This photo was taken, just after receiving the BorrowLenses sponsorship. It fundamentally changed the game for 105 Conversations, allowing Kell to shoot Espresso Shot interviews on his own, around the world.
Unyielding enthusiasm, passion for innovation, and a love of excellence represent the core of entrepreneur, Jeff Kell. Kell's ambitious career began at the age of 16 when he brought about his first full-scale venture, an automotive detailing service focused on clientele with exquisite taste in the Bay Area. After hearing his car detailing clients constantly complaining about their computers, he founded Old Dog, New Tricks, a computer consultation company focused on taking the hassle out of buying, owning, and operating new technology. He's influenced the sale of $150,000+ of Apple products, including iMacs, iPhones, iPads, iPods, MacBook Pros, and accessories since launching the business. During college, he maintained both businesses on weekends, while carrying a full load of honors classes, and paying his own way.
After college, he continued down the entrepreneurial path, creating Jeff Kell Enterprises, a full service marketing consultation company, centered around helping small businesses, apps, and startups build and maintain a brand, launch campaigns, and promote the right message to the ideal audience. Kell consulted with Votizen (Acquired by Causes), a political social network, focusing specifically on campaigns, growth, social media presence, community involvement, Facebook and Google ad campaigns, blogger sites, and maintaining content. Kell then moved to a role as Director of Marketing at XEOPlay, Inc., where he was tasked with building the brand of XEODesign, XEOPlay, Nicole Lazzaro, and Tilt World. Tilt World, an iOS app striving to create real world social good through gameplay, was launched at the DEMO Conference in the Spring of 2012. Kell was for all aspects of taking the product to market, including digital marketing, branding, marketing strategy and implementation, strategic relationship management, social media influence, and PR.
Following the launch of Tilt World, Kell took an interest in launching a side project he'd been working called 105 Conversations. Following a passion, Kell left a day job he really enjoyed to pursue a dream of interviewing 105 of some of the most influential people in the world to start a global conversation about the future for the millennial generation and beyond. As he's pursued 105 Conversations, the question he always gets is--how does it monetize? It can only be described as a social good venture of passion. It was never about the money and you'll notice that there are no ads on the 105 Conversations site or in the videos. It's purely conversation to keep the ball moving forward. At times, Kell struggled to keep the project alive for funding reasons but he plans to keep the project going, doing whatever takes to complete it. To date, he has obtained more than 20 interviews with all sorts of people, ranging from George P. Shultz, former United States Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury, to Blake Irving, CEO of Go Daddy, to Brit Morin, Founder & CEO of Brit + Co. The project has been an advocate for the millennial generation, a syndication of solutions from thought leaders, and a real-time discussion that is outlining the greatest quandaries in education, technology, leadership, and innovation. While getting 105 Conversations established over the last year, Kell has still pursued creative endeavors via Jeff Kell Enterprises, assisting Thirst Labs in launching the "Thirst Droplet" Google Glass app in a 72 hour time frame. As of late, he's been rebuilding the 105 Conversations website to look more like a blueprint with a more cohesive design to take the project to the next level. Kell is always looking for new clients and has considered going back to work for a few of his favorite companies. He is also an avid writer, currently preparing pieces for Svbtle and the Huffington Post, as well as his own blog.
What you really want to know:
Kell gets a thrill out of the chase, specifically going after people who are very hard to reach. He's been known to show an iPad Keynote presentation in interviews, deal negotiations, coffee candidate pitches, and business and marketing plan presentations. He eats, sleeps, and breathes startups, tech, and Apple releases.
Some would call him a marketer but he gravitates more toward PR and relationship building more than the day to day driving of website metrics, although he's equally competent in SEO, SEM, Google Adwords, and user acquisition. At the end of the day, if you're looking for hustle and idea execution, Kell is the man for the job.
In 2011, he really wanted to work at Apple Headquarters, so he bought most the executives names (Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, Steve Jobs, etc. ) on Google AdWords and ran an ad that he wanted to work for them and linked it to his portfolio site, www.jeffkell.com.
The photo above is Kell's campaign in action with the keyword, Phil Schiller, who is Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing.
Jeff's favorite quotation of all time:
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”