Hidden Gems: Meet Eric Cox of SIGN UP!

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Cox.

Hi Eric, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
Born as the fifth and final son of the Cox family, on Dec. 26, 1985, I was raised in Nashville TN by my mother and father, in the 37208 area.

I grew up in the inner city area, many working-class families. After graduating high school, from Pearl Cohn Comprehensive Business Magnet High School, class of 2004, I continued my education as an undergrad at The University of TN at Knoxville. Where I received my BA in Communications.

The day after graduation, I packed up and drove to Clarksville, TN, where I ran my first business– negotiating my own lease, hiring my receptionist team, recruiting and training my sales team, and building a solid base of business. In 2010, a 100-year flood hit TN, and Clarksville was harder hit than Nashville TN. With that and some other challenges, the business quickly folded, after a very successful start and 1st year.

I moved back to Nashville and went through a season of depression and desperation, after losing nearly all financial gain with the first business. If there was something lower than rock bottom, I think I hit it. When you sell your blood/plasma for gas money, you may be in a rough spot.

After a season of trial and error in attempting to get out of the “hole” of life (roughly a year), I discovered my love for the Healthcare space. I began working in hospice care. I had been in sales (door to door, retail, business to business, etc.) since I was 16 years old and was able to use that experience in a Marketing position with a local hospice company (at the time). After a year, the business was bought out, I stayed with the new company for roughly 7 months and it was time again to shift.

In 2013, I moved into the addiction space– alcohol and substance abuse- with the nation’s largest company solely focused on fighting the disease of addiction, for adults. During my time at the company (a) I completed a master’s program in organizational management with a specialty in project management with Ashford University in Clinton Iowa (b) I competed in and completed 10 endurance races of 13.1 miles and 26.2 miles all in 2014 while raising money for various charities I supported (c) I wrote and published my first book called SIGN UP! (Set Intentional Goals Now to Unlock your Potential): 10 Interactive Lessons to Take Your Goals from the Starting Line to Across the Finish Line, which was based on the 10 races and my overall running career of 20 endurance races. I found so many helpful correlations between habits of being an effective marathoner and habits of being effective in day-to-day life that I wanted to curate information in a helpful way to others to get value from how I have been so successful in beating anxiety, insecurity, uncertainty, and low productivity. (d) I earned a certification in both life coaching and as a meditation practitioner/teacher to help others find peace and balance to clearly map the life of their dreams. (e) I was elevated to the role of AVP with the company, overseeing the 12-person Training & Development Department responsible for supporting 2,000 staff across 8 states. This was a new role created just for me and I reported directly to the Sr. VP of HR. 

August 2022 (9 years) I separated from corporate and have gone on to become a full-time health & wellness entrepreneur and coach with the message of SIGN UP! Stay connected here: https://linktr.ee/ericlcox

Here is a quick run-down of what I have been up to and look to accomplish in the coming year.
1) Oct. 2022 launch of my 11 guided meditations available across all music platforms (e.g. Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube Music, Tidal, etc.)

2) Author- SIGN UP! In all formats (paperback, hardcover, audible, and kindle)

3) Health and Wellness content- SIGN UP! YouTube Channel

4) Blog– Content based on the 7 main life areas (Social and Family relationships, Career and Education, Money and Personal finances, Physical Health/ Recreation and Leisure, Routine Responsibilities, Giving Back to Society and Contribution, and Mental/Emotional/Inner Wellbeing) and provides value to readers looking to make personal improvements in these buckets that shape our perception of life on earth.

5) Paid speaker and coach (I’ll be leading a 6-week cohort for women in leadership in Spring 2023, coaching them on my topic of “Slow Down to Accelerate: A personal leadership course on finding peace and balance to clearly map the life of your dreams”)

6) Digital Course launching in 2023 to take the concepts of SIGN UP! And truly create a side-by-side and step-by-step approach to help others map their lives while beating the anxious, self-doubting, uncertain, low-productive thoughts and behaviors that lead to remaining stuck in life.

7) Jan 2023 kicked off the monthly SIGN-UP! Newsletter, used to provide value to those who are subscribed. Including any special offers or events.

8) I serve on the board of MashUp! A Local 501c3 with the mission of increasing visibility of health inequities & social injustices that impact the well-being of melanin LGBTQ+ individuals. IG Handle: @mashup.nation

https://linktr.ee/ericlcox

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I laughed out loud when I thought on the question. If by “smooth” you mean “jagged mountainside” then sure.  What makes me an effective coach and teacher is that I have struggled with the same things I help others manage in my practice.  A few of those struggles being:

Low-income, working poor family.

As I shared earlier, I grew up in the 37208 area code. In the 90s, the area was not the new “come up” spot it is today. Today you can sell a house for $300k+ in that area. When I grew up, it would have been simply known as “the hood” side of town. 

We had to work for everything we had. Financially, there were several limitations. The “pro” side of growing up in this way is I was conditioned to work and build from nothing. The ability to start over served me well later in life, with the start and loss of my first business out of college.

Financial ruin at 21– depression, anxiety, insecurity, self-doubt, low productivity.

As mentioned, In 2010, a 100-year flood hit TN, which quickly became a big reason the business folded, after a very successful start and 1st year.

Due to growing up in a “pay check to pay check” household, I sought college to create a different life and level of financial freedom. I figured if I got the degree, built a business and scaled it over time, the business would help me retire early and I could start a new legacy for my family. When the business went under, so did my hopes and dreams– momentarily– of attaining financial freedom and the perks that come with it. 

I felt extremely defeated. I was embarrassed. I was angry, because I worked so hard and “colored in the lines” without cheating to get where I was. To go the long, slow build route… achieve a taste of the reward… and then have it go away = trauma. 

Full of anxiety, self-doubt, uncertainty with the direction to take in life (feeling like God personally stomped out my goals), and unmotivated to move forward, I gave up.

I never said it out loud, but inwardly I gave up. I was depressed. And the right amount of additional gravity on top of the life pressures I was already feeling could have easily led to more tragic outcomes for me. 

Struggles of living as an LGBTQ+ in a stigmatized world.

It was also during this time that I decided to share with all friends and family that I am gay. I come from a very traditional, religious family, so acceptance wasn’t exactly (as you asked earlier) smooth sailing from everyone in my friend/family group. I don’t have the time in this article to go through all the roller coasters of emotion and events of both “unexpected love” and “unexpected fear responses” I traversed.

Corporate toxicity.

Throughout my time working in a corporate healthcare setting, and more specifically in my leadership roles, I experienced ongoing stress. The juggling of my team members’ individual and collective emotions and challenges, the unrealistic workload expectations, politics of people vying for power and just the nature of the industry was draining. And when that wasn’t enough, we turned it up a notch with the introduction of COVID-19. 

Family deaths and the grief cycles.

I have also had to experience some of the hardest hitting family deaths and personal losses that would send many over the edge. I am grateful for my spiritual walk. It has kept me grounded in these seasons of “storms”.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about SIGN UP!?
Mission: to help others find peace & balance to clearly map the life of their dreams. 

I use a 7 step framework (Discover, Visualize, Identify, Align, Recruit, Practice, Unlock) to help people unlock their potential in the 7 main life areas (referenced above).

The tools and process I provide aid others in beating anxiety, self-doubt, the uncertainty of direction, and low productivity behaviors. With the end goal being holistic health. 

I want to help others get in the best holistic shape of their lives.

I use the combination of life coaching models, meditation practices, and my expertise as a learning and development professional and executive leader in corporate to help others move the needle in their lives. Whether someone gets the book, experiences a guided meditation, hears me speak live, or is a part of one of my coaching cohorts or programs, I want any and everyone to know & embody this message: “YOU are enough. And YOU are enough right now, just as you are to become who you dream of being– the best version of YOU.”

The SIGN UP Brand:

Being intentional means living a life with purpose and intention by setting goals, focusing on your values, and making decisions that reflect who you want to be.

My brand was created to help you make a shift in your life and start living with more purpose and intention. 

Discover, align, and unlock your potential today. 

Join the family. Live the brand.

EricLCox.com for services (including subscribing to the newsletter)

https://linktr.ee/ericlcox for staying connected with everything I do professionally and personally. Direct links to products.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
My two anchoring values are spirituality and legacy. The discipline to keep them top of mind in how I show up day to day is a big win for me.

So long as I am honoring…. living up to… sharing those values with the world… I win… because it means that I am sharing my gifts with the world. And whether here, physically, or on to the next chapter of existence, the work lives on. 

The energy of love carries forward. Others will be able to eat the fruit from my tree and that fruit will provide nourishment to the bodies, souls, and minds of those I may never meet. It’s quite beautiful to live as a gift to the world.

So I would say the discipline of asking myself each day, “Are you living your values, Eric?” is the accountability check I use to align myself.

Contact Info:

• Website: EricLCox.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eric_l_cox/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EricLCoxSignUp
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/EricLCoxSignUp
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvdEdo4qdJYjfldjraSd5Fw

Image Credits
@Phalconphotography