Joël Cox

Operator and holistic problem solver. Engineer gone rogue. Talk to me about SMBs, tech and value investing. Probably out for a run/bike/swim.

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

How #smbtwit is making me better at business:

Read about EOS via @girdley
Learned from @StrongpointRich to add playbooks for off-track metrics
Got real-life examples of leading indicators from @patrickdichter
@birchard_tom pushed me to revise..
@pslohmann made me use Notion.

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

@alexbilbie Sweet product! Congratulations on the launch. Hope you’re doing well, Alex.

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

@arjenblokzijl @shuding ikr

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

@adamislucky Awesome. Definitely up there in terms of most gratifying professional activities I get to do!

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

@MikeBotkin_ @EndresenHeather @ClintFiore Those discrepancies are wild. I assume this includes brokered deals? Not expecting brokers to do a full QoE, but would expect they do *some* due diligence on these numbers.

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

@joelgascoigne It very admirable how you’ve turned around the ship. This typically takes a huge amount of focus, so it’s only logical to feel a little lost right now. No need to worry; new challenges will present themselves soon enough. Fixers gonna fix!

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

What *really* moves the needle? Step back from time to time and consider what the actual bottleneck/constrained resource is. Critical thinking is hard. Box ticking is easy.

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

"Controlling" is about setting expectations, providing guidance when ambiguity arises and keeping the team accountable, continuously.

Any other approach will immediately remove any sense of ownership and prevents original thinking.

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

Killing initiatives early (but not too early..) is a super power in business.

Spending time and resources on the wrong things bogs you down. No need to go full Elon either. Start out with a simple phase/gate process and expanded where necessary.

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

Some big news: we sold our digital agency! The last few months have been crazy as we ended up doing two separate transactions; we sold our long-term contracts to another agency while being acquired by a large customer.

Glad with the result, but still adjusting to new reality.

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

Glad I got exposed to "Getting Things Done" early in my professional life. It's very comprehensive, but these guiding principles give you 80%:
- Write it down immediately.
- Have one place for all your tasks.
- Minimize WIP.
- Complete immediately if it takes less than 2 min.

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

Bias towards writing.

We all have a preferred communication medium, but nothing beats writing when you need to hash out the nitty gritty.

It's easy to keep on talking, but writing persists–at least the final edit does.

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

High performers *want* to be held accountable.

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

@shawngorham I was kind of impressed when renewing this week. Visited a local photographer without appointment, who directly uploaded pics to DMV system. Received email, paid DMV online and got an email it was ready for pick up two days later at city hall. Total 1h incl. travel + €70.

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

Experience means you can pattern match a situation to previous challenges. No need to get into the nitty gritty detail.

If you lack experience, but fail to do a root cause analysis you will often make the wrong assumptions.

Be cognizant of your own abilities before you start.

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

Spending way too much time on endurance sports in my 20s taught me at least one thing:

Quitting is an active decision 95% of the time. Don’t let your brains fool you.

(Reminding myself, to be honest)

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

@andrewglynch Fair point. I also like @BetterCeo's suggestion in doing this at the start of the year and copy it to your digital cal.

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

@andrewglynch Ah, good distinction.

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

Activity does not equate progress, but without activity you are sure to regress.

[Joël Cox @joelcox]

@Camp4 Thought I was already on your list.. signed up again just to make sure I don’t miss this one!