IT And Boxing — A Look At Ken Cox' Kit Of Life-Changing Things

Of all the things one could say about Ken Cox, “fitting a mold” wouldn’t be one of them. A president of an IT company who owns a boxing gym hosts a podcast, and is wide open to the world around him is everything but an ordinary entrepreneur. And he doesn’t like to be pigeonholed, not even slightly.

“I feel like 80% of marketers these days that the riches are in the niches,” he says. “But I can’t be in a single niche. It hurts too bad to stay in a single niche. I want to be in a bunch of different places, and I want to explore as much as I can.”

Ken Cox’ story is one marked with hardships. Having been born into homelessness is a difficult way to start a life. It’s hard to imagine having a worse starting point. And it got much worse before it turned for the better, too. Ken’s stepdad was a violent alcoholic. Ken was arrested when he was 13 years old on charges involving drugs and cars that weren’t his own.

“I started DJing when I was 16. My probation allowed me to travel on the weekends if I stayed out of trouble and had a contract for my bookings,” Ken explains. “So, I could go out of town, do some DJing jobs, and keep out of trouble.”

Ken Cox didn’t finish high school until he was 19. He wanted to go into the film industry. He spent a year touring with acts that included the Insane Clown Posse but also took IT jobs between the gigs. He went to WashU and took some SEMA classes, so he was ready when IT knocked on his door.

“I took a part job selling DSL in 1999 in the company I’m now the president of,” Ken Cox says. “Two days after I started, someone asked if anyone knew how to FTP. I raised my hand and ended up uploading mastercard.com to the internet. So, on my third day, I was in the web hosting department.”

What followed was a rollercoaster of a career that included the .com bubble, working with brands like Twinkies and Netscape, major client bankruptcies, and losing a friend and a mentor to cancer. However, Hostirian — the name of the company where Ken is president — managed to survive, adapt, and thrive. And Ken had a new passion that would keep his mind occupied for times to come.

“The problem with Google is that if you share something on their platform, they can publish it. It states clearly, they’re allowed to publish your data,” Ken Cox says. “And I think we can regain some of that power in our most fundamental communication. Post-telephone, that’s email.”

While he was working hard to keep the company on track and stable, his other demons got the better of him. Suffering from alcoholism and fatty liver disease, he gained about 110 pounds over four months. He was in trouble again, only this time, his health was under a severe, potentially deadly attack.

“I bought a boxing gym while working to overcome all that, just to make sure I had a place where I could go and exercise every day,” Ken Cox says. “I competed in the Golden Gloves in 2020, before COVID hit, and came in second place in the heavyweight master’s division.”

Having witnessed the incredible transformative power of boxing, Ken Cox decided to open a boxing school. He runs it at night, teaching kids how to box. The kids he teaches compete in the Golden Gloves, and so does he. But, most importantly, Ken gets to exercise his passion for helping others avoid the mistakes he’s made along the way.

The final ingredient of Ken Cox’ concoction that helped save his life is Lion’s Mane, a mushroom. It’s not a psychedelic one, but what’s frequently called a nootropic, which is a word for all things that protect the brain and help it work better. Ken Cox swears by it.

“It helps me tremendously. I’m a completely different person when using Lion’s Mane than I am without it,” he says. “It links the already existing neural pathways like a brain lubricant.”

Ken Cox also believes that the mushroom might benefit people with autism, another area he’s highly invested in as a father of a non-verbal autistic son, his “wonderful ball of joy that can destroy anything in his path.”

Between his work in IT privacy, fostering entrepreneurship as the host of Clicks and Bricks podcast, and working as a gym owner, Ken Cox leads a busy and fulfilling life. Lion’s Mane might be there to help him, but his efforts are a testament to how much a person can do if they follow their passions and make their own luck.

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