NANKIN — Mapleton student Hunter Cox is finding ways to use his artistic skills, entrepreneurial abilities, and passions outside of school to make a way for himself.
Over the last several years, Cox has grown and sold plants through his business, Plant Daddy Express. The business started with researching ways to make money with plants when he was 10 years old. It has grown into a business that is unique from other area plant nurseries.
In 2019 when he first began to sell plants, Cox sold 140 plants of 36 different varieties. In 2021, he expanded to 67 different varieties and 609 total plants and grew around 5,000.
Cox has given plant donations for events such as Mapleton Cares Day in 2021. He’s also been involved with teaching middle school students how to plant and garden the last two years.
The Mapleton senior has made a variety of shirts, magnets, and other marketing materials to help spread the word about his business. Now, he is working on a video to tell the story of how his business came to be and what he plans to do with it in the future.
In addition to other art and tech classes he’s enrolled in, Cox is part of the video production program at Mapleton. Through this class, he has access to all of the state-of-the-art equipment one might need to produce a video, from 25-30 Apple iMacs to a green screen, cameras, SD cards, video production software, and more.
“Content creation is the future of business,” Cox said. “I think it’s helped me a lot in my business.”
It goes beyond marketing, however. Video production has taught him other important life skills.
“When people show up to buy plants, you have to talk to them, obviously, but being creative and funny and developing these qualities in video production, I’ve gotten skills way beyond the video editing skills,” he said. “Actually talking in front of a camera is really hard — just talking in general can be difficult for some people — video editing gives you a lot more than just video editing skills.”
Cox hopes to use the finished product from this class as part of his online promotion on Facebook and Instagram to raise awareness about his plants and increase followers. He feels like this is the next step in promoting his business.
In addition to his work on the video for Plant Daddy Express, he is working on completing a dresser he started last year in his industrial technology course. The dresser is a standard five-drawer dresser with two hidden gun compartments.
In art, he has focused on drawing with a pen this year, and over the last couple of months, he’s been working to complete an “over-the-top drawing” for the art show that features a dozen or more monsters.
As Cox approaches graduation, he’s eager to continue expanding his plant nursery. Since it is a seasonal business, he’s looking for ways to supplement his income over the winter months.
Cox is passionate about inline skating and caught wind of a potential new business opportunity to meet the needs of area skaters like him, who would love to see a skating rink in Ashland.
The project is in the idea stage, but he is excited about the possibilities.
“I am a pretty decent skater myself but I want to build things that are bigger than myself. I want to create a positive environment for kids to go to,” Cox said. “Managing and working at a brand new skating rink in Ashland would be my dream. My art skills and skating skills and people skills could combine to promote and build the business to match the interests of kids.
“I think I can bring different insights, and I know what kids are looking for.”
The video production program and other classes at Mapleton have helped make his work possible. He encourages others to discover more about what’s happening within and beyond the walls of Mapleton High School.
