Episode 2: Lessons from 17 years in business with Josh Rubin, Co-Founder Of Cool Hunting
In this episode we talk with Josh Rubin, photographer, interaction designer and co-founder of Cool Hunting, the award-winning independent publication company that tackles the most intriguing stories about design, culture and technology. In this interview, Josh shares Cool Hunting’s history, what influences him in making business decisions and tells Fiona what his advice is for small business owners in dealing with issues foreign to them and how to deal with overwhelming feelings in business.
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introducing Josh Rubin, co-founder of Cool Hunting (1:19)
What is Cool Hunting? (5:08)
When did it start? (6:28)
When did Cool Hunting move from a simple blog into something more? (7:59)
What was Josh Rubin’s upbringing like?(10:50)
What is Freehands? (13:40)
What is Cool Hunting’s “Why”? (16:11)
What is Josh Rubin’s background and how did they get advertisers? (20:04)
What is his advice for family, friends and partners who want to start a business together? (23:57)
What is Cool Hunting’s internal process in collaborations and other partnerships? (27:27)
How does Cool Hunting find content despite the many competitors? (29:46)
What are the books, podcasts, websites, people that you would recommend for small business owners to check out? (32:02)
How do you deal with areas of the business that are out of one’s expertise? (33:48)
What advice would Josh give to a small business owner who's feeling overwhelmed from the business? (35:24)
What does Josh think when he looks back at the accomplishments of Cool Hunting? (39:11)
Conclusion (39:56)
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Episode transcript:
“I think that it is so easy to spin out when you're getting stressed about something. And when you're trying to solve a problem, and there are all these pressures and you have to keep the business going, and maybe you have a couple of employees and you have to make payroll. And there's, there's all this pressure hitting you from every angle that really cloud is the ability to make a decision. So to take the time to just clear your mind is often grounding. And for me at least helps kind of reveal the answer at times.”
Hello and welcome to episode two of the My Daily Business Coach podcast.
So today we are kicking off the interviews and I could not think of a better person to start my interview series with creative, small business owners. Then Josh Rubin. Now Josh Rubin is based in New York city. And in this interview, you do here at the end, a couple of New York taxis in the background. Josh Rubin is a photographer. He's an interaction designer and he's the co founder of Cool Hunting. Now for the very few of you that may not have heard of Cool Hunting, Cool Hunting is really a global go-to online destination and resource for the latest in design, in tech, in travel and art culture, style music, all of those amazing things that keep creativity coming on a global scale.
Now, Cool Hunting started initially as a blog back in 2003. And when you think back in 2003, we didn't have any social media. I was working as a magazine editor at that time, and it was still all about the print publications. There was very few online publications and there definitely was no one doing it the way that Cool Hunting was doing it. They were able to tap into really uncovered and undiscovered artists and creatives and designers in all pockets of the world. And they were able to not only bring their story to a global audience through the coolhunting.com platform, but they were able to do it in a way that really resonated with other people and was really inspiring and engaging. And it was just new and fresh and original. And then someone who was working in that space on magazines, I was just captivated by what they were doing. And I reached to them in probably around 2005, 2006, no earlier than that, probably 2005. And I said, you know, can I write for you?
Can I contribute in some way, I was just blown away with what they were doing and how they were doing it. What I find really interesting in this interview with Josh is how they actually started and why, why they started Cool Hunting and also how long it took for it to go from a side project to a full blown business with full time staff and himself and the other co founder, Evan Orensten working in the business full time. I think we can often look at these brands, particularly Cool Hunting that has grown to be such a recognized and respected platform, not only for coolhunting.com, but also for its retail program, its content studio, the Cool Hunting consultancy, and also their one-off travel experiences. We can look at it from the outset and think, well, they must've just, you know, known what they were doing from day one.
And what Josh talks about is that that wasn't the case and it maybe wasn't even supposed to be a big business. It was really started as something else, very small and intimate and as as is the way often our passion projects can become such beautiful businesses. So I hope you are able to take away as much from this interview as I was about what it's like to run a small business, about persevering through challenges and even, you know, some really beautiful tips that Josh gives for when you're feeling overwhelmed or stressed. So here it is my first interview in this podcast series with the amazing Josh Rubin co-founder of Cool Hunting.
Hi, Josh Rubin. Thank you so much for coming onto the podcast.
Yeah. Thank you for having me. It's an honor
Oh, it's an honor to have you. And I feel like I've known you for quite a bit of time. It's been a while.
It has been a while.
I think it was like 2006 that I contacted you. And that was really when I, when I was earlier than that, it's about 2004 and that's when I discovered Cool Hunting. And now you have this huge audience around the world for almost two decades now. So for the people that don't know about Cool Hunting and what it is, can you explain what it is and how, and when did you start it?
Yeah, so Cool Hunting at its core is an online magazine about really it's about creativity and innovation, but those words have become a bit diluted. These days. We looked for interesting and untold stories in the categories of art and design technology, food travel style music do a lot of stuff in our world. And we're really thinking about our audience who are typically in some sort of creative profession. And they're coming to us either as a research tool or just for a bit of a bit of inspiration and you know, our audience is quite smart, quite well-read, they've got lots of resources they go to. So it's our goal to either bring them stories that they don't already know, or if we're writing about something that's a little more popular, bring an angle that hasn't been covered yet, whether it's an interview or some other kind of insight. So that's the core of Cool Hunting. We've since kind of expanded to include a retail program, a content studio, a consultancy, and we also host travel experience.
So you're a busy, busy guy. And when did Cool Hunting start?
So we started in February of 2003. So we're getting close to our 17th birthday. When it started, it wasn't meant to be a business. It was really just a way for Evan and needs a catalog, things that we found that were inspiring. Evan is my husband and my co-founder of Cool Hunting. And we worked together at other companies in the past. And at the time that Cool Hunting started, we were actually in, in, we have very different jobs and that was part of what made it happen. We would come home from our respective jobs and just talk about things that we've learned each day. And we wanted a way to keep track of that stuff. So, you know, my background is in user interface design and user experience, and I'm nerdy enough that I could build a website. So I just built the website as a tool for us to keep track of things that we we're excited about, but it kind of developed an audience and became part of the media world over time. Not because we tried to, but just because I guess we had pretty good timing. And then there wasn't a lot of contents online, like what we were making and people were looking for it.
Yeah, definitely. I mean, that's exactly how I found it at the time I was magazine editor and looking for stuff that was interesting. And of course, Cool Hunting totally stood out, but you started it. And you know, a lot of people can start, especially now, but not back in 2003, but a blog. When did it move from something that you and Evan decided you could actually make a living enough from that you could quit the jobs that you were in? Like how long did that take from 2003?
Yeah. So it was about two years in that we realized that Cool Hunting could be a business. And at that point we started, you know, we started to work with advertisers a little bit and we started to develop a better understanding of what it meant to be a business in the media world. It continued to be the side project for several more years though. Initially it was onsite or different day jobs. And then we started another design firm with some of our old partners from Razorfish where we were back in the nineties and Cool Hunting continues to be a side project along that. And after I guess it was, yeah, it was after we decided to make it a business that we started to bring on interns and other people to focus on Cool Hunting full time, even though Evan and I weren't focused on it full time. It was about six years in, in 2009 that Evan and I decided that we really wanted to focus on Cool Hunting full time, you know, and, and kind of took that next step.
Wow. So, you know, people can after look at these things and think it just happened overnight, but six years is a decent length of time to be putting effort into something. while still working .
Six years is definitely a lengthy amount of time for a side project before making it your full time focus. But I think the difference for us is, I don't know, we weren't, we weren't aiming for it to be the full time thing, but we enjoyed it as the side project. We'd like to the other work that we were doing. We, you know, we liked to having multiple things going on and you know, it, wasn't six years of thinking, wow, I wish this could be all I do all day. It was six years of, Hey, this is one of the things we do. And it's something we really enjoy and it's fun and we're making a little business out of it, but it's only one of the things we do. And then, you know, it was, it was really when the nature of the design consultancy, the work that we were doing there shifted. You know, in 2008, the economy went to shit and the kinds of projects we were getting were not as fun and exciting as they were before. And we were doing that work, but we also started to question why we were doing that work. And at the same time we were looking at Cool Hunting and realizing that focusing on that business with just would be a lot more satisfying. And so it was a few different influences that kind of made us shift focus six years in.
Okay. And so you talked about the fact that you guys started a design consultancy, so a different type of business. What was your upbringing like? Was there anything about your upbringing that sort of afforded you the ideas to be like, Hey, we could start a business, whether it's Cool Hunting or design consultancy, where your parents business owners, I mean, did you have any experience from your family from, from running a business? Was that in any way an influencer?
I think it was, my upbringing was strange. You know, it was somewhat unconventional. My parents were married when I was born, but divorced within a couple years. And I lived with, you know, I went back and forth between, between the two of them and between Vermont and Florida, which are very different States and vibes and experiences here on the East coast of the U S so, you know, right out of the gate, I was having, you know, I've kind of led an unconventional life when I was eight. They married each other again, which is also atypical that didn't last very long. They divorced again less than a year later. So I guess I grew up in an unconventional environment because it's beyond just like married, divorced, married, divorced, moving back and forth, you know, between different States. You know, my mother is, she's a healer, she's an intuitive, she's an astrologer.
You know, she, she does all this really interesting work, but she also has always felt that it's not something that she could karmically justify ever charging money for. So she had this practice that wasn't about money at all. You know, it was, you know, kind of on a barter kind of approach. And then my father is in the glove manufacturing business, and that is a business that his father and his grandfather were all in. So my father comes from this multigenerational glove, making family, his approach to the business is different from the previous generations, but he never really had a typical nine to five day job either. So I grew up with these parents who were definitely unconventional and I guess showed me that work is not necessarily going into an office every day and it's not necessarily a nine to five and there can potentially be a, you know, a lifestyle around it. So at the time as a kid, I didn't look at either of my parents and think I want to grow up and, you know, and have jobs like them or work like them. But I think what the influence was, well, I think that the influence was really just seeing that work and jobs (are) not necessarily the same for everyone and that there are many ways to approach it.
Wow. That's a fascinating, I had no idea about that. I mean, obviously, you know, we're not like besties, but I've known you for a while, so that's amazing. (inaudible) I did see at some point you sold gloves, you had a little glove company.
So, when, so 10 years ago, when the iPhone came out, it was the first phone that had a capacitive touch screen. So that meant that it was dependent on static, electricity as it still is today and as every phone screen is still today. And the first winter with, with the iPhone, I realized like you can't use it with gloves. What do you do? You have to take your gloves off and then your hands are cold. You know, Evan and I started talking about it and we immediately realized that we knew someone who could help us figure this out. So we started a glove business with my father, specifically making gloves for using touch screen phones. And we did that, you know, right away. The very first winter with the iPhone, we didn't have the gloves out because that's when we figured out the problem.
And then we, you know, we put the creative, the business started, the design started the manufacturing process, so that the following winter, we had product in market for people who wanted to use their phones in cold weather outside. And that brand is called Free Hands. And it's still around today, obviously, there's, you know, there's, there's a million different solutions these days for using your phone in21 cold weather. And the funny thing is that our gloves are most popular today with photographers, for using DSLRs and other bigger camera equipment, where you need your fingertips to access your controls. And you know that at the same time, you need to stay warm. So we have some pretty, you know, pretty heavy duty winter gloves that have favorites of photographers. It's one of those cases of an audience that you weren't planning for. adopting your product and becoming really passionate about it. And then, you know, obviously if they're really into it, you want to start listening to them and figure out how you evolve with them in mind.
Wow. It's always interesting when you start something and then it completely shifts in a way that you could never have imagined at the start.
Yeah.
Yeah. And so you talked about your mom and her healing business and the fact that she didn't feel it was karmically, to charge for that. Often small business owners and the people I work with. Definitely, You know, they have this idea of, of a why, and I'm sure it was called something else before. Simon's the next big Ted talk, but is there a why behind Cool Hunting? And I think you've got a pretty strong one in terms that you guys haven't ever really positioned the company just for financial gain. What would you say are like your beliefs around the world or anything else that's triggered the why for Cool Hunting, like the essence of it, besides it making money?
Yeah, I think, you know, there's part of the, why is we're so fortunate today, you know, having a, a brand and having a business that people know that opens doors, that other people might not be able to open. So as storytellers, we can get access to stories that, you know, not everyone can get access to on that level. The why is really helping to inform and inspire our audience with stories that they wouldn't get anywhere else and helping to kind of create some connections within the creative community around the world, honestly, to just learn more about what everyone is up to and whether they're directly in touch with each other, or just indirectly informed through us, it's still helps everyone push their craft forward. So yeah, being part of the fabric of the creative community is, you know, is a big motivator for us.
And we definitely feel really good about that role. We also feel really great about giving exposure to the young entrepreneurs, designers, inventors that are not yet known. When we can write a story about someone who is just starting out and that gives them a little bit of a, you know, a little more attention, maybe it to further stories, maybe they are making something that's for sale and it leads to selling their product. It feels great to be able to, you know, kind of help that person kind of further their mission and further their career. And over the years, we've run into many people that we have written about who said it, who shared how our story has influenced their journey, you know in getting in launching their career and launching their business and getting their product out there. So that's, that's really satisfying as well.
The other why for us is really about pushing back against the typical business of advertising and of content creation. So yeah, we work, we work with advertisers. It's important to work with advertisers, but we also have all these other lines of business so that we're not dependent on advertising and by not being dependent on advertising, that gives us full control of our editorial and full freedom to create the content we want to create and also create the volume of content we want to create. So many websites over the years, went down the path of creating 70, 80, 90 stories a day, because ultimately the more you publish, the more ad impressions you have and the more inventory you have to be able to sell and therefore the more money you can make. And we really didn't want to do that. We didn't feel like, you know, we still publish at most seven things a day.
And sometimes that feels like it's pushing it too, you know, too hard. So being able to have longevity as a media brand that is not following the typical path of an online publication and being able to show people that there are other ways to approach the business and still maintain your integrity and create content that you're proud of is definitely another, you know, another why for us.
Yeah. And I think that's a huge part of why you've remained. I mean, like you said, there's so many that have just gone quantity, quantity, and quantity, and then sort of petered out because you've burnout your staff as well. Well, you just end up producing crap that no one wants to read. So you've definitely talked about how that, how that, you know, your relationship with advertisers it's quite different to other peoples. Was it always like that when you first started this? And even though you're building up as a side business, how did you get advertisers on board? Like, did you, I know your background was more in the tech space than sales. Did you have a sales background or did you just kind of approach people?
We're very fortunate in so many steps along the way. We've been very fortunate. The first one was just timing, right? We happen to start Cool Hunting at a time where there wasn't a lot of content like this online. That attracted an audience. Once we had this audience, which found us and, you know, like you, you were, you were right there on the very beginning and you've been loyal ever since in it. And that's a really nice thing about, you know, about our audience. When people find us, they kind of stick with us. So we're able to build this audience naturally without, you know, by just kind of doing what we were doing.
And then we got to a point where there was enough of awareness, enough awareness about us that we started hearing from advertisers. So it was, you know, the advertising opportunities were inbound. We weren't out looking for advertisers, we weren't out selling. So we started getting these inbound inquiries and figuring out how to, how to work with advertisers in a way that we could feel good about. And one of the, one of the things we ended up doing was focusing on what I guess you would call today native advertising, but that, that term, what didn't even wasn't being used in the industry back when we started basically making branded content, advertorials, sponsored content, because we felt like content based advertising was a lot more meaningful than banner ads and display media. And yeah, we still have, you know, still have banner ads and display media. There's, you know, there, there was a place for that, but the much more interesting way of working with our advertisers was having our editorial team tell their story and collaborating with the advertiser to find an angle that makes sense for our audience and the access that we need to tell that story, but letting the advertiser participate in the process.
And then ultimately once we publish the story, being transparent with the audience, making it clear that the story is sponsored and it's labeled as such, and everyone understands that this is something an advertiser paid for, but at the same time, the quality of the content and the tone of the article is in line with what we do editorially and therefore engaging and meaningful for the audience. So that approach was working really well for us for many years. And then the whole world of programmatic advertising started to grow and we saw marketing dollars being redirected towards programmatic instead of content based branded content based programs. So we saw quite a big dip in advertising opportunities. And what we're seeing now in the last, you know, really in the last year is things are starting to shift back towards deeper, more meaningful, more engaging formats for advertising, like how we create branded content. So there's definitely a, you know, an ebb and flow and a cycle to all of the advertising stuff. But just to realize I'm not fully answering your question, no, we do not have, we don't really have a sales team, Evan and I handle, you know, handle sales inquiries. We're not really outbound looking for advertising opportunities. It's still very reactive.
Yeah. And so you've mentioned Evan a bit and Evan Orensten is your partner in life and in the business and just a lovely guy as well. But you've worked with him, you know, for, you said it's almost 17 years. And before that, probably. What advice would you give to small business owners who are looking to potentially either retire their partner so that they can join the business or bring on a best friend or a sister or, you know, expand the business and they realize that they would need a partner to help them do that. Do you have advice for them?
-Well specific to considering whether or not to work with your husband, wife, life partner, brother, sister, you know, someone, someone in your family, someone in your very close friends set. The only advice I can offer is to just trust your gut it's for us, we really knew that we could work together. There was, there was no question. It was pretty easy and natural for us to work together. I think there are other couples where it's very clear to them that there's no way they could possibly work together. And that's great too, when you know that, but if you're not sure, then I think it requires a little bit of soul searching and a little bit of, you know, just really honest dialogue to figure out if it's going to work, because if it doesn't work, then you know, then you're in a really tricky situation, right? Either you're running a business with someone that you need to break up with, or you have a relationship with someone that you need to reset somehow. And neither of those are necessarily easy. So I think the advice would be, don't go into starting a business with a loved one. Don't go into it lightly.
Yeah. I mean, I guess it's like any other partnership, even if you were to going to, if you were to, if someone was to buy into your business as a complete stranger, you'd have to go through so much negotiation and, you know, looking at every part. And so I guess it's interesting that you should probably do the same thing regardless of who it is.
Yeah. Another piece of advice that came from my mother actually, which was really good because, you know, Evan and I lived together, we've worked together. Our business is very much based around our lifestyle. Our lifestyle is based around our business. Like there are really very few boundaries. So it's easy for us to talk about work all the time, whether we're in the office or not. So one of the things my mother suggested many years ago that I still, I feel really good about it makes a whole lot of sense is don't talk about work at dinner. No, have one block of time during the day where you're not talking about work. And for us, that means that we might be silent for dinner, or we might talk about, you know, fantasy vacations, or we might talk about friends or family, you know, and we have to make it, make it a point to not talk about work. That gets a little bit complicated because we often have work dinners. You know, we're meeting, we're meeting clients or we're meeting publicists or we're meeting, you know, we're different events or whatever. So those days it's a little bit complicated, but when it's just us having dinner at home…
Such good advice,
…You can still have that relationship.
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. You've mentioned as well. And obviously just even to be in business for as long as you've been in that you've had to evolve and change and shift. And you've talked about the advertising and how that's changed Cool Hunting. You know, you've done pop up stores, you've done products, you've done collaborations. You've brought people to different parts of the world on travel stuff. What is the internal process for? Yes, we should do that. Or no, that's something we should leave behind. Do you have kind of over the top, over the years, have you developed like a checklist or does this align with our brand values or, or how do you kind of assess because you know, there's this small business owners that are doing really well and these opportunities come to them and sometimes it can just be shiny new object syndrome and they're like, yes, yes, yes. Do you have an internal process, but figuring out what you say yes to and what you, don't?
Not really, we really should. The shiny new objects thing that you mentioned. Yeah. We get it. We get distracted by the shiny new objects. We could stand to formalize it a little bit. And I think part of that, I was just looking at the, the business model behind a new endeavor. We of course understand the basics and, you know, and map it out and model it out to make sure that it's, you know, that it makes sense, but we don't get super deep into building a business plan around a new endeavor. We just do enough work to figure out like, yeah, that, that should, that should make money. That should be fine. And we're really excited about it. So let's, you know, let's just push on. And sometimes we take on more than we should. Sometimes we are at risk of compromising the quality of everything we're doing, because we're doing so many things. And the way we check ourselves is really to ask that question, if we take this on, can we do it with well integrity, full attention, and the ability to execute at a level that we're going to be happy with? You know, if not, then we decide whether somebody else has to go or this idea that we have needs to be put on the shelf for awhile.
Well, one of the things that you seem to have an innate ability to do, which is what you've sort of just talked about is to find the call, I guess, for want of a better word in things. And by far and finding it first. So, you know, I've always, whenever I've contributed to you guys, we've always had to have a discussion with the editor about, has this been covered before? What's the angle, if it has, why is it different? All of that stuff. That obviously in 2003, when no one was doing this, that was much easier. Now you've got social media and, you know, if, if there's a conference on, or if there's a new product, there's, you know, millions of people out there with the phone that can cover it first, how has it become harder Cool Hunting to be kind of at the forefront. obviously you're at the forefront in some respects because the brands come to you with something that hasn't even been released yet. So you're the first to know about it, but in terms of other content, how do you work with that now that there's so many other competitors for attention than Cool Hunting?
It's really challenging. You're right. There's there are so many publications out there, and there are so many channels in social media being first to report on something is, is pretty difficult these days. So we definitely are able to get those kinds of stories because of the long standing relationships that we have with different brands or different publicists. And therefore some of those, you know, exclusive access kinds of stories are around bigger, more established brands. And we love that, but we also really love to champion the young designer, the startup entrepreneur, that doesn't have budget to hire a publicist that doesn't have any method of gaining exposure and finding those stories is definitely a lot harder these days, because there's so much noise out there. And because, you know, chances are, if there's a young designer who's creating a new product, they probably have a friend who has a lot of followers on social media.
So they're just going to turn to their friend and say like, Hey, like I made this thing, can you, you know, can you put it up on your Insta and, you know, and get it in front of your audience so I can get some feedback, I can get some awareness and then that, you know, and that kind of kicks it off because once it goes out on one channel, chances are, it's going to be picked up again. And again and again. So I think the relationships over the years have helped us to maintain or get access to exclusive stories and, you know, with bigger brands and bigger products, but where the challenge really lies these days is in finding those very first stories.
I guess that's a call out to anyone listening to the podcast that, you know, Cool Hunting, isn't this empire that you can't contact with your story, really. So you've been in business for, nearly two decades, and obviously you've got Evan that you chat to and you've got a good team and you've got all these contributors and these relationships with brands, but is there anywhere else that you seek advice or mentorship about your business? So are there any books or podcasts or websites or, or people that you would recommend for small business owners to check out, or, or how do you get kind of business mentorship?
I really get the most value from friends who are, you know, who also have their own businesses, whether they're businesses in the media world or in completely different categories. Talking through challenge is talking through opportunities and, you know, just kind of comparing notes on things that we've learned. I've found it to be much more valuable. I looked to books or other channels out there for business advice. I've found some really valuable insights, but I've also found them to be somewhat generalized. And I think it's, you know, what you're doing with this, with this book and with this podcast is fantastic because you're getting much more specific. And I think that that's, what's lacking out there in terms of business content. When I turned to, you know, when I look at business books and all that, it's there, I don't feel like it's reflective of the kind of business that I run and I want to continue to run into the future. So it's much more valuable for me to talk to peers who are further along or in different businesses, or even starting out hearing the questions that someone who's starting a new company is asking forces me to kind of re-ask those questions of myself. And that's always good to, you know, to kind of press pause, step back for a minute and kind of look at everything again, through slightly different lens.
Yeah, definitely. And on that note, I mean, I know you've talked to your friends and stuff, but has there been any kind of areas of business say finance or legal or anything else where you've had to really upskill or you've had to hire somebody as a consultant or you've had to have formal education to be able to understand better that area of business?
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that I think the most important lesson there is be honest with yourself about what you don't know and whether or not you can learn it, or you need to hire someone to help you. So, you know, we have an attorney that helps us with legal things that are way outside of our comfort zone, our attorney is someone that we've worked with for many, many years, and there's a relationship there, he understands what we do and, you know, we feel good working with him and we trust him. So when there are questions that are in that category, we turn to him and don't try to figure it out ourselves, you know, similar with finance. We have, we lean on external vendors to support that, those categories, that we're not as strong in. I think it's really important to be able to have the expertise necessary to inform the decisions you're making so that you're ultimately doing better for yourself and not harming your business.
Yes. On that note, if someone was kind of in a situation right now, they're a small business owner, they're feeling really lost and stressed and overwhelmed, and potentially they don't have money to go and get someone to help, not necessarily with legal or finance, but just in general, if they're kind of like, Oh my God, this business, like, where's it going? What am I doing with it? What advice would you give to them? Obviously you've been in business for so long. I'm sure there's been pockets where you've been a bit stressed or overwhelmed. What advice would you give to a small business owner who's feeling like that right now?
Meditate, honestly, you know, I think that it is so easy to spin out, like when you're getting stressed about something and when you're trying to solve a problem and there are all these pressures and you have to keep the business going, and maybe you have a couple of employees and you have to make payroll. And there's, there's all this pressure hitting you from every angle that really cloudy is the ability to make a decision. So to take the time to just clear your mind is often grounding. And for me at least helps kind of reveal the answer at times. So, you know, I hesitated to say meditate, but it really is the first answer that came to mind. And it is that kind of self care and that approach to gaining perspective by clearing your mind, I think is, you know, is really, really valuable and it's free. You use an app, so you, so you have to pay a monthly subscription to a meditation app. You know, I use one called Headspace that I like a whole lot, and I'm happy to pay the monthly fee for it because it, you know, they're guided meditations that are really, really useful getting that space is important.
Yeah. I definitely agree. I don't think it's silly at all. And actually it's funny because I have two children and one is six and whenever he gets like stressed about something, the first thing that we'll do and that his teachers even, you know, not just for him, but all kids will be like, stop. Let's take three big breaths, you know, calm down. And it's funny that we teach children that, but then we don't do it ourselves often. So, you know, you've been in business for a long time. You've helped so many people. What do you want Cool hunting's legacy to be. I mean, you haven't just been a flash in the pan, like so many other sites that come up and then they go down, what is the legacy that you want Cool Hunting to have?
I think the legacy is it goes back to your questions about the why, right? So there were two answers there that I think are, and it really kind of played to a legacy of what I'd like to see our legacy one is that makes me so happy to hear stories of how our article launched someone's business or launched someone's career, you know, and, and having that legacy live within that one person makes me really happy, you know? And, and we've got dozens of those people. I don't know, maybe a hundred, there's a hundred, but maybe there isn't having it live within each of those individuals for me is very satisfying. And then the other, you know, the other piece, which is more kind of broader reaching legacy would be that we were able to be an online publication. It exists in the media world, but didn't follow all of the typical trends of online publishing that was able to, you know, that we were able to maintain our integrity, our approach to content creation, like figuring out other types of businesses that wouldn't complicate what we're doing on an editorial front.
So, I mean, yeah, I completely agree that you've, you do have a legacy. And I would say that you have a lot more than a hundred, like you're being very humble, which is a lovely trait that you have Josh, but I know everyone that I've ever written about. And I haven't written that many stories lately, but definitely it starts so many people were like, Oh my God, you know, I got a call from Sweden today and someone wants to buy my art and I haven't sold any six months before this. And you know, just so many people that you've helped. Do you ever sit back and think, you know, we've helped literally thousands of people you've put on your site, you've done so many collaborations. You've helped brands, you know, be able to hire people so that there's job employment there. Do you ever sit back and think I made this happen? You know, this came from a tiny idea and now it's a huge business that we employ people, but we've also helped other people build their brands. Do you ever sit back and think I did. I made this happen?
Not really every now. I mean, there are those smaller anecdotes where yes, there's a reminder, but like sitting back and trying to look at that big picture. I don't know. I still feel like we're, you know, we're small and just going to do and what we do every day and, and some people like it and a lot of people don't know about it. And yeah, I don't know. It's funny to hear you talk about us the way you do, because I don't feel like we're as significant as you're describing.
Oh, I think you're incredibly humble. Like literally every conference, every everything that's anyone's ever seen Cool Hunting, they're like, Oh my God Cool Hunting. Whether I'm in Copenhagen or London or Melbourne, I think you and Evan are incredibly humble people and you don't realize how, what the effect is that you have. So, but yeah, on that note, thank you so much for agreeing to be on this podcast and for all of the insights that you've helped, you know, the people that are listening to this, build their own business through those insights and tips and tactics that you guys have employed at Cool Hunting.
Yeah. Thanks for, for having me. I'm really excited about the, about this series and this book you're working on. And yeah, I'm also hopeful that one of these days we get to see each other again, cause it's been a few years.
I would love that. I would really love that actually I'm coming to New York next year. Um, so I will definitely say hi to you, but yeah. Thank you so much.
Thanks so much. Take care.
There you go. That was my interview with Josh Rubin co-founder of Cool Hunting. And you can check Cool Hunting out if you don't know about it, which I would be very surprised, but it's just coolhunting.com. You can also find them on Instagram to @coolhunting and yeah, just be aware that once you start checking it out and looking at their emails, you'll be kind of addicted so much incredible creative stuff happening around the world that they cover in a really unique, interesting way. And to make sure that you don't miss out on any other interviews I do with creative, small business owners on this podcast, please make sure that you hit subscribe. You'll not only get notifications when my interviews with people come up, but also my weekly tips and my fortnightly coaching sessions.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram @mydailybusinesscoach.
And you can check Cool Hunting out if you don't know about it, via coolhunting.com. You can also find them on Instagram to @coolhunting
To make sure that you don't miss out on any other interviews I do with creative, small business owners on this podcast, please make sure that you hit subscribe.
If you want to get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram @mydailybusinesscoach
