Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living magazine. Today I have Kevin Shire with me. Hi, Kevin.
Kevin Shire: Hello. How are you doing, Toni?
Toni: I’m doing great. So, Kevin, take a moment and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Kevin: Okay. My name is Kevin Shire. I live in Kutztown currently. I have a son and a daughter, Gabby and Kyle. I was born in Millville, New Jersey and I moved up to Pennsylvania at about eight years old. I was in quite a few high schools. My father taught me basically a work ethic. He was a great man for that. He was a manager for a big company and we kept moving, which was kind of good for me, because I had to learn to meet people and things along those lines.
Basically, I’m a photographer and musician. I’ve had countless jobs. It would be an hour if I actually listed the jobs that I’ve had. Inspiration basically takes me different places, and I allow it to come.
Toni: Where are you currently now?
Kevin: I’m in Kutztown now.
Toni: What do you do?
Kevin: Right now I’m part-owner of a company called Pollock’s Keifer Pop, which is a healthy soda company.
Toni: Okay.
Kevin: I also share the office space with Robyn Jasko, who has Home Sweet Homegrown, which is in about 200 stores. It’s an organic pepper sauce business.
Toni: How do we get a hold of the drink and the hot sauce? Is there a place we can go look?
Kevin: Echo Hill would probably be the closest here, and we’re going to be in Berks County Living magazine coming up, so we should have some places listed in there. Mostly, New York, Philly, Lehigh Valley. Most of the health food stores carry it.
Toni: Okay. Let’s go into the Project.
Kevin: Sure.
Toni: Kevin, what does inspiration mean to you?
Kevin: Inspiration is hard to describe. It’s basically allowing the universe to find you and your skilled path or chosen path that you’ve done. I think a lot of people confuse motivation, inspiration and passion.
Toni: Oh – how so?
Kevin: I think that passion is more the thing that you do. Inspiration may have gotten you to do that. For me, it’s as a photographer. At some point, I was inspired to be a photographer, but that’s a trained skill. Motivation is something that kicks you and makes you go that direction, where inspiration just comes. It’s something that you can't really describe. It just flows and you follow it.
A great example would be I worked for a car dealership at one time, and I was really into photography, but I never really pursued it as a profession. A New York Times photographer was coming in to take a test drive in one of the trucks. My manager paired me up with him. I was really curious more about his job than my job.
At one point in the test drive he stopped the vehicle and he said, “Are you going to talk about photography this whole time, or are you going to sell me a car?” which I thought was kind of jerky at the time, but then I realized it.
I said, “I am a photographer.”
He said, “No, you’re not. You’re a car salesman. If you want to be a photographer, you better be a photographer.” That’s motivation.
Inspiration basically allowed him to come into my life. The motivation is that kick and going to the passion.
Toni: So the inspiration might open the door?
Kevin: Absolutely. You have to accept it. Again, inspiration is really for everything, but it’s mostly I think for creative processes. I was a band manager. Living in Hamburg I took a ton of photos of the town and just little stories on what happened. Another time I was driving down the road and I had to be at a meeting at 8:00. I always had a camera with me and I was driving across a bridge, and it was real early in the morning. There was a fog on the water. It was just something that I had to take.
Toni: You were inspired to do it?
Kevin: Yes, absolutely.
Toni: I understand.
Kevin: I missed the meeting. I got yelled at, the whole thing, but I’ve sold that photo countless times since then. It’s just something that you have to do. That’s what I think inspiration is.
Toni: So how do you take all of that and actually knowing the difference from when you’re inspired to be motivated and passionate about something, and put it into practice in Berks County?
Kevin: In Berks County, again I was a manager. To give you an example, I was a manager for a band. They brought me into their life. A friend of mine had just formed a band. They were in a basement. They said, “We know you know a lot about music and a lot about business. Can you come in and listen to us?”
I said, “Sure. I’ll do that.”
They were really good. I knew some things had to change. I basically worked really hard with them and got them from never playing out to opening for KISS in Hershey Stadium within seven months.
Toni: Wow.
Kevin: They also became one of the top bands in the world by Reverbnation and Ernie Ball, the string manufacturer. What made me do that? What brought me into them? That’s the inspiration.
I was laying in bed one night one time and I couldn’t sleep. It had just been raining. I got up and I said, “I’m going to take night photos.” I went through the whole town and I took black and white night photography. Never intended to use it. I just wanted to do it. There was just something that made me get up and do it. Deena Kershner from the Our Town Foundation in Hamburg saw the photos and said, “I want to put a calendar out.” They put a calendar out. I donated all the profits to them. Then the Reading Eagle came up and did an article on me and stuff like that.
It’s just that moment. I often describe it like … the reason I say it’s a skilled path is because let’s say I’m walking in a garden and I may be inspired to take photos just by looking at things. It’s not going to inspire me to fix my car, because my passion is that, or maybe cooking or something like that. That’s not going to inspire me to fix a car, but if I was a mechanic I might see something there that would remind me of fixing the car.
Toni: Sure.
Kevin: Inspiration kind of comes to you, but it’s kind of directed to your goal or your path.
Toni: Or to whatever your strengths are.
Kevin: Exactly.
Toni: What I’m hearing as well is that you might be inspired in the middle of the night or while you’re taking a photographer on a car ride to sell them a car and you might be inspired, but it’s recognizing that that’s an opportunity you need to act on.
Kevin: Sure. Sometimes you can. Sometimes you can't.
Toni: Right.
Kevin: Fortunately, my position that I have right now, my hours are pretty flexible. That’s the reason I can come here at 3:00 in the afternoon and not be at a job where I have to explain why I’m gone. Your path in life enables you to be able to find that time or to follow the passion or to follow your inspirations.
Toni: So that’s how you have put that into practice here in Berks County.
Kevin: Yes. I think with a lot of different things. Of course, another quick story is that I moved to Kutztown a few years ago. I used to play in a punk band and I worked at the Lehigh Valley Mall. We had these kids that would always be hanging out there. We called them “mall rats.” They were always around, 11-12. I was in Kutztown. I was watching a band, and some girl came up and tapped me on the shoulder. She says, “Do you remember me?”
I said, “I guess I do.” We’re older now. It was one of the girls who used to hang out at the mall. She said, “Wow, I haven’t seen you in years. I have a friend of mine you have to meet.”
I said, “Okay, sure.”
She ordered pizza and invited this guy over to her house and said, “This is my friend, Mark Steel.”
I said, “Great.”
Then, just meeting him, he introduced me to a whole different world in Kutztown, which is basically the creative world. I was able to meet the people that I needed to meet just by her saying, “You have to meet him.”
Toni: Right.
Kevin: Which led me to meeting my future business partner, Paul David, and his wife, Robyn. A situation arose in my life where he had a business that he wasn’t really doing much with, but it was already there. He just didn’t have enough time on his hands. He said, “Kevin, I have this business. You run it, and you can become part-owner.” That’s what we did, and that’s where we’re at right now.
Toni: That’s fantastic!
Kevin: That’s what brought us together here today.
Toni: There really are a ton of connections going on here. It’s amazing. Who in Berks County inspires you?
Kevin: I would say my mother is a spiritual person. I’m not so much. I believe that the universe is your spirit, but I take her to church every Sunday. We have a younger pastor. We call him Pastor Nate. It’s Cornerstone Church. It’s in Kutztown University. He’s very inspirational as far as always reminding me that it’s not for me, it’s basically I’m trying to do things for other people.
When I look back at all my jobs, whether it’s sales, healthcare, whatever – photography, even – it was always there. I loved doing it, but there was always something there, the reason I was doing it, and that was to help people. Most people who are in sales don’t view it that way. They kind of force people into buying what they think they should buy or what their manager tells them to tell them to buy, where my father was again a great inspiration to me in that. He always said that sales was the easiest job in the world. Just allow them to buy what they want to buy.
Toni: So your mother and father were great inspirations to you.
Kevin: Absolutely, yes. My family too. My brother. I have a brother in Los Angeles. He’s a musician as well. He played with Herman Hermits. I don’t know if you’re familiar with them.
Toni: I do remember.
Kevin: I have another brother in New Orleans who’s big in the hospital field. My sister is a high up manager with an insurance company in the Lehigh Valley here. We all have something. We all strive to do what we do, and that was basically because of the family unit that we had, which is hard to find anymore.
Toni: It certainly is. Anybody else in Berks County inspire you that you want to give a shout out to?
Kevin: Yes. I would say Robyn and Paul, especially Robyn. Paul too. Paul’s very creative. Just through meeting we found out we had a lot of mutual interests. He’s a filmmaker. He’s a graphic artist. Robyn is just crazy inspiration. It just finds her. It’s absolutely amazing. I think that I have some inspiration, but hers is unbelievable. She just does it. Whatever she has, she just does it. Whatever comes into her mind, she does it. She doesn’t hesitate. I think that that’s what gives her so much success, again, is the ability to do that.
Toni: I really love the way you disseminate the difference between inspiration and motivation. I really do.
Kevin, what would you like your legacy to be?
Kevin: Basically with my kids. I would hope that they would think that my work ethic was really good and that I was creative; a musician, photographer. Caring, loving, peaceful, anti-war. Just those types of things. I think would be a great legacy to leave behind.
Toni: That’s fantastic. Thank you so much for showing up for the Get Inspired! Project and answering the questions the way that you do. Thank you so much.
Kevin: It was a great opportunity. Thank you.
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living magazine. Today I have Kevin Shire with me. Hi, Kevin.
Kevin Shire: Hello. How are you doing, Toni?
Toni: I’m doing great. So, Kevin, take a moment and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Kevin: Okay. My name is Kevin Shire. I live in Kutztown currently. I have a son and a daughter, Gabby and Kyle. I was born in Millville, New Jersey and I moved up to Pennsylvania at about eight years old. I was in quite a few high schools. My father taught me basically a work ethic. He was a great man for that. He was a manager for a big company and we kept moving, which was kind of good for me, because I had to learn to meet people and things along those lines.
Basically, I’m a photographer and musician. I’ve had countless jobs. It would be an hour if I actually listed the jobs that I’ve had. Inspiration basically takes me different places, and I allow it to come.
Toni: Where are you currently now?
Kevin: I’m in Kutztown now.
Toni: What do you do?
Kevin: Right now I’m part-owner of a company called Pollock’s Keifer Pop, which is a healthy soda company.
Toni: Okay.
Kevin: I also share the office space with Robyn Jasko, who has Home Sweet Homegrown, which is in about 200 stores. It’s an organic pepper sauce business.
Toni: How do we get a hold of the drink and the hot sauce? Is there a place we can go look?
Kevin: Echo Hill would probably be the closest here, and we’re going to be in Berks County Living magazine coming up, so we should have some places listed in there. Mostly, New York, Philly, Lehigh Valley. Most of the health food stores carry it.
Toni: Okay. Let’s go into the Project.
Kevin: Sure.
Toni: Kevin, what does inspiration mean to you?
Kevin: Inspiration is hard to describe. It’s basically allowing the universe to find you and your skilled path or chosen path that you’ve done. I think a lot of people confuse motivation, inspiration and passion.
Toni: Oh – how so?
Kevin: I think that passion is more the thing that you do. Inspiration may have gotten you to do that. For me, it’s as a photographer. At some point, I was inspired to be a photographer, but that’s a trained skill. Motivation is something that kicks you and makes you go that direction, where inspiration just comes. It’s something that you can't really describe. It just flows and you follow it.
A great example would be I worked for a car dealership at one time, and I was really into photography, but I never really pursued it as a profession. A New York Times photographer was coming in to take a test drive in one of the trucks. My manager paired me up with him. I was really curious more about his job than my job.
At one point in the test drive he stopped the vehicle and he said, “Are you going to talk about photography this whole time, or are you going to sell me a car?” which I thought was kind of jerky at the time, but then I realized it.
I said, “I am a photographer.”
He said, “No, you’re not. You’re a car salesman. If you want to be a photographer, you better be a photographer.” That’s motivation.
Inspiration basically allowed him to come into my life. The motivation is that kick and going to the passion.
Toni: So the inspiration might open the door?
Kevin: Absolutely. You have to accept it. Again, inspiration is really for everything, but it’s mostly I think for creative processes. I was a band manager. Living in Hamburg I took a ton of photos of the town and just little stories on what happened. Another time I was driving down the road and I had to be at a meeting at 8:00. I always had a camera with me and I was driving across a bridge, and it was real early in the morning. There was a fog on the water. It was just something that I had to take.
Toni: You were inspired to do it?
Kevin: Yes, absolutely.
Toni: I understand.
Kevin: I missed the meeting. I got yelled at, the whole thing, but I’ve sold that photo countless times since then. It’s just something that you have to do. That’s what I think inspiration is.
Toni: So how do you take all of that and actually knowing the difference from when you’re inspired to be motivated and passionate about something, and put it into practice in Berks County?
Kevin: In Berks County, again I was a manager. To give you an example, I was a manager for a band. They brought me into their life. A friend of mine had just formed a band. They were in a basement. They said, “We know you know a lot about music and a lot about business. Can you come in and listen to us?”
I said, “Sure. I’ll do that.”
They were really good. I knew some things had to change. I basically worked really hard with them and got them from never playing out to opening for KISS in Hershey Stadium within seven months.
Toni: Wow.
Kevin: They also became one of the top bands in the world by Reverbnation and Ernie Ball, the string manufacturer. What made me do that? What brought me into them? That’s the inspiration.
I was laying in bed one night one time and I couldn’t sleep. It had just been raining. I got up and I said, “I’m going to take night photos.” I went through the whole town and I took black and white night photography. Never intended to use it. I just wanted to do it. There was just something that made me get up and do it. Deena Kershner from the Our Town Foundation in Hamburg saw the photos and said, “I want to put a calendar out.” They put a calendar out. I donated all the profits to them. Then the Reading Eagle came up and did an article on me and stuff like that.
It’s just that moment. I often describe it like … the reason I say it’s a skilled path is because let’s say I’m walking in a garden and I may be inspired to take photos just by looking at things. It’s not going to inspire me to fix my car, because my passion is that, or maybe cooking or something like that. That’s not going to inspire me to fix a car, but if I was a mechanic I might see something there that would remind me of fixing the car.
Toni: Sure.
Kevin: Inspiration kind of comes to you, but it’s kind of directed to your goal or your path.
Toni: Or to whatever your strengths are.
Kevin: Exactly.
Toni: What I’m hearing as well is that you might be inspired in the middle of the night or while you’re taking a photographer on a car ride to sell them a car and you might be inspired, but it’s recognizing that that’s an opportunity you need to act on.
Kevin: Sure. Sometimes you can. Sometimes you can't.
Toni: Right.
Kevin: Fortunately, my position that I have right now, my hours are pretty flexible. That’s the reason I can come here at 3:00 in the afternoon and not be at a job where I have to explain why I’m gone. Your path in life enables you to be able to find that time or to follow the passion or to follow your inspirations.
Toni: So that’s how you have put that into practice here in Berks County.
Kevin: Yes. I think with a lot of different things. Of course, another quick story is that I moved to Kutztown a few years ago. I used to play in a punk band and I worked at the Lehigh Valley Mall. We had these kids that would always be hanging out there. We called them “mall rats.” They were always around, 11-12. I was in Kutztown. I was watching a band, and some girl came up and tapped me on the shoulder. She says, “Do you remember me?”
I said, “I guess I do.” We’re older now. It was one of the girls who used to hang out at the mall. She said, “Wow, I haven’t seen you in years. I have a friend of mine you have to meet.”
I said, “Okay, sure.”
She ordered pizza and invited this guy over to her house and said, “This is my friend, Mark Steel.”
I said, “Great.”
Then, just meeting him, he introduced me to a whole different world in Kutztown, which is basically the creative world. I was able to meet the people that I needed to meet just by her saying, “You have to meet him.”
Toni: Right.
Kevin: Which led me to meeting my future business partner, Paul David, and his wife, Robyn. A situation arose in my life where he had a business that he wasn’t really doing much with, but it was already there. He just didn’t have enough time on his hands. He said, “Kevin, I have this business. You run it, and you can become part-owner.” That’s what we did, and that’s where we’re at right now.
Toni: That’s fantastic!
Kevin: That’s what brought us together here today.
Toni: There really are a ton of connections going on here. It’s amazing. Who in Berks County inspires you?
Kevin: I would say my mother is a spiritual person. I’m not so much. I believe that the universe is your spirit, but I take her to church every Sunday. We have a younger pastor. We call him Pastor Nate. It’s Cornerstone Church. It’s in Kutztown University. He’s very inspirational as far as always reminding me that it’s not for me, it’s basically I’m trying to do things for other people.
When I look back at all my jobs, whether it’s sales, healthcare, whatever – photography, even – it was always there. I loved doing it, but there was always something there, the reason I was doing it, and that was to help people. Most people who are in sales don’t view it that way. They kind of force people into buying what they think they should buy or what their manager tells them to tell them to buy, where my father was again a great inspiration to me in that. He always said that sales was the easiest job in the world. Just allow them to buy what they want to buy.
Toni: So your mother and father were great inspirations to you.
Kevin: Absolutely, yes. My family too. My brother. I have a brother in Los Angeles. He’s a musician as well. He played with Herman Hermits. I don’t know if you’re familiar with them.
Toni: I do remember.
Kevin: I have another brother in New Orleans who’s big in the hospital field. My sister is a high up manager with an insurance company in the Lehigh Valley here. We all have something. We all strive to do what we do, and that was basically because of the family unit that we had, which is hard to find anymore.
Toni: It certainly is. Anybody else in Berks County inspire you that you want to give a shout out to?
Kevin: Yes. I would say Robyn and Paul, especially Robyn. Paul too. Paul’s very creative. Just through meeting we found out we had a lot of mutual interests. He’s a filmmaker. He’s a graphic artist. Robyn is just crazy inspiration. It just finds her. It’s absolutely amazing. I think that I have some inspiration, but hers is unbelievable. She just does it. Whatever she has, she just does it. Whatever comes into her mind, she does it. She doesn’t hesitate. I think that that’s what gives her so much success, again, is the ability to do that.
Toni: I really love the way you disseminate the difference between inspiration and motivation. I really do.
Kevin, what would you like your legacy to be?
Kevin: Basically with my kids. I would hope that they would think that my work ethic was really good and that I was creative; a musician, photographer. Caring, loving, peaceful, anti-war. Just those types of things. I think would be a great legacy to leave behind.
Toni: That’s fantastic. Thank you so much for showing up for the Get Inspired! Project and answering the questions the way that you do. Thank you so much.
Kevin: It was a great opportunity. Thank you.
