Who, Why and What?
The first post of 2025 and the first post ever
Who?
Hi. My name is Joshua O’Connor and I run J.O. Collective.
I’ve been working in the human capital industry for over 10 years (Russell Reynolds and Skill Capital) and in another life was a musician (I still dabble) and worked with children with severe autism.
As of January 2025, my company, J.O. Collective is a very small collective: one full time member (me) and several other part time members.
The company supports people, companies and investors to:
find and develop talent and,
find and broker deals.
We work predominantly in the B2B sectors in the UK and Europe.
I started J.O. Collective late 2023. I felt then and still feel now that:
people make companies great but companies don’t always reciprocate. They can when they are led well.
selling your business is an emotional decision. M&A could use a more human centred approach.
I hope that J.O. Collective can help to address these challenges.
Why?
J.O. Collective is starting a Substack in 2025 alongside a podcast series (details coming soon).
Now you may be thinking, does the world need another Substack and podcast series?
I’m not sure, let’s see.
When searching for my own ‘why?’ I’ve often learned more about myself, my career and what I want from it, from people I don’t know, from worlds I don’t understand. This has been a nice surprise.
I’ve learned a great deal from personal stories of overcoming challenges. Whilst we are all different, our challenges are usually pretty similar or identical. Hearing relatable, frank testimony can undoubtably be useful.
I am not alone in this. Nearly everyone I speak to in my daily life wrestles with fundamental questions they struggle to answer.
I could never find what I was looking for from a publication or podcast series. That’s why I’ve started this.
What?
Weekly posts on Substack
This Substack free for all users
Biweekly podcasts
The individual subjects covered will, I’m sure, evolve over time, but they will always link back to two main themes:
How to make your own career more meaningful.
Things you should know, and perhaps haven’t thought about, as a leader.
I believe that both of these topics are important to make you and your business the best it can be.
Thank you. Will keep you posted. Josh