Kevin Bell - Who I Am & What I'm Doing
#GirlDad
I’m a husband, girl dad x2 and police officer by trade. And while this career is extremely fulfilling and has taken care of our family, I'm truly an entrepreneur at heart.
It's common to hear entrepreneurs say that they always knew that they were meant to work for themselves. Or they were entrepreneurs from day one. Selling baseball cards in elementary school, starting businesses in high school, bootstrapping start ups through college, etc. I wish I could identify with that, but that's not the case for me. For me for as long as I can remember, all I really wanted to be when I grew up was a husband and a father. And to take care of my family to the VERY best of my ability.
With that at the forefront, I was drawn to security. I wanted stability, a solid income, pension, medical insurance and benefits. Because THOSE are the things that I knew would take care of my family. So that is what I went after. That's what I have.
It wasn't until attaining those things that my eyes were opened to one thing that forever changed the course of my life.
I saw the ceiling.
A Different Trajectory
On the trajectory that I was on, (sans entrepreneurship) I did the math, I saw the % of raises increases, I saw the money made from promotion, new contracts and other incentives, I saw the pay stubs of officers with 30 years on and the amount they'd get in retirement... and it hit me right then, that there was a massive ceiling keeping me down from living life that was anything but middle class and mediocre. EVEN if I became chief of police and battled my way to the top, sacrificing so much along the way JUST for that status, the juice just wouldn't be worth the squeeze.
If I was okay with just getting by, clocking in and clocking out, rinse and repeat, and counting down the days until retirement, I'd stay in my lane.
But I'm not that kind of guy.
I REALLY don't like having a ceiling stopping me from creating the life for my family that I dream of.
I don't like having to turn in time off requests asking permission to take a vacation. I knew there was a different trajectory out there, and I set off to do EVERYTHING in my power to make that life a reality. That's where my origin story begins; with the fire inside to create something BIGGER. To build an empire for my family with generational wealth. To lift us to a whole new level of success, living a life people only dream of and few even try to achieve.
Fast forward and here we are in the process of building that life. I've done a ton, failed MANY times and have used each and every failure as a stepping stone to the next achievement.
Brick By Brick
As it stands, and I'll update this along the way, I've founded and run an investment group focused on commercial real estate with two self storage facilities in our portfolio.
I've also started and run a virtual assistant hiring agency and bookkeeping firm and we are looking for our next acquisition to the portfolio, both with self storage and small business
In full transparency (and you will never receive anything less), we’re not in the “green” yet with these businesses.
We’ve made money 💰, but that money goes right back in to fuel the machine 🔄.
Payroll, investments, software, etc. It’s a sweaty start up and we run lean. Because we have to.
Aside from the businesses, I feel called to share these experiences however I can and I write prolifically about the process through every bit of the journey. ✏️
The Tipping Point (And why you need to act NOW)
*** If you want an epic soundtrack to this next part, click here and listen while you read. ***
Over the last 8 years working in law enforcement, I've seen some crazy things. Truthfully we get numb to the crazy things that we see on duty. We make light of a lot of it through humor and sick, dark jokes (just ask any cop buddy of yours)...
But the things that really seep through our thick skin and eat us up inside are the deaths of our partners. Those are the things that we can't shake.
The two most common ways I've seen it happen are these:
A tragic incident on duty where they die doing their job They make it all the way to the end of their career, retire and within a couple of years, they pass away.
My intention here isn't to get too morbid, but it's to make a point. LIFE IS SHORT.
Life is unpredictable.
Life is fragile.
This might not necessarily be the exact same reality for you, but the concept remains.
Life is too short, unpredictable and fragile to not do everything in your power to LIVE IT with all you have.
You don't have time to sit back and be passive in this adventure. If you're not turning the ideas and dreams YOU have into something incredible, you're helping someone else with THEIR dreams.