was because I couldn’t imagine a life where I had to stop eating the food I loved.
Part of it was because I didn’t let myself accept how I looked – a kind-of body dysmorphia.
Part of it was I didn’t know how to change it, which caused me real turmoil.
That last point is the biggest one … because I went through real lows at different points in my life, recognizing the position I was in, even if I didn’t allow myself to recognize just how bad the position I was in.
Now it is important to note I am not saying I was lazy. If anything, I was ill … so while it’s dead easy for people to look at overweight individuals and think it’s all their own fault, it’s far more complex than that. Sure, they have to take responsibility for their situation, but there’s a lot going on in many of their lives which means they just don’t feel they can. Add to that, the fact it costs a lot of money to eat healthily and it just makes everything much, much more difficult.
Anyway, I posted that photo on Linkedin and – bizarrely – it got the most engagement of any post I’ve ever written on that platform. And all the comments were not just supportive, but very human. For a platform that seemingly revels in replicating American Psycho, that blew my mind and gave me more hope for business than I’d had in years.
But one question many asked was ‘how did I do it’ … so to round out the week, I thought I’d tell you what worked for me. Can’t guarantee it will work for everyone, but it has – and continues to [because it’s never going to change, even though I can be less strict on the range of food I eat] – be the foundation of how I live.
So here I go:
+ 1675 calories a day [total or net]
+ 25 grams of sugar a day
+ 65 grams of carbs a day.
And then I walk 15kms a day. Didn’t start that way, so it doesn’t really matter how far you go, as long as you do a couple of kms and you do it consistently.
I also write EVERYTHING I consume on an app called Lose It and that’s it.
To be honest I found it easier than I thought it would be but acknowledge I’ve had a lot of help from family, clients and colleagues.
My total loss – so far – is 47kg and while I still crave bread, I manage to only have it on special occasions. There’s a lot of good alts out there – from coffee to chocolate to rice to sauces – and while it takes a bit of getting used to, once you have, you will hardly know any difference at all.
Last thing … we all will have bad days. Accept it. Try not to have more than one a fortnight and if you’re going to do it, make sure it’s with good quality food that you love. If you’re going to fail, fail gloriously … but occasionally … and then get back on the horse the next day.
Bizarrely, while I can now eat a few more things now than I let myself originally … I actually LOVE getting back to my diet. Not only do I appreciate taste more than I ever have, I also accept some food is for fueling my body not just satisfying my gluttony.
That’s it … so if anyone wants to chat about specifics, just reach out to me. As I said, I can’t guarantee it is what you need, but I’ll happily answer anything you want to know, including some of the recipes/foods that have filled me up without necessarily clogging me up – haha.
So if you fancy giving it a go, ‘go big’ on Saturday … eat to your hearts content … but use Sunday to start planning for the rest of the week. I get how big a deal it is. I get how daunting it is. But apart from the health benefits – of which they are innumerable – if you’re anything like me, you might find the biggest change is you start to like and respect yourself a little bit. And as benefits go, that’s incredible.
Good luck, I’m here for anyone who needs to chat.
As it’s the end of the week, I thought I’d send us off into the weekend on a positive.
Admittedly, a positive for me, but hopefully the joy will spread to you in some way.
So as I wrote about a few weeks ago, I lost my wedding ring. I have no idea where or how, but having walked the streets, gone through the bins and checked the newspapers – I had to accept it had gone once and for all.
Obviously, I was devastated – made even harder by the fact it was made by fusing my Dad’s wedding ring [one of the only things I had from him] with the one Jill gave me on our wedding day to create something both deeply personal and very sentimental.
However, while I wish it had not gone, I’ve been able to find a way to move forward by creating something new.
And old.
You see, because I’d lost a lot of weight, I’d needed the ring to be resized a few months ago and as part of that, I’d been given a bit of Dad’s wedding ring that had been cut away.
That little bit has been able to be reused in the creation of the new ring which Jill added to, by giving me some teeny, tiny fragments from her original wedding ring that she had redesigned a few years ago.
And to make things as perfect as they can be, it was all crafted by the jeweller who took Dad’s and my wedding ring to turn it into something very special and unique for me.
Of course, it’s not the same as the one I sadly lost, but it’s also an extension of it – which not only makes me feel very lucky, it also helps me feel ‘whole’ again.
How crazy is it that because I lost weight, I was able to still have a bit of Dad’s ring still. And how brilliant is it that my wife thought of a way to connect it back to our original special day.
Amazing.
Though I’ll be considering supergluing it to my finger because even though it was a mistake – and my family were nothing but loving and supportive about it – the feeling I let them down by being careless still stings. Albeit this new version soothes the pain of that a lot.
Not because there’s much financial value, but the human value is priceless.
Have a great weekend, I know I will.
Filed under: Attitude & Aptitude, Auckland, Colenso, Colleagues, Comment, Fast Food, Food, Happiness, Health, India, Pizza
As many of you know, I’ve been on a health kick for about 18 months or so and in that time, I’ve managed to lose over 47kg.
Despite that …
Despite being very careful with what I eat.
Despite me noting down in an app every single item I put in my gob.
I never am in doubt how easily I could go back.
Maybe not to what I was, but definitely far from where I am.
Of course I allow myself some treats every now and then …
I have a whole loaf of sourdough, salted butter and jam on my birthday for example.
And now – when I go out for an occasional nice dinner – I may actually have things I enjoy rather than denying myself, in the knowledge it won’t happen very often.
But a few weeks ago, I found myself working late and needed dinner. If I’m being honest, it’s been A LONG TIME since I’ve grabbed food while working in the office … but I had my brilliant colleague, India, with me and we’d been talking about a place up the road that owns another place which serves some of the best pizza I’ve ever had.
EVER. HAD.
So off we went to Farina to go get some pies before we sat down to some late night work.
In my defense, I’d basically eaten nothing the whole day, so I was starving.
Plus I knew we had hours of work ahead of us and it was a cold, rainy night.
But while that is all contextual evidence, it doesn’t hide the fact that as soon as we were handed our pizza boxes and stepped out of the restaurant … this is what happened.
Yep, I was into it like a shark in a kids paddling pool.
Worse, I almost cried when I had fully demolished it.
Not just because it was so good – and it was SOOOOOO good – but because, like a shark who had tasted blood – my body had been reminded how fucking great ‘not-so-great-food-for-you’ is and I have to talk myself every day from going in and having another.
I don’t.
But I could.
Which is why when people talk about losing weight, the reality is that’s the easy part … it’s keeping the fucker off that’s the hardest thing. And that delicious circle of pepperoni pizza I shoved down my gob in the blink of an eye reminded me both how well I’ve been doing, but also how easily I could give it all up if I let myself.
And given Farina is 5 minutes walk from the office, that means I am currently the strongest man in the World.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Community, Context, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Happiness, Harmony, Humanity, Inclusion, Japan, Love, Perspective, Resonance, Respect
Over the years, my wife has told me all she wants me to do is listen to her when she faces challenges, rather than try and fix them for her.
I suspect she is not the only woman who has had this conversation with a man.
And while she knows the reason we do it is out of love, she finds it annoying-as-fuck.
Fortunately we’ve been together so long that its finally got in my thick skull, hence I now listen rather than automatically run to ‘fix’ mode.
The point of this is that I think a lot of advertising needs to adopt this trait.
Too often we think we can solve everything.
Marketing.
Politics.
Poverty.
World hunger.
You name it, our ego believes it can solve it.
But there’s something quite magical in embracing problems rather than trying to solve – or go around them.
Sure, we’re paid to help clients move forward … but that doesn’t always have to be from tackling issues head-on … sometimes, it comes from realizing some problems don’t – or can’t – be solved.
Recently I read something that embodies this perfectly.
A ‘solution’ that doesn’t fix the issue, but deals with it with dignity and grace.
It’s not unique, I’ve seen things like this before and have written about some in the past … but where they tended to be addressing issues in a private environment – such as care homes and parks in the Netherlands – this is something where the public are actively encouraged to be part of the solution.
Except it’s more than that.
Because they benefit as well.
In connection. In understanding and – at a time where there seems to be less of it about – in humanity.
It’s not just magical and beautiful, it’s important. For everyone.
Filed under: 2025, A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Ambition, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Auckland, Augustine, Authenticity, Bassot, Blogosphere, Bonnie, Business, Cannes, China, Clients, Colenso, Colleagues, Comment, Community, Context, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Death, Doctor, Dolly, Dream Bigger, Education, Emotion, Empathy, End of Year, Experience, Family, Friendship, Happiness, Health, Hope, Human Goodness, Imagination, Jill, London, Love, Loyalty, Luck, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Metallica, Miley, Mischief, Music, New Zealand, Nottingham Forest, OnStrategy, Otis, Paula, Perspective, Planes, Planners, Planning, Presenting, Professionalism, Relationships, Relevance, Reputation, Resonance, Ridiculous, Shanghai, Singapore, Standards, Stories, Strategy, Sydney, Tattoo, Wieden+Kennedy
So I know that I’ve only just got back to writing this blog after being away for my eye-op, but today is going to be the last post of this year. Yes, it’s earlier than it normally is. Yes, I will miss reporting on some stuff like the shitshow that was Fuck Off And Pie ’25 [which happened yesterday and was renamed to ‘Fuck Off And Die’ … because the theme was ‘hot spice’] but there’s 2 main reasons why I’m ending this year’s blog today:
1. My eyesight is still pretty bad so typing takes me a bloody age. [Don’t get excited, this blog will be back when I’m back – which is the 19th Jan – over a month away]
2. It’s Otis’ 11th birthday tomorrow and so the rest of this week is all about him.
That said, this will be a long post … not because it needs to make up the 5 weeks or so this blog will be quiet or because I think people want to read what I’m spouting [let’s be honest, does anyone even read this blog anymore?!], but because it serves as a reminder for me of what I’ve done over the past 300+ days.
The reality is, while this years been dominated by my health, it’s been a generally good year.
Yes, there have been some incredibly hard moments … from the tragic passing of 8 people I knew and cared about – that bizarrely all occurred around the same, short period of time – that still deeply affects me to this day through to the individual I once valued and respected highly, who ended up showing me how fragile trust becomes when someone stops meeting you with the same honesty, then denies it, takes no accountability for it, then runs from it.
But even with all that – and it was pretty shit, made more painful by the fact I was contending with my own health dramatics – I feel very fortunate that I still experienced more high points in 2025 than sad. And given how tough this year has been for so many people, I appreciate how fortunate I am to say that.
And what high points they were …
Getting Bonnie … who has not just added such joy to the family, but has helped Otis in ways we could only dream of.
Watching the family thrive, shine and be happy makes everything worthwhile.
I got some lovely new tattoos.
Finding a brilliant new school for Otis that specialises in kids with his particular contexts and conditions.
Seeing some old friends I’ve not seen for years … topped-off by not just seeing Paula after 2 years away, but speaking with her at Cannes, which was extra-special.
Getting a new car … which I appreciate is as indulgent as hell, but it made me very happy until I had to stop driving it because of my eye. Fucking karma, ha.
My Life Vs Time thing that seemed to touch the nerve of a lot of people all over the place.
Wednesday, September 24th … where I found myself sitting on the steps outside Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai on a very warm night – around midnight – chatting to someone I’d met on that trip that turned into one of the seminal memories and moments of my life, despite the fact all we did was chat for a couple of hours and I’ll never see or talk to that person again. But grateful for that moment.
Talking of Wieden+Kennedy …
I went back to see them after 8 years and not only was it lovely – and surprising – to see some old faces, I got to leave some new stickers all over the place.
Now back to other stuff …
I bought a suit. A good suit. Which surprises me as much as it likely shocks you.
Seeing Ange Postecoglou get fired after 39 days of destruction and arrogance.
Working on some incredible projects for people who are truly wonderful, talented and creative humans.
Being overwhelmed with the kindness and generosity of people and clients in relation to my health and wellbeing … with special thanks and gratitude to Peter, who – on behalf of his clients – organized the surgeon who invented the surgical procedure I was going to have, to be part of the team who took on the drama and trauma of my operation. While we are still waiting to see if it was as successful as we all hope, I know I would not be even in this situation without him, the surgeons, the medical staff, my GP – Stephen Sohn – and the optician at Specsavers in Glenfield Mall … who all contributed to this having a shot of a happy ending.
Hanging out with some of the most famous and talented people in the World. Yep … at various points in the year, I found myself having dinner with a music/fashion superstar, an international model, one of the World’s most famous and iconic humans, a Hollywood screenwriter, the family behind one of the World’s most powerful and desirable Italian luxury brands, some Rock Gods and – on a wild 16 hours in NYC – gatecrashing the birthday party of the wife of one of the music industry’s most famous managers where I spent the evening sat between the wives of 2 different Rockstars who were so welcoming and epic before Taylor Swift entered the restaurant. [Culminating in a gift from one of them which was their way of telling me I was now ‘family’, which still blows my mind]
Having Metallica come to NZ after over a decade away, including a cup of tea at my house for some special guests.
Travelling a lot … including FOUR visits to my beloved China where, on one trip, I got to show some of my Colenso colleagues around for their first time there.
Talking of Colenso ….
We made some properly good work [of which, I’m particularly proud of the Family Roast stuff we did for Medibank for a whole bunch of different reasons and you can see the ad here, and the game here] , launched the brilliant ‘Dream Bigger’ book, won a bunch of international awards [though seeing us not win, we should have, was annoying – ha] and got to host/meet Fergus and his OnStrategy podcast in NZ.
In addition, while it was sad to see Martin and Augustine leave Colenso, I got to see them do great things on their new adventures while also getting to welcome James and Miz – who fitted in like they had been here for years. [Not to mention the wonderfulness of the team at large, who kept me learning, thinking]
As you can see, that’s a lot of good things … more than I probably deserve … but I am grateful for all of them.
Almost as grateful as I am for my son Otis.
Tomorrow, he turns 11. ELEVEN!!!
How the fuck has that happened? And while he has gone through many schools and classes in Shanghai, LA, London, Hundson and Auckland … the fact he is about to end his ‘primary school’ journey seems particularly momentous.
And yet, despite all these changes … and despite his dysgraphia challenges … he has handled it all so brilliantly of which one thing I am very proud of, is his ability to express when it is all getting too much for him.
I appreciate that may sound weird for a parent to be proud of … but I am.
Because if he feels comfortable enough to say when stress and anxiety is beginning to take hold, not only we can help him deal with it – in collaboration with his teachers who have generally been very supportive – it means we have created an environment where he feels safe and seen, and that means the World to us. And hopefully to him too.
He’s such a good kid, surrounded by other good kids.
Cheeky, mischievous, supportive, funny, passionate, compassionate. honorable, curious and independent.
And while they will all be going to different schools in the new year, I am confident they will maintain their friendship. Part of that is because of the way New Zealand works … but part of that is because of the bond they have. One built on more than just proximity, but a real connection based on shared interests, values and energy.
It took me a long time to realise how much energy plays into just how much you connect and relate to people.
Maybe that’s because I’m slow and stupid … but energy matching seems to be the real heart of connection. At least deep connection. And while Otis has met kids who share that with him in every country we’ve lived – most notably, his beloved Elodie in LA – he’s met more in NZ.
Of course, part of that is because he’s older and exposed to more … but for a kid that doesn’t really love the ‘outdoor life’ as is celebrated by all Kiwi’s [which, to be fair, is just like his old man] he’s definitely met his ‘peeps’ here. Maybe that’s why he has said that – while he knows we will leave NZ at some point in the future – he will want to come back and live here. And if that’s not the biggest compliment to the people of NZ, I don’t know what is. Which explains why that as much as my heart belongs to China, my gratitude will forever be with NZ.
So to my dear Otis …
Happy birthday my wonderful son.
I can’t put into words how much I love you but I can say how proud I am to be able to call myself ‘your Dad’.
I hope you have a wonderful day playing Geometry Dash and I can’t wait to celebrate your birthday with you and your friends this weekend.
Big love, hugs and laughs from your Dad, Mum and pooch.
Love you.
Rx
I’ve probably missed stuff to celebrate but this post is already too long so let me end it by saying a big thank you to everyone who has played a part in the good parts of my year as well as those who have popped by to read my rubbish on here.
Without wishing to sound too sentimental, but I am more grateful to you than you may ever know and I hope – whatever you are doing or celebrating – it soothes any pain you are feeling and/or elevates any happiness you’re experiencing.
Just don’t have a better time or better presents than I hopefully will receive over this period – hahaha.
And with that, I’ll see you on the 19th Jan 2026, and here’s to it being a better year than the shitstorm it has been for so many.
Hopefully … with almost 6 weeks of blog freedom, I’m starting it off on a positive.
See you on the other side.
Rx