Life is Like a Cox of Donuts
Introducing Justin Cox, First of His Name
So you want to know who I am? Who I really am beneath this digital persona who occasionally writes things online?
Well, you’re in for a treat. Pour yourself a cup of hot chocolate, grab your weighted blanket, sit down by the fireplace, and get comfortable. Uncle Justin has a story to tell.
Note: Some details are redacted so you cannot steal my identity.
I was born in sunny ████████ on ████████. It was a Saturday. My parents, ████████ and ████████, moved us to ████████ when I was ████████ years old.
I graduated from ████████ High School and at the ripe age of ████████. As a newly minted adult, I enrolled at ████████ State University. There, I received a BS in Entrepreneurship¹ and ████████ Business Management with a minor in ████████ Studies.
My wife, Carla, and I were married on ████████. She works as a ████████ at ████████. Together, we have a dog named ████████ and a ████████ named ████████.
In my professional life, I am a full-time freelance writer. My business, Eat Your Words, is named after the idiom² combining my favorite things. My niche is nonprofit organizations, where I have ████████ years of management and marketing experience. I’ve written strategic plans for ████████ new and growing organizations while also writing ████████, grant applications, blog posts, ████████ campaigns, and more.
If you’d like to work with me, I have a wide range of writing, editing, and coaching services available. Let’s discuss your needs.
I send out a weekly newsletter, also called Eat Your Words. Every Friday, I deliver a mix of writing and creativity advice with featured meals and recipes. It’s the best of both worlds, delivered right to your inbox. Sign up today!
My first attempt at writing online came on a GeoCities website called ████████. From there, I moved to ████████ and ████████ before landing on Medium’s doorstep in early 2014.
My first story on Medium was promoted by the Medium Twitter account and featured on the front page. I made it, and then, well, nothing happened for a while. But I kept writing and here I am.
Over the years, Medium bestowed upon me Top Writer status³ in Writing, Life, Social Media, ████████, Books, ████████, Short Story, Advice, ████████, and Lit⁴ (that I know of). Those silly designations come and go and, while I appreciate the recognition, I rarely pay attention to them.
More importantly, my stories are published in Wired⁵, Film School Rejects, ████████, The Billfold, ████████, and countless Medium publications.
I’m the self-appointed Medium Jedi Master, responsible for training new padawans. I’ve published ████████ versions of “So, You’re New to Medium…” over the years to guide the younglings. The content was also turned into an ebook, if you’re into that sort of thing.
I owe a great deal of gratitude to the various people, writing groups, and communities that helped me develop as a writer. These include ████████, ████████, and The Writing Cooperative, which I co-founded with Jessica Jungton.
Write Now, the series I curate for The Writing Cooperative, allows me to interview amazing and ████████ writers. Want to know what Andy Weir does when not writing amazing books like The Martian and Artemis? I’ll tell you. Additionally, I’ve learned what makes ████████ tick, but you’ll have to wait until ████████ for that interview to publish.
When I’m not writing or ████████, I’m eating donuts (and other things). You can follow my gastrological adventures on IG @BestEatYourWords.⁶ My favorite donut in ████████ can be found at ████████. Make sure to try their ████████. It will change your life!
Carla and I also meticulously plan trips across the globe. With some creative accounting, we’ve traveled for free to Japan, ████████, and New York. We’re currently planning a trip to ████████ for late ████████.
So that’s me.
If there’s anything that wasn’t covered, you can find me on Twitter, Instagram, ████████, LinkedIn, ████████, and JustinCox.com. Oh, and don’t forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter.
__
¹: I still cannot spell “entrepreneurship” without googling.
²: Yes, I know the idiom is about recanting things you’ve said. There’s a fun bit of irony there, too. Go with it.
³: Medium’s Top Writer status is a combination of publishing quantity, ████████, and luck. I put zero weight in the title.
⁴: I’ve never tagged anything with “Lit.”
⁵: I’m very proud of this, even if they butchered the formatting and added a bunch of “?”s next to my name when the story was moved from Medium to Wired.
⁶: Hopefully, you notice and appreciate the consistent branding at play.