Fatherhood Changed My Life
How fatherly lessons changed Stephen Spinner’s outlook on life and how to make the best of any situation by boasting positivity, motivation, and selflessness.
When your kids are born, you have unconditional love for them because they belong to you. But for Stephen Spinner, parenthood was a little different. He met Jose when he was 4-years-old after learning that Jose’s mother could no longer support him.
Stephen stepped into fatherhood as a single parent to now, nine-year-old Jose. Stephen’s newly minted relationship with Jose helped strengthen his own relationship with his father, Charles. After a few short weeks of parenting turned into a few months, Jose lived with Stephen for a year. During this time Stephen taught Jose how to be respectful, how to enjoy the treasures of life, including vacationing to New Jersey, sight-seeing and visiting family. Jose also, like any kid, enjoyed video games and took on Karate as an afterschool activity. Stephen admits that during this time he developed a great relationship with his father which made him extremely happy.
“The opportunity to help someone else gave me the greatest experiences of my life,” Stephen shared.
After four years passed, Stephen lost his father Charles and Jose also left to reconcile with his mother. While these times brought a lot of grief, it did not stop Stephen from remaining positive and motivated to keep making a difference.
“There are so many people less fortunate than I am, in more challenging circumstances, and with bigger struggles to overcome. I don’t have a good enough reason to be a negative person,” said Stephen.
That’s when Stephen joined Cox Communications, starting out in the call center working on the retention team or “Saving Our Customers” team as he describes. However, it didn’t take long for him to realize that Sales is where he wanted to grow. Stephen is a part of the Multiple Dwelling Units Direct Sales team in Phoenix, Arizona. He has been working with Cox for two and a half years now.
“I’ve always been more of a face-to-face person, so when I had the opportunity, I searched for different positions where I’d be able to deal more directly with customers.”
Stephen’s experience at Cox has been quite memorable.
“This is an amazing company to work for because my team is full of motivated and professional people. What makes the biggest difference to me is the leadership within the company. Every leader that I have reported to has been available to listen, help, and support.”
Stephen goes on to share how the company has helped him to grow and appreciates the culture of open communication.
“Knowing that my voice matters to the company I work for is a big deal. We are developing and producing services and technologies that are shaping the future of the industry, and it’s important that Cox is a forward-thinking company. We are always looking for ways to improve our products and make our name the industry standard.”
Stephen’s upbeat personality and outlook on his career also carry over to his personal life. He strongly believes in staying positive and motivated in his health too. He is active in CrossFit, enjoys hiking and cycling, and plays basketball. On top of that, Stephen is very selfless and is always putting others before himself best modeling what Cox Stands for – doing the right thing, always and leading by example.
Thank you, Stephen, for sharing your story! If you want to read more articles like this one, view our open jobs or experience a day in the life at Cox? Venture over to our Careers page to learn more about our Sales jobs at Cox.
How to Maintain Work-Life Balance
For Monique Cobbins there’s a quote by Vince Lombardi that best represents her life, “Winners are willing to go longer, work harder and give more than anyone else.” Since joining Cox Automotive, Monique has experienced incredible balance in giving her best time and attention to her career and family.
By: Monique Cobbins, Inside Regional Sales Manager
My story begins on a car lot in Independence, Missouri working as a Used Car Sales Consultant. My weekdays and weekends were incredibly busy, and I didn’t notice that I had a missed message on LinkedIn from a Cox Automotive recruiter. Once I responded to the recruiter, I received a call immediately and was thrilled to know that he felt I was a good fit for the position and even offered me to interview for a Dual Sales role. On March 2017, I accepted my new role as a Business Development Consultant.
Balancing Family
Prior to joining Cox, I had never heard of the company, and it was important for me to join a company that valued time with family. I’m a single mom to three boys: my 14-year old son Simeon and my 11-year old twin boys Kaeden and Kennedy. Finding time to spend with my boys on the weekends was hard at my prior job and I knew with my boys playing competitive basketball, I wanted to be their biggest cheerleader. I’m grateful that my career here at Cox has allowed me to build memories, and experience life to the fullest!
Balancing Work
Within my first year at Cox Automotive as a Business Development Consultant, I was 2x award winner for “UpSell Member of the Month” and was presented with an opportunity to become a Regional Manager for VinSolutions. As an Inside Regional Sales Manager, my job is to generate revenue within the New England/Northeast territory by offering VinSolutions products to local automotive dealers. I work very closely with my partner Emily Gallagher who travels into the dealership to present a demonstration of our products. Once the best product package has been consolidated, I present the proposal and begin the negotiation. Once accepted we push the information to the product implementation team for installation at the local dealer’s place of business.
Best Moments
Working for Cox Automotive has been life-changing. I work for a company that cares about my quality of life and that’s priceless! As a Cox Automotive team member, I feel secure and confident in my career here. I also get to work with others who share the same work ethic, and passion for the automotive industry that makes for a perfect fit!
The one thing Cox Automotive does better than any company is not making you feel like an ordinary employee! From the onboarding process, I knew that I was joining an organization that cared about career growth and success! At Cox Automotive I believe you will be rewarded for outstanding work ethic versus a “pat on the back” like most large companies.
Thank you, Monique, for sharing your story! If you want to read more articles like this one, view our open jobs or experience a day in the life at Cox? Venture over to our sales page to learn more about life at Cox.
Want to know about the Cox SUMMER SOCIAL?
The 2019 Cox Summer Social was sizzling this year as we got a crash course in esports and welcomed players, the head coach, costumed fans and the general manager from the Atlanta Reign.
Our President and CEO Alex Taylor kicked off the Cox Summer Social with the introduction of our special guests the Overwatch League’s Atlanta Reign team, our company’s most recent investment. He shared how the team came about and admitted that he wasn’t sold initially on the idea of people watching other people play video games. But the more he learned about it, the more convinced he became that esports was on its way to becoming a booming industry. In fact, esports are predicted to have more viewers than every professional sports league but the NFL by 2021 — surpassing the MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS.
An Esports Overview
Soe Gschwind-Penski, a commentator, host and international celebrity in the gaming community, provided a quick overview of esports before hosting a brief discussion with our Chief Financial Officer Dallas Clement and our special guest, the President and CEO of Atlanta Esports Ventures Paul Hamilton. The discussion was about the journey of owning and operating our first esports team and our partnership with Province Inc. to form Atlanta Esports Ventures.
Raving Fans
Our event was decked out with vintage arcade games, while employees enjoyed ice cream on the outdoor lawn and more games under the tent. While others scored some free swag items, souvenirs and peeked inside the Atlanta Reign’s official team van. Fans also got a chance to meet Atlanta Reign players Babybay, Kodak and Gator, head coach Brad Rajani, and take pictures with cosplayers (costumed characters) from the Overwatch game.
- “My favorite part about working at Cox is the incredible events they put on. I think they are such a great way to increase exposure to the company as well as the culture.” Sam Jobson, Cox Communications,
- “During my time here at Cox, I have been lucky enough to encounter some of the nicest people I’ve ever met in my life.” Shujan Valiani, Cox Communications
- “I like working at Cox because it’s family oriented, and they think of their employees. I tell other people to come and work at Cox because of the culture, we are so tight knit, and we try to make employees feel like family. I think it trickles down, which is so cool.” Mirlene Jean Simon, Manager of Economic & Industry Insights
- “At Cox we are really good at building relationships, the comradery is what makes the company so great.” Karen Bass, Manager of Technology
We couldn’t be more thrilled to kick off the summer in a big way for our employees and learn and celebrate our newest investments together.
If you want to read more articles like this one, view our open jobs or experience a day in the life at Cox? Venture over to our Careers page to learn more.
One Team with One Goal to Escape!
When most people think of the word family, what often comes to mind are blood relatives. However for Cox employees, their team is like family. Hear Evann’s story about about how she enjoys working with her team.
By Evann Lee, Account Manager, Cox Media Group
Selling suits for Hugo Boss out of the Mall at Millenia is how I worked my way through college at the University of Central Florida. I took a class called Selling Electronic Media and fell in love with the idea of media sales. I interviewed for several Account Executive positions until a friend of a friend introduced me to Mario Mendoza, Jenny Bromiley and Brian Cole of WFTV 27. I interviewed with them and practically begged for a job knowing that I would love it and hopefully excel in the opportunity.
Since then, I have never looked back.
A Day in the Life…
Typically, I start my day by discussing the overnight numbers from the day before with my teammates. We all grab a coffee and talk about what premiered; which advertisers we saw last night on TV, and discuss our day-to-day happenings before diving into appointments or office work.
I’ve been fortunate to develop lifelong friendships with my clients. They trust me to deliver results day in and day out, making a huge difference in moving the needle for their businesses and it’s an amazing feeling.
Outside of work, you will find me at the beach or with my family and our three dogs, Niko, Olive and Nori — we are the crazy dog people that treat them like kids! Speaking of kids, I am also 6 months pregnant and have seriously considered giving my daughter the middle name “CMG Orlando” (LOL!) because of how loved and supported I have been by everyone at this company.
Our entire team had a day of team building at Escape Room. This is when a group has 60 minutes to solve puzzles and unlock clues that lead to an escape out of a themed room. It was so much fun to see everyone jump in, split into groups and tackle each side of the room. We snorted, almost cried out of frustration, praised each other whenever a clue was solved, and all the while positively encouraged each other. While we didn’t make it out this time, we had a blast and became even closer because of this experience!
The culture of the company truly makes me love my job. Our team is like a family — we all work super hard and never say “I’m too busy to help”, or “I’ll get to that later.” Everyone digs in and takes a couple minutes to help each other and make sure we all have what we need to win every day!
Special thanks to Evann for letting us get a glimpse of her day to day in this version of our Cox Employee Spotlight.
Want to learn more about #LifeatCox? Visit our website.
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