CX Joe Driving Connections Newsletter: Launch Issue
Thrilled to launch issue #1 of my Driving Connections newsletter, October 2026. Sign up at https://cxjoe.eo.page/1hzs7
Full text of issue #1 below. For the smoothest reading experience and full formatting of issue 1, please visit https://shorturl.at/SeHMB
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In this issue
The Launch: Driving Connections
Thanks so much for being here. On this special first edition, I’ll dive into this newsletter’s reason for existence, plus lean into my first few insights, recs and upcoming events!
Hi friends,
Welcome to the 1st ever issue of my CX Joe newsletter: Driving Connections.
Meaningful connections built on mutual respect, appreciation and trust have been cornerstones across my career and life. Mostly every big win has been a result of some past relationship. I try my best to maintain and deepen these connections, while paying it all forward.
Now that I’m a “solopreneur” out on my own, I rely on my community more than ever. To fuel the sustainability and success of my practice. To pay my mortgage! And in speaking to friends and clients, I’m an evangelist (perhaps a broken record) for everyone to invest in building and leveraging their own special community.
I’ve been deeply gratified to receive powerful feedback recently from several friends about connections and spaces which I facilitated. While I won’t always be the smartest or most creative guy in the room, I take great pride and hang my hat on the community that I’ve built. Its collective richness, closeness, diversity and goodness. Its collective perspectives and gifts, and enthusiasm to share with others. Which leads to my mission statement:
My mission
This newsletter exists to drive maximum value, fulfillment and impact – to an audience that’s maximally diverse.
Why now
I feel way more equipped to write this newsletter now, heading into the second year of my solo Advisory. I like to joke that doing CX Joe is a “fake job” vs. my “real jobs” leading CX at Daily Harvest, SeatGeek, AG1, Sundays for Dogs, 1stdibs and Zerve over 20+ years. Indeed, being a solopreneur and my own boss comes with flexibility and agency that I give deep thanks for every day.
That said, there’s also realness to the work that I do now, in ways that I hope will fuel this newsletter and provide value to you. For example:
1.
Broader set of perspectives + experiences: I’ve had many-hundreds of convos over the last year with not only CX leaders at top brands; but their full teams and cross-functional partners; with Founders and CEOs; and with leadership at many of the best AI, broader tech and staffing companies out there. And I’m always listening very closely.
2.
Less emotional, broader viewpoint: While I tried to maintain perspective in my full-time roles, I didn’t always succeed. The problems I was solving at each company engulfed me. I developed inflated views on the prominence and importance of these products, brands and issues. A bad 1-on-1 with my boss sent me spiraling. Now - phew - while I still take my work and commitments very seriously, I’m able to see things at a higher-level view. And process my wins and losses, along with the overarching trends I’m seeing, with less emotion.
3.
Figuring things out, including with AI: Dang, being on your own takes real hustle, scrappiness and experimentation! In my last few full-time roles, I’d have heroic “deputies” who did most of the real work (you know who you are!). I’d steer the ship, dispense opinions and requests, and receive way too much of the credit. Now, it’s just meeee! 😱 Terrifying, but also satisfying to buckle down again. Figure things out. Try and fail, before succeeding. Do real work. And AI has played an outsized role. I never thought I’d be someone simultaneously and strategically leveraging different AI platforms to accomplish overlapping projects, but now I am! And I’ve become not-terrible at it; tackling what used to be the workload of several people, usually in less than 40 hours per week. And I’m happy to share, as I keep learning.
4.
Having the space to grow a bigger, richer community: During my full-time days, I’d always want to “sneak off” for networking chats, meetups and education opportunities to expand my horizons and build community. I’d allot myself a couple of hours per week for this. The good bosses loved it, and knew I was bringing value back to my team and company. Another boss didn’t love it, and that was awkward. Now, I get to take these meetings and opportunities whenever I want, and it fills me with joy and fulfillment. And I’d love to spread that joy - and the learnings - to others.
This newsletter is an attempt to perpetuate a virtuous cycle: grow the community, and deliver increasing value back to it, simultaneously!
AI in practice
AI Usage
While I proudly leverage AI in my work every day, I won’t use AI at all to draft or even edit the words of this email.
Why? Because I value everyone’s time enormously. And I don’t think you’d spend that time here if it was to read AI-generated thoughts. If you wanted that, you could prompt Claude or ChatGPT yourself.
I think there’s still an essence – magic, unique value – in words created by a human being.
For a more entertaining take on why I won’t use AI to write the words, has anyone seen the Piers Morgan interview with Tilly Norwood, the “world’s first AI actress”, and specifically the part where Tilly starts speaking in Cantonese by mistake?! (If not, have a watch - scroll down a bit and look for the play button)
“My apologies, it seems I had a little hiccup there” … OMG, y’all, I can’t!
With zero slight intended to this language or any other … none of you are here to read the equivalent of Tilly Norwood speaking in Cantonese. AI is still AI; it hallucinates, it does weird things, and it writes in an infamously generic, over-structured way. And you’re not here for that. You’re here to read a human’s earned perspectives, and endlessly flawed thoughts!
Now having said all of that 😎… there are a great many other things I will proudly continue to do with AI, and I plan to showcase “AI wins” from myself and the community in future issues (shoot me a reply if you’d like to share yours!).
Formatting Fun
In fact, I’ve been having a blast formatting this very newsletter with AI’s help. After ChatGPT helped me to choose a good hosting platform, I then called on my other buddy, Claude, to present my (many) words in a clear, pleasing manner. (Hopefully, ChatGPT won’t have hurt feelings if they end up chatting at the water cooler, along with Tilly Norwood) Through lots of back-and-forth, we worked out the aesthetics, and also a workflow. Now, I write all of these words in a Google doc, add basic little tags and instructions, and copy/paste into Claude. Claude works for a minute and delivers back hundreds of lines of code, which I then paste into the “Code Your Own” section of the platform. Then, I review, obsess, iterate.
I hope you like the look-and-feel, and I welcome your feedback! (So does Claude!)
Musings
The Democratizing, Universal Desire for Different Viewpoints
My newsletter mission statement is not only to deliver value and enjoyment, but, with intention, “to an audience that’s maximally diverse.”
It was only recently that I fully internalized how a diversity of viewpoints within a room (or community) profoundly elevates the quality and potential impact of those viewpoints.
Which leads to one of my simple yet invaluable insights from this past year:
People making up all levels of an organization are usually desperate for real, honest, unfiltered perspectives and feedback from other groups. From rooms they’re not in – whether up or down the org, across the room, or outside the walls completely. There is a deeply powerful and democratizing spirit within this dynamic.
Story Time
Here’s a recent example. The business is an incredible Direct to Consumer brand, already at several hundred million in revenue and growing quickly. My project with them was a “CX Audit and Action Plan” and it was one of my favorites to date.
As always, I spent a lot of upfront time speaking to different stakeholders: from my direct Point of Contact (the SVP of CX); to the Co-Founders; front lines CX team members; cross-functional leaders; and everyone in between.
And get THIS!
One of the Co-Founder / CEO’s most urgent mandates was for direct feedback from customers and front-lines employees to better reach and impact the whole org
When I circled back to the SVP of CX with this, she loved it and felt just the same
Cross-functional partners were energized too! They emphasized how much they need those customer and front-lines viewpoints to succeed at their own jobs, and sought advice on how to effectively share out from their functions also
The CX Associates and Team Leads, technically at lower levels of the org chart, were naturally thrilled – they desperately wanted to showcase their perspectives, AND wanted more access to leadership and how leadership decisions are made. They wanted to be in the Room Where It Happens - cue up the Hamilton song! (the messy way that these senior leadership rooms actually operate needs to be its own future newsletter!)
To take the point one step further, this same dynamic proves out between customers of a brand, and its employees. For example, I once got into a deep discussion with a VIP, loyal customer of AG1. Every perspective she shared was pure gold to us internally: why and how she used AG1, her likes and dislikes, her ideas for our future innovation … down to the smallest detail, like how she mixed the powder with water. What did she desperately crave in return? Perspectives and viewpoints from within the walls of AG1, of course! She loved any tidbit I could share. She gratefully signed up to be an ambassador in our new program, and even expressed interest in working at AG1 – wanting to peer over the walls and engage more intimately.
So you see, the CEO and the CX Associates were equally desperate for each other’s perspective and experiences. Same for the brand as a whole, and the customer.
We all want to understand truths that we don’t have access to. We all want to understand each other better.
(Or if not “everyone”, certainly the folks who’d sign up for this newsletter and read this far!)
And that’s why the newsletter’s mission is to cultivate and share learnings from many different perspectives and voices. There are folks on this distribution list who are CX agents, others who are CEOs, and everywhere in between. You all have lots to share with each other.
The diversity of the community doesn’t just feel good. That diversity, and the disparate perspectives afforded, are part of its inherent, unique value and strength!
What I'm listening to
I know that some people want to completely escape from anything career-related when they’re driving or walking or doing the dishes. For me, these are all opportunities to consume content that not only entertains me, but makes me a better professional with broader perspectives.
For example, I LOVE listening to podcasts that tell business and founder stories; what an incredible opportunity to learn from all of their ups and downs, victories and (especially) setbacks – just by pressing “play” on my phone! What a world we live in!
Here are my all-time favorites:
1.
How I Built This (Apple * Spotify) – interview-style, with the Founders directly
2.
Acquired (Apple * Spotify) – long-form objective narrative, boosted by tons of research
If you’re already a fan, let’s geek out together!
If you’re not, but are interested, my advice is to scan the past episodes, and choose one about a brand or product that you personally use and like. Have a listen, and see if you get hooked.
Listening to these business podcasts is definitely one of my go-to, corny management / mentorship tips for others:
By absorbing the in-depth stories of many businesses and entrepreneurs, we’re able to gain an advantage at work and more broadly in life: we’re vastly increasing our number of “reps” – our lived experiences and lessons, through others
Listening to these episodes, it’s almost like I’ve worked at 1,000 companies and met many of the world’s best entrepreneurs and leaders (instead of the 6 actual employers I’ve had).
I leverage these second-hand lessons literally on a daily basis. It’s one of the only ways that I could jump into exec meeting rooms, or nowadays on to intro, exploratory calls with big-shot CEOs (and CX Joe prospects), even as someone who often suffers from low confidence and social anxiety. These episodes are, collectively, one of my secret weapons. Even when a topic or challenge is mentioned that I have no experience with first-hand, I activate my episodes/lessons bank, and can better project an aura of “been there, done that”.
• • •
Besides these very fancy podcasts, I also record my own, with the one-of-a-kind Lynda Harvey. And I LOVE listening to my peers, heroes and personal friends drop knowledge on CX-and-more!
3.
Mine and Lynda’s: In The Business of Humans (Apple * Spotify)
4.
My friend, the boss Victoria Weiss, breaking down Voice of Customer (Apple * Spotify)
5.
My friends, the bosses Aniesha Jones + JR Garcia, on turning CX into a Growth Engine (Apple * Spotify)
IRL
Let’s meet in person!
If you’re anywhere close to NYC - or can be on October 22 - come see me and hang out!
Very pumped to be launching a Monthly CX (And More) Happy Hour with my good friends at Kodif AI! We’re creating a special space where the east coast, CX/Ecom-extended community can gather in person to drive connections, both old and new.
All are invited, and even plus-ones. Shoutout to Kodif and their CEO, Chyngyz, not only for supporting CX Joe and treating to all of our drinks but also for creating a rule for these events: no selling allowed!
The actual quote from Chyngyz was, “if anyone sells anything, they get thrown out right away!”
Having this rule, and the plus-one friendliness, will help to ensure these events are actually no-pressure and fun for everyone.
Join us October 22, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm!
Click HERE for full details and to RSVP. And tell a friend!
Thank you for reading!
Write back with your feedback, ideas for next time, or just to say Hello. I promise to read and personally respond to each.
Yours in driving connections,
Joe
Founder + Advisor, CX Joe
