We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Khyler Vick a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Khyler, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?

I flatlined once…
One day I had this brilliant idea to strap light tubes to my back and ride a bicycle neck first into a rope. The plan was to get clotheslined and fall flat on my back, breaking the fluorescent glass tubes into little pieces, only giving me small, minor cuts.
I was gathering a bunch of different footage to put together a Christmas special full of different Xmas related stunts like dressing up as Santa clause and jumping off the roof, kissing a tazer with a mistletoe above your head, chugging eggnog, etc.
So when it came time to film the clothesline stunt, we decided to paint the light tubes with red stripes to make them resemble candy canes and tape them to my back in the shape of a cross…
We’re ready to go, cameras are rolling, my heart is racing like it normally does before I do something stupid, the first attempt is about to go down when the rope snaps before I can get clotheslined to the ground. Nothing worse than getting blue balled during a stunt.
Round 2. I’m peddling the bike with 8 fluorescent light tubes duct taped to my bare back while wearing an elf hat. The rope hits my neck, whip lashing me straight to the ground. All seems to have gone according to plan. What no one could ever have seen coming was before I hit the ground my arms broke one of the light tubes, creating a razor sharp, spear like, object which is taped directly to my back. When I hit the ground the glass shot directly into my back puncturing my left lung. Of course I didn’t find all that out until I get to the hospital and get an X-ray and MRI. My chest cavity was covered in glass with pieces in my lung. Slowly breathing was getting harder and harder. The pain only increased as time went on. They transfer me to a bigger hospital that’s more well equipped to handle the type of surgery I needed. The next thing I know I’m getting hot flashes, feeling nauseous, the room is getting blurry, and the feeling of needing to urinate came over me all at once when BOOM…everything went black. I had flatlined. What the doctors and nurses didn’t know was I had sliced an artery which was slowly filling up my left lung and I was bleeding to death. Luckily they were able to give me a few chest compressions to get my heart pumping and rushed me to emergency surgery.
Surgery went well and they were able to get all the glass out of my body. Even having to remove a piece of glass that was resting on top of my heart. Needless to say I am extremely lucky to be here. Freak accidents happen when you least expect them. But I didn’t let that slow me down or discourage me from doing what I love. And that is being a complete idiot with my friends.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Basically I’m a complete ripoff of jackass hahaha no just kidding.
Since Oct 15th 2011 I’ve been uploading videos of me doing the craziest shit I could think of to the internet for anyone to enjoy.
My favorite thing to do then and still my favorite thing to do now is jump into pine trees from tall places. But I’m down to do pretty much anything I find funny, shocking, gross, disturbing. Whatever it takes to get a reaction out of someone.
I don’t think I’m special or talented but somehow I’m good at being an idiot.
I’ve had several tv appearances throughout my career from MTVs Too Stupid to Die, ridiculousness, and even the new Beavis and Butthead series.
My first paying gig was with AwesomenessTV, I was just 16 years old. I’ve gone on to do live performances at music festivals, and other live events.
I’m here for a bad time not a long time.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Be you and be consistent. Post what you’re proud of while also posting what you think the audience will enjoy. Be smart and go with the trends but also stand out from everyone else.
At the end of the day just have fun and do what makes you happy. People can tell if you’re being genuine or not.
Success may and will not happen over night but I promise you that if you never give you, good things will come your way.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I was very heavily inspired by the CKY movies from the late 90s early 2000s. Those were basically my Bible.
And once jackass 3 came out I was completely obsessed on an autistic level.
After Ryan Dunn died mtv made a documentary in memory of him and that’s when I knew I wanted to do what those guys did. They were so beloved and funny and crazy. I wanted what they had.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/khylervick
• Youtube: @khylervickstunts