January 30, 2019

Tailoring Tools for Thinkers with Joey Cofone

40 minutes

This episode is brought to you by Your Clockwise Week—a personalized weekly structure built around your actual life, not an ideal one. If your week feels full but not fitting, you can learn more at mikevardy.com/yourclockwiseweek.

On this episode of The Productivityist Podcast, Joey Cofone, the co-founder and CEO of Baron Fig, joins the show. Baron Fig is a company that started as a Kickstarter project which has evolved into a brand that designs and offers inspiring products to thinkers such as writers, illustrators, and entrepreneurs around the world.

I just talked with James Clear on the previous episode, and now Joey Cofone is here! I’ve been wanting to chat with Joey for a while and on this episode, I finally got the chance. I had a great time discussing a range of topics from my well-documented affinity for Baron Fig, their collaboration with James Clear, what it’s like to create physical products, and how he builds a team that’s crafting these products.

Talking Points

Point, don’t plan: How to set goals, let them go, and keeping impostor syndrome and comparison at bay

The Beginnings of Baron Fig: From a notebook idea at a Thai restaurant to selling nearly 10,000 notebooks in 30 days and now taking over my life

Creating a design-oriented notebook and building a thinker company

Digital vs Analog: What is the best tool for the job and why is a notebook still the best tool for thinking

The freedom and restriction that apps tend to bring

Rooting for digital tools and integrating new styles in paper products

Guided editions including James Clear’s The Clear Habit Journal: the next evolutionary step for people intimidated by the blank page

Balancing digital and analog tools in developing ideas simultaneously

Why Joey supplanted the Nomad sticky notes with the Strategist note cards

Good ideas come from anywhere: Talking to 500 thinkers around the world for feedback

Quote

“Design is integrated into everything that I do and how I look at the world. And I don’t think it was something that I chose, it’s how I grew up, being very nitpicky and detail-oriented. And in design, it just seem that that is what I should do with this. So, when we started Baron Fig, we’re very much design-oriented.”

Relevant Links

Baron Fig

Horizontal Themes: Maintaining Time, Making Time, and Musing Time

Notion App

Patrick Rhone’s Sensible Defaults

James Clear’s Clear Habit Journal

Why You Need Atomic Habits with James Clear

How Did This Get Made?

Eureka

Michael Hyatt

Adam Kornfield

How I Built This with Guy Raz

SCOTTeVEST

Nomad Sticky Notes

Strategist Dot Grid Index Cards

Joey Cofone’s Website

@joeycofone on Twitter

@joeycofone on Instagram

Joey Cofone on Facebook

I had a (fittingly) productive discussion with Joey and I trust you’ll enjoy our chat as much as I did.

Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice.

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If this episode resonated, I’m exploring ideas like these more deeply in my upcoming book, Productiveness. You can follow along as it takes shape at mikevardy.com/productiveness.

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By Mike Vardy

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