Joël Cox

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

High performers *want* to be held accountable.

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.

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)

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

Lots of goal setting going on over the holidays. In 2025 I’m doubling down on a habit I started this year: Reflect on my goals weekly AND prioritize activities to move these along. Goal setting is one thing, effectively executing on these is another.

You can be an original thinker without coming up with something completely new. I love chewing on a concept, making some notes and finding someone came up with pretty much the same after a quick Google search. Everything is a remix.

Many people are extremely good at a few things. Very few people are extremely good at a lot of things.

Life’s outcomes don’t happen linearly. There are lulls which can be extremely discouraging: you’re putting in a consistent effort, seemingly without result. This is when you must persevere.

Focus on “capability now” instead of “future potential” when hiring. I got this wrong and we spent too much time training our hires to make them effective.

Running a business is much easier when you’re operating from a position of strength. This means surplus cash in the bank, fully staffed team, good infrastructure and a sales function that is performing.

This is why systems are incredible. teapawt.org/joshuamschultz/status/…

“Hustle culture” is not an option for a business that wants to last. A business can not always be running in fifth gear. It is simply not sustainable. A business should have seasons, like nature.

There are a gazillion things to do in a business, every single day. Deciding what to do and following through on the most important tasks, is what moves the needle.

My litmus test for having achieved AGI is getting rid of all the bots on here.