Daily Inspiration: Meet Douglas Kenney

Today we’d like to introduce you to Douglas Kenney.

Hi Douglas, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My name is Douglas Kenney. I’m known on YouTube as “R-U Relentless and Unstoppable?”. My journeyman, where do I begin? My journey has been incredible. I am originally from Estes Park, Colorado. I was born there on June 28th, 1998, and raised for most of my childhood there. My journey began when I was just a toddler. When I was between three to four years old, I had a series of manias and was throwing temper tantrums and acting in ways that left my parents worried. I was hospitalized a few times from 2000 to 2002 because of the manic episodes. At age 4, I was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism, and an unspecified mood disorder. Unspecified mood disorder is a neurological condition in the brain that is just short of bipolar disorder. Because of these two things, I had a roller-coaster of an upbringing. I have two parents in my family, along with an older brother named Harrison. After struggling as a young kid in elementary, middle, and high school, I found my whole personality transformed when I connected with Andy McPhee for mentorship.

Andy McPhee first connected with my family in 2012 when a citizen of my hometown of Estes Park introduced him to Harrison, my older brother. Harrison and Andy coached with each other for four years before Harrison decided to do different things. Andy and I first met in Los Angeles during a family vacation in 2013. Andy and I decided to start mentorship and coaching in late 2016 when Harrison moved on. We coached and mentored each other for the next three-some years before we finally became business partners.

Andy conceived Relentless & Unstoppable in July 2020 through my inspiring story. As I said earlier, I have high-functioning autism (Asperger’s, to be exact), and I overcame hardships in my personal life. Next to dealing with emotions connected to my autism, I struggled with a severe addiction to soda, obesity (I was 300+ pounds at maximum.), being around toxic beings, loneliness, depression, and anxiety. I had two hospitalizations for mental breakdowns – in 2010 and 2014 and the third hospitalization in April 2022. I earned my graduation from high school, but at the expense of my mental health and the well-being of others. I also found myself going through a messy parental divorce in 2016, which, ultimately, was the turning point in my struggles.

After graduating, I started a YouTube channel where I interviewed race-car drivers, documented my attendance at NASCAR races, and publicized my travels to National Parks across America (From Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, and Sequoia National Park.). And then, in late 2019, when the global pandemic began to become a crisis, I finally quit my soda addiction. I lost over 100+ pounds in less than a year through Andy’s mentorship. While the world was in the pandemic, Andy McPhee noticed the breakthroughs in me and interviewed me about my journey with autism for my YouTube channel. At first, it was only going to be one interview. However, Andy had an idea also to interview his connections in the film industry. Soon later, what started as a 10-part series blossomed into a whole Zoom show & podcast that has raised eyebrows from across the world.

The Relentless & Unstoppable Show, as it progressed, opened tons of doors for Andy and me. We enjoyed the proud moments of such a genius idea and witnessed how the R&U platform impacted others. Andy’s acting son, Kodi Smit-McPhee, got nominated for an Oscar in 2022. Andy got to start his national acting classes, along with his work being accepted in the curriculums of the German educational system. I connected with several important people through the Woman of Achievement pageant in Scottsdale and the 2021 Music City Grand Prix in Nashville. The guests on the show, their breakthroughs, their stories, and my widely-publicized journey through my life led to the R&U platform becoming increasingly popular.

As the R&U platform grew in the next 12 months, we continued building more platforms. We started three other shows/podcasts about people on the railway, people with special needs, and people in the professional wrestling industry. Because of the guests who have appeared on Relentless & Unstoppable, we are now involved in several cases related to autism activism, mental health, anti-bullying, animal rescue, and many charities we promote in public.

It has been a journey that we are both proud of.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I had several struggles in this journey, especially when trying to achieve my dream of success. I started going to school at Estes Park School District between my preschool year in 2002 and up until the middle of my 8th-grade year in 2012. Although I was on medications for my autism and mood disorder, I continued having some rough moments, especially during school hours. On my first day of kindergarten, I walked into school feeling happy and excited for my first day at an ordinary school. The next thing that I remember, something happened, and I was told by my parents the next morning that I had to take the next day of school off for “over-aggressive behavior.” That’s when I realized that something about me was different. In 2002 and through 2003, I put on medications that almost completely stabilized my mood, although I continued having rough moments.

Over the next few years, I had an interesting education alongside other students in Estes Park that were memorable to me. And I still keep in touch with some of my EPSD schoolmates. Although I had rough moments with a couple of students, I got along well with the other students, and everyone was most polite to me and vice-versa. However, at the time, I didn’t connect with a lot of them nor hang out with them outside of school. The reason was because of this. Although the students did not dislike me, there were parts of my personality that many people thought were strange. As a result, I was not their first choice as far as being someone they would want to hang out with. At the same time, the students and I were young – still learning the ropes of life – and they didn’t understand, at their age, that they still had to be respectful to me and treat me like everyone else, even if there were parts of my personality that they didn’t like, as long as my behavior didn’t rise to a certain level, of course.

I got bullied by other students around the campus of EPSD. An exchange student from Scotland physically bullied me for two years. Afterward, the bullying I went through was more emotional – I would get excluded from activities, some at recess, but also some activities that I had to be part of for my education. This caused my academics to suffer slightly, and the teachers noticed it. My bullying mostly came to an end during 5th grade after an incident during a piñata contest where I was wrongly denied a turn by my class. In the aftermath of the piñata incident, the school principal – John Bryant – spoke to each class individually. He sternly warned them of serious consequences if they continued to exclude me from activities wrongly. Once that happened, many students learned, for the first time, the effects of bullying. And they also knew that as long as I went to school with them, they would have to deal with me and my circumstances.

Although I had some good moments with my family as a kid, I struggled with relationships, especially with my brother. Today, Harrison and I are way closer than we were as kids. However, when we were children, we had tons of rough moments. However, although there were several reasons why, they all boiled down to one thing. Harrison was significantly older than me and had way different interests than me. Harrison was ultra-serious and unemotional – it took a lot to make him upset.

On the other hand, I was the playful and energetic one who put fun above work. So, Harrison was Bert, and I was Ernie. This meant that a lot of the stuff I wanted to do, Harrison didn’t want to do. And if he did the stuff I wanted, he often did it begrudgingly. And, because of our age gap, our interests changed over time. For example, I liked Dora at three, and Harrison liked SpongeBob at 5 1/2 years old. And by the time I loved SpongeBob a few years later, Harrison had a new interest in classic movies. By the time I liked classic movies, Harrison had liked PG-13 & war movies. And this continued to go on.

In 2008, I told of my autism diagnosis and unspecified mood disorder for the first time. Although I was grateful that I finally knew why I was different, it marked the beginning of a downward spiral for the next decade. I felt like a failure for not performing like other students. I was lonely since I only had one friend during those years. And I was also struggling with a severe soda addiction that ruled my life for almost 17 years. When I was five years old, I had a can of Dr. Pepper for the first time, and it marked the beginning of the addiction – by 2005, I was coming to school with enormous bottles of Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, you name it, with my lunches. When I was told of my autism diagnosis, my soda addiction worsened, and I was about 215 pounds. For my then-age of 10 years old, that was pretty big. And although I tried many times to quit the addiction, I couldn’t find what I needed to quit it. On top of that, the soda addiction happened because I was draining my sorrows and depression into soda to help me feel better.

After elementary school, the next level was Middle School at EPMS. However, this part of my education was among the worst years. It was the first time that I had several classes with different teachers. This was very rough and hard on me. I was very confused because each class had different teachers with different rules. Because I struggled to know what people were expecting of me, this mentally drained me to the point of near-insanity, and I lost confidence in myself. My manic episodes, which mostly were on pause for a few years, came back. Although I got through the first year of middle school, I barely avoided failing the grade, and the next year, I continued having manic episodes. Although I had a good few months being a swimmer for the Estes Park Swimming Team – I won three rounds and helped the team clench the 2010 championship – my manic episodes got to a point where the school was thinking about a severe disciplinary action, which would have likely been a long-term suspension. If I was given this disciplinary action, I would not have returned to public schooling, until at least, my sophomore year of high school. To avoid this, Mom took me out of school for half a year, where I was given online education and adjusted my medications. And in November 2010, I got over-excited after a family get-together on Thanksgiving and hospitalized at Phoenix Children’s Hospital for a mental breakdown.

Although I returned to Estes Park Middle School the next year, I wasn’t expecting to go to school at Estes Park High School. Between 2009 and 2011, my family and I visited Arizona at sporadic points. Although they never said it directly, it was clear to Harrison and me that we would move to Arizona. And by December 2011, we confirmed our move. At first, we were going to move in the summer of 2012. However, move our moved on March 18th, 2012, in the middle of my 8th-grade year. We left Estes Park and relocated to Florence. Florence is a tiny town on the outskirts of Phoenix. When I left Estes, I didn’t make a spectacle. I didn’t host a goodbye party nor tell my schoolmates that I grew up with. I only told my longtime best friend – Damien Moore – about my move. Unless he told my schoolmates anything, I believe it was a situation where I just left Estes quietly, and when I didn’t come back, they figured out what happened.

After leaving Colorado, I had a rough adjustment. Most of my former schoolmates in Estes didn’t speak with me again afterward (unless I reached out to them first), although I reconnected with a good portion of them years later when I got older. When we moved, Walker Butte Middle School offered me a deal to be educated for the final two months of school before moving on to high school at Florence High School. However, I came to Walker Butte Middle School while going through mania and other rough struggles. Walker Butte had enough issues to get involved in the struggles that I was going through. It didn’t work out, and, after only 1 month with the school, they canceled the remainder of my 8th-grade year and let me proceed to high school.

My years in high school began in July 2012 when I walked into Florence High School for the first time. After a rough adjustment, I formed a tremendous relationship with my teacher – Shawndra Bird – who was in charge of my program. She saw my interest in creative writing as an opportunity to help me overcome my struggles with education. Taking advantage of my creative interests, she offered a learning experience where she would invest in my writing, help me write and publish a book, and grade me off of it. Mrs. Bird had connections to Amazon’s publishing company, so the opportunity worked out. I published an autism-friendly book in July 2013 after the project concluded. Because of her investment in my writing, my first year was statistically the most successful year of my education. However, Florence High School, although allowing the project to happen, marginalized Shawndra’s role in my education and tried to claim credit for the success even though they, in reality, had been against it. Shawndra was very hurt and announced her departure at year’s end.

Once Shawndra left, it was the catalyst for my downward spiral resuming. Although my sophomore year was also successful, my relationships with staff members started slowly crumbling. Florence High School also abruptly replaced my longtime para-professional – Mrs. Virginia – in a way that hurt many other students and me she worked with. Virginia and I had a terrific relationship, and the way it played out had blindsided me; first of all, I didn’t see her departure coming when it did. And on top of that, the situation got worse when I tried to reconnect with her in the years afterward – Virginia ghosted me whenever I contacted her. While this wasn’t the direct reason for my struggles, it didn’t help the situation.

FHS replaced Virginia with Scott Merriman. Scott Merriman, at the time, was an ex-border patrol agent working at FHS to transition to a career in juvenile. FHS replaced Virginia with Scott, hoping that Scott’s no-nonsense personality would help properly discipline me. However, it didn’t work. Although Scott and myself did have some good moments, we didn’t have the connection as para-professionals and students. And, as my downward spiral progressed, I think I drove him away. Then again, he said he would leave FHS for his juvenile career anyway, but my downward spiral didn’t help keep him as my para-professional.

After two years of tremendous hardship and struggles, my life worsened. I had a 2014 hospitalization for another mental breakdown. My junior year was a washout – I had my first penalties in my high school education and got suspended five times and put in detention 10 times. And my academics were lower than in my previous two years. My senior year was even worse. If I counted correctly, I got suspended a record 30+ times – whether by ISS or off-campus suspension. And my relationship with the staff and administration of FHS had become absolutely toxic to the point where we couldn’t work together effectively anymore. Although we stuck out towards the end of the school year, we were just ready to be done with each other by year’s end.

In January 2016, with five months left in my senior year, my parents had a messy falling-out that led to their divorce. Both Harrison and me were very supportive of the divorce, although we still loved our parents equally. Once the divorce happened, my attitude changed, and my world views changed for the better. My attitude changed enough that I survived my really bad senior year. I graduated on May 26th, 2016, although, because of my parent’s divorce and the depression I was living with, I didn’t have the same emotions as my schoolmates or my former schoolmates in Estes.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am known for editing videos, creating logos, creating promotional flyers, and having coincidental meetings with famous people, most notably the iconic Roger Penske. I also am a professional author. I have written 8 books, one of which is best-selling. My best-selling book is my Dr. Seuss – inspired children’s book, “Throw All of the Junk Food Away!”.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Andy McPhee deserves half the credit for what I do. None of my success would have happened without his mentorship. Andy’s mentorship transformed me – physically, mentally, and in a good way. He has been my mentor since 2015 and is one of my best friends ever. I’d be where I was in 2016 without him.

Pricing:

• $35-$40 for an R&U baseball cap.
• $35-$40 for an R&U t-shirt.
• $10 – $35 for a flyer.
• $10 – $35 for a logo creation.
• $25 for my children’s book.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @relentlessandunstoppableshow
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/douglas.kenney.1
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTqNwvkLP0aqfjD0KlUD6Mw

Image Credits
Christine Hotchkiss, Amy Morrison, Jamie Kenney.