Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Douglas Kenney of Scottsdale

We recently had the chance to connect with Douglas Kenney and have shared our conversation below.

Douglas, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: Have you stood up for someone when it cost you something?
Yeah. I stood up for someone and it cost me a lot. My parents went through a divorce towards the end of my high school years. It was not a mutual decision but I stood up for my mother during the rough times as she was fully justified to have divorced my father. It cost me relations with people who either disbelieved in divorce, or wanted to hurt my mother with drama. We are so close that I’d take a bullet for her.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Douglas Kenney. I’m a YouTuber, podcaster, author, artist, autism activist, and Jersey Mike’s crew member. I’m originally from Colorado but I now live in Arizona. I run the “R-U Relentless and Unstoppable?”, YouTube channel. It is the result of hardships I’ve went through over the years and on the channel I share content about my personal activities involving resilience and my podcast about people that overcame hardships or achieved amazing things.

I am a survivor of addiction and had a 17-year-long addiction to soda that ended in 2020 on March 6th. My addiction was so bad that I was drinking five to six 2-liter bottles of soda per day. Getting off of it was hard, but from then on, my health improved.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
Lack of communication. That is the biggest. Learning from a very tumultuous upbringing with toxicity, dysfunctional family vibes, I know that a big part of it is communication. One of the hardest things in communication is hearing the truth, harsh or not. Let’s just say you live in a home with several roommates, or several siblings and conflict rises. When conflict rises, communication must take place or else relations sour and people become close-minded. It goes both ways – parents and children, and roommate and roommate. And a staff member and staff member. You could have so much conflict that if nothing is communicated or regulated properly, you could get so upset over the tiniest stuff.

What can restore relations is when people learn to listen and understand others’ perspectives and be allowed to set boundaries and not be given hardship in doing so. Boundaries could be anything – like asking someone to not touch your bike without telling you, or asking to not be addressed by jeering over their basic abilities, or being asked to not be stereotyped for your age, or someone not walking around at night while you’re trying to sleep. It varies for each person.

Setting boundaries with anyone, and anyone listening is very hard, especially when conflict rises. People may try to evade having to answer to the boundary, or will try to downplay your perspective. But the best advice I can give is, STAND BY YOUR BOUNDARY but also be open to other perspectives.

Communications and boundaries are important.

What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
My grandfather’s death in 2009. I was only 11 but I don’t have any complaints about him at all. That was tough. He never raised his voice with anyone that I know of, except only once or twice. I healed by approaching life in ways that he did. And time heals wounds too.

Schooling was rough. I faced abuse and bullying from both students and staff. High school was a good academic experience but mentally it was NOT. I was assaulted by a staff member at a young age leading to criminal charges against her. I also faced exclusion and loneliness. I healed by accepting that school culture is tough and me metaphorically getting into a lifeboat rather than try to fix the sinking ship (schooling) on my end.

My parental divorce was a huge defining moment. It was a wound that led to lengthy trauma. However, it marked the point of my growth, and luck began to go my way. It led to an estrangement with my father and no communication for years, but communication was re-established last year after a very nice phone call that ended the resentment on both ends.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Whom do you admire for their character, not their power?
Tomy Drissi and Amy Ruman – two Trans-Am competitors. I’m a huge motorsports fan on the side of R&U and my activities. Not long ago I saw the greatest moment I’ve ever seen as a racing fanatic when Tomy Drissi helped out Amy Ruman in the Trans-Am race and she placed top-five ten years after their feud at Mid-Ohio. I am never going to be president, but if I was, they would have both gotten the metal of freedom after such great sportsmanship.

I also admire my childhood hero Jamie McMurray along with Kyle Larson, and Matt Kenseth. I met Jamie at Phoenix Raceway in 2015 and chatted with him. I met Kyle at PIR in 2018. He was REALLY, REALLY great. I also like Matt Kenseth because of his dry humor and his friendliness. I saw him win his last race at PIR in 2017. And although I didn’t agree with how he went about it, I was amused and admired, when he stood up to Joey Logano so boldly in 2015. It was quite interesting to me that Matt’s “tire was blown” in that such of a way. It shows we are all human and we all have breaking points. We should not push people’s buttons for too long. My take on that.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What do you think people will most misunderstand about your legacy?
Although I have bad days and bad moments, I am human like everyone else. I am trying every day, legitimately, to do the right thing, even when it may not seem like it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://youtube.com/@r-urelentlessandunstoppable?si=UfPa7g5Ct1anBEXU
• Instagram: dougkenney_r_and_u
• Facebook: Doug Kenney https://www.facebook.com/share/1D5snH5kWf/?mibextid=wwXIfr
• Youtube: R-U Relentless and Unstoppable?
• Other: https://www.facebook.com/share/1FHFyYU9b3/?mibextid=wwXIfr

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