Silent Beacon founder and CEO Kenny Kelley started his entrepreneurial career as a thrill-seeking Hollywood motorcycle stuntman and founder of Adrenaline Crew LLC, producing wildly popular videos and leading teams of daredevil riders in risky on-road hijinx that captured an enthusiastic worldwide audience both online and at high-profile events. When Kenny made a mistake on his motorcycle — while popping a wheelie, with his feet out over the windshield, going 70 mph on a public interstate — the resulting crash sent both his body and his life careening in a new direction. The idea for a wearable emergency-button device came to him as he was lying incapacitated on the side of the road. Kenny’s near-death-inspired appreciation of safety’s importance led him to form Silent Beacon LLC and create the namesake Bluetooth® wearable device that can contact any number, including 911, with a single button push. Kenny’s entrepreneurial life has gone from wowing crowds to protecting them, and he now lives for creating products that help people lead safer lives.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
VC who backed the Silent Beacon
When business started difficulties overcame:
“the pitfalls at that young age was not eating three meals a day, was subjecting yourself to having to learn various programs whether it be photoshop or Excel or whatever programs you need to kind of create the spreadsheet and template for your company. And to really not have anyone to reach out to when you have questions. They say that the pioneers usually have the most arrows in their back and that’s because they are in uncharted territory. So I think the first time around it’s just so overwhelming because you don’t know which way to turn”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
It’s So Easy (and other lies): The Autobiography Book by Duff McKaganFavourite Quote:
“those who spend their time trying to judge other people neglect to see that time should be spent to judge themselves” Kenny Kelley
Recommended Online Resources:
Upwork – You can find The Perfect Freelancers For Your Projects! It’s easy and affordable with secure Payments and will help you to increased your productivity
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“you really just need to put your head down and dive into it and make it an obsession. If you have an idea and it’s not an obsession and you just think of it as oh geez, I don’t have time to look that up, oh geez I don’t have time to make this, oh geez that… Then that’s the wrong idea for you. You need to wait until you have an idea that sparks this fire that Neil and I were talking about, this obsession that just makes you want to fight through everything to see it succeed. So you just need to find what works for you that you can spit as you speak and it just comes out as poetry”…[Listen for More]
More About Kenny Kelley:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
Dwight Eisenhower “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”
Other Quotes From the Chat with Kenny Kelley:
- “I really didn’t stop to devise a plan. I said if I’m going to do this I need to be thrown into the fire”
- “you can’t find yourself in your own backyard”
- “if you are a young person who is thinking about being an entrepreneur, I always say… my quote is you can’t find yourself in your own backyard. I think you kind of need to venture out and see what you are made of, throw yourself at the world and then you can come back later in life and be like okay I know who I am. Now I’ve grown, I’ve of all and my trials, tribulations and trips have made me who I am”
- “I think the learning curve was inevitable”
- “it’s kind of been able to stay out of the weeds, keep your head up and not worry too much about the little things because the little things take a lot of time and use your energy and probably not wisely”
- “some of the secrets to success is being able to continue down the path when diversity hits you. You are not going to be successful if the first person looks at you and says your idea is not that good and then you just veer off that trail. So, if you want to reach success you need to stay true to yourself”
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