Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Douglas Kenney. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Douglas, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Sure. My name is Douglas Kenney. I’m a young social media figure known for the “R-U Relentless and Unstoppable?” YouTube channel, which has 3 podcasts behind it – Relentless and Unstoppable, Stories From Motorsports, and Stories From Motorsports International. I honestly have 4 risks that I’ve taken that have changed my life.

I am originally from the tiny town of Estes Park, Colorado. Yep. I lived high in the mountains where there are tons of elk, moose, mountain lions, wilderness, forestry, the Rocky Mountain National Park, along with snow, snow, snow, wind, snow, blizzards, snow, snow, and snow. Oh and I forgot one other thing…snow! And I can’t forget about snow…(Chuckling). I lived there for 14 years until I moved to the desert of Arizona at the end of 8th grade. At age 4, I was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, along with a mood disorder that originally was diagnosed as unspecified mood disorder, before it was rediagnosed to Bipolar Type II, a couple years ago. Because of these two conditions, I had a roller-coaster of an education. I had some good years in school, with a handful of bad years. I struggled to connect with people and, sadly, I had a history of burning bridges with some of my teachers and para-professionals as I grew up.

High school was overall, better than what I got in Estes Park. I went to a high school in a tiny town in the outskirts of Phoenix. It started out good. However, a very important teacher involved in my journey walked away from the high school at the end of my freshman year, and not long later, a para-professional that was a key reason to my freshman year’s success walked out as well. I was very disappointed to lose them as members of my education, but tried to move on as best as I could. Sadly, things went downhill in the middle of my sophomore year. I witnessed things that I had rarely been exposed to in Estes Park. I witnessed violence, bullying, suicides of classmates at a young age, toxic teachers, toxic administration members, door-slamming, yelling, screaming, and students just dealing with a lot of stress that nobody needed. I also was struggling because the staff of the school changed over the course of my 4 years in high school, and they were so bossy, rude, and indifferent about their students to the point where me and other students had to walk on eggshells around them. It was absolutely miserable. When I graduated on May 26th 2016, after a very tumultuous senior year, I was happy, but I was happy in the sense of, “I am getting out of dodge and never coming back.”

After graduating, I didn’t know what to do for the rest of my life. I didn’t have a plan in place for post-graduation because of all the chaos I was in. Alongside that, I was having some personal problems in my personal life, some familial turmoil, and sadly it affected how I performed in school and affected how I interacted with other students. At the end of 2015, months before my graduation, I had a feeling my parents were nearing the end of their marriage. I was quickly proven correct. Although my parents denied a separation/divorce at first, my biological father returned to Colorado in January 2016, and never came back. By February, they both admitted to me that they were divorcing. This was the turning point in my struggles. At the end of 2016, I met up with Hollywood television and film actor Andy McPhee, whom we knew personally, and asked to join his life coaching class. This was a huge risk I was taking, as I had to learn the ropes of what the world expected from me. It all paid off. We quickly became best friends, not just friends, but brothers. Although Andy was not, and was NOT interested, in replacing my biological father, he was able to fill the hole that I had inside of me. I quickly became Andy’s golden client, and we did mentorship for the next few years after 2015. This was my first risk that paid off.

Alongside my struggles in school, I was heavily medicated and struggled with a serious addiction to soda. The addiction began when I was 5 years old after I was offered and drank a bottle of Dr. Pepper. Although the Dr. Pepper offer from the person was innocently meant, it was the start of something really serious. This addiction was very toxic and led me down a really dark path. My soda addiction caused health problems, serious weight gain at an early age, obesity, and also led me to steal/shoplift things to support my addiction. When I first met Andy during a trip to Los Angeles in 2013, before our mentorship, he saw how morbidly obese I was for my age and told the harsh truth. He said to me, “You really got to quit drinking all that soda, or you will have health problems for the rest of your life.” Although I knew he was correct, I couldn’t succeed at the time because I just wasn’t ready to make a life-changing decision. Afterwards, we tried going to a nutritionist to do blood work and after seeing how inflamed my body was – my blood contained a lot of fungus, yeast, and other infections caused by all the soda I was drinking – she told me to eat an apple every day. The work with the nutritionist was stopped after I didn’t listen to her instructions, and I kept drinking tons of soda every day.

On March 6th, 2020, on the day that America shut down because of the global pandemic, Andy and I spoke. I had 4 restless nights in a row because of all the caffeine I was drinking. By that point, I was drinking 5 2-liters of soda per day and I was having panic and anxiety attacks during the day and night. By the time I lost a lot of sleep on the 4th day, I finally snapped out of it. I said a prayer to God and told Andy McPhee the next day that I was ready to quit the addiction. I also informed my Mom – whom I was still living with after high school – of my decision. I went into my closet, took all the bottles of soda that I had, and dumped them down the toilet. This was the next big risk that I took. Afterwards, I went through a very difficult three weeks of withdrawal and had to sleep on the couch just feeling really sick, tired, and under the weather. By the time I was one week without drinking soda, I was not in a good place and was contemplating suicide, until I suddenly got a phone call – out of the blue – from my friend and former schoolmate Devon Spisak, who told me that he was told by God that I was struggling and needed to talk to me. After a very nice chat that lasted for 30 minutes, Devon said a prayer for me – the most touching prayer I ever heard to the point that I cried tears of joy – and I had all I needed to move through this withdrawal. By the time 3 weeks went by, the panic attacks ended, and things started to get back to normal. However, I didn’t feel 100% like myself until 6 to 7 months later. It was that bad of an addiction. Soon later, I began changing up my diet through Andy’s mentorship and I quickly began losing weight. I began exercising more, and I spent many days just walking and walking around my neighborhood, losing tons of weight. When I quit soda, I weighed 320+ pounds, and I quickly dropped to 215 within 11 months afterwards.

I had to mend a lot of fences when I finally decided to end my addiction on March 6th of 2020. The addiction lasted for 17 years total. That was one of the best days of my life – freeing myself from the addiction. That was a huge risk I took, and it transformed my world. It would not have happened without Andy McPhee’s mentorship. Soon later, I decided that I wanted to go into the podcasting industry, which was the result of a decision from a few years before. While doing my mentorship with Andy McPhee, I started a tiny YouTube channel at the end of my senior year. I titled it Blue Flag Media, and originally, I was going to partner with my best friend, Damien Moore, into making creative video work. I was hoping to use the channel to eventually launch BFM as a business. However, Damien was going through some personal struggles after high school, and I got the opportunity with Andy McPhee. So, our partnership ended after one year. Damien was confused, as it was my decision to cease, and he didn’t understand why I abruptly left. However, once he saw my success with Andy McPhee, he understood. We still remain as friends.

The channel began slowly. I uploaded tiny videos and shorts, and also attempted to record a video series called Making Light of Autism, hoping to raise awareness about autism and the importance of diversity. I was hoping it would turn into a YouTube show. However, it didn’t really get off the ground. It rarely got likes or views, and the most of the 101 episodes didn’t make the cut for uploading to the channel. Only 15 episodes aired on the channel. After that, I gave up on the show, and uploaded videos documenting my travels to National Parks between 2016 – 2019, where I visited Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Sequoia National Park, etcetera. I also uploaded a few interviews I did with former race-car drivers in early-2017, which is the earliest I did podcasting, along with footage from the NASCAR races I attended. I am a longtime fan of motorsports and was a devout NASCAR fan for many years. Now I am a devout follower of sports-cars, Trans-Am, IMSA, GT America, IndyCars, Monster Trucks, Stadium Super Trucks, and IndyCars. Anyway, after 2018, I decided, on advice from a friend, to rename BFM to MovieMakerDoug55, and I connected with a former Canadian sports-car team owner Victor Sifton. On his advice, I reached out to some racing figures that Vic knew to do interviews again after pausing for two years. Once this happened, my channel finally began gaining attention and traction. It began to engage with the audience. My 2019 interview with Buz McCall – a former NASCAR team owner – was popular and gained thousands of views within 24 hours of posting. I continued with interviews with SCCA driver Tommy Kendall, NASCAR crew chief Frank Kerr, NASCAR Truck Owner Billy Hess, McDonald’s CEO Ed Rensi (who owned a Busch Series team in NASCAR), Kevin Lepage, and many others. Over time, I went from 500 subscribers, to gaining thousands of subscribers every year. Between 2013 until then, I had published several books and became the best-selling author of a kids’ book titled “Throw All of the Junk Food Away!”.

By the time that 2020 began, as I said earlier, I decided to become a podcaster. My hope was to take advantage of the wisdom I gained over the years, the skills I learned in my senior year multimedia class, and the global pandemic, to bring positivity to the world. So, for the then-named MovieMakerDoug55 channel, I decided to keep the interviews going, as I decided on the name of the series of interviews. I realized, from advice from a professional podcaster, that I needed a co-host. I asked a friend named Sean Hoy to be part of it, but he had too much going on with his company, Hoylarious Studios, and I decided to keep looking elsewhere until I found one. In the meantime, Andy and I became closer and after doing more interviews with racing figures, I began taking it to the next level. I interviewed Adrian Hall – the child actor of Jeremy Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I also interviewed the producer of the Prince of Egypt, Penney Finkleman-Cox. Right after that interview, Andy McPhee noticed how much I had changed since giving up soda and he decided to do an interview with me for the MovieMakerDoug55 channel. We did a 40m episode documenting my journey and how I overcame struggles. After uploading that video, the channel gained a lot of traction and even attracted the attention of former schoolmates in Arizona and Estes who finally understood why I struggled in my education.

After that, Andy came up with the idea to interview people similar to me. We interviewed Australian actors such as Richard Norton, Troy Coward, Tyson Jarvis, Sam Greco, and mental health advocates such as Melissa “Mel” Yu, Sam Webb, Matt Runnalls, and even American international kick-boxer and actor, Jerry Trimble. Originally we were limiting it to only 10 episodes, but after seeing a lot of engagement, views, likes, and support from fans, we decided to turn it into the podcast that I had wanted to start. We renamed the channel to “R-U Relentless and Unstoppable?” and the series of interviews became the “Relentless and Unstoppable” podcast. We also agreed to separate my motorsports interviews and videos into a different podcast aside from Andy McPhee. I took all my racing videos and interviews, and created Stories From Motorsports. After SFM became very popular, I decided in 2021 to take it internationally and I created a spin-off of SFM called SFM International, which focuses on drivers from around the globe. SFM focuses on American racing figures, and SFM International focuses on drivers around the world. As far as, R&U, originally Andy McPhee and me were going to call it “Fearless and Unstoppable”, but we changed the name after a couple days because the acronym would have been “F-U”, and we would not allow that message. Andy encountered a book and inspired by the name, decided on Relentless and Unstoppable.

R&U quickly became very popular. We quickly got guests to share their stories of overcoming hardships and achieving amazing things. We had hundreds of guests on a waiting list within a year of beginning it. And me and Andy were praised for our amazing channel by so many people around the world. Unfortunately, as time went on, I began having some personal struggles. My success caused me to develop some ego problems and I was sometimes forgetting that it was “Relentless and Unstoppable”, not “The Doug Show.” I was dealing with trauma from my previous familial turmoil and high school years, the chemistry in my head was starting to get to me, and I began experiencing Bipolar-type symptoms. After an insurance change in 2019, I went on a brief downward spiral that lasted for a few years until July 2022 when I was diagnosed by my new doctor with Bipolar Type II. In 2022, I kept the R&U channel running as Andy took a break from being co-host of the podcast. However, I was having problems sleeping at night, I was a night-owl, and I was getting easily upset over the tiniest things. Rock bottom, for me, was summer in 2022, where I was so emotionally dysregulated, that Mom had to take a lot of time off from work, and I was making poor choices. The poor choices were not crimes or illegal, but they were ones that landed me with 2 voluntary medical evaluations, and 2 voluntary hospitalizations. Back in 2010 and 2014 I had been hospitalized at Children’s Hospital in Denver and Phoenix after having anger outbursts that led to mental breakdowns. Because of my struggles between 2019 – 2022, I ended up getting 2 more hospitalizations and 2 medical evaluations (although I was discharged from evaluation after 24 hours each time).

Around that time, Mom was trying to get me into some therapy classes for people on the autism spectrum. She reached out to Southwest Behavioral Health and I was selected to be in the SACE program. The Southwest Autism Center of Excellence. In this program, I would be driven by Veyo medical taxis, to this house in Phoenix where I, along with other autistic clients, would learn life skills and develop the skills needed to live independently. Although I agreed to participate in this, I was very scared. It was a huge risk. It meant that I had to change my bedtime routine and get into a habit of waking up earlier. Eventually, with support from Mom and Andy, I finally was able to change my routine and get into the habit of being an early bird. It wasn’t easy, but I did it. Over time, I began enjoying being in the program, beginning it on May 2nd, 2022. After my July 2022 Bipolar Type II diagnosis, I began to finally regain control of my life. I continued running the R&U show for the rest of 2022, and, by 2023, I took some TMS treatment to help me with controlling my occasional mania and depression. The TMS treatment helped a lot, and, to make things better, I got Stories From Motorsports and SFM International going again. SFM International started off slowly compared to the others, because while I had some good guests on it, I had tons of other race drivers and racing figures that either said they weren’t interested, or they couldn’t speak English and otherwise would have been interested.

I also was able to have a lot of fun in 2023. I visited Astoria, Oregon, where I saw some of the filming sites from the Goonies movie. I also ran into IndyCar competitor and the guy who was screwed out of an Indianapolis 500 win in 2002, Paul Tracy, at the airport. I also went to Montana to visit an elementary school and middle school friend that I hadn’t seen in years. Aside from all that, from 2015 to this very day, I’ve been lucky enough to randomly run into famous people and celebrities. In 2015, I met my favorite race driver and childhood hero, Jamie McMurray. In the years afterwards I ran into Derrike Cope, Kyle Larson, Tanner Berryhill, Al Unser Jr., Roger Penske, Frank Kerr, Coy Gibbs, John Schneider, Scott Borchetta, Nick Vujicic, The Dog Daddy, the mayor of Scottsdale, Mike Cope of Mike Cope Enterprises, Gray Newell, Angela Savage, Arie Luyendyk, the cameraperson who witnessed and filmed the tragic death of Steve Irwin, and a few other big-names. I also, at age 5 years old, met Robert Ballard, the discoverer of the wrecks of Titanic and other major ships. However, I didn’t understand the significance of Mr. Ballard at that age, obviously. By the end of 2023, I felt very happy with how the year turned out. I felt like it was the best year of my life since a good year that I had in 2018. I had lost 50 more pounds and reached my goal of dropping below 200 pounds. I was glad that I got my SFM and SFM International podcasts going again, and I was happy to have gotten some major guests onto R&U, such as the child actor of Mike Teavee, Paris Themmen from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

The fourth risk I took was when I completed my first level of therapy at SACE. After that level, the next step was living in an autism-supportive community home in Scottsdale. Because I performed significantly better than other clients at SACE, it was decided within a year of me joining the program that I would be next in line to live in the home, which can only house 5 people. Every Friday at SACE, the group and me would hang out with the adult boys that lived in the home in Scottsdale. For their protection, I won’t reveal their names. But even before I got to SACE, a couple of the adult boys I had known for many years. And so the two boys and me were really excited to live together. However, during my final months of 2023, tensions mounted between Mom and me as we prepared for me leaving the nest. My older brother had left the nest in summer of 2018 and Mom had been reliant on my help since then, when it came to taking care of the house. I also was trying to make my own adult decisions in preparation of moving to Scottsdale, and Mom got annoyed when I began making financial decisions without her consulting/consent.

However, we were able to part amicably when I moved to the Scottsdale home in February of this year. Like I was when I first began SACE, I was very scared about this change. I had been dependent on Mom since I was born, and now I was going to be my own boss and making my own choices. This caused a little bit of anxiety that some people at SACE noticed during a 2023 Christmas party. Nonetheless, I knew I had to do it. So, I took the risk. Within one week, it felt like home and, over the past month and a half of me living there, I’ve had fun and it made me feel empowered. It caused me to realize that the source of my trauma post-high school was the fact that I wasn’t in the right atmosphere, and it stemmed from the fact that I was not allowed to be myself, 100%.

So, yes, those are my four risks that I’ve taken that have paid off – Andy’s mentorship, me quitting my soda addiction, joining SACE, and moving into the Scottsdale home. They were tough risks, but I pulled them off every time.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got into my social media industry in 2011. I first started using Facebook in February 2011. It started out very small. I added most of my Estes Park schoolmates as my Facebook friends, along with relatives, and people I trusted or knew. I was introverted back then, before I became a renowned podcaster. So, I only added people I knew. However, I had a hard time with gaining engagement, likes, comments, or messages. The reason why was because my Facebook page was brand-new, and you don’t usually get engagement right away. Aside from that, I became an unpopular user on Facebook because I didn’t have a filter for my mouth. I got into a lot of trouble in school and in the real world partly because I spoke whatever was on my mind. When I went to school, students were usually not allowed to speak their mind unless they sugarcoated whatever it was they wanted to say. If not that, the attitude was, “If you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all.” Me, on the other hand, I was more honest and open. I felt that sometimes the truth hurts, and if I didn’t like someone or something, I didn’t hesitate to openly admit it, sometimes in front of the whole class. It embarrassed a lot of my teachers.

I also irritated some teachers by correcting them in front of the class. For example, during a history lesson in my freshman year, my teacher – Mrs. Erin Karten – got corrected by me over a fact regarding the Pocahontas and John Smith story. When we got to that point, she said that Pocahontas and John Smith had a romantic relationship. I responded by raising my hand and saying, “Actually, Mrs. Karten…that’s incorrect. Historians have proven through research that while Pocahontas saved John, they never got together romantically. Pocahontas was in a relationship with John Rolfe.” Mrs. Karten looked absolutely embarrassed, and after an awkward moment, she moved on with the lesson. Another time, during a class on government, my teacher – Mr. Wooton – he said that the NY Times vs. Sullivan case resulted from an appeal by the Times regarding an advertisement by Martin Luther King Jr., who was being sent to prison under the decision of LB Sullivan, who briefly successfully sued the Times for libel. I interrupted him and said, “Sir, that’s not correct. The case resulted from a Civil Rights advertisement written with minor inaccuracies that implied that a commissioner in Alabama named LB Sullivan was trying to use violence to silence the Civil Rights Movement, and the advertisement used Martin Luther King Jr.’s imprisonment as an example. Martin Luther King Jr. had little or nothing to do with what was written in the advertisement.” Mr. Wooton stood silent for a few moments, probably confused but knowing I was correct, before continuing with the lesson.

Aside from annoying people with my mouth, I was able to build a decent following on Facebook. By the time I left Estes, I had 3.5k Facebook connections and I became well-known in the NASCAR community as a blogger and promoter of the sport. I started making friends in the NASCAR industry whenever I went to see races at Phoenix Raceway. However, in 2014, during my teenage years, I became very unpopular in the NASCAR community and on Facebook in general. During the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series season, the sport came under controversy because of one specific driver. The driver, Brad Keselowski, had won the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series championship for Team Penske, and then had a slower year in 2013 where he missed eligibility to compete for the championship. Brad had chosen in 2013 to represent the sport well by driving clean. However, he missed the 10-race Chase for the championship, and he mistakenly thought that his decision to drive clean was the reason he missed the championship. However, he was not entirely truthful or accurate about that. Earlier in 2013, Brad and his team got penalized with fines, suspensions, and point deductions for allegedly trying to cheat with two illegal cars. They appealed but lost the appeal. Although it was partly true that Brad missed the Chase by driving clean, he would have made the Chase that season if he and his team had not tried altering their cars illegally, therefore not losing the valuable points.

Once I lost most of my following, it took me a long time to regain it. I started rebuilding my following on Facebook, started an Instagram page that is now on pause, and I started my main platform – my YouTube channel. Within a couple years after 2016, I reached 5,000 Facebook friends, along with 500 extra Facebook followers, and I started reconnecting with former schoolmates from Estes Park. I also started connecting with some former schoolmates at my high school, some of whom thought that I was weird at the time, and, as I said, I became a popular YouTuber over time. I got followers by promoting my channel on Facebook groups where I connected and subscribed to people’s channels and vice-versa. I also started attending events involving connecting with people. Through Andy McPhee, I attended Woman of Achievement pageants and gained a lot of respect from amazing women and contestants. I also attended Tim Tebow Night to Shine between 2017 – 2020, connecting with more people and befriending some of my partners on those evenings.

I also continued attending NASCAR races, where, ironically, I ran into Brad Keselowski one time and had a good interaction with him. Over time, I softened on my views about Brad, to the point where I recently rejoined his fan club and became an RFK fan, like I said previously. I mean, at the moment, obviously, we’re not on each other’s Christmas card lists anymore…not that we ever were…but the bottom line is, I’m past all that stuff. He’s a great race-driver and I would love to meet him in-person once again in the future, but this time as a huge devout fan. Plus, you obviously say stuff in the heat of the moment and I just made poor choices back then, the way Brad made poor choices in 2014. And, recently, as 10 years since my smear campaign approaches, I was relieved and happy to see on RFK Racing’s Instagram page, him having a great moment with Kenseth after being each other’s worst enemies for a few years. So, time heals all wounds. But anyway, the reason why I got into my social media work is because of my abilities with writing engaging content, the wisdom I got from my tumultuous past, but most importantly, Andy McPhee. Without his mentorship I would not be where I am now. Me and Andy did briefly lose some following on Facebook and YouTube a couple years ago after we brought on a guest for R&U that has controversy surrounding his name. But we quickly rebuilt it, and, as of November of 2023, we regained the number of followers we lost.

What R&U provides is a platform for people to share their stories to inspire others. We are philanthropic towards many good causes. We promote autism awareness, anti-bullying, suicide awareness and prevention, mental health, equine therapy, acting intensive classes, life coaching, and the products that our guests sell. We are heavily loyal to our guests and promote their own business interests on our channel. We also have a line of merch for all of the podcasts I am involved in, including R&U, which you can find on Bonfire. We do NOT profit off the merch. We donate 90% of our proceeds to charity, while keeping only a tiny percentage for ourselves so we can continue operating our podcast and channel. The channel has become so popular that we recently broke through to 10,000 subscribers, we’re almost halfway to 1,000,000 views on the channel, and, on all our platforms for R&U – Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Anchor.fm – combined, we have 3,000,000 views. It’s just been amazing how a tiny channel has grown in such a short period of time.

What I am proud of, is the fact that I learned a lot of lessons. Ever since the whole Brad Keselowski fiasco, I have said many times on the channel – especially to people who ask me for advice on social media – “Remember that social media can be very dangerous. It makes it very easy for people to say or do things that they would certainly never say or do if they’re facing an actual person.” Andy and I use social media to bring positivity to the world for the purpose of inspiring others. However, we will occasionally post a video of our low moments too, so that we can help remind our followers that life isn’t perfect, and we’re not living in a fantasy of “Our lives are perfect.” Trust me, there have been moments where I’ve been so pooped and so burnt out that I’ve wondered, “I don’t know if I can keep this going. It’s tough.” But, as the relentless and unstoppable person that I am, I keep on brushing the bad stuff off, and pushing forward.

I want everyone to know that the R&U platforms are open for people to share their stories, if they’re willing. There’s no fee to appear on the channel. It is completely voluntary to be a guest. And none of our podcasts are recorded live. We record them and edit them so that we can take out things people regret saying, or moments where they may have made mistakes, and occasional bloopers on me and Andy’s part. And, even after posting them on Anchor, Facebook, and YouTube, if someone regrets something after awhile, we’re more than happy to edit it and take out the parts they regret, or even re-do the interview if there’s too much stuff they don’t like about their episode. We also are a professional organization and we also do NOT allow anything disrespectful to be posted on our platforms. We expect our followers and guests to be respectful to each other, and we are a stand for everyone. We don’t allow people to disparage anyone based on their skin color/national origin/religion/age/disability, we don’t allow posts that endorse ideologies that offend certain people, nor do we allow people to post anything disparaging people for believing in those ideologies. Any post on our platforms MUST be connected to R&U, our guests, our guests’ causes, and our causes. We also do not allow people to post photos, videos, or memes that can incite anything violent or controversy. We all MUST respect each other, including each other’s views. And while we understand that people have free speech, we know that free speech does NOT mean freedom from consequences. And while we are believers in second chances, we have our limits of certain behaviors exhibited on our platforms and won’t hesitate to suspend someone from following our platforms if they keep violating the platform’s rules, depending on what the situation is.

So, yeah, that’s pretty much how I went from being a small social media user, to an internationally-recognized social media wizard. It was hard work, but I pulled it off. As of June 2023, my Facebook went from being an ordinary Facebook profile to a “rising creator”, and now, as of January of 2024, it upgraded to “Digital creator” and “Facebook Partner”, which means I’m on the way to sponsorship and being paid by Facebook for my engaging posts. And with me recently breaking through to 10,000 subscribers on YouTube, it’s only a matter of time before I get sponsored. However, I will say for the record that I DO regret the times that I did use social media for the wrong reasons, and the hatred I developed against Brad Keselowski. My situation with the Keselowski deal was only 1/10 of the whole story of me using social media for the wrong reasons. There were other things I got myself into that weren’t good. The Brad Keselowski situation was only part of the problem. But I’ve moved on, and I feel great that I am now in the habit of using social media for the right reasons, and am engaging people and leaving a good impact on others. I’m hoping to eventually start a 4th podcast that will address the darknesses in the world, but that’s further down the road. The legacy I hope to leave when I go up to Heaven to see Jesus and God, is that I left a good impact on others that will continue as new generations of people watch the YouTube channel, which I really hope will survive for many centuries to come. And with Andy McPhee, it’s the same thing – he wants to leave a good impact on our R&U fans, his clients for coaching and mentorship, and his acting career.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

What built my reputation in my market were two things. What built my brief bad reputation on social media were many things. I spoke my mind on anything I was thinking of, without realizing the consequences of my words. As a person on the autism spectrum, I didn’t understand during my teen years that not everybody felt the way I did. I had a hard time understanding that things don’t have to be black and white, and there was more to the world than what I thought. I also had the Brad Keselowski smear campaign I mentioned and became a cyber-bully to his devout fans that remained loyal to him despite the controversies surrounding his name in 2014. Once I finally snapped out of that unnecessary hatred for him, I had to build a better reputation. How I built my reputation was very simple – I developed politeness, flexibility, respect for others, and I became very diplomatic. I wanted to solve problems – not make them worse. Also, my time at Tim Tebow Night to Shine proms, my NASCAR races, the events I attended for connecting with people, the Woman of Achievement pageants and my transformation I went through when I did my mentorship with Andy McPhee…all that was the reason why I successfully rebuilt my reputation on social media. But, most importantly, there were three things – I let go of my hate, anger, and emotional dysregulation, I finally ended my soda addiction, and I just became so friendly, humble, polite, compassionate, merciful, upbeat, funny, goofy, and such a pleasurable person to be around. That’s why so many people are willing to appear on R&U, SFM, and SFM International…I just am a really a very nice and polite person. And I don’t mean to blow my own horn. It’s all about friendliness. And I am also very respectful of people’s beliefs, even if they’re different from mine. Values are very important for any business and person, and I have values that I believe in. But so do others, even if they’re different. The good news is, I learned a lot of lessons from the bad stuff. I fully regret the cyber-bullying, the smear campaign, and I further regret the bad impact it had on Brad’s loyal fans. However, I still laugh about it whenever I see Facebook posts get sent back to me after a certain amount of time, especially stuff I forgot I said, and I wonder, “Man, why on Earth did I ever post that?” So, laughter is the best medicine and you can always laugh at your mistakes once time heals most wounds.

How’d you meet your business partner?

How did I meet Andy McPhee? I will explain. I should mention another two people who technically played a part in my connection with Andy McPhee. Without the roles that they played into it, none of anything me and Andy have done would have happened.

In late-2009, a few months into my first year of Middle School, me and my science class – led by Jennifer Taylor (my partner in my 2010 Talent Show act) – began doing science experiments for the Estes Park Middle School science fair. I was paired with Kassidy, then-named Kassidy Glassman. And we did a project together where we attempted a rocket-balloon experiment. It turned out very well. Although our project didn’t win the prize at the fair, we remained proud of the performance. However, while working with her on the experiment one day, Kassidy suddenly got a cell-phone call. She took her call after telling us she was expecting it. On the other line, I heard Andy’s deep Australian accent and booming voice. At the time, Andy was coaching and mentoring Kassidy in acting, and it piqued my interest in him. I finally heard his voice on the other line and afterwards Kassidy said to me, “Andy McPhee is one of the best coaches out there. That was him that called.”

I started looking him up and saw some of his television credits. I also saw pictures of him with three very young children – a younger Kodi Smit-McPhee, Sianoa Smit-McPhee, and Caden Smit-McPhee. Although I didn’t know until many years later, I speculated that Caden had autism based on how he looked and presented himself. I would later be proven correct.
A couple years later, I got word that Marcia, a friend of my mom’s, connected her with Andy McPhee for mentorship for my older brother, Harrison. During this time, my brother was achieving so many things in his childhood. He was very athletic, he was acting in a variety of plays – from Beauty and the Beast, Legally Blonde, Drowsy Chaperone, Annie Get Your Gun and, most famously, Les Misérables – and he also was training for a military boot camp. Harrison also was a member of the Estes Park choir where he stole the headlines by singing a very beautiful rendition of a Hebrew-language song. So, Andy and Harrison coached, hoping that Harrison could get a career down the road. However, at the end of 2015, Harrison decided he didn’t want to do it anymore, and so he left the metaphorical keys to a grateful Doug, and I was able to capitalize on it.

In 2013, while doing his mentorship with Andy, and soon after moving from Estes Park to the Phoenix area, we went on vacation to Los Angeles around my birthday. We met Andy McPhee in-person, and I met him for the very first time. When I got to know Andy McPhee, he told me straight-up, “You need to stop drinking all that soda, Doug. You weigh more for your age, and you’ll get diabetes and a heart attack.” Although I knew he was correct, I obviously wasn’t ready to quit yet. But this would foreshadow my future with him in mentorship and the R&U platform.

To this day, my family and myself keep wondering, “What if that call from Andy to Kassidy never happened?” I don’t even want to imagine what would happen. And what if Marcia did not connect Mom to Andy McPhee for Harrison? What if Harrison’s talents were not there in the first place? It’s obvious that my whole journey would have been really different. I probably would have eventually grown out of my addiction or struggles eventually, but if not for all these circumstances, R&U would not exist.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @dougkenney_r_and_u
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/douglas.kenney.1
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglas-k-46643710a/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTqNwvkLP0aqfjD0KlUD6Mw
• Other: Bonfire: https://www.bonfire.com/store/r-u-relentless-and-unstoppable/

Image Credits
Christine Hotchkiss, Blok Photo Studio