Overcoming His Past: Keegen MacRae Becomes A Local Superhero On A Unicycle With Keegen Delivers (Motivational Speech)

In this episode, Reginald D interviews Keegen MacRae, the owner of Keegen Delivers, a unique delivery service in Haverhill, Massachusetts. From setback to success, Keegen overcame his troubled past and became a superhero in his community.

Keegen's business stands out as he delivers items on an electric unicycle with the slogan "store to your door." Keegen shares how his passion for electric unicycles led him to start his delivery business and he shares his spiring journey and the challenges he faced along the way.

Tune in to listen to Keegen's inspirational interview.

Keegen's YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@KeegenDelivers

Keegen's TikTok -  https://www.tiktok.com/@keegendelivers

Keegen's Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/keegendeliver

Transcript

Welcome to Real Talk with Reginald D. I'm your host, Reginald D. Today, I have an amazing young man on the podcast. His name is Keegan McCray. Keegan owns a delivery service business called Keegan Delivers in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Keegan's slogan is, store to your door. And what's unique is that Keegan delivers items on an electric unicycle. Welcome to the show, Keegan.

What's going on, Reggie? How we doing?

I'm doing good, man. I'm doing good. I'm so glad to have you on the show. I saw the way you roll up that hay roll with the electric unicycle doing the deliveries and all that kind of stuff. I was like, man, this is very unique and I have to talk to this young man and get him on my show.

Yeah, definitely. I'm happy to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

Yes, sir. Absolutely. So Keegan, what inspired you to start your delivery business, especially doing it on a electric unicycle?

So it started a few years back when I first discovered the electric unicycle. One of my buddies actually had one and he let me ride it around and I fell in love right away. I fell, but I fell in love right away and yeah, I loved it. And every waking moment when I'd be working, I would be thinking about, I can't wait until I get home to ride the wheel and then I'd get home and I'd be too tired. So another one of my friends actually told me, well, why don't you try to work for DoorDash? And that actually worked out great. I would get on the train because the train's right next to where I live actually. And I'd go into Boston every single morning at five in the morning and I would work all day long. I loved it. It was amazing. And then one day they deactivated my account and didn't even tell me why. I think it might have something to do with my past because there was no reason why. I don't know if they ran a background check or what, but I think that may have played a role in the fact that they deactivated my account. So I was left dumbfounded. I didn't even know what to do because that was my livelihood. That's what I did all day long. So I took a leap of faith and I actually decided, you know what, I'm going to try and do it on my own. So I went upstairs, I printed out some flyers and I literally went to every pizza place and every restaurant in Haverhill trying to get them like, Hey, take a chance. I'll take the deliveries for free. I'll show you how quick I am. And two restaurants actually took me on. So that's how people started to see, Hey, that's the kid on the unicycle delivering food. And then a few months after doing that, I decided to go direct to customer and it just absolutely blew up because everybody already knew who Keegan was and it kind of just became a trend. And now I can't go anywhere without people being like, Oh, you're Keegan, right? Yeah, you're Keegan. I see you on Facebook. It's awesome. I was just trying to have fun on my unicycle and still be able to earn a living. I never in a million years thought that it would become what it has. It's my everything. I'm all in on this. A lot of people ask me, do you have a second job? And no, I don't. I'm actually all in on this. I have to be available every day from eight in the morning until 11 at night. And I mean, sometimes it can be hard because. I'm geographically tied to the city because I'm my own employee. So if I'm not there to answer the phone, then my business, it'll lose notoriety, you know?

I really like what you said. You know, sometimes you have setbacks in life and you think it's over, but you got to understand there's something, if you have creativity inside of you, which everybody has, you can come up with something that's your own, like you've done, man.

And that's an amazing story.

That's an amazing story that I think you should share with everybody that you come in contact with.

Honestly, it doesn't even feel like a job. A lot of people say, how do you do it? Working 15 hours a day, seven days a week, if it's nice out. And honestly, because it's my own thing, I started it. It doesn't feel like a job. It was supposed to be just a hobby so I could do my hobby at first, but now it's become my thing. I don't know. It's kind of hard to explain it unless you've started your own thing and started it from the beginning and worked your way up and Now I just absolutely love every aspect of it. I could be exhausted and still be happy with what I'm doing.

Yes, because it's your own. That's what makes you grind a little more because it's your own. And so you got to set up in the background and everything.

Yeah. Yeah. I set up the camera so that you could. So after a year of my business, I saved up the money for all the materials to build my own mini shop, which it's just a shed, but it's for everything to do with my business. I got my three machines set up with the charging station. It's great because I used to have stuff laid out all over my apartment and now I have everything in one space. It's kind of cool. I got my own space to work on machines and whatever I want to do, you know, it's really nice. I love it.

Yeah, exactly. So Keegan, what strategies have you used to market and grow your business within the local community?

So when I first started, I was all about flyers. I was literally walking around from house to house, leaving flyers at front doors, knocking on doors, leaving flyers on the flag of people's mailboxes. That was good, but I didn't get enough reach. It was once I started my Facebook account and started doing like ads on Facebook and stuff like that, and doing more of like a social media thing, Aside from just delivering, that's what honestly helped it blow up. I started doing like little skits and videos and stuff to advertise and people loved it. It really took off. And the kids actually started calling me a superhero. I didn't come up with that. It was the kids literally started calling me the delivery superhero. And some of the parents would call me and be like, Hey, we need a delivery. The kids want the superhero to come and deliver. So I mean, the way kids' faces light up when they see me show up on the unicycle, they love it. It's awesome. It's awesome to see kids look up to me because in the beginning, people didn't really look at me that great because I had a past and I got in trouble. So people would look at Keegan and be like, oh, he's it's Keegan. But now I've literally had someone ask me if I could pick up their kid from the bus stop, like because the kid would be so excited. Obviously, I couldn't do it because of liability reasons. But that's kind of crazy that people actually trust me enough because of what I'm doing in the community. It completely turned around the way people look at me. And it feels so good. And it feels good to know that my mom is happy, too, with where I am in life. I know a few years ago when I was incarcerated, it was really tough on my mom. And now just to see the smile on her face with the way people talk about me and they're like, Oh, that's your son. Like it just feels so good. It does.

Yeah. Cause at the end of the day, man, everybody has something, but you took a setback. I don't call them bad situations, but sometimes a setback can be your comeback. And that's basically what you did. You had a setback and then you, figured it out, and then here you go, and you're killing it right now, man. And for Keith to look up at you and say, like, a superhero and things like that, man, that's amazing.

I mean, it wasn't all smooth sailing from the beginning, because I've had haters. I've had people go online and be like, oh, he's just casing out your house. And then people sharing, like, old news things of, like, when I got in trouble and just any way that they could try to tear me down. Like, you see me doing something good. If you don't have anything nice to say, just keep it to yourself. Like, you see me doing something positive, so why hate on that? I don't know. But in the beginning, there was a lot of people that, I wouldn't say a lot of people, but it was enough for it to kind of hurt me inside a little bit. But honestly, Haverhill, they The majority of the people stuck up for me and that's why I kept doing it. And now I don't have anybody come and say anything to me. Like everything is positive. If someone even tries to be negative, it's like, I don't even have to say anything. It's almost like everyone in Haverhill has my back already. So it's pretty cool.

Yeah. And then to think about it, man, when you walk into your purpose, your purpose is bringing power or you're going to always have a naysayers and all the people who's going. bring up your past, but once you're in your purpose, I realized that with my life, that once you in it, can't nobody take that away from you. So let me ask you a question, Kegan. Yep. Have you received any unusual requests from a client?

Oh yeah. The list just goes on and on. We'd be here forever if I told you everything, but just to give you a little idea, I've had parents call me, hey, I need you to come and pick up my kid's hockey stick and bring it to the boys club. Or I'd have someone say, hey, I need my gym shoes. I'm at the high school. So I'd go to their house, pick up their gym shoes. Back last summer, I used to be open 24 hours a day. Like, wow. I'd get a few hours of sleep during the night and wake up. I mean, the list just goes on and on. Yeah, a lot of people like wives, they'll have me drop off home cooked meals to their husband at work. So it doesn't just have to be at a restaurant. Instead of looking at me like a delivery driver, I'm more like an errand runner for hire. So people, they'll have me pick up a prescription, run over to Dunkin Donuts, grab a coffee and drop both of those off. Or, oh, hey, can you stop at the corner store too and grab me a two liter of Coke as well? I can make multiple stops. And it's the flexibility that people like. They can just shoot me a text and say, hey, I need this, rather than going on an app, trying to confirm, waiting for a driver to show up. They know that they can send me a text message. And if I say yes, they know that I'm going to be there very soon. So it's like people love the flexibility. They love to know that it's simple.

So how do you charge for different things like that? Do you charge like what time of night it is, what time of day it is?

Cause it's a, I stay in Haverhill. Normally I'm doing two or three deliveries at a time. So I try to hit things in a straight line. So my delivery fee is actually very low. It's only $5 for multiple stops. So, Hey, you need me to stop and get a prescription. Stop at Dunkin' Donuts. It's five bucks. But honestly, the fact that people are always happy with the service afterwards. So, I mean, yeah, obviously you get some non-tippers, but. I have a lot of repeat customers that call me every single day. And it's the tips that I live off of. So it enables me to be able to help people that really need it. Like I have an elderly lady that calls me every single week to pick up her prescription and she gives me five bucks and it makes me feel good to know that she can't go out and do it herself. And honestly, I'm sure she doesn't have much money to be just dishing out to delivery services or whatever. Some of my tippers, they tip me really well and it enables me to help out the rest of the community. It keeps me going. But yeah, it's just a flat rate of five bucks. That's how it's always been. And that's how it's going to stay.

So what keeps you motivated? I mean, you work in seven days a week, man, in Haverhill. And I know some tough days because I know that weather, man. I look at what the weather channel is like, man, it's cold up there. The weather is awful to me. How do you stay motivated?

So, I mean, we actually already talked about it a little bit before the fact that it's my own thing. I don't know. I've never really had a feeling like this before to, it's like, I want to nurture it. I want to build it, keep it going. You said when the weather's bad, the only time that I get a break is when it rains. So I shut down when it rains. In the future, if I end up being able to hire more people to drive around in their cars or whatever. then we'll open up when it's raining or when it's snowing. But that's the only thing is I close when the weather is bad. So we've actually had a lot of rainy days lately. So I've had a lot of time off. So it gave me a lot of extra time to record and work on advertising and other things that I wasn't able to do while I was out doing deliveries.

OK, so here's the thing. I want to plug this into my listeners. You got to be a special person to get on an electric unicycle and deliver stuff to customers. And you've been successful with it. I just want people to know that when you get in your 40s and 50s, don't get on a unicycle and go ahead and try to do this. Don't try this at home. You're going to be laying in the street somewhere. So beyond the practical aspect, what deeper meaning or message do you hope to convey through your unicycle deliveries?

Honestly, don't let yourself be defined by your past because you can turn it around and people will start to come around. So someone actually told me a saying, it's the rear view mirror is smaller than the windshield. And it's because you're always supposed to be looking forward. And at first, like when I first started out, I had my doubts. When people would start posting and saying negative things, I would let my past come in and I'd start thinking about how worthless it makes you kind of feel. I don't know. But I guess the saying is just don't let yourself be defined by your past because I mean, as you can see with me, you can turn it around. I never in a million years thought that I would be where I am now and It, it honestly, it feels unreal. It does. It feels like I'm in a dream every morning. I wake up and I never thought I'd be where I am right now.

Yeah. Because the thing about it is I just did a podcast, uh, this week and the title of it was you're good enough. And I think what happened with you, you had your past and a lot of people, you know, had a past and things like that. And one day you wake up, Hey man, I'm good enough. I can get this done. And once you believed in you. that's when things started happening. But first you got to believe when it's all said and done.

Yeah, yep.

So Keegan, how do you balance efficiency and safety while delivering on a unicycle? Because I know safety is a big thing, man. And people out there in cars, they can't drive. It's just crazy.

So one thing that I do is I try not to give people the opportunity to run me over. So I keep myself in a position where people can't. if that makes sense. Biggest thing is safety equipment. When I first started out, I used to just go out without any equipment on, no helmet, no nothing, and I just didn't care. And luckily, every time that I took a spill, I've had my equipment on, like even the bad ones, like the really bad ones, like hospital trip spills. I've been so lucky to have my gear on and It's the safety equipment is number one. I would have to say that the safety equipment, the lights at night, reflective stuff. But if you love something, you're going to do it just like skydiving. People still do it every day because they love it. This is my thing. I could get into an accident. And last year I actually got into an accident. I broke my collarbone. I broke my ribs and I broke my wrist. It wasn't a car accident. It was just a malfunction with my machine. I fell and I hit the ground. Luckily, I wasn't on a delivery or anything. I was just in like a back road. And the one thing that I thought of was my business. What am I going to do tomorrow? I'm not going to be open. And it was that motivation that got me back on the wheel of delivering four weeks later.

Wow.

I was out there with a splint on delivering pizzas. And ever since then, I haven't had an issue, no accidents, no nothing. And I mean, it's the safety equipment that saved me. If I didn't have that safety equipment on, man, I probably wouldn't be here today.

Wow, man. I'm glad you had it on, because safety is everything. But man, you got up that fast and went back to work. I always tell people that there's two things in life. There's will and there's skill. And the will always have to be stronger than the skill. And so that's why you bounced back so quick, because you had the will to do it and get your business back going.

Cause it's my own thing. The longer that I was away, the more Keegan delivers, the name just wears off. People forget about it. So I was just every day. That's all I thought about is, am I ready to go back to work? I'm ready to go back to work. And honestly, I just want to thank the doctor because if I didn't get the surgery on my shoulder, I was honestly so scared to do it. Everybody told me, Hey, do it. You're going to, you're going to feel way better. I've broke my other collarbone when I was a teenager. So I was thinking, you know what? No, I'm just going to let it heal the way it is. I don't want to be cut open. Literally that day when I got out of surgery, I mean, I still had all of the medication, so I was numb, but I was literally moving around. Like I felt good. And the day after my surgery is when I actually started working again. So if it wasn't for that doctor. I probably would have been out of work for another month, you know, it would have took that much longer to heal.

Yeah, man. That's amazing. So Keegan, what is your vision for the future for your unicycle delivery service? What goals do you have for it?

So in the future, I plan to, I'm looking into insurance so that I can bring on other people and hopefully expand my service past April, we'll get some people that live in Mithuen, some people that live in Lawrence, people that live in North Andover that will be on call. which that takes a lot because then I have to get someone to run dispatch, answer the phone. It's a lot more than just hiring someone and saying, here, do this. Haverhill is always going to be my thing. I'm going to keep Keegan Delivers the way it is. But the reason why I have the hashtag store to your door is I plan to make a second company. I'm going to keep Keegan Delivers the way it is and then start store to your door, which is the same exact concept. only it's going to be people driving around in their cars delivering, as opposed to being on a unicycle like me. If they want to be on an e-bike or whatever, so be it, do what you want. But liability wise, that's the best way to go. I've tried everywhere to get an insurance company that would ensure me being able to train people and do the unicycle thing, but nobody wants to take a chance on that. And it makes sense. I mean, if you don't know what you're doing, like me, then yeah, I mean, it makes sense. And obviously, I'm going to be looking to get someone that does the same type of customer service, people that will put a smile on the person's face, rather than it just being a delivery service. I want people to look at it the same way that they do vegan delivers.

And that's a smart way to go about it. Now it's just all part of the process. Yeah, you work the process, man, it will come to light at the end of the day. So what advice would you give others that are considering pursuing their passion in a non-traditional and conventional way that you did? Now, I'm not telling everybody to get out here and get a unicycle store delivering pieces, but, you know, their own authentic way, something they've never heard of, because I've never heard of stuff being delivered with an electric unicycle ever in my life. And I'm 52 years old. So what would you say to somebody who's trying to do something in an unconventional way?

The one thing I would say is never give up. No matter how gloomy it looks, no matter how out of this world it may look, it's not going to happen. Never say that. Because when I first started, it wasn't looking good for me. I mean, yeah, I had a few people that would call when I left the flyer at their house, but Spaziano's in Haverhill. really good guy. He's part of the reason why I became what I am now, because if people didn't already see me driving around, he's the one person that took a chance on me. I told him, you know what, let me do the deliveries for free. And he was like, I'm not going to do that here. Take your pizza and go. And I was back in like less than 10 minutes. And the expression on his face, he was like, OK, take that one. And the way he saw it, it was like a revolving door the way I would come and go. He's never seen that type of speed and efficiency before, because when you're in a car, especially in downtown April, you got to find parking. You got to sit in traffic. It's a lot of extra things that slow you down. Now, when it comes to the unicycle, it's so small and nimble that I can get around anywhere that I need to go. As long as it, I can pretty much drive it like it's a bicycle. So yeah, never give up and. If you try hard enough, eventually something will give and you'll get that much further and that much further. And it will give you the motivation to keep on and keep on because for a while I wasn't making any money. I was putting more money in than I was making because I'd either have a maintenance issue. One of my wheels would have a flat tire and I didn't always have three wheels. I started out with one. That one actually broke, had to buy another one. Then that one broke. I bought another one, fixed this one, ended up with two. And then probably a year after that is when I was able to save up enough money to buy a brand new one. And that's how I ended up with three. But for a long time, I didn't make anything between advertising and maintenance fees and just the weather. There was times where I've had people like even like people close to me have said, Hey, you should probably get a job. And I'd be like. I don't know, man, I'm all in on this and I'm glad that I didn't. I'm glad that I didn't give up. I didn't lose hope because now I've never been so happy in my life. I've never been so successful. I mean, I'm not going to say I'm making a million bucks a day, but I'm doing much better than I was before when I was doing DoorDash or landscaping or anything else that I've ever done. This is honestly the best I've ever been. I'm so happy at where I am now.

That's it, man. That's it. Because you got your own destiny in your hands. That's the main part about it.

Yep.

And I think that's the critical part people miss, that when you got your own destiny in your hand, man, you can go further than any company can take you. So, Kiki, how can people in Haverhill, Massachusetts reach you for their delivery service?

So, it's just a telephone number. I'm not sure if you're able to put it on the screen, but it's my phone number and I'm on every social media. My handle is the name Keegan delivers. So you can easily find me on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram. There's a lot of good content on there. So I definitely recommend, even if you're not from Haverhill, go and follow me and check it out because I'm always putting out cool videos and I like to involve the community. That's part of what I do. So. A lot of people, they love to get on camera and it enables me to get good content because people want to go online and say, hey, I'm on there with Egan or whatever. I don't know, but there's a lot of good content online and you should definitely go check it out on some of my social media platforms.

Yes, absolutely. I encourage all my listeners to go check it out because I watched it, man. It was cool as I don't know what.

Yeah, definitely, for sure. But Keegan Delivers, that's all you need to know. You type that in on anywhere and it'll pop up because there's such a presence online with that name now after a little over a year of me posting videos and other people posting, people doing reviews, and there's just a lot of talk. So I really built a presence online and it's pretty easy to find me if you type my name in. 

Yeah. And then once we're done, we'll get everything on the screen. We'd get everything posted. People can find you on things like that. So there you have it. Keegan McCray. Keegan, I thank you so much, man, for stopping by your busy schedule to hang out with me, man. It's an absolutely a blast, man. 

Hey, thank you so much for inviting me. I appreciate it. And I look forward to watching more of your podcasts. 

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And I appreciate that. Thank you for tuning in to Real Talk with Reginald D. If you enjoyed the show, please share with anyone you feel the need to take this journey with us on being a better you. See you next time.