Good content.

Yeah.

Well, hello everybody and welcome to another amazing episode of the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast where we hear from amazing leaders and get their game changing insights.

And today I have the absolute pleasure as your host, jacqueliner, to bring Ken Cox on as our esteemed leader and guest.

Let me tell you a little bit about Ken.

He's a seasoned entrepreneur and he is actually the president of Inlink and he's, he's offering amazing services.

He hosts the award winning Clicks and Bricks podcast where he shares stories and insights for entrepreneurs.

He's an, he's an author, he works, his works include Reclaim Sobriety, a guide to overcoming addiction.

And Ken's ventures include leadership roles in multiple companies like Box, STL and Vendor Review.

And his mission is to create value driven solutions while inspiring inspiring resilience and innovation in the business community.

So welcome Ken to the podcast.

I am so glad to have you on as a guest and as we were talking pre show like I was talking about how I absolutely love boxing.

So my favorite, thank you for having me, Jacqueline.

I very much appreciate your time and energy today.

Oh, it's my pleasure.

So, okay, you know, I know we're going to talk about leadership, but let me talk to, let me ask, what got you into boxing?

Oh wow.

Addiction got me.

Or the recovery from addiction.

So I guess I was in my late 30s, I got a diagnosis of liver alcohol related liver disease.

You know, I'm a kid from the 70s, so drinking alcohol was just very commonplace in every place that I went.

As I got into the business world, you know, happy hours and the ability to take, you know, specifically like, you know, European customers that come to the States, taking them out and showing them a great time.

Happy hours turn into, oh crap, I gotta be back to the office, it's morning time kind of situation.

And that took a toll on my life as a whole.

And I ended up with liver disease.

So one of the things that I did to help me overcome the addiction and the liver disease was I started boxing.

I had always kind of been a rough and tumble guy, lots of street fights and spar fights and stuff like that, but I never really put any discipline around it.

And at the, you know, the age of 40 years old, I started boxing.

Realized that the gym that I was going to was not being ran properly and I quite didn't know why.

I could say, man, there's, there's enough, there's enough here to make this a reasonably good business.

But there's something disconnected.

So I called the owner.

I'm like, what's going on?

He's like, man, my wife got sick.

I don't have the time to really focus on it anymore.

And it's just this kind of burden that's in my family right now.

I'm like, well, why don't you sell it to me?

Because if it disappears, I'm probably gonna die, right?

At that point, I had already.

Right?

That's part of my established routine of how I get through my days.

And.

And my days were very, very strugglesome at that point in my life.

So I ended up buying the gym.

Was great.

And then what really happened, what changed my entire life is.

And.

And it's the premise of the reclaimed sobriety book.

12 rounds of sobriety was after Covid.

We shut down that gym, and we.

We opened a new gym.

There was restraints where we were, and we didn't want to deal with them after Covid, so we opened the new gym called Box stl.

We're now the largest, like, largest boxing school in the Ozark 22 district.

There's.

There's 13 districts in USA boxing in the United States, so.

And we're the largest in our district, which we're very proud of.

That's huge.

Congratulations.

So I had to start taking these kids, and.

And realistically, we didn't do it for the kids, right?

We did it for other programs, but these kids kept knocking on my door.

I didn't realize that the new location was next door.

Right down the street there was a mosque, and right down the street there was this big Catholic church.

So I have this.

These kids constantly knocking on my door while I'm building this thing.

Like, I built this gym for men like me that are struggling with things, right?

They need a place to go, and that's what I built it for.

But these kids kept showing up, and finally I'm like, I don't know what to do with these kids.

So finally I'm like, screw it.

Let's come in Saturday and just come in Saturday, and we'll figure something out together.

And.

And that.

That decision changed my life in such an epic way that when I started coaching these kids and I went from, you know, I've been a boss my whole life just about having.

Being a manager and having employees and hiring and finding all that stuff.

But I'd never taught kids anything, and I took that responsibility very, very seriously, and especially in boxing, because it's dangerous.

So step back.

And, you know, after the first couple months, I'm like, okay, let's.

We need to make a full program for these kids and, you know, know, so I took, I started taking coaching classes and I got the, you know, high flow neurological coaching program done, and I did all these coaching programs to figure out how do I teach these kids to go from, you know, this kid that's just, you know, in eighth grade to putting on a uniform, walking down a hallway with thousands of people screaming, get into a ring and fight somebody that's trying to hurt them and get over all that fear and all those things.

And, and I.

And I realized that I had to change who they identified themselves as.

And when I realized that, I'm like, oh, that's the trick to everything on this planet is being a human is.

Is who I identify as.

And if I can shift how I identify myself, then I can do anything.

And these kids can do anything.

And they're amazing.

And like, we have, we were awarded in 2024 the Female Fighter of the Year for in USA in our district.

So it was just, it's been such a joy to see that.

And then, you know, my, my business acumen and then this and putting them together has just been so profound for me and I've learned so much.

Just, you know, I feel foolish that I'm learning as much as I am.

At my age, but always be learning, right?

It's not always be learning.

You know, at my age, I feel like I'm learning so much, so much faster than I was ever able to before about what life is and being a human and all those things, and it's really just an exciting time.

That's really cool.

And I'll interject my thought as to why, because when you start learning things that you're truly interested in and have a sense of like, I want to know something, I really want to know.

Because you want to know versus being told what you need to know, right?

Yeah.

Right.

You know, and so there are two different things and I absolutely love it.

So, so talk.

So.

So also before, you know, the pre show where we were talking and that is that throughout your career as a leader in your business, you have wanted to create and it obviously talks about what you're doing right now with these kids in boxing, you know, people to walk into a place and feel like that what they're walking into is a safe place and not always be sitting behind a desk.

So talk to me a little bit about that.

You know, you know what you've done well in that now to like, almost like where you started as you shared, like maybe you didn't do it always as well, as you wanted to, but had this idea about doing it.

So walk me through that journey and also share with us how does boxing play into that?

Well, I'll start with my why that's so important to me.

I grew up.

I was born Kenny Schneider.

I was adopted at the age of 13.

Turned to Kenny Cox, was consistently in trouble.

Right after the adoption.

I got in a lot of trouble and that, you know, they lost custody of me until the age of 18.

I got to live there, but.

And.

But I. I didn't ever have a safe place to go when I was a kid.

It just didn't exist for me.

So.

And I didn't realize that.

But the safe places that I found, you know, I started working at the age of 12.

This.

This restaurant, or 11, is busting tables, right?

And the owner kind of would take us under those wing and teach us, you know, how to do.

How to deal with money and how to.

How to make sure that you didn't have all your money in one place.

He taught us about bank accounts and all these things at 11, right?

This is just a business owner that owns a restaurant in town that's helping out the local kids.

And then my local pizza joint, I'd go there.

And that's how I started.

My first company was vending machines.

The owner of that business really took me under his wing and taught me a lot about spirituality and religion and those kinds of things.

And there was a slot car track that I would go to a lot, and he would teach me how to, you know, solder for the other guys in the shop so I could solder and make some money and then do some other stuff.

So what I realized is Main Street America, it was my safe place as a kid.

And when I started a boxing gym.

When I started boxing, I wanted to compete in Golden Gloves, and I did twice.

I've got one championship, and I got to the championship, but I lost.

I lost once, and I won once.

So it's good.

And I would go to these boxing gyms to work out and train, and I'd go to all these other boxing gyms, and that's some dangerous stuff if you're going.

Especially a guy my size.

Not really.

You know, I mean, we're talking.

I've been boxing now for a long time.

I'm much better than I was then, but I'm still.

I still wouldn't call myself good.

I'm a great coach, but I'm not a great boxer.

And it's not a safe place.

The boxing gyms in general, for a person, walking in is not a safe place.

And, and I wanted to create that.

And when, when the kids started showing up, I'm like, oh, I really have to make sure that this is a safe place for them to openly communicate to me.

Regardless of what it is right for them to have a place to go when they're not.

There's no place else to go for them.

So that became wildly powerful for me.

Outside of that, I've got my own neurological disorders that I've dealt with my entire life.

I was a member of the special school district all the way until like 8th or 9th grade and my son's non verbal and at Hosterion or Endlink, we really like to hire people that are on the spectrum because they enjoy to sit and play with the computers and do those kinds of things.

It becomes a challenge with talking on the phone sometimes, but we can train them to do that.

And it's been wildly gratifying to do that as well.

Those are just a couple places where know, I think that I'm striving and creating safe, safe places for people to do and exist and just be and do the things that they like to do.

Because that's so important to me is doing the things that you want to do and having that opportunity in life.

You know, it.

I, I love what, I love what you're sharing and the, some of the things that really kind of come out.

It's like, you know, safe place isn't also just safe place physically.

It's a safe place to have your voice, you know, and I think that's actually like an interesting, like that's, that was, that was kind of resonating in my brain is that it will also be able to create a place where, you know, you can walk in, whether it's the pizza place, a boxing gym or a corporate boardroom and know that you're not going to get ridiculed or in trouble or whatever the icky behavior is to the leader for opening up your mouth and sharing your opinion and giving people that courage to speak.

Yes.

And it's important, like we need to hear everybody's opinions, right?

Not all the time.

Like, you know, sometimes you're in the middle of a project and then, you know, if what's already planned is planned and you execute on that.

So that's not a time for opinions, but having a forum, a place that they can open up and talk about, hey, you know, I should have said something to that last maintenance window, but I didn't.

For this Reason and that's respected.

Let us get through the thing.

But you know, in it, it's way harder than boxing because boxing is always just real time.

In it, it's way more challenging because there are specific ways to do things.

You know, it's not objective a lot of times and just, it's more challenging in it than it is in boxing, for sure.

Well, right, right.

Well, also, like in it, you know, there is a specific way, for example, like to code.

Right, right.

I mean, there's a different way to, you know, there's different ways to do.

It, but it has to be standardized within that business unit.

Right, exactly.

Right.

Have this person using this language and this person using this language.

It's communication is the keynote to success.

And if you're using two different communication methods, then it don't, then it falls apart really quickly.

Right.

And that's a, that's a huge thing.

And that's, and so I, I, I love what you are, what you're doing.

So talk to us, you know, about, and creating that space for, for kids because, you know, I, I do believe that that helps give, provide confidence.

Yes.

At a young age.

And I think that's something that so many, like I know myself, that was something that I struggled with deeply as a kid, teenager, young adult.

So the first thing I do in both scenarios at the business, at the, the corporate world, I call it my smack.

Systematic, methodical and consistent rule set for the business.

If you ever have a question about how I should act in any scenario, your smack should tell you how to do that.

If it's not already a standard operating procedure, then I can fall back on that in boxing and everywhere else in life.

I call it my, just my core values.

Right.

And we, we go over those and we reiterate them on a regular basis and it's way more fun in boxing.

Right.

It's so cool.

But smack is a great name.

I love it.

Yeah.

I think it comes from American, not American, I think comes from Southwest Airlines when they were redoing their entire mechanism.

I think that's what I read.

I know, I know they use that, that, that terminology.

And it was basically like, you know, we have fun flights, we don't assign seats, you know, those kinds of high level, consistent rules.

That, that's what they're always going to fall back for.

And what I didn't know and, and I don't know how many people on the planet don't know this, and I didn't, I feel so foolish that living a life just a Human life without a set of core values will flounder you forever.

You won't know what direction to go into.

And we know whenever you set those core values, you know, deviating from them is painful.

And, and how you set them is that you just write down what you want and then you reiterate them every single day and become part of them and, and embody those values and act like them every day, and it becomes a really, really, really powerful tool.

I would.

I think it's the most powerful tool of any mindset tool on the out.

Personally.

I would 100 agree with you.

And I also 100 agree that so many people do not realize that.

And I talk to people a lot about creating that personal statement that decide, like, how you want to be and it.

And it's funny, like, I have something that's on my wall that I look at and I'll say it, you know, and I'll read it.

It's empowering ambitious leaders and professionals to ignite transformation, drive, impact, and achieve unstoppable success.

Yes.

Right.

And so it's something that I truly believe.

Lots of reasons why, but it's also helping people be their best.

Yes.

My mantra changes quite a bit.

Yeah.

I would say probably quarterly today, it's, I'm here, I'm safe, and I'm grounded.

Love it.

I need right now.

Right, right.

You know, and that's so I.

But I think, you know, the core values piece is actually really important and I actually want to touch on that because, you know, sharing.

I don't know why I just raised my hand.

Right.

We're lowering the hand.

So, you know, it's.

Core values is so important in a company at the, at the top of it, it's core values for a team, core values for the people, each person.

So I would love for you to share like, like, how do you think that plays out in all those different places?

Corporate team person.

I think when you set it as part of.

In the business, it's.

It's your job as the owner to set those core values hands down.

I understand, like, everybody's like, talking about, oh, you got to have the mission statement, all these other things, and you need all of that stuff.

But I promise you, your core value set is going to be way more valuable than your mission statement is ever going to be.

And when that, when you're onboarding people, you know, like, literally you got to say, hey, these are our core values.

If you can't align with these values while you're here, then this isn't going to be a.

Right.

Right.

It just won't be a safe place for you, and you're going to find a place that will be safe for you.

But these are our values.

Right.

We work hard, we play hard.

We, you know, we, we.

We do not shy away from, you know, hard tasks, those kinds of things.

If we see paper on the floor, we pick it up.

Right.

Like, those are just kind of stuff that we do.

And if you can't embody these values and this is not the place for you, and that's.

That's okay.

Right.

Knowing that you're not the place for everybody is really, really important as well.

And then when you see somebody deviating from the core values of your company, and this was the hardest thing for me to do, is you have to let them go quickly.

You know, maybe once a.

Hey, man, you're really not aligning with our values of the company.

You know, the.

I understand where you're coming from.

And, and this is.

You probably already know, but these are the things that we need to work on.

And if they can't, then you have to get rid of them quickly and let them move on.

And it's.

What I've found in life is that it's more mean to try to keep that relationship there and when it's not right than to let that go.

It's a hard thing to do.

And nobody likes firing anybody, but it's, you know, I've never fired anybody in my life, and I've let go of a lot of people that didn't end up in a better position for them afterwards.

I think what you just said is it.

Is they ended up in a better position for them.

For them, it's not about you.

Right.

Right.

I mean, I think one of the key things that we have to look at as leaders and, and I, and, and.

And listeners, I really want you to.

This is a really important game.

Changing insight.

Number one, your knowing your core values of your company is so important.

And remember that the people that are in your tribe, which I call your employees because I hate the word employees, you know, your tribe of people that are working with you need to embody the core values that you have.

And if they don't.

Yes.

Let them go quickly.

And you know what's going to end up happening.

They will.

And, and I will take it one step.

Let them go.

And if you can refer them to somebody, if you think they're a good person, you might say to, you know, I might say, oh, my God, Ken, you know what you are an awesome person.

But as you can tell, we think that maybe there's a misalignment in your values with our company, but I think that you're a great human.

I want to refer you to a friend of mine at company, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Because I think that you align more with that.

That company.

You know, unless the person is an absolute, like hor.

Horror.

But most people aren't.

Right.

Or.

And if they are not guided or they are not the best employee, many times it's because they're not acting at a place or in a place where the core values are aligned and they don't feel in alignment.

Yeah, it's exhausting being somebody that you're not.

It's the most exhausting task a human can do.

And.

And to ask people to do that for eight to 12 hours a day.

I, you know, I mean, you can talk about the value of a human and your pay does not equal your value as a human.

But at the end of the day, there's no value, monetary value that can keep me from being somebody that I'm not for eight to 12 hours a day.

That would.

It just doesn't exist.

Right.

And there's so many things that get stifled in there, and we want to.

And the.

And the key thing about leadership is the word lead.

And in order to lead people to become better than they are today to something greater, and to lead your company to greatness, we have to be in an align, in a alignment.

And if we're not, then we need to find a different move the path differently for that person.

Doesn't matter how big or small the team is.

When you get alignment, things start flowing.

They flow very, very well.

Very, very smoothly.

And then you talk to your team and you scratch your head like, wow, last time we did this was really challenging.

And what's different?

Like, oh, this person.

This person's not on the team.

Like, oh, okay, that makes sense.

And it is a really beautiful thing when your entire team is aligned and all moving forward in a common goal.

And it's just.

Yeah, it's neat.

That is really neat.

That is really neat.

Okay, so I see, you know, we were talking a little and you shared a little bit about this, but I'm really curious.

So talk to us about what your new venture is in Lync.

In link.com is my ode to those men that put me under their.

Under their shoulder when I was a kid.

We founded Hosterian in two in 2001.

Corporate IT data center infrastructure.

We've done Things like build back offices for Sprint and aol.

I built the data center for Peabody Energy, the largest coal company in the world with some pretty, pretty crazy legal requirements.

Built multiple data centers in my life, you know, today I service customers from the local yoga studio all the way to the largest companies on the planet.

And, and I, and I really like that.

And now, because I service some of the largest companies on the planet, I have lots and lots of resources.

And with the invention or the, not the invention of AI, but the, the catapulting of AI over the past three years had me step back a little bit.

I went to MIT through their AI program, and I really wanted to do something in the AI space.

And I really love these people.

Like, there's, there's not many things in the world that make me more passionate about seeing somebody go after their dreams.

So, you know, the local construction guy that wants to start, you know, leave the construction firm and start his own construction company, the guy that's working as a plumber wants to start his own plumbing company.

The lawyer that, you know, I've got a U.S. marshal that wanted to become a lawyer, pass this bar, and, and, you know, helped him start his business in.

Link is for that.

It's, it's the tool stack that is everything you need to start your business online.

I like to look at Nlink as the link between web 2.0 and 3.0, because we have tools in there like AI employees that will answer your phones and do your Google reviews and, you know, push warm leads up to the top and so you don't have to, you know, you know, necessarily run through all of your leads.

And it's, it's a really great CRM tool that we have over 60 different industries already programmed with funnels and websites and all that stuff so that you can just click it and go.

And it's, it's, you know, pretty quickly wildly robust.

And then we couple that with our Office product.

I have a lot of major concerns about privacy moving forward.

And right now, when you're sharing your Google, your data with Google and Amazon and all those things, I read more privacy policies than probably anybody else on the planet.

And I can't tell you exactly what they're allowed to do with your data.

Right?

And neither can you.

And you're clicking the button and going, what I promise you at end link is that we will never sell your data.

We're privately held.

I do not have an objective, I do not have a legal requirement to make the most amount of money possible.

So I don't have to sell your data.

Just have to feed my family and my employees and they all have a great time and grow.

That's my requirement in life not to make the most money possible.

So.

And I think that's an important distinguish distinguishing factor and I'm really sad that more people don't understand that.

You know, so this sounds like absolutely fantastic.

So I, I love that and I love what you said about.

I, I love your, like you're, you want to feed your family and your employees and have people be happy.

It's not about making the most money in the world.

And I mean making money is great.

Publicly traded company, they have a legal requirement to make the most money possible with your data.

And, and you're sharing your data with them and I mean they can't break intellectual property laws.

But.

Can I. I'll share with you.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's crazy when you.

Because I'll share with you.

You know, when I, I started my career in magazine publishing and what did I love to get and sell?

Ads.

Names.

Yeah, names.

I mean name generation and capturing people's contact information is a, I mean that is where you get list companies from.

They make their money.

Selling your contact information.

Selling your contact.

Yeah.

I used to tell people I did two things that when I first started my career in publishing, I killed trees because I was responsible for doing all the direct mail and putting, you know, my job was insert like you know, consumer marketing, insert cards in the magazine, direct mail, packages, renewals, bills, whatever, the whole paper.

Right?

Yes.

So I'm like, yep, I'm responsible for killing trees.

And I, and I said, and I'm responsible for your getting all the junk mail in the world because I take your data and I, if you subscribe to my magazines, I will sell your data.

Yes.

And at the time we didn't ne, I mean we did have the, you know, do not email whatever list you could run.

Things then and now are two wildly different times.

Yeah, wildly different.

The ability to create hyper targeted long tail.

I'm talking two, three, five year campaigns that target an individual that, and they know name, date, age, romantic preference.

You know, today I drive a BMW, but I'm looking at Lexus and they have so much data on you today.

And you know, I think about my daughter who's using digital diaries and maybe you know, or the little girl that's five today and she's, she's, you know, learning how to do this with AI and, and some company owns the data that she's sharing as she's a child.

She might run for Senate one day.

And how valuable is that data going to be?

The stuff that she.

Yeah.

To the guy who wants to run.

Against her friend at 13 years old.

Right.

Peek into my head at 13, boy, the planet would explode.

Probably.

So, yeah.

It's wildly scary.

And the couple.

Yeah.

And data storage today is just so absurd.

And, And I understand what you're saying where you were doing before, but the game is wildly different.

Wildly.

And it is so crazy different.

So crazy different.

And I, when I, When I say that, like, I.

What I used to do back then, I would not want to be in that position today because it would make me really uncomfortable.

I would walk away from that job.

Yeah.

Second.

Yep.

The second I realized what was happening.

Data.

And that's part of why I had to be an entrepreneur, because I can't.

I can't live a life happy and healthy knowing that that's happening in the background and that I'm.

That I'm an integral part of it and I'm not going to do anything that I'm not an integral part of, so.

Right.

Right.

You know, Ken, I could talk to you for hours about this, and, and I, and I just want.

Want to applaud you for what you are doing because not only are you making it a safe place for people to feel confident about going into where they're working, but because of what you're doing within link, you're making their data safe.

And we are making that.

That's.

That's like, safety is a key thing, and that's a.

As a leader in the world, I just want to applaud you for that because that's something that, you know, I wish, you know, in the grand scheme of thing, one of the biggest reasons why I started this podcast is because if we could create better leaders and we can have, and, and we can help other people know about other leaders and the businesses that they have that are doing the good in the world, that maybe if we can touch a few people to make things just a little bit better, you know, it's like one company at a time, one person at a time, one leader at a time, we can make a better impact.

Absolutely.

So I appreciate you for being an amazing guest and for what you're doing and listeners, I want you to do me a favor, like, how can our listeners get in touch with you if.

They want to know more about me personally?

You can just go to kencox.com kencox.com if you want to know more about Nlink?

We've got a 14 day free trial of both of our office products and our CRM and we do it every Tuesday.

We do an AI webinar, totally free, and we give discounts to the Inlink platform afterwards.

We have a really great coaching program right now.

I've got, I think, two slots available where I meet with you once a month to help you grow your business and get everything legal and all those things.

So kencox.com or nlink.com is is the way to get a hold of me.

Awesome.

Okay, well, we will make sure that we have those in the show notes.

And please, listeners, I'm sure you've gotten some great value out of this to do me two favors.

Actually, make that three.

Number one, make sure you reach out and connect with Ken on kencox or@enlightening.com Also, please do me the favor of hitting subscribe to this.

And then three, please share this with your friends and your business colleagues.

Because again, as I said, being an unstoppable leader does, you know, take a team and it takes knowledge.

And so if we can change and create a better impact and have greater leaders out there, we are doing something great in the world.

So I'm Jacqueline Strominger.

This is the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast.

And thank you for being a great guest, Ken, and thank you guys for listening.

Thank you so much.