Meet Douglas Kenney

We recently connected with Douglas Kenney and have shared our conversation below.

Douglas, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

It was a variety of reasons. I grew up in Estes Park, Colorado for most of my childhood. I’m on the autism spectrum and also have Bipolar Type II and ADHD. When I was growing up in Estes, I was very introverted, shy, and struggling with pain and emotions that I had a hard time dealing with in healthy ways.

I wanted to be comfortable in a very complicated world. But I lacked self-esteem. I grew up during the time where teachers or adults either didn’t know about autism or didn’t want to believe it exists.

After some trying, I found what I needed to begin building confidence. In 2010 when I was in 6th grade and in middle school, I signed up for the Estes Park Middle School talent show and performed a very popular rendition of Bobby Darin’s Beyond the Sea. It was well-received by the audience and students and footage of it is on my YouTube channel.

When I saw how much the audience loved the performance, I realized I had what it took to impact people greatly. By the next year, I began sitting at tables with other students and by the time I turned 18, I was very confident in myself and became an extrovert and gained the trust of people, especially with my podcast and YouTube channel I co-created with my mentor and coach Andy McPhee.

I’m learning every day. Learning is our journey. And I love learning new ways to boost my health and self-esteem.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I run the “R-U Relentless and Unstoppable?” YouTube channel with my coach and mentor – actor Andy McPhee – who created the concept through being inspired by me and my journey.

Although I have a lot of good moments through my journey, I’ve had moments that were dark and painful. I got assaulted by a staff member at one of my schools, I had a soda addiction that ruled 17 years of my life and I dealt with high obesity, at 320+ pounds. It took many attempts for me to end the addiction. I stopped drinking soda on March 6th 2020, which changed everything for me.

I was a devout NASCAR fan for a number of years and attended many races at Phoenix Raceway. I left Estes in 2012 and moved to Florence, Arizona to go to high school at FHS. I had two good years there, but the final two years went sour. I was making poor choices and the school ended up not giving what I had been promised and I witnessed heavy bullying, violence, disrespect, and toxic behavior – some of which I was the subject of. By the time I graduated, my parents were in the middle of divorcing each other after a 2015 separation and I graduated not being impressed with how things were going.

Aside from that, I had a beef against a racecar driver for an incident at the Charlotte Motor Speedway between him and other drivers, and I cyber-bullied people for a few years during my teen years – something I regret every day. Luckily, I made up with the driver later on and became a fan of his race team. It took a lot for me to mend fences with people.

When Andy McPhee came into the picture, my life changed for the better. I went through a transformation and lost 150 pounds within 4 years. A lot of it had to do with my quitting of my soda addiction. I have no regrets. My journey has been great.

Andy conceived of the Relentless and Unstoppable channel by being inspired by my journey and after interviewing me for my YouTube channel I ran at the time, we decided to do more interviews and see where it went. Andy got connections of his – Richard Norton, Mel Yu, and a few others to be interviewed and, as time went on, Relentless and Unstoppable was born.

I also run two other podcasts – SFM and SFM International, which are motorsports themed. Normally I focus my SFM stuff on young drivers you would never have heard of, with occasional NASCAR drivers being guests. I also focus my SFM – Stories From Motorsports – guests on sports-car drivers and IMSA drivers. Those platforms are going great. SFM International focuses on drivers from different countries while SFM focuses on American drivers.

Yeah, it’s been a great time. I would never have gotten to this point without Andy and my Mom.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

My three skills were these:

1. Being humble and friendly to others.

2. Be accepting of other people’s perspectives, even if you don’t agree.

3. Focus on the positives for the most part and not the negative stuff.

One way to grow into this, is learn to laugh. Laughter is the best medicine as they say. Also, eat a nice healthy diet. Get a proper amount of sleep. Get more physical exercise. And if you mess up, own it, and work it out. And most importantly, learn how to self-grow in areas of your life that you must address. Mom gave me some of the best advice I’ve gotten – run into the storm, not away from it.

It’s not easy, but if you keep practicing, you’ll find it easier over time.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

Yeah. Collaboration would be nice. I would love to speak in schools or do a Ted Talk regarding my journey with Andy. Anyone is open to request an interview with me, or be interviewed for the Relentless and Unstoppable podcast. And any race drivers are welcome to request an interview on SFM and SFM International. I’d also be open to partaking in festivities for races – whether giving the prayer to God, or giving the command to start engines, etcetera. Anything to leave a good impact and inspire others.

We need to make sure, however, that whoever asks…that their journey fits the criteria for R&U. We are looking for guests who overcame struggles or achieved big things. On SFM and SFM International, we are looking for race drivers who have had good journeys in motorsports with clean slates.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: dougkenney_r_and_u
• Facebook: Doug Kenney (Relentless and Unstoppable)
• Youtube: R-U Relentless and Unstoppable?
• Other: My emails are:

  [email protected]

  [email protected]

Image Credits

Kenney family.