Skye Equipment Rentals

As CEO of Skye Equipment Rentals, I'm responsible for the overall strategic and financial success of the company. With my two partners, we are building Louisville's premier independent rental store that caters to the needs of small and medium sized contractors.

We are located in the heart of Crestwood, KY at 6315 W Highway 146. 

You can always reach us at 502-678-SKYE or visit our website at https://skye.rentals

Co-Founder and CEO

1st Gen Entrepreneurs

I offer coaching & consulting to business owners who want to grow with purpose.

As the first person in my family to start a business (aka 1st Gen Entrepreneur) I know the challenges that come with navigating the unknown. After building my first business from scratch and selling it 15+ years later, I enjoy sharing my hard earned lessons with others so they can succeed.

More details can be found at 👉 1stGen.biz

Business Coach

SKYE Technologies

I founded SKYE Technologies in 2006 to address the tech needs of small businesses in the area. What started as a "one man show" evolved over a 15 year period before selling the company.

As true partner for our clients, we aligned our business interests with theirs. This model enabled us to put technology to good use in a way that helped them grow and succeed. We prided ourselves on starting and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships.

As the founder, my personal experience included:

- Providing strategic technology consulting and advice for both existing and potential clients
- Developing new business through networking, advertising and referrals
- Maintaining strong relationships with existing clients
- Ensuring customer satisfaction and responsiveness to feedback
- Creating and evolving internal processes to increase efficiency
- Researching new technologies and examining their benefits/drawbacks as they pertain to business

In July 2021 we announced the sale of SKYE Technologies to a larger regional firm.

Founder & CEO (Exited in 2021)

I ❤️ 1st Gen Entrepreneurs • Learn more at 1stGen.biz 👊

I'm an IT guy turned Entrepreneur who loves the art of building and growing successful businesses.

I started my first business (Skye Technologies) in 2006, grew it organically for 15+ years, then sold it in 2021. 

After that, I began offering business coaching/consulting under the banner 1st Gen Entrepreneurs. As the first person in my family to start a business, I know what it's like to learn everything the hard way. My goal with 1st Gen is to help others in the same situation to build healthy, sustainable businesses without as much headache & heartache.

Most recently, I became the CEO of a new venture called Skye Equipment Rentals. As a proud, independent, locally owned business, we are looking to become the #1 source for contractors in Oldham County and surrounding areas for all their construction equipment needs.

Thanks for taking a look at my profile and feel free to hit me up...  I love to talk business ☕️

Andrew McIntosh

Resonance Ideas

Your voice is your most powerful asset. It is how you articulate who you truly are, what you believe and what you want. As a ten year TEDx organizer, I know what makes a great speech. Whether its applying for TEDx, preparing your next keynote, or building your first workshop- I can support you every step of the way.

Founder & Speaker Coach

North Country Camps - Lincoln & Whippoorwill

The greatest gift you can give your kids is a summer at camp- entirely screen free, surrounded by nature, learning new skills, living in community and experiencing genuine adventure. North Country Camps, in the beautiful Adirondack Park of New York, is a traditional sleepaway camp for girls and boys aged 8-15.

Summer Director

TEDxStowe

TEDxStowe is organized under license from TED to create a unique conference with speakers from across the state who represent today’s thought leaders, movement starters and business innovators in Vermont. 

As license holder, producer & curator of TEDx Stowe I organized two sold out events. 

- speaker coaching
- stakeholder & vendor engagement 
- marketing & communications
- Fundraising, budgeting & accounting 
- Partner relations
- Logistics & event day production

Event Organizer/ Producer

TEDxBasel

A simple idea can have a great effect. TEDxBasel was created to offer a forum to the community to share passions, stories and ideas. Our speakers are all local voices with diverse backgrounds and subject matters who aim to promote understanding and knowledge and foster relations between and within our community.

Communications Director

TEDxGundeldingen

TEDxGundeldingen was created to offer a forum to the community to share passions, stories and ideas. We want to promote understanding and foster relations between and within the vibrant mix of Swiss, immigrants and expatriates in our community.
Event will take place on Thursday, 14 November 2013

Co-organiser

Bank for International Settlements

Secretary to Head of Treasury; Administrative Assistant for dealing room (c.40 pax); event organization & coordination of Global Reserve Management training workshops.

Secretary Banking Treasury

Istanbul Bilgi University

Specialties: 
Comparative and Development Economics.
World Trade and Global financial systems.

Thesis: 
Genetic engineering in agriculture and its role in economic development.

MA International Political Economy

TORI Global

Office manager and head of resource management in New York office. Left to return to University to do a Master's degree.

Resource Management

Taylor Osborne

Researcher in executive search company. Left due to relocation to New York.

Researcher

British Memorial Garden

Position taken during Mountbatten Internship Program in New York.  One year internship where I oversaw daily organisation of office and building of 9/11 memorial garden, and organised and managed fund-raising events.

Event management.

🎙️ Public Speaking & Communication Coach ❌ TEDx organizer 💡 Leadership storytelling for entrepreneurs & executives

We are the product of the decisions we make and the stories we tell along the way.

And we contain multitudes. 


1) I am a public speaking coach. I was a TEDx organizer for a decade and have been coaching speakers for the 5 years since then. I know what makes a great speech and I can help you build yours. 

2) I am a summer camp director. The greatest gift you can give to your kid is a few weeks without technology, in the woods, surrounded by their peers. Making their own choices, defining their day and experiencing the world in nature and in community. 

3) I am a hiking trip leader. I've climbed all 46 peaks over 4000ft in New York state, and I'm working my way through the 282 Scottish Munros (peaks over 3000ft). I take kids on multi day trips into the woods, because learning how awesome you are and that you can do hard things is an incredible gift, and the earlier you learn it, the better off you'll be. I also lead adult hiking trips. 

4) I live in Scotland, but spent 2 years living on a sail boat with my family in the Caribbean, and have called the US, Switzerland, Turkey and Brasil home. 


The purpose of life is to live. 

That's it. 

I'd love to talk to you about yours. 


If you have questions, thoughts or just a desire to chat about life, your stories and how to share them, I'd love to chat.

Tessa Rawson

My kids are three of the greatest sales people that ever there was.

What do they sell?

Weeks in the woods with no technology!! 


That's not how they pitch it of course...

They tend to focus more on the joy, independence, perseverance, community, friendship, singing, being a goof, talking nonsense, getting muddy, striving to get better, setting goals, being knocked down and getting back up again. 

In short, they sell camp.

Living in the UK now, it gives them great joy to find a captive audience who 'don't get it' and so must be educated. 


I didn’t become a camp director because it was a life long calling. 

As a Brit married to an American it actually all sounded kinda culty. The in-jokes, the very old special t-shirts, the nick names, the obsession with camp fires. 

I first worked at camp because my kids wanted to go and the only way we could afford it was for us to work there too. 

5 years later, I’m the director and chief guzzler & distributor of the Kool Aid.
 

Why?

Because old fashioned, traditional sleep away camp, in the woods, is an incredible gift in the modern world. 

It offers children something increasingly rare and magical: time and space. 

Time to make friends slowly, to discover strengths, to be challenged, to fail safely, to laugh at themselves and most precious of all, to live without the constant noise of technology.

Camp is one of the few places that kids have the freedom and opportunity to figure out who they really are and what they are capable of. 


Of course my kids don’t articulate any of that. 

They talk about their friends, boast about the mountains they’ve climbed, the food they’ve cooked over a fire and that one time...


If you've ever wondered about camp for your kids, give me a shout and I'll gladly pass you the Kool Aid.

How to get a TEDx talk or let’s go on a long walk | TEDx coach, Camp Director, Hiking guide | Former boat dweller & Lifelong storyteller

Last week- write lots of guff about Halloween and Sticky Toffee Pudding... LinkedIn shows my brain fart to a gazillion people.

This week- try to be thoughtful, maybe even on topic multiple days in a row... 7 people see it.


WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME LINKEDIN??!??

The best advice I can give an aspiring TEDx speaker? 

BE PATIENT


You won’t get the first TEDx talk you apply to, you won’t get the second. You probably won’t get the fifth either. 

You’ll get rejected, and you’ll be ghosted. 

But KEEP applying. 

It takes most applicants over a year before they are accepted, it often takes two. 

And it probably won't be your first choice of event. 


***

Here are 5 out of a hundred reasons that good ideas get rejected:

1) Hundred of applicants for 1 or 2 spots
Each year an organizer might be looking to fill 2 spots from new applicants.  Their program is curated from their own research, the shortlist they already have from former applicants as well as the potentially hundreds of new applicants. 

2) Variety
A TEDx event is curated for a live audience- an organizer will aim to design a diverse program with 10 talks on 10 different topics. Your idea is incredible but you’re a biologist, and there’s already a biologist on the roster, so the chances of an organizer putting another one on this year are pretty slim. 

3) Your idea isn’t clear
You must be able to convey your idea in one sentence- if it takes you a paragraph to get your point across, the organizer has moved on already.  But remember- your idea is not a snappy title, it’s your talk in a nutshell: the problem and the solution in one sentence, not a clickbait headline. 

4) Your application is too long
Keep it short & sweet- and remember, you are pitching your idea, not summarizing it. Use your application to succinctly emphasize why your idea is unique, why it matters and why you are the person to give it. 

5) Heard it before 
Us TEDx organizers are both endlessly hopeful and excited about ideas (we do this for free after all) but also a jaded bunch. If we think we've heard it before, we'll move on pretty quick. Google any possible version of your idea + TEDx and see what comes up. Maybe you need a new angle.

***
I've been a TEDx organizer for over a decade- I know what makes a great talk and I know what organizers are looking for. If you dream of doing a TEDx and want a guide through the process- let's chat.

Do you have a 10 yr plan?

The idea of a 10yr plan is terrifying to me. 


I have no desire to know what I’ll be doing in 10 years, or even 5.  

It’s exciting to know that anything is possible. 

I worry that if I define the future too closely, I’ll be so focused on it that I might miss something along the way. A junction. A possibility. 


My favorite camp song, On the Loose, has this verse:

There's a trail that I'll be hiking just to see where it might go.
So many places yet to visit, so many people yet to know,
For in following in my dreams, I will live and I will grow,
On a trail that's waiting out there on the loose.


I love the idea that that it is the trail itself that is worthy, not a particular destination.  And it’s waiting for me, today and every day. I just have to step outside. 


Long before we tossed all the life cards in the air and bought a boat, my husband and I lived in Istanbul. But we always knew it was only ever going to be 2 years so we never really made it home. The end defined the experience. We loved it and made lifelong friends, but there was no urgency to speak the language or become part of the local (non ex-pat) community.

So when we moved to Switzerland, we decided to not put an end date on it. We went to German lessons, joined local clubs and that’s where I organized my first TEDx event- in the community, for the community. We called it home for 4 years. 


As an entrepreneur I feel like you are always being told to make a 5 or 10 year plan. The modern business world pushes you to define your future, and to do so relatively rigidly otherwise you won’t succeed. 

I'm sure the main reason I don’t rake in gazillions is because I don’t really have a business plan. 

But I have come to terms with that. The big plan is just not for me. 

I can still run a successful business without knowing what the future looks like- I've made it to year 5 after all. 

Maybe I'll never be rich, but I'll always be able to get out on that trail and see where it goes, because the end goal is not defining how I live each day. 


What have you learnt about yourself in your business, and have decided to embrace rather than diminish?

Do you want to do TEDx?


How about applying today?


There are over 50 TEDx events currently accepting applications right now. 

29 of them have opened in the last 6 weeks.

And you can find the links to ALL the application forms in my handy dandy spreadsheet and TEDx Application Guide. 

I spend my evening hours trawling the internet for TEDx events, so you don't have to! 

Link in the comments.

taplio

The Battle

Andrew McIntosh

Tessa Rawson

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreTessa Rawson's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Andrew McIntosh

Tessa Rawson

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Tessa Rawson's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreTessa Rawson's LinkedIn Performance