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.Specifics that we covered on the show include:
- 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
“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.” ~ Joey Cofone
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.
Enjoy the show? Want to keep up with the podcast? You can subscribe to the podcast feed by clicking the “Share” button in the player above – and you can share it further using the same button as well. You can take things even one step further by rating and reviewing the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening and supporting the show!
